Random Item Placement v1.1

Random Item Placement v1.1

This mutator spawns all the pickups in the game in random places. After they get picked up, new ones are spawned in new random places.

Random Item Placement v1.1

Mutator for UT2003

Created by Mysterial ([email protected])

10/16/02

Changes from v1.0

-Added spawn effect

-Added option to only spawn items in places where items were in the original level

-Added more stuff to the readme

This mutator spawns all the pickups in the game in random places. After they get picked up, new ones are spawned in new random places.

To install, simply extract the .zip into your UT2003\System folder. I would make a .UMOD, but if that's working yet I didn't figure it out. Maybe the UDE is supposed to have it. That doesn't work for me either. :(

Clients in a netgame do not need to have this mutator in order for it to work. In other words, adding a ServerPackages= line in your UT2003.ini file is NOT necessary.

This mutator has a configuration menu. The options you can change are:

-Use Gravity: if checked, items will fall to the ground from where they were spawned. NOTE: If you check this option, pickups will NOT rotate! This is because rotation and falling are both physics settings and only one can be active at a time. Default is unchecked.

-Max Items: the maximum number of items that can be on a level at once. 0 is automatic (default). It is recommended you leave this setting at the default unless you WANT to either flood levels with items or make items hard to get (since it's hard to use a single setting with all levels)

-Weapon Chance: the percent chance that any given pickup will be a weapon. This is so you don't get unlucky and have levels filled with ammo and nothing to shoot it with. The default of 40 generally gives a good distribution.

-Respawn Time: a new item will be respawned every this many seconds, unless the max # of items is already in the level. Default is 0.2; don't set it too much lower or your processor will pay for it.

-Inv. Spots Only: if checked, items will only spawn in places where items were in the original level.

Notes:

-Place all other mutators above this one in the mutator list, so they have a chance to replace or modify the pickups before they get processed by the random generator. As long as you do this, anything that adds, removes, or changes pickups should be compatible with this mutator.

-If it seems like nothing is spawning, the item limit is probably being used up by items in inaccessible or hard to reach places. The mutator tries to detect this by raising the max items limit every time the # of item is at the max for 10 seconds straight. This usually isn't an issue in multiplayer matches, but bots are usually not able to leave their path to go for a hard to reach item and therefore in bot matches this may occur sometimes.

-Sometimes an overabundance of powerups (UDamage, super shield, etc) are spawned. I have compensated by tripling the chance of the health vials and adrenaline pills, as well as halving the chance of those powerups, but it still does happen sometimes, especially on small levels. I'll work on it :)

-On levels with lots of weird places to put stuff (e.g. Phobos), the bots won't do as well. This is because the bots prioritize almost all actions as more important than acquiring a powerup. As proof of this, spectate a match on DM-Asbestos, and notice how most of the time the bots will not get the super shield on that level. Unlike humans, bots do not locate powerups and decide to go get them - rather, they just change their previous course a little to collect any powerups that happen to be nearby.

-Even if Weapon Stay is on, weapons will not actually stay. THIS IS NOT A BUG. This was done intentionally to prevent the level from filling up with weapons, and to prevent random chance causing situations where all the weapons are in one area.

-If Weapon Stay is on, you will only be able to collect a weapon once. You will pass through any further pickups of the same weapon if you already have it. This was an uninintentional, but convenient side effect, as it prevents areas from being sucked dry of weapons too quickly. IT IS NOT A BUG. If you don't like this behaviour, turn Weapon Stay off.

If people like this mutator, I will continue working on it to make it better and have more options. So if you like it please send an email telling me so, as well as any suggestions you may have. My email is at the top of this file.