Playing Jailbreak

Installing the mod

Requirements

You need:

You do not need any Epic bonus packs to run Jailbreak.

Installation

If you have downloaded the UMOD version, simply double-click it to run it with the UT2004 installer and follow the instructions on the screen. If this does not work, then your UT2004 installation has been corrupted. We recommend you reinstall your game to repair file associations, though if you open a command line in your UT2004\System directory, the following command should install it:

 Setup.exe install {name of Jailbreak UMOD file}

If you have the ZIP version, open it with an archiving program such as WinZip, and simply extract all files to your base UT2004 directory. The files should be copied to the correct subdirectories.

Uninstallation

With the UMOD version, run UT2004's setup application to uninstall the UMOD.

For the ZIP version, you'll need to find and delete the files by hand: most of them begin with the prefix "JB".

Starting the mod

You start a game of Jailbreak the same way you'd start any other game of UT2004:

Select the Jailbreak gametype

  1. Launch UT2004
  2. Select "instant action" for a botmatch
  3. Pick the gametype in the gametype selection tab. Jailbreak blends seamlessly into the interface, so you select Jailbreak the same way you'd select CTF or Double Domination.
  4. Just like any other game, you can now choose the map, the number of bots, and set the rules of the game. The Jailbreak Game Options are covered in detail below.
  5. You can also choose mutators: most mutators should work fine with Jailbreak
  6. There's one extra though: Jailbreak Add-ons. You'll find these in an extra interface tab that appears when Jailbreak is selected as the gametype. You can think of these as mutators that are specific to Jailbreak. These are covered in detail below.
  7. When everything is set, press Play.
  8. Have fun!

Jailbreak Game Options

On the Game Rules page, you will find the following settings specific to Jailbreak:

  1. Capture limit: Set the number of times a team must be captured to end the game.
  2. Allow Jail Fights: When enabled, allows players that are bored in jail to kill each other in jail with the shield gun (at no penalty to their score). See the section on Jail Fights below for more details.
  3. Include Translocator: This is the same option as with other gametypes, but it deserves a particular note here. Most experienced Jailbreak players agree that the translocator does not do much for Jailbreak gameplay. Like in other gametypes, bases fall wide open when attackers have the translocator. Whereas in Capture the Flag, players returning to base carrying the flag may not use the translocator, in Jailbreak, because there is no "return phase" to an attack, the advantage is tilted too far away from defence: it becomes very hard to score a capture. We've included this option because some people do want it, but we strongly recommend you do not enable it.

Jailbreak Add-ons

The Add-ons tab

Add-ons are extra components that plug into Jailbreak. They add extra features or game rules. Several add-ons are installed with the Jailbreak base package; and in future others may be released by the Jailbreak team or by other coders. You'll find them under the Add-ons tab. This displays a tabbed interface, with one tab for each add-on. Each tab has a check mark so you can see at a glance which add-ons you are using in your game. Select an add-on's tab to see its description and configuration panel.

The bundled add-ons and their settings are as follows.

Arena Avenger Add-On

Arena winners are given a power-up, so they can wreak vengeance upon their release. The amount of time awarded depends on the amount of time remaining on the arena clock when the fight is won. You can scale this time, and also set a maximum amount.

Avenger Time Multiplier
The percentage of remaining arena time that is given to the winner as berserker. (default:50%; min:1%; max:200%)
Max Avenger Time
Set a limit to the amount of time awarded. (default:30s; min:10s; max:60s)

Celebration Screen Add-On

This is an old favourite from UT Jailbreak. It enables wide-screen mode during the execution sequence, and allows the player who locked down the last player of the captured team to celebrate on everyone's screen. If the team was jailed as the result of a suicide, that player is displayed for public humiliation!

Llama Hunt Add-On

If you have played UT Jailbreak this will be familiar. Llama hunt is a cheat protection feature for online play. A player is transformed into a llama if he disconnects from the server while in jail and reconnects shortly after to spawn out of jail: this is considered to be unsporting in Jailbreak play. You can additionally have players made into llamas if they fire upon a player who is just leaving the jail and has Release Protection: see the Release Protection Add-On below for this.

You'll be notified if a player is made into a llama by the announcement that the llama hunt has begun! Killing the llama awards a bonus, which you can choose in the "Rewards for killing a Llama" section of the settings panel:

Adrenaline
How much Adrenaline to award the llama killer. (0-100)
Health
Top up the llama killer's health by this much. (0-199)
Shield
Give the llama killer this much extra shielding. (0-150)
Llama Hunt Duration
The Llama is killed automatically after this time has elapsed if it has not been tracked down already. (10-120 seconds)
Llamaize players who disconnect in jail
This determins, whether players who disconnect while jailed should be made llamas when they reconnect. If you disable this option, the llama hunt add-on will only make sure that llamas who disconnect are made llamas again when they reconnect.

Release Protection Add-On

Players released from jail are protected from enemy fire for a short period of time. This gives them time to pick up some weapons and begin heading back to base, and also makes jail camping pointless.

Protection Time
How long protection lasts. (default:3; min:1; max:10)
Protection Type
Just as the intention of release protection is to prevent unsporting play, it would seem daft to allow protected players to fight while invulnerable! There are two options for how to deal with this: either you can't inflict any damage while you are protected, or your protection is removed when you fire to inflict damage on an enemy player. Choose which option you want here.
Protect the arena winner
Check this box to enable protection for the arena winner also. Note that there isn't much point using this together with the Berserker Add-on. (default:True)
Make jail campers llamas
Even though released players are protected, getting shot is still unpleasant. There's no point to it, but just as an extra disincentive, this option punishes a player who unsportingly shoots a protected player and delivers enough damage that would kill them. You don't need to have the Llama Hunt Add-on enabled for this to work, though the time and reward settings will be taken from that Add-on's settings.

Teleport Add-On

A player who reaches a release switch and releases his team is instantly teleported back to his base.

In-game user interface

The in-game interface has three different views:

Game HUD

The Jailbreak HUD

In the top left, {{ below the clock,}} you'll see the Tactics Display. This displays the current stance of your friendly bots. The available tactics are Evasive, Defensive, Normal, Aggressive, and Suicidal. Using these could be vital to your success, or may be your downfall. See the section Bot Tactics below for more on this.

The team score and release compass

In the top center of the screen, you will see:

Scoreboard

The Jailbreak Scoreboard

The Jailbreak scoreboard has a wealth of fantastic features. In the top left you can see the Map Name and End-Game Criteria, in the top right you can see the Jailbreak Clock, in the bottom left and bottom right you can see the Player Names, their Location, their Stance, their Scores, their Score Breakdown Graph, their exact Score Breakdown, and their Ping & Playing Time (multiplayer only). And in the center there is a Panoramic Map with arrows pointing out your team's player location.

Lets go through that again.

Arena HUD

The Arena HUD is relatively simple: when you're fighting for your life in a one-on-one combat, you only really need the absolute basics. It should be fairly self-evident, but see the section "Arena Combat" below for the details.

Special key-binds

There are a number of special commands for Jailbreak that are available at the keyboard. If a default keys for a command is not available, because you've set it to perform something else in your UT2004 configuration, then Jailbreak will assign another key to it. You will be notified of this at the start of the game, and reminded to personalize the setting later. The commands and their default keys are:

Team tactics up
makes bots more aggressive in play. See "Bot Tactics" below. Default: Grey Plus.
Team tactics down
makes bots more cautious in play. See "Bot Tactics" below. Default: Grey Minus.
Team tactics auto
reset bot tactics to automatic detection mode. See "Bot Tactics" below. Default: Grey Slash.
ArenaCam
change your view to the Arena camera. Default: Grey Star.

Special in-game functionality

There are a number of in-game features that are unique to the Jailbreak gametype.

Jail

Obviously, jail is a key component of Jailbreak! Most maps will have more than one jail, and most maps will also segregate players, so there will be red jails for red players, and blue jails for blue players. There may be one for each team, or there may be more, this depends on the map.

When you are killed, you spawn inside a jail and wait for release. Waiting around might sound dull, but there is plenty to do in jail, depending on the map you are playing: you can watch the action through cameras, track player locations on screen maps, request combat in the arena (see Arena below), or even snipe at passing players if there are openings into the main playing area. And you can always spar with other prisoners with your shield guns, whatever the map (see Jail Fights below).

When you are released, you will be notified. It's up to the mapper to clearly indicate to you the exit, which will usually be a door of some sort, but if you need a hint, follow the bots! Leave the jail as quickly as you can – the doors do not stay open for long!

If the doors shut and you have not managed to exit the jail, then you be counted as jailed again. If you walk into the jail from the outside while the doors are open and become trapped there when the doors shut, then the game will count you as being a prisoner, and you will have to stay there until you are released. If you walk into a jail that is only used by the enemy team, you will have to wait until the enemy releases their prisoners for the doors to open... or you can always kill yourself and respawn in your own team's jail. Pay more attention to where you go in future!

Bot Tactics

Whether you're playing a botmatch on your own, or a network game with some bots to make up numbers, getting adequate support from the computer-controlled players is vital to your success. The bots on your team will try to pick up what you are trying to do, and automatically adjust to help.

But you can also give them direct orders, both with the UT2004 voice menu (eg "defend the base!"), and with Jailbreak's bot tactics setting. There are five different strategies you can instruct the bots to adopt:

The bot tactics displayed on the HUD

The team strategy can be left to be decided by the bots automatically, depending on your team and the enemy team's situation (eg score, how many prisoners captured, etc). If this is the case, "auto" will be displayed just below the bot's chosen tactic. However, if you feel you can control the bots better than they can, by pressing your Increase Bot Agression or Decrease Bot Aggression key-binds, you will change the stance and turn off the automatic strategy selection. If you haven't customized them already, Jailbreak will temporarily bind them to unused keys and inform you of this when you start a game.

Release Switch

The release switch is the heart of your base. Like the flag in Capture the Flag or the control point in Double Domination, it's the thing you must attack and defend.

The standard Release Switch

Some maps may have more than one switch per team. Look at the release compass in the top of the HUD: it has one dot per switch. What it doesn't tell you though, is what each release switch controls: for that, you'll have to familiarize yourself with the map in question. Two switches might both control the same, single jail, in which case, you can attack whichever you are nearest to. Or the two switches might be independent, and each control separate jails, and you will have to reach both to release all of your team. How do you decide which to attack first? Again, watch the compass. The speed at which each dot pulsates tells you how important it is to you.

The standard release switch looks like a holographic padlock. Just run up to it, touch it, and your team is free! The padlock swings open, and you will be notified by an on-screen message and the Jailbreak announcer. Most of the maps bundled in the Jailbreak release use the standard release switch, but some may use different visuals for the switch you must touch. Future maps might even use something completely different, such as a switch you must shoot, for example: that's left up to the mapper.

Release

Players with release protection

If the Release Protection Add-On is active, every time you are released you're granted a period of time where you cannot be damaged by other players. This is called Release Protection, and gives you a chance to get away from the jail, grab a gun, and get back to fighting. Players who are protected have a visible effect around them; if you have protection you will be notified on your game HUD by a small bar in the same place as the Double Damage bar, the bottom left, but in your team colour. This informs you of how much release protection time you have remaining. It will be removed if you pick up a Double Damage powerup though and you will no longer have release protection. (You've got Double Damage, what more do you need!). You may also get release protection if you just won in the arena. The options for Release Protection can be set in the Add-ons tab.

Jail Fights

There will be a time during your Jailbreaking when you have a lengthy jail sentence. Maybe a teammate wasn't covering you; maybe you were a little bit too keen to jump into the action; maybe you killed yourself; whatever you did, you will probably have some rage building up inside you. But, since you're in jail you can't take it out on the enemy... but you can take it out on your fellow inmates. This is called Jail Fighting. There is one solid rule associated with Jail Fights though: Only shield guns are allowed to be used. You can only injure and kill another player with your shield gun, and they must have their shield gun out too. This is so that you can't start a fight with whoever you want, since they may not want to fight. You can do this against bots and human players; as long as they have their shield gun out, they're vulnerable to yours. If you are released during a Jail Fight where you have taken damage, your health will be restored to 100.

Arena Combat

Combat in the arena

The arena gives jailed players an opportunity to win their freedom in a one-on-one contest against another jailed player from the enemy team. The winner is returned to his base; the loser goes right back to jail. It can happen that an arena contest can score a capture, if the rest of the team are already in jail – it can even happen that this decides the entire match! The arena contest is usually in the form of a simple, quick, and dirty fight to the death, and usually takes place in a special area of the map, though some maps may implement other methods.

Different maps may have different methods of starting an arena fight: there might be a special way to request a fight, but in the most usual case, the fights begin at random intervals. If you are chosen, you will get a message on your HUD "prepare for arena battle" and a 5 second countdown during which to prepare yourself. Players can switch their view to spectate the match on the ArenaCam. You can set which key switches to the ArenaCam in your UT2004 key bindings.

Keep an eye on the clock

Arena contests have a time limit. In the event of a draw, both combatants go right back to jail. The Arena HUD shows the countdown clock and the health of both players.

You will not be able to perform adrenaline combo moves during an arena fight, but winner will be awarded a small adrenaline bonus. Several Add-ons affect the arena: when you win the fight, you may receive protection on return to the main game (Release Protection), and you may also be given a power-up as a reward (Arena Avenger). If you are given protection, you will see the same effect as when you are protected on release from jail: a visual effect around you, and a remaining time bar on the HUD. If you are made Avenger, your Adrenaline count on the HUD will temporarily change to show how many seconds remain of the power-up.

Capture

Enjoy the sweet taste of victory!

When all of the enemy players in jail, your team scores a point, and the enemy are brutally executed. If you have the Celebration Screen Add-on enabled, the player who captures the last of the enemy is displayed in front of the execution view. Use your taunt or movement keys to humiliate the enemy as they suffer!

Llama Hunt

Unfortunately, due to the nature of the Jailbreak game, there is a chance that some people will cheat. No one likes cheaters, and neither do the Jailbreak coders. This beautiful add-on will prevent people cheating. How do they cheat though?

Now, I bet you're wondering what the hell "llamas" are. The word "llama" is derived from the leet speak for "lamer". A llama is a lame player who tries to cheat, and a cheater is not wanted.

However, the Jailbreak coders aren't so harsh that they will ban the player from the game. Instead, they turn it into a bit of a laugh. When the cheating player respawns, the llama hunt is initiated, and you will hear an announcement informing you of this. Llamas are easy to spot: their character head is replaced with that of a llama, and just in case that wasn't enough, you'll see a big red arrow above them, pointing them out to everybody. You will earn a nice reward if you kill this player, depending on the options set in the Llama Hunt Add-on options. Needless to say, once this player is killed, they go where they belong: jail! If the llama isn't killed by a player after the llama hunt time limit hits, the llama dies either through a laser beam fired by an ion cannon, by being struck by lightning or simply by exploding.

If you are made into a llama yourself, have no doubt, you will be made aware of it!

Escape routes and human ladders

Some Jailbreak maps may offer an alternative means of getting to freedom: the escape route. If there is one of these in a map, it means you don't have to wait around for a teammate to release you, or take your chance in the arena: you can break out of jail yourself!

That's not to say that escaping will be easy. Some mappers like to play devilish tricks with escapees. Frankly, the things that could happen to you while you try to escape could be worse than the execution! You might also need help from your friends in jail, because sometimes the secret door out of jail is too high for you to reach. This is where the human ladder feature of Jailbreak comes in.

To build a human ladder, ask a teammate to crouch down, then jump onto him. Now crouch down yourself. A third player can now jump on your head. If a double-jump isn't high enough to get onto the top-most player's head, players can also climb the human ladder like stairs if the other players move a little to the side so there's room for two people on a player's head. Ladders of ludicrous heights were a frequent feature of PlanetJailbreak.com's Pic of the Week in the days of UT Jailbreak, and we expect the same to be true of Jailbreak 2004!

Client-side options

There are some Jailbreak options that only affect the way you experience the game: these are the client-side options. In a network game, they have no effect on other players.

To open the Client-side options dialog, Go to Settings → HUD. Choose Jailbreak and click Configure.

The options are as follows.

Voicepack selection

Jailbreak comes with several announcer voices, and we hope more will be released in future. Select which voice you want here: the classic UnrealGrrl, or newcomer HyperFreak, or even the Llama.

Dynamic textures

Not all systems correctly render the dynamic textures used for screen maps in jail. Usually, this just means you don't see the texture, but we've had reports that on some systems it greatly affects framerates. If you find your framerate plummets when in sight of a jail screen, then disable this option.

Bugs

We all hate that word. Jailbreak 2004 has undergone extensive beta testing while in internal development, and because of this, we believe the software you have is as free of bugs as we could make it. But realistically, bugs creep through the net with any kind of software. If you find Jailbreak is not behaving as you expect it to, please report it on PlanetJailbreak Forums.