I'm curious... is there any way that a built-in mod manager with a sufficient size of mods already included be an impossibility for future patches? A recyler variant option has been added to the original game; wouldn't a mod option follow a similar principle?
What about adding a lot of the maps that the community makes? Certainly that wouldn't be too hard.
The main reasons these maps and mods don't get used so much is because they are hard to find and complicated for people such as myself who aren't as accustomed with the workings of Battlezone and it's many mods.
Maps, sure.. so long as permission is granted before they are packaged in. I don't think that'd be a bad idea anyway.
Mods, IMO, no. Modifications and addon packs, I believe should stay separate so that people can choose to download them if they'd like to or not. Most of what can be found is on BZU and BZ2MD for links and how-to's, and others are self-extracting anyhow. I think BZ2, in essence, should only just be stock files, while modifications remain as separate downloads.
It wont happen. Mods should definately stay separate, and realistically so should maps.
The expansion pack adds nearly 100 maps anyway, which is majority of what the community has released, along with some new ones. SOme of them however have a LOT of custom assets, and thats a lot more stuff to add to the game.
Aren't those "new" maps just maps that you've made? Your part of the community right?
Mostly bzscrap has everything and 1.2 mappacks and mods are at bz2maps, the best bet for most everything else is bzcomplex. The problem being these websites aren't advertised on Gamespy. This would help everyone to find what is needed to be up to date.
There is no way to have a mod manager with everything in it because as soon as it was installed two or three other things would come out, then more and more. The most important thing of all would be to make sure that all the map makers and mod makers give their products out to the public with the same exact way to install. Not one person saying to dump his maps in one place, another somewhere else and most in main dir. The less complicated the better. Most of the modder/map makers know this of course, but their are some new people making things that don't realize the norm, and so their mods/maps don't get played.
Maps don't cause bad assets.
Mods do.
This is why the Unofficial Expansion Pack is being made.