30/03/2024 - "Prisoned" by David "DavidM" Münnich

[Sat42]

[...]
This is a great intro level. ONP guy has grown on me over the years and I still get a kick out of some of his lines, including his reaction to the merc's death.

Yeah I like that one too

And the way ONP Guy says this line (already highlighted by Aspide) successfully evokes the Duke Nukem / John Blade spirit:
"Bye bye baby!"
The attempts at humour don't always work but some lines are pure gold but I'll keep the rest of 'em for next time!

[Masterkent]

but in that case one could also replace the actual Merc with the friendly class counterpart for consistency.

That would need changing the implementation of Follower or FollowingMercenary, because friendly following mercs initially go to the greeting state instead of TriggerAlarm when triggered and they leave the TriggerAlarm state when noticing hostile creatures, going to the attacking mode. Perhaps, this is why plain U1 mercs are commonly used in ONP when they are supposed to enter the TriggerAlarm state.

What special trigger did you use as a replacement? I could then implement this fix in my copy

I just coded a simple trigger that gibs the corresponding event instigator:

Code: Select all

class ONPGibInstigator expands Triggers;

var vector ThrowVelocity;

event Trigger(Actor A, Pawn EventInstigator)
{
	if (EventInstigator != none && (Instigator == none || Instigator == EventInstigator))
	{
		if (bool(ThrowVelocity))
		{
			if (EventInstigator.Physics == PHYS_Walking)
				EventInstigator.SetPhysics(PHYS_Falling);
			EventInstigator.Velocity = ThrowVelocity;
		}
		EventInstigator.gibbedBy(none);
	}
}

If you want something similar that could be added via UnrealEd, you can use something like this:

Code: Select all

class GibInstigator expands Triggers;

var() vector ThrowVelocity;

event Trigger(Actor A, Pawn EventInstigator)
{
	if (EventInstigator != none)
	{
		if (bool(ThrowVelocity))
		{
			if (EventInstigator.Physics == PHYS_Walking)
				EventInstigator.SetPhysics(PHYS_Falling);
			EventInstigator.Velocity = ThrowVelocity;
		}
		EventInstigator.gibbedBy(none);
	}
}

However, you should be very careful with Events issued by the killed pawn at the moment of death, because the event instigator is the killer (rather than the pawn being killed) in this case.

I've found that ONP with 255 difficulty (for all the monster spawns) in UT hits the sweet spot for a challenge

Epic didn't add any special handling for difficulties above 3 (they are probably not planned at all), and numbers 4 - 255 work the way they do just by accident, because of a funny implementation of filtering for difficulties 0 - 3 that implies the absence of difficulty-related filtering when the specified number is out of the range.

[Sat42]

but in that case one could also replace the actual Merc with the friendly class counterpart for consistency.

That would need changing the implementation of Follower or FollowingMercenary, because friendly following mercs initially go to the greeting state instead of TriggerAlarm when triggered and they leave the TriggerAlarm state when noticing hostile creatures, going to the attacking mode. Perhaps, this is why plain U1 mercs are commonly used in ONP when they are supposed to enter the TriggerAlarm state.

OK that makes a lot of sense, I'm now inclined to believe any instance of plain U1 mercs being used in ONP is by choice (and not an oversight as I remember someone saying somewhere years ago). Still not ideal but such compromises are to be expected in such an ambitious project.

What special trigger did you use as a replacement? I could then implement this fix in my copy

I just coded a simple trigger that gibs the corresponding event instigator: [code]

Awesome, thank you for sharing! will definitely look into trying this

I've found that ONP with 255 difficulty (for all the monster spawns) in UT hits the sweet spot for a challenge

Epic didn't add any special handling for difficulties above 3 (they are probably not planned at all), and numbers 4 - 255 work the way they do just by accident, because of a funny implementation of filtering for difficulties 0 - 3 that implies the absence of difficulty-related filtering when the specified number is out of the range.

While I'd seen mention of "255 difficulty" before and figured it was "max difficulty", I admit I didn't really understand it and figured it was some sort of (potentially useful) hack done in console. And it turns out that's pretty much what it is, thanks for the explanation!