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WarZone 2100

Retrieved from wikipedia.org - wiki - Warzone 2100

PC Specifications - Original and GPL Releases

Warzone 2100 is a real-time strategy game, developed by Pumpkin Studios and published by Eidos Interactive . Although comparable to Earth 2150 in many significant respects, it does contain aspects that are unique. These include various radar technologies, a greater focus on artillery and counter-battery technologies, more frequent in-game cinematic updates as game play progresses, as well as a different vehicle design method.

It was released in 1999 for both PC and Playstation.
 

Story (spoiler)

In the late 21st century, the North American Strategic Defense Agency developed and deployed a massive missile defense system including a network of nuclear-equipped satellites and ground-based launch sites. However, during a routine maintenance check one day, something went terribly wrong and the missiles fired...

         From the official Warzone 2100 website:

"The Collapse came fast and hard. Following a technical error in the satellite defense system, nuclear warheads were fired at  Washington, Beijing and Moscow. Minutes later ground based sites fired in response to the launch. Millions died as nuclear firestorms wiped out the world's cities. Billions more died as plagues and epidemics swept away what remained of civilization. Less than a  million people survived the Collapse. Earth broke into hundreds of small scavenger bands battling each other for the remnants of the former civilization. Only a few had the vision to attempt to rebuild a new world from the ashes."


(Note: The player takes the role of a character known only as "Commander" and is addressed in this way by the other characters in the game. It is probably the commander that gives a monologue to the effect of the above quote during the intro movie.)

The Commander is part of a group of survivors that, immediately after the Collapse, sought shelter in a military installation in the Rocky Mountains. After an unstated period of time has passed (Although going on the details of the plot it must be between 1 and 13 years), the group emerges from the installation and declares a goal of rebuilding the now-wrecked world. This group calls themselves "The Project".

The Project dispatches three teams with the objective of reclaiming artifacts, thus allowing the research and application of pre-Collapse technologies. Alpha team is sent to a desert location South East of the shelter. Beta team is sent to what is probably remains of Chicago. Gamma team is sent into the northern Rockies.

The Campaign is divided into three segments.

In segment one, the Commander accompanies and commands Alpha team. Alphas team's primary objective is to find and recover the "Synaptic Link" technology, which is later explained to allow a neural interface between man and machine, and thus the construction of cyborg infantry. Secondary and tertiary objectives include the collection of artifacts and the elimination of hostiles. The "Scavengers" is the first hostile race to be encountered. Weak but numerous, Scavengers provide a small challenge. Later, as technologies are recovered from the Scavengers, the "New Paradigm" is encountered. This faction possesses superior technology to The Project and quicker weapons. A transmission to the New Paradigm is intercepted by The Project's headquarters and it is made apparent that the New Paradigm is following orders by some entity called "Nexus". Segment one ends with two immediately sequential events. First, the last standing base of the New Paradigm is eradicated. Second, Beta team sends a distress signal and informs Alpha team that they are under attack and need re-enforcements. Re-enforcements are loaded onto the transport and segment one ends.

In segment two, the commander arrives at and takes control of Beta base in the ruins of Chicago. After fending off a long and enduring attack by the then unnamed enemy, The Project headquarters informs the commander that the primary objective of Beta team is to recover [[VTOL]] technology from before the Collapse. It is learned that Beta team's enemy calls themselves "The Collective" and constantly attempts to attack and destroy Beta team. As attacks increase in strength, The Project headquarters informs the commander that the VTOL technology must be acquired soon or Beta team will be simply overrun. As a secondary objective, the commander is also sent to try and destroy existing missile bases in the area. These are successful, but The Project headquarters detects a missile launch from near the Rocky Mountains area that soon hits Alpha base. Suspecting a launch aimed at Beta base, The Project orders evacuation preparations to be made. As soon as nearby AA battery sites are destroyed, the evacuation is to take place. However, the Collective then launches an incredibly massive attack on Beta base, completely unaware of the impending nuclear attack. The Project races to evacuate as many troops as possible while still defending against an incredibly powerful and enduring attack. Segment two ends with Beta base being destroyed and the commander heading off with the evacuated forces to Gamma team's location.

Segment three begins with the commander and his forces landing in an unoccupied area near Gamma base. After setting up a base and defeating nearby enemy forces, it is learned that the enemy is Nexus. Further, this enemy possess a unique technology that enables the conversion of units from The Project's control to their faction's control. The leader of Nexus calls this "absorption" This is because Nexus is adept at hacking computer systems. This is reflected as well in that The Project headquarters computer systems are being apparently adversely affected by hacking attacks as well. Gamma base soon thereafter sends out a distress call requesting relief from attacks by Nexus. After fighting past Nexus forces to finally get to Gamma base, it is discovered that Gamma base was completely absorbed and, therefore, Gamma base is an enemy to The Project and thereby destroyed.

It is then that Nexus gives a history lesson by claiming to have had a military contract to develop the synaptic link technology. With years of research and little progress after an initial functioning prototype, the Synaptic Link development program is shut down. The man who was the leader of the program, Dr. Reed, is revealed to have the same facial features, and thus implying the same being, as the character who represents Nexus itself. This is stated to be no coincidence. Nexus claims to have, as an act of revenge, hacked into NASDA and takes revenge by causing the Collapse.

Segment three continues with a massive escalation in conflict. The Project learns that Nexus has gained control of a missile base in the Rocky Mountains region. An attack to neutralize the facility is immediately executed. Although the attack is successful and the facility destroyed, the Nexus sets the missiles to detonate in their silos and the commander races to find shelter from the impending impact. After the explosion the commander returns to base, only to find that components of Alpha team which migrated north after evacuating from Alpha base before the nuclear strike are under attack and need assistance. Once rescued and found to be free of Nexus absorption, Alpha team reveals a small base they constructed and gives control over to the commander. Nexus then announces that he has gained control of the laser-equipped satellites and begins using them to regularly fire upon The Project's forces. However, the orbits of the satellites are unstable, so the firing is near-random. The Project headquarters declares that these satellites must be eliminated before they compromise The Project. Another nearby missile base is located and an immediate attack is launched, all the while lasers are firing periodically. The base is captured and then Nexus informs the commander that the satellites' orbits are now stable and that firing will be precise and deadly. For the exceptionally long time it takes the research centers to crack the safety codes set on the captures missiles silos the lasers are firing every few seconds, systematically destroying The Project's forces while Nexus continually launches attacks with ground forces.

Segment three continues with the final cracking of the missile codes and, therefore, the destruction of the laser satellites. Segment three ends with a final attack on the Nexus Headquarters which effectively destroys Nexus. The Project then dedicates itself to the reconstruction of the world.

The Game

Outside of the story, Warzone 2100 only has a single faction. This limits some of the variety that can be expected from [[real-time strategy]] games, although the single faction is very complex. Essentially, Warzone 2100 plays much like [[Earth 2150]] with 3D units and terrain, customizable vehicles, a lack of traditional standing infantry, use of "research" to acquire new technologies, and the differentiation of vehicles types. Warzone 2100 has many unique differences from Earth 2150. Most of them are not cornerstones of the RTS genre, but they are all noteworthy. First, drive system can be chosen; either tires, half tracks, track, hover module, or VTOL wings. Second, there's the greater emphasis on sensors and radar: Basic sensors detect units and can co-ordinate ground attacks. Counter-battery sensors detect enemy artillery (referred to as "batteries") by sensing their projectiles and firing arcs and pinpointing their location to co-ordinate artillery strikes against enemy artillery. VTOL sensors work like basic sensors, only they co-ordinate VTOL attacks. VTOL counter-battery sensors co-ordinate VTOLs to find and destroy enemy batteries. Third, there's a greater emphasis on artillery: Although many direct-combat weapons and Anti-Air weapons can be researched and deployed, artillery are a staple of the forces which is quite contrasting to Earth 2150, which is entirely devoid of artillery. Forth, while the technology tree is clearly defined and consistent, it never appears in-game and, therefore, the player can be left guessing as to what technologies are next in the tree. Fifth, technology can be acquired by gathering artifacts left behind by destroyed enemy structures. Sixth, researches are largely small and incremental advancements over existing weapons, armor, and chassis systems that, therefore, bear the same visual appearance, rather than complete over-hauls of the visual appearance and effect of weapons, armor, and chassis.

Warzone Revival
Unfortunately for many Warzone 2100 fans, in 1998, Eidos, the publisher for Pumpkin Studios, decided to stop funding Pumpkin. Later, Pumpkin reformed as Pivotal Games, but stopped providing support for Warzone. Instead, a third-party group, N.E.W.S.T., took over support completely. However, eventually, N.E.W.S.T. went under, and support was taken over by a group called Pumpkin-2. Pumpkin-2 established an anti-cheating Warzone server, Directgames, and made a completely new patch, Patch 1.12. Patch 1.12 included many new improvements, most notably the addition of landmines.


However, the host for Pumpkin-2 sent it under with no warning, and then, Pumpkin-2 was confined to the backup forums at Directgames, and then relocated itself to Realtimestrategies.net.


During this time, however, Pumpkin-2 managed to petition Eidos, the owner of the Warzone 2100 source code, to make Warzone Open-sourced.
Editing the source code is a big task, however, and as of now, only three major improvements have been made; an increase in the WZ Multiplayer unit limit, support for Glide, several solutions to make Warzone more compatible with Windows XP, and most recently, the introduction of static shadows.
 

Important dates:

: 29 March 1999 - Warzone2100 was released.
:10/ ?/1999 - N.E.W.S.T. was formed.
:11/ ?/1999 - Pumpkin Studios releases patch 1.10 final.
:01/ 3/2000 - Pumpkin Studios ends their support for Warzone.
:03/ ?/2000 - Eidos closes down Pumpkin Studios.
:11/ ?/2000 - N.E.W.S.T releases their unofficial patch 1.11.
:6 December 2004  - Alex McLean uploads the warzone source code to Radiosity's FTP server.
:6 December 2005 - Rodzilla releases Anniversary Edition of the WarZone 2100 GPL

Although adding features to the source code may sound easy, many modifications are currently underway to try to clean up the source code. At RealTimeStrategies, the source code is often referred to a ball of yarn that has been ripped up and then attempted to be repaired with duct tape. Unfortunately, many programmers agree that it is in even worse condition that that.

Status Quo

As of Jan. 14, 2006:

Things are going slow. The revival project only has three 'core developers' who are all very busy and has little spare time, the project is greatly welcoming more coders.

Changes since the release has mostly been on two fronts: graphics, and modding system. Qamly created the '.wz' file based modding system that uses deflate compression. This system made modding easier as one could edit the data files using commodity tools such as WinZip. To make things even easier, including code wise, Per started on a system based on the PhysicsFS library.

Coder Rodzilla has been adding support for high-res PNG textures and shadows. He is now talking about extending the 3D model format with support for shaders, and perhaps implementing normal maps in the graphics engine.

Further, the community seems to be picking up Blender 3D as a modeling tool. Although no export plugins exists at the moment, it is most likely on it's way. Some community members also uses Maya as a modeling tool, but without plugins, models will still have to be redone in the ol' time PieSlicer, which it seems, is going to become an open source tool too.

There is also a significant subproject working on replacing the Full Motion Videos that weren't released under the GPL like the rest of Warzone.

All this focus on graphics and modability will probably mean that 2006 will be the year where Warzone will reach a new standard in visual appeal, and out-class its retail ancestor.

But the project is still far from the finish line. A request for the release of the original FMVs have been sent to the new owners of Eidos, and the code base still have plenty of bugs, including networking issues. And not to forget the horrid state of World Editor - the map and campaign editor.

Total Warzone

While currently a mostly conceptual idea, several people at Pumpkin-2 are working on making a sequel to Warzone 2100, entitled Total War Zone. A pre-alpha demo has been released at the realtimestrategies.net backup forums.

Since the source code release for warzone2100, most, if not all, development resources that were present in this project, have been moved to the Warzone Re-Development project. This has, more or less, put the Total Warzone project on a halt.

External links

  • GNA! Project Page.[1]

  • BerliOS Project Page (discontinued).[2]

  • Strategyplanet.com WZ site.[3]

  • Realtimestrategies.net [4]

  • Realtimestrategies.net Forum [5]

  • Directgames.net [6]

  • Pumpkin-2 Backup Forum (archival purposes) [7]

  • Warzone 2100 Link Turret [8]

 

WarZone 2100 Specifications Review

 

I N   D E P T H   G A M E P L A Y

  • Over 400 Technologies to research

  • Over 2,000 different units to design

  • 3 Large campaign maps to conquer

  • 24 Fast play mission maps for extra action

  • Intelligence Display sets objectives dynamically

  • Interactive message system

A C T I O N   P A C K E D

  • Real time combat

  • Quick decision making

  • Fast control systems

  • Intelligent enemies

  • Build a base that lasts throughout each campaign

  • Increase and refine your base as the campaign develops

  • Build your own tanks, cyborgs and strike aircraft

E A S Y   T O   P L A Y

  • Fast Play Interface

  • Graphically Based

  • Quick Screen Navigation

  • Fast Find System for units and structures

  • Set Factories to constant production

  • Automatically send each factory's units to where you want them

M U L T I - P L A Y E R

  • Play campaign games

  • Or fight in Death Match battles

  • Fully customizable set-ups

  • Select technology levels

  • Set power levels

  • Create and break alliances

  • Design your own custom force

  • Save out force rosters for future battles

  • League table showing victories and losses

  • 2-8 Players

  • Local Networks

  • Internet Action

  • Mpath and Wireplay ready

  • In Game Speech Transmissions between players

P C   S P E C I F I C A T I O N S - original

PC Specifications - GPL

  • PC CD ROM

  • CPU: Pentium 166 MHz or better

  • Memory: 16 MB

  • Inputs: Mouse and Keyboard

  • CD-ROM: 4X or better

  • O/S: Windows 95

  • 100% Sound Blaster Compatible

  • Direct 3D, 3Dfx and Software rendering

 

  • No  cd required !!

  • CPU : Pentium 166 MHZ or better  (1.5 GHZ to 3 GHZ is better)

  • Memory - GFX - 128 to 256 - will run with less but will suffer.

  • Inputs - mouse and keyboard

  • O/S = Windows (from 95 to XP) and Linux - most distros also MAC OSX

  • Whatever sound platform you have - should work - if not - advise.

  • D3D, removed  in favor of the OpenGL Renderer - no Software gfx support.

V E H I C L E S

  • Vehicle design uses a simple mix and match selection of vehicle parts to create hundreds of different vehicles. Players can see the difference between vehicles as they design them, and can experiment with different weapons, propulsions and bodies to create over 2000 unit types. Here are examples of just a few.

 

  • M E D I U M   T A N K S
    As technology progresses new bodies become available with heavier armour and more efficient weapon systems. This medium tank is slower moving than the light vehicles, but packs heavier weapons and is more heavily armoured.

 

  • H E A V Y   T A N K S
    Heavy tanks carry huge weapons and are heavily armoured. Expensive in power costs, they are produced slowly, but are hard to destroy. Heavy tanks form the main part of assault forces using their vast weight to crush all opposition.

 

  • P R O P U L S I O N   S Y S T E M S
    Wheels Good Road Movement Standard Damage Resistance
    Tracks Good Cross-Country Movement Increased Damage Resistance
    Hovers Fast Water and Road Movement Reduced Damage Resistance
    VTOL Fast Aerial Movement Reduced Damage Resistance.

 

  • C O M M A N D E R S
    Commanders lead other vehicles in battle. They are equipped with laser designators which allow them to nominate targets for an entire group. Commanders form a key part to the game.

 

  • S E N S O R   V E H I C L E S
    These vehicles are equipped with powerful sensors that allow them to detect enemy units and structures that are outside the range of other vehicles.

 

  • J A M M E R   V E H I C L E S
    Jammers block enemy sensors by reducing their range and power. They also make it harder for units within their range to be hit Realistic Line of Sight Hills and Structures conceal enemy units Vehicles rely on sensors to detect enemies Fog of War hides enemy movement ECM Jammers conceal units Build radar towers to sweep areas for enemies.

 

  • V T O L   A T T A C K   C R A F T
    Units may be fitted with a variety of propulsion systems. This VTOL Attack Craft is ideal for strafing enemy vehicles and flying close escort for land based units.

 

  • Sophisticated AI Systems

  • Set Unit Survival Levels

  • Define Objectives

  • Set Waypoints

  • Assign Factory Delivery Points

  • Use Commanders to direct groups

  • S T R U C T U R E S

  • Structures are built using construction vehicles. New structures are discovered via research and they may be upgraded to improve their performance and defensive values. A few of the structures available are shown in the manual.

 

  • C O M M A N D   C E N T E R
    The Command Centre is the pivotal centre of your base. Its battle computers collate battlefield information and display them on the radar and intelligence screens.

 

  • R E S O U R C E   E X T R A C T O R
    Oil derricks are used to extract resources from oil deposits. Power Generator Power generators convert resources into energy for structures and units. Generators may be upgraded to produce more power.

 

  • F A C T O R Y
    Factories produce vehicles of varying sizes and abilities. A light factory turns out smaller vehicles; a heavy factory produces huge tanks and construction vehicles. Factories can be upgraded by the addition of new systems that are available through research. Upgrades lead to faster unit manufacture and improved components. Factories may also be set on constant production (resources permitting) and newly built units can be ordered automatically to anywhere on the map.

 

  • G U N   T O W E R S
    Build strategically situated gun towers to pour deadly hails of fire onto approaching enemies. As the game progresses you can equip the gun towers with increasingly powerful weapons.

 

  • R E S E A R C H   F A C I L I T Y
    Research is carried out by robotic research brains on artifacts recovered during missions. The amount of time required to research an artifact depends on its sophistication. Basic research facilities crack simple research tasks relatively quickly, but high-powered facilities are needed to research the secrets of sophisticated technologies.

 

  • R E S E A R C H
    Over 400 Different Technologies
    New Weapons
    New Vehicles
    Improves Armor Levels
    New Defenses
    Varied Propulsion Systems
    New Structures
    Electronic Sensors and Jammers
    Improve Factory Production
    Increase Power Plant Outputs
    Plus many others