Desert Combat

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Desert Combat (DC) is a mod for the first-person shooter (FPS) computer game Battlefield 1942, created by Frank Delise, Brian Holinka and Tim Brophy. Desert Combat brings the game's setting to modern warfare in the Middle East, providing the player with the opportunity to drive vehicles such as M2 Bradleys and fly F-14 Tomcats from aircraft carriers. The game pits the United States against Iraq.

There have also been secondary mods for Desert Combat, such as Desert Combat Extended, which modifies gameplay and adds new content such as additional armies. Desert Combat Realism Mod modifies gameplay and features to create a more realistic experience for the player, modelling some line with real-life situations. There have been several other minor modifications to the basic Desert Combat as well such as Enhanced DC and DC High Power.

DC Final was released as a semi-official continued development of the mod, and includes previously unreleased original DC content and works of some of the original Desert Combat team members. It was not an official release of Trauma Studios or of the Desert Combat team, but some former members of the Desert Combat team were involved in the release.

The Desert Combat modification acquired popularity since the 2003 invasion of Iraq by Coalition forces, and has been featured on many media websites such as CNN [1] , Reuters and The Washington Post[2] .

1 Trauma Studios
2 Maps
3 Awards
4 Desert Combat Realism Mod
5 Desert Combat Extended
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Trauma Studios

Main article: Trauma Studios

On September 1, 2004, Digital Illusions CE bought Trauma Studios, the developers of the Desert Combat Battlefield 1942 Modification. Trauma Studios was working with DICE on Battlefield 2, but shortly before the release, DICE closed down Trauma Studios.

Trauma Studios staff was later picked up by THQ and they now work as Kaos Studios. Former Trauma Studios president Frank DeLise is now the current Kaos lead designer. With a staff of 60 currently, Kaos Studios plans to work in new directions.[3]

Frank DeLise quotes, saying "One thing we were really good at [with the Battlefield 1942 mod Desert Combat] was we really listened to players. What do they want? What do they want to see next? It's really passion about the stuff we make. That obviously paved the way for us to develop the Battlefield 2 R&D projects. But now we have totally different ideas of where the action-drama should go. The most important thing to me was I wanted to keep the core team together and even expand on that." [4]

[edit] Maps

DC Battle of 73 Easting
DC Khafji Docks
DC Lost Village
DC Medina Ridge
DC Oil Fields
DC Desert Shield
DC Insahalla Valley
DC Basrah's Edge
DC Basrah Nights
DC No Fly Zone
DC Weapon Bunkers
DC Sea Rigs
DC Al Nas
DC Cornered
DC Dustbowl
DC Bridge
DC Operation Bragg
DC Coastal Hammer
DC Urban Siege

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Several maps were released in varying versions. The different versions were called 'days'. For example, the Desert Combat version of the classic Battlefield 1942 map El Alamein was released as El_Alamein, El_Alamein_Day2, and El_Alamein_Day3. Each day featured a different variety of vehicles to choose from.

[edit] Awards

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DesertCombat Final - Best New Mod of 2004 (fileplanet)
Best Mod of 2003: Desert Combat (fileplanet)
GameSpy's 2003 Best PC Game Mod
FilePlanet's Best New Mod for 2002

[edit] Desert Combat Realism Mod

Desert Combat Realism Mod (abbreviated to DCR, DCRM, DC Realism) began as 'Tanelorn's DC Game Balance Mod', with early versions being released under that name. The mod was renewed with a number of new members and had many more ambitions. The mod originally focused on simply realism, but expanded to add a large amount of content, including original music, voice acting, new game objects, original maps as well as some of highest level of new game features in the form of codings. The mods community size numbered in the thousands during its peak in popularity, with a full server not uncommon during a new release. With the gradual tapering down in the number of Desert Combat and players to new games, including Battlefield 2, released in June 2005, its popularity has since dropped. In November of 2005, the forums and website were shut down.

The initial versions only required the installation of the Desert Combat mod to take effect, although later versions also used Desert Combat Final as well. The final version would actually include more content than Desert Combat final did, with the executable file of the 1.0 version of the mod being at more than 200 megabytes in size.

The mod went through several versions, eventually culminating in a 'Marine' expansion pack. Some of the game items include original music and voice acting. For example, a Laser Designator that called in an air-strike was implemented.

There were other smaller changes, such as a boom box playing in an aircraft hangar. Other modelled and skinned game items included the Marines' LAV-25, AH-1 Cobra, M167-VADS and many new weapon systems. Also of note were nearly a dozen various customizations to Russian weapons, Non-Commissioned Officer squad commands and new firearms: in particular, the M60 Machine gun was added, as were tracer rounds for the SMAW, a 3-round burst mode for the M16A2, a flare gun and helmet for pilots, and effects were added to indicate a player was wounded.

This secondary mod was discontinued on 20 October 2005.

[edit] Desert Combat Extended

Desert Combat Extended (DCX) was originally created by "Zeuser", a programmer. The original intent was to add extra features, including extra vehicles and weapons to Desert Combat without affecting the game itself. As the mod grew more popular, so did DCX and new features were added progressively.

The ideas and innovations brought to DCX appealed to a large group of Desert Combat players and, people started to offer Zeuser help. The modification eventually grew to include several dedicated artists and modelers, as well as dedicated coding talent. Desert Combat Extended eventually was hosted on its own servers, and website, which was lost after a hosting problem.

Desert Combat Extended eventually led to the creation of Salty Dogs Productions.