Brace a2

README

= Brace - A Duo/Tag-Team mod for Enemy Territory: Quake Wars =
Version: a2 - Date: 2009-10-21
Author: Jarad Hansen aka TinMan aka Tex

NOTE: This is an Alpha version.
While theoretically the worst that will happen is the game crashes, I hold no responsibility if your computer explodes in a ball of incandescent fury.

= Gameplay =
Players must team up with another player to scavenge the level for pickups - weapons ammo, health, repair packs and fuel cells while fighting other teams.
XP is given for damaging enemies and finding and using pickups. Team with most XP at end of match wins.
Crates of resources or weapons are droped at intervals, destroy them to gain their contents.
Vehicles are also dropped, they are up for grabs to whoever can get to them first.
Players drop their pickups upon death, will loose any resources they have acquired by using packs.

= Buddying Up =
The fireteam panel at the top left of the hud will show you your fireteam name and your buddy (if you have one).
You will be automatically assigned a team and a buddy, but you can press numpad Enter to set up your own.
All players can revive a team mate using the activate button, though it takes several seconds.

= How to do stuff =
To pick up 'pickups'(weapons and packs), aim at them and pressing Use ('F' key by default).
To 'use' a pack (get it's resources), press alt-fire while holding one (Right Mouse by default). Or press the enter/exit key while looking at a pack on the ground.
Normal fire drops the currently held pack.
Hold fire to install the currently held pack in a vehicle.
To drop a weapon or item press '\' ( can be rebound via controls/weapons menu ).

= Further Info =
Players are limited to holding two primary weapons at a time and two secondary (with the pistol and mac pistol you spawn with not being drop-able).
Players are limited to holding two packs of any mix.
You can read the type of pickup by looking at it.

When players are close to their teammate this shows as a lit icon in the fireteam list, they are considered 'braced' which gives some bonuses:
Armor: Takes the edge off some damage.
Health regeneration: A higher limit than when solo. Health only regeneration kicks in after several seconds of taking no damage, and is only there to stop a few hits while trying to find some health.

Pickup Types:
Weapons.
Grenades.
Mines - Can be used by any class, will auto arm on drop/setup.
Packs: Can be picked up (limit of two) and used to gain the resource, or given/installed to a ally/vehicle.
Health packs.
Ammo packs - for players or vehicles.
Fuel Cells - used for class tools or vehicles.

Class tools: Now require 'power' instead of a recharging bar, power works like an ammo type and is gained from fuel cells.
Classes:
Soldier: Has more health, HE charge requires about 1 pack of power.
Medic: still has instant revive, can also heal teammates with defribs, but has less health.
Engineer: Requires power to use the repair pliers.
FieldOps: Requires power to throw air strike markers one pack gives several strikes. Has a radio that lets them listen for audible beeps from pickups.
Covert: Requires power to enable smoke grenades or third eye. Runs faster than other classes when carrying silenced pistol.

= Known bugs and Limitations =
1st version, so everything :p

On initial map start the server (including 'Play Computer') spawns approximately 150 pickups which are physics objects, so there will be a few frames of punishment CPU/bandwidth wise until they settle.

Currently limited to GDF players only.

Scoreboard can only hold 12 players.

End of game awards per player instead of per team.

Bots sometimes don't pickup weapons.

NOTE: See changelog.txt for more info.

= Using the Mod =
NOTE: This mod is for Quake Wars version 1.5, it will not work on earlier or later versions.

1. Installation: Unzip brace-a2.zip into Quake Wars folder. Or connect to a server running Brace with auto-download.

2. Loading the mod: 
Load Quake Wars and choose Brace from the mods menu.
At the console you can run the 'gamename' command to check if the mod loaded.
brace must be loaded before attempting to connect to a server running brace.

3. Playing the mod:
Play against Computer, or start a server, or connect to a server running brace.

Playing computer or setting server:
The game sets the time limit to 30 minutes itself. It plays well with around 12 players/bots. With 16 players or over play starts to get a bit more dicey.
A server.cfg is in documentation folder.

= Performance =
Running a bot game takes a bit of CPU power, the more bots you have the bigger the hit. The system does scale the bots thinking rate down if your system isn't handling thing well, but there is a limit. Therefore it may be necessary to drop some of your settings down a notch to get a more consistent experience. Of course if you mainly play bots anyway you would have already done this.

= Feedback =
Email me at tinman_squad at hotmail, or post on the Quake Wars community forums, or catch me online.

= Distribution =
Distribute as you will, just keep the zip unmodified. Sweet.

= Thanks and credits to =
Splash Damage and id Software for the awesome game/engine.
Cody64 for his blood mod.
reyalP for wheeled vehicle handling improvements.

= Final Thoughts =
Not being able to tackle some of the gameplay improvements I wanted in dusk, and now coming back to some free time, I still want to explore the open playspaces that Quake Wars provide.
I decided to pull together some prior ideas that have been rattling around for a while.
The scavenge system seen dusk goes well with the open maps, it was actually the first thing I built for Quake Wars even before dusk.
Bolstering it with the air drops from the progression manager works nice, as movement across the map is some what more varied/wide ranging compared to the methodical sweep in dusk, due to the (often necessity) of regrouping with your teammate in brace.
The progression system in general is playing out nice, giving a nice kick start at the beginning of the match, then giving the players a breather and advancing steadily to the climax.
A decent progression is one thing sorely missing from dusk, but there's some not some simple issues there with zombie balance and the 5 human players having freedom of movement through the map.
Code wise I'm happy having cleaned up or wrapped a lot of hacks from dusk, and while there's some added for brace, I am keeping better track of them now for my TODO.
While my TODO list is still off the charts (as usual), I'm happy with what I've knocked together in the last few weeks as a first version.