Dr. Frankenstein strikes again: INF_AKS74U

[Snakeye]

Well, I already gave a "slight" hint yesterday - I have been working on a AKS74U Mutator for Inf the past 1.5 weeks, and it seems I reached a state where it can be unleashed upon the peaceful world. But first things first..

Credits:
There are many people who contributed unkowingly and knowingly to this mutator; I merely mutilated some line of codes and a model (not, not he pretty girls, the 3D meshes in Inf) and even those were initially done by other people. So here they are:
-SentryStudios: Their AKSMU is the basis of this mutator.
-Psychomorph: His textures and sounds contributed a lot to the character of the AKS74U.
-INFMOD Team: Their scripts held once again quite a few helpful hints to get everything working.

Special Thanks:
-Special thanks to Psychomorph for his contribution and dedication to the sounds and textures.
-Special thanks to Carpetsmoker for his counsel.

Special Curse:
-This one goes to LethalDosage: Thanks for planting the immensely stupid idea into my head to make this mutator

Now to the actual Mutator..

INF_AKS74U (0.70 Beta)

What the mutator does(Features):
The mutator adds a AKS74U to Inf. As most here should already know the AKS74U is the little and more common sister of the AKMSU, being chambered for the 5.45x39 round. It uses 30rd mags only (sorry, no 40ies, 45s or drums) but can use two different types of ammo, the standard 7N10 Enhanched Penetration round and the 7N22 Armor Piercing round.

Both ammunition types can be carried at the same time and you may switch between mags using 7N10 and 7N22 InGame. This is achieved by pressing the activate attachment button. Note that when changing ammunition types while a round of the other type is chambered this round will be ejected after inserting the new mag! To better distinguish between 7N10 and 7N22 mags, the earlier come in nice orange-brown mags, while the latter come in black mags - and since you don't see much of the inserted mag usually, the ammunition type is also displayed in the HUD.

To be able to reflect the behavior of the two rounds the LVL2 and LVL3a vests are also replaced by this mutator with an own version, which only adds a damage type for the 7N22 AP round - all original values remain untouched and the 7N10 uses the same damage type as the AKMSU/M16/SIG551 etc.

Lastly, since I don't know how you guys like AP ammo, I added the possibility to DISABLE the 7N22 AP round via INI file; just set bAPAmmoAllowed to 0 and all 7N22 mags in the loadout will be handed out as 7N10 when given to the player (the saved loadouts themselves remain untouched). The changed vests will remain though, but since the only change is the damage type for the 7N22 this doesn't affect gameplay.

New in 0.70: MagCheck functionality is now supported. In order to use it you need to have MagCheck (Beta7 is reommended as all others are untested) present and active.

What this mutator doesn't(Limitations)
-The First-Person animations remain unchanged. At the moment it is beyond my abilities to both extract and change the first person animations to reflect the differently shaped mag. Since you don't see much of the mag in First-Person I thought I could live with that.
-The Slings (Chest/Slung) are not done. I've tried this but due to problems with either exporting them from the .u-files or exporting them as .psk-files they ended up very unsatisfactory InGame. Unless I get some help on how to handle .psk-files I'm nor sure if I'll be able to fix this.

What this mutator does badly(Known Bugs)
No known bugs at the moment.

Feel free to add any feedback in this thread. I really hope you guys have fun with this (the few who still play at least). And be sure to report back any bugs.

Oh, the mutator should be reasonably safe for server use.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Changes for 0.70:
-Fixed disappearing 3rd person mesh
-Added MagCheck functionality

 

[Psychomorph]

-Psychomorph: His textures and sounds contributed a lot to the character of the AKS74U.

*cough* you forgot to name my shiny new weapon positions... joking


Nice work :tup:

 

[«]BALLISTIC[»]

Very nice! How well will this weapon do against Skaarj?

 

[Psychomorph]

Because of the faster fireing rate it will do much better than AKM and AKMSU.

 

[Lethal Dosage]

Wheeeee! Curses on meeeeee!

 

[[5thSFG]Mitchell]

eheh... I'm gonna test it soon.
BTW, have you check if there are mutators which go in conflict with you AKs74u?

 

[[5thSFG]Mitchell]

*returns from testing the AKs74u*

cool, but when testing it, I noticed that the switching-firing-mode sound was not the one of the AKMSU, it seemed to be a plastic one. and a creepy one too.

 

[Snakeye]

*returns from testing the AKs74u*

cool, but when testing it, I noticed that the switching-firing-mode sound was not the one of the AKMSU, it seemed to be a plastic one. and a creepy one too.

You may notice that none of the sounds is from the AKMSU. As for the selector switch sound, apparently the AKMSU sound may or may not be tad off. The first version didn't contain any melodic sound, just a klicking one, but we decided a slight melodic sound would fit better - not too alien from the AKMSU. If you have any resource with a useable authentic AKS74U selector switch sound fell free to send it to me.

As for conflicts: since I had my fair share of awful experiences making the RO979 and refinishing the M4Improvements I try to keep my mutators as conflict free as possible - the main reason why I don't to extends of current weapons but rather extend the INFc_Weapon class and use the whole code from the modified weapon; it's just less prone to fuck-ups.

Right now the only possible conflict the AKS74U mutator could provide, is if another mutator changed the LVL2 and LVL3a vests (which none that I know does).

 

[[5thSFG]Mitchell]

I clearly heard that the firing sound is very different, but the reason behind that is clear too (different ammo). I was wondering only about the one I mentioned because the AKs74u should be very similar to the AKMSU, so why not just using the same sound (or maybe reducing just a bit the noise) ?
that's all

 

[Snakeye]

Very nice! How well will this weapon do against Skaarj?

Skaarj are no problem (as you may have seen today ); you just start wishing for 60rd 4-row mags or a drum (too bad they don't exist for 5.45) really fast.

I went through these 30rd mags today so fast I counterchecked if I made a mistake with the Rate-of-Fire (all in order BTW - 692rpm as intended; about the middle between 650 and 735 if you wondered - I'm Austrain/Swiss so I take the Neutral way) and checking if the ROF really is given in rounds per minute (it is).

 

[Snakeye]

[Sorry for double post]

Good news everyone,

I finally solved my annoying mesh problem (the one listed in the know bugs section) which means I'll probably make a new version within the next week (rough timeline says sunday, if nothing unfavourable happens).

Since this is pretty soon after initial release there was not really much time for bugreports/feedback, so I'd ask anyone who wants something added/changed/bugfixed to post it here until sunday ~1800CET so I can consider it for this release (or decide it's for the next release if it's much work).

MagCheck is already on the ToDo list btw

 

[Olethros]

MagCheck is already on the ToDo list btw

http://home.broadpark.no/~koovesen/ut/INFmc_AKS74U.zip

Well, that took all of ten minutes. See the revised INF_AKS74U.uc file in the archive.

If you want to test the functionality right away, extract INFmc_AKS74U.u and INFmc_AKS74U.int to /UnrealTournament/System/ and select "INFmc - AKS74U" rather than "INF - AKS74U" from the mutator list. I had to see if it worked before I uploaded it, so I cut and pasted some of your code into a new mutator that loads the rewritten AKS74U rather than the original one.

 

[Snakeye]

http://home.broadpark.no/~koovesen/ut/INFmc_AKS74U.zip

Well, that took all of ten minutes. See the revised INF_AKS74U.uc file in the archive.

If you want to test the functionality right away, extract INFmc_AKS74U.u and INFmc_AKS74U.int to /UnrealTournament/System/ and select "INFmc - AKS74U" rather than "INF - AKS74U" from the mutator list. I had to see if it worked before I uploaded it, so I cut and pasted some of your code into a new mutator that loads the rewritten AKS74U rather than the original one.

Wow, that was really nice, but not really necessary - as mentioned in the M4 thread I already have a working sollution for the Beretta 98 so applying it to the AKS74U would've been a matter of ten minutes - actually it was a matter of ten minutes yesterday . But I do have to admit I really like the idea to use a MSM to determine if MagCheck is present - right now I check all mutators in PostBeginPlay and set a bit accordingly.

Is there a special reason you check for the MSM presence every time Grab&SelectFireMode is pressed and then again in the NewClip and CheckAmmo states, or would it be sufficient to move the MSM assing to PostBeginPlay? I alwas thought if it isn't here when the game starts, it won't be here anytime after that?

In any case thanks for your effort.

 

[Olethros]

The reason for using DynamicLoadObject to set the MSM variable to a MagStateMessage class is to avoid package dependency between INF_AKS74U and INFMagCheck. That way, your mutator will compile and run just as well whether IMC is installed or not, which is quite important IMO.

And moving MSM = Class<PickupMessagePlus>(DynamicLoadObject("INFMagCheck.MagStateMessage", class'Class', true)); to PostBeginPlay() would probably work just fine. I just got into the habit of setting it in the reload and checkAmmo states during development of the C7 because there were some network issues with code in PostBeginPlay() that were - in hindsight - quite unrelated to MagCheck.

 

[Lethal Dosage]

I used to use MagCheck a lot, and i still like it, but the only problem is it really isn't compatable with other mutators that use a different weapon class, like RT or IWE. Although now that i think about it, i don't use IWE or RT anymore because of LAN issues, so i might go back to playing with it. The other problem which put me off MagCheck back in the day was the amount of files and plugins i had to play with, it really all got too much.

What would really be nice (hint, hint, Olethros), would be if you did up the one mutator which contains the SS, Bonus, and IMT weapons all in one pack, and then a "community" plugin which is updated when new community weapons are released (which is rarely ever). I know why you stopped doing it yourself, and i can imagine you working hard on something like MagCheck which can only make the game better, only for the IMT and weapon makers not to use it. Perhaps at least Snakeye cna help correct this by adding MagCheck functionality to all his mutators.

Edit: BAck on topic, Snakeye, i love the AKs-74u, and the rate of fire caught me quite off guard the first time i used it. Perhaps however, instead of a different coloured magazine for the different ammo types, perhaps you could put a coloured bit of tape around the base of the magazine for each ammo type, for instance, Blue could be for the AP rounds, while Red could be for the "normal" EP rounds? I have seen photos from Chechnia(sp?) and around the 'stans where soldiers have coloured tape wrapped around the base of their AK-74 magazines, with Red and Blue being the most common colours.

Also i don't think the wood grips on the weapon look right, i don't think any of the '74 series had wood fore-grips, but all had plastic grips, with the majority being orange-ish coloured the same as the magazines. I know you used Psychomorph's skin, but don't suppose you could change the fore-grips (with his permission), to look similiar in colour to the magazine (the orange-ish coloured magazine for the EP rounds), becuase i reckon that looks just right. Also i don't think i noticed a sound when changing Fire mode at all, and especially no animation, but the last point might be because there wasn't an animation for that on the AKMSU to begin with, damn the IMT for spoiling use with their animations!

 

[Olethros]

Incorporating the SS and IMT weapon packs into the main MC mutator wouldn't be a very practical thing as I see it. The concept for the future implementation of IMC as I see it right now entails doing away with the overly complicated "plugin" system entirely and adopting a somewhat different approach to weapon packs:

• One main INFMagCheck mutator to add the standard INF 2.9 weapons.
• One mutator that replaces the SS bonus pack mutator to deal with these weapons (G3A3, MP5K, Mini-UZI et. al.). I.e. run this mutator instead of "INF - Bonus Weapons."
• Similarly, another mutator that replaces the MOD team's weapon pack mutator to add IMC-compatible subclasses of the IMT weapon classes.

The new SS Bonus Weapons mutator is already finished, and the IMT pack shouldn't be that far in the making. Other mutators like IWE and RT, however, are far more of a headache, but there's only so much one man can do, so I'll leave it up to others to find a solution for them.

 

[[5thSFG]Mitchell]

Snakeye, i love the AKs-74u, and the rate of fire caught me quite off guard the first time i used it. Perhaps however, instead of a different coloured magazine for the different ammo types, perhaps you could put a coloured bit of tape around the base of the magazine for each ammo type, for instance, Blue could be for the AP rounds, while Red could be for the "normal" EP rounds? I have seen photos from Chechnia(sp?) and around the 'stans where soldiers have coloured tape wrapped around the base of their AK-74 magazines, with Red and Blue being the most common colours.

Also i don't think the wood grips on the weapon look right, i don't think any of the '74 series had wood fore-grips, but all had plastic grips, with the majority being orange-ish coloured the same as the magazines. I know you used Psychomorph's skin, but don't suppose you could change the fore-grips (with his permission), to look similiar in colour to the magazine (the orange-ish coloured magazine for the EP rounds), becuase i reckon that looks just right. Also i don't think i noticed a sound when changing Fire mode at all, and especially no animation, but the last point might be because there wasn't an animation for that on the AKMSU to begin with, damn the IMT for spoiling use with their animations!

Those colored "rings" sound like a russian-style MAGPUL...
About the pistol-grip, I went down doing a search about, and I read that the AKs-74u uses the same one of the AK-74, which is generally made with plastic materials. About the color though, I shall leave this to every WM. Maybe they could be added as separate mags (I was thinking about adding as a MOD for weapon, but IIRC it would require 4x of work)

 

[Lethal Dosage]

Olethros; that was another idea, but i figured it would be too difficult getting permissions to edit the files, and i think i remember hearing that the IMT wasn't letting anyone modify their files.

Edit: Ok, after a bit of Googling (i wonder if they make money whenever we say Google?), it turns out a lot of AKs-74u's had either a wood foregrip or a very good imitation wood foregrip. I also found a pic of a Ukrainian with a black plastic magazine, so all's good i suppose, although i would still prefer the orange plastic magazines with just coloured tape to identify them, plus the orange ones are easier to see on the ground than the black ones.

@ Mitchell; No not a type of Magpull, it is quite literately just coloured electrical tape wrapped around the magazine. I have see images of troops from various countried using coloured electrical tape to identify magazines containing different types of all, for instance to distinguish FMJ magazines from a magazine loaded just with tracers.

Double Edit: On the issue of the magazine shape, perhaps you could just play with the magazine scaling till it looked right? If you play with the X, Y, Z, dimensions, i sure you could get a longer magazine which appears straighter.

 

[Snakeye]

Edit: BAck on topic, Snakeye, i love the AKs-74u, and the rate of fire caught me quite off guard the first time i used it. Perhaps however, instead of a different coloured magazine for the different ammo types, perhaps you could put a coloured bit of tape around the base of the magazine for each ammo type, for instance, Blue could be for the AP rounds, while Red could be for the "normal" EP rounds? I have seen photos from Chechnia(sp?) and around the 'stans where soldiers have coloured tape wrapped around the base of their AK-74 magazines, with Red and Blue being the most common colours.

Also i don't think the wood grips on the weapon look right, i don't think any of the '74 series had wood fore-grips, but all had plastic grips, with the majority being orange-ish coloured the same as the magazines. I know you used Psychomorph's skin, but don't suppose you could change the fore-grips (with his permission), to look similiar in colour to the magazine (the orange-ish coloured magazine for the EP rounds), becuase i reckon that looks just right. Also i don't think i noticed a sound when changing Fire mode at all, and especially no animation, but the last point might be because there wasn't an animation for that on the AKMSU to begin with, damn the IMT for spoiling use with their animations!

Concerning the Mags: my initial intent was to have different mag colors only (orange, brown, black) but this seemed a bit hard to pull off, without making an own "ammo type", so I settled with different ammo tyes, using different colors - mainly because I couldn't decide which color the mag should be; orange is more in use it seems, but black looks better IMO.

As for blue or red tapes: WHAT??? Perhaps it's just because I'm reading a book on LRRPs in Vietnam but which serious soldier uses blue and red tape for his mags? Why not put on a pink t-shirt too?

Also the textures were done by Psychomorph - he actually changed the front grip color as well as the pistol grip color slightly. I'll think I'll take the SentryStudios approach on this one an see if I find any AK74 with wooden front grip . For everything else I'd have to contact Psy and ask him if he's willing to to some more work an the skin.

Firemode change sound is present (well, should be) but it's not the distinct sound as used on the AKM/AKMSU - which might or might not be accurate. Psy said he got the sounds from a video and I'm inclined to trust him on this one. The animation is not present on AKMSU, which is why it's also not present on the AKS74U.

 

[[5thSFG]Mitchell]

@Snakeye: don't misunderstand Lethal Dosage and me:

Here is what we meant:
http://img379.imageshack.us/img379/7769/ak1033ht0.jpg

Here is what we did NOT mean:
http://tinypic.com/i6flg0.jpg

Kinda different, uh? (if we want to speak about pic #2 I'd consider using a dedicated thread)
Already seen something like first pic, although not so common now.


@Lethal Dosage: I mentioned MAGPUL because I was intenting the "taped mag" as an unusual sort of homemade customization!