[DM Mutator] Random Pickup Respawns

[Radiosity]

Came up with this idea completely at random and thought it would be fun From the description:

"Health, SuperKeg, Shield and SuperShield pickups are given random respawn times in an effort to stop people whoring pickups in DM and concentrate on fragging more.
Normal Health and Shields will respawn between 15 and 45 seconds.
SuperKeg and Shield will respawn after 45 to 120 seconds."

Works in any gametype but is mostly intended for DM/ TDM. The mutator replaces the standard pickups, so if you use any other mutator that replaces any of these 4 pickups, you should disable it to avoid problems. Enjoy

Download Random Spawn

edit: there's no readme at the moment, so just put both files in system and start the game. If I don't decide to add anything else to the mutator I'll rezip with a readme and call it final.

 

[Nunchuk_Skillz]

This has been tried many times before and has never caught on. On some level, it's an interesting idea, but most good DM/TDM players will say that controlling the power-ups is a core part of the strategy of the game. They'll also say that timing is relatively simple and that anyone who can do basic math can do it. And they'll say that randomizing powerups subtracts skill and adds randomness to the game, which no one really wants in a competitive environment.

I can see this working fine on a pub that's frequented by a lot of non-competitive players who don't time, though. Would protect them from a hardcore player coming in raping them via timing, but that's about the only benefit I could see from it at this point.

edit = also, I noticed that you've made the shortest possible respawn time shorter than the normal spawn times for the items. That means that if it's truly random, you could actually end up with more amps, kegs, shields, etc., spawning than would normally spawn in a game of a given length. Is that something you want?

 

[Slainchild]

:tdown:

 

[KevinRoe327]

A Minigun replacement mutator [replace it with Assault or Bio] would be awesome to put in some of the pub TDM servers...Miniwhoring is more of a problem then powerup whoring :/ [imo of course]

 

[Radiosity]

which no one really wants in a competitive environment.

To be quite frank, I couldn't actually care less about a 'competitive environment'. I play for fun, and powerup timing is no fun for me.

Is that something you want?

Yup, that's entirely on purpose. Again, I don't make stuff like this for 'Pro' players, I do it for myself for fun, then release it for anyone else that might like something a bit different from the norm.

 

[SteelTalon]

You are god!

Seriously, I was thinking of coding this mut a long time ago. It was going to be my practice mut to get me to Unreal stardom. ;(

Anyway I'm sure I'll love this mut. I have no patience to learn walljumping or powerup timing or any of that stuff, yet I can still hang with the best of them in DM servers. Sure, you might lose a little bit of strategy in the process but this allows for pure unbridled DMing skill to be shown instead of relentless whoring.

Thanks alot, you just made the world a much better place.

 

[Taleweaver]

I can see this working fine on a pub that's frequented by a lot of non-competitive players who don't time, though. Would protect them from a hardcore player coming in raping them via timing, but that's about the only benefit I could see from it at this point.

That's my only benefit as well...but it's certainly a good one :tup:

And now to find a server that doesn't want to cater to the competitive players...

 

[1337]

I'm sure there are many large DM servers that aren't competitive. It's just TDM servers that are competitive because most of them are ran by competitive clans.

But inorder for a server to be really non-competitive, they should be a mutator that takes out the scoreboard.

 

[Nunchuk_Skillz]

lol, I wasn't being hard on players that don't want to play competitively. All I was saying was that this has been tried many times before and never really caught on (and then I provided a few reasons why). Yeesh, take a pill, guys.

Of course, if you have a pub server and want to put it on, go for it. However, in a pub environment, I really doubt you'll see that big a change, as the really good players will still be dominant, whether or not they're able to time the pups.

 

[1337]

I think it would be an even cooler mutator if there was a 50 adren pickup added into the randomized thingy. And all pickup bases could have randomized stuff. It doesn't just have to be the important pickup bases, because people will still camp there and it really doesn't add much to the game, except people wont be able to use their timing ability, and the "pups" still wont have their fun because the person with a better setup will be able to fight everyone off the randomized pickup. lol and the bottom feeder can have mutant abilities and a crazy weapon. That would be fun.

 

[carmatic]

i think the scoreboard should stay because it adds meaning to the game...
the way i see the game is like...

pointless<---->fun<---->competitive
random<--------------->ordered

 

[I_LoveToKill]

I'm sure there are many large DM servers that aren't competitive. It's just TDM servers that are competitive because most of them are ran by competitive clans.

But inorder for a server to be really non-competitive, they should be a mutator that takes out the scoreboard.

You know, I allways wondered how such a mutator would effect public ctf games, it should simply remove all personal scores and ONLY show caps for each team, call it a social experiment to see what players would do

 

[Nunchuk_Skillz]

Well, if you really wanted to skew things towards the fun/just focus on the fragging side, here's an idea for a mutator.

1) Remove the big pups all together (amp, keg, shields), and replace them with randomly respawning 20 or 25 adren pick-ups that respawn at about the same times as specified above for the big pups.

2) Change the adrenaline combos so that there are only 2: booster (same as it currently exists) and amp (which would be the same exact thing as having the damage amp, with the same visuals, sound effects, etc., and would last as long as your adren holds out, or until you die).

3) Remove alt shield, and give each player a very small load-out of weapons (3) right upon spawn. Say for instance, an LG with 3 ammo, a Goo gun with 20 ammo, and maybe either a pulse with 30 ammo, or a flak with 5 ammo. That would cut down on spawn rape, since even a freshly spawned player would be dangerous, but the ammo counts would be low enough that players would still have to go and find weapons (creating movement). And the removal of alt shield would encourage more aggressive play.

4) Then just play it as a normal TDM or DM ffa match.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That would sort of be a hybrid somewhere in between TDM and TAM, but wouldn't have the blatant spawn-rape and map lock of TDM (or the pup timing), and also wouldn't have the waiting time in between rounds of TAM, or give players every possible weapon with loads of ammo immediately upon spawn.

Of course, it also wouldn't have the teamwork of TDM (ws off TDM, anyway), and it wouldn't have that thrill of being the last one alive on your TAM team trying to pull it off for your team. But for a fun frag-fest, it might actually work pretty well.

Anyway, just an idea.

Don't know if there's alread anything out there like that or not, but just throwing the idea out, as I haven't seen anything quite like that.

 

[Nunchuk_Skillz]

Sorry for the double-post, but I love this comment:

You know, I allways wondered how such a mutator would effect public ctf games, it should simply remove all personal scores and ONLY show caps for each team, call it a social experiment to see what players would do

I think it'd be terrific if something like that worked, as efficiency whoring on CTF pubs is one of the absolute most irritating things I can imagine. Seems like half the time in a 6v6 pub, you end up with 2-3 dedicated defenders, a couple of guys just running around DMing randomly and trying to whore the pups (but not really playing CTF), and then maybe 1 guy (2 if you're really lucky) that's actually trying to cap the flag. Of course, that one guy who's actually trying to really play CTF, it can get insanely frustrating not getting cover, not getting any help whatsoever in getting out of the base, etc.

Sadly, though, I'm sure if you removed the scores and just counted frags, the efficiency whores would probably just stop playing all together. :/

 

[1337]

i think the scoreboard should stay because it adds meaning to the game...
the way i see the game is like...

pointless<---->fun<---->competitive
random<--------------->ordered

Individual points are for stroking egos, generally, and they don't increase the fun level for me in a gametype like DM, unlike CTF, ONS, TDM, etc. Frankly, I find it annoying when people get a big head playing a game with non-competitive settings, where random factors not created by the players themselves, but by the game, affect the point outcome. In my mind, I don't see how pointless and competitive can be put on different ends of a scale. DM (not TDM) would be just as fun with half of the hud gone, imo. For every positive net you get, someone else gets negative. Not really a need for it in non-competitive 12 man DM play. I think there are or atleast were plenty of people that would have appreciated a DM server without a scoreboard, but those players might have left the ut2k4 scene, because they are tired of trying to keep up with the more "competitive", matrix skin using, and .ini tweaking players that curse at everyone after a DM game and calls them noobs instead of giving them a "gg"

 

[T2A`]

2) Change the adrenaline combos ... amp (which would be the same exact thing as having the damage amp, with the same visuals, sound effects, etc., and would last as long as your adren holds out, or until you die).

I wrote a mutator awhile back that added exactly such a combo. Bad idea. Good aim + spawn rape = never-ending amp.

 

[-AEnubis-]

EvenGround

EG works great for that kind of frag fest.

Dealing with random is a skill. The beauty of it, is you can only sway it in your direction, there is no owning it.

EG is a decent teacher too. We play 100/40, with health and ammo pickups, no powerups (includes vials), no adren, and no weapons, you spawn with them all. Spawning with all the weapons in a DM environment, where you respawn immediately and randomly, is crazy, when you're fully equipped to continue the same fight with the person who just killed you. It's awesome. At first, if feels hella cheezy, and you're like "aw spawn spam, BS", but eventually, you kill somone, and learn to check spawns near you for them, run, or shield up, and catch your balance from the last fight. Soon, you'r dodging fire without looking, and getting double kills on the same guy, who is constantly slinging rockets, or lightnig at you, instead of running shield up, or spaming AR7 bullets at you. It's a blast, and frag skills win. I've been, on many occasions the only one to even look for health conciously, and the only thing it did was decrease my deaths. I'd still fall in similar places with frag count. If I knew the map really well, that would help, but we seldom played the same map twice in a night.

The idea is cool, but it would just amplify the luck factor, in that if there was a way you could garuntee each player got an even shot at as much health/armor, then it would be all about who could "over ome the deficit", but the better player would be more likely to lose, if skill was close, but the lesser player simply found more armor etc.

I woulda thought this would be way cool to tinker with a while back, but now EG and TAM fill all my fraggin needs.

 

[edhe]

Would be nice to see an official EG style mutator in 2k7.. or would it

 

[Nunchuk_Skillz]

I wrote a mutator awhile back that added exactly such a combo. Bad idea. Good aim + spawn rape = never-ending amp.

If you just add that kind of mut to a regular DM game, it would obviously just amplify the spawn rape, which is exactly what you don't want. However, spawn rape would be largely negated by #3 in the suggestion I made above, no? It's not so easy to spawn rape someone that has LG, Pulse & Goo right upon spawning.

Also, what's EG? I don't think I've seen that, unless I'm just spacing it at the moment and will go "Doh!" as soon as someone says what it is.

 

[Dark Pulse]

EG = EvenGround.