Gather ONS data

[Kentaro]

I would like to gather the maximum of ONS data the community made during that several years (my pc crashed recently so i don't have a lot of things now). And it would be nice in order to restart editing maps.

I've already downloaded the ONS-[Omni]-FullVehicleLoadout-2013, and i have the maps i've edited for UT, and some others.

I would like to have (if it's possible):

From Crusha:
-can you explain me the useful utilities of your ONS mapping tools?

From Peg:
-your version of the Eurotaur (or the one visually improved by VK)
-some other nice things you've done? (i don't remember all)

From anyone of you:
-i miss some ressources to run the Reishtag from VK

From Wormbo:
- VK used most of your features in his maps. Can you tell me which ones, and where to find them? (if i use a map where they are Mylevel, does it works?)
- Can i have the download link of your new vehicules? (like the draco, and the firebug, for example)
- Is it possible to use your StormCaster in an edit (or you don't want, or it is yet at an early stage?)
- Which features does your OnslaughtSpecials2 contains? I'm lost in the lot of possibilities here !
PS for you Wormbo: I'm impressed by the job you did, and you continue to do. All your creations allow mappers to give a new experience to players. Thank you.


PS2: What do you think of these maps you had played in the old days:

- ONS-{DX}Ameliorate by Crusha (download link here: http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/727 ... st27300087 )
---> NV map (not exaclty, there are 4 mantas). I know you don't like it, Labo. Anyway, there is a kind of different gameplay here. Should be interresting.

-ONS-Confexia (sorry, i dont have a download link for this one)

Fortune and frags :vaderfight:
Kent'

[Wormbo]

If you reuse another map's myLeveled OnslaughtSpecial parts, you will be able to use the same parts the map used. I have no idea what happens if you load different OnslaughtSpecials parts from different maps and therefore don't recommend doing that. I don't know who used what in which map. Your best bet is to freshly myLevel from the .u file so you can use all features.

The "official" release of the hovertank collection is available from my website. Other vehicles are linked in their corresponding threads here in the Creative Corner and the Omni Mapping forum.

Feel free to modify the Storm Caster, some of its parameters are easily adjustable. However, since I want to provide it as stand-alone super weapon download, I'd like to know what you changed and especially why you did that. Obviously if you change something, you have reasons - if those are valid on a more general scale, the "official" version probably should be modified as well to reflect those considerations.

Onslaught Specials features... Too many to list here.

BTW: I also created other stuff not mentioned here or at Omni.
For example a stand-alone UT3-style Jump Boots pickup for inclusion in maps. (Scroll down on my UT2004 downloads page for that.) The boots can be made available in a pickup base with delayed spawn (UT3-style) or as non-rotating pickup without spawn-delay (UT1-style). Both versions give the player a UT3-style boost for double/multi jumps and have usage-related properties the mapper can directly edit on the pickup or base. The boots are fully compatible to Quad Jump and my Multi Dodging mutator.
Another thing I just saw in my source repository is a ScubaGear pickup. I don't think I ever really released that one, though I may have provided it to an individual mapper on request. If so, it may have seen gameplay action on an Assault map or in some UT1 remake.
I probably have other stuff that I don't remember right now. In those ten years of UT2004 I created a much larger amount of stuff due to individual requests than you may have expected. (It's quite likely I forgot at least half of it, but most of those gems are still scattered across several backup locations.)

[Pegasus]

Hey Kent.

I would like to gather the maximum of ONS data the community made during that several years (my pc crashed recently so i don't have a lot of things now). And it would be nice in order to restart editing maps. [...]

Damn, that's a pretty massive mission you're picked there for yourself, man. Considering my own, lightly culled and 90% ONS-related, cached files collection that goes as far back as '07 is now near 14GB in size, just as one example, I hope you got a big appetite for downloading maps n' assets and an unwavering, determined spirit 'cause you're gonna need both. Then there's also the fact that some stuff - both knowledge as well as related files - has long since disappeared as the sites n' communities they were created within went dead, which is also gonna complicate the process of locating 'em from mirrors and reposts, but just to help you as you're starting out, here's a few places you might wanna look first for some helpful tools and resources:

- First off, the most useful tools to let you know what a new map you just downloaded needs in terms of additional resources in order to run, P-Fat's UTDeps File Dependancy Checker and Chris Oldwood's UT Cache Manager for convenient checking and retrieving of already grabbed and cached files.
- Secondly, 2 very useful UT file repositories, the Omnis' redirect and the PWC public redirect. That second link contains a pretty massive page so you might wanna give it some time to fully load before you go searching around, either by your browser's own feature or through the site's own searchbox.

[...]I've already downloaded the ONS-[Omni]-FullVehicleLoadout-2013, and i have the maps i've edited for UT, and some others.[...]

Umm, yeah, that's the other thing which has more to do with quality than just quantity. Namely that just because something exists out there, it doesn't follow that you should grab it. For example, there's a reason why you won't find many of the custom vecs in that collection in CEONSS' map roster: they're either badly balanced or problematic in their use in substantial ways. So don't forget to keep a critical eye out when judging what custom content might be suitable for your next editing project, be it a custom vec, weap or anything else. Right, I think that's enough preaching for now .

[...]From Peg:
-your version of the Eurotaur (or the one visually improved by VK)
-some other nice things you've done? (i don't remember all)[...]

Umm, the Eurotaur was pretty much an inside joke meant to demonstrate that ppl wouldn't care to switch to a less overpowered custom tank, man; it's nothing a mapper should be seriously considering using now. Other than that, umm, I've done a slight tweak of Wormbo's OnslaughtSpecials2 (OnslaughtSpecials2_RNH) that allows nodes' health to be shown on players' radar which you might've already downloaded and can extract from your cache if you've played awhile on CEONSS. Nothing else worth talking about, tbh.

[...]From Crusha:
-can you explain me the useful utilities of your ONS mapping tools? [...]

Crusha hasn't signed in here for a couple o' months now and might be awhile more until he swings by this place again on account of his work, so might I offer this writeup he's already done on it instead?

[...]From anyone of you:
-i miss some ressources to run the Reishtag from VK[...]

UTDeps should help with that.

[...]PS2: What do you think of these maps you had played in the old days:

- ONS-{DX}Ameliorate by Crusha (download link here: http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/727 ... st27300087 )
---> NV map (not exaclty, there are 4 mantas). I know you don't like it, Labo. Anyway, there is a kind of different gameplay here. Should be interresting.

-ONS-Confexia (sorry, i dont have a download link for this one)[...]'

I remember both maps having been hosted here in the past and, if memory serves, I think the reason they're no longer on the roster is that Ameliorate had chokepoint issues, whereas Confexia was just too heavy for clients with all its emitters and st.meshes and would frequently cause framerate drops while being otherwise average. Still, if you're interested in "officially" requesting 'em again, there's this thread that Cat recently created where ppl have been doing that and Heinz has been offering some critical feedback.

[Crusha K. Rool]

I wouldn't use the Mapping Tools yet, since the released version had some (minor) bugs and I just started to continue work on v2 again, which is almost feature complete. (I just started to convert my ONS Orb from a Pickup-approach to a GameObject-approach, based on Wormbo's suggestion back then)


Once it's done, there are a lot of things you can do with it. It all depends on what your goals are, a lot of the tools address some very specific usage cases. But to name some general things:

• Easy automated map-wide and mesh size-based setup of CullDistances for performance optimization. In the end the benefits depend on the kind of map. Most ONS maps are probably not gaining a lot, but I got more than 100% fps increases in ONS-Downtown with it.
• Jack of all trades VehicleFactory.
  Can spawn different vehicles for the respective teams when they control the Node; can use spawn protection for vehicles; can permanently lock a vehicle for a specific team (even after being entered regularly); can spawn a vehicle when being triggered; can spawn vehicles without belonging to the closest node; can spawn different vehicles from a list, randomly, with weighted randomness or in a given order; can permanently show an icon at that vehicle's position on the mini radarmap, with different update rates for the teams; can override vehicle health; can eject driver upon destruction instead of killing him; can trigger events upon destruction and spawn of a vehicle.
• PlayerStart that gives you the weapons from the closest WeaponLocker upon spawn.
• Node Buster Orb from UT3. A player can pick up the Orb and carry it around on foot.
  The Orb constantly has the beam from Nodes above it, so all players can easily spot the enemy Orb carrier and make him the primary target. It is also tracked on the minimap.
  Standing next to a friendly/unbuilt Node with the Orb will heal it up as if it was linked (and if I can get it implemented, also shield the Node against incoming damage).
  Walking onto a Node with the Orb will consume the Orb but instantly heal it to full or take it over if it's an enemy Node.
  If the Orb is dropped by a player, it will stay around for 30 seconds before resetting back to its base. Players can opt to press the Use key at the Orb to sacrifice themselves (taking 150 damage) in order to destroy the Orb instantly, in case it is already too close to your own Node and you don't think you can prevent the enemy team regularly from picking it up again.

The other contents are mostly addressing existing issues with the engine or provide some minor improvements:

• A bunch of versions of normal Actors that now work in online games as well, like ProjectileSpawners, CameraTextureClients, KActors and some volumes that work around limitations of the physics engine with Movers and network relevancy checks.
• Gimmicky things like Teleporters that work for Vehicles or specific Projectiles as well. And JumpPads that also work with Projectiles.
• New/fixed ScriptedActions and Triggers for more sophisticated Trigger Systems.
• Some more Volumes.
• Stuff that I made for a few very specific purposes, like the Destroyable Environment (used for the Redeemer-destroyable barricades in ONS-Downtown), placeable ShadowProjectors (to give high-quality shadows to dynamic Actors, like the aforementioned barricades or Movers) and a Trigger System that can add, subtract and check integer values which are also displayed in the HUD (intended to be used in a new style of ONS maps that I did not get around to work on yet).

[Kentaro]

Thank you for all guys !

If you reuse another map's myLeveled OnslaughtSpecial parts, you will be able to use the same parts the map used. I have no idea what happens if you load different OnslaughtSpecials parts from different maps and therefore don't recommend doing that. I don't know who used what in which map. Your best bet is to freshly myLevel from the .u file so you can use all features.

Okay ! I'll do that. Just an extra question: what is the difference between OnslaughtSpecials and OnslaughtSpecialsLite?

Feel free to modify the Storm Caster, some of its parameters are easily adjustable. However, since I want to provide it as stand-alone super weapon download, I'd like to know what you changed and especially why you did that. Obviously if you change something, you have reasons - if those are valid on a more general scale, the "official" version probably should be modified as well to reflect those considerations.

I don't know how to modify it so i'll use as it is actually

Damn, that's a pretty massive mission you're picked there for yourself, man. [...] the most useful tools to let you know what a new map you just downloaded needs in terms of additional resources in order to run, P-Fat's UTDeps File Dependancy Checker and Chris Oldwood's UT Cache Manager for convenient checking and retrieving of already grabbed and cached files.

I know gather all data is quite impossible, i just want all the interresting data to restart editing with enough tools on hand !

- Secondly, 2 very useful UT file repositories, the Omnis' redirect and the PWC public redirect. That second link contains a pretty massive page so you might wanna give it some time to fully load before you go searching around, either by your browser's own feature or through the site's own searchbox.

Already know this one, thank you

Umm, yeah, that's the other thing which has more to do with quality than just quantity. Namely that just because something exists out there, it doesn't follow that you should grab it. For example, there's a reason why you won't find many of the custom vecs in that collection in CEONSS' map roster: they're either badly balanced or problematic in their use in substantial ways. So don't forget to keep a critical eye out when judging what custom content might be suitable for your next editing project, be it a custom vec, weap or anything else. Right, I think that's enough preaching for now .

Don't worry, i have in mind that vehicules can cruelly deteriorate the map's quality. They must to be used reasonably.

Crusha hasn't signed in here for a couple o' months now and might be awhile more until he swings by this place again on account of his work, so might I offer this writeup he's already done on it instead?

The crocodile is back

I wouldn't use the Mapping Tools yet, since the released version had some (minor) bugs and I just started to continue work on v2 again, which is almost feature complete.

Okay. Just for curiosity (would not use your mappping tools for the moment), is it possible to use them the same time than Wormbo's OnslaughtSpecials?

One last thing, i'm glad to see you have still a lot of reactivity after all those years
Cheers,
Kent'

[Wormbo]

Just an extra question: what is the difference between OnslaughtSpecials and OnslaughtSpecialsLite?

Onslaught Specials Lite contains all non-node features from Onslaught Specials. I did that to provide those finished classes because the new link setup stuff isn't quite done yet.

[Crusha K. Rool]

I wouldn't use the Mapping Tools yet, since the released version had some (minor) bugs and I just started to continue work on v2 again, which is almost feature complete.

Okay. Just for curiosity (would not use your mappping tools for the moment), is it possible to use them the same time than Wormbo's OnslaughtSpecials?

One last thing, i'm glad to see you have still a lot of reactivity after all those years
Cheers,
Kent'

Yeah, Wormbo's Onslaught Specials are not included in the tools since he maintains them himself.

The tools include Dynamic Weather and TeamSpecific Actors, so if the map already uses those, you might want to replace them.