f13.net

War. War never changes.


 Civil Defense. Duck and Cover. Mutually Assured Destruction. A half-decade of plutonium paranoia made the mushroom cloud one of the most iconic images of the 20th century. A modern update of the ages-old theme of Armageddon, nuclear war has captivated audiences for decades now: Dr. Strangelove, Mad Max, WarGames. On the interactive side, we've primarily had games concerned with the prelude or epilogue of atomic conflict - Metal Gear Solid, Fallout - with only the venerable Missile Command bridging the gap.
 
 Leave it to the spunky 'bedroom programmers' of Introversion Software to give us DEFCON, a retro-flavored taste of a five-star general's life deep inside Mount Weather, perspiring profusely as 80s-era military hardware depicts the end of the world as we know it.

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I can absolutely imagine these same lines in therapy transcripts unearthed by our leukimia plagued, bronze age great grandchildren, and the thought gives me chills.

The game is now Live. Gogogo.

The IV direct-download site appears to be swamped right now.  :-(

However, I got a link to the demo and they've given us permission to post that. Once I can get it, I'll see about getting it hosted.

I pre-ordered through Stream. The game is working, but their authentication system seems to be shot at the moment.

However, that still allows you to play in Demo mode. My European forces just got slaughtered by a Central/South American alliance.

Here's a tip: At the start of the game, slow the time-passage mechanic down, so you actually have time to place all your units.

Yeah, all the IV sites seem to be completely hosed by demand. Hopefully this is fixed after lunch.

Just got in another game: My Asia/Mid-East coalition vs US/Canada...I at least made it clsoe this way. Still getting use to the nuances of combat and how missile defenses work.

Still pretty cool to nuke shit. Will be more fun with the full version.

The IV direct download version has not been fixed as of me getting back from lunch.

Rawr. :(

So what, really, are the differences between the "Demo" version we are using now, and the unlocked Full Version?

Online play, I believe. I'm not entirely sure.

I've heard that the Steam version can authenticate now and play the full game. You may have to log-out and log back into Steam to get it to work.

Edit: The IV direct download solution wasn't borked; GMail merely flagged my keys as spam.  :x

Here's a list of mirrors (http://www.introversion.co.uk/defcon/downloads/index.html) for the standalone demo. I'm working on getting a copy uploaded to F13, but the server's not liking me.

Note that the 'demo' can unlock itself into the full game if you order from IV and punch in the key they give you.

Also, it appears you can up the city and population counts, among other things.

And perhaps in the full version the city names will be more prominant. I like to know who exactly I am nuking.

Looks like one of my major complaints was fixed: there's hotkeys for the speed now. 1-4. F1 shows FPS.

Now if only they were bindable.

Is there a pause?  I looked in vain, but didn't find it.  Also, it seems like Steam still won't authenticate the game, so I just went through the demo/tutorial mode.  Spanked Asia's ass by parking my boomers off of their coast and then launching one nuke from a land based missile silo towards Tokyo.  Worked like a charm, they launched everything they had at my population centers (and that silo) from all their siloes and their boomers, giving their positions away.  Bingo, I know exactly where their siloes are and my boomers react accordingly, killing all but one.  I keep my siloes on air defense and only get hit in the blue states (New York, LA, San Fran, etc).  Hey, I never said we wouldn't get our hair mussed, but I do say no more than 10-20 million killed, depending on the breaks.

Once they've shot their wad I can then launch with impunity.  The AI plays like a dumbass, but maybe that's only in tutorial mode.

No, the AI usually plays like a dumbass. They never really counter subs with carriers unless they're nearby.

If you're having authentication issues, go to Options->Authenticate. That seems to do the trick for most people I've heard from.

You have to manually enable pause mode (annoying); it's under Advanced Options.

Quick tip, although you probably already know it; you don't need carriers to take out enemy subs.  As soon as you see "launch detected" in the middle of the ocean send some missiles in that general direction.  You'll get 'em all pretty easily.  From what I've seen boomers are really only good for that first surprise launch because you'll only get 1 or maybe 2 missiles launched from 'em at most.

Not if you cover them with a surface fleet, take out coastal airbases/radar, or launch from far out in the ocean. I've launched the full swoop from subs a few times, primarily by scouting the coasts with ships/fighters, sending in a distracting wave of bombers, then letting rip with the subs.

I tend to dispatch fighters to take out subs, since they're fast, shoot quickly and only need to shoot a few shots to down a sub.

No shit?  I didn't think anything could touch subs except nukes and carriers in anti-submarine mode.

That definitely changes the dynamics, then.

Fighters, bombers, battleships, other subs (either in active ping mode or in passive mode with something else giving you line of sight) can all touch (surfaced) subs. And they're made of tissue paper.

Carriers, nukes and active-ping subs are the only things that can hurt submerged subs though.

So, when do the F13 games start?

I played for a good portion of the evening. Then i got drunk enough for this sor tof cohernet typing to be a CHORE. CORE, I SAY!

... soon?

Next time I can guarantee that I can play will be Sunday. Since the games only last an hour or so... we should have a veritable thermonuclear GAUNTLET (blue warriro your lfie for ce is running out) of defcon.

What say ye, o hordes of SEMI-anonymous boarddom?

I can play tomarrow after the F13 Fantasy Hockey Draft, which starts at 7pm EST.

EDIT: I had the wrong time.

I'm down. Loving this game even though I'm pretty hideously bad at it. Name a time on Sunday.

I'm down too, but hopefully we can do it at evening.  I work midnights now, so I tend to keep a vampire's schedule, even on the weekends.  In fact, I'm up past my bedtime right now.

I'm down for games pretty much whenever I am around...which is almost constantly these days.

Yea, I'd like to play a few games.  I suck terribly which makes it even more fun.  Let's set something up or get on Xfire or whatever.

I'm in. Games against the AI are too easy, at least so far. I'm going to try some Big World games. Even games against other people are generally pretty easy, people are not much better than the AI at combined arms navy's and holding fire. But i'm enjoying it so far - great deal for $10.

That aspect of the game is the bane of my existence.  I'm really good at holding my fire, hiding all my assets, etc.  I'm also pretty good at scrambling air units from my strips, but in the carrier/battleship arena I absolutely suck.  I'm decent at hiding my boomers, but that's the only thing I'm good at Navy-wise.

I'm finding that I routinely get whacked in Naval battles with the AI, and I'm not sure what I am doing wrong.

I can play some for the next hour or two, then maybe again later this evening (probably post-9PMish Pacific time).

Gonna set up a PW-protected game:

Server: F13
pw: catass2victory

Gonna leave it open for a bit. hopefully some people jump in.

Can't connect; did you set up portforwarding properly (if behind a NAT/router)?

Eh. I'm only behind my software firewall....hmmm...I'll see if I can fix it.

EDIT: Bleh. I have no idea what the problem is. My firewall is probably blocking something related to the game, even though it shouldn't be.

Anyone else wanna try?

Apparently Steam has gone tits up and has universally revoked all Steam purchased keys into "demo" users.  Fun.

I do wonder what possessed them to make every single game an internet-advertised game by default, with several spectator and open slots that people can immediately join. That has GOT to be killer on the bandwidth and the dumbest idea I have ever heard. The capstone is having to navigate through random confusingly placed menus to find the option to turn it off!

No, it's not under options->network, STUPID, it's not even under options, period! That would be too logical! It's a trick placement! Hit new game, and then, after it's connected to the internet and opened slots for people to join, you hit advanted options, and disable advertise on internet!

Also, I'm starting to get really tired of these games that love to authorize your key every single time you play the damn game. I bought the damned thing, why is it MORE of a hassle to play the real thing than the one I can torrent? You don't need to be talking to random computers when I want to bomb a computer controlled russia into oblivion.

I love introvision, from way back when I cracked the uplink zip file, but it seems like that whole internet play thing was tacked on into the wrong place. And I really dislike my games calling home every time I play.

I suck at this game.  I haven't figured out why.  Yet.

Use your subs as immediate retaliation; They keep shooting down my ICBMS becuase they can unload their entire arsenal AND get back into defensive posture before my nukes can even get there. As soon as you see one or two launches, get your subs surfaced and unload.

"Missile Shields" from the bunkers seem to have higher effectiveness than our real-world counterparts, it's entirely possible to play a defensive game 1v1 and have NONE of your cities hit, but it simply doesn't work in a 3+ player game becuase you get two points for every kill, one of those players will have more points than you.

I think I understand the broad points of when to launch the nukes and when to hold back, but whenever I launch my nukes they evaporate before they cross the enemy border, and whenever the enemy launches his nukes all of my defensive thingies just orbit around them happily until they explode.  Is there an option somewhere to not let your silo operators come to work drunk?

Nope, it pretty much seems that way. Dunno what to tell you except to heavily exploit the fact that their borders are completely vunerable when their silos go into launch mode, and to launch on them before they switch back with your short range subs. I also tend to put my silos on the edge of my territory, giving them the most possible time for their fire do laps around incoming ICBMS. It takes timing, but you can also fly bombers/fighters ahead of your nukes, as defenses attack the first thing they see, and sometimes they last long enough for your nukes to slip in. That, and doubling or trippling up your nukes (time your launches so two enter their territory at the same time) tends to work as well.

Maybe I just need to work on sub positioning, then.  The naval game is slightly mysterious to me as well - I suspect I'm supposed to be micromanaging my ships a lot more than I am, since I routinely get wiped out in naval combat even if it's my entire navy against a small expeditionary force.

This may all be tied to the fact that the tutorial got wedged for me about halfway through and I never went back and finished it.  (Same thing happened with Uplink, come to think of it.)

"There's no such thing as a winnable war, it's a lie we don't believe anymore..."

Damn, this game is haunting. Who decided to put the person coughing in the background?

I played the demo and, frankly, I'm not seeing the fun.

Does it get any better in the full version ?

Nope, except you can set up different scenarios (different regions, more than 2 warring regions, etc).  If you don't like what you see in the demo you shouldn't buy the game.  Oh, and I pity you for not loving it.  I suggest a steady diet of Failsafe, Dr. Strangelove, and WarGames to make up for this deficiency.

I get that.  I just remember playing this game when I was younger and, frankly, it's not really been updated much.

Hell, you could look back even further and it'd just be another Missile Command Clone.

I can maybe see that it might be interesting in Multiplayer, but, er, Meh.

I got my $10 worth of fun out of it.

The AI is too weak for me to find the singleplayer fun. Multiplayer with 4 or more is what I like, particularly when it comes to making and breaking diplomatic deals. Dealing with ceasefires for flyover nukes is always fun.

Patch released 18 Oct 2006 (http://www.everybody-dies.com/support/patch.html).

Mostly server browser upgrades and fixes. Steam people will get it automatically.

Is there any reason to ever want to play as any nation other than Europe?

As far as I can tell Europe is set up with strictly superior city locations and coastline.

I don't see how subs can ever threaten the coastline, it's reasonably easy to house carriers safely in the arctic ocean and blockade the baring straight, giving me easy bomber access to Russia and NA (plus you control Iceland), I can wipe out Cairo without bombers having to leave my territory, and Atlantic access gives subs a decent chance of providing quick response nukes when NA, SA, or Africa reveal their positions.

The cities are so compact I can put all my silos almost next to each other making their defensive capabilities stronger, and at the same time making the silo rush is easier to manage (icbms are easier to bunch together to ensure most get through).

The geography seems to give Europe an advantage over every region bar Asia (Europe v Asia I'd rate as a wash).

The only downside I see to playing Europe is that I'd expect any player with any sense would want to form a worldwide alliance to wipe out the damn frogs within 5 minutes of defcon1.

In terms of a multiplayer game, I've found the only person more dangerous than europe is the US; They can sit and turtle, and, after everyone's done blowing each other up, they can come in and clean up the mess.

War apparently does change...

http://graphics.stanford.edu/~danielrh/christmas/

This is an awesome mod. A few days too late, but still, enjoy the christmas spirit for a little longer.

Sorry for the necropost, but I just became aware of this game and am wondering how easy it is to get online play anymore- is there still an active community?  That's the bad thing about online games- when they get lower than that critical mass necessary to keep people coming in, you are left with tumbleweeds and wasted dollars. 

Honestly Triforcer, I think this is the kind of game that for it's entire lifecycle, you'll be able to go into your favorite forum, and say "anyone up for a game of Defcon" and SOMEONE will answer the call. It won't be me because my computer doesn't like bright colors right now, but someone will. No one is going to miss their chance to nuke the shit out of you.

I'm sure at least a few people here have the game, myself included.

I still give it a play every once in a while. Unfortunately, I'm not much of an opponent.