Coalescence

Coalescence – An Unreal Tournament 2004 mod

Coalescence combines new game play elements from Halo, Halo 2, Tribes, Call of Duty and many other First Person Shooters into the ONS game type for Unreal Tournament 2004. New features, weapons, vehicles and effects seek to balance and organize game play by condensing weapon and vehicle functionality into fewer but more functional items. The goal of this mod is to introduce less specialized/Gimmicky weapons and vehicles and in doing so add more nuances to game play.
For example, the Rocket launcher and A.V.R.I.L are now one weapon that fires laser guided rockets at players (similar to the rocket launcher in Half Life) with an alternate fire that locks on to vehicles (similar to the SPNKR in Halo 2).
Additionally, features like boost removes the players ability to maneuver and fire, but allows players to deploy faster to battle zones or escape from them.
Vehicles are also less specialized. The tank and SPMA functionality are combined into one vehicle, The Colossus tank, primarily fires the same rounds as the goliath, with an alternate fire that shoots rounds like the SPMA. A second player controls a plasma gun that is moderately effective against air attacks. New features like an improved HUD, random vehicle spawn and “attrition mode” improves game play and adds replay value.
Lastly new and more dramatic effects solidify the feel of weapons. The Unreal Engine’s particle system is pushed to its limits with improved weapon effects. Projectile contrails stay visible longer, explosions are more powerful and concussive, smoke, dust and flame are used to greater extent to improve the look and feel of Onslaught.
Many of these Ideas are not original or unique, but could add a new twist to Onslaught. I have a 9 page document describing some ideas in more depth. Right now, I am simply looking for input and constructive criticism to help me point this mod in the right direction.
For starters here is the new and improved Tank, that combines the functions of the Goliath and S.P.M.A into one vehicle (with a few changes).





(Size comparison to Goliath tank)

Obviously, this in the pre-alpha stages. Here is a quick description of the idea behind it.

Ares Tank – The Ares tank is appropriately named after the Greek god of war because of its deadly capabilities on the battle field. The Ares combines the Goliath and SPMA into one devastating weapon of mass destruction. With the regular fire, explosive rounds are projected at high velocity with a micro nuclear explosion instead of traditional chemical propellants. The force of the detonation is so massive that it kicks up dust and crushes enemies in the immediate vicinity. The flash produced leaves blue plasma gas in the air for a few seconds. The alternate fire deploys the tank in to “siege mode”. The barrel points skyward, the camera view extends and a targeting laser appears to display the shots trajectory. The firing system is the same as the SPMA in Siege mode. When fired the projectile leaves behind a spiraling smoky blue contrail that lingers for a several seconds as it expands and fades away. Before it can fire another round, the excess plasma must be vented and the system must cool down and reload. In the process plasma is vented from behind the turret. The second player controls a smaller gun that fires dual link gun bolts as an anti-air/anti-personnel measure.
o Crew: 2
o Speed: slow
o Armor: heavy
o Weapon Damage: 8x explosive, 2x plasma
o Range: Close to long

If you like what you have read and think you have anything to contribute, even if it just an Idea or critique, please e-mail me: Johnnyx1900@gmail.com or contact me on aim: Johnnee X

Thank you Solid. If people show enough interest, I will put up a website. For now I am feeling things out and trying to build a little hype for my mod. Here are some more ideas on a weapon system:

The Armor system
Players can have non-armor (health), armor and shields, but players start with 100 health and vehicles start with xxx amount of armor. Shields slowly recharge by themselves and can be recharged faster by the link gun. Health and armor is increased by power ups for players while armored vehicles cannot regenerate armor, only shields. Armor is layered, so shields must be removed before armor can be damaged and armor must be completely gone before health can be depleted.
Health: Regular non-armored hit points are rapidly depleted by any weapon making it important for players to seek armor and shields.
Armor: Vehicles initially have a certain amount of armor which gives them an advantage against most weapons. Players can have 100 armor points at most. Armor must be depleted before a player can be killed by vehicle impact.
Shields: Shields draw energy from a players’ energy ammo which regenerates slowly. Energy weapons draw from this reservoir as well. Some vehicles have shield generators that recharge while the vehicle is on/in use. Shields are depleted while boost is used since more energy is being drawn from the vehicle’s power source. Players can have a maximum of 100 in shields. Shields appear only when hit by projectiles and diminish in color when they get low. Since shields absorb the energy of projectiles, they do nothing against impacts with vehicles that have relatively small amounts of velocity involved.

The Weapons system
Coalescence organizes projectile damage into three types; each is slightly specialized making it important for the player to select the correct weapon for the situation. Weapons use a logarithmic damage system. A link gun bolt does 10 damage to shields, for example while the super plasma bolt does 20 or 2x. The plasma cannon and Pegasus alternate fire do 80 or 8x. The same applies to other weapon types. Splash damage range increases according. Each player starts with 2 pistols (dual wield) and the link gun. Additional weapons can be picket up at weapon lockers.


Piercing weapons - Guns like the pistol, chain gun, gauss gun and sniper rifle fire bullets that do piercing damage that is effective against non-armored targets such as players, does half damage to armor and half damage to shields. They generally do less damage overall, but hit instantly.
• Strength: instant hit; usually accurate, long range.
• Weakness: projectiles are relatively weak against shields and armor.


Energy/plasma Weapons – Plasma has small area/splash damage and is effective against non armored targets. Plasma does half damage to armor and full damage to shields and health. Plasma does more damage overall than piercing projectiles, but shots usually take time to reach target.
Energy weapons and boost draw from the same power reservoir and use the same ammo pick up, each shot/projectile would look similar and use ammo according to damage done/ size of projectile.
• Strength: Projectiles do medium damage against most targets; does light splash damage.
• Weakness: Projectiles take time to reach target, limiting effective range; Weapons are prone to overheating.


Explosive Weapons - Grenades, rockets, tank and mortar fire all do explosive damage with a large splash damage radius. The concussive effect is equally effective against all three defense types. Explosives do the most damage compared to the other weapon types but take the most time to deploy. The rocket for example would be about half the speed of plasma.
• Strength: Explosives do the most damage and have large effect radius.
• Weakness: Explosives take the longest to deploy or travel the slowest. In most cases, the exception being the tank fire.


Dark Energy Weapons – Dark Energy weapons are the super weapons that replace the Redeemer, Ion painter and target painter. Dark matter weapons are the most powerful and do damage to shields, armor and non-armor at the same time, but their effectiveness comes at the expense of limited availability and low ammo capacity.
• Strength: Combines the instant hit of piercing weapons with the damage and area of effect of explosives
• Weaknesses: Limited ammo capacity, ammo is hard to find, takes skill and resourcefulness to make effective use of ammunition.

Note: this is only part of this mod, there is more to come, I am just trying to get poeple interested in this.

Ok, small update. I still need some volunteers to help me with this mod, but here is another vehicle that will be included. Right now it is in the alpha stages, but I think this shows the gist of what I am going for.

This is the Geryon Gunship. It is about twice the size of the Cicada and can have a crew of 3. Each player controls a quad plasma disperser. The four main engines have individual pivots that rotate around a central hub allowing for incredible manuverability dispite its size and mass. This engine system allows for vertical take off and hovering capabilities and can provide enough power for an afterburner that doubles its speed, but halves manuverability.

Here the engines are in hover mode.

Afterburner mode.

Side view.


So, what do you think?

Nice work XepptizZ and thanks for the reply. I am working on a website to help get things organized and allow for the exchange of ideas.

Thanks for the input every body. As for the halo style gameplay, I have recognized many of its "perfections" and want to try implement some of them in this mod without blantantly copying them.

So right now, here are some features I have thought of including. Most of these are just consideration right now.


Game speed: Overall game speed would be decreased in order to prevent the annoying twitch fests that are the 1 on 1 battles in Onslaught. Player speed would be slowed to about 2/3 to ¾ the speed it is now. Generally I want players to have more options instead of going to power nodes only to get ganged up on. Players will still be able to dodge and maneuver to avoid some projectiles, but if necessary, run away. Overall, I think things will feel better when players can land more successful hits even if they may do less damage.

Universal maps: If at all possible, maps would be made from scratch that would allow for multiple game types. Maps would have key points on them that would function as nodes, flag capturing points, re-spawn points, bases or other “locations of significance” according to the game mode selected. Doing this would allow maps to have more replay value and more dynamic game play.

Dynamic classes: Games like team fortress have classes with different stats. For example a “Scout” has weak weapons/armor but is very fast. A “heavy weapons guy” has heavy weapons and armor, but is slow and vulnerable. The "dynamic class" seeks to eliminate the idea of a class. Instead statistics are affected by the weapons that the player equips. A pistol, since it is light and fairly weak, will increase a player’s speed when equipped, while a rocket launcher will slow a player down. Other weapons have arbitrary constraints such as the minimum that would require the player to slow down when firing.

Inventory: I hate inventory systems in games, but this is simple. Players get 4 slots; small weapons like the pistol take 1 slot, while larger ones like the rocket launcher and plasma cannon take 2. Weapons that take 1 slot can be dual wielded, while weapons that take 2 cannot.

Dual Wielding: Certain weapons can be used in tandem, or in combination. This ability comes at a price. When dual wielding, players cannot use boost or the alternate fire for each weapon. Out of the 4 weapons a player can carry, 2 must be equipped. For example if a player starts with a pistol and a link gun, then there would be 2 more available slots for weapons. The player could pick up another pistol and then use both of them at the same time and still have 1 slot open for another weapon. Since the link gun is a vital weapon to have, a player must decide between having the link gun with 3 open slots or being able to dual wield and have 2 sets of weapons to use.

Boost: All players with a link gun and all vehicles with a reactor have a boost feature that will double speed but decrease maneuverability, prevent weapons from firing and deplete energy from shields in vehicles and decrease energy units (energy ammo) from players.

Random Spawn: In order to mix up game play and keep things interesting, this feature basically spawns random vehicles and if so desired, random weapons and power ups at power nodes. This would work on a point value system. In this system, nodes would be assigned a number based on their importance in the link chain, so a central node may have a value of 12, while other nodes may have a value of anywhere from 4-8. In turn, each vehicle and weapons will also be assigned a value based on their usefulness or power. For example a tank would be worth 6 points while a manta or raptor will be worth 2-3. A node assigned to have a 12 point value would randomly spawn vehicles such as 1 tank and 2 raptors (6+3+3=12) or maybe 2 tanks (6+6=12) or maybe 1 hell bender, 1 manta and 2 raptors (4+3+3+2=12).

Hit sound: I love this little feature on other mods. It gives that little confirming sound that lets one know if they actually hit what they were aiming at.

Improved HUD: Instead of having the bottom of the screen dedicated to weapon inventory/armor and health, the HUD now displays only health/armor/shield and teammate locations. Ammunition is always displayed on the gun.

Omni-Directional Gravity: Forget having traditional landscapes that unfold off into the distance, why not have them curve down to have hemispherical maps on a small planet for instance. Maps could even take place on huge rings where shortcuts to bases could protrude out of the ground. This would essentially add another dimension to maps allowing for new and interesting environments and strategies.


I dont think this last feature can be implemented with the unreal engine, but may be possible in the ut2007 engine.

Once again, let me know what you think.

Yeah, that random spawn was an idea I thought would mix things up a bit. Instead of getting the same vehicles each time there would be different ones and teams would have to change their strategies, but your right, it would be confusing.

That whole omni-directional gravity, hopefully that can be done with the ut 2007 engine. I think ultimately, by the time things are finalized for this mod, that game should be out. We shall see.

Other than that does everything else sound good? does it maintain a simple gameplay system that would be easy to learn and tough to master and provide a player with many subtle nuances to learn and eventually master?

Also, Xepp, can you maybe explain some of those weapons and things you posted? I like them especially the last purple and metallic one.

Well, after much thought and contemplation, I think I am going to develop this mod for ut2k7 instead of 2k4. Additionally, I would like to make this mod change more than just Onslaught. If feesable, I would like to make universal maps that support more than one gametype as well as some new ones in addition to deathmatch\ctf and onslaught. Currently, I feel that Halo 2 has a strong pull on the direction of this mod mainly because I think bungie developed it with a very robust multiplayer system. I want this mod to have a lot of polish and focus on quality, not quantity. I mean there are hundreds of maps for UT2k4 but only a handful seem to be played regularly. I want to try and design levels that, just like the weapons and vehicles are easy to learn, but have many secrets and strategic areas that take a long time to master and use effectively.

I am still working on a website that details more ideas which should be up in a week or two.

To answer your question ghost, I would need quite a bit of coding expertise for this mod, but it depends on how much I can learn about the next incarnation of the unreal engine. Thanks.

Ok, small update.

I have been busy with work and havent had much time to work on this mod, but I have had a few more Ideas.

The first one is Resin guns. With the invention of these new Novadex physics processors, that increase the amount of physics calculations by 100 fold, fliud and particle effects can be much mor interesting. Out of the 12 or so weapons this mod adds, I think 2 of them will be "toxic resin" guns that fire canisters of sticky toxic goop. I picture them as bio/organic looking guns that uses sacs of corrosive goop as ammo. One version would fire this highly viscous goop like a shotgun. The projectile would expand as it traveled and would have the same spread as a shotty. Once hitting any surface the resin would loose any of its remaining surface tension and collapse/burst reacting like a waterbaloon full of jello. The impact would disperse resin in a 10 foot radius and leave clouds of gas around it as it dissolves everything it touches. After every shot a new container would have to be manually inserted into the guns "mouth"

The second version would fire a single "tag" shot that acts as a homing beacon. Once a target is tagged with this the alternate fire rapidly sends clusters of homing "spores" to its target. The more hits that are landed consecutively, the more damage is done. For example the first shot may only do 1 damage, but the second will do 2, then 4, then 8 and so on.

I would also like to make 1 vehicle some sort of organic resin spewing monstrocity, but I dont know how to fit it in with the other vehicles.