WIP - Work In Progress

[Pegasus]

Stab in the dark, but... from the Descent series? It's been a while but those spiky pickups to the right kinda ring that bell for me. Could be dead wrong though, haven't really played those games in over a decade (should probly remedy that at some point...). Still, how would an emitter threaten my life in ONS anyway? I mean, unless they'd be attached to the rear end of some projectile barreling down toward me or whizzing past me during combat, why would any other kind of shiny decoration glittering around innocuously be of any concern? Anyways, let's wait n' see where you're going with this.

I like the colouring of the golden rocket's exhaust in the middle though; 90% bright yellow trail makes for a quite speedy delivery promise . Ah well, back to hammering out a more convincing burning wreckage fire & smoke compound emitter with me.

[Wormbo]

Descent 2, to be precise. Those are custom models someone made for D2X-XL, a modification of Descent 2 with much improved graphics. I sent him an email asking for permission to use these in an actual mod (because the readme said so), so for now I'm just toying around with them. That golden rocket is the Mercury Missile, btw. (In my previous implementations of that I used a stretched and retextured AVRiL rocket model. I think I'll miss the :ugly: smiley on its nose. )

[Crusha K. Rool]

Some up-to-date footage of the latest Orb version, now as GameObject, feature-complete and with some more visuals.

[Zon3r]

I have mixed feelings about this. It can be an advantage, but also a huge mis advantage to the losing team. is this orb spawning at every node, or only at one? if it's spawning at every node, then the enemy, having access to more orbs, can simply overrun the losing team. Then again, if it's only one, the winning team can spam the losing team, while one of them captures the node, the one that's keeping the core locked. I hope i could make it understandable

[Wormbo]

UT3 Warfare maps usually have two or three orb spawns: One at each core and maybe one somewhere at a node halfway between the cores, depending on map size. It's the mapper's responsibility to place a reasonable number of orb spawners. Putting on near every single node would be pretty dumb.

Consider the orb as a super weapon that can only exist once per team at a time, but may have different spawn locations. Of course it is an advantage for the attackers that the orb spawns closer to the enemy core when they capture the corresponding node, but the same can be said about a central node with a Minotaur or Leviathan. Every node a team controls is somehow an advantage for them. The orb spawning location is just another way to express that advantage.

[Karma_geddon]

It seems to me that the Orb is like it is in UT3, and that's just fine.
I'm looking forward to see how mappers will implement it in existing or brand new maps - it is very good to make comeback easier and to provide a more dynamic game.

(Also, Downtown is one of my favorite maps of all times )

[Crusha K. Rool]

It seems to me that the Orb is like it is in UT3, and that's just fine.
I'm looking forward to see how mappers will implement it in existing or brand new maps - it is very good to make comeback easier and to provide a more dynamic game.

(Also, Downtown is one of my favorite maps of all times )

Don't let Peg hear that. He despises it for the linear linksetup, like most of UT3's maps.


As for the Orb, the properties can be tweaked by the level designer as well in the Actor that is used to define the priority order of Orb Spawners. (How long it remains bound to a Node, how long it takes to respawn, how much it heals when being near a Node, how much it heals when being bound to a Node, how long it remains on the ground before disappearing)
While the default properties seem pretty fine to me and should probably remain that way for consistency, it may be necessary to change the properties on some maps to work better with the different custom vehicles in UT2k4 and general gameplay flow.

[Pegasus]

[...]Don't let Peg hear that. He despises it for the linear linksetup, like most of UT3's maps.[...]

Well, I've never claimed to be any kinda be-all, end-all leading authority in ONS map appraisal, much less the only one out there; I simply try to test and refine my standards over time and explain as clearly and consistently as I can why my criticisms are what they are based on those. That said, while I do find most ONS maps ported from UT3 to be unremarkable and mediocre in their gameplay offerings (Floodgate, Avalanche, Downtown), you won't ever hear me say bad things about Suspense. Well, maybe that it has a few more nodes than its size can reasonably accommodate, but that's it .

Still, mappers and ppl in general are entitled to their own views and free to make up their own mind as to whether any new custom ONS content fits their own plans and include it in their works. If someone decides to turn in a new version of some popular ONS map featuring your WAR Orbs, that's fine and welcome. Whether it ultimately proves to be for the better or doesn't help much in gameplay terms, we'll have something tangible to talk about instead of just throwing around opinions. Evidence-backed theories are always sturdier, after all.

Oh, and welcome back, mr. Croc.

[Wormbo]

[...] you won't ever hear me say bad things about Suspense. Well, maybe that it has a few more nodes than its size can reasonably accommodate, but that's it .

Suspense is actually a VCTF map in UT3. I think it was originally ported as that to UT2004 and only later someone decided to turn it into an ONS map. But then again, I also used Suspense as base for a UT3 Jailbreak map and that worked out quite well in my opinion.

[Karma_geddon]

I can see why peg (and other people, probably) may dislike a ONS porting of Downtown. Chokepoints can be a pain in the ass, especially while multiplaying.

However (to get back On Topic) I think that the Orb might contribute significantly to make some UT3-ported maps (especially the more linear ones) more enjoyable. After all, that was the way they were designed in the first place...