Egyptian, Nubian Skins and new Unreal Tournament movement 2014

[Fly Dungas]

Either they get in the game and you can play as them, or they don't and you can make them for $$$ so whats the problem?
on a side note though DM-Anubis was all the introduction they needed.

[MettaCognition]

i think there should be more ancient Egyptian characters in the game too! let's bring back the All-Seeing-Eye (The Eye of Horus) let's have pyramids and oasis and sand/quicksand kind of like Serious Sam desert maps! I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the color schemes of your colors. looks reminiscent of ancient and futuristic characters like Anubis and Selket! bring those characters back please for us UC2 and UT2004 fans!

[mastrok]

LOL you have given this a lot of thought.

Bottom line is: They were mining colonies. The space miners were not staying in five star hotels and buying designer clothing (or designer armor suits). They were under miserable conditions, which is why they started killing each other in the first place. I am sure it would be possible to get them, but who cares? Now 50 years later, 100, 200 years later, whatever. These kind of things don't change. Yes, some other races were involved and such but it was almost always a. miners - b. criminals and c. mercenaries. None of which are overtly concerned with style.

You believe that every subsequent generation of design must somehow be more sophisticated than the last to have longevity or be relevant. But these are dudes fighting in deathmatches, I'm sure they focus on function over fashion and don't give a rat's behind if their suits are asymmetrical or not! And if they were missing a shoulder pad, someone would be far less likely to say "Wow you look awesome d00d" and far more likely to say "What are you, stupid? You're gonna get your arm blown off."

In the real world, how long does the novelty of a new style last? How far can you go with detail or "uniqueness" before it just becomes silly? You need a good core design that makes sense according to function. It is true that UT99's design values were influenced by the trends of the 90's in sci-fi etc, but at the same time:

1. That became the basis of the lore
2. The armor is easily identifiable with "gladiator".
3. There's nothing wrong with being purposely old school to begin with. Sometimes trying to be "new" all the time is BORING.

Basically, artistic sophistication, while nice for us, doesn't serve the game in any measurable way. People knew that when UT3 came out, and it tried too hard to present all this fancy stuff (including character designs) that had nothing to do with anything in that universe, for the most part. It was trying to reinvent itself just for the sake of reinvention, and it fell flat in a lot of ways due to this. This is not a knock on the talented designers and artists, they just didn't necessarily know their audience. Which may not be directly their fault.

This, for the first time, is an opportunity for the longtime players to have a say in how the game is made, what makes a great UT game. Obviously, everyone is going to have different ideas and interpretations. And it wouldn't be right to just throw away everything from UT2004 or UT3, nor did I suggest that at all! I love different things about each of those games.

What's important is to take the elements of each game that worked and fit in enough to keep things cohesive. If you have to stretch to find ways to write stuff in, you're doing it wrong. Exhibit A: The contrived "FLaG" explanation in the UT3 storyline for why they're playing Capture The Flag in the middle of some kind of blood feud. Exhibit B: Egyptians in UT200x. Simple.

If you want to have some kind of alien race that's influenced by that sort of aesthetic, hey, go nuts. But Apophis, Cleopatra and all this? Please.

If there was a like button I'd be all over it

[Aberiu]

Egyptian fighters are pretty rare in games, and I've never seen sci-fi Egyptians anywhere else. It would be a waste of a really unique idea if you just throw it away.
This debate is pretty pointless though, if somebody makes Egyptians we will have them, otherwise we won't.

[Diode]

To all the people railing on the egyptian theme, have your memories failed you?

DOM-Sesmar

[HenrikRyosa]

Yeah there were egyptian-esque environments in UT, there were also ones that looked like the amazon jungle and ancient castles. That doesn't mean Quetzalcoatl or King Arthur need to be official characters, though.

[Sumers]

I've just made random sketch of sci-fi Anubis, thought it might actually fit UT

[Wail]

To all the people railing on the egyptian theme, have your memories failed you?

DOM-Sesmar

I'm fine with Egyptian architecture that's actually Egyptian architecture (or inspired-by Egyptian architecture, like the prototypical example of 'space pyramids' and whatnot). There's no essential reason it can't be done, it just has to be done right and not carelessly. Unreal Tournament (1) was big on the admixture of futuristic with the historical (ancient Nali ruins with Incan-style architecture, Medieval Castles floating in space, characters that looked like Norse warriors carrying rocket launchers, etc).
I think what a lot of people didn't care for with UT2003 was it was basically Stargate: The Game. All of the environments felt like cheap knock-off sets you'd see in a low budget TV show or movie. Worse, it wasn't just something here and there, but it was in your face all the time, half of the maps were Egyptian, a quarter of the characters, everything was in your face saying, "Bro, do you even Kemet?"

I've just made random sketch of sci-fi Anubis, thought it might actually fit UT

This to me is fine. It's got some Egyptian flavor to it but it's not excessive and over the top. (Small point: I think the head should be larger to match the scale of the body better.)

[OMNIETY OMEGA]

Yeah there were egyptian-esque environments in UT, there were also ones that looked like the amazon jungle and ancient castles. That doesn't mean Quetzalcoatl or King Arthur need to be official characters, though.

lol then sometime down the track we see two new official teams to spice things up, sci-fi Aztecs and futuristic Knights of the Round Table.

[mastrok]

I wouldn't be opposed to sci-fi knights if done well and fitting instead of 'just cause'. It's a gimmick that could possibly work for a tournament setting.

I can even hear the commentators calling out character names to a cheering crowd as they enter the arena...

"And here they come folks... It's Camelot! Sir Killshot! Lady Flayer! And last but not least, Excalibuuuuuuuuurrr!!"

But that's for a whole seperate thread.

[Raixs]

Perhaps I leave it here. I recall, at the forum a lot of cool stuff, but the developers somehow this little interested.


And knight from Black Legion)))

[CognizanCe1]

I think the Egyptians are the most out of place, contrived faction.

[Skaary]

I think the Egyptians are the most out of place, contrived faction.

And at the same time - the most individual and charismatic faction. Unlike other CoD: BO characters-style, such as Thunder Crash ...

[Wail]

These are one of those concepts that could work but never really have for me because all of their visual elements are just too focused on being ostentatiously Egyptian. Giving them more of a visual and thematic twist would improve them.

Positives	Negatives
Retro-Historical theme fits well with the Science-Fantasy elements of Unreal	Derivative ripoffs that makes little sense in Unreal (Not Stargate universe)
Visually distinctive team and characters	Gaudiness and overdone style feels out of place