I miss the ripper too. all this hype of the physics in UT3, and I've yet to see it used well at all. From my perspective as a DM player mainly, I'm hoping this could be one of the 2 weapons that defined Unreal tournament for me to come back.
Ripper and Bio rifle. (as much as most ppl seem to loathe the Bio, it IS pretty darn unique to UT.)
Malcolm, Xan, Gorge, War Machine. Those are the characters who defined the storyline and franchise for me.
The entire idea that this was a sci-fi form of brutal tournament competition was the entire selling point for me. not a ton of back story sure, but who cares really? Sure I'd pick up comics or something if I wanted to read more into it, but I personally don't.
If the nerds need some explanation and back story, just tell 'em the translocator technology is tweaked and adjusted to repair contestants as they're blown to bits during the matches. The same tech is also screwing with their synapses as not all of the energy flowing through the human nervous system is always saved during the translocator's reassembling of the raw matter and tissues.. etc..
Heck this gives me a great idea for a DM level, lol... "Wonder what the facility looks like where all these partial reassembles are, and where do the failures go..? I mean not all of the attempts can go as smoothly as others. There has to be some place for the combatants to receive medical attention and recuperate, and it would be a shame if some of them took their grudge matches into the facility..."
Something like this would also explain why the contestants can only battle in matches for set numbers of "frags". They can only be translocated back together so many times in a given amount of time before the risks of failure compound into certain death, or as these freaks call it, "retirement." >
I'd think this would also explain why the Cyborgs or out right robots like Xan have an easier time as they can also be traditionally repaired like the machines they are, and even upgraded as they go.
We needed some story like this, involving some grudges that went too far or something, not some half baked GoW wanna be story...
