poesel

I don't think that will ever be a common input for this game. The keyboard mouse input combo isn't so popular without a reason. I really wish that speed/deviation is not a function of "key pressed over time" but "number of times key is pressed". The latter is even more unsusceptible to network failures.

ok - I was a bit bored sitting alone on a 1. server while the demo server was full... grrrr As this was also puzzling I did some test driving. Three cases of turning right (I omit the other direction for brevity): 1) standing still: The left track ist standing, the right is moving backwards, but the tank turns around its centerpoint instead around the left track. I would prefer to have the left track move forward and turn as is. 2) moving forward: The left track ist standing, the right is moving backwards, but the tank turns around the right track. The animation is just the wrong way round. 3) moving backwards: Everything all right. Obviously a case of only backwards QA driving.

Oh, changing the texture detail is easy (...doing ugly things to nice graphics...) Ok, now I have a "minimal" mod and parts of DropTeam now look like an early 90's game I found out that I must not reduce the number of colors in smoke. I can reduce its resolution though. Messing with tank textures is easy, too. Where would I gain most? I can get the model textures easily down to a third of their size but is that worth the while? Where is the difference between the "Team1WoodlandMBT.." and the "WoodlandMBT..."? Btw, I really love the game for the ability to mess around with things!

You will be out of luck to add functions without the source code. You can change things in the various XML files, though (see documentation) or make maps or graphics.

The XML file for a vehicle already has a 'value' parameter (which is used - I guess here - for the bots to determine possible targets). Its probably no big deal to add a value to each component and give that to the player who destroyed it. So it would be rewarding just to cripple opponents without the need for the kill. Especially useful for the 76mm. I often end up with zero kills even if I had a successful game.

unfortunatly already as a network client

...in computer power: I'm currently stuck with the company laptop which is otherwise a fine machine but definatly not a gamers choice(Pentium M 1,6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, Intel 82852/82855 graphics controller). Still I want to play DropTeam (of course I turned every option off, alle levers to the left and ended all other programs (even those in the background). Even so I end up with <5fps as soon as something happens. Is there (or will there be) another option I can turn off to get things to speed? I'm willing to sacrifice all graphical goodies as long as I can still see the enemy. Heck, I would go with vector graphis! (which would be btw very cool even with enough processor power: I can still remember playing Stellar7 for hours )

poesel06

Turning the control slider a bit down helps. Problem is that we control an analog device (the steering wheel) with a digital control (keyboard). Thats not a big problem with the tracked vehicles, but with the wheeled ones. Since we have a digital input we could have an digital output as well: if we break down the maximum deflection into 3 or 4 parts to each side and each punch on the keyboard moves the wheel one notch to the left or right. Braking would reset the control to center (if moving forward). That would give us a better control and even the ability to drive circles.

You can see the time left in the scenario when you scroll to the right (which is not obvious since the scrollbar doesn't show that) IIRC you can fix the number of players in a scenario. You can order several units simultanously when you drag a rectangle around them. That doesn't get you salvos though.

cool breeze: if you use a microphone you catch the sound from the speakers too. Also, because the microphone is farther away from your mouth, it needs to be a better (=more expensive) micro than that in a normal headset. So I'd say you are better off with a headset. I've used several different models from cheapo to good quality and they all work good enough. The one feature it should have is a manual volume control. Monk: um, ah, yes. I'm old...

It sounds like when you have a very lousy speaker or the radio is not tuned correctly. Sorr, I can't record a sample, I'm missing the correct cable.

This game has an IMHO _very_ useful inbuilt teamspeak function. Easy to use and working flawlessly it allows each player to talk to his teammates by just pressing a button. I still have not yet met someone else to use this feature, though. Maybe its my timezone or lack of gametime lately, but it makes me wonder. Headphones are cheaply available, so there must be another reason. Not wanting to yell at your computer maybe one, but there must be others. If you can't think of one, then GET YOURSELF A HEADSET!

What program could I use under Linux or OSX to validate the XML file?

Whats the current status of using mods? You state in the changelog that the server won't crash anymore if you have different inventory lists. What happens now if the server has mod A but the client hasn't? What if client chooses B and server has no mod at all? I'll ask because I have made a mod in the past but that was very unsuccessful because halve of the players didn't notice that this was a modded server and connected anyway.

Someone has already mentioned that the most probable thing we could achieve would be a WWII simulation from the DropTeam time of point (so a simulation of a simulation). The 'real thing' would be another game (which I would instantly buy btw ) Limiting the drop zone after deployment time seems an easy way to simulate entry areas. Combine that with some AA and laser towers and that zone is (nearly) unspammable. Conquerable drop zones would be a very nice addition. Viewing distance regarding the tac map can be circumvented by giving every single vehicle a jammer like the Hermes has. Getting the vehicles right in terms of armor, ammo and such is - well maybe not easy in terms of game balance, but easy in the sense of changing numbers. Getting the outlook and bounding boxes right seems rather hard, though (or is there some commonly available program for that?)

I'd rather turn the foliage off as the particles give you a hint at if you got a penetrating hit.

Hmm, how about that: what if the chosen commander would be the ONLY one who could drop units - players, bots, everything? Quite some work for him to do but imagine the resulting gameplay!

This is very static, and would be problematic with current units. A team could stop another team from dropping entirely by occupying thier drop zone. </font>

Maybe. Sorry, can't check and it will be some days until I'm back home.

I meant that Clay made the document with LaTeX. It looks good so I assumed that.

This thing smells like LaTeX... am I right?

The game crashed while I was ordering an EMP mission. I got: 4784 Illegal Instruction The last lines from the log were about 'Digging crater' and 'MAIN: 12.82 frames per second' When you stalemate a game, everyone is bunched together in the losers box (which is debatable if a draw is 'lost') and you can't discern who was on which side. Keeping the team color would be nice.

After updating from .1 to .2 all sounds are somehow 'distorted' (sorry, can't describe it better). I've played the wav and ogg files with an other player and they sound normal and good. Its only in the game and I have the impression that the distortion is different on different runs of the game. Running Linux, Ubuntu Dapper Drake

I tried to drive through a minefield twice today and died twice (without kill message...ahem). I'm pretty sure I didn't touch one of those bobbing things. The question: is it by design that you don't see every mine or was it a graphical glitch?