How can Assault mode be improved for UT2k4?

How should Assault in UT2k4 be different/improved from the UT verison? There were a lot of things people did not like about Assault and I'm not sure if it was played very much.

One thing I did not like about Assault is launching (mostly on Overlord) and I'll give my reason why before someone calls me a newbie or something. Think about it, what is the point in taking over the base so fast that your almost not even playing the game? What is the point in taking over the base in under 20 seconds and spend most of the time watching the ending and loading screens? To me that is NOT fun, if your almost not even playing the game. The whole point of a game is to have fun and again, if your not really playing the game, what is the point? Anyone agree on that or not? Another thing I hate was turrets, the other team IMO already has enough support, the players. Plus turrets can't be destoryed (only stopped for a ilttle while by taking a lot of damage). I also don't like the long run before getting back into the action, it took too long to get back into the action on maps like Overlord. Note that this is all of my opinion of what I did not like about Assault.

As for my ideas for improving Assault, why not do some of the things the Assault Mod did for UT2k3, like hacking into stuff that took a few seconds? Maybe a option to turn turrets on or off, and make it quicker to get into the action.

I know we won't know what Assault will be like in UT2k4, but this is the Unreal Tournament 2003-2004 Discussion Board. Please, no flames, post what you did not like about Assault and what you think can be improved.

NeoNite said:

You're not a newbie cause you don't like launching. I've played a couple of times on league assault servers and tbh it was boring. Boring as hell. Nothing but launching, completing the levels in a matter of no time.
Except this one time in frigate, where I was able to stop the ship from being taken over (and I got insulted for that)

pfff.. haha

I play assault the hard way. No launching. It's too quick.
And launching wouldn't work that well on levels such as as-coldsteelII (or is it colder steel)

But most assault levels suffer from not being balanced. Either the defending or attacking team has too many dis/advantages.
That's one thing that has to be taken care off in the new assault.
And no weapon that can possibly be used for launching.

Turrets.. tell me about it. Some levels suffer from too damn many turrets (especially the coldsteel levels)
Ok, turrets aren't always bad. But you have to use them in sparely (?) Not too many at a time. Having turrets firing at you almost through the entire level is horrible, kills the level :-/

Want a perfect example on using way too many turrets? (and placing them at retarded locatioins)
Download as-wildstreets.

Click to expand...

Launching as you said is just boring. It almost ruins the point, if I wanted to I could use a grapple hook and finish most levels in almost no time at all, I might as well take over the base with no bots. The people got mad at you for stopping the base from getting taken over and for playing the way your suppose too :tdown: ? Good thing I was not with those kind of people, but I was on a server where people got mad at me for messing up launches and stuff. As for turrets, I guess they could be ok if there was only one or two, but when you have no real way of dodging it, that is when I get mad. They should have less "health", maybe get destoryed and never come back and maybe tone down their power. On AS-Guardia, that turret that shoots shock balls is way too powerful and I think it can kill you in two hits, plus it attacks you from the whole room.
On AS-Underground (or AS-UndergroundAssault), the turrets were really bad, one of them shoots redeemer warheads in a small room and at a high rate of fire. There were also a lot of other things wrong with the level. What was the mapper thinking ? I'll try out AS-Wildstreets to see the awful turrets.

Edit: The pros get mad at "cheap" tricks like camping and spamming, but launching is not cheap to them ? Launching bypasses most of the challege (sp?) of getting pass the other team and finishes a level much quicker then playing the "right" way. I would like to hear one good reason in launching (other then winning).

Dead_Hood said:

[2cents]
My first suggestion is spawning, Especially for the defending team. The assaulting team usually spawns in a room that only has one way out, but the defending teams have spawning across the entire level, and can usually camp the attacking teams spawn points (see AS-Guardia for the most obvious example; also OceanFloor, Overlord, and Rook). IMO, there should be closed off spawn rooms as in most of the custom AS maps. That way spawn camping can't happen, or at least not as easily.
I also think that combining the time-based objectives (stand here for 3 seconds, etc.) with the classic 'blow this up' objectives would be nice. Just walking up to a button and pressing it could also be added on certain objectives. That would make some objectives a little easier, and some alot harder. I also think there need to be multiple paths to each objective. In most of the AS maps that shipped with UT99, there was only 1 path to the objective, which made for some boring games. In later custom maps, there were multiple paths, but they were quite easy to defend, defeating the purpose. The last thing I can think of is objective completion. I think that you should have to complete all the objectives in order to beat the level. In the cases of AS-Rook, AS-Overlord, and AS-Mazon, you didn't have to do that. All you had to was beat the final objective and the game was won. If they are going to give us objective-based games, all the objectives should have to be met.
[/2cents]

Click to expand...

Actually, in AS-Mazon, if you launch into the base and destory the crystal, you still have to destory the chains. [edit]You can actually impact launch into the upper level from outside by yourself.[/edit] Epic should do what was done in the custom maps like you said, add more then one way to get to the objective (so it is harder to guard) and spawn rooms that you can't enter once you leave. Then again, UT2k3 already has some respawn protection that wears off after a few seconds or after attacking. You still can win on Overload right from the beach by launching. As of now (In UT normal maps), people can launch and finish the maps quickly, there is only one way to get to the objective, camping the respawn rooms is easy and other stuff.