This page contains information on the upcoming sequel to Battlezone, Battlezone 2.
The top is oldest news, and the newer news is towards the bottom.
There will be two playable races, the ISDF and the Scions.
ISDF stands for International Space Defense Force.
Battlezone 2 will be set in present time.
Some vehicles will fly, but they won't be planes.
Battlezone 2 will allow skins.
Skins will be used in multiplayer instead of flags.
There will be teamplay, and cooperative play against the computer.
There is a possibility of capture the flag mode.
There are also rumors of a mode like team fortress, with builders, fighters, etc.
There will be an instant action mode.
More things can be done on foot than in Battlezone 2.
Activision is currently calling for a Summer release date, but everyone else is saying fall.
Expected System Requirements are a P166 w/ 32MB RAM (hardware accelerated).
Cheating will be addressed.
Battlezone 2 will have much greater terrain detail.
There will be trees, water, and land bridges.
The lighting and exposion effects look outstanding.
New walkers, a mammoth assault tank, speedy mortar bike?, and stealthy commando.
The planets in BZII are from inside and outside of our solar system.
I have heard some mention of bazookas for commando.
There will be roaming indigenous wildlife.
Progressively learning AI: friendly ships that survive become more experienced.
Ships will get own powerups, you don't need to order them to.
If a ship is going up against a superior force, it will retreat.
Computer controlled ships can strafe.
You will command by squads not individual ships.
If you don't like squads, you can make a squad of 1 ship, so commands are like BZ 1.
The map editor will be more powerful, easier to use, and stable.
Some buildings must be entered by a player on foot for him to be able to use that building.
Instead of switching pilots, Scion vehicles can morph into other vehicles.
There will be 8 worlds.
There are 2 campaigns, scion and ISDF.
There are over 30 units, each with its own unique feel.
There are tanks, infantry, air support, and mobile turrets.
There are 25 different weapons in the Battlezone 2 arsenal.
This includes guided missiles, mortars, mines, and bazookas.
Game has a similar feel, but has a more powerful graphics engine.
Game runs smooth.
Worlds in the game are lush, with bizarre-looking plants and misty fog.
Other worlds are snow-covered lands with little Aztec-looking cities.
One world is completely covered in buildings.
The editor has a single interface with toolbars to the left and right.
Game starts on Pluto, moves to Bane, lava planet Rend, swamp planet Mire and other planets.
Each planet has its own physics.
Has multitexturing and either 24-bit or 32-bit color, the color part is still undecided.
Pandemic Studios now plans on officially including a map editor on the Battlezone II CD.
Almost all of the original weapons, especially the basic ones, will make it back into BZ2, but some will likely have significant changes.
There are new weapon hardpoints - Gun and Missile, and new weapon roles Strike and Assault.
There is a new Gun-hardpoint weapon that fires a continuous beam, but rapidly decays in strength.
The comet cruise missile while now be remot controlled, instead of fire and forget.
The MITS mine will now be selective in that it activates only when enemies are in the vicinity, like proximity mines in bz1. This is so you don't get stuck in your own MITS mine the way it always happened in BZ1.
One new weapon, the Scorcher, a vehicle-mounted version of the Solar Flare mine from BZ1. It fires a short-range stream of superheated plasma that can burn down a vehicle very quickly.
The new weapon that is similar to the RAVE in that it is insanely powerful is the Hailstorm.
The Hailstorm is like a Solar Flare mine that spews Popper shells that explode into big purple fireballs and fire mini- blast cannon beams. When it finishes up, it explodes like a Day Wrecker.
I'm not totally sure on this one, so don't yell at me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you need some kind of hardware graphics accelerator (3D card) to run the game at all.
There is no limit to the colors and transperancy in BZ2, unlike BZ1 which used a 256-color pallete.
Go in factory config wepaons on ship before it is built, like dual Sp-Stabbers or something.
Go in command bunker to look at a satelite map.
If you go in a guntower, you can control it.
The armory can still upgrade you.
The walking physics for the pilot are better so it doesn't look so stiff.
On foot you DO have explosive charges to attach to buildings, and other enhanced weapons.
Scrap is still scattered on surface.
Most resources aquired by deploying a scav or something, and drilling or mining for the resources, resulting in a steady stream of resources. I guess you can call them scrap wells.
The flying vehicles can only be commanded, not flown.
Storyline- The voyager space probe dissapears, then starts sending weird signals, you pick them up on Earth. You are sent to investigate.
If you cheat, the game will go out of synch, and it will be obvious you are cheating.
There is teamplay.
In one multiplayer mode each person has a particular role. ex-base builder who commands other players
The Battlezone 2 engine is a heavily modified version of the Battlezone 1 engine.
Battlezone has dramatically different physics for each ship, so they "feel" different.
Pandemic hopes to make a public beta.
Game can be scaled down for lower specs systems.
Individual options and effects can be chosen or unchosen.
There will be 30 missions total, ISDF and Scion.
In each campaign you start ISDF, then can choose to join the Scions.
There will be a demo available before the release of the full game.
Planet descriptions: Bane-Ice planet, Rend-Lava planet, Mire-Swamp planet
Scion weapons will look and work differently than the ISDF weapons.
The Scion soldier will also have some cool appendages that will distinguish them from the ISDF from a distance.
The yellow patterns on the Scion ships work like headlights in the dark.
There is some kind of Scion galloping unit...sounds interesting.
The Scions have similar animations to their ISDF counterparts but they'll have a Scion touch.
Scion means descendant or child.
The Scions descended from the people who lived in our Solar System and developed the bio-metal.(The ones whos relics we were always bumping into in Battlezone 1
The Scions want to "regain their true place in the universe", according to the Battlezone 2 storyline.
The Scion units function a lot differently than the ISDF.
Each side has a scout, tank, etc, but they drive, manuever, and fight differently.
For example, you would find yourself using different battle tactics if you were in a Scion Scout vs an ISDF Scout.
Also, each side has special unique units with a function the other side does not.
The Scions are more about speed, stealth, and cunning, and the functions of some of their special units reflect this.
This is blaknite101 talking "maybe this means the Scions have some sort of stealth spy ship"
The Scion missions start in the middle of the ISDF missions, so the first Scion mission is as hard or harder than the ISDF missions in the middle of the game.
Electronics Boutique lists Battlezone 2 as a September 29,1999 release, and Chips+ Bits lists it as October 1999.
Will Stahl, a Pandemic guy said in an interview that he expects a late August, early September release, hmmm..
There will be some missions on foot.
You have to build a relay bunker befor building a gun tower.
They have implemented "tech trees" to stop early rushing.
Scrap is now concentrated in scrap veins.
You send the Scav to the Scrap Vein, and all you have to do is keep them alive.
Some units can go on water, some under water, and some can't go on or under water.
If you go in your relay bunker you can uplink with your satellite and command and build units that way.
More storyline- All the nations who know about biometal form a secret organization- the Alliance of Awakened Nations (AAR)
They fund the International Space Defense Force (ISDF), basically a military elite club.
You can queue units by holding down shift.
Gamepower preview says the projected release date is early September.
Gamepower called it the ISDA - International Space Defense Agency. Hmmm....
Scavengers are now stationary buildings rather than the original's annoyinglystupid mobile gatherers.
Units whoare running away will be smart enough to drop mines to discourage pursuit.
The computer players can strafe and perform other advanced manuevering tactics..
Our team is also busy working on a playable demo that will be released online in a few weeks. - George Collins, Director of Battlezone II for Pandemic Studios(July 23, 1999)
Scions have to place their vulnerable Power Lungs adjacent to a structure.
The humans' Power Plants, on the other hand, don't need to be close to a structure to provide power to it.
The Scion units can morph into different forms, giving them flexibility to adapt to changing situations.
The Scions can build their structures anywhere on the map, while the human player has to build outwards from a central base location.
The flying bombers can easily destroy ground units, and can only be taken out by anti-aircraft weapon equipped vehicles, like rocket tanks.
Tracked vehicles can't go over water, but they can climb steep inclines that obstruct hover vehicles.
Walkers can go almost anywhere, but slowly, while air units have free reign over the maps.
You have two hardpoints when you're outside a vehicle.
A player inside a relay bunker can access a view that is, in effect, a completely configurable overhead camera that moves anywhere you want it.
In multiplayer, you can click on your friend, say, go here, and they see the message and a nav beacon appears for them.
Day-Glo algae shimmers in the swamps.
Voluminous fog hovers in valleys.
The deeper underwater you go, the lower your visibility, until you're plunged into complete blackness.
On darker worlds, headlights can provide real-time lighting so you can see.
Skeletal animation moves the walking units, such as the constructor, which looks like a loader from Aliens.
Scion walkers have crab legs and elongated heads.
Scion turrets look like scorpions.
The Scion recycler is shaped like a huge, spiky donut with treads running around its circumference.
The Scion assault tank, a squat-treaded vehicle that seems to lean backwards.
There's an urban world with lots of tunnels.
Battlezone II will include a Skirmish mode for instant action games and instant strategy games.
The path you choose to take at the branching point isn't a clear-cut "good vs. evil" situation.
Gamespot UK called the ISDF the "Inter-Stellar Defence Force" Once again hmm....
The game starts on Pluto and moves to a far-off solar system via a nearby wormhole. Now that is convenience.
Mire has been spelt as Myer at Gamespot UK. Odd.
A Scion ship which morphs gains the new ships weapons and physics.
Stuff like land bridges and trees can be blown up.
The ISDF main battle tank will be called the Saber or Sabre.
The Scion main battle tank will be called the Scion Warrior Tank.
There will be a shield hardpoint on tanks.
Please note that most of this information is based on unnofficial Pandemic Studios and Activision announcements, previews, and observations made of the screenshots that have been released. It is highly possible that some of the things listed here will not appear in the final product.