VCTF - BloodGulch Remastered
----------------------------

Original Author: Shane Transue
Remastered Version & Tweaks: PelzR

A recreation of the famous Halo CTF map 'Blood Gulch' by the original author Shane Transue released back in 2004.

The original release didn't had bot support. This update is somewhat of an 'remaster'. It improves bot support and contains some minor changes / graphic improvements. Since I'm not that enthusiastic about the choice of vehicles (but I understand why some wants more) and weapon placements in the original I've provided an alternative version of this map with some gameplay changes. You can choose between the original map design and the altered one, both containing the graphical & AI improvements.


Tweaks & Changes
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- overhauled bot pathfinding: bots are functional now, can use vehicles and will try different routes to attack
- moved some rocks to accomodate for bot pathfinding
- moved vehicles around bases to accomodate for bot pathfinding
- rotated aircraft vehicles to prevent them from falling down
- removed Redeemer near the red base
- moved tree near the red base further away
- added music track & reduced volume of ambient noises
- restricted fly height further to prevent player from leaving the map
- visual changes:
 -- fixed some holes in the map
 -- replaced ugly trees with different ones
 -- improved ground textures
 -- improved skybox:
    -> ring is now properly textured
    -> added additional cloud layer
    -> skybox tone slightly darkened
    -> replaced old sun corona inside the map (which masked the ring) with a different one outside of the map (no more masking the ring)
    -> moved position of the planet, moon and the ring to be more faithful to the original
    -> removed 'out of bounds' objects & lights
- new screenshots in level selection and reduced duration between screenshots
- filesize optimization (removed unused textures and proper compression for level screenshots)

Alternative Version:
- lowered amount of vehicles (no Goliath & Raptor, fewer Hellbender & Manta)
- removed Lightning Gun on 'cliff'
- moved ASMD outside of bases (to cliff and outdoor area between the "tunnels")
- removed Rocket Launcher from center and placed one spawn per base
- removed Linkgun from center and placed one spawn per base
- moved UDamage to map center



Installation
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Unzip the directories 'Maps' and 'Textures' in the base directory of your UT2004 installation.


Notes & Workarounds
-------------------
I've spend hours in testing the individual routes for bots and even though they can reach their destination without a hassle it will happen that bots will do some unexpected and stupid things (specially during combat). I guess that's out of my control.

When using flying vehicles (e.g. the 'Raptor') bots will try to reach certain pathnodes on the ground to attack enemy base which is something I didn't want them to do. Nevertheless they will reach their destination at the end. Since I don't know how to exclude aircrafts from certain pathnodes I have to leave this as it is since removing flying vehicles wasn't an option for the original layout.

Originally bots were intended to attack enemy base also on the side routes (the cliff and the tunnels) of this map but since bots were failing to enter vehicles after a certain playtime (also using certain vehicles to drive on the cliff and falling down) I've changed these routes so that bots will use them only when returning with the enemy flag. During playtesting the bots also didn't use these routes at all when attacking, unfortunately.




PelzR
