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My Thoughts On G59

For public discussion of all things EXU2.

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Gameite2260
Skaarj Warrior Skaarj Warrior
Posts: 73
Joined: 21 Sep 2013, 14:56

Subject: My Thoughts On G59

Post Posted: 15 Aug 2014, 23:32

So since I already have a thread about EXU2 critique, I thought I should make a thread about G59 as well, a map pack which I might even actually prefer to the base game. (Sorry waff)

I encourage everyone in this thread to discuss their thoughts on it as well, not just me. More interesting that way :D

Limit Burst
This level is a cool concept. You don't know who you are or why you're here, and this is well reflected in the choice of enemies, which are hard to spot and require frantic movement to stop.

The first wave is a little unforgiving. It took me three tries to kill them all in time. On easy. So they need to be reduced a little bit.

The second wave is much funner to fight against because you can actually dodge their attacks. However, they are very buggy. At one point after one of their projectiles exploded midair, I got an error message. The second time this happened, the screen started to shake and freeze up, with weird fragments on the screen, it almost looked like screen burn-in. I actually had to ctrl + alt + delete out of that. I got a picture of the weird texture, though:

Image

I'm aware that there's a third wave of enemies, but decided it was better to just skip to the first real level, fearing all this constant crashing wasn't very good for the installation.

Nebiros's Crossing
So soon as the level starts (Not including the intro bit with the meteor storm), you step out and see that holy crap, this level looks awesome! The dark grey rock textures, plus the track (Gagarin by Cybernetika for those interested) works well with the theme of the map. It says to me "This is some scary, tough-ass shit you're about to go through, but you just might make it if you're very good". And as you'll see as soon as you get into your first real fight, this is exactly the truth.

Your first encounter during this level is a lone Charger. In the EXU2 thread, I expressed hate for these guys because they looked like they could be any other Brute type enemy when they're really much more dangerous than most of them. But after realizing they're the only enemy to use the LesserBrute model, this quickly stopped being a problem.

Continuing on from the Charger fight, the monsters are well chosen. Fucker Brutes provide just enough blockage to let the Gasbags fire on you, without it being imbalanced. Meanwhile, the Turret Enemies are placed in such a way that you have cover to line up shots with the Extractor without being interrupted, and their projectiles are slow enough to keep you always moving, but not fast enough to be inbalanced. This is exactly how all Turret Enemies should be.

So after that whole fight, you find the Tachyon Driver, which makes the hidden fight too easy. You can just one shot the enemy. One Tachyon Driver ammo for Supreme Armor is a very good deal IMO. Also, his spikes are a bright green for some reason. I'm assuming this is a texture bug as it looks really dumb.

However, there's one frustrating bug that needs to be addressed. At the first blood pool after the Titan Statue, there's a little tower with an elevator you can use to get into it, kill the mobs inside, and collect some good loot. Before entering this area, I placed down a translocator so I could teleport myself outside of the tower in case something went tits up. It didn't, but after collecting all that good loot and translocating out anyway to avoid monster sharks, I somehow telefragged myself. There wasn't a death message and I'm pretty sure there weren't any monsters in my way. So this needs to be a priority for the next update. Hopefully I will remember to film it should this glitch happen again.

I'll continue onward from this level in a minute, but I need to do some chores now. Seeya!
Gameite; "Shit sounds like a fable to me", till he jumps out the fuckin toilet when you're takin a pee.

UB_
Nali Priest Nali Priest
Posts: 7960
Joined: 11 Nov 2007, 21:00

Subject: Re: My Thoughts On G59

Post Posted: 16 Aug 2014, 00:26

Nah there isn't a third wave in LIMIT BURST, a mysterious Skaarj appears and you have to run to the portal because you can't kill him.

The bugs with the second wave are definitely new though and very worrying because I don't know where to start to fix those.
What renderer you use? What are your PC specs? The texture glitching -> crash issue generally happens for the dumbest of reasons but most of the time they're related to the renderer used (I'm assuming you're using the OpenGL one from EXU2), various specs and decals/carcasses turned off. Likely could be caused by the high amount of shock orbs visible on the screen, the weak engine might not like those when combined with the fast hyperspace texture effects (which is overall a first in UT).
The renderer I use, by the way, is "EXUOpenGLDrv.OpenGLRenderDevice". It's heavily recommended you use it since it's the best renderer for UT at the moment.

Also yeah, other than the renderer, you might want to post its settings as well. Copy paste them from the UnrealTournament ini file to do it quick. The Archdemon skin bug (which is global to that pawn, not just to G59 only) shouldn't be happening. I already noticed it from the shot you posted showing the "green" Archdemon in G59-Map4.
If you don't know what renderer you are using, go to Preferences -> Video and read what's next to Video Driver. If "EXUOpenGL Support" is not written there, then you have to change your current renderer to the EXU one.

As for the translocator bug, where did you exactly shoot the disc? On the valley grounds or in the first floor of the tower? And are you sure there were no enemies around? One little form of splash damage can destroy the disc.
Also do note that there are no Monster Fish in the first lake, you'll meet up Demon Slith if you only get near to the tunnel which connects both lakes.
ImageImage

Gameite2260
Skaarj Warrior Skaarj Warrior
Posts: 73
Joined: 21 Sep 2013, 14:56

Subject: Re: My Thoughts On G59

Post Posted: 16 Aug 2014, 06:08

UBerserker wrote:Nah there isn't a third wave in LIMIT BURST, a mysterious Skaarj appears and you have to run to the portal because you can't kill him.

The bugs with the second wave are definitely new though and very worrying because I don't know where to start to fix those.
What renderer you use? What are your PC specs? The texture glitching -> crash issue generally happens for the dumbest of reasons but most of the time they're related to the renderer used (I'm assuming you're using the OpenGL one from EXU2), various specs and decals/carcasses turned off. Likely could be caused by the high amount of shock orbs visible on the screen, the weak engine might not like those when combined with the fast hyperspace texture effects (which is overall a first in UT).
The renderer I use, by the way, is "EXUOpenGLDrv.OpenGLRenderDevice". It's heavily recommended you use it since it's the best renderer for UT at the moment.

Also yeah, other than the renderer, you might want to post its settings as well. Copy paste them from the UnrealTournament ini file to do it quick. The Archdemon skin bug (which is global to that pawn, not just to G59 only) shouldn't be happening. I already noticed it from the shot you posted showing the "green" Archdemon in G59-Map4.
If you don't know what renderer you are using, go to Preferences -> Video and read what's next to Video Driver. If "EXUOpenGL Support" is not written there, then you have to change your current renderer to the EXU one.

As for the translocator bug, where did you exactly shoot the disc? On the valley grounds or in the first floor of the tower? And are you sure there were no enemies around? One little form of splash damage can destroy the disc.
Also do note that there are no Monster Fish in the first lake, you'll meet up Demon Slith if you only get near to the tunnel which connects both lakes.


My renderer is Direct3D Support. I have changed it to the one you recommended, however, it caused some... anamolies. For starters, the entire screen looked heavily saturated in comparison to without the driver. Secondly, the game went completely and utterly apeshit, running at like above 300% speed. I felt like I was playing a Korean Starcraft tourney. It just got unplayable due to how fast it was. So I had to switch it back. On a related note, which block of text exactly is it you want from UnrealTournament.ini?

Also, just to clarify, Archdemons are the titan-based enemies? Because I had thought this whole time that they were the warlord-based enemies.

You are thinking of a different lake than I am. You're thinking of the first lake in the entire level; I'm talking about the first lake that appears after you find the Titan Statue. The one where the shoreline has a large wooden board hanging off of it, that you can use to jump onto the tower. Inside of the tower is a Gasbag pawn, and three EXU Vials laid out on a table with some Tachyon Driver ammo. That one DID have Devilfish pawns, two huge ones in fact. Anyway, it is I suppose possible that a randomly spawned enemy showed up and shot at it, but if that was the case, it seems a little screwed up that it insta-kills you. I mean, yeah, I'm okay with the concept of punishing the player for not properly clearing out an area, but it shouldn't be an instant kill. It should be a temporary debuff, like maybe your weapons fire slower for a few seconds. This could be accompanied by an "electric" particle effect surrounding your weaponry.
Gameite; "Shit sounds like a fable to me", till he jumps out the fuckin toilet when you're takin a pee.

UB_
Nali Priest Nali Priest
Posts: 7960
Joined: 11 Nov 2007, 21:00

Subject: Re: My Thoughts On G59

Post Posted: 16 Aug 2014, 11:35

Uegerhehg yes you have to use that EXU OpenGL renderer, the original Direct3D renderer is very outdated and it's heavily unstable in many Unreal custom mappacks, let alone EXU2. Refer to this guide to kill the super speed bug under the newest renderers: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=339
Not sure about the brightness but did you try changing it after the switch? The original Direct3D renderer makes everything look desaturated and super bright.
Well at least that explains the cause behind all the graphical issues you've encountered so far.

Archdemons are modified Titan enemies and can fly. Their legs have invisible skins.

Also ok yeah that's the second tower. If you pick up the Armor Seed on the table, it will spawn a group of enemies on the ground after few seconds (next to the wooden board). I think the spawning effects of the enemies do actually hit things around, so if you shot the disc there then that was definitely the cause. I'll have to move the spawning Skaarj in more sensible spots.
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