WarZone 2100
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
|
|