Movement Mechanics is the first design topic we will be focusing on. Epic’s team will be very actively participating in the discussions in this subforum.
The UT Movement Mechanics subforum should be used for all discussions about the design of the core movement mechanics of Unreal Tournament. In some ways, it would have been nice to establish our open design process with a less controversial topic, but as movement mechanics are absolutely fundamental to the game and have major implications for other essential game systems (like level design and weapon design**), we really have to start here.
It won’t be possible to end up with a result that perfectly pleases everyone. However, I know we can end up with mechanics that feel true to Unreal Tournament, are well balanced, and enable great gameplay. While of course with mods you’ll be able to customize the movement mechanics however you’d like, it’s still vital that we establish core movement mechanics that define Unreal Tournament for general gameplay.
Please read these tips (link to sticky on how to contribute) on how to be an effective design contributor.
The initial discussions on this forum will lead to a paper design that we will implement provide a rough initial implementation of in our Deathmatch Alpha. With the Deathmatch Alpha we’ll iterate on and polish the movement mechanics based on everyone’s feedback. Once the movement mechanic design is complete, we’ll also be able to establish level design guidelines and start working on weapon design and balance.
We love seeing the movement prototypes being created! This is a fantastic way to experiment, and to demonstrate and iterate on your ideas. We'd love to see more people working on prototypes, or working with prototype developers on refining their ideas.
With that out of the way, I’m going to summarize the movement elements we are going to be talking about:
General Movement:
• Running speed (in the past has been the same forward/back/strafing)
• Acceleration (how fast you change direction when moving)
• Air control (how much you can affect the direction of your movement while in the air)
• Jump height
• Gravity (affects how floaty the game feels. With higher gravity, even if the jump impulse is modified to result in the same jump height, you’ll spend less time in the air)
• Dodging (fast low jump in any of the 4 cardinal movement directions, with a sudden deceleration on landing)
• Double jump (past titles only allowed the double jump to occur at the apex of the jump. UT2004 allowed double jump during dodge, UT3 did not/)
• Wall dodge (ability to perform a dodge while in the air away from a nearby vertical surface)
• Impact/Rocket jumping (ability to jump extra high by jumping while point impact hammer down or using other splash/impulse providing weapon at cost of some health).
• Team boosting (ability to provide impact/rocket jumping benefits to teammates, who take no damage in normal teamgames)
Level Designer constrained movement features:
• Ramp boosting (ability to scale a near vertical surface by dodging into it, possible on any near vertical surface in UT2003, and only on LD permitted surfaces in UT2004)
• Lift jumping (taking advantage of lift momentum to get a boost to your jump at the top of the lift’s path)
• Jumppads (provide a long distance jump to a specific destination)
We can also certainly discuss and consider new movement elements.
** For example, the movement mechanics in UT2003 and UT2004 biased the game toward hitscan weapons, and also caused scale issue with interior levels which had to be built to support large scale jumps. This isn’t meant to bash those movement mechanics, which were also a lot of fun, but to point out the consequences of the design.
The UT Movement Mechanics subforum should be used for all discussions about the design of the core movement mechanics of Unreal Tournament. In some ways, it would have been nice to establish our open design process with a less controversial topic, but as movement mechanics are absolutely fundamental to the game and have major implications for other essential game systems (like level design and weapon design**), we really have to start here.
It won’t be possible to end up with a result that perfectly pleases everyone. However, I know we can end up with mechanics that feel true to Unreal Tournament, are well balanced, and enable great gameplay. While of course with mods you’ll be able to customize the movement mechanics however you’d like, it’s still vital that we establish core movement mechanics that define Unreal Tournament for general gameplay.
Please read these tips (link to sticky on how to contribute) on how to be an effective design contributor.
The initial discussions on this forum will lead to a paper design that we will implement provide a rough initial implementation of in our Deathmatch Alpha. With the Deathmatch Alpha we’ll iterate on and polish the movement mechanics based on everyone’s feedback. Once the movement mechanic design is complete, we’ll also be able to establish level design guidelines and start working on weapon design and balance.
We love seeing the movement prototypes being created! This is a fantastic way to experiment, and to demonstrate and iterate on your ideas. We'd love to see more people working on prototypes, or working with prototype developers on refining their ideas.
With that out of the way, I’m going to summarize the movement elements we are going to be talking about:
General Movement:
• Running speed (in the past has been the same forward/back/strafing)
• Acceleration (how fast you change direction when moving)
• Air control (how much you can affect the direction of your movement while in the air)
• Jump height
• Gravity (affects how floaty the game feels. With higher gravity, even if the jump impulse is modified to result in the same jump height, you’ll spend less time in the air)
• Dodging (fast low jump in any of the 4 cardinal movement directions, with a sudden deceleration on landing)
• Double jump (past titles only allowed the double jump to occur at the apex of the jump. UT2004 allowed double jump during dodge, UT3 did not/)
• Wall dodge (ability to perform a dodge while in the air away from a nearby vertical surface)
• Impact/Rocket jumping (ability to jump extra high by jumping while point impact hammer down or using other splash/impulse providing weapon at cost of some health).
• Team boosting (ability to provide impact/rocket jumping benefits to teammates, who take no damage in normal teamgames)
Level Designer constrained movement features:
• Ramp boosting (ability to scale a near vertical surface by dodging into it, possible on any near vertical surface in UT2003, and only on LD permitted surfaces in UT2004)
• Lift jumping (taking advantage of lift momentum to get a boost to your jump at the top of the lift’s path)
• Jumppads (provide a long distance jump to a specific destination)
We can also certainly discuss and consider new movement elements.
** For example, the movement mechanics in UT2003 and UT2004 biased the game toward hitscan weapons, and also caused scale issue with interior levels which had to be built to support large scale jumps. This isn’t meant to bash those movement mechanics, which were also a lot of fun, but to point out the consequences of the design.
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