My Custom Mods - GitHub

[1337GameDev]

I have created a bunch of various mods while learning UnrealScript, and did things to demonstrate code to others, as well as made helper utilities others can use in their own mods without needing to write a bunch of code for boring stuff and get right to the fun part

I made sure to add lots of comments, and even added extensive documentation in the repo README.

https://github.com/1337GameDev/Ut99Mods

Please let me know what you think, and what you'd like to see

There's quite a lot here ha

[OjitroC]

Yes, some interesting stuff there - I came across the repo some time ago and tried out one or two things (including the Energy Sword, which I see is still a WIP).

Whilst GitHub appears to be a 'good forum' for developers to develop and store their projects (I say 'appears' simply because I don't develop stuff and so have no knowledge of how useful it actually is for developers), it is less than ideal for end users, especially if individual zips of each project are not made available, as they need to look in several folders to see if they have all the stuff for a particular mod and, of course, they require a clear explanation of what each mod is/does. I would suggest that GitHub is not ideal for project presentation.

I have no desire to be negative especially as considerable time and effort has obviously been expended in producing the various gametypes and weapons but I would suggest that if you want to attract end users then you need to use a forum where a gametype, for example, can be clearly explained and screenshots and/or videos of it in action can be provided so that users can get a feel for it and can decide if it is something for them to try out (have a look at the way Buggie has approached the development and expansion of XVehicles on this forum - the code and assets are in a repo on GitHub but the mod itself is supported and illustrated on here by a copious amount of screenshots and videos, etc as well as each update being made available in a zip with everything needed to run it).

[1337GameDev]

Some very good points. I will add a releases section, as well as a section for pictures and overview of bigger things to attract users.

I sometimes forget that end users generally dislike GitHub and having to hunt for files even if it's spelled out and prefer to extract the mod files with a zip like I used to back in the day.

Thanks for looking and if you have ideas for more stuff to make, I'd be interested

[OjitroC]

Perhaps you could introduce one or two of your mods (a couple of the gametypes for example) on this forum as that may attract an 'audience' and then lead users on to explore your GitHub repo?

[OjitroC]

Thought I would try out one of the gametypes so decided on Infection.

Downloaded Infection.u but had to make my own .int as it does not appear to be possible to download the .int from the repo. Put those in my System folder and fired up UT - Infection didn't show up in the Gametypes menu.

The log indicated I needed LGDUtilities.u so downloaded that but had to make my own .ini for it. Put those in my System folder and fired up UT - Infection didn't show up in the Gametypes menu.

The log indicated I needed HaloAnnouncer.uax so downloaded that. Put it in my Sounds folder and fired up UT - Infection didn't show up in the Gametypes menu. The log said

Spoiler

DevLoad: Loading: Package Infection
Log: Failed import: Package Package HaloAnnouncer.Infection (file ../Sounds/HaloAnnouncer.uax)
Warning: Failed to load "Infection": Can't find Package in file "Package HaloAnnouncer.Infection"..
Warning: Failed to load "Class Infection.InfectionGameInfo": Can't find Package in file "Package HaloAnnouncer.Infection"..
Warning: Can't find Package in file "Package HaloAnnouncer.Infection".

Not quite sure what's going on there - obviously the Package Infection isn't in the uax file - there is a sound Infection but that is HaloAnnouncer.Announcer.Infection.

As I suggested before, it will be much easier for people to try the gametypes if each gametype is in its individual zip file with all the files needed to run it. I had a look at the Readme and there is no indication, as far as I could see, that I needed those two other files.

[Old UT Veteran]

Some very good points. I will add a releases section, as well as a section for pictures and overview of bigger things to attract users.

Yes, please do. It would also make it easier for others to just download the files ready to drop into the game folder without having to compile each individual mod.

[1337GameDev]

I have created a releases section and a convenient zip file. Just extract to your ut99 folder and enjoy

And yeah, halo announcer has voice lines, and the utilities class is generally needed for all the mods as it simplified code reuse.

Sorry about the inconvenient installation. Should be easier now

PS: I have a few bugs I fixed with the guided energy lance weapon's tick function not being disabled and allowing zooming when it's not selected. And fixed an issue with the c4 being assigned to inventory group 0, instead of 1.

I'll deploy that version a bit later today after some testing.

[OjitroC]

I have created a releases section and a convenient zip file. Just extract to your ut99 folder and enjoy

Do you have an idea why I couldn't get Infection to run as noted in my earlier post?

[1337GameDev]

I have created a releases section and a convenient zip file. Just extract to your ut99 folder and enjoy

Do you have an idea why I couldn't get Infection to run as noted in my earlier post?

Yup, you need the halo announcer U file and the sounds/HaloAnnouncer.uax sounds file.

The releases zip should have everything necessary for that, including all INTS that go in the system directory.

[Gustavo6046]

Whilst GitHub appears to be a 'good forum' for developers to develop and store their projects (I say 'appears' simply because I don't develop stuff and so have no knowledge of how useful it actually is for developers), it is less than ideal for end users, especially if individual zips of each project are not made available, as they need to look in several folders to see if they have all the stuff for a particular mod and, of course, they require a clear explanation of what each mod is/does. I would suggest that GitHub is not ideal for project presentation.

Luckily, with ModBuild one can make GitHub, or even GitLab, build your mod for you, and provide a zip of that build :D

For example, I just imported MushMatch to GitLab, whose CI executed the CI pipeline script (.gitlab-ci.yml). Through the admittedly crappy CI interface (GitLab's interface sucks ass, but their CI is blissfully easy and generous compared to GitHub's, and Gitea, which I love, has none at all ;-;), I can find the "artifacts" of the build:

https://gitlab.com/Gustavo6046/MushMatc ... ch/latest/


(These files are identical in everything, except the archive format. And yes, you can download one instead of clicking the "Download artifacts archive" button.)

[OjitroC]

Luckily, with ModBuild one can make GitHub, or even GitLab, build your mod for you, and provide a zip of that build

I am sure one can and that's good. I hope more people make use of your work.

However the essence of the point I was making was in the the last sentence.

The world of UT mods and gametypes is well populated - to 'sell' a new mod and compete an already crowded market (as it were) one needs to present the mod in a way that reaches a wide audience and, at the same time, attracts that audience, enticing them and, basically, captivating them "That looks interesting, I think I'll try that". So one needs to provide a detailed description of the mod/gametype, some screenshots and, ideally, a video of it in action - what Buggie has done with XVehicles is a good example of this.

In my view none of that can be done easily on GitHub - I suppose I should have been more explicit in my original comments - this forum provides a excellent platform for presenting a new mod/gametype to the world - it gets a lot of traffic, it's going to come higher in search engine hits than a site buried on GitHub (try a search for UT 99 mods and see where the OP's original post on here comes - it comes a lot higher than the GitHub repo) and there is space to set all out the info and graphics needed to present the mod/gametype in the best way. Not to use this forum in this way seems to me to be an opportunity missed but there you go ...

---

Automatically merged

Should the HUD radar work in any gametype (lke DM or MH)? Does it show only Players/Bots or does it also show ScrptedPawns?

[Gustavo6046]

I mean... I don't think the UT modding scene is saturated.

If anything it's relatively scant in so many kinds of mods, beyond your run of the mill novelty mutator at least. It does have a generous number of gametypes, and a baker's handful — or five of those! — of large scale weapon mods.

But I feel like there is so much potential, just waiting to be tapped. I mean, we tasted some of that with the recent X-Vehicles maintenance releases (thanks Buggie, you're awesome! <3) — I got hooked and couldn't stop playing maps with the damn thing for like, weeks! I still fire up my game every now and then to try out some random mods, including XV.

UT with modding is insanely replayable, but there is still a lot of unexplored territory. If even such an old game as Doom can be revitalized by level sets like Eviternity or Ancient Aliens, or by advanced total conversions like Hideous Destructor, imagine what we aren't doing back in UT land!

How old is Nali Weapons 3 again?

(Yes, I know — NW3 was stretching the limits of what was possible with just UnrealScript. But still, I don't mean like, going above and beyond it with the same kind of mod. I mean a new concept altogether.)

[OjitroC]

I mean... I don't think the UT modding scene is saturated.

If anything it's relatively scant in so many kinds of mods, beyond your run of the mill novelty mutator at least. It does have a generous number of gametypes, and a baker's handful — or five of those! — of large scale weapon mods.

That's not the point I'm making ... but there are a lot of mods around (1.1K on medor's site for example), the active playerbase is hardly rapidly expanding, the take-up of new mods is going to be limited (people tend to stick with what they know - the download numbers of new mods on here are not great), etc ... and so new mods need to be well-presented to attract an audience - that's not best done on GitHub - that's basically what I'm saying.

I'm also saying use this forum to present, say, a gametype as a taster to attract people to try out other of the custom mods.

[Feralidragon]

I am going ahead and also suggest to put your mods in ModDB: https://www.moddb.com/ .

And as for mods overall, I think it depends mostly on the mod category, and when it's released.

Spoiler

In general, if a mod only does a relatively small thing, or represents a small piece of content, then even with screenshots and videos no one will be that interested regardless.

As an example of that: the Squidy weapon I made was a small thing that was quickly forgotten about, and didn't have a whole lot of downloads and people trying out, despite having a video and such.
Which was expected, given that the modding scene is indeed filled with similar small mods that provide a very limited variation of gameplay, often not enough to pick the interest of someone to go through the trouble of downloading it, install it and try it out.

Adding to that, you also need to factor in that the community is shrinking.

Some players and such came back with the new patches, but the truth of the matter, which can also be seen in this forum, is that while some stuff has an apparent influx of activity, the reality is that it's the same people enthusiastically moving stuff forward, and not really new people joining the fray, or older people coming back.

Unless it's something truly exciting, or truly useful, even with good advertising the results will likely not be that great nowadays.

And even when it's exciting, you have to have some luck: in the case of XV, Buggie's continued support and updates, have led other people to start to work on maps to grow the XV content in order to make the mod actually relevant, which was absolutely great, but completely unexpected, especially nowadays.

NW3 itself was mentioned, and the mod will be 10 years old this year, which is almost half of the main game's age.
If I did a "NW4" nowadays (which is technically possible, especially under v469), and even if it went further beyond NW3 itself in every way, I am certain that it wouldn't have the same level of success, not even near it.

Even the timing of NW3 original release was already a tad too late in that regard back then, and it was a real stroke of luck that it went to be as successful as it got to be at the time, especially with Epic taking notice of it and advertise it on their main channels at the time, something I didn't even imagine happening back then, and something that will likely never happen again for UT99 content, since their focus is completely elsewhere.

If I took another year to release it, I am pretty sure it wouldn't be even half as successful, let alone nowadays.

[1337GameDev]

I am going ahead and also suggest to put your mods in ModDB: https://www.moddb.com/ .

And as for mods overall, I think it depends mostly on the mod category, and when it's released.

Spoiler

In general, if a mod only does a relatively small thing, or represents a small piece of content, then even with screenshots and videos no one will be that interested regardless.

As an example of that: the Squidy weapon I made was a small thing that was quickly forgotten about, and didn't have a whole lot of downloads and people trying out, despite having a video and such.
Which was expected, given that the modding scene is indeed filled with similar small mods that provide a very limited variation of gameplay, often not enough to pick the interest of someone to go through the trouble of downloading it, install it and try it out.

Adding to that, you also need to factor in that the community is shrinking.

Some players and such came back with the new patches, but the truth of the matter, which can also be seen in this forum, is that while some stuff has an apparent influx of activity, the reality is that it's the same people enthusiastically moving stuff forward, and not really new people joining the fray, or older people coming back.

Unless it's something truly exciting, or truly useful, even with good advertising the results will likely not be that great nowadays.

And even when it's exciting, you have to have some luck: in the case of XV, Buggie's continued support and updates, have led other people to start to work on maps to grow the XV content in order to make the mod actually relevant, which was absolutely great, but completely unexpected, especially nowadays.

NW3 itself was mentioned, and the mod will be 10 years old this year, which is almost half of the main game's age.
If I did a "NW4" nowadays (which is technically possible, especially under v469), and even if it went further beyond NW3 itself in every way, I am certain that it wouldn't have the same level of success, not even near it.

Even the timing of NW3 original release was already a tad too late in that regard back then, and it was a real stroke of luck that it went to be as successful as it got to be at the time, especially with Epic taking notice of it and advertise it on their main channels at the time, something I didn't even imagine happening back then, and something that will likely never happen again for UT99 content, since their focus is completely elsewhere.

If I took another year to release it, I am pretty sure it wouldn't be even half as successful, let alone nowadays.

This was my feeling.

I feel that if somebody is playing ut99 nowadays, that they'll have a basic understanding of installing raw mods, or can Google it very easily.

But I do want it convenient for users as I remember what it was like when I was younger and having to fiddle and get mods working. So a releases section is great. And idk if I want a CI pipeline right now, just for complexity that can bring, as I don't mind running a ucc make command and copying my build files.

But for larger projects, ABSOLUTELY I would have a script fetch the artifacts.

I should release on modDB, but GitHub was my main focus now to expose others and modders to my work so that I can improve and get feedback, while still getting pretty easy for non coders to try out.

But ask very good discussion and suggestions

I'll be adding some basic videos and pictures soon, but it's a bit finicky capturing stuff of decent quality with screen capture.

But I'm chewing through it lol