Developer Journal

UO Noob Joined: 20 Sep 2004 Posts: 17

Don't worry about the lack of progress. RL always comes first, as much as I like to think otherwise...

If I had any sort of modding talent I'd offer to assist, but I've never even opened the 2kx editor. Been quite a while since I've done any editing for UT, but even that was merely some crappy mapping (some of which I am proud of).

UO Noob Joined: 20 Sep 2004 Posts: 43 Location: Chicago

Ok, here's whats new:

Designing a new UETF Data link-the current one is so obsolete and ugly, it's not even funny. We're in the process of designing a new sub-site for data now.

On this topic, we'd love to get manuals and tutorials. To all you UETF vets-we need your war experience to get the new recruits ready for battle. Since we lost our old forums, we no longer have any of the exellent manuals you posted up, so we would REALLY appreciate any manual/gameplay tips you could send in for the new data page.

Again, while we're on this topic-with the loss of the old forums, I've also lost a lot of my contact data with the big UETF fans. We're going to be needing to put together a Beta testing core, so if you're interested, or know people who are interested, plz send me contact info! (I know I asked this before, but sometimes I lose things. kinda like forgetting to include the .u file in Beta 4.0 Wink

)

UO Noob Joined: 20 Sep 2004 Posts: 17

I'm definitely up for beta testing. However, I am on a satellite connection, so I wouldn't be able to participate in multiplayer...

I sent you an email when you asked for them a month or three ago. You might not have it anymore though, so just let me know if you need it again.

And I actually saved most of the threads from the old forums before they were lost, so I have a lot of the old info still. I'll need to sort through them and such to get info together, so I can probably have that at some point (not sure when) but I have it. If you need something specific from the old forums I can check if I have that thread and get it to you through email or something. Just let me know.

UO Noob Joined: 20 Sep 2004 Posts: 11

Same here for the beta and e-mail thing, and I have broadband too so I CAN test it in MP :p

And if it helps, I know how to make .pdf if you want to make the manual in that form (although HTML tends to be better).

UO Noob Joined: 20 Sep 2004 Posts: 43 Location: Chicago

I've begun creating a beta version of the new data site, you can view it here:
http://tlab-login.cs.northwestern.edu/~kho605/uetfdata/

Hopefully we can begin filling it up with useful data.

Eightball-I'm looking for any of the old tutorials if they still exist. If you could send them to me in some format I could read, it would be great. Thanks!

Eightball/Gundato-I'm creating accounts for you on the test UDN. I'll email you the u/p information.

UO Noob Joined: 20 Sep 2004 Posts: 17

I can just send you the threads that I have saved. I stick them all into a RAR and the size goes down to about 831kb. That work for you? I assume your email would be able to handle that. If you prefer a .zip that would be 895kb, almost as small as the RAR. You choose, I'll email them to you. They're just a bunch of .htm so you should be able to read them fine with your browser.

UO Noob Joined: 20 Sep 2004 Posts: 43 Location: Chicago

Send them in either format, size should be no problem. Thanks!

UO Noob Joined: 20 Sep 2004 Posts: 17

I sent the RAR last night to your Planet Unreal address, so it should be waiting for you if you haven't checked it already.

UO Noob Joined: 20 Sep 2004 Posts: 43 Location: Chicago

Yes, seriously, it has been a long time since I've been able to any development, which is a damn shame. In other notes, I have finally completed college, but am not yet gainfully employed, giving me a nice 10 week window to basically do nothing but code. So start to expect seeing a lot more news to start showing up.

UO Noob Joined: 20 Sep 2004 Posts: 11

Yay, but good luck.

UO Noob Joined: 20 Sep 2004 Posts: 43 Location: Chicago

The first UETF Tactics gametype is nearly complete. If anyone is keeping the track, the gametype for DM maps was first called "Survival" but has been changed to "Hunters". The premise for Hunters is as follows:

Your UETF team is being hunted by 4 groups of enemy bots. Each group consists of a different armor type of bot. Your team must destroy all 4 groups of bots to win. You will be deployed 30 seconds before the enemy groups teleport in, and will need to decide how each group is to be defeated. Every time a group is destroyed, your team will earn a resupply, but be warned, the remaining enemy groups will be reinforced as well.

Currently, the groups are as follows (subject to change)
1: Impact Armor (Snipers)
2: Energy Armor (Heavy Plasma)
3. Steel Armor (Heavy Rockets)
4. Tanks

UO Noob Joined: 20 Sep 2004 Posts: 43 Location: Chicago

Working on the update of the classic "Defense" gametype. I've reworked the wave system to give you a greater variety of enemies, and also updated the friendly marine code. Now your marines will always spawn close to your location. Another note is that you can't have "extra" marines anymore-dead marines will be re-spawned, but you can't have extra squads of marines on the field anymore (we felt that this gave the UETF side too much firepower). Hunters is now completely implemented-we're not sure if we're going to keep it for DM or move it to a different map type. All for now.

UO Noob Joined: 20 Sep 2004 Posts: 43 Location: Chicago

OK, Classic Defense for CTF is back and fully functional. To discourage players from spawn camping the enemy base, sentinel tanks will spawn near the enemy base point. They won't attack your generator, but it's a bad idea to piss them off.

Marines now also have the ability to guard an area. To order your marines into guard mode, order them to a location and then double tap the use key. They will attack anything that comes near the location but will not seek out new targets.

I've also implemented HUD overlays so you can now check the health of your marines and what their current orders are.

Right now we're working on fixing new bugs (as always) and implementing the rest of the new gametypes.

I've also went ahead and posted the tentative release date as this upcoming May. I'll fine adjust the date as it gets closer.

UO Noob Joined: 20 Sep 2004 Posts: 43 Location: Chicago

Attrition is coming along nicely. The feel really comes close to capturing a larger scale battle, with troops from both sides clashing in large scale battle. All that's left to do is create the reinforcment points and update the HUD to show both side's reinforcement counters. We're also toying with the idea of adding in bot "command" super troops that will be worth bonus kill points. And yes, screenshots will be posted soon. Hang tight.

UO Noob Joined: 20 Sep 2004 Posts: 17

Nice progress. Can't wait to try the next release!