Open Arena Fortress Beta 1

[personman]

Adds customizable player-classes to Open Arena. Should work in FFA, CTF, and single-player mode.

A free fortress mod for Open Arena.



This GPLed, team-fortress-like Open Arena mod includes the source-code.

Open Arena Fortress Website

It's not meant to be an exact clone, but just a fun approximation with class-based teamplay. Testing and feedback is welcome.

-Andy

Current Version: Beta 1

The only real change in this release is it is compiled against the new 0.8.1 sources.

Changes from Alpha 3:

* Compiled against Open Arena 0.8.1 sources.

Changes from Alpha 2:

* Player load-out has been moved to persistant data. Player shouldn't spawn "naked" anymore. (Thanks Sago, for help with debugging)
* Choosing no primary or secondary weapon works now.

Changes from Alpha 1:

* Chaingun and Nailgun added to Primary Weapons menu. (Thanks Megagun)

[fromhell]

'oaf', nice acronym

[personman]

Mind if I use it? I don't want to step on anyone's toes. I was originally going to call it Open Fortress, but I guess that is already in the works.

-Andy

[fromhell]

Open Fortress, but I guess that is already in the works.

-Andy

that name is used for a standalone game project, and it's hardly open when it scavenges its data from the other fortress mods.

[Pyrarrows]

Fun mod, I'm going to play with this mod for a while

I'd love to see if you could get those special classes such as a spy or engie, but those might take a while to come up with...

I see that you got classes that use lightning or plasma guns, good idea on doing that, also this mode appears to work with CTF

and yes, I've seen the XDFort part of these forums.  I played some TF2 and am now hooked on that class based gameplay

[Peter Silie]

Nice work.

Tell us, if you have a server up.

[Timedude]

This mod is alot of fun. I like. Its very basic and simple, doesn't add new weapons or anything, but it still is alot of fun. I haven't played any version of Team Fortress inspired anything before, so this is a taste of something new. A bug or two, though...

Note: I'm running your mod on OpenArena 7.7, not 8. That could explain this.
1. Assault doesn't seem to work. at least, it didn't on sago2
2. Since I'm running on 7.7, the nailgun ends up shooting big, untextured squares when fired. Mine launcher probly does too. Any way to diable these weapons? Cause on deathmatch, over half the bots choose it as there primary... Gets kinda annoying...

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to future development of this mod.

-Timedude

[personman]

Thanks for the feedback all

I found another bug I'm trying to track down, players spawn in without picking a class on level reloads. It's a toughie so far, having a hard time pinning down what controls that.

Pyarrows: Yeah some special classes would be cool, on the other hand, I like the simplicity of this. I may end up branching it in to a few different mods...hopefully others will as well, once the code is cleaned up and ready. Once the basics are in and good, hopefully I can start messing with the fun stuff.

I first became hooked on class-based team play from the original Team Fortress mod for QuakeWorld. Then for awhile I was really hooked on the Tribes franchise, until vivendi killed it. Now games like battlefield and quake wars have their own sort of specialization, but AFAIK, it all goes back to Team Fortress for quakeworld.

Peter Silie: Thanks. I run one from time to time, mostly for testing. It'll usually be listed as "Open Arena Fortess". But I probably won't run one until I fix that class respawn issue, and get another Alpha up.

Timedude: That's cool that it works on 0.7.7, I had no idea if it would. Did you notice if the chaingun works?

Also, are you running 0.7.7 cause you're on a mac? Just curious, a few people have expressed interest in using it with 0.7.x. I'll try to think of a solution.

Regarding the classes the bots pick, they should be pretty much just randomly chosen from the preset classes, later I'd like to add an additional parameter to /addbot that will allow specifying class. For now if you end up unhappy with the classes, try removing the bots and re-adding them, should trigger another roll of the dice basically. Hope this helps.

The only modes I've really tested with are single-player, FFA, and CTF, though I hope to support as many modes as possible in the future.

-Andy

[Neon_Knight]

Good mod. ^^
With some more weapons it will rock. ^^

[Timedude]

Timedude: That's cool that it works on 0.7.7, I had no idea if it would. Did you notice if the chaingun works?

Also, are you running 0.7.7 cause you're on a mac? Just curious, a few people have expressed interest in using it with 0.7.x. I'll try to think of a solution.

Regarding the classes the bots pick, they should be pretty much just randomly chosen from the preset classes, later I'd like to add an additional parameter to /addbot that will allow specifying class. For now if you end up unhappy with the classes, try removing the bots and re-adding them, should trigger another roll of the dice basically. Hope this helps.

The only modes I've really tested with are single-player, FFA, and CTF, though I hope to support as many modes as possible in the future.

-Andy

Yep, Chaingun works fine. fully modeled and everything. Mine launcher probly does too, haven't tried it yet. And yes, I'm running 7.7 cause I'm on a Mac. Though it looks like somebody just released an 8.0 build for powerpc, I haven't tried it yet. I'd guess that the mod works for most of the 7.x releases, so those of you holding back because of that, have at it!

-Timedude

[Pyrarrows]

I've ran it in both 0.7.7, and 0.8.0, chaingun works, but there is no way to get the Prox launcher in this mod (aside from "Give All" in OA 0.8.0)

I havn't tried getting the prox launcher in 0.7.7

[Neon_Knight]

I have some ideas for classes:

1-Artillery (Heavy)

W1-Gauntlet
W2-Machinegun
W3-Chaingun
W4-Nailgun

2-Explosives (Heavy)

W1-Gauntlet
W2-Grenade Launcher
W3-Rocket Launcher
W4-Prox Launcher

3-Scientific (Mid)

W1-Gauntlet
W2-Plasma Gun
W3-Lightning Gun
W4-BFG

4-Short Range (Mid)

W1-Gauntlet
W2-Shotgun
W3-Nailgun
W4-Chaingun

5-Soldier (Light)

W1-Gauntlet
W2-Machinegun
W3-Grenade Launcher
W4-Rocket Launcher

6- Light Weapons (Light)

W1-Gauntlet
W2-Machinegun
W3-Plasma Gun
W4-Lightning Gun
Otherwise, if you plan to add some weapons, I suggest to use:
- Q2 HyperBlaster
- Q2TR Trap
- Q2GZ ChainFist (Chainsaw HELL YEAH! )
- Q1DoE Lava Super Nailgun

And with that, the classes should be:
1-Artillery (Heavy)

W1-Gauntlet
W2-Machinegun
W3-Chaingun
W4-Lava Super Nailgun

2-Explosives (Heavy)

W1-Gauntlet
W2-Grenade Launcher
W3-Rocket Launcher
W4-Prox Launcher

3-Scientific (Mid)

W1-Gauntlet
W2-HyperBlaster
W3-Lightning Gun
W4-BFG

4-Short Range (Mid)

W1-ChainFist
W2-Shotgun
W3-Nailgun
W4-Trap

5-Soldier (Light)

W1-Gauntlet
W2-Machinegun
W3-Grenade Launcher
W4-Rocket Launcher

6-Light Weapons (Light)

W1-Gauntlet
W2-Machinegun
W3-Plasma Gun
W4-Lightning Gun

7-Improved Soldier (Medium)

W1-ChainFist
W2-Machinegun
W3-HyperBlaster
W4-Rocket Launcher

8-Covert Ops/Flag Carrier (Light)

W1-Grapple
W2-Railgun
W3-Prox Launcher
W4-Trap

9-Heavy Artillery & Explosives (Heavy)

W1-ChainFist
W2-ChainGun
W3-Rocket Launcher
W4-Prox Launcher

[Timedude]

Alright, time for my two cents on this project: Firstly, I like it perfectly well the way it is. The current classes are simple, easy to use, and it doesn't require a manual to play them efficiently. Simplicity is what makes this mod good right now. Although, I do see the custom class settings causing problems with online play...

Now, with all that being said, if you do go ahead and expand into new classes with custom weapons and such, I think you should stay away from the standards. Some classes are so basic you can't really do anything about it: a basic shooty guy, and a speedy guy, a heavy guy... kinda have to have those. I get that. But, I think you should try and stay away from the other golden standard classes, like the demo, the engineer, the medic, not cause they're bad classes, but cause they are overdone. Inevitably, you'll end up with the same or similar class as those other guys made to begin with. And, that makes your mod repetitive, cause it's just like that other one.

If you do decide to make additional classes with more coding involved, I recoment going for something a little more unexpected... Much like Openarena's art direction style (there's not one, case you didn't get that) I think the classes should be zany and based on all sorts of character archetypes, from movies and games to comics and books. And pop culture, of course. The best example I've found at the moment is NoX Teamplay, a gametype/mod of Garry's Mod of Half-Life fame. http://www.noxiousnet.com/wiki/index.php?title=Category:NoX_TeamPlay_Classes That has a list of the classes. Forget the magic system, I don't really like that much anyway. But, there are some less traditional classes in there that ought to spawn some ideas.

-Timedude

[personman]

"Simplicity is what makes this mod good right now."

I agree, I like that it keeps the open arena gameplay fundamentally intact.

"Although, I do see the custom class settings causing problems with online play..."

Yeah, once I get these annoying technical bugs out of the way, I'll dedicate some serious time and effort to balance. As it stands, your client's speed is dependent on armorclass (of course) but also on what weapons they happen to be carrying. So a light armor class with a shotgun & nailgun will still be faster than a light armor class with a shotgun & chaingun. That said, I'm sure there is plenty of room for improvement. The formula could use tweaking.

If I do end up going much further with the classes, I'll probably also maintain this basic version.

Thanks again for the feedback.

[Peter Silie]

Am I blind?
I can not find the sources...
Can you help me?

[personman]

Sure, I stashed them inside the .pk3 file, so people who relied on auto-download would still get them. The source is a patch against the Open Arena (vm) sources.

If you have the necessary tools, you can place the patch in the directory containing "ioquake3svnxxxx" (the extracted Open Arena source) and apply it with "patch -p1 -i openarenafortress-alpha3.patch" If you want to prevent it from creating back-up files you may need to use "--backup-if-mismatch" in there as well, So it will only backup files it's not sure it edited properly. I have to do it to keep the patches small and clean.

Happy modding!

[avirox]

Open Fortress, but I guess that is already in the works.

-Andy

that name is used for a standalone game project, and it's hardly open when it scavenges its data from the other fortress mods.

Open Fortress uses 100% free content. Those "other fortress mods" were released free long ago as well, and we've gotten permission for all media which OF currently uses from them.

At any rate, very nice job on your mod there personman. I'm glad to see that interest in fortress-based projects on q3 engines is still around. We're still looking for programmers and scripters for Open Fortress; If you're interested (or know anyone who might be interested), please contact me at avirox38@hotmail.com

Keep on modding!

[personman]

Any thoughts on balance? Are there custom classes or presets that you feel are too powerful, too weak, too fast, or too slow? I probably can't make everyone happy, but I'll take everything in to consideration.

-Andy

[fromhell]

Open Fortress uses 100% free content. Those "other fortress mods" were released free long ago as well, and we've gotten permission for all media which OF currently uses from them.

Sorry but content derived from Paul Steed's work is NOT "100% Free" content.

i'll split once this tumor grows on its own.

[Timedude]

Any thoughts on balance? Are there custom classes or presets that you feel are too powerful, too weak, too fast, or too slow? I probably can't make everyone happy, but I'll take everything in to consideration.

-Andy

I was just struck with an idea: Why not give the demoman the proxy mine launcher as his secondary? It fits well enough. More bang for your buck, though it could derail the balance a bit. And yes, I just requested this because I kinda like the proxy mine... Anyway, just an errant though, feel free to ignore...

-Timedude

[personman]

I have to confess, I haven't actually tried the proxy launcher yet. I wonder if that might off-balance the secondary weapon slot. I'm hesitant to make any preset classes that cant also be configured manually through the "Custom Class" menu. I could maybe look at adding a third weapon slot, and separating weapons in to 3 tiers instead of two, but that might be unnecessary complication with difficult-to-foresee detriments to balance. I'll have to ponder this awhile.

I have few issues I'd like to take care of before I release a beta:

Bots still go after weapons and ammo that are prohibited by their class. I need a better understanding of the bots weight system and how to manipulate it.

Elimination needs some work. In single-player or new listen-server games, if you don't pick a class within the 3 second intermission, you end up sitting out the first round. Other than that it seems to work though. One work around might be to switch it to a 12 second intermission and trigger the /classmenu on the client end. Haven't tested game modes besides CTF very much, but I plan to spend more time on it.

A fairly large map I've been working on off and on for a few months is nearing completion. It's a symmetrical map for team-play, that will hopefully be fun in a variety of game modes. I'll probably release a test version, and if there aren't any major problems, and feedback is generally positive, I might include it in the next Open Arena Fortress release. The map features large team-bases with lots of ramps, as well as tunnels, waterfalls, bridges, cliffs, sniper-decks and a large tower.

It's really been sort of a playground to mess with the tools and see what I can make, and what the engine can handle, then it took on a life of it's own, perhaps I got carried away... Anyway, hopefully it'll be fun and good-looking.

[personman]

I think I found a fix for the bots, I set their individual weapon weights to 0 for weapons they don't have, in their respective /botfiles/bots/botname_i.c files. I need to do more testing, see if they have smartened up.

[Timedude]

I have to confess, I haven't actually tried the proxy launcher yet. I wonder if that might off-balance the secondary weapon slot. I'm hesitant to make any preset classes that cant also be configured manually through the "Custom Class" menu. I could maybe look at adding a third weapon slot, and separating weapons in to 3 tiers instead of two, but that might be unnecessary complication with difficult-to-foresee detriments to balance. I'll have to ponder this awhile.

I have few issues I'd like to take care of before I release a beta:

Bots still go after weapons and ammo that are prohibited by their class. I need a better understanding of the bots weight system and how to manipulate it.

Elimination needs some work. In single-player or new listen-server games, if you don't pick a class within the 3 second intermission, you end up sitting out the first round. Other than that it seems to work though. One work around might be to switch it to a 12 second intermission and trigger the /classmenu on the client end. Haven't tested game modes besides CTF very much, but I plan to spend more time on it.

A fairly large map I've been working on off and on for a few months is nearing completion. It's a symmetrical map for team-play, that will hopefully be fun in a variety of game modes. I'll probably release a test version, and if there aren't any major problems, and feedback is generally positive, I might include it in the next Open Arena Fortress release. The map features large team-bases with lots of ramps, as well as tunnels, waterfalls, bridges, cliffs, sniper-decks and a large tower.

It's really been sort of a playground to mess with the tools and see what I can make, and what the engine can handle, then it took on a life of it's own, perhaps I got carried away... Anyway, hopefully it'll be fun and good-looking.

Wow, cool. Its about time somebody made a terrain map for OA. Can't wait to see what you've got... Maybe some screenshots?

As for the proxy launcher as secondary, you're right, it would probly unbalance things. Again, it was just a thought.

Timedude

[sago007]

Its about time somebody made a terrain map for OA.

islanddm? (DO NOT LINK) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Islanddm

[andrewj]

islanddm?

islanddm + bikini/budgie wearing models = awesomeness