The bases are now sealed and inviolable. I always thought those bases were a hassle, at least for Slayer. The map plays much quicker now. Before anyone nags me about skinning and modeling, let me say that the whole point here is the new weapon functionality. Also note that these weapons are designed to be used in a one-two punch fashion, with the possible exception of the cloak sniper.
- Remote mine gun
L trigger drops an explosive ball. R trigger fires projectiles that detonate the mines from a fairly generous range. Drop a mine or two or three on the ground, then fire somewhere within a few feet of them. Boom. Great for setting up domino explosions.
There are 30 shots per magazine. A mine takes 8 rounds, whereas a bullet takes one. So you can drop 3 mines and have 6 shots, 2 mines and 14 shots, 1 mine and 22 shots, or 30 shots. Six direct hits with the bullets will kill. Many more than that for indirect hits. Rate of fire is about 2 per second.
- Tranquilizer Dart Gun
A dart from one of these bad boys will make an opponent move and turn very slowly, and be unable to jump, for a period of about 7 seconds. Not very accurate except at mid-close range. A satisfying way to kill someone is to tranquilize him, then roast him with the flame thrower as he looks on helplessly. Or walk around behind him and melee to the cranium. Or leave a few mines at his feet. Etc.
A tranq dart flies over scorched earth:
- The Cloak Sniper
Same as a regular sniper rifle, except that the left trigger engages active camo for 10 seconds, like the Arbiter's camo. When the camo wears off, it hurts you a little bit (the price you pay for being a sneaky bugger). The camo takes a bit of finesse. To activate it, hold still, then crouch (Master Chief) or look straight down (elite) and push L trigger. You can't engage it on the move. You get two cloak rounds and four sniper rounds, and that's it. So make sure you hit what you're shooting at. Three shots with the sniper will also decloak you.
Cloaking with the Cloak Sniper:
- Smoke grenade
Replaces frag grenades. Same damage, but a shorter fuse, less bounce, doesn't fly as far, and most importantly, leaves a large opaque cloud of black smoke for a few seconds. You can sometimes see an opponent's name through the smoke, but that's about it. Follow up with a flame thrower, mine, tranq dart, etc.
- Proximity mine
Similar to my first release from a few months back. It replaces plasma grenades and doesn't fly far at all. It glows a luminous green and beeps about every 10 seconds, so you should try to plant it surreptitiously. If you get within the critical distance, you will have eaten your last can of beans this side of oblivion. While the mine is live, it will kill any and all who come near. It is indestructible. It cannot be jumped over. After 25 seconds, it will disappear on its own.
Getting too close to a proximity mine:
- Flame thrower
Standard issue, from Team Acemods' Halo 3volved. It makes a great addition to the arsenal here, especially in conjunction with the tranquilizer. I have increased the rate of overheating, so you must be more judicious with your flame throwing and carefully time the bursts to minimize overheating and maximize death. Many thanks to Team Acemods for releasing this publicly.
Little girls like ponies. I prefer flame throwers.
There is also a rocket launcher. It gets one round per clip and is less deadly than its unmodded counterpart. It's not really worth calling a modded weapon; I've just included it here to round out the gameplay a little. Intended to finish someone off, or give you a good start, but the reload takes too long (deliberately) for you to kill someone without resorting to another weapon. It's somewhat rare to come across as well.
Other changes:
- Shield recharge rate is infinitesimal. You essentially stay damaged. This might result in some kill-stealing, but the map is small and meant for small games anyhow, where it should be less of an issue.
- Melee strike response has been increased just enough for a new twist: If you jump into a sheer wall, look straight down and melee as you are rising, you will rise a bit higher. This allows you to scale the bases almost from any side, in a single leap.
Bugs/features:
- Gametypes are not fixed. There is plenty of mileage here for Slayer.
- Leave weapons on map default. You start with a remote mine gun and a tranq dart gun, and two smoke nades. Also turn damage resistance on in your gametype, if it isn't on already.
- There is one cloak sniper on top of each base; a tranq dart gun beside each base; and a flame thrower in the middle of the creek. All the other weapons spawn randomly among the entire collection, including the smoke nades and prox mines, excluding the cloak sniper.
- The smoke grenades are a tad laggy. If anyone knows how to fix this while maintaining the opacity of the smoke, I'm all ears. The flame thrower is also laggy in multiplayer. I'm willing to accept it as a tradeoff for the weapons, but it would be nice to fix.
- The HUD messages for the flame thrower are messed up, in such a way that I don't know how to fix by hex editing.
- ATM, system link has not been tested for the cloak sniper. I will test more on sys link as soon as I find some willing subjects (please PM me if you're interested). Also please let me know if you find any bugs or errors in syslink or elsewhere.
Chaste Warlock:
Same weapons as Chaste Beaver Creek, but they spawn regularly instead of randomly. Warlock is an underplayed and undermodded map, so I thought I'd give it a kick. The various game types should work fine, although I don't know why you'd play anything but Slayer on it. Suit yourself.
The cloak sniper replaces the active camo. Prox mines spawn near the portals, and smoke nades should be easy enough to find.
Melee strike response has been beefed up slightly more in order to make the cloak sniper useful for sniping on a level like Warlock. As in Chaste Beaver Creek, you can ascend the platforms from any side using the melee climb. For good sniping position, however, you'll probably have to use another technique with melee response: the melee jump. Look down at the ground, melee and then immediately jump. If you time it exactly right, you should jump to about 2.5X the regular height. It will take a bit of practice. If you melee bounce without jumping, you jumped too late. If you jump without feeling the melee contact, you jumped too soon. The timing is a little different for each gun's melee animation. The tranq dart gun and sniper require a very fast action, while the remote mine gun has a bit more of a delay. My friend does it by sliding his thumb across the two buttons, whereas I do it by tapping them with my thumb about as quickly as possible.
Because it requires you to look at the ground and use precise timing, and it leaves you vulnerable if you screw up, I think it's a fairly balanced technique. When people first get it, they go a little overboard with it and are very easy to kill. Very Happy
Here is the pinnacle of a regular jump. I have jumped from the ground level. You can see that I'm not quite up to the level of the platform.
Here is the pinnacle of a melee jump from ground level, performed with the tranq dart gun. You can see I'm well above the platform now.
To get to this position, I used the melee wall climb to get on top of one of the arches, then a melee jump to reach a ledge above.
You get an A+ in melee jumping/climbing if you can reach the very top of the stone tower in the center of the level. It is possible. Cool
Credits:
- A big thanks to Team Acemods for publicly releasing their 3volved weapons. The flame thrower was imported in its entirety, and the model for the tranq dart gun is the 3volved brute spiker.
- Turk645 and Doom for explaining how to use the jpt! to induce camo.
- Entity 1.6, 1.39, Yelo... This mod would've been impossible for me otherwise.
- Xzodia, for researching and maintaining a site for plugins, and generally providing the first, best or only answer to my arcane weapon modding questions.
- Rockymods, for the arrow model (tranq dart)
- XD/Dest for figuring out the plasma freeze in his H2:CE mod. The tranquilizing effect is derived from the plasma freeze.
If I have left anyone off the list of credits, please let me know.
Download Warlock here
Download Beavercreek here
