By Jim Rossignol on October 29th, 2010 at 12:14 pm.
SIGH: Seems most people are having connection issues. Which is a shame, because we are currently dogfighting inside a volcano. (Other maps may be less interesting.)
EDIT: I’ll be on at about 9pm UK time tonight. Americans maybe convene at 9pm EST for Stateside shooty?
The RPS Game Club is kicking off with some weekend DogFighter. Multiplay have provided us with two official servers to play on, one in London and one in Virginia, so UK and US players can both get reasonable ping times. You can see them in the in-game browser on the “dedicated” tab, named “Multiplay :: Rock, Paper, Shotgun”. DogFighter seems to have had some server wobbles over the past couple of days, but it’s looking much better now. It’s still super cheap if you want to join in.
Clearly we aren’t going to have enough space for everyone to get on the RPS servers, but jump on some of the other servers local to you and get in some fancy shootin’ if you can’t make it onto the RPS servers. I suspect quite a few people on there are going to be RPS readers, and if they’re not, well, they probably should be. I’ll be around over the whole weekend, so try not to put too many bullets my way. The RPS servers will be up for the coming month.
UPDATE: I just rebooted the servers, so they seem to be okay now. Let me know if there are any other hiccups.
29/10/2010 at 12:42 joe balls says:
I’ve spent 112p on this so it had better be good.
29/10/2010 at 13:04 clownst0pper says:
Is it good? It’s £1 on Steam at the moment…
29/10/2010 at 13:08 AndrewC says:
I’m not going to spend £1 of my money on this unless it scores higher than 83%.
29/10/2010 at 13:13 Jonathan says:
A review of dogfighter, by me:
I had a good time during the beta with a friend who now lives far away. 84%
29/10/2010 at 18:53 jon_hill987 says:
Less than the cost of a pint and lasts longer! 84%
29/10/2010 at 13:21 clownst0pper says:
Must be good if RPS is peddling it? (maybe)
29/10/2010 at 13:30 Jim Rossignol says:
I would say: Lightweight but lots of fun.
29/10/2010 at 13:39 clownst0pper says:
Lightweight as in you feel like you’re flying a tin can, or lightweight as in it’s throw away gameplay, OR lightweight as in has less polish than Fallout: New Vegas?!
29/10/2010 at 16:13 terry says:
The middle one.
29/10/2010 at 18:25 pepper says:
Its more fun the ONE beer. and costs less(depending on where you would fetch the beer).
RPS should implement a beer based rating system for these 1.something coin games.
29/10/2010 at 13:26 Pani says:
A review of dogfighter, by me:
I haven’t played it yet, but it looks fun and pretty and only costs $1.50. The end.
29/10/2010 at 13:30 DMJ says:
So, what is the first rule of RPS Game Club?
29/10/2010 at 13:42 Harlander says:
No outside food.
29/10/2010 at 13:46 Baboonanza says:
If you have to ask then you clearly aren’t a member. It was in the PowerPoint that John delivered at the Super-Secret RPS Game Club Initiation Ceremony. That was before we ate the toads and dropped breeze-blocks tied to our knobs off the edge of the roof.
Good times.
29/10/2010 at 15:53 DMJ says:
That was the initiation? I thought that was just what we do for fun on Tuesdays at the RPS Club House.
29/10/2010 at 17:41 JonFitt says:
The first rule of RPS Game Club is:
No Heavy Petting.
Or Demoman petting for that matter either.
29/10/2010 at 13:39 Clockwork Peanut says:
been playing this a little bit this morning, pretty good, but does make me nostalgic for Airfix Dogfighter – now there was a fun game
29/10/2010 at 13:48 Baboonanza says:
I’ve played it a fair few times this week and really enjoyed it. Nice, relatively simple fun. I’ll hopefully be playing late tonight.
My only problem has been a constantly dropping connection, but that could be due to my Wi-Fi.
29/10/2010 at 14:37 Mccy_McFlinn says:
I’ve had it for months now. Servers were nigh on empty until this price drop (I’d only seen 5 real people before that in some 5 hours play online – although it did lead to some instant rivalries with the one other human brain on the server).
It’s good fun, nothing to get too excited about but definitely worth £1.05 and definitely worth diving into. Load times are very long though which frustrates but the action is zippy and engaging enough for you to soon forget once connected.
29/10/2010 at 15:08 JB says:
Well, I bought it but my desktop is still poorly-sick. Fingers crossed it will be sorted in time for the Saturday session.
If not: happy flying, and be sure to shoot as many of the Hivemind down as many times as possible for me!
29/10/2010 at 16:01 undead dolphin hacker says:
It might be worth $1.50, but is it worth the time?
29/10/2010 at 16:03 undead dolphin hacker says:
That’s not snark, I’m actually curious. There are a bunch of games I’m playing, and, $1.50 or not, if it plays like a free indie sorta-serious fun for 30 min game, I’ll probably pass.
29/10/2010 at 16:12 terry says:
Eh, I thought this was tomorrow afternoon. Curse your impetuous rescheduling, Rossignol!
29/10/2010 at 17:17 W Main says:
Can’t play because I can’t join any of the dedicated servers (not just RPS’s). They just sit there trying to connect. How fun.
29/10/2010 at 17:33 President Weasel says:
Same for me, I even tried manually openinfg the ports listed on their support page. I can occasionally join an internet server, but the vast majority of the time those hang too. When I do connect, I might get a round before it hangs, or it might hang immediately. I’d have been annoyed if I had paid any more for this game than you’d pay for a bottle of juice.
29/10/2010 at 18:01 CaptainCaveman says:
It’s cheap, because it’s a piece of shit. I feel sorry for people who bought this crap at full price. It’s so bad, I actually feel sorry for the $1.50 I spent.
30/10/2010 at 02:52 Chris D says:
Are we all Mister Grumpyface today?
29/10/2010 at 18:11 Archonsod says:
I can only join the US server :(
29/10/2010 at 18:17 Brumisator says:
The game is rubbish with the keyboard and mouse, but I#m having bucketloads of fun
It’s true my bucket is made of rusty tin and only holds about 3 millilitres, but still, several buckets.
29/10/2010 at 18:25 Brumisator says:
I meant bucketloads of fun with my joystick / flight stick. Except reversing controls doesn’t work too well.
29/10/2010 at 18:33 Dan(WR) says:
I’ll try to get on later. I’ve played some of the single-player content and had fun with it so far, but I suspect it’ll be much more interesting in multiplayer.
If, like me, the guitar masturbation music makes you want to jam a knife in your ear, you can replace it by converting some of your own music to OGG files (use Audacity – it’s free. Just load files and export as ogg), and then stick them into the C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\dogfighter\packages\D ogFighterV1\sounds\music folder, overwriting the existing Track2 & Track3 files. Make backups first obv.
I’ve stuck in Fuck Buttons’ Surf Solar and Space Mountain. Seems to be working ok so far.
29/10/2010 at 19:04 I'm at work says:
Hey I live in Virginia :3
the first ever aviation fatality was here, at an army base near Arlington called Fort Myer
29/10/2010 at 19:15 Feste says:
I’d have loved to have played, but unfortunately despite it reporting a ping of 20, I can’t get on the server. Ah well, happy flying gents.
29/10/2010 at 20:37 President Weasel says:
try the higher ping ones, i think the ping thing is broken
29/10/2010 at 19:53 Scandalon says:
After forwarding the RPS link to several friends, one of them actually gifted it to me! Finally tried it last night…
I think I’m going to write a treatise to the devs on why, exactly, they had to drop the price to get more people.
It’s…fiddly. I think there’s a fun game in there, once you get it set up properly, get it figured out, and have the right people. I’m certainly glad I didn’t pay full price for it.
29/10/2010 at 20:14 Rosti says:
Gah! I *also* cannot connect to dedicated servers. Sadface. Can we have another Rock Paper Bobcat Shotgun when all these wrinkly-wrinkles have been ironed out? Adoring the game with friends, mind.
29/10/2010 at 20:14 Devan says:
You know what I would like most for this game? I would like an option to make the mouse control work in “continuous” mode, where if you move the mouse to the left and leave it there, you’ll keep turning to the left rather than straightening out.
I’ve noticed that while changing your orientation is feels pretty responsive if you only need to turn 5-30 degrees, trying to maintain a sharp turn is very difficult with a mouse. You have to keep picking it up and moving it, and your turn rate seems to really crap out.
This might not be as much of a problem if the game had better support for non-Xbox gamepads. I know they’re working on this, and I still give them credit, but I spent my first couple hours with the game just trying to get the controls the way I want them.
Oh, and I don’t know how many times I’ve crashed due to the barrel roll not allowing you to turn while you’re rolling. You completely lose steering for about a full second, with no way to break out of it.
Aside from those frustrations, it can be good fun at times, especially if you’re playing with friends I imagine.
29/10/2010 at 20:29 Feste says:
On a related the joystick options are pretty good and mostly complete, it’s mostly just a matter of unchecking the gamepad option. It’s even picking up the z-axis on my 7(?)-year old Saitek Cyborg stick. Only problem I’ve found so far is that I’m still unsure if this game allows you to speed up and slow down separately to boost.
30/10/2010 at 21:30 Gutter says:
There are advanced controls with no auto-leveling, check the options.
29/10/2010 at 20:31 michaelar says:
To use any controller for Dogfighter, just use Xbox 360 Controller Emulator or Joy2Key. Works like a charm.
x360ce: http://code.google.com/p/x360ce/
joy2key: http://www.electracode.com/4/joy2key/JoyToKey%20English%20Version.htm
29/10/2010 at 20:40 negativedge says:
well, that was a waste of $1.50
29/10/2010 at 20:53 Jim Rossignol says:
I’ve rebooted the servers again. Try connecting now.
29/10/2010 at 21:27 Yargh says:
not been able to connect once to the RPS servers, instant disconnect on join…
29/10/2010 at 21:37 Waltorious says:
Any chance of doing this again sometime? I’d love to join but I can’t make it this weekend. Let me know!
I’ve actually had this game for a while and I think it’s quite fun, but I did need to do some control remapping and such. Of course, I’m a fiddly person and I generally remap controls in most games anyway so this didn’t bother me. I’m also using an old Saitek Cyborg stick and it works great.
29/10/2010 at 21:45 Jim Rossignol says:
GRUMBLE MUMBLE.
Seems whatever server bug was messing with this game this week, it’s still active. Most people unable to join.
29/10/2010 at 22:02 President Weasel says:
I’m able to join the “wrong” one, whichever one has the two hundred plus ping. The 80-odd ping one won’t let me in, and neither will any other dedicated server that claims to be European or UK. There’s no bugger on the other server though.
29/10/2010 at 22:05 Rosti says:
Know that I love you for trying trying. Or whatever man-suitable expression fellow fighter jockeys and airfolk would use at any rate.
29/10/2010 at 22:34 pepper says:
From dutchyland the UK one wouldnt let me connect. The US one appeared to, and filled up quickly. So it may be just that server for reasons unknown.
30/10/2010 at 03:55 jonfitt says:
Gargh! I cannot join either server.
29/10/2010 at 21:57 Dan(WR) says:
I’m terrible! Except at being kamikaze.
30/10/2010 at 03:06 Cpt. Sqweky says:
I tried joining the US server, no luck.
30/10/2010 at 04:51 Scandalon says:
I too was unable to join any of the servers. :(
30/10/2010 at 08:47 terry says:
BT made me unable to join the servers.
30/10/2010 at 10:55 Rosti says:
Addendum: I was able to join the US server (I think, it had higher ping at least) and have fun late last night, and after that booted me I had a go at joining the empty UK server. Which worked, oddly.
So keep trying, chocks away and shootybangs tonight.
(Also, Capture the Flag on the Great Wall-ish map pictured at the top of this post is properly brilliant. Super boost channel a-go-go!)
30/10/2010 at 11:17 JB says:
Sadly, my desktop won’t be returning to duty until at least tomorrow, so it looks like I’ve missed out on the opening salvo of the RPS Games Club ™.
Still, I hope you lot (those who could connect) have had sufficient fun that RPSers will be playing Dogfighter for a while yet.
Good luck playing later, with a yin and a yang and a yippity-doo!
30/10/2010 at 12:26 zoombapup says:
Keeps locking up when transitioning the menu after a round switch. Seems like everything is trying to transition but never makes it, so all the buttons to click on for starting a round and spawning are not on screen.
I’ve had the same connection issues too. Cant get on many dedicated servers, when I do they are just bots online. It needs to get rid of some servers and concentrate the playerbase down I think. Plus make sure the damn thing is stable.
Otherwise, its a pretty neat game, in that once you get the controls setup how you want them its quite flyable. My kind of thing if they ever fix it. But I fear they already had their chance.
30/10/2010 at 21:28 Gutter says:
I’m not sure why, but I am amazingly good at that game.
01/11/2010 at 06:11 Wrigleyvillain says:
Is this the game who’s demo I download only to find it didn’t support 1920×1200? Wot? WOT?