I've managed to get FS up and running in the latest version of BZ2 1.3, which may not seem like a big deal considering I'm the one who made the mod, but it's been a long time and there have been several updates since I last had anything to do with it.

Now I have no idea where to go from here, I have no idea how to start porting the mod to BZCC I don't even know where I should be putting the files and there's no documentation on this subject .

can I still use a .pak file to store the mod files or do I need to extract them all ?

The file system used by BZCC is so different from the one used by classic BZ2, I'm really not sure where to start.

Yeah, you'll need to extract the assets. You can use the same folder structure as you do in the .pak file, but they all need to be inside a subfolder of a global Fleshstorm folder in /gogWorkshop, along with a modified bzone.cfg that adds that subfolder to the directory structure using the command AddLocalWorkshopDirRecurse. From there it should show up in the Mods>Mods menu in-game, which you can use to launch into it.

I can't get this to work maybe I'm missing something, I can get anything to show up in the ingame mods menu.

here's a copy of the contents of my modified BZone.cfg file :

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
// Copyright 1997-98 Activision Studios, Strategy Group
//
// Battlezone Combat Commander - Core System Configuration File
//

// Configure game file system
ConfigureFileSystem()
{
// Appends a relative path to MyDocs\My Games\Battlezone Combat Commander. This must
// appear before anything using it, directly or indirectly.
// AppendToMyDocs("pb6");

// Setup base data
ConfigureStream("base")
{
// Look in "addon" first
AddDirRecurse("@mydocsdir\addon"); //overrides

//This is required to enable active addon mods (not to be confused with the addon/ directory included above)
EnableAddonMods();

//This is required so that the workshop is populated with the base directories
//for each workshop item that contains a global config mod
AddWorkshopConfigs();

//The system will look at the currently active global config mod (if one exists)
//and will setup all the resource paths for it's dependant asset packages
AddGlobalConfigMod();

//These are local asset folders for this mod
AddLocalWorkshopDirRecurse("Fleshstorm");
AddLocalWorkshopDirRecurse("Fleshstorm_maps");

AddDirRecurse("@rootdir\bz2r_res"); //base resources

//Localization
AddLangDir("@rootdir\bz2r_loc"); //dynamically load the right language folder
AddDir("@rootdir\bz2r_loc"); //needed for localization_table.csv

// Maps13 folder -- has all stock IA, MP maps. Done so MODs
// can choose to not show these maps fairly easily. Note: only
// the .bzn/.inf for the maps live in maps13. All of the rest
// of the map files (.trn, .sky, .ter, etc) still live in
// patch13.pak.
AddDirRecurse("@rootdir\maps");

}

// Make it active
SetActiveStream("base");

// Optional, for mods -- the ability to put pilots, savegames &
// editor saves in other directories. Commented out to simply
// demonstrate how to do it. You can use '@rootdir' or
// '@mydocsdir' as shortcuts to either the (1) the directory
// bzone.exe resides in, or (2) {$MyDocs}\My Games\Battlezone Combat Commander ,
// respectively. (If AppendToMyDocs is used, that's tacked on to
// (2) above)

// SetPilotsDirectory("pilots");
// SetSavesDirectory("saved");
// SetEditorDirectory("@mydocsdir\EditorSaves");

is there anything wrong here at all ? also it's still called Bzone.cfg, is this an issue ?

I tried renaming it Fleshstorm.cfg but it didn't seem to change anything.

My mistake, I dropped the ball on that one. You'll need an .INI alongside your .CFG with the following contents:

[WORKSHOP]
modName = "Fleshstorm"
modType = "config"

That should be enough to get things working. You can use .DES and .DDS files to set up the description text and preview image when you reach that point.

thanks for the info, I'll give it a shot and see what happens.

still nothing, I've tried every combination that I can think of.

Without a working mod to study or proper documentation I'm just wasting my time here.

Has it been confirmed that mods even work with the GoG version ?

They definitely work. The setup you have should be thus:

/gogWorkshop contains a folder. Its name doesn't really matter, so I'll assume it's "fleshstorm".

/gogWorkshop/fleshstorm contains fleshstorm.cfg, fleshstorm.ini, and optionally fleshstorm.des and .dds. I've just had a poke around and those files do all need to be the same name for the game to pick them up, which is probably why you're not getting anywhere.

/gogWorkshop/fleshstorm/fleshstorm.ini is the file I gave you the structure of above.

/gogWorkshop/fleshstorm/fleshstorm.cfg is the modified bzone.cfg using AddLocalWorkshopDirRecurse to add the folder I assume is called "fsaddon", found at /gogWorkshop/fleshstorm/fsaddon

The .des and .dds files are a description and image for the shell, which you don't need a this point.

I'm sorry this information is only making its way to you in bits and pieces - we're pretty much all still learning how the new system works and how best to implement it.

Yay I finally got it to work.

Thanks for the info.

I was nearly there, seems like all I had to do was rename the folder with all the main project files to fsaddon and update the .CFG file accordingly.

now it's time to see what else is broken ..... (probably quite a bit I should imagine).

yup there's a lot that's broken.

The mission scripts don't work at all, but at least I can launch the campaign and all the briefings etc. show up ok.

The custom 3d models look awful, but they do show up and seem to be using the correct textures etc.

The 1st campaign map loads and looks ok.

The shell buttons are all in the wrong places.

None of the Fleshstorm IA maps are showing up, only the stock ones.

This is definately some progress but I'm going to need a lot of help here to get everything running correctly.

I managed to get the FS IA maps to show up and disable the stock ones, so that's a little more progress.

The game is spitting out console errors all over the place with regard to meshes, so it'd be nice to start updating some of the models but without reference models that's going to be tricky, also I'd rather get some mission scripts working first and update the models/textures later.

This is going to be a big problem, it kinda sucks that we can't just use the old mission .DLL's, I haven't got the slightest clue about how to work with LUA, I don't even know where to start.

I wish you all the luck in the world.

Thanks, I reckon I'll need it . :p

I'm currently setting up a GitHub repository so that I can share the project files with other developers.

After that I'll probably look into updating some of the 3D models, even if I don't know how to rig them yet I can still be working on the designs.

After taking stock of various factors I've come to the conclusion that it's really not worth my time and effort to convert FleshStorm.

The main reason to abandon the project is the fact that very few people seem to be playing BZCC, according to "steam spy" the game has only sold around 7,000 copies ( + or - 2,000), I know this is not a 100% accurate figure but it's probably quite close considering the tiny number of MP games I've been seeing.

I honestly can't see anyone still playing the game by the time I finish the conversion (which would take 6 months or more - at least ) except for maybe a few die hard old time players who could just as easily play the mod on BZ2 1.3.

There's been very little real modding support from the devs appart from some map making tutorials, but map making hasn't really changed much since BZ2 1.3 and there are already tutorials available for that ( I wrote them) . I know there's been talk of releasing the 3D models for BZCC but if that ever happens it'll likely be too little too late, also there's no documentation or tutorials on mission scripting , so all in all nothing of any real use.

I think interest in BZCC is likely to die off pretty fast, the community is horribly fractured, people who bought the GoG version don't have access to the mods and maps that the few MP players seem to be playing. Hell I can't even post on the Steam forums which is where the only real activity is taking place.

The whole release of BZCC seems to be rather botched and it's far from the modern update that a classic like BZ2 deserved.

Anyhow I'm outta here, I've got other projects I probably should be working on rather than trying to relive the past, BZ2 was a great game 18 years ago but sometimes dead is better.

Models are actually expected to be released within a couple of days (in time for the modding competition), and documentation and turorials for mission scripting for BZR should be mostly applicable to BZCC given that the latter is built on the former. If you use Discord you'll find a great deal of experienced lua programmers there who would be willing to help (it's there that you'll find the greatest amount of activity - the Steam forum is positively quiet in comparison).

If you are indeed set on not updating Fleshstorm yourself, I hope you will allow others to do so?