INTRODUCTION:

Title : Sulaco
Type : Half-Life 1 deathmatch teamplay level
Date : 8th March 2000
Filename : keved_hl1_tm02.bsp
Filesize : 5.4mb

CREDITS TO:

1) Valve/Sierra.
2) The Zoner compiling tools version 1.41.
3) Rich Whitehouse, author of the excellent Jumbot, for creating the included bot route jrf file. Many thanks. Jumbot website: www.telefragged.com/thefatal Email: thefatal@telefragged.com
4) Some textures from the Aliens vs Predator PC game.

INSTALLATION:

Sulaco1.wav, Sulaco2.wav, Sulaco3.wav into ..\valve\sound\ambience\

keved_hl1_tm02.jrf into ..\valve\jumbot\wpfiles\

All other files into ..\half-life\valve\maps\

PLAYERS:

16-32 players.

FEATURES:

Sulaco is NOT a free-for-all deathmatch map. Whilst you can play Sulaco without "teamplay" enabled, the 32 respawn points are grouped in 4's, so clearly not ideal for free-for-all deathmatch. Please do NOT play or judge this map as an FFA DM map.

Sulaco is one of the VERY few maps that make use of the "game_" entities that allow greater teamplay functionality (such as team spawning areas and team goals & scoring). Sulaco DOES have an actual goal and rudimentary teamplay elements, such as team spawning locations & team scoring.

The goal for each of the two teams is to activate the other teams' console in their control centre, which are located right at the back of each base. Each time you activate the console, you are awarded 25 frags, which are added to your teams' total score like normal frags.

ONLY two teams can be used in Sulaco. By default the two teams are hgrunt and scientist, but you can change them to whatever you want BEFORE the game is started. See the "instructions" section below for more details. To change to the other team during the game, bring down the console and type "model hgrunt" (or whatever, without quotes). All of your frags/deaths are then tranferred between the teams, ie to the team you've just joined. It is NOT possible to change to a third team during the game - you are prevented from changing to a model that isn't set as one of the two teams.

Each control centre is guarded by a thick pane of glass. You must use one of two small goods lifts just prior to the enemy control centre to disable the glass, giving access to the control centre. The glass TOGGLES, so if the enemy opens up your pane of glass, one of your team must de-press the button again to safely seal up your control centre again.

From when either of the vox alarms sound ("Xeno contamination. Evacuate Sector 1 immediately", etc) you have 45 seconds to get to the middle of the map. You can tell how long you have left before the Xenomorph's attack, as the vox alarm repeats five times, each time lasts 9 seconds. For example, when team 1 scores, in 45 seconds ANYONE still in team 2's base will be attacked by the Xenomorph's. To be more precise, the Xenomorph attacks effect all areas behind either teams' main entrance, and half-way up the diagonal lift corridors. I have actually timed how long it takes to get out of either base - the control centre's are the furthest back into each base, and it takes 35 seconds to get out via the main entrance or diagonal lift. Therefore, if you're that far back into a base when the alarm sounds, you'll have 10 spare seconds (remember, the Xenomorph's attack after 45 seconds) for fighting along the way.

BOT INFO:

A Jumbot route file is included in the zip to enable you to get playing straight away even if you don't have access to a huge LAN or a connection good enough to participate in a 16+ player online game.

(NOTE: ALTHOUGH SULACO IS PLAYABLE WITH BOTS, THE MAP WAS NOT DESIGNED WITH IT IN MIND, BUT TO PLAY A GOOD GAME IN HUMAN VS HUMAN GAMES. THE QUALITY OF GAME AGAINST FELLOW GAMERS WILL BE MUCH IMPROVED, MORE SO THAN WITH NORMAL FFA DEATHMATCH MAPS).

Jumbots DO work with Sulaco, thanks to the Jumbot author Rich Whitehouse (who kindly created the route file). Use as many bots as your system can cope with, as the map is VERY big. Please bear in mind that Rich says he did not even know such teamplay was possible in Half-Life DM (and would like to include support for maps like Sulaco in future Jumbot releases), and so obviously the coding of the Jumbot is not specific to a map like Sulaco. Credit to the Jumbot though, as to be honest I'm stunned that they cope as well as they do. I also tested with the Phineas bots & Rhobots, but neither make it out of the respawn rooms.

(See the instructions section for info on how to set-up the Jumbot route file).

The Jumbots are fine with the following:
*Collect all weapons.
*Navigate the map successfully including the narrow walkways.
*Activate the enemy console to score (providing the pane of glass is disabled).
*Regularly enter the enemy base.

And they have problems with the following:
*Using the short cargo lifts to gain access to the glass toggle buttons (I DID see a few bots do it though).
*Enemy respawn rooms - as Rich didn't know of this type of teamplay in DM, there is no distinction in the bot code for 'enemy only' doors. Bots will sometimes jump up & down outside enemy respawn rooms trying to get in.
*The long diagonal lifts (ie they fall into the electric beam).

INSTRUCTIONS:

Choose to start a LAN game, choose "keved_hl1_tm02.bsp", and click advanced options. IMPORTANT: MAKE SURE THE 'TEAMPLAY' BOX IS TICKED. If you do not enable teamplay, all team functionality will not be available thus reducing Sulaco to standard free-for-all deathmatch rules, and as described above, Sulaco is NOT ideal as a ffa deathmatch map. Due to the darkness of the map, you may also want to enable flashlights. Also, depending on your preferences, alter the models you want to use for the two teams (ie robo;zombie instead of hgrunt;scientist). Note that you cannot have more than two teams, but you are free to choose whatever models you want. Now start the game, and by default new players join the team with fewest players (ie the first player to enter will join team 1, the second player onto team 2, third to team 1, etc).

To play with/against Jumbots...
1) Copy the keved_hl1_tm02.bsp file into ..\valve\jumbot\maps\ (this is only needed once).
2) Ensure you have the amount of bots set to at least 15 (ie for an 8v8 game). See the Jumbot documentation.
3) Activate the Jumbot from the custom game menu, and then follow the same process as above.