1.3 Ideas

[SEige]

I have thought a little bit about how the f keys effect command and I was thinking of a way to improve the command interface. 1st I think that to improve the command interface it should be a little more advanced.

Like in Battlezone When you access you units you can pick from a list
Offensive Units, Defensive units, Utility, etc.

I think bringing this back and having them on say the #4,5 and 6 keys would be cool to have and from this list you can group these units to the F keys for quick select. this would allow for a much easier command interface I think

And the extra Number would be for base defenses like the gun towers and things of that nature, which would be nice to have fo say an enemy takes out your power, you can command a guntower to "Shutdown" therefore making it possible for other towers or buildings to work. In fact it would be nice to be able to select any building bringing up an option to shut it down or power up if power gets taken out to restore power to other guntowers or other base defenses. In doing this however say you shut down a tech center you will not be able to build things like blast or if you have a unit in the factory that has blast then w/e weapon requireing tech will be returned to its default weapon for that category until the tech is brought back online. Then without having to go back into the factory and reprogram the weapon it will simply revert back to that option.

I also was thinking that with the weapons linking it should be enabled inside of a factory and you should be able to command an ai unit to weapon link. say it would cost an extra 10 scrap to program units to have weapons linked when they are built by simply have a box above each of the weapons slots with that you can "X" or check.

Along with the weapon linked ai units they must still have intellegence to use it, like say an ai rocket tank with hornet. if the rkt tank is just gaurding an area it will use hornet until the enemy is in range of it to use the shads as well as hornet. then of course it will use both. if you tell the rocket tank to pursue a target it will chase after it until it is within range of using both weapons that are linked.

However, there should also be another option that each unit should have when it is applicable like for a rkt tank. You can force morph a scion unit why not have an option for some ai units where you can change them when they have a weapon linked like a rkt tank. Have an "Assault" option which will put units into assualt mode. they can make some type of formation. and if they have both an assault and a normal combat wep, they will auto use the assault wep on w/e target they are commanded to hit without turning off weapon linking.

3rd I was thinking of some neat new ideas for new types of base defenses. such as an EMP field Generator that will effect enemy units only. When an enemy unit tries to move through the EMP generator field it will hit a wall of emp and be temproarily shut down for a few seconds giving defenders a much higher chance at succeeding in thwarting a rush. of course requiring a tech to build this though.

Edit: I believe that the EMP Generator would without a doubt lay peoples minds to rest at the idea that scion are overpowered thus completely leveling out the playing field. of course the scions will need some type of defensive structure of their own...more to follow...

I will post more as I think of things.

[Zax]

Your ideas would probably be welcomed more over http://forum.bz3genesis.com/bz3/

BZ2 has been around a long time, and interface changes of the like you speak of will not happen, period.

[Ded10c]

AI linked weapons is something I would love to see.

The rest of the suggestions, however, might be changing the game a little too much and therefore be best left for mods and Recycler Variants - though as far as I'm aware they are all possible.

[Zero Angel]

AI linked weapons are possible in BZ2. It's just that none of the standard ships use the linking-enabled AI types. Well, except for the missle scout AI, but that one can't really take advantage of linking since it only has rockets and specials.

Anyways, this is an AI enhanced version of the 'thunderbolt' (deathmatch) scout.
http://zeroangel.overminddl1.com/misc_f ... coutdm.odf

If the file is put into addon as-is, it will greatly boost the aggressiveness and fighting ability of the AI 'thunderbolt' scouts in DM.

However putting it into the addon folder without renaming it first will also cause bad assets with other players until it is removed or renamed.

[GSH]

Siege- you're welcome to propose (and better yet implement) ideas for mods, but the ideas you've put forward so far lie purely in the mod category. Stock gameplay is going to remain close to BZ2 1.0's stock gameplay. I get enough complaints that singleplayer is broken; if changes like the above go in, SP will be even more and more broken. Plus, I generally like the POLA strategy, where sweeping changes are not enabled by default.

-- GSH

[SEige]

Siege- you're welcome to propose (and better yet implement) ideas for mods, but the ideas you've put forward so far lie purely in the mod category. Stock gameplay is going to remain close to BZ2 1.0's stock gameplay. I get enough complaints that singleplayer is broken; if changes like the above go in, SP will be even more and more broken. Plus, I generally like the POLA strategy, where sweeping changes are not enabled by default.

-- GSH

I have not much experience with modding besides a few things I've experimented with.

I am going for a degree in computer game design/programming, but im not to that point just yet.

This is my passion, Bz2 is my passion.

[Nielk1]

I know a good bit of the list you gave can be done via modding. The odder bits like shutdown of buildings can be done by DLL trickery. That said, a lot of people are working on their own mods so at the current time to do so is a personal endeavor.

[General BlackDragon]

Actually, the UI factory and ai weaponlinking "smartness" isn't possible with modding. Thats like half his list

[S.cavA.rmyG.en]

Actually, the UI factory and ai weaponlinking "smartness" isn't possible with modding. Thats like half his list

the AI can be done with new odfs the comand of factory and such can be done to.
use a rec. class on all the buildings and make it so they can't move that way you can order them to undeploy to save power as for the reverting of weapons that will need DLL help.
the hud chages will take the most work next to the DLLs as it needs new .cfg s and textures to look right.
bottem line is it will be a long peace of work to get running and realy I dout it is worth the time.

the AI and a RV could be done in a fue weeks if you don't mide for fiting the hud.

[Nielk1]

My preference for universal toggling is a master trigger factory that effects the targeted structure.