BattleGroup42 - Important info on bug reports etc. news

1. Reporting bugs

Before you start posting a bug:

- Check the forum first ! Your problem might have been reported and solved already.

When you post a bug, please include the following information:

- precise map name (e.g. 4111-rostov)
- game mode (Conquest, Coop, CTF, Objective, TDM)
- online/offline (LAN, over the internet (online dedicated server), local)
- name of the object the bug was found in (as shown in the vehicle icon, the ingame messages and so on)
- precise description of the bug (e.g. missing parts on the vehicle, wrong effects etc.)

Things to avoid in bug posting:

- imprecise posts like "i have massive performance problems on some maps" or "the game lags for me"
- posting the same bug in several topics
- posting a "bug" which has already been declared as "NO BUG" or "ENGINE LIMITATION"
- posting all over the place, please use ONLY the official bug reporting topic
- posting suggestions like "you should change vehicle x to vehicle y on map z"

2. Suggestions for mod changes and additions

Since the BattleGroup mod team is very small, making any kind of suggestion like "create model x" is rather useless. We neither have the manpower nor the time to simply create models from scratch within an acceptable timeframe, and right now we have only one active 2D/3D artist on the team who is even now working on an unfinished model. Even after the last full release (1.7) from October 2010 (not to mention the 1.8 beta from January 2012) we still have a lot of unfinished models on our hard disks which could close several gaps in the mod or replace ancient, low poly and badly textured vehicles. But we don't have the resources to do so.

Suggestions for vehicle setup changes on maps should only be posted if there's enough hard evidence (historical documents, pictures, video footage and the like) to justify changes. We're always taking great precaution to only use historically accurate vehicles, guns, ships etc. on our maps, but due to the lack of certain equipment we have to use stopgaps every now and then.

In order to keep the typical BattleGroup gameplay intact, we won't make major changes to the core elements of the mod. This includes our damage system as well. BG42 is neither a hardcore simulator (which by the way is impossible with this engine anyway) nor a pure arcade shooter. Game elements you might have seen in later games of the Battlefield series are mostly impossible to do in Battlefield 1942 since the engine doesn't support them (like bots flying helicopters properly, using handweapons as a passenger in a vehicle etc.)

3. Weapons animations:

We have no one on the team who is familiar with those animations, and doing new/reworked animations for weapons is complicated, extremely error-prone (up to making the game unstartable!) and very time consuming. Messing around with them would therefore be a very bad idea. We had to use existing animations from Battlefield 1942 and both XPacks because of that, and only a very small portion of our handheld weapons has custom animations made by former/inactive team members like Senshi.

4. Questions/demands about adding Coop to maps

Not every map in our mod is suited for Coop mode. Depending on the map layout (terrain, static objects like houses etc.), the gameplay and several other factors it's simply impossible or useless to add Coop mode. All of our maps who are suitable for Coop mode do have Coop mode, and those who aren't suited won't get Coop mode for above reasons. So please don't post any requests for adding Coop to any map. In fact, it's possible that we even need to remove Coop from some maps since it never worked right.

Ok guys, that's it for now. Please remember the things i told you, especially regarding bug reports, and you'll do the team a great favour :-)

Sarge31FR
Coder-in-Chief