ABU Blocking Trainer V1.1
=========================

Blocking - the art of hitting cannonballs in mid-air to keep them from destroying your ship.
While everybody able to handle a mouse can learn to aim the cannon or steer an airship in a 
halfway decent way in a few minutes or hours, becoming a skilled blocker can take weeks, 
months or even years of playing.  
     
This map is designed for ABU newbies to train basic blocking techniques, and for ABU 
veterans to become even better. It is optimized for offline playing.

You start on a high tower, surrounded by a number of bot controlled cogs. As soon as the 
match starts, they will start and fire cannonballs at you. Your objective is not
to kill the bots, but to block as many cannonballs as you can.

You can also grab one of the gliders and get a ride in the bs or cog - blocking 
inside a baloon, like its supposed to be done, is way more challenging.
Both ships are modified, they are (almost) indestructible and come with a unlimited amount 
of muskets.

This map comes with a custom mutator which will count your blocks, calculate your accuracy
and will also make the bots join the right team.  

Installation 
------------

Unzip the Archive into your UT2004\AirBuccaneers. Make sure the map files 
(ABU-BlockingTrainer.ut2) go into the UT2004\AirBuccaneers\maps directory, the other files 
belong into the UT2004\AirBuccaneers\system directory.
Start ABU & start the map in "Instant Action".  

Known Problems
--------------

- Often the bots will behave stupid, like firing 180 degrees in the wrong direction. 
  However, they do things like that in offical maps too - and with 4 cogs, 1 or 2 should 
  almost always fire at you.


Some knowledge about blocking
------------------------------

- Whatever you do, remember to NOT STAND INBETWEEN THE CANNON AND THE TARGET.
  "Blocking" your ships gun with your body is a bad thing, as it will kill you, the gunner
  and possibly every one else on your ship.

- You can block following things: cannonballs (no matter if fired by a ship or a base cannon), 
  rockets, airmines (in placed or flying state), gunpowder bags 

- You can't block "BBQ attacks" (=gunpowder loaded in a cannon). If they come close enough 
  for this firing mode you might try to throw gunpowder at them instead, or board them.

- The bots are "cheating": while a real player has to lit the cannon, a bot can fire 
  instantly.
  You can see some sparks at one end of the cannon when a a player lits it. The cannon will
  fire about 3-4 seconds after that, so better get prepared. 

- After observing the bots for a while I think they use only 2 different cannon firing angles:
  "way too low" and "just the right height". Real players are a lot more unpredictable.
  You should observe were their cannon barrel is aiming at, to predict the next shots.

- Blocking base cannons is very easy. Just jump off the ship, rope on it and remember the   
  base cannon shot will travel in a straight and slow way. You might not be able to block 
  forever, but most likely long enough to leave the danger zone.

- A musket shot will do only 5 points of damage, if fired at an enemy.However, due to a   
  bug a shot can sometimes do 100 or more points, killing a player instantly. 
  However it doesn't happen often, and in most cases it will only hit yourself.

- A high Ping affects blocking. If you have a high ping, say 150 or more, you have to 
  adjust your aiming and pretend the cannon ball is already a bit further on its way, closer 
  to you. In a Instant Action game you will always have a ping of 0, so you should take that 
  into account.

- "Part Time Blocking": this term basically means "block, whenever you have nothing else 
   to do or your ship is almost dead". Part time blocking is way less effective than full 
   time blocking, and it will often interfere with your other dutys on board, like aiming
   and steering. However, its often necessary on undercrewed ships. 

- Dead Angles: the bs (battle ship, the big ship) is a big problem for every blocker: 
  you can hardly block any shots from the front or back side, and blocking high flying 
  projectiles tends to be difficult too. The musket shots will just collide with the ballon 
  hull, a net or a invisible something. Not much you can do about that, other than using only 
  cogs. 

- According to the source code, you can also block with a exploding gunpowder bag. 
  However, I was unable to reproduce that and I also never heard of anyone actually managing 
  that.So it might be buggy or impossible to do - or maybe nobody else ever tried ;)     
  
- Read the thread at 
  http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~reactor4/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=592&sid=7f9363d02b217ed252a16f17d6a18643
  It contains MuffinMan's blocking guide, along with other great tips. 
  (The guide is at page 2)


Author: 

<br>
E-Mail: Janders@web.de - or better, just post at 
	http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~reactor4/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=6 


  
