Battlezone Chat Transcript for February 07, 1998 Area-S : The Real Time Warzone http://area-s.gamestats.com Battlezone Center

[DrunkOM] Welcome yet again [markin] I'd like to thank everone for coming. [DrunkOM] Our guest is Mike Arkin as usual. We will be taking questions for a little bit, then open it up today. [markin] I'd also like to thank all of you that have been helping us out lately. [markin] We are now days away from code release. [DrunkOM] [Agony[BZ]] How will both sides be balanced? I what areas will the CCA be stronger than the NSDF? Where will the NSDF have an advantage over the Soviets? [markin] I think that this is really a unit by unit thing. [markin] Basically as far as we can tell both sides are balanced well. [markin] Some units are stronger then others, but unlike a top down game, our strongest unit is.... [markin] The &Yhuhdfuf [markin] Just kidding. [DrunkOM] Hehe, That's a cool name [markin] Te strongest unit is the one that you are driving. [markin] Much different then Starcraft in that sense. [DrunkOM] [SLICK-] When will the two strategy teams play each other? Is the HEAT "tournament" going to be played before the code is finished and the game is released? [markin] We will announce what we are going to do about that soon. [markin] The heat stuff finally works well now. [DrunkOM] [thepuma] In the playtesting multiplayer how big of a role does sniping play? [markin] It really depends on the player. [markin] But you will notice that we added a sniper on/off switch. [markin] We did find that sniping could really shift things a bit. [markin] So we also made certian units not snipable like the walkers. [markin] It was just too easy to snipe them. [DrunkOM] [Sagan] Are there Time limits to all the missions, or could we just take the senic route to the Rusky base? [markin] In single player, the time limit is the natural time limit that warfare inflicts. [markin] You snooze, you loose. [DrunkOM] [thepuma] will BZ be hacker friendly, like quake? [markin] hack in the sense of cheating? [DrunkOM] I think so [markin] no, certianly not. [DrunkOM] What about for making mods? [markin] We have all the important files compressed and encripted and as well we CRC all the files that matter. [markin] Those of you in the MP beta, you can scpre big points with me if you figure out how to hack the game. [markin] do it and we will fix it. This ain't gona be another Diablo. heh [markin] In terms of making maps, there will be an editor included!!! [DrunkOM] [Loomer] Could you explain a little how the team games work in Battlezone? [markin] Err, no. [markin] Sorry, I have been busy playing simgle player and DM that I have not spent much time in strat games. oh ok [markin] But I will find out more about it for next time. [DrunkOM] [Boogiem0n] do you intend on making early rushes to the enemy recyler less effective? kinda like the grunt rush approach [markin] Well that is al down to playing style. [markin] All you really need to do to have some basic defense is to build a single turret. [markin] unlike top down games, you always have one good strong unit at the begining of the game to defend your base. [markin] Unless you suck. [markin] Then you are dead. [DrunkOM] [Sagan] Is there going to be a way to reconfigure the mouse buttons they same way as the keyboard? I didn't see this in the demo. [markin] Yes, sure. [markin] The demo was just done before all that stuff was in. [DrunkOM] When will the beta test or play balancing end? [markin] Soon, probably next weekend. [markin] We are trying to code release this week. [DrunkOM] [thepuma] can you choose what unit you start out in? [markin] Yes, absolutly. [markin] And the MP vehicles are different from the normal SP vehicles. [DrunkOM] [Boogiem0n] are there any plans to add computer controled enemy teams to the stratgy mode? [markin] Not currently, but we are thinking about it. [markin] There is just not enough time. [DrunkOM] [Leviticus] At what stage of development do you think BattleZone would be at right now, if you had not landed the I76 engine? [markin] Good question. [markin] I'm not sure if the game would have taken longer to make, but it would not be as good. [markin] As much as people rag on I76, it allowed us to have a prototype of the game up and running very quickly. [markin] We were able to prove what 9months ago was seen as a risky idea. everything is a risky idea these days > =] [markin] Then selectivly we were able to rewrite what we needed to rewrite to make the game look and play better. [markin] We completly redid the terrain, the renderer, the physics, the sound (with A3D 3D sound) and the shell... [markin] I'm not sure what is left. [DrunkOM] [Agony[BZ]] How are the MP vehicles different from the SP vehicles? [markin] Well, we have 2 or 3 varients of some. [markin] There is a AG version of some vegicles which is the Andrew Goldman limited edition model. [markin] ALso, there are Black Dog units. The Black Dogs are the rogue american unit that went a little crazy. [markin] Their vehicles have completly different weapon loadouts. [markin] My Favorite right now is the Gollum, which is the Soviet walker. [markin] Although we are toneing it down a bit to make it not so powerful. [markin] any more questions? [DrunkOM] [Sagan] Any plans for "power ups" like acceleration or faster turning speed? [markin] No, but there are loads of weapons. [markin] I think there are about 25. [DrunkOM] [Blokez] What type of coffee is served in the Activision coding lair? [markin] Err, Jolt cola. [DrunkOM] Coool [DrunkOM] That's good coffee :) [markin] ANd a big machine full of goodies. Wasn't jolt banned? [DrunkOM] I don't think so [markin] And free Pizza every day 8-( [DrunkOM] Pepperoni and Garlic? [DrunkOM] [SLICK-] I haven't looked into it much, but can you assign your wingmen to use their weapons in an effective way? For example, if they're attacking a base will they understand to use cannon ammo instead of machine gun ammo? [markin] Well, we have tried to keep the units as smart as posible so you do not have to give them them really specific orders. [markin] The AI uses the weapons that it knows how to use effectivly. [DrunkOM] [Captain_G] if you were good with the I76 map editor, will you be able to switch to the battlezone map editor easily? [markin] I have never seen the I76 editor, but ours is completly different. [markin] Has anyone here used the BZ editor? [DrunkOM] I think Rapala is our only editor so far [markin] rapala? care to comment on the ease of use? I've used it a little It was sort of hard to learn, and I have not gone very far into it. But once you learn it, it is very easy to make huge mountains and hills and stuff. It is somewhat similar to the way the Dark Reign editor works although in total 3d yeah, you sort of Paint the elevations Im going to have pics and a quick tutorial on how to use it on my page soon. [markin] I thought it was really simple. We are writting some instructions that will really help. [DrunkOM] [missionyr] In most cases it always seems that when a game is made by a company that company is already planning a sequal before the original comes out. Are there any plans for a Battlezone 2 or even an Expansion pack? [markin] That you will have to wait and see. [markin] I will say that the best selling games usually have sequels. [DrunkOM] [Blokez] If you paint the elevations, could you model in Vista and export as a DEM and stick in the editor? [markin] No, but I bet someone will make a converter! 8-) [markin] It really is easy to use. And with one key you can switch between the editor and the live game. [markin] So you can make a ramp and jump into the game to test it out and see if it is right. [DrunkOM] [Alien_Fet] Can you ali with other people in multi play? [markin] Yes absolutly. [DrunkOM] [WeirdoX] I'm assuming you guys are talkin' about the map editor -- on an average, how big are the map files? [markin] I'm not sure, but I do not think very big. Maybe a few 100K. [markin] hold I'll check. [markin] looks like anywhere from 150-700K unzipped. [markin] I'm sure that we will have new maps on our site like DR. [DrunkOM] The editing question? [markin] huh? [DrunkOM] [Ramius] how easy is it to create mod's, TCs, and PCs for the game? [markin] I guess we will see! 8-) [markin] I'm sure that any game that is popular enough, someone will make all that stuff. [markin] Look at doom, there was no editor, but people hacked it up and made their own. [markin] I played alien doom for weeks, I though it was the greatest thing in the world! [DrunkOM] [Eutropian] What features which you wanted to get into the fullver of BZ won't make release? Will you include them in patch or expansion form? [markin] Well, every game has features that do not make it in. [markin] Not always for time either. SOme features could ruin the balance or slow the game over the internet. [markin> Soem features, we just can not agree if they would be good or not. [DrunkOM] Alright. That's all for this week. We'd like to thank Mike for coming out again this week. [markin] We will have to see. Right now, we are jsut trying to close the last few bugs and ship the darn thing. [End of transcript]

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