Battlezone 1

http://battlezone1.freeforums.org/how-about-the-single-player-game-t119.html



You are right, something was missing on this forum... Thank you for telling us what it was.

Unfortunately, I last time played single player campaign about 8 years ago, so I don't remeber it much.

For now, I can only contribute in this thread with one video clip I recently made:


If you get stuck on any mission I'm sure that one of us here will be able to help you out. You will just need to refresh our memory a bit.

Anyway, Battlezone left a big trace on my gaming career. This is the only game I was coming back to, every now and then. In the beginning it was only SP, few years later multiplayer in LAN and since 2006 MP over Internet.

John, I'm glad that M installer helped you pass 5th mission. In fact, I kind of envy you because you still don't know how it ends...

Thanks Mr. Spock - great vid! If I get stuck or learn something i'll put it up on this thread - you never know, now you may have people coming here having googled 'Battlezone single player tips'! Or some such!

Based on my gaming skill level (probably the main reason for not going against other human players!), I can see this game taking quite a while to finish, certainly ID'ing that Alien Launcher AND getting back alive was quite a challenge! (Getting in was no problem!)

I personally find the enemy and friendly AI quite up to my level of gaming, and this brings immersion good enough that when your squad, attempting to get to you when you have leapt over hills, etc to get to the Alien Launcher all get destroyed while taking out one of the two guarding gun towers you feel the loss at seeing all the wreckage! 10 seconds on, heading back to base, you get a tinge of exhilaration as you see one, then two friendlies hoofing it back to base on foot. Obviously having hopped out of their tank seeing the writing on the wall!

I have to also say, between the M installer and the better PC I have now compared to back in the day, the graphics are absolutely fantastic! The graphics remind me of the moody graphics of that fantastic space sim: HardWar! Surely, both these games were ahead of their time and quite rightly are seen as classics!

Mr. Spock, if it's been 8 years since you played the single player game, don't you think you may get small surprises still, if you played again? Would you not, at the very least, relive your youth - and wouldn't it show you how far you have come as a gamer in these last 8 years?!!

Here we are, a decade on, and the majority of PC games released STILL don't match up to this fantastic game! For example: The Command and Conquer series daren't even go 3D because it would be compared with Battlezone!

Thanks for your kind words and making this official thread! I hope, over time, we get more than just us two chatting to each other!

Thank you John, and you're welcome.

I was thinking of making more videos but my recording software expired and now I have that annoying big demo sign over the whole screen.

As for finding this site with a google, that will unlikely happen. Bz Wiki page is 2nd hit for "Battlezone"and most people go for it. I tried adding this forum to Wiki's External links but it lasted a day before it was deleted. I even tried to discuss it on a Bz Wiki discussion page but with no success. Someone there is favoring other forum and I can do nothing about it.

You better hurry with single player and join us online, before game dies. Bz vets still mourn for the old days with hundreds players online (in the same time). If you come too late you might find only few left...

Today, Battlezone multiplayer has around 50 hard core players and around 100 casual. Out of those 150, maybe 30 play strat. I started this forum in September 2007, with focus on a strategic part on the game. Today, after a 7 months, having 34 members is more than I expected.
The main purpose of this site is to help people with technical and strat difficulties and I hope we are doing a good job. Bomber or a magger (guys who never passed SP campaign) will never register or post here and I can't tell you how happy I'm because of that. Those are here filtered in the beginning with strat prefix of this forum. They know nothing and yet they are the loudest on other forums, especially in strategy discussions, like that they are just confusing new players.

You should know that MP is much much harder than SP. I don't want to scare you, I'm just telling you how it is. The main difference is in human tank being capable of doing things that AI can't, so if (when) you decide to come online you will have to work a lot on your piloting skills.
I always had solid strat thinking but that wasn't enough when I came online. 1 human tank was whipping out my whole army and I couldn't do anything about it. Reading and practicing different tactics improved my skills a lot.

Check this quote from one of the best Bz statters of all times (taken from his guide):



As for you saying that you find SP enough challenging for your skills, you should know that it's in our nature to play just enough for the win. Stronger opponent will drag more out of you, skills you didn't even know you posses.

Bz 1.4M Expansion has 6 IA missions that will take you as close as possibile to the MP, because they are made on stock mutliplayer maps (although changed a bit). When you finish SP (or in meantime) check these:

Canyon Madness
Par 3
Z Snowed In
Blast Chamber
Ice Ice Baby
Paranoia

And yeah, I might go through single player again... It is like watching a classic movie again, you see some stuff you didn't see for the first time and you remind yourself why they call it a classic.

I wanted to come online right away, but after all those years I'm probably too rusty. And reliving my youth sounds like a good idea, so I hope you don't mind uk_john, but i will use your advice too

i'm gonna play single player first, i remember that i didnt get much further than Io(i was 6) so i have to refresh the skills i didn't have before i head online

I did it again!

It took me less position savings than the first time I played it, but it wasn't easy as I thought it would be. Just those interactive narration scenes are worth playing it over and over. Awesome storyline!

Someone told me long ago that if you didn't finish TRO on hard you are not ready for online strategy challange. I might just do that next...

Sounds like an idea there Rocket.

Spock; Just what program ARE you running for recording the game? You'd have been better off with Fraps; no "DEMO" scrawled across the screen that way. I've never heard of recording software that would go that far to ruin your video if you hadn't paid for the full/registered version.

uk_John, I can not imagine seeing your own teammates walking vehicleless across Achilles to escape the Destruction (no more detail due to spoilage). As for how you got in and out, I'd enjoy hearing your way of finishing the final mission from all of you.

I'm using Guncam. That demo sign shows up after 2 weeks, but only that 1st mission video has it, others are without.

I also tried Camtasia, ZD Soft and Fraps, but my computer (P4 2.8, 2GB RAM...) wasn't powerful enough to record and play, even though I meet recommended system requirements. Only Guncam works for me and that's why I stick to it.

When I buy new PC, I'll record with Camtasia, because it's the best recording program from what I've seen.

I'm back! Had a timeaway after a PC blew and had to save for a new one. Just about back to where i was in April 2008!

Anyway, just to let you folks know, I have just started SP again and between the SP campaign, the IA mission's that come in 1.4N and the red Odyssey expansion, i'll be seeing y'all in 2009 probably!

Of course, the game is still as brilliant as ever, 6 months on, and it will still be as brilliant 6 months hence!

So to all - happy SP or MP playing -I am thinking of you!

By the way - there is a download retail site (like STEAM) called Good Old Games. (www.gog.com). It plans on re-selling classic good old games from the past. It is still in beta, but already has Hostile Waters, Freespace 1 (plus expansion!) and 2 and Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics! It has a Wishlist thread where you can vote for games you would like to see on GOG, and Battlezone has 72 votes! While the Top 10 voted games have 100's of votes (titles like System Shock 1 and 2), 72 votes would easily put Battlezone in the top third of the games listed! So it would be fair to say this game has not been forgotten!

Hey uk_john, I don't know how proficient you are in BZ and/or TRO single player, but this thread should certainly be of interest to you. I don't know if other players are putting many complete single player videos on YouTube, but I am doing it.

Going there right now Sur!

i had been playing only single player on battlezone for years (cuz i never had good enough internet connection and when i finally got one i couldn't find the server), and played on all modes. more recently i've also beaten TRO campaign. when i finally did get multiplayer working i went online right away to play strat. and i found that my strategies from single player were for the large part quite useless. here are the major things that i learned:

-keep your tank moving. you never know when you might get sniped
-dont rely on the com tower cuz in MP they often turn it off
-you wont always have time or scrap to arm your units with better weapons in MP
-howitzers and minelayers are WAY more commonly used than in SP
-massive bases are wastes of scrap
-multiple S-powers are essential when building gun towers
-APCs(which i NEVER used in SP) are very helpful in MP
-constructing silos in the scrap fields is essential

and i can tell already that i def have more to learn