I played this map about a year ago and just found it again (thankfully)

http://swtproductions.tripod.com/


I had a great time playing though this one and I think many will have the same

Not sure about the history of where this map came from, but I think it definitely deserves a review on the site. GO MMAN GOOOOOOOO!

Oh, I finnaly got around to reading the ReadMe.rtf (surpised I didn't see that before). Here it is:

UMS Solaris

Author: Swordtail

A day ago, the Unified Military Services sector command lost contact with a powerful prototype starship, the UMS Solaris. The Solaris had been conducting standard reconnaissance near the planet “Na Pali” in order to determine the viability of setting up a tarydium mining facility on the planet. Fearing Skaarj involvement, UMS contacted you, a freelancer, to go and investigate, since you are the closest trustworthy unit available. Your orders: Determine the fate of the UMS Solaris, and, at all costs, prevent the ship from falling into Skaarj hands. However, shortly after you enter orbit of Na Pali, your shuttle comes under attack from Skaarj fighter craft. Your ship is quickly disabled as you try to land in the UMS Solaris' docking bay...

OK so that’s the obligatory happy-fun time-killer storyline B.S. Now to the important stuff:

Before you all say “OMG THIS IS TEH SH*T!” please bear in mind it’s my first map...ever. And the damn thing took me over A YEAR to make so someone better damn well enjoy it!


Installation Stuff:

Put all ".umx" files into your Unreal\Music folder, put all ".u" files into your \System folder, all ".uax" files into your \Sounds folder, and the ".unr" files go into your \Maps folder. Same as with any map or mod.

Note about the .utx files: ***READ THIS IF YOU HAVE UNREAL GOLD!!!!***

I used textures from the "Langs.utx" file, which is part of the Unreal Gold texture set. Unreal 224-225 (including if you patched it to 226f) doesn't have this file, but Unreal Gold DOES. If you're prompted to decide if you want to overwrite this file, say "NO!" Do NOT select "Overwrite" or whatever it's called. The reason is this: While the map simply looks for textures matching certain names and doesn't care about anything else regarding the .utx file the textures come from, servers DO. I don't think I've changed anything, but to be on the safe side, just don't overwrite Langs.utx. The map will still run fine without overwriting it, but if you overwrite your version of Langs.utx, there's a SLIGHT chance that you won't be able to join RTNP servers. Slight, but better safe than sorry.

If you don't have Unreal Gold, and installing doesn't prompt you to overwrite anything, none of that stuff I just said concerns you. Continue as normal.


Textures:

Got a lot of it from Ion Storm’s “Deus Ex.” Made a few myself, downloaded a few off of various websites but to be completely honest I can’t recall half of them. I made the doors myself (by altering a Deus Ex texture) and the rest is stuff I’ve thrown together from JPEGS I’ve had kicking around. Also took one or two from Star Trek: Armada II (by Mad Doc, published by Activision)

Langs.utx is from the Return to Na Pali expansion pack. If you already have UnrealGold you don't need to install this one, in fact I recommend that you don't overwrite the one you already have.


Sounds:

Ripped them off the internet as well, but it was so long ago I don’t recall the source. Any that I do remember would have gotten put into the various Actor classes, but check the code itself for acknowledgements. (ie the Cat code)


Classes:

Made most myself, sort of. Got one or two off the internet (see below), ported a few from Deus Ex, ripped a few out of UPak (another Unreal Gold thing). The custom decorations were made using the MeshMaker tool and parts of various Unreal maps. Others, such as the square-shaped PDA’s I made myself. The chairs came from the UMS Prometheus maps (Return to Na Pali).


Music:

swtMusic1.umx = isotoxin - necros\fm (found it on The Mod Archive). A better (IMO) quality version of the one in Unreal. After about a minute it'll start to sound familiar


Known Bugs:

For those of us who use Software Rendering (versus Direct3D or OpenGL or whatever rendering): You'll notice early on that the "draw the entire zone when looking through a portal" bug is a big one in this map. You'll look out a window and see entire decks drawn against what should otherwise be a solid hull. I'm sorry, but there's no way around this. The ship is so large that I quickly ran out of zones (you can have no more than 64 in Unreal), and had to choose game play over looks. If you are using D3D or some other rendering technique, this probably won't be a problem. Not that it really is to begin with; even some of the stock maps (Chizra, for example) have this bug.

Don't mess around too much with the elevators (turbolifts). I've set them to "Ignore_When_Encrouch" or "Crush_When_Encrouch" which means that they shouldn't be able to get stuck, but it also means you could accidentally fall to your death if you do something stupid like stand in the doorway as the elevator starts to move. (I think that one's a common sense thing for any situation...)

A few annoying BSP holes that just won't go away. One that comes to mind is the one at the back right corner of the command module (forward part of the ship). Happened because the two sections somehow got misaligned and I didn't notice until it was too late. No huge ones that I know of. (Except the main deflector dish airlock is a bit...annoying)


Acknowledgements:

Special thanks go out to the following people, without whom this map would either A) not exist or B) be a million times crappier:

Turboman - For his help teaching me the finer points of UnrealEd and occasionally giving me a swift and much needed kick in my complacency.

Solo – For assisting me early on when I was still having major BSP troubles, and letting me use his yet-to-be-finished T3D editor program. Also for his Unreal IDE program for extracting meshes. Also for the HullBreach actor.

Zora - For her ClonePoint actor and for beta-testing

Rachel Cordone - MultiSkyZone actor.



More Legal Stuff:

You MAY NOT use this map or any part of it for commercial gain, in any way. If you wish to redistribute it, either whole or in parts, you must do so free of charge and must give this instruction to the people you give it to.

You MAY use any part of parts of this map as a base for your own work. You may use textures, classes, sounds, and music from this map as well. I only ask that if you do, please give me some credit, and give credit to the people I gave credit to as well (Ion Storm, Activision etc)


Hints:

Translator messages: Love them or hate them, sometimes you got to read them. If you won't, it is possible to finish this map by running up against every console you come across until one beeps (if they do something, they'll beep at you, except for some of the turbolift buttons), but the translator messages will help you, as well as set up the storyline. Don't be alarmed if you don't understand most of what is in the messages: That's the point. Hopefully you'll figure out early on that you are in no way qualified to fly this ship all the way back to Terran space...

Another hint: Space is big, vast, and utterly empty so you don't need to go out there (I just made it possible cause it's cool), if you hold down Shift, your standard movement keys will allow you to move really, really fast. At least, they do for me. Kind of realistic: In a vacuum, there is no such thing as terminal velocity.

NOTE TO SERVER ADMINS:

I don't mind if you run this map on your server, provided you don't change it in any way (mutators are fine, of course, just don't modify the actual file). If you need something changed, let me know and I'll do it for you (swordtail123@hotmail.com). However, the ending sequence map (swtM1_end.unr) was not designed with multiplayer in mind. You'll have to find a way to get around this (I added a teleporter that players should fall into and end the map, sending them to swtM2.unr, which doesn't exist (yet) but they’ll still all fall to their death unless you use a special code to make players go all static when the map ends).

UPDATE: December 18, 2008:

After a year of messing with UnrealEd and various incarnations thereof, I’m releasing the updated version of this map. It fixes a few bugs and does a couple things I’ve wanted to do since I created the damn thing. Yes, I know I’ve pretty much removed the original version from rotation on most servers for the past 4 months. I’ve been busy! You no longer need to worry about swtM1_end.unr as in network play the end teleporter changes to send the players automatically to swtM2.unr (which still doesn’t exist so stfu already lolz).

And seriously, please don’t modify any of these files without my permission. The first time I go to a server playing my map and get a “version mismatch” error, I will be very unhappy and someone will be getting an angry email

interesting...

Well, since were the only ones interested maybe you or I could start a review of this map. I wouldn't mind writing something up of for the site and submitting it anyway. Let me know if you are interested to do the same...

It's an interesting map, it seems unfinished in certain sections (really a pity), but quite a grandiose setup for a first ever map.

I didn't beat it yet, got killed twice through my own stupid fault and neglected to save along the way. But with all its flaws, it is still a fun map. I especially liked the beginning (Skaarj and Brute with only the DP, frightening at first but tactics beat brute power )

I'll be sure to play this through in the near future.

Yes, I found this map somewhat hard to navigate (I definitely had to read some translator messages for this one), but I also found that it only gets better and better as you play it. It reminds me a little bit of System Shock 1 tbh...

You should really stick in there and complete it... there are some cool places and funny things that will happen along the way *meow*. I actually never played it offline yet, only online in zora's server. I should try completing it offline to see how hard it is without being able to respawn.

Is this strictly Multiplayer? I've never heard of it 'til today

nope.. try it offline.. its fun! I think I'm going to replay it some this week as a matter of fact.

Thanks Jackrabbit,Ill give it a try:)

It's pretty good so far. All the hallways are the same, I can't find the enginering section..

try backtracking near the beginning and take some elevators down to the lowest floor. That should help you out.

This map seems kind of cool, there's exploration, the completely optional space trip is pretty awesome for the time and the gameplay is rather fun (only sometimes, it's generally very easy). Also Bloblets. Sorry Scrag but VVV got beaten.
The problem is, the layout gives me a freaking headache. Now I'm in a small area with a Warlord (!) which leads to a door to the space and Bloblets and I don't know what to do anymore.

Yep, that's when the map is most confusing (I will admit myself). Basically, after you kill that Warlord, try hitting every computer screen you can find until you get a translator message telling you some door has been unlocked. That door can be found back on level 10 (where mostly everything is locked when you start the map). Its ALL the way it the back as far as you can go on level 10. Once you get up to the single room on level 10 you will be prompted to return BACK to the area where you killed the warlord. Once again, hit every computer terminal you can find until you see a reactor pop out of the ground in that cylinder based room with 4 floors and give the station power.

Now, you have gotten past the rough part and everything else is pretty much easy to figure out from there. Not to mention it gets much better IMO.


EDIT:

I'm assuming that you have already hit the Engineering 1 and 2 buttons at level (19?). That can be pretty hard to find, but nothing too complex.

Yes I've already unlocked something regarding level 19 in those lower floors. Anyway thanks I'll try to finish this one later.

I'm stuck again. I have activated that pillar thing where the Warlord appeared. Faced an annoying Skaarj Gunner ambush who teleported into the corridor and there's nothing else then. The only teleporter takes me to one position. The rest is locked.

EDIT: Okay. Found the panel in the Mothership to deactivate the Skaarj ForceField.