Action Quake Developers Team: Capture the Briefcase
Topic – March 30th, 1999
The final version of CTB should be ready for release once Hal puts on a few finishing touches. The final version will have full VWEP support and include all the new CTB specific sound files for both the male and female gender. Look for it possibly by the end of this week.
-==New Maps==-
We have a new map designed for CTB by Ruskprick called CTBcity. Its a redesign of Ruskpricks last AQ map City for use with CTB. As usual its another high quality map release by Ruckprick. The map should be available on Map Depot soon. For now you can auto download it from Fool’s Paradise server 209.198.22.20:27910.
I have also heard that KaRRiLLioN the creator of the maps Highrise and Vertigo is working on a CTB map as I type this.
If any map makers want to design maps for CTB please do, it can only make the game better. Let us know if we can assist you or have any questions.
-==CTB Sound Girl==-
A few people have inquired about who did the sounds for the female voice for CTB. Well not to leave them hanging here is a picture.
-==BACON FEST 99==-
Homosaurus wanted to let you guys know about the Bacon Fest its March 31, 1999 at 9 am, Lennox hall, University of Guelph Canada. Sounds like a good time will be had by all in attendance. Come join the fun and meet members of AQDT, Clan Bacon Force, Clan_knife, Clan Passive Resistance, Clan redneck and Crimson Jade Warriors. They will all be signing free autographs for the general public.
– fex
CTB, Frequently Asked Questions – March 14th, 1999
Have a question about CTB? Head on over to our CTB FAQ. If you have any questions not on the list please email them to me, bill@fear.net. We will be expanding the FAQ as we recieve questions from you. and if there are any new enhancements made to the CTB code
– fex
CTB Beta Server List – March 6th, 1999
Here is a list of the servers either running CTB or will be running CTB in the near future.
|
Name |
IP Address |
Status |
Scenario |
|
Fools Paradise |
209.198.22.20:27910 |
Active |
CTB / Drug Run |
|
=AR= Barracks |
209.193.133.79:27910 |
Active |
CTB |
|
MistyVortex |
157.24.107.117:27910 |
Intermittent |
CTB |
|
Clan Doggus |
speed.freei.net:27920 |
Intermittent |
CTB |
– fex
New Beta Test Server – March 5th, 1999
We have a new beta test server that is located in Scandinavia thanks to the folks over at MistyVortex. The IP address is 157.24.107.17 27910. Be sure to let us know what you think. While you are at it you might want to thank the Admins over at MistyVortex for running this test server for us. Also remember that your input will make this a better game.
– fex
General News Update – March 3rd, 1999
Things are proceeding nicely with AQDT Brand CTB. Capture points can be specified either by existing CTF flag spawns or by specifying coordinates on the map. As a result, we can run CTB on pretty much any map, although it’s bound to suck on some maps (e.g., cliff2).
-==VWEP==-
The vwep model for the briefcase is nearly finished thanks to the efforts of Homosaurus and a nice tutorial from Oddjob. We should have support for most of the popular AQ models. If anyone wants to add support for other models, they are more than welcome to do so once we release the model. There are a few screen shots of the vwep in action on our screenshots page.
-==Sounds==-
Homosaurus, Homer and Myself have come up with some new radio sounds, like “Carrier Hit”, “I have the package”, etc. They are considering recasting the default AQ sounds so they are all in one voice. Once the female sounds are done we will post them in a pak format for your downloading pleasure.
-==Server News==-
Clan Doggus is providing a West Coast Beta Test server for us (speed.freei.net:29720) and we should have a Scandinavian server up in the next day or so. We will probably add another East Coast and maybe a Midwest or Southeast/west server. Hopefully we will be able to get feedback from people all over the world, so we aredistributing our test servers accordingly.
Thanks for being patient with us. If you have any questions, comments and or suggestions please feel free to either email us or post them to our message board.
– fex
New AQDT Member – February 23rd, 1999
AQDT just got stronger with the addition of Hal[9k]. Welcome aboard Hal! Hal has already been working on CTB and we will be incorporating our versions of CTB together to make one great game. I will post some screen shots shortly.
– fex
CTB Screenshots – February 23rd, 1999
We have the first screen shots from the Alpha version of CTB. You can view the screen shots by following this link: CTB Screen shots. Until we get our finished briefcase model, we will be using the power cube in its place as you will notice in the screen shots.
– fex
AQDT Announce Plans for AQ Teamplay – February 17th, 1999
Are you ready for CTB (Capture the Briefcase) and other teamplay variants for Action Quake2? AQDT announces their plans with a press release from Fool Killer. You can read the entire announcement here: AQDT Announcement
– fex
https://web.archive.org/web/20060117235848/http://aqdt.fear.net:80/oldnews-1.htm
Capture the Briefcase (CTB) FAQ |
||||||||||||||||
What is CTB
Who are these AQDT Guys?
How do I find CTB Servers?
Whats up with the CD/CELLS?
Where is the CD/CELL? / Which is our Briefcase?
How do I pick up the Briefcase (CD/CELL)?
Can I drop the Briefcase (CD/CELL)?
How do I capture the Briefcase (CD/CELL)?
Why is that guy glowing?
Why can I respawn sometimes but not others?
Who has the Briefcase?
Why can’t I pick up our own Briefcase?
When are extra frags for Briefcase capture going to be implemented?
Can I fire my weapon when I have the Briefcase?
Where are we supposed to take the enemy Briefcase?
Can we get verification that the other team has our Briefcase?
https://web.archive.org/web/20050920180829/http://aqdt.fear.net:80/faq-old.htm |
AQDT Announcement
As you know, Capture the Briefcase has been a hot topic in the aq2 community. Many people are wondering: is it going to happen? Yes, it will.
TP2: (Internal Codename)
Teamplay 2, is going to be just like regular capture the flag. Two briefcases, two capture points. Our standard map that we’ll be making TP2 for will be Blockwar, the reason for Blockwar is the fact that there is CTF flag spawn points already in the map. The other pluses with this map is that it’s extremely big and plenty of places to hide or stash yourself; also the fact that it has an EXCELLENT design and keeps the r_speeds nice and low.
We, AQDT, have decided it would be best to come up with the rules that will make a fun, fair, and challenging game. Although the rules are not set in gold, you will get the general idea behind them, we are trying to make them simple as we can. But it will be essential for the people to read the documentation for the new commands/finished rules.
In order to pick up the brief case AND carry it you must be holding a hand gun or a knife. Just like real life, kind of hard to weird an automatic with a mp5 or m4 :). Also, we believe this will help along with teamplay; ie: if your team does not cooperate your ass will be creamed.
Another rule in place is when you die you stay in DEAD mode until 33% of your team is dead. Then you get respawned with 100% healtha nd all your weapons/items.
To get ammo in the game people will be dropping clips instead of guns. So if someone has an mp5 and a clip in reserve there will be 2 mp5 clips on the ground, a knife and a handgun. Same thing with everything else. This should help the people who have bandolier and can pick up excess ammo for their defensive crew.
Hopefully, this will also help with teamplay. Imagine a sniper perched up on a building and taking down guys. Someone with a bandolier can pick up the ammo and drop off some to the sniper.
TP2 will just be like Teamplay, but goal orientated. These rules are NOT set in stone, so they can change. We all agreed on a few rules for continuity (where is my damn theasarus? :)) :
We will _NEVER_ modify the weapon spreads, strength, or ammo count.
We will _NEVER_ modify the way you get hit or die (ie: change the bounding boxes)
We will _NEVER_ screw around with ANY changes unless we get permission from Fireblade and Zucchini, AND from the A-Team.
Our plans for now is to just work on the code, we plan on using simple objects for the briefcase (the power cube from baseq2 pak files). But here is what you should expect in the near future:
Briefcase model (made by Gooseman!)
Vwep Briefcases for ALL supported Aq2 models.
Clientside update to Aq2
To make this successful we must cooperate with the A-Team. Because the final version will require a client side update for all updated vwep skins and BC model. Bartender knows about our doings and even chips in some good ideas.
If you think I told you EVERYTHING that we’re doing, you’re wrong! :) We have other projects that will be working on after we complete TP2 (can you say TP3? oh yeah) and another mod that people may like :)
Again, these rules are not set in gold. We will be playing with the rules around to make sure everything is fair. And just like Axshun, the public will get to play TP2 on my server (lostinfo.com) and on other servers too!
All i can say for now is, if you are a mapper and are currently making nice, BIG maps. Please include Flag spawn points in ‘strategic’ places. We will be using blockwar as our ‘standard’ map for now. If I manage to find Ruskprick’s email address i will email him asking to make City2 where all he would do is just place flag spawn points in City.
https://web.archive.org/web/20060602091943/http://aqdt.fear.net:80/announce.htm
The Team (currently active members)
Lance “Hal[9k]” Burton
The driving force behind AQ:Espionage and the TE 4.x series, Hal is currently working for Infinite Machine on a game for the X-Box known as New Legends (www.new-legends.com). Having finally completed his thesis after taking a semi-vacation and writing the 3.x series for AQ:E, Hal received his PhD (Pimpin’ Hoes Degree) last fall. He flew in for GK, which makes everything else just icing on the cake.
Andrew “Black Monk” Prosnik
Some punk who’s main skill consists of annoying people until they grudgingly get things done. After Homer’s website revamping, Black Monk made the ETE docs all pretty and did a nifty new distibution package for ETE. One day he might even try to compile ETE on a Macintosh. But who knows, eh?
The Team (past members)
Mike “Homer” Connor
The original coder behind AQ:TE, Homer is now a corporate shill for IBM where he’s doing something that doesn’t require coding. Now married to Lucy and daddy to a boy and girl, he’s more or less inactive 98% of the time, due to massive activity involving the knee-highs.
Bill “Fex” Geiger
The all-powerful Fex, with his now-redhead wife known to GK vets as Mrs. Fex, rules the Fear Syndicate with a velvet fist. Besides the fact that he runs the server you downloaded these files from, Fex also was the most useful paintball player ever at GK2K because he shot Graeme in the nuts.
Graeme “Homosaurus” Rolfe
The genius behind Greasy Keyboards, known forever as GK, Homo is now working in some pimpin restaurant and is also the OGL admin for three AQ ladders. His biggest contribution to AQDT was the “gift” of his highly distorted voice and weird sense of humour for the Espionage sounds. And it only took him six times to get the zip right!
Chris “Fool Killer” Gerhardt
The press p1mp, the serverop, and the infamous IRC op with the fastest ban finger in the world. FK is now working in the corporate world where he finds interesting ways to test out new Dells.
Jose “Inghaw” Cheng
Source of more controversey than the rest of the team combined, Inghaw is currently living in a geodesic dome without any external data lines, due to his paranoid fear of viruses. It is unknown whether he received his Q2 cd.
Malcolm “Tsunami” Bechard
Former OGL Admin and ace sniper, Tsunami did some TE fine-tuning before moving on from AQ2 to the wonderful world of Q3A. We think he’ll be back for Reaction Quake 3.
https://web.archive.org/web/20060517125038/http://aqdt.fear.net:80/team.htm
Scenarios
Action Quake: Espionage Capture the Briefcase Clanmatch Guide
Contents
- PREFACE
- Server-Side Settings
- Suggested Number of Players
- Roundlimit
- dmflags
- Script Settings
- CONTINUOUS setting
- TARGET_AREA settings
- TARGET_OBJECT settings
- RESPAWN settings
- RETRIEVE settings
PREFACE
With the creation of AQ:E has come an unprecedented amount of flexibility. Thanks to Hal’s amazing scripting language, one game of Capture the Briefcase could be as fresh, innovative, and different from another game. While this is great, it can create some confusion amongst clanleaders, when trying to negotiate certain settings. This has given rise to the need of “standard scripts” and settings that are pre-fabricated with the specific intention of creating the most dynamic, strategic, and fun clanmatch. Emphasized in these scripts and settings are fairness in spawnpoints (thus the need for standard flagspawns–please use the scripts we provide–this is talked about below), and a fairness in the different types of respawn rules. Keep in mind that this not any type of official document, it was written by a regular schmoe, me. Nothing listed below is an officially endorsed recommendation of AQDT, nor are we the Scenario Depot. I have, however, in the course of developing this, consulted various sources. Many thanks to Hal, fex, Imrik, Homosaurus, Homer, Deathmark, Satan (GF, not the real devil =] ), pot-shot, Mm2000, LtHawkins, and others who have offered productive advice.
This document is meant as an explanation of why things in the scripts we provide are the way they are.
inghaw
Server-Side Settings
Suggested Number of Players
Well, any clanmatch needs to be at least some decent size, and while the general acceptance of a 4v4 minimum for regular teamplay can easily be fitted to a CTB game, keep in mind that generally, CTB games should be larger than regular teamplay games. The reasoning is simply that there are more roles for people to play; it’s hard to have a strategy if more people die (and thus more randomness is created), and it’s all around more chaotic. More is generally better, even though we have to make concessions to server limitations.
Recommendation: 5v5, minimum
Roundlimit
Use of the CONTINUOUS variable means that gameplay is non-stop. And although testers agree that the captures can rack up pretty quickly in public games, they don’t do so in clanmatches. It’s much harder to capture. In the first ever scrim on teamjungle, a game to 15 round lasted 90 minutes.
Recommendation: 8 rounds
dmflags
The standard settings should suffice. SPAWNFARTHEST is recommended to be kept ON. This makes your group respawn farthest away from someone when they kill you. Avoids massive “respawn wars” that prevent teams from regrouping.
Recommendation: 528
Script Settings
CONTINUOUS
Having everybody die when someone captures the flag not only interrupts the flow of the gameplay, but cuts out a whole element of strategy (instead of consistently holding your base, you want to kill their guy who has the package while you remain alive…more akin to ATL). The general feeling is that the entire game should be kept continuous.
Recommendation: CONTINUOUS
TARGET_AREA
Concerning maps without CTF spawn points, there are will be a standard set of coordinates for the different flagspawns on maps. These can be found in each map’s respective script file on this site, and should not be altered. For instance, the flagspawns on teamjungle should be the same across all clanmatches. This is to prevent completely biased, unfair, or otherwise out-of-whack real matches from going down. The bounding box for TARGET_AREA should be the standard 30x30x30, with the blaster markers marking them off with a dmspawnpoint model in their place, regardless of whether or not the map came with included CTF spawnpoints.
Recommendation: Use the script files provided to keep 30x30x30 flagspawns in the standard positions.
TARGET_OBJECT
The model used should be the two briefcase models provided by AQDT. VWEP should always be on; GLOW or FOLLOW should not be enabled.
Recommendation: TARGET_OBJECT [packagename] MODEL “models/items/bcase/g_bc[x].md2” PIC “i_bc[x]” VWEP “w_bc[x].md2”
RESPAWN settings
This is where the issue for clanmatches gets sticky. The option of INSTANT is ruled out, for clear reasons. FRACTION [TOGETHER] and TIME both have their advantages. With FRACTION TOGETHER, you spawn in groups, which would make things much easier to coordinate roles, and would lead to fun and interesting pushes into and out of enemy territories. However, this creates the propensity for players to control the respawn rate of their teammates; a simple “kill” command or a jump off a building could be a huge strategic boost to a team by reviving their members. This is more than just a frivolous objection; killing yourself to revive the team is not something that is part of the Action Quake theme (as some have pointed out, there is a difference between dying to save the team, and dying to revive them). With the dead able to talk to the alive, this becomes a tangible problem. Another problem is people killing themselves if out of ammo, since the “dead time” can be short. While some say this would not occur in clanmatches, others have said that clanmatches will only fuel the perfection of this strategy of methodical suicide. TIME, while avoiding this problem, is only marginally better, since it prevents people from respawning together, and eliminates a chunk of the respawning teamwork. However, until there is a plausible fix for this problem, the drawbacks of exploiting the FRACTION respawn seem to out-balance (be worse than) the drawbacks of not spawning together. After all, a well-coordinated team should be able to regroup their players relatively quickly. TIME also affords the strategic possibility of being able to entirely kill of the other team, something which should be rewarded, instead of having a static number of players on the field at the same time.
On another issue, the enemy should not be able to respawn inside your base. This creates too much of an element of luck, rather than strategic pushes into bases. AWAY_FROM should be kept on.
Recommendation: TIME 15 AWAY_FROM [enemy base] 1
As a side-note, Hal and Imrik had some good suggestions for better remedies. PERIODIC is a possibility, with everybody respawning every 30 seconds, regardless of how long you have been dead. Everybody would spawn together, creating more teamwork, and there are no possibilities to exploit respawning. Imrik had probably the best suggestion, which I’ll just call option IMRIK here. You would have to wait 10 seconds before the fraction respawn includes you, and if no one else dies, you respawn in 30 seconds. (Times could vary. Whatever. The principle is really good.) Hopefully we will see this in an upcoming AQ:E update. Until then, TIME will have to suffice.
RETRIEVE settings
The agreement here seems to be that standard CTF rules should be adopted, rather than something like Team Fortress. Your flag should return on touch, and your flag should be at home, rather than TF capture rules, where your flag does not return on touch (it returns after a set amount of time), and where your flag does not need to be at home to capture.
Recommendation: RETRIEVE [enemy package] FROM [enemy base] TO [friendly base] WITH [friendly package] TOUCH_RETURN
https://web.archive.org/web/20011208184108fw_/http://aqdt.fear.net:80/scenarios/guide.htm
Donde Quake 2? 