Gone Gold Steel Battalion: Line of Contact Team Page
22 Mar 04
Connections have been pretty stable since the 13th. We should probably get back to a more regular practice schedule. If we can get together, we can improve as well as trade some VT's so everyone has a chance to practice with some of the better VT's. I've noticed a few cliques have started forming. The rank restrictions and restricted games are becoming more common.
It would be nice if we could advance together. Really, even though we're not shooting to be a flawless team or anything, it's more fun if we can keep everyone close in level. Obviously a few of our better player will pull ahead, but if they can secure some good VTs or extra parts for the team, we'll all gain. Post some times in the forum when you'd like to practice. Even if people don't always respond, there's a good chance some will show up.
13 Mar 04
Woohoo! Good news at last. Connections are better and stability is up. I was able to play both free and campaign missions. Please check your ability to connect and let us know about it in the team forum. Looks like we can try to get back to practicing. Right now it's tentatively scheduled for 9:30 pm EST Sunday.
If you'd like to join the team, just shoot me an email (click on my name) and sign up for the forum, once added to the team, you'll be able to see and post in the team forum.
Hrothgar
7 Mar 04
I think I'm going to take an operational pause until they do something about the connection problem. I tried approximately a dozen games tonight and all ended in connection errors both campaign and free. Wolfsix and I even tried a one on one with both of us in Houston. It still crashed. I don't know what they did Thursday, but I haven't been able to complete an online match since. I'll play single player for a while and work on my skills. I'll also keep an eye on the SBC forums to check for improvements. Hopefully we'll see progress soon.
5 Mar 04
Not too much to report except that last night was the worst night I've experienced as far as connectivity. I think they were trying some tweaks, but things were much worse. My connection was listed as superior for the whole night, but whenever someone with a poor connection (flashing red) would come into a room I'd get booted. I got to the start up sequence of several games, but I never got more than 5 meters before connection loss termination. Ouch.
I think I did figure out campaign idea though. The "war" is divided into turns. Turns last several real time days. At the end of the turn, scores are added up and a winning side is declared. That side gains territory and new maps and VT's are added. I think the losing side gets an advantage in the new VT's as the HSD lost the first turn, but got scarefaces. There were rumors of a limited number of Decider Volcanics as well.
Successful combat results in supply points to buy more VT's. In campaign you really do have a stable of individually numbered VT's, so if you lose one it's gone forever. You may be able to buy a replacement if there are any available.
Hrothgar
4 Mar 04
Reviews are starting to pop up for Line of Contact. That's somewhat surprising since there are still bugs and most of the content hasn't been released to the campaign yet. Still I imagine they're filling most of it in from the beta. I think it's about time for me to give a little rundown of the game.
When you start up you have 3 options, replay theater, system link and xbox live. There is no single player in Line of Contact. Replay is just what it sounds like. The difference this time is the number of cameras. Now you can be anywhere on the battlefield and look at anything. It even has a missile cam where you can follow individual shots fired. It really makes you appreciate the quality of the graphics. I could see some great Machinima done with this feature.
From what I understand you can only play free battles on system link so there's no real point in describing it separately.
Once you sign in to Xbox live, you need to create a pilot. There are a bunch of avatar images. You input your age and nationality. Apparently, I'm old enough to be a "senior" so respect your elders and don't kill me so fast next time. You can view some pilot statistics here.
Next you choose either free mode or campaign. In free mode, your pilot can't die, but you also don't gain any supply points. You do gain combat points and can go up in rank. Free mode has single unrelated battles. You gather in the host's lobby and chat until the teams fill up. After the battle is over you're dumped to a results team with just your team (except deathmatch where everyone who was left at the end shows up).
Campaign is the meat of the game, but it's also the where most of the connection problems have been. On the campaign servers players choose sides in the war. Battles are fought based on the campaign schedule and who won the last battle. The schedule has different battles fought at different times so you might play a day then evening then night mission. In the campaign, you have to use your supply points to buy VT's. Any VT's you buy are automatically unlocked in the free missions. The same is supposed to be true with maps.
Campaign or free, there are three basic missions: Conquest, battle royale, and capture the container. Though the first and last have attackers and defenders, the distinction is pretty meaningless aside from starting position.
Conquest's goal is to secure the territory. To do this you start out with two bases. The enemy starts out with two and there are usually two neutral bases. You can only spawn and respawn at one of your bases, so if you lose all your bases the game is over. You capture a base by sitting in it unchallenged for a set length of time. You'll see occupying on your screen. Eventually an enemy base will go to neutral then finally a tone will sound indicating the base is yours. While you can (in free mode at least) play one on one or two on two, the team modes really scream for 3 on 3 or more.
Battle royale is your basic deathmatch mode. You select your VT and get usually 7 VT's. You gain points for destroying everyone else and they get points for destroying you. Of note you can select any spawn point to respawn. You get to see the map and a camera view of the area so you know what the area looks like. This is the only game where radar works normally. You can always see where everyone is.
Capture the container is LOC's answer to capture the flag. You score if you bring your opponents container back to your base while keeping your container there. Then their container warps back to their base and you try again. You can also go conquest in this mode as you can capture bases and get points for that as well. Captured bases can again be used as spawn points. Of note, the person carrying the container has to use their manipulator are to carry it. This disables their subweapons. Both containers show up brightly on everyone's radar, so there's no stealth grabbing the container.
Microsoft and Capcom are working on the bugs. It has gotten more stable already. New VT's have been released in the campaign, so you'll now see Scarefaces running around in free mode as well. It's hard to emphasize how good this online experience is. If you enjoyed SB at all, you must try LOC.
Hrothgar
28 Feb 04
Steel Battalion: Line of Contact Impressions:
Wow. Just Wow. Ok so campaign is buggy right now. I'm not good enough to worry about that right now. Free mode offers 3 games, but I was having too much fun to get past the first, Conquest. This is you basic 1942 type mode. Capture your opponents spawn points while defending your own.
Since campaign wasn't working, everyone only had access to the same basic VT's, Vitzh, Falchion, Vortex, and Decider. Most people played in the Decider. Since I had time waiting for people to show up, I worked up a color scheme and a rough patch. I'm sure people will be able to do better, but you can look at it. If you want to match my color scheme, choose your VT, choose pattern: Urban Camo. Then set the colors to 16, 100, 100 for all parts. For the decider I made select parts black (0,0,0) like the shoulders and the head. Overall it looks pretty good. The patch needs some work, but it's so small it might not be worth the effort. The paint program included is surprisingly full featured.
One cool thing, when the game boots to the main menu, the controller does a little light dance. It cycles through the lights and creates patterns. Very geeky, but cool.
A couple of things that are probably self evident, but that some people online were having problems with, were the live settings. You have a controller with your headset nearby. You can use that controller like the view stick to select things. It makes navigating menus much easier. Also if you hit the start button, it brings up your standard live menu. This has your friends list, players list, and connection settings.
Obviously, you have to sign in as soon as you boot up LOC. This is quick and easy. Then you have to create a separate pilot. It doesn't seem to read any of the original's data. Then you choose your mode. Since campaign is having problems, I only played Free mode. Pilots can still be killed in campaign mode.
In free mode, you have your standard quick match, optimatch and create match functions. I saw Parias from SBC online, but since the only open slots were fighting against him, I didn't join that game.
You can create a game on any open maps from campaign. There were five at the start. I mostly played on map 1 because the hills made for some interesting games. You can also change the settings for VT generation, player skill level, friendly fire on/off, public or private game, etc.
When everyone had a good connection, the game was amazingly lag free. One bad connection could ruin it though. Strangely (or not) it mostly affects the host and the person with the bad connection. I played 3 on 3 and 2 on 2 mostly without problems. I hosted several games and it worked well.
I don't know about the radar. Maybe I was doing something wrong, but I could not get enemies to show up on my radar. I could see them and lock on to them, but not detect them on radar. This was the only downside to combat. If someone got behind you, it was possible to lose track of them. Then you died.
It was certainly different trying to target other players. Some of them really knew how to dance with their VT's. They looked like a matador, dodging my shots. One learned the hard way that a plasma torch hurts more than a horn.
In the games without lag, the controls were nice and tight. Voice coms worked great with teammates. I think there's a way to talk to the bad guys, but I couldn't get it to work. Still it was great calling for help and see someone streaking in at mach 5 (ok fifth gear) to help you.
There's nothing quite like ejecting after failing to defend you last spawn point, watching the sortie counter tick down, spawning with your hatch open, slamming the hatch close and trying to power up before the bad guys get there. Truly amazing.
Perhaps even more amazing is that free mode isn't the meat of the game. If you have any doubts, forget them. You must try this if you own the controller. I really can't wait to play as a team.
It's still early, but it seems like either skill or teamwork can dominate a game. I played one game where we couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, but through good communication we were able to keep moving and capture all the spawn points. I had another game where my teammate was just taking names. He kept destroying them single handedly allowing me to run around and capture the spawn points.
One weird thing about free mode. After a match, you dump to a lobby where you can talk to your teammates, but not the opponents. Then everyone dumps to the main free mode menu. There's no rematch option.
Right now the bugs seem to be with the Capcom server (match listings bumping people, campaigns crashing or dumping players). I'm sure that's easier for them to fix than putting together a patch or whatever.
One important note, the game engine is not buggy. Free mode proves that. You can have a solid lag free game. The servers are another question. One guy told me in a game I was hosting, "Start the game quick before the servers kick me. It happened the last two times." Overall I was playing poorly, but had a blast. Highly recommended.
Hrothgar
26 Feb 04
It's arrived! My copy of the original Steel Battalion arrived today. I'll try to give some initial impressions. Wow. There's something larger than life to this game. It's by no means perfect, but you really feel like a gamer (read geek) when getting this.
So the box looks like an old Army ammo box. First off, the controller is even bigger than it looks in pictures. The new version does have the blue buttons instead of green. It looks really nice, but I imagine that playing in the dark you lose that green glow on your face (see geeky). Assembly is very easy, but finding a good play setup is hard. I've tried three different setups that each had their own plusses and minuses. I think I'll go with the chair and small table as that is the most comfortable for long periods of time. Just for reference, the controller is actually bigger than the small table and I had to use an old shelf to support the controller.
On to the controller itself. It's very solid. The pedals have to be the most solid I've ever seen on a game accessory. The two sticks are nice and comfortable. Personally I probably would have reversed their positions (movement right and aim left), but I'm a southpaw so what do I know? Still, it's no hardship. Overall layout is very nice. Things are easy to find, plus the buttons usually light up when you need to use them. On the other hand, forty buttons sounds like a lot, but it's almost overwhelming to deal with the first time. The shifter is the only thing that doesn't seem quite perfect. Sometimes it feels to tight, sometimes too loose. The basic fighting controls are right where you expect them to be and don't really get in the way. The only problem I had was occasionally hitting the target lock when I should have been firing the main weapon.
Now for the game. Since this is initial impressions, I haven't gotten very far. First, it does what any good sim should do. It overwhelms you initially. There's so much information coming at you it's hard to figure anything out. I was a little surprised at how quickly and easily I could die. Fighting the controls equals a quick death. I actually was good and read the manual before jumping in. It helped, but not much. I also expected a little more time to hit the eject button. The first section there's no penalty, but after that, you better learn quickly.
Admittedly, the startup sequence is gratuitous. They probably could have just gone with a start button, but it's so immersively fun, I love it. Close the cockpit, activate systems, flip the switches, then hit the start button at the right time. In case anyone else is confused, for the toggles, down is off and you should start the mission with all of them down then flip them at the appropriate time. It's amazing how much information they crammed into the screen. Along with the startup animations, it creates a very immersive experience.
Once you hit the field, you have an incredible amount of control. Unfortunately it takes a while to master it all. I'm nowhere close. The torso twist and aiming controls are quick and accurate. It's neat watching your weapons pivot to your aim point. It's better even than Mechwarrior where I saw it for the first time. Finding targets is easy, but getting clear shots isn't. It's going to take a lot of work to master this one. But the feeling of that first perfectly executed sidestep as a bullet whizzed by me that should have hit me makes it all worth it. I should get back at it.
Hrothgar
Here's the team list as of 4 Mar 04:
In:
*Mad Alien
*13devils
*Lord Pall
*Wolfhound
*Pumpkinhead (Denoginizer)
*Chaz
*Jimmy the fish
*Hrothgar
*ggreene (Total_Enigma)
*raydude29
Probably In:
Sepiche
Yall
Flyin' J
Maybe:
PharaohX (Panzergeist)
Arkon262
kathode
Legend: *Registered and checked into forum +Registered
25 Feb 04
Well, according to Fedex, it looks like my copy won't be here until tomorrow. It has shipped so I'm moving myself to officially in. If anyone else wishes to be moved as well let me know. I know I'm harping on the forum, but it would be nice if we could get everyone to at least sign in to the "Roll Call" thread, so we have a good list of Live Gamertags. Remember you have to register and be a member of the team group to see and post in the thread. This does not commit you to anything. If you really don't feel comfortable doing that, please add me to your friends list, so you can see when we're practicing. My gamertag is: HrothgarGG
Remember the first practice time is 9:30 EST (6:30 PST) Friday 27 Feb 04, but if you can't make that let us know what times over the weekend you would like to practice. Our team is largely newbies to the game, so we want some time to practice together before we let anyone else beat us up. Hopefully the vets can give a few pointers to us newbs.
Hrothgar
Late Chaz update: It appears EB B&M preorders for both the original SB and Line of Contact will arrive on Friday. So practice is unchanged, but we'll have even less stick time than expected. I'm sure that's not what Shakespeare meant by a comedy of errors, but it's going to be funny nonetheless.
24 Feb 04
According to Chaz the new shipment of Steel Battalion should be arriving at stores tomorrow. Hopefully my copy will make it as well. Don't forget to check SBC link on the right if you want some beginner tips. We still have some people who haven't registered for the forum. It's certainly not a requirement, but hopefully it will be a good place to go to set up a game or just get information. There's no commitment for signing up. Besides with all the trouble the GG server has been having, you might like an additional place to post.
23 Feb 04
It appears that a good chunk of the interested players are just getting their copies of the original Steel Battalion in the new shipment. This means we'll be starting very slowly. We'll probably need to only play intra team for a while. Tentative first practice time is 9:30 EST (6:30 PST) Friday 27 Feb 04. Feedback is appreciated.
Hrothgar
22 Feb 04
The next shipment of Steel Battalion should be shipping this week. Right now Capcom and the large game dealers are still taking orders, so there should be enough to go around. However once, reviews for Line of Contact start coming in that could easily change. Participation is based on interest, not mad skills, so let us know if you want to be part of the team.
Hrothgar
The team is, was and will be only about fun. We're not going to have a rigorous practice schedule. We're not printing t-shirts. We're not going to diagram cool combos and give them cute scifi names like "epsilon vector warp 7 execute." We're not going to worry about ladder rankings.
Actually the team is supposed to be the opposite of that. We're people who aren't going to yell at you if you don't perform flawlessly. We only have a team so we don't have to worry about playing with random people who might turn out to be jerks or perfectionists or just profanity bombs. If the team ever gets more formal or competitive than the Friday night flight fights, we're doing something wrong. If I gave the impression otherwise, I apologize.
The T-shirt Committee consists of Chaz and 13Devils. No doubt they'll report back to us in a few months that they need more time.
18 Feb 04
Welcome to the Gone Gold Team page. This page will host major announcements of interest to team members. To join the team, sign up at this thread on the Gone Gold Forum. Please keep in mind that to play on the team you need a copy of Steel Battalion with the controller, a copy of Line of Contact and an active XBox Live account.
Once you've signed up there, you need to come back here and join the forum. Beyond being an insidious attempt on my part to increase forum membership on my site, it'll also be the only way to access the private team forum. The team forum is where everyone can post announcements without having to send it to me first. We can discuss strategy and tactics there as well as setting up practice and games.
After joining the TS forum send me and email at hrothgar@talkstrategy.com with your username (and, if different, your username on the GG forum). I'll make you part of the team on the forum. Then you'll be able to access it.