Guys I have been basically working around the clock and have achieved nothing
The way UT2Vote is designed where everything is so 'intertwined' I cannot get rid of anything except maybe the Hitsounds and WeaponStats.
I have made a post to our findings etc in both Atari and here at BU and I'm standing by that.
I am currently in the process of writing to Joe Wilcox with the following reasoning.
It is a fact that TTM2003 destroyed the Gameplay of UT2003 and that was because of the dark skins and lack of hitsounds mainly.
It is just that TTM thought of this before anyone else and is the reason why it was so popular.
In UT2004, we got in first with UT2Vote's SkinBright and HitSounds and this helped by at least 50% to keep mods like UTComp at bay (out).
If however we now remove the SkinBright and HitSounds this will open the doors very wide for UTComp and others to step in and takeover and we will end up with another TTM2003 situation.
As for the other things like shaking and filesize, well that is just plain childish and rediculious.
My Forum posting regarding this:
Whitelisting
As you know Epic have removed UT2Vote from the Whitelist (Standard Server) due to:
The Client does have the option to use them but if the Admin has disabled them Serverside then the Clients Hitsounds will always be off regardless of his setting.
2. Disable view shaking events
This is something that is supplied by Epic themselves.
If you look in the UT2004.ini file you will see:
[Engine.GameInfo]
bWeaponShouldViewShake=True
All UT2Vote does is set that to False if the Admin so wishes by setting UT2Votes bNoWeapShake=True
Removing this is just plain rediculious.
3. Filesize
In this day and age... this is friggin rediculious.
UT2Vote44 is currently 1.2 megs and compresses down to 208k and as most Admin and players download from a re-direct these days 208k on a 56k modem takes 45 seconds
To date we have never had a complaint about this, in fact currently there have been several posts of the oposite.
The UT2Vote Team is currently negotiating with Epic regarding getting UT2Vote back on the Whitelist.
Alternate
The UT2Vote Team have however agreed on a possible UT2VoteLite which will have most the features removed and will be on similar lines to what UT2VoteSim5 was for UT2003.
There is no release date for UT2VoteLite at this stage and is currently still in the planning stages.
The UT2Vote Team
The way UT2Vote is designed where everything is so 'intertwined' I cannot get rid of anything except maybe the Hitsounds and WeaponStats.
I have made a post to our findings etc in both Atari and here at BU and I'm standing by that.
I am currently in the process of writing to Joe Wilcox with the following reasoning.
It is a fact that TTM2003 destroyed the Gameplay of UT2003 and that was because of the dark skins and lack of hitsounds mainly.
It is just that TTM thought of this before anyone else and is the reason why it was so popular.
In UT2004, we got in first with UT2Vote's SkinBright and HitSounds and this helped by at least 50% to keep mods like UTComp at bay (out).
If however we now remove the SkinBright and HitSounds this will open the doors very wide for UTComp and others to step in and takeover and we will end up with another TTM2003 situation.
As for the other things like shaking and filesize, well that is just plain childish and rediculious.
My Forum posting regarding this:
Whitelisting
As you know Epic have removed UT2Vote from the Whitelist (Standard Server) due to:
1. UT2Vote does NOT alter the core game play mechanics as the HitSounds are NOT Clientside but are Serverside.Email from Epic
UT2Vote alters the core game play mechanics by adding client-side hit sounds as well as being able to disable view shaking events.
It has also grown to a size that makes it an unrealistic download to modem users.
The Client does have the option to use them but if the Admin has disabled them Serverside then the Clients Hitsounds will always be off regardless of his setting.
2. Disable view shaking events
This is something that is supplied by Epic themselves.
If you look in the UT2004.ini file you will see:
[Engine.GameInfo]
bWeaponShouldViewShake=True
All UT2Vote does is set that to False if the Admin so wishes by setting UT2Votes bNoWeapShake=True
Removing this is just plain rediculious.
3. Filesize
In this day and age... this is friggin rediculious.
UT2Vote44 is currently 1.2 megs and compresses down to 208k and as most Admin and players download from a re-direct these days 208k on a 56k modem takes 45 seconds
To date we have never had a complaint about this, in fact currently there have been several posts of the oposite.
The UT2Vote Team is currently negotiating with Epic regarding getting UT2Vote back on the Whitelist.
Alternate
The UT2Vote Team have however agreed on a possible UT2VoteLite which will have most the features removed and will be on similar lines to what UT2VoteSim5 was for UT2003.
There is no release date for UT2VoteLite at this stage and is currently still in the planning stages.
The UT2Vote Team