FE Far too hard to be fun..

[subsonic]

Hi

I've just joined the forum to say that I think that FE is far too stressful to be fun to play. I don't want it to sound ungrateful as I think it's a great achievement, and the instant action maps have given me hours of pleasure, I love the new races etc... But, even on easy, I find FE impossible with almost every mission, maybe I'm not a good enough player but I think that the gameplay should be made easier on the easy level, to my mind the easy level represents impossible. On top of that the bug where you can't save the game on some levels makes it even more frustrating, and finally the dialogues are far far too long at times, when dying/restarting and having to listen to them each time it becomes tiresome very very quickly....

I love BZII and revisit it every few years, there's nothing quite like it and it's amazing that it is still alive after all this time, I'm sure my comments won't change anything, but felt I should comment considering all the work that has gone into FE as I am a BZII fan.

respect
Andy

[Red Devil]

which version are you using?

instant action isn't complete yet.

been making fixings for the singleplayer missions, which you can find here

you really need other players to play mpi

i've hit some thick mud working on the singleplayer mission dll's, so i may have to convert some to c++ dll's

i'll work on making easy difficulty easy. i'm slowly adding some of the g66 code over, so that should help (thinner armor on AI units) with the difficulty option.

[General BlackDragon]

There's RD talking about his FE for 1.3

RD, if he is talking about stock FE for 1.2, rev c, then ...everything you just said is going to confuse the living hell out of him...



Subsonic, are you talking about FE for 1.2? Or FE 1.3?

[Ded10c]

The mention of a save bug makes me think he means FE 1.2. Play FE1.3 (the PB3 version is more stable than the current) and see if that's any better.

[Zax]

Yeah, if you are using 1.2 version on 1.2, that is the baseline for how hard it will be in 1.3. We shouldn't dip below that. Although, to be completely and utterly fair and disconnecting from "artistic vision," easy mode really should be easy. It lets those not adept at the game see the story. That is NOT a bad thing.

1.3 is inherently easier in that save scumming becomes possible and that means going back to known good saves, branching off saves before making big decisions, and all that good stuff. It becomes harder thanks to AIP issues currently invoked and better AI aim.

The mention of a save bug makes me think he means FE 1.2. Play FE1.3 (the PB3 version is more stable than the current) and see if that's any better.

I do not advice that at all. I had horrible problems with the pb3 version without the DX9 renderer. Frame rate particularly on firing back was prohibitive to play at all, I had to sit in a bunker.

[subsonic]

which version are you using?

instant action isn't complete yet.

been making fixings for the singleplayer missions, which you can find here

you really need other players to play mpi

i've hit some thick mud working on the singleplayer mission dll's, so i may have to convert some to c++ dll's

i'll work on making easy difficulty easy. i'm slowly adding some of the g66 code over, so that should help (thinner armor on AI units) with the difficulty option.

I used the installer, I think that is 1.3 isn't it? Is there something more recent? I have the 1.3 pb6 patch installed and working.

I have a save problem with the stock 1.3 BZII where the save games all get the same name in the list, although they do all still exist if you type the name in manually. The FE save bug is different it just freezes when saving on a couple of the levels I've tried.

I've been playing the instant action maps without much trouble for the most part, some crash but most I've tried have been great, especially the 3-way

I've never played multi player, somehow I think I'd be crap at it as I tend to enjoy taking my time...

It's great to know you are still working on it, I do hope it will get to a state where I can play it through.

[subsonic]

Just loaded and checked it says FE 1.3 PB6. Just a thought I may have had an earlier version installed before running the installer could that be the cause of any problems?

[Red Devil]

no, the files and folders for that version are discrete, so there would be no cross contamination if you were using the supplied shortcut.

[subsonic]

Ahhhh! I remember now that the FE link wasn't working, just results in a black screen with the following error message in the background:

Battlezone II Log File ----
//=====================================================
App version: bzone 1.3.6.2 Public Beta Jul 29 2011 21:43:22
Windows version: Windows Version: 6.1.7601 'Service Pack 1' PlatformID=2

Last few battlezone.log lines (may or may not be relevant):
DIAG| dsutil:228 |00:23:12|5735 | Audio buffers will be placed in: Software
DIAG| dsutil:241 |00:23:12|5735 |-- Prefsfile set audio mem purge at 33554432 bytes
DIAG| dsutil:244 |00:23:12|5735 |Done with audio caps log
DIAG| AudioSys:325 |00:23:12|5736 |Audio: DirectSound8 setup complete
WARN| mcimovie:47 |00:23:12|5736 |FIXME: can't find file 'Legal1.dxtbz2' referred to from code
ERR | mcimovie:82 |00:23:12|5736 |Mods may not touch legal screens
ERR | log:1826 |00:23:12|5768 |abort() requested from '.\gamelgc\mcimovie.cpp':83
DIAG| log:1827 |00:23:12|5798 |End of line...
(done)

Exception code: 40000015 {Fatal Application Exit}

I've been using a shortcut the old way which will probably explain a few things...

[jack775544]

FE is only too hard for certain levels. In fact I find that as the game goes on it gets easier. However some missions (like Firing Back) are a nightmare without cheating (2 turrets, 2 sabres and a scout vs about 10 Hadeans, and that is just the opening wave ) however further on (particularly in the Hadean campaign) it can get fairly easy.

[Red Devil]

i posted some FE singleplayer dll tweaks in this section; please try them.

[Feared_1]

If you thought FE 1.2 was hard, FE 1.3 will probably be worse from what I've heard.

[subsonic]

Will give them a go, there was no link though where do I dl them?

Here's a log of the save game crash I experience in some FE missions in case it's helpful (One Way Ticket, also happened in the mission next to the pond where the assault is imminent.. forget the name... ):

Code: Select all

Last few battlezone.log lines (may or may not be relevant):
DIAG|             console:819  |01:05:47|1928337|page = 0
DIAG|             console:819  |01:05:47|1928337|entered = 1
DIAG|             console:819  |01:05:47|1928337|page = 0
DIAG|             console:819  |01:05:47|1928337|entered = 1
DIAG|             console:819  |01:05:47|1928337|page = 0
DIAG|             console:819  |01:05:47|1928337|entered = 1
DIAG|             console:819  |01:05:49|1929512|warnrestartchanges = 0
ERR |            FileUtil:103  |01:05:54|1935088|MEMORY TRASHED. Saved 19325522 bytes, max=16777216
(done)

Exception code: C0000005 (ACCESS VIOLATION) WRITING to 00000000h
Message :  Exception
Error occurred at 6/9/2012 01:05:56.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Battlezone II\bzone.exe, run by KlingKlang.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Battlezone II\bzone.exe, run by KlingKlang.
CPU: 4 processor(s), Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2100 CPU @ 3.10GHz
     Intel64 Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7
Process Memory :   1322 MB free out of   2048 MB total
Physical memory:   6076 MB free out of   8158 MB total
Page(swap) file:  12791 MB free out of  16313 MB total
This exe is using 335 MB (119 MB dlmalloc), peak use 365 MB

Fault address:  0118A660 01:00119660 C:\Program Files (x86)\Battlezone II\bzone.exe

Registers:
EAX:DEADBEEF
EBX:00000B82
ECX:00000000
EDX:00000000
ESI:0064C7BC
EDI:0064C7B8
CS:EIP:0023:0118A660
SS:ESP:002B:0064C524  EBP:0064C7A0
DS:002B  ES:002B  FS:0053  GS:002B
Flags:00210246

Call stack:
Address  Offset1  Offset2  Module              SourceFile
0118A660 +0011A660 00000052 bzone            (bzone): : out_close

0118E9D0 +0011E9D0 00000616 bzone            (bzone): : SaveGame

0118E381 +0011E381 0000003C bzone            (bzone): : SaveGame

010C8EDA +00058EDA 0000003E bzone            (bzone): : MissionHandler::DoSaveGame

010C8DF2 +00058DF2 0000006D bzone            (bzone): : MissionHandler::SaveCallback

010C8755 +00058755 0000015C bzone            (bzone): : MissionHandler::SaveSaveGame

010C92EE +000592EE 00000078 bzone            (bzone): : MissionHandler::Command::Process

01276D88 +00206D88 00000018 bzone            (bzone): : VarSys::VarItem::TriggerCallBack

0128A1EC +0021A1EC 0000008C bzone            (bzone): : Console::CmdParse::ParseVarSysOperation

0128A213 +0021A213 00000013 bzone            (bzone): : Console::CmdParse::ParseTokenBuffer

0128A2BB +0021A2BB 0000006B bzone            (bzone): : Console::CmdParse::ProcessCmd

0128A323 +0021A323 00000033 bzone            (bzone): : Console::ProcessCmd

0126D6B1 +001FD6B1 000001A1 bzone            (bzone): : Main::ScopeHandler

0123E108 +001CE108 00000088 bzone            (bzone): : IControl::DoAction

0123E305 +001CE305 00000095 bzone            (bzone): : IControl::HandleEvent

012311BC +001C11BC 000001AC bzone            (bzone): : ICWindow::HandleEvent

0123A72F +001CA72F 0000007F bzone            (bzone): : IControl::NotifyParent

01236BF8 +001C6BF8 00000128 bzone            (bzone): : ICButton::HandleEvent

01243F58 +001D3F58 00000208 bzone            (bzone): : IFace::OnModeChange

[Zero Angel]

The original FE was quite challenging to me when I was a 1.2 player with one year of experience. It was supposed to be challenging. However I never found it impossibly difficult.

I played an early version of FE for 1.3 PB3 a long time ago (before RD took over on the conversion efforts) and it was even more difficult due to improvements to the unit AI. I can only hope that the unit difficulty hasnt increased since then, not for my sake but for the sake of those who will typically play the FE campaign for the first time.

[Zax]

Looks like the saver is throwing up again.

When you go to save a game, make sure to actually click the name of what you want to overwrite in the save menu. It may seem like it already is, but just do it anyway. Else you will end up with multiple files with the same name.