How can Epic save UT3?

[DGUnreal]

So even though i know Epic's track record, there is still that nagging doubt in the back of my mind..

That is what I've been saying, that Epic is the best in the business for game and community support. But I'll admit that I did have moments of doubt considering that things have been done differently with UT3 ...

I don't want to speak out of line as I am not a representative of Epic, so this is my opinion only...

It is true that a large percentage of the game industry is moving/has moved onto the consoles, and the net result of this is that the PC is/has become a "second class citizen" in some ways due to this (such as game sales), and many developers have moved over to producing console-only games (companies must make money).

However, the big difference between Epic and most other game developers is that Epic is a massive middleware company, licensing their engine(s) out to an ever-growing large number of studios, developers, publishers, etc., and developing an engine that is highly cross-platform.

The reason that this fact is so important to us PC users is that you can't use the consoles themselves to develop the game -- you still need a PC. So the engine and editor must be developed by Epic to be PC-based, so that Epic and the Licensees have the tools to create their games. This fact alone should ensure that we see games built with their engine available now and in the future on the PC. Since the development tools are on the PC, the fixes and features will be developed on the PC.
Plus if it were not for their popularity as a middleware company and the fact that the engine and editor are PC-based, the community wouldn't have enjoyed the extended ability to create custom content (maps, mod's, tc's). Very few games give the gamer the ability to work with the engine like Epic provides us.
Epic and the UT franchise are probably responsible for more employees in the video game industry than any other single entity, I'm sure if you ask most artists or level designers where they started, they will tell you creating community maps for UT.

As a middleware company, making UE3 a multi-platform solution (PC, PS3, XB360, Linux and Mac) is a major undertaking for anyone, and there are bound to be a few bumps along the road until the engine becomes fully mature. We all just need to sit tight and wait for Epic to release the next updates.

Care to share some of those upcoming engine features?

Oh and you also just answered what UT3 really needs, "Community Bonus Pack 1"!

Sorry, can't, wish I could, that is Epic's IP and rights. I'm in the Licensee areas since I do game studio work, so I see some of what is going on behind the scenes. Awesome stuff.

UE3 is more powerful and more complicated than UE2.5, and Epic has really raised the bar on the level of detail in maps, so it will take a while before we see any significant community map packs. The online tutorials have been slowly showing up on various sites, and there are more maps being created daily by community mappers. I would also expect to see the usual patches and bonus packs from Epic a few times per year for the next few years. IIRC they released close to twenty new maps for UT2004 in the bonus packs for that title.

[sltdestini]

The biggest problem is that a lot of deaths are 1 hit kills which is incredably frustrating and gets rather tiresome. If you don't believe me ask around, new guys are not going to give the game more than a few chances to get used to it.

Biggest way to save UT3?

Cross platform.

[MrCobra]

I think is what happened to this game is that on its way to PC land it got detoured through console land. That may or may not be a bad thing depending on who you ask, but by being consolified it did lose that special attention that Epic gave it.

I never expect games/software to be bug free. That's impossible. But I really hate paying for incomplete games/software and being duped in to buying a BETA release. An early BETA at that.

Here's to hoping that they fix what should have been working to begin with.

[Jocked]

The biggest problem is that a lot of deaths are 1 hit kills which is incredably frustrating and gets rather tiresome. If you don't believe me ask around, new guys are not going to give the game more than a few chances to get used to it.

Bah, UT1 had lots of one hit death, that never stopped it from being popular, in most of the boring military shooters everyone's playing nowadays you're dead in half a second if an enemy sees you up close. I can't imaginge someone playing a UT game and be annoyed with getting killed a lot.

[Dannydeman]

Simple: look at UT2k4 and everything that was good in that one, copy it to UT3. Begin with the serverbrowser, give the instagib a faster firemode, fix all the hanging bugs and on and on and on...

[sltdestini]

Bah, UT1 had lots of one hit death, that never stopped it from being popular, in most of the boring military shooters everyone's playing nowadays you're dead in half a second if an enemy sees you up close. I can't imaginge someone playing a UT game and be annoyed with getting killed a lot.

Those are much, much slower, so "assasination" would make sense. Being killed a lot was also a different thing from what was stated.

Games have also moved on from the days of UT99, if that was released now with updated graphics, it wouldn't be anywhere near as popular as it was back in the day.

UT99 also didn't have vehicles with 1 hit kills.

[PacVeli]

Not save but...a map pack with ut2004 popular maps would be good, a new demo (bugs fixed and more gametypes, CTF for example) and fix that problem with the names and clan tags, the people want to see their clan tags with unique characters (not just "[]")

Why the **** didn't they include Last Man Standing or Mutant? Those are small bull**** mods that don't require extra maps or anything. Someone please explain to me why they didn't include those

[HellsPuppet]

It's a little late to worry about what was wrong with the demo or the release strategy, etc. The question is how do we save UT3?

1. Get your friends to play. Buy them a copy for Christmas or tell them to add it to their Christmas list.
2. When you are on other message boards you can't bad mouth the game. Hype it up.

Midway could help a lot too by doing some dam advertising.

The thing is, this is still the best multi-player FPS out there. And it will only continue to improve with patch, bonus packs and user mods maps. So let everyone know.

[Ultron]

Epic will patch this game like they did all previous Unreal titles. They'll also add bonus packs and additional content. They'll still support the 3rd party community through UnrealEd and most likely we'll see another Make Something Unreal contest down the line.

[Grobut]

2. When you are on other message boards you can't bad mouth the game. Hype it up.

That's the worst thing you can possibly do, you are setting people up for dissapointment, and beeing dissapointed with a game never made anyone want to play it, it makes them want to hate it.

You can start hyping it up when it has seen a solid patch, but doing it any sooner is doing this game and its community a great disservice.

[Maximum_Jason]

This game can be "saved" very easily by adding all the missing features back into the game. But above all else, a classic style server browser would help the online community greatly.

[dfacto]

After initially being disappointed with the PC release, patch 1.1 and logging some play time have convinced me that UT3 PC is indeed a diamond in the rough. The game definitely has the foundation to be great.

Oh yeah, the game is the best UT yet, it's just hard to tell at first.

So what can Epic do to turn this thing around?

1) Don't EVER release beta as if it were full release. Wait if you have to. Look at Valve: everything they touch turns to gold, even if it's theoretically mediocre, like HL and it's extreme linearity. Doesn't matter, when you polish polish polish you can make even a **** play like a Game of the Year. UT3 definitely lacks that polish, most noticeable in the horrific console menu, but extending down to gameplay imbalances and crazy decisions like making the hellbender handle like a rubber band.

2) Stop beating a dead horse. Yeah, it's UT, we got it, we played it, we want something new. Make a UT game, but change **** up, and change it BIG, then polish until it shines as a fresh UT title, rather than a tweaked UT99 with shiny new graphics. Sounds like heresy, but as long as it's fast and technical the fans will forgive after they log on and have a blast. TF2 is solid gold proof that you don't need to make carbon copies in order to succeed.

3) Personally, I think stressing the tournament section would be a good next step. Lets see some crowds, some cheering, some more elaborate announcing, some glitz and glamour, and really pump the game with the feel that you're in a tournament. It always just felt like a random shooter game with "Tournament" slapped on for kicks. Really have the game pull you in with atmosphere and make your kills seem a bit more meaningful.

4) Better anti-cheat protection. x22.death.somethingsomething and a few other guys regularly ruin DM with aimbotting, trashing even good players and getting crazy scores. And even openly admitting to cheating and laughing about it. Yeah, real funny douchebag, you can shoot us with hacks, congratulations you're awesome!


But mainly I think releasing it as a polished final version instead of as an end stage beta would be a big step forwards.

[cel4145]

This game can be "saved" very easily by adding all the missing features back into the game. But above all else, a classic style server browser would help the online community greatly.

Not gonna happen unless it's a community mod. The classic server browser would not be very console friendly. If they fork the code base to create a different browser for the PC, it's an opportunity cost issue which is less practical and less efficient. Two different interfaces will introduce additional possibilities of instability, require additional bug tracking, and increase coding time in terms of making changes and improvements that need to be implemented for both.

The better approach, then, is to refine the one interface that works for PC and console together so that it provides the range of features of the classic server browser and improve menu navigation so that it is closer to the usability of the classic browser.

[DGUnreal]

That's the worst thing you can possibly do, you are setting people up for dissapointment, and beeing dissapointed with a game never made anyone want to play it, it makes them want to hate it.

You can start hyping it up when it has seen a solid patch, but doing it any sooner is doing this game and its community a great disservice.

I disagree.

I have a friend (his nic for UT3 should be something with JED in it, I don't play online much) who I showed UT3 as soon as I bought it, which was right after it was released in my country. He is really into BF2142 and ET:QW and plays them a lot.
He likes UT3 VCTF/WAR modes so much that he has stopped playing BF and ET. His system is also a low-end P4-2.4 with X1650Pro.
So to say that it is the game, or the system requirements are too high, etc. etc., is totally false.
The issue is that the people who liked UT2004 don't like UT3 for silly whiney reasons only and are bad-mouthing the game as much as they can all over the place. No doubt they are also telling as many people as they can that they don't like it, just to be stupid, which in the long run may hurt the community as a whole. And the bad-mouthing may also scare off lurkers who come and check the forums out prior to buying.

If UT3 takes a hit in sales or popularity it isn't Epic's or Midway's or UT'3 fault, it is the bad-mouthing whiners who are slamming the game to everyone they can, simply because they don't like this or that, and they can't get it into their thick heads that UT3 is not a UT2004 upgrade. UT3 is still the best current next-gen DM style game out there. It's a new game with its own strengths, play it as a new game.

[EffeKt]

Just for confirmation...didn't this game go gold for pc? If so whats all this "saving" for?