=== FIREBLADE - BETA 001 ===

Design, Model, Coding, Testing: Mark "Wicked Penguin" Rossmore
Release Date: Sep. 27, 2004
For: UT2004 / UT2004 Editor's Choice

=== DESCRIPTION ===

The FireBlade is a ground attack machine, filling the role of modern day vehicles like the Apache helicopter and Mi-28 Havoc. It's purpose is to search and destroy enemy ground forces with extreme prejudice. 

It carries a two man crew: a pilot and a gunner. The pilot's primary weapons are two side mounted armor piercing cannons. For an alt-fire, he has an extremely powerful cluster bomb that can heavily damage an enemy node with a single hit. However, the pilot's accuracy needs to be dead-on, since the bomb has a very short fall distance and is unguided. The gunner's role is defense against other airborne craft as well as light units such as infantry. For this task, he is armed with a shock turret with built-in zoom. 

The FireBlade is a heavy and armored craft, and not as maneuverable as the Raptor. However, she is fast and she can lay down some extremely dense firepower on a target.

=== INSTALLATIONS AND USAGE ===

1) Unzip to your UT2004/ directory and everything will go where it needs to. Or you can automatically drag and drop the files to their respective directories.
2) Open UT2004 and go to Instant Action, then select the Onslaught gametype.
3) Choose the FireBlade mutator in the mutator list. This will replace the Goliath with the FireBlade.
4) Kick some "other team" a**.

Note: Alternately, you can use a mutator like Car Launcher to spawn the FireBlade whenever you need one:
http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=368256

=== FEATURES ===

- Rotating engines
- Speedbrakes which open and close 
- Landing gear which raise/lower depending on flight status

=== WEAPONS ===

PILOT:
- Primary: Twin heavy cannon, with low rate of fire but heavy damage
- Alt-Fire: A heavy cluster bomb which can heavily damage even a fully powered node. However, the bomb requires good precision and timing, and renders
GUNNER:
- Primary: Shock beam cannon for anti-air defense and for chewing up lighter ground targets
- Alt-Fire: Zoom

=== KNOWN ISSUES ===

- No "dead mesh" yet
- No collision mesh yet
- Needs actual mesh for the bomb
- Bomb dropping timing needs tweaking (would like to add a charge bar)
- Limited mutator. Would like to have a "Replace any vehicle with the FireBlade" mut soon.
- Need to fix "streamer" positions

=== SUPPORT ===

I'm always really busy, but I try to support my releases as much as possible, If you've got any questions or suggestions, please feel free to shoot me an e-mail at: 

mark@wickedpenguin.com (MAKE SURE YOU PUT FIREBLADE IN THE SUBJECT)