I just have two questions that I've always wondered about while playing UT2004:
1. Is there any rule to which side I will exit a vehicle? Always left or right, or is it where I entered? I'm asking because I have left a vehicle a few times trying to get away from an avril, only to get hit by it right in the face because I LEFT ON THE AVRIL SIDE....
2. Why do some vehicles disappear almost instantly after they have been destroyed, while other wrecks bounce over half of the map for five minutes, trying to kill you?
1. There are some conditions that will be examined when you attempt to exit a vec and, based on what's concluded, the game will pick the more suitable exit point for you. First off, exit points are vehicle-dependent and defined in each vec's class. For example, the raptor, the goliath and the ion tank have 2 ExitPositions, the cicada has 3 for some reason; benders, scorpions, paladins, SPMAs and levis have 4, but mantas have 8 because ponies. When you press the exit key, the vehicle code does an iterative check for each entry position testing whether it's blocked by level geometry or not; the first open spot is where you'll be placed. If no acceptable exit can be determined (say, if you were being a wiseass and tried to exit your raptor when squeezed tightly between two walls - or near those narrow secondary nodes in MagicIsle :@), the game will simply refuse to let you exit.
Now, I used plural in that "some conditions" phrase because CEONSS also runs the ONSPlus mutator which has additional features related to vehicle exiting, such as taking into account distance to ground below the exit point (so as not to have you exit at the wrong side of a ledge and have you plummet to your hilarious, ragdoll death). On top of that, and most importantly, ONSPlus allows you to use specific commands to pick which side of the vec you wanna leave; bind those to any keys you want and you'll immediately have a strategic advantage when such a nuanced situation comes around (e.g., when you need to exit at the right side of MasterBath's high ledges to grab a damage amp before proceeding to attack the enemy side). To configure those, you'll need to go into the ONSPlus section from the Game tab while playing and set the vec exit keys as you like 'em in the proper submenu. Alternatively, you can just directly edit your User.ini file in your UT's "system" subfolder. The most convenient way to map 'em, I've concluded, is to pipe 'em along with every other action already set to the Q and E keys, Q for SetPreferredExit Left 1 and E for SetPreferredExit Right 1. I think there's "back" and "front" too, but I don't remember for sure offhand so look for some ONSPlus documentation to be certain if you wanna use those too. Every time you change your exit preference while in a vec the selected location next to the vec should glow with some kinda colourful, silly emitter too to let you know the change happened (unless you've turned that off like I have).
2. Destroyed vehicles stick around or get blown entirely to pieces based on damage they took while dieing (or even later on until they disappear). I think for most vecs it's something like 150hp to make a destroyed vec blow up instantly, otherwise it'll bounce around (or just stay there if its chassis isn't light enough) in flames and smoke for a bit, exploding a few times and being a hazard for the driver's team (and the one who destroyed it) until its normal cycle is done, then it'll disappear. Mantas make for particularly annoying wrecks as each time they change direction and lose some more momentum, they do that explodey shit again. Just shoot a couple o' shock cores at 'em if they're bouncing around too close and you should be safe.
That "DisintegrationHealth" is just as random as the number of exit locations: The default is -50, tanks have -125, Scorpion and Paladin (and the toilet car ) have -25, SPMA, Hellbender and Cicada have -100. The Leviathan has 0, but explicitly delays the explosion.
Exit positions not only depend on whether the location is blocked, but also whether the vehicle would crush you after you got out.
Thanks to both of you!
The exit point thingy is more complex than I had anticipated. Thanks, Pegasus, for the tip with the exit commands. I'll check it out!
I figured that the disintegration of wrecks had to do with the damage, but it's great to learn some numbers. I'll keep my shock rifle charged.
Interesting stuff... however, I sometimes have a lot of trouble getting into a vehicle, for some reason I cannot get in first or second time and I have to go away, come back and try again. Sometimes I even get crushed trying to get into one! Also I find it quite slow to let you out when you need to get out quickly. You're in a manta or a raptor and see the AVRIL coming, press E but nothing happens, except you dying.
The really funny one is when you accidentally press E in a raptor, realise you are outside and press E again and get back in! Cartoon moment
Play it safe, do what Droopy says..."Always double tap!"
Pegasus wrote:On top of that, and most importantly, ONSPlus allows you to use specific commands to pick which side of the vec you wanna leave; bind those to any keys you want and you'll immediately have a strategic advantage when such a nuanced situation comes around (e.g., when you need to exit at the right side of MasterBath's high ledges to grab a damage amp before proceeding to attack the enemy side). To configure those, you'll need to go into the ONSPlus section from the Game tab while playing and set the vec exit keys as you like 'em in the proper submenu. Alternatively, you can just directly edit your User.ini file in your UT's "system" subfolder. The most convenient way to map 'em, I've concluded, is to pipe 'em along with every other action already set to the Q and E keys, Q for SetPreferredExit Left 1 and E for SetPreferredExit Right 1. I think there's "back" and "front" too, but I don't remember for sure offhand so look for some ONSPlus documentation to be certain if you wanna use those too. Every time you change your exit preference while in a vec the selected location next to the vec should glow with some kinda colourful, silly emitter too to let you know the change happened (unless you've turned that off like I have).
I tried that today via the ONSPlus section in the game tab. Unfortunately it didn't work. I tried setting Q for the left exit point and E for the right one, as you had recommended. But after making that change, I was completely unable to enter or exit using the E key and had to resort to the Enter button....which is quite out of the way...and the Q button didn't do a thing, either. :problem:
Well, I did use the word "pipe" deliberately. Guess I shoulda anticipated the possibility that word might've gone overlooked or misunderstood and explained it, but eh, I rolled and lost. Might as well explain it through example now. Piping is when you set more than one action to the same key so they'll be executed in typed order; the commands are separated by the | character. So, if your OS is a 32-bit system, locate the config file User.ini inside your UT's system subfolder and set Q and E as follows:
E=SetPreferredExit Right 1 | use
Q=SetPreferredExit Left 1 | use
In my case, I've also added a ThrowWeapon in front of everything else for Q for keysetting strat reasons that might as well be an entire different post, so beyond the scope of this reply. Also, please note that in 64-bit OSes the file might be named slightly differently like User-x64.ini, but I might be wrong.
Pegasus wrote:Well, I did use the word "pipe" deliberately. Guess I shoulda anticipated the possibility that word might've gone overlooked or misunderstood and explained it, but eh, I rolled and lost. Might as well explain it through example now. Piping is when you set more than one action to the same key so they'll be executed in typed order; the commands are separated by the | character. So, if your OS is a 32-bit system, locate the config file User.ini inside your UT's system subfolder and set Q and E as follows:
E=SetPreferredExit Right 1 | use
Q=SetPreferredExit Left 1 | use
In my case, I've also added a ThrowWeapon in front of everything else for Q for keysetting strat reasons that might as well be an entire different post, so beyond the scope of this reply. Also, please note that in 64-bit OSes the file might be named slightly differently like User-x64.ini, but I might be wrong.
Ah, sorry, Pegasus!
I did read that word and got what you mean. However, I only changed the keybindings inside the game (because I dislike modifying ini files; always afraid of breaking stuff). Apparently changing the exit points there in the ONSPlus tab does not allow for a "piping" of actions. Will try the ini now and see if that works better. Thanks again!
EDIT: Btw, in my 64-bit OS the ini file is simply called "user".
For completeness' sake, the ingame equivalent to achieving that same result would be to pull down the console (using the tilde key) and typing set input SetPreferredExit Right 1 | use E for the first command. Same deal for anything else bound to any other key (refer to your User.ini for the proper way UT names the various utility/non-alphanumerical keys).
BTW: if both sides are free on a vehicle, it usually helps directing the vehicle into the other direction that you want to exit.
So if you want to exit to the left, the last movement should be to the right before exiting. I use this excessivly on Gunshop with the Raptor not fall off when getting the DD. I think it works 9 out of 10 cases.
