Ants - Ever wanted to be an inch tall?
Well shoot. A year ago, I posted something about how it would almost be here. How wrong was I! Well here I am claiming it again, and I really do intend to put a file here soon. A lot of things have changed in the past few days when I started working on it again.
List of things done so far (July 15th 2001)
- Configuration
Ah, everything looks nice now. Still haven't figured out how to make the UWindow size itself automatically, but at least it is readable. Increments of 0.1 instead of that floating-point decimal mess.
- Inventory
Redesigned everything so that custom ammunition and weapons would work. Now checks Inventory using a SpawnNotify as well as CheckReplacements.
- Weaponry
Weapons fire from the correct height now (I think)
- Projectiles
Custom projectiles (Strangelove, etc) work. Strangelove in particular acts strange, while velocity is scaled it seems it is not scaled enough. May need to tweak later...
- Eyeheight issues
Tried altering BaseEyeHeight, no go. May need to use Tick in the Inventory item, much as I hate the thought...
- Decals
YES!!! They work! I feel stupid though, cause I read the tutorial that had the answer staring me in the face without even realizing it. Blind... Well anyway, for people who want to know how to resize decals, first detach it, change DrawScale, then attach it. The functions are DetachDecal(), AttachDecal().
List of things done so far (July 5th, 2001)
- Configuration
The size of everything is configurable with one setting. Setting it to .5 will shrink everything to half size, 2 will double everything, etc. Can be altered either in the .ini file or in a menu. UWindow still needs work.
- Players
Players are sized correctly.
- Inventory
Inventory is sized correctly. Also added some code to make it appear on the floor right. There are some problems with inventory appearing halfway through the floor because of over-compensation in the code, not sure why. Note to mod designers, look for ThirdPersonScale. This regulates how big it appears in the player's hands. Not immediately obvious at first.
- Weaponry
Altered a few things to make the bots use it right. Still tweaking; the bots can't use the Impact Hammer right. Mod designers take note: The speed variables in Weapon are overwritten with the Projectile speed values. Also, weapons fire from some point above your head if you're really small, and your crotch if you're a giant. Need to fix that!
- Projectiles
This was hard. First I tried setting everything's default (Cool technique: Store every Projectile's class in an array, that way you know whether you have run into that class before. Thanks Mongo!) However, defaults don't work too well, because you have to set them back at the end of the game so they don't screw up the next level. So I switched to SpawnNotify (Thanks yrns!) and just alter the Projectile's speed and size every time it spawns.
- Bots
The bots don't seem to have a clue what they are doing when it comes to pathnodes. Not sure why, they shouldn't have changed at all. Maybe one-inch bots have trouble following pathnodes that are a foot in the air? We'll see. Gonna try and mess with the pathnodes locations and see if that helps or hurts. It could just be that bots aren't meant to be Thumbelinas ;-)
- Jumping issues
I have lowered gravity to make the jumps work correctly. This has the effect however of making it possible for one-inch players to leap tall buildings without dying. Need to find some way to alter the falling damage without altering jumpz. Note: Jumpboots still screw everything up. Plan to fix this with the IncredibleShrinkingAnt inventory item.
- Dodging issues
I don't know WHAT the Epic coders were thinking when they hard-coded the dodge height... Ok, enough of that. I used the IncredibleShrinkingAnt to monitor the player's dodging. If the dodge takes place, then it immediately scales the Z velocity so that the player will jump right.
- Eyeheight issues
Eyeheight during jumps and dodges seems to be a constant above the Eyeheight during normal walking. Because of this, when you are small, jumps and dodges are distorted. To other players they look perfect, but to you they are abnormal.
- Netcode issues
I have two variables that need to be replicated. Immense, huh? I have tested it on a LAN and everything seems to be ok with one exception: Ducking seems to cause everything to rattle on the client. Not sure why, as my code does nothing to ducking (yet). Will investigate...
- Decals
Decals suck, ok? Never try messing with them. Guess what setting their DrawScale does? It shrinks the texture, but leaves the actual size alone. So a DrawScale of .5 means you get four pocks in the wall for the price of one! Nifty, huh? In otherwords, they are not working at all. Can't believe they were coded this way ARGH...hehe I just have to learn more about it...I'm just mad cause I can't do what I want with them right away :-P
- Splash Damage
Another hard-coded wonder from Epic. You can't modify it. I may try messing with the MutatorTakeDamage stuff and see if I can work something out, but I just don't know...right now shock balls are like redeemer blasts to one-inch players and like a pistol wound to giants. Not right at all.
- Release date?
I will try and fix these problems and get some more input on the fantastic #unrealscript channels, but if I can't fix everything I may just release it anyway and see what fun you all have with it :-) It's been a fun project, and certainly funny to play on the LAN.
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