Madmatt Posted July 30, 2005 Share Posted July 30, 2005 We have just released a Beta Demo for Down in Flames. Based on the card combat game of the same name, Down in Flames offers innovative gameplay and exciting multiplayer online action. The Demo features the following: 1. Ability to play local and online dogfights. Local games are against the AI, online games are against the AI and/or human opponents. 2. Dogfights can be up to 4 players. 3. Four nationalities (Britain, USA, Germany, Japan). You can have up to 4 pilots per nationality. 4. The aircraft available for pilots to fly in the demo are the Spitfire I(British), Bf-109E (German), P-40N (USA), and Ki-61 (Japan). 5. One campaign available to play (Dunkirk). 6. Pilots gain experience from flying missions and can purchase skills with the XP, which will enhance their abilities in combat. 7. Pilots can earn medals and be promoted to higher rank with successful missions. 8. Online game statistics are tracked and displayed on the web site, so players can compare their pilots with each other. .NET FRAMEWORK REQUIREMENT FOR DEMO PLAY In order for the Down in Flames Beta Demo to play, you must have the Microsoft .Net Framework 1.01 or later installed. If you do not have this already, we have included the install file for you to install it manaually. A link to the .Net Framework installer can be found in the Battlefront\Down in Flames Beta Demo Program Group. If for any reason, you do not want the .NET Framework installed on your computer, DO NOT INSTALL THIS DEMO! IMPORTANT BETA DEMO INFO As this is a beta code demo, no guarantees of performance should be expected or inferred. The Beta Demo is being released to the public in order to test for overall stability, online latency and gameplay. Questions, comments and any reports of glitches, bugs or problems should be made to this forum! Thanks and enjoy the demo! Download the Down in Flames Beta Demo Here!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toxo Posted July 30, 2005 Share Posted July 30, 2005 DL'ing now... See you in the skies! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Verssen Posted July 30, 2005 Share Posted July 30, 2005 YEEEEEEHAAAAAA!!!! We got it off the ground!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistura Posted July 31, 2005 Share Posted July 31, 2005 Check your six! It's going to be me. Great job all. The game is on. YESSSS!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cull Posted July 31, 2005 Share Posted July 31, 2005 Dammit, why did I wait until midnight to check on this?! Awesome....downloading now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistura Posted July 31, 2005 Share Posted July 31, 2005 I have been playing the Demo, but I can't play it online. It will not let me go to the server for online. Somebody help PLEASE. I have registered. I type in name and password to play online and it tells me Can't find server. RATS!! Oh and I'm new at online gaming. So Don't slam me to hard. I have had a hard day trying to figure out what I did wrong. Thanks for any HELP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon Posted July 31, 2005 Share Posted July 31, 2005 Hi Mistura, hmm... so you did register at the webpage. Did you get the email back with the verification code? Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sabre7 Posted July 31, 2005 Share Posted July 31, 2005 IF you have a DSL/Cable router or some kind of firewall make sure you allow port 8080 to go out. I know some firewalls do not allow 8080 by default to go out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sabre7 Posted July 31, 2005 Share Posted July 31, 2005 Forgot to mention the reason being is this game for some reason browses to the website via port 8080 to connect and that is the reason you may be getting server not found especially if you can browse the internet fine but can't connect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Beckman Posted July 31, 2005 Share Posted July 31, 2005 Ok, I've played a couple of games in the demo. I realize it's a demo, and a beta at that, so you may already be looking at these things, but here's some observations: Overall, I like it. It plays pretty much like the card game, which I love. It does run on XP under Virtual PC on the Mac (at least for local games - I haven't tried the server route yet). Here's some feedback on things I'd like to see worked on: The messaging interface is confusing. I have to look in two places to see what's going on, in the right-hand box and the middle two boxes. I'd prefer everything in one place. I'd like to see my aircraft's status at all times, not just when I'm firing. Yes, I can click on it to get that, but I want to see everyone's status at all times. Maybe some numbers near the aircraft themselves would do it. I'd like a way to turn off the animations. The game is already very slow under emulation, and while they're nice, after the first few times you get tired of watching them. I'm sure if they were moving at full speed it wouldn't be a problem, but not everyone will have a speedy computer. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to turn off the *&(*^*^& radio with Winnie and the news reports. Please consider making it easier to turn that off. It was quite annoying. I had one dogfight as Brits vs. the Japanese. My primary pilot got shot down. In my second dogfight, I was flying against the Germans. But I had airframe and fatigue penalties. What, I transferred from the Pacific to Europe and got NO rest? And the same darn airplane, unrepaired? Hardly seems fair. I'd really like to see a way to just fire up a local dogfight *without* any "memory" of what happened before without generating all new pilots. I can see it would be good have things the way they are, too, so I'd like to flip back and forth. The help file could use a better explanation of how the experience points work, and what, exactly, you're buying with them. Again, I'm not trying to be a jerk here - overall, I like it, and I'll probably pop for it even if you don't make these changes. I'd just like to to think about it and see what you think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartbert Posted July 31, 2005 Share Posted July 31, 2005 With regard to the fatigue penalties, what you need to do is create 4 sets of pilots (leader and wingman). When the first set of pilots is fatigued to the point that they are suffering penalties, you give them a rest and use the next set of pilots for awhile. Each time one set of pilots flies a mission, the remaining pilots (for that particular nationality) will recover from fatigue. The idea is to force players to rotate through a set of pilots. Otherwise, players would just fly the same set of pilots over and over until they either died or became uber-pilots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Beckman Posted July 31, 2005 Share Posted July 31, 2005 Brian, Yeah, I just found that on the web site. But I found it odd that I was transferred half-way around the world without a moment's rest or any repairs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartbert Posted July 31, 2005 Share Posted July 31, 2005 Heh. Yes I suppose if you take the missions very literally, then it does seem kind of odd. But the game is very abstract in a lot of ways, and the missions are not really very connected except for the accumulation of fatigue. Very few pilots in WWII flew in both theaters of the war, but the game can switch you back and forth from one mission to the next in order to provide more variety. If you play online, you may even fight against your allies (ie, USA vs UK or Germany vs Japan), depending on what your human opponents are flying. If you want something that does give a little bit more of a connected feel (and some historical flavor), then you might want to try the Dunkirk campaign game. The campaign games give each player a fixed number of pilots and aircraft that have to attack or defend areas on a map over the course of several turns. A pilot who flies one turn will be more fatigued for the next turn, and if a pilot dies, he's out for the rest of the campaign. Some players will prefer the "role-playing" aspect of the dogfight missions, and won't worry too much about whether the match-ups are historically accurrate or not. Others will gravitate towards the campaign games because they prefer match-ups that are more historical, and because they like the strategic planning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Knoyle Posted July 31, 2005 Share Posted July 31, 2005 Hmmm I downloaded the demo, installed it and when I went to fire it up I got the error message: "Application failure to initiate properly (Ox0000135)" came up. I downloaded the demo again and same thing. Any ideas. Thanks, Dave Knoyle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfpack Posted July 31, 2005 Share Posted July 31, 2005 You neet to install the .net acritecture in the start menu thing. I had the same problem until I saw that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Beckman Posted August 1, 2005 Share Posted August 1, 2005 I see part of the problem with my confusion - the "quick start " windows always come up BEHIND everything else. I just finally noticed them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haohmaru Posted August 1, 2005 Share Posted August 1, 2005 Overall I'm very impressed with the demo, it has been worth the wait. If there is an adequate amount of support for the game after release (new campaigns, skills and planes have been promised) and decent community support, then I reckon it'll be a winner. I also think it would be good if there were some small statistics next to each plane displayed on the map, so you don't have to click between them to see their stats. It could be made as an option to turn on/off for those who don't want too many numbers cluttering the screen. I think that the cards your leader has should always be displayed as well, that way you can keep track of your cards before waiting for your turn to come again. Anyways I urge people to use the feedback link on the website, I've sent a few suggestions and already received replies from one of the programmers of the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frenchy Posted August 1, 2005 Share Posted August 1, 2005 Pretty damn good. Enjoying it so far. One thing that takes getting used to is fighting your "historical allies". Never could get used to having my P-40s fire at Spitfires! If possible I'd like to see a historical setting where you only fight historical opponents, ie, US vs Japan or Germany. I had no problem installing and it ran the first time I tried it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niwotian60 Posted August 1, 2005 Share Posted August 1, 2005 I had the pleasure of playing against Dan in a 2v2 game yesterday. Anyone who doubts the skill aspect of the game should give it a try. I noticed he made great use of altitude changes and every time he was level with an opposing player he got in some effective shots. I survived the encounter simply because Dan was nice enough to wave and run on the last turn rather than administer the coup de grace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1FSTCAT Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 So where do I preorder already?! By the time you guys get that on the web site, the warm and fuzziness from the demo will have worn off! Someone get on the ball here and take my money already!! --Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffWilders Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 Well, Very impressed , played 2 games last night 2v2 with Dan and a couple of other guys. My nick is: Mobium. Suffice to say , we got caned by Dan and his teammate. Like the Demo a lot , certainly gives a good flavour of the game. I had no previous experience with the card game and was expecting this demo not to be so much fun nor as nail biting . Time to raid the piggy bank and purchase this game when it is release. It looks to be excellent and the on-line community were kind and helpful in my brief time online yesterday. Nice one Dan !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistura Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 I finally was able to play a couple of games on line, and it was great. Oh the helpless feeling you have when you are sixed with no defense cards. Cross your fingers and hope your pilot lives. Can't wait for it to be released. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brent Pollock Posted September 4, 2005 Share Posted September 4, 2005 Thanks! I hit that error, too! For those that don't know the path, follow START-> All Programs-> Battlefront-> Down in Flames Beta Demo-> Install .Net Framework Originally posted by Wolfpack: You neet to install the .net acritecture in the start menu thing. I had the same problem until I saw that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zdenka Posted September 9, 2005 Share Posted September 9, 2005 would of loved to play this but when the download hit 99% my anti-virus software kicked in telling me the game had a grobot trojan attatched :mad: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon Posted September 9, 2005 Share Posted September 9, 2005 Where did you download from? We'll remove that mirror. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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