Update dump

[UT2004Addict]

Okay all

Since the time on UT 2004 is almost up, I figured I'd dump more of my in-progress works out there. Most of this stuff has been sitting around on one hard drive or another for several months now, but I doubt I'll have the time to finish 'em up.

All are up on my website for download. They include the following:

* New Ghost skin, slightly tweaked behavior

* Bio-Hazard Tanker: my first stab at self-organizing systems with the Bio Hazard Amoebas. Anticipate a lot more of this in UT3.

* Dragon Assault Rifle: Tweaked emitters

* Mortar Launcher

* Vehicle Shield Buffer, with adjustable presets

* Falling Shield Buffer, with adjustable presets

* Telefrag Shield Buffer, with adjustable presets



Not much time to elaborate, just enjoy.



http://www.arclength.net/ut2004

[Xyx]

I needz more documentation!

[UT2004Addict]

Hahahah... okay...

The Amoebas work as follows:

* They prefer meat (players) over vehicles, but will dine on vehicles if there's nothing else to eat.
* Small amoebas have a hard time eating vehicles, while large ones do quite well.
* Each "bite" taken out of a player will make the amoeba grow significantly.
* Each "bite" taken out of a vehicle will give minimal nutrition to an amoeba.
* Amoebas are greatly injured by player shields.
* As time goes on, the amoebas need more and more nutrition to survive, so they eventually die out.
* If there is no food present, the amoebas will consolidate into one giant amoeba to conserve energy.
* If hit, there's a good chance that amoebas will split in half.

The "Sterilization field" (alt-fire) of the BioHazardTanker will do huge damage to enemy amoebas. Ironically, the field also has incredible disruptive abilities on Power Nodes and Power Cores. However, the field is totally harmless to players and vehicles.

[Nemephosis]

Time's almost up? UT2004 isn't going to stop working when UT3 comes out. Hell, people still released stuff for the first UT as of last year, and it was seven years old at that point.

[ghouck]

From what I've seen of the demo, I for one am not too keen on abandoning '04. . . even though I have WAY more than enough computer to run UT3. I think there will be many sticking to '04 for a while, , especially those that don't have high-end systems to run it on. .

[Solace]

Those amoebas are pretty cool... I've got an idea for their behavior, too. Maybe after they reached a certain size they could pop into a number of small ones... then you'd get an expanding population when "food" is plentiful to go with the consolidation when it's scarce. Plus, since all the blobs jump together when they run out of targets, they often reach the top size... which would make them pop, and scatter out, maybe finding new prey.

[UT2004Addict]

Ghouck: Really? I thought UT2k4 would basically vanish when the new one came out. Gives me some hope then for a more gentle transition.

Solace: Thanks for the suggestions. Indeed, spawning children to hunt would make them more powerful, but that can also be a problem. I had to tone these guys WAY down, 'cuz their original organization was brutally efficient (they would kill the **** out of a node or power core respawn point).

I'm more inclined to make "self organizing systems" that are partially under player control, rather than just have a player spawn something that can terrorize an entire map. I mean, if you have 2+ BioHazardTankers spraying amoebas down in an area, it gets REALLY crazy REALLY fast.

I don't wanna give away all my plans yet, but I'll just have to leave it at "you'll see".

[Solace]

Well, having them pop would actually make them weaker... ten bodies means it'll drain ten times faster, right? Really, the only thing that worries me about the amoebas is using them against something like a Levi... they'd die off quickly if given nothing to feed on, but with a large-armor source like a Levi they could be around for quite a while... I'll keep an eye out for what you do. ^^

And while 2004 will be around for a while, I think the bulk of the new things will be developed for UT3 after it comes out.

[UT2004Addict]

Good point with the Levi, and distribution of hunger. Thankfully, I already have some controls built in for that:

* Amoebas have a max health. They cannot exceed it, no matter what they eat. So, the Levi could sustain them for a while, but you'd end up with an "old" amoeba by the time it's done eating, so it would die off kinda fast.

* When amoebas consolidate, the new blob inherits the "hunger" level of the larger amoeba. So, if I have a relatively old amoeba break out children, they would die off really fast. Alternatively, if I reset the age / hunger of the children, then they would re-consolidate into a "younger" / less-hungry parent again. It would be possible to try and balance, but difficult. I can also see some situations where the amoebas could make an almost permanent cycle of renewal, which would be way too strong.


Great observations though. Thanks for sharing!




UT2004Addict

Well, having them pop would actually make them weaker... ten bodies means it'll drain ten times faster, right? Really, the only thing that worries me about the amoebas is using them against something like a Levi... they'd die off quickly if given nothing to feed on, but with a large-armor source like a Levi they could be around for quite a while... I'll keep an eye out for what you do. ^^

And while 2004 will be around for a while, I think the bulk of the new things will be developed for UT3 after it comes out.

[ghouck]

Ghouck: Really? I thought UT2k4 would basically vanish when the new one came out. Gives me some hope then for a more gentle transition.

There are a lot of things that make ME not want to jump on UT3 very quickly. Gotta realize that if you're like me and can't make stuff LOOK extra-good, then it's going to look even worse in UT3 in relation to the background. I always though '04 was kinda set up for acceptable graphics, with no sacrifice in gameplay. Second, they're taking away ONS, so I'm not sure how much fun it will be without it. Also, it is made for much higher polycount models, so, anything less will look bad in comparison, which means modeling takes longer, and laying out the UVs will take MUCH longer. I'm not looking forward to that. The onlt thing I AM looking forward to, is the 'rumor' that making gametypes and such will be easier. I have a gametype I've been thinking about for a while, but never did get anywhere with. Doesn't help that I've never mapped for UT, , that would be a must. . .

[UT2004Addict]

Sounds like the poor mappers and modelers are going to have a hard time.

I hope the coding isn't completely whack from stuff in UT2004, 'cuz I'd love to get right down to business in the new game.

However, they haven't gotten rid of Onslaught. It's called Warfare now, though it looks like the back-end keeps the same name:

http://wiki.unrealadmin.org/FAQ:UT3#...s_.26_Mutators

There are a lot of things that make ME not want to jump on UT3 very quickly. Gotta realize that if you're like me and can't make stuff LOOK extra-good, then it's going to look even worse in UT3 in relation to the background. I always though '04 was kinda set up for acceptable graphics, with no sacrifice in gameplay. Second, they're taking away ONS, so I'm not sure how much fun it will be without it. Also, it is made for much higher polycount models, so, anything less will look bad in comparison, which means modeling takes longer, and laying out the UVs will take MUCH longer. I'm not looking forward to that. The onlt thing I AM looking forward to, is the 'rumor' that making gametypes and such will be easier. I have a gametype I've been thinking about for a while, but never did get anywhere with. Doesn't help that I've never mapped for UT, , that would be a must. . .

[meowcat]

@ghouck: I hear ya there man. I would love to mod for UT3, but my modeling/animating/skinning skills are nowhere near what would be required to make passable content (and like you said never mind the amount of time that will be required to do it). I'll be sticking to UT2k4 for at least the next year or so...

Someone uploaded the UT3 source code the other day over at the BU coding forums. I've been taking a look through it, a lot of stuff looks to be the same as in UT2k4. Its kind of funny how little the bot code has changed (even from the original UT). Everything still looks pretty straightforward.

[UT2004Addict]

WHEW! Great to hear the code hasn't changed too much. Of course, that still leaves some ridiculous bad bot behavior (impossible long range shots, focus all fire on players instead of bots, enemy bots ignore each other...), but at least we're used to it.

@ghouck: I hear ya there man. I would love to mod for UT3, but my modeling/animating/skinning skills are nowhere near what would be required to make passable content (and like you said never mind the amount of time that will be required to do it). I'll be sticking to UT2k4 for at least the next year or so...

Someone uploaded the UT3 source code the other day over at the BU coding forums. I've been taking a look through it, a lot of stuff looks to be the same as in UT2k4. Its kind of funny how little the bot code has changed (even from the original UT). Everything still looks pretty straightforward.

[deadoon]

unreal script is a good coding language it has basicaly stayed that same since u1 though back then needed to force precache alot more stuff

[UT2004Addict]

Again, good to know. Thanks!

unreal script is a good coding language it has basicaly stayed that same since u1 though back then needed to force precache alot more stuff