Battlezone Forums

Hi everyone.

It's been a while since I last checked the bz2 sites (2 years)

I'm impressed by what people have created in this game, and I want to add to the creations. However, I'm not sure what to do first. I was thinking either a map or a recy variant. I'm not sure how to do these, and haven't found any tutorials. So, do you have any tips?

P.S Not sure if this is the right section to post this.

http://zeroangel.overminddl1.com/featur ... /index.php is a good map-making tutorial to get you started. I can't help with recycler variants, as I've never attempted to make one myself.

Download a few programs from BZScrap.org, take a look in the .pak files, open some .odfs (with notepad) and you'll learn pretty quickly.

Thanks. I remember seeing lizards map tutorial a few years ago, but couldn't find it again.
AHadley, is there a list of what the weapons are named in the odf?

Edit: Also, I can't seem to edit vehicle odf's. I did manage to accidentally turn the ion gun into a over the top (but weaker) fang though, and a really fast firing minigun. :shock

Save the edited files into addon. Be aware that using modded files that nobody else has will cause bad assets when you try to enter their games.

I know that I can't use them online with others. I can't play online where I live, but I still wish to edit the game.

Sorry for the double post, but I can't seem to find how to add a modified gun to the armoury as a separate weapon.

This section here is where the weapons for the armory to deploy are defined. Guns in particular are in the first group. apYourGun is an example for adding extras on.

Ah, thanks. I'll try that later.

Edit: Also, I'm still unable to edit vehicles. With weapons, what I've been doing is opening up data.pak (with pak explorer), editing the ODFs, saving them, then importing them back into data.pak.

With weapons, what I've been doing is opening up data.pak (with pak explorer), editing the ODFs, saving them, then importing them back into data.pak.

Don't do that. Ever. What I'd recommend is you reinstall from CD right now to fix your build. You should treat the .pak files installed from CD and the 1.3.* patch installers as READ ONLY and never write into them. If you do not follow this rule, you'll pretty much never be able to play multiplayer w/o a good chance of bad assets.

BZ2 has a flexible, user-editable system for defining where files are read from. Look at bzone.cfg installed w/ BZ2, in the same directory as bzone.exe. It lists out a bunch of sources where files can be found in. The first source that matches a file wins. What I bet is happening is that patch13.pak has its own versions of the file(s) you're editing, so your edits to data.pak are effectively ignored.

What you should do is make your own folder, paralleling the 'addon' folder. Call it 'blargher' or something. Put your changed assets in there (and, next time, look for things in patch13.pak first). Copy/paste the bzone.cfg file, call it bzone_blargher.cfg. In the changed .cfg, add another AddDirRecurse above addon to point to your directory. Then, read the readme13.rtf file installed with 1.3.6.1 for how to create a shortcut to point to your new .cfg. That way, you can trivially start up BZ2 with your assets. Then, when you want to play MP, start up BZ2 w/o your .cfg, and your assets will be ignored so that you can play MP w/o bad assets.

-- GSH

Well, I have 2 copies of 1.3(pb6, I haven't downloaded 6.1 yet, bad internet), and I can't play online anyway. But I'll take your advice. Sounds safer.

My advice for using .cfg files applies to pretty much every 1.3 patch. Possibly also earlier patches, but I don't use/support them.

-- GSH

To do the custom CFG on earlier patches, a mod manager program would rename bzone.cfg to bzone.cfg.bak and your mod CFG would be renamed bzone.cfg. This system works but really is a tad clunky. 1.3 allows for specifying the cfg via a command line switch which means any mod can have a shortcut without the need for a 'mod manager'.

A good place to learn to mod is Recycler Variants. They show inheritance and allow you to change little things like adding a weapon here and a unit there.

Two more questions (this must sound annoying).

1: Is the patch13.pak supposed to be missing weapons (all scion guns, chaingun, minigun).

2. Which file do I edit? (eg. Under fvsent there are 9 odf files and a config file, which one(s) do I edit and put in my folder?

1. Patch13 contains updated files. If you can't find one in patch13 (anywhere in patch13, as some stuff is in odd places), use one in data.pak (as that file hasn't been changed since).

2. Whichever you want. Each one refers to a different variant of the same thing. Most people modify the normal one - that is, just fvsent with no extensions to the name.