Tips

[Wormbo]

TBH cache extracting often is of limited use. If you prefer old files not getting deleted, edit your UT2004.ini accordingly: Section [Core.System] contains the value PurgeCacheDays, which can either be set to a higher value for more deletion delay or to 0 to disable deletion entirely.

Also note that there's no specific need for a cache extractor if you only want to extract certain files. The Cache.ini inside the Cache folder contains a list of cache file names and their actual package file names. Just rename the corresponding .uxx file and move it to the proper folder, e.g. .u to System, .utx to Textures, etc.
Keep in mind that the game only ever downloads package files. As a result you will never download custom music, custom translation files or the .ucl and .upl files required for custom mods or skins. That won't prevent downloaded maps from using those mods, but they won't show up in the GUI until explicitly launched for the first time through console commands. From my Jailbreak experience I know that installing custom mods is usually the better way to go than cache extraction.

[Cat1981England]

Start up UT2004 a few seconds faster.

Go to your .../ut2004/system folder and open the file ut2004.ini - Under the heading "[URL]" find the setting "LocalMap=" and change from:

LocalMap=NvidiaLogo.ut2

to

LocalMap=NoIntro.ut2

and save.

Your game should start a second or two quicker and for some unknown reason have the menu music from ut2003

[Pegasus]

If you want your NoIntro.ut2 to have UT2004's standard intro music, you can very easily change that through the editor since, as its name denotes, it's simply just another map, albeit a mostly empty one. All it takes is firing up UnrealEd from UT2004's System subfolder, finding and opening NoIntro.ut2 from the Maps subfolder, then hitting F6, expanding the Audio category in the popped up Level properties dialog and setting the Song value to KR-UT2004-Menu. Press enter after pasting that in, close the dialog and save the map either as its default name or as something slightly different. Close the editor, make the proper adjustment in your .ini if you changed the tweaked NoIntro's name and there you go, UT will bypass the nVidia intro and load the main menu with the familiar music.

Alternatively, you can just download the one I edited in exactly the above fashion here and drop the extracted file in your Maps subdir.

NoIntro.rar

Another thing you might wanna do to make your UT loading as little garish and an eyesore as possible would be to create a custom, grey coloured 1x1px bmp file in MS Paint, save it as UT2004Logo.bmp and replace the game's own in the Help subfolder with that. Let's face it, splash screens are best left to the late 90s after all.

[Cat1981England]

It works! n1 Peg

[Zon3r]

i have found those green monotone death messages boring and hard to read, so i was looking around for a bit, and found this. Custom death messages, now this only covers the non ons weapons, but based on this you can make your adjustments, now it looks like this for me


Onslaught weapons/vehicles can be found in Onslaught.int (your ut2004 system folder) Of course, before editing any of the files, make a backup, just in case. here is the download Link

[[P]etya]

Those custom death messages look good. Though I turned that option off due to the fact that the amount of killings disable me to see the chat messages sometimes.

[N4rkoT1k]

I use custom death messages and I wondered if there is a way to colorize the death messages of onslaught weapons (especially vehicles).

Does anyone have a list or a clue of the names of "DamTypes" for onslaught?

DamType for Assault rifle primary for example is:
[DamTypeAssaultBullet]


EDIT:
nvm...
I found the answer:

Onslaught weapons/vehicles can be found in Onslaught.int (your ut2004 system folder)

[EmanReleipS]

i have found those green monotone death messages boring and hard to read, so i was looking around for a bit, and found this. Custom death messages, now this only covers the non ons weapons, but based on this you can make your adjustments, now it looks like this for me


Onslaught weapons/vehicles can be found in Onslaught.int (your ut2004 system folder) Of course, before editing any of the files, make a backup, just in case. here is the download Link

Bumped for Damian. These are the custom death messages that I'm using. Shortens the death messages and gives a color to each weapon. Easy to read if you do want to see how you got killed. A few death messages (I think most of the suicides) aren't included and will remain in their standard form.