MH-Rise Of Evil, STILL need help.

[VatcilliZeitchef]

This is one of my oldest projects, probably the biggest as well, and it's seriously starting to wear me down that after all this time, I still can't release it properly.

A link to the map can be found here And it's quite a bit newer than the one you might have seen before.
Still, unless I get some much needed help in the coding department, this map will stay on permanent hiatus forever, and it's been influencing my abilities as well as my mood when opening unrealed more and more.

An old profile with screenshots and an outdated download can be found here.

Fixed issues since Beta 1
*Solved: A large number of HOMS that were ruining certain areas.
*Solved: The number of zombies sometimes reaching up to 200 on 3 player games
*Solved: the way being completely unclear since the map is not linear, and you can pick multiple routes. (Added roadsigns)
*Solved: bots being pushovers and getting killed all the time. (Added a "bot armor" item which absorbs 70% of the damage they take. To compensate for the fact they won't run away from the zombies.)

Now, I have been working on this map for simply ages, and it looked fairly promising until I hit a roadblock.

Namely.

The NPC bots in the map.
No matter what I do, I can't get them to work properly.
I tried making them as a subclass from the UT bots and they worked, but get kicked in online matches.
I tried making them as a subclass of the unreal bots And they did not want to attack the zombies at all.
I tried using the pawns in operation na-pali but they turned on me instead, and naturally the bots started shooting at them.

All I want is a simple pawn, that patrols around their 'base' and attacks zombies,
does not attack players or bots, and cannot damage them or take damage from them.

But every attempt I have made simply failed.

Currently the map is 'playable' but it has a few bugs which keep me from releasing the map:

Things that HAVE to be fixed before I can release the map:
-Working NPC characters.
-Some balancing in the monsters (I can do this myself)

Things I would like fixed but which I will release the map with even if they can't be solved:
-Handgun Reload animation and shotgun double-barrel fire animation do not show up online on clients.
-Minigun and sniper skins look strange in either first or third person. (I have no idea if this can be fixed at all, without using custom models)

Really, It's been literally years since I started this project (There was a VERY early demo on planetmonsterhunt ageing EIGHT years back) I am quite desperate for help here. Please.

[UTDeath]

I see you have been waiting for quite a while, huh? We'll get Half Life 3 before you finish this map.
Just kidding, now back to business.
Now if I get this right your bots should just guard a certain area and attack everything that is not another bot or player, right?
Well, I'm not the guy you should ask when it comes to pawns because I never work with them and there is a loathsome guy around here that is much, much, better than me at that but I can give it a try nonetheless.
Now weapons, I'm better at that so could you post pics of the weird looking guns? You should try Ferali's code, it works flawlessly.
I believe I'm quite good when it comes to skinning weapons.

[VatcilliZeitchef]

I see you have been waiting for quite a while, huh? We'll get Half Life 3 before you finish this map.
Just kidding, now back to business.
Now if I get this right your bots should just guard a certain area and attack everything that is not another bot or player, right?
Well, I'm not the guy you should ask when it comes to pawns because I never work with them and there is a loathsome guy around here that is much, much, better than me and that but I can give it a try nonetheless.
Now weapons, I'm better at that so could you post pics of the weird looking guns? You should try Ferali's code, it works flawlessly.
I believe I'm quite good when it comes to skinning weapons.

With bots I don't mean the default UT bots, but the type that is placed on the map that will hold certain areas.
As for the guns they are just re skinned UT99 and U1 weapons with heavily modified effects, since I can't model, and would not ask someone to model weapons just for my sake since I have tried and seen how hard it is.
The Second attachment is the skins how they should look, the first is how they look in third person when held. Which is horrible!

Top: Ges Biorifle into Grenade launcher
Primary fire: charges the weapon, on release it shoots out a powerful grenade that can blow up any number of (Normal) zombies, the longer you held the fire button the farther it fires.
Alt fire: Same as above, but if you possess a (Secret) it will fire that (secret) item instead.

Bottom Left: Minigun to Gatling gun.
MUCH higher damage than the normal minigun, can't run while firing.

Bottom Center: ASMD to Shotgun.
Primary fire: Fires deadly shrapnel in a forward cone
Alt fire: Fires both barrels in quick succession (Animation Broken online)

Bottom right: Sniper to Precision Rifle
Almost no damage on a body shot, 666 damage on a headshot, Silent kill. Custom scope texture.

Not shown since it has no custom skin: Handgun
Looks like the classic U1 Automag, 10 bullets per magazine, right click reloads the gun. (Animation broken online) Infinite magazines. Greatly increased damage on headshots.

[UTDeath]

I understood that.
You want some bots that are independent of the default ones and that they work as guards holding back the zombies from a certain area, am I right?
Like I said, I don't work with Bots, Pawns or monsters but I think I saw once the way they work and you can choose the type of pawn they are aggressive to, so you could use only the zombie class for that.
About their movement, I do not know about this but you can check the code for when they are on CTF defending the flag, that might do the trick.

And about the weapons... Great ideas.
And I love the look on the Sniper. Anyway, what you need is Ferali's code to use multiskins, it works perfectly and can be used on any weapon.
You can do a quick search for multiskins right here's a look for it.

[JackGriffin]

Al, I remember looking at the reload code and it was going to require a fairly intensive rewrite of the code for proper animations online. If no one else will do this I'll take a look at it this weekend and see how much work it would be. Ferali taught me a lot about this when I was working on the Food Fight stuff so I know how to do it, it's just finding the energy and gumption to get after things. I'd really like to get you finished on this map as I know it's been a long term labor of love.

Let's get together on Skype or some messenger format and talk. Do you do TS3? We can use Spooney's, he's cool about stuff like that. We can go text only, that's fine. My voice is shit now anyway. Get me back up to speed on these weapons and let me see if I can get you out the door on this map.

Memsys, I see you reading this too. Tell Al to give you my contact stuff if I can ever answer a question for you.

[Fuzz_Ball]

Hey Vat,
Are you still working on this map?
I've loaded it on Fuzz Ball's Funhouse and it is a gorgeous map!
There are many areas to explore and the town looks great!
Noone was sure how it ends but it just does abruptly; I was approaching the missile platform.

I'm not sure if there's a newer version but we are having fun exploring it.
One comment I would like to make is that the set input _ grab.
Some less saavy players might not read the note & understand at the beginning of the map.
If you'd like me to take it down (if it's not finished) , just say so, otherwise, it's a fun map.

[EvilGrins]

I've never finished the first release, but its still fun.

[memsys]

@ Fuzz_Ball, the map is still not finished due to lack of a coder (the bane of team Craysend) , meaning that the project is on hold until someone helps us with the code.
Once we have the much needed code the map should be finished quite soon because everything except the code to tie it all together is done.

[Red_Fist]

You can code it, if you have placed bots, just need to get your new bot in there. I do this a round about way and use mylevel.

I copy the whole code thing ,text, of the bot make a new class and paste the whole mess into my new class, goto the top and compile the new scripts only, Then place your new class,It should be high up on the tree not subclassed I made a few pawns under scripted pawn not below the bot classes. However I would go to the highest one, say under bots not scripted pawn, depending on the pawn you want.

then place a stock bot, and place your new one, your new one will be invisible, then type on the BOTTOM of the editor "editactor class=krall" in your case the new class name, AND type it again but use the stock bot class name.

put those property screens side by side, check every setting, there will be a new property called "none" either cut and paste the settings from the stock bot or change them by finding the skins and sounds. It's better to go find the new settings like textures, meshes, sounds with "use" some stuff may not take if you just paste. The other settings you can type in like the same health amount etc etc.

!!! Recompile the new classes .

The goal should be to end up with an identical class exactly the same as the stock class and working perfectly for the placed pawn. Once everything is set you can use a creature factory. You might even make a seperat room just to stash you new pawn outside the map untill it's right.

Then right click your new bot in the actor browser and hit the default, and change those to match the stock class, recompile the new classes, rebuild the map and save, along with the properties you changed you must also do the defaults right click the actor in the actor browser.

This won't work for MH, the only way to get a new thing in MH iis to make this new class, with everything the way you want in MyLevel, make a new test map non MH map, copy your bot, then open the mh and paste the new pawn.

But once you have it working as a stock map you can then edit the code or change whatever you want (not in MH) take MH out of the editor packages before you even think of making a new anything before pasting in MH.

But you need to set the "default" of the new class because UT will revert back to using botpack and always reset the stuff when online. And if it don't compile it's not to hard to find and fix, common sense mostly.

But you just need to find an area in the code that is something like, see pawn, if pawn is slith or whatever, you can then set the attitude to only attack that zombie class and it will not attack anything else though. You will need to add the zombies in a non MH map first.

So make new class right under scripted pawn, copy the whole mess from the not-player bot that I am not sure wich bot code to use.

It is a little tricky so just try it with some smaller code actor like a deco or something.

The other way, and probably the way you are supposed to do it is export all the classes, edit the text then use UCC to make a new .U file and add to packages. But I like doing it using mylevel and don't make a mylevel .u dot anything.

BUT what is cool is a test map you can stash a whole bunch of new stuff in mylevel, when you want to inject it into a MH map it is just a matter of pasting. like a stash map, or you can use it on other maps.

I know this is hard to read but maybe someone else can explain better in a few sentences.

If someone could make every pawn and gun or other things as a resource map all in MyLevel, we all could use that to place in other maps so we can modify them. Just a whole set of actors with different names but all stock settings.

Basicaly make some new actor in some new stock map, get it working, and in MyLevel.
The guy took out the code in MH to compile new actors, so all that is a seperate issue, just make it work as if MH never existed. Once done in MyLevel all you do is paste your new class.

[JackGriffin]

I've shared a compileable MH with fixed source code with most of you. Someone should post it openly if there are people who are still developing.

:waves at vat:

[UT99.org]

This MH2GoldSource Code ? http://unrealtournament.99.free.fr/utfi ... 20Code.zip

[Higor]

Meh, you don't have to do anything weird.

Subclass Bot, and make sure:
- Override the functions that call Level.Game.RestartPlayer( self);
- Define an actor to guard (by tag, PostBeginPlay() to find it using AllActors).
- Add a switch in WhatToDoNext() to put the bot in a custom state, name it CustomState
- Regen (1 per second when inactive/guarding, max health 200).
- Create CustomState with these 2 AI directives:
>> Engage enemy aggresively if no zombies around 512 units from guard point or self. (set Aggresiveness to 1)
>> Engage enemy defensively otherwise (Agg to -1)
>> Follow a fellow PlayerPawn if guard point is flooded with zombies.
>> Create an escape route and roam around until way back to guard is safe.
>> Hold position in guard point if no enemy and none of the conditions above is given.

I suggest not embedding, use a small U file during Beta.

[Red_Fist]

Well don't judge by the way I do things.

But it would be REALLY handy if someone did make a resource map(s) with all the pawns with a different name, all in MyLevel and just have the stock settings.

Then make one with all the weapons, then projectiles, then pickups.

Then you could just open that map, then open your map, and modify away in seconds time.

since they would all be in Mylevel it wouldn't cause package errors. but you could use all the gametypes and for the most part people only need to use a couple of actors and not shove everything in their MyLevel. I might make a tops of 3 new things for some map.

Ultimately have every placeable actor in categories of actor maps. Like a key point map, deco map, and so on.

It matters less if it wasn't for the guy deleting all the text in MH

[VatcilliZeitchef]

Ah, sorry all, been away for quite a bit, Memsys just pointed this out to me again today, I must say, I did not expect so much response after the thread was pretty much dead.

I will try all these things out as soon as I can!

[EvilGrins]

Nearly choked on my soda...

An old profile with screenshots and an outdated download can be found here.

...reading GoPostal/JackGriffin's first comment directed at an earlier commenter.

Are you familiar with the HellDemon monster? It's mapped on an old unreal1 player model. I was thinking if you wanted to toss a random skin on some zombie on your map, borrowing the one from that thing might work for your purposes.

Just my .02¢