A General Beta/Developement Discussion Thread (For the entire Unreal games too)

[Leo T_C_K]

It seems like in Avalon 10B (the cut level) there were Izarians alongside the Liandri Mercs (not the Angels) and the Izanagi mercs all battling it out. Or it could be the marines turned Liandri as the takeover was happening anyways. There's also some subtle Drakk connection to the Liandri...it might be that the Drakk might have been connected to the Unreal Mercenaries (as their creators or so) or an offshoot of them(or the "insekt" race from Jupiter), then they got killed by the Drakk and this is also somehow the connecting tissue between Liandri but this is mostly my headcanon.

Unfortunately the dialog files for those two levels are missing, however there is still a barely some leftover in one of the dialog documents but not really, there's like a month gap between the initial one and one of them is missing.

Speaking of that I researched where the Exile hook for Unreal and P849 exactly gets dropped. Between 4th August 2002 and 6th August. No more P849 picked up by Atlantis story.

there was also this that explains how Isaak gets the parts for Drakk Laser. In the released game it happens off screen as the game exits before this can happen, as you were meant to go further back originally.

NaKoja_16
Backup exchange in case we want Isaak to direct the Marshal to pick up something.

1. ISAAK (Radio): Hey Marshal! Grab that thing, will ya? I’ve never seen tech like that before.
2. MARSHAL: Ya mean this?

It looks like M07 got dropped on 21st July also from the story dialog documents. But the P849 story was still kept until little later.

There were bits and pieces where it was explained that Isaak would have modified your weapons better for underwater combat or something too.

edit: between 11th and 13th july 2002 the mindclaw got dropped from the story too.

between 24th and 26th the leech gun started to be turned into the spider gun idea.

EDIT2: Wanted to note about the Izarians still, that Avalon B level had groups of them including what seems to be four "warlords" with 400 health I suppose those were the armored izarians. That's what I divine from this...

[Leo T_C_K]

Before the Player's name became John Dalton there were several names cycled through, some of them temporary/placeholder. Hoot Judkins was the first one, then he became Jim Hawkins (before that last name got recycled for the sector commander), John Walker, until ultimately John Dalton I suppose partially based on Scott Dalton.

Also there is some additional dialogue in some of the level scripts. M02 and M04 are interesting, based on comments I assume M04 was also made by Matthias Worch. It seems like a lot of his levels and sublevels got cut...so he got "cucked" still in 2002. As in more than other level designers. Grayson might have had Janus cut down severely and other levels dumbed down and I assume he also made the original alien ruins or what (not m02 or m04 but maybe m05 and the multiplayer levels based on the prophecy map seen in intro/cutscenes), and Parkman had m07 being removed but umm Atlantis first cut down in size, then tutorial/M10 reduced to small limited bits AND M02 and M04 cut completely. That's not good, really not.
There are lot of scripts for M04 A B and D
Here's a small example

Code: Select all

// Stands behind the big fan in the 1st hangar

removeinventory
call TriggeredActions
inert 1

:WaitingForAction
sleep

:RunAway
gotoactor PathNode223
sleep 0.2
destroy

:TriggeredActions
ontrigger BigFanSkaarj01 gotolabel RunAway
return

Code: Select all

// Stands behind the big fan in the 2nd hangar, jumps down to attack when triggered

removeinventory
call TriggeredActions
inert 1

:WaitingForAction
sleep

:Attack
onevent scriptedlanding gotolabel Landing
gotoactor PathNode220
sleep 0.1
inert 0
//message "Test3?"
stop

:Landing
turntoactor player
message "landed"
stop

:TriggeredActions
ontrigger BigFanSkaarj02 gotolabel Attack
return
[code]

[code]
// Runs away to warn other Skaarj after you leave the 2nd hangar

removeinventory
setmovespeed 1.5
call TriggeredActions
inert 1

:WaitingForAction
sleep

:RunAway
gotoactor PathNode115
sleep 0.2
destroy

:TriggeredActions
ontrigger SkaarjScout gotolabel RunAway
return

Code: Select all

// Comes up with the big transporter lift, performs some actions (open door) and attacks

//removeinventory
call TriggeredActions
inert 1

:WaitingForAction
sleep

:OpenDoor
gotoactor PathNode126
sendevent Building02Bigdoor01 0
sleep 0.1
inert 0
gotolabel WaitingForAction

:TriggeredActions
ontrigger BigLiftWave01Skaarj03 gotolabel OpenDoor
return

Code: Select all

//=============================================================================
// BigDoorTempSkaarj.u2s
// Skaarj seen running by for scripted sequence, gets destroyed
//=============================================================================

call TriggeredActions
inert 1

:Idle
sleep

:RunForrestRun
gotoactor PathNode11
destroy   // Und wech...wieso ist eigentlich schon wieder 4:30 Uhr morgens hier? :-]

:TriggeredActions
ontrigger BigMineDoorTempSkaarj gotolabel RunForrestRun
return

[ZeaLitY]

I forgot if you also made a development list for the patches/demos. I'm relying on some ancient, unstable memories here, but I recall that supposedly, after Unreal was relesaed, there was a patch version (maybe with the letter d, e, or f) that was only briefly available for download. We're talking only a few days' availability. And no one really downloaded or kept it, so back in 2008 on BeyondUnreal, people were still looking for it. I always wondered if it surfaced.

[Victor Delacroix]

Shortly available patches: 225e and 226a. Both were ultimately recovered.

[Leo T_C_K]

Yes. But there were a lot more of such. Many of them are not so important though but many such patches were indeed shortly avaiable. There were of course also files that used to be avaiable for way longer but with the death of the original unreal community circa 2000, and the old sites gone...nobody really mirrored the files and many mods went into obscurity due to the mods often not being updated to the 224+ versions thus only working with earlier ones....
Now and then some old mod resurfaces but there is a lot missing including the very first make something unreal contest (if you search for this many sites will tell you the first one was held later but no there was one in 1999 already and one of the winners was the original unreal2d that got lost for example). The site exists on wayback machine just without the actual files. And its really a shame, even if we did see similar mods appear 6 years later...that original one was really a breakthrough and it got forgotten and lost. Its a real shame.

[Leo T_C_K]

You know...I did avoid Gears of War for several reasons. First of all it had many sequels and at the time when I considered buying the pc version it was announced there wouldn't be ports for the sequels (and there weren't until some modern re-releases). And I had a choice to buy either the gow pc port or the UT3 Collectors Edition back in 2008. I chose for UT3, even after discussing the choice with UnrealBerserker.

Apart from Unreal Warfare and the "WARFARE" content from 2004 I did not touch it at all. I even ignored the betas which some of them surfaced apparently (but don't really have youtube coverage).

Since I could do not much lately I decided to instead watch some complete playthrough of the PC Win version with the added levels. I dunno which levels were added or not...but god really. This game is a disappointment. I mean obviously they improved on the gameplay from early times, but there was some "soul" building in the levels and art in the 2004 version finally and it just disappeared and became more generic and even more washed out.

I know UT3 was criticized for it too but at least with updated it was more configurable how it looked. With gears that wasn't so much an option. But still.

Technically you can still see this is Unreal game and they even brought back some weapons or changed them. Like Hammer of Dawn being the UT2(kx) weapon Ion Painter/Target Painter kind of thing. It works basically just the same. Not like the ut2004 target painter that ironically would fit more in unreal warfare and maybe was once considered (?). But it has the basic premise of the ion cannon(painter) with it being delivered in bursts like the strike by target painter and the bomber plane...

Remember in initial ut2003 the map even had to have the satellite placed in the sky for the weapon to work? They changed that in ut2004 to not be strictly required but you still needed an open sky for it to work.

There are some memorable fights but the game really starts to fall apart obviously and it just is held together purely by gimmicks. It lacks soul and most of the time it never had it. Unreal 2 at least had soul and for most of its developement also Unreal and some solid vision/level documents to go by.

Heck, I even assumed there would have been Unreal 3 back in 2004 when warfare (the early ue3 version) started to be previewed and early 2005 when they even showed monsters like Brumak. I thought it would have been an evolution of the Titan from Unreal. Hell you could replace Locust with Skaarj and it makes sense. Brumak with Titan and have Skaarj riding it....etc

I really was naieve that instead of coming up with Gears of War they'd turn it into Unreal 3. Hell even thinking about it, the story starts with you being released from prison or detention. Prisoner 849 would have been in similar situation on the planet "Exile" throughought most of the Unreal 2 2002 plans.

Unlike Unreal 2 however (even though this got toned down in the released version A LOT), there is no criticism of military and consequences and sequels/prequels had to build up on story. Because there's no story in Gears, its just thrown together stuff without any depth. Marcus is a bitter protagonist that is asshole for no reason to Bair'd and tells his teammates to "just fix it" even though he takes the technical situation into no consideration. It obviously tried to appeal to the lowest common denominator and don't get me started. Health? What's that? We don't need health to be constantly shown on screen, we just care about buff military soldiers, am I right?

God really...look I still think this direction is better than the mindless military is great (I know this is not NEG and this is military on an isolated planet/sector but still) doctrine that the 2002/2003 unreal warfare was trying to tell with the soldiers having no obvious personality and the only thing going for it was the amazing motion captured animation...

So yea there are two versions of unreal warfare leaked out there, the 2003 demo version that's like a leftover of bits from the GDC 2002 demo but lacks the actual movie maps (though leftover actors are present so the movie can be recreated) and lacks a couple of maps that were intended to be CTF but CTF got broken and they didn't fix it so they removed the maps from the distribution for the licensees. It included one of the base maps and the bigger cavern map with the collapsing bridge. You can see that map still survived in some form in the released gears together with the forest map although its laughable really. Its worse than the marsh map ended up in Unreal 2. But yea the original warfare was just multiplayer with some cinematics held together (kind of like ut3) and at one point it had reportedly gladiator style approach/matches. In 2004 there was a new hope when they restarted the developement on new UE3 with the restarted build numbers. And there is a leak of this(alongside the ut pre-alpha which wasn't even called ut2007 yet and had just bsp maps with no texturing and leftover unreal championship 2 models, kinda like what UT4 started as with UT3 material as base), but it lacks the locust models and most of it is placeholders. It only has a model for the wretches. They were still called Geist though and not Locust. Even though the Geist in the "UE2" versions was just techno Necris with the heavy class being a mecha that would self destruct upon death, UE2 being ironic because originally the engine was called the UW engine or warfare engine...but yea unlike plan that wasn't the first game released so they rebranded and retconned the whole naming lol. I have no clue how the betas of actual gears are like and I never tried to look into those...though the xbox beta is not worth it as its just a pre-releaase but there are some windows versions out there apparently.

But yea to get back to talk about Gears, hell even that boss in the caverns is kind of like the Striders were meant to be for Unreal 2...its all kind of mixed. But there's so many logical errors to the Gears story that I won't bother going into here, like with the train and how it wouldn't have worked to decouple it like that when its on the way and....other things that make no sense like the "fix it" line and whatever.

And also its ironic the only guy who criticizes military in the game gets almost instantly kiled off in a scripted sequence. Everything is too pre scripted and corridor shooting and only real reliance are the gimmicks as I said. Pretty weird honestly. Anti climactic at the end too. I suppose it sold and there was all that microsoft backing huh? Can't have something too deep there now can we?

As I said the gears stuff/warfare also partially messed over with Unreal 2 developement in practice and I think I'll never forget that part. Still U2 was the better game, even if we ended up with "joss whedon" version lol.

EDIT: I remembered the creature that reminded me of the striders was called Corpser.

Either way, really, Unreal 2 got often criticized for things like walking/running speed which was something that unreal warfare introduced for "realism" and it carried over there, it often was worse than in Unreal 2 in practice. When Mike Verdu left everyone was working towards a version "everyone would agree with" but I really feel that was the wrong approach. Original game gave player "shocks of their lives" and showed direct consequences of their action. I really feel like we were robbed of some emotional depth there, even if some character backgrounds were more fleshed out.

With Gears however I don't feel the same way. Hell even Pariah I could say was dumbed down and cut down, but Pariah was a funny(unintentionally) broken mess somehow that sometimes elevated itself, but Gears despite being more polished is not a better game. Its just...really mediocre in the end. Sure it has added flavors but they get drowned in a boring mess. Its a shame really. The story moves nowhere and end the game on a train level? Even with Pariah's hispeed2 (which I believe was the original working name and I found references) its not at the end of the game, its literally a bridging level.

It feels so so odd. I know there's a lot of additional material but if your main and first game fails to deliver even the most story then you did something wrong. Plus a lot of the beauty of the original "embry square" location etc is gone. Really too bad.

[Leo T_C_K]

I did find an actual evidence of the more freeform structure of the game even within the early summer 2002 dialogue files from Unreal 2.

You were indeed supposed to (originally or at least during the later 2001 phase for sure) pick missions (which would switch Atlantis to a state between said missions to prepare for the briefing). This was supposedly before they made more fixed story points happen on Atlantis. The mission select was still left over as a developer/testing feature however until very late and you could do that via a separate console in the briefing room. It would then reload atlantis with the correct flags.

It went up to Mission 09 and waterfront and sulferon were separate entries. You couldn't choose Avalon as it would require you to do everything else first and the mission select option would not pop up again.

Additionaly there were indeed coded dialogue for when you'd interrupt someone and walk away and get back. You could literally troll someone like Ne'Ban and they put humorous lines in:

Code: Select all

[NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway1]
SpokenMax=0
Speaker=Neban
LongText=I noticed that you walked away from me during our last conversation, al
though I could not find an obvious for such behaviour. Did your customs require
it?
AudioDuration=7
NextNode=NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway1a
NextNode=NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway1b

[NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway1a]
SpokenMax=0
Speaker=Player
ShortText=Yes
LongText=Yes, the Great Green Arkleseizure called to me and I had to leave immideately.
You are a keen observer, Ne'Ban.
AudioDuration=5
NextNode=NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway2

[NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway1b]
SpokenMax=0
Speaker=Player
ShortText=No
LongText=No, I just didn't feel like talking anymore.
AudioDuration=2
NextNode=NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway3

[NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway2]
SpokenMax=0
Speaker=Neban
LongText=I am delighted to hear that. I am always striving to learn more about human behaviour. Maybe one day the Arkleseizure shall speak to me, as well.
AudioDuration=6
//DisableNode=NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway1
//EnableNode=NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway4

[NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway3]
SpokenMax=0
Speaker=Neban
LongText=Oh.
AudioDuration=1

[NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway4]
Enabled=False
SpokenMax=0
Speaker=Neban
LongText=Once again you walked out on me, Marshall! Did the Great Green Arkleseizure speak to you again?
AudioDuration=2
NextNode=NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway4a
NextNode=NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway4b

[NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway4a]
SpokenMax=0
Speaker=Player
ShortText=It was a different custom
LongText=No Ne'Ban, this time the power of Grayskull commanded me to leave you standing there.
AudioDuration=2
NextNode=NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway5

[NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway4b]
SpokenMax=0
Speaker=Player
ShortText=I just didn't want to talk
LongText=No, I just didn't feel like talking anymore.
AudioDuration=2
NextNode=NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway3

[NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway5]
SpokenMax=0
Speaker=Neban
LongText=Most intriguing. I shall pay close attention to figure out the difference between the two.
AudioDuration=2
DisableNode=NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway4
EnableNode=NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway6

[NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway6]
Enabled=False
SpokenMax=0
Speaker=Neban
LongText=Once again you walked out on me. The power of Grayskull must be great in this sector!
AudioDuration=2
NextNode=NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway6a
NextNode=NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway6b

[NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway6a]
SpokenMax=0
Speaker=Player
ShortText=It was a different custom
LongText=Sorry Ne'Ban, the power of Grayskull didn't have anything to do with it. The wrath of Khan threatended me.
AudioDuration=2
NextNode=NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway7
[NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway6b]
SpokenMax=0
Speaker=Player
ShortText=I just didn't want to talk
LongText=No, I just didn't feel like talking anymore.
AudioDuration=2
NextNode=NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway8

[NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway7]
SpokenMax=0
Speaker=Neban
LongText=Oh no, I had no idea that talking to me put you in such great danger! Please feel free to walk away whenever you feel the evil presence of Khan!
AudioDuration=2
DisableNode=NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway4

[NebanPostM99DialogResumeWalkaway8]
SpokenMax=0
Speaker=Neban
LongText=Oh. And I thought I could almost feel an evil presence this time!
AudioDuration=1

[NebanPostM99DialogResumeEsc]
TalkRadius=192
SpokenMax=0
Speaker=Neban
LongText=I welcome you back, Marshall and hope that my replies shall be more delightful this time!
AudioDuration=2

In other words, it means Khan and Grayskull are fiction-canon in the Unreal universe......


KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!



Maybe Luke should be told to record missing Ne'Ban lines.....

[Leo T_C_K]

I find it interesting that some of the dialogues are nearly identical to the final ones (from around june to july 2002) while others are so drastically different, like after Hell.

Here's an example of one of the variants of talk with Isaac what can happen, Aida is particularly stubborn here:

Code: Select all

[IsaakPostM01SmallTalk1c]
Condition=AtlantisPostM01ScratchPad0.bPlayerFledWelcomeBack
// && !AtlantisPostM01ScratchPad0.bPlayerKnocked
Speaker=Isaak
AudioDuration=10
LongText=You sure were in a hurry when you got back, I didn't even get a chance 
to talk to you! Anyway, I'm going to start decoding the data cores from Eizo. If
 you want to help me get Aida out of her cabin.
EnableNode=IsaakPostM01SmallTalk1a
EnableNode=IsaakPostM01SmallTalk1b
NextNode=IsaakPostM01SmallTalk1ca
NextNode=IsaakPostM01SmallTalk1cb

[IsaakPostM01SmallTalk1ca]
Speaker=Player
AudioDuration=3
ShortText=What's wrong with Aida?
LongText=Why, what's wrong with her?
NextNode=IsaakPostM01SmallTalk2
[IsaakPostM01SmallTalk1cb]
Speaker=Player
AudioDuration=3
ShortText=Have fun with the data cores.
LongText=Okay, you do that. Have fun decoding the data cores.
//end
 
[IsaakPostM01SmallTalk2]
Speaker=Isaak
AudioDuration=6
LongText=She's pissed beyond belief because you ignored all her advice down there. And then she had to listen to Sector Command bitch at her and threw a fit.
NextNode=IsaakPostM01SmallTalk2a
NextNode=IsaakPostM01SmallTalk2b

[IsaakPostM01SmallTalk2a]
Speaker=Player
AudioDuration=2.5
ShortText=Ouch
LongText=Ouch, that doesn't sound good.
NextNode=IsaakPostM01SmallTalk3

[IsaakPostM01SmallTalk2b]
Speaker=Player
AudioDuration=3.5
ShortText=Screw her
LongText=Screw her, I'm tired of her temper-tantrums.
NextNode=IsaakPostM01SmallTalk4

[IsaakPostM01SmallTalk3]
Speaker=Isaak
LongText=Yeah, you'd better talk to her.
AudioDuration=3
NextNode=IsaakPostM01SmallTalk5

[IsaakPostM01SmallTalk4]
Speaker=Isaak
LongText=She's got a temper, alright. But she's also the only one who can do all this computer stuff on the ship, and that alone should be a reason to keep her happy. Besides, my cabin is right next to hers, and I don't particulary enjoy listening to her curses all night long. 
AudioDuration=8
NextNode=IsaakPostM01SmallTalk5

at some point, depending on dialogue choices you can convince Ne'Ban to speak to Aida, but it usually ends up badly. Again these dialog files are like in between versions, with some of them receiving re-writes already from the "snydercut" and some not.

Code: Select all

[NebanPostM01TalkToAidaInPerson5]
Speaker=Aida
LongText=Go away you slimeball! If THAT is supposed to comfort me I don't wanna hear it!
AudioDuration=5
NextNode=NebanPostM01TalkToAidaInPerson6

[NebanPostM01TalkToAidaInPerson6]
Speaker=Neban
LongText=Help! I think Aida is being mean to me! I don't understand humans.
AudioDuration=4
Event=dlgNebanPostM01NebanFleesCabin
ExitEvent=dlgNebanPostM01NebanHasFledCabin
UnPauseNPC=Neban
//end

[Leo T_C_K]

there are of course some..subdirectories with older backups of some of the dialogue that changed. From April to May, so basically this is an example of late April 2002 conversation with Isaak, I'll attach it as a text file. This is from before they switched the first mission to be Sanctuary instead. But you'll notice a lot different lines of dialogue and even ability to choose what inventory to take on your mission (!).

edit: I wanted to simply add txt as attachment but upon realizing that's not allowed I did gzip...however i didn't need to rename the file in the first place then.

Its a good example of how much things were changed and this file in particular contains the most examples I think.

[Leo T_C_K]

There are still some briefing dialog files for "m05" todos santos (with the todos santos name only) in a zip subdirectory with the dlg files converted into html for "easier reading".

They are very brief though but it shows the mission must have still existed in 2002 at some point but perhaps in a more incomplete state than the rest/less up to date.

It somestimes does get a little inconsistent with files from earlier in developement and then some later ones, but it is what it is.

I still vastly prefer the old version, its good more things were fleshed out in the story and it sure had some rough and controversial edges...but you know...not everything has to be smoothened for the general audience. I find that sometimes things can start lacking in soul. Anyways as it stands now we don't have unfortunately a later full description of M05 as the 2002 docs about the mission structure are still "too new" and obviously if they included M05 it would only be if it was finished/polished back up again and it was kind of the first mission to go while M02 M04 and also for the longest time M07 stayed... remember that they also were considering to cut the severnaya mission before Ryan Pendleton decided he will help them finish up...who was only a community mapper up to that point until 2002. But I suppose he didn't have time to finish up M07 for the release as well thus it got cut latest.
There were some things I wanted to still reveal...frankly I've been reading and reading through these files whenever I had time and I had a very very busy week...but now I forgot most of the points I wanted to make unfortunately.
There were even examples of 3 way conversations which are rare sight but we know they also planned that to be in the game from the previews.

Its a shame really. I mean if it didn't loose traction it would have been the perfect blend of Unreal and Deus Ex/Half Life style of a game. In fact with the initial big level design document from 1999, it does reveal that (when deus ex didn't come out yet, thus deus ex only became inspiration later I presume and the change to less linear structure happened only later in their plans after deus ex release.
However Half-Life is explicitly mentioned as something to be more like or perhaps surpass in their initial goals. When they reverted to the linear structure at the "JOSSREAL" version, its no wonder that people compared it to Half-Life because that was after all the initial plan but it forgot about the growth it had in all those years. Its like someone forgot to take that into account and just went literally by their current working docs and deciding to take on the more linear structure again, its weird honestly. It went from a Half-Life/Unreal type of game into Space Action Deus Ex with more emphasis on story and different choices(aka the "snyder cut"), to a run-of-the mill Half Life type shooter almost. And honestly...I do feel like each of those game visions have something good in them...just I think I would have prefered the middle route indeed. I can see that there were developement problems and pressures and sometimes someone got sick or was too busy otherwise and couldn't deliver thus for the visit from Atari or whatever else happened. Like there are mentions of Matthias Worch not being able to both complete his mission and the tutorial for the visit and they had to then decide to cut/drop something at that moment as they couldn't present it in a more or less finished form.

It seems like that the missions at first took priority but then the tutorial got cut and limited from what it originally was in order to stabilize everything...and its really such a shame. I get it, also cutting the levels meant the voice actors had less work as the main characters aside from marines and side characters, didn't have final voice actors yet and indeed those voice actors were big professionals and Legend could only afford with Atari to pay them once for their takes...so everything needed to be finalized and in place before the main character voice lines got recorded. This is why a lot of those dialog files apart from the marines don't reference actual voice clip files, because they needed to make sure its all in place and they won't be making further changes, before it went for the recording studio...

so yea that also was a factor in this developement mess. I suppose previously they mostly used their own staff for temporary recordings but they couldn't do that anymore. I think the E3 2001 voices were done by just the internal staff and people around as those clearly are different voice actors. So you get my point.

Such projects take a lot of coordination especially when its not just few people working on it and then you have all those off studio contractors and people who are outsourced and perhaps don't share your creative vision internally and only care about getting paid. Yada yada yada, I suppose that's how most game developement goes, but you as a player or "consumer" won't see that. So I'm giving you here a taste of how it really works.

[Leo T_C_K]

Apparently the M01 files still mention the Inuit Corporation. So they were still involved with Hell until it got changed past/around summer of 2002.
here's proof...there was also a cut element of checking dead bodies for items and key cards that got cut...see here

Code: Select all

[action2b]
Speaker=player
ShortText="Check the body."
LongText=""
Delay=.05
SoundFile="u2weapons.skaarjglove.sg_pickup"
//Event=
NextNode=action3b


[action3]
Speaker=player
ShortText="Check Her ID Card"
LongText="Aida - I've got a Urszula Kotkowski here - Inuit Corp. #183---[0833 - cut off by Aida]"
Delay=-.2
SoundFile="m01_tempa.player.readid"
Event=
NextNode=action4

Here they had temporary voice files that were voiced by themselves I guess, including player lines. Like this m01_tempa stuff is.

Code: Select all

[action4]
//speaker should be AIDA
Speaker=manager
ShortText=""
LongText="The Station Chief - what the hell did that?"
Delay=.5
SoundFile="m01_tempa.aida.stationchief"
//Event=
NextNode=keyd

Code: Select all

[action1]
Speaker=player
ShortText="Grab the passcard."
LongText=""
Delay=.05
SoundFile="u2ambientA.clicks.keyclick05"
Event=key_pickup
NextNode=keyB

[action2]
Speaker=player
ShortText="Check the body."
LongText=""
Delay=.05
SoundFile="u2weapons.skaarjglove.sg_pickup"
//Event=
NextNode=action3

AND here major thing, the code dialog for the cut PDA feature that apparently later worked together with the dialog files.

Code: Select all

// Mission 1 PDA 01
// Personal PDA of FTL Technician Hanson


[Root]
Conversation=PDA

[PDA_01]
Speaker=PDA_01
ShortText="Welcome to InuiNet"
LongText="Welcome to InuiNet."
Delay=0.05
//SoundFile="U2GraysonA.Othervoices.Hide2"
NextNode=Comp_menu1
NextNode=Comp_menu2
NextNode=Comp_menu3
 
[Comp_menu1]
Speaker=player
ShortText="Inuit News"
LongText="Inuit Newsfeed"
Delay=0.05
//SoundFile="U2GraysonA.Othervoices.Hide2"
//Event=F1,Merc01
NextNode=Comp_response1

[Comp_menu2]
Speaker=player
ShortText="Email"
LongText="Email"
Delay=0.05
//SoundFile="U2GraysonA.Othervoices.Hide2"
//Event=F1,Merc01
NextNode=Comp_response2

[Comp_menu3]
Speaker=player
ShortText="Hanson's Personal Audio Log"
LongText="Replay the last day's personal log."
Delay=0.05
//SoundFile="U2GraysonA.Othervoices.Hide2"
//Event=F1,Merc01
NextNode=Comp_response3

[Comp_response1]
Speaker=PDA_01
ShortText="InuiNet FTL Newsfeed."  
LongText="InuiNet FTL Newsfeed.  Tuesday May 23rd.  Heading up todays news, eigh
teen more civilians were killed and fifty-four injured in the continuing riots o
n Vargus Six.  The food riots have spiraled out of control in the last four days
 as the colonial government catagorically refused to subsidize food shipments.  
Protesting began six weeks ago when Tyson Shipping Systems removed fourteen of i
ts shipping lanes to concentrate on the more profitable D Sector colonies, leavi
ng the smaller Sol Express to cover the load at an added cost.  Food shipments h
ave increased 800% to new high and are expected to continue to rise in the comin
g weeks.  Attempts to quell the widespread looting have been unsuccessful and th
ere is speculation that mercenary forces may be deployed to restore the public s
afety."
Delay=2.0
//SoundFile="U2GraysonA.Othervoices.Hide2"
//Event=F1,Merc01
//NextNode=Comp_Menu2
//NextNode=Comp_Menu3

[Comp_response2]
Speaker=PDA_01
ShortText="Email"
LongText="36 Emails - 1 Unread.  Email 36 - 8:48 PM [Female Voice] Hey, it's me.  Only two weeks left!  Well, one week for you I suppose, but not all of us have the luxury of cryosleep to pass the time.  Hanna and I will be waiting for you at the spaceport.  She's got a present she made herself that she's dying to give you.  She's grown so big since you left you'll hardly recognise her.  We both miss you very much.  I love you, honey.  Night night."
Delay=3.0
//SoundFile="U2GraysonA.Othervoices.Hide2"
//Event=F1,Comp02
//NextNode=Comp_Menu1
//NextNode=Comp_Menu3

[Comp_response3]
Speaker=PDA_01
ShortText="Audio Log : First Entry"
LongText="First Entry Today : Tuesday the 23rd of May, 4:46 PM.  I've been up for at least thirty two hours now.  A damn feed line went out again and we were up all night fixing it.  Now we've got some ship heading in here.  Frankly I'm too tired to care anymore - I just want to get off this rock."
Delay=5.0
//SoundFile="U2GraysonA.Othervoices.Hide2"
//Event=F1,Comp02
//NextNode=Comp_response3b

EDIT: Oh god...bros...I mean this stuff was really deep. You were supposed to activate offline sprinklers in M01B to put out the fires and stuff....
perhaps that's why that secret vent shaft is there too and stuff...

Code: Select all

[water]
Speaker=terminal_01
ShortText="Emergency Alert"
LongText="Emergency Alert : Warning - Thermal Sensors detect Fires in Operations
 Section B.  Warning - Loss of water pressure detected in hydroconduits three an
d four.  Emergency sprinkler systems off-line."
Delay=0.05
SoundFile="m01_tempA.computer.emergency_alert_offline"
NextNode=Comp_menu1
NextNode=Comp_menu2
NextNode=Comp_menu3
[Comp_menu1]
Speaker=player
ShortText="Reroute Hydroconduits"
LongText="Reroute Hydroconduits one and two to the emergency systems to restore pressure."
Delay=0.05
SoundFile="m01_tempA.player.reroute_hydro"
NextNode=Comp_response1

Code: Select all

[Comp_response1]
Speaker=terminal_01
ShortText="Hydroconduits rerouted."
LongText="Hydroconduits rerouted.  Pressure to emergency systems at 84 percent of optimal."
Delay=0.05
SoundFile="m01_tempA.computer.hyrdocondouits_rerouted_01"
Event=hydro_start
//NextNode=Comp_Menu2
//NextNode=Comp_Menu3
[Comp_response2]
Speaker=terminal_01
ShortText="Status Update"
LongText="Primary FTL Uplink is Off-Line.  Ancillary FTL Uplinks A and B Off-Line.  Multiple Power Failures detected in Operations, Corridors B and C, MedLab, Core, and Data-Processing.  Core Lift inoperable due to power failure.  NitroPulse Chamber Access Bulkhead B inoperable due to power failure.  Fire damage detected in Operations, Corridors A and C, and Core level 3.  Loss of pressure detected in hydroconduits three and four - Warning : Water Leak probable.  Loss of pressure detected in Core Cryostat Pulse Tube Two -  Warning : Liquid Nitrogen Leak Probable - Use Caution."
Delay=0.05
SoundFile="m01_tempA.computer.station_status"
//NextNode=Comp_Menu1
//NextNode=Comp_Menu3

I didn't realize that Joss Whedon fucked up even Hell like that......

WHEEEEEDOOOOONNNN
viewtopic.php?p=102548#p102548

[Leo T_C_K]

I just can't stomach it. I mean how good M01 was before they changed it. Hell, they knew it...there was a separate version of m01 with Atlantis briefing for the original demo. That's why the demo came out only later because they had to do re-do the demo and originally they had it ready. God...really

The conversation with the surviving guy in the medical room is so much better, he mentions Connors and the air duct, thus there's a story reason for that vent shaft to exist there apart from it being a rather useless shortcut/optional thing that most people missed because they didn't look up that they can use the use key on the air duct. Hell, the guy even wants to go grab some basic weapons they had there to scare off mukkhoggs/paratta. And there's much more audio logs and things...actual world building. The Inuit Corporation indeed obviously owns the FTL radios and all that stuff hence why people from Inuit were there as well. There's some mystery but no later on they had to turn it into the artifact makes mutated versions of araknids, they're just lab experiments yada yada. But any Inuit references are gone. I suppose if they kept them then they would be even more of Umbrella Corporation again...I mean the original Unreal backstory, the novels and even Unreal PSX at times have them as the hidden antagonists. And then they even featured in Unreal 2. And in UT too in background of some of the levels and even factions, but this was toned down later.

So there was first a side quest with the sprinklers, then in the level following it there was this.

// Mission 1 Terminal 02b
// This terminal allows the player to restart the liquid nitrogen leak in the co
re.
// Shutting down the system will cause Liquid Nitrogen flooding to the lower are
a, so the player must escape it quickly.
// Drainage can be carried out via the 2nd level (and if power is restored at th
e top of the core, the inoperable door in core connect will become accessable)

Who thought it was good to change all that? I mean seriously, even with the story change, why not keep those interesting elements in?!

[Leo T_C_K]

I wish there was some feedback here in this thread honestly, but all the people that really care about this don't seem to be registered here at all.

// Mission 1 Terminal 04
// This terminal allows the player to restore power to the core lift.
// Also, if the player restores power to this section, the bulkhead door in the
core connect room will be reactivated, allowing the player to access a secret ar
ea, provided he has also taken the time to drain the liquid nitrogen as well.

So that lowermost door was leading to a secret area at one point. Its interesting to note all this because you can clearly draw a line between the pre-alpha versions and the release version and fill in the gaps. Its incredible how interactive this used to be compared to the released game.

Also this still followed more or less the alpha structure and the final map is completely different with you escaping the facility:

// Mission 1 Worker 04
// This worker is hiding in the elevated storage platform.

[Root]
Conversation=escape_plan

[escape_plan]
Speaker=worker_04
ShortText="I knew it!"
LongText="I knew it! I knew I saw a dropship! I didn't think anyone would come
to help us!"
Delay=.05
SoundFile="m01_tempA.worker_04.iknewit"
NextNode=Response_01a
NextNode=Response_01b

[Response_01a]
Speaker=player
ShortText="I'm a Frontier Marshall"
LongText="I'm a frontier marshall - We picked up your distress call."
Delay=.05
SoundFile="m01_tempA.player.distresscall"
//Event=W1_comeout,worker_01
NextNode=worker_dialog2

[Response_01b]
Speaker=player
ShortText="Are you alone?"
LongText="Are you alone? Did anyone else make it?"
Delay=.05
SoundFile="m01_tempA.player.areyoualone"
//Event=W1_comeout,worker_01
NextNode=worker_dialog2

[worker_dialog2]
Speaker=worker_04
ShortText="I'm glad."
LongText="I'm glad you did! I've been hiding out here since they attacked."
Delay=.05
SoundFile="m01_tempA.worker_04.imglad"
NextNode=Response_02a

[worker_dialog3]
Speaker=worker_04
ShortText="I'm alone."
LongText="I'm alone here. I haven't seen anyone since I came to hide out here."
Delay=.05
SoundFile="m01_tempA.worker_04.imalone"
NextNode=Response_02a

[Response_02a]
Speaker=player
ShortText="We need to get to the launch pad."
LongText="We need to get to the launch pad, but the access bridge is out. Any i
deas?"
Delay=.05
SoundFile="m01_tempA.player.launchpad"
//Event=W1_comeout,worker_01
NextNode=worker_dialog4

[worker_dialog4]
Speaker=worker_04
ShortText="We can use the crane."
LongText="We use this crane to pick up freight from the launch pad and store it here, so we can use the crane to get you over there."
Delay=.05
SoundFile="m01_tempA.worker_04.usecrane"
NextNode=Response_03a

[Response_03a]
Speaker=player
ShortText="What do I need to do?"
LongText="Great. What do I need to do?"
Delay=.05
SoundFile="m01_tempA.player.WWMD"
//Event=W1_comeout,worker_01
NextNode=worker_dialog5

[worker_dialog5]
Speaker=worker_04
ShortText="Get on that crate."
LongText="Go get on that crate over there. I'll work the controls. Just hang on until you get to the launch pad."
Delay=.05
SoundFile="m01_tempA.worker_04.getoncrate"
Event=use_crane,worker_04

EDIT: some m04 things

[M04dDyingMiner]
Speaker=DyingMiner
LongText="Alright you bastard, just get it over with and kill me."
AudioDuration=2
NextNode=M04dDyingMiner1a
NextNode=M04dDyingMiner1b

[M04dDyingMiner1a]
Speaker=Player
ShortText="Excuse me?"
LongText="Excuse me?"
AudioDuration=1
NextNode=M04dDyingMiner2

[M04dDyingMiner1b]
Speaker=Player
ShortText="Glad to comply."
LongText="I don't have a problem with that."
AudioDuration=1
NextNode=M04dDyingMiner3
[M04dDyingMiner2]
Speaker=DyingMiner
LongText="What? Are you...oh thank god, you're a man. I thought you were one of them!"
AudioDuration=2
NextNode=M04dDyingMiner4

[M04dDyingMiner3]
Speaker=DyingMiner
LongText="No, wait, WAIT! Oh my god, you're...I thought you were one of them!"
AudioDuration=2
NextNode=M04dDyingMinerPlayerIntroduction
[M04dDyingMinerPlayerIntroduction]
Speaker=DyingMiner
LongText="You'll have to excuse me, the last battle has left me severely injured and unable to see. Truth to be told, I was just hoping for a chance to die here peacefully. Who are you, if you don't mind me asking?"
AudioDuration=5
NextNode=M04dDyingMinerPlayerIntroduction1a
NextNode=M04dDyingMinerPlayerIntroduction1b
NextNode=M04dDyingMinerPlayerIntroduction1c

Some of those choices are...quite...THE EDGE though...

"SURE I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THAT"

[M04dDyingMinerStory3]
Speaker=DyingMiner
LongText="We found some Tarydium, enough to keep the operation going for the last few years. But that doesn't really make us profitable, and I think the bigwigs were about ready to pull out. Until about two weeks ago..."
AudioDuration=4
NextNode=M04dDyingMinerStory=4

[M04dDyingMinerStory4]
Speaker=DyingMiner
LongText="I don't know who found it - hell I don't even know what it is. Some sort of alien structure, standing there in the middle of the cave and waiting to be discovered. The classic movie story, if you like...just that it turned pretty goddamn real soon thereafter."
AudioDuration=4
NextNode=M04dDyingMinerStory=5

[M04dDyingMinerStory5]
Speaker=DyingMiner
LongText="We sent a transmission to the company, of course, waiting for them to advise us what to do. We never got a reply. What we did get, though, was a big Skaarj ship showing up a few days later. I don't want to bore you with the details - Christ, you've probably seen what happened. They overran the base, driving the survivors further and further back into the mines. So here we are now, the last few people, desperately holding out."
AudioDuration=8
NextNode=M04dDyingMinerInfoHub

[M04dDyingMinerInfoAlienStructure]
Speaker=DyingMiner
LongText="As I told you, straight movie stuff. It's this black pyramid sitting in the middle of a vast cave. There seems to be an entry at one side, but no apparent way to open it. We tried to get in by other means, of course, but the material it's made of is hard as hell. And then the Skaarj arrived and we had other things to worry about."
AudioDuration=6
NextNode=M04dDyingMinerInfoHub

[Gamesharder]

I wish there was some feedback here in this thread honestly

I read these, but I have so little interest in Unreal II that I honestly can't form an opinion about this subject.
But some of these are interesting to me nonetheless.
Thanks for sharing.

[Leo T_C_K]

I wish there was some feedback here in this thread honestly

I read these, but I have so little interest in Unreal II that I honestly can't form an opinion about this subject.
But some of these are interesting to me nonetheless.
Thanks for sharing.

Thanks...Yea well I know you aren't much interested in it. But if allowed to complete, the game would have been more vast and interesting. Sadly it went through at least one reboot and a "retool" later on that I think while fine on itself, paled in comparison to some of the stuff they had going. I suppose the project was a bit out of scope in the first place and there were so many conflicts of interest and changes. Realisticaly I suppose what they did in the end was a more viable option/choice especially with all the demands they had to meet. But cutting so much interesting and often lore enhancing stuff is almost a crime. There were things that could certainly have not mattered and could be cut...but the bigger picture was better.

Either way I finally found out what stuff like MM_WaterFront stood for. MM was mini mission. That's why they didn't have a number. I suppose they got conceived in 2001 initially.

I honestly think that if Verdu stood his ground and didn't leave...they still could have made a greater game out of it, even if it was a bit shorter/compromised. While he also obviously allowed some room for humor, it wasn't the completely light style. And the overall tone of the game was more serious and edgy with options for bad choices now and then that got cut for nearly no reason but not to be controversial.

EDIT: Yea I forgot to say that in Marsh/Swamp you were supposed to activate all those beacons yourself separately..you could also insult the marines in which they took offense. This also changed a bit and the fuller version is in an earlier file where you see what the player actually said.

Code: Select all

[Artifact3]
Speaker=Marine_01
Animation=Dialog01,Marine_01,0
ShortText="Now hold on."
LongText="Now wait just a minute, *Marshall*.  Corporal Riley is one of the best pilots in this division, if he couldn't evade that shot, no one could.  You can take the damned artifact, but you think twice before you insult the Marines again."
SoundFile="MM_MarshA.Marine.nowwait"
Delay=0.5
NextNode=Take_Artifact1
NextNode=Take_Artifact2

[Leo T_C_K]

I had a part conversation before when the line "already there, toots" in M01A was mentioned. I realized this line might be missing from the Xbox version and I looked into the documents I've been given, like while the individual dialog files are often missing, there exist .doc files with all the lines written, at least by RAB who was the main dialog writer at that point. Between fourth and sixth august it got added. But somehow the xbox version got a slightly older version of that convo. These more light hearted dialogues indeed happened only after Mike Verdu has left for good (he first went a bit to the background while working with everyone else, including new people on the team and ones that got relocated), until deciding he's leaving for good and asked to leave certain story elements while he knew they would probably change up everything else, which indeed gradually happened in those months when he left in June. So the toots line got added precisely between fourth and sixth august and the later Xbox version doesn't use it and also has different voice files for soldiers and mercs (weapon based even) I assume from also earlier in developement. Its weird really...it seems like the xbox version was based on a slightly earlier revision in the end for some reason.

But yea there are some files I didn't pay much attention to like even mentioning the budget for the voice actors and then they still had to re-record some lines because some were too softly spoken etc etc. Even after they settled on finalized dialog there were still some subtle changes.

Its just seeing all this in context does make me question how some people recalled the events and it differing a little in practice. Maybe poor memory over time...
Like Glen implying Mike left earlier than he really did (his story more or less matches but only with the thing that Mike got more of a backseat at that point, but he was still present for months until dropping everything). Or that the E3 2002 version was basically in structure already identical to the released game. Which is both false, because the "full game" still had m07 and other stuff, while it was certainly having more or less the same direction it still was more of "mikeverdu" cut in its soul in practice. And acording to the files, the true E3 version had select missions again, a little more than last time and I guess they were nearly identical to the released ones...but from what I can see it had Acheron, Sanctuary and Marsh, Obolus, Sulferon, the Drakk Planet (not nakoja) and well that seems to be really it. Maybe they had the plan to show off more and certainly the full game at the time had still the option to pick any mission from atlantis console up to avalon (it didn't allow you to play avalon or dorian gray separately without completing the game first). So why is this the case? I mean why did Glen misremember/confuse it? Or was that not the intention? It really shows cracks if you get what I mean.

The E3 2002 version also contained some Atlantis interludes including the one where player has to convince Ne'Ban not to overload Atlantis and push it into limits as Isaak can't be repairing it all the time. So...the game structure was still different. I suppose because it had the Drakk Planet as one of the showcase levels it must have felt it kind of spoiled part of the game, but the entire game wasn't there for showing on E3 2002. It was similar situation to 2001. It was a demo of the game (or more closer to a shareware in structure I guess) although fully playable and seemingly finished this time from what was shown...but it wasn't the same really. It wasn't just a hud difference....yea it didn't show more or any of the cut levels and it didn't show Hell strangely enough either despite that being reserved for the goddamn DEMO VERSION.

[OjitroC]

I wish there was some feedback here in this thread honestly, but all the people that really care about this don't seem to be registered here at all.

It's certainly important that all this is documented and available publicly and it is interesting to see how a game changed over the course of its development - so I echo the thanks for taking the time to share the information

I have a general interest as it is part of the 'Unreal Universe' but less of a specific interest in Unreal 2 though that can, of course, change over time. I have played it through a couple of times and played all the custom content I can find - whilst it is 'interesting' to play it is not a much fun as UT largely down to the clunky player movement coupled with the paucity of custom content. Given that, it's a game that I return to rarely to play anyway - however, more broadly, it remains a useful source of sounds and textures in particular for use in UT.

[Leo T_C_K]

I wish there was some feedback here in this thread honestly, but all the people that really care about this don't seem to be registered here at all.

It's certainly important that all this is documented and available publicly and it is interesting to see how a game changed over the course of its development - so I echo the thanks for taking the time to share the information

I have a general interest as it is part of the 'Unreal Universe' but less of a specific interest in Unreal 2 though that can, of course, change over time. I have played it through a couple of times and played all the custom content I can find - whilst it is 'interesting' to play it is not a much fun as UT largely down to the clunky player movement coupled with the paucity of custom content. Given that, it's a game that I return to rarely to play anyway - however, more broadly, it remains a useful source of sounds and textures in particular for use in UT.

The thing with those documents is that I'm still not allowed to share them publicaly (and I am only allowed to quote/reinterpret) due to some concerns, even though Epic did grant an approval of those efforts actually. But I am hoping that more is found alongside the way, because of this someone else has been contacted who might have the models for Shian still and I'm getting engaged in that conversation and effort to recover it, though some individuals have specific demands and this is one such case.

But yea this is the only way to bring it to public hence why I made it a feature once I received those documents and why Unreal II discussion took over here.

You can fix the "clunky" movement if you installed the patch. The readme for the patch even tells you you can now alter the running speed of the player in the config file(not in the menu). This will only affect new games however, if you have saved games without the change you will revert back to the old speed, though you can tempoarily fix that with the set command. You can blame the default clunky movement entirely on Epic though. It wasn't part of any of Legend plans. This was part however of Unreal Warfare on itself. If you think "how can that be because ut2004 doesn't have such movement"...well that's because its based off of UT2003 which was entirely Digital Extremes project until the last half year of developement or so when Epic decided to help out. But Epic had different ideas moving forward. And it was still UT so they couldn't get away with changing everything. Unreal 2 was kind of the safe space to test out this "realistic" clunky movement and if Epic had their way fully it would have been worse. Say what you want, but I don't think Cliff was a good influence on this one. I mean he was behind the warfare/gears of war and was the executive producer on Unreal 2 in the end as well...so....I really feel like in the early 2000s he kind of lost the touch, he was a great game designer before but this new approach just wasn't cutting it. Sometimes the truth isn't the thing you want to hear or what it means. A lot of people would think that Cliff couldn't make a bad game back then but they had no idea about the actual developement. After getting to know warfare and gears of war a little, it all clicks in place. Like Aida said...it's all been Hawkins (Cliff)..LOL! No but really...its sometimes easy to point finger at one person but it sure did have some influences. Epic always wanted a more "realism" game.

With a lot of this information and even examples how to do certain things with the dialogue system (which should still technicaly work in the released game) people can create more content. There's a lot of unused/leftover content in Unreal 2 that barely got used in custom maps. Some of it doesn't work anymore due to engine changes or barely but it is there and can be worked on even though sometimes graphics for things are missing or code doesn't work properly. But with the dialog system it should work and there were some example tutorials too in the past.

Here's also an example of 3way dialogue found in one of the test directories:

Code: Select all

//[Root]

[3WayAuthored]
Speaker=Player
ShortText="Get status"
LongText="What's our status, Ne'Ban?"
;SoundFile=""
Delay=1.0
Priority=10
NextNode=Neban1a
NextNode=Aida1b
Event=MyTag

[Neban1a]
Speaker=Neban
ShortText="Asteroids"
LongText="We're approaching the asteroid belt of Cygnus Prime.  Things could get a bit bumpy."
;SoundFile=""
Delay=1.0
Priority=10
NextNode=Player2a

[Aida1b]
Speaker=Aida
ShortText="Checking"
LongText="Check the long range scanners, now."
;SoundFile=""
Delay=1.0
Priority=10
NextNode=Player2b

[Player2a]
Speaker=Player
ShortText="Get our ETA"
LongText="What's our ETA?" 
;SoundFile=""
Delay=1.0
Priority=10
NextNode=Neban3a

[Player2b]
Speaker=Player
ShortText="Check for enemies"
LongText="Any sign of hostiles?" 
;SoundFile=""
Delay=1.0
Priority=10
NextNode=Aida3b

[Neban3a]
Speaker=Neban
ShortText="Fifteen Minutes"
LongText="We should arrive at the planet in 15 minutes."
Delay=1.0
Priority=10
;SoundFile=""

[Aida3b]
Speaker=Aida
ShortText="Ion Trail"
LongText="All clear, but I am picking up a faint ion trail off the far side of the planet."
;SoundFile=""
Delay=1.0
Priority=10
NextNode=Neban4a

[Neban4a]
Speaker=Neban
ShortText="What to do"
LongText="How shall I proceed, captain?"
;SoundFile=""
Delay=1.0
Priority=10
NextNode=Player4b
NextNode=Player4c


[Player4b]
Speaker=Player
ShortText="Persue that trail"
LongText="Go to stealth mode, and follow that trail."
;SoundFile=""
Delay=1.0
Priority=10
NextNode=Neban5a

[Player4c]
Speaker=Player
ShortText="Let's land quickly"
LongText="Stay on this side of the planet and execute a rapid descent landing."
;SoundFile=""
Delay=1.0
Priority=10
NextNode=Neban5b

[Neban5a]
Speaker=Neban
ShortText="Persuing"
LongText="I'm in hot persuit, captain."
Delay=1.0
Priority=10
;SoundFile=""

[Neban5b]
Speaker=Neban
ShortText="Landing"
LongText="They'll never know we were even here."
Delay=1.0
Priority=10
;SoundFile=""

[OjitroC]

You can fix the "clunky" movement if you installed the patch. The readme for the patch even tells you you can now alter the running speed of the player in the config file(not in the menu). This will only affect new games however, if you have saved games without the change you will revert back to the old speed, though you can tempoarily fix that with the set command.

I see from the .ini file that I have set the SpeedRatio to 2.6 but I don't recall it making a significant difference. May go back and have another look sometime as it seems one can also alter the jump and some other movements.

[Leo T_C_K]

You can fix the "clunky" movement if you installed the patch. The readme for the patch even tells you you can now alter the running speed of the player in the config file(not in the menu). This will only affect new games however, if you have saved games without the change you will revert back to the old speed, though you can tempoarily fix that with the set command.

I see from the .ini file that I have set the SpeedRatio to 2.6 but I don't recall it making a significant difference. May go back and have another look sometime as it seems one can also alter the jump and some other movements.

As I said it doesn't affect the current game you're playing its always best to start anew and some custom mods are also not affected when they use their own gametypes with override etc.

But 2.6 is too much, 1.5 or whatever the readme specified is fine enough for singleplayer.

[Leo T_C_K]

Huge news and...bad news too. I've been trying to negotiate behind the scenes about Hugh Riley who (as some of you may know) did show the cut Shian models on his website. He didn't have a contact form so I did reach to one of his former bosses to try to speak to him.

He ended up finding a stack of old models, but unsorted. So he basically said someone would have to pay for his renewed 3dsmax license or something. And well...I can barely manage to pay everything and stay where I am currently, but something could have been arranged. I tried to suggest alternatives and have it be relayed...but to no use.....
it seems like he really just wanted to discourage it, he apparently said he's retired and even his former boss couldn't convince him.

This seemed like a solid way to get the Shian back in the game. Sadly...they are cursed forever and ever and this is the only thing we can glimpse at the actual model

https://www.legalalien.com/U2ShianBoss.html

https://www.legalalien.com/U2Frameset.html

:/

Guys...I tried so hard to get the "snyder cut" pieces back together.....but first random disasters striking and corruption of old drives (from the previous two people who had them) happened, well I guess there is still some small hope for the future, but...umm

oh fuck I can't even find that image I wanted to post which would summarize how I feel...well now its a loss for sure guys...I really hoped there would be great news now. I really did. I...loose.

[Gamesharder]

I re-read this interview with Alexander Brandon again.
https://forums.beyondunreal.com/threads ... st-2386240

Was this "Ghost.it" song ever figured out what it was?

5. What was the compositional process like? Were you told by the developers what to make, and shown the level the song would be used for? Or was it a more general process?

As mentioned earlier some level designers would be very specific with their ideas. Inoxx was one (Cedric Fiorentino) and Myscha (T. Eliot Cannon) were two of the most vocal of the designers, and Inoxx’s requests led to one of the most interesting pieces, Ghost.it I think it was called, though I’m not at all sure what level it was for or what the final filename is. Myscha worked very closely with Michiel on the crashed spaceship and it’s multiple levels, and I believe he was very happy with it.

Does anyone know?

[Leo T_C_K]

I re-read this interview with Alexander Brandon again.
https://forums.beyondunreal.com/threads ... st-2386240

Was this "Ghost.it" song ever figured out what it was?

5. What was the compositional process like? Were you told by the developers what to make, and shown the level the song would be used for? Or was it a more general process?

As mentioned earlier some level designers would be very specific with their ideas. Inoxx was one (Cedric Fiorentino) and Myscha (T. Eliot Cannon) were two of the most vocal of the designers, and Inoxx's requests led to one of the most interesting pieces, Ghost.it I think it was called, though I'm not at all sure what level it was for or what the final filename is. Myscha worked very closely with Michiel on the crashed spaceship and it's multiple levels, and I believe he was very happy with it.

Does anyone know?

No. But I could have asked Inoxx. Not sure if now I can though. Because people just don't seem to realize what kind of situation I am in and think I need "professional help", when the only professional help I can still try to reach costs money that I don't have....so we're going in a circle here.