Mapping For UTXMP

Introduction

Unreal Tournament eXpanded MultiPlayer (UTXMP) is total conversion of Unreal2 multiplayer expansion (XMP), which lost its support due to closure of Legend Entertainment by Atari in January 2004. Luckily, now [Free Monkey Interactive] is developing UTXMP, which brings popular XMP gameplay to Epic Games' Unreal Tournament 2004 with the support of former Legend Entertainment employees.

UTXMP comes with large amount of new textures and static meshes, plus all resources from original Unreal2 XMP game. Moreover, all UT2004 resources are available to mappers too.

Also, because UTXMP is built on UT2004, it has better net code, can handle higher polycount and more vehicles at the same time.

Starting UTXMP editor

For those who cant find UTXMP Editor shortcut in start menu .

You need to start UnrealEd with "-mod=UTXMP" to work with UTXMP maps.

It's easy to do that this way:

Copy UTXMP desktop shortcut and paste it to desktop.
Rename to some better name, ie "UTXMP Editor"
In shortcut properties, change "Target" field value from "C:\UT2004\System\UT2004.exe -mod=UTXMP" to "C:\UT2004\System\UnrealEd.exe -mod=UTXMP"
Click OK and now you can start UED with this shortcut. You can even change its icon to green one .

Testing your map

You can't play your map by clicking "play map" button in UED. To do that run it from game or create another shortcut with "C:\UT2004\System\UT2004.exe <your map name> -mod=UTXMP" as target.

UTXMP game objects

Tutorials

/Adding radar

Converting U2XMP map to UTXMP

Some notes

DO NOT put U2XMP assets in your UT2k4 root folders(i.e. mesh packages, texture packages, etc..). Also make sure that you dont have dublicated packages in these folders: UT2004\Textures and UT2004\UTXMP\Textures, UT2004\StaticMeshes and UT2004\UTXMP\StaticMeshes, etc..
You can type in command prompt when testing map:
- "killbots" to stop bots killing you
- "god" to be god
- "changesize 1.3" to become bigger
- "setjumpz X" to adjust jump height
Loader actor is no longer necessary in UTXMP maps

UTXMP gameplay tips for mapper

Following paragraphs should cover basic things mapper needs to know and things he should avoid.

I am probably the first one who tries to write down the problems mapper faces making XMP maps. And almost every problem comes from having three different classes with different skills. I will try to sum up the skills:

	Ranger	Tech	Gunner
Speed	++++	++	+
Hack	+	+++	+
Shield	+	++	++++

Offence	++++	++	++
Defence		++	++++
Mid-field	+++	+++	+

This table cant be accurate, because best gameplay happens when classes are working together.

You can also check out [this manual] if you are new to UTXMP.

To better demonstrate the advantages of each class, lets see in what maps they could get maximum advantage.

Sniper paradise

Imagine a large plain map with no fog. And sniping places which only ranger can reach, because he can jump higher. That would be sniper paradise, because he could snipe any other class with ease, since they do not have any such long-range weapons.

Techer paradise

Map with a lot of doors. And plenty of energy sources, as well as deploy points. Since a techer can hack much faster, doors are not big problem for him. Oh, and i almost forgot! Long narrow tunnels! Techer places one rocket turret at the end of such tunnel, and it frags everyone who tries to pass it.

Gunner paradise

Oh yeah... Small room, one teleporter, and he frags everyone who tries to get in. So make sure teleporters are not the only way to get into your base, because gunner placing mines on them could defend from almost all attacks.

To sum up, the best map should let you play with any class, and give you enough ways to do different things, like getting into the base in 5 different ways, to defend in 5 different ways, to attack in 5 different ways. So everything is about variety and good imagination.

What does a "standard" XMP map look like?

The following Standard map definition does not mean that you should make only standard maps. It means that if you break some rules, you might face some gameplay problems that you would need to solve in some way.

The Standard XMP map should:

Have two bases (or at least something that could be called base)
Have at least two non-hackable deploy points in each base
Have enough space to use vehicles
Not have hackable deploy points close to artifact node
Have 2-4 energy sources
At least 5 ways to get into the base
At least 2 ways from one base to another
2-4 deploy points somewhere in the map

Discussion

Smot: Who needs 5 base enterances? Isn't that a little much? I can't think of any U2:XMP maps (other than Rampant) with 5 entrances, and Rampant is a b*tch to defent because you can sneak into the node room from like 9 different places. Also, I do believe it's just "Tech", not "Techer".

Nercury: Feel free to correct my grammar mistakes and add anything what is missing.

Nercury: BTW, i am not betatester, also i am not leaking info, so dont blame me if i manage to guess something

PRG: A couple things about this starting with this small piece of info. DO NOT put U2XMP assets in your UT2k4 root folders(ie. mesh packages, texture packages, etc..) You WILL have problems with UTXMP when it comes out.

Second thing, most of the enclosed bases in stock maps with good play flow have at least 5+ ways to get into the base or artifact node. Unless the entrances are huge, 3 ways in as stated tends be a bottleneck that makes it impossible for the offence to get in and make it out alive.

Nercury: You can fix things yourself and leave note here rather than saying whats wrong

This page is getting bigger and bigger, and i started thinking about several sub-pages. Now i am just adding info without much care about layout.

Tarquin: You could make a page for each class, for example.

Phalanx: now that the mod is out a few more details need adding now like adding a radar, more detail on hackable objects (especailly doors). o and while i'm here for a map to work u need the loader in there too

Category Tutorial