ActionUT Ceases Development

Problem of the UT community is taht it was never über-large and the various Unreal titles split it up even further. UE3 wont help either, because even less people are able to play the games ahrdware wise (not evrybody is going to upgrade).

RegularX said:

So try and organize and motivate a team of skinners, modellers, mappers, texture artists, sound effects guys, musicians and coders with the concept of "you know, I doubt anyone will really play this when we're done." Lemme tell ya, it doesn't work that well. Hard enough to keep a team together when half of them are trying to get jobs in the industry and disappear halfway through development - even harder if they think that once it's done, it will just get played for a week and then shelved.

So yeah, doing some coding or mapping on your own - that's not a big deal to worry about the outcome. Probably have a fine time just firing up Instant Action and taking things for a spin. Smaller the team, easier it is to get away with that. Course, these days - people want TC's. They want expansion packs. Everyone wants pro quality work.

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I think what Kai was getting at is that the motivation should be purely to have fun. That's what modding should be, and it seems very few people have that mindset nowadays. Kai is on my team, and I wouldn't say that after 3 years we're "small", but we get along and work well because we all want to achieve the same thing from modding: fun.
As long as we have fun making something then that's fine. If as a byproduct we pick up some people who like to chat with us then that's cool, but if not, it's no big deal as long as we had fun and gained some personal satisfaction.

I agree about the community, which seems to be a mixed bag at the moment. The majority of gamers want high-sheen professional mods but don't seem to be prepared to help these mods get off the ground floor, so to speak. And don't forget that if you don't cater something specific to their tastes your mod is absolutely worthless.

I can understand why the AUT decided to stop work on the mod, because a lack of interest can be sorely disappointing, but perhaps by stating "Lack of gamer interest" as one of the reasons they gave the wrong message to some people.

Hey, its great to see such a debate over this. For those of you who believe we are glory seeking quitters, I am sorry you feel that way but I suggest you all read the following on out official forums:

http://www.aq2zone.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=18;t=000391

Some of the team have jumped in and given their personal reasons and Ace12GA, one of the oldest Akimbo Team members gives a fantasticly brief history of the series on page 2.

*Agrees 100% with Parser*

Even though UnWheel has won a bunch of awards and stuff, nobody plays it. When it is played, it's mostly the team and one or two loyal fans

Yet we keep at it, cause we're making a game we love to play ourselves, and have fun in the process. :tup:

Bazzi said:

Problem of the UT community is taht it was never über-large and the various Unreal titles split it up even further. UE3 wont help either, because even less people are able to play the games ahrdware wise (not evrybody is going to upgrade).

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Indeed, and dont forget the next game from epic wont be in the unreal series... so what will this do to the community? from a modding point a view, this will be the first time people will mod the new engine but would this new game be big enough to support mods (community wise) or should modders wait for the next Unreal Tournament game to come out, and then there is Unreal3. if that has MP options what will that do to the community.

The only thing I hope is that Epic work on supporting older machines with the next engine, so it can become more accesible for people who dont upgrade there machines. If the UE3 can be an engine which will be around for a while (not as soon as its released UE4 is planned) to allow some sort of community to build back up.

Releasing games to soon after another or multiple titles cna fracture the community. I think Epic should try to look at releasing the next UT game with its goal as staying around for a couple of years. not releasing new versions every year, this will allow people to catch up (hardware and game wise) and allow the community to grow again.

There's an awful lot of people telling us what modding "should be." Well, no offense, but i suggest you shut up.

There's a lot of reasons why people mod. Some set out with larger goals (massing a huge player base, generating interest, winning contests, public relations, etc) and some just do it, well, to do it. But i never once thought that people who didn't mod for the reasons i mod for were any worse folk than me. So here's my "should:"

You should mod for whatever reasons you want to. Don't let these guys tell you that your reasons are less valid than theirs just because they're different. And honestly, how long would you produce and update a piece of software that nobody ever used? Would you support it for 2 years like some of us have? Fun may be what drives you now, but community is what will keep your work alive and thriving. There are lot of roles that player numbers have in a mod's development. Anyway, i feel the Action team is fully justified in their feelings towards continued development on UT2004, especially when looking back on the popularity of AHL and AQ2. It can be depressing indeed. Again, good luck fellas.

"So try and organize and motivate a team of skinners, modellers, mappers, texture artists, sound effects guys, musicians and coders with the concept of "you know, I doubt anyone will really play this when we're done." Lemme tell ya, it doesn't work that well. Hard enough to keep a team together when half of them are trying to get jobs in the industry and disappear halfway through development - even harder if they think that once it's done, it will just get played for a week and then shelved."

Spot on.

@Squirrel: You're right about community driving a mod forward for the most part (at least after release).

I'd evaluate more of your guy's (as in everyone's) points, but there r really too many.

All i have to say is that I mod to give ppl a taste of what i think is cool.. I mod for my portfolio's sake.. I mod to give me a sense of accomplishment... and lastly I mod so that when released, my mod will be played and hopefully enjoyed.

As u fellow modders stated, if after release, no one gives a **** about your mod, or disregards it because of simple aspects they read in a review, u WILL lose motivation. You'll also grow a bit more bitter towards the community.
It really amazes me how people on the Atari forums pay more attention to an atrocious remake of an old UT map or an oslaught map that consists of a box with a wall in the center more than a slaved upon Total Conversion that takes ten times longer (at least) to develop.
Anyways, I'm going off on a tangent.

I'll finish by saying that after Hackerz' botched release rushed solely for the MSUC, I've realized that modding isn't for fame and glory and big cash prizes.. it's because it's enjoyable. It's what I like to do.


@Glock: Excellent work on AUT (it's one of the only mods i played for more than a week) and I'm certain you guy's will make a bang in the gaming community/industry in the future.

It looks like what I wanted to say has been covered, but I will post my thoughts if the forums will let me this time
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Deapblade said:

I am very sorry to hear this. This is what I have to say about it:

Less people playing the mod online is also because there is a majority playing offline. This is a complaint I hear everywhere. I would like to shout out:

STOP PLAYING OFFLINE AND START PLAYING ONLINE!
...

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I'll start playing on-line as soon as people start playing games as a team on public servers ...
Current on-line crowd appears more concerned with personal glory (and the abuse of any exploit available that goes with that goal) or the big witch-hunt against anyone that in reality is just better. Because for me that's the #1 reason not to play on-line even though I could.

IMHO next-gen mp-games need something similar to Xbox's server-system. One that uses a group of friends as a focus to play games instead of the current public server-system that forces complete strangers to play against each other.

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RegularX has a good point.
It's easy to build a small mod/utility, release it and have little to no feedback.

In larger teams it can be extremely annoying not to have a more immediate and better feedback from whoever is playing, because people that didn't develop it often bring fresh ideas to the mod. And a steady input of new stuff is IMHO a major requirement for the long-term survival of any mod.

I'd add that even if a mod were to add good/quality off-line support then it would make it very difficult to estimate how many people actually play it once released.

Another mod-community-killer is the simple fact that most people only tend to see problems that concern their personal favourites/hatreds (weapon X is overpowered / weapon Y is nerfed). Few fans bother to look at what might be in the mod's best interest.

And in the rare instance someone dares to suggest new stuff the chances are good that the 'veterans' of the mod will flame them not because the suggestion is flawed but because they are afraid of losing their edge ...

In fact if there's a reason why more mods are shutting down it isn't the MSUC, but the lack of true support from the community's that have grown around them.

Sorry to hear the development has ceased. I didn't download it because I'd heard from more than a few people that uninstalling it wiped out your whole UT2K4. I don't know if that weas ever fixed.

Could we at least get the player models that were finished?

The uninstall didn't whipe out anything, the problem was that people didnt select the AUT module on the uninstall screen so everything went, its the same for any mod that actually used the proper set.

There was a problem with Beta 0 that hid all the other mods in the communities tab but this was fixed by adding a . somewhere in one ot the .ini

Give R1 a go, it is hugely improved bugwise, there are dives, new weapon and a whole load of new maps.

So many mods, so little time. Not to mention all the gametypes that came with it... and not counting the 'other' games that have come out. Doom3 came and went, uninstalled. Halflife2 is there, and hopeful that deathmatch will improve as their community responds to the new game.

UT2004 kicks all their llama a$$.

Though Quake4 has me twitching slightly...

The community with Unreal has been the redeeming factor. Combined with massive updates (free) from the developers and more than a little support... you guys have all made this the BEST financial entertainment investment EVER.

ActionUT was definitely a mod I played offline, and tried to get into online, but had much more fun lanning with the kids. But ya haves ta understand that so are Chaos, FragOps, UnrealForever, Fraghouse, RPG, AlienSwarm, JAILBREAK <--powntential, UTXMP, ExcessiveOverkill, Invasion in general... oof...

I only have so many hours in my day, and there is a fine line between 'relaxation' and 'addiction'... I can't even go near Insight anymore... not unless all the chores are done... heh...

I hope ActionUT remians in our community, and I hope the team finds new and more rewarding UT-ONLY related content... heh... but if you must do something with the halflife2 crowd... could ya fix all those awful two-dollar quickie halflife deatmatch ports?

pfffft quake 5 is gonna own quake 4! but not as much as quake 16 lol

seriously though sad to see the project come to an end. I too played it offline (only because it happened to work a with a favorite mutator of mine that I could only play offline with) it was a nice mod to say the least.

so whats next? action hl2?!?

When the next UT does come around, I really hope modders decide to pool their skills more.

I think a lot of the percieved problems people are talking about is due to the audience being spread so thin. You've got AUT which has a great feature in weapons and the double handed system, but (imho) not the best maps in the world. Then you've got something like SF2004 which has the most pedestrian weapons and combat system you can have but some of the best maps in a mod. They just need to get everyone together.

so AUT doesn't wipe everything out, it's just no one knows how to use a UT4MOD. I see.

In that case, I'll check it out now.

just a bump, and:

I can't see why more people aren't checking out this mod. People suck, what can I say?

Hey, if I wanted to use the player models in regular UT2004, what files would I copy over to get 'em?

I'll talk to the team about seeing if we can release them as a seperate pack. Glad to see you enjoy them.

Just downloadedR1, and ill be sure to save it for upcoming LAN-partys, but still, no servers online a bots are just a bit to stupid. Stil you have fixed all the main issues and if those animations replicate right the coding is close to stunning.. fab work lads

Caravaggio said:

When the next UT does come around, I really hope modders decide to pool their skills more.

I think a lot of the percieved problems people are talking about is due to the audience being spread so thin. You've got AUT which has a great feature in weapons and the double handed system, but (imho) not the best maps in the world. Then you've got something like SF2004 which has the most pedestrian weapons and combat system you can have but some of the best maps in a mod. They just need to get everyone together.

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Won't happen. Not for Unreal or probably any other game. Since mods these days are being more and more equated to being amatuer studios, it's all moving in the opposite direction.

For that to work, you'd need an almost completely open framework for code, models, weapons, maps, etc. Unreal has one of the most open mod communities in town, if not the most open, but it's still far more of an exception than a rule to share assets and code.

Damnit that sucks.
I loved the orginal Action Quake 2, and even did some work for the orginal A-TEAM (made locknload1-3)

I really enjoyed playing too AUT04
it was alot closer to the AQ2 experience than the AHL version.
oh well.