The "Major UT3 Expansion"

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What will the "Major UT3 Expansion" be?


  • Total voters
    117

Dark Pulse

Dolla, Dolla. Holla, Holla.
Sep 12, 2004
6,186
0
0
38
Buffalo, NY, USA
darkpulse.project2612.org
I'm pretty sure everyone knows why the game failed. You don't have to look any farther than the awful "beta" demo.
Which was met with a whole bunch of praise. It was only after the game came out and most people didn't see immediate change in the two weeks after the demo's release that people began to complain. And complain. And complain.

I'm sick of hearing complaints after a whole year. I'm not trying to gloss over the complaints or say the game doesn't have issues, but some days I'm wary of browsing any UT3 discussion thread on these forums because inevitably some ******* will chip in his two cents of why the game failed, why Epic sucks, why they can't make games that aren't consolized, etc. etc. sensational so forth, and it's usually the same old tired things every single time. I'm thoroughly tired of seeing it, just like I am with seeing Political Ads on TV and those annoying-as-hell Mac vs. PC ads.

The political ads will stop after Tuesday. I might only have another 12-18 months, at most, to endure of the Mac vs. PC ads. Maybe when the expansion comes out and either does extremely well or flops miserably people will shut up about how bad UT3 is - if the former, because they're playing it, and if the latter, because they'll bitch about the expansion until Epic says "screw this, we're going exclusively to consoles" and then we're all ****ed and I'll be horribly pissed off at every single person who contributed to the death of the franchise.

Ever hear of the expression "If you can't say something nice, don't say it at all?" Well, if you can't criticize the game fairly, shut your yaps.
 

Interbellum

I used to be a man
May 17, 2008
717
0
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Maybe when the expansion comes out and either does extremely well or flops miserably people will shut up about how bad UT3 is - if the former, because they're playing it, and if the latter, because they'll bitch about the expansion until Epic says "screw this, we're going exclusively to consoles" and then we're all ****ed and I'll be horribly pissed off at every single person who contributed to the death of the franchise.

If Epic goes exclusively to consoles, which is more than likely at this point, it will be because that's where the (easy) money is, not because of a bunch of complaining hardcore fans. It's the several million faceless, anonymous casual gamers that do (in GoW's case) or don't (in UT3's case) buy a game that ultimately decide its fate, not some guys on a forum.

No matter what we do or say here, the expansion will probably be Epic's last project for the UT franchise. I don't think it will make UT3 significantly more popular, be particularly good, or even is a sure thing for that matter. Afaik it's just one guy making some vague promises semi-off the record atm. I've said it before & I'll say it again: if what's left of the community is serious about extending this game's (and genre's!) lifespan, it will have to fix it itself. You have the skills and the manpower, but apparently not the will. Shame!
 

DarQraven

New Member
Jan 20, 2008
1,164
0
0
If Epic goes exclusively to consoles, which is more than likely at this point, it will be because that's where the (easy) money is, not because of a bunch of complaining hardcore fans. It's the several million faceless, anonymous casual gamers that do (in GoW's case) or don't (in UT3's case) buy a game that ultimately decide its fate, not some guys on a forum.

No matter what we do or say here, the expansion will probably be Epic's last project for the UT franchise. I don't think it will make UT3 significantly more popular, be particularly good, or even is a sure thing for that matter. Afaik it's just one guy making some vague promises semi-off the record atm. I've said it before & I'll say it again: if what's left of the community is serious about extending this game's (and genre's!) lifespan, it will have to fix it itself. You have the skills and the manpower, but apparently not the will. Shame!

I agree with your first paragraph, but not with the second.
Most notably, two things:

1) UT is not the genre in itself. Just now, id Software is in the process of launching Quake live, both as a test to see if one can support games purely by ads, and as a way of seeing how much market potential there would be for a Quake 5. Carmack already said that whether or not they make a Quake 5 is based off of QL's success.
There are differences between Quake and UT, sure. But they're both the same type of shooter.

2) I'd love to fix things and have tried mapping for a while, but there is one problem we cannot fix: players. I've tried looking for it, but the "playerbase multiplier" option wasn't there.
Considering the vast amount of games coming out these years, the global shift to consoles and the huge marketing budgets available to other *cough*MICROSOFT*cough* games, I'd say it's a mission impossible to get more people to play UT3 just by tweaking the game.

The problem with UT3 is not that it is still a bad game, it's that it had an abysmal start. We can mod all we like, but the game in it's current state isn't that bad.

What would we fix? Bot reaction times? The hitscan problems? The interface?
Do you really think that would reel in new customers by force, when at the same time multiple top titles by EA, Bungie, Sony, Nintendo, etc are launching?
At best, it would bring back the people that dropped the game because of it's initial problems.

I'd say UT3 is a lost cause.
We can fix up the game for ourselves, the ones still playing and enjoying the game. But that's it.
 

Benfica

European Redneck
Feb 6, 2006
2,004
0
0
Problems or not, you can keep :deadhorse:, but UT3 just refused to die during almost a full year. The guys that remain, keep playing and playing. Some tend to leave but a few join everyday. Fortunately, there are always enough players to have a good game.
 

UndeadRoadkill

New Member
Mar 26, 2001
419
0
0
Fortunately, there are always enough players to have a good game.

Because I don't want to fill up my harddrive with a bunch of custom maps for this game, my server choices are typically 0-2 out of 3-4 for about two of the gametypes (and I'm not playing on that stupid Suspense-only sever), and the rest are empty.
 

MonsOlympus

Active Member
May 27, 2004
2,225
0
36
42
Nothing? Then pray tell, what caused two different engine versions between the two games? Maybe the fixes weren't immediately apparent, or even gameplay fixes, but there were fixes.

Oh you mean they fixed the one where the bots will run blindly at a powerup no matter what? no instead we get bots having the ability to taunt or something to the like :rolleyes:
 

Sir_Brizz

Administrator
Staff member
Feb 3, 2000
26,020
83
48
Because I don't want to fill up my harddrive with a bunch of custom maps for this game, my server choices are typically 0-2 out of 3-4 for about two of the gametypes (and I'm not playing on that stupid Suspense-only sever), and the rest are empty.
Can't afford the 750gb drive for $90 huh?
 

hilo_

Member
Jan 19, 2008
108
0
16
34
Actually I read on one of those DRM links that lack of content didnt come up in complaints much at all across a number of games (including TF2). Just thought I would mention that, I would tend to agree with you though I think people can get past that as long as theres steady support and enough polished content in the original package :cool:

Content is one area where quality > quantity by a large degree. Even a small amount of quality retail content can make a huge difference in the replayability of the game. Look at CTF-Face in UT, people are still playing that every night. UT3 is probably about average in regard. It has a good amount of content of decent quality, although nothing really stands out, and the majority of the dm maps were quite poor (IMO). All in all I think the game's content is hardly to blame for its current state.

Which was met with a whole bunch of praise.

That's not what I remember :confused:

Most people who were begging epic to release UT3 completely turned around with the release of the beta demo. I recall many people saying that epic should withhold the release of the game and take time to get it right.
 

N1ghtmare

Sweet Dreams
Jul 17, 2005
2,411
12
38
Where least expected
Can't afford the 750gb drive for $90 huh?

I would actually love to fill my hardrive with maps, but most of my free space is not on my C Drive. Thats why I installed UT3 on my secondary. That's why the biggest thing I care about for the next UT is to not have this Mydocs thing. It doesn't matter how much more space I buy, they are still going to go on my C drive. And I am not at a point where I want to get a new primary drive or new computer.

I have a feeling that the next UT will improve on this. And I am hopeful.
 

T2A`

I'm dead.
Jan 10, 2004
8,752
0
36
Richmond, VA
That's not what I remember :confused:
Some people "liked" the demo because there was nothing to go on but hope for the future. No CTF, no WAR, no good DM maps. The game had glaring issues, but it was a beta demo, right? Certainly bugs and things would be fixed, right? Certainly the code that went gold was a lot newer than the beta demo code, right? Certainly the rest of the game would be full of good maps and gametypes and a suite campaign and great overall content, right?

Well, it wasn't, and that's when people started bitching.

I'll be horribly pissed off at every single person who contributed to the death of the franchise.
So you'll be pissed at Epic, Epic, and Epic. On particularly bad days you'll probably have to change it up and focus your nerd rage on Epic.

Epic failed to make UT3 good and the game deservedly got sales low enough to potentially make them go console. It had nothing to do with a few forum-goers whining after they bought it. We did our part. Epic failed to live up to theirs and deliver a worthy product.

The only one on this failboat is Epic. :eek:
 

Sir_Brizz

Administrator
Staff member
Feb 3, 2000
26,020
83
48
I would actually love to fill my hardrive with maps, but most of my free space is not on my C Drive. Thats why I installed UT3 on my secondary. That's why the biggest thing I care about for the next UT is to not have this Mydocs thing. It doesn't matter how much more space I buy, they are still going to go on my C drive. And I am not at a point where I want to get a new primary drive or new computer.

I have a feeling that the next UT will improve on this. And I am hopeful.
You do realize that there are no less than 4 ways to deal with that issue, don't you?
 

TheIronKnuckle

What the hell is this "ballin" thing?
But I know, offline players don't count.
Insert insulting comment here. :shake:
I won't downplay how important the offline community is. I played thousands of hours of UT offline, hundreds of hours of UT2003 offline and dozens of hours of UT2004 offline.

But, for me, what kept all of those games alive offline was CUSTOM CONTENT. Screw Epic's content. While nice, no amount of standard content is going to last long enough to satiate you. Plus, the community comes up with some pretty kick-A stuff, like Prometheus.
QFT
 

Grobut

Комиссар Гробут
Oct 27, 2004
1,822
0
0
Soviet Denmark
That's not what I remember :confused:

Me neither, i wasen't active here, haden't been a good long while infact (things kinda died down for 2K4 at the end), but what i saw on the forums for other games when the demo hit was very far from positive feedback, people hated the graphics, they felt it was just more of the same, they loathed the menu.. and it just went on like that, that demo really turned people off, i suspect it got a better reception here and on Epics own boards, obviously people posting here and there would be Unreal fans and thus biased, and more willing to look past the problems of a "beta demo", but out there in the wide world of PC gaming, the demo really burned all the bridges before the game was even out.

And this also came from people i know where looking forward to UT3 before the demo came around, and lots more who where waiting for it, because they had intended to make mods using it, most of them stopped caring the moment they played the demo, and moved on to TF2 and CoD4 etc etc.

Some people "liked" the demo because there was nothing to go on but hope for the future. No CTF, no WAR, no good DM maps. The game had glaring issues, but it was a beta demo, right? Certainly bugs and things would be fixed, right? Certainly the code that went gold was a lot newer than the beta demo code, right? Certainly the rest of the game would be full of good maps and gametypes and a suite campaign and great overall content, right?

Well, it wasn't, and that's when people started bitching.

Indeed, the whole time i was playing the demo i was telling myself "well its just a BETA demo, obviously this is just a small fraction of what the full game will have, and its all in beta state, hell i bet the textures look blurry because they wanted to keep the filesize down, they have done that before, obviously all will be well when the full game comes out!", i even defended it on other forums telling people "woah there, its just a beta demo, obviously they will fix this stuff and there will be many more features and options in the real deal!", and boy ohh boy was it ever a hard slap in the face when i installed the full game and found it WAS the beta demo with more maps..