BZ2 v1.3 Public Beta 1 Released

[GSH]

Ladies and gentlemen, we are pleased to announce the Battlezone 2 1.3 public beta #1. This is a rather extensive patch to Battlezone 2. A short summary of what's changed is at http://www.visi.com/~nathan/bz2/bz2_13.html if you want to read that. This beta is released as a 36.2MB (37986304 byte) .exe download. There is also a 163KB .zip of the MP DLL source.

Note: this patch is available in English *ONLY*.

This Battlezone II 1.3 patch comes with no warranty, to the extent permitted by applicable law. Except when otherwise stated in writing the copyright holders and/or other parties provide the package "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose and the accuracy of the information contained within it. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the package is with you.

In addition, it is *highly recommended* that you install this patch to a directory with a fresh [re]install from CD to avoid problems from leftover MODs, etc. Please do NOT install over 1.2 if at all possible.

The patch is available to download from the following mirrors:

Mirrored by CmptrWz/bzscrap.com:
http://www.bzscrap.com/downloads/Patches/Public1.3/

European mirror by the-rip.com:
http://downloads.the-rip.com/bz2/patch1.3-beta/

By {VnB}Aegeis:
http://www.cutrzedge.net/user/BZ2_MPDlls_v13PublicBeta1.zip
http://www.cutrzedge.net/user/bz2_v13PublicBeta1_english.exe

Reference site (please use a mirror INSTEAD, so my bandwidth is conserved)
http://www.visi.com/~nathan/bz2_v13pb1/

Verifying archive integrity: should you have access to md5sum (a checksum program), the info is:
c0ac752ec1b88d88e01d2850c7e039be *bz2_v13PublicBeta1_english.exe
682aac6890cbec3e2a302b38290c8c40 *BZ2_MPDlls_v13PublicBeta1.zip

Potential mirror sites, please verify these sums before posting.

A few notes I've given to the beta testers already:

- Your addon folder is renamed off each full build. Odds are, you'll want to save space and zap the old ones, which are tagged with a date and time of renaming.

- In the folder you run BZ2 from, there's a file 'Battlezone.log' (Windoze will try and hide the extension by default; please fix that). That file is created each time you run BZ2, and last time's file is overwritten. Thus if you run into problems, you may want to copy it off for a minute.

- If you get a crash (== Access Violation), please do your best to copy & paste out the details of the AV. I may ask for your logfile (see above) to help debug it. Please report all crashes to me; we've fixed a lot of them, but there's still probably a few left. Everyone will benefit if crashes are fixed before release.

- Please note some terminology: a crash is an Access Violation or some other dialog box that pops up to note the game's quitting. A freeze is when BZ2 stops responding without any crash message box.

- In the folder you installed BZ2 to, there's a file called "changelog.txt." It is updated every build with what changed, with most recent things at the bottom. Please skim over the last little bit to get an idea of what's changed every build-- and it may be worth it to test the areas noted as changed.

- Suggestions for tweaks/features may be ignored or shot down. We know the code, and what's easy and what's not. Also, we'd like to finish this project up eventually, which means clamping down on tweaks, even if they'd be cool.

- You may want to look at the file addon\config\GamePrefs.ini . There are a number of user- tweakable settings in there I didn't feel like doing a way of editing them ingame.

-- GSH

[Avatar]

I'd like to add that the existance of this patch is completely and entirely due to Nathan and Ken's good will.  They've donated CONSIDERABLE time and trouble to do this ENTIRELY on their own and for FREE.

REMEMBER THAT in your comments and postings.

-Av-

[deadscion]

May I add 2 files, nettips.rtf  and readme13.rtf, will save you asking a lot of questions.

I went in there without looking for instructions first and found myself asking what's this do, what's that for.

The shells have been changed considerably over BZ2 1.2 so it helps to read up on it first.

Somebody smack me.

[OvermindDL1]

Also, for anyone wanting to make mission dll's with the released source, set your build warning level lower (3) and if you are going to make a debug build, relink it to bzone.lib, not battlezone.lib.  Doing this should allow it to work the best.

[GreenHeart]

Information on the 1.3 patch can be found in afew places.

both of these are in your local battlezone II directory once you install the  public 1.3 beta. ( change.log & Readme13.rtf )

Also The 1.3 Patch updates the Battlezone II manual located in your extras\help folder.

[Element]

Well I figured I should post the Changelog.txt to give 56Kers (like myself) something to do while waiting for the download.
Here ya go: http://www.freewebs.com/bryw/changelog.txt

[OvermindDL1]

Here is a mirror to the changelog, fast server for you broadbanders that will still take you a few minutes to download...

[*GEL*Det[gm]]

hia guys
thanx for this great new 1.3 patch
just wanted to tell ya that gel-guild.net
will host it too
we are sitting on 100 mbit line, central europe
with unlimited traffic
adress for file is
i zipped both files, the exe and the dll into 1 zip file
here is the link for it:
http://www.gel-guild.net/downloads/bz2_v13PublicBeta.zip
have fun with downloading and have a nice day
greetings
Deto

[splYcer]

I have just reawakened my interest in BZ2 and to find Ken & Nathan working on this patch after all this time is incredible.    

Incredible work guys and thanks.

[splYcer]

Oops sorry about the double post

[Starman]

Great work guys!

[NeoCooke]

Finally. Kudos to Nathan and all the great people who made the patch possible. In my opinion, the best part is the fact that we're going to have some great mods available pretty soon. I can't wait for EPIC and Starfleet 8 and all the others.  

[Tigger]

It's a fantastic effort, and thanks to GSH and Ken Miller for doing this for our community.  It will set this game up for the next few years, until BZ3 comes out....lollo!

[Prosthetic Head]

Well guys it's great to see 1.3 released and i'd like to thank all the people who worked on this.

I've not been seen much in bz2 for the last 1.5 years, but i might be back for a while because of this patch (at least till bf1942 net code is fixed again)

so for the people with long memory's I'M BACK.

Pea Hatche

[AlbinoPenguin]

PH! Welcome back mate. I guess I'm gunna have to stay up late again to catch some games with ya.