Joseph Brower

A short while ago I talked about Warzone 2100, promising a review shortly.  Since the project has just released a new version, I figured now would be a very appropriate time.

Warzone 2100 is a realtime strategy game (RTS) that was originally closed source, but was later open sourced and has been improved quite a bit.  Among Warzone’s features is a huge research tree, unit design, and a decent AI (with the AIVolution mod.)  Warzone also supports LAN and Internet play and has a decent single player campaign.

Single Player

Warzone 2100 takes place in a post apocalyptic world where most of the world was nuked out of existance.  You lead a group of survivors that are trying to rebuild humanity, but apparently a few other factions have that same idea.  If you decide to play the single player campaign, be sure to install the video files or you won’t have a clue about what is going on.  The videos explain all of the mission breifings and the Intro Video (available at the main menu) kicks off the plot.

Multiplayer

While there isn’t a dedicated server isn’t available for Warzone, the multiplayer capabilities are still very good.  Occasionally the game can get out of sync, but since this last release, I haven’t noticed that happen much.  Because there isn’t a unit limit (at least that I’ve reached) you can end up with some VERY massive battles.  Another unique aspect (this applies to single player too, but is much more varied in multiplayer) is how you design each of your units.  As you do research, you can use the parts researched to design new units.  This means that you will never have a shortage of new things to toy around with.  In a multiplayer game I have never seen the tech tree get finished.  Also, having such a sizable tech tree means that you have to keep moving forward.  To help with this, research is pooled in team games.  That means you actually need to coordinate with your team member to ensure that you have the tech you want.

Misc

Another interesting aspect is the experience system.  As your units get kills they get more experience which let’s them fight better/move quicker.  You can also recycle old units and then produce new units that have that experience carry over.  Commanders also cause some interesting situations, since their experience helps any units assigned to them.  That lets you get a commander with a lot of experience and have him really make your army have an advantage.  You also can use indirect fire weapons and bind them to sensors and be able to fire over obstacles to hit your enemy.  The best part about that is that you can cause your enemy to be hit without even seeing the firing unit.

Graphics/Requirements

The game has decent graphics that require OpenGL acceleration.  If you have that, you should be good to run it.  If the game runs slowly for you, try to disable shadows, as that can really help your framerate.  Machines can have issues in the larger battles.

Overall

This is one of my favorite RTS games and it runs perfectly on every major platform.  I would strongly suggest that people try it out.  You can get it at http://wz2100.net .

I mentioned a while ago that phpTImeClock will be putting out a new version.  It’s been a little delayed, but not without good reason.  We’re making sure that this is a very robust and solid release.  I’ve been trying to help it look a lot more polished since I’m still not much of a coder.  That means I’ve been doing a lot of XHTML and CSS work trying to make sure it all looks good and works well.  I’ve been designing to standards.  What I’ve discovered through this whole process is really rather sad.  The main design I’ve come up with is very elegant, looks sharp, loads quickly, and works on every browser except for the IE line of browers.  Why is it that IE can’t have decent support for the :hover pseudo class.  Why can’t they understand that I’m wanting to center something vertically and horizontally?  I even had someone test it with IE 8 (which, according to Microsoft is more standards compliant than the other major browsers) and it failed miserably.  This isn’t any “emerging” CSS usage that I’m doing.  As far as I know, this is all CSS 2.1.  I thought maybe it was just IE 6 or 7 that was failing, but like I mentioned earlier 8 is just as fun filled for developers as the previous releases.  Apparently, Microsoft feels that I should just be designing the phpTimeClock layout multiple times, since there can’t be anything better for me to do.  I don’t like to post rants, but this is truely frustrating.  Why can’t I just have a CSS drop down menu without needing to through a bunch of JS into the mix?  Maybe it’s all my fault and JS really is the best way, but wouldn’t flat CSS be a more elegant solution?  Anyways, let me know what you think?

Anyone who knows me knows that I really like to play strategy games, particularly RTS games.  Since I use linux, I was concerned that there may not be a very well developed game available, but I’ve now got a new favorite and it is completely open and free. Warzone 2100 is an excellent RTS with some unique features.  For example, you custom design all of your units.  With a huge tech tree, this causes some interesting units to crop up.  The game also has decent graphics (not amazing, but getting better all of the time.)  The only real problem that I see is that there aren’t enough games being served all of the time.  It is really worth taking a look at and trying to learn.  I might go into a more detailed review later, but for now, let’s just say that it is very good and is worth at least taking a look at.

A group of friends of mine have been working quite a bit on making some manuals to help people use Adempiere.  These manuals aren’t complete yet, but they are really moving forward.  You can see them at http://josephbrower.com/manuals .  Have any feedback feel free to leave it in the comments below or in the Adempiere SourceForge forums for documentation.  There are only a few chapters, but I’ve found them to be very useful.

If you are interested in helping them move forward, they can always use feedback, you can help with the writing, or you can contribute financially.  If you want to contribute financially, just leave a message in the comments saying you want to do that, and I’ll make sure they get in contact with you.

So yesterday we did the actual copying and such on the real servers.  Besides taking a long time, Clonezilla performed wonderfully.  After the clone (we did it over a gigabit switch that we brought in for this task) we simply had to do a repair install using windows server and reinstall the drivers.  Overall, the process was pretty painless.  Clonezilla will definately be something that I will keep close since it has saved me quite a bit of time and money already.  I’ll probably even end up donating to the project once I get some funds to spare.