Superweapons Test Range by beng
================================
Version 1.01

This is a 2 player skirmish map for Zero Hour.

The human player should start from the left starting position. The
starting position on the right is intended for the skirmish AI player,
though you can also start from the right if you want.

This map is intended mainly for mod and map.ini makers who want to adjust
and perfect their new superweapons or general's powers weapons. However,
even if you are not into making mods, you can still use this map to
test various special powers and superweapons that are in the game (or in
mods that you install).

You may, for example, use this map to test the accuracy of a delivery
payload of bombs: does it drop on target? Airforce general's carpet bombs
tend to fall short for example - the OCL that calls them could be improved.

The map lets you do this by placing a target area down range from your base,
in line with your command centre (where your special power planes come from).


Tips:
=====

The target area is populated by target vehicles so you can see the
effectiveness or not of your weapons.

The vehicles are arranged at distance 50 intervals from the target centre,
out to distance 200. There are also some palm trees so you can see the
range of fire damage effects (if any) from your weapons.

To test the effects of tall buildings on your special powers (planes may
fly around them, missiles mat hit them) i have put some tall buildings
in the map too.

There is also ridge of high ground (100 high) so you can test the effects
of terrain height - the change in height may affect the accuracy of
bombing runs on targets just over the ridge for example.

You can also test how effective your strikes are on targets on hills -
there are 2 angry mobs on the ridge for you to target.

Beyond the ridge is player 2's base area - you can put a skirmish player
here if you want to test your superweapons on an enemy base.

You do not have to play with a skirmish player. If you just want to test
weapons on the range you can play with no player in the other base.

If the targets get worn out and you want new ones, destroy the round gas
tank near the centre entrance of your base - it will call a script that
clears away the old target vehicles and spawns new ones.

A script gives you most sciences at the start, including most level 1
sciences of special powers. I did not make it give you level 2 and 3
powers (like the level 2 and 3 A10 or Spectre strikes) by script,
so that you can test the level 1 ones first - each level uses a different
OCL so the effects will be different.

There is a line on the ground running from the target centre top your
base. Use this to align any superweapon buildings that you build. like
missile launching buildings etc, so that they are in line with the target
area.

Feel free to edit the map and scripts to suit your needs.

You probably want to set the special power reload timers to a short
time for testing, either in a map.ini or by script.

Also, there is a solo.ini that modifies these two objects:
Object ChinaMoat (from FactionBuilding.ini)
Object DemoTrapDetonationObject (from WeaponObjects.ini)

They are unused objects in the game, and i have made them to fire
weapons that are used to clear away old targets from the target areas.
They are created by script when you destroy the gas tank.

Solo.ini also modifies a few trees so they can burn and fall down
like in Generals.

If you get errors trying to load the map with a mod, it could be that
the mod also modifies these objects and therefore clashes with the
solo.ini or map.ini. In this case just delete the map.ini and solo.ini
or rename them to something else. The clearing away of old targets
will not be so effective without solo.ini however.

I called it solo.ini so that you can out in a custom map.ini if you
are making a map.ini and want to test it.

Included is an example test map.ini that makes the American A10
strike use cluster bombs.


Tutorial:
=========
This tutorial will show you how to use this map to test out a mod.

The map.ini of the cluster bombs is a useful example for this tutorial.

It is useful to have the bit of the mod you want to modify (such as
the OCL or maybe a locomotor) in a map.ini as you can then make
changes to it while playing the game, and see the effects of the
changes without having to exit from Zero Hour.

Start the game and select this map (it should be near the top of the
list because the name starts with "!"). Play as an American faction
(any one of them) and put yourself in the left hand side starting
position.

It is not necessary to put a skirmish player in the other position
for this tutorial as we are only using the weapons range.

Start the game, and you will already have A10 strike level 1 science.

Go ahead and fire this at the centre of the target area, targeting the
patriot battery there.

Notice any problems with the bombing run? (the bombs fall short)

OK lets try the level 2 strike power. Buy the science to upgrade to
A10 strike level 2 for the next test.

Have Burton shoot the gas tank to clear the range area of unused
targets and unexploded cluster bomb sub munitions.

Then fire your level 2 A10 power at the target and again note any
problems with it.

Repeat for level 3 A10 power.

Now, press Esc to pause the game and bring up the menu.

Then press the Windows key to swap out to the Widows desk top.

Open map.ini in Notepad and find the OCLs (at the bottom).

See if you can edit the ObjectCreationList
SUPERWEAPON_A10ThunderboltMissileStrike1 to make it work better

To make it easier, i left some good settings for the DropDelay
and DeliveryDistance commented out.

After making your changes, save the file.

Swap back to Zero Hour, and the Esc menu should still be there,
so just press the Restart button to reload the map. It will
read the changes you made to map.ini and you can then see the
difference it made to your A10 strike level 1 bombing accuracy.

Now, try and fix the OCLs for the level 2 and level 3 strikes.

This press Esc, swap to windows, edit and save map.ini,
swap back to game and restart trick makes it very fast to
make changes to the code and see the effects of the changes.

It does not work for some things like weapons though (the
kind of code from weapons.ini), you have to restart Zero
Hour from Windows to have it notice any changes to weapons.

Also, in a map.ini you cannot edit weapons that are in
weapons.ini, you can only make new weapons, and these
cannot use objects (projectiles, OCLs).

