Battlefield Pirates - BF1942 All At Sea

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to the new Battlefield: Pirates total conversion mod for the enormously popular Battlefield 1942 PC multiplayer action game, imbuing the Second World War title with a much more sea-dog friendly ambience. This fan-made modification bills itself as "the mod with big ships, big guns, and big hats", and as the screenshots show, allows you to man galleons, fire fortress cannon from the shore, and even duel close-in with cutlass and flintlock. And according to the pirate-y rumor section, ingenious use of the Captain's pet is encouraged - "..a certain class o' pirate has been boastin about how they've been able to tame wild parrots, teachin em to fly around looking for enemy ships and reporting back to their master."

submarines

[tankdilla]

In BF 1942 there is a hotkey option to say "Enemy submarine spotted!" And it never fails that someone is playing with that callout in the middle of the desert. I always wondered why even have that option when there are no submarines in the game.

Re:submarines

[Emexies]

Actually, there are submarines in the game, and has been since its launch.
screenshot [bf42.com] check the fourth shot.
And if you go to the official site [eagames.com] and click the 'armies' link, you can read about the sub.

Re:submarines

[jantheman]

It's called 'humour'. Live with it.

Are' ther' matey...

[clambake]

So, if I steal this off of Kazaa, is that still just called copyright infringment?

Re:"total" conversion

[Rip!ey]

Actually, the only claim I can find as to it being a total conversion, is the claim made in the summary above by the submitter to slashdot. It's a case of the (anonymous) slashdot submitter making things up as they go along.

Big ships?

[Poofat]

"...the mod with big ships"

Big ships? the "galleon" has only 30 guns, thats less than a frigate. Also, a ship with that many guns would probally not have two decks.

As for costal artillery. Well, if you can fire heated 42-pounders then you should be able to completley own anything within firing range.

Re:Big ships?

[eMartin]

Did you miss the bit on their website about it intentionally not being a sailing simulation or even close to historically accurate?

Re:Big ships?

[ManitobaMoose]

16c and early 17c galleon usually had less than 44 guns. especially spanish ships were known for being severly undergunned. cast iron guns were unreliable because they frequently exploded when they didn't cool enough between shots. most guns of that time were made of bronze, which was extremly expensive.

"Also, a ship with that many guns would probally not have two decks."

The Royal Princ3e, flagship of the english crown from 1670, a 3decker ship of the line with 100 guns had no more than 13 guns/deck (not counting 2 stern guns) and was considerably longer than a galleon.

but the screenshot shows hardly a galleon. the hull looks remotly like one but the rigging is that of a n 18c ship. the mizzen mast shouldn't have 3 square rigged sail, only 1 on top and a lateen sail below. also an early 17c gallon had 2 sprit sails while the ship in the screenshot has jibs, which replaced the spritsail in the 18c. by then the galleon was obsolete.

Alternate title

[ApharmdB]

Shouldn't it be Battlefield 1492?

Impressed

[sixb0nes]

The people modding this game (eg., Desert Combat [desertcombat.com]) had very little docu to work with, and have done a superb job in almost all areas - models, textures, etc. I can only imagine some of the grief they went through to get things like center of gravity right. I hope the DC guys get jobs as a result of their effort - if that's what they are looking for.

I will definately try this one out.

When I first read the title...

[mattsucks]

I thought this was going to be about US sailors downloading mp3 files from KaZaa.

good department!

[dr.robotnik]

aah, you have a woman's hands, my lord... :)