Unreal II to receive network support and more!

[Maxunit]

Wow this is the most awesome Unreal 2/U2XMP related topic I have read today. I just thought: "Hey...how about grabbing U2XMP CE again...let's have a look" and found this topic.

Any news on the release n stuff? If maybe a host is required, then I can help out as well.

Greetz,

Maxunit

 

[GreatEmerald]

No news yet, waiting for Xmas.

 

[Bleeder]

I'll check back April 1..

 

[tolo16]

Maybe someone has screenshot to prove that Unreal 2 RC9 really exist?
Sorry for my english language :/

 

[Blade_hunter]

Don't worry about that
Some things are really hard to find about some Unreal related stuff ...

 

[DeusIX]

no ****?

It'll better have proper statistics utility (integration to utstatsdb) or I can't live* it.

*Yes live. When it comes to unreal, i don't just play or experience i live it.

 

[GreatEmerald]

Tolo, there are some screenshots from it, look in the Unreal II website:
http://unreal2.xsa1.com/gallery.html
Particularly, this screenshot is exactly from RC9:
http://unreal2.xsa1.com/images-dynamic/SepShot05.html
You can see both bloom effects and the weapon.

Everyone:
I had a talk about this yesterday... And, well, it seems that he's not willing to upload it soon... He says that it may happen when he feels like it, and even then he's not certain if it will be a public release. And since most of the discs were destroyed anyway, I think we should start doing something about it ourselves instead of just waiting. I know that at least a few more people outside of DE and Epic have them, so probably Epic and DE have them as well.
So I'm thinking about contacting them, that could help or at least give us more information on the issue. What are your thoughts on this? Do you agree with the idea? If yes, who to contact? Personally I had better experience with Epic. Any ideas on what to ask? I'm thinking about a query about if they have them, and if they don't, maybe they know who does have it, with notes on how this issue is important for all three communities.
So, any thoughts on that are welcome, and since this is basically diplomacy, don't contact them on your own or it could make matters worse. I'd better get all the thoughts from you and then write a good, well explained letter

 

[DeusIX]

awwffff****. There goes my christmas.

 

[Khanax]

Also been interested in this post , am an old time Unreal fan so i have decided to drop by (the following isn't a rant just my POV ):

To be honest i am still skeptical about the existence of the RC9 , even if Epic or DE have a copy of it , it's more than unlikely they will release it to anyone. (As much as i hope this isn't the case)
The most logical reason would be that the beta version actually has more content then the "final" game , which would lead to the question - if they had all this content ready why did they really cut it out? I do recall an interview with CliffB mentioning this was due to time constrains and hitting the release date they set up (correct me if i'm wrong).
In fact a lot of the maps have a MM prefix to them as opposed to some with a M0x prefix , which are more than likely have been multi player maps converted to single player maps just to fill the campaign.

Anyway back to the point - although some developers choose to release some kinda of content for older work (Stalker for example), if Epic or DE would release an old RC which is actually a full game instead of the one third demo of the game we got , it may not reflect very well.

I did find a nice remake of Unreal 2 though:
http://masseffect.bioware.com/
It even has a sequel , aside it's being an RPG and a third person game, it has a theme which reminds Unreal 2 in a way.

Diplomacy sucks , just get enough people to chain themself to the front entrance of Epic until the media shows up, that should do the trick.

 

[GreatEmerald]

The most logical reason would be that the beta version actually has more content then the "final" game , which would lead to the question - if they had all this content ready why did they really cut it out? I do recall an interview with CliffB mentioning this was due to time constrains and hitting the release date they set up (correct me if i'm wrong).

You answered your own question? Also, another reason is that it would have been a competitor for UT2003 at the time.

In fact a lot of the maps have a MM prefix to them as opposed to some with a M0x prefix , which are more than likely have been multi player maps converted to single player maps just to fill the campaign.

Interesting, though what makes you think MM means multiplayer?

Anyway back to the point - although some developers choose to release some kinda of content for older work (Stalker for example), if Epic or DE would release an old RC which is actually a full game instead of the one third demo of the game we got , it may not reflect very well.

Hmm, care to explain?

 

[Khanax]

Think of it this way , they had a release candidate which supposed to be a full or close to full version of the game , at least content wise.
Dropping most of the game content for a reason like storage space (~9GB at the time would have meant 2 DVD's at least, not very common at the time of the release for PC game) would seem less likely.

Multi player wise XMP was planned to be a lot diffrent from what it became to be , i do agree deathmatch and CTF only with diffrent models would make a confusion with UT2K3.

As for the maps prefix , i'm not quite sure what the MM stands for (Multiplayer Map?), though it makes more sense that singleplayer campaign maps had a M0x-x since most of the missions were comprised of a number of levels plus the flow on the MM maps feels more like an arena map with a certain lack of elements when compared to levels like Hell or Sanctuary (maybe XMP maps originally).

Quote:
Originally Posted by Khanax
Anyway back to the point - although some developers choose to release some kinda of content for older work (Stalker for example), if Epic or DE would release an old RC which is actually a full game instead of the one third demo of the game we got , it may not reflect very well.
Hmm, care to explain?

Well if taking the Stalker example per see , the beta version looks outdated compared to the retail , sure it has a couple of features which were cut from the retail version but you do get the feeling the final product is better (let's not go into who liked that game or didn't , just an example ). Half-Life 2 also had a lot of things cut out due to lack of time to implement them all , or if they didn't play right.
Which isn't the case of Unreal 2 , here you would get (assuming well get the RC9 released , fingers crossed) what should have been the game to begin with only cut down for some other reason than storage space.
Well at least that's my conspiracy theory.

And i do think it would be nice if someone was working on a remake using UDK. :tup:

 

[GreatEmerald]

Well if taking the Stalker example per see , the beta version looks outdated compared to the retail , sure it has a couple of features which were cut from the retail version but you do get the feeling the final product is better (let's not go into who liked that game or didn't , just an example ). Half-Life 2 also had a lot of things cut out due to lack of time to implement them all , or if they didn't play right.
Which isn't the case of Unreal 2 , here you would get (assuming well get the RC9 released , fingers crossed) what should have been the game to begin with only cut down for some other reason than storage space.
Well at least that's my conspiracy theory.

Well yes. So, what's your point? Or was that just an observation?

 

[Khanax]

Over written observation.

At any rate hope something will eventually come out of all of this , keep us informed.

 

[Ryan432120]

Tolo, there are some screenshots from it, look in the Unreal II website:
http://unreal2.xsa1.com/gallery.html
Particularly, this screenshot is exactly from RC9:
http://unreal2.xsa1.com/images-dynamic/SepShot05.html
You can see both bloom effects and the weapon.

Everyone:
I had a talk about this yesterday... And, well, it seems that he's not willing to upload it soon... He says that it may happen when he feels like it, and even then he's not certain if it will be a public release. And since most of the discs were destroyed anyway, I think we should start doing something about it ourselves instead of just waiting. I know that at least a few more people outside of DE and Epic have them, so probably Epic and DE have them as well.
So I'm thinking about contacting them, that could help or at least give us more information on the issue. What are your thoughts on this? Do you agree with the idea? If yes, who to contact? Personally I had better experience with Epic. Any ideas on what to ask? I'm thinking about a query about if they have them, and if they don't, maybe they know who does have it, with notes on how this issue is important for all three communities.
So, any thoughts on that are welcome, and since this is basically diplomacy, don't contact them on your own or it could make matters worse. I'd better get all the thoughts from you and then write a good, well explained letter

I Personally dont know DE But if you Personally had better experience with Epic, to contact Epic is a truly EPIC idea
I totally agree with this idea! in addition your idea of writing a good, well explained letter is fantastic as for that dont forget to mention that all three communities are waiting for its release and it would be a big waste if RC 9 would be Destroyed .

PS . My fingers are crossed

 

[GreatEmerald]

It seems that Epic doesn't have them, but I'm waiting for their thoughts on this issue, maybe they can suggest something. If not, I'll probably try writing to DE.

 

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

I already sent email to DE actually, but no answers yet, from either side.

 

[GreatEmerald]

Hmm, that will save me some work, then, though I hope you included or will include a good explanation and note how it's important to the community

In fact, when I think about it, writing good, long, diplomatic letters is easy with a mind map, and making it collaborative is easy with Google Wave... And that's the only use of it I've discovered so far.

 

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

Well, I don't really use anything to base my letters on, I just speak my mind, kindly and openly. It usually works so to speak. I mentioned it would be good for fans of the game and also that it should include checks as you proposed for CD/DVD or installed game, so they won't be free games. I was aware of the legal troubles and applied at that too, I just asked if they still keep the beta archives.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

DE had nothing to do with Unreal 2. The only people who could have what you are looking for are ex-Legend employees or Atari.

 

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

DE had nothing to do with Unreal 2. The only people who could have what you are looking for are ex-Legend employees or Atari.

I know that. I actually asked only for the original Unreal betas so far, but we will see if they keep other stuff if they answer me.

But they can have the Unreal 2 betas because they shared stuff with Legend sometimes and tested their games i believe, while they were working on ut2003.