Unreal Tournament 2004
| Unreal Tournament 2004 | |
|---|---|
| Unreal Tournament 2004 U.S. box cover | |
| Developer(s) | Epic Games Digital Extremes |
| Publisher(s) |  Atari (Linux/Windows) MacSoft (Mac) |
| Designer(s) | Steven Polge |
| Engine | Unreal Engine 2.5 |
| Platform(s) | Linux Mac OS X Windows |
| Release |  March 16 2004 March 18 2004 March 19 2004 |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
Unreal Tournament 2004, also known as UT2004 or UT2K4, is a first-person shooter computer game designed mainly for multiplayer gaming although the game has a built in single-player mode that mimics multiplayer gaming by featuring AI-bots. Unreal Tournament 2004 is part of the Unreal series of games and is the sequel to 2002's Unreal Tournament 2003. Unreal Tournament 2004 was co-developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes and published by Atari. The major addition to Unreal Tournament 2004 is the introduction of vehicles to the classic first-person shooter formula following in the footsteps of Tribes 2, Halo: Combat Evolved, and Battlefield 1942. Unreal Tournament 2004 also features great user interactivity with user-made mods, maps, and other add-ons.
Besides introducing new weapons, vehicles, and game modes, Unreal Tournament 2004 also contains everything released previously in Unreal Tournament 2003, making Unreal Tournament 2004 a superset of its predecessor. Unreal Tournament 2004 completely replaced Unreal Tournament 2003 on store shelves and Unreal Tournament 2004 boxes sold in the United States include a $10 mail-in rebate requiring that a short form be completed and sent to the publisher along with a copy of the manual cover for Unreal Tournament 2003.
Development
Epic Games had very ambitious plans for the sequel to their 1999 hit Unreal Tournament. Although work on the game engine and Deathmatch had been complete, there was still much to be done regarding complex game modes such as Assault and Onslaught which included vehicles. As a result, the stripped-down Unreal Tournament 2003 was released in 2002 while the developers concentrated upon implementing Assault and Onslaught for a 2003 release (later pushed back to 2004). In addition, the developers also addressed shortcomings that gamers had with Unreal Tournament 2003.
Development process
Unreal Tournament 2004 was created by several game development studios acting in collaboration, including Epic Games who led the project. Lead programmer Steve Polge describes the role each company played:
Epic Games: All the enhancements to the Unreal Tournament 2003 game types, the new UI, Voice over IP and bot voice command support, engine enhancements and optimizations were made by the primary developer. They also made an improved single player game, and improved community and demo recording support, in addition to thirty-one new playable characters. A Sniper Rifle similar to the one included in the original Unreal Tournament was added. They created one Onslaught map, and developed AI support for Onslaught. 16 new DM maps, 5 new CTF Maps, 2 new DDOM maps, and 1 new BR map were added. The Assault game type design and implementation, including 3 new vehicles, 3 types of turrets, and 6 new maps were also reintroduced from the original Unreal Tournament, totalling 31 all-new maps from Epic.
Psyonix: The Onslaught game type design and implementation, with 6 new vehicles, 4 new weapons (grenade launcher, spider mine layer, Anti Vehicle Rocket Launcher (AVRiL), and the Phoenix target painter), and the energy turret. They also created seven Onslaught maps, and collaborated with Streamline Studios on the popular map ONS-Torlan. Finally, they made the new model for the Translocator.
Digital Extremes: Created 2 new DM maps, 6 new CTF maps, 2 new BR maps, and 3 new DDOM maps. Two new playable characters. The new HUD design. New weapon models for the Assault Rifle, Shock Rifle, and Link Gun.
Streamline Studios: The single player introduction movie and ONS-Torlan in collaboration with Psyonix. Later made an Assault map called AS-Confexia, downloadable from the Internet.
Nearing release
On February 11 2004, the demo for Unreal Tournament 2004 was released and included five maps for five different game types. Demo versions for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux on x86-32 (February 13 2004) and Linux on x86-64 (February 15 2004) were made available for download. By March 5 2004 Unreal Tournament 2004 had "gone gold". This means that the game was finished and ready for distribution. It was the first closed source game to support the new x86-64-bit extension, utilizing Linux, as Windows for x86-64 had not been released at the time.
As the year of 2004 would draw to an end, Unreal Tournament 2004 received awards for Multiplayer game of the year (IGN, Gamespy, Computer Gaming World) and Best Value for 2004 award (Computer Games Magazine).
Release history
Unreal Tournament 2004 was released on March 16 2004 for the PC (Linux x86-32/x86-64 and Windows), the Mac OS X version (DVD only) followed on March 31 2004. The version for Windows x86-64 was released as a downloadable patch on October 1 2005. At release consumers could purchase the game on either CD or DVD. The DVD version was a limited-time special edition that came with a Logitech microphone-headset and a second DVD filled with video-tutorials on how to use UnrealEd (the program used to make UT-maps and mods). A single DVD version with neither microphone nor tutorials was also released in Europe. The CD version of the game was six discs. On April 13 2004, Unreal Tournament 2004 was rereleased on a special edition DVD to meet the high demand of players wanting the game on DVD rather than CD.
Epic and Atari, in collaboration, released two official Onslaught maps over the summer, ONS-Ascendancy and ONS-Aridoom.
On September 21 2004, Atari released in stores the Editor's Choice Edition of Unreal Tournament 2004: it adds 3 vehicles, 4 Onslaught maps, and 6 character skins to the original content of the game, and also contains several mods developed by the community and selected by Epic Games. This extension (excluding mods) was released as a Bonus Pack by Atari on September 23 2004, and is available for free download.
In December of 2005, the Mega Bonus Pack was released by Epic, which included several quality maps, along with the latest patch and the aforementioned ECE. The release was solely through the Internet.
Gameplay
Available game types
- Deathmatch
- Team Deathmatch
- Capture the flag
- Vehicle CTF - Capture the Flag, but with vehicles. You can carry the flag in all ground vehicles. This is an official gametype, but only fan-made VCTF maps are available, and necessary for the game type to be seen. This mode was not made originally with the game, and was only made commonplace with the v3369 patch.
- Onslaught - Is essentially a Team Deathmatch type of gameplay played on a huge map where the object is to destroy, capture and hold key power nodes. The gameplay is very similar to the conquest gametype of Battlefield 1942; however, after capturing key nodes you must destroy your enemy's power core. Vehicles are extremely critical in Onslaught mode. Of all the gametypes in Unreal Tournament 2004, Onslaught is the most popular and so far exclusive to Unreal Tournament 2004.
- Assault - This gametype was in the original Unreal Tournament, but did not make it into Unreal Tournament 2003. The object is to complete a set of objectives, then switch sides and defend those same objectives from your enemy. The team to finish more objectives or do it the fastest wins.
- Double Domination - In Double Domination your team must control two points on the map. Holding both locations for a certain period of time gives your team a point. (Note: While in the original Unreal Tournament, the gametype was simply called Domination and would feature as many as five Domination Points in a single map, Double Domination maps are restricted to two points in a map and could easily double as Capture the Flag maps.) However, of all the game types, this is the most infrequently played.
- Last man standing - All players in this gametype spawn with a limited number of lives. The last player alive wins. Often, players spawn with full weapons and ammo, and there are no powerup available on the map.
- Invasion - Invasion is the closest gametype to true co-operative play. All of the players in the server are on one team, and that team must work together to clear waves of invading aliens (players of the original Unreal will recognize the enemies instantly). If a player is killed, they sit out until their team clears the map of aliens.
- Bombing Run
- Mutant - Mutant can easily be described as akin to "reverse tag" in its style of gameplay. The first person to make a kill becomes the mutant, which gives them all of the standard weapons, maximum ammunition for all of the standard weapons, and all four Adrenaline powerups simultaneously and indefinitely. The mutant then tries to get as many kills as he can until he's killed. The person who kills the mutant then becomes the mutant. (To keep the person playing as the Mutant from simply hiding in a corner until the game is over, he loses 1% of health per second. His health is replenished by killing the other players.)
Many of these modes have Instagib versions to it, which contain specialized weapons that kill in a single shot.
Movement Commands- Movement Commands are a very original aspect to the UT series, and give you the ability to further personalize your path around the level and your battle style.
- Double Jump To double jump, jump in any direction, and in the middle of the jump press the jump button again, you will gain some height on your jump.
- Dodging To dodge, first you must have dodging enabled. Then you double-tap your 'Foward, Strafe Left, Strafe Right, or Backward' button. Additionally, you can dodge-double-jump (DDJ) at a certain point in this dodge and gain even further distance.
- Wall Jumping To wall jump, jump toward a wall, and then use the dodge move in the direction you'd like to jump off of the wall.
Scoring
Scoring in Unreal Tournament 2004 is fairly complex; however in all game types one point is granted for each kill, and one is subtracted for a suicide. In Onslaught, points are awarded when a node is constructed, an enemy node is destroyed, or the enemy power core is destroyed based on what players helped make that happen and how much they did. In Capture the Flag, points are awarded for flag returns, attempted captures, and most of all, successful captures.
Awards are given for kills in succession and kills without dying. In respect, they are called Multi Kills and Killing Sprees, and go as follows:
- Multi Kills:
- Double Kill - 2 kills, each no more than three seconds apart
- Multi Kill - 3 such kills
- Mega Kill - 4 such kills
- Ultra Kill - 5 such kills
- Monster Kill - 6 such kills
- Ludicrous Kill!!! - 7 such kills
- Holy Shit! - 8 or more kills
- Killing Sprees:
- Killing Spree - 5 kills without a death or suicide
- Rampage - 10 kills
- Dominating - 15 kills
- Unstoppable - 20 kills
- Godlike - 25 kills
- Wicked Sick - 30 kills
Weapons
Unreal Tournament 2004 features 16 default weapons:
- Shield Gun - Primary fire produces a shockwave that can repel projectiles and (at close range) shred opponents; secondary fire produces a shield that absorbs damage from weapons and falls, as well as reflecting some hitscan beams, such as the Shock Rifle's. Shield gun "ammo" regenerates quickly.
- Assault Rifle - Primary fire is a weak and inaccurate hitscan bullet fire; secondary shoots time-detonation grenades with force proportionate to how long secondary fire was held. Grenades will detonate on contacting an enemy. The Assault Rifle may be dual-wielded if the player picks up a second rifle (this will increase the maximum primary fire ammunition limit from 200 to 400, as well as the maximum alternative fire grenade limit from eight to sixteen). Dual Assault Rifles will increase the primary fire rate; the alternative fire grenade launch remains the same (the rifles alternate grenade fire). It is one of two weapons automatically granted to a player when respawning; however it is the weakest weapon in the game.
- Bio-Rifle - Primary quickly disperses small globs of sticky, poisonous goo; secondary can be held down to charge up a much larger, splattering glob. Any charge currently being held will be discharged when the player holding it dies. A single glob from a fully charged Bio-Rifle is enough to wipe out a fully-shielded opponent.
- Mine Layer - New in Unreal Tournament 2004 - Primary fire deploys up to eight simultaneous "spider mines" which will chase nearby opponents; secondary fire targets a spot for the mines to rush towards. Mines detonate if the player dies, or if they run into unsurmountable terrain (walls or steep slopes).
- Shock Rifle - Primary shoots a hitscan shock beam; secondary shoots a slow-moving shock core. Hitting a shock core with a primary beam produces a huge explosion, called a "shock combo", which uses up additional ammo. This weapon can also cause players it hits to move, and therefore can cause kills just by knocking players into an abyss or causing them to die from fall damage.
- Link Gun - Primary fire shoots plasma projectiles; secondary produces a short-range plasma beam. Secondary fire is also used in Onslaught and Assault modes for healing nodes, vehicles, and Sentinels. Players can also "link up" by using secondary fire with their link gun at a team member carrying the Link Gun as well, who will have their power for healing or damage multiplied by the number of linked teammates.
- Minigun - Primary fire spits medium-damage hitscan bullets most effective against infantry; secondary shoots more accurate, but less rapid hitscan bullets that do more damage to vehicles, better used for farther away and less aware targets.
- Flak Cannon - Primary fire shoots a hail of glowing metal chunks; secondary launches a single shell which bursts into radiating flak chunks on contact. This is, in a way, Unreal's version of the shotgun featured in other games.
- Grenade Launcher - New in Unreal Tournament 2004 - Primary launches up to eight "sticky" grenades which attach themselves to vehicles, nodes and players; secondary detonates them, usually with devastating effect on vehicles and infantry. Grenades auto-detonate if the player dies.
- Rocket Launcher - Primary fire shoots single rockets; secondary, held down, loads two to three rockets (depending on how long the trigger is held) which are then launched simultaneously; using primary fire while loading launches the rockets in a tight spiral. If the crosshair is held over a target for a certain amount of time (about 1.4 seconds), the rocket launcher will beep and any rockets fired while the crosshair remains on the target will home in on it.
- AVRiL - New in Unreal Tournament 2004 - A weapon designed to take down enemy vehicles. Primary fire shoots relatively slow but powerful anti-vehicle missiles; holding the crosshairs on a vehicular target causes the missiles to home in on it. Secondary fire zooms and locks on. AVRiL rockets can be shot down. AVRiL stands for Anti-Vehicle Rocket Launcher; the "i" in the name is to make it pronounceable. Any players in a vehicle that is being targeted by an AVRiL will receive a message saying "Missile Lock Warning", as well as a beep that can be heard by anyone in the vicinity of the vehicle. The weapon can damage humans but is very inefficent.
- Lightning Gun - Primary fire shoots a hitscan bolt of lightning at the target. Secondary fire zooms. Although the shot is hitscan, there seems to be a slight delay between the trigger pull and the actual lighning projection. Users are made vulnerable by the patent trail of lightning originating from the gun.
- Sniper Rifle - Returns from Unreal Tournament. Primary fire shoots a hitscan bullet and momentarily obscures the view with a puff of smoke; secondary fire zooms. Is only 5/6 as powerful as the Lightning Gun.
- Redeemer - Primary fire shoots a miniature nuclear missile in a straight path; secondary fire shoots the same missile but with full steering capability using the missile's eye-view camera. Although the missile can only be accurately guided with secondary, doing so leaves the player completely vulnerable. The secondary fire also slows down the missile. It is perhaps the most powerful weapon in the game; just one blast from a Redeemer can knock out an entire power node in Onslaught, and can drain 30% of a power core's life. The missile can however be shot down by enemy fire, with a "denied" message going to the player who fired the missile and the one who shot it down. Only one missile per weapon.
- Ion Painter - Primary paints a target which after two seconds of stillness with the user is then fired on by an orbital ion cannon; damage style is similar to that of the Redeemer's missile, but is approximately half as powerful. However, it is somewhat hard to position correctly. Secondary fire provides zoom.
- Target Painter - New in Unreal Tournament 2004 - Primary, like the Ion Painter's, paints a target; in this case, a bomber appears over the battlefield and drops a line of bombs towards it. Secondary fire zooms. The bomber can be shot down fairly easily using hitscan weapons such as the lightning gun or stationary turret beams, however, it is impossible to lock onto the bomber using either the AVRiL or Rocket Launcher. The Bomber, once shot down, will produce a Redeemer-sized explosion wherever it lands.
In addition, Unreal Tournament 2004 features the Translocator that allows the player to quickly teleport across the map by shooting a small disc where the player wants to go. Technically speaking, however, this can also be used as a 'weapon', by firing the beacon at another player's feet and then teleporting there, performing a so-called telefrag. This action is usually quite difficult to perform, and has been made even more difficult than in the original Unreal Tournament.
Vehicles
There are many vehicles available for use in the first-person shooter video game Unreal Tournament 2004. These vehicles are primarily used in the Onslaught game type, although there are a few Assault maps which utilise vehicles. The vehicles consist of aircraft (the Manta, Cicada, and Raptor), and land vehicles (all others). There are also 2 space vehicles (essentially space-faring Raptors with a cosmetic overhaul), which only officially feature in one stock Assault map.
Three of the vehicle types (the SPMA, Cicada, and Paladin) are only officially available on maps from the Editor's Choice edition or Editor's Choice bonus pack, but user-edited versions of the standard maps often include some or all of these extra vehicles.
Some vehicles are in the source code of the game but not normally seen. It is also possible to create user-modified vehicles (not included in this article).
Any vehicle that happens to run into an enemy will instantly kill the subject; also any players inside a vehicle at the time it explodes (in Onslaught mode) die. However in Assault mode many of the vehicles will simply bounce the players onto foot whenever they explode. An exploding vehicle can also harm nearby infantry.
A vehicle (or stationary Energy Turret) in Onslaught belongs to the team whose node spawned it. If destroyed, it will respawn at the same node. A vehicle that has never been occupied since it spawned is "locked," and the enemy team sees a red warning circle icon on it. Once a vehicle has been used by its team (even if someone only entered and exited it), it is then unlocked. When a vehicle is left unlocked, even enemies can enter it, causing the vehicle color to change to the other team. Stealing a vehicle in UT 2004 is called "carjacking," and is a way to obtain vehicles that your own team's nodes do not currently have.
This section of the article provides details on each of the vehicles, its typical uses in the game, and tactical information.
Land vehicles
Hellbender
Type: Assault Jeep
Summon code: "summon Onslaught.ONSPRV"
The Hellbender is an all-purpose vehicle which can carry 3, and is most effective when fully manned. Unique among the game's vehicles, the driver does not control any weapons, and can only control the vehicle and honk the horn, which is used to order bots to enter the vehicle, signal other human players to hop on or taunt/provoke the enemy. A feature of interest for the driver is the license plate on the back, which changes from "HELLBNDR" to an 8-character representation of the driver's name - cutting out vowels and then truncating if it does not fit.
The side turret is a weapon similar to the game's Shock Rifle. The differences are that the primary/alternative fire modes are reversed, and numerous slow moving "shock cores" fired by this turret can be detonated via a chain-reaction, whereas the Shock Rifle can only detonate one shock core at a time. Such an attack is termed a "Skymine Combo", and is capable of massive explosive damage along its chain. However, if the chain of skymines are too far apart, they may not necessarily all detonate; if the skymines are too close to the Hellbender itself, damage might be caused to the vehicle and its occupants.. Also, it can be difficult to use with the berserk mod on. This weapon is particularly effective at defending the vehicle from AVRiL rockets.
The rear turret is a powerful dual laser beam which can be "charged up" to increase damage. Its alt-fire activates a variable zoom for pinpointing distant targets.
For a single player, the Hellbender can also be useful as a mobile gun emplacement by switching between seating positions. For example, a player can drive the Hellbender to a particular position, then man the laser turret by pressing '3' using it to provide "sniper" fire, then switch back to the driver's position by pressing '1', driving closer to a battle, then pressing '2' to man the shock turret and lay down skymines. Without someone manning the driver position, the vehicle cannot move.
(When picking up a bot, it is noted that they always assume the passenger-seat position. To move them to the rear turret position quickly and effectively, press 3-2-1.)
The Hellbender is featured in an official Assault level (AS-Junkyard)
The Hellbender can run over foot-bound players. It is fairly well armoured, but can be easily defeated by larger vehicles.
3 positions:
- 1 Driver
- Primary fire: Horn
- Alt-Fire: Horn
- 1 Side turret gunner
- Primary fire: Fire Skymines
- Alt-Fire: Fire shock beam
- 1 Rear turret gunner
- Primary fire: Fire laser (hold button to charge)
- Alt-Fire: Zoom
Similar fan-made modifications exist for the HellBender, including a popular Anti-Air version. Most of these were compiled into a single fan-made Assault level completed in late 2005.
Scorpion
Type: Light Assault Buggy
Summon code: "summon Onslaught.ONSRV"
The Scorpion is a lightly armoured jeep, and is the fastest wheeled vehicle. Its primary fire is a chargeable "plasma ribbon" which wraps itself around its target before exploding. This wrapping effect makes it especially effective against Mantas and power nodes. The longer the fire button is held, the wider the bola. Because the bola will tend to adhere to anything it hits, it is sometimes preferable to fire shorter bolas rather than fully charged, longer ones.
The Alternative fire button extends specialized anti-personnel blades on either side, which instantly kill any foot-bound enemy it hits. The blades can be ineffective against skilled human opponents, who can easily evade their limited range. The blades will break off if they strike solid objects such as some pieces of terrain or other vehicles. (In technical terms, BSP brushes and Static Meshes by default break off the blades, but the actual Terrain made with the TerrainInfo actor does not.)
Although the Scorpion is a one-seater, it is possible for 2 friendly players to jump on top and hitch a ride, although they are very vulnerable to enemy fire, and may get knocked off. In addition, a player on top of the Scorpion may prevent the plasma ribbon from firing as normal.
1 position:
- Driver
- Primary fire: Plasma ribbon (hold button to charge)
- Alt-fire: Deploy blades
Leviathan
Type: Ultra-Heavy Assault Tank
Summon code: summon onslaughtfull.onsmobileassaultstation
The Leviathan is the slowest, but easily the most powerful standard vehicle in UT2004. Its main turret fires a continuous stream of homing rockets, which are very effective against all targets. Unlike AVRiL rockets, they continue to home in on a target without any attention from the base. The Leviathan has four energy turrets that can be individually manned to increase its defensive power against infantry and air vehicles, but are hard to aim accurately, suffer from poor visibility, and lack the zooming alt-fire that turrets of other vehicles are equipped with. Better defense can often be achieved by infantry escorting it on the ground rather than in the turrets, although the Leviathan can safely, if slowly, transport up to five players, and this in itself is a useful capacity.
When the Leviathan is stationary, the alternative fire button causes it to transform into Deployed mode. Stabilizer arms deploy, and its devastating Singularity Cannon is raised and activated. This transformation takes about 5-6 seconds, during which time the vehicle is unable to move, which is a window of opportunity for serious damage to be done to the vehicle by enemy forces. However, during the deployment transformation, the driver can still fire rockets, and the corner gunners can always use their turrets. Transforming back to the normal undeployed state is a similar process, however, you cannot fire the Leviathan's rocket launcher when transforming back into mobile mode.
When deployed, the Singularity Cannon delivers incredible damage over a very long range, but has a very long cooldown rate, and projects a shining white orb at the target area (the "singularity"), making it very clear just where the cannon's impact will be. It suffers an additional weakness in that, like the other superweapons in the game, all damage from it can be avoided simply by ensuring there is a building or terrain-based obstacle between the line of sight of the player and ground zero. One tactic sometimes used in Onslaught matches is to focus the might of the Singularity Cannon directly upon a Power Node; it will do an immense amount of damage to an enemy Node and repel any opponent that makes the mistake of getting too close, but still allow teammates to claim a neutral Node or defend a friendly Node under covering fire (assuming friendly fire is off, of course).
The Leviathan is extremely difficult to destroy. While Raptors and Mantas can avoid its devastating deployed attack and sometimes its homing rockets, the Leviathan is extremely resilient, and they can seldom do enough damage on their own to bring it down from the 5000 armour points it spawns with; indeed, it often takes an entire fleet of the airborne vehicles, as well as a small platoon of dedicated AVRiL-carrying footsoldiers, to destroy the gargantuan vehicle. The corollary to this is that it is exceptionally difficult to repair the Leviathan back to full health with any number of Link Gun-wielding teammates after any notable encounter.
Infantry can get close enough to get under the range of fire of the corner guns (although they are vulnerable to being squashed), and can do serious damage before they can be destroyed. Because of the limited visibility and accuracy of the guns, daring players dropping from flying vehicles can land on the top of the vehicle and deal damage whilst avoiding the weapons.
Stealing (carjacking) a Leviathan is a very lucrative proposition, and can easily change the tide of the match; however, an abandoned Leviathan is a rare sight in and of itself, and so hijacking one is rather unlikely.
5 positions:
- 1 Driver
- Primary fire (undeployed): Fire homing rockets
- Primary fire (deployed): Fire singularity cannon
- Alt-fire: Deploy/undeploy
- 4 Corner Turrets
- Primary fire: Fire turret
- Alt-fire: Fire turret
Goliath
Type: Battle Tank
Summon code: "summon Onslaught.ONSHoverTank"
The Goliath is a standard tank with a powerful 140mm main cannon that devastates infantry, energy nodes and other vehicles alike. It has limited vertical elevation, however, which makes it vulnerable to the Raptor (Although it is far from impossible to down a low-flying Raptor with the cannon, given a little practice and luck). In addition, its turret is slow-moving, taking time to position, making it difficult to draw a bead on a quick moving target. Rotating the tank itself in the same direction as the turret is a tactic often used while the Goliath is stationary to increase the turret's rotation speed, and therefore be able to line up a shot in less time.
Its 2nd position offers a zoomable machine-gun turret atop the main turret that can offset these weaknesses to a limited degree. However, the amount of damage dealt by this weapon is moderate at best, and it is also unable to point straight up, one of the preferred places to attack the Goliath, either on foot or in a Raptor.
2 positions:
- 1 Driver
- Primary fire: Fire main cannon
- Alt-fire: Zoom
- 1 Machine gunner
- Primary fire: Fire minigun
- Alt-fire: Zoom
SPMA
Type: Long-range Artillery
The Self-Propelled Mobile Artillery, introduced in the UT2004 Editor's Choice Edition (ECE) Bonus Pack, is a powerful support vehicle that fulfils a role largely ignored by the original vehicles. The driver has control of the main cannon. Its primary fire is a limited-range arcing shot, which is powerful but impossible to shoot over a long distance, due to a short-fused shell. The main cannon carries considerable recoil and can flip the vehicle if fired while moving.
The secondary fire is where the SPMA shows its true prowess: it fires a special shell that transforms into a stationary floating field camera when the secondary fire function is used again. Once the camera is deployed, a targeting reticle appears superimposed on the camera's view of the map, and the vehicle's driver is able to use the driving keys to aim and pinpoint distant targets. This camera is clearly visible to others and is easily destroyed. Also, if an enemy AVRiL rocket locks onto the SPMA field camera, and gets a line of sight with the SPMA itself during flight, it will automatically and immediately home in on the vehicle, rather than taking out the camera. This allows ground troopers to take out a well-concealed SPMA from great distances.
When using the camera, prior to landing, the SPMA shell breaks apart above the target area, spreading its explosive shrapnel to all below. A single well-aimed artillery shot can cripple all but the strongest of vehicles (although nimble Manta drivers can avoid it). The vehicle is often used to provide suppressing fire at a strategic point rather than being targeted at a specific enemy, hence its semi-anagrammatic nickname - the "spammer".
The gunner's seat fires a Shock/Skymine turret much like the Hellbender. The vehicle handles like a much lighter Hellbender, although it is more heavily armoured; its sole failing point is that the driver and passenger seats are greatly more exposed, allowing a skilful sniper a much greater chance at landing a headshot. It is surprisingly more agile, due perhaps in part to its four-wheel steering system, and noticeably faster, enabling it to scale hills and even some mountains with enough speed. The profile of the vehicle resembles the buggy in the classic game Moon Patrol.
2 positions:
- 1 Driver/Artillery gunner
- 1 Skymine gunner
Paladin
Type: Defensive Tank
Summon code: "summon ONSBP.ONSShockTank"(?)
Introduced in the Editor's Choice Edition bonus pack, the Paladin is an energy tank that can be easily summed up by classifying it as a hybrid of a Goliath and an Ion Plasma Tank, with an energy shield. It is very slow moving, and has similar armour to the Goliath, but it is capable of climbing steep inclines that no other land vehicles can match.
The Paladin's primary attack fires a somewhat slow-moving energy ball from the cannon in its turret. The projectile's lack of speed, and the lack of a zoom facility makes accurate long distance shooting far inferior to that of a Goliath or even Hellbender rear turret.
The unique feature of the Paladin is its ability to generate an energy shield with the secondary fire. This shield consumes no energy itself, and can be maintained indefinitely, or until it absorbs enough damage to be destroyed. It can take a great deal of direct damage (several Goliath shots) but is not as strong against large amounts of splash damage (extremely vulnerable to a Leviathan's deployed gun). The shield blocks shots, but enemies on foot or in vehicles can pass through the shield without problems. The shield extends over a fairly wide area around the direction the turret is aimed, and is quite useful at protecting friendly infantry (the vehicle only has one seat). The shield gives the driver time to take careful aim at a footman or light vehicle, lower the shield and immediately make a deadly shot.
In addition, firing the primary cannon while its shield is activated creates an energy explosion which radiates in all directions from the tank, dealing great damage to anything within its short range. This blast is powerful enough to destroy a Manta with a single hit, provided that the foolhardy Manta pilot gets close enough.
While it can fire as soon as its shield is lowered, the Paladin's primary attack consumes a lot of energy, and it cannot regenerate the shield again for several seconds after firing. Also, as its turret is very slow moving, nimble opponents can circle-strafe around the tank faster that it can aim/redirect its shield, making it an easy target to such attacks. Rotating the tank itself in the same direction as the turret will make the final turret rotation quite a bit faster.
In short, the Paladin is well-designed to defend an area from infantry and has a decent discouraging effect against lighter vehicles. A Paladin is not well suited for offensive unless it is supported by troops or other vehicles.
1 position:
- Driver/Main Cannon/Shield
Air vehicles
Manta
Type: Hovercraft
Summon code: "summon Onslaught.ONSHoverBike"
The Manta is the fastest, and also the most vulnerable of the vehicles. It does not technically fly but "hovers" across terrain just a few meters above ground level, though it is still considered an air vehicle in Vehicle CTF (air vehicles cannot carry the flag). It is capable of a "jump" manoeuvre, as well as a quick downward "dive" or "stomp" with the crouch key which gives the Manta its notoriety for "squashing" opposing infantry. Holding secondary fire continuously makes the Manta fly lower than normal, making it very deadly to enemy infantry. Entering a Manta will automatically make it do a little hop, which can be augmented by jumping, creating a much bigger jump than possible during flight. Using secondary fire just prior to jumping makes any jump go a little higher--sometimes enough to clear a wall that would normally stop you. Proper use of these unique abilities can allow a speeding manta to fly in high arcs above otherwise impassable terrain, and cover ground very rapidly. Jumping, then quickly "diving" can allow a Manta pilot to avoid AVRiL anti-vehicle rockets.
The Manta is particularly vulnerable to the primary fire of the Scorpion, as its plasma ribbons will be drawn into the Manta's fans if they are close. In most cases, the Manta is destroyed by the ribbon's damage, unless only one of the bolas are caught.
It possesses dual plasma casters which do light damage, but can effectively destroy stationary or slow moving targets. The weapon has some splash damage; if the Manta is too close to its target, it will damage itself.
Although it only has one seat, it is possible for two or more players to stand on the Manta's wings, as well on top of the cockpit. As with the Scorpion, such riders run the risk of falling off if the ride gets too bumpy. This trick works equally well with Spider Mines.
It is also possible to get the Manta's wing underneath another vehicle, especially if that vehicle is not on level ground, and then jump up, causing the other vehicle to flip over (and its passengers to be ejected).
1 position:
- Pilot
- Primary fire: Fire plasma casters
- Alt-fire: Slam
Raptor
Type: Airfighter
Summon code: "summon Onslaught.ONSAttackCraft"
The Raptor is an aircraft well suited to take out other flying craft, such as Mantas, Cicadas or other Raptors. It has a fairly fast top speed, but is slow to accelerate, elevate and descend, and has very minimal cornering ability making it hard to steer, which makes it vulnerable to infantry AVRiL rockets. An adept Raptor pilot, however, should even be able to evade AVRiL rockets with relative ease. The Raptor's status as the only airborne attack craft in the original game, as well as the fact that no anti-air ground vehicles are included, means that the Raptor is well suited to attack any other vehicle in the game, particularly the deadly Leviathan. Although it may take time, a decent Raptor pilot should be able to destroy a deployed Leviathan unaided, while sustaining no damage to the Raptor itself.
The Raptor possesses a Plasma cannon similar to, but much more powerful than that of the Manta. The plasma cannon takes on the team color of its pilot. Its secondary attack launches a rocket that automatically homes in on Mantas, other Raptors, and Cicadas, and does light damage. These rockets are not nearly as agile as the Leviathan's homing rockets, or indeed AVRiL fire, and skilled opponents can dodge/evade them. The rockets do 150 damage each, meaning it takes 2 rockets to destroy a Raptor or Manta, and 4 to destroy a Cicada provided direct hits.
1 position:
- Pilot
- Primary fire: Fire plasma projector
- Alt-fire: Fire air-to-air missile
Cicada
Type: Ground Assault Aircraft/Light Interdictor
Summon code: ?
The Cicada is an air vehicle that, while quite ineffective against other air vehicles, is superb at devastating enemy ground forces and energy nodes with volleys of missiles, anti-AVRiL flares, and a rapid firing laser turret for distant and hardened targets.
The pilot is tasked with control of the vehicle itself (which is quite different from the Raptor, as the Cicada is much slower, and lacks as much horizontal control but is much more agile in climbing and diving) and the side-mounted missile batteries. The pilot's primary fire causes a continuous barrage of missiles to fly towards the target in a wide semi-random pattern. Secondary fire utilizes a laser designator to lock on to the fixed position indicated by the targeting cross-hair, and begins loading up to 16 missiles, as long as the trigger is pressed. Once the pilot lets go of the trigger, or the maximum amount of missiles is loaded (indicated on the cross-hair or in the bottom-right corner of the HUD), all loaded missiles will be fired in a devastating volley. These missiles will home in on the point designated by the pilot, causing great damage. It is useful to note that between locking and launching, the Cicada can safely duck behind an obstacle for cover. Aiming the craft in the right direction can help the missiles arc over or around such obstacles that would otherwise cause the missiles to crash. It is also worth noting at any time while loading missiles, the pilot may hold down primary fire to pause the loading process, making it possible to fly around a targeted area indefinitely while fully armed.
The gunner position is vital to the defense and use of the vehicle. The gunner's primary attack triggers an accurate, powerful, rapid-firing laser from the bottom turret, and the secondary attack launches a flare that will lure any AVRiL missiles locked onto the vehicle. The gunner's targeting camera clearly identifies the location of inbound AVRiLs, aiding in properly timing the flare launch. A constant stream of these flares can effectively render AVRiL fire in the surrounding area useless, allowing friendly vehicles safe passage. This ability makes the Cicada a makeshift interdictor.
It is worth noting that the Cicada will continue to hover in place if the driver switches seats, or if the driver bails out while the gunner is still on-board. An empty Cicada will fall to the ground.
2 positions:
- 1 Pilot
- Primary fire: Fire missiles
- Alt-fire: Lock on, charge missiles
- 1 Gunner
- Primary fire: Fire laser
- Alt-fire: Fire flares
Non-standard vehicles
Ion Plasma Tank
Type: Battle Tank
Summon code: "summon OnslaughtFull. ONSHoverTank_IonPlasma"
Found only in AS-Glacier in the official releases (although can be summoned elsewhere via a console code), this is a tank with a massive ion-blast weapon which takes very little time to recharge proportional to its power. The Ion Tank fires a laser beam and "paints" the target before obliterating it with the main cannon. It also has a secondary machine-gun turret identical to the Goliath, as well as another weapon which repels nearby projectiles and enemies. It has very thick armour and takes some time to destroy. It is quite powerful against other vehicles, but suffers from relatively slow speed.
2 positions:
- 1 Driver
- Primary fire: Fire ion cannon
- Alt-fire: Zoom
- 1 Machine gunner
- Primary fire: Fire minigun
- Alt-fire: Zoom
Bulldog
Type: ?
Summon code: ?
The Bulldog doesn't feature as a functional vehicle in UT2004, as it was actually made for Unreal Tournament 2003, although it doesn't feature there either. The vehicle is not fully coded like other standard vehicles, so when used, the level author has to set its operational characteristics, if any.
The vehicle only has place for 1 driver that can shoot rockets towards the sky from its unmovable turret. These rockets will automatically lock onto enemies on foot if they are in sight.
However a few user-made maps were available which used the vehicle - at the time a unique and much discussed feature of the Unreal series, and obviously a precursor to the vehicles in Unreal Tournament 2004. It still exists in the code for Unreal Tournament 2004 but no examples of any player controllable Bulldog vehicles being used by level creators in the latest game are known, as the official vehicles provide a superior alternative, due to superior coding resulting in much less resource intensive end results.
The map AS-Convoy features the Thundercrash team attacking an enemy convoy with an assortment of Bulldogs (accompanying a much larger, similarly military themed attack vehicle) with or without trailers to transport troops (spawn points) as well as the objective, the Nexus Missiles. One of the Bulldogs can be jumped on and used as a shortcut towards the goal.
A 'wrecked' and non-functional Bulldog chassis can be seen in some of the Junkyard levels of Unreal Tournament 2004, providing perhaps some ironic comment on the superiority of the new vehicles. A picture of the Bulldog is also one of the team logos used on the flags in CTF games and other team-related objects.
1 Position:
- 1 Driver
- Primary fire: Fire homing missiles
- Alt-fire: ?
TC-1200
Type: Easter egg
Summon code: "summon OnslaughtFull. ONSGenericSD" (must have cheats enabled)
The TC-1200 or Toilet Car is a vehicle that does not appear in the normal game. By using the console in single player mode a player can make the car appear. Additionally, several mapmakers have included the vehicle in custom assault maps, mostly the "racing maps" which involve large numbers of players in vehicles competing against each other. It moves in a similar way to the Scorpion but is slightly slower, has a far better turning rate and is better at climbing. It has no weapons, but some entertaining toilet-like sounds. The game refers to the vehicle as TC-1200 but for obvious reasons it is invariably referred to as the Toilet Car.
The vehicle is a fully-specified vehicle, unlike most of the other non-standard vehicles which do not appear in official levels. It is animated and, when destroyed, explodes convincingly. Unlike the Bulldog or the Dragonfly it seems likely not to be a bit of left-over code but a deliberately-created Easter egg, with the typical humorous nature of such artifacts.
One Position:
- Toilet seat
Dragonfly/Phoenix Bomber
The Dragonfly is used in custom maps. The code for making a controllable Phoenix Bomber (the aircraft that the Target Painter summons) was unfinished but left in the game. It can be summoned with "summon OnslaughtFull. ONSBomber". Moving the mouse up will pitch the vehicle down, and vice-versa. Moving the mouse left will tilt the plane the same way. To turn, you must tilt the plane, then pitch the plane up (from the first person view), and then tilt back horizontal. While you cannot drop bombs as the bomber summoned by the target painter does, you can fire rockets in whatever direction the plane is pointing. However, you must be going straight at the target to hit it i.e. you are an easy target yourself.
1 Position:
- Pilot
- Primary fire: Fire rockets
- Alt-fire: ?
Mods
- Total conversion mods, which contain little trace of the original Unreal Tournament 2004 in their gameplay, include Red Orchestra, Alien Swarm, Metaball, Air Buccaneers, COR, Uskaarj, Frag Ops and UnWheel.
- More conservative mods include Jailbreak, Wehtam Invasion III, and Clone Bandits.
- The Editor's Choice Edition pack includes the aforementioned Red Orchestra, Alien Swarm, Air Buccaneers, Frag Ops, Jailbreak, and Clone Bandits, as well as ChaosUT2, Domain, Rocketeer, Deathball, and the UnWheel caste of gametypes.
- There is an RPG mod which adds a skill based leveling-up system into the game and is commony used in online games to give the players rewards after getting to a certain amount of points needed.
Resources
Stratos Group's Unofficial Guide To Unreal Tournament 2004
External links
- Unreal Tournament 2004 - official site
- Onslaught Central - Unofficial North American ONS game type forums
- vCTF Central - Unofficial North American Competitive Vehicle Capture the Flag game type forums
- Unreal Tournament 2004 mods and tutorials - at the Mod DB
- UT2004 wiki guide at StrategyWiki (previously hosted by Wikibooks)
- Lobster Assault Community - Unofficial North American Assault game type forums
- UnrealNorth - Unofficial European TDM community site
- Pro Unreal - Unofficial North American TDM community site
- ST's Page - Offical North American site for ST
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