INIsDragons

Maps, mods and resources ported from or to Unreal.
Must run in UT99 or with Oldskool Amp'd.
Unreal 227 only projects are "Off-Topic"
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papercoffee
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Re: INIsDragons

Post by papercoffee »

JackGriffin wrote:The 'amount' of nature is admin configurable. There are settings for adding dangerous forest creatures too. In testing I'm seeing some slowdowns (you can tell towards the end of the video) so I didn't go crazy with this. When the time comes I'll need some feedback to decide the default levels. It may be that my system is just anemic.

Dragons cannot fight each other (Ini's did not) but I set them configurable as to whether they will attack other monsters. They will nearly always choose to attack a player though, even if they are across a map.

BTW I took your advice and added a freezing option to the Ice Dragon. If his primary ball hits a monster, bot, or player they will be frozen in place then shatter a few seconds later.
ok... that's sounds cool ...no pun intended.
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Re: INIsDragons

Post by EvilGrins »

Was kinda wondering something: I don't recall seeing any sign of it in the ut2004 versions...
Image
...but will your dragons have melee attacks when they're in close range? Something subtle, like grabbing players in their mouth and chomping them to death.
JackGriffin wrote:There is a very interesting (and what should be pretty obvious) back story for the hidden dragon. Bear in mind that this is the same maker of the "Rainbow Rifle" and it all starts to become clearer.
For a second there I was picturing the "secret dragon" being something along the lines of the Nyan Cat redeemer.
JackGriffin wrote:Think I might have overdone the Fire Dragon. He's just plain nasty, you won't be getting away from him.
I don't know if Unreal1 has the map, but I find the best place to checkout new monsters that can fly is HallOfGiants. Lots of flying room, low-grav, plenty of room to maneuver... and exactly where I could out distance that butane breather.
JackGriffin wrote:Nature dragon already does that. It spawns grasses, flowers, even butterflies, fireflies, and rabbits.
I see that the Walt Disney Borg Collective has assimilated you.
JackGriffin wrote:Dragons cannot fight each other (Ini's did not) but I set them configurable as to whether they will attack other monsters.
Kinda assumed that would be a thing, given most monster classes in a default DM setting don't fight the same class but will others (Skaarj don't fight Skaarj but will fight Krall) and the like.
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medor wrote:Replace Skaarj with EvilGrins :mrgreen:
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Re: INIsDragons

Post by JackGriffin »

I removed the melee part of the dragons. They just don't need it and the animations for the melee are really poor. You can't tell that's what the dragon is doing when it damages you. The effect was not good. I was able to preserve a pretty good taunt anim, look for it after you get killed :)
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Re: INIsDragons

Post by EvilGrins »

In the most recent video, at 4:08, you can see a dragon from the side and there's this gray thing wrapped around it just in front of it's forward limbs.

Is that a saddle?

Looks like each dragon has the same kind of "harness" on it.
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medor wrote:Replace Skaarj with EvilGrins :mrgreen:
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Re: INIsDragons

Post by JackGriffin »

You are correct. Ini added a saddle to each one. In fact there is no reason the mesh couldn't be used as a pilot-able vehicle (a la strangelove). That's be pretty cool actually...Anyway that's something for someone else to do.

I did a ton over the weekend on these. This is the current readme and will tell you everything so far:
Spoiler
<This readme is a WIP>

<Backstory here>

Meet the dragons:
-Nature is green and attacks by shooting a root ball at you. This ball will break apart on impact and seed the surrounding ground, causing plants and animals to grow up. Be careful, some of them can be dangerous themselves.
-Ice is white and attacks by shooting a ball of ice and snow at you. This can have seeking abilities and it can also freeze you solid if it hits you.
-Earth is brown and shoots rocks. These can seek you so be very careful you don't get hit.
-Wind is yellow and fires blasts of air that can send you flying. He is very dangerous if you can fall off of or into something and is best used in that environment.
-Fire is red and is the ideal of what a dragon should be. His breath will burn you to a crisp and will catch things on fire it hits. Careful, it can spread.
-Ion is black. Not started yet.

There are rumors of a seventh dragon, though those are not confirmed. I'd love to know the truth....

INI FILE EXPLAINED

All dragons have these settings:
"DoPatrolCircles=True" -Setting this to true will cause the Dragon to lazily fly patrol. He will spawn into the map already flying. Setting this to false will cause him to drop to the ground and wait like a normal monster to be triggered. When patrolling he will break from that routine if he sees an enemy and once he leaves patrol he will not go back to doing that.
"CircleRadius=2000.000000" -If you have the dragon set to patrol he will stay within this radius from the point he is placed. He will stay generally on the same plane unless he encounters a wall or obstacle as he patrols. If that happens he will try to go over it. It's best to make patrols cover empty space.
"BoostUp=1000" -When the dragon spawns into the map it will fly straight up this much then land and go dormant. Because they are so big this will let them properly enter the map and place themselves correctly.
"AttackOtherMonsters=True" -Lets the dragon attack other monsters. It will not seek them out, it will only attack if another monster bumps it or shoots it. Even if it does attack another monster it will always choose a player over that monster to attack if it sees one.

SnowBigRockPrimary is the Ice Dragon's projectile. EarthDragonRockPrimary is the Earth Dragon's projectile and it shares most of these settings too. They are:
"FreezePawns=True" -True means that any pawn hit by the iceball will be instantly frozen and will shatter. Yes, it's one hit death.
"UseSeekingCode=True" -Turns on the seeking code in the iceball.
"TargetMonsters=True" -Allows monsters to be targeted by the seeking code also. I'd use this if you want the seeking code, it looks better.
"RockSpeed=900" -Speed the iceball travels.
"TurnRadius=100" -Adjust this to make the iceball 'turn' tighter or looser. 100 is a good value, not too deadly but it will certainly seek you.

NatureDragonRock is the Nature Dragon's projectile it has these two settings:
"NatureAmountMax=5" -The number of grass, ferns, etc is controlled by this. Five is a pretty good setting as higher can cause some lag on weaker systems. Lower it down to three or four if you feel like it slows your game down at all.
"UseDangerousCreatures=True" -Setting this to true gives a small chance that the nature rock will also spawn a dangerous creature that will attack you. Dangerous creatures are flies, mantas, and predators.

CREDITS:
Dragon skins were done by Iniquitous as well as some of the base code.
Some code and models used from U4E.
I'd do another video but they are really time consuming to make. I think I'll wait and do it when everything is done. These dragons are done with visuals in mind so they have a lot of effects. They are very powerful and would do best as end bosses in levels, etc. Throwing a ton of them into a map is going to stress the hell out of the game so you've been warned. ETA on completion is early next month.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
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Re: INIsDragons

Post by MrLoathsome »

Very nice stuff. Looking forward to watching these fight with those dragons that Leo posted recently.
I will scale the damage from each as needed to make it a fair fight, so make sure your AI is smarter. :lol: :lol2:

And while I am here, I CHALLENGE you to make them fly upside down.
:satan:

(j/k) :wtf: :highfive:
blarg
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Re: INIsDragons

Post by JackGriffin »

Been working on the Ion Dragon:
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Image

Might have these done for online testing during New Years Day. I'll let you guys know.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
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Re: INIsDragons

Post by Dr.Flay »

Could NW3 provide the effects for a UT port, or is the limitation an animation problem ?
The Skeletal anim patch certainly allows the Chrek model plenty of extra limbs and movement.
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Re: INIsDragons

Post by JackGriffin »

You can't really patch a fix for what 227 provides. It has mesh support and effects classes that far surpass anything you could do with UT's UScript. Some things just have to be done natively. You could strip all that out and import the model to UT but that's all you'll end up with: another boring monster. The visuals are what really make this interesting.
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Re: INIsDragons

Post by Leo(T.C.K.) »

JackGriffin wrote:You can't really patch a fix for what 227 provides. It has mesh support and effects classes that far surpass anything you could do with UT's UScript. Some things just have to be done natively. You could strip all that out and import the model to UT but that's all you'll end up with: another boring monster. The visuals are what really make this interesting.
You mean anything that is not outright easy to do.
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Re: INIsDragons

Post by EvilGrins »

Outta curiosity, how much health are you giving these dragons? Average 100 or like the Warlord, which has 1100.
Leo(T.C.K.) wrote:You mean anything that is not outright easy to do.
Jack's importing a dragon to Unreal1 from ut2004. If he says it's harder to put it into ut99, just imagine how hard it is to get it into U1.

This is not a guy who strives to avoid a challenge.
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medor wrote:Replace Skaarj with EvilGrins :mrgreen:
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Re: INIsDragons

Post by JackGriffin »

I appreciate that EG. Thank you.

Just a quick example of what I'm talking about Leo: See those blue lines behind the dragon's wings? Those are emitters that are linked to bones in the dragon's skeleton. 227 lets me attach those with a simple

Code: Select all

		WingTip = Spawn(class'IonDragonTrailEmitter', Owner,,,);
		AttachActorToBone(WingTip, 49);
The trailemitter class is baked into 227 and I didn't have to do anything but import my custom textures to use in it. It couldn't be any easier. Now go open 'RocketMk2' and look at the hassle it takes to create a trail without these abilities.

Yeah, you could probably hammer out some sort of mimic thing in UT but it's not going to be nearly as good. This sort of thing requires the speed of native code access. Even if you could mimic that level of speed you still lack the inherit mesh abilities that 227 has. I can make glowing eyes for monsters that track with the head movement. Try doing that any way you want in UT.

As an aside I started to form a rebuttal to "the easy route" comment but I think it requires a bit more response than just a knee-jerk comment. So here goes...

I code and create because I enjoy the process. I make weird shit, I get that. Guns that shoot fish carcasses, redeemers that fire tables and spaceships, misogynistic dancing chicks, monsters that do all kinds of super fucking weird shit, tools that let you have xray vision or full control of the doors, Food Fight...Some of it was good, some of it sucks ass, most of it is 'meh'....BUT what it all has in common is that I went "I wonder how you <fill in the blank>" and off I went to find out. That kind of pursuit takes me to some strange places but it's enjoyable for me to go for the ride.

I don't have any sort of master plan, I just go with what looks like fun and will be a challenge to do. The Dragons are a good case in point. Ini made them a certain way and I've struggled to preserve that with a more limited toolset. I know no one will end up using them. No one used the Killing Floor Christmas monsters, The XMas Titan, hell no one plays Food Fight. It just doesn't matter to me though because my fun is had in getting to the destination. Once I'm there I'm pretty much done with it and looking to something else.

So yeah, I do weird shit. I'm proud of that even if it's not all loved. One thing I don't do though is the easy route.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
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Re: INIsDragons

Post by Emperor »

Dragons, For UT?
O.3.o
...
Yes please.

What about a Light, Darkness, Death, Force, Psionic Dragon Types? :3
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Re: INIsDragons

Post by Leo(T.C.K.) »

Yes, that's what I meant. And I checked out the Killing floor christmas monsters myself, if it wasn't for a dozen of projects I'm running I would be actually using them in some map I'd make for fun.
I didn't know anything about xmas titan or what it is though.

Emperor: if you want you can also check out the "Unreal Dragon"s I released, which is based off an unfinished and cut Unreal monsters. The Dragon was one of the first fully skinned and partially animated monsters created for Unreal, the first screenshots of it going as far back as August 1995 and being present in the september 1995 monster-preview leak.
Those dragons are very specific though and very Unreal. I remember Kew likening them to "winged nalicows" or something and not really a look he would typically associate them with dragons when I offered him I could make flying dragon replacements for some of those birds in his maps.
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Re: INIsDragons

Post by JackGriffin »

Last update video:
IiAgyB_1dZ8
The Ice Dragon's snow follows him around and it's totally configurable (size, frequency, etc). Nature Dragon has a ton of configs so you can crank the spawn effects as high as you like. I should have these released in map form early next month.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
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