Battlezone 1

BZ is an old game with around 200, more or less, active players. There are around 100 everyday players, but they are divided in a lot of time zones, so you will never see more than 30 in the same time. But every stratter knows well than it takes only 2 for a GG.

If you always leave as soon as you join the lobby, when you see no games, you will hardly ever get a good game going on. Even if you, after numerous rejoins, find the game and enter it (if it is sync off), you will probably be too late, cause the game started long time ago (somewhere in between your lobby checks) and it's about to end.

50% of the people in the lobby are AFK, but that's temporary, they are taking shifts. If no one is responding to your "hi" or "game?" wait a bit. Give them a chance to finish their lunch, beer, smoke... Give a chance to the next player to join the lobby and see you there, say "hi" or "game?" to you.

This is where BZ Configuration Utility (built in Battlezone 1998 installer) comes handy. You start BZ in a Window Mode while waiting on a game, surfing, doing something else... When you see a game, or arrange 1, just restart BZ in full screen (uncheck Window Mode).
You can do that without Utility too, if you have 2 BZ shortcuts, one for window mode (" /win" in the end of target line), other for full screen.



Lobby example:


Dday & Grasshopper - wrong approach.
F-16 - half good (as soon as you left aamfe came and opened a strat, he was more patient than you and 3 players joined him eventually, they had a GG).
Jester - great approach, he noted all that he came and he's now waiting for a game (he was one out of those 3 who joined that strat).

New BZ98 installer (v1.2) allows you to do all this even easier. After installation you will get 6 different shortcuts in your start menu; 3 for BZ, 3 for RO. SW mode and window mode shortcuts are made for testing your settings, in case you experience issues with regular shortcut (HW mode), but RO window shortcut comes handy for something else too...



Before starting BZ, you should start RO in window mode, which will bring you to 1.4 lobby (same lobby BZ is played on). Now you can sit in the lobby and alt-tab that little RO window without any issues, which usually occur when you alt tab full screen. You can now check your email, surf, do your homework and so on... and when you wanna play BZ you simply click on a main BZ shortcut (HW mode, full screen) and start playing.

When you are done with the game, exit BZ full screen and continue to wait on a new game with RO in window. Like that you will never miss a GG again.

While sitting in the lobby, with RO in window, and tabbing between my work and BZ I noticed few of you trying to chat with AFK people, then leaving when you got no response. I'm not talking about me tabbing lobby every hour, I do it every 5 mins and I still miss your messages.

People, lobby isn't welcome party. We don't wait for you to show up, to start chatting or playing. It is impossible to see you, if you stay only for 30 seconds. Lobby people aren't idiots who stare at the green screen 24/7. You have to sit with us like it is explained in this thread, wait for AFK person to wake up, or for someone else to show up.

The best thing to do is to make a game and wait there while collecting scrap. When someone joins and starts crying: "no scrap", you respond: "next time you start first".