MonsterHuntArena tuning/smoothing

[sektor2111]

Old player might know this game-type or not - class integrated in default MonsterHunt (5.03 on purpose). It is a game-type spamming a lot of nasty errors and having malfunctions even in HUD based on a bad setup. Here it is a small mutator meant to do some corrections and even able to report some dumb MA maps which are not ending based on NO End or if end has some other setup than normal - good for debugging attempt in case of End failures.
Setup is described in PDF doc included and also how to create INI automated or manually - mod will not save INI when it does run for preventing multiple disk writes all the time, but it will trigger UT to save an INI according to instructions described.
A log might be as follows if ini file contains boolean bCheckBossLink=True:

Code: Select all

ScriptLog: Base Mutator is MA-Operation.MonsterBase0
ScriptLog: Mutators M_Arena.M_Arena
ScriptLog: Add mutator M_Arena.M_Arena
ScriptLog: Monster Arena mutator version 1.00 initializing...
ScriptLog: M_Arena0 has found MonsterHuntArena game-type running. Proceed operations...
ScriptLog: This map must be checked if ends correctly...

Given source-code improvements are welcomed + adding Bot Support using cheap tricks if map has paths but we don't see Bot crawling Boss's area.
Here it is the tool - Somehow Doc file is bigger than Mutator itself.

M_Arena.zip

(81.54 KiB) Downloaded 94 times

Questions goes bellow >>>

[EvilGrins]

Oh I do recall indeed! You may recall an old thread we had on Hermskii's forum, discussing how to possibly convert the MA maps to MH ones (which fell by the wayside when I found DU already had a number of them converted) but fun times...


MA maps I still got:

Spoiler

MA-64K-DarkSurvivor:
Your ship, not big enough to fit even really one person, crashed in a crater. You defend yourself from waves of monsters until a rescue vehicle comes and gets you. Map doesn't have any glaring errors.


MA-300K-Hexahedral:
Sort of a churchy feel, there's a somewhat visible Warlord that fires redeemers, and a few mantas around the place. Kill the Warlord to win.



MA-Invasion:
Crappy bot pathing, never played it all the way through to determine if it ever ends. Mostly SkaarjMilitary monsters, spawnpoint is at another location... you teleport in.


MA-Dour:
Arena setup, several SkaarjAssassins and one massively powerful Krall. Kill the Krall and you win.


MA-Monstrosity:
1 room, 1 corner has halls for defensive fighting. Monsters attack in waves, new ones entering through concealed panels and vents in the ceiling.


MA-Unnerved:
Arena setup, one mega-healthy Warlord and several pupae. Kill the Warlord to win.


MA-TheShit:
Not bot pathed well. Boxy passages, mostly underwater. Fight many sea creatures, kill the Queen to win.


MA-Source:
A Skaarj nest, teleport in from weaving tunnels surrounding it. Kill the Queen to win, guarded by pupae and SkaarjWarriors.


MA-Twilight:
Kind of a beachy resort feel, some Slith and a massive WaterTitan, kill Titan to win.



MA-Warlords:
Badly named map, as there's only 1 Warlord on it. Kill him to win, many pupae to get through.


MA-Warriors:
Arena feel, multiple energetic Skaarj with different abilities, each locked up and released after another is killed. Teleports in are kinda laggy.... went for a Stargate effect.

[Aldebaran]

I played for some days on a Survival Mod server. It was fun and I remembered the gold old UT2k4 Invasion times... It would be nice when the development of it not ends.

I have two offtopic questions:
What does a + at the end of a monster hunt map filename mean? Does it mean the map was fixed (shortcut for fix) ?
And what does SE in a filename mean generally? Second Edition or Special Edition?

[sektor2111]

What does a + at the end of a monster hunt map filename mean? Does it mean the map was fixed (shortcut for fix) ?
And what does SE in a filename mean generally? Second Edition or Special Edition?

//OffTopic
I'll try to explain with a slower voice as possible to not trigger a lot of readers.
I found in the past a nice somehow map but having in MyLevel only trash. A dude was flushing toilette and saving it as a MH-Map++.unr so map had a PLUS (perhaps at quality). Once map uploaded at Skillz's redirect, suddenly author was jumping so high disturbed by new ++ version. Actually he was very disturbed by a version error-free proving that he was a sort of AASS-HOOLE. Admins are not very loving generally what they do to their servers.
Aside, SE - Whatever that means, looks like not all that SE means a good work, some of them still having flaws disturbing at a moment.
In other random moment of UT Life I was speaking about a naming convention which others were wipping ass with it. For MH was "_AI" suffix with meaning that 99% map can be finished even by Bots (1% NOT because of server-crash) and generally a map revised. Some "_R" with meaning that map is a bit revised and Bot can move around at least covering player if won't end map itself. Oh well... I found some R embedded titles with Bot being retarded - Nothing, but Nothing was fixed. So since that moment of people's dumbness, I won't establish any convention anymore because is pointless to help admins in sorting stuff.
//End of Off Topic
The rest of MA were more or less messed up because of the default rule: "I am making a map - I'm unable to understand codes related things" direct result: You will FAIL. So our pussies were unable to load End trigger and/or linking it with Boss but not even to check a default functional one in how is set. However a few of them do really work. A major problem was still encountered, large number of errors based on stupid game-type default properties. Loading this mutator more prioritized leads in main changes before game to be initialized and then we have a bit of fine tuning. No worries, this game is not so popular so I can built a few other MA maps, said a few other because I did one functional with complete Bot Support.

[MrLoathsome]

Come on Sector, tell us what you REALLY think.

I think you are finding out why I have avoided mapping and MH as well.

[sektor2111]

Basically we have an Actor (creature, item, etc.) this Actor is using to do certain EVENT:
- Creature killed Should do EVENT;
- Item collected does an Event too;
- Kicker touched does Event itself (it doesn't need any trigger for this job);
- etc.

EVENT goes to an Actor target matching TAG, so Event from Source = TAG from Destination - that simple. In this case we have a giant End Trigger that has to be turned ON ending game. However adding trigger was challenging for an ass who did not even read what was Shrimp writing in docs and help files - USING TOP VIEW TO LOCATE END TRIGGER for setting up desired TAG.
Then we can adjust position of this end around a node closer to Boss and Voila -> we have Bot support as long as one of A.I. goals in MonsterHunt/MonsterHuntArena is MonsterEnd/MonsterArenaEnd triggers when are reachable - easy as a pie.

[EvilGrins]

Come on Sector, tell us what you REALLY think.

He can't... he's very shy.

[MrLoathsome]

Come on Sector, tell us what you REALLY think.

He can't... he's very shy.

Yes. Very shy.

I like it, because he keeps saying things that I am thinking.
But if I said them, I would say them differently and just PISS people off left and right.

We are not always looking at the same chapter, but when we are I think we are generally on the same page about how things
are working.

So much stuff out there is just not what you would call "optimized".