== Version 7.2 [3-10-2018] Discussion ==

[UB_]

Bioflares (not Biohazard) crash the game if used against Pupae.

[Buff Skeleton]

Good find. Fixed that I think -- it's possible with any actor really, but is more prominent with pupae since they are often all clumped up together when the flare goes off, and then you have a bunch of pupae (and carcasses) all being impacted by the same kind of biogel projectile all at once, and the game thinks it's an infinite recursion when it isn't really.

I fixed it the same way I fixed similar crashes: by swapping the bioglob class for a version that has no collision initially, and then turns it on 0.1 seconds later.

[UTNerd24]

Also, The Horror Flare can be partially negated if someone moves onto the place it landed while the first :> appears.
And if it hits an enemy rather than a surface, sometimes only two or three :>s appear.

I also noticed on some Co-Op Maps that at some point, nearly ever enemy on the map will gather and collectively try to attack the Instigator Dummy. Maybe giving it some sort of Team Tag could help or something?

[Buff Skeleton]

v7.2 patch imminent. Changes:

This is a pretty small patch in terms of content, mostly delivering fixes for code and some map tweaks. The most notable differences are fixed collision issues with EXU Krall, and improvements to legless mode for on and offline play (i.e. it actually works properly now in both modes for ALL EXUKrall classes).

Oh, and HEAVY MERCENARIES ARE BACK! Fuck yes! I finally got around to cleaning up the code and getting them functional again. I plan to make MANY more variants of these eventually. For now, just HeavyShrapnelMercenary is available, but expect others in future patches.

[Edit] It's out!

[Diego96]

What about the Doomtroopers attack on the Highlands?

[UB_]

What about the Doomtroopers attack on the Highlands?

Which one???

[Diego96]

What about the Doomtroopers attack on the Highlands?

Which one???

Not exactly the Highlands, it's just for a prequel meme (I don't remember if Doomtroopers were used in other maps).

DoomTrooper and its variants are broken, they spawn with no weapons. Be it through editor or through summon.

I also wonder if that map got fixed (the pentapower backtracking part).

[Snuggles]

Hi friends!

Long time lurker here, played lots of unreal back in the day, decided to go back and replay all the old mods, and was excited to see some new ones too!

I'm just wondering if someone can explain how best to get the bioweapon brute into the dumpster? I've tried for hours to bounce him in using various weapons/flares but it's a small target (not to mention the lid is only open about 45 degrees) and the brute moves fast.

Any help is greatly appreciated,

Oh and awesome mod I'm having a blast!

[Diego96]

Hi friends!

Long time lurker here, played lots of unreal back in the day, decided to go back and replay all the old mods, and was excited to see some new ones too!

I'm just wondering if someone can explain how best to get the bioweapon brute into the dumpster? I've tried for hours to bounce him in using various weapons/flares but it's a small target (not to mention the lid is only open about 45 degrees) and the brute moves fast.

Any help is greatly appreciated,

Oh and awesome mod I'm having a blast!

Jump into the dumpster outside (right by the scaffolds) but lure it to the nearby crate first, then teleport outside.

[Snuggles]

That worked! Thanks a bunch!

[Snuggles]

I have one more stupid question: In the level "Highlands of Despair," I move through the valley (top and bottom), kill everything, then get to the "Icon of Sin." I then turn around and go back, now the lava has risen over the bottom portion of the valley, and I get penta-power pickups (despite the fact that there are no enemies to kill). Finally I get back to the start of the map, and I know from using ghost that I need to get through the door with the orange circle with symbols on it. Can someone explain to me how to open this door?

[UB_]

I have one more stupid question: In the level "Highlands of Despair," I move through the valley (top and bottom), kill everything, then get to the "Icon of Sin." I then turn around and go back, now the lava has risen over the bottom portion of the valley, and I get penta-power pickups (despite the fact that there are no enemies to kill). Finally I get back to the start of the map, and I know from using ghost that I need to get through the door with the orange circle with symbols on it. Can someone explain to me how to open this door?

The level is broken right now, with that section not working well. Ghost through that door.
Map 16 is fine though.

[Snuggles]

Okay great thanks!

[UTNerd24]

I think it goes without saying that my rq on the USP Discord was not only awkward but also embarrassing only to myself. But eitherway, I have my own roadmaps set in order to contribute to this amazing project. Will my work be redundant? Yes. But what matters is that I’ll have a bit of confidence knowing I can finally code things in order to forfill my own obsurd concepts.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to the second coming of Kaal979

[Buff Skeleton]

Oh and awesome mod I'm having a blast!

Glad to hear it! Sorry about Highlands. I thought I'd fixed it, but it turns out I didn't :X

Also, v7.3 is shaping up to be an interesting patch so far!

• Armor scraps are implemented and operational! These are designed to encourage and reward close-range brawling, and make it more sustainable by healing your most important survival inventory: your armor. Lots of health is nice, but health goes fast if you have no armor to resist damage.
  
  
  • Armor scraps are small electrified cubes that glow, flicker, and make an electro-fizzy noise. When you pick them up, they'll heal between 2-5% of your most-heavily-damaged armor based on its total hitpoints.
    
    • They bounce when they hit the ground, but only slightly, and they aren't launched very far, so they won't go sailing across the map.
    • Individual scraps' sizes are determined by how much they can heal you, so you can see at a glance which are more valuable (the bigger ones).
    • They have a lifespan of 60 seconds, so they aren't permanently-available!
  • In SP and coop games (but only EXU2 gametypes, currently), any pawn with the "Robot" or "AlwaysScrap" pawn tag has the potential to drop armor scraps when killed. I might expand this to "EnergyPawn" too eventually if needed, or give some nastier enemies the AlwaysScrap tag.
  • The maximum number of scraps a pawn can drop is determined by a couple of Get() functions in EXUScriptedPawn that can be overridden in subclasses. By default, it's 15 * (CollisionRadius / 35.0).
    
    • 35 is the Skaarj Warrior default collision radius, so I used it as a baseline for the average pawn size.
    • This means that bigger pawns can drop more, while smaller pawns have a smaller cap. But again, the function can be overridden, and you can set a fixed number or change the base or the multiplier or whatever you want in UScript, etc.
  • The actual number of scraps you'll get is determined by the Scrap Drop Frequency variable, which is altered by several factors:
    
    • Game difficulty level, which has a 5% chance reduction per difficulty level. Easy has 0% reduction, so it's the only difficulty where you could theoretically get the maximum total, while Unreal has a 15% chance reduction in scrap drops.
    • A level scrap multiplier set in EXMapInfo, which defaults to 1.0 (i.e. no change), but can be increased or decreased on a per-level basis. So if you wanted to triple the scrap chances, set it to 3; if you wanted to completely disable scraps in a specific level, set it to 0.
    • How much total armor you have left across all your armor pickups divided by the total maximum armor you have available (more armor remaining = fewer scraps get dropped).
    • How close you were to the pawn when you killed it (closer = more scraps), with a maximum distance of 3000 UUs. If you're within 300 UUs, you get a 10% bonus added back to the distance multiplier!
    • The size of the creature (as noted above).
    • The minimum scrap count, which is determined by a second Get() function. By default, this is MaxScraps * 0.1 (i.e. 10% of the maximum total is the minimum that should be spawned, if any can be). Can also be overridden in subclasses.
    • Once the ScrapDropFreq has been altered by each one of those multipliers, then the dropping happens like so: FRand() < ScrapDropFreq || (KillerCurrentArmor / KillerMaxArmor < 0.75 && NumScrapsSpawned < MinScraps). In other words, the final frequency becomes a random chance number evaluated for each of the MaxTotalScraps once the MinimumScraps has been satisfied. Above 75% total armor, your odds of getting scraps are pretty low, which is where the minimum check comes into play to ensure you get at least 10% of the total if you need any repairs at all.
    • In most conditions, the actual frequency on Unreal difficulty will be around 0.2 - 0.5, which means a creature that can drop 15 scraps will only drop ~2 - 7. How this plays out in real games is still being tested, but so far they definitely have a noticeable impact without being useless or overpowered!
  
  
• EXUScriptedPawn respawning capability is almost totally operational!
  
  
  • You'll have additional options under Orders for creature respawning controls.
    
    • The RespawnCount (total respawns), which is 0 by default. -1 means infinite, while >0 is a fixed number.
    • RespawnDelay min and max, just like SpawnWhenTriggered, plus RespawnEffect that is distinct from SWT's effect. Respawned creatures will ALSO use AlternateStartupState, though, so that variable is shared.
    • Respawn Location. You can set a creature to respawn at its original location, where it died, or at a fixed location / rotation.
  • Killed creatures that can respawn aren't actually destroyed -- they become invisible and intangible, just like SpawnWhenTriggered creatures that haven't been triggered yet.
    
    • This means that killall scriptedpawn WILL destroy them!
    • I ended up going this route instead of leaving behind a beacon to spawn a new variant since this method allows me to create a RespawnStopper trigger, which can be linked to individual pawn classes and prevent any future respawns once triggered.
      
      • So if you have a guard for a room that is set to respawn every 120 seconds (default) indefinitely until something else happens in the level, you can turn off respawning (even if it's set to -1) for that creature once the RespawnStopper has been triggered.
      • Using beacons placed where creatures died would make this kind of thing harder and more expensive to achieve, since I'd have to iterate through the level for any beacons and delete them, plus iterate through all respawn-capable EXUScriptedPawns and set their RemainingRespawns to 0 if they are still alive.
      • Instead, the RespawnStopper can just go directly to the pawns linked to it, dead or alive, and either destroy them immediately (if dead) or set their RemainingRespawns to 0 (if still alive).
      • I think there's also less potential for garbage collection issues if a dead pawn isn't actually destroyed, but just recycled. It looks, acts, and behaves like a new pawn, but isn't! Magical. And of course, you get kill credit for each time you kill it, again and again, just like you would if they were all new instances.
  • Ultimately, this gives level designers a LOT more control over enemy placement in the levels.
    
    • Instead of having to rely on ASSControllers or whatnot to handle repeated enemy spawns for defensive presence, you can have pre-placed enemies respawn when killed instead to maintain balance if randomization proves too unpredictable (although you still do have absolute control with ASSControllers, so really neither method is "better" than the other -- you just have more choices now).
    • This also opens up the potential for game modes or mutators to make ALL enemies respawn, like Nightmare Difficulty in classic Doom!
  
  
• MP weapon balance overhaul!
  
  
  • It had been years since I played any MP matches until very recently. EBM and I have been playing a lot of coop CTF matches against bots lately, and I've realized that the original weapon balance was never quite right.
  • Lots of stuff has been adjusted slightly to make weapons feel right without being overpowered (or underpowered). This extends beyond just weapons, affecting stuff like MP Pentapower (which is now a thing) and other stuff.
  • Ideally, there will be mutator changes to make them more flexible as well.
    
    • For example: I've added a new armor class to the EXU UT/Unreal Gun Swap mutators. It's given it to all players and bots as soon as they spawn.
    • This armor is a bit weaker than EXUThighpads, but it's a lot better than starting with no armor at all! It's meant to help prevent spawnkills and make you a little more durable.
    • But since this is a significant change, it might not be what everyone wants, so ideally there will be controls for this if I find time for it. Being able to turn this on or off at least, and at best, a whole new mutator to assign default inventory which lets you define whatever you want -- even non-EXU items -- in an .ini file! I think some mods already handle this kind of thing, but it would be nice for EXU to have native options for it too.

If all goes well with the netcode testing of respawn capability (scraps already work on and offline perfectly, huzzah), I could have this patch ready within the next few weeks, probably? We'll see!