Well, why didn't BZ2 live up to mainstream standards?

[Apollo]

IDC how you want to debate from a programmers perspective, this occured only when Bz2 was played and had an AV which locked up the system and either caused a reboot or required a cold boot to get past it.

As a consumer the bugs in Bz2 caused a lot of grief for the end user.

[Ded10c]

[Red Devil]

if they had been put on consoles, they probably would have done better:

"Mom, my game is broken!!!"

"Just hit the reset button, when it does that, dear, like this" *click*

"Thanks mom!"

[Zax]

BZ1ers didn't like BZ2 in part because it wasn't BZ1 with larger assets and a continued focus on DM. Pissant rivalry over game modes continues to this day, with certain arrogant people preferring to be a big fish in an ever-shrinking pond rather than be nice and invite others in.
-- GSH

I would say Bzers didn't like Bz2 mainly because the vehicle physics killed the fun game play they had in Bz.
Also the AVs that occured so often that you had to fix all the lost file fragments.
Back then you couldn't get near and enemy base with a PII 350 without dropping to a slide show frame rate.
The orange skins on tanks didn't help matters.

Bz "pissant rivalry over game mods" maybe the conclusion of people throwing stones without first hand knowlage of what it's really about but what it is truely about is a small group wanting to be dictators over all of Bz, the rest is propaganda to achieve their goals.

Personally i don't care if the game code is released and there are 50 versions of the game. (grow up and get alone)

He said modes, baka yaro!

You completely brought the wrong subject up.

[Apollo]

He said modes, baka yaro!

You completely brought the wrong subject up.

The arrogance and hostility of the community would be another reason.

I don't see any rivalry between dm and strat in Bz, many people play both bb1 so excuse me if i misunderstood him.

[Ded10c]

He was talking about BZ2 with that sentence, not BZ1.

And hey, it's not like BZ1's community is in better shape.

[Psychedelic Rhino]

I don't see any rivalry between dm and strat in Bz, many people play both bb1 so excuse me if i misunderstood him.

The only animosity and mean-spirited attitude I saw portrayed between DM and strat in BZ1 was spock. He continuously labeled players at his forum, "DM Dummies" and harped that ad hominem constantly before having his forum. Otherwise DM and strat players got/get along.

For me there was a clear break in my interest from strat once I moved to a high bandwidth connection. When I played with 28K and 56K I really had no idea what the 'promised land' of cable offered. Once I played DM with cable and experienced the relatively liquid smooth world of sub 150 ping, and many times sub 100, gameplay, the end-game of BZ1 strat became painful.

[Firestorm29]

For me, it was mostly the same thing on HEAT.net. Only pain was that on the servers I played on, trying to get a strat game going took some time. That wasn't really the fault of the DMers and I got the impression that most the community on HEAT felt the same.

Though my impression about BZ1 and BZ2 in general is that is was way ahead of it's time, doing genre blending which didn't really start until a few years ago maybe?

[Ded10c]

I still have yet to see something do it to the same level as BZ did.

[Firestorm29]

I still have yet to see something do it to the same level as BZ did.

I was thinking in the line of games like Kingdom Hearts, which combined Action and RPG action, and the later Madden games which combined sports play with a Sim environment building your own team (I think even franchise?). Yea, it's more a very generic view, but around BZ's time, from my memory games sported a single element, like only Role Play, Shooter, RTS, sports. Heck, how many multiplayer shooters even supported team deathmatches that helped a good teamwork envirnment around BZ's time? I'm pretty sure if you probably had tried to combine RTS and action in the 90s it probably wouldn't have gone nearly as well as it would today.

[Red Devil]

speaking of DM...

thinking of making a "Last Man Standing" mode where anyone killed gets put in a spectator mode so they can cheer on the final players as they duke it out until there is only one left, who is then declared the winner. "There can be only one" and all that.

[Nielk1]

Also, the whole STRAT/MPI thing in BZ2 is manufactured since the whole 1.2/1.3 thing is over and certain people just have to make conflict.

[Feared_1]

[Zero Angel]

Also, the whole STRAT/MPI thing in BZ2 is manufactured since the whole 1.2/1.3 thing is over and certain people just have to make conflict.

Opposition to MPI or ST demonstrates lack of understanding. A lot of people see MPI as some repetitive mode for stupid people where you build 10 guntowers and then can't possibly lose, but MPI has its own values as a mode to take it easy in. Strat OTOH is extremely hectic with people always trying to outfox each other and it requires so much of your awareness and attention that if you 'slip' for a critical second it can lead to a downward spiral that can cost you the game (especially if you're the commander or team's 'ace' or if the teams are stacked against you). You need to be cunning in order to survive and a lot of types who would take to MPI can't stand the amount of competitiveness and pressure that's brought on by such a 'cut throat' way of playing where you constantly have to be on your toes and outwit your enemy (as well, being played for a 'fool' or 'owned' by another player can be a big ego-blow). MPI, by contrast is a simpler mode that is more about the strategic aspects (e.g. fortifying your position, mounting assaults, etc) and there is less pressure to perform so it can be serene or boring depending on what kind of player you are.

[Apollo]

I take it the 1.2/1.3 thing ended when 1.2 stoped working on gamespy?