BLOODGULCH TURRET GAMEPLAY MOD SUITE
by DMAURO
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INTRODUCTION:

This is a suite of gameplay mods for the NTSC Halo XBOX level Bloodgulch.

The mods are all PPF 3.0 patches.  Except for the inject.ppf file, they all support undo.

The main feature is the addition of the warthog turret as it's own vehicle.  In addition there are mods which add secondary rocket fire for the Warthog, Flying Bomber Ghosts, the Wraith Mortar, Fuel Rod, and Homing Rocket projectiles, and an invisible cameraman with no HUD.  I have tried to include a number of patches that allow for mixing and matching of these mods.  And I have also included some pre-set patches.  Because of the number of ppfs, this suite of mods gets a little complicated.  That's why I have this ridiculously long readme.  That and because I spent weeks on this mod and want to fully thank everyone that helped in some way:

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A special thank you to Iron_Forge (The Professor of Halo, as we like to call him).  This guy was always willing to write a program or do whatever was needed (albeit admist much grumbling) to help me out.  He has been a huge help and even a friend amidst a bunch of anonymous Halo Fanatics.  Iron_Forge was also an idespensible element in the extraction and injection of bitmaps and sounds.  There's nothing this guy can't do, and the scene would definitely not be the same without him.  Thank you, Iron_Forge.

Another special thanks to MonoxideC for doing some sound injection for me.  Getting wraith sounds in there had to be done by hand, and this guy was there to tackle the job.  What a great help!  THank you, MonoxideC.

Thank you to PfhorSlayer, not only for making this possible by reverse-engineering the map files, but also for playtesting (You and your brother make a mean CTF team).

Even with the time and skills, this mod might not have been made if it weren't for CLuis's (aka CaicedoLuis) naivete and his bold declaration of "Wut i wanna do is switch the teleporter to the warthog gun. I would make for some insane CTF especially if it was shooting rockets drools at the thought. can anybody acomplish this."  I think I even said it was impossible (that's probably why I began my attempt).  Thank you, CLuis.

And of course, how would I show off my new mod without BOLL's help.  His multiplayer mayhem movie-making skills are unsurpassed.  He's always willing to churn out a top-quality video for my newest mod.  His newest movie probably won't be ready until after the release, but I set him to work the other day.  He has big plans with a cool new skin and everything!  Thank you, BOLL.

Thank you to Evan.  No one knows him because he doesn't even have a modded box and is not part of the scene, but he was an essential part of this mod suite.  He is my friend's little brother, and he said to me "You should make homing rockets, that would be so cool!"  Again, the ignorance of the impossibility of a mod was a key element to its creation.

Thank you to everyone irc.freenode.net for your support and offers of help ("No!  You can't have a Beta patch to test!").  There are probably more names I should put here, but this intro is getting really long.

And, of coure, thank you, Bungie.  Halo is disputably the best video game ever to grace the home console.  Thanks for making a game so good, that I could be possessed for several sleepless weeks making a simple mod for it.

Oh yeah, and a NO thank you to Microsoft.  They make us break the law just to fully enjoy our favorite games, and then they remotely delete our data without our consent.  What a bunch of jerks.

That said, on to the how to...

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HOW TO USE THESE PATCHES:

First off, make sure you are playing a gametype that has all vehicles available, or just the Scorpion available if you want just the turrets.

inject.ppf - INJECT ALL FILES:  You MUST use this patch first before using any of the following patches.  It injects files that the following mods will try to use.  If you don't use this first, your game will just crash.  Using just this patch will not create any changes you will notice right away (except for the scorpion being replaced by the warthog), but if you want to make your own mods based on this, this is a good place to start since you can inject the files with this, and then use them as you see fit (ie. making the rocket launcher fire wraith mortars).  Below the item and ident numbers for the files will be listed so you can more easily hack this mod.

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INDIVIDUAL PATCHES: These are good if you want to make your own gametype since you can pick which mods to use.  Make sure to use the injection patch before using these.

turret_2v2.ppf - TURRET 2 VS 2: This places 2 turrets on each base (one on either side of the teleporter).

turret_2vs0.ppf - TURRET 2 VS 0: Only the Blue base gets turrets.  This is good if you want to play 'one-way' ctf or just to give one team a handicap.

turret_0vs2.ppf - TURRET 0 VS 2: Only the Red base gets turrets.  This is good if you want to play 'one-way' ctf or just to give one team a handicap.

turret_1vs_all.ppf - TURRET 1 VS ALL: This places a turret in the center of the level.

turret_mortar.ppf - WRAITH MORTAR TURRETS: This will change the secondary fire of the turrets to Wraith mortars.

fuel_rod_pistol.ppf - FUEL ROD PISTOL: This will change the secondary fire of the plasma pistol to the fuel rod projectile.

homing_rockets.ppf - HOMING ROCKETS: Gives all rockets homing ability.  Your reticle must be a certain distance from an enemy when you fire for them to home in on that person.  The rocket launcher only has a one rocket chamber and can hold three rockets maximum now.

warthog_secondary.ppf - WARTHOG SECONDARY FIRE: The Warthog turret gun now has a secondary rocket fire (yes they will be homing if you used the homing rocket patch).

bomber_ghost.ppf - BOMBER GHOST: The Ghost now flys and drops frag grenades from above.  Excellent for taking out those that are trying to just sit in the back of a Warthog shooting homing rockets (the Ghost is able to outrun homing rockets).

camera_man.ppf - CAMERA MAN: There is now an invisible camera man in the small nook on the shady blue base side of the level.  You must have a trained version of Halo so that you can 'bump' him to become the camera man.  He can fly and has no HUD.  He is excellent at taking screenshots and movies.  Don't worry if he dies, he respawns.  As a side effect to this mod, the pistol reticle is a little different (set to rocket launcher reticle), and the pickup icon will be a rocket launcher.  (Don't pick up any weapons as the camera man as he will then have a HUD)

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DEFAULT PATCHES: Here's the defaults I have picked out for you.  These are nice and easy, and should provide a good start, but hopefully you will use the individual patches to build up your favorite gametype.  And make sure you use the injection patch first before using these.

slayer_carnage.ppf - SLAYER CARNAGE: This is almost all of the mods rolled into one.  Two turrets on each base, homing rockets, fuel rod pistol, Wraith mortar, Warthog secondary, and Bomber Ghosts.

bombing_run.ppf - BOMBING RUN: The Blue side gets homing rocket shooting turrets, and the Red side gets Bomber Ghosts.

impossible_ctf.ppf - IMPOSSIBLE CTF: Each side has two homing rocket shooting turrets.

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NOTES:

Feel free to furthur hack this mod and do what you like to it.  Here are the items you may want to reference:

Turret: Item 742 E45A02E6
Wraith Mortar Projectile: Item 1449 E71D05A9
Fuel Rod Projectile: Item 756 E46802F4
Camera Man: Item 1675 E7FF068B

Here are the files which you don't want to mess with because I have injected into and so should not be used:
65, 67, 68, 70, 71, 72, 182, 183, 742, 743, 755, 756, 757, 805, 1449, 1450, 1481, 1675
There are probably others I missed so be careful.  Stay away from the scorpion files since I used most of those up.
And if someone thinks they can figure this mod out, and port it to other levels (SIDEWINDER!), then that would be awesome because I am too burnt out right now to even think about it.

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EPILOGUE (sorry this readme was so long):

Again, thank you to everyone that was essential to the creation of this mod.  I feel like I have been working on this for years right now.  I had to do all the meta injection by hand using a shitty shareware hex calculator to get my pointers correct.  But now I am all done, and I am completely burnt out, and so you probably won't see me around as much anymore.  I think I am going to have to retire from the scene, and take a break with Halo PC.  Thank you for downloading, and enjoy the mod!
