AQ2: LTK TBM

A brief history of AQ2, LTK, and TBM

Quake 2 was created by id Software. The game was predominantly a single-player first person shooter where you're a marine fighting against a variety of "stroggs" which are basically half robot, half human (or alien). Quake 2 does have multiplayer capabilities but was not originally well developed.

Akimbo Team Production (formally known as "The A-Team") decided to use Quake 2 as the base for Action Quake 2. Their aim was to produce a mod which had the flare of the movies on the silver screen combined with realistic guns, settings (maps), sounds, and best of all, realistic locational damage. One well-placed shot can and will kill. AQ2 continues to have the largest active community of all Q2 mods.

One downfall of AQ2 is that it never had bots. The A-Team left that up to the community. Several bot mods floated around but few were stable or realistic (one in particular was infamous for instant headshots from across the map). License to Kill was a favorite to several AQ2 players. It provided a simple multiplayer style bot with adjustable skill. For most players, it was sufficient although the bots often fell off buildings, killed themselves, or got stuck on ladders or in corners. Several players experienced stability issues. When the developer halted development and released the code, several people dabbled with the code but nothing was released. Until now...

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About LTK TBM

mSparks took the source for LTK and combined it with his own pathfinder project and LTK TBM was formed. The Borg Matrix bots are far superior to LTK bots. They choose their weapons according to the map and how well they've done with the weapon in the past. They also modify their fighting style according to the players they're playing against. If a human player is a complete newb, the bots will be easier. On the other hand, if a human player is an experienced AQ2 player, the bots will be harder on them. The bots will even gang up on specific players.

In addition to the enhanced AI, LTK TBM also adds some other elements to the game. With the help of Q2Ice, LTK TBM has a much-improved GUI with most of the AQ2-specific commands included (AQ2 players are usually stuck with the regular Q2 GUI). The facelift does not stop there however. With the help of the AQ2 retexturing project, most of the maps have new 32-bit textures. AQ2 never looked so delicious.

Some other improvements include much higher stability, several server variables (for controlling how many bots and which team), a new weapon (sword), and mission support. So get some buddies together and fight some bots or just start up a server by yourself. Don't forget, you can still join standard AQ2 servers as well!

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LTK TBM Startup tips

Before you jump into a game, there are a few things you should keep in mind. First of all, this game is completely compatible with Action Quake 2 servers. Everything you find on the net for AQ2 will probably work for LTKTBM. If you're an AQ2 vet, commands are consistent with AQ2 1.52 so you can use your old configs! Custom skins, gun models, crosshairs, HUDs, etc also work. The only exception is maps. Although any map will run with LTKTBM, you won't get the quality performance from the bots that you get from maps released with LTKTBM. More route files will be available at the website and old LTK route files can be made to work with LTKTBM. More information on that is available in crtcompiler.txt.

If you're new to AQ2 completely, there are some very important points you need to be aware of. Most of these sections tell you to change your key settings in the options menu. You can jump to that menu by hitting F4 in-game.

Bandaging:
When you get shot in AQ2, you experience immediate health loss and will continue to bleed until you bandage. You have to hit your bandage key or else you'll bleed to death. If you get shot in the legs, you'll limp. Bandaging will fix your limping as well. You need to be careful while bandaging since you put your gun away and are defenseless for 30 seconds. Your bandage key can be changed in the options menu but you can also bind it manually by typing bind x bandage (where "x" is the key you want to use) in the console (hit the ~ key).

Weapons and Items:
On most servers you can only carry 2 weapons, your pistol, which cannot be dropped, and a special weapon. In teamplay mode you can choose which weapon when you join the server. In deathmatch mode, the special weapons are scattered across the map and you have to pick them up. You also have a knife in case you completely run out of ammo. You'll also have to reload your weapon when the clip is empty. The key for reloading can be changed in the options menu or by typing bind x reload in the console. Most weapons have different "modes". You can bind a key to switch through the modes in the options menu or type bind x weapon in the console. There are also special items in AQ2. Some improve your weapons while others have other advantages. More information on weapons and items can be found in Weapons and Items.

Doors:
The only time a door has ever opened as I approached it was while walking into Pick'n'Save. Every other door I've walked through, I've had to open myself. In AQ2, you have to open doors by hitting a key. You can change which key you want to use in the options menu or by typing bind x opendoor in the console.

Radio:
In teamplay mode, you can use the radio to communicate with your team mates (including bots) or partner without typing and pulling you away from the action. These commands are not yet included in the options menu and are rather complicated. If you feel gutsy and want to try them out, check out AQ2 Commands.

Bots:
Of course the feature of this nifty game you've downloaded is the AI. There are a few things you can do to control the bots. You can set most of these when you start a game but here are the commands and a little about what they do:

sv addbot	adds a bot. typing sv addbot 1 adds a bot to team 1 and likewise for team 2 in teamplay mode
sv removebot [bot name]	removes a bot. ie. sv removebot madfragz removes the bot named madfragz from the game
sv removebot all	removes all bots from the game
ltk_skill [#]	sets the skill level of the bots. You can set the skill anywhere from 1 to 10.
numbotsteam1 / numbotsteam2	sets the number of bots to be on team 1 or 2
maxclients [#]	the server will add/remove bots to keep the number of players constant. make sure this number is lower than the number of clients your server will accept!

Other:
More AQ2 server/player commands including a more complete list of commands is available in AQ2 Commands.

This should be enough to get you started. Jump on a server or start your own and let the killing begin.

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Credits

A lot of people have helped this project directly and indirectly. All material and ideas used in LTK TBM was used with permission from the responsible party. Thanks to:

id for developing Quake2
A-Team Productions for developing AQ2
Connor "RiEvEr" Caple for developing LTK thus far
Idle for developing Q2Ice
everyone who's working on the AQ retexturing project
and many, many more... please see The Credits for a complete list.

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Contact info and the site

The best way to contact mSparks for giving input or getting help is through the forums on the site. Links are provided below. If you've noticed typos, innacurate info, or would like to see more in this guide, email smurphster.

the Official LTK TBM site
Online Support forums - TBM's forum and bug reports are here
TBM's profile - on ModDB

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Copyright and Permissions

Copyright � 2003. All rights reserved.

This program may not be distributed on any CD-ROM without prior, explicit consent from the author. It may be freely distributed over the internet as long as the entire archive is in-tact.

This game may not be used for any commercial uses without explicit consent.

The source for Quake 2 was released under GPL by id Software and can be obtained from their site http://www.idsoftware.com/.

The source for AQ2 was released by ATeam Productions and can be obtained from action.telefragged.com.

The source for License to Kill (LTK) bots was released by Connor Caple and can be obtained from www.actiongames.co.uk/tnn.

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