By Jim Rossignol on June 20th, 2009 at 7:13 pm.
Update: Server is still up, so let’s get some Sunday afternoon games going for people who missed out on last night. Shall we try and fill the server again tonight at 8pm UK time?
Get the mod here, and make sure you get the .zip version for the Steam version of UT2004. If you’ve not played before, play the in-game tutorial!
The air wars were still raging when I dropped out last night, so do pop by if you’re able. Highlight of the evening was the mass suicide-boarding of an enemy battleship, leaving our battleship unmanned and drifting, only to be re-crewed via rocket-glider. Now that’s a videogame, yes sir.
Thanks to everyone who turned up last night, it seems Air Buccaneers lives again.
20/06/2009 at 19:32 Man Raised By Puffins says:
I got booted off, which is a bit annoying as the mod is a lot more fun when you’ve got fully crewed fleets of ships having at one another.
20/06/2009 at 19:39 Massive Sheep says:
I’ve been thinking about starting a “revival” service for a while now – this whole Air Buccaneers thing makes me think it’s worthwhile.
You could have a system were people vote for games they want a server for. The top 5 get a server set up for them. The running cost would be pretty low (get a rented dedicated server from any colo reseller, or just buy a bunch of virtual machines, one per server). You could cover the costs with Google Ads, or small donations for players.
*puts on thinking cap*
20/06/2009 at 19:58 AiglosCelt says:
I was horrified to find that I couldn’t even FIND the server once I’d gotten AB installed >: Any other way of joining?
20/06/2009 at 20:13 Jim Rossignol says:
Aiglos: Do you have AB activated? You can join the IP directly 85.236.100.18:8077
20/06/2009 at 20:18 AiglosCelt says:
^hero, thanks, I’ll give it a try!
20/06/2009 at 20:21 Jim Rossignol says:
Server remains packed, anyway.
20/06/2009 at 20:24 Scoops says:
Yarrr, I was in thee servyarrr and got tha boot. waiting on an open slot……………yarr
20/06/2009 at 21:10 Petethegoat says:
I was just on that server. Terrific, frankly. It definitely needs a remake or some such. The concept is fantastic. Good times.
20/06/2009 at 21:10 Wilson says:
Game is awesome fun! I joined at 6:30 since I thought this might happen. Was half full then. Very nice thought to get people playing the mod, I never tried it properly before now, but I’m glad I had the opportunity here. Thanks RPS!
20/06/2009 at 21:37 Arca says:
Battleships could still do with a health buff, but eh… good times. We got hilariously stomped during the battleship duel map, but were kicking ass at MOVDOM and general DM for the most part. Derp.
20/06/2009 at 22:01 Darkelth says:
Awesome! It really brings back some old golden memories. Thank you for this noble doing!
20/06/2009 at 22:28 Schalken says:
I think that’s a fantastic idea, Massive Sheep.
20/06/2009 at 22:54 Howard says:
That was indeed good fun. Much daffyness and general running about but some good solid play in there too. GG all!
20/06/2009 at 23:07 Paradukes says:
Funniest thing I’ve seen: A bag of gunpowder lands on the deck of our battle ship. As one man, we all jump overboard, grapple to the bottom, and wait for it to blow.
20/06/2009 at 23:11 Benny says:
Ah i suck so much at this. But mucho fun tho. More of the same, maybe next week/weekend, would be good :)
20/06/2009 at 23:13 CakeAddict says:
Been having a lot of fun this evening, been going on and off.
I love the battleship only maps where teamwork really is essential and the boarding aaaah.. best thing ever.
20/06/2009 at 23:16 dartt says:
Man! Must have been in that game for about 4 hours or so! Great fun; I hope everyone makes the most of the server while it lasts :)
20/06/2009 at 23:33 Tye The Czar says:
I think it’s imperative that we spread around quality mods like this. That’s one of the MSU contest winners and like the others, they don’t get ANY attention.
20/06/2009 at 23:48 Davee says:
God damn! I totally forgot about it! *Fires up Air Bucaneers to see if anyone is still playing*
21/06/2009 at 00:09 Man Raised By Puffins says:
And I got back on again.
Finally got the hang of the ropes, to the extent that I’m almost happy enough to swan-dive off my balloon and take on any ruffians dangling beneath. Still much more fond of manning the cannons though.
21/06/2009 at 00:26 Thingus says:
I went on from around 6 to 7ish, and had an amazing time :D Was absolutely useless (kept falling off the battleship trying to load the cannon :S), but it was still fantastic.
21/06/2009 at 00:51 Massive Sheep says:
@Schalken: I’ll get started immediately. :)
21/06/2009 at 01:40 Gap Gen says:
WHY ARE YOU NOT DYING REPEATEDLY FROM PEOPLE YOU COULDN’T SEE / FRIENDLY FIRE / WONDERING WHAT “EJECT” MEANS WHILE IN A HELICOPTER OVER THE OCEAN IN ARMA2?
21/06/2009 at 04:23 Ripsteakjaw says:
This article sure was informative for anyone not already an expert on all things Air Bucaneers
21/06/2009 at 06:34 Wedge says:
Oh damn I forgot and played Planetside instead.
21/06/2009 at 07:13 binkbankbonk says:
uh. Could some information possibly be provided?
21/06/2009 at 08:11 MrBejeebus says:
is it neccesary to have UT2004 installed?
i do have the game, but for mac :(
21/06/2009 at 08:53 Clippit says:
Damn, missed out, when’s the “next one”?
21/06/2009 at 09:00 Senethro says:
Did all the “Huh?” comments in this thread find it too much effort to click one of the related stories links?
21/06/2009 at 09:03 dan says:
@Senethro
I think so, yeah.
Also: Awesome fun! Even though I was terrible at it!
21/06/2009 at 09:12 dartt says:
@MrBejeebus Yep, you need UT2004 installed. I imagine (someone please correct me if I’m being too optimistic) that the mod will work for the Mac version so long as it’s up to date.
Ah, it may also be necessary to get the UMOD installer rather than the EXE or ZIP installers.
21/06/2009 at 09:44 dan says:
The server is still up, it would seem.
21/06/2009 at 10:48 LionsPhil says:
Argh, you said next Saturday.
21/06/2009 at 10:50 Jim Rossignol says:
I said this Saturday.
21/06/2009 at 11:04 VelvetFistIronGlove says:
This mod sounds fantastic from what I’ve been reading. Thanks to Good Old GOG, I’m now downloading UT2004, ready for the next session.
21/06/2009 at 11:15 Senethro says:
My favorite maps were the battleship duel maps where organisation and cooperation of 8 man crews was more important than the individual skills of solo deathmatchers. If someone wants to throw up a server they have control over next weekend I’d play a Duel-only, Big Crew Required evening from 7-10pm.
21/06/2009 at 11:33 Howard says:
Having played this game into the wee hours last night I think I can now see why the mod failed and no one plays it anymore:
It simply does not scale well with the number of players.
While just about every other FPS, team based game out there can happily be played with half the amount of players per team, this cannot. Anything less that 8 or so per team and it just turns into a bit of a shambles.
When it *does* work though it is damned good fun so I shall be popping on the server each night even if Jim doesn’t announce a game to see if anyone else is in the mood for a bit of swash and buckle =)
21/06/2009 at 11:35 Jim Rossignol says:
I think 5v5 works fine, but that’s about the minimum.
21/06/2009 at 11:36 Howard says:
GAH! The post was updated while I posted the above! DOH!
Well I for one should be on again tonight. Hope to see you lot there once more =)
21/06/2009 at 11:39 Howard says:
(really wishing for the edit function to return now…)
@Jim
5v5 *can* work but, last night at least, every time we were reduced to that number suddenly all the players went solo in the smaller ships rather than working together in the larger one so the fight turned into a bit of a farce as people tried to be gunner and pilot at the same time.
21/06/2009 at 11:50 Crane says:
Last night was marvellous fun.
My personal moment of glory came when I singlehandedly downed an enemy battleship with gunpowder, then, when boarded, leapt from my balloon to dangle from a rope, before shimmying back up and surprising the boarders who thought I’d died.
Then I tried to jump and swing again, and went splat. :-P
A brilliant game though, and one of the least frustrating online experiences I think I’ve ever had.
Special shout-outs to me hearty CakeAddict!
21/06/2009 at 12:08 H says:
That was hilarious fun, I thoroghly enjoyed it even though I am rubbish of the highest order (playing as Heron). I haven’t had that much fun in a long time.
It needs more servers and the game could do with some polish (that’s as in Mr Sheen not as in Warsaw) but it’s so much fun everyone should try it.
21/06/2009 at 12:18 Howard says:
I still don’t quite get the scoring system; it seems unfairly balanced towards the cannoneers.
I spent most of my time piloting the bigger ships last night (and doing so rather well I might add) but it was only on the odd occasion that I would get recognition for my endeavors when we took down an enemy ship. Not the end of the world as its not about the individual scores but just a little frustrating getting no reward, as it were, for your hard work.
21/06/2009 at 12:28 Nurdbot says:
Oh god, please let there be another one of these next week, I’m considering getting UT04 for it!
21/06/2009 at 12:31 Jim Rossignol says:
Cannoneers get score from killing enemy crew. The pilot only scores if you down another balloon.
21/06/2009 at 12:41 Paradukes says:
Well done to Senethro as a pilot. That battleship was wreaking some serious havoc.
21/06/2009 at 13:32 Man Raised By Puffins says:
@ Crane: I had a very similar escapade. I was getting badly mauled (I think my cog was limpin’ as she went) by a battleship, itself on its last legs from earlier scrapes, and by chance of wind and using a handy boost got close enough to finish her off with some hastily loaded gunpowder. Cue a sword fight with two of her scurvy crew who had latched on beneath (like barnacles, one might say), with dartt providing encouragement from the sidelines, which ended as I missed roping back onto my cog after I had chased them off the side for the second time.
21/06/2009 at 14:32 Cutman says:
Who says we need to wait until Saturday? Let’s play all the time forever!
21/06/2009 at 14:45 Professor says:
Augh I lost my manual and therefore my CD key for UT2k4. I can take pictures, I really do own the game but I lost the CD key. Does any kind soul have a spare CD key they’re willing to share with me?
21/06/2009 at 15:07 Professor says:
I’m willing to trade it for an AvP2 cd key and a BF1942 cd key.
21/06/2009 at 16:55 Nallen says:
It’s a brave man that pits an ageing UT mod against the first in a new season of Top Gear ;)
21/06/2009 at 18:00 EyeMessiah says:
I spilled coffee or somesuch on my ut2k4 manual, thus destroying my key. Feh!
21/06/2009 at 18:49 Centy says:
Well I just had a go on this after doing the tutorial and it was all good fun till the map was over and I switched teams without realising.
So there I was thinking I have to get the blues and being a complete noob to the game tried to fire at them only for some guy to take it to heart and instead of telling me what I was doing without realising started to berate me and teamkill me back.
Frankly if this is the kind of player the mod had I’m not surprised it died. But hey ho there’s plenty of other games I could play where the other people playing are such cocks, saying that though it was just that one guy. I remember I think cakeaddict was on the other team and just made a joke so he’s cool.
But if you’re new to this game I wouldn’t advise going to play it since it’s likely if you make any mistakes you’ll be shouted at and teamkilled till you leave.
21/06/2009 at 18:50 RLacey says:
My key was stuck on a label inside the box, rather than on the manual. w00t!
21/06/2009 at 19:17 Centy says:
If anyone still needs a CDkey I have my old retail one. I bought the unreal deal pack so I have UT2K4 with that so my old retail key is not being used.
First come first served add me on steam (c3nty) or msn (el_centy “at” hotmail “dot” com)
21/06/2009 at 21:06 Benny says:
Indeed Nallen, although once top gear’s finished now so i guess there’ll be a few more people piling onto the server :)
21/06/2009 at 21:14 Nilocy says:
I still don’t understand how my rocket Tk’ed an entire ship by accident. Funny though.
21/06/2009 at 23:55 KBKarma says:
Argh. You guys keep going on when I’m not online. I was in the server earlier, and we got a decent 5v5 game going. I managed to take out two enemy ships… after they’d been hijacked. Whoops. Though myself and the pilot were impressed by how well I destroyed them… :D
Bloody CakeAddict. Constantly stealing my ships and killing me to death.
22/06/2009 at 05:47 Scandalon says:
Can someone translate these English moon-people times to something more understandable for us yanks?
22/06/2009 at 06:26 psyk says:
Anyone willing to record the next one? wouldn’t mind seeing how this plays.
22/06/2009 at 08:38 KBKarma says:
@Scandalon: Subtract about 8 hours to get EST (as I recall), then work your way from there.
22/06/2009 at 10:34 Catastrophe says:
@Scandalon
You posted that post at 5:47am according to the time on the post (UK time). Hopefully that helps you work it out :)
22/06/2009 at 10:38 Jim Rossignol says:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/
22/06/2009 at 12:53 H says:
So when’s the next night, eh? Eh? When, next night, when is it? I want to play again need to play again more Air Bucs, more I want to play again. When? When is it?
Okay, I play Air Buccaneers once in a while. I can handle it.
22/06/2009 at 18:05 Scoops says:
awesome stuff guys… had a great time
22/06/2009 at 18:20 Howard says:
Is this thing still going? If so, anyone up for a bash tonight (GMT Tonight I mean)?
22/06/2009 at 18:26 Serondal says:
Is Top Gear a TV show about a guy in a white racing suit and helmet that drives cars? I don’t get it O.o No exploding or shooting or anything? Is british TV really as bland as family guy makes it out to be?
30 minutes of a guy driving slightly dangerously and then a splash screen with him drinking tea through the holes in his helmet ;) TOP GEAR . . . ?
Maybe if it is popular enough they’re remake it into an American Verison only its a woman wearing a white bikini and a bondage mask who drives motorcycles while shooting people with submachine guns for no good reason. I’d watch that!
22/06/2009 at 19:26 KBKarma says:
@H @Howard: Sure, I’m up for it. 9-11 good by you?
@Serondal: Not sure about that splash screen, but pretty much, aye. Also, there are explosions. In one episode, they went clay-pigeon shooting using old cars as clay pigeons and a shotgun, heavy machinegun, and wire-guided bazooka as the rifle (I use the singular since they used each once).
They’re making an American version. Since the British version has been going in its current format since 2001, and the eighth series finale had about 8 million people watching, you can see why the American version is like the British version, only American.
22/06/2009 at 20:34 Oddtwang says:
The stunts are kind of fun, but I just can’t get over the obscene levels of absolute twattery which surround them :)
Took a pile of screenshots on Sunday night – have picked out some of the non-crappy ones here
22/06/2009 at 20:39 Jim Rossignol says:
Nice grabs, Oddtwang.
22/06/2009 at 21:27 Darkelth says:
Will the server be alive next week again?
22/06/2009 at 21:51 KBKarma says:
Bugger. Was going to be on, but was studying and “studying” until now. In college.
23/06/2009 at 11:23 harvb says:
Yeah server appeared down last night. Would be nice to get a regular fixture, no?
23/06/2009 at 11:28 harvb says:
Those screen grabs are fantastic. Have a cookie.
24/06/2009 at 01:20 Paul Moloney says:
Finally got it installed, running, and played the tutorial. Looks like it would be a lot of fun.
24/06/2009 at 21:54 Paul Moloney says:
Damn, did I miss the party?
P.
03/07/2009 at 12:30 Eshan Mathur says:
:( This looks like so much fun but it doesn’t look like you guys are doing it anymore. I downloaded it anyway just to have a crack at it by myself.
Should definitely be some more nights of this planned out.
25/04/2010 at 23:29 bayan escort says:
thankss admınnn