Daeval Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 I heard about this mod a while ago but just got around to testing it out. It's actually pretty sweet. It's kind of like old-school naval combat, but with flying hot-air-balloon airships instead of seafaring ships. Ideally, you've got multiple teammates on one airship, piloting, manning the cannons, defending against enemy attacks, etc. Manuevering an airship takes some practice, just like it would in a naval ship, but is rewarding, tactically and just for fun, once you get the hang of it. The graphics are all pretty good, but there are still some missing animations in the beta. The ships have a cool "pieced together" look to them. Boarding is a good way to take over an enemy airship, using your sword to hack down enemy crew and "comandeering" their ship. You have a rope that you can use to suspend yourself beneath an airship to assist with this "swashbuckling" or just to save your arse from a fall. You can also leave airmines (kind of like fireworks that stay in the air, and look really cool going up) in the sky to hinder your opponents' progress. Sacks of gunpowder can be thrown onto enemy ships, blasting away vessel and crew. You also have a musket, which is best used as a kind of flak, to blast away airmines and incoming cannonballs. Oh yeah, and you have cannonballs, which are loaded into your ships guns and are the main way of taking down opponents. For fun, try loading a gunpowder sachtel or an airmine into a cannon instead of a ball. There aren't a ton of people playing this online at the moment, but considering it's still in beta (the first full release is due out this month), it's doing pretty good. I would recommend getting the pre-release and playing it on the official test server. You'll want to download the beta 4.1 UMOD off the main site and install that first, then download the 1.0 pre-release and unzip it into your UT2004 directory, using "yes to all" when asked about overwriting. It will only write to the AirBuccaneers directory, so you won't lose keybindings or anything. Website (get Beta 4.1 here):http://ludocraft.oulu.fi/airbuccaneers/ You can get the 1.0 pre-release here (also a list of known bugs):http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~reactor4/phpB...topic.php?t=505 If you have any problems, check this thread at their forum:http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~reactor4/phpB...topic.php?t=261 Or you can ask me, but I can't gaurauntee I can help. Download it and come join the 1.0 server from the server browser. It's more fun than playing with bots! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wizard Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 OMG, Just as I delete it to make some space someone here plays it. One of the best UT2k4 mods i've ever played. So far my number 1 mod for UT2k3/4 has been and will always be Red Orchestra. Until Action Unreal comes out that is... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daeval Posted September 8, 2004 Author Share Posted September 8, 2004 I haven't tried red orchestra yet, just because it struck me as another counterstrike/action quake clone. They were fun for the first, what? Four years? But I'm hankering for something new. Hehehe... But yeah, Air Buccaneers is fun. It has that "easy to learn, hard to master" feel in about the right proportions. It would be a blast with more people, but most of the servers are empty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wizard Posted September 8, 2004 Share Posted September 8, 2004 RO is nothing like CS nor Quake at all. It takes something like Rainbow Six and improves upon is. It's a slower version of Call of Duty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daeval Posted September 8, 2004 Author Share Posted September 8, 2004 I was speaking more in terms of content than speed. The "realistic" military shooter is getting worn out, especially after working in a game store and seeing all the crap that gets released that people just eat up. But, I've heard so many good things about this one that I'll give it a shot. Another UT mod I just checked out was Alien Swarm. I'd heard good things about it and they weren't unwarranted. It's a little bit like diablo meets the aliens movies (ok, a LOT like the aliens movies) with a little bit of Space Hulk thrown in, but it's fun. Air Buccaneers scores more points with me for being creative and crafting a unique experience, but Alien Swarm is well put together and worth a shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daeval Posted September 12, 2004 Author Share Posted September 12, 2004 (edited) Alright, I just checked out Red Orchestra, and it looks like it would be nearly as good as Day of Defeat (which is a big compliment as far as I'm concerned) if it weren't for one tiny little thing that just ruined the experience for me. It was just as professionally presented as Alien Swarm, and the models were probably the best I've seen for a UT mod. The weapons all "felt" right for a WW2 game, and the restrictions set to induce "realism" served their purpose for the most part. Aiming over iron sights kicks arse, and the large maps were cool. From what I saw of the vehicles, they may be just a bit overpowered, which might be chalked up to realism, but it was only a minor annoyance. Until... On the second map I played (a snowy one), my team, the germans, all spawned in or around a tiny little house in the corner of a canyon. As soon as the game started, Russian snipers moved in on the ridges surrounding the house. Because the maps were so large, the prone snipers were really small targets at the tops of the cliffs, and since aiming makes you slow down, we were all easy pickings if we tried to counter-snipe from the ground. They killed most of us off before we got out of the canyon, anyone who survived was mopped up by a tank that was coming our way. Before we could spawn a third wave, the snipers had our "spawn house" covered from the facing ridges, and we had a tank literally on our doorstep. The windows of the house were such that, between the snipers and the machine gunner inside the tank, they had an easy line of fire on most of the house. Meanwhile, our small arms, even as we spawned wave after wave, did jack to the tank, and trying to manuever for grenades meant eating a sniper round. We killed several tanks and a bunch of snipers, but it was never enough to get a significant number of us out of the house for any amount of time. The map ended and the second map was more or less a repeat performance until I left. I was pretty pissed, it seems like this mod could be really awesome if it weren't for the zerg rush/spawn camping thing. I'm hoping it isn't a regular occurance, and I do plan to try it again later, when I'm less irked. Edited September 12, 2004 by Daeval Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wizard Posted September 12, 2004 Share Posted September 12, 2004 Well, the vehicles originally wasn't suppose to be in the game at all because the RO team would find it imblanaced. Vehicles are purely just for fan service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
An4L_Dr1p Posted September 22, 2004 Share Posted September 22, 2004 you guys ever played "unwheel" for 2k4.....it's pretty cool it's just the AI is pure crap and there are'nt that many server running the game. there is a good amount vehicles to choose from. and the track are kinda bulky....BUT HAY! it's still in the beta stages to you gatta give it some slack....and it's pretty cool having a race'ing mod for an fps thats good for once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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