Great to see the Mod still being played

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delisef
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Great to see the Mod still being played

Post by delisef »

Hi all,

My name is Frank DeLise, the founder of the Desert Combat mod.

It really is great to see people still playing it from time to time. Its still to this day the best experience of my life building this mod.

I need to jump on the server and play.

Thank you for keeping it alive!
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Demonic
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Re: Great to see the Mod still being played

Post by Demonic »

Frank, welcome back to this forum !! and i think it is fair to say we all owe you the thank you :D :D :D You and your co creators have given us countless hours of fun and entertainment over the past, almost 20 years !!
We would all love to have you stop by the server, when you get some free time !!
If there is anything you need to get on to the server, we have a bunch of info on this forum, or you can reach out to one of our admins.

Do you still have contact with your fellow creators? It would be awesome if they could also drop by here and say 'hi'.

When i first saw the DC mod, i didnt even have bf42....i had to go and get a copy, just so i could play it, and i dont think i touched the actual bf42 game for the first 7-8 years....it was only DC :D :D :D
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Trench
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Re: Great to see the Mod still being played

Post by Trench »

delisef wrote: May 24th, 2022, 8:26 am It really is great to see people still playing it from time to time. Its still to this day the best experience of my life building this mod.
Well I hope you guys had at least half as much fun making it as we have had playing it. Regardless of how the community changes over the years, I think its safe to say that we all continue to have a love for Desert Combat that keeps us here as players and as maintainers.

Your "baby" may have grown up and gone off to college to where you never see them any more, but we're the roommates who still get to see them nearly every day. 😁 And admittedly, at the occasional drunkin party or two...

Thanks for stopping in and giving everyone the opportunity to hear from a founder who helped create this experience that we've all immensely enjoyed taking part in. Thank you for your parts in giving us this game.

-Trench


To hop into the server, everything technical-wise is still the same as a couple years ago when you had jumped in, other than the http://ea117.com/gamespy patch which happened just this year to point to a new replacement master server for the in-game server browser.

Otherwise, the information to rebuild an entire game client machine using the CDs is at http://ea117.com/dcinstall. The item listed as "TanksPBUpdate" is the only one that is probably beyond what you would have already assumed was necessary.
Otto Kontrol
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Re: Great to see the Mod still being played

Post by Otto Kontrol »

Thank You Mr. DeLise for a very average game. You all really should have gone the extra mile and made an "Otto Kontroll Godlike mode", but I understand you were only doing your best. :P :lol: :D ;)

And with all humor aside, As a person with a tumor in his spinal cord which causes severe pain waves and the loss of my legs, this mod has created countless hours where I could forget about my pain and have fun doing it. There has been times where I just battle bots in order to escape.

You guys may have made a game where many have enjoyed hours of fun, but you also created a game the actually is a great escape from life and pain!
It actually has keep me from using drugs (Rx type) on a hell of a lot of nights.

Come on in and say hi, we would all like to be killed by you and also to kill you :D

oTTo
delisef
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Re: Great to see the Mod still being played

Post by delisef »

One fun bit of info, before BF2 was in development, the engine wasnt ready for gameplay. So we implemented many of BF2 features in DesertCombat first.

There was a version of Desert Combat i wish i was able to release

it has rappelling from the helicopters
Commander mode, air strikes, supply drops
Medic reviving
and many others

One featured I loved but never made it in BF2 was vehicle upgrades based on who got in the vehicle
For example, if support got into a tank, it would add a mine plow, or if medic got into an APC it would add a medic symbol on the side with healing in the vehicle, etc.

We would test new features on a weekly basis, add \remove many ideas
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Demonic
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Re: Great to see the Mod still being played

Post by Demonic »

Rappelling from a helo would have been great...also the medic reviving....did i read correctly somewhere that you guys had in mind to allow a user to control the flight of the scud, much the same as the redeemer from UT99 ?!

So how did you actually get it started?! was it ideas written down and trial and error along the way, or was there a clear vision, and it was just a case of ironing out the bugs?

the game/mod is so appealing in many ways, but alot of us like the idea of not having to level up weapons etc, in order to compete....it just came down as to who can use items the best......each of us who plays this, has a specialized skill set in one or more aspects.....but all just love the fact its a game
thats so straight forward with minimal learning curve (except i always seem to find hills when flying planes :cry: )
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Demonic
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Re: Great to see the Mod still being played

Post by Demonic »

oh, i forgot to ask.....who did the in game footage for the intro video ?
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HairyRussianDude
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Re: Great to see the Mod still being played

Post by HairyRussianDude »

Welcome (back) to the server!

I'll spare you a novel, but BF1942 and DC are the most nostalgic PC games of all time for me. They're up there with Super Mario World and all nighters playing multiplayer Goldeneye.
Home computers were not very affordable when these games came out so a buddy and I would mow lawns and do odd jobs to make some cash to go to a local PC arcade and play for an afternoon.
Eventually I got my own PC, and there went a gross amount of hours of my life!
Thank you for this game, and for the memories. Your work positively impacted my life.

Now to be blunt...
I did not like BF2. At all. Bought it for Xbox and hocked it at Gamestop shortly after. I just went back to DC.
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Trench
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Re: Great to see the Mod still being played

Post by Trench »

delisef wrote: May 24th, 2022, 2:34 pm One featured I loved but never made it in BF2 was vehicle upgrades based on who got in the vehicle
Nice. Understandable how all of it was work that was ultimately not allowed for release any other way, but its still fun to consider.

Maybe some code leaked through, though, since there does seem to be a feature similar to conditional vehicle upgrade. I've seen when most people get into a helo, it will enable the gyros to fly level and at altitude. But if Demonic gets into the helo, its as though the entire system is disabled no matter how hard he tries...😜

Seriously though, what do you recall about whether there was any "ah ha" or "that's the ticket" moment in making the helo flying control response? I'm not the best judge since I didn't venture out into many other competing games, but I recall feeling like the helo control was just "so much better" in Desert Combat compared to what then subsequently came in Battlefield Vietnam and the later Battlefield series.

Just wondered if it happened to involve any particular eureka moment behind the scenes, or if like many things it was just "we've gotta stop tinkering and move on, whatever this is will have to do..." I imagine it's hard to predict what's actually going to "gel" with the users when there are so many varied opinions and even input controller experiences.
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Demonic
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Re: Great to see the Mod still being played

Post by Demonic »

At least i am freakin awesome at pretending i know what i am doing flying a helo :D...besides, i am sure Frank did not expect people to ride on top of them, like i do from time to time lol...or snipe from them >: D
BF2 was ok for me, but it was hard to get used the games physics after playing DC for so long.
I am actually curious as to how/where the in game sound effects came from.....that along is some serious work.
DC is 100% proof that the simplest things in life are often the best....simplest meaning, not having to wait for equipment to level up, gear to level up etc...just log in and enjoy DC goodness :D :D :D
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delisef
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Re: Great to see the Mod still being played

Post by delisef »

Yeah, the physics of DC didnt move over to BF2, my team only worked on gameplay elements and fast prototyping in DC first.

Heli in DC was my favorite, we modeled after RC helicopters. Takes major skills, but if you master it, your unstoppable. I have never enjoyed planes and helis in another game since.
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Demonic
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Re: Great to see the Mod still being played

Post by Demonic »

Did you all do the testing of the game ? It would have been a sight to see, as you put together, say how the helo's moved and all the tweaking and adjustments to get it flying normal.
Did you guys do any of the voice overs ?! :D
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delisef
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Re: Great to see the Mod still being played

Post by delisef »

Just playing around..
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Demonic
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Re: Great to see the Mod still being played

Post by Demonic »

That is so awesome to see :D I am curious , did you guys have plans for any other vehicles, planes etc, that didnt make the final cut ?
I bet you have a treasure trove of goodies such as this pic here :D :D :D
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Trench
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Re: Great to see the Mod still being played

Post by Trench »

Hey, we've seen Battlefield Portal re-create some of the original Battlefield 1942 maps, and now we've seen Mr. DeLise playing with some remastered Desert Combat objects in his spare time. All keeping the dream prayer alive that we might one day see a modern resolution version of Desert Combat...
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Demonic
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Re: Great to see the Mod still being played

Post by Demonic »

Its crazy to think that this one mod alone triggered off everything else, and yet DC can still stand tall amongst other games out there.
What would be really neat, is if the players name appears on the side of the plane under the cockpit.....UT2004 did that with the number plate on one vehicle......but just looking at that pic makes you drool lol :D
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BlinkofanEye
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Re: Great to see the Mod still being played

Post by BlinkofanEye »

Hi Frank. Like everyone else said, thanks for the awesome, pretty much perfect, game.

As a huge fan of Al Nas, do you have any stories about that map? It strikes me as so well balanced and fleshed out, I/we can spots never tire of playing it. The community here improved on it greatly with a SSM mod, but you probably know that from having played here.
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Dogema
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Re: Great to see the Mod still being played

Post by Dogema »

Frank, thank you for putting this mod together! One of the best games that I have ever played. Please come out and play sometime.

Really must have been a labor of love at the time.
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Re: Great to see the Mod still being played

Post by _Roadie »

delisef wrote: May 24th, 2022, 8:26 am Hi all,

My name is Frank DeLise, the founder of the Desert Combat mod.

It really is great to see people still playing it from time to time. Its still to this day the best experience of my life building this mod.

I need to jump on the server and play.

Thank you for keeping it alive!
Well hello Frank!
I well remember when we were running a BF server and someone pointed out in chat that there was this "Desert Storm" mod out.
Several members in our group were vets and wanted to try it.
That was around the .4 release. On a Friday after work I got to installing it on our Dev Server. Took me all night but we were playing Saturday afternoon. Funny how a wargame can be a stress reliever.
One of the humorous things I remember some of the guys saying was "I gotta go get a Joystick..."
Thanks for a great mod and a bigger thanks for the helos.
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