First, I must say that as far as game mechanics go, UT3 pretty much hit the spot. Unfortunately, the huge amount of bugs made the potentially perfect gameplay invisible to the naked eye.
So this is how I see the ultimate Unreal Tournament game, after over 12 years of intensive play throughout all games in the series:
Business decisions - This is the most important one: Make it a PC game for the ages, back when games had thriving communities because the publisher & developers didn't interfere with the inner-workings of the players' ecosystem.
In short:
Give the game to the players. Don't follow the industry's recent business trends.
* No premium DLC whatsoever. Bonus Packs and huge content patches, that we grew to love, are more than welcome!
* Anyone should be able to host a public server, on his own PC or on a dedicated server that he
owns and doesn't rent from the publisher's partners.
* The game should be fully moddable. That's what makes or breaks long-term community involvement. Unlike many games today, UT never suffered from the famous "I left that game because there were cheaters everywhere". If there's a "zeroday glitch" - modders can fix it on the spot. The beauty of UT was demonstrated when joining a new server - you never knew what you were going to get. Maps modeled after one's living room with low-gravity instagib, servers with "crotch-shot", servers with relics, servers with community voice macros... no one, other than the administrator (or the voting players) can dictate what the game should play like.
* Listen to the community.
Give a very high priority for QA and feedback from the field, including an extended beta period. I can't stress this enough.
Game mechanics should be based on UT3. That means that you're still a tad-heavy grunt, but you can dodge, double-jump and wall-dodge. The translocator isn't infinite. The Hoverboard can be used in vehicle-based gametypes, etc.
All the franchise's core gametypes should be included. That means it has to include Assault, Bombing Run, Double Domination, and Warfare. Perhaps even Invasion, Mutant, Greed and Betrayal?
UT1/UT2004 user interface -
everything is customizable, with a significant portion of the properties having a GUI. We're PC gamers, we enjoy millions of checkboxes and loads of key bindings. And let's not forget weapon-throwing this time around!
And, in closing:
Leave nothing behind on launch-day. UT2004 vanilla is the best example for a proper gold build, while UT3 v1.0 is the best example for the opposite. Don't repeat the mistakes that led to the horrible UT3 v1.0, the game must be of v2.1 quality
to say the least, because that version only came close to the real thing: (and still had demoguy
* Like I mentioned earlier, make sure the UI has everything. Examples: the server browser
must have "Join IP" and "Add to favorites" from within the browser. If you're planning to have in-game friend invitations and messages, design and implement it properly!
* Voice chat that works. UT2004 did this perfectly (Public/Team/Group, if I recall correctly).
* Add cute features that make you feel special - the UT2004 music player, or the UT1 IRC client are great examples. And, of course, UTV! An automated spectator for massive LAN parties is such a huge win.
* Don't wait for UTComp to add things that the vanilla game should have! (demorec, for example)
