Updated DropTeam Demo!

[Detomah]

Battlefront.com and TBG Software are pleased to announce the availability and release of an updated DropTeam Demo.

This new demo now offers both Single and Multiplayer gameplay and includes all of the dozens of improvements and new units added since the game was originally released, earlier this year. Of course, that includes the new infantry units that were part of a recent update! The demo allows you to play with all the same units as the full game, but is limited to just a single map, the radioactive wasteland of a moon known as Hopewell.

DropTeam combines accurate physics and ballistic systems, intelligent and realistic unit and weaponry capabilities with fast paced action set in a stark future of humanity. This DropTeamDemo includes installers for all three supported operating systems. One for Mac, one for Windows and one for Linux. This marks the first title published by Battlefront.com to offer Linux support in one of our games

Download Details:
http://www.battlefront.com/products/dropteam/demo.html

In addition to the new Demo above, we are also happy to announce the availability of two new gameplay Tutorial Videos. Created by a fan of the game, these videos come complete with extremely informative narration and show off game concepts such as using the Drop Requests function, the Tactical Menu, unit controls, camera functions, how to coordinate multiple units and how to communicate and share info between players on the same team.

Tutorial Video #1 (Basic Gameplay)
800x600 Mov Format
Runtime 9:56
filesize: 131 Mb
This user created video does an excellent job of providing an overview of the basic gameplay in DropTeam and includes topics such as deploying units via the Drop Request window, unit movement controls and how to use the map and camera functions. It also covers issues such as scuttling and the repair and extraction of damaged units.


Tutorial Video #2 (Command and Control Concepts)
800x600 Mov Format
Runtime 19:12
filesize: 145 Mb
This user created video covers more advanced functions of DropTeamsuch as using the Tactical Display to enhance your Situational Awareness as well as how to communicate and play effectively with your teammates. It also covers how to manipulate the Tac Display to call in artillery fire, issue group commands, control friendly units, view objectives and display and share important information with other players.

Tutorial Downloads:
http://www.battlefront.com/products/...am/videos.html

Demo Readme:
This is a Demo release of DropTeam. This DropTeamDemo only has the following important restriction:
1. This release only allows you to play 1 of the game's many scenarios. The full version of the game includes dozens of scenarios and planets to fight on with more available for free by download update.
Apart from that restriction, this is a fully functional release, offering both Single and Multiplayer gameplay. This DropTeamDemo includes all three OS versions together (Windows, Mac OS-X and Linux).

Players can use all of the dozens of vehicles (including the recently released infantry units!) and deployable items in the game. The included scenario is "Raid". It takes place on an inhabitable moon called Hopewell. Hopewell orbits a gas giant in the Wolf 9773 star system. Almost half of the moon's surface, called "The Scorch", is a radioactive Hell created by the destruction of an antimatter station that used to orbit the gas giant. The remainder of Hopewell has recovered from this disaster and is once again beginning to flourish with vegetation and a growing human population.

This DropTeam Demo includes everything needed to connect to servers and play on the Internet or on Local Area Networks on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X Tiger. It also includes everything needed for players to run their own public or private servers.

A stripped down version of the game's manual is available in PDF format. This abbreviated manual explains everything players need to know about running the game and also what administrators need to know about running their own servers.

Users of previous DropTeam Demo's should uninstall and delete their Demo and download and install this updated version.

Install Directions:
To install the DropTeam Demo, simply download the file from one of the mirror sites listed below. Next unzip the file to a temporary folder somewhere on your computer. Make sure to unzip the files with the "Create Subdirectories" option enabled (check your archive program for details).

Once you have finished unzipping the demo files and folders, browse into the DropTeamDemoInstaller folder. You should see several files and two folders.

To Install the Windows Version of the demo, double-click on the "Windows Version Installer.exe" file. The Windows Demo installer will then launch.

To Install the Mac OS-X Version of the demo, double-click on the "Mac OS X Installer" file. The Mac OS-X Demo installer will then launch.

To Install the Linux Version of the demo, run the "runLinuxInstall" file. The Linux Demo installer will then launch.

DropTeam Demo Minimum Requirements:

Geforce4/Radeon 9600 64MB VRAM class video or better
512 MB system RAM

WINDOWS

Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003
Pentium III 800MHz or better
Catalyst 6.2 or higher drivers for ATI users
Forceware 81.98 or higher for nVidia users
OpenGL 1.5 or better for other video cards

MAC

OS X Tiger 10.4.5 or higher
G4 1.2 GHz or higher

LINUX

GLIBC version 2.3.4 or higher
X Windows with working OpenGL acceleration
ALSA audio
Recommended System:
P4 or G5 CPU
1 GB RAM
nVidia 6600 or Radeon 9800 class video card
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DropTeam FEATURES
CROSS-PLATFORM COMPATABILITY
. DropTeam runs on Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Linux, and Mac OS-X. Game ships with all versions together and each game version is fully compatible with the others.

GENERAL FEATURES
. Play in a universe complete with a rich back story and detailed history.
. Realistic combat system that models projectile/armor penetration, various munition types, and interior vehicle damage in detail.
. Huge, detailed and varied alien landscapes each planet accurately modeling its own gravity and atmospheric density, radically changing the tactical situation.
. Map sizes up to a massive 1000 (!) square kilometers.
. Terrain height resolutions from small ridges and vehicle fighting positions to towering hills and mountains.
. Deformable terrain with engineering vehicles digging out trenches in real time, ordnance created surface cratering and even trees toppling over under artillery fire.
. Dynamic environmental effects include building destruction and vehicles exploding and flipping over.
. DropTeam includes 20 scenarios plus a 10 mission single player campaign. New scenarios will be offered for download after the game's released plus you can create you own battles and share them with others.

SCALABILITY
. Terrain uses dynamic tessellation (continuous Level of Detail) to render high resolution terrain at large sizes.
. DropTeam engine automatically adjusts level of detail based on your computer hardware. This optimizes gameplay on even older computer systems and hardware.
. DropTeam uses the OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL) for advanced graphics effects that literally weren't possible a year ago with little to no performance impact such as rippling water and blowing foliage.

MULTIPLAYER FEATURES
. Up to 16 human players or more supported, depending on system specs. Maximum online players realistically only limited by game server bandwidth, CPU and RAM.
. Game launcher allows you to browse a list of servers that shows the servers' current scenario, current number of players, game time remaining, and connect to the game sessions at will.
. Server management functions allow administrators to login and exercise special privileges on the server, such as kicking players and moving players between teams. This interface is within the GUI of the game itself.
. Various game types include "Capture the Flag" and "Objective" based missions.

MODDING AND EXPANDABILITY
. Highly extensible, open architecture makes the game easy to modify, even by non-programmers.
. DropTeam uses XML (Extensible Markup Language) files for game objects. Allows for an incredible wealth of modding options and capabilities. All information about 3D models, physics, control mechanics is encapsulated and allows specification of any arbitrary texture data for terrains, skies, and models.
. Add new vehicles, change their physics, change turrets, swap one gun for another or put a brand new gun on a existing unit and more. All of this can be achieved by editing the associated the XML files. You can also create entirely new models and textures that weren't originally included. You can even just drop in your own 3D Studio models if you want!
. DropTeam engine reads data from professional GIS (Geographic Information Systems) packages such as ArcGIS and Terragen. This is the same industry standard data formats that are used by the Department of Defense for simulations and by engineers for land work, surveying, etc...

More background and info on the game can be found on the DropTeam webpage located here.