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DOX TRIBES MAP PACK
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This zip contains 9 client-side maps, with all new buildings/shapes and textures & the extra volume files associated with them.

All of them are designed with clan competition style play in mind..so no scarabrae style standoffs/turtling here.




Maps included in this zip.
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ArcticWolf
CanyonCrusade_deluxe
DusktoDawn
FleetCommand
IceDagger
JaggedClaw
MidnightMayhem_deluxe
SideWinder
SpinCycle

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INSTALLATION
------------
Follow the self-extracting zip instructions. Extract the files into your 'tribes' directory.



TROUBLESHOOTING
---------------

If when loading one of the new maps and it quits out on loading the level, make sure all these volume files are in your 'tribes/base' folder.


AW_extras.vol
CC_extras.vol
DD_extras.vol
FC_extras.vol
ID_extras.vol
JC_extras.vol
MM_extras.vol
SW_extras.vol
SC_extras.vol
DOX_textures.vol


The remainder of the files in the zip should be in your 'tribes/base/missions' folder.

ArcticWolf.dsc		CanyonCrusade_deluxe.dsc	DusktoDawn.dsc		FleetCommand.dsc
ArcticWolf.mis		CanyonCrusade_deluxe.mis	DusktoDawn.mis		FleetCommand.mis
ArcticWolf.ted		CanyonCrusade_deluxe.ted	DusktoDawn.ted		FleetCommand.ted
ArcticWolf.vol		CanyonCrusade_deluxe.vol	DusktoDawn.vol		FleetCommand.vol	

IceDagger.dsc		JaggedClaw.dsc		MidnightMayhem.dsc		SideWinder.dsc
IceDagger.mis		JaggedClaw.mis		MidnightMayhem.mis		SideWinder.mis
IceDagger.ted		JaggedClaw.ted		MidnightMayhem.ted		SideWinder.ted
IceDagger.vol		JaggedClaw.vol		MidnightMayhem.vol		SideWinder.vol

SpinCycle.dsc
SpinCycle.mis
SpinCycle.ted
SpinCycle.vol




BUGS/FIXES
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* Can look fugly in software (but then again what doesnt :P) with all the coloured/mood lighting in these maps.. it translates very poorly into the tribes 256 colour software palette, part of the reason dynamix buildings are almost fullbright in appearance. FIX = get some 3d hardware u caveman :)

* CanyonCrusades LZ pad has some weird z-buffering crawling up close in software mode.

* Certain maps such as 'ArcticWolf' the jumping flag bug may be noticed. THIS is NOT a map problem, BUT a TRIBES engine/script issue caused by certain actions pertaining to vehicles. The same prob can/does happen on Rollercoaster frequently. FIX = Bug Dynamix to fix it :P

* Holes outside the mission boundary.. This is also NOT a bug, but the way the ingame engine works by mirror tiling/repeating the terrain outside the mission boundary. So any holes cut for buildings will be repeated N,S,W,E every map size untill the edge of the map.

* The maps mentioned above Fleetcommand and DusktoDawn have some scripts in the .vol file...which could cause a prob on heavily modded servers such as ultra_renegheyds etc...i can verify it works perfectly on base, ixadmin, bwadmin for which they where designed tho.

* The early vers of DusktoDawn would randomly kick ppl from the server with a invalid packet error, i assume it was because of too many trigger entities for the mines, and when i removed 40-50 of em the prob stopped. Altho in a big 32 player game with lots and lots of spamming it could reoccur..but probably unlikely.

* If u cant hear the crickets on Dusktodawn or the new wind/snow on Icedagger, make sure u dont have a extracted snow.wav or rain.wav in your tribes/base dir

* any updates/fixes will be found at http://dox.xlr8.com.au/


CONSTRUCTION
------------

With the exception of a few rocks used in ArcticWolf, every other shape/building was constructed by myself using
the released tribes tools and worldcraft 2.1. a bit of sweat...and a few tears :)
A large volume of textures i also created (with a couple borrowed from halflife) with the aid of Adobe Photoshop.

Construction time roughly started in january, on and off between tribes gaming. Some maps took a very short time, like a day or 2 for Dusktodawn or Spincycle to several weeks/month for FleetCommand which is very large both in size (twice the size of the scarabrae base/shape) and weighing in at over 3000+ polys. 

I learnt alot from my first effort of maps included in the opencall selection (heh i had 7 out of the 14..CC, MM etc). With some clever poly/texture use and a bare amount of pinning the deluxe maps run alot better...CC_deluxe runs atleast 25-30%+ faster than the original.
 
My specs for machine they were created and ran on are a celery 300a o/c 450mhz, 128meg sdram, v3 3000 ... and my target framerate was the equivalent of normal dynamix base maps which run in the 45-60fps range on this hardware. 



COMMENTS
--------

Orginally i was encouraged by the response from the dev team and the general public who liked my opencall maps..especially ones like CC, MM. And talking with Scott from dynamix, around the time of the opencall/balanced maps release, there was talk of a regular map pack (ala balanced maps) being released with new maps every month or 2. But unfortunately the OC/Balanced maps didnt go down to well with most ppl along with certain crashes associated with frost giant etc...so that idea was pretty much shelved. (altho alot more ppl play OC/balanced maps these days.) Anyway i wasnt discouraged, as i thought i could some really cool client side maps with the aid of worldcraft (btw i really dislike server side maps....upside down scarabrae bases really annoy me and look 2nd rate). It was originally gonna be a 3 mission pack, but soon it expanded to 5...then 6. Eventually here we are at 9 maps....i'd really would've liked to have made 10 straight..but at this rate tribes 2 will be out by then ..not to mention some of these maps im starting to look at and think...geez i could really do that better if i did it again :) ...so yes get em out the door i say..and quick! :)

There was a alot of stuff i wish i could've have done with these maps...but the engine/poly limitation was a barrier... frame rate is far more important for a multiplayer only game. On hindsidght i couldve done a lot more with the aid of some more spiffy textures...but alas tribes1 doesnt have any :P..and making textures all the time takes too long. So watch out tribes2, more polys, water, 32 bit colour...geez even 16bit colour would be a luxury...boy did i get sick of 8bit colour :P

If you really like these maps, get your server admins to stick em on servers.. its the only way theyll get played.
Or even bug the guys at dynamix to release another map pack with these, maybe with the next patch or with base+ if its ever released.


THANKS
------

Id like to thank the guys at Dynamix..Scott, Dave, Ian, Mark and especially John who tracked down and fixed the non-dynamic lighting problem with WC shapes that bugged the hell out of me :)

A big thanks goes out to Mental Trousers who was kind enough to do the scripting for several of the maps, the team teleporters and the perm minefield. He has his own scripting site...so be sure to drop by it.
http://www.planetstarsiege.com/mt/
Also thanks to Wizard who helped, and was kind enuff to put em up on his server for testing.
 
Also thanks to Stonk & Kromax and everyone else that helped test for bugs on wizardsworld server..aswell as my fellow clan members and everyone else that bugged, nagged or lamented the fact they still aint yet and to finish them quickly:) 

mmmm did someone mention secrets?? :P


DOX
dox@planetfortress.com
http://dox.xlr8.com.au/
29/5/00
