Battlefield Pirates 2 Mod Update

[Spawndemon]

The Battlefield Pirates 2 mod team is back today with the release of a new teaser trailer that previews all 16 of their maps. Check it out:

From the crow's nest of me trusty Brig, I've recently spied some 16 fantastic locales to set port in. With Release 2 now on the horizon, grab yer spyglass and give these previews a gander over on YouTube. Be sure to leave some feedback!

The video contains fly-bys of each map, new footage of the beer glider, the hot air balloon and the new Cannonere class who carries dual french pistols and a deployable field cannon! The full article contains the minimaps for the 64 man Conquest versions of each map and a brief description, in the order they appear in the video for those to care to follow along.

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To get more information on the new maps that will be featured in their next release, visit here.

[imported_Rhino]

Re: Battlefield Pirates 2 Mod Update

Looking really sweet guys, cant wait till your next release!

One thing I noticed was O My Island I think the map was called, the overgrowth needed its view distance turned up and it also needs its rockface switched to planemap 1, apart from that, looks really good with some really unique new maps, really like the look of that port one and the volcano effect was really cool

Keep it up!

[DarkDayz]

Re: Battlefield Pirates 2 Mod Update

That is so weird...i was just thinking of this mod today and how i havent heard anything about it lately.
good to see a new release is in the works.
looks great guys!

[PanzerGhost]

Re: Battlefield Pirates 2 Mod Update

wow I am very impressed. can't wait for the release.

[Sir. Dosedmonkey]

Re: Battlefield Pirates 2 Mod Update

That's a lot of maps!

[-=4th=-1/2Hawk]

Re: Battlefield Pirates 2 Mod Update

Each of those maps has between 3 and 6+ different layouts too. I've always thought it was a shame that most server owners run only 64-man sized maps instead of mixing it up a little bit. Even in vBF2, the smaller maps are a ton of fun - even with a huge number of people on them. Anyways, we have to cater to a much smaller fan base than the more popular mods so thats one reason for the wide diversity in map sizes and atmospheres. Gives a lot of options for specializing servers to what their players like to do. [truth] The ***** is - its a lot of work for something that only lasts a few weeks. LOL [/truth]

[imported_Kilo]

Re: Battlefield Pirates 2 Mod Update

Do people still play this? Last time I checked there was only 1 server with people in it.

[Sir. Dosedmonkey]

Re: Battlefield Pirates 2 Mod Update

[truth] The ***** is - its a lot of work for something that only lasts a few weeks. LOL [/truth]

I played a lot of original BFP, big fan, the only reason I didn't play much BFP2 on previous release was i often got transparent walls, random crash outs on certian maps and video card lag. Plus the gameplay/map layout didn't match up to BFP originals imo. However hopefully this will be fixed up in the next release?

[-=4th=-1/2Hawk]

Re: Battlefield Pirates 2 Mod Update

We've never really had the deepest bench as far as most mod teams go, so cant expect everything to go perfectly for everyone right. The reason you got transparent walls has to do with the fact that some of our statics are pretty massive (the Bastion, the lighthouses, the twin tallships on Dead Calm, etc). When cutting down lower detailed versions of these objects when viewed from a distance (called LODs) the easiest way to reduce poly count is to get rid of the interiors. One thing we didnt find in testing is that guys running the mod on ultra low graphics settings automatically see one of the LODs instead of the primary mesh up close. So the question is do you fix that problem which causes a bad experience for a few players, or do you add back all that detail and make those maps suffer for everyone. *shrug* Its not a BF42 mod, its a BF2 mod - a lot of our original fan base didnt have the hardware to experience it correctly, but not much we can do about that. If you can run thru the crowded streets of Karkand, you should have no problems in our mod as our maps are mostly open water correct? I know lots of guys run on Low to increase fps for competitive matches, but if you bump geometries to at least Medium then a lot of those problems will get solved.

Now as far your feedback regarding the maps and gameplay goes - all valid criticisms... we get a lot of the same from our community on our site. The dev team on BFP2 wasnt the same crew that did BFP1, and even so, we never set out to simply port BFP1 onto the BF2 platform. The first version was its own animal sprung organically from the community of players into a cult classic sort of thing that could never be faithfully recreated later on. Its appeal was being cartoonish and cheesy because there really wasnt any choice at the time. BF2 offered a giant leap forward in what the mapping team could do (as evidence by the diversity of maps in this video), and a giant leap backwards when it came to getting all the gameplay stuff implemented ingame. So we tried to do the best we could.

OK - so where that left us after R1 was to try and compromise by steering back towards BFP1 once the dev team had matured and learned how to work with the BF2 engine better. Many of the R2 maps give nods back to maps like Marooned (Stranded), Short on Supplies (Pressgang Port), and Frylar (Frylar2). We've even got remakes of two BF42 maps - Omaha Beach (O'Me Hearty Beach) and Wake Island (Wake Island 1707). We've added a lot more naval assets to get our pirate players back on their sea legs, and brought in a few fun toys from BFP1 like the hot air balloons and deployable field cannons. Meanwhile we've added the ability to mix CTF maps in rotation with Conquest to keep things interesting.

So hopefully you guys have upgraded your graphics cards now that BF2 itself is a few years old, and we'll have won some of you back to the community by making this next release a little more familiar. YARR!

[imported_Rhino]

Re: Battlefield Pirates 2 Mod Update

So the question is do you fix that problem which causes a bad experience for a few players, or do you add back all that detail and make those maps suffer for everyone.

A simple trick I do from time to time is have more or less the same model for lod1 as I do for lod0, just remove the detail bits, cables etc from the model, and I also remove the bump maps so low gfx users dont have to load the bump textures, thou this sometimes can make the object look a little "darker" when you switch from lod1 to lod2 which depending on your bump may be noticeable, but IMO even with it its normally worth it, unless it looks really bad.

Then in your .tweak settings you can set your lod distance to have say 50m til it switches to lod1, then you set it to switch to lod2 (with no interior walls and less detail) at say 60 or 75m, so you still have lod1 with interior walls but the distance from when you switch to lod1 and lod2 is hardly anything and all low gfx users do is ignore lod0 so lod2 will switch at the same time it dose for the high gfx users

[-=4th=-1/2Hawk]

Re: Battlefield Pirates 2 Mod Update

Oh that is a good idea...

[frontpage]

Re: Battlefield Pirates 2 Mod Update

Do people still play this? Last time I checked there was only 1 server with people in it.

In weekends there are servers with 20+ people

[MathU]

Re: Battlefield Pirates 2 Mod Update

Oh boy, can't wait. This is easily one of my favorite mods. I hope you guys have optimized that ship battle map better this time; ever since the last update my FPS goes out the window while on the ships.