Desert Combat shutting down (sort of)

[The_Stranger]

Unfortunately Trauma studios is unable to continue Desert Combat as their schedules simply cannot handle itThere will be one more 'final' release, and after that the future is uncertain..

It's too bad, but I guess that's the penalty for success--on to bigger and better things, apparently.

More info here:
http://www.forumplanet.com/planetbattlefield/desertcombat/topic.asp?fid=5900&tid=1436696 (http://www.forumplanet.com/planetbattlefield/desertcombat/topic.asp?fid=5900&tid=1436696)

[SoBeiT]

That's too bad.. sad the way these games are dying so quickly. You'd think the makers would want the games to be so well loved they'd be played for 3-4 years.

Thanks for the post Stranger.

[stapuf]

That's too bad.. sad the way these games are dying so quickly. You'd think the makers would want the games to be so well loved they'd be played for 3-4 years.

From a business standpoint, it may make more sense for developers to make a good but fairly quick burnout game - then you will buy sequels and engine refinements and bonus packs...$

[SFT]

Wasn't Desert Combat a Mod for BF1942? And they never got paid for that right? And aren't they working with the BFV people on a new title? And will I run out of questions soon? And aren't all of you wishing I would run out of questions soon? And who invented the question mark anyway? Was it Dr. Evil's father, the relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery or was it Batman's nemesis, the Riddler? Or does anybody care anymore? Do I care anymore? Do I need another beer? Is there another beer?

[SFT]

Does anybody still play DC? I play DC and I just played last night, but is there some way I can turn this statement into a question? Was that a question or did I cheat by using a conjunction? Or did I use two conjunctions? Or was it only one conjunction separating the statement from the question? Was that half cheating? I don't think I cheated. Oh my God, was that a statement? What have I done? I made a statement. Oh my God, I just made another statement. Was that three statements?

AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Ahh? Ooh?...

AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

[SFT]

But seriously folks (hehehe, he said "folks"), I still play DC. The new patch for BFV needs work and many of the new games coming out aren't multiplayer ( the D word). So DC is the action still. Unless, I'm playing UT. :)

DC was one of the better MODS in terms of being bugfree and having some replayability. Somebody gave them a job, which is probably why they went to the trouble in the first place.

Other than that, all I can say is the gaming industry is getting run less and less by gamers all the time. If you look at the game programmer ads you'll see that being an avid gamer is a plus. Who would have thought? Was that a question?

ps: You can respond now Stranger. It's safe.

[radio667]

:( !!

[The_Stranger]

In spam, no-one can hear you scream.:eek:

[radio667]

Ok --thats a Cool saying - lol :D Stranger Danger !!!

[SFT]

Played last night. The DC team could at least remove the scud from 73 Easting. It's still spawnkill fest (and that's on the EA servers).

[stapuf]

At least your sober now.

[Salyavin]

Trauma got what most mod teams want: a money deal with a publisher. With DC they demonstrated that they had an organized team with enough self-discipline to meet a schedule (milestone versions every ~3 months) and showed off their quality work. However, once the check is in the mail the free mod is pretty much dead. Big publishers don't pay for freebies, they want their new development team working on a project that will start bringing in cash as soon as possible.

Of course, in EA's case this may have been a bit shortsighted given that people were buying BF'42 just to play DC. But then again, BF'42 is hitting the bargain bin which nets EA much less of the $20 pricetag... and EA doesn't see a single dime from DC, unlike Valve with Counterstrike retail and Steam. Whereas something new "from the team that brought you Desert Combat, 2003 mod of the year!!!!" will give them a big chunk of $50 retail.

As for the mod team slash newly annointed star developer, grabbing hold of that brass ring may not turn out as great as they think. There's already some backlash on the Gamespy DC forums for abandoning the mod (i.e. "selling out"), which may translate into some of the former fanboys boycotting whatever retail game Trauma does (fanboys are the most fickle breed in the universe). And the void in fanboy love isn't likely to be filled by EA or their checkbook. Big game publishers, especially EA as the biggest, are cold, greedy, and evil. Fail to deliver a big hit your first time out and your team may end up doing crappy movie tie-in games for the PS2 for the rest of their careers. Don't think it can't happen... both Origin and Westwood were big studios with a track record of major hits, which is why EA gobbled them up. But one dud (Tiberian Sun for Westwood, Ultima 9 for Origin) and where are they now?

I'm glad that the testers and non-Trauma devs are trying to finish DC with a skeleton crew, and I hope Trauma does create a good game with Dice, but on some days the gaming industry really sucks 'cause DC coulda been a contender.

Cheers,
Salyavin

[Paladin]

I have to disagree with you a bit Sal. I don't see most mod developers getting in the business to get themselves a paying gig. Some do, I'm sure, but I think most do it for:

a) the fun
b) the challenge
c) because their friends asked them too

I thinkTrauma started doing DC for the first two reasons. Somewhere along the line they must have realized they had a potential selling point and gelled into an actual development team. I think the UT2K4Troopers probably started and went the same route. But I think most mod "teams" are one or two people doing what they do because they can, or can at least try. Look at Eavy for UT2K3, for one.

And yes, I'm glad to here there will be one last patch.

[SFT]

I've seen Paladin out playing DC, but I haven't seen the rest of you in a while.

[radio667]

what DC server do you play on ??

[dougwolfpacker]

I been playing DC too, on TMF 67.18.194.66:14567. Which server do you play on SFT?

[SFT]

I just click around on whatever is populated.

[Salyavin]

I have to disagree with you a bit Sal. I don't see most mod developers getting in the business to get themselves a paying gig.Yeah, I exaggerated a bit there. I found a page that lists a bunch of really awful proposals for Half-Life 2 mods which skewed my thinking. I can't see anyone making a counter-terrorist mod set in WWII for fun. :) I agree with you that mod teams start out to do something fun and challenging. (It's when the repetitive, unrewarding work of testing and tweaking sets in that many mods fail).

I thinkTrauma started doing DC for the first two reasons. Somewhere along the line they must have realized they had a potential selling point and gelled into an actual development team.I disagree about Trauma though. I think Frank DeLise wanted to make a fun modern combat game, but I don't think it was his only reason. He was an software designer and product manager (3DStudio Max) before starting Trauma, and his experience in managing a development team showed in how well the DC team worked to a schedule and the quality of their beta releases. They came a lot closer to a shippable product than 99.9% of the mods out there, and 1.0 would likely have been more stable and balanced (at least as balanced as possible in the BF'42 engine, and only if they took out that @#$%'ing SCUD) than most games when they hit retail. That's why it's so disheartening to see them abandon it... it was a great example for how to create a team and develop a good mod. I look forward to trying out DC_Final, but I have the sinking feeling that without the discipline of the original team, it's going to be filled with cool but broken/unbalanced features that didn't make it into DC (i.e. the F117) and it'll be a long time coming.

Cheers,
Salyavin

[SoBeiT]

Played some DC tonight with Sal & Doug.

Besides tonight, server usually plays well and it is admin-ed well.

Will try again tomorrow... how about you?

[SFT]

I'll try to get over to some of those games. What server/ip? I've been plumbing the last few days and will hopefully be done tomorrow.

[Salyavin]

Played some DC tonight with Sal & Doug.

Besides tonight, server usually plays well and it is admin-ed well.

Will try again tomorrow... how about you?Server played terrible for me. Lots of rubberbanding of other players, so it was the server and not my connection this time. As for well-admined, there wasn't any spawnkilling until the clan ended up all on the same side and started doing it themselves. Yeah, nice rules.

Cheers,
Salyavin

[dougwolfpacker]

The server is "TMF" DC IP: 67.18.194.66:14567. It is normally real good. I have been playing it for about 2 weeks. Tonight it was rubberbanding, but I have been noticing internet problems with Cox Cable High Speed Internet, so it might have been my connection. I normally don't have those problems. It was good to see both Sobe and Sal on the site.

[dougwolfpacker]

I just read Sal's post about the rules. They allow you to basecamp if you control all of the capable flags. Some people violate those rules but the TMF players normally are good about telling people not to basecamp until all the flags are controlled. I have found that most of the time, they are good about enforcing that rule. Sometimes they kick spawnkillers right away, sometimes they don't. Most of the time, its not bad, and I have seen them quit people at the request of the other gamers for spawnkilling. They will often do a vote on whether to kick someone.