PR: Battlefront’s Drop Team coming June 1st

Battlefront.com and TBG Software have now announced the release date for their "realistic" Sci-Fi tactical combat game "DropTeam" for the PC, Mac and Linux platforms! The game will be available as a download on June 1st, 2006! Pre-orders are now being accepted, and customers are able to not only secure an early copy, but save $10 as well! With each pre-order, you will not only get to download the game immediately on June 1st but you will also get the CD version by mail a couple of weeks later at no extra cost!

A free multiplayer "public test" demo for all three platforms is currently available for those who want to check out the game, and a new "gold" demo will be released soon.

Official game website
Demo
Pre-orders

About the Game
DropTeam is a multiplayer capable, real-time, tactical simulation of armored ground combat in the far future. Battle for control of objectives on a broad variety of planets ranging from verdant Earth-like worlds to desolate, radioactive wastelands. You will use Dropship’s to land fighting vehicles and other deployable assets like sensors, mines and automated gun and missile turrets. You can take direct control of various types of armored fighting vehicles while also coordinating your team, including AI, other human players, artillery support and more.

DropTeam features vast, exotic landscapes rendered in real-time with detailed, accurate physics and ballistics systems combined with true line-of-sight to provide unparalleled realistic combat. There are no “hit points”, limited view distances, unrealistically short weapon ranges, or other gross simplifications that are typical of many other sci-fi games.

DropTeam can be played online on a public server with up to 16 players as well as single-player vs. AI opponents. AI opponents can also be mixed in with human players in order to make the teams any size you like.

DropTeam runs on Mac OS-X, Linux, and Windows 98/ME/XP/2000/2003 and has been designed to be very scalable with a wide range of systems, as well as open to "modding" with extensive mod support for new scenarios and unit creations (all data is stored in simple XML files).

Features List

CROSS-PLATFORM COMPATIBILITY
• DropTeam™ runs on Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Linux, and Mac OS-X. Game ships with all versions together and each game version is fully compatible with the others.

GENERAL FEATURES
• Play in a universe complete with a rich back story and detailed history. • Realistic combat system that models projectile/armor penetration, various munitions types, and interior vehicle damage in detail. • Huge, detailed and varied alien landscapes each planet accurately modeling its own gravity and atmospheric density, radically changing the tactical situation. • Map sizes up to a massive 1000 (!) square kilometers. • Terrain height resolutions from small ridges and vehicle fighting positions to towering hills and mountains. • Deformable terrain with engineering vehicles digging out trenches in real time, ordnance created surface cratering and even trees toppling over under artillery fire. • Dynamic environmental effects include building destruction and vehicles exploding and flipping over. • DropTeamâ„¢ includes 20 scenarios plus a 8 mission single player campaign. New scenarios will be offered for download after the game’s released plus you can create you own battles and share them with others.

SCALABILITY
• Terrain uses dynamic tessellation (continuous Level of Detail) to render high resolution terrain at large sizes. • DropTeamâ„¢ engine automatically adjusts level of detail based on your computer hardware. This optimizes gameplay on even older computer systems and hardware. • DropTeamâ„¢ uses the OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL) for advanced graphics effects that literally weren’t possible a year ago with little to no performance impact such as rippling water and blowing foliage.

MULTIPLAYER FEATURES
• Up to 16 human players or more supported, depending on system specs. Maximum online players realistically only limited by game server bandwidth, CPU and RAM. • Game launcher allows you to browse a list of servers that shows the servers’ current scenario, current number of players, game time remaining, and connect to the game sessions at will. • Server management functions allow administrators to login and exercise special privileges on the server, such as kicking players and moving players between teams. This interface is within the GUI of the game itself. • Various game types include "Capture the Flag" and "Objective" based missions.

MODDING AND EXPANDABILITY
• Highly extensible, open architecture makes the game easy to modify, even by non-programmers. • DropTeamâ„¢ uses XML (Extensible Markup Language) files for game objects. Allows for an incredible wealth of modding options and capabilities. All information about 3D models, physics, control mechanics is encapsulated and allows specification of any arbitrary texture data for terrains, skies, and models. • Add new vehicles, change their physics, change turrets, swap one gun for another or put a brand new gun on a existing unit and more. All of this can be achieved by editing the associated the XML files. You can also create entirely new models and textures that weren’t originally included. You can even just drop in your own 3D Studio models if you want! • DropTeamâ„¢ engine reads data from professional GIS (Geographic Information Systems) packages such as ArcGIS and Terragen. This is the same industry standard data formats that are used by the Department of Defense for simulations and by engineers for land work, surveying, etc…