BattleZone 2 1.3 B2 patch.. After all these years!

[Saint_Proverbius]

http://www.visi.com/~nathan/bz2/bz2_13.html

• Much greater MOD (game modification) support, allowing up to 26 total races to be active at once. Many MODders have been among 1.3 beta testers, and have been working to take advantage of the new features. [Their participation or nonparticipation is their own business; no support for 1.3 is implied or MODs promised by us.]
• Developed/Tested on Windows 2000/XP, DirectX 8.0-9.0b for much better compatability out of the box. Some testers are testing it on WinME.
• Many crashes/freezes fixed. Please note that not all bugs have enough details to figure out how they happened, and so it probably will be impossible to get all crashes fixed.
• Redone audio system that supports far more channels (up to 64) and DirectSound3D for a far more immersive experience. [Old Aureal code is gone; good riddance.] Note: not all sound cards on the market support that many channels; if the driver on your system notes a limit under 64, BZ2 will use that instead.
• Support for Ogg Vorbis compressed sounds - similar to mp3 files, but with higher quality.
• Some graphics tweaks: Maximum ingame resolution can be set much higher than 1280x1024 if your hardware supports it. Gamma (brightness) adjustment works on ATI cards.
• Enhancements to many parts of the game, including AI, craft handling, etc.
• Many more pregame options for IA, DM, Strat & MPI games (feature available to MODs to define custom options pages on a per-map basis)
• Bots in DM, and some additional DM gameplay modes.
• Strategy-CTF game mode -- capture a goal, tug it back to your recycler to win, on 6 classic maps. Finally a good use for tugs in MP!
• Over 50 additional Instant Action & Multiplayer maps by several mappakers within the BZ2 community, and tweaks to some existing maps to reduce bugs. As of 1.3PB2, there are 16 classic & additional IA maps, 98 classic & additional MP maps installed.
• Several additional security measures to make cheating in multiplayer much more difficult; deliberate remote crashing of games should be fixed.
• New BZ2 editor screen layout files contributed by testers to expose more functionality that was already there.
• Ability to rotate buildings (on 90-degree increments) for even more base-building fun
• Updates to the manual (located in the Extras folder where BZ2 is installed to) to give updated and more accurate information
• Includes an over 450Kb text file listing changes made since 1.2. This changelog contains our (minimalist) notes as to what changed for each version, and isn't guaranteed to be easily understood. But, it may be useful reading.

This game probably ranks in my top three real time strategy games of all time. Not because it's balanced so well or because the resource management works great or because it was so polished.. But damnit, it was just so damned fun!

 

[Nicolai]

I always preferred BZ1 to BZ2 for some reason, but I'll be sure to apply this patch the next time I decide to reinstall BZ2.

 

[Shagnak]

This game probably ranks in my top three real time strategy games of all time. Not because it's balanced so well or because the resource management works great or because it was so polished.. But damnit, it was just so damned fun!

Yeah, this was one of my favourites as well.
Someone told me it was a bit of a disaster on first release due to incredible bugginess, but by the time I ended up getting it, it was pretty damn playable.

I remember there being some impressively big mods out for it.
Nice that two programmers from the original team are still supporting it.

The 1.3 patch has been in development since September/October 2001, headed by two programmers from the Battlezone II team: Ken Miller, Nathan Mates.

Woah.

This is news worthy IMHO. Mind if I plagiarize? :wink:

 

[Section8]

Much greater MOD (game modification) support, allowing up to 26 total races to be active at once. Many MODders have been among 1.3 beta testers, and have been working to take advantage of the new features. [Their participation or nonparticipation is their own business; no support for 1.3 is implied or MODs promised by us.]

Fucking morons.

 

[Nicolai]

They are morons because they write 'modders' like that? Are we having our period today?

 

[Section8]

Yes. And it's not one of the normal ones with dead tissue bleeding out, this one is pure sand. Course sand.

It's just fucking stupid. It's like one of those "What's the number for 911?" things. He's obviously aware of the fact that mod is an abbreviation for modification, and yet he insists on capitalising it as though it's an acronym. And it's the fact that it's becoming common practice to perpetuate this idiocy gets under my skin, like sand in a vagina.