DM-OldManMountain
>> Sunday, April 10, 2005
Name: DM-OldManMountain
This map is well-completed I am releasing a beta download so if you test it PLEASE COMMENT even if it's just an "all-okay - release it!" kind of comment. I've heard back from the U4E team and they're not going to include it in the next default U4E pack, so I'm going ahead with all three varieties of this board.
The theme is a rocky mountainside that pits the players against each other in the middle of an avalanche. This, to my knowledge, has never been done before in UT2004, and would not be possible without DaJMasta's "GoodKarma" (Kudos, DaJMasta!) It's great fun and can scare the willies out of you when the boulders land a little too close for comfort!
You've got to see it to believe it.
Download: HERE
By the way, how'd you do this?
In case you're curious, here's how this effect works. It's pretty simple, but a pain in the butt to set up. First of all, there are about 30 NetKarmaActors (NKAs) waiting "off-camera" in some tunnels that exit into the sky, behind a zoneportal so you can't see where they're coming from.
These NKAs fall into the board, and the ground has been planned from the beginning to allow for only a few rocks to collect here and there. Otherwise they all roll perfectly down the mountainside, back into the return tunnels where they begin the board. Below the clouds they fall into at the bottom of the board you'll find some very plain PhysicsVolumes that change the gravity so that the rocks "fall upward" to wind up at the top of the mountain again. Easy recycling!
Now comes the tedious bit. While the rocks constanty falling is certainly pretty, by themselves there are no effects that make it believeable. SO, approximately every "ten feet" on the ground, I've placed a collection of four actors: A class-based trigger (based on NKAs), a ScriptedTrigger, an Emitter, and a ViewShaker. The class-based trigger activates the ScriptedTrigger which then makes the booming sound of the boulder hitting the ground AND activates the emitter and viewshaker. The emitter sends baby rocks into the air which have impactsounds attached, and the ViewShaker, if you're close to the impact, rocks your world of course.
Then there's just the repetitive manner of duplicate this grouping across the ground, and changing the tags on each of them accordingly :P Viola! You have your very convincing avalanche! Read more...
Trapped!! Mining for gold was a common career in the old West, and unfortunately Mother Earth doesn't always like people playing around where she doesn't expect them. The action is fast and furious in this small cave, but at least you have teammates to help you through it.
That being said, I decided to "destroy" the mine track by caving in the arena it was in. However after talking about it with the team, I decided my addition should truly be a map of its own. Chino was fine with leaving it in, but it really did wind up being for the best, especially after I turned Cave-In into a Capture-the-Flag board. It's quick, it has moody lighting, and it's non-stop fun. A good work.
Get yer motor runnin' on Route66! Leap from car to car and hang on the sides of semis as the asphalt races by under your feet! If that wasn't enough to worry about, the other team will be aiming for you as they try to steal what's yours.
Originally I had wanted to make ALL of the cars into movers, so that the course of the map would literally change as you played the game. This is still a concept that I may try to implement in UT2k3. You just don't see maps like that, as a friend of mine was telling me recently; most maps are like static stages, where you perform but can't interact.
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. Thanks, Gusher-- It's always nice to know someone has fun with the maps I create. I think the music fits this map perfectly!! Another friend of mine found that someone on the web a couple of years ago, and I started to have the idea for this map about then, too 
And, you wouldn't believe how much work I've thrown
[updated download links at bottom] When I became interested in Unreal Fortress, I thought up the idea that there should be things in the map that require help from other players to get past. I found another board that did this AFTER I created this one, and it was a lot of fun, but mine wound up less "dependent" upon team play as I'd wanted originally. At one time, you had to hold the bridges open for your teammates to cross the slime moat, for example. The only problem was that BOTS couldn't play this way - they're just not that smart. Anyway, the idea was refined, and I think the result became just as fun as I'd hoped.