House of Fools

Introduction: Aiming MonsterHunt mapping generally.
By looking at these maps done over years, at a moment I reached to draw a conclusion. Mapper was intended at a moment to power-up creatures and even writing new monsters which are default monsters ready powered resulting new packages and new content. I think the most of this content is simply useless since a default monster can gain that power by using the right thing. Monster in map can be adjusted manually (dumb ideas and setup done here in a mountain of crapped up maps). Monster spawned later from CreatureFactory can get power VIA Factory. We can have pupae with 200 health without writing new data to be downloaded just a few bytes in MyLevel which will not even require coding skill. More people were having problem at making monsters in MyLevel due to default MH borked package done by Shrimp attempting some fake originality because new stuff is doable, and MH can be screwed up anyway. They went in troubles at compiling stuff and even messing up Map by leaving un-compiled actors because of Mr. Shrimp itself.

A new factory will use it's own <spawnpoint> actors without creating useless paths and loading CPU processing. New factory can have more options for creature spawned like: projectiles, skins, names for creature, orders, alarms, skill, aggressiveness, PeripheralVision (for experienced mappers), health, etc, etc. By tweaking pawn immediately after spawn, this will prevent opening and adding all sort of dumb packages because pupae from there is powerful. WTF !? It's nothing more than a default pupae which won't need anything than a quickly boosting without files, files and again files... New factory is not a big code it can be added in MyLevel using a simple command which lazy mapper can copy-paste from a document without to even write a single directive for this factory. In order to demonstrate what idiots were doing I can sample file Pupae.u over-shared in many map packages and being useless in the most of them, map in cause did not even use this package. There are two pupae pawns - 2 default pupae sub-classed into some pieces with extra properties (retarded JumpZ value, rocket speed, other skin, as other messed up properties mindlessly modified). These values are doable when monsters spawns in map without even to compile anything, yeah it's simple as a pie, to not forget that mesh which is making pupae to look like has mouth into ground due to a bad PrePivot option which can be solved and pawn can look more times better.

This stuff is doable in a package having 2 Actors: an enhanced Factory and a SpawnPoint specific. For making differences between new stuff and default one, we can have specific sprites and even some mesh for SpawnPoint able to perform animations - or this can be attached as an extra add-on. Package can be loaded in Editor using a console directive easily dropped and new things are ready for mapping having even a snap-to-grid feature for fixed X,Y,Z coordinates. These also can perform Events - Factory when has finished the work and SpawnPoint as usual at spawning monster able to link whatever noise or lightning type or whatever ninja effect.
And now the question is if we do have candidates interested about such things. If not, no problem, I'll write them for me when I'll jump into some MH mapping task.

Self notes around:
I'm thinking at those claiming as being coders and saying that I do "HorseShit" or I do not have any clue what I'm doing or such, why the hell No One of them did not do such a MH "helper" all these years, small mapping stuff for preventing stupid useless modding and packages releasing with sh!t pawns ? Huh ? And because I do sh!t or redundant* stuff even if nobody did what I did, the dumb one saying all time that I'm wrong will have a small surprise in how a map can work in a various difficulty format as long as I have enough MH experience to do what is doable rather that messed up incomplete craps in multiple "versions" - Editing junks more exactly. So far I did not do such a Factory but run-time self-editing it's already done and... I did not see this yet as "redundant" as it is - yeah, simple as that. Dumbness of people is often redundant speaking about this word suddenly learned by genius claiming that knows "everything about Editor". If noobs have been messing up maps until 2010 and even after that with brain-farts out of logic, other ones are doing the same sh!t in 2018+ and in next 10 years (I'll bet on that) because such a prototype of supposed mapper will never learn to follow the right way and the rules, as long as their life is a default chaos and they like sh!t Levels as rats are loving to play in trashcan and bunching trash out for admins which will have to get mad at sorting stuff for their servers.
As a second point. A supposed mapping contest will have a launch at ut99.org as I've read here - not there. Let's say I'm deaf and blind and I'll go busy with tweaking other messed up Levels (we do have a mountain of crap to solve) so I don't need to waste time with doing anything new except a random moment when a sudden inspiration might hit me during sleep, or not. One time MH was out of 3072 UU mapping contest because a map would not be a map given said contest extreme rule - but I've demonstrated that a small map can have a long time game play if it's well configured and without to be a spam map - amazingly requiring "shotcuts" , it was not on purpose to prove that they are wrong and are talking sh!t, but this is my default life issue, all time I got a chance to prove to a clown previously insulting me that his is more dumber than me at random - and it was just the faith and nothing else on purpose.
End of self notes.

Next bump toward mapping and moron type hate.

SkaarjStatues or whatever. Stupid excuse creativity - we did this for our server because we are not using Bots - soon won't be there neither players so keep that empty crap ON-Line for 10 years if you can support all costs.
Those statues have always come to life when Bot was around because A.I. code from MonsterHunt has always said to Monster "GoToState('Attacking')" ignoring everything which monster has in this "fascinating" useless creativity and making a mess with an early attack ignited without triggering and taking place in a wrong moment.
The question stay then: Can we have such statues for such mapping cases ?
The answer is YES and without to mess with pawns and sudden state changes done by borked mutators or primitive A.I. controllers.
Here we can use a custom small MyLevel code in a decoration simulating/being a statue for real. Whenever statue is triggered will spawn creature class registered with animsequence, skin, projectile, skill, health, etc. into a monster spawned right there. Once job finished decoration will go hidden and vanished creating a real statue effect which has come to life. Nothing will trigger a sudden monster attack earlier than supposed as long as a statue will be ONLY a statue and nothing else like a stupid coded pawn responding at attack when an external code is switching state. In this shooter game Pawns are not supposed to be used as decorations, we have decorations that can be... decorations after all.

Once again... if nobody wants to participate at testing and doing such stuff I'll keep it in my yard until I'll come with some sample map (which will be dropped as a map in a location out of original archive by random UT collectors and making a random downloader to have no clue what is about with this map and the goal of the map).

By looking at last map which I fixed here and there, I think I can add here some Statues which probably can be part of action at random. We can have a statue of whatever Hero which can come alive in certain sessions, not all time, as a random surprise. This stuff seems entertaining when you don't know if a statue can can get mad at you or not.

A Statue similar to one from newer added map in Monster Gaming Server it's done and tested so perhaps it's ready for sharing as a package that can go in MyLevel according to document coming with archive in cause.
Monster Statue can be a stock one having new power configurable and even powerful properties assigned before spawning in order to have it properly initiated. If exist a logic problem toward such a configuration this is detailed in document.
Sample: If default SkaarjOfficer in default MonsterHunt has always empty hands, such a prototype used as Statue might have a TournamentWeapon which you want - and it will be dropped visible, or depending on mutators used it can be more or less useful for players.
This is addressing to mappers with a bit of skill and who know what a triggering operation is, not to poor cube drawers. Statues are coming to life ONLY if are triggered.

Unlock imagination with other effects toward whatever "living-dead" stuff. Zombies by LoathSome I think are a suitable theme here if I'm not mistaking.

Edit:
File deleted because a complete map will be posted having all fixes toward small code glitches.

All right, people... it's time for another stuff which in fact was done before but not to entirely aim Visual Audience - PLAYER.

Precipitation Generators are done in various formats but,... all of them were utterly cancerous for a server. Precipitation particles spawned over and over have been loading memory until everything was going down-hill. Also bad mapped, bad coded, they did more damage to the games, more than anything evil joined for attacking a server, evil enemy was INSIDE rather than outside. Probably time has come for something better coded than junks messing up in servers using various net codes for being supposed smoother and consuming a bunch of Net resources for a brain-fart. What these people have not figure so far is that everything is hyper smoother if are part of CLIENT-ONLY. Client game has behind keyboard and mouse a player watching capable to see action, to feel action and not Server. Server has authoritative tasks to process, it really doesn't need stupid particles for another processing power consumed.
The start of this thing.
I was inspecting some "Texture" package called Chronoshift.utx which surprisingly is not a texture, is an entire package having codes and classes but spread as texture even in public free redirect. One of them was... a precipitation generator (unwrapped as usual) which if is bad configured will do damage. This was previously started by some HUD specific to Assault, addressing that game which very few players are playing nowadays. Maybe is time to unlock it from that dumb texture sitting hidden over there, if that package is a texture, then I'm The president of USA - poor dumb people, they really do not have any clue about sh!t in this almost 20 years old game.
Okay, I think I will try to setup a main core initiator for this thing testing environment and... if it's part of a client, Generator is being spawned and will start "snowing" in this side - CLIENT. Given this Property I'll bet on 200 $ that Snowing process can be seen even through a WarpZone and/or in whatever Skybox. There is no need for any "simulated" function as long as client is entirely responsible for managing it, during net games generally, player is capable of assisting server in action but nobody is doing anything about that. Decals are controlled by Client, some effects are also part of client, all these visuals should not put down server with "needs" as long as they are pointless in server. I have to do it also for being compatible with some patch files for maps working in the same way, CLIENT and nothing else. I'm going to work-station...

It's time to bump the snow - this was original idea of this generator...
I have to admit it was a bit of headache to make things to work properly ONLY in client but getting setup from an authoritative part - Server. Level and map are handled by server, if client knows about actors but not that much about custom setup will get default values making stuff to look like was borked. In this case I could manage spawning a generator by something which has to be added in map, but generator needs some net properties in first second in order to gain custom mapped data. After starting to work will no longer have Net charge going to RemoteRole=ROLE_None and continuing to work for client. All logs are located in the right place, client will have the snow and nobody else... This is a sort of Good Bye to net channels loaded with tens/hundreds of particles, these are spawned only in Client without any Net Role. Client has full control over this snow. Generator has a random feature to change certain particle from time to time.
Now I'm a bit locked, I'm thinking if I have to release it with a doc, or with a doc and a small sample map for figuring configuration.

Changes needed.
Whatever class with cute snow was working nice in closed rooms not in maps with a SkyBox - strange stupidity (engine, render, heck knows). I had to make another soup with such generators finally doing something based on the old one from PlanetUnreal but changed and wrapped because I really want to see it On-Line not depending on server/mods etc. but ALWAYS and letting client-only to have Snow/Rain whatever. It's really entertaining to see a supposed texture file setting up resources and inspirations for mods - this was nothing else than a FAKE texture, in reality it's an U PACKAGE having a lot of stuff - not that nice of course*. Until to test new generator more and working at a small MH map I want to do another upload for previous updated statue because Event configured was not fired (I forgot 2 lines in code).
It doesn't need any conforming against mismatching because this is addressing MyLevel so it should not be a problem.
To recall - this is fixed with the two missing lines toward Event which monster Statue must have if it's being configured - tested in current map in working stage.
However, Monster statue might have an Event in old bugged version if mapper will set PostProp1 with PostVal1 or whatever Post-Property assigned after spawning monster. That one should not fail. Else, this updated one will work properly as long as it was tested chained with some "ExplodingWall"-s, VIA a Dispatcher, etc.
First room from test-map is a winter room with Snow and a Statue going to life when player is starting game - no start, no action.
In my current machine everything seems smoother enough - I changed timer code with a state code with small breaks against iterations and it works nice. I will have to complete some visual borders around such "arena" and tiny obstructions. If this demo will look suitable for a public server it will go to Monster Gaming Server.

*___
Speaking about previous package tuned into a texture for no reason, I gotta admit there is some work around to do for making everything there to act properly. Mod do includes even a path toggling actor but having some simulated function which makes no sense. Why would I call a server duty in client ? That is an A.I. task and nothing related to client...
Edit:
File deleted because a map will be posted with more completed assets and totally bug-fixed.

Bump, wheels are still rotating. I will share something if Editor won't piss me off with its Karma assets. So far I have a "Map-like" demo thing with various zones - no bad BSP Cuts are encountered yet. A semisolid type island was developing flickering surfaces and then I went to align the result of builder product to the almighty grid and everything went calm and smoother. Still have a good amount of nodes in direct view so I expect a bit of render performance in battle areas... My own proposals so far to achieve - custom works:
- statues coming to life;
- unexpected statues showing up and coming to life;
- barrels dropping some creatures;
- probably others;
- a bit of dynamic self-tweaking feature - map might react different depending on its "mental state";
- custom dual Navigation Points system and maybe some Special Handling things because this map will have Bot Support - and Bot should have a clue about what's going on. If player has not much clue about what's going on, then it's time to learn game-play from The Stupid Bot, simple as that.

Map is ready and will be posted if won't cause issues. Some of these things have been adjusted because they had small glitches - I failed some Copy-Paste parts because I left work and forgetting to do the task when I was back (night action is boring). All will be posted at once with map so those shares done so far with these for-MyLevel things are going to be removed because everything is properly set in a Level as a direct sample.
Quoting Assets implemented in map (loaded in Monster Gaming Server):
- Statues ( all Skin problem solved - pupae was showing me other problem - solved );
- SnowInfo - a sort of PrecipitationGenerator based on old codes and a few add-ons and... without accessing None and having a small delay leaving whatever patching to run if necessary;
- Decorations spawning monsters when are destroyed - Bot knows what is about - like I said before;
- A.I. Tweakers for Skaarj, Bots - increasing a bit original intelligence;
- EvSeter - an actor granting an Event sorting randomly one of max. 16 tagged decorations;
- Some trees got from 2001+ years and operational;
- DualNode - a sort of PathNode which can be set as a special one at cross-roads/corners with only two links in order to remove stupid old MH racing - when node is set as special will discard Bot Navigation when is fighting with a visible enemy, else it will react as a normal PathNode. I did not do any other SpecialHandling stuff as long as it was not needed here.
EDIT:
Tested enough so far - it's time to claim it READY for now. Next changes means other versions.
I was talking about this: Includes LZMA file used by XC Servers and XC Players in order to gain content faster as long as default UZ is bigger.
MH devs are not in archive assuming that if you start playing a MH map you should have mod installed/loaded.