DropTeam PR

[152mmDumbRocket]

I've checked YouTube, and the name "DropTeam" returned 41 results, only 4 of which had anything to do with this great game. So I'm suggesting that since Battlefront isn't doing major advertising, we should. We should try to let our friends know about DropTeam, encourage more people to play on Sundays and Wednesdays so they inform other people, and put more videos that go beyond simple gameplay up on YouTube and other online video sites . Maybe we could make machinima movies about the Liveship clans fighting for survival.

Well, what do you think?

[tb87670]

Good idea, but I'm still getting used to the game lol, just beat 2nd mission on 3 tries at medium difficulty. It turns out that the 20mm cannon isn't near as handy as the 120mm when it comes to killing vehicles so I stopped driving the command track around. Maybe a video could be made where you unlock your view and have a cinematic type view of the fight after you give units orders, not on the sat-view. Then have some infantry come in from a hiding spot like from hiding behind a hilltop or crater and knock out an enemy tank that is sagging behind or go too far away from his buddies. More epic stuff like this would be great.

[152mmDumbRocket]

Posted by tb87670

Maybe a video could be made where you unlock your view and have a cinematic type view of the fight after you give units orders, not on the sat-view. Then have some infantry come in from a hiding spot like from hiding behind a hilltop or crater and knock out an enemy tank that is sagging behind or go too far away from his buddies. More epic stuff like this would be great.

Yes, it would be a great scene in a machinima, and it's as easy as hitting the Tab key. This key will unlock your view to the tank and let you fly around the battlefield. Use the WSAD keys for horizontal movement, the cursor for turing the camera left, right, up, and down, and the Q and Z keys to move up and down vertically.

Posted by tb87670

Good idea, but I'm still getting used to the game lol, just beat 2nd mission on 3 tries at medium difficulty.

I wasn't always one of the best, either. Keep at it, and you might be ready for this Sunday's games.

Posted by tb87670

It turns out that the 20mm cannon isn't near as handy as the 120mm when it comes to killing vehicles so I stopped driving the command track around.

Actually, the 20mm is quite an effective weapon when used correctly. Perhaps the best gunnery technique you can learn is alternating fire. In this technique, you fire off your main 120mm gun, then quickly switch to your 20mm gun by pressing R. Then, when the black circle around the reticule disappears, you can hit R again to cycle back to your main gun, and repeat the cycle until your target is dead.

Also, there are times when you want the Mercury command track around. With it, you can drop deployables whenever you want, such as in a turret drop. In a turret drop, a series of AT turrets, sensor jammers (to make it harder for the bots to spot them), and optionally sensors and AA missile turrets. There are 2 distinct styles of turret drops:

</font>

• The Jung turret drop is usually dropped mid-game. It consists of a wide range of AT turrets, sensors, jammers, and AA missile turrets spread out widely. While it is strategically excellent, giving fire support across a battlefield to divide the defenders, the deployables are vulnerable to being picked off, and their firepower is not as great as it could be. Another Jung style is to drop AT turrets on you just after an EMP mission stops firing.</font>
• The 152 turret drop (my style) is a concentrated turret drop that is used for attack or defense. It consists of AT turrets and sensor jammers with an occasional AA missile turret, all dropped in a concentrated area. While more narrow in its range, it is far more concentrated and difficult to overcome, as the concentrated firepower, combined with that of its closely linked vehicle forces, is enough to destroy most attacking or defending forces outright. While (in theory) it is easier to stop with a mortar barrage, turrets are not as easy to destroy as you think, with the exception of AA turrets.</font>

You also want to have a Mercury for orbital missions. Any vehicle can call in a Galaxy resupply/point defense dropship by using the Control-R combo. But only the Mercury can send down these missions:
</font>

• Fire missions are triggered by the Control-F combo. This will send an orbital artillery barrage down on a specified point. Note that the mission will be more accurate and less scattered if you have line of sight to your target. Also, it will kill sensors and jammers, AA missile turrets, IFVs, and light tanks, but are unlikely to kill MBTs.</font>
• EMP missions are triggered by the Control-E combo. This is perhaps the best option of all. This will send down a group of capsules that will blast the landscape with EMP on a specified point, and will paralyze all vehicles caught in the blast radi. If timed correctly, you can move in while they're still unable to respond, and execute them. A note of advice and warning: EMP does not affect infantry, so you can use them without worry as a backup, but beware, there are many other ways to use infantry in combos with EMP, and Phonan and myself, among others, know them all.</font>
• Smoke missions are triggered by the Control-S combo. This will send blinding smoke down onto a specified point. Note: Smoke is banned under the New Geneva Space Viking Convention because it causes massive lag online. So only use smoke in standalone and campaign, and only if your PC can hack it.</font>

Finally, the Mercury has another important feature. It's connected to every other friendly unit and deployable by various methods that allow you to see the threat data from everyone on your side. Not unlike the "digital battlefield" concept being developed today...

Hope that helps. P.S. Ask Jung about 20mm fire on the Forsaken map.

[152mmDumbRocket]

Sorry to drag up an old topic, but I've come up with an idea that justifies doing it. We should have some great Sunday matches, like today's one, while at least one of us does video capture of them. Then they add their own commentary to the videos and post them to YouTube, so we can recall the awesome times and generate publicity (the last time I checked this morning, there were only 41 videos when I searched for "DropTeam", and only 4 had anything to do with this great game). Well, what do you think?

[Phonan]

I think it's a great idea. I'm not really set up to do hardware capture right now- if I got my Linux box working with DT I'm capable of doing 640X480 capture- however, that would assume I'm rid of the "ZebraTeam" problem.... 152, you've talked about capture a lot, do you have hardware to do that with?

[Moon]

Sure... if you do, don't forget to also send them to our YouTube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/battlefrontcom

Those that we have were not received too well (so we stopped making more).

Important: if you want them to be accepted, you need to email me first at martin@battlefront.com or via the YouTube message system. We're getting so many "XYZ wants to share videos with you" emails daily that I'm not looking at them at all anymore.

Martin

[152mmDumbRocket]

I'll get back to you here...I'm just trying to track down the camcorder's power adapter.

[152mmDumbRocket]

I'm back, after finding the power adapter, and trying the S-Video out port with my Canon camcorder. Didn't work. But there's always Fraps. Moon, I've seen the comments, most are good, but some of the bad ones are talking about issues that aren't a problem anymore (such as infantry not walking very well). You should seriously start making videos again, and this time make them about Sunday's games, with commentary from a few good players. Perhaps you could do machinima as well. Maybe then the game would get more recognition, and with the inflow of new players, that would only increase the creativity.

Phonan, the video capture hardware I was able to find was Windows only, so Fraps is the only option (and I'm guessing you already have it). Sorry that this all came to nothing.

[Phonan]

Just an idea- maybe the best thing to try would be recording replays. Of course, I wouldn't enjoy being the one to re-watch an ENTIRE game that I've already played, just for the sake of having it on video, but you do get some advantages, namely an omniscient view of the battlefield. This could be either a blessing or a curse, depending on what you think this should be like, but I don't think showing only one player would be as interesting. I'd get recording all my matches straightaway if it weren't for my graphics glitches... Those would put an interesting face on DT.

EDIT: 152, I do have a bit of hardware sitting around that I may somehow be able to abuse into working for DT, but it only records at 320x240. Ouch.

ANOTHER EDIT: I was just looking back at 152's advice:

Actually, the 20mm is quite an effective weapon when used correctly. Perhaps the best gunnery technique you can learn is alternating fire. In this technique, you fire off your main 120mm gun, then quickly switch to your 20mm gun by pressing R. Then, when the black circle around the reticule disappears, you can hit R again to cycle back to your main gun, and repeat the cycle until your target is dead.

and thought I could add something. Unfortunately when toggling to your 20mm your black circle indicating ammo starts showing reload time for 20mm, which you don't really need to know. What would be nice is to have an idea of how long until you can switch back to your 120mm again. A rule of thumb I once heard around here was 3 20mm blasts per shot with the 120mm, and it's served me fairly well so far. So if you fire off a shot with your main cannon, switch to your 20mm, and fire that three times, you know if you go back to the 120 you'll be good to go again.

[ June 02, 2008, 04:58 PM: Message edited by: Phonan ]

[152mmDumbRocket]

Thanks for correcting me, Phonan. I just found out that Fraps is Windows only as well. :mad: So here's some things that could help: http://www.ubuntuvideo.com/

Proof that screencapture for Linux exists!

And more! http://www.getdeb.net/app/RecordMyDesktop

A how-to: http://www.freecharity.org.uk/2007/04/12/the-secret-to-screencasting-with-ubuntu-and-free-software/

Do those help?

[Phonan]

So far I've used a program called Istanbul to record, and it works fine at 640X480. Of course, to do that I must open in a window and Istanbul records the whole screen. I'll check these out, but off the top of your head do you know if any can record from just a window? My main problem, still though, is fixing the white stripes I keep getting. Maybe a new GFX card is in order? Heck. that would even help record at higher resolutions/framerates.

[__Yossarian0815[jby]]

to make movies use gamecam lite.

the only trouble is that it will cause your game to stutter. maybe with a dual core one could somehow make gamecam run on the second cpu?

[152mmDumbRocket]

Posted by jby

maybe with a dual core one could somehow make gamecam run on the second cpu?

Since computer hardware is a keen interest of mine, I can answer your question. Yes, a dual core CPU would make multitasking much easier, and yes, it would definitely be possible to run the game on one CPU and gamecam lite on the other.