gaming The BattleGrounds II, A Half Life 2 Revolutionary War Modification

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The BattleGrounds 2, A Half Life 2 Revolutionary War Modification

 

BG2 is a revolutionary war HL2 mod based on the post-Saratoga period of the War of Independence. It features two factions, the Continentals/Americans and the British Empire and their allies (Hessians and Mohawk natives[AKA naked indians]), each faction having specific pros and cons and a fixed objective: Kill each other in a very orderly and respectful fashion.

 

Let's get started by showing you a video. It was recorded by Xanatos in 2008 (1.2.1b version of the mod. Totally outdated, but will give you a small idea.)

 

 

 

Factions and Classes:

 

The British Side: The Redcoats, the most frightening fighting force of the time. In BG2, the British side is more focused on damage and melee. The Brits have 5 classes, each of them with their own weapons and roles:

• Royal Infantry / Redcoat: Standard issue for Line Battles, the Royal infantry carries a musket with fixed bayonet. With this class you can choose between to very different firelocks: the Brown Bess and the Long Pattern (BB and Long Pat). Brown Bess is standard issue for line battles, and it's the most balanced of the two. Has decent accuracy in short-medium range and damage. 7,5 second reload time and medium bayonet range. Base melee damage is 43, 64 for chest/stomach and 115 for head stab (instant kill). However in long ranges the BB is bad. The bullet drop decreases the overall accuracy even more, after 100 yards accuracy goes to hell really quick. The Long Pat, on the other hand, is a weapon focused on high accuracy, range and damage. It performs as good as the BB in short-medium range, but allows for greater distance shots and deals more damage in both melee and shot. This is compensated, however, with an 8.5 second reload time and a 2 second delay per stab. This weapon is never used in line battles due to the slow reload time and bad melee performance with many players

• Officer:The Officer is a class only allowed in Skirmishes and Realisms. It's the fastest of all classes and carries a flintlock pistol and sabre. The pistol has a 5 second reload time, it's very inaccurate and deals low damage, but allows for cancelling the reload, permitting an easy engagement in melee with the sabre. It's not used in line battles because it runs faster than the Royal Infantry.

• Jaeger: The jaeger (means hunter in German) is the rifleman of the British team. Armed with a low damage sword and a deadly accurate Jaeger Rifle, it's capable of engaging at very long ranges and actually get hits. The Jaeger Rifle carries a set of ironsights, which increase the accuracy a tad, as well as being the only class which finds crouching as beneficial. However, the Jaeger is extremely vulnerable in Melee, and it takes 9 seconds for the rifle to reload.

• Mohawk Native (AKA Naked Indian):The Mohawk is a class specially made for skirmishing. Armed with a smoothbore musket without bayonet and a tomahawk axe, the Native can effectively take the role of the Royal Infantry or Officer during a skirmish. It's a fast class (not as fast as officer), armed with a Brown Bess or Long Pattern, which have the same stats as the bayoneted counterparts.

• Light Infantry: The lights are a fast moving, fast reloading class designed for skirmishing in close quarters. Armed with a Brown Bess Carbine with fixed bayonet, the Light Infantry is ideal for urban maps and in-doors areas. They can choose between a single, accurate lead ball or Buckshot, which is devastating in close range. As it takes only 6 seconds to load the carbine, you don't really need to time the reload too much, but it's vital that you learn point blanking. Imagine it as the CQB counterpart of the Redcoats.

 

 

The Yanks:The continentals in BG2 are focused on long range engagements and skirmishing. They have 4 classes similar to the British ones, but more focused on long range engagements:

• Continental Soldier: Armed with a bayoneted smoothbore, the Continental Soldier is standard issue for line battles. With this class, you can choose between 3 firelocks: the Charleville, the American Brown Bess and the Revolutionnaire. The American BB works exactly the same as the British counterpart. The Charleville and Revolutionnaire are two French muskets made for accuracy and low damage. The Charleville does the most damage of the two, but's less accurate. The Revo is very accurate, but does less damage. All 3 american weapons reload at the same rate (7,5 seconds, 7-8 rounds per minute) and deal the same melee damage overall.

• Officer: Same as the British Officer.

• Frontiersman: Same as the Jaeger, but the Pennsylvania Long Rifle is far more accurate, takes longer to reload and deals less damage. You also have a butter knife!

• Militia:This unit is quite interesting. It's a mixture of Native and Light Infantry, as it has similar weapons to both classes. The Militia is very similar to the native. It's fast, has a tomahawk and it's made for skirmishing. However, the weapon choices are very different. First off you have the American Brown Bess, which works exactly like the native's variant. Then you have the Fowler Gun. The Fowler has two ammo types, same as the Carbine, lead ball and buckshot. The lead ball is as accurate as a Charleville, but does way less damage. This is compensated by a 7 second reload (compared to the 7,5 of the French firelock), overall speed and melee damage of the Tomahawk. Then you have shot, which is the same as the Light Infantry's but with less spread over distance.

 

 

Game Modes:

 

BG2 features 3 game modes, 1 official, 2 created by the community. The only official game mode is Skirmish/Scrimmage. The community made ones are Line Battles and Realism.

 

 

Skirmishing:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8Nnjbft19M

 

Skirmishes are played when there are few people in a server (less than 20), and are divided into 4 categories: Control Point (sequential, attack-defend or scatter), CTF, Ticket mode and King of the Hill.

 

Control Point:

• Sequential: Imagine it as a typical CP map in TF2. You have 3-5 cap points that are deployed in a specific order. Most maps only have 3: Spawn A, Spawn B and middle flag. Each flag capture grants 10 score to the team who took it, plus a passive +5/10 per 10-20 seconds. The team that has the most points at the end of the round or captures all flags wins.
• Attack-Defend: In this kind of mode, one of the factions will try to capture their enemy's territory. There are 2 kinds, without defined names. In one of the modes, features sequential flag caps and spawn push, like in CP_Dustbowl in TF2. The other kind features a big map with 3 points to be taken, normally one in the center, one in the left and right flanks. The defending team must hold the attackers for long enough to get enough score to counter the enemy's full caps. The round ends when the defending team manages to hold the attackers for an undefined amount of time, set by the admin, or if the attackers fully capture all flags.
• Scatter: In this type of CP, 4-6 flags are scattered around a big map, normally a city or small town. There's no capture sequence, and the objective is the same as in sequential.

Ticket Mode: In ticket-based maps, each side starts with a fixed amount of respawn tickets, which are consumed per death of a player. Each kill removes 1 ticket from the enemy team, granted no flags are captured. When a team controls 2/3 of the map's flags, it gains a bonus, granting a 2 or 3 ticket cost per kill. The default ticket mode map is BG_Fall, though it can be activated with the command mp_respawnstyle

 

Capture the flag Self explanatory. In my opinion, the only game in which capturing a flag makes sense... THE COLOURS!

 

 

 

Typical Server Question: Line Battle?

 

^^Those skins will be implemented in the next patch.

 

Line Battle is a game mode played in huge, custom made maps, most commonly made by Line Battle clans' mappers. It was invented by the old BG1 players back in 2002. Mainly the King's Royal Rifles. In a line battle, both factions will be engaged in line infantry combat, standing shoulder to shoulder and firing in volleys. Each team picks a commander, usually a clan member or trusted pubber, who will lead the line forward and must be obeyed at all times. The rules for line battling are easy to understand, but you end up breaking them eventually. This includes:

• Firing in a volley
• Do not jump in the line
• Do not crouch in the line
• Do no strafe when the line is moving, just look at the backpacks in front of you and press W
• Fire in the F in "Fire"
• Firing drill is "Make ready, take aim, fire"
• Do not team kill
• Do not shoot without being told to
• When ordered to charge, you have 1 bullet and 1 bullet only. reloading will result in you getting slayed/kicked.
• Do not talk when the commander's doing so
• Do not go away from the line, ramboing will result in a ban
• Use the Brown Bess as a British
• Listen at the commander at all times

And the list goes on....

 

 

 

 

Realism Events:

 

Realism events are normally played by clans exclusively, due to the high need of discipline, coordination and overall skill. Realisms are also played in custom made maps, normally forts or Trenches-styled. There are normally no respawns or a ticket system, and the whole game mode is played in attack-defend custom made CP maps. It's common to find cannons in these maps, as well as carefully triggered events, such as a part of the fort's wall getting breached or partially destroyed. A very good example of a map would be BG_Alamo, made by the 15th Wisconsin Volunteers back in 2010 (before disbanding and attempting to sue my old clan, 47th Lancashire, for editing the map without permission. Though 15th never said it could not be edited)

 

 

 

Community and Clans:

 

BG2 is a very elitist, clan-based game. Clans in BattleGrounds are way more strict, disciplined and honourable than, say, a CSS or a TF2 clan. They pick their names out of real life infantry regiments, have their own regimental colours and skins. Clan members are obliged to wear their clan tags at all times (unless they feel trolly, in which case, trolling with tags on can result in immediate kick). Pubs in BG are pretty much the same as in any other game... some are trolls, some are nice people, some are cool and some are pricks. Very few bronies around, so we must spread the message of love and tolerance, SPECIALLY IN THE 29th REGIMENT.

 

 

How to download:

 

Just go to http://www.bgmod.com, click on Downloads, then download and install BG2 2.1.1

If you encounter a problem with the Client.dll, go to http://www.moddb.com...attle-grounds-2 and download the 2.1.1 patch, not the full.

 

I Need Help!

 

If you need any help with the mod, click this link, which will send you to the support subforums: http://forums.bgmod....hp?showforum=70

 

If you encounter a problem not listed there, feel free to make a thread or contact me on Steam: koach2737.

 

Have fun playing, lads.

Edited June 3, 2012 by Kochi