Battlezone 1

Now seems as good a time as any to announce, so YES, I have been working on a rather large Instant Action map pack for BZ1 1.4 and 1.5b.

FEATURES:
- 22 Brand Spankin New Instant Action Missions
- 2 Campaigns
Follow the commander of Omega Squadron of the Black Dogs as he fights the good fight across the solar system, leading NSDF and Black Dog forces in the 17 mission Campaign Omega Squadron, or join the Chinese Red Army and lead the assault on the NSDF in the 5 Mission Campaign The People's Dragon .
- Basic Red Odyssey Assets (Red Devil, Chinese, and Bdog Buildings) to Vanilla BZ1!
for use in these or other instant action missions (only)! Just unzip to your addon.
- Support for Instant Action Launcher and BZ Control Panel


Thoughts:
I wanted to create a solid but not impossible or frustrating mission pack, which seemed like it fit well within the established BZ1 canon. Only time will tell if I will have succeeded, but for now, that means:
1) Emulate the terraining styles from BZ1!
The mapmakers of BZ1 did attempt, at least to some reasonable degree, to emulate the terrain of the planets in their maps. I want my maps to "feel" vaguely reminiscent of the maps in BZ1, and so emulating their terraining style is critical.
2) Don't try too hard to add too much.
There are no new races to BZ, no new weapons. Only what we are familiar with being used in a new way to tell a new story.
3) Don't make hard maps for the sake of frustrating players.
I understand that making a map takes a long time, and therefore people often try to make the hardest map they can (or at least lean toward making maps difficult), because they don't want their map to be a cakewalk. I wanted to stay away from this conciously. Very difficult maps can be fun, but frustrating ones (ergo: 6 straight missions where the enemy base has unlimited scrap, you have no howitzers and they have 12 gun towers with quadruple blasts and you have a half hour time limit) often simply aren't fun. I wanted to make my maps winable on easy on the first try with a solid understanding of BZ1. I want to let the in-game difficulty setting set the difficulty in my maps.

Progress:
Missions: 65%
Maps/Terrains: 90%
Assets: 85%
Hopefully done within a month!

Screenshots:
From Omega Squadron mission 1, Abandoned:



From Omega Squadron mission 4, Forcing the Hand:



From Omega Squadron mission 5, Defectors:



From Omega Squadron mission 6, Under the Radar:



From Omega Squadron mission 8, When You Want Something Done Right:



From Omega Squadron mission 11, Party Crashers:



From Omega Squadron mission 13, Pushing Ahead:







From Omega Squadron mission 10, Disappearance:



From The People's Dragon mission 3, Iced Alliance:



HELP WANTED!
I'm looking for somebody to put together an installer and/or launcher!
A launcher would need to be only functionally equivalent to those found in the Shrieking Eagles or Red Wolf missions.
Basically:
1) A Welcome Screen (select campaign)
2) Mission Selection Screen (for each campaign)
3) Briefing Screen (see BZ1 shell, needs scrollable briefing text, planet bmp/animation- for each mission)
I would provide all text/mission names/information, but I simply don't have the free time to learn how to build a satisfactory launcher for my Mission Pack.
The launcher and installer author(s) would of course have the privilege of affixing their alias/name anywhere they wish and as blatantly as they wish on the project.

I can help you with a launcher, I am working on creating one for my own map pack (The Dogs Return), please take a look at the screenshots below:



(obviously the text and such can be completely modified.)

One thing I need to know if you want me to make a launcher is in how much time it needs to be done, as the templates for it arent even completely finished. If it needs to be done in like 3 weeks its better that you find someone else to build the launcher, I need at least one month of time to finish everything.

Greetings from Goomba

Hiya Goomba.

I really should get out more- that's exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for. Most impressive!
If figure to have the bulk of stuff done in less than a month- and that's just going off of my current pace, maybe I'll be doing some AIP tweaking here or there, but I have no time restraints- if you've got a sick launcher commin', I can absolutely wait.

You take your time with that thing and yours first though, it looks good.

This new [unofficial] campaign looks AMAZING! I cant help you with anything except my support!

Good luck to both of you guys! I am attempting my own mission pack as well. Very much looking forward to both of the releases!!!

This map pack now has a new home:

(REMOVED)

(+plus new Screenies!)

Has this pack been completed, or is it still underway like mine?

I am interested in finding out the status of this Map Pack as well.

IT LIVES.
The Omega Squadron map pack/campaign is 18/22 missions complete!
Incomplete are the last 3 Black Dog and last two Chinese missions.

No more eta though, school and rl are very restrictive.
Thinking very carefully about scrapping the last 3 black dogs missions just to finally get it done. WHAT SHOULD I DO!

Also: it will be designed and only supported for Ken Millers (Amazing) 1.5 patch. So. If you don't have the latest build yet, go get it.

No rush, finish those last 3 missions too!

Definitely finish them. Completing the story gives a much more rewarding experience than just raw action. Action + a story makes missions even more fun.

So it is decided. I will finish them.

The good part is, the actual STORY (objectives, .bcp, .ial .des etc.) are all totally done.
My big looming hurdle right now is actually going out and terraining that final supermap (10240x10240) on which all five of the unfinished missions take place.
Perhaps this weekend.

Holy crap! That DOES sound like a mission!

I've often thought of making one HUGE map, and then sectioning off different parts for different missions.

Hey great minds think alike, right?

Anyways that's the plan, the missions' map edges overlap here and there, so you have a feel that you know where you are and its all connected. That's the idea.

IN ANY CASE. Got it done. Terraining? 100% complete. Few. Didn't NEARLY fill the whole space, but that's alright.

Now's the fun part where I cruise to the finish line in a week or two- making the units happen right.
And then? Sitting around excitedly to get a look at Goomba's sexy, sexy launcher.
Of course, for all you know I could disappear for another half year at any time so this isn't a promise, but that's where the pack stands!

The launcher has been completely rebuilt, i'm sure you won't be dissapointed!