Legacy:Spoon/Developer Journal

2004-03-31

I've started port Sniper Arena over to UT2004. Most of it works, however the GUI is all messed up. First task is to learn how to do the UT2K4 GUI coding.

I was going through my old emails and discovered an old mutator I did for UT. It never got used due to UT2K3 coming out. It was a ban mutator. The mutator was designed to look like the UTPure package, even down to the INI entries. This trojan mutator would create ID numbers that looked like an IP address and store them in the SavedPasswords array. It was like a pre-GUID now used in UT2K3 and 4. The first time you connected, it would create this ID and hide it in your UnrealTournament.ini. When the person was

banned, it would just add the entry to the ban list. Sneaky :) Can you spot the fake UTPure?

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2004-03-24

Well in between log dates, I've released SA2K4 Lite and an update to it. Arena mode mutators are going to have a hard time with Assault maps that put in weapons like the spaceships on AS-MotherShip and the Ion Cannon on AS-RobotFactory. I had to create a list of weapons to keep in my INI files, in arena mode. That allows the admins to fix the problem as new maps come up. Making things configurable rules :)

I'm now starting porting over the full version of Sniper Arena. I'm reworking some sections to use the newer UT2004 code and because I'm more knowledgable in unrealscript than when I started that project back in 2002. There are better ways to do stuff. I'm going to be seeing how much the GUI stuff changed in the next few days. I'm hoping the UT2003 GUI stuff still works since I liked the clean simple look of it better for in-game menus.

2004-03-17

Excellent. Sniper Arena 2K4 Lite compiles and works. In the CheckReplacement function I had code to check all the weapons that are in a WeaponLocker. But beyond that, it was pretty much the same as UT2003.

The other change was PlayInfo. The way I did it in UT2003 didn't work, so I looked at UT2004's MutArena for an example. I did notice, and I'm not sure it was this was in UT2003, that PlayInfo creates a GUI config for "Configure Mutator." This was very nice.

Now to write up some nice docs and release it.

2004-02-27

I've got one mutator, Sniper Arena 2K4 Lite, done for UT2K4. It's a simple UT99 style sniper arena mutator, but using the UT2K4 sniper rifle model, no smoke cloud, and a fire rate of 0.60 seconds. It has a modified 2K4 sniper rifle scope, which removes the extra graphics in the HUD and puts the UT99 zoom readout in. You also can choose which game type to use the arena mode. If not in the list, it will simply replace the Lightning Gun and/or Classic Sniper Rifle with this weapon. So in Onslaught you can have all the normal weapons and the SA2K4Lite sniper rifle, and in Deathmatch have only the sniper rifle.

Just have to wait until 2K4 is release before I can compile it.

The "deLlama", as stated below, might become a bigger project that will focus on admin stuff. It would basically a mutator that would have a bunch of configuration options. Like removing map items, nerf'n items, replacing items, etc.

I also was thinking of a cool race game, like everyone else. The idea comes from Star Wars pod racing and the race in the anime Outlaw Star. The map would have gates you would have to travel through. It doesn't matter how you get there, you just have to go through the gates in the correct order. The view could be 1st person or 3rd person. The course would have adrenaline. The adrenaline combos would be something like speed, regen, gravity-reduction, momentum-reduction. Also some team type combos would be cool. The ships don't have weapons, however can be damage by running into the terrain or each other. It would support single and team play.

2004-02-20

I've been playing the demo, like everyone else. I like the new sniper rifle, nice and balanced. However it wouldn't work for a run and gun arena type game. So I'm going to created my sniper arena for UT2004, but make it a little smarter. In replacement mode, you can choose the game type and/or map it will replace the existing sniper rifle or lightning gun. That way, on an Onslaught map, you can keep the stock sniper rifle, but on a Deathmatch map use my sniper rifle.

I'm also thinking of make a mutator to remove little "annoyances" from the UT2004. These "annoyances" are based on the demo, but might make it to the release. For example, parking a Mantas over a destination point of a teleport. In this case, the player would destroy the Mantas instead of being gibbed. There are other which allow for a lower learning curve, however will get abused in the long run. For fun, I was thinking of called the mutator "deLlama" :)

2004-02-07

I'm finishing up Sniper Arena, since UT2004 will have the sniper rifle. I'm going to release 112 which will have a bunch of server options like shot distance, remove all health, allow adrenaline for events, etc and that will be it. Plus it will remove all reference to "Frnz", since the clan is now "Sniper Nation." (leader quit, took name with)

I'm dropping the Hit Prediction code since I don't have time to debug it. Maybe, if any thing, I can try to add it to the UT2004 sniper rifle as my Sniper Rifle contribution for 2004.

I'm also working on a quick frag-less translocator since it looks like all the custom translocators out there don't give you the option to turn that off.

2003-11-13

Freaky, HP code doesn't work well in Bombing Run. In fact, it performs strangely. I was shot dead by the ball runner, while the bot was holding the ball. It was like the bot said, "I'd like to kill this guy, but I've got the ball" and suddenly I was dead.

2003-11-12

I've managed to get the Spark's Hit Prediction code working. It however does a mutator "no no", it's sub classes GameReplicationInfo. I'd have to make hacks in order to get the Invasion and Mutant game types to work since they sub class GameReplicationInfo. So I'm going to see how I can avoid sub classing GRI. However, I'm being lazy about it. It's been about a year since I've started Frnz Sniper Arena, I need a little break.

I'm been playing with skins lately. I've redone the Rapier to be gold and black, and copper and black. I'm adding a custom voice pack which I created with the festival voice synthesizer. I've layered two different voices on each other, put them through a flanger effect to get a cool sounding Star Trek borg voice.

I've also been trying to fix a few maps that the skybox doesn't show up in network play but does in instant action. Really strange. The maps are SniperTown and DarkCity, which looks to be imported from UT.

2003-10-20

Frnz Sniper Arena 111 has been released. A few hours after, I started to integrated Spark's Hit Prediction code into what will become SA112. I just did the first network test. I had a few "None" access errors popping up, UT Secure not liking me over-riding some classes, and the sniper rifle wouldn't stop firing. However, when I managed to get a bot lined up, I didn't get the rubber bullets problem I normally get when shooting bots. So the first attempt I would call a success. Now I just to tweak out the warnings ... and the never ending rifle fire.

2003-10-15

Now I know what Dev Journals are for. You write out the problems you are currently having and by the end of writing a page worth of material, you discover the answer :)

Well I was going to write about a hack which I thought was necessary in order to get the server to replicate the same value twice. The problem was the client was clearing the value when it was done, but the server wasn't. However I needed to send the value a second time, and server wouldn't do it because the value was the same. In the end, I just created a simulated function and allowed (replicated) the client to call it on the server to clear the value in both places.

No hack needed, just needed to write out a huge description of the problem in order to see the solution :)

2003-10-10

Always wanted to create a development journal :)

Well, working on the release of Frnz Sniper Arena 111. Just finished of doing the one part I hate, which is updating the documentation. I still have the complaint from one server admin about the TL Mutator being the default weapon, even though I can't replicate this. Also got a complaint about "access none" coming from PutDown(), which I also don't get on my test server.

Frnz Sniper Arena 112 is going to be the "zero-ping" rifle which comes from Spark's Hit Prediction code. I have a lot of people asking for this, almost every day. I'm concern about cheating, since zero-ping in UT99 was a source of bots and such. However, might as well try it as see what happens.

Frnz Sniper Arena 113 is going to be pluggable media. I'm basically going to create hooks in the sniper rifle which would allow for different models, scopes, sounds, etc to be used. So if you wanted to create a custom night vision scope or replace the UT sniper rifle model with a handgun, you could.

I'm sure UT2004 will be out before 112, and defiently 113, are released. Even though UT2003 will add back in the sniper rifle, I'm going to maintain this mutator since it does more than just a regular weapon. I'll just make it so the UT2003 sniper rifle is an optional model, and maybe take it's damage code, so you can choose which one you would like.

My clan is wanting me to create translocator that doesn't telefrag and has control over the recharge rate. Also people wanting me to create a simple way to build team symbol packages. I've started to write a Visual Basic tool that will create these packages.

I also want to create a server control mutator which would allow admins to control all map pickups along with other stuff.

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Mythopus: HAHA, well, we're going to have to get Tarquin to fix that mistake :P