NEED UNREALSCRIPT TUTOR

[LannFyre]

EDITED:

Hello,

I am trying to find documentation of any and all kinds on how to use UnrealScript. I have access to extensive information on how to use UnrealEd 2.1 (or at least 2.0) but I need anything anyone has on how to learn UnrealScript. I am trying to work to a point where I can begin on a project will be a side scroller, eventually implementing RPG features that will be geared toward being a spiritual successor to Xenogears. If you have any information on UnrealScript that you could either post here or send to any of my alternative means of contact, located at the bottom on this post, it would be greatly appreciated. Here is what I am trying to do:

GENERAL FEATURES:

> A skill tree that functions similar to that in Final Fantasy X, where a grid system is in place that any of 5 characters that the player will have can access. Nodes set on the grid system define a "subclass" for that player, of which there are about 10, and can only occupy two "subclass" routes at a time per character. These nodes need to be respec-able via something in game, during platforming segments.

> Base stats and how they are affected by passives from the skill tree.

> Damage variables such as guns, projectiles (rockets and hand grenades, basically), melee, and spells.

> An inventory system that applies to each of the 5 characters, including armor, ammo, weapons, a pooled item list of potions, and a pooled list of quest items.

> More to come. . .

PLATFORMING FEATURES:
> I have a camera made, but the camera needs to move between multiple points, depending on where the player is. If the player enters a zone such as water or lava, the camera needs to snap to a new point where it will track the character by rotating until they are out of said zone. The zone itself will be a trigger for the camera. When they leave said zone, the camera returns to the "scrolling points".

> The player needs to change what animation is being played depending on keystrokes. If I were to press "s" to move toward the camera, the model needs to face in the same direction that the player is moving the character. Double-tapping the key needs to be a skill tree specific function, but I will get to that.

> When the player comes in contact with a scripted pawn (enemies only), the screen needs to go to a splash screen for a few seconds, then cut to either a new level or a level segment on the map. This will load the Combat mode, which I believe will need to be implemented as well (more on that later). If the player or any scripted pawn is shot by a projectile, i.e. a fire spell, they need to take damage but not go into combat. Also there need to be stage hazards that do a specific amount of damage to players/scripted pawns.

> The player needs to be able to draw on skills that are located within a passive tree, that allows the skills (as well as passives for each skill tree/subset) to be changed at certain locations, each skill being "class specific". Each skill will be bound to four buttons.

COMBAT FEATURES:
> Basically Xenogears. If you can help me with the first two, then we'll get to combat.

Please PM me, post in this thread, or send me an invite on Steam (LannFyre), or E-mail me ([email protected]). The original version of this post said that I needed help with the project, but that's not entirely true. I need information on this engine that I can study and maybe even archive.

Thank you,
LannFyre

[Buff Skeleton]

Seriously recommend you give this a thorough read: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3323

[LannFyre]

Seriously recommend you give this a thorough read: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3323

Fair enough I suppose. The engine is 10+ years old now and I had expected most of the community to have either died off, moved on, or be working on their own projects. In all honesty, I am not actually working on any of the before mentioned goals yet; I have been gathering what documentation on UnrealScript that I could; I already have a very good idea of how to use the map editor itself; most of the art assets I would even need are already in the game, I would just need to find out how to convert sound files to the format needed by Unreal (mono, low bit rate, etc), and basic sprites are being worked on right now so they will be available when I want to make the "models". I absolutely understand that this project will take a lot of time and effort, but the first step I have to make is to learn UnrealScript. Even if there is very little documentation on the subject, I do have a tutorial guide compliation as well as one "Complete UnrealEd Reference Guide" for everything from brushes to textures to sounds to actors. So I guess this thread should be less "halp me pl0x" and more "does anyone have any material on something 10+ years old they could donate".

EDITED:
I edited the OP to reflect this post.

[ebd]

If you want to get started with UnrealScript, there are a few things to keep in mind.

If you are new to programming in general, there will be quite a lot to learn.

Either way, two good references are:

• The BeyondUnreal Wiki. There is a lot of information here, but it is poorly sorted, so you might have to do a little hunting to find what you are looking for.
• http://www.ohnishi.nuie.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~rjmartin/Tuts/Unreal/Syntax.htm Uhh... google found this. It seems to be a document put together by someone in academia on UnrealScript. It covers the basics.

Some people write UnrealScript directly in the editor. I highly discourage this, as the editor lacks many features for writing code, is unstable (as we all know), and managing packages in the fashion is not terribly helpful. The better way to go about it is use a text editor and invoke ucc.exe via command line. If you are unfamiliar with a command line it will take some getting used to, but it isn't really difficult.

Notepad is not a terribly good text editor, but it is OK for small edits. Two better free (gratis) text editors are Notepad++ and ConTEXT. When writing firetrucks I mostly used a windows port of vim. Others swear by GNU Emacs. Neither vim or emacs are beginner friendly, so chances are you want one of the first two editors mentioned.

Using an external editor also allows for usage of traditional source code management tools like git or mercurial. Whether or not you use these tools is up to you. If you aren't sure what these tools do, they both allow for easier collaboration between multiple programmers and allow tracking of changes, as well as manipulation of said changes after the fact.

From there, the next two things are to set up your folder structure properly so UCC will build your package, and to add it to the EditPackages section of Unreal.ini (or UnrealTournament.ini). The directory structure is from the Unreal base directory, create a directory with the same name as your package. Inside that directory, create a directory called Classes. Put your .uc files there. Convention is to keep textures, audio, etc in directories called Textures/Sounds/Models/etc in your package directory, but this is not a requirement.

[Buff Skeleton]

I highly recommend setting up a Bitbucket Mercurial repository for any code you work on, even solo, just for the versioning. Always commit your changes when you're done for the day or have made significant progress or want to try out some structural changes. Without it, if you realize down the road you broke something, you'll never be able to get it back without rewriting. <3 <3 <3 version control, it's like a highly flexible backup system