Hook's UT Place

**Shadow342** · Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 3:28 pm Post subject:

Apocalypse Weapons, Beta 9

This mod has been officially called the most improved mod ever, and this latest build keeps up the tradition. This version includes a good number of features over version 9, and is hard to believe that it is truly a descendant of the first beta, released a while back.

The first thing that stuck me of this mod is the way its presented; along with the game files is a clean, professional looking html ReadMe, and an equally professional looking manual up on the mod’s webpage. Both are well thought out, and answer most questions retaining to the installation or contents. As for the rest of the installation process, it’s comparatively painless, and especially, seems to work. Though you can dive right in to a wonderfully unreal battle, you also have the option to check out an extensive mod menu, allowing you to tweak or customize practically anything pertaining to AW.

For the mod menu, the options it contained made sense, and tied well to the game. Such options include the ability to tweak bonuses, load outs, characteristics of particular items, and thus allow you to create your very own AW gaming experience, though the default is not half bad either. Only thing I can think the menu might need, besides tweaking the application of the triple instance thing (the application was a kludge compared to the clean presentation of the rest), would be the ability to start off with three different prefab configurations; user customization is all fine and well, but the default game plus the mod Author’s two favorite picks would not go amiss.

In-game there is a world of creative, ‘unreal’, weapons, all of which have some nifty dynamic and or effect. The media itself appears based mostly the UT stock artwork, but there is enough change that I really don’t mind. Skins and positions have been adjusted, and unreal 1 models and media have been added; thus breaking the standard ‘simple weapon mod’ appearance. To further distance itself form the basic look and feel of other weapon mods, or UT vanilla, there are included a number of really wicked ambient features; these can be tweaked and adjusted in the mod menu, and the include (but are not limited to) fun things such as adrenalin (not related to ut2k3, but more a bonus system for players with low life), item drop, and a complete revamp of the item spawn process. Though the included Burning Player mutator is a blast, the spawn tweaks (randomizing the appearance of pickups and such) are a really wicked addition, and offer a refreshing break from the known-spawn-location strategy of playing.

Of the weapons, they were all fairly balanced, if a little overpowered, and seemed to play well together. In terms of intuitive playability, most weapons seemed to work smoothly; this is both for the player and for bots. I like the reload on the Silver falcon (the animation and effect is really well done) and as I didn’t see any stuck bots with this gun, this feature appears to work for more than just players. The only odd dynamic was the adjustment of the duel ammo on the EMP carbine, which though a nice feature, could be handled a bit more carefully I think; or at least with a bit more visual data for the user to know what exactly is happening. Other slight anomalies included things like the ‘Reloading’ message lasting far longer than the actual event, but though this probably should be fixed, it really does not hurt gameplay any.

Though the weapons are pretty good, play well and are stable, the items really make the in-game experience of this mod shine, especially when coupled with the ambient gameplay features. Though I like the way health is handled, the difference between AW amour and UT is amazing. The Thermal Suit is a nifty item allowing you imunity to certain elemental damage, and as well changes the appearance of the player wearing it. The Enhanced shield belt is what the original shield belt should have been, and my favorite, the Apocalypse Amour, actually changes gameplay in that it slows you down for its weight, and changes the sound of your player moving. This feature does not seem to unbalance the item; it just enhances the experience over the single, lonely, number of UT. All UT items have been replaced, included the damage amp, and all the equivalents and other items all work quite well. My only qualm being with the visual effect for the infravision helm, which tints the screen green and shows a little player icon overtop of pawns behind walls. Though I like the concept behind this particular item, I feel that the effect could probably use an overhaul, perhaps changing the look of players when not obscured, and removing that static image of a guy standing.

All things considered this is a solid little mod which has come a long way. The weapons are nifty, stable, and play fairly well; the items and game tweaks are a more than welcome change. The mod menu is a perfect addition to the AW series, and allows you to customize just the right things. There were relatively few bugs, and all of those minor, and thus the only thing I would really like to see in future builds would be that jetpack I saw mention of, and a little more attention to the in-game effects; they are all above average, but I think that the unreal engine, even without full particles, offers a lot more potential; especially in terms of basic explosions and the like. If these were fixed up, I think that the mod would have a level of surface polish rarely seen; and for a beta release, indeed it already has a level of surface polish rarely seen. And behind these visuals, I have to admit that the shear volume of wicked features included here is quite impressive, dwarfing the weapon-mod classification I think one would be calling this. Regardless, AW has been a good choice of download since the last couple of versions, and if you liked the previous builds, or see potential in this latest, I definitely suggest you try it out.

(I haven’t been able to test this over the network, so I can’t really comment on any improvements or issues for the client. However, as the author includes support for online play, I trust his judgment in releasing stable net-code, and even if this is not the case, the game is more than solid in an offline botmatch)

Overall, I give it a 9.8 out of 10.

BTW I DID NOT WRITE THIS!!! This was from modsquad's review!
Please tweak it. If it is going to be for monsterhunt, you can take even UTJMH off of there!! This mod lets you have health up to 999. You can set the burning quality etc. But i highly advise you tweak it in the mod menu! Get the weapons the way you want. Just like u4e.
_________________
{xCBx}Shadow342 *Moderator*
CTF, BT, DM, and MH map maker.

**BiGbOsS** · Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 4:48 pm Post subject:

W8 hold on, u say i can take off utjmh?
does this mod have an ammo regen (if not ok it can do without it)
what about noboost?
what about the size how big is it?

I can set the health limit?
what about the ammo limit?
any other things in the ini, maybe u can post it (sorry for the trouble Rolling Eyes

)

*Edit*
hold on sorry i forgot u have to login to see downloads, i just saw it lol, i will check out this mod later!
_________________
{xCBx}BiGbOsS
Site Moderator and Head Admin of
€RØSSßØNES~Your Destiny-YOUR Way~

**BiGbOsS** · Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 8:54 pm Post subject:

alright i downloaded it, but there are only a bunch of umods, where are the readmes........
_________________
{xCBx}BiGbOsS
Site Moderator and Head Admin of
€RØSSßØNES~Your Destiny-YOUR Way~

**Shadow342** · Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 4:29 am Post subject:

idk lol, that's what I said, i guess i should've taken that part out of the modsquad review.
_________________
{xCBx}Shadow342 *Moderator*
CTF, BT, DM, and MH map maker.

**Shadow342** · Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 4:32 am Post subject:

the max health is set at 999 and can regenerate up to how high you want. The ammo regeneration (i think) is also included that can be set how many seconds it will regenerate. But, it does not show any targeting system. But on the bright side, you won't here "H O L Y S H I T!!!" every 2 seconds.
_________________
{xCBx}Shadow342 *Moderator*
CTF, BT, DM, and MH map maker.

**BiGbOsS** · Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 8:33 am Post subject:

hmmm i like this maybe i will check it out, if i have the aw server installed, do i have to have the reg aw?
_________________
{xCBx}BiGbOsS
Site Moderator and Head Admin of
€RØSSßØNES~Your Destiny-YOUR Way~

**Shadow342** · Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 2:57 pm Post subject:

idk, maybe when you extract it, you can go to the AW.ini in the system, change it to the way you want, compress it, and replace it on the server!

:EDIT:

Oh! No, you need to have the regular AW mod for offline, if the awserver.umod is useless if you don't want to put it on the server.
_________________
{xCBx}Shadow342 *Moderator*
CTF, BT, DM, and MH map maker.

**BiGbOsS** · Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 7:56 pm Post subject:

hmm okay maybe..
i am busy this weekend so i wont have time to check it out...
_________________
{xCBx}BiGbOsS
Site Moderator and Head Admin of
€RØSSßØNES~Your Destiny-YOUR Way~

**BiGbOsS** · Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 11:24 pm Post subject:

alright im starting the server back up...
looks like i do need a new router, but i think im good for right now because i stole the modem from my mom's computer, but idk if it will work without ports, somebody test it out in the next day or two....plz Mr. Green

Im taking off u4E for right now, but i still havent checked out AW yet so right now its just utjmh... Wink

_________________
{xCBx}BiGbOsS
Site Moderator and Head Admin of
€RØSSßØNES~Your Destiny-YOUR Way~