Difference between revisions of "User:SuperApe"

Revision as of 09:09, 6 September 2008

SuperApe

Who dat?

My name is Glenn Storm and I'm an UnrealWiki user with interests in game design, map design and artificial intelligence.

Short Biography

I am a game designer, animator, story developer and general tinkering monkey. I've been an Unreal community contributor for many years. Before I became a professional game designer, I worked as an animator in feature films and made games as a hobby.

Game Design Experience

I have always made my own games. Simple or complex, each game came from imagining something fun to do, some puzzle, struggle or adventure that would engage the player. Board games, role-playing games, choose-your-own-adventure type games, strategy games, word games, etc. This started when I was very young; having a good imagination, plenty of playtime and an inherent need to organize the design into a workable, playable, fun game.

I've made video games ever since I got my hands on a computer. I'm a game design enthusiast and programming hobbyist. So I've done this off and on, in my spare time, for years now.

• 1983, Commodore PET, top-down Tron Lightcycle game with an ASCII character display. Used Commodore BASIC.
• 1984+, Apple ][e/Atari 800, Several text adventures, like Zork. Used AppleBASIC/AtariBASIC.
• ~1987, Apple ][e, Monsters & Magic : a RPG fantasy game engine (with spells, monsters, weapons, items, etc.) where you're able to make custom characters, custom levels and play through them with a 2D ASCII-style gui interface. Used AppleBASIC. (I still have the program printed out and stored somewhere around the house. Maybe I should convert it to a Flash game.)
• 1999, PC, a 2D turn-based strategy game based on a (turn-based strategy) board game I developed in college. (~1991) Full sound, GUI interface, computer opponent AI, & animation. Used QuickBasic. (compiled to an .exe)
• 2001, PC, a 3D engine prototype for a raster-looking hover ship racing game in tunnels. I made this to figure out the problems of displaying and working with 3D, but it was way too slow to display more than raster lines. Used QuickBasic. (compiled to an .exe)
• 2005, PC, a very simple Flash shooting gallery game with a humorous twist. I just wanted to make a simple game to explore Flash's capabilities and ActionScript language. Used Flash. (The Great Outdoors)
• 2007, PC, a casual single-player 2D platform adventure game called Stick Man Doodle. Release version included the full function game and a map editor. Made during early development of a custom 2D game engine (GEE). Used QuickBasic. (compiled to an .exe)
• Since March 2007, I've been working as a staff Game Designer at an independent game development company. (yay!) :D

Mapping / Modding Experience

Previous mapping experience includes Doom I & II, Quake I & II, Duke Nukem, and Interstate '76. (<– yes, mapping for a vehicle combat game) A few of those maps got published. "bludsprt", or BloodSport, is a Doom2 map that comes to mind. It's in both the Tricks of the Game (& Doom) Programming Gurus books that came with CDRoms put out by SAMS publishing. It's also available at gamers.org. "bathal", or The Royal Hall of Battle, is Quake1 map you can still find on gamers.org. "madhaus", or Mad House Mayhem is another Quake1 map available here. "TagArena", one of a few custom DukeTag maps for duke3d, can still be found online. "Clone Canyon Speedway" and "Ed's Farm" are two Interstate '76 Nitro maps exclusively available at Lightfoot's Stolen Maps. Other maps I have made have either not been published, uploaded or I simply forgot their filenames.

I found UT2003 in the store one day and saw it came with the editor. I was sold. It didn't take long to realize just how open it was, allowing access to the code, easy tools to make custom content of all kinds, etc. I began by creating a few cutsom actors in each map I made for Unreal. Steadily these custom components began to take over the designs of the maps. I've always wanted to see how custom components could affect gameplay in new and interesting ways.

With UT2004, I began to create mutators, like the ROOtator and Flashlight Mutator. I then forged into a longer project, Old Skool Monsta Toolz, which compiles several individual custom components into a mapping toolset *and* new singleplayer / cooperative gametype, OSM Adventure. OSMT is an add-on to the stock object tree in UT2004, offering many more options for mappers who want to work with creatures or create story-driven adventures. The OSMT project took took six months (and one video card) to complete.

You can find playable examples of my work in the Unreal Engine at UnrealPlayground.

The experiments with the Unreal Engine continue with UT3.

What do I do with the Unreal Engine?

I try to make maps with good gameplay design. 

This is a great editor compared to most map editors I've used. After I finished my first map "BaseIck", I posted it on UnrealPlayground and others. It was meant to address most of the design problems I'm interested in. ONS-MudSling & ONS-Mudsling][, for UT2004, is now available on UnrealPlayground as well. VCTF-TerraForma is still in beta. My latest map is OSM-Gauntlet an example map for the new OSM Adventure gametype I introduced with Old Skool Monsta Toolz.

I have been interested in bot AI since they got good. 

That means, ReaperBots for Q1. Of which the Unreal bots are not-so-distant cousins; I contacted the ReaperBot author (Steve Polge at Epic) once and found he was working on bot AI "for a new game called Unreal". That was a while ago. This means I tweak pathnodes and spectate a lot of bot only games. Sounds weird to most people. I've delved into custom AI constructs with the ROOs, Kangaroo NPCs. (see ROOs section below) And lately, I've been working on monster AI for a toolset to be released soon. (see the Old Skool Monsta Toolz section below)

I have been modifying the engine. 

I've made quite a few custom actors for just about every map I've released. (I like to offer a different gameplay experience in each map I make) After that, I began working with Mutators, like The ROOtator. This project combined modeling and animation with AI coding and game programming. With that under my belt, I started a project to create an entire set of mapping toolz, designed to help mappers implement Monsters with complex AI in any gametype. This project is called Old Skool Monsta Toolz and this small package includes a custom gametype, OSM Adventure, capable of single player and cooperative adventures with a storytelling emphasis. Old Skool Monsta Toolz is now available as a free download.

I have a lot of high-end animation experience from working in feature animated films. 

I've been both a 3D character animator and an effects animator. Unreal's skeletal animation system is similar to many 3D animation packages and I'm able to have fun creating a variety of player and non-player characters. The unreal engine allows many of the same particle systems, physics emulations, etc. that I'm used to in Maya. I've had fun using of them in my maps and mods.

One day, I'd like to work in game development using all my skills as an Animator, Story Artist, Game Designer, Programmer and Director. 

This is a common goal of a lot of game enthusiasts, I know. What gives me hope is my experience in an industry known as the most collaborative art form, Feature Animation, combined with my passion and experience designing and creating gameplay experiences in a wide variety of settings. I feel that I just need to meet a game producer who's willing to look past all the obvious Animation experience in my resume to see all the unpaid game design experience I've acquired over the course of my life that I can offer a game production. Until that day, I'll just keep on helping the people in the online Unreal community and using the Unreal engine to produce my own projects.

UPDATE: I have been hired as a staff Game Designer for an independent game development company. I work in various capacity on a variety of projects, just like I was hoping for. It also just happened that I was hired based on the meeting of the president of this company who was willing to ask me what other experience I had besides what was on my resume, just like I was hoping for. Moral of the story is persistently pursue your dreams.

What do I do on UnrealWiki?

• Help out with little holes and repair. :)
• Working on the organization of the Artificial Intelligence family of pages.
  • Trigger Systems for UT200x. (originally a revision of the old Trigger Systems (UT) page)
  • Tutorial on Bot AI Design and Testing. (instead this became a large revision to Bot Support and all it's sub-pages.)'
  • Monster Support, Monster implementation in UT and UT2004.
    • Basic ScriptedPawn Tutorial, implementing UT creature support for complex behavior.
    • A UT2004 Monster Tutorial, controlling UT2004 Monsters to perform complex behavior with ScriptedSequences.
  • NPC Support, designing and creating custom Non-Player Characters for Unreal.
    • Basic AI Scripting Tutorial, recreating the NaliCow NPC for UT2004.
• Organizing the old Unreal ScriptedPawn family of pages
  • Pieced together the Basic ScriptedPawn Tutorial
  • Corralled links to pages related old Unreal AI, like HomeBase, AmbushPoint, AlarmPoint, PatrolPoint, etc.
• Tutorial on Map Layout For Gameplay. (instead this became large revisions to Gameplay, Map Design and Map Flow.)
  • Working on the organization of the Topics on Mapping family of pages.
    • Map Planning
    • Mapping for BR
    • Mapping for VCTF
• Tutorial on Importing Models From Maya.
• TeamVehicleFactory, spawn any Vehicle class (even random vehicles) and have more control over timing and spawn effects.
• VariableTimedMover, variable Mover speeds supporting any number of keys, all InitialStates, etc.
• RandomTrigger, trigger random Events from an Event list of any size.

• Providing an information base for my mod / mapping toolset, Old Skool Monsta Toolz.
• Actually, I've probably touched most of the pages you'll see here on the wiki. (fixing, editing, linking, making better) You can too. Head on over to UnrealWiki To Do to find out how. ;)

Why "SuperApe"?

• Well, I ain't SuperMan!  :p
• My deathmatch style is a bit aggressive; to the point of recklessness.
• It's a name from a song/album I like.

Contact Info

• Email
• SuperApe Website
• Mapper Profile on UnrealPlayground
• I can usually be reached via The UnrealPlayground Forums.

Projects

Some of my Unreal Engine projects are listed here, in the order they were started. You can see the progression from mapper (new to Unreal, but experienced in map design) to modder (more complex custom items and features in the maps and eventually my own Mutators and Mods).

Although it might be embarrassing to me to leave mistakes I've made in these accounts of my progress, it could be useful to those learning the Unreal Engine to see my thinking at the time and the updated corrections I've since posted.

BaseIck

The following is a Map Design Rant / Developer Journal detailing the BaseIck maps I made for UT2003. Although lacking in visual detail and decoration, this project explores and focuses on the gameplay issues I feel strongest about.

Gamers looking for cheats should refer to the Spoliers/Cheats heading at the bottom of this section. Interested mappers (novice to intermediate) are encouranged to download one of the four maps for reference while following this document. Whatever your reason for reading this section, my hope is that these maps remain in your map collection. I appreciate all descriptive comments. I invite anyone to post a reply with your comment. Each map has a thread running on Unreal Playground Forums: DM, CTF, BR, DOM.

//=============================================================================
// TeamSpawn.
// Forces player spawning based on PlayerStart -> TeamNumber if a Team Game.
//=============================================================================
class TeamSpawn extends Actor
    placeable;
 
var() bool bForceTeamSpawn ;   // Will check PlayerStart -> TeamNumber 
 
simulated function PreBeginPlay()
{
  if ( bForceTeamSpawn )
    if ( Level != None && Level.Game != None && Level.Game.IsA('TeamGame') )
      TeamGame( Level.Game ).bSpawnInTeamArea = true;
  Super.PreBeginPlay();
  Destroy();
}

MudSling

This map marks the next step in my Unreal mapping evolution. I started with the strong gameplay foundation that I had honed with the BaseIck maps and built upon that to deal with more aesthetic issues including better lighting, much more decoration, more detailed effects, etc.

ONS-MudSling was an UnrealPlayground ONS Mapping Contest entry.

NOTE: It is highly recommended that you download MudSling][ instead. Although containing essentially the same features, Mudsling][ updated and upgraded just about every aspect of the map. (See next section)

Design Post Mortem

I spent about eight days on this map. It started with a grey scale painting of the heightmap in photoshop. When I brought it into a substracted space, I adjusted the Terrain scale until the steep slopes felt right. I spent some time on the terrain, most of the time was spent on rebuilding the terrain for the bunkers as smaller terrain maps. Those terrains were made in Ued and are G16 maps. The decorative grassy clumps are a bit greener than I wanted, but then again, they do look like a fresh spout of grass.

The decoration was fun, particularly in the bunkers. Some new stock meshes available in UT2004 and I found myself hunting through nearly all of them. Of course, they gave me ideas for many of the gimmicks and gadgets.

I have three big gadgets in this map, the burning trees, the exploding bunkers and the laptop computers. They run on ScriptedTriggers using TriggerLights, Particle Emiters and Material Switches.

Except for a few choice pieces of Art (including the required UP ONS Mapping Contest Logo), all of the textures, static meshes, sounds and music are all stock items that came with UT2004. That includes the building in the center, AW-Nature.garfunkel.

As I said, I spent about eight days on this map. I think my wife wishes I'd spent none. ;)

Cheats and Spoilers

There's just a few hidden things to this map.

Forest Fires 

You can easily start small forest fires. All single tall trees are dry enough to catch fire and burn. Look out, fire hurts!

Command Bunkers 

Each team has dug a command bunker loaded with health, armor and ammo. There's also a laptop computer set up in each bunker.

Latop Computers 

Use with the Use key; either "U" or "E", both are default Use keys. This will allow access to vital information on the 'net ;) as well as the enemy's laptop, if hacked. Computers start in their initial window state. Tip: Return them to that state for smooth, bug-free operation.

Sabotage 

There's some demolition equiptment stored in each command bunker. You can take the enemy's TNT and rig it to blow up their bunker. This will cut off the enemy's supply of powerups and extra ammo.

Enemy Web Cams 

Once a Teammate has entered the enemy command bunker, they broadcast the codes needed to hack into the enemy's own surveillance camera, mounted on their laptop. From your bunker, you can spy on the enemy and remotely detonate the fuse to the rigged TNT.

Birdy 

A bird flies by periodically.

MudSling][

Download it here. Comment on it here.

This is an updated version of ONS-MudSling. The biggest improvements include greater variation in height, four foxholes with health, ammo and a weapon, Added ONSGrenadeLauncher, Online (replication) fixes for the laptop computers, More decos, Tweaked botpaths, More effects, More sounds. And all with only a modest increase in filesize.  :)

It should be included with the UnrealPlaygroud ONS Map Pack.

Special Thanks Go To Wormbo for posting the ClientMaterialTrigger here on the wiki.

ROOs

Using my skills as an animator, I helped out Lord_Simeon with an Australian-themed map called, AS-Outback (which was later updated and released with the Epic Mega Pack), by modeling, skinning, rigging, animating and coding an NPC character. I hadn't seen many NPCs in UT200x, except the TankVictim and I've always been interested in AI, so this was a very interesting project all around. Later, I created a mutator that populates any map with ROOs, and offers minigames that are really more like whole new gametypes. (RooHunt and Australian ROOlette)

Stand Alone ROO NPCs

ROOs are Kangaroo Non-Player Characters (NPCs). DM-RoosOnline is a simple one-room map that acts simply as a pen to hold some sample ROOs. You can simply select them from that map, cut and paste them into your own map. Download it here. Comment on it here.

The ROOtator

This mutator adds ROOs to any map and offers many gameplay options like the RooHunt and Australian RooLette minigames. Find the final version of the ROOtator here. (FileFront) ( mirror avaiable from VGPro ) A thread on UnrealPlayground details the mutator here.

Behavior

ROOs graze a lot. They are startled easily. When they're startled, they'll hop around until they get tired. Then, they stop and graze. If they get stuck while hopping or if they hop into water, they try to turn back to where they started. You can startle ROOs by Bumping, Triggering, Touching, or Damaging them. If a ROO is killed, it calls out to startle nearby ROOs.

Properties

RooRate 

The overall speed (movement and animation) of the ROO. 1 = 100%, recommended 0.7-1.2.

RooRest 

Percentage chance the ROO will rest at each hop. 1 = 100%, recommended 0.0-0.3. 0 = Never rest.

RooTimer 

How many seconds after the ROO is startled before it is removed from play. 0 = Never remove.

Tips

• ROO size is modified by Display -> DrawScale, however to keep animation looking good and to keep feet from "sliding", use a higher RooRate for smaller ROOs, lower RooRate for larger ones. (Example: A Joey ROO might have a DrawScale of 0.67 and a RooRate of 1.15)
• Minimum recommended RooRate is 0.67, Minimum reccommended DrawSize is 0.5.
• Groups of ROOs will look synched unless their RooRates are different. RooRates of slightly different values (like < 0.01) will appear synched at first but will slowly run out of phase, but similarly timed as if the timing were simply offset.
• When placing groups of ROOs, be aware of their relationship to your botpath network. Bots will not go after ROOs, but if they're placed on a path, it might be a wasted Roo that is triggered and dissappears before any player sees it.
• Groups of ROOs will get startled when one dies (either by weapons fire or vehicular slaughter, etc.). You can get a scattering effect by placing them facing away from the center, or a "bumbling" fire drill effect, by having them face the center.
• (Fast) ROOs set up to run alongside (paralell with) the roads, can add some interest on the way to the next objective.

RooBallet

Like setting up dominos to fall, placing ROOs can lead to similar patterns of choreographed movement, or "RooBallet". Although their code makes them turn a bit each hop, their RooRest can be set near or at 0 to help ensure that short distance target ROOs can be reached reliably.

An example of a simple RooBallet pattern is a triangle placement, where each ROO faces the next at around 512 UU away. By placing a triggering ROO about 1024 away from such a formation, and setting its RooRest to .01, once the triggering ROO was startled it would definately run into one of the three in the formation, each of those would trigger the next. Each ROO can be a trigger for another single or group of ROOs.

By setting the RooTimer and RooRest to 0, you've created a ROO (CatalystRoo) that once startled will hop around the map, startling any ROO it bumps into, until it is killed or otherwise dies (via lava, pain volume, etc.) Chaos Theory rules with a CatalystRoo. Get creative.

Installation

For use in your own custom map follow these steps:

1. Remove any previous ROOs from your map, save, exit and re-launch Ued.
2. Open DM-RoosOnline.ut2
3. Copy single or groups of ROOs to the clipboard.
4. Open your custom map.
5. Somewhere in your map, Right click and go to Edit -> Paste -> Here.
6. Save your map.
7. Credit me by saying, "Thanks to SuperApe for the ROOs!", in your ReadMe file.

VCTF-TerraForma

Representing the next step, this map combines strong gameplay and aesthetic details with custom elements meant to alter the basic gameplay, breathing new life into the standard flow of the game.

Features

• A change in the normal VCTF gameplay structure, by adding a "gate" that teams can use to close and block opponents from reaching the flag. The gate is open at map start, must be activated by the team, will then become the primary goal of the opponent (and bots), and can be destroyed, returning the gameplay to normal.
• An additional vehicle, Unmanned Aeral Vehicle (UAV) that can be launched from a base and used to provide cover fire while the pilot remains at base. (with bot support) For early beta tests, a HumanSpaceFighter was used, but the UAV vehicle is modeled, rigged, animated and imported.
• Fortified bases, gates and outposts with auto turrets that are activated by team members to defend against the enemy.
• "Team Doors", doors that open for one team, not the other unless they carry a KeyCard inventory item, which can be stolen from a dead opponent player. This allows covert sabotage of outposts, gates, bases, etc. It was also designed to allow access to enemy team vehicles.
• Plenty of custom meshes, textures, actors, etc.

This map is still in beta form. It was being developed and tested on UnrealPlayground, but I've set this aside for the moment. You can view the beta map thread on UnrealPlayground here to see screenshots made during development. More later.

Flashlight Mutator

This short project represents another venture into mutli-actor modding. I started with the idea of wanting to learn more about Projectors, and ended up developing a system for implementing fairly realistic-looking flashlights in a multiplayer map, including sophisticated bot support.

The result of the project was a simple map, aptly named SimpleMap, where I encorporate the actors I had to develop to carry the effect of realistic flashlights. You can download this SimpleMap and join the discussion on the Flashlight Mutator on UnrealPlayground forums.

The set of actors used to pull this effect off varies from the Projector itself to the Display Message needed to indicate to players how to turn the Flashlight on and off. Here's the component list:

Actor
  +- (Brush)
  |  +- (Volume)
  |     +- DarkVolume
  +- (Info)
  |  +- (LocalMessage)
  |  |  +- (BulldogMessage)
  |  |     +- MessageFlashlight
  |  +- (Mutator)
  |  |  +- MutFlashlight
  |  +- (ReplicationInfo)
  |     +- FlashlightReplicationInfo
  +- (Light)
  |  +- (TriggerLight)
  |     +- CoronaFlashlight
  +- (Projector)
  |  +- (DynamicProjector)
  |      +- Flashlight
  +- (Triggers)
     +- ButtonFlashlight

The ButtonFlashlight is a simple trigger that follows the player and enables them to hit Use to toggle the flashlight. MessageFlashlight is a simple message telling the player to "Hit Use to Toggle the Flashlight". FlashlightReplicationInfo keeps things running online. CoronaFlashlight provides a nice directional glare when players with flashlight face the viewport. Flashlight is the actual projector which travels with the player pawn and works with DarkVolume to help AIControllers determine when to toggle the flashlight on or off. MutFlashlight is the mutator that applies the Flashlight, ButtonFlashlight and CoronaFlashlight to each player and cleans up flashlights when not needed.

With this system, maps are specifically designed with an area to be dark and a DarkVolume is used to indicate that area to Bots. So, this is not an all-purpose stand-alone mutator. The map must be designed with flashlights in mind. That's why I embed each of these components in the virtual myLevel package in SimpleMap. Because the flashlights are toggled via the Use key, this is not a good system to implement in vehicle maps or vehicle gametypes.

Old Skool Monsta Toolz

This is a project meant to help mappers implement complex Unreal-style monster AI in any gametype. It comprises a toolset of mapping tools and a new set of ScriptedMonsters that mimic the old ScriptedPawn AI from UT99. It also contains a new story-driven gametype Old Skool Monsta Adventure (OSM). This project is in development at UnrealPlayground and has been publicly available since July 2006. OSM maps by some of my favorite mappers are available at the OSM Adventure Map Archive at UnrealPlayground or available from other addresses via internet search. Comments are welcome on The OSMT subforum on UnrealPlayground.

OSM-Gauntlet

This is an example map I made to demonstrate how the new OSM Adventure gametype can be implemented. OSM mappers are encouraged to reverse-engineer it for reference. This is a single player map that features a story that leads the players to enter an ancient tomb. Once inside, three different routes are available to players, each one emphasizing a different important element of OSM Adventure: Puzzle, Trap or Monster. This is meant to add some replay value for players as well as demonstrate to mappers various ways these three elements can be combined for interest. At the end of each route, the player will find themselves at the final battle area, where the story wraps up and the biggest challenge is presented. Finally a short ending cutscene completes the adventure.

This is by far the most complete and prettiest map I've made in any game engine. I'm reasonably proud of the visuals as well as the technical elements, as I normally concentrate more on the gameplay and technical aspects of my maps. It may not be the ultimate map ever, but I had fun developing it concurrently with the Old Skool Monsta Toolz toolset. Comments on this map are welcome here.

OSM-Guide

Another example map for OSM Adventure, that takes a more instructional tone. This map isn't pretty, but it is informative. It contains several Note actors scattered around the map and paired with various OSM Adventure elements. These Note actors explain what these elements do and how they are set up. This is the "just the facts, Ma'am" version of an example OSM Adventure map. It covers concepts from basic to advanced. Download and comment on it here.

OSMT Golem

The first custom OSMT creature built from scratch is in development now. This character was modeled by King Mango at very high resolution, on par with UT3 (around 5800 triangles in game). After UV mapping and mocking up a simple skin, I've been working on the rig, animation and code. When this is done, a overview guide (rather than a step-by-step tutorial) will be created to help others who wish to create their own custom OSMT creatures. For now, check out the progress on UnrealPlayground.

Links

• SuperApe/Old Skool Monsta Toolz – An information base for the OSMT toolset. (download link)
  • SuperApe/OSMT Monster Manual – OSMT creatures, their properties and behaviors detailed.
  • SuperApe/Mapping For OSM Adventure – An information base for the OSM Adventure gametype, including a FAQ and mapping guide.
• Old Skool Monsta Toolz Forum at UnrealPlayground – Grab the latest version of the toolset and join the discussion on UnrealPlayground.
• Monster Experiments – Read about the early development and experiments that led to the OSMT project.
• OSM Adventure Map Archive – Play examples of the OSM Adventure gametype.

Discussion

SuperApe: I've done some major cleaning on the Wiki today. I've just uploaded my maps to NaliCity (UPDATE: I've since relocated to UnrealPlayground) and I'm feeling a bit giddy. Pass the egg nog. WebTender.com :cheesy:

Dragonmaw: Welcome to the wiki super ape!

SuperApe: Many thanks to all.

Dr.AwkwArD: Well... I'm impressed, sir. Very thoughtful, insightful contributions to this community so far. I look forward to more WIKI updates. BTW, do you still work in film? I'm not in post, myself, but I worked for Digital Domain for a while and am currently talkin' with New Line about some things. Anyway, it's always pleasant to bump into fellow lunatics... :D Though, I suppose this game-dev crowd qualifies, too. ;) heh heh.

SuperApe: Thank you for the kind words. I wouldn't be suprised if we knew each other in RealLife™. I worked on a project in collaboration with DD back in the 90's called, Marvin the Martian in the 3rd Dimension. I also have animated for Warner Bros and Dreamworks Feature Animation. And yes, this is a bunch of loonies of a different kind.  ;)

Tarquin: SuperApe, have you got logged out?

SuperApe: I was working away from my normal machine for a couple days. :)

StarWeaver: Hey, I was just trying out BaseIck, and it seems like a pretty nice map, but it was *extremely* dark. As in, I couldn't actually get up those spiral staircases dark. I haven't seen how other maps are doing yet, but I don't think i've done anything funky to my visual settings lately, so ... O.o

SuperApe: BaseIck is an okay all-purpose layout with some effects and strong bot support. You'll want to make sure DynamicLighting is on to see the effects in BaseIck, but yes, there are parts of BaseIck that are mostly unlit. The spiral staircases in particular, without a handrail, are meant to give an advantage to those who know the map. Without a handrail, it's a lot harder to go up, unless you know how much to turn. It's not pitch black, but I know what you mean. Thanks for your comment.

EricBlade: You are going nuts cleaning this place up! I, for one, have definitely appreciated all the work you've done here, and the help you've given.. Thanks!

Ambershee: Just finished reading through the NaliCow tutorial. Farking great stuff there :)

SuperApe: Thank you. :) Actually, you're reminding me I need to revise/refactor that page.

fleshsniper1 hello SuperApe, iv been reading alot about your OSMT and was hoping youd let me use the tool for my mod. id like to talk to you more about what is required in my game and how much your tool could help me. one of my question is how good is your NPC/monster AI compare to what is provided with UT2004. i know youve worked realy hard to get this tool even starting back in the 80's if im correct. so i understand the pride in your work if you let me use it or not. i dont think i will ever release my mod publically though so i hope that for some reason allow you to let me to use it.

SuperApe: I understand. To get in touch with me, and others using OSMT, and to continue any substantial discussions on use and distribution, you can find me on UnrealPlayground Forums. There's an OSMT subforum with lots of info and that's a good place to discuss this, or you can Personal Message (PM) me there. That's normally the most reliable way to get in touch with me, aside from my contact info above. And, while I've been fiddling with games since before the 80's, I've only developed OSMT in the last year and a half.

fleshsniper1: thanks, i sure will do that

PiX any chance one could get a hold on that custom keycard class of yours? If so, would you please send an email to me? (email removed to save you from spam)

SuperApe: Sorry, the team keycard for VCTF-TerraForma was not completed (along with that entire map). If I revisit the map and that item again, I'll let you know.

PiX Alright. Do you know of any other custom script that might do the job? Oh, and that's my spam-address, so that's ok.

MythOpus: What does this keycard entail? If you're wanting to let only certain teams into an area, I'm sure that can be done easilly with a scripted trigger. If you wanted something more along the lines of a player having to pick up a 'keycard' to be able to open certain doors, you can have one class that is that 'keycard' and when the player touches it, have it add the players pawn onto to a list that would reside in a custom mover or whatever. Then when the player would go to open said mover, the mover would first check to see if that particular player was on the 'list' of those with a keycard and if they are, it opens. It sounds less messier than dealing with an inventory class.

SuperApe: Any lengthy discussion might be better served elsewhere, so I'll try to be brief. PiX, I don't know of any other system that does this, but you can try searching for Team-based tools for CTF/VCTF. Many ways of using stock methods for blocking or limiting by team can be "clunky" and/or compromised in unintentional ways; making it messy to map with. In response to Myth, I've explored many methods of team blocking using stock actors and trigger systems. Your second description of what the TeamDoors/Keycard system is meant to be in VCTF-TerraForma is close, but if you review the description I give above and/or follow the link there to the UnrealPlayground forum thread on this map, I give at least one important feature, "you can pick one up from a dead opponent." This is crucial to the gameplay mechanic, as it is a designed way to infiltrate the opponent's gatehouse, outpost, etc. But, futher details are classified. Rest assurred since I put this map down, I've had a lot more experience in UScript development and should be able to put this together without much trouble.