Version 5.00 [10-11-12]

[Buff Skeleton]

EXU2: Batshit Insane:. . . . Open Beta (v5.00) / 10-11-12
EXU.u:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .v5.00 / 10-11-12
EXU2BI.u:. . . . . . . . . . . . . .v5.00 / 10-11-12
EXU-Sounds.u:. . . . . . . . . .v5.00 / 10-11-12
EXU-Textures.u:. . . . . . . . .v5.00 / 10-11-12
RMusicPlayer:. . . . . . . . . . v0.1.4 / 6-7-09

Version 5.00:

• Initial Open Beta launch! This release is too big to post detailed patch notes for. EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED. EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING. The wiki changelog has a list of new monsters, though!
• Deleted Items: Loads of old classes have been deleted or renamed to trim the fat and prevent bugs. You may need to update your MonsterSpawn.ini - check out the Deleted Items EXU2 Wiki article if you think you're missing something.
• Several material-based projectiles can now be shot down if you have a weapon strong enough to do it. This mostly applies to things like missiles, Archdemon/Lavatitan meteors, etc. Energy projectiles cannot be shot down, and neither can your own weapons' projectiles. Generally, the bigger, more dangerous projectiles are vulnerable.
• SHITLOADS of improvements and features added to EXUScriptedPawn which allows modders to do all kinds of ridiculously useful stuff with them, like specifying melee damage types or setting them to spawn when triggered instead of using a bunch of CreatureFactories. TONS of stuff. See the documentation for details!
• Seeking projectiles improved across the board! They are amazing now.
• New blood & gore system! Pawns now have colorful blood and explode into colorful gibs - not just red and green! There are also new impact/damage effects, and pawns can use a custom skin for their gib chunks. Pawns that cast light will (optionally) explode into light-emitting gibs, too. Best of all? KICKABLE GIBS. You can fucking kick gibs around. It's glorious.
• Weapon balance and design changes! Most guns have been significantly modified. Visit the Hellcastle Firing Range to try them out!

[UBerserker]

Got to Infernal Falls, everything so kickass

everything so divine

everything so holy shit


But at the same time I have to save my exu2 baby from the fiery pits of Actor Updates :>

[Virgile]

Waffnuffly seriously, WHAT-THE-F ***! Why did you replace the Hellcastle map??? It is a real LABYRINTH! I am unable to find the Firing Range in this castle ... This map is more hardcore than the missions that follow ... o_o A VIDEO tutorial would not be too much to find its way (should put trollsfaces behind all "fake doors" also x3) Really ...

[Teridax]

This is fantastic news, Waffnuffly!

[Buff Skeleton]

The new Hellcastle isn't complete yet. The firing range and tutorial stuff will be connected as a separate map later on.

As for it being labrynthine... well, I wanted it to look and feel as much like a real castle as possible to make it feel more open to exploration That means having inaccessable areas. If I had my way, the engine would have no node limit and I'd not have a single locked door, but that's impossible. It's a very atmospheric map. I always love getting lost in huge structures and having to find my way around. Looks like mission accomplished I will probably be adding more directional markers later on though. I literally finished this map last night at 3:15AM; it's definitely not polished.

It's actually a pretty simple layout if you follow the banners and keep tabs on where you are by looking out windows. That said, distinctive text labels above the teleporters themselves at the very least was always planned; I just didn't have time to do them yesterday because I wanted to get this map out the gate!

And just a reminder: Open Beta is not the same as a polished Demo. There WILL be bugs and rough patches! That's the price you pay for playing "final" content way early

[Buff Skeleton]

Because several people are having more trouble than I expected locating the difficulty selector they want, here's some clues, spoilered, from least obvious to most:

[spoiler]Mind the banners. Follow them.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]Each banner has some number of glyphs. Count them. There are four difficulty levels.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]Library, Chapel, Dungeon, Tower - in that order.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]Easy = go to the library, mostly straight ahead
Medium = go up to the chapel. Hang a left at the door leading to the library and take the narrow tower up
Hard = hang a right in the main hall, leading down into the dungeon
Unreal = work your way up toward the right side of the castle[/spoiler]

[redeye]

Before I do anything, what old files and things do I need to get rid of before I try this ?

Or won't that stuff matter.

[jaypeezy]

My laptop seems to be on its last legs and I'm spending all those remaining hours playing this mod.

EDIT: Actual feedback!!!111!1!11!
[spoiler]Love what you're doing with the gibs. I was rather surprised to see much more than new colors/effects, which are also awesome for the blood and gibs, but giving certain pawns/pawn types unique touches really adds a touch of personality to, say, missile mercenaries/skaarjs that I really like!! Makes killing them just to kick their neat gibs all the more rewarding.

I really can't shut up about this, but the new damage effect system is incredible in that it adds so much more to the intended quality of certain enemies. I feel like I'm fighting a robotic jerk when I spar with a Shock Trooper. Or, I actually get the sense that I'm gunning down a mean chunk of steel when I encounter a hellfighter. I actually really want to utilize that feature to make some sort of custom pawn, it's that interesting.

Also liking the changes to the weapons. Clusterfucker flak especially! - the enemies, too, I think it's awesome you managed to redefine the projectiles in such a profound way that it effects strategy significantly.

And, to pretty much confirm what everyone else who has played the mod knows, the CASTLE REMAKE WAS INCREDIBLE. Night and day, really. For a while i wasn't even in a rush to start playing the actual campaign because I was just taking in the scenery of the castle. I stumbled upon the "Unreal" difficulty, hahaha, and decided for several reasons I wanted to keep looking at the map.

The Energy AR sounds and feels much more like an assault weapon, a nice boomy quality to the firing now. Like I'm in starship troopers or something, haha.

I want to say something about the new pawns before I stop ranting and go to sleep. I like them plenty! First thing I did when I got the new version was - can you guess? - Brussalids! Love everything about them, hell, I loved the idea the moment you mentioned it but actually seeing the infection process occur to its completion was too awesome for words alone to describe. I found myself highly entertained, watching a fight between a Brussalid and a Doom Trooper reach its inevitable conclusion.

And I'm pretty sure the Chunky Brute was new too. I liked seeing monsters shooting gib chunks at me for a change. I'm definitely fitting some of those into a monsterspawn list soon!

As always, this mod continues to redefine all aspects of UT - gameplay as well as mapping. That being said, I have not really seen much of the new mapping yet.. really hope my laptop works fine tomorrow so I can do so![/spoiler]
Thanks for all the hard work, Waff!

[Virgile]

The new Hellcastle isn't complete yet. The firing range and tutorial stuff will be connected as a separate map later on.

As for it being labrynthine... well, I wanted it to look and feel as much like a real castle as possible to make it feel more open to exploration That means having inaccessable areas. If I had my way, the engine would have no node limit and I'd not have a single locked door, but that's impossible. It's a very atmospheric map. I always love getting lost in huge structures and having to find my way around. Looks like mission accomplished I will probably be adding more directional markers later on though. I literally finished this map last night at 3:15AM; it's definitely not polished.

It's actually a pretty simple layout if you follow the banners and keep tabs on where you are by looking out windows. That said, distinctive text labels above the teleporters themselves at the very least was always planned; I just didn't have time to do them yesterday because I wanted to get this map out the gate!

And just a reminder: Open Beta is not the same as a polished Demo. There WILL be bugs and rough patches! That's the price you pay for playing "final" content way early

I understand perfectly. Anyway, very good job, I love this mod, and I'm very grateful!

[shawnd123]

Haven't had much time to play EXU2 beta so far, but I managed to squeeze in enough time last night to load up the first map.

I shat bricks.

Seriously, I am amazed at this castle remake! I haven't seen architecture and design so perfect in Unreal for a long time! I also love mile-high towers and spiral staircases, and I had a blast climbing up that tower. That clock tower is also badass!
I encountered the first teleport at the top of the tower, and decided to explore a bit more, and ran across another teleport. I'm guessing that there are different difficulty selectors, just like the demo?
Anyways, I am extremely impressed so far, and I'm really looking forward to delve deeper into this beta. Excellent work, Waff

[Buff Skeleton]

Thanks you guys! I am really excited everyone so far seems to love the pawns. I put more work into Pawns and Weapons than I think anything else ever in my entire history of development so far, except for maybe a couple of the maps. But then again it's been two YEARS since the last release, so it's only expected a lot would have changed.

Before I do anything, what old files and things do I need to get rid of before I try this ?

Or won't that stuff matter.

Old stuff doesn't matter. Everything you need is in the new package! It's all new stuff now. You can safely overwrite anything and everything. Only keep Demo 4 files if you want to back them up for posterity.

I encountered the first teleport at the top of the tower, and decided to explore a bit more, and ran across another teleport. I'm guessing that there are different difficulty selectors, just like the demo?

Yep, there's one for each difficulty level but I stupidly didn't label them, so it's not immediately obvious. But there are some clues in a spoilered post a few posts up if you can't figure it out, progressing from less revealing to more revealing if you do want to explore a bit yourself but just need a nudge in the right direction. Next patch, though, they will be labeled, and there will be more markers leading to them.

[Buff Skeleton]

WARNING ABOUT THE NEW VERSION OF FROSTCLAW OUTPOST, MAP 8: IF YOU CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO END THE MAP

I really, really rushed to complete this map, so I forgot to even add messages in the level explaining what you have to do to finish it. But some of you MIGHT be able to figure it out on your own but it's pretty damn obscure without explanation, so here's some words about that:

[spoiler]You have to enable the base's emergency exit lift (i.e. the one leading to Noork's Elbow in Unreal) by damaging the reactor's coolant pipe. This isn't obvious at all, and will be fixed in the first patch in another week or less.

When you get inside the reactor room, you should see two pipes leading to it: one is labeled Hot Water (pulling out irradiated coolant) and one labeled Coolant. Naturally, shooting the hot water pipe won't do much to raise the reactor's temperature and mostly just make a mess spilling radioactive water everywhere. But shooting the coolant line in its weak spot RIGHT behind the sign that says "Coolant" will eventually rupture it and start to raise the reactor temperature. Once the alarms go off, you can get out.[/spoiler]

[shawnd123]

Nothing really major/game-breaking, but I just thought I'd point this one out:
You may already know this, but on Infernal Falls, in the tunnel nearby the 2nd Piddledoper, there is a mystical invisible wall blocking the path. The only way of proceeding is by translocating.
Here's a shot for clarification of where the wall thing's at: http://imageshack.us/a/img40/678/14623278.jpg
Also, I got the message saying that I explore a lot. Woot!

[Buff Skeleton]

Yep, that's why I put the crate there. You can walk around the pillar to get past it. Eventually I will be doing some additions to Map 2 and the resulting rebuilds should get rid of it.

[jaypeezy]

More comments, and one bug.

I didn't get much time to reflect or appreciate these things last night, but the piddledoper has come a long way from it's original status as a standard-issue sort of weapon. Before when I kinda felt the thing was ineffective in ways, now it's - for lack of a better term - a sexy gun to use. I feel like a badass wielding them, especially, when I use the alternate fire, and it's cool that it can even decapitate enemies with the laser beam. That and other details like the new muzzle flashes make it a cooler gun all-around.

Another weapon I REALLY enjoyed using was the biohazard flare. Wow, that thing can clear a room effectively... and I've learned very quickly to stay the hell away from wherever i shoot it!

The pupaes, those little guys have truly come a long way too. You've turned a minor nuisance/ammo fodder into a legitimate threat. Pretty damn fierce in the second level... did not expect to see them leap at me like that.

So, the only bug I've noticed. And this might just be a problem with my graphics or something, but a few of the blood spray decals don't seem to be set as masked, so they show up as black squares with the blood splat in the middle. It doesn't really happen so often, though.