Map assessment and pathing enhancements

[evilgrins]

Hmmmm... might be worth it.

Map plays okay down there, overall... how does it look above? You did see all the playable area up in the trees, right?

[Nelsona]

Map did not have enough paths, more rooms were empty, Lifts... LOL lifts - I added triggers.
Let's see what is here (too dark...)

DM-UTDM-EwokVillage_rS1360.7z

(1.37 MiB) Downloaded 133 times

Paths reduced, a few cleanups, high nodes have been lowered, see if it needs anything else...
Saber has no net codes so I'll use my saber file... in case that I want to play it somehow...

[evilgrins]

What's a saber rifle?

[Nelsona]

That's not a rifle, it's a melee weapon.

[evilgrins]

I realize you're not fond of these things, the wings, but this might be interesting for you.

When I did the CTF edit with multiple flying vehicles on it, someone over at VulpineMission got fixated on them. He mentioned a MonsterHunt map and I went looking. It's 2 floating islands, the starting point and the much larger area where all the monsters are. There's a number of versions of this map, some with flying monsters too, and this one originally had RX on it.

Now, I've noted that bots with Bat Wings that are assigned to backup human players will fly after them... but not surprisingly the other bots have no interest in leaving the starting area. While it might be cool to create flying paths to get them over that problem, that's not my main desire here.

There's virtually no pathing on the Monster Island or in the base over there. I'd like you to path that. So for me whoever is backing me up will start hunting monsters over there when not following me.

You can try and get the other bots to fly over to the Monster Island if you like, but that's not a main concern. I suspect the player who made the request won't care about that.

[Nelsona]

Bot will never fly in original state, doesn't matter flight paths which you are having.
Like I explained already, RX09 whatever mod has now Bot Support using something which NO ONE has ever used in UT: "Brain Sharing" might be the term. Maps are not having anything like that, and not MonsterHunt. If map has "flight paths" those are good for monsters. Bots are covering player when is closer. Player located far away needs to be found using paths. Ground units like Bot won't see anything unless you edit them as ground paths and whoever doesn't use wings will fall if plain devPath won't reject already navigation due logic movement capability. What is doable could be special paths - like for lifts - in hoping that pawn will get wings first but pretty much direction cannot be changed as I could see so far, flight is in a straight line. I'm not sure if it worth wasting time with poorly coded junks where said coder never bothered to add some A.I. stuff at this point, it's all colors and sounds - and that "woow, awesome ! " pathetic sound. To me these are spam packages...
A few blind Teleporters can be linked here but I can expect dumb Bot actions and not much entertaining long range coverage.
I'll open map for checking it.

Edit:
Examination Notes:
- Bots could use a sort of Special path for heading up to castle;
- There they seem capable to do some "CleanUp";
- Certain "lifts" are not having bidirectional access - I forgot this type of map...;
- There is a second spawn room without wings - FROM THERE, there is NO ACCESS at Queen out of any flight - LOL ???;
- Access at queen will need some stuff written - I'll see what is doable if something is doable;
- Map was crushing multiple times - I'm not surprised - it had a lot of duplicated actors - it's GARBAGE, a stolen work;
- Certain code from those wings are pointing Bot at Enemy or "MoveTarget" actor - if actor is not that reachable out of ground access here might be issues - this doesn't means that has certain flight stuff (like I predicted already) - Bot landing in wild zones won't return anywhere - paths and cheap hacks are needed.

I believe Bot Support is doable here around 60-70% - perhaps more. In exchange it's a bit time consuming and I hope it won't crush me after builds which I've done or else testing and working at it will be very nasty.

[evilgrins]

The updated spawnpoint I'm assuming kicks in after players reach a certain point on the monster island... and once they're already over there they don't really need the wings anymore... which for me works because the way I play it is damn tricky to keep flapping and shooting at the same time.

Worse comes to worse, if you think wings are necessary at 2nd spawnpoint then add some new egg pickups. If you do, 2 things: you need to raise them up a bit as they tend to place in the ground a bit, and you need to skin them as they have no skin of their own and are basically invisible.

Shortening their respawn time is ideal too.

Landing in wild zones not as much an issue as you might think. If you're playing and you have a bot as your backup, it will fly to wherever it needs to to get back to you. I k now you usually goto UnrealEd directly rather than play, but give it a go. Test wild zones by leading a bot there and then fly out of it... bot will follow you regardless of lacking pathing.

[Nelsona]

The updated spawnpoint I'm assuming kicks in after players reach a certain point on the monster island... and once they're already over there they don't really need the wings anymore...

Very wrong, I explained already. HOW Do You Get in Queen's Room ? End is there and not elsewhere.
And this will require some work around for Bots.

Test wild zones by leading a bot there and then fly out of it... bot will follow you regardless of lacking pathing.

Nah, when Bot dies it won't find you after re-spawn. No paths = No Roam.
Air Paths are not helping here and neither that Pan Speed settings for a Texture which is... Invisible - "Fake BackDrop". I won't count all buggers which I found.

[evilgrins]

Test wild zones by leading a bot there and then fly out of it... bot will follow you regardless of lacking pathing.

Nah, when Bot dies it won't find you after re-spawn.

Actually not true.

At least from the initial stage, any bot backing me up when it dies respawns on that distant island, picks up an egg, and comes right back to back me up. Seen it happen numerous times, it's cool!

[Nelsona]

And FALSE 50%. Indeed "Wings" item has a deal with OrderObject but, it's a "push code", I'm not sure if any situation is suitable here, flying in walls doesn't look so good... Here paths should have something to say for routing Bot at "MoveTarget". No Item, No path, No Sight = No Cover. Bot covering human located in building might head bot into island keeping it locked at wall... and that's not good. Those wings should not force movement like that.

Stage:
- Added paths - One Way in supposed No Way Back spots;
- I need to figure objectives order based on their events for adding WayPoints properly;
- Looking for other empty spots;
- Added Wings in Second Spawn location or else map won't be finished ever;
- Adding some combos for preventing Bot to stay locked out of path when was previously attacking and charging at enemies;
- Checks, checks... and again checks;
- Assistance Support for getting Titan-Gun ?