ZukYuk's Collapsing Guntower for Quake2
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Author:        Joe Mitchell
Email:         eyegore@sourcerer.com
Solids:        55
Faces:         Not alot
Entities: 6 total, a path_train and 5 exploding pillars
Date:          August 10th, 1998

* Note, it's hard to count the number of solids and faces because damaged 
  brush fragments are hidden within the structure.  Either way it's fast.

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This is a Collapsing guntower I made.  One of my first Quake2 structures.
Sort of inspired by an old TV show called `F-Troop' where every episode a 
fort's tower fell over.  It could look better, but I think it looks pretty 
good and uses as few brushes as possible to fulfill it's purpose.
Why call polygons brushes anyway?

The file guntower.map contains only the actual tower and it's entities, 
while the other file, guntower.bsp is a small test area with some weapons 
to try out and watch the tower come crashing down.

The tower is designed to be used by defenders in a CTF or Jailbreak game, 
ideally in a location where being on the tower gives a definite advantage 
over being on the ground, otherwise people wouldn't bother getting up 
there for fear of getting blown up with it.

The tower should give a team a tactical advantage that is lost when the
tower is destroyed.  What I envision are two towers at the base of a 
slope outside a fortress...From the ground you can only see to the top of 
the slope, but from the tower you can see down one or more tunnels at the 
top of the slope where invaders would enter.  Without a slope the tower 
could simply provide a clear line of fire over ground level obstacles.

The tower can only be destroyed by targeting it's central beam, which is 
armored but not perfectly.  A good shot will damage it.  Change the 
central beam's `health' key to any value you wish.  The default I've set 
is 1000 health, which will destroy the tower after 7 direct railgun shots 
or about 50 hyperblaster rounds.  In a big CTF game this should probably 
be set higher from 5,000 to 10,000 health.

I guess I should mention that the entire structure is a giant func_train 
going down when it blows.  This means you can't put any fancy buttons or 
doors on it unless you want them to remain hanging in midair when the 
tower is gone.  The train's path is safely contained within a vertical 
block hidden underground and won't cause any leaks.

There are mangled bits remaining after the tower falls, carefully hidden 
within the tower's structure as you'll see.  I thought of going further 
with this and including a func_door_rotating covered with a pile of rubble 
that would pivot up from underground as the tower fell, but didn't feel 
it was needed.  Feel free to improve on my design.  I'd like to see more 
explodable structures in the future.  It could add a whole new dimension 
of strategy to the game.

That's it.  Do good things with it.  I look forward to seeing it or 
something like it on a CTF or jailbreak map in the future.  All I ask is 
that if you plan to use it in some sort of commercial game or mod, 
contact me to get my permission first.  I may be able to help.

You can contact me by email: eyegore@sourcerer.com
