Has anyone else read the manual (UT2004Demo/Help/Manual.pdf) yet? I just browsed through it, and I actually learned quite a little bit!
Some highlights:
-Lots on Single Player. Theres a little screen of profile creation, plus a short walkthrough on the how the whole ops works. You start out with tutorials (optional), then move onto 5 DM Qualification matches. On the 6th match, you get to pick players you want for your teammates, and then you've got to beat em
. Theres a new twist though. Apparently theres a "Change Arena" option which, presumably for some money or something, allows you to change to a new map if you want. Neato stuff. Anyways, after you thump your teammates, then you move onto a TEAM qualification ladder (4 maps). From there you move into the actual ladders (starting with DDom). Then you get to challange other teams, and get this: you can place bets on the matches! I think you can play for 'fun' too, but its not real clear on that. Anyways, there are two types of challanges: Bloodrights, and Mano-e-Mano. In Bloodrights, if you win, you get to pick (a?) player from the other team to join your roster! It doesn't say what happens if you don't win though (do you loose a player?). Mano-e-Mano is just a straight up cash bet on a One-on-One DM. Sounds fun. Oh yeah, and the whole time you're tooling around in the ladders, you also get to mess with your team. Hire new recruits, fire old members, juggle tactics and such.. it doesn't say if you have to manage salaries though. I think players just might have a recruit cost and thats it. But who knows. Anyways - one last cool thing about single player? INJURIES! Apparently your teammates can sustain injuries, which cost $$$ to heal (or you can be cruel and just hire new players 
). Fun!
-Mapvoting and Kickvoting are in as server options, though they're both disabled by default. In mapvote, players get to vote not only on different maps, but different gametypes (if allowed) too
-Text wildcards:
%A = Adrenaline
%S = Shield
%H = Health
%W = Current weapon
%L = Location
%% = % sign
-Voice Chat! The manual explained a LOT for me. Basically how it works is that every server has multiple channels by default. You can join (listen to) any number of channels at once, but you can only transmit to one at a time. The default channels are:
Public: Same as "say", anyone can hear you, anywhere.
Team: Same as "teamsay", only your teammates can hear you (anywhere)
Local: Now this one is cool. Anyone can hear you, but ONLY people nearby! Its actually based on your in game location. Players that are right beside you can hear you clearly, but players that are far away will have a reduced volume (you'll be quieter). Also, assuming you've got 3D audio whizbangs turned on, you'll actually be able to tell which direction a player is from their voice! WOWZA!
Personal: Now this is badass. Apparently everyone has their very own private channel! So now you can have a private conversation with anyone in the game! Anyone can join your channel if they want to, but the nifty thing is that you're master of your own domain. You can put a password on your channel so only your friends can join, and you can ban people from your channel too. You can also mute people in other channels, and guess what - the mute is universal! Once you ban/mute someone, they'll still be banned/muted if you bump into them weeks later in a different game! Yay!
Oh, and to go allong with all this nifty stuff are some new console commands:
Join <channel name>
Leave <channel name>
Speak <channel name>
SetChatPassword <password> (passy for your private channel)
BanPlayer <playername>
UnBanPlayer <playername>
-Ordering bots around. I havent tried it yet, but apparently its in. What you do is say their callsign (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, etc), and then an order. The orders are:
Defend, Attack, Cover Me, Freelance, Hold Position, Status, and Gimme (makes the bot give you their weapon!)
Oh, and the cool part? Apparently there are some hidden voice commands for the bots! I wonder what they could be....?
-Just a tidbit, but the Raptors missile (alt fire) will ONLY lock onto other Raptors, and Mantas. Just sos ya know.
-Pictures of the Leviathin, Phoenix (bomber), and Fighters. Also, I learned that to do a roll in one of the fighters, you hold your jump key and press a strafe key. Oh, and your crouch key will reset your roll. Nifty. I also learned that the fighters have targeting systems. You use your next/prev weapons (scroll wheel) to cycle through available targets. And you can hit your use key to target the nearest enemy infront of you. I cant wait to see some space dogfights!
-There are 4 manned turrets: The minigun turrets in Convoy, a Mothership turret that fires plasma bolts and has a shield (alt fire), an Ion cannon, and a Link turret. And YES, you can heal vehicles and link to other turrets with it!
All in all it sounds very very cool. I cant wait for the full game!
Some highlights:
-Lots on Single Player. Theres a little screen of profile creation, plus a short walkthrough on the how the whole ops works. You start out with tutorials (optional), then move onto 5 DM Qualification matches. On the 6th match, you get to pick players you want for your teammates, and then you've got to beat em
. Theres a new twist though. Apparently theres a "Change Arena" option which, presumably for some money or something, allows you to change to a new map if you want. Neato stuff. Anyways, after you thump your teammates, then you move onto a TEAM qualification ladder (4 maps). From there you move into the actual ladders (starting with DDom). Then you get to challange other teams, and get this: you can place bets on the matches! I think you can play for 'fun' too, but its not real clear on that. Anyways, there are two types of challanges: Bloodrights, and Mano-e-Mano. In Bloodrights, if you win, you get to pick (a?) player from the other team to join your roster! It doesn't say what happens if you don't win though (do you loose a player?). Mano-e-Mano is just a straight up cash bet on a One-on-One DM. Sounds fun. Oh yeah, and the whole time you're tooling around in the ladders, you also get to mess with your team. Hire new recruits, fire old members, juggle tactics and such.. it doesn't say if you have to manage salaries though. I think players just might have a recruit cost and thats it. But who knows. Anyways - one last cool thing about single player? INJURIES! Apparently your teammates can sustain injuries, which cost $$$ to heal (or you can be cruel and just hire new players ). Fun!-Mapvoting and Kickvoting are in as server options, though they're both disabled by default. In mapvote, players get to vote not only on different maps, but different gametypes (if allowed) too
-Text wildcards:
%A = Adrenaline
%S = Shield
%H = Health
%W = Current weapon
%L = Location
%% = % sign
-Voice Chat! The manual explained a LOT for me. Basically how it works is that every server has multiple channels by default. You can join (listen to) any number of channels at once, but you can only transmit to one at a time. The default channels are:
Public: Same as "say", anyone can hear you, anywhere.
Team: Same as "teamsay", only your teammates can hear you (anywhere)
Local: Now this one is cool. Anyone can hear you, but ONLY people nearby! Its actually based on your in game location. Players that are right beside you can hear you clearly, but players that are far away will have a reduced volume (you'll be quieter). Also, assuming you've got 3D audio whizbangs turned on, you'll actually be able to tell which direction a player is from their voice! WOWZA!
Personal: Now this is badass. Apparently everyone has their very own private channel! So now you can have a private conversation with anyone in the game! Anyone can join your channel if they want to, but the nifty thing is that you're master of your own domain. You can put a password on your channel so only your friends can join, and you can ban people from your channel too. You can also mute people in other channels, and guess what - the mute is universal! Once you ban/mute someone, they'll still be banned/muted if you bump into them weeks later in a different game! Yay!
Oh, and to go allong with all this nifty stuff are some new console commands:
Join <channel name>
Leave <channel name>
Speak <channel name>
SetChatPassword <password> (passy for your private channel)
BanPlayer <playername>
UnBanPlayer <playername>
-Ordering bots around. I havent tried it yet, but apparently its in. What you do is say their callsign (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, etc), and then an order. The orders are:
Defend, Attack, Cover Me, Freelance, Hold Position, Status, and Gimme (makes the bot give you their weapon!)
Oh, and the cool part? Apparently there are some hidden voice commands for the bots! I wonder what they could be....?
-Just a tidbit, but the Raptors missile (alt fire) will ONLY lock onto other Raptors, and Mantas. Just sos ya know.
-Pictures of the Leviathin, Phoenix (bomber), and Fighters. Also, I learned that to do a roll in one of the fighters, you hold your jump key and press a strafe key. Oh, and your crouch key will reset your roll. Nifty. I also learned that the fighters have targeting systems. You use your next/prev weapons (scroll wheel) to cycle through available targets. And you can hit your use key to target the nearest enemy infront of you. I cant wait to see some space dogfights!
-There are 4 manned turrets: The minigun turrets in Convoy, a Mothership turret that fires plasma bolts and has a shield (alt fire), an Ion cannon, and a Link turret. And YES, you can heal vehicles and link to other turrets with it!
All in all it sounds very very cool. I cant wait for the full game!
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