NOTE: This map *IS* in a finished, fully-working, and releasable state, but has been discontinued. Due to feedback from playtesters I decided the central feature of MadBF, the cage procedure, is too unorthodox (play it yourself to see what I mean). Rather than scrap the MadBF project altogether I decided to release this map as it stands AND revamp it into a standard DM form & use an alternative name. The result; "Talos" will feature the bulk of MadBF's layout, a little more added, and a standard Crossfire style nuke.

IMPORTANT: If this map finds its way to a review website, please do NOT review it. Host it by all means, but no reviews please.



** INTRODUCTION **



Title			: MAD BUCKING FASTARDS.
Date			: 27th July 1999
Filename		: Gustavo4_MadBF.bsp
Filesize		: 2.5mb, or thereabouts.
Author			: Keved, my Half-Life deathmatch/TFC alias is Gustavo.
Email Address		: keved@keved.force9.co.uk (preferably), or keved@hotmail.com
Home Page		: http://www.keved.force9.co.uk



ABOUT THE MAP/ME:
Mad Bucking Fastards (MadBF for short) is my fourth FPS map.

Previous maps...
Penitentiary (deathmatch, released 5-March-1999).
Maximillian (HL teamplay primarily/also deathmatch, released 15-May-1999).
Maximal (command point TFC, released 8-July-1999).

Who am I? I'm 24 yrs old, English, & currently work for an Architectural Practice in NW England.



CREDITS TO:
1) Valve/Sierra.
2) The Department of Engineering website (HL map testing) for their valued comments. http://halflife.lowlife.com/
3) Wally, the program for creating texture wad files.
4) Sean Cavanagh for the Zoner compiling tools.
5) For the custom textures; http://www.planethalflife.com/texturestudio & some from the game Unreal (used without permission).
6) Records, for salvation from radio/tv hell.



** PLAY INFORMATION **



NEW TEXTURES: YES! None are my own work, I just gathered them together into a wad file. Note that there is not a separate wad file as all custom textures have been included in the bsp file.
NEW SOUNDS: YES! Well, in a sense...they're "creative manipulations" of some of Valve's standard wav's.



MULTI-PLAYER:
Suited to those who frequent mental institutions.



TEAMPLAY:
Not intended for teamplay, but it's up to you. Hint: It *IS* possible to get out the cage before you're supposed to, and therefore gain a _headstart_ in the race to the weapons.



DESCRIPTION:
A "gladatorial gameshow", and the "crowbar mosh pit".

It's difficult to describe the "vibe" I was after in this map, but think of that futuristic TV gameshow in 'The Running Man' (the movie), where a guy is scaling a rope to collect cash prizes, with mad dogs down below in a pit snapping at his heels. Figuratively speaking, you're that guy scaling the rope. I can't really explain the ideal behind MadBF in another way. You load up in a cage, get paraded along a set route, cast into a huge circular steel mosh pit, trampoline out, grab a weapon, and then distribute justice to as many fellow contestants as possible for 4 minutes, until a siren sounds...make your way into the safe area (where all weapons you have are removed) and the electrocution device kicks in killing everyone outside. Then repeat.

No doubt many will find it confusing at first, as, to my knowledge, a map like this hasn't been done before. Every deathmatch map I've played has been standard "respawn shoot die, respawn shoot die, etc" indefinately, baring the odd nuke (heh, or 4 like in Maximillian). MadBF has an almost TFC-like attempt at structured gameplay, with a set "sequence". I think specific details about the sequence in MadBF might be ideal to describe how it is played...

-You respawn in a seperate area & can teleport to any one of 5 places in the main arena by falling into one of the 5 dark holes in the ground. Therefore you can essentially choose where to respawn (close to your fav weapon, etc). To clarify the chant that the marine drill sargeant shouts whenever someone respawns..."Lets kick ass you bastard". Cute, oh yes.

-Play as normal for 5 minutes.

-The gold button is available to be activated (it emits a light when available). Shoot it to activate the below sequence.

-The siren sounds...you have 20 seconds to get into the safe area (at the end opposite to the steel mosh pit, marked by 2 red lights). Your weapons are then removed. Note that the respawn room is also safe, and the 5 teleport drops in the respawn room are now sealed. Anyone who dies after the siren sounds will have to wait in the respawn room until the teleport drops open up again.

-After that 20 seconds, the blast doors into the safe area close. Health/HEV chargers are available in there.

-5 seconds later and everyone not inside the safe area or respawn room are killed by the electrocution device.

-Another 5 seconds...the door into the cage closes, and the cage starts to move along it's run. It's up to you to ensure you're in the cage when it starts...if you leave it too long stocking up on health/HEV, you'll be locked inside until everyone else was dropped from the cage into the mosh pit.

-Roughly 5 seconds later and the cage has now transported all occupants over the ramp that leads down into the steel mosh pit. The voice says "30 metres...20 metres...10 metres...GO GO GO". This is also of use to those locked inside the respawn room/safe area, as they can tell how much longer it'll be before they are set free.

-Occupants are dumped out of the cage weaponless...make your way down the ramp into the steel mosh pit. Crowbars can be found at the bottom of the pit. The cage returns to its original position.

-Trampoline out on either of the 2 bounce pads, and play as normal doing whatever you want.

-Roughly 10 seconds after everyone has been dumped into the steel mosh pit the 5 teleport drops, the blast doors, and the door leading into the cage are all opened. It's a big disadvantage to not be in the cage procedure...everyone else will have a weapon by the time you get out of the respawn room/safe area, and of course you'll have lost ground in the frag race.

-Play as normal for 4 minutes until the process starts all over again...the button is now available once again.

Granted, some people won't like this procedure as part of a deathmatch game (especially surrendering weapons), but it's nothing if not a break from the deathmatch norm. A good laugh too...and I found it very weird that players could be huddled up in the cage alongside opponents they had been slugging it out with only seconds before.



PLAYING:
For a "normal" game on MadBF I recommend 4-8 players. However, MadBF is intended to be played with as many players as possible. Who cares if, with 8-16 players, there ain't enough room to swing a cat, or you have to play musical weapons because there isn't enough to go around? Not I. MadBF is a LAST-MAN-STANDIND GLADIATORIAL ARENA. The more players the madder. Everyone loads up into the steel cage, waits until they're lowered over the ramp leading down into the mosh pit, and from then on it's ultra-competitive; no-one holds your hand by letting you have a Gluon upon respawning. Like my previous DM map Maximillian, MadBF is a challenge to do well on and is NOT a newbie-friendly map. If you're not clued up about what's going on (ie, what happens at each stage of the procedure), you're going to find it tough & confusing. However I make no apologies for that, as I personally prefer more challenging gameplay that is more rewarding once really into the swing of things. If you want something easy to get into, even easier to drop and ultimately shallow, go get a Nintendo.

The Gauss was intentionally omitted because when the siren sounds and everyone rushes into the cage, unscrupulous gits could let rip into everyone waiting in the cage using the Gauss from the outside.

The Gluon behind the massive steel door...firstly, the button to open the steel door (located at the opposite quadrant on the circular pit) has to be shot to be used, which means that if someone wants to get the Gluon asap they have to leave the mosh pit, collect a weapon, and return to shoot the button. Even then the player has to think ahead to beat the Snark nest guarding the Gluon (ie, bring along grenades or whatever). The button can only be activated once a minute, so coupled with the fact that no-one is likely have a Gluon for more than 4 continuous minutes (due to the weapon removing stage of the cage procedure), the Gluon will not dominate despite the map only being small.

Hope you like Mad Bucking Fastards. I'd appreciate feedback too...to my email address at the top of this text file (preferably), I'm a regular reader of/poster to the alt.games.half-life Usenet newsgroup, and often read the Radium forum...contact me at any of those places really. It's a major commitment putting in the time to design these damn maps, so I fully welcome any & all constructive encouragement / ideas / criticisms / praises.



** INSTRUCTIONS **

Make sure you put the Gustavo4_MadBF.bsp file into the following directory:

...\\valve\maps

And the kickass.wav & countdown.wav files into the following directory:

..\\valve\sound\hgrunt (create the directory if you don't have it).

And of course keep this text file. 8¬)



** CONSTRUCTION **

Base                    : This map is based on the small AGHL.bsp map I created for the alt.games.half-life newsgroup's 32 man pyramid-formation-troupe motorbike riding gymnastic crowbar mosh-pit event (ok ok ok, mental age of 5 etc etc). To give more info about the map...the central area (the hangar) is based (without permission) on a small section of c0a0a.bsp. This is the second bsp in the HL single player train introduction. I essentially only kept the basic shape of the hangar...COMPLETELY re-brushing, re-texturing, & re-lighting it (completely, as in 100%). Take a look yourself at c0a0a.bsp and you'll see it's very different. The rest of the map was created from scratch.
Editor(s) used          : Worldcraft v2.1
Known Bugs              : Just that I've stretched lots of textures, so decals may be out-of-shape/size.
Build Time              : 20hrs.
Compile machine         : Intel PentiumII 300mhz, 8mb Ati@Work AGP, 224mb ram, 12mb Creative Labs Voodoo2, DVD, 120mb floppy, etc, blah blah.
Compile Times...
HLCSG			: Nominal
HLBSP2			: Nominal
HLRAD			: ~400 seconds
HLVIS			: ~1200 seconds



** WHAT'S NEXT? **



Depending on whether anyone likes this type of map, I may make others. I've got plenty of ideas for other small maps of this ilk, that's for sure. Also, I'm currently nearing the end of converting my TFC map Maximal to Jailbreak (entitled Maxilla), and Maximal is also being converted back to DM (entitled Salvo). Also currently working on HelixX; TFC CTF, steal the Xenomorph eggs and escape before the Xenomorph attack! And of course the aforementioned Talos, the standard DM version of MadBF.



** PERMISSIONS **

You MAY NOT sell this map for money without my permission. You MAY NOT alter this map or use it as a base for a new map without my permission.

If a magazine wants it on its CD - that's fine - *BUT* you *MUST* send me a copy of the mag and credit myself with it's construction, AND INCLUDE THIS TEXT FILE. If you review this map for a website/magazine, I'd appreciate an email/whatever so I can read the review...not essential, but just to be appreciative of the time I've put into this map...I, for one, send email's to those people whose maps I like & play on a lot.

You have yerself a nice day, y'hear?

Oh btw, if you see me on a server, I *CANNOT* speak Spanish/Portuguese/Smack talk/whatever...just so I ain't assumed to be a Colombian drug baron like I have been a few times before (or corderoy wearing Uruguayian goat shepherd, that happened once). 8¬)



FOOKIN' 'AVE THAT, YA MAD BUCKIN' FASTARD.
--
Gustavo.