Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Incline Unreal Evolution Mod: Now Released

Ash

Arcane
Joined
Oct 16, 2015
Messages
6,227
Could use more beta cucks testers. Hope you'll consider signing up old bro.
 

Ash

Arcane
Joined
Oct 16, 2015
Messages
6,227
Preferably via discord where you can report bugs and such in real time: Discord.gg

If this is not ideal for you, then I can PM you.
 

DraQ

Arcane
Joined
Oct 24, 2007
Messages
32,828
Location
Chrząszczyżewoszyce, powiat Łękołody
Ash

A few suggestions, if you don't mind:

Stinger:
The shake effect is too strong and looks unnatural, doesn't fit with the firing anim. Altfire sound is also worse than original.
The main issue with Stinger is that it's effectively a poor man's minigun in primary and poor man's flak in secondary. What it needs is a unique flavour.
I don't have any fully crystallized idea, but in regards to stinger and minigun you could borrow a few ideas from Q2's chaingun and hyperblaster - yes, it's a poor game, but those two weapons were interestingly done and had interesting quirks setting them apart even though they were both essentially variants of rapid fire spamgun - CG took time to spin up, but achieved obscene rates of fire when it did, it also continued shooting until spun down making it very wasteful, HB could be fired in controlled manner, but couldn't be re-fired when spinning down so you had to commit to stopping fire (and know when to do it as the weapon was not hitscan). Stinger's altfire could be made less of a shotgun, more of a rapid, controlled, focused burst, making it more of an AR to minigun's MG. Maybe add some ricochet+shatter behaviour to flat angle shots.

GESBiorifle:
Altfire makes no sense in the context of the weapon's concept. The gun looks like a very simple, mechanical contraption - a backpack with a tank, pipe, piston. It's not a freaky energy blaster, it's a chemical super-soaker, even if the chemical in question is setting's green rocks. It makes no sense for it to fire energy vortices or whatever. OTOH original biorifle is very niche (only really great against pupae) and disappointing waste of firing mode (you could emulate primary by tapping secondary). It is also a disappointing waste of an opportunity to give Unreal a flamethrower, so:
  • Make one firing mode an old primary/secondary hybrid - you can tap to shoot little blobs rapidly or charge-up a big blob (and make it splatter like in UT).
  • Make the other firing mode a fucking green-hued flamethrower, setting green hued fire to affected enemies.
  • Add a combo fire: releasing blobs and holding flamethrower together creates bouncy flaming AOE blob (think Blood's napalm thrower altfire, only green).
Also make blob more interesting visually - more glowy and vary the hue along with intensity (brighter+slightly yellowish towards the middle), maybe add fume/fire effect.

ASMD:
Penetrating primary loses cool visual feedback in the form of weapon's signature impact shockwave, and looks like a cheap ripoff of Q2's railgun.
I propose:
  • Primary fire works like original (possibly with a bit more momentum transfer), but on impact it also generates a vortex (like the one you made for biorifle, only blue - it would be a shame to waste a cool idea) that slowly continues through and past the target. When amped, the vortex is red/orange and powerful.
  • Altfire has very broad AOE, but restricted to a plane - it can affect many targets if they are touching the surface hit, but not if they for example jump or move away from the wall. Add visual shock effects if target is affected.
  • Combo spawns vrief stationary purple vortex that sucks in and murders stuff in addition to what it does in vanilla. Cool and consistent with later UTs.
  • All modes have high stagger and momentum transfer (it's an electric gun, after all).
Minigun:
More damage (to make it appealing when you also have automag), rate of fire turned to as much as the netcode can take, more wasteful (crib some stuff from Q2's CG).
Maybe different altfire, possibly also mobility reduction when firing (worked well in Xidia/7B).

Razorjack:
The main problem is it being a non-hitscan rifle that ricochets. Ricochets are situationally useful or risky, but they don't change weapon's use that much most of the time, not being hitscan OTOH makes a huge difference.
Solution - make blades keep going after they hit someone allowing you to score several hits or even beheadings with one blade when firing into closed space.
Also, since RJ clearly propels it's blades electrically (it's not a powder based weapon, but it has a lot of cables and shit), make it work with the amp - very fast, high damage blades (with bright, fiery trails), passing through enemies and exploding on impact with hard surfaces (preferably into a ring of shrapnel in plane of the blade NOT of the wall).
Possible other additions:
  • Redeemer-like guidance (with freaky skaarj-y HUD) instead of what is in vanilla
  • Alt-fire (vertical blades) with ballistic trajectories (no lift, good for trick shots), guidance decoupled from primary/alt fire (tap to fire normally, hold to guide)
Flakcannon:
It's a great weapon with not much to change, except for the altfire dodging, and altfire explosion having slight offset from impact point or proximity fuse(to avoid altfire being so powerful on direct impact direct and to give better shrapnel behaviour). Possibly buff altfire's explosion and amount of shrapnel if it is too weak when used with indirect fire.
Also, old sounds (but louder and more boomy - it should sound like someone loaded a shotgun with claymore).

Eightball:
It's disappointing that it is not the weapon to be used to kill titans and shit and it feels a bit weak.
  • Titans and other huge enemies should be resistant to most normal attacks (bullets, except sniper rifle's, shrapnel, slime), rather than rockets.
  • Rockets (but not grenades) should deal a lot of additional, non-explosive damage on direct impact.
  • Rockets should get their pre-patch whistling sound back, it was really starling when one flew right over your head.
  • Rockets should not despawn but switch to falling, while inheriting previous momentum when their lifetime ends.
Rifle:
Add the originally planned 3x burst as altfire. Add scope item (added to your inventory when you first pick up rifle) to switch between zoom and burst altfire.

Dispersion Pistol:
Shuffle primary and secondary fire traits a bit - one fires for 1 ammo, rapidly (possibly even faster with upgrades) and benefits from the increased magazine, the other can be charges, increases in baseline power and ammo consumption (with charge on top of that) and changes colour. Maybe put splash on the rapid one for change. Maybe consider projectile patterns reflecting changing forms of the gun as it worked in beta, consider additional upgrades, like projectile speed tweaks.

All hitscans (maybe save for ASMD):
Replace hitscan with very fast projectiles. Should be more inline with Unreal's gameplay and be warpzone friendly.

All weapons:
Moar damage, tweak enemies offensive power and mobility to balance.

All projectiles:
Add water ring and water splash when entering water zone, add bubble trails.

Dodging:
Dodgy enemies should dodge optimally. The only reason to not dodge all the time is avoiding predictibility and weaker, less skilled enemies.

Krall:
you could boost their ground speed a bit, they look like they are built for running. Make them attack in groups more often too.

Skaarj Warriors:
Razik as the only weapon is boring and weak. For Skaarj that aren't completely naked (all but warriors) add projectile throw additional attack to make them more interesting. The projectile in question could be something like razor blade (or a whole bunch) or grenade, depending on Skaarj class. Warriors could get acid spit and better mobility. Some of the melee attack anims, esp. spinny ones could be workable for making it look right.

Warlord:
Give his gun some more interesting fire modes.

Lesser brutes:
Their skin looks like they have bandoliers full of flak shells instead of rockets. You know what to do (you might want to swap skins instead if it gives them too much power, but remember that it looks less armoured, also no matter what happens NyLeve needs some rocket firing brutes to be consistent with translator messages - or changed messages).

All humanoid (more or less enemies):
Give them armour matching their looks, more or less, using actual degradable armour and inventory system.
 

Ash

Arcane
Joined
Oct 16, 2015
Messages
6,227
Ash

A few suggestions, if you don't mind:

Stinger:
The shake effect is too strong and looks unnatural, doesn't fit with the firing anim.

Shake has been toned down.

Altfire sound is also worse than original.

Strongly Disagree. Vanilla is weak...on it's own. It's now two sounds, the vanilla and a new one.

Stinger's altfire could be made less of a shotgun, more of a rapid, controlled, focused burst, making it more of an AR to minigun's MG. Maybe add some ricochet+shatter behaviour to flat angle shots.

Or it could just be changed into a more competent and more satisfying shotgun as I already have. Yeah it's similar in concept to the Flak Cannon primary fire but this is vanilla design, and I try to be faithful with few exceptions (currently Bio Rifle Alt Fire is the only content replacement made in the game, period).

Minigun:
More damage (to make it appealing when you also have automag)

Minigun has had a dam buff. A bugfix or two. Various new effects. I think it's perfect.

Razorjack:
make it work with the amp - very fast, high damage blades (with bright, fiery trails), passing through enemies and exploding on impact with hard surfaces (preferably into a ring of shrapnel in plane of the blade NOT of the wall).
Possible other additions:
  • Redeemer-like guidance (with freaky skaarj-y HUD) instead of what is in vanilla
  • Alt-fire (vertical blades) with ballistic trajectories (no lift, good for trick shots), guidance decoupled from primary/alt fire (tap to fire normally, hold to guide)

Good suggestions. The razorjack of course has also been faithfully refined, but additions like making it work with the Amp don't hurt if executed well

Flakcannon:
Also, old sounds (but louder and more boomy - it should sound like someone loaded a shotgun with claymore).

Flak has old sound + additional boomy sound. It's niiicee.

Eightball:
It's disappointing that it is not the weapon to be used to kill titans and shit and it feels a bit weak.
  • Titans and other huge enemies should be resistant to most normal attacks (bullets, except sniper rifle's, shrapnel, slime), rather than rockets.
  • Rockets (but not grenades) should deal a lot of additional, non-explosive damage on direct impact.
  • Rockets should get their pre-patch whistling sound back, it was really starling when one flew right over your head.
  • Rockets should not despawn but switch to falling, while inheriting previous momentum when their lifetime ends.

Definitely some stuff to consider here. Though it makes sense that they have minor reduction to rockets (20% now as opposed to vanilla 30%) as they're yuge, very easy to hit with multi-chambered rockets, the levels seem to encourage Eball use against them (almost always gives you Eball ammo just before) and they're good practice for getting used to the Eball's multi-functionality.

Rifle:
Add the originally planned 3x burst as altfire. Add scope item (added to your inventory when you first pick up rifle) to switch between zoom and burst altfire.

There's a ROF mod.

Dispersion Pistol:
Shuffle primary and secondary fire traits a bit - one fires for 1 ammo, rapidly (possibly even faster with upgrades) and benefits from the increased magazine, the other can be charges, increases in baseline power and ammo consumption (with charge on top of that) and changes colour. Maybe put splash on the rapid one for change. Maybe consider projectile patterns reflecting changing forms of the gun as it worked in beta, consider additional upgrades, like projectile speed tweaks.

There's ROF mod, full-auto mod, and I added default behaviour of the charge-up shot that increases projectile speed the longer you charge (up to +20% if I recall).

All projectiles:
Add water ring and water splash when entering water zone, add bubble trails.

definitely something I've been considering. Added it in GMDX after all.

Dodging:
Dodgy enemies should dodge optimally. The only reason to not dodge all the time is avoiding predictibility and weaker, less skilled enemies.

Maybe one new Skaarj type that is a crazy super dodger, but ALL dodging enemies dodging like UT champs? Sounds annoying.

Krall:
you could boost their ground speed a bit, they look like they are built for running. Make them attack in groups more often too.

Already in.

Skaarj Warriors:
Razik as the only weapon is boring and weak. For Skaarj that aren't completely naked (all but warriors) add projectile throw additional attack to make them more interesting. The projectile in question could be something like razor blade (or a whole bunch) or grenade, depending on Skaarj class. Warriors could get acid spit and better mobility. Some of the melee attack anims, esp. spinny ones could be workable for making it look right.

Will consider.

Warlord:
Give his gun some more interesting fire modes.

Will definitely consider.

Lesser brutes:
Their skin looks like they have bandoliers full of flak shells instead of rockets. You know what to do (you might want to swap skins instead if it gives them too much power, but remember that it looks less armoured, also no matter what happens NyLeve needs some rocket firing brutes to be consistent with translator messages - or changed messages).

Maybe just have them be a mix of rocket and flak brutes for variety and vanilla faithfulness' sake?

Thanks for the suggestions.
 

DraQ

Arcane
Joined
Oct 24, 2007
Messages
32,828
Location
Chrząszczyżewoszyce, powiat Łękołody
Ash

Heh. Editing in water rings and splashes for every projectile was literally the first bit of code I've ever written (back when Unreal was new and P133 barely sufficient to run it), but of course I no longer have those changes, and they were done stupidly, by altering the original scripts in place via copypasting.

What about biorifle and ASMD? Your change there is a much bigger departure from original than what I suggested for stinger (which was mostly just tweaking spread and fire cycle), and clashing strongly with the original feel of those weapons.

Maybe just have them be a mix of rocket and flak brutes for variety and vanilla faithfulness' sake?
I would just make the skin consistent with projectiles. If they have flak bandoliers they shook flak, if they don't, they shoot whatever they sensibly might, with original rockets being (of course) the default choice.
 

Ash

Arcane
Joined
Oct 16, 2015
Messages
6,227
What about biorifle and ASMD? Your change there is a much bigger departure from original than what I suggested for stinger (which was mostly just tweaking spread and fire cycle), and clashing strongly with the original feel of those weapons.

People vastly overrate the significance of ASSMD penetration. I suggest waiting 'till you try it.

As for Bio rifle...shit's Unreal.
Being serious now, is it really so hard to believe the Bio Rifle is incapable of anything beyond being a glorified super soaker? And yes, it's a departure from the original design. Again I will stress it's the only one, because the original Bio Rifle alt fire was shit banal boring nobody used it (in U98 sp). I don't do major departures unless it's really needed.
 

DraQ

Arcane
Joined
Oct 24, 2007
Messages
32,828
Location
Chrząszczyżewoszyce, powiat Łękołody
What about biorifle and ASMD? Your change there is a much bigger departure from original than what I suggested for stinger (which was mostly just tweaking spread and fire cycle), and clashing strongly with the original feel of those weapons.

People vastly overrate the significance of ASSMD penetration. I suggest waiting 'till you try it.

As for Bio rifle...shit's Unreal.
Being serious now, is it really so hard to believe the Bio Rifle is incapable of anything beyond being a glorified super soaker? And yes, it's a departure from the original design. Again I will stress it's the only one, because the original Bio Rifle alt fire was shit banal boring nobody used it (in U98 sp). I don't do major departures unless it's really needed.
You are applying a bit of a double standard here.

On one hand changes amounting to tweaking firing cycle and spread of a weapon (Stinger) are too drastic departure from the original, on the other, going completely out of whack with biorifle or ASMD is perfectly ok.

Yes, ASMD penetration is going to be of minor mechanical consequence, because enemies in Unreal rarely have opportunity to line up in a way that could be used. OTOH it's going to change look and feel of the weapon by eliminating visual feedback of hitting target (shockwave).

For biorifle, Unreal has always been very consistent when it comes to weapon's look and mode of action. Biorifle is pure hydraulics - tanks, pipes and pistons. Making it shoot green energy swirlies completely violates weapon's concept. Note that I don't dispute that existing fire modes are lacklustre and mutually redundant, I just propose alternative that is consistent with weapon concept.

I also propose reuse of swirly for ASMD while also salvaging its original concept and making it consistent with modern UT implementations as a bonus.
 
Joined
May 5, 2014
Messages
1,677
Well if you're concerned about the biorifle's alt fire not looking mechanical, i suppose the altfire could be make to look like a spray/cloud as if it were vaporized under pressure?
 

DraQ

Arcane
Joined
Oct 24, 2007
Messages
32,828
Location
Chrząszczyżewoszyce, powiat Łękołody
Well if you're concerned about the biorifle's alt fire not looking mechanical, i suppose the altfire could be make to look like a spray/cloud as if it were vaporized under pressure?
And why not make it a chemical-y flamethrower mode for weapon that already looks like a chemical-y flamethrower, and reuse energy swirly (because it's honestly cool) for ASMD (as an additional effect)?
 
Last edited:

Ash

Arcane
Joined
Oct 16, 2015
Messages
6,227
Yes, ASMD penetration is going to be of minor mechanical consequence, because enemies in Unreal rarely have opportunity to line up in a way that could be used. OTOH it's going to change look and feel of the weapon by eliminating visual feedback of hitting target (shockwave).

The shockwave draws for each target hit. Why would I get rid of the hit feedback? Because muh realism again? It's especially useful so you know what and how many targets you hit behind the first.
 

DraQ

Arcane
Joined
Oct 24, 2007
Messages
32,828
Location
Chrząszczyżewoszyce, powiat Łękołody
Yes, ASMD penetration is going to be of minor mechanical consequence, because enemies in Unreal rarely have opportunity to line up in a way that could be used. OTOH it's going to change look and feel of the weapon by eliminating visual feedback of hitting target (shockwave).

The shockwave draws for each target hit. Why would I get rid of the hit feedback? Because muh realism again? It's especially useful so you know what and how many targets you hit behind the first.
I still think it's too much of a railgun ripoff, but it's good to hear.
But why not repurpose your swirlies for ASMD somehow? They don't fit biorifle one bit and putting them there only robs us of possibility of having funky green flamethrower in Unreal.
 

Ash

Arcane
Joined
Oct 16, 2015
Messages
6,227
Eh, I was hoping that you would do Arx Fatalis after GMDX.

Maybe one day.

Morgoth Summer 2019

DraQ Sorry. I disagree with your insistence that the Bio Rifle is ruined and alt fire should be disregarded because muh realism. Would a real-world equivalent of the Bio Rifle be incapable of making swirlies? Maybe. Arguably. Probably. But I don't place the same value in realism that you do (your various arguments on the dex prove you value it over any other tenet of design). Did the original devs value realism as much as you do, or I do? Clearly Unreal has relatively consistent, believable design, but it's not overbearing. Take the Automag for instance: why can it only rapid fire if held to the side inaccurately gangsta style? Totally unrealistic weapon design! Why is the Vortex Rikerrs interior huge, but when you exit into NyLeve the ship is relatively tiny? Why is every level a point of no return? Why can't you go back? Why can you carry ten weapons, a horde of flairs and a bunch of other shit on your person?

There's various reasons for each of these and none of them is because the devs valued realism above all else. Likewise, there's various reasons the alt fire is a swirly and not bio-flamethrower: shit's way more fun and unique, as well as more complementary of the primary fire mode than a turdthrower mode would be. I will be and have been keeping Unreal's moderate focus on believability and consistency in mind, but there's always exceptions made in the name of FUN. Hell the game's even called "Unreal". Lastly the swirly is also more creative than a turdthrower we've seen in 50 other shooters, which is fitting as Unreal's weapons are rather creative.
 

DraQ

Arcane
Joined
Oct 24, 2007
Messages
32,828
Location
Chrząszczyżewoszyce, powiat Łękołody
DraQ Sorry. I disagree with your insistence that the Bio Rifle is ruined and alt fire should be disregarded because muh realism.
Replace "realism" with "consistency" and you might be onto something. The thing is - consistency is, was and will be the king.
No matter whether you want to be realistic or not (and realism is just a specific kind of consistency), if you show me a shit design in a game, I will show you inconsistency that lead to it.
I do value realism, but I think that the title does a good enough job giving me a hint in this case. You however don't seem to realize *why* it is important to keep things consistent, even though Unreal's devs clearly did.

Take the Automag for instance: why can it only rapid fire if held to the side inaccurately gangsta style? Totally unrealistic weapon design!
Wrong question. The right question is "why does P849
shoot automag fast gangsta style". Maybe P849 is a gangsta? They start the game in prison cell after all, that's something a gangsta would do. Maybe it's not really possible to fire AM accurately at max rate of fire? Honestly, I don't care.
But on your quest to prove me wrong you have missed a more important fact about automag:
Why does automag not shoot rockets, crystals, coloured goop, explosive shells, shotgun shells, grenades, razor blades, lasers, colorful plasma or miniature, rainbow-propelled unicorns in any of its fire modes?
Because it's a fucking bullet based firearm firing fucking bullets.

Why is the Vortex Rikerrs interior huge, but when you exit into NyLeve the ship is relatively tiny?
Seriously now? You know that it is so rampant in games it even has it's own tvtropes page, right?
Of course, since you are going to be revamping the levels as well, feel free to fix that - for all RTNP's numerous faults it actually did some cool things with Prometheus.

Also, it's Vortex Rikers. Single 'r'. It's a prison ship, not a pirate ship.

Why is every level a point of no return? Why can't you go back? Why can you carry ten weapons, a horde of flairs and a bunch of other shit on your person?
Are you for real? Next time you will be asking why everything and everyone looks so angular... ah, fuck it.
You know what?
I will tell you a story instead:

Back in the day I had a monitor. It was a big, heavy CRT and as it got older it started malfunctioning a bit and lose blue channel every once in a while. This made the screen look as if someone pissed inside of it and, as Deus Ex: Human Revolution was not invented yet and, being a :outrage:, I had no accelerator card to bask in Q2's piss coloured lighting, was a serious problem needing a quick remedy. Fortunately such a remedy existed and was to tap it sharply on the back and upside the 'tube which restored the blue channel with a loud 'clunk!'.
Now, your symptoms are different and I presume the exact impact location might differ as well, based on your anatomy, but, dude, you are malfunctioning and need some percussive maintenance to come back to your senses.

There's various reasons for each of these and none of them is because the devs valued realism above all else. Likewise, there's various reasons the alt fire is a swirly and not bio-flamethrower: shit's way more fun and unique, as well as more complementary of the primary fire mode than a turdthrower mode would be. I will be and have been keeping Unreal's moderate focus on believability and consistency in mind, but there's always exceptions made in the name of FUN. Hell the game's even called "Unreal". Lastly the swirly is also more creative than a turdthrower we've seen in 50 other shooters, which is fitting as Unreal's weapons are rather creative.
  • Yeah, it seems fun. It will be just as fun if you stick it on one of the energy guns in there, where it will fit. Preferably ASMD. I am not terribly adamant about dropping the penetrating "I want to be a Quake 2" RG rip-off, but there are multiple ways of adding this mechanics to this gun, it fits the theme and other than combo ASMD has always felt underwhelming. It does not fit on the GESBiorifle at all if you value any measure of consistency.
  • Flamethrowers are fun, rarely done right by vidyagames, fit the theme and you could make a flamethrower mode much more effective at being an area denial weapon than the original and able to channel/kill more than just pupae. I've seen a pretty good implementation of flamethrower in early days of Unreal (It was called DEXFT flamethrower, included three modes of fire continuous jet of flame that set victim on fire, fragmenting, sticky fireball, unignited fuel that stuck to surfaces and floated on the water waiting to be ignited by weapon fire, sadly it was not compatible with patched versions), so it can be done.
 
Self-Ejected

theSavant

Self-Ejected
Joined
Oct 3, 2012
Messages
2,009
Take the Automag for instance: why can it only rapid fire if held to the side inaccurately gangsta style? Totally unrealistic weapon design!
Wrong question. The right question is "why does P849
shoot automag fast gangsta style". Maybe P849 is a gangsta? They start the game in prison cell after all, that's something a gangsta would do. Maybe it's not really possible to fire AM accurately at max rate of fire? Honestly, I don't care.

Interesting point, and you got a point there. Though tbh I also really really disliked that alternate shooting style. I disliked it so much, that I tried to use macros on my mouse to shoot faster in the primary weapon mode. Therefore I endorse the announced changes to the Automag (and also the enhancements to the Dispersion Pistol). I always thought these 2 weapons should be better.

That said, as much as I like Unreal (and I played it a lot), I rather wished for a plain port to UnrealEngine4 first before any other mods. I know it's easier said than done (*if I recall correctly, Unreal 1 has no export option for objects, and therefore makes a port almost impossible), but when people start modding for years in the old engine, I wonder if that effort wouldn't have been better in some recreation. Also it's not the only mod under construction... there's also that "Unreal Redux" under construction... for years now. But again only with this outdated engine :(
 

Ash

Arcane
Joined
Oct 16, 2015
Messages
6,227
Ash here, creator of GMDX for Deus Ex, and now Unreal Evolution.

I have mostly been quietly working on this for 1.5 years, and now it's pretty much done. Thankfully Unreal is a much simpler and much more polished game than Deus Ex was. Improves artificial intelligence, weaponry, player control, realism, level design, audio design, graphics, polish. Like with GMDX, Unreal Evolution is intended to be a faithful upgrade of the base game in 90% of cases. That remaining 10% exists to add fun factor, replayability, and/or address pitfalls in the original design. an example of this is the new weapon modification system which does all the aforementioned goodness.

I'll release it soon.

________________________
||===Player Control===||
------------------------

Dodging:

-You can now dodge underwater. Can also be used to simply traverse water faster.
-Double-click dodging is disabled. Instead use the new Dodge Key (See: controls menu and rebind to your liking).
-Dodging has altered cooldown. Instead of getting one dodge every second or so, you get up to three dodges in succession then a longer cooldown period (~four seconds).
This is so you can cover more ground in less time than simply strafing/running. In other words it makes dodging more effective and actually useful over just strafing.
-Each dodge also covers slightly more distance.
-You no longer audibly grunt with every. single. dodge. Only sometimes for realism.

Crouching:

Unreal Evolution utilises OldUnreal 227i's "True crouching", which makes you actually smaller when crouching and thus enabling you to take cover, enter crawl spaces, duck
under projectiles and so on. However, this behaviour was unpolished, so some fixes and expansions were necessary:

-You can jump while crouched, albeit not as high as a standing jump.
-There is no longer a extremely long transition period between crouching and standing.
-You can drop off of ledges while crouched (if you want the ledge-stopper behaviour, it has been moved to the walk key).
-You wont fall through moving objects when crouching on them.
-Level design is tailored to support "true crouching".

Jumping:

-You have improved air control (control over x & y velocity/positioning while airborne). Originally very minimal.
-The threshold before falling damage applies is reduced by 15% (originally far too lenient).
-You no longer audibly grunt with every. single. jump. Only sometimes for realism.


Translator Expansion:

The translator has been expanded to give further information relevant to gameplay:

-When picking up inventory items, under certain conditions (e.g first time pickup) you may recieve a message which details what that inventory item is. This is to encourage
inventory use (e.g amplifier and forcefield) and teach the player what those items actually do in detail without them having to read the instruction manual.
-With the translator active, Press 'Fire' to view weapon statistics and currently installed weapon mods for the weapon you currently have in your hand.

Inventory Items:

-Flares last longer (extended from a measly 10 seconds to 25).
-Forcefields are more common and you can carry more than one at a time.
-Flashlights can be carried in greater quantity, but each flashlight pickup yeilds less battery.
-NEW: Weapon Modules. Find these scattered around and use them to upgrade your arsenal.
-The Amplifier is now compatible with the Stinger. In addition to damage, it now also increases projectile speed (while active) for any weapon it is compatible with.
-BUGFIX: Scuba Gear no longer instantly drowns you when deactivated, but rather normal underwater breathing applies.
-Super Health packs only add 50 health on UNREAL difficulty level and above, though a small number of additional super health packs can be found in the game.
-Super Jump Boots: (Continue reading...).

Other:

-Auto Aim is outright disabled on Unreal and Hardcore difficulty.
-Cheating is outright disabled on Hardcore difficulty.
-There's a new optional hardcore difficulty.

_________________________________
||===Artificial Intelligence===||
---------------------------------


-Most NPCs utilize new forms of attack or tactics in combat. Beware.
-All NPCs gib under realistic conditions.
-Most NPCs can be headshot for bonus damage, and can be decapitated.
-On higher difficlties enemy counts are higher, and you'll sometimes fight enemies in diverse groups for truly engaging combat. As a result, the
likelihood of monster in-fighting needed to be reduced, otherwise they'd be fighting eachother all the time.
-Most NPCs have minor modifications to dodging behaviour.

Krall:

-NEW: sometimes fires three grouped projectiles instead of one.
-Improved sleeping behaviour.
-10% Faster projectile speed. Scales based on difficulty level.
-Run slightly faster
-Attack a little more frequently. Scales based on difficulty level.
-Other minor tweaks

Krall Elite:

-Same as Krall above, but:
-NEW: will sometimes activate a forcefield around themselves and attack aggressively from the safety within.

Gasbag:

-NEW: Gasbags sometimes build up a more powerful projectile with a large blast radius. Looking at the explosion site at close range will disrupt vision for approximately 1.5 seconds.
-NEW: Killing a Gasbag while it is building up said projectile will cause the Gasbag itself to explode, potentially damaging anything nearby.
-50% less chance to dodge all incoming projectiles.
-25% additional projectile speed. Scales based on difficulty level.
-20% additional airspeed. Scales based on difficulty level.
-Attacks slightly more frequently. Scales based on difficulty level.
-Gasbags now emit sound when belching fireballs at you.

Mercenary:

-NEW: May opt to use cloaking/partial invisibility instead of invulnerability. May also opt to use cloaking/partial invisibility upon sighting of the player.
-NEW: If health is low, may activate a self-destruct sequence on their wrist-tech and kamikaze rush you.
-Reduced health.

Tentacle:

NEW: may hide from you by retreating into its growth hole. It is still vulnerable in this state to explosive and shocked damage (e.g Dispersion Pistol Alt Fire, Eightball, ASMD alt fire).
There are various conditions under which it may hide, such as:

1. to avoid an incoming projectile.
2. upon spotting you, to stay hidden and hope you don't notice only to then barb you in the back.
3. after losing sight of you.

Slith:

-NEW: scream soundwave attack.
-No longer immune to the Bio Rifle, but rather has 50% resistance.
-Attacks slightly more frequently.
-Other minor tweaks.

Skaarj:

-NEW: The Officer Variant now has the ability to teleport in combat.
-All other variants remain unchanged.

Brute (mid-range brute):

-NEW: Their berserk charge now is something to beware rather than mostly useless: they run faster and will not stop to melee when they reach you (only to miss), instead bullrushing straight through and knocking you back.
However they turn much slower while doing this and can be dodged.
-5% additional projectile speed. Scales based on difficulty level.
-5% additional movement speed.
-Reduced explosive resistance to 20% (all Brutes originally had 30% armor vs explosive damage).

Fly:

-The sound they emit covers greater distance. This is to make all those times they come from behind you in Chizra etc less of a nasty surprise.

Manta:

-50% faster movement speed.
-60% Reduction of health.

Biter Fish (the tiny fish in water that you can barely see):

-No longer block the path of pawns.

Bloblet:

-Increased movement speed.
-Reduced Health

NEW ENEMY TYPES:
================

Squid:

-A previously unused enemy.
-Extended general artificial intelligence.
-New attacks and more polish.

Spinners A.K.A Spiders:

-Some may prefer to aggressively chase you, others may prefer to stay back and use their ranged attack.
-Are present in Unreal (prev. RtNP expansion-exclusive).
-Are faster.
-Moderately reduced health.
-Come in varying sizes.
-No longer sound like a rat when shot.

Lesser Brute (Flak):

-Fires flak shells instead of rockets.
-Has 20% resistance to bullets.
-Slightly modified charging behaviour.

Behemoth (Flak):

-A Flak version of the Behemoth Brute.

BOSSES:
=======

Titan:

-Overhauled Titan Bossfights, namely adding diversity to each fight rather than the same fight recycled numerous times.
-All Titans have less HP, and their rocks deal less damage.
-Reduced explosive resistance to 20% (all Titans originally had 30% armor vs explosive damage).

Stone Titan:

Same as Titan but:
-NEW: Ground slam attack which unearths a group of rocks your way.

The Warlord:

-NEW: multi-rocket attack.
-Dodges projectiles much less frequently.
-Now has a sound effect when firing rockets.
-New flying behaviour.

Queen:

Originally a pushover. Now an adequate final challenge.

-NEW: scream soundwave attack.
-NEW: proximity orb attack.
-NEW: an additional surprise if playing hardcore mode.
-Updated and polished teleportation behaviour.
Increased health.
-The super jump boots that are exclusive to this fight remain infinite-use, but continually recharge and only offer three jumps per max battery capacity. This means while you're still able to jump around like a lunatic, you must time
your jumps when maneuvering around the arena and dodging attacks.
-Considerably reduced melee attack damage.
-BUGFIX: no longer screams when the player is walking around the arena after it is killed.

NO DIRECT CHANGES:
==================

Lesser Brute
Behemoth
Devil Fish
Pupae

_________________
||===Weapons===||
-----------------


Improved various weapon effects and handling, creating visceral gunplay:
========================================================================

-Improved weapon firing animations.
-New screen shake effects when firing.
-Improved nearly ALL weapon effects considerably and added some new (e.g projectile effects, impact effects, tracers, screen flash, new splashing when shooting water).
-New recoil system. Each weapon has its own unique recoil pattern.
-Many mostly subtle audio design improvements.

General weapon improvements, fixing and balancing:
==================================================

Dispersion Pistol Primary Fire:
-Rate of fire no longer decreases each time it is upgraded.
-Projectile speed now increases each time it is upgraded.
-Altered damage, ammo consumption and amplifier behaviour for balancing.
-While the amplifier is active, primary fire gets small blast radius capability.
Dispersion Pistol Alt Fire:
-no longer autofires immediately when fully charged.
-Blast radius scales with the power level of the weapon (including amplifier).
-BUGFIX: fixed an issue with alt fire audio getting cut off towards the end of the sound clip.
-BUGFIX: Fixed an audio bug with the charge-up sound.
-Altered damage, ammo consumption and amplifier behaviour for balancing.
Automag:
-BUGFIX: fixed an issue with automag firing animation tweening.
-BUGFIX: There is no longer a large delay when attempting to switch weapon from the automag to another after firing the automag.
-The alt fire is slightly more accurate.
-Restored an unused AutoMag idle animation.
-AutoMag max ammo capacity increased by 50.
-Increased the lifespan of ejected bullet casings.
Stinger:
-Can now be used with the amplifier (boosts damage and projectile speed).
-Minor damage increase.
-Increased Knockback (especially w/alt fire).
-Stinger alt fire blast fires one extra crystal and has slightly tightened spread, with the intent to make this fire mode worth a damn.
-Stinger alt fire blast is dodged by Skarrj less frequently, also with the intent to make this fire mode worth a damn.
ASMD:
-Increased damage (primary and secondary both).
-Increased knockback (primary and secondary both).
-Second highest chance of gibbing enemies (after explosives).
-Amplifier increases alt fire projectile speed and blast radius (in addition to vanilla damage increase).
-Decreased amplifier drain rate.
-Primary fire damage is reduced to a lesser degree vs shielding enemies, implying penetration. (all other weapons are reduced by 90%).
Eightball:
-Improved trajectory of alt fire grenades, and grenades are slightly less bouncy.
-Rockets are dodged by enemies a little less frequently.
-Slightly increased damage.
-Seeker rockets track a little more precisely.
-Increased blast radius by 5%
Flak Cannon:
-The alt fire grenade can actually be dodged by NPCs from time to time (Vanilla: never).
-Slightly slower alt fire rate of fire as it is often superior to the primary fire in terms of damage and reliability.
-Increased alt fire blast radius by 5%
GES Bio Rifle:
-Primary Fire: slightly increased damage and range, slightly slower rate of fire.
-Alt Fire: blob now explodes into many smaller clusters like in Unreal Tournament. The number of clusters is determined by how much the shot was charged.
-The pressurised bio wave seen in earlier beta versions has been scrapped.
Razorjack:
-Increased Damage.
-The killing blow will likely shred and pass through the enemy, hitting anything behind.
Rifle:
-Now fires explosive rounds. The most powerful (non-amplified) weapon in the game. (Open to reverting to vanilla on the grounds of unfaithfulness. It's super fun though and makes the rifle more stand-out).
-Increased the lifespan of ejected bullet casings.
-Increased knockback/momentum transfer.
Minigun:
-BUGFIX: While using the primary fire of the Minigun and immediately switching to Alt fire, the fire sound correctly plays rather than a period of silence.
-Buffed minigun damage. Still weaker than the AutoMag, but should be more competent by comparison w/extreme damage per second potential.
-Slightly higher accuracy of both fire modes.
-Minigun max ammo capacity increased by 50.

REMEMBER: Each and every weapon has new recoil, overhauled visual effects and firing animations, audio design improvements, bugfixes, screenshake, headshots and decapitation and more.
This text does not give the full picture. Much work has done into weapon design. You're going to love them.

New Weapon Modification system:
===============================

You can upgrade one of two weapons predetermined weapons per upgrade module, your choice which.

Examples of upgrade choices:
1. ASMD primary fire penetrates through multiple objects/enemies, OR Bio Rifle primary fire explodes on contact with any surface.
2. Skarrj Infantry T2 Upgrade Module: +25 Automag rate of fire (both primary and secondary modes), OR +25% Stinger Rate of Fire (both primary and secondary modes).

Find upgrades most commonly in secret areas. Once you attain one, simply use it from your inventory with the desired weapon equipped. No complicated menus slowing down the gameplay pace.

This increase in power the player has access to is challenged by improved AI, tougher encounters (e.g enemy placement), and slightly tighter resources (on higher difficulty modes).

You can view what mods your weapon has as well as other information via the translator (Press 'Fire').

____________________________________________
||===Graphics/Environmental Art/Effects===||
--------------------------------------------

The goal here is to create a enhanced artistic direction and full HD experience in combination with other HD mods for Unreal. There's two main approaches: 1: The excellent popular Unreal Texture Project (UTP) HD texture mod for
Unreal is an incomplete project; only a portion of the game's textures were updated. What Unreal Evolution aims to do is finalise it in a relatively faithful manner, so that the full game experience is HD and better looking than ever.
The second approach is to add subtle details here and there, in particular to levels that were barren, to attain a consistent level of artistic detail. Various effects are also added or improved.
If you've played GMDX you know what to expect.

-New Decals
-New Weapon and object Effects.
-New Sunlight Coronas.
-New Geometry
-New Texturing work
-New Lighting work
-New decorative objects.

______________________
||===Level Design===||
----------------------

If you've played GMDX, you know what to expect: relatively faithful improvements to all levels. It will still look, feel and play like Unreal at its core, but on the next level.

-New Challenges: refined resource placement on higher difficulty levels. Refined Enemy placement. Minor quality additions to up the engagement level.
-New content: new secret areas, new events.
-Enemy variety: Unreal originally frequently had moments of sparse enemy variety (e.g IVS Kran levels consist mostly of Skarrj Warriors only). One goal of Unreal Evo is to diversify engagements, within the constraints of the plot and
existing design. An example of these constraints would be no Skarrj in the Terraniux Mercenary ship, as it wouldn't make sense without altering the lore and/or story.
-Utilisation of various 227 engine features.
-Advantage-taking of missed opportunities in the level design.
-Support and tailored design for 227 true crouching.
-Made some secrets that were impossible to discover via intuition/perception/logic but rather pure chance a tad more discernable.
-Fixed many map bugs.

______________________
||===Audio Design===||
----------------------

-Additional ambient audio design in select levels previously lacking.
-You no longer grunt with every jump.
-BUGFIX: The Male 1 class no longer plays metal footstep sounds on every surface.
-Many weapon audio enhancements.
-Minor enemy audio improvements.
-Restores five unused music tracks, the majority replacing recycled music, the rest expanding upon the music of a level theme (None of the vanilla music is gone).
-Also adds three music tracks from the Return To Na Pali expansion pack.
-BUGFIX: fixed some music bugs/oversights. For example the combat music on Noork didn't play as intended.

_________________
||===General===||
-----------------

-Autosaving: you have five autosave slots. The game autosaves on a per-level basis. If playing hardcore mode, Nali saves also go here.
-Save games now display what difficulty level you are playing on.
-Numerical values displayed in the HUD (inventory counts, health, armor, ammo) use larger font. This makes other HUD modes and/or higher resolutions viable.
-The player will gib under realistic conditions now (e.g a rocket to the face).
-Polished the way in which sludge barrels explode and spawn sludge.
-Tarydium Barrels no longer have a puny blast radius, and have improved explosion effects.
-Bugfix: The Stinger, Automag and Minigun all display their hit impact effects when hitting decorations
-Bugfix: dispersion pistol projectiles passing from one water zone to another don't lose all their velocity.

___________________
||===Challenge===||
-------------------

Here's a brief summary of how Unreal Evolution affects challenge:

Increase:

-Weapon recoil
-Improved AI (some scaling based on difficulty)
-Additional enemy placement (some based on difficulty)
-Reduced Health from super health packs (high difficulty modes only).
-Additional challenges in level design.
-Altered resource distribution.
-New optional hardcore mode.

Decrease:

-Reduced excessive damage scaling on 227i's higher difficulty levels
-Various minor base weapon buffs (e.g minor weapon damage buffs, new bio rifle alt fire explodes into clusters like in Unreal Tournament, new explosive rifle).
-Weapon modification. You can make your weapons more powerful.
-Additional player control such as better dodging, true crouching and air control.

Playing on NORMAL or HARD is recommended for those that are new to FPS.
Playing on VERY HARD is recommended for those that have some experience with FPS.
UNREAL or HARDCORE difficulty is recommended for FPS veterans or on replays of Unreal Evolution. Use your own discretion.

Hardcore Mode:

-Manual saving is disabled. Saving is triggered per level, and per Nali ghost found. Survive the gauntlet of challenges between each save!
-Some enemies only appear on hardcore mode.
-Some weapon upgrades only appear on hardcore mode.
-Super Health pickups are worth 50 health points.
-Dispersion pistol Ammo capacity gained per power level upgrade is reduced.
-Cheating is disabled
-Auto aim is disabled
 
Last edited:

Ash

Arcane
Joined
Oct 16, 2015
Messages
6,227
I'm pretty much done. Some new hi-res textures are needed to truly call it done but I'm doubtful I'll find a texture artist as a) I'm not doing much promotion, and b) The original Unreal is relatively obscure these days.
So aside from post-release support (bugfixes, though I doubt there will be many bugs at all) I'm not sure what else I could do for Unreal without making wild changes.
I may or may not move on to some other modding project. Depends on level of support and interest in what I am proven to be capable of with these old gems I suppose.

Ash will you stop at nothing? What's next? Stalker: SoC?

I have many classics on my radar. Stalker 1/3 are certainly a possibility.
 

Ash

Arcane
Joined
Oct 16, 2015
Messages
6,227
You bet. Sky's the limit. I'll open a patreon. If my talents are in demand and funding is steady and sufficient, I'll continue my modding career and we'll have years ahead of enhanced classics in the vein of GMDX and Unreal Evolution. If not, it ends here and I'll focus my time on more beneficial endeavours. Modding is simply way too time consuming to not get some form of compensation long-term. I spent over 5 years of my life on GMDX, working on it nearly every day or every other day. Unreal Evolution has been more manageable but it's still been nearly 2 years.
 
Last edited:

Ninjerk

Arcane
Joined
Jul 10, 2013
Messages
14,323
You bet. Sky's the limit. I'll open a patreon. If my talents are in demand and funding is steady and sufficient, I'll continue my modding career and we'll have years ahead of enhanced classics in the vein of GMDX and Unreal Evolution. If not, it ends here and I'll focus my time on more beneficial endeavours. Modding is simply way too time consuming to not get some form of compensation long-term. I spent over 5 years of my life on GMDX, working on it nearly every day or every other day. Unreal Evolution has been more manageable but it's still been nearly 2 years.
That might be a way you could actually get paid. Imagine if modding could have made people money aside from being auditions for jobs 15 years ago. Wesp5
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom