Comments - Coxxon

TOTAL COMMAND IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR BATTLEZONE COMBAT COMMANDER (2018) THROUGH ITS STEAM WORKSHOP.

Nah, I didn't work on the original. Thanks though, glad you like it. I've been trying to "push" the look of the Furies. This one looks pretty good in game with the tentacles animated and the back half of the body rotating.

It's not a bug. I rearranged the campaign so that you play all the missions, but complete the ISDF first.

After over a year-and-half after restarting this this mod, all of the Main Battle Tanks are completed. See production renders in images.
Next up will be the minelayers.

I'm aware of the aircraft, and some of the other things that didn't get into the game, and some of it may show up, but I still have a lot to do for the things that need to be in the mod, so I can't really make a public commitment to specifics at this time.

The 2001 version had the working title of Battlezone Total Conversion, but that wasn't entirely the case. I liked the BZTC initials, and I tried some new names, but decided on calling it Total Command since it will be the first mod, that in an -initial- release is intended to give the player control of all the canonical races that appear in BZ1, plus some factions, in a single addon mod for BZ2 intended to be compatible with the existing BZ2 races.

On FE and FS, since they are other people's, I tend to be uncomfortable about modding other's mods. As well since I don't have any of the original artwork or assets for them, it's pretty difficult to redo. But who knows, maybe one day they'll get (re)done again.

Thanks, glad you like the mod.

I never liked the picking either. It kind of messes up the canonical story with the contradictory endings. I think the orig devs or the publisher had it done as a sort of gimmick.

Okay, put on a burst of energy and did all the comm towers, see screenshots.
Next up will be main battle tanks ... finally. :)

Just added gun tower images, and have already started on the Comm Towers.

Added images of gun towers, now player-controllable like BZ2 gun towers.
Next up will be Comm Towers.

Image of some selected power generators posted. There are 21 pgens with their race variants. Just one pic this time cuz, I don't want to show everything I've done. There should be a few surprises. :)

Each generator has animations and/or effects (unfortunately they don't show up well in the screenshot). Solar draws in sunlight. Lightening flashes and pulses with electricity. Wind sucks in ... well wind.

Next up are going to be gun towers to make use of all that new power.

I've still been building power generators. Since BZ1 has 3 for each race, and mine has 4 base races, plus 3 variant races ... um math ... that's like 21 power generators. I'm almost done though and will post a few screens soon(ish). Also there's a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes that isn't really applicable to screen captures. So stuff is happening, it just sometimes takes me a while to be able to show any of it.

Я использую Google translate, поэтому не знаю, работает ли это.
Мод не локализуется на других языках, поэтому он может не работать для версий игры за пределами США или на других языках, кроме английского.

Чтобы установить: поместите содержимое zip-файла (папки и файла конфигурации) в основную папку battlezone II.
YA ispol'zuyu Google translate, poetomu ne znayu, rabotayet li eto.
Mod ne lokalizuyetsya na drugikh yazykakh, poetomu on mozhet ne rabotat' dlya versiy igry za predelami SSHA ili na drugikh yazykakh, krome angliyskogo.

Chtoby ustanovit': pomestite soderzhimoye zip-fayla (papki i fayla konfiguratsii) v osnovnuyu papku battlezone II.

Make sure you/your force destroy all the segments and the ramps - everything. You should probably start with the marked segment first. Then Shab after several seconds pause should start talking and tell you to go to the AAN base. I just played it like that, and it worked. A lot of the stock scripts can still be wonky, and even wonkier with my models (for some unknown reason).

Wow, that's weird. I don't know why it's doing that. I've posted a patch fix that everyone can use on this mission that works around the problem.

I'd stick with the longer head, it helps to set it appart from the Golem, and as you said, starts to tie it in to the rest of the CRA. Besides, people tend to get stuck on what they already have, so it takes them time to come around. Mess with its shape some more, maybe try a basic teture to flesh it out.
On seperating the foot, it wouldn't be a drastic change in appearance, I believe I did it for the 2000 Golem model. The foot would still be flush with the body where it connects to it. But it allows for some realistic rotation of the foot, that allows it to get "traction."
Not sure if Golem would be good with tank tread feet, mainly because I wouldn't be able to animate the treads I suspect by combining treads with a walker class ... though I could turn it into an assault tank class ...hmmmm. One way to go would be to make the feet true balls/wheels. Sorta of like a Segway. As well I've seen a number of Japanese mechs use treads or wheels on the feed. Heavy Gear, a contemporary game of the original BZII did this. Also the blue spider tanks in Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex anim (also thinking of the recent movie here) have wheels on their feet, so there is precedent for the idea.
On the turn rate, it always felt unrealistic to me that the entire model would rotate so quickly. So I'm planning on sticking with the slower rate of BZII, and mainly have the heads turn faster. On the sasquatch, the entire upper body was/will be the "head" turret.
Continue on with your idea for the CRA. It's definitely going to be a while before I get to mine, so you have time to finish it before I "steal" it. ;)

okay yeah, I generally like that direction for the CRA walker. Might remove the very end tail-tip piece, and move the Dragon style sidepods(?) a little farther back so that they are naturally angled beyond the end of the body.
I also like the longer head, though if it was to get a BZTC version, it would need some geometry for the cannon recoils - maybe inset along the bottom edge, rather than directly under(?). Also, I plan on separating out the "ball" feet from the legs on the CCA Golem, and would want the same on the CRA walker, but could probably keep the toe split. Also, while I wouldn't round out everything, I would have more chamfering of edges in a higher-poly version.

I'll take a look at the dropbox links

Yup, I'm aware of the potential for eyepoint and weapon HP placement problems. I can't remember if I had a problem with the Sasquatch in the 2000 version of the mod, but most likely I would just move the eyepoint out of the head (my ver) and lower into the chest.

Yup, I’m generally aware of the notable size difference of the walkers. It’s going to be a good while before I get to them, but it seems the Sasquatch is around the Atilla size, and the Golem is close(er) to the Mauler size. I figure I’ll try to keep the size difference on those two. The main thing I’ll be looking at is firing height – ie. Do both their weapons have roughly the same ground clearance height for gameplay balance.

On the CRA Golem, I like the orig texture version better, but I also will likely work to keep the new texture a bit more in line with the other remodeled units – at least have some gold and red in it, though not necessarily like BZ98R has done. That said, all three walkers will receive some level of appearance overhaul. I’ve never liked the chicken leg look of the sasquatch for one. I’d also like to have some differences in the CCA and CRA, though I haven’t really focused on what that might be yet, so if you have ideas, I’d be willing to look at / read them, and give you credit for what I might use.

"the CCA space suit isn't really designed with it in mind" - Well, yeah, this is kind of the crux of the problem. Its bulky and view restrictive, so having them lay on their stomach wouldn't work either.

Yes, but then that leaves the pilot unrealistically close to the rockets, which would be launching in front of their face. Thank goodness for a helmet.:)
As for the position shown, the complaint I received referenced view slits, presumably the ones in the texture, which is what I used for reference.

As a basis, I was using a very old "naked" human model that I made based off some HL2 models I had at the time.
I did adjust the waist/torso on the NSDF/CCA, but I'm still not happy with it. You could be right about the torso.

On the cockpit shape thing, in profile, for the same length and height of a cockpit canopy, an angled canopy is larger in the amount of space it takes up if you don't "knock off the corners" - which would make it more rounded. Or think of a circle inside a square. The square would have extra space at the corners. Granted, the size increase wouldn't be that hugely different, and I've never noticed the canopies being a problem when actually playing with the units in the game.

Over the past several months I've received some off-board communications with strong, uhm, let's call it ... feedback about parts of my redesigns. I also assume at least some of the others who stop by this site may have some of the same reactions. So I thought I'd address it publicly, and hopefully give all of you more insight into how I'm making design choices.
Part of my redesign efforts have been:
A - to bring all the units and buildings into the same scale within their type of unit,
B - and of a fairly realistic size when compared to the pilot models (player avatar),
C - while still keeping them close to their original size.
D-Z - This creates one heck of a balancing act to manage.
So I've posted some pictures meant to address the complaints I've received about cockpit size and shape which is the biggest thing affecting the change in appearance for many of the vehicles.
In short, the original BZ pilots were all way too big, and the vehicles were too small. Many players may not have noticed or cared about this, but as someone who's drawn, designed, and modeled sci-fi spaceships and vehicles for a long time, it's one of those things I've been particularly interested in seeing fixed in the Battlzone series.

Please see the six "Putting Square Pegs in Round Holes" pictures in the images section.

Have recently finished up the NSDF and CCA solar arrays. They look pretty good with the added animations, and light effects. I'm in the middle of the CRA solar power and hope to have it finished in the next few days.

True, the game says humans were harvested, so yeah it makes sense that they were also used in the original Furies, but I also figure that in reality, the Cthonians would’ve also put themselves into the Furies in some form. Besides, I figure the “bio” part of bio-metal is mainly Cthonian, so they would have kind of been in the Furies anyway.
On the BZII manual thing about the ISDF, it could be a typo, but since it’s in there, I’ve always looked at it as the very early ISDF. I’ve also always seen the Fury-Scion rebellion, with the Battle of Long Ravine, as taking place after the events of BZ1, so again there would have been time for the ISDF to be formed. The Fury-Scions were specifically during Braddock’s Project Pedigree mentioned in the BZII game, which could've have been started under the NSDF and lasted through the formation of the ISDF, so IMO, this was a whole separate “Fury” conflict.
Though granted the BZ1/BZII timeline has never been absolute, so there could be multiple interpretations of events.

Also, glad you like the models.

Finally got around to posting some production renders of the missile tanks.
Like everything with this mod, I got caught up in a bunch of other things so even though they've been done for a couple of months, it took me a while to post pictures.
Other things are progressing as well. I've tested out the Nasty Surprise mission, with ISDF units standing in for stuff that's not completed yet, and it worked pretty well. I also had to build a lot of prop models - which can be more than just props when you play it. :) Definitely a more intense battle than the original or Redux version.
Next up, power generators ... lots and lots, and OMG, lots of power generators.

Not quite a masterpiece yet, but I hope it will be. I've been getting good results in the BZII game, so it should be fun to play.
Thanks!

Thanks!

Ideally, I'd like to have a few Fury missions, but with so many to recreate, I may not get to them. I'll just have to see how things go.