I just wet myself

[TWD]

I'd guess it'll be free to play and people will have to buy an UE4 subscription to mod it. I doubt they spend the resources to develop a nerfed free Editor version for a new UT game this time. Creating a marketplace to sell stuff would be kind of tricky since any major update to the Engine might break what you're trying to sell if they don't update the UT game at the same time. Epic or someone will probably release a simple publishing plugin for the game. I'd like to see how they will deal with cheating since they're pretty much handing over the keys to anyone with 20 bucks to burn.

I'd also wager that they're just taking UT3 assets and doing a little work to update it all to UE4. That doesn't mean it'll play the same, but it makes sense to do that instead of spending years developing new artwork. Especially if it's meant to be a marketing platform that doesn't rely on game sales.

Their plans for Unreal Engine 4 already handle most of this. All of the tools are already a part of the Unreal Engine 4 setup. They've even talked about there being an Unreal Engine 4 store. All you need to do is pay the monthly subscription fee.

For an example of how easy it is to pull in assets from not only Unreal Engine 3, but 2 as well see this:
http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/30/bioshock-unreal-engine-4/

I'm a little skeptical about it being for Open Tournament. Simply because Playforgg (the guy behind the project) seems to be as clueless as anyone else:

Epic showing us some support would be great

 

[Wowbagger]

Yea, vblanco confirmed over at the megaboards that they had not been in contact with Epic at all.
Maybe their project sparkled some interest in some of the epic guys atleast

 

[Kantham]

I'd also wager that they're just taking UT3 assets and doing a little work to update it all to UE4.

Outside of Gears of War, recycling isn't really a common theme with Epic Games. What's been a really common theme with them is to make everything look brown and Gears of War.

 

[sneh]

I can't help feeling really excited and optimistic!

UE4 appears to have simplified developing for multiple platforms, so it wouldn't make a lot of sense not to make a 'proper' PC version (I think the era of developing for console then 'porting' to PC is over.. cough UT3 cough)

Interesting how so many people think it might involve the community.. That would be awesome, I'd love to be a part of that, but I won't hold my breathe.

Time to dust off the cobwebs and get back to some of my previous projects?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xh0FaQzhKA

I've been playing around with UE4 for a few weeks now, actually I'd love to do some new and original projects for UTX as well.. (or get an actual job.. lol)

 

[sneh]

Outside of Gears of War, recycling isn't really a common theme with Epic Games. What's been a really common theme with them is to make everything look brown and Gears of War.

The Shooter Game example that came with the new engine looks promising..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TJry_vuC0o

 

[DeathBooger]

Their plans for Unreal Engine 4 already handle most of this. All of the tools are already a part of the Unreal Engine 4 setup. They've even talked about there being an Unreal Engine 4 store. All you need to do is pay the monthly subscription fee.

Yeah, I know, but I just had to download all of the example content again when I upgraded to 4.1. Imagine having to do that with a shit ton of game content every time the engine is upgraded.

 

[M^uL]

Interesting how so many people think it might involve the community.. That would be awesome, I'd love to be a part of that, but I won't hold my breathe.

Paul Meegan tweeted that it WILL involve the community so that's the reason people think that.

 

[M^uL]

I am not convinced that the community has a very good chance of creating the perfect Unreal Tournament.

And the reason for that is the "perfect Unreal Tournament" is different depending on which UT was your favorite. The community model is perfect in this respect.

Let us F it up ourselves and then we will complain to the modder instead of Epic.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

What's been a really common theme with them is to make everything look brown and Gears of War.

That's only true up to around UT3 times. Take a look at the UT demo in UDK. It's nothing like that. And the Shooter Example in UT4 is an even further departure.

And the reason for that is the "perfect Unreal Tournament" is different depending on which UT was your favorite. The community model is perfect in this respect.

There are things I love about all the UT games, and I probably have the fondest and most enjoyable memories from UT2003. But I don't even know what the "perfect" UT game is. Teh gameplay in UT3 was good but it was missing a lot of magic and it just didn't look good enough or run good enough.

That being said, though... that scares me about what this is. If Epic is going to provide the "Shooter Game" with UT weapons and modding, that's great but not good enough to resurrect the series long term. It might be enough to keep the series on life support for a while, though. I don't want a community driven game. The UT community generally has ideas that would ruin the series and make the games no fun and lots of vocal people latch on to them. UT wasn't successful because Epic did what the community said, it was successful because Epic paid attention to the community and made thoughtful changes. If this isn't that, it's pretty much doomed to failure.

 

[TWD]

That's why you make Ultimate Unreal HD Remix. Then there's no complaints because the goal is just too recreate the the old games. No balance changes or any of that to mess with.

 

[DDRRE]

I know that the popular way to handle this among us UT veterans is to refrain from keeping our hopes up, but I'd rather be as optimistic as possible. True, all we know is that there's a small news item in a UE4 Twitch stream that refers to "the future of UT" and the "UE4 dev community", and that's not where one would announce a full-blown UT4 effort by Epic, but you never know.

At least it made a lot of people talking about UT, including you guys - nicknames I haven't seen in a few years (back when I was a 14-year-old spamming polls in the UT2004 forums).

As I stated on the Epic Forums, this is how I see the ideal outcome of the announcement (written to address the potential UT4 devs):

First, I must say that as far as game mechanics go, UT3 pretty much hit the spot. Unfortunately, the huge amount of bugs made the potentially perfect gameplay invisible to the naked eye.

So this is how I see the ultimate Unreal Tournament game, after over 12 years of intensive play throughout all games in the series:

Business decisions - This is the most important one: Make it a PC game for the ages, back when games had thriving communities because the publisher & developers didn't interfere with the inner-workings of the players' ecosystem.

In short: Give the game to the players. Don't follow the industry's recent business trends.

* No premium DLC whatsoever. Bonus Packs and huge content patches, that we grew to love, are more than welcome!
* Anyone should be able to host a public server, on his own PC or on a dedicated server that he owns and doesn't rent from the publisher's partners.
* The game should be fully moddable. That's what makes or breaks long-term community involvement. Unlike many games today, UT never suffered from the famous "I left that game because there were cheaters everywhere". If there's a "zeroday glitch" - modders can fix it on the spot. The beauty of UT was demonstrated when joining a new server - you never knew what you were going to get. Maps modeled after one's living room with low-gravity instagib, servers with "crotch-shot", servers with relics, servers with community voice macros... no one, other than the administrator (or the voting players) can dictate what the game should play like.
* Listen to the community. Give a very high priority for QA and feedback from the field, including an extended beta period. I can't stress this enough.

Game mechanics should be based on UT3. That means that you're still a tad-heavy grunt, but you can dodge, double-jump and wall-dodge. The translocator isn't infinite. The Hoverboard can be used in vehicle-based gametypes, etc.
All the franchise's core gametypes should be included. That means it has to include Assault, Bombing Run, Double Domination, and Warfare. Perhaps even Invasion, Mutant, Greed and Betrayal?
UT1/UT2004 user interface - everything is customizable, with a significant portion of the properties having a GUI. We're PC gamers, we enjoy millions of checkboxes and loads of key bindings. And let's not forget weapon-throwing this time around!

And, in closing:

Leave nothing behind on launch-day. UT2004 vanilla is the best example for a proper gold build, while UT3 v1.0 is the best example for the opposite. Don't repeat the mistakes that led to the horrible UT3 v1.0, the game must be of v2.1 quality to say the least, because that version only came close to the real thing: (and still had demoguy

* Like I mentioned earlier, make sure the UI has everything. Examples: the server browser must have "Join IP" and "Add to favorites" from within the browser. If you're planning to have in-game friend invitations and messages, design and implement it properly!
* Voice chat that works. UT2004 did this perfectly (Public/Team/Group, if I recall correctly).
* Add cute features that make you feel special - the UT2004 music player, or the UT1 IRC client are great examples. And, of course, UTV! An automated spectator for massive LAN parties is such a huge win.
* Don't wait for UTComp to add things that the vanilla game should have! (demorec, for example)

 

[(GR)Killer]

Would you guys like a mix of quake and UT? or just UT?

 

[Kantham]

Would you guys like a mix of quake and UT? or just UT?

What do you mean? Quake's core mechanic is to jump for momentum and shoot at things. From the sound of it, Quake mixed with UT would mean a ground/wall dodge mechanic combined with bunny hopping for mobility.

Unless you meant something else, I'll pass.

 

[Mang Nux]

Add cute features that make you feel special - the UT2004 music player, or the UT1 IRC client are great examples. And, of course, UTV! An automated spectator for massive LAN parties is such a huge win.

My favourite was the bot voice command. That blew my mind back in the day, and at the time I took it for granted that bot voice recognition would become a standard feature in future games. But what happened? Barely any game has bots, let alone voice commands to control them, and the worst insult was UT3 which was packed with regressions including no bot voice control (even though early PR propaganda suggested there would be highly sophisticated bot commands IIRC - eg. player: "bot, check in that room" Bot: "room clear").

 

[SkaarjMaster]

Whatever it is, it needs to have all the features of UT, UT2004 and UT3. What I mean is all the stuff in the menus, etc.

 

[Wail of Suicide]

That's why you make Ultimate Unreal HD Remix. Then there's no complaints because the goal is just too recreate the the old games. No balance changes or any of that to mess with.

This is the only thing that makes sense to me, but then UT isn't UT without crazy balance-disrupting ability to mod.

Even though UT is not that hard to code I don't see Epic doing the not-inconsiderable work of recreating UT without an incentive beyond goodwill. Perhaps it'll be a store showcase in some way.

 

[leilei]

Would you guys like a mix of quake and UT? or just UT?

There's a free game out there that inserts Last Man Standing, Domination and Double Domination gametypes to the standard Q3TA modes but I forgot what it was called. Do you mean like that one?

On the contrary, it's a spam ...

Judging from some other posts around here you wouldn't buy the game anyway. Of course you see any news about a teasy pre-announcement of a new commercial game (that people are willing to throw money at for not being inundated by hawkprey) as this. The only thing you don't consider as 'a spam' are the NFOs that come up.


Pirate.

 

[Carbon]

The Shooter Game example that came with the new engine looks promising..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TJry_vuC0o

Looks like Crysis.

 

[Mang Nux]

Looks like Crysis.

The gun looks a little Crysis 2/3-like and there are hexagons visible, but that's about it.

It's got more UT2003/04 and UC2 in it if you ask me (in terms of the environment). Quite impressive actually.

In fact, the more I look at it, the more I can see that as a modern UT2003 map. BR-Skyline? Desolation?

 

[Crotale]

Maybe Epic wants to crowdfund the game.