Valve wanted money from me before they'd even let me post on the Steam forums, so to hell with them.

I was looking into porting FleshStorm to this remake but from what I've read this is merely a reskin of BZ2 1.3 , considering how many issues went unresolved with that version of the game from the broken physics and collision detection to the retarded AI, I'm not really sure if there's much point.

Making Fleshstorm was a huge undertaking, which took around 3 years or so to create and any port would probably require me to remake most of the mod again from scratch.

The old FS 3D models would all need to be remade as they were way too low poly and would just look bad now. I doubt the old BZ scriptor DLL's would work any longer so all of the missions would need to be rewritten. Textures and effects etc. would also need to be updated. That's a lot of work and not really something I have the time or resources to devote to.

So apologies to any fans of the old FS mod but please don't expect to see it released for BZCC.

-Lizard

I think so far they fixed alot of the collision detection and physics issues in this release, but if you choose to not port fleshstorm over that is very well your right as its creator and I hope that one day you change your mind.
Best of luck to you.

Well the main issue isn't neccessarily that certain long standing issues still haven't been resolved ( from what I've read the AI pathing is still as bad as it ever was if not a little worse), it's the amount of time and effort involved in updating the mod, if it were a simple case of just updating a few files I wouldn't have a problem with it.

However I am no longer in a position where I can work for a 100 hours plus per week for an extended period of time and for free, I don't think players can really appreciate the huge amount of work that goes into creating a project like this without experiencing it for themselves ( I know I didn't before I started modding).

The other issue is whether BZCC can sustain a sizeable playerbase for long enough to make all that effort worthwhile, the BZ2 community was always rather small but they were dedcated, it remains to be seen whether BZCC can inspire that level of fanatacism and for any period of time.

-Lizard

Hi folks,

Some good news (maybe).

After reading through some of the threads on the Steam forums (it's really annoying not being able to post on there ) I decided to get in contact mith my old buddy BigBadBogie the author of FS2 and we've been discussing the possibility of bringing both mods to BZCC.

He's open to the idea and I feel a bit more comfortable with not being the only dev working on the project, we've also discussed the possibility of releasing some "bonus content", so all in all things are looking a little more positive for FS.

Having said that we are both currently working on other projects (he's working on more than one) so it's going to take a bit of figuring out but I feel things are starting to move in the right direction.

I'll keep you all informed of any future developments.

-Lizard

Hi Lizard! Damn good to see you again!

Around the time of the BZU/matesfamily switchover I started an update of Fleshstorm for PB6 - I'm pretty sure I still have some of the files lying around. If you'd like I can send those over once I find them but I'd also be interested in helping out, particularly regards narrative and sound, (and I would also be able to help advising on the new systems BZCC uses since I was involved in their development).

Fleshstorm's silent cutscenes and lack of voice acting were real immersion-breakers for me and I'd really like to help see both fixed for a remastered release. You created a wonderfully dark take on the Battlezone universe that really capitalised on the horror undertones the series has and I'd hate to see that wallow in the quagmire of 1.3 builds.

Welcome back.
- Ded10c; or, the artist formerly known as AHadley

Hi, good to hear from you,

Thanks for the offer, I'll need all the community support I can get if this thing is to work as my time is somewhat limited.

One of the things I was never happy about in the first mod was the lack of voiceovers, but I just couldn't get enough people to volunteer to be voice actors, providing we can get enough actors and the quality of the acting is good enough then I'm all for it. The acting would have to be of a reasonable standard though, the only thing worse than no voiceovers is bad voiceovers.

I'll also need a full breakdown of all the technical changes in BZCC , for instance has the 3D model format changed ( I can't imagine they are still using the old .XSI format) ?

I'd need to actually buy the game aswell, I've been holding back waiting to see whether BZCC was going to be a success or not.

Other forms of support I'd need would be some kind of forum where contributors can organise and discuss stuff, share files, etc.

I'm sure there'll be a lot of stuff I'd need further down the road, these are just a few things I can think of off the top of my head.

Anyhow if you want to help it'd be most welcome, same thing goes to anyone one else out there with mod making skills.

-Lizard

I did literally every voiceover in FS2 myself so I am happy to do that again for FS1.

- BBB

That's certainly an option, it might be nice to get a little more variety if we can though, maybe some female voices and a mixture of nationalities, either way there'll definately be a few roles for you should you want them.

BZCC uses .FBX now, which arguably is a damn sight easier then .XSI because it's an industry standard and we no longer need endless chains of converters. It's still early days, so developers aside Nielk1 is the current expert regarding the technical details since the modding infrastructure was largely his design. The Heracles Brigade, the team I've been working with on other projects (Rise of the Black Dogs, BZCP, BZ2CP2, etc.), uses Discord to great effect; GeneralBlackDragon is using Skype for FE. I have a distinct preference for the former. We've got some lua experts and skilled artists in the HB server so I can ask if they'd be willing to help out on this if you'd like - and if they're interested that of course means our Discord server would make a good place to keep in touch.

FBX is sweet it's what I've been using for my Unity projects so no worries there, ideally I could do with a sample model so that I can see how things are rigged.

As for discord/skype I'm not sure, I don't have any experience with either, one thing is certain though - we'll need some kind of file hosting service and it'll have to be free of charge. I really don't know what our options are here, I'm sure a lot has changed in the 10 or so years that I've been out of the loop.

Heracles Brigade's full workflow is thus:

We use Discord for communication, which gives us the ability to create as many text and voice rooms as we need for any project on the fly, as well as send small files back and forth between each other. Live video was implemented recently, so we can share our screens directly for observing bugs and showing off content and suchlike. It's also nice that it's not a resource hog like Skype can be.

Google Drive is our platform of choice for design documents, most importantly because it allows simultaneous editing and commenting so we need to reopen documents to see other users' changes. That space limitations are only applied to uploaded files rather than documents created in-situ is a nice bonus.

Finally, we use GitHub for version control. I've only just been introduced to it in the last week (I'm a writer for our current project so my involvement with the product was minimal) so I can't comment too much, but it works nicely and seems less prone to conflicts than other source control systems I've used.