Teaching BZ2 to Friends

[Moff]

I'm thinking about showing BZ2 to a few friends of mine in hope that it will catch on and we'll have another game for LAN days/nights. The only problem is that I'm not sure if they'll like the different playing style and learning curve. When I tried teaching a family member how to play a strategy map, I did a very poor job explaining. He eventually got frustrated and bored. When I tried to get a different family member into BZ2, rather than confusing him, I told him to go through the first few levels of the campaign. In my opinion, it would have taken too long to go through enough levels to bring him up to speed (he was sort of impatient too).

I would really like to introduce BZ2 to our LAN sessions, but I think I'll have difficulties getting players to stay interested. First impressions run the deepest, and I don't want to mess this up. Please tell me, what and how should I teach them if I do? Should I try a "sink-or-swim" approach on an MPI? (Or am I just thinking too much about it?)
Thanks in advance.

[MrTwosheds]

Bz22 has quite a long learning curve and then some more. It would be an excellent game for a lan session if they already knew how to play it beforehand, even then some people just can't cope with the stress of team strat or ffa. I tried it at a lan party once, so much time got taken up shouting instructions about that everyone decided to play UT instead because its much simpler for those not familiar with it. Also people tend to realise quite quickly that's its going to take a long time to get as good at it as those who own the game, so its not really a level playing field for a single lan session, everyone wants to have at least an outside chance of victory in that environment.

[jack775544]

I have tried to do this a couple of times a now I realise that sadly it is an excercise in fuility. And now with the MP servers currently down it is probably not the best time to try. However if you do try it with anyone make sure they are fans of both the Strategy and Action genres as they have a good chance of liking it.
Just my 2 cents.

[Red Spot]

I've introduced a few friends to the game, none have become real fans.
That being said, 2 of them sometimes play vs me over LAN when we come together. They do have a hard time mostly with their orientation, they can distinguish up from down, but forward/backward/left/right can easilly get mixed up .. it seems.
I see the same in a game like Section 8 Prejudice, where you can use a sort of jetpack to move about the place and shoot up for a limited amount of time and a lot of people seem to have difficulty 'gaming in 3D'.

In BZ2 you get the added difficulty that you also need to control a field as well as a base-area and have to build that base, while managing your resources and gathering intel ... and a lot of people arent particularly good at multitasking.

Combine those 2 abilities as well as keen grasp of the game, and any newb that isnt given some slack will soon leave the game as it isnt worth it for them.

I would get them ingame, 1-2 at a time at most, doesnt matter much what you do, but let them explore, support them in it. If they want to Strat vs you, see if you can do a 2vs1 and cut them enough slack, perhaps even let them win, barelly. Allow them to experience some fun in this game before you take of any gloves or allow the AI to take of its gloves. Teach them how to overcome hurdles, but allow them to make mistakes first.

[Axeminister]

Good advice Red. I have shown the game to a number of people and they all took to it, my wife included. The best tool for me when teaching them the game was chat. Used to be Ventrilo until the game itself had it's own chat. Secondly start them off with a strat with no fighting, just step by step tell them how to do this, build that. After a while just start a mpi with you as commander and you can tell them how to defeat the oncoming enemies one by one. Like Red said, let them make a mistake or two so they learn why first hand you can't rush stuff. After a few games they'll love mpi so much they'll want to battle you, that's where you just answer questions, let them win barely. Good luck, would love to have new players.

[forgottengames]

Best way to introduce the mechanics of the game, from my experience, is to have them play the SP and IA missions first.

[Feared_1]

I'm thinking about showing BZ2 to a few friends of mine in hope that it will catch on and we'll have another game for LAN days/nights. The only problem is that I'm not sure if they'll like the different playing style and learning curve. When I tried teaching a family member how to play a strategy map, I did a very poor job explaining. He eventually got frustrated and bored. When I tried to get a different family member into BZ2, rather than confusing him, I told him to go through the first few levels of the campaign. In my opinion, it would have taken too long to go through enough levels to bring him up to speed (he was sort of impatient too).

I would really like to introduce BZ2 to our LAN sessions, but I think I'll have difficulties getting players to stay interested. First impressions run the deepest, and I don't want to mess this up. Please tell me, what and how should I teach them if I do? Should I try a "sink-or-swim" approach on an MPI? (Or am I just thinking too much about it?)
Thanks in advance.

Hi, Moff.

A lot of people here would advise against it simply because of the difference in community, but I would recommend getting TeamSpeak and accessing the Ugonland server (Visit this for more information: http://bz2maps.us/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3691). This is the server I, and many other experience Strategy players use. Contrary to popular belief, if we can talk to you and you can talk to us, then it is almost guaranteed that you will be accepted into the community. You don't need a microphone to talk to us.

If you or your friends could get online some time, we (or I) could absolutely show you how to play or how to teach someone to play in an effective way so that they can learn quickly. It does take a long time to learn how to play Battlezone II, but it can be a fun learning experience.

Here are some brief recommendations for tips to tell your friends:

• Single-player missions are the best way to learn how to play the game - use cheats or "game.cheat bzwinner" to speed up the mission sequence. The idea here is not to become a high-performing player, but just to learn the aspects of the game.
• Instant Action will teach the basics of commanding and will give practice to the understanding of the tech-trees of each race. Start as ISDF and face Scions. Practice controlling resources (getting loose scrap with Scavengers, capping pools).
• Learning how to fight well is important, but that's only half of the game. Only practice fighting tactics when you have mastered the above. Also, this will give you time to get used to the physics of the game.
• Immersion works. Have them participate in the Multiplayer community. Join Strategy games or Death Matches (using Ugonland, while GS is down). MPI is good to learn one-sided Multiplayer concepts from, but you also have Instant Action to learn how to command and fight.
• Be patient - Battlezone II takes a long time to learn. It's a complicated game, but the payoff is that it is extremely fun and flexible.
• Have them join the Multiplayer community (this site) and play some games with us - you will learn a lot!

Hope that helps!

[forgottengames]

This is completely unrelated, but I think that youtube user "TheDarkVim" actually is GolemJR14.

[Nielk1]

The bit about being accepted into the community (the other half) made be fall over. We know that its fine so long as you think and speak and act the same way they want you to.

[Moff]

Thanks so much! I'll see what I can do.

[Baconboy]

I helped get a new person to BZ2 1.3.6.2. on GameRanger. He might join here soon. His name's gf.

[Baconboy]

Sorry to double post, but this is sorta important. When gf decided to try and get the patch for BZ, he ended up getting the 1.2 patch from bz2maps.us. But he freaked cause his virus protection stated it had a virus. So he was wary to get 1.3.6.2 patch from Nathan. I luckily convinced him that it was safe, but with the server down, this can hurt the community. Newbies may get 1.3 (or even 1.2 not knowing better) from bz2maps.us without knowing the possibility of harm.

Does the 1.2 no cd thing on bz2maps.us even have a virus in the first place? It could have been just his virus protection, but I wouldn't know cause I avoid that website.

[General BlackDragon]

I don't think so. The no cd patch may act like a virus because it edit's bzone.exe to remove the cd check. some Anti Virus thingies are overzealous.

[Ded10c]

Yeah, most anti-virus programs recognise any kind of crack as malicious. Most of the time it's a false positive. I've never used the 1.2 one, but I'm fairly sure it is in that case.

[Feared_1]

I literally had to turn off McAfee when I wanted to use the No-CD crack because it simply would not allow me to execute.