Chaotic Dreams

R.Flagg wrote:This one's looking pretty good.

Bot aim with HB weapon is much better, and it seems the hb spawn effect thing is better too. So is the turret rotation speed in hbctf. All good.

While testing on my listen server, Pep and I could hear each other's Kami screams just fine. However, while I could hear his poisoned cough, he could not hear mine.

There is an issue with the HB grapple - if you try to fire it at too steep an angle downwards, there is no visible grapple, and I don't think it even works - however, you do have to hit the grapple key again to retract it, and you even hear that part, even though there is no actual grapple to retract.

I'm guessing it's set up like a vehicle weapon, where it won't fire at all angles (where they normally use the vehicle crosshair to indicate when you can fire). Only in our case it's only half-stopping the grapple-stuff.

Perhaps we can have a very small-ish 'no-go' sound for when the rider attempts to fire grapple outside of it's range. Just so you know that yes, you tried to fire grapple, but no, it didn't work.

Also, sometimes when you have both flags and touch your base, it doesn't 'register' on the 1st try. You have to walk back over your base again.

We do still have a game-ending invisible flag bug, but I still have no idea how to trigger it. Pep and I have seen it recently, but could not repeat it on demand.

For the HB weapon death message, I recommend a slight revision to Jb's suggestion. I think we should use:

"Jb burned a hole through R.Flagg"

Since this message only plays when the kill is from an HB weapon, I don't think we actually have to say " ... with HB weapon."

Other than the rare invisible flag bug, this game type is looking pretty damn good.

Capture the Flag

CTF was by far the most popular gametype in UT, for the simple reason that it requires teamwork to be successful against a quality team. The goal is to infiltrate the enemy team's base, steal their flag, and return it to your base's flag. Sounds easy, but it's certainly not. Since you are required to touch your own flag with the enemy's flag in order to score, you'll often return to your base and have to wait for your teammates to return your flag. Of course, while you're waiting, the other team will be hunting you down like rabid dogs.

The addition of adrenaline-based power-ups brings a new dimension of strategies to the gametype. Further, the scoring system has been given a complete overhaul to correct the rampant scoring problems in UT. Even though your personal score has no bearing on the overall match, it still needs to be a fairly accurate description of how well you're contributing to your team's success-if it's not, then there's no point in having an online stats-tracking package.

In the original UT, scoring was simple: original DM scoring rules applied, and additionally you'd gain seven points for capturing the enemy's flag, and 3 points for fragging an enemy team member who was carrying your flag. On the surface this system looks like it works well; capping (or capturing the enemy flag) is important, so you should receive several points.

Halting an enemy who has your flag is also important, so more than one point is required. But the system left itself open to abuse, and it also failed to give credit for several key actions. First, base defenders would often wait until an enemy grabbed their flag before fragging them, in order to receive 3 points instead of one (known as 'flag whoring'). More importantly, if your flag carrier died halfway to your base, and you carried the flag the rest of the way, he would receive no points, despite the fact that he made it out of the hornet's nest with their nectar. If you successfully fragged the entire enemy team while escorting your carrier back to your base, you received no extra points despite the fact that you played a key role in scoring the cap. We could go on, but you get the point.

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For UT2K4, the system is much refined. Deathmatch rules apply, with these additions:


-Killing a flag carrier: +1 point (ie 2 points total)

-Killing someone who is targeting your carrier: +1 point

-Returning your flag within your team's area: +3 points (but +0 points in the immediate vicinity of your flag stand)

-Returning your flag in the enemy's area: +5 points

-Returning your flag very close to the enemy's flag stand: +7 points

-Capturing the enemy flag: +5 points

-Grabbing the enemy flag: +5 points, once the flag has been successfully captured

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Additional points involved in a cap (this is complicated; bear with me): there are twenty additional possible points that can be awarded on a capture, with any one player getting a maximum of five points. If a flag is captured, the person who originally grabbed it gets five points. Each player on your team who touches the flag between the point of pickup and capture will receive a split of these twenty points (but not more than five).

Some examples:

- You grab the flag, and run it all the way back to your base for a cap: +15 points for you.

-You grab the flag, get killed, and your teammate caps it. +10 points for you (grab and carry), +10 points for him (carry and cap).

-A teammate grabs the flag, you pick it up and get killed, another teammate caps: +10 for the first teammate (+5 pickup, +5 carry), +5 for you (carry), +10 for the capping teammate (+5 carry, +5 cap).

-You pick up the flag, get fragged, a teammate picks up the flag, gets fragged, the enemy returns the flag. +0 for your teammate, +0 for you (no capture points are awarded unless the flag is actually captured).

It's a little more complicated than the original UT's system (ok, it's a lot more complicated), but it's definitely more fair.