BLAST CHAMBER FINAL (FOR QUAKE2)
===============================

For comments/suggestions/help visit us at:
http://www.planetquake.com/blast

For more on WireHead Studios, visit our homepage:
http://www.planetquake.com/wirehead

NOTE: Blast Chamber requires Quake2 v3.20 or higher.

Installation
============
Installation is simple.  Run the bcfinal.exe file, and point it to your Quake2
directory.  The program will create a /blast folder underneath Quake2.

Get Gamespy, find a Blast Chamber server, hop on, and play!


How To Play
===========
Blast Chamber is an extremely easy to play.  For simplicity's sake, these
instructions assume you already know how to run around and shoot in Quake2.
If you don't, we can't help you.  You're better off sitting in the corner
while the blast goes off... ;^)

Blast Chamber has a simple premise.  Somewhere in the level is a BlastKey.
For the uninitiated, it's a Q2 logo with a nuke symbol embedded in it.
Players try to grab the BlastKey (just touch it), and take it to the
Detonator.  Meanwhile, the other players try to frag the player carrying the
BlastKey.  The KeyCarrier can be identified by a glow and sparkle trail.

Once the KeyCarrier touches the Detonator, the fun begins.  The Detonator
activates, and players have approximately ten seconds to haul their asses
to the one Safe Zone on the map, the Blast Chamber.  The Blast Chamber is
an easily-identified shelter; it usually resembles a fallout shelter.
As players accumulate in the Chamber, a firefight usually breaks out.
Anyone unlucky enough to die in the fight will find themselves thrown back
into the level, out of the Blast Chamber.

Once the countdown reaches zero, the computer gives the remaining players
an amusing farewell.  (You'll figure it out when you hear it.)  At that point,
the door to the Blast Chamber will close.  Anyone unfortunate enough to be
outside of the Chamber when the door closes will soon find themselves the
victim of a horrific explosion!

The blasts come in four different flavors.  The Nuke will simply obliterate
anyone outside the Chamber.  The Shockwave will throw players into the nearest
wall, crushing them instantly.  The Napalm Blast will set all players on fire,
causing them to burn to death quickly.  The Gas Chamber will pour noxious fumes
into the level, liquefying the players' lungs instantly.

Once the blast goes off, the Chamber door will open.  Any players that have
lived through the fight inside can now escape.  After 30 seconds, the
BlastKey respawns in a new location, and the cycle begins again...

Here's the catch:  the KeyCarrier that set off the Detonator gets bonus
points for every person that died in the nuclear blast.  However, this
works two ways, as they lose points if they manage to blast themself!

It's how Quake2 goes nuclear.  It's Blast Chamber.

MODES OF PLAY
=============
Blast Chamber offers the following modes of play.

DeathMatch
----------
It's everyone for themself!  Players get 1 points for every standard kill,
and 2 points for every BlastFrag.  Players lose 2 points for every time they
Blast themself.  Highest score wins.

TeamPlay
--------
Players side off into 2, 3, or 4 teams.  Teams match up by color (Red, Blue,
Green, and Yellow.)  Players then play as normal.  Players scores are added
as normal. Teams, however, get 1 point for opponent kills, as well as activating
the Detonator.  Teams get 5 points for every NukeFrag, but lose 5 points for
NukeFragging their teammates.  Highest team score at the end of the round wins.

Blast Chamber: Thermal Fury
---------------------------
Blast Chamber also supports standard Threewave-compatible Capture The Flag maps.
With BlastCTF, teams have their own bases, Detonators, and BlastKeys.  Players
must steal their opponents' BlastKey, and take it to their own Detonator.  Once
they do so, the level will be nuked.  The only safe zone is an energy shield
formed around the scoring team's base.  Teamplay is a MUST, as players usually
cannot traverse the entire level in time!

Blast Chamber does NOT include any CTF maps.  You must copy your CTF
maps to the /blast/maps folder.  Note that you CAN copy the CTF .PAK files to
/blast, but this will supercede the CTF files unique to Blast Chamber (such
as the CTF banners.)



FEATURES
========

OffHand Hook
------------
Blast Chamber does offer an offhand grappling hook.  The command to bind is
+hook.  For example, to assign the hook to the third button on your mouse,
open the console (press `) and type the following:

bind mouse3 +hook

Follow the same procedure for other keys.

Note that the grappling hook is OPTIONAL.  It is provided primarily for BlastCTF.
It is recommended that the hook be disabled for DM (and especially TeamPlay) games.
Server admins can set the "hook" variable to enable or disable the hook.  Setting
"hook" to "2" allows the hook ONLY if the map allows it.  (NOTE:  All standard
Blast Chamber maps will NOT allow the hook if "hook" is set to "2".)


New Powerups
------------
Most of the powerups have been slightly modified to balance gameplay.  Some of
these powerups do not occur in the standard BC maps; however, they may occur in
some CTF maps, or any third-party maps that are created.

BLAST DAMAGE - The Quad Damage has been replaced with the Blast Damage.  This
powerup multiplies your weapon damage by 2x for 30 seconds.

POWER SCREEN - The Power Armor has been replaced by its less powerful bretheren,
the Power Screen.  The Screen absorbs just as much damage as the standard powerup,
but only from frontal attacks.  It uses cells just as much as normal.

INVISO - The mostly-useless Silencer has become the Inviso powerup.  Players become
partially transparent, their weapons are quieted, and their footsteps are completely
silenced for a short time.

FALLOUT - The thankfully rare Invulnerability has been changed to the Fallout powerup.
Fallout makes a player radioactive, and any player close to them is zapped with a
radioactive beam and takes moderate damage.  The player, however, is not invulnerable
in the least, and should be taken out immediately!

Mapper-Controlled Lighting
--------------------------
Blast Chamber's lighting is some of the most complex in Quake2.  Blast Chamber
allows mappers to create lights that animate at varying levels of brightness.
This can be seen in the BCDEMO maps, which offer strobe lights in the Blast
Chambers.  In CTF maps, the lights glow on and off when the Detonator is active.

Details on the mapper-controlled lighting can be found in the Entity Help text
file.


Message Of The Day
------------------
Blast Chamber posts Message Of The Day when players enter a server.  This
message is customized by server admins.  Multiple lines and green highlights
are available.

The MOTD file is MOTD.txt.  Up to 14 lines can be written.  Placing a "*" in
front of the line highlights it green in-game.

High Scores
-----------
Blast Chamber offers High Scores for its DM maps.  Players will see their high
scores listed at the end of play.

The command for server admins is "highscores [0/1]".  0 disables High Scores,
and 1 enables them.  Note that High Scores are automatically disabled for
TeamPlay and BlastCTF modes of play.


ZBot Detection
--------------
Blast Chamber offers basic ZBot detection.  Server admins can decided whether
to automatically kick ZBot users, or merely log their malicious activities.

For server admins, the command is "zbot_logonly [0/1]".  0 kicks bot users,
and 1 only logs their names and IPs to a file.


Selective Blast Effects
------------
Server admins can choose which blast effects take place on their server.

Server admins:  Use "set simplenuke [0/1]".
0 = Random every round.  Blast changes when map changes.
1 = Shockwave.
2 = Nuke.
3 = Napalm.
4 = Gas.

For more information about the additional blast effects, see below.



WHAT'S INCLUDED IN THE BLAST CHAMBER DEMO
=========================================

Client and server DLL

Four maps; BCDLite, BCRocks, BCRene24, BCSpace, BCMorden, and BCZoneRed.
BCDlite is created for small players (up to 8 players.) BCZoneRed is a
HUGE map, and is not recommended for less than 16 players.  The other maps
are good all-purpose maps (up to 16 players).

DeathMatch, TeamPlay, and CTF support.

4-team and CTF skins for the Male character.  For skins for other models,
please download the BC Player Models Packs at Blast Chamber's web site.

Sample DM, TeamPlay, and BlastCTF server.cfg files.

That spiffy little icon... ;^)


WHAT YOU'LL NEED
================

Registered version of Quake2.

Quake2 v3.20 upgrade.

ThreeWave CTF v1.50 (to play BlastCTF).

If you wish to see any player models besides the standard male when in
TeamPlay or BlastCTF modes, you'll want to download the BC Player
Model Packs at Blast Chamber's web site.

Lots and lots of spare time.  ;^)


ABOUT BLAST CHAMBER
===================

BlastCTF works with all eight Threewave CTF maps.  However, there are two
cautionary notes.  On Q2CTF5, the two spheres all but envelop the level.
To successfully defend your base on Q2CTF5, you must guard everything up to
the hallways that join the two fountain rooms.  In addition, there are
two spots (one per team) on Q2CTF1 that are far outside the teams' bases,
yet they are safe from the other team's blast.  However, they are small
enough that only one person can fit in this space at a time, and anyone
crazy enough to attempt to hide there will likely find some competition.

As for other CTF maps, we only found a handfull of maps that would not
work.  Any map that places the flags within 2000 units of one another
will generally have trouble.  As for the WTFCTF maps... don't even try.
It's just too scary.

Now, on a larger note.  Blast Chamber was a fun little project that the
team decided to work on while they waited for Quake3Arena.  When we
released the demo, however, we hit a snag: people loved it.  Our work to
finish the project overlapped our plans for our Q3A game, and consequently,
Blast Chamber's final version slipped later and later.

With the final version out, we intend to fully focus on our newest project.
Milieu will go farther than any "mod" to date.  Using only the core Q3A engine,
Milieu will create a world devoid of weapons, Quads, or frags.  The game
features twelve combatants dueling it out in hand-to-hand tournament fighting,
with all of the special moves, combos, and finishers that have made games such
as Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, and Tekken so enjoyable.  For more information,
keep an eye on Milieu's homepage at:

http://www.planetquake.com/wirehead/milieu


CREDITS
=======

Blast Chamber is copyright (c)1999-2000 by WireHead Studios
-----------------------------------------------------------

WireHead Studios
----------------
Amphetamine - Blast Chamber Founder/Designer, Map Guru
   amphetamine@planetquake.com
Lee "Lee'Mon" Montgomery - Webmaster, Producer/Designer/Manager,
   Miscellaneous Crap Guy
   leemon@planetquake.com
Ben - Head Coder
   ben@planetquake.com
Castle - Map Guru
   tyller@acd-pc.com
Ren225 - Map Guru
   renagade@gitch.com
N][C HeX - Official Fan, Head Beta Tester
   brbecher@yahoo.com
FlyingBuzz - Strange Bug Finder
   FlyingBuzz@hotmail.com

You can find the mapmakers' original copyright notes in
the respective map's text file in the maps subdirectory.

The maps enclosed are solely for use with Blast Chamber.
The maps included are:

bcdlite: D-Lite by headshot
bcmorden: Castle Morden by Castle
bcrene24: Forever Rolling My Eyes by Renegade
bcrocks: Rocks by Ren225
bcspace: Space Station by Ren255
bczonered: Zone Red by Castle

Blast Chamber versions of all maps (bc*.bsp) were completed in the year 2000.
Further distribution of these maps not permitted without permission of either
WireHead Studios or the original authors.
These maps are for use with the Blast Chamber mod only.
These maps may not be altered in any way.  If you wish to modify them, contact
the authors for the original maps.

The Blast Chamber Muzak, "Acid Hammer", is performed by Psykosonik.
Check them out at http://www.mp3.com

DISCLAIMER
==========

THE SOFTWARE, INFORMATION AND DOCUMENTATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS"
WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED.
IN NO EVENT THE AUTHORS (leemon@planetquake.com, amphetamine@planetquake.com,
b.surtees@btinternet.com, et al) SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER
INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS
OR SPECIAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF THE AUTHORS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY
OF SUCH DAMAGES. THIS INCLUDE, BUT NOT LIMITED TO MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR FUNCTION. THE ENTIRE RISK RELATED TO THE SOFTWARE PERFORMANCE 
OR QUALITY IS ASSUMED BY THE USER. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW 
EXCLUSIONS OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, THEREFORE THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT 
APPLY TO YOU.  REVERSE ENGINEER (DECOMPILE) OR DISASSEMBLE OF THIS 
SOFTWARE IS PROHIBITED.IT IS PROHIBITED TO ADD ANY OTHER COPYRIGHT 
INFORMATION (E.G. WITH BBS-ADDS) THEN LISTED EITHER IN THIS LICENSE OR 
WITHIN THE SOFTWARE.THE ARCHIVE AND THE SOFTWARE MAY BE FREELY 
DISTRIBUTED PROVIDED THAT IT IS NOT MODIFIED IN ANY FORM AND THE 
ORIGINAL ARCHIVE REMAINS INTACT WITH ALL FILES.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY THE AUTHORS 
(LISTED EITHER IN THIS LICENSE OR WITHIN THE SOFTWARE).

ALL BRAND NAMES AND PRODUCT NAMES USED ARE TRADEMARKS OR TRADE NAMES 
OF THEIR RESPECTIVE HOLDERS. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THE TERMS OF 
THIS LICENSE YOU HAVE TO REMOVE THE SOFTWARE FROM YOUR STORAGE DEVICES 
AND DO NOT USE THE SOFTWARE.

WireHead Studios (c)2000
All Rights Reserved.
Quake, Quake II, and all related Trademarks and Copyrights are property of id Software, inc.