================================================================
Title                   : FNORD'S SARKBALL
Version                 : 1.0
Release Date            : October 5th, 2001
Filename                : SB.zip
Author(s)               : Kerry "FNORD of BOO" Havas
			  Peter "Testicules of BOO" Demestihas
Email Address           : khavas@home.net (FNORD)
	                  sprunt@mediaone.net (Testicules)
			  davids@darktoad.com (darktoad)
Description             : SarkBall game for Rune
Coding			: Kery Havas
Coding Contributer	: David Silverman
Maps			: Peter Demestihas 
			  David Silverman
			  B. "Putz" Whitey
			  Chris "=LOBO=" Wolfe
			  Bruno "QuickSilver5" Brouchard
			  Kazua (dont know your name Dude)
			  Christopher "ConanTD" Dunn
			  Jake "Kid Ying" Byrd		
Additional Credits to   : Robin "Rol Ancient" Lyngsdal for Rol Ancient's Rune 			  		  Control v1.0Part of that code has been incorperated into 			  	  SarkBall.
			  Human Head for making this kick ass game
			  Critter... thanks for adding SarkBall support to your
			  Rune Server Launcher.
================================================================


Instalation Instructions:
-------------------------
-Delete any previous files.


-Extract the files to your ../rune/system Folder

	SarkBall.u
	SarkBall.ini
	SarkBall.int
	SarkBallserver.bat
	

-Add the following to your Rune.ini to host games.

		Under [Engine.GameEngine] add the line.

			Serverpackages=SarkBall
			
		Add this as a new section in your Rune.ini file
		
[SarkBall.SarkBallGame]
bSpawnInTeamArea=False
bNoTeamChanges=False
FriendlyFireScale=0.000000
MaxTeams=2
GoalTeamScore=30.000000
MaxTeamSize=16
bNoMonsters=False
bHumansOnly=False
bCoopWeaponMode=False
bClassicDeathMessages=False
bAllowLimbSever=True


To play sarkball, select it from your game menue in the server section, and select 

To uninstall SarkBall, just remove all the files that you installed and the additions to your ini files


The package contains the following files:
-----------------------------------------
SarkBall.u		: The compiled code for SarkBall	
SarkBall.ini		: The ini file that you can alter the games parameters for 			  	  SarkBall	
SarkBall.int		: The game class diefinition for SarkBall	
SarkBallserver.bat	: The Auto looping bat file for SarkBall	
SarkBall.txt		: This file
SarkBallmap.txt		: The text file for the maps
beacH.utx		: A texture File
SB-BeachBall.run	: SarkBall Map#*
SB-DantesPeak.run	: SarkBall Map*+
SB-SpaceDome.run	: SarkBall Map*
SB-UTarp.run		: SarkBall Map*
SB-Vitanic.run		: SarkBall Map*
SB-Volcano.run		: SarkBall Map*+
SB-BonePit.run		: SarkBall Map*
SB-DeathFromAbove.run	: SarkBall Map*
SB-IceCourt.run		: SarkBall Map%
SB-Forrest.run		: SarkBall Map@
SB-Hockey.run		: SarkBall Map@
SB-UnferthsPass.Run	: Sarkball map=
SB-TerrokNor.run	: SarkBall Map*
SB-Crivical.run		: SarkBall Map&
SB-Hazard		: SarkBall Map^
RuneLauncher.zip	: Rune server launcher with sarkball support


(map credits)	Peter Demestihas 		*
		David Silverman			+
		B. "Putz" Whitey		#
		Chris "=LOBO=" Wolfe		=
		Bruno "QuickSilver5" Brouchard	%
		Kazua (dont know your name Dude)@
		christopher "ConanTD" Dunn	&
		Jake "Kid Ying" Byrd		^


Game Description:
--------------------
SarkBall is a hockey/basketball/lacrosse game that uses the game Rune as an engine.  The object of the game is to out score your opponents by taking the sarkball and throwing it against your opponents gong. Sounds simple right? Well it would be if the opposing teams were not armed with broadswords and other deadly weapons. There is no high sticking or roughing in this game; it is actually encouraged.

Here is a more detailed explanation of the game flow. There are two teams in play (red and green teams). At the beginning of each map, there is a pre-game count down, which allows players to select the team they want to play on. When that count down expires, the game is afoot. The ball will spawn (it usually drops down from the sky between the two teams). Get the ball and throw it against the other teams gong. If your opponents have the ball, you must stop them before they score. The ball is an auto pick up item so all you need to do is touch the ball and you have possession. You can pass, catch, and intercept the ball too. To steal the ball from a player, you need to chop his arm off. When someone scores, the round is restarted with all players at their starting positions. When you die, you will spawn back in your end zone.

Ideal size for each team is between 3 to 6 player (6 to 12 total players on a map) pending on the map size. 


HUD and Scoreboard Lay Out:
--------------------------
The HUD display has been changed to give you vital information about the game. The upper right hand side will tell you the team name and score. Just below that are the symbols of what the auto team balance settings are. There is a real-time ticker of what is happening in the game down at the bottom of the screen. Here you can see who has the ball, passing information, interceptions and scoring information as well. The scoreboard will show all players stats in the game ranging from kills/deaths to scoring information broken down to 7 separate stats.

The HUD:
-In the upper right hand side is the Overall team score and time remaining. 
-The @ symbol below that shows the auto team balance number the server has been set at (please read below about that feature). 
-Below the team scores is the overall player scores (Players score = goals + assists - turnovers).
-Center bottom of the screen is the real time ticker. 
.deadball ticker
.who has the ball
.who just scored and assisted in scoring
.passing and interception information
.distance meter for thrown balls (scores or passes) yards

Scoreboard:
-Total team score
-Here shows stats of the current players
.frags
.deaths
.goals
.assist
.interceptions
.scores
.ping

Launching a server:
-------------------
Critter's Rune Server Launcher has been included in this zip. It will simplify 
the process of launching a server.

Game Settings:
---------------
The game has a lot of customizable features. Here is a list of server options that are enabled via the sarkball.ini file:
-Customizable team names
-Team balancing with bots 
-Desired team size and count
-Pre-game count down
-New round count down after a goal is scored
-Dead ball counter for balls that have fallen out of the playing area or out of the world
-You can choose which weapons the game will be played with
-Settings for the players speed, ball carrier speed, and all players GameJumpZ
-Selection between game balls 
-Set the referee password
-Advance throwing  where your momentum is factored in.

There is an auto team balance feature that will even out teams with bots or incoming players. When the server has bots playing and a new player joins, a bot is killed to make room for the new player.

They bots play very well and can enhance the game. They play just like players. They will go for passes, taunt if they want a pass, attack the opposing team if they have possession, pass to other team mates, and score as well. They have been programmed with the possibility causing fumbles and bad throws so they can play like intermediate players. The bots support path nodes too (although it is not necessary in most maps).

You can have your choise of 5 different ball types.
-Dwarf
-Keg
-SarkHead
-RuneLogo
-GoblinTorch

If for any reason a ball disappears through a wall, falls out of game play, if a player with ball possession leaves, or you can not find it, the game has a ball tracker which will kick in and restart a new round. If that does not work, there is a "dead ball" counter that will restart the round if the ball is not picked up.

All everything you need to make a map for this mod are special actors you can add to any map. All map making information can be found in the map making section

There is a referee function that allows a player to leave a team and become a referee (gold Team). The referee is a mutator that can allow any player become a referee if they know what the referee password is (meaning you can have a ref on the server with out  them having admin access). Referees can restart rounds, force players on a certain team, add or kill bots. Below is a list of referee functions:
-newround - Starts A New Round
-balanceteamswithbots - toggles bot team balancing
-killgreenbot - kills a green bot
-killredbot - kills a red bot
-sarkballtype X - sets the current sarkballtype
-ref off - deactivates ref mode
-balanceteamsto X - sets the game to balance teams to X players
-buildgreenbot - builds a green bot
-buildredbot - builds a red bot
-endthegame - Ends The Current Game

The advance throwing will incorporate you momentum and direction as well. You can throw the ball twice as far. It takes more skill, but it opens a whole lot of possibilities. It can be enabled or disabled. When disabled, it reverts back to how Rune handles throwing. That will only allow a maximum of 29-yard throws. With advance throwing, you can achieve throws up to 54 yards.


BUILING A SARKBALL MAP
-----------------------
It is very simple to make a map for SarkBall. You just need to make the map and add in the special actors. That's it.

The goals are special actors that can use any skeletal object as its shape. They are listed in the editor. There are two selections there: red team and green team. Under its default properties, look under skeleton. There you see a variable called skeletal; go and pick what ever you choose to use as a goal. The default goal is a gong, but you can choose any other object in the game. 

The Sarkballstart is a special actor that is listed under classes>actor>navigationpoint. This is where the ball will spawn from. Just add it in where you want the ball to come in to play and your done. There are a lot of features in this special actor. Below is a list and description what you can do with it. All features here will over ride the sarkball.ini file (that is where the server can customize a game). The reason for this is to allow the mapper to dictate a certain style of game play.
-alternateskeleton		not used
-balanceminimumteam	used to force a minimum amount of players/bots
-balancewithteambots		true/false option, some maps are incompatible with bots
-forcegreenbotclass		enhancement not used yet
-forcehumanstoteam		makes players go on an active team (do not change)
-forceredbotclass		enhancement not used yet
-sarkballtype			you can choose between the various sarkballs (small dwarf, sark ragnars head, keg, the word rune, and a goblin torch stand)
-startgreenbots			the number of initial green bots to be started
-startredbots			the number of initial red bots to be started
-usemapbotsettings		this tells the game to over ride the sarkball.ini file to use the map settings instead

For players starts, just add player stars from classes>actor>navigationpoint. Select the team to use team 0 for red and team 2 for green. Make sure that there are addique starts in the map and that all starts are on the ground (bots will get stuck in the air if they are up high). There is a new special sarkball start for future enhancement for bot classes. This is not enabled yet.

Make sure under level info you make the game type "sarkball.sarkballgame" to ensure the game will launch correctly. All sarkball maps are named SB-mapname.run

That's it. 

Below are some quirks I have encountered in making maps

Under most circumstances, the bots will work in an open environment. If the bots have hard time moving around, you can utilize path node support. That is also found under classes>actor>navigationpoint. Only use them if the bots have a hard time moving around a complex map. All player starts are considered path nodes as well. If you need a bot to move through a door, you need to put a path node on each side of the door. The path nodes should be visible form one to the next. Use them sparingly and it will take a lot of trial and error to get it right. Please read the various tutorials out there on how to use path nodes for Unreal. In most cases, if the map is an open arena, you will not need path node support. If you use node support, you need to press F8 under the editor to get the rebuilder function (under the options menu). Select the lighting menu and then press the path define button. Then, in the 3d view of the screen, select the view "show path".  Make sure that no paths have any gray lines. Make sure all paths are blue lined. Try not to have too many in a small area because the bots will get "lost" trying to figure their way through. Try not to use too much of an incline or multiple levels with bots; they will get stuck at the decline/edge and just run in place.

The game will start to act weird if you make a very complex map or use a lot of the experimental floor lofter. The bots and shield will not spawn either. In severe cases, the game will go into an endless loop and will crash your system. If this happens, you need to disable all bot support to enable the map to be played. Placing a teleport zone below where the players' star will cause this to happen as well

If you use semi-solid brushes, when the ball comes in to contact with it, the ball may disappear.

Do not put a rotating disk below where the ball drops. The disk will fall to the lowest point and stop rotating.

Use only one sarkball start. The program will not run correctly if you try to use more than one ball. For multiple gongs, I do not think that they will pose a problem.

Try to keep the polygon count down around 100 max. Going above that may cause the game to get choppy on slower machines. Ideal is to keep it between 50 to 90 polygons on screen at time.


KNOWN BUGS AND ISSUES ABOUT THE GAME
--------------------------------------
The ball may some times disappear from the client side when a player has possession. When the ball carrier jumps, or throws the ball, it reappears. This bug happens infrequent and does not detract from game play.

Some times there may appear to be 2 balls carried by 2 different people. The person who threw the ball may appear to still have possession, but it is just a phantom ball. It will be cleared when a new round has begun.

Because of latency and discrepancy of what the server says and client replication, the ball may not register the goal. One time I was playing on the server, I saw a friend of mind throw the ball at my gong (he was on my lan). On his screen the ball went through the gong and hit the wall after it. On the server side, the ball went above the gong and it was a total miss. This is a problem that is inherent in the game's net code and not with this mod.

Not all maps will support bots due to various reasons from generation problems to map complexity.

Some times the bots start walking in air.


Word of caution:
----------------
SarkBall can be addicting, and addicted players will constantly come to your server begging
for more SarkBall. If addiction has become a problem, go seek medical attention.
SarkBall should work under all version of Rune. Build 1.01 and 1.07 (both HOV and Non-HOV)
are recommended. SarkBall was orginally made for 1.01, but has been extensivly tested under
1.06 and HOV 1.07. No information is on the Mac and Linux platoforms


Feedback:
---------
Please send all inquires and feed back to 
khavas@home.net	-Kerry Havas
sprunt@mediaone.net -Pete Demestihas

Or go visit the message boards at www.runecenter.com, we have a few forums there dedicated for sarball

For more news on sarkball please go to www.sarkball.com


Legal Stuff:
------------

RUNE (c)2000 Human Head.  All Rights Reserved. 
Distributed by GOD Games Inc. under license. 
RUNE is a registered trademark of Human Head.  
All other trademarks and trade names areproperties of their respective owners

Authors may NOT use any maps in this zip as a base to build additional levels 
(without our permission). 

Authors MAY use the textures, and sounds to make additionals levels, 
as long is credit is given in the readme.

AUTHORS ARE NOT ALLOWED TO USE ANY SCRIPTS FROM THIS MOD WITH OUT CONCENT!!!

You are NOT allowed to commercially exploit this MOD for profit in any way,
including but not limited to, putting it on a CD ROM or any other medium that 
is sold in or out of retail channels, for any amount of money.  You must obtain written permission from US to exploit this level commercially. 

You MAY NOT distribute this level through any electronic network (internet,
FIDO, local BBS etc.), provided you include this file and leave the archive
intact.

(C) Kerry "FNORD of BOO" Havas & Peter "Testicules of BOO" Demestihas 2001. 