= Dusk - A "Zombie Mod" for Enemy Territory: Quake Wars =
Version: a6
Date: 2008-08-07
Author: Jarad Hansen aka TinMan aka Tex
email: tinman_squad at hotmail

NOTE: This is an Alpha version.
While theoretically the worst that will happen is the game crashes, I hold no responsibility if your computer explodes in a ball of incandescent fury.

= What =
A co-op 'Zombie Mod', with up to 5 GDF forced to scavenge the level for weapons and supplies, while the many Strogg roam at will, atempting to swarm them with melee attacks.

= Gameplay =
GDF:
Spawn only with pistols and must scavenge the level for pickups - weapons ammo, health, repair packs and fuel cells.
On most maps there is a severely damaged vehicle that must be repaired and fueled in order for the GDF reach the escape area.
On Canyon and Slipgate there is a Cyclops roaming the map which must be destroyed. GDF get a working Armadillo straight off.
The engineers repair pliers now run off a repair pool, to fill this up use a repair pack.
Still have respawns, but since they drop all their weapons/packs, spawn back from where they want to be and they are running against the clock, it's a setback they should avoid.
Limited to 5 players, one per class, except soldier which is used as a buffer for switching classes.
All classes can revive by holding Use key on downed buddy, but takes several seconds.

Strogg:
Limited to melee spikes. Strogg bots roam the level semi-randomly.
Strogg are somewhat nerfed currently damage and tools wise while GDF gameplay is being developed.
There is currently radius strike on alt fire with a delay between strikes.

= How to do stuff as GDF =
To pick up 'pickups'(weapons and packs), aim at them and pressing Use ('F' key by default).
To 'use' a pack (get it's resources), press alt-fire while holding one. Or press the enter/exit key while looking at a pack on the ground.
Normal fire drops the currently held pack or hold fire to install it in the vehicle or turret.
To drop a weapon or item press '\\' ( can be rebound via controls/weapons menu ).
There are variations on limits for different classes, but in general:
Players are limited to holding two primary weapons at a time and two secondary (with the pistol you spawn with not being dropable).
Players are limited to holding three packs of any mix.
You can see the type of pickup by looking at it.

= Known bugs and Limitations =
Strogg side have been severly curtailed in this version, to the point where a human playing on that team won't be able to accomplish much individually. 

Sewer not yet supported.
On initial map start the server (including 'Play Computer') spawns approximately 150 pickups which are physics objects, so there will be a few frames of punishment CPU/bandwidth wise until they settle.

NOTE: See changelog.txt for more info.

= Using the Mod =
NOTE: This mod is for Quake Wars version 1.5, it will not work on earlier or later versions.

1. Installation: Unzip dusk-a6.zip into Quake Wars folder.

2. Loading the mod: 
Load Quake Wars and choose Dusk from the mods menu.
At the console you can run the 'gamename' command to check if the mod loaded.
Dusk must be loaded before attempting to connect to a server running Dusk.

3. Playing the mod:
Play against Computer, or start a server, or connect to a server running Dusk.

Playing computer or setting server:
Set to 30 Mins on Campaign, or on Objective mode, on any map except Sewer.
If playing with bots make sure bot skill is not on training, that number of bots on strogg side is high.

= Performance =
Running a bot game takes a bit of CPU power, the more bots you have the bigger the hit. The system does scale the bots thinking rate down if your system isn't handling thing well, but there is a limit. Therefore it may be necessary to drop some of your settings down a notch to get a more consistent experience. Of course if you mainly play bots anyway you would have already done this.

= Feedback =
Email me at tinman_squad at hotmail
Or on the Quake Wars community forums.

= Distribution =
Distribute as you will, just keep the zip unmodified. Sweet.

= Thanks and credits to =
GaussDecay for Linux build.
Splash Damage and id Software for the awesome game/engine.
Cody64 for his blood mod.

= Final Thoughts =
Mainly a tweak and fix release :/
I seem to have settled down to a cycle of:
Release.
Spend a week or two knuckling down trying to get a new feature or gameplay change figured out.
About week playing the previously released version online and roll in fixes and tweeks from feeback to next version.
Test new version offline doing more fixes and tweeks.
A week with a pre-release test up on local (gamers.net.nz) server and test with whoever comes on.
Roll in more fixes and tweeks.
Release.

Add a week or two to delays, either real-life, bigbug or feature creep :o. This time round it was between the pre-release public test and release which was not too nice in that it depreciated the number of players on the ruin server as people realised this had a new version. I'll be a bit more careful of that in future.