Nali Weapons 3 - Release

[Feralidragon]

I can totally understand you ...If you need help ...concept graphics or textures for your next project, feel free to ask me.

Thanks. What I am planning to do is rather complex, but has potential judging by the concepts that actually worked with other games worldwide, but it will highly depend on new content to be developed even post-release to make the gameplay more varied and interesting.
For now I will only plan and do the core of the game and some content for it alone (and it will probably take a good while), and if I get to finish the basics ever (I plan to, but you never know...), then I may start recruiting developers (modelers, sound and music artists, texture artists, etc) just to add more content to it.
This also has the advantage that I can release the game in alpha state or closed beta sooner since I don't have to worry with mismatches online (which was also why I couldn't release public betas or unfinished content relative this mod).

Anyway, it's all still very rough in thought and I still need to practice with the tools a lot more to start what I want more seriously. I also need to study the structure of UDK better to understand how the whole code interacts and which features I must consider, and how do weapons actually work there. Right now all I can say is that it seems to be very easy to understand to whoever knows at least 70% of the current UEngine, and it's actually easier to handle (for instance, replicated functions are declared in the function itself rather than a replication block, which is pretty neat, and weapons have already tons of handlers for animations, different firemodes and whatnot, and finally they put the offline state together with the online state in a simpler unique state, this was a huge flaw with UT too), and the whole code is commented unlike in UT (actually too many comments there for my taste, but useful for newbies like me).

[EvilGrins]

This isn't really a bug, per se, but it's interesting.

You know how I like putting monsters onto DM maps? Well, i put some SkaarjGunners on a map with NW3 going and it turns out that sometimes they can only fire a weapon once. Nukes they can fire once and even if they're still hanging onto it they can't fire it again. Similar issue with the MultiMissile launcher, but not all the time...

...could be just confused by the multiple kinds of rockets.

[papercoffee]

It must have to do with the monsters script itself, because Bots know very well how to use the NW3 weapons. I know it, because I get powned very often by them with the new weapons.

[EvilGrins]

It must have to do with the monsters script itself, because Bots know very well how to use the NW3 weapons. I know it, because I get powned very often by them with the new weapons.

Bots kick-butt with all the NW3 weapons.

I even summoned PlayerBots into a map, and they were deadly beyond all possibility with it.

No idea what's up with the SkaarjGunner though.

[Feralidragon]

Well, in short, UT bots were designed to be smart and work well, while monsters are simply the left overs from Unreal thus they may indeed have some issues sometimes.
Also, probably the ammo is running out and they are not switching weapons (because they have no further weapons?), thus keeping the weapon up but not being able to fire.

[JackGriffin]

Unless there's some strong justification for me to do anything further (in the form of a strong player base in at least 1 server), then this is it, end of the road. If they are around, they sure are silent.

It's not hard to read between the lines here so let me be pretty direct Ferali.

Developers leave two things in UT: a body of works, but they also leave a legacy. One thing this battle I'm in has taught me is that it's vastly more important to have a good legacy because works are just works. I've wept some bitter tears over the fighting I was involved in and the trouble I caused and even though I have a semi-decent body of works I'll leave, my legacy is overwhelmingly negative and will always be that way.

You however have set the absolute gold standard of both works and legacy. Your projects have been all the adjectives used to describe them (and more) but don't forget your legacy. No one I have seen has done more to help the random coder than you. Your name is synonymous with goodwill and positiveness and I've never seen you demonstrate anything less than fair and even treatment even when it was people like KAAL attacking you. Hell, let's be honest and admit that to a large degree UT99.org spins around your presence here. If you were to leave then you'd immediately see how important you are simply in name.

People may not be flocking back to UT in droves to play again but dammit you've done so much more than created mods. You fostered growth of many new developers and coders and gave them someone to emulate. Someone will always come along and do a better "new shiny gun" but they can never improve upon your legacy.

[EvilGrins]

Also, probably the ammo is running out and they are not switching weapons (because they have no further weapons?), thus keeping the weapon up but not being able to fire.

Skaarj Military 101: They never run out of ammo. Dunno if it was deliberate or not, though it probably, was, but any of the Skaarj that use weapons automatically have constantly the same amount of ammo at all times. With the possible exception of the redeemer, their ammo count remains the same, no matter how many weapons they're carrying.

It's freaky.

[Dr.Flay]

I totally agree with your comment on Ferali, he is one of the most professional developers I have had the pleasure of talking to.

Thinking out loud now, you don't need to answer the following. They are just thoughts to bounce around.
I did suggest that a new NW3 sig is made for the NW devoted

A replacement sig is far more noticeable than a thread, as it will immediately populate every post you have already made.

How many of you here for example, also post at the Epic forums?
They do not have a UT99 section, where you can post about NW3, but a sig change will spam every thread you posted in.

Those try NW love it, so the reason has to be lack of exposure in the right places.
I'll have a word with some of the loud and opinionated vid-blog-game-reviewer people that visit Loading games cafe, and see if I can persuade any ex-UT99 players to review it.

I've been avoiding Farcebook for a while. Anyone here posting on the UT page ?
Spa... er.. post a few screenshots there...

It is noticeable that I think we mostly share the same opinion on the Beyond Unreal forum, and I think that due to our lack of enthusiasm over there, it has not made much impact at BU.
(Dare I suggest that Grins spearhead a screen-shot spamming campaign?... No I don't think the world has the bandwidth. )

Who here has asked a server admin to add it to their fave server?
How about skimming through the server/clan section here, and posting in those threads or visiting clans and asking ingame?


@Jack. We all have our flaws and regrets, but wise people learn from them, and you have shown yourself to be a wise man, so stop beating yourself up.
Some of the first truly useful tutorials I found, were written by a certain "Gopostal"
These helped me start to get to grips with what is going on in UEd, not just how to make something.
I have never thanked you for them, as they were written so long ago.
Thankyou Kelly for helping this seeker of knowledge on the journey to Unreal enlightenment.
Thankyou for tearing yourself away from UT2K4, to come back to the old jalopy.

You may get short-tempered and grumpy, but so does Creavion, and we still love him too

[-=SoP=-axewound]

Ferali, you should be proud of this release, you've pushed the engine to it's limits and it looks fantastic .
I am excited to hear you are looking to UDK. You really need to monetize your talents and I think UDK is the vehicle for you to do this.

[EvilGrins]

I'm on a couple FB UT pages. Posted some screenshots there already, as have some others.

Oh, added it to another forum:
http://www.globalunreal.com/forums/view ... ?f=9&t=498

[Feralidragon]

@Jack: Thanks for the words, but probably you are misunderstanding, I don't intend to leave the community itself. It's likely I will stick around at least to help and check what other mappers and modders are still comming up with these days (seen a couple of interesting projects this year, like that titan from Qtit, really impressive), and to help with any question I can answer in the meanwhile.

I will just stop making mods for UT since there isn't a player base that worths it (in number mostly I mean, and starting a few months back, the community from the most popular server around isn't actually getting better and it's turning in the kind of 12-year olds community just like other newer games... so...).
Also, my "legacy" is nothing compared with other modders and mappers around imo (Wormbo for example? He helped with UnrealWiki after all and although he's not doing mods either, he's still around). Also I don't think my presence here makes this forum any different from what it already is, since the community makes the forum, not the moderators/admins alone (and even if that was the case, Paper and Gen have been doing a hell of a good job so far). It's a friendly and useful forum since people make it that way, and that's why I will still stick around.

@Flay: On Epic forums they simply do not give a damn anymore. UT is simply dead and buried over there.
On BU, what happened was simple: I PMed hal asking if it was ok for him to post the NW3 news (this before the actual release), and he told me "sure", then I PMed him on the day of the release to post the news. Didn't receive a reply nor the news were posted up until now.
Plus there are a few trolls there who like to anonymously roflstomp the mod, so heh...

@-=SoP=-axewound: Thanks, not sure if I am going to monetize what I am planning to do, but if I do, it will be a free to play (but not pay to win, as it would suck), but idk yet since with monetization development becomes a bit more complicated with all the legal issues around, licensing and whatnot....

@Everyone: Like I said, I will make a final NW3 release (aimed for fixes and addons mainly) and a last map (for the contest), probably the latter before the former.
From there, the "shop is closing", as far as mod and map making goes, but I will still be around anyway.
I am planning to do a new FPS in UDK, but this FPS will be far different from every other, and it should be enjoyable either you like to play UT or even slow paced games like CoD.
I am not sure when I will have something ready, but this is going to be something way more serious than anything I have developed, and also more complex with all the elements I want to add, although it should be easier in some fields as I don't have to build certain things from scratch like I had to with UT. I can already say some elements of X-Vehicles and NW3 will be borrowed, but probably not the way you think.
In resume, probably you won't hear from me (development wise) for a good while after my last releases.

[papercoffee]

@-=SoP=-axewound: Thanks, not sure if I am going to monetize what I am planning to do, but if I do, it will be a free to play (but not pay to win, as it would suck), but idk yet since with monetization development becomes a bit more complicated with all the legal issues around, licensing and whatnot....

Hmmm... will your game have a solid base for mods like UT did ...only a Question because I am ...interested.

[Feralidragon]

^ Yeah, sure. This game will be rather dependent from content to be successful anyway (weapons, parts, deco, mechanisms, and I would enum the rest of the content but I would spoil too much about the concept). The fact is going to be made on UDK makes it susceptible for that either ways.
Anyway, it will take a while to even do the basics since I didn't even start it yet, and I still have some planning and concepts to draw on paper first (I rarely draw concepts, but this time I will need to do them for guidance lol), and until I actually present something done, don't count with anything just yet, as we never know the day of tomorrow.

[papercoffee]

to draw on paper first

[JackGriffin]

to draw on paper first

People still do that?