bartbert
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Posts posted by bartbert
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I think Horatius has identified the problem. I ran some test earlier today. If just one player clicks the "Start" button, the game works correctly. It doesn't matter who clicks the Start button as long as only one person does it.
If both players click the Start button, the game is all screwed up. It doesn't matter what skills you have, or what position (top or bottom) that your aircraft were supposed to be in. The game is completely messed up.
I'll try to get a fix out later that only allows one player to click the Start button, but in the mean time, just agree ahead of time who is going to click the Start button.
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Ok. I'll try to take a look at it within the next couple of days.
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I assume that you need to re-download the files to install the game?
If you have any of your order information (like an invoice, order number, serial number or name and address), I think you would need to send an e-mail to elicense@battlefront.com and they should be able to tell you how to re-download the files.
If you have the files to install the game, but you need your registration key, send and e-mail to difadmin@battlefront.com and I'll try to help you out with that.
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Most likely you either haven't registered the expansion yet, or you haven't created any Soviet pilots. If you continue to have problems, send and e-mail to difadmin@battlefront.com and we'll try to work through it.
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Ok. I'll take a look.
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See if there are any error logs in the folder "C:\Program Files\Battlefront\Down in Flames\bin" (or wherever you installed the game). If so, send the most recent ones to difadmin@battlefront.com and I'll take a look.
If there aren't any error logs (or none corresponding to the dates the error started happening), try taking a screen shot of the error or write down the exact error and send it to the above address.
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When the expansion pack was originally released, Polish pilots were converted to British after 50 XP. It was pointed out to us that players could build up a large number of British pilots by creating more Polish pilots and repeating the cycle.
The way it is supposed to work now is that Polish pilots maintain a Polish nationality permanently, but gain access to British aircraft after 50 XP. Is that not the way it is working?
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If you send and e-mail to difadmin@battlefront.com with your user name and the name of your pilot, I'll fix it for you.
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While it is true that the points used to pick which AI pilot and aircraft will be in the mission is different than the points used to award XP, I don't think that is necessarily a problem (although I'm sure it is confusing).
Here is the general process used to choose the AI pilot and aircraft for a mission:
1. We use the value of the creating player's pilots and aircraft as the starting point. The pilot's value is based on the sum of the value of all his skills. The aircraft's value is based on its "Unlock" XP. Let's suppose that the sum of your leader's and wingman's skills add up to 300 points, and they are flying an aircraft with an unlock XP value of 200 points. That would be a combined value of 500 points.
2. We go through all the possible enemy aircraft and we rank them from lowest value to highest value. Then we find the one that is closest to player's aircraft value. In our example, that would be finding the one that is closest to 200 points.
3. Next we take the aircraft that was closest to the player's aircraft plus the previous three lower aircraft and the next three higher aircraft and put them into a pool. Then we randomly pick one aircraft from that pool.
4. Now we do something similar to pick which AI pilot to use. The pilots are ranked from lowest to highest, and we find the pilot that is closest to making up the difference between the aircraft chosen in step #3 and the total game value. For example, if we chose an aircraft that was worth 350 points in step #3, then we would look for pilots that had a value closest to 150 points (because that would bring the total value to 500 points).
5. We take the pilots that were closest to our target value in step #4 plus the previous three lower pilots and the next three higher pilots and put them into a pool. Then we randomly pick on pilot from that pool.
I did find a problem in local games in that the value of the AI wingman was not being taken into account. This would tend to result in AI pilots with more skills. The problem has been corrected and an update is available for download.
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I'll take a look at the logic for choosing offline AI pilots to see if I can find anything that might account for the imbalanced missions.
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Red symbols are targets being defended by the Axis, blue symbols are targets being defended by the Allies.
I'm not sure what happened with the patrol. It sounds like you should have received the points for it.
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I guess we could put in some options for generating random missions and starting altitudes, but I don't know if we would want to completely eliminate a player's ability to specify what aircraft and starting altitudes they wanted. Some player's like to try out different "what if" scenarios just to see what happens. Like, how does a P-47 match up against a Spitfire IX, or whatever.
How would players feel if we went with Stalin's suggestion where custom missions count for nothing? They are purely for "fun". You don't get credit for any kills or XP, but you also don't get any fatigue and you cannot be killed. We assumed that most players would want to get a little something for their trouble, but if most players agree that they would play more custom missions if they didn't count, then that would be a pretty easy change to make.
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There is a minimum of 15 missions that have to be flown. All of your "Per Mission" stats will be divided by 15 or the actual number of missions flown, whichever is more.
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The testers were pretty evenly divided between awarding no value, awarding full value and awarding something in between. There were valid arguments on all sides of the issue, but in the end, Dan and I decided to go with a middle of the road approach and see what happens when it hit the larger playing public.
We're interested in hearing what you guys think. Like most things in life, I suspect that we will hear a wide variety of opinions that are at odds with each other, but who knows? Maybe there will be general agreement on what the solution should be.
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The game also has a new type of mission called a "Custom Mission" which is not available in the Demo game. The custom mission feature basically allows you to specify the exact aircraft and starting altitudes for both sides. Using this feature, you could setup a "training mission" in which one side has a big advantage (better aircraft, better starting altitude, etc.).
Depending on how lopsided you made it, you might get little, if any, experience points. But if the goal is to fly some easy missions in order to learn the system, then it should fill the bill.
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You can use the Custom Missions feature to setup an intercept situation.
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Try taking a look in the folder "C:\Program Files\Battlefront\Down in Flames\bin" and see if there are any error log files (they will begin with "ErrorLog_"). If so, attach a copy to an e-mail and send to difadmin@battlefront.com and we'll try to figure out what the problem is.
With regard to how long the DiF server will be around to support playing online, I cannot speak for Battlefront(I'm just the developer). They pay for the server and ultimately it is their decision on when to pull the plug based on business factors.
However, I know that the server currently running DiF is also being used for other applications that support Battlefront's business, which means that the cost of the server doesn't have to be justified solely on how well DiF is doing.
As long as maintaining a DiF server doesn't become a financial drain on the company, there is probably no reason to pull the plug. Again, this is just my opinion and does not necessarily reflect Battlefront's position.
[ October 04, 2006, 06:17 AM: Message edited by: bartbert ]
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Wingmen have always drawn their Attack plus Defense rating when attacking bombers (or is Attack + Defense - 1?). Then if they are attacking Medium or Heavy bombers, they get an additional +1.
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Being able to play campaign games offline is one of the most often requested enhancements, so we'll probably work that in sooner rather than later.
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Send an e-mail to difadmin@battlefront.com with your user name and serial number and I'll help you get it working.
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Dan sets all the aircraft statistics, so hopefully he'll post an answer shortly.
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The Leader Board now allows sorting on Soviet and Poland nationalities, and the medals page has been updated to include Soviet and Polish medals and ranks.
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Send and e-mail to difadmin@battlefront.com with your user name and serial number that you are trying to register and we'll try to get the problem resolved.
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I did some testing with a pilot that had the Tail Shooter skill and I was getting the extra burst as expected. Is it possible the enemy pilot you were fighting had a skill which countered the skill? Is anyone else having problems with the Tail Shooter skill?
Custom mission wierdness
in Down In Flames
Posted
I updated code on the server that should make it so that only the player who created the game can click the Start button. There is no download necessary since all changes were on the server.