AS-Thrust ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- by Tynan Sylvester tynan@planetunreal.com May 2004 Installation and Hard Data ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -Place AS-Thrust.ut2 in your /UT2004/Maps folder -Place Ty_RocketSmeshes.usx in your /UT2004/StaticMeshes folder -Place Ty_RocketTextures.utx into your /UT2004/Textures folder Gametype: Assault Recommended No. of Players: 6-16 Time Frame in Production: Circa February 20, 2004 to May 18, 2004 Number of Internal Versions: About 48 Other Levels by Author: DM-Lightfalls / DM-Nightfalls DOM-Aphrodite Commentary ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ It's been a long time coming, but Thrust is finally complete. I feel a few words to mark the occasion are in order. This level was created for the Community Bonus Pack 2. Issues ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ All of the scripting in this map was done within the last bare week of production. The Assault scripting system is very complex and detailed. The only way I managed to finish even in the time I had was because of a huge stroke of luck: The guy who coded the Assault gametype, Laurent "Shag" Delayen, used to be the lead coder on the UT99 mod Tactial Ops. I mapped for Tactical Ops. Contacts can take you a long way in this business, it seems. And thus, after much wailing and gnashing of teeth, and much pestering with questions, I managed to get the whole deal scripted. Some parts of the trigger system are still disorganized nightmares, but hey, they work. Lighting ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I, personally, believe that too many Unreal maps are dark and dirty. It seems rare that one will see a map that appears to have a beauty beyond technical excellence of the designer. Complex, moody industrial scenes are fine up to a point, but eventually, I always find myself hankering for something with a little more life. I've chosen to do a sunset scene in this level, and I like to think it worked out well. In fact, it had better have worked out well since I imported and compressed that sky more than ten times before it looked right. Don't even ask me about getting the water surface to blend in with the background. I had fun with the point lighting on this one. Earlier versions didn't have any of the small, blue point lights that appear in the final. Those were a last-minute inspiration which I feel really "makes" the lighting in this map. Idiotic Bots ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I spent a really long time wrestling with the bot AI trying to make it act with a marginal level of intelligence. It seems that the bot code for assault doesn't scale so well when greater numbers of vehicles are added to the mix. The only way to make the bots use the vehicles to get to an objective is to associate a single point on space (pathnode) with that objective to which they must drive and then get out and continue on foot. One of the more amusing problems occurs when vehicles start piling up at that point. A Goliath tank will be blocking the spot and a bot will cruise up in a buggy and start valiantly trying to push it out of the way, all the while absorbing bullets and rockets from the defending team. I never did acheive optimal performance from the bots, but I like to think that it's as good as possible with the botcode provided. Credits: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Concept Art.............................................................................. Tynan Sylvester Geometry................................................................................ Tynan Sylvester Lighting................................................................................... Tynan Sylvester Pathnoding.............................................................................. Tynan Sylvester Textures.................................................................................. Tynan Sylvester Technical Testing.................................................................... Tynan Sylvester Sky Render.............................................................................. Tynan Sylvester Music...................................................................................... Epic Games This Preamble......................................................................... Tynan Sylvester Second Opinions / Gameplay Testing.................................... The CBP Team All contents of AS-Thrust.ut2, Ty_RocketTextures.utx and Ty_RocketSmeshes.usx are copyright Tynan Sylvester 2004. If you wish to host this file on the internet, you are free to do so, though please mail me first at tynan@planetunreal.com.