Battlezone Forums

After a full 8 MONTHS of lying dormant, and lots of I'm pleased to announce that the Unofficial Expansion Pack you have heard so much (or recently, so little) about is going to grace you all with its first public release.

The latest version of the Expansion Pack (Build #499 - no word of a lie), hasn't seen any real development action since the 24th of December 2010, according to our SVN system. As Development and Project leader, quite frankly, i've had enough of it sitting in limbo and need some solid motivation to work on this project again. As much as I respect the long-term intentions of the rest of the Dev team, its taking too damn long. The sheduled public release has been stripped of all its non-neccesary parts into a single installation, which will contain most of the original planned features.

Previously, we planned to have our own installer which we could release updates via a cleverly linked up SVN system and launcher program, but with no progress on any such thing in 8 months (wayyy out of my capabilities), the Pre-Release currently uses a similar system to what you are all used to with mods such as G66 and QF, a .cfg file to launch it. This means that despite previous intentions, this release of the UEP is NOT designed to run alongside other mods for now. Modder_Data has been removed from this release to condense it, and because assets are subject to change in the not-too-distant future, I strongly recommend not trying to lift them into your current projects.

There will be bugs, there will be issues, there will be problems. We aren't going to find them all on their own, so this release has two purposes.

1 - To get some content out to the public, so you can finally have fun with it, and so it keeps your interest...
2 - For the players to report back as many bugs as they find, which will all be listed publicly and scheduled to be fixed.

As the Pre-Release Version becomes more and more tested, I will release Title-Updates, which will fix as many problems as possible. These changes will also be made to our internal SVN build of the project as we go, so that when we finally get around to releasing the final build with all its fancy installers and nik-naks, it will be ready. Consider this a public-beta, but with a large list of known bugs.

I'm setting the WORST-CASE SCENARIO release date two weeks from this post. I'm actually hoping to get it out much sooner than that, and once its ready i'll confirm a proper date. I've been working on this for the last few days, getting it integrated into the latest public patch. As always its a little tedious, but its getting close, so I feel now is the time to announce it. I'm not going to expose the full content list yet, because it may end up changing depending on the circumstances, but a good 90% of the content is planned to be in this build.

A lot of its sub-parts are incomplete, such as the warship variant which still needs a Scion counterpart etc. All I want you guys (the public) to do is download and play it to your hearts content, but try to report as many problems or issues as you can, and i can get on fixing them straight away.

Heres a bunch of preview videos and images to keep you busy until then

All aboard the hype train!

Super ultra mega YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am happy to know that this will finally see the light of day.

It wasn't laying dormant, I was working on it here and every time I tried to contact you I never heard a single thing back.

I am already looking at submitting many of the maps, with permission, for the next 1.3 because of how this was going f*ck nowhere as I was the only person left even touching it.

Basically, I will not be helping you shove any of this out the door. You go missing and then you suddenly appear and set a release date, it's ridiculous. Hell I doubt the most recent stuff is even on the SVN, if the SVN even still exists. I have been handling fixes to the maps and small updates and up-keeping ALONE for long enough that I want to kill you.

I find it amazing you do something like this without even bothering to consult me on it when I have been the one person keeping it taped together in the first place.

So you know what, go do whatever the f*ck you want with it. I am officially having a separate branch and direction. Appel is helping with permissions for the maps for 1.3 proper either from the authors or as part of their BZ2Maps 'licensing' and I am making all the maps perfect in 1.3.

I warn everyone that whatever does get released probably won't work right seeing the complete lack of testing in this mod, let alone 1.3 itself. Why the hell I bothered to put up with how the 'leader' of this mod has acted I don't know. TJ, if you want my help on anything, ANYTHING, even the **** I was already planning on doing for whatever mod you are hopped up on now, you need to earn it back.

EDIT: Damn good thing you took modder data out since some of it was not releasable by terms of use and some of it is my hellish hacky hard work hex editing MSH files and record files there of that would make most ppl's eyes bleed.

EDIT 2: And you need to fix your half assed Dark Planet / Core fixes in 1.3. You got the ODF flags WRONG in half of them and I am damn tired of fixing your messes at this point.

EDIT 3: And technically this will be the 2nd public release, maps were put into public beta and no one tested them.

Why not release UEP modularly?

For example:

UEP Module 1 -- UEP Maps (Released)
UEP Module 2 -- UI (next release)
UEP Module 3 -- Shiny Stuff (future release)

Just get the UI and stock-compatible stuff prepped for release long before the date, and then release the stuff that would otherwise cause BA at a later time.

At least doing it that way, you have the bulk of your stuff released without certain things holding up the development -- and it still gives room to add further things in (ie: maps, more ui stuff) during a later release. It just seems bad to have one or two 'killer features' holding up the release of an otherwise good and usable mod, when they just be released later.

It doesnt matter if something is at 95% finished. If it doesn't get finished then it shouldn't hold up the release.

Zero Angel wrote:Why not release UEP modularly?

For example:

UEP Module 1 -- UEP Maps (Released)
UEP Module 2 -- UI (next release)
UEP Module 3 -- Shiny Stuff (future release)

Just get the UI and stock-compatible stuff prepped for release long before the date, and then release the stuff that would otherwise cause BA at a later time.

At least doing it that way, you have the bulk of your stuff released without certain things holding up the development -- and it still gives room to add further things in (ie: maps, more ui stuff) during a later release. It just seems bad to have one or two 'killer features' holding up the release of an otherwise good and usable mod, when they just be released later.

It doesnt matter if something is at 95% finished. If it doesn't get finished then it shouldn't hold up the release.

That was always my plan, related to the Terms of Use of some of the assets, for example, many maps were contingent that it be possible to have the maps with minimal other additions if so wished.

Can't say how it will come out now.

Why do I have a feeling today will bring great flames?

Iron_Maiden wrote:Why do I have a feeling today will bring great flames?

It's tomorrow for me now, and with that, I really should sleep.

TheJamsh, feel free to upload it to bzscrap.org and hand out links

I knew some wouldn't be happy about it, so let me explain my position. (And yes, I'm obviously updating it for 1.3.6.2, properly. I'm not a **** moron contrary to common belief).

- I'm about 4 weeks away from starting uni again.
- I'm now working full time, which won't change when i get back to uni.
- I'm currently going through the tedious process of setting up my first buisness. As a skint student its insanely difficult, and seeing as I'm doing all the advertisement, promotional stuff, building the studio all by myself, time I have for this game is somewhat limited at the moment. I love the game, but its damn well dying. I want this out NOW to stop it from going under without my having contributed anything.
- 4th and final, the only game i'll have any time for post-september 20th is Gears of War 3. I'm as addicted to that franchise as i am to this one. At least If I have some solid reasons to stick around and draw me to these forums too, I will do it.

Dogfight mode in particular is the most MP fun I've ever had in this game, not sure if its my biased opinion or not, but its damn good, and others should get the chance experience it. I still think the pack even in beta stages will draw in some old and new players just to have fun. Thats what its about, its not about UBER quality control, its purely about fun. Thats why I started modding, surely thats what the end product should reflect..? Since BZUniverse went under, this community has PERISHED. Nobody even talks about BZ on a BZ forum anymore, its slowly turning into a political forum and just a casual place to chat, nothing remotely BZForum-ish about it. The game is **** DYING, and its about time some of us woke up and accepted it.

But, I have NO time for this anymore, and I'm blown if I end up not visiting the forums for weeks on end like i've been forced to do, to have never released anything. Hell I've just found my inbox has messages from N1 and AHadley from several months ago that I've never even read. I know nobody else has time for it, because I posted about doing a release in the "Expansion Pack" thread that has been around only a week or so, yet nobody bothered to contact me when I mentioned all this then.

If it hasn't been lying dormant, fair enough, but I haven't seen any of these changes brought to the SVN which is the one that matters. The SVN DOES still exist, and nobodies done **** all with it. Since getting everybody involved in the project, its grown for sure, but everybodies gone off to do their own sodding things and not actually do the work in the SVN. All I get back in response is "im doing this, because this will happen, and its for the best, thats all you need to know". How is this remotely my project anymore when i've got no SODDING IDEA whats happening!? More to the point, how can I work on a project that I don't have the latest version of? Those assets have been sat in a complete clusterFUCK of a folder arrangement for 8 months. I couldn't work on it because I have NO IDEA where anything even is. its taken me the best part of three days to get all the files OUT of the folder structure and into a useable PAK file without any duplicate problems. THIS has been the reason I stopped, everybody went off, did their own separate ****, never actually finished it and just left it! This is why I prefer to work alone. (I still don't know what the rearrangement was for. I'm sure in the long run it was for the best intentions but those intentions haven't surfaced even now, other than "it will be modular. end")

Flame war aside, this release won't bear any similar structure to the final UEP. Thats the good part, this is a stripped-down beta, which I can use to get some real work done. I think the branch into alternative directions was made months ago, so its old news to me. The original plan was to contribute fixes to the SVN but seeing as changes are happening all over the place that I'm not remotely aware of or have access to... not sure i'll be using it afterall. As for modular released, I would have liked to have done that as well. Two problems with that thus far:

a) Things like Dogfight mode have been ready for release for MONTHS before development even stopped! Thats been shippable for about a year at least. In fact, most of the damn assets have been shippable for ages. Its the over-magnificated attention to quality control and making sure every asset is 100% perfect in theory as well as practice. Its too damn much. It works, don't **** with it.

b) Nobody likes being told they have all these great things coming to them, then only getting a mere portion of it. That puts a big downer on the overall reception of the release. This whole thing started as a recycler variant and a new butched MP mode, but it worked. Im beginning to think I'd release it as that and be done with it. I announced this pack over three years ago if memory serves correctly, three **** years for a few recycler variants, coverted maps and what is basically a simple variant of deathmatch.

Regardless, its happening. I'm not stunting another release for a load of changes I've never seen, not to put others increasingly off the project with all the cancellations and whatnot. I haven't "just decided" randomly out of the blue, i've thought about this and what I'm doing asset wise for a long time. For the first time since i've been here, im going against recommendations and one of my bloody projects is going to see the light of day. It might piss a few people off, but I've reached the pissed off point with it all now too. BBB has the right idea about modding, do it yourself. Thats why he's released two mods in the time its taken 10 people to build half of one. Can't argue with that logic. Regardless of how un-organized his assets may be by our standards, it WORKS, and its FUN. Thats enough for me.

TheJamsh wrote:b) Nobody likes being told they have all these great things coming to them, then only getting a mere portion of it. That puts a big downer on the overall reception of the release. This whole thing started as a recycler variant and a new butched MP mode, but it worked. Im beginning to think I'd release it as that and be done with it. I announced this pack over three years ago if memory serves correctly, three **** years for a few recycler variants, coverted maps and what is basically a simple variant of deathmatch

Then hyping it up that much was a bad idea. Releasing it somewhat early is what's called cutting your losses. Not everyone is willing to wait another year to see a fully polished mod -- and not everyone is even going to believe that it will *ever* see release otherwise. Look what Slaor did with EPIC, it needed a lot of polishing but he basically said "to heck with it" and released it anyways, bugs and all. IIRC, the reception of EPIC has been mostly positive and has given him lots of feedback/beta testing that he can use to improve the next incarnation of it.

^^ Exactly my plan.

Happy to see this. The Torlan vid didnt work with my google chrome but it was worth to start the firefox

Glad to see this released. Will play and report bugs.

And btw Dog Fight is far from complete. The DLL is missing 95% of the needed function let alone that it needs to be updated for the new source base. Have fun with that.