Why can't Epic fix the Bot Selection Team Based Game Modes UI

First, I will note that I played UT2004 95% offline (which is possibly why I feel so effected)

Uneven teams :

I really enjoyed playing offline with lopsided teams. Often just myself against a handful of bots, for skill building or just for fun. (fun with many low skilled bots for lots of big kills and fun action, or just a couple high skilled bots to really keep me on my toes).

I was particularly dissapointed because I simply assumed this would be part of UT3 as well, but found it was not.
I really hope this will be officially re-added in the future.. Heck, I'd be happy if I was (officially) told it will be back in UT4 - even if something like that is more than 12 months away (because atm I worry if its gone forever )

Single Player Campaign :

I have completed UT2004 single player many dozens of times, and UT3 only once. I really enjoyed UT3 campaign, excellent game, good fun, but for some reason for me it just doesn't have that replayable-factor.
Even now I will still go and replay UT2004 single player from start to finish, and I'm truly upset that I cannot replace that experience with UT3 (read: similar setup with new graphics / maps) because I truly want to.

I know it might just be my own opinion, but I find the Single Player mode in UT2004 more fitting for the "tournament" theme as well.
UT3 campaign isnt a tournament at all, which is.. interesting.

I never played ut2k4 online. With these missing features, I can't find the motivation to even start up a ut3 instant action match, it's too much work for too little flexibility. What baffles me is that I read all those quotes about how Epic recognized how many players played only offline, and I was expecting an improved offline experience.

If things got fixed to at least the level of functionality ut2k4 had, I might give the game another go. I'm seeing a few things here and there in the MSUC I'd try out, but I can't help but feel like it isn't going to be worth the trouble to DL and install a bunch of stuff for a game that feels crippled to me when I need free hard drive space to boot.

I think that Epic had a completely different approach to the off-line gameplay in UT3.
I remember that one of the things that were on (my own) wishlist for a next UT was the ability to select entire teams of bots instead of having to pick them one at a time.

In a way we've got it as we can select to play against "Ronin" or "IronGuard".

As such it also is understandable why the statistic-editor from the UT'99/UT2kx-series isn't present as the bots are supposed to be fixed characters.

You're not fighting a bot that looks like Malcolm, but you really are fighting *the* Malcolm. As such it makes absolutely no sense to let people other than the creators of the character(s) determine what it should behave like.

That also explains why the only character that the player can modify is his own avatar.

Alternatively you've exceeded the default number of custom characters allowed (12)

Click to expand...

Why is there a limit on the number of custom characters allowed ?
Shouldn't there be an unlimited amount as the player can only have one avatar active at any given time ?
The alternate-variants for the rest of the characters could be considered alternate costumes for those characters (ie: Loque with or without his favourite helmet).

JaFO said:

I think that Epic had a completely different approach to the off-line gameplay in UT3.
I remember that one of the things that were on (my own) wishlist for a next UT was the ability to select entire teams of bots instead of having to pick them one at a time.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I was hoping that for this improved offline experience I was expecting, they would have taken a look at mapmixer and botmixer for ut2k4 and built on their base of features. I had this awesome random cycling of a dozen teams I made in botmixer, it was fun. Agh, if only they'd skipped the SP campaign and cut-scenes, and used their time for things like this!

Ah certainly, and botmixer allowed you to define your own teams or team groups, so that you could select a team of mates without having to go through each one, or just use the individual bot skin you want (instead of adding a bunch of bots you didn't select).

Incidentally, I just checked up on the MapMixer 3 page and learned there's an alpha out. I'll have to read up on the included features, maybe I'll be firing UT3 up again. That's not to say I think Epic shouldn't be working on their basic features themselves.

I think botmixer only worked right if you let mapmixer take over your main menu (ie. add a mapmixer option to the top of the list). Once you went into mapmixer, you could see a list of all the bots you had installed. You could then name a team, choose a team symbol for it, and add whatever bots you wanted.

When you ran through mapmixer, you could set it so that the red team will always (randomly or not) use bots from X Team, and blue would use bots from Y Team. You could also define team groups, like Group A consists of Team X, Team Y, and Team Z, so if the red team uses Group A, one of those teams will be randomly selected for each match. You can also define a "leader" bot for each team that will appear even if the team lineup is set to random.

I had a ton of teamskin "packs" that folks made, and I gave them each their own botmixer team. I had like twenty teams, and then divided them into two team groups, one for red, one for blue. Every match would be one random team against another random team, and with the other features of mapmixer, it would be a random map from any gametype. It was a blast, and now I can hardly play 2k4 without it.

If you still play 2k4, check into mapmixer. It looks overwhelming at first with the sheer amount of options and individual things you can micromanage on a specific or random basis, but it's totally worth learning how to use it.