hello, Zzone :D

[arZca]

Hello Z fans. I'm arZca and I'm from Finland, and I happen to be a big fan of Z. I was really surprised to realize that there actually are bunch of Z fans still active! It's great that we still have a place like this, even it might not be the most active forum in the world, but still

Well of course I could tell my "Z story" (how I got involved with this game):

A friend of mine introduced this game (demo version) to me when we were kids. The funny thing actually was that when we were playing Z, he was always playing (I was too afraid to try!:D). Many years later, my friend had bought the full version (DOS). At that time, I had nearly forgotten the whole game and didn't consider it particularly interesting anymore.

Around 2001, I downloaded the demo version and tried it out, believe or not, this was actually the first time I was playing the game even I had known it for years! I immediately fell in love with it, and I felt that I need to find the full version.

About one year later, I got lucky. I bought the full version cd from local internet action, it cost about 10 euros. Since then, I just started to get more and more hooked up with this game. Today, I don't play Z too often (maybe like few times in a year), but when I do, I play it a lot.

Fell free to tell your own "Z stories" if you want!

[Meeky]

Hi arZca!
Welcome to the forum!
I'm from Russia and become acquainted with the game about 10 years ago in the time of first C&C and RedAlert. Since then it become my favorite game for its sense of humour mixed with tough AI through which I had to replay each level many times until I become lucky
Soon Bitmap Brothers made my happy with Z Expansion Kit with 15 additional single play die-hard levels
Now I play the game in fits and starts, though in net mode I never had a chance to play, although now thanks to Antares TCP/IP is supported.

[arZca]

Hi Meeky!

I sure didn't expect to get a reply from anyone this quickly!

Hi arZca!
Welcome to the forum!
I'm from Russia and become acquainted with the game about 10 years ago in the time of first C&C and RedAlert. Since then it become my favorite game for its sense of humour mixed with tough AI through which I had to replay each level many times until I become lucky

Yeah, the humor and AI! and what comes to AI, I have a love/hate relationship with it (as probably for all of us have). It's a shame that only a bunch of people have realized what kind RTS gem we have here. Most of the people always whine about the difficulty, instead of focusing on things you need to get right to beat the game...

[Meeky]

Yeah, the humor and AI! and what comes to AI, I have a love/hate relationship with it (as probably for all of us have). It's a shame that only a bunch of people have realized what kind RTS gem we have here. Most of the people always whine about the difficulty, instead of focusing on things you need to get right to beat the game...

Yeah, I myself heard complains from friend of mine to whom I tried to introduce the game. He said he can't play it because it requires you to be quick, agile in giving the orders especially in very first minutes and if you fail to do it, the battle is lost. In part he is right, indeed it has acute, stuggling nature at the outset and then there is little that can be changed.
Maybe for those guys I should make a mod which will dynamically limit the number of units that CPU can have - for example, no more the human player have. What do make of it?

[arZca]

I have to admit that I get pissed off sometimes because of the difficulty, but then again, there is always something that will motivate me to try again.

A good example was when I once got totally beaten on Level 17 (Car Park). I had saved the game when me and CPU were capturing the hardware at the bottom of the map. I wasn't fast enough, and AI rolled over to my side of the map and crushed me completely. I tried to reload the savegame many times and tried to make the difference but no.

So, restarting the level was inevitable, and I got off to a quick and good start, and in the end I was victorius. Just few minor adjustments considering the robot production (and moving units properly), and I had the edge I needed to win!

[BallWin]

Hi arZca!
Welcome to the forum!

On an image an example of my usual tactics of initial red team at 18 level:


( full size can be loaded here - 500 kB)

[arZca]

Hi BallWin! Thanks for wishing me welcome!

Now that we're talking about level 18, I've seen two different versions:

1. This version that most of us are familiar with (the official one)

2. The second version is different: either the player or the CPU has no Heavy Tank at the start, and there are two unmanned Heavys on both sides of the map. NOTE: I downloaded this version of Z from the internet nearly ten years ago, and it didn't have any movies, so it's a bit different from the CD version that I own.

I've beaten both versions, but the official version (your screenshot) was more harder. It's been nearly a year since I played the CD version. I'll try to get it back from my dad's place ASAP.