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

A free fortress mod for Open Arena.

(http://oaf.mutualads.org/oaf-1.jpg)

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

Open Arena Fortress Website (http://oaf.mutualads.org/)

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)

'oaf', nice acronym :)

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

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

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 :)

Nice work.

Tell us, if you have a server up.

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

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

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

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

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

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! :P)
- 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

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 (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

"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.

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

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! :)

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! :)

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

islanddm + bikini/budgie wearing models = awesomeness

islanddm isn't really a proper 'terrain map' as its small, breaks on vertex lighting and also the bots eat so much cpu on it. We need a map that uses the old, WORKING 'team arena' method rather than the Sock q3map2 method

I didn't even know about Islanddm... Wow. Guess I'll try it out...

-Timedude

Is that your domain? I like it. Are you a syndicalist or what? I consider myself to a black-n-red anarchist :)
Also nice project!! Cant wait for everything to get more completed, is the goal to be just like Team Fortress?

Oh, no... Not again!

-Timedude

?

Sorry, for a second there you were looking very much like thats moronic spammer dude... But I see you're not. My apologies.

-Timedude

I do tend to post en mass every so often when I haven't read the boards recently, and I do tend to troll on this board a little, but this time its not the case. I really do like that domain name and the idea of OAF. The classes are very cool even though just a few worked. The custom class though seems a little redundant since everyone would use the custom instead of the premade classes. But all in all I want to see a server running OAF some day :)

Yep, I second the call for a server, and for the removal of the custom class...

-Timedude

Yes, it is, thanks. :) As far as anarchists go, I suppose I'm mainstream. I'm influenced by rationalist libertarian-socialists like Chomsky, Zinn, and Einstein, classic anarchists such as Proudhon and Bakunin, Emma Goldman... As far as which particular method or system, as Chomsky says, one should be careful about sketching out a future in too much detail. I don't believe in any one particular method or system, but in the tendency toward liberation of the masses, including worker-ownership and control over the means of production...the goal of anything approximating a democratic society would be to help the people inform themselves, promote a broad spectrum of ideas and discussion, and a fair framework for meaningful decision-making, but politicians in general are hostile to that idea, they exist in opposition to that idea, and undermine it to a degree that would make a commissar cringe... So yeah...basic black and red. Anarchist...Democrat...Communist...Atheist...Musician, Programmer, Artist, former computer tech wage-slave, former factory wage-slave, a former resident of a housing project who has witnessed firsthand the effects of poverty on people... That's the kind of anarchist I am.

Well, he asked. :b



Maybe I could add a server option to disable and/or limit certain classes. All the preset classes do is choose a custom-class loadout that approximates to what you'd expect. There shouldn't, AFAIK, be any big advantage to choosing a custom class over a preset class, or vice versa. If there is, I would probably consider that more a balance issue to be worked out, rather than junking the custom system altogether. As it stands, the heavier the armor and the heavier the weapons you are carrying, the stronger and slower you are, the lighter your armor and weapons, the faster and weaker. Hence my question earlier in the thread regarding whether people feel any particular classes, custom or preset, seem unfair or unbalanced: too fast, too slow, too powerful, or too weak. I think that fortunately, the weapons are already pretty well balanced, but the class system does complicate things, so if it could use specific tweaks, I'll see what I can do. If people generally hate the custom class deal I can shut it off or create a setting, but I'd rather balance it than remove it. It adds sort of a Tribes meets Counter-Strike in Quake on Enemy Territory for Team Fortress thing going on. :)

Regarding a server, I'll try to run mine more often. Are there particular levels you'd like to see? I often use oa_spirit3 because it's one of the better looking levels, but I keep my eyes open, am also working on a level that will hopefully compliment the mod well.


Thanks :) My goal was to take some of the things I like about a variety of games, mentioned above, and see if I could implement them. It's not meant to become an exact clone of Team Fortress, just sort of "Fortress-esque," however, the source code is publicly available, so if anyone would like to take it in that direction, they can. I might look at implementing grenades, additional weapons, and possibly other features from those games, but I would probably try to avoid making it exactly the same. It seems like it would take an incredible amount of effort for little ole me to make a game people are already playing the hell out of on a variety of engines, if I can keep it fun and different, like Open Arena, I think that would be cool. But what do you all think? As I said, I probably can't make everyone happy, but I'll take things in to consideration. :)

Kicking for new version, Beta 1. See the first post for details.

-Andy

I've created a site for OAF, with a subversion repository and a bugzilla tracker:

Open Arena Fortress Website (http://oaf.mutualads.org/)

(http://oaf.mutualads.org/oaf-1.jpg)

Mirrored ! (http://download.tuxfamily.org/openarena/mods/openarenafortress/beta1/openarenafortress-beta1.zip) :P
I'll try to keep it updated ...

Can someone update this mod to 8.8? I want to play some Team Fortress on OpenArena

Can someone provide a fresh link to the sources?

Seconded

I haven't really messed with this in awhile, but since people seem interested, maybe I could pick it back up? While the basic functionality works, I felt a lot could be done to clean it up.

Would there be a possibility of adding this in to Open Arena itself as another game mode? It's not like I use any complicated external models or levels. Everything I use is in the game already. Being a newbie at C, I would be willing to work with the devs to make this an optional mode.

-Andy Rink
Open Arena Fortress coder

Edit: It is happy luck I preserved the code in the pk3 file. Without Cacatoes mirror I would have lost everything. Ran out of cash to run my old sites a couple years ago.

I think is a good idea  ;D ;D

If you need maps to support thie gametype and to try it, you will wait for this:
http://openarena.ws/board/index.php?topic=4679.0
(and also for volume2)

Also you can watch some maps  :P  :D

;)

You can surely make this an optional game mod, just like the Quake 3 Arena Team Arena was (even if these are different game mods).

I am not one of the game's dev, but I see no reason that your mod could not be included in the standard release as long as it is stable. As a mod, it would not interfere with the main game code.

Personally I think this would be a breath of fresh air in OpenArena. Class-based team games are the future of FPS for sure. I would love to play it and open an online server running this mod.

(DO NOT LINK) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Wishlist#Suggestions_for_new_gametypes

I suppose a few new gametypes could be added to standard OpenArena, but I think they should not change too much... e.g. the relatively simple "Possession" gametype -see thread (http://openarena.ws/board/index.php?topic=3995.0)- would be okay, while a class-based gametype would better fit in a mod. But that's only my humble opinion. The choose of what will be part of baseoa and what not mainly depends from Fromhell. Making your own mod, instead, you would be free to do anything you wish.

Of course, you may work on your mod starting from DO NOT LINK[/b]) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/OpenArena_eXpanded]OAX (http://([b), already preparing it as an additional gametype. If then Fromhell would like it, Sago may merge your stuff into the main OAX branch. If not, you could release it as a separate mod, disabling "normal" gametypes if you wish.

See also:
(DO NOT LINK) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/NOTTODO
(DO NOT LINK) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/GoodPractices

There's a thread about posession (http://openarena.ws/board/index.php?topic=3995).

I still think the duck is a good idea because the noise and feather trail

FYI: The Quake 3 Fortress mod works perfectly in OA.

Just to tide everyone over 'till OAF comes out...

The site isn't working. Could you put a download on this thread?

It looks like the only remaining download is here, and the patch against the 0.8.1 source is included inside the .pk3 file.

http://download.tuxfamily.org/openarena/mods/openarenafortress/beta1/openarenafortress-beta1.zip

It could probably be done much better, this was my first ever attempt at modding this.

i'm sorry your account got caught in the 0 posts purge :(

No big deal fromhell. :)

I tend to credit people for the message, not the post count. I don't even think I really had all that many. One thread for a mod, one for a level, and maybe one in the dev forums where I think I listed some of the sites I used to learn the modding.

I did a horrible job. I think it works, but I totally dropped the ball on the UI. There has to be a better way to do it, I just don't know it yet.

-Andy

UI and id Tech 3 is always a difficult and messy thing.  It's even hard to make a BASIC menu system that has options all over the place because of the stillborn script system.  I am trying my damndest to do this in OA3 in a clean modular way as much as I can, even if it means hundreds of redeifnition warnings in the console :(

My implementation leaves something to be desired I think. The UI I did was probably simple and buggy, but it worked. Trying to trigger the class menu on client load did not work so well. I'm sure it's something I messed up on. Q3F did it, but I don't remember how. I might run it just to see if I can get an idea.

Good documentation on obscure functions were difficult to attain for me.

There was rfactory.org...


keyword was :(

https://web.archive.org/web/20140707104941/http://rfactory.org/