[Mr. Zero]

Ghost Tank

About:

You are ½ way through the map. The other team is doing well. Too well, in fact, with a 180 health bonus. This ain't good. Your team is a bunch of solo players. But you, you are the single gifted player on the team. Pro tank, as some would say.

You keep making sure you have the highest score in case a tank spawns. Then, you see it! A tank is approaching! YES! You got it!

But--oh no! What is the AI doing!? No--don't go that way! No don't walk into the fire! What the hell!?

You inherit a tank, on fire, with 2 or 3 survivors unloading auto shotguns into you. All because the AI thought it would be a good idea to rush in.

Great...

This plugin will remove this problem.

Description:

When a tank spawns, this plugin will freeze the tank in place to prevent the AI from being retarded. It will also make the tank a ghost in case the survivors get cocky and rush forward to unload some shells into it before you even get control.

Features:

• Frozen Tank
  AI will no longer be able to charge in and remove ½ of the tank hit points before a player takes control.

• Ghosted Tank
  The tank will be ghosted until the player takes control, preventing survivors from molotoving the AI.

• Fire Immunity
  AI Director keeps being a bitch and spawns your tanks in the fire on DA5?
  Fire immunity will keep tanks free of fire until a player takes over.

• Fire Speed
  "LIGHT AND KITE!"
  That phrase is too common for any players that have just some kind of skill within Left 4 Dead. Fire + Bullets = Slow dead tank.
  But it doesn't have to be. This plugin can increase the tank speed while on fire and announce it to the players.

• Fix Punch
  Normal tanks would incap survivors on the spot. This fix makes them still take the punch and fly back with force before being incapped.
  Credits goes to DrThunder for this fix.

Known Problems / Things to Notice:

Fire speed is DISABLED by default. If enabled I suggest a value of 1.13 (13% increase) as it makes the tank able to catch up to a survivor in red or yellow, but can still be kite'd by a green survivor, while on fire.

To do:

Funcommands; Keep tank ghosted (speed run with an invisible tank hot on your heels? Heh)

Cvars:

A configuration file will be automatically created for you upon first run, in /cfg/sourcemod/ called GhostTank.cfg

// This file was auto-generated by SourceMod (v1.2.3)
// ConVars for plugin "GhostTank v0.96.smx"


// Sets whether the plugin is active or not.
// -
// Default: "1"
l4d_gt_enable "1"

// The amount of time the tank is fire immune (secs), after player takes control. 0 for disable fire immunity.
// -
// Default: "4.0"
l4d_gt_fireimmune "4.0"

// Normal tanks will incap survivors on the spot. This fixes it and makes the Survivors still take a punch and fall back with force, before incapping them. All credits for this fix, goes to DrThunder on AlliedModders.
// -
// Default: "0"
l4d_gt_fixpunch "0"

// The speed factor of the tank once hes on fire. 1.0 = 100% speed (fire speed disabled), 0.75 = 75% speed (lost 25% of normal speed), 1.25 = 125% speed (gain 25% of normal speed).
// -
// Default: "1.0"
l4d_gt_firespeed_factor "1.0"

// The message to show for notifying players about fire speed
// -
// Default: "On this server, once the tank have been set on fire, the tank will GAIN a speed boost. Choose wisely!"
l4d_gt_firespeed_msg "On this server, once the tank have been set on fire, the tank will GAIN a speed boost. Choose wisely!"

// Sets whether the plugin will notify players on the server if the tank will gain speed while on fire. 0 = Disable, 1 = Notify in chat. This have no effect if the tank doesn't change speed while on fire.
// -
// Default: "1"
l4d_gt_firespeed_notify "1"

// Sets whether tanks upon spawn will be set to ghost mode until a player takes over.
// -
// Default: "1"
l4d_gt_ghost "1"

// Ghost Tank Version
// -
// Default: "0.96"
l4d_gt_version "0.96"

Changelog:

Version 0.96
+ Included the "Tank Punch Fix". All credit goes to DrThunder on Allied Modders forums
~ Fixed plugin version in plugin info

Version 0.95
+ Tank speed while on fire can now be adjusted
~ Change all convars from l4d_ghosttank to l4d_gt
~ Merged l4d_ghosttank_fireimmune_time and l4d_ghosttank_fireimmune into l4d_gt_fireimmune
~ Various code change

Version 0.94a
~ Adjusted IsVersus check to OnMapStart instead of RoundStart

Version 0.94
+ Fire immunity added and cvars. l4d_ghosttank_fireimmune & l4d_ghosttank_fireimmune_time
+ Game mode check upon round restart
- Unlimited tank support removed until a more suitable way have been found around a coding problem
~ Various code change

Version 0.93
+ Now supports unlimited tanks
+ Disabled rock throw for the AI tank while waiting for player to take over
- Removed freeze cvar. Freeze is now permanent.

Version 0.92a
~ Added is client connected check

Version 0.92
+ Added idle timer for AI tanks

Version 0.91
+ Cvars added for disable freezing or ghosting the tank
~ Better tank death detection
~ Various code change

Version 0.9
Initial release

v0.9 - 89 views
v0.91 - 129 views
v0.92 - 32 views
v0.92a - 168 views
v0.93 - 36 views
v0.94 - 31 views
v0.94a - 306 views
v0.95 - 75 views

L4D2 support is temporarily moved to this plugin: http://forums.alliedmods.net/showthread.php?t=111997

[bl4nk]

Looks good, approved.

[mi123645]

Oh my...a dream come true. I'm tired of seeing the tank going through fire and I've always wanted to see the tank in ghost form. Thanks Mr. Zero!

[fpsbrian]

woot woot!!!!

[duke24m]

Definitely grabbing this. Leave it up to the community to improve everything.

[AtomicStryker]

Very nice

[Mr. Zero]

NOTICE:

For some reason unknown the second tank on finals some time messes up the director, and instead of that being the second tank it becomes the last tank and the rescue will come.

This have happen twice for me now over around 10 games. I cant see where the problem is nor why it should orrcur as I'm not removing or killing it the tank at any point.

Still 2/10 games is unacceptable for this bug to happen. It sometimes only happen for one team and not for the other.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Until I fix this I will upload a edited version that disable ghost tank on finals with a cvar.

EDIT: See post below

[mi123645]

Originally Posted by Mr. Zero NOTICE: For some reason unknown the second tank on finals some time messes up the director, and instead of that being the second tank it becomes the last tank and the rescue will come. This have happen twice for me now over around 10 games. I cant see where the problem is nor why it should orrcur as I'm not removing or killing it the tank at any point. Still 2/10 games is unacceptable for this bug to happen. It sometimes only happen for one team and not for the other. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Until I fix this I will upload a edited version that disable ghost tank on finals with a cvar.

This happened to me in my last game without the plugin installed. The second tank spawned and all was going well. The tank however lost control twice and the AI took over. Once the AI took over, the rescue vehicle came.

I'm not sure if it's a hardcoded bug, or something with your plugin, but these cases of the rescue vehicle coming early are not unheard of.

EDIT: I just realized it wasn't even the AI, it switched to another person and the rescue vehicle came.

[Mr. Zero]

Alright I hope so. Because it wouldn't make sense anyway if it was my plugin as I "really" never do anything to the tank.
I might just be me running into those l4d bugs all the time :/.

Unless other people report any problems, I wont be bothered with a cvar.

[Visual77]

Very useful plugin. Thanks