How to spectate?

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rakovsky
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How to spectate?

Postby rakovsky » Sun Sep 06, 2009 8:23 am

Hello, I have the demo version. Can you please tell me how to spectate into a game, and how to chat? I started a game of my own, and no one joined. I clicked "join a game" and many games showed up, but they were all restricted from me. I notice some games have bright green boxes, and others have dark green and grey boxes. What does that mean?
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bert_the_turtle
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Postby bert_the_turtle » Sun Sep 06, 2009 9:40 am

Bright green boxes represent actual human players, dark green boxes are AIs, grey boxes are empty slots.
And IV changed the demo restrictions without adapting the advertising blurbs (Hey, IV, maybe time to do that now that the change seems to be permanent?). You can't join games, nobody can join your game, and you can't even spectate games (and really, you never could spectate any game anyway, only the non-restricted ones). All the demo can do now is play against the AI.

What you CAN do, even with the demo, is to watch recording of past games. To do that, you'd need to install the latest DedCon alpha build (1.43b_svn1010) from http://dedcon.net . Since you seem to be using Windows, direct link for your convenience. Recordings are available from here, for example, and if you scan the forums, especially the 2vs2 thread, you'll find lots of high profile games. Just download them, unzip them, double click on the .dcrec file. That opens the recording up. Then, you fire up your Defcon client, click 'Join Game', in the bottom left, switch from 'All Games' to 'LAN games', and join the only one available.

In the recording, if you get bored with the slow action, type '/speed 60' into the chatbox.
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Aliance mod recordings?

Postby rakovsky » Sun Sep 06, 2009 6:06 pm

BERT,

What's MOR, Do you have a favorite recording, and is there a way to see recorded games that started in Alliance Mod?

The reviews talked the game up because in alliance mode players aren't sure who will break the alliance first, that there are funny moments of players' interactions, and that it has an accurate Cold War map.


Thanks for explaining how to see a recording. I used the recording http://simamo.de/~dedcon/servers/2VS2/2009/08/31/
I think I won't get the game now, because I think the good reviews are exagerated.

The chat commands
/speed 60
/SPEED 60
SPEED 60
speed 60
/speed60
speed60

etc. Did not work, so the game took forever- I watched it 20 minutes and didn't even get to Defcon 1. There are two opposite sides and it takes forever to get to Defcon 1. So no excitement. Gee I wonder what will happen at Defcon 1?
One of the guys said "Italian please" and his ally said no, English, and the first guy said Italian, and the red side spoke Italian for the rest of the game. That was the funniest part of the game. Then there was the lag problem, one of the players leaving and coming back, it spent a long time "Paused".

That is not to mention the historical problems that South America doesn't have nukes, and that the fronline in a supposed Cold War game is between Belarus and Ukraine and Russia, which at that time was one country- the USSR.

In other words, I spent 20 minutes with lag problems watching one side talking in Italian, and little action, and when the action does come, it will just be the two sides launching nukes at eachother on a blue screen.

Am I wrong?

British humor sucks anyway, Monty Python was the best they came up with, and even some of their skits were boring.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail was good. Let's see more of that kind of humor. That's why maybe Alliance mode would be good, but I am not sure that 20 minutes with lag and a boring blue screen is worth 14 Euros.
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tllotpfkamvpe
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Postby tllotpfkamvpe » Sun Sep 06, 2009 11:44 pm

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Last edited by tllotpfkamvpe on Fri Feb 24, 2023 5:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
rakovsky
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Postby rakovsky » Tue Sep 08, 2009 2:48 am

OK tllo, what do you like about the game? So far I only saw a system where players on opposite teams attack eachother with primitive icons. The name itself is a mistake "Everybody Dies," because the loser's entire population doesn't die in the game.

Can you tell me if there is a recording of a diplo game or if there is a particular recording you like?

And how do you speed up recordings when you watch them?
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Postby iRadiated » Tue Sep 08, 2009 8:34 am

rakovsky wrote:The name itself is a mistake "Everybody Dies," because the loser's entire population doesn't die in the game.


The phrase 'Everybody dies' is more about the futility of war; particularly a full scale nuclear war where it is generally accepted that there would be no winners.
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Postby rakovsky » Wed Sep 09, 2009 12:13 am

Radiated,

Sure, in real life a nuclear cloud blocks out the sun and everybody dies, but in the game, the population counts show millions of survivors.

Do you know how to get recordings of diplomacy games, or speed up recordings?
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Postby xander » Wed Sep 09, 2009 2:28 am

rakovsky wrote:Sure, in real life a nuclear cloud blocks out the sun and everybody dies, but in the game, the population counts show millions of survivors.

You are still missing the point. Defcon, the game, is meant to be a commentary on the futility of war. The tagline is a part of that commentary.

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Postby rakovsky » Wed Sep 09, 2009 5:07 am

OK, 10/10 for great social commentary, and 5/10 for inaccurate depiction of a nuclear holocaust.

5/10 for inaccurate world map, where the USSR is fighting itself and East Germany is part of NATO.

8/10 for primitive icons.

I fail to see what makes this game 10 times better than a free online flash game, except that Defcon's multiplayer is more fun and flash games don't lag forever have players drop out. Maybe I would see the light if I could see a diplo game.

What I don't like is they say I can play a demo on multiplayer, but I can't, and they want me to pay US $20 for a game that looks like an online flash game with multiplayer.

On the other hand, I like online flash games and good social commentary, which is why I probably keep posting here

What do you like about it?
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Postby Ace Rimmer » Wed Sep 09, 2009 3:51 pm

rakovsky wrote:OK, 10/10 for great social commentary,

Agreed.

rakovsky wrote:and 5/10 for inaccurate depiction of a nuclear holocaust.

This statement doesn't make sense when you already gave it a 10/10 for social commentary. You have the wrong perspective. Part of the social commentary is separating the realism of war and its destructive nature on people from the player. You're in a bunker looking at blips on a screen, not out on the front lines watching mushroom clouds appear on the horizon. You hear the fear and sadness of a women (crying) in the background mixed with the coldness of military communication. This is to give you an errie feeling that while you're having great fun, millions of lives are being wiped out.

rakovsky wrote:5/10 for inaccurate world map, where the USSR is fighting itself and East Germany is part of NATO.

This has been talked about many times and it all comes down to game balance. Defcon isn't a simulation, it isn't about realism, it's about an entertaining game. Let me say it again; game. Putting more realism into Defcon would take away from the game.

rakovsky wrote:8/10 for primitive icons.

Agreed, but I'd add to that very user friendly icons and controls. Easy to play, hard to master.

rakovsky wrote:I fail to see what makes this game 10 times better than a free online flash game, except that Defcon's multiplayer is more fun and flash games don't lag forever have players drop out. Maybe I would see the light if I could see a diplo game.

What I don't like is they say I can play a demo on multiplayer, but I can't, and they want me to pay US $20 for a game that looks like an online flash game with multiplayer.

On the other hand, I like online flash games and good social commentary, which is why I probably keep posting here

What do you like about it?

Defcon has been out for almost three years and yet you complain about the lack of features on the Demo version? :shock: I think you need a bit more perspective. It's well worth the $20 in my opinion.
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Postby xander » Wed Sep 09, 2009 3:57 pm

Please provide me with a link to an online flash game that does what Defcon does, either with or without multiplayer.

xander
rakovsky
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Postby rakovsky » Wed Sep 09, 2009 5:50 pm

Xander,

I think if Gheghis Khan
http://www.gamesforwork.com/games/play-8144-Genghis_Khan-Flash_Game was multiplayer it would be similar to Defcon. Defcon is a step up in background noise and graphics. But Defcon's primitive icons and linear world map are flash game quality. On the other hand, at least Ghenghis Khan can make an accurate map without hurting gameplay.

The idea is the same, two sides attack eachother with primitive icons, and it's no surprise who the two sides are.

So I think Diplomacy mode might make Defcon worthwhile, but I haven't seen anywhere to watch a recording. Can you please point me to one?

Don't get me wrong, I like flash games, but I'm not going to waste $ on a non-realistic high-lag multiplayer flash game.

I generally like Defcon because it has good social commentary and a cool multiplayer system, but I need to see a recording that was fun before I dish out $20 on it. Do you know how to speed up the recordings? "Speed 60" doesn't work.

I'm not interested in arguing about game quality. The reason I post on TROUBLESHOOTING is so I can watch a recording with fast speed and make up my mind.
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Postby Ace Rimmer » Wed Sep 09, 2009 7:12 pm

As bert said, /speed 60 is the command.

The number indicates the speed. I believe /speed 5 is half speed, /speed 10 is normal game speed (real time, 5x, 10, or 20x) and anything above that is faster. Your PC limits the actual rate at which a game can be sped up and I believe your network setup/connection does as well. So, if you have a crappy/old PC, you might not notice any increase in speed even with a working command, or you just might not know how Defcon normally runs to see that you are watching a sped up game. :wink:

As for diplomacy links, I don't know where any are located. The AKE Group runs a premium diplomacy server, but I can't remember if they host recordings. You can contact keger or e-t172 who has a website.
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Postby iRadiated » Thu Sep 10, 2009 12:57 am

There are loads of links on YouTube that show games in progress.
You can speed up, pause etc as you like.

It might give you a better idea of the game in progress if you can't get the recordings to work.

I used to have an xbox360 and have recently replaced that with a PS3 Slim.

I still come back to Defcon even though it doesn't have the advanced graphics that console games have.
I spend much more time playing defcon that I do playing Call of Duty 4 or Ghost Recon or Grand Theft Auto for example
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Postby xander » Thu Sep 10, 2009 6:12 am

rakovsky wrote:--==<snip>==--

First off, my name is spelt with a lowercase 'x', not a capital 'X'. Second, Defcon is clearly not the game for you. The flash game that you linked is nothing like Defcon. You seem to be under the mistaken impression that graphics are all there is to a game, and that every game should seek to accurately simulate the real world. Defcon attempts to do neither of these things, thus is clearly not your kind of game.

xander

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