Modifying Vehicles

I'm looking for tips on a good starting place for modifying vehicles. For example, I want to increase the accuracy and distance of the main gun on the Goliath, allow it's minigun to point straight up, and maybe bump up it's top speed a little. I don't even know where to start. I'm guessing all that stuff is in a .u file for the vehicle but I don't know how to view it. What do I need? If I try to open the script in the editor I just get a very short bit that says something like "extension of vehicle factory" but doesn't have much else.

I haven't started looking on the net yet. I thought I would see if someone here could give me some tips to make it easier to get started. Who did all the recent vehicle fixes? Kamek?

Edit: I'm making some progress using this page... http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/Legacy:...ehicle_Weapons. I've got the Script Source and can now open the code for the Goliath and it's guns in a text editor. Is this the accuracy (Spread=0.015)? (WeaponFireOffset=200.0)?

Spread is the accuracy. However, I don't recomend copying anything from the Goliath's scrip sources, but instead make subclasses of the relevant classes (ONSHoverTank, ONSTankSecondaryTurret, etc.) and just modify the default values there.

I won't copy over anything. I was planning on renaming. the wiki says the same thing you did (I think)...

"If you are only modifying the weapon it is probably best to extend the original vehicle (ONSHoverBike) but if you are going to do some serious modification you are best subclassing the vehicle class and copying the code from a vehicle within it"

I'm not sure how to do that but I think I'll figure it out. I haven't tried yet. As soon as I figured out that I could open the files in a text editor I started looking at the code for different things just to try to understand it.

Originally Posted by Binger

I want to increase the accuracy and distance of the main gun on the Goliath, allow it's minigun to point straight up

Binger that would be pretty cool if you could make a Goliath v2. The main complaint I have about the Goliath is the main gun not being as accurate as pretty much all the other vehicles in the game. It does not matter that much on the smaller maps such as tyrant, however on the large ones like Dria and MTMU, even the tunnel under Tanks-a-lot, it seems like the Goliath is close to useless at hitting anything at a distance.

It's a tank, not a sniper rifle. Its strength is its damage admount and radius. Making it more accurate may easily make it too strong compared to other vehicles.

I agree with you statement Wormbo however, when you are on a large map driving the Goliath against, the Fire Tank, the Cobra, the Plasma Tank, Mino, Badgers, and the Ion tank, all of which fire exactly where the reticle is, it can be quite frustrating have the drop on the enemy tank, only to see your shot drift off to the upper right, and have the enemy tank turn towards you and pound on you.

I've gotten better at predicting the offset of the gun, but it is the main reason I hardly drive Goliaths on the MTMU maps.

The main gun on the Goliath is very inaccurate. I hear ya Wormbo but I don't think making it 100% accurate like so many of the other vehicles will cause a problem. As far as the other changes like range, mingun tilt angle, and tank speed, that is all something I would do just for the UnWheel map I'm working on. Mostly I want the main gun to reach the fog distance and be accurate.

I don't see the point in making the Goliath, a stock vehicle, more accurate. That's like trying to beef up jflounderbo's Ford Festiva. If you are planing this for a MTMU, go for it but its a mistake to do this on TaL or Tyrant.

A stock Goliath stands a better chance at trapping and killing a Badger than a Ion Tank.

Originally Posted by Terminator

...its a mistake to do this on TaL or Tyrant...

Why? And btw, I'm for not even having a Goliath on Tyrant.

I'm surprised that anyone would be against this considering the plethora of ridiculously overpowered vehicles we use on Omni. Are you for the Minotaur but not an accurate Goliath? The one shot kill Ballista with very high range and perfect accuracy? Try go up against that with a Goliath. Try going up against so many of the community vehicles and you will understand why so few people drive the Goliath. And don't forget how many vehicles we now have that started out as a Goliath and had their accuracy set to perfect. Vehicles the Goliath now has to compete with.

Originally Posted by Binger

Why? And btw, I'm for not even having a Goliath on Tyrant.

I'm surprised that anyone would be against this considering the plethora of ridiculously overpowered vehicles we use on Omni. Are you for the Minotaur but not an accurate Goliath? The one shot kill Ballista with very high range and perfect accuracy? Try go up against that with a Goliath. Try going up against so many of the community vehicles and you will understand why so few people drive the Goliath. And don't forget how many vehicles we now have that started out as a Goliath and had their accuracy set to perfect. Vehicles the Goliath now has to compete with.

Why? Because a Goliath already kills foot soldiers easily on TaL and Tyrant. Making it more accurate will make it even easier to kill foot soldiers on a map like that. Put someone like Sliman or Rommel in the current stock Goliath and they will tear it up.

So few people drive the Goliath because of its weak damage output compared to other vehicles. Making it more accurate doesn't change its 350 or so? damage output. I already said I'm for it being implemented on a MTMU but rather not see it on a map like Tyrant or TaL. I can adjust.

And yeah, there many overpowered vehicles on the server. I once made a comment on a post here. "The Aliigator and the Hurricane are one the few vehicles that can challenge a Minotaur head on" and Wormbo repsonded. "If any vehicle can take on the Minotaur head on, it must be overpowered." He is right. And speaking of the Hurricane, the hitbox on it needs to be modified.

Yes I'm against the Minotaur. In fact, I argued that the Minotaur should have been placed on the new version of Severance for the sake of it getting voted more. The Minotaur wasn't placed on it and we rarely play it which is sad because its a great map.

Originally Posted by Terminator

That's like trying to beef up jflounderbo's Ford Festiva.

er
(Terminator will have to translate)

I agree with what you're saying here (except about Severence ). I'm not planning on going to every map on the server and replacing all the Goliaths and then trying to get them all on the server. In fact the only plans I have to edit anything currently on the server are just for Goliath and Halloween (maybe someday I will finish the Vine). No plans to edit Tyrant. I like to play around with TAL but that's more just for fun. There's already two of them on the server. I don't think that increasing the accuracy would have as much of an effect on those maps as you say. The distances are fairly small and it's already pretty hard to miss but it doesn't matter anyway since if I do modify the Goliath it will probably not make it on those maps.

The reason I started this thread is not to update all the Goliaths currently on the server but because I want to have all the guns on all the vehicles on UrbanCircuit reach the max fog distance. All vehicle weapons. If you can see him you can hit him. I have the fog distance set high and there are some long straight streets. It sucks giving away your position by a shot that doesn't even reach your enemy, then they line up their Ballista on you and you're dead. If I get the vehicle done and it makes it on other maps then good, but that's not my goal.

Oh, and this mess...

Originally Posted by Terminator

Why? Because a Goliath already kills foot soldiers easily on TaL and Tyrant. Making it more accurate will make it even easier to kill foot soldiers on a map like that. Put someone like Sliman or Rommel in the current stock Goliath and they will tear it up.

So few people drive the Goliath because of its weak damage output compared to other vehicles. Making it more accurate doesn't change its 350 or so? damage output. I already said I'm for it being implemented on a MTMU but rather not see it on a map like Tyrant or TaL. I can adjust.

And yeah, there many overpowered vehicles on the server. I once made a comment on a post here. "The Aliigator and the Hurricane are one the few vehicles that can challenge a Minotaur head on" and Wormbo repsonded. "If any vehicle can take on the Minotaur head on, it must be overpowered." He is right. And speaking of the Hurricane, the hitbox on it needs to be modified.

Yes I'm against the Minotaur. In fact, I argued that the Minotaur should have been placed on the new version of Severance for the sake of it getting voted more. The Minotaur wasn't placed on it and we rarely play it which is sad because its a great map.

You should know by now that if you're going to argue with me you need to bring it. That ain't bringing it my brother.

Peace.

Originally Posted by Binger

You should know by now that if you're going to argue with me you need to bring it. That ain't bringing it my brother.

Peace.

Yeah, you are one masterdebator.

And peace to you as well.

Binger, did you ever have success with this? A Goliath that could shoot straight would be nice on Gunshop.

Originally Posted by Turbo K

Binger, did you ever have success with this? A Goliath that could shoot straight would be nice on Gunshop.

No, I haven't worked on it all. My intention was just to modify the vehicles specifically for the UnWheel map but I haven't worked on that in a while. It shouldn't be too difficult. Probably set the Spread to zero. Subclassing the vehicle and renaming it and the name in the stats is something I will have to learn when the time comes but I haven't tried to do that yet. The link to the wiki I posted in the first post is not working for me right now. That would suck if it's gone for good because it was helpful. If you try it you will need the Unreal Script Source Code. I think this is it...

http://www.gamefront.com/files/44211...cripts3369_zip

This did come to mind recently when I was trying to shoot the middle node on Gunshop with a Goliath. In fact, every time I try to shoot the top part of a node with the Goliath I get frustrated at how inaccurate the thing is.

This map has a modified Goliath that is more accurate, has more range, and longer zoom. It doesn't seem to be done right though. I copied it into an Onslaught map and, iirc, at close distance the shot was off. I forget exactly how but when I tried it it seemed messed up. It also wasn't renamed.

http://www.mapraider.com/maps/unreal...FlyLittleManta

I take back what I said about it shouldn't be too difficult. I was looking at this stuff again last night and I have no freaking idea what to do. Without the wiki I'm lost. I couldn't even find the Range or how to change the Zoom. I have no idea how to subclass anything or how to find out what all is needed for each vehicle. I don't know how to convert a .u file like PPCTank.u into something I can read like a .uc file. I don't know how to get the files for a custom vehicle if it's been pasted into a map.

For me, learning this stuff without some reference material or someone that can explain it to me will be near impossible.

You should become familiar with UCC. To decompile a .u file into Unreal class files (.uc), do this:

Open cmd.exe and get UCC open:

cd c:\ut2004\system
ucc

After you get it open, type:

ucc batchexport PPCTank.u class uc ..\PPCTank\Classes

This will land the new folder into your main UT2004 directory. If you would like it in the system folder, remove that extra period.

Awesome, Anon. Thank you. That worked. PPC tank was just an example. I wanted to check out some custom vehicles that are based on stock ones to try to understand what I need to do.

Becoming familiar with UCC sounds good but with no reference material that's kind of hard to do. I've only used it once to decompress something.

Here's another question. If I want to see the script for a vehicle that is embedded in a map how would I do that? I would like to look at the differences in the stock Goliath and the one on that FlyManta map but it's embedded in the map so I don't have a .u file for it. Any ideas?

Originally Posted by Binger

Becoming familiar with UCC sounds good but with no reference material that's kind of hard to do. I've only used it once to decompress something.

Manually decompressing/compressing files using UCC is a pain, I use UZTool instead. It basically creates a right-click menu shortcut to do this. This is great if you hunt for files on redirects or are a server admin.
http://www.utzone.de/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=811

One cool trick with UCC is creating a mutator list entry for files extracted from cache. The command would be:

ucc exportcache filename.u

and you would be able to play with it offline.

Originally Posted by Binger

Here's another question. If I want to see the script for a vehicle that is embedded in a map how would I do that? I would like to look at the differences in the stock Goliath and the one on that FlyManta map but it's embedded in the map so I don't have a .u file for it. Any ideas?

I'm not sure about this one, I've never tried it. The Unreal Wiki appears to be down as well, which is strange. All I know is how to import a .u file into myLevel through the editor's console, the command would be:

obj load file=filename.u package=myLevel

However, if you can find your class in the Actor Classes browser, try right-clicking and selecting "edit code." I know this isn't the entire .u file, but it's a good start.

Originally Posted by Anonymous[Lolz]

However, if you can find your class in the Actor Classes browser, try right-clicking and selecting "edit code." I know this isn't the entire .u file, but it's a good start.

That only gives the "class ... extends ..." line.


This is what I'm guessing at from what I've seen so far. This would be just to change the accuracy of the Goliath and give the tank a new name as Goliath-X1.


Copy ONSTankFactory and rename to Goliath-X1Factory.
Change
class ONSTankFactory extends ONSVehicleFactory;
to
class Goliath-X1Factory extends ONSVehicleFactory;

Change
VehicleClass=class'Onslaught.ONSHoverTank'
to
VehicleClass=class'Goliath-X1.Goliath-X1'


Copy ONSHoverTank and rename to Goliath-X1
Change
class ONSHoverTank extends ONSTreadCraft;
to
class Goliath-X1 extends ONSTreadCraft;

Change
VehiclePositionString="in a Goliath" and VehicleNameString="Goliath"
to
VehiclePositionString="in a Goliath-X1" and VehicleNameString="Goliath-X1"


Is this all that would need to be done to create a copy of the Goliath that would show up in the actor browser under ONSVehicleFactory as Goliath-X1Factory when I loaded the Goliath-X1.u file in the editor?

If I then wanted to increase the accuracy of the main gun I would need to...

Copy ONSHoverTankCannon and rename to Goliath-X1Cannon.
Change
class ONSHoverTankCannon extends ONSWeapon;
to
class Goliath-X1Cannon extends ONSWeapon;

Change
Spread=0.015
to
Spread=0


Open up Goliath-X1
Change
DriverWeapons(0)=(WeaponClass=class'Onslaught.ONSH overTankCannon',WeaponBone=TankCannonWeapon)
to
DriverWeapons(0)=(WeaponClass=class'Goliath-X1.Goliath-X1Cannon',WeaponBone=TankCannonWeapon)


If that is all correct then how do I get those 3 .uc files into one .u file? Is it ucc compress and if so what are the correct parameters?

Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks.