We Love Battlzone 2 - But how to improve it?

[Zero Angel]

Incorrect. It is the arrogance of the spectators like yourself who think what they say do or think matters -- spectators who contribute zero value to BZ2 by not participating in the actual community (playing, modding). At least twosheds has somewhat of an idea, and someone like AHadley tries to get to the bottom of it without getting wrapped up in any infighting that goes on. I don't agree with TwoSheds approach (which is to complain a lot), but at least he has some understanding because he's been on TS3, the forums and in-game enough to know what the relations between individuals and groups within BZ2 is. On the other hand, people like GSH and Nielk1 at least try to work out and implement solutions to the social problems which are related to problems raised by the 'trolling cult', and modders experiment with game dynamics to try and add variety to an ageing game. These are all commendable aims in their own right.

[MrTwosheds]

Well all I really want is a situation where adults and children who want to play bz2 are respected enough to be allowed to do so.
Griefing, Ban evasions, Ddossing, trolling etc are all extremely disrespectful, unpleasant and simply represent an attempt by certain players to dominate the online game by any means, rather than just by playing and winning due to their skill. I have every intention of continuing to respond to their selfish and offensive acts, sorry if it annoys you, but some of your friends are just ****s and you know it.

[Red Spot]

Incorrect. It is the arrogance of the spectators like yourself who think what they say do or think matters -- spectators who contribute zero value to BZ2 by not participating in the actual community (playing, modding).

Correct, you're incorrect.
-I'm not arrogant, you just percieve me as such because I disagree with you.
-I'm not a spectator, you just percieve me as such cause you dont see me in your game and mort seems to carry my nick on veary's IP-list.
-Participating in a community is not as you perceive it, for instance talking on a forum is already participating in a community.

You want to know what does wreck a community? Defending the bad apples cause they play your prefered gamemode and you percieve them as your friends, eventhough anybody knows how much damage that does and for how long it has been going on.

[MrTwosheds]

A recommendation for hosts.
Whois all of your clients before starting a game. Check out their providers website.
If they are using a VPN provider rather than a normal ISP or the whois does not resolve, just ban them.
As a host you broadcast your IP, anyone not respecting that, by offering their own real IP simply does not deserve to be in your game.

[GSH]

Science confirms it: trolls are sadists.

-- GSH

[Red Spot]

Good read, specially liked the very last 'warning' of the article.
Dont totally agree with the extrovert stuff though, always assumed they where more introvert type of people, but that may just be a biased opinion based on 'internet' trolls who often seem to have a very limited life & interests.

[Ded10c]

The psychological elements of that article are somewhat thought-provoking. Ignoring the writer's complete misunderstanding of what psychopathy is, the comments on the four noxious personality traits are interesting - worth considering that they aren't all a particularly bad aspect for one's personality to have. Narcissism isn't a good thing and neither is sadism, but Machiavellianism and psychopathy can both be considered distinct advantages as much as they can drawbacks.

I'd be interested in seeing a Meyers-Briggs, Kiersey or Jungian analysis of a sample like this.

[Andykarta]

BTW, this has been one of the most entertaining threads I've read in a while. Game physics, Schadenfreude... I've never said this outloud but I'd mix BZ2 with some space game executable like Homeworld or Freespace2 to give the total experience of the war. Entering orbit or landing could be where one game loads and the other closes. Or heck, run them at the same time. I don't even close anything when I run battlezone 2 and my framerate never suffers. You'd just need some transition between the two games. I don't think anyone's ever done that but its been an idea I had for a while (starcraft/homeworld or freelancer with an FPS). And there could be interaction like space bombardment or building big antispaceship guns on the planet. Fight for control of landing zones while ships are landing. Tie fighters shooting down landers...okay now I'm way off the reservation. But I've become a pretty fair coder now (for a noob) and one day when I have a lot of free time I'm gonna see if its possible to take two different editable games and merge them. Prolly the big problem would be with the AI but I don't think anything I'm saying is against the laws of physics.

[Red Spot]

I don't think anyone's ever done that but its been an idea I had for a while (starcraft/homeworld or freelancer with an FPS).

Not FPS, but give Sword of the Stars a go. Stay far away form number 2 though, untill they move on to the next project. Else you purchase ½ a game for full price and end up paying full for all the DLC's that are basicly bringing elements to the game that should have been there from the start .. as they did with number one ..

[Nielk1]

BTW, this has been one of the most entertaining threads I've read in a while. Game physics, Schadenfreude... I've never said this outloud but I'd mix BZ2 with some space game executable like Homeworld or Freespace2 to give the total experience of the war. Entering orbit or landing could be where one game loads and the other closes. Or heck, run them at the same time. I don't even close anything when I run battlezone 2 and my framerate never suffers. You'd just need some transition between the two games. I don't think anyone's ever done that but its been an idea I had for a while (starcraft/homeworld or freelancer with an FPS). And there could be interaction like space bombardment or building big antispaceship guns on the planet. Fight for control of landing zones while ships are landing. Tie fighters shooting down landers...okay now I'm way off the reservation. But I've become a pretty fair coder now (for a noob) and one day when I have a lot of free time I'm gonna see if its possible to take two different editable games and merge them. Prolly the big problem would be with the AI but I don't think anything I'm saying is against the laws of physics.

Look at Void Destroyer.
Slaor, the creator of the EPIC mod, was doing art/models for it before he passed. The guy who programmed it is the one who broke the news too us and he kept up with us a few times when the project advanced a major step. Right now it is on 'Early Access' on Steam and is one of the more polished titles to be in the state with a very active community forum reporting bugs and seeing patches. It is an FPS/RTS in space where you can instantly jump into the cockpit of any ship to fly it around as well as give orders. I sort of like pilots myself, but cool none the less to see a proper hybrid. It's a little weird to play at first, since the idea of conservation of momentum is in there and like any good space game there are a bunch of buttons which are a bit harder to keep track of now that the days of the paper manual are over for PC games.

[Andykarta]

Just got Void destroyer and yeah, that's cool once its not so buggy. It stuttered and shook from the start. Really like the look of it though. Reminds me of Mobeus from the old Heavy Metal Magazines. I'm gonna see if I can get it working to some degree though...

[Nielk1]

Just got Void destroyer and yeah, that's cool once its not so buggy. It stuttered and shook from the start. Really like the look of it though. Reminds me of Mobeus from the old Heavy Metal Magazines. I'm gonna see if I can get it working to some degree though...

Try full screen if you can. I had some issues with windowed mode. I also was getting mouse lag that cleared itself after a short time. Still trying to track that down so I can report it properly. Best part is, if you manage to find a big enough bug and get a good repo case, the guy will give you a key to give a friend.

[Red Spot]

I really like the idea of Void Destroyer (never tried it though), something that 'looks' less to my liking .. and correct me if I'm wrong .. is that ships seems to be able to take a serious beating but not actually show they have taken a beating.
Not trying to compare the game to SotS1, but one of the things I really like about the combat game is that damaged ships actually have some representation of damage so you can see which ships to pull back or target.

[Andykarta]

Turns out my stuttering was a mouse/joystick issue. It happened when both were connected. If I disconnect the mouse the game becomes playable. But maybe I might have stolen this thread a little. Right now I'm messing around with some modding. My goal, to make the rifle able to shoot the bomber down. I think that would improve the game.