Warzone 2100

Warzone 2100
Developer(s)	Pumpkin Studios
Publisher(s)	Eidos Interactive
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, macOS, PlayStation, FreeBSD, AmigaOS 4, AROS, MorphOS, Linux
Release date(s)	Microsoft Windows NA: April 10, 1999 EU: 1999 PlayStation NA: May 31, 1999 EU: 2000 macOS WW: January 30, 2012 Linux WW: January 30, 2012
Genre(s)	Real-time strategy, Real-time tactics
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multiplayer

Warzone 2100 (pronounced: “Warzone twenty-one hundred”) is an open-source real-time strategy and real-time tactics hybrid computer game, originally developed by Pumpkin Studios and published by Eidos Interactive. It was originally released in 1999 for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation, and is now also available for macOS, FreeBSD, AmigaOS 4, AROS, MorphOS, Linux,^[1] and other operating systems.

While Warzone 2100 was developed and released as a proprietary commercial video game, on December 6, 2004, the source code and most of its data was released under the GNU General Public License version 2,^[2] the rest of the data followed on June 10, 2008.

Story

In the late 21st century, the world’s civilizations are wiped out by a series of nuclear strikes, seemingly caused by a massive malfunction of the new NASDA strategic defense system. While most of the survivors form scavenger bands to survive, the player is a member of a group named “The Project”, that is more organised and seeks to rebuild civilization using pre-war technology.

The game begins with The Project sending three teams (Alpha, Beta, and Gamma) to gather technology that would help with reconstruction; the player assumes command of Team Alpha in Arizona. While gathering said “artifacts”, the Project fends off attacks from an organization called the New Paradigm, another major survivalist organisation, which is more advanced than the player’s forces. Later however, it is discovered that a self-aware computer virus named ‘Nexus’ is actually controlling the New Paradigm.

After the player defeats the New Paradigm, he is assigned to Team Beta, which is based in an urban zone in the Eastern Sector and under attack by a faction called ‘The Collective’. Again, the player starts out less advanced than ‘The Collective’ and it is discovered that Nexus is controlling this faction too. At the end of the campaign, Nexus launches nuclear missiles at Alpha and Beta bases, prompting the player to abandon the facility and move to the Gamma base.

Upon arriving at Gamma base, the player is immediately ambushed by the Gamma forces, which have already been taken over by Nexus. After the player survives the ambush and develops countermeasures to ‘Nexus’ infection, Nexus takes control of the remaining NASDA satellites and attempts to destroy the player. However, before he can succeed, the Project captures a NASDA missile site, and shoots down the orbiting laser weapons. It is learned that the scientist Dr. Reed, who was bankrupted by the US military, transformed himself into the Nexus virus and was responsible for the holocaust by infiltrating the ‘NASDA’ systems. At this point, the survivors of the Alpha and Beta bases arrive, and the three Project teams launch a full-scale assault on Nexus. The Project destroys Nexus and can begin rebuilding civilization.

However, in the final cinematic, one of the remaining NASDA sites is shown contacting an object in orbit, while ‘Nexus’ laugh can be heard.

Gameplay

A New Paradigm dropship takes off after deploying an assault force against the Project.

Mobile mortar weapons bombard Scavenger-occupied shacks from afar.

Videos frequently appear during gameplay. This image depicts a dropship transporting the player’s forces towards the campaign’s first Away mission.

The game is fully 3D, based on the iViS 3D graphics engine developed by Sam Kerbeck of Eidos Interactive Ltd. The game world is mapped by a grid; vehicles tilt to meet hilly terrain, and projectiles can be realistically blocked by steep mountains. The camera is free-moving and can zoom in and out, rotate, and pan up or down while navigating the battlefield.

In the game, units of different factions are painted different colors. The New Paradigm, the Collective, and Nexus are the enemies of the Project in the campaign, and they can be seen attacking Project forces as well as Scavengers, survivors of the nuclear fallout.

Units can all be customized according to: chassis (which, for example, takes weight and power into account); drive system (such as wheels or tracks); and mounted object (such as a weapon, or one of various support tools). Units can earn experience. Earning experience cause units to level up from ranks such as Rookie to Trained and Professional.

Warzone 2100 places an emphasis on sensors and radar to detect units and to coordinate ground attacks. Counter-battery sensors detect enemy artillery by sensing their projectiles and firing arcs and pinpointing their location to coordinate artillery strikes against enemy artillery. VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) sensors work like basic sensors, only they coordinate VTOL airstrikes. VTOL counter-battery sensors coordinate VTOLs to find and destroy enemy artillery batteries.

There is an emphasis on artillery: although many direct- and close-combat weapons and anti-air weapons can be researched and deployed, artillery is a staple of assault on enemy bases and outposts. 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 technology is next in the tree. Technology can be acquired by gathering artifacts left behind by certain destroyed enemy structures or units. Researching is composed of largely small and incremental advancements over existing weapons, armor, and chassis types.

Some levels require you to achieve the objective within a time limit whilst some without these limits can be used to gather “power”. In Away missions, the player must select a limited group of units to transport to a territory completely away from the original base.

All of the terrain throughout the campaign is essentially composed of three areas, with different sectors for Away missions and other such levels; upon progression, previous maps simply expand and the player’s original bases from past levels are maintained. Also, its resource system is quite different from mainstream RTS games; Oil Derricks are established over specific, scarce locations which constantly provide a slow, fixed rate of income. Combined with a mission time limit, this resource method makes it generally infeasible for players to utilize certain traditional RTS tactics such as “turtling” (fortifying one or more bases against enemy attack, while stockpiling resources with which to produce a massive army).

However, there are certain missions throughout the game that do not have a time limit, and in these missions it is possible to use more traditional RTS tactics to prepare for subsequent timed missions.

History

Warzone 2100 map editor (EditWorld)

Warzone 2100 map editor (EditWorld)

“Warzone 2100” was originally developed by Pivotal Games and published by Eidos Interactive. In 1999 it was originally released for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation. After having released patch 1.10 final in November 1999, Pivotal Games ended their support for Warzone 2100 at January 5, 2000.^[3] On March 15, 2000, Pumpkin Studios was closed down by Eidos Interactive. Pumpkin Studios later reformed as Pivotal Games.

N.E.W.S.T

Formed in October 1999, a third-party group, N.E.W.S.T., completely took over. In November 2000, they released the unofficial patch 1.11. N.E.W.S.T. became Pumpkin-2 in February 2003.^[4]

Direct Games

An anti-cheating add-on was developed for MPlayer.com for Warzone 2100 that lead to the anti-cheating server Direct Games.

Pumpkin-2

Support was taken over by a fan group called Pumpkin-2. Pumpkin-2 made a new patch, patch 1.12, released July 2003. This patch included many new improvements, most notably the addition of landmines. However, the host for Pumpkin-2 withdrew without warning, and Pumpkin-2 was confined to the backup forums at Directgames. The forums were later moved to Realtimestrategies.net.

During this time however, Pumpkin-2 sent a petition^[4][5] to Eidos Interactive, the legal copyright holder and holder of the source code and art-content, to make Warzone free and open-source. On December 6, 2004 the Warzone source code was uploaded to Radiosity’s FTP server by Alex McLean.^[6] Also, much of the game’s art content (beside the movies) was placed under the GPLv2 license.^[7] On June 10, 2008 the license of the game was clarified, loosened and distribution of films and soundtrack was permitted.^[8]

Several people at Pumpkin-2 were working on making a sequel to Warzone 2100, entitled Total Warzone. A pre-alpha demo has been released at the “realtimestrategies.net” forums. Since the source code release for Warzone 2100, most (if not all) development resources that were present in this project have been moved to the “Warzone Re-Development project”.

The “Warzone Re-Development Project” was later renamed to the “Warzone 2100 Resurrection Project”, and then to the “Warzone 2100 Project”.

The Warzone 2100 Project

On June 11, 2005, version 0.1 of the “Warzone 2100 Project” was released, with all proprietary technology replaced by free and open-source alternatives, with the result that the game now runs on Microsoft Windows, macOS, PlayStation, FreeBSD, AmigaOS 4, AROS, MorphOS and Linux. After version 0.2.3, the numbering scheme changed, and the next release became 2.0.3. The latest stable version is 3.2.1, released July 30, 2016.

The 3.1 series of releases feature new textures, new defensive structures, updated weapon balance, and an enhanced multiplayer system.^[9]

Diorama, a random map generator has been written independently for version 2.2.0, which can create maps for skirmish and multiplayer games. Diorama is currently only known to work in Linux.^[10]

Warzone 2100 Legacy

In August 2012 an offshoot of The Warzone 2100 Project, originally called Warzone 2100 Secession but renamed Warzone Legacy, was created by some players who felt that the 3.x series of development was going in the wrong direction.

The project’s first beta release, 1.0 Beta 1, was released on 01/23/2013, based on the 3.1 Beta 11 code base from The Warzone 2100 Project.

On May 10, development was resumed, along with the announcement that 1.0 would be rewritten, using 2.3.9 as the new code base, dropping support for the 3.1 beta 11 code base and thus all preceding testing versions.

On July 17, 2013, unstable releases of the new codebase versioned as microwave_rebase became available for Microsoft Windows and Linux systems, showcasing features such as spectator support, improved chat protocols, and odd numbered map support. The project provides source code and Windows executable downloads. macOS support may be possible by utilizing MacPorts to build a Darwin/X11 version of the game, but is not supported by the project.

In May 2014 the main developer had announced that Legacy will no longer be pushed as a competitor to Warzone 2100.^[11]

Other projects

There are other community projects available, though most have been abandoned or are not under active development.

One of the most notable active projects is Warzone 2100 Redemption, with a goal of porting the engine back to DirectX as it was with the original retail release, while maintaining OpenGL support for cross platform support.

Crowdfunding campaign for iPad port

In November 2014 a developer started a Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign to fund the porting of WZ to iPad and iPhone,^[12] despite the incompatibility of Warzone’s GNU GPL license with the Apple App store.

Reception

Warzone 2100 was generally well received amongst reviewers, with the PC version receiving an average of 81% from GameRankings, and the PlayStation version an average of 76%.^[13]

GameSpot gave the PlayStation version a 6.5, and the PC version a 7.6. Gamespot praised the game for its high level of customizability and concluded, “Warzone 2100’s highly navigable 3D engine, unique campaign structure, and multiplayer gameplay should please most real-time strategy fans.”^[14][15]

IGN shared similar sentiments, rating the PC version 8.0, and the PlayStation version 7.5. IGN praised the PlayStation version for being one of the few RTS games on the system, “In the end the weird truth is that Warzone 2100 is one of the best RTS on the system."^[16] In their PC review, the author expressed disappointment with the lack of innovation, but praised it nonetheless, "Mostly it boils down to taking great ideas found in other RTS titles and combining them into one. Pivotal Games did a fantastic job with that task and this one is certainly worth playing all the way through.”^[17]

See also

• List of free PC games
• List of open-source video games

Notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Warzone 2100.

• Official website
• Original Warzone2100 site
• The Warzone 2100 Project on GitHub
• The Warzone 2100 Project on SourceForge
• "Warzone 2100 Resurrection". Freecode. 
• Warzone 2100 at MobyGames