merlyn63

I agree. It is a great game. My friend and I still play the card game version of it all the time. Well if they don't want to spend any more money then maybe they could release it to open source? If they eventually stop supporting it, sales will eventually dry up anyways, so its not like they would be losing any money. Then again, if they update the game and allow self hosting and local campaign games, maybe interest in the game will be revitalized. There is a lot they could do to make the game even more appealing. Add more planes, more campaigns, include the Locked On material, etc... The reason I'm posting here is because my interest in the PC game was renewed because of all the playtime my buddy and I spend on the card game. I was all ready to plop down some cash and get the Eastern Front expansion pack, but now am not so sure. Wouldn't be much fun if these connection problems don't get ironed out.

I recently emailed DIF Admin about the connection problems, here is part of their response: "...sorry to hear about your problems. Down in Flames is in our "Classic" games series and as such only available for limited support. Having said that, I have forwarded your email to the programmer for this game, and he will contact you shortly. If you don't hear from Brian within the next couple of days, please submit a support ticket at www.battlefront.com/helpdesk." I fear that Battlefront support on this game and their server system is on a downward spiral. Put me in touch with the programmer? The game programmer isn't responsible for server maintenance issues, is he? If they aren't going to support it then they should at least release a new version that allows us to set up a host system on our own computers so we can at least meet a friend online and get a game going. Also, allow us to play campaigns without having to be online.

I have renewed my interest in the PC version of DIF. My friend and I still play the card game version all the time, both dogfights and campaigns. I even tried the solitaire Night Missions. Not the best, but it works when no one else is up to a full game. After getting my PC up and running again I downloaded the demo and played a few games online against the AI. I then went to the Leaderboard site (http://downinflamesgames.com:8888/DiFPortal/Default.aspx?tabid=1) to check my stats and was shocked. The website doesn't even work properly anymore. There are buttons and graphics that don't even appear. There is no Logon button to press after you fill in your user name and password. I played one mission and shot down one enemy pilot and was crowned Last Weeks Winner. This means I was the only person out there who played a mission in the last 7 days? Has user participation and site maintenance really fallen that low? I know I'm not exactly a power player/user but I am surprised. It really is a great game for when you don't want to spend hours poring over 40 pages of rules to play a military/wargame that takes hours to complete. Just my 2 cents worth. P.S. Just went to the site and now the buttons were visible. And no its not my computer. I logged in using several different computers and have multiple problems loading and viewing the pages. Has Battlefront given up on DIF?

It amazes me that companies can stay in business with an overabundance of terrible tech support and shoddy cutomer service. We shouldn't have to rely on user participation forums to repair games and software that we pay good money for. Shame on you Madmatt, an administrator mind you, for posting a fix with a bunch of HTML tags in it that the uninitiated would never understand. And shame on you for posting it over 5 months ago and never bothering to check back and see if it helped. Thank you JasonPratt for cleaning it up, but shame on you, your version has an error too. You forgot the quote mark in front of the "true" tag. Here is the correct version: <servers> <server name="BFC" address="downinflamesgames.com" port="8080" default="true"/> </servers>