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Saleucami: Valley, FINAL 1.0 - By Schizo (X-Fire: Nzdjh, Email: [email protected]) and GuitarMan


Well, here it is. My third map for BFII. I wasn't the one who actually started the map. The credit goes to GuitarMan. He basically was the one who got the idea for the map and got it going. But then he had some troubles with his game, so he allowed me to take over the map for him. I've been wanting to do a Saleucami map for a long time now (since BF1), so I really couldn't pass the opportunity down to finally make one. GuitarMan basically started me with what I needed, and I drastically improved on what he had, changing several things, such as the sky, just to give it that Saleucami feel. I laid down tons of different objects, and took the time to make sure every little detail was as perfect as I could get it. I had a lot of fun putting this map together, and I hope you'll have as much fun playing it.

Installation:

Simply double-click the BOS.exe file, select the path to your addon folder, and extract. Then start up BFII, and enjoy.

Backstory:

Gaining the initiative against the CIS forces, the Republic has won a series of stunning victories on planets such as Duro and Balmorra. The CIS is now in full retreat from the Core Worlds, allowing the Republic to finally go back on the offensive and attack the retreating CIS forces. Emboldened by the victories, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine has diverted a significant
portion of the clone forces to lay siege to the Seperatist strongholds in the Outer Rim. Three of these planets; Felucia, Mygeeto, and Saleucami, have become the number one targets of the Republic, due to their extreme importance to the CIS war effort. Knocking out these three planets would render the CIS nearly defenseless, bringing a swift end to the Clone Wars.

Saleucami, a harsh desert world covered in strange plant growth, is home to the vital CIS cloning facilities, which are able to provide the CIS with thousands of Morgukai clones. Hoping to knock these facilities out and deal a crushing defeat to the CIS, the Republic lands countless forces from the 327th Star Corps, the 21st Nova Corps, and most significantly, troops from
the 91st Reconnaissance Corps under the command of Clone Marshall Commander 8826, better known as "Neyo". After laying siege to the main city for months, the Republic has wiped out nearly all CIS resistance, leaving only small pockets scattered across the planet. Moving on to other battlefields, the 327th and 21st have left the planet, leaving it to the 91st under Commander Neyo to mop up any remaining CIS resistance.

One CIS hotspot has proved to be very troublesome to subdue, however. Early in the Clone Wars, the Republic had already tried to gain a foothold on Saleucami several times. They landed forces in several different areas, but were forced to retreat every time, due to lack of supplies and strong CIS defenses. The most distastrous landing occured in a fairly insignificant
valley near the equator. The Republic landed a large force of freshly trained Phase I clone troopers in the valley. They were able to gain a foothold, and it seemed as though the Republic would finally be able to launch an offensive and take back the planet. But the CIS, determined to hold onto the planet at all costs, amassed a huge force and counter-attacked, surrounding the Republic forces and laying siege to the pocket. For over a year, the clone forces on the planet had to endure
a prolonged siege. Several attempts were made to resupply the force, but the CIS defenses proved too strong. Over a year after landing, the force was all but destroyed, with thousands of clones taken prisoner by the CIS.

Now, after the Republic has finally liberated the planet from the CIS, they plan to avenge their fallen comrades, and take back the valley from the CIS. However, a large CIS force has dug their heels into the valley, and has pushed back all attempts by the Republic to capture it. Having had enough of the horrendous casualties taken in the battle for the valley, a
large force from the 91st has been sent to deal with the remaining droid resistance once and for all. Lead by Commander Neyo himself, this battle will prove to be very bloody.


Features:

- Clone Wars Conquest (Shipped Units), 2-Flag CTF (Shipped Units), and Movie-Accuracy mode (labelled as Hero Assault on map
selection screen).

- (Fairly) Movie-Accurate map.

- 91st Reconnaissance Corps skins. for the Republic.

- Aayla Secura Republic hero with customized single-saber combo (Conquest and CTF modes only). Default Force powers.

- Sora Bulq CIS hero with custom skin, dreadlocks, and Force Crush power. Default Luke animations.

- New, awesome-looking BFII-style mini-map (thanks squipple).

- Custom loading screens.

- And more...


Movie Accuracy Tactics:

Since this mode has been made to be as accurate to the movies as possible, the style of gameplay has changed a lot. Here are some tips to help you gain the edge over your opponents, and so you can enjoy the mode without getting too frustrated.

- Republic:

The main goal of the Republic on this mode is simple; attack attack attack. Your main objective should be to gain as many CPs as you can, and try to hold on to them for as long as you can. Eventually, the CIS reinforcements will dwindle. As long as you can keep up the assault, and hold on to the CPs you have captured, then you're sure to win the battle.

One thing I can't stress enough is to use the AT-TE to your advantage. It's in the map for a reason. The AT-TE is meant to be used as a mobile CP, not as an ultimate unbeatable super-weapon. If you try to go all-out and attack the CIS forces head-on with nothing but an AT-TE, you're almost guaranteed to lose. Use the AT-TE to launch tiny assaults on individual CPs. Try to escort the AT-TE to a CP, and use it to spawn friendly forces from to help reinforce your position. Guide the AT-TE next to newly-taken CPs so you can have some friendlies to help you hold on to the base and take the load off your shoulders. The AT-TE does have some pretty serious firepower, but use it sparingly. The AT-TE should be used in a half offensive, half defensive manner. Use it to spawn from to launch an attack on a CP, then use it to help defend that CP so you can assault another one.

Also, use the support and medic classes to your advantage. In the heat of battle, they are a vital asset to any army. If you're a medic and you see one of your friendlies is wounded, then toss him a bacta tank or two. If you're a support unit, and you see one of your guys reloading, then toss him an ammo container so he'll still have plenty of ammo left. The more you help out your friendlies, the more they'll help you out. If you just run in as a medic and use the bacta tanks to heal yourself and just let your team mates die, then you'll just be hurting yourself. The more you heal your buddies, the less they'll die, and the more they'll be able to lay down suppressing fire and help back you up if the going gets rough. Plus, the more friendlies you let die, the more reinforcements you lose, so always keep that in mind.

- CIS:
There really isn't much to say here. The CIS was never really too keen on making its soldiers the ultimate fighting unit with all kinds of cool weapons and gadgets to take on a bunch of enemies at once. Droids are meant to be expendable, and that's just what they are. What the CIS lacks in strength, it makes up for in numbers. Use your numbers to overwhelm your opponents. One little battledroid attacking a group of clones isn't going to do crap, but get yourself a whole army of droids, and then we'll see what happens. Don't go out thinking you're going to get a bunch of kills. Go out thinking that you're just as expendable as the next guy, and your primary goal is to overwhlem the opponent, even if it means getting yourself killed so one of your friendlies can get a CP while you draw fire from a bunch of clones.

Also, you may be thinking, "What the hell, no secondary weapons?". Well, to be frank, the CIS didn't have any. If you're an assault droid, they give you a rocket launcher and send you out. They don't equip you with tons of super high-tech, expensive gadgets to go taking out five tanks at a time. They give you one rocket launcher and a few rockets, and then send out another 50 assault droids with you and completely overwhelm your opponents with your sheer numbers. It's like that with any class. If you don't like it, get used to it. That's realism for ya.

And the droid pilot is meant to pilot vehicles, not go out and fight elite clone soldiers. That's why he's got a fusion cutter; he's a pilot, not a soldier. His job is to pilot the vehicles. And if you can learn to use the vehicles effectively, then you'd do a lot more damage than you would if you were just out there with a blaster or something.

- Both Teams:

Okay, here's my biggest advice for both teams; don't go all Rambo and charge headlong into the enemy. I know you can do that in normal BFII and survive, but lemme tell ya, on this map, you wouldn't last 10 seconds doing that. Charging into the enemy base isn't going to work. You've got to learn to take it in strides. Choose a position, stay in it, lay down supressing fire, and when the enemy starts to weaken, then move up a little bit, take up position again, and repeat the process. I know it's time-consuming, but if you were on a battlefield with bullets flying past your head, would you just stand up straight and run out into the thick of it? I don't think so.

Use cover to your advantage. I can't stress this enough. Cover is important on this map. I realize there are places where there's very little cover. You know what you do then? Get outta there, dipwad. Don't just stand out in the open; you're just asking to get shot. Find cover, and use it. If you can use cover, and then use the strategy I explained above (lay down supressing fire, move up a little bit at a time), then you're bound to make a lot more progress then if you just charged headlong into the middle of the battlefield.

Use teamwork. Bots are dumb, yes, but they can be used very effectively if you know how. Use the "follow me" command often. If you're going to assault an enemy CP, ALWAYS have some backup. Doesn't matter if it's just some dude with a fusion cutter; if that's the case, use him as a decoy for the other bots to shoot at. Don't lone-wolf it all the time like you do in regular BFII. Always stay close to your team. If you're going alone, then you just make an easier target.

And the most important of all; have fun. Don't let it get the best of you. If you're constantly dying and getting real frustrated, then try a different approach. Mix up your tactics. The tactics I've listed are by no means the only ones you should use, but it's a start. As you start to play the map and start to get a feel for how you should play it, then you should be able to develop your own tactics to suit your needs and gain the edge.



Things Changed from Beta Release 0.75:

- Clone Wars Conquest mode is now regular conquest with shipped units. Movie-Accurate conquest mode has been moved to the Assault mode tab (would've made my own custom game mode, but doing so would require replacing the shell.lvl). Added a 2-Flag CTF mode as well.

- Two new heroes. Aayla Secura now has a single saber, like she should. I mixed and matched attacks from Luke, Obi, Mace, and Maul, so they're definitely different from all the other character's combos. It actually works quite well. The CIS has a new hero as well; Sora Bulq, the Weequay Dark Jedi. Since I gave Aayla custom animations but no custom Force Powers, I figured I'd give Sora a custom Force Power and Luke's combo. Why Luke's combo? Because I was feeling lazy and didn't feel like making a new one/getting one from the assets. So that's what you get. His new Force power, however, should be good enough to kind of balance it out. Force Crush is usually a one-hit kill move, though sometimes the victim may survive just barely. I was going to get a custom animation and sound for it, but I couldn't get it to work the way I wanted. But it's better than nothing. Note that using Crush will also completely drain the energy bar (for balancing reasons), so use it sparingly.

- Brand new mini-map custom-made by squipple in that BFII-style we all know and love.

- Tweaked some minor stuff.


Known Bugs:

- Sometimes bots will get stuck. I've tried to get them to avoid places they get stuck in (like in the middle of the downed AT-TE legs), but they still defy me. There's nothing you can really do; bots are just dumb that way. But overall they can find their way around pretty well.

- The mini-map doesn't line up correctly on 2-Flag CTF mode for some reason. There's nothing you can really do to fix it. It lines up perfectly on conquest, so changing it to line up with CTF would just cause it to disalign on conquest. So you'll just have to live with it. You don't really need the mini-map on CTF as much as you do on conquest anyway.

- When playing as Aayla, if you move forward and attack, then the third attack in the comob (the spin attack) will cause her spine to completely spin around, with her legs not moving an inch. I tried to fix it but I couldn't. It's not that noticeable in the heat of battle anyway.

- There might be some misplaced objects, missing sounds, unlocalized whatevers, etc., though I'm pretty sure I nailed all of them. If you come across any though... just ignore it. I'm not going to release any further versions just because of a small floating box or a barely noticeable missing sound.


Credits and Thanks:

- GuitarMan probably deserves the most thanks, since it was his map to begin with. He basically started the whole thing, I simply touched it up and finished the job.

- MajinRevan for making all the units, vehicles, etc. all movie-accurate and working for the Movie-Accuracy mode. New sounds and all. Give the guy a round of applause, eh?


- Lord-Bandu for his awesome Saleucami assets. Without them, this map just wouldn't feel like Saleucami.

- OOM-9 for his DC-15s Carbine model.

- Squipple for the awesome mini-map. Thanks man.

- Teancum for helping me get 2-Flag CTF working correctly, and also helping me get the wookiee dreads to work on Sora Bulq.

- GuitarMan, Wazmol69, and SBF_Dann_Boeing for their work on some custom weapons. Though the weapons didn't exactly make it to the final cut of the map, they still deserve thanks.

- Cloneknight and Darth_Maul for REALLY early beta testing for Guitarman. Epena, Majin, and Linus for the early beta testing for me. And also the folks at GT for testing out the public beta.

- Everyone at GT for their support.


And that's about it. Enjoy the map.