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Unreal Tournament, UT, (sometimes referred to as UT99 to differentiate from Unreal Tournament 2003 and Unreal Tournament 2004) is a popular first-person shooter video game. It is Epic Games's 1999 follow-up title to Unreal and focuses mainly on multiplayer action. It was launched in direct competition to id's Quake III Arena which was released 10 days later. Although Quake III Arena had slightly better graphics, streamlined gameplay and a widely adopted engine, UT had both vastly superior bot AI, "alternate fire" for weapons which introduced a further element of strategy, and more varied multiplayer capabilities.

Its huge multiplayer success was rewarded by various "Best Game of the Year" awards. As with the original Unreal, the ease with which players can create and release mods to the core game is a key factor contributing to UT's longevity. UT improved upon the mod-friendly nature of its predecessor with support for mutators. Epic has released found bonus packs adding various extras to unreal tournament. The first two of these along with the update to version 436 were bundled together to create Unreal tournament game of the year edition (UT GOTY) for short). Unfortunately the 436 pack and the game of the year edition shipped with a version of de.u that was incompatible with the version from bonus pack 2 that many servers ran meaning that anyone wanting to play online after installing the 436 patch or the game of the year edition had to either get rid of de.u (and any references to it in the ini files) or reinstall bonus pack 2. The game of the year addition also came with some higher quality textures and a couple of third party mods (rocket arena and chaosut) on a second CD.

UT was also released on Dreamcast in 2000 and on PlayStation 2 in 2001. Both versions allow for four players via splitscreen. The Dreamcast version has 8-player online support while the PlayStation 2 does not.

Gameplay

UT and Quake III Arena both feature deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture the flag; however, unique to UT was the "Assault" mode. With two teams taking turns, the attacking team tries to achieve objectives and pass through checkpoints within a certain time limit while the defenders use fortifications and defenses to hold the attackers back. Once the objectives have been achieved or the time has expired, the opposing sides switch to see which team has the better time for completing the objectives. It was said that many gamers bought UT solely because of the "Overlord" Assault map which simulated the famous World War II D-day beachhead assault on the Battle of Normandy (although "Overlord" is closer to Juno Beach instead due to both having heavy gun batteries which the Omaha defenses lacked). Although the original release of UT had a small selection of Assault maps, there are many user-created maps, the most popular being Assault Bonus Pack 4.18 which received the endorsement of UT designer Cliff Bleszinski. Because of time constraints, Assault mode was removed from the follow up game, Unreal Tournament 2003, but was included once again in Unreal Tournament 2004, which is a superset of UT2003. However, the Assault gametype has not been announced as being in the upcoming Unreal Tournament 2007, due to be released in late 2006 early 2007.

UT is also known for "domination", a gametype that pits teams against one another to maintain ownership of markers. Once these markers are held for a certain period of time, the team gains a point. This mode of gameplay was first seen as early as 1997 in the Quake Team Fortress map canalzone, but became popular thanks to its inclusion in UT, and was later adopted by other games, including Bungie Software's Halo 2, under the name "Territories." It was also adopted by Metroid Prime Hunters as "nodes", and a variant can be found in the TimeSplitters series ('Zones').

Although the game was mainly intended for multiplayer use, it also includes a single player game where they player must win many matches on preselected maps against predefined sets of bots eventually facing the current "Champion of the Tournament", Xan Kriegor. The maps are split into 5 sections, "deathmatch", "domination", "capture the flag", "assault" and "challenge". The first four sections are named after the game type played in them and after the first few maps of each are completed the next section unlocks. When all four of these sections are complete the challenge section unlocks. This section is deathmatch but with slightly different rules settings and leads the player through a number of tough matches before finally facing xan himself.

UT is known and widely praised for its A.I.. The player can choose a skill level (anywhere from "Novice" to "Godlike") for the bots to use in both single player and multiplayer games. In the multiplayer portion, bots can be further customized by changing names, appearance, accuracy, weapon preferences, awareness, and so forth.

Weapons

Ut has a fairly large selection of weapons and many more are seen in custom maps or inserted through custom mutators, each weapon has a number between 0 and 9 which sets the key that activates it and the slot in the hud it appears in (the hud slots have the same order as the keys on a PC keyboard). If the player has multiple weapons with the same number they can press the selection key multiple times to switch between them. Weapons can also be switched through in order (this function is usually bound to the mousewheel).
  • Slot 1
    • Impact Hammer: Assuming no mutators are in use the player always spawns with this melee weapon, which is essentially a large pneumatic piston. The Secondary Fire button makes the piston fire once every second or so; the Primary Fire button charges the piston for a stronger thrust, often resulting in a shower of gibs if it hits. Primary-fire can also be used to rocket jump, with appropriate self-inflicted damage resulting. And alt-fire has the potential of deflecting oncoming projectiles. *
    • Chainsaw: A simple chainsaw, primary fire holds the chainsaw out in front (like in Doom) secondry fire swings the chainsaw and if it connects, causes a headshot no matter where it hits. The chainsaw is not present in any of the standard maps but is available through the "chainsaw melee" (chainsaw replaces impact hammer in the starting weapon set) and "chainsaw arena" (chainsaws only) mutators. If the pickup is placed in a custom map then when it is picked up the player gets the message "it's been five years since i've seen one of these", presumablly a reference to the chainsaw in doom.
    • Translocator: A personal teleporting device, see translocator section below.
  • Slot 2
    • Enforcer: a semi-automatic pistol and the other weapon that players spawn with in a game with no mutators. Primary fire discharges bullets; for alt-fire, the character holds the gun "gangster-style" (sideways), allowing for more rapid fire but decreasing accuracy. Picking up another enforcer (generally from an opponents dead body) makes the player dual weild for greater firepower.
  • Slot 3
    • Bio-Rifle: a weapon that shoots green toxic goo; these gobs show a distinct ballistic arc and stick for a few moments to whatever surface they hit, before bursting with splash-damage effects. Alt-fire allows the rifle to charge up to eight units of ammunition into one huge glob, whereas primary fire shoots only a single round. Though hard to use as a conventional weapon due to the behavior of its projectiles, it is very useful as a defensive weapon.
      • Shock Rifle: one of Unreal Tournament's most distinctive weapons, the Shock Rifle fires a hitscan laser beam with its primary fire. Secondary fire unleashes a non-hitscan projectile, a globe of energy that can be shot with a laser blast for a fairly large explosion; this is called a "shock combo." Both globe and beam impart a lot of physical momentum when they hit, making this weapon ideal for blasting enemies off of ledges or into pits.
      • Enhanced shock rifle The enhanced shock rifle is an instant kill weapon with unlimited ammunition. However despite its appearance and the behavior of the normal shock rifle the "enhanced" variety does no splash damage. Its only fire mode is hitscan and apart from the color (orange rather than blue) looks the same as that of the normal shock rifle. Its pickup is is not placed in any of the standard maps and looks identical to that of the standard shock rifle but the weapon is availible through the standard Instagib mutator.
    • Slot 5
      • Pulse Gun: equipped with a small gatling barrel on the front, this weapon produces a stream of non-hitscan plasma bolts. Its secondary fire produces a continuous short-ranged beam of energy, which makes up in raw damage what it loses in range.
    • Slot 6
      • Ripper: An unusual weapon to say the least, the Ripper fires circular saw blades. These blades will bounce several times off of walls, floors, ceilings, etc., before breaking up, allowing the user to shoot them around corners; with proper aim, they can also be used to decapitate ("headshot") foes (killing them instantly, no matter how much armor or health they have.) The alt-fire produces discs that do not bounce, but rather explode on impact.
    • Slot 7
      • Minigun: a classic machine gun, this weapon fills the air with a storm of lead. The Primary fire puts out bullets at a slower pace so it has more accuracy (about 6 to 8 a second). However, the secondary fire produces twice as many bullets (12 or 14 a second) but at a serious reduction in accuracy. It fires the same kind of bullets as the Enforcer.
    • Slot 8
      • Flak Cannon: similar to a very powerful shotgun, this squat, huge-bore weapon fires a hail of molten metal shards, capable of gibbing any foe at close range but totally useless at long range. These shards will bounce off of any surface, so players are warned not to fire directly into a wall if standing near it. The shards lose their glow (and their lethality) after about a second's time. The alternate fire produces a mortar shell which disintegrates on impact into a burst of shards. Amusingly (for the wielder, not the victim), these shells have a smiley painted on them.
    • Slot 9
      • Rocket Launcher: probably the most versatile weapon in the game, the Rocket Launcher has five modes of fire. Pressing Primary Fire once releases a small rocket; holding it down allows the launcher to arm and store up to six rockets in its rotating barrel, for simultaneous release in a spread pattern (hit Alt-fire sometime during the loading process to release them in a tight cluster instead). By tracking an opponent with one's crosshairs for a couple of seconds, the rockets become heat-seeking and semi-guided; only two can be charged in this mode. Alternate Fire tosses a rocket to the ground, where it bounces and then explodes after a short time; holding alt-fire charges up to six of these impromptu grenades for simultaneous release. Keep in mind that charged rounds cannot be held in reserve; once the weapon finishes loading its sixth barrel, it will release all its projectiles, regardless of whether the target or the wielder is ready to fire them.
    • Slot 0
      • Sniper Rifle: produces a high-power hitscan rifle round that can decapitate foes if aimed at their heads (producing a one-hit kill;) the alternate-fire button allows the player to use the scope, up to 8X. Like all video-game sniper rifles, this weapon depends primarily on the player's aim, reflexes, and (in multiplayer games where the server isn't using the "zeroping" mod) network latency. It shares another set of traits with video-game sniper rifles; it is absurdly strong, but has a low rate of fire.
      • Redeemer: a miniaturized nuclear warhead and launcher, the Redeemer may be practical in enclosed spaces, as anyone within the range of its large explosion will be instantly vaporized (of course if the wielder is about to die anyway or there are a lot of enemies present they may consider a suicide attack reasonable), regardless of their amounts of armor and health. Radiation and fallout damage is not addressed, probably because it is more of a long-term effect that cannot influence a match. Primary fire sends the missile out unguided, but alt-fire allows the player to steer the missile via a nose camera. The player can detonate the missile either by pressing the button again, or by crashing it into something (or someone.) Unfortunately, the missile can be shot down without detonating it. There is no ability to roll the rocket and vertical angle locks at straight up/down making it virtually impossible to loop the loop. Also, although the player is able to move while guiding the rocket, without seeing what s/he's doing, he becomes an easy target, so if someone finds him/her, they can score an easy kill. If the wielder is killed while guiding the rocket, it will be destroyed without detonating. It also has the drawback of carrying a maximum ammo count of only two shots.

    Translocator

    The translocator is a small disc shot from a launcher. The player can then teleport to the disc's location, including in midair or on top of a high ledge. Three popular translocator techniques used throughout UT are telepunting, telesprinting and telefragging. In the single player campaign the translocator is a starting weapon in some game types. In practice sessions and multiplayer there is an option to enable or disable it.

    Telepunting is a movement technique allowing for quick traversals of large open areas, reducing the likelihood of unwanted engagements. It is when the user "punts" the disc off the ground with a Shock Combo or a blow from the Impact Hammer. This trick is especially useful in Capture the Flag, as it allows for rapid flag-capture attempts without the long delay of traveling from base to base. This tactic is somewhat offset by the fact that players will drop the flag on translocation.

    Telesprinting is using the translocator in rapid succession to move about the map faster.

    The translocator is also used to perform is one way to perform a telefrag (fixed teleporters can also be used if present and player starts occasionally cause it as well), an instant death move in which the user translocates into the space occupied by another player. While this may seem unbalanced, it is usually only effective at close range and after a great deal of practice.

    It must be noted, however, that the disc can be shot at by enemies. If the disc gets hit, it will malfunction, making it so the user of the disc will be killed if they attempt to translocate. So tactically speaking, it may be unwise to leave your translocator disc out in the open for extended periods of time.

    Community

    As of August 2005, there remains an active but dwindling UT online community with a few thousand UT dedicated players online in multiplayer combat at any one time. It is easy to find a game any time of the day. For instance, from later in the evening to late at night, games in countries on the other side the globe can be found. At four A.M. in the United States, there are active servers in Europe where it is already lunchtime. From the hours of approximately eight A.M. until ten P.M. in the United States it is very easy to find a full server of Deathmatch, Capture the flag or Team Deathmatch. Unfortunately, at this time there are few hours of the day when a full Assault or Domination server can be found.

    Also dwindling are the leagues that once existed for competitive play. One such league, the Proving Grounds, was arguably the longest lasting and most respected gaming league for UT that ever existed. Unfortunately, the Proving Grounds closed its doors in 2004 to the dismay of many online clans who actively played in the United States based league.

    One active Assault league called UTassault is European-based and provides a great community in which the best assaulters from around the world compete for the title of best assault clan. However, since it is European-based and all games must be played on European servers, non European assaulters have a very difficult time climbing the ranks due to excessive network latency.

    Also in existence is the ProUnreal * league which was mainly started as a CTF league but has adopted some of the orphaned Proving Grounds competitors. This league is based in North America and includes newer Epic Unreal 'series games such as UT2003 and UT2004.

    UT is an aging game, and many new players come and go. This may be due to several factors. First, a high skill level is needed to compete in many of the existing servers. Many of those who still play UT are or were at one time dedicated to the game much as a professional athlete would dedicate himself to his sport. Many of these players are very skilled, know the maps in and out, know the location and use of all secrets and powerups, and use weapons in ways that newer players would probably never discover. Second, many modern servers are heavily modified and require downloading the altered files, a task which can be very time consuming for players with slower connections. Third, because of the prevalent cheating in the game, the game engine has been modified multiple times to versions 436 and 451. This latest release came about by the joint efforts of the game's modding scene, united as UTPG.org, wanting to keep UT up to date after Epic Games stopped supporting the title. Clients can but do not have to apply this patch, as they can still connect to 451 servers while running version 436. A public beta of UTPG for the Mac platform has not been released, but is in development by developer Ryan Gordon, also known as Icculus, who is also responsible for the Linux port. Internal betas have been released to his testing group, Mac Ninjas, and Gordon has stated publicly that the project will be completed some day, although not by any fixed deadline as it is a volunteer effort.

    By far the largest faction of the UT online gaming community is the European one, largely based (but not ending) at ClanBase, the largest online gaming community in the world which spans nearly all major online multiplayer games. There are also grass-roots gaming communities, which frown upon using the term "clan," (e.g., s Cubed).

    UT has also been kept alive thanks to its dedicated CTF community, consisting of a number of devoted players who have resisted both changes to the Unreal Tournament series and modern FPS titles. However, the game shows no signs of slowing down just yet. Due to the age and status of the game, it has proven to pose a steep learning curve for new players to the online community. Now thanks to new gametypes such as the "Spamcup" mod, now in its third season as a hosted cup on ClanBase new clans and players are encouraged to take part alongside seasoned veterans and regular players alike.

    There are also more minor factions which support more particular communities. For example, PiPGN (the Primus Inter Pares Gaming Network) is an online gaming community supporting a very dedicated Sniper Arena community (and, of course, welcoming others!).

    MLUT

    The Unreal Tournament community of Capture The Flag and Team Deathmatch began a league of their own. The site which was designed by UT players is a drafting league like the major leagues such as the NFL and NBA. In MLUT there are player sign ups and captain sign ups that are announced in the mainly used IRC by the UT community. After the signups each person is given a ranking based on salary. After salarys are posted, the picking begins. Each captain has a certain salary cap that they can not go over during the rounds of picking so one team cannot be "stacked" and have a unfair advantage. There have currently been 10 successful Capture the Flag seasons, the most recent season has just recently ended.

    System requirements

    Microsoft Windows
    • Intel Pentium 200MHz or AMD K6 200MHz or better processor
    • 32MB RAM
    • DirectX 7.0 or higher
    • PCI Local Bus Video Card with 4MB VRAM
    • 300MB HDD
    • 4x or faster CD-ROM or 4x or faster DVD-ROM Drive
    • Windows 95

    Mac OS

    • 200MHz 603-based processor
    • 64MB RAM
    • 120MB HDD
    • Mac OS 7.6

    Mac OS X

    • G3 processor
    • 128MB RAM
    • 120MB HDD
    • Mac OS X 10.1.x

    Linux

    • Pentium II with 3D accelerator card
    • 64MB RAM
    • XFree86 3.3.5 or newer at 16bpp
    • Video Card capable of 640x480 resolution
    • 550MB HDD
    • OSS compatible sound card
    • Linux kernel version 2.2.x

    Mods

    As Unreal Tournament is an extremely popular game, many fans have taken the liberty of creating mods for the game. These range from slight changes on some aspects of gameplay (such as map voting) or to total conversions.

    Selected mods and mutators for UT:

    • Map Vote - Lets the players vote on which map is to be played next.
    • UT Pure - An ongoing server side cheat project. Pure aims at eliminating illegal cheats such as a common rendering hook that can be used to create exploitations such as aimbots and radars. The latest version Pure7G has unfortunetly been hacked by elite gamehackers, however the hack is not widely known and can be stopped when used in conjunction with UTDC v1.6, another hack protection.
    • Infiltration - Realism modification featuring modern day military weapons and scenarios.
    • Tactical Ops Popular action modification, later bundled and spun off into its own retail product.
    • Thievery UT - A mod based on the Thief series game but has a human + AI guard team and a human thief team (with different weapons and items). Thieves sneak around and steal loot (generally) and the guard team must stop them. Thieves are invisible to varying degrees in the dark (depending how dark it is). A great mod which is still being played and is still receiving developer updates. Since the style of play is vastly different to most other mods Thievery for Unreal Tournament has a steep learning curve.
    • Action Realism - Players are realistically crippled depending on where they are shot. They also lose energy if they have open wounds, and must stop to apply bandages.
    • LeagueAssault - Mod created by the UTassault community to enhance the game of assault. Ironically the mod prevents many unaware new players from becoming assaulters, since they may have a difficult time connecting to servers with the mod active.
    • Monster Hunt - These are maps prefixed with "MH" . This is where you team up against varying sizes of monsters, ranging from small Pupae to Warlords & Titans. By killing these monsters you progress through the map. The hunt is ended by reaching the "Hunt Complete" area, in which the winner is chosen by the person with the most kills (or "frags" as they are known). One of the sites to visit the community of players is at Planet Monster Hunt Monster Hunt is one of the most active gametypes in UT, with many new maps/mutators still being created. A popular mutator that a lot of servers run with MH is UTJMH, which regenerates player's ammo/health making maps a lot easier to get through.
    • Strangelove - This mod gives you a nuclear missile launcher which can be fired two ways. First, you can fire it at your enemies like a standard weapon. Alternatively, you can ride a launched rocket around maps and control the direction and speed. Pilots can arm or disarm the nuclear warhead and jump off before crashing. An updated version also used is called RocketX.
    • BunnyTrack - These maps start with CTF-BT- or BT- , a movement game where you must jump on blocks, shoot targets, dodge up ramps, dodge crushers, press switches, etc., if you fail once you usually fall in lava/slime and go back to the start, you must get to the end and capture the flags.
    • Instagib - All players have high-powered Shock Rifles that can blow an opponent apart with a single hit and have unlimited ammo. This is the mod most played in online gaming, as it requires an extremely precise aiming skill. (Shock rifles are very slow on reload, thus one missed shot gives the enemy several seconds to aim.)
    • Excessive Overkill - High powered weapons, no Self Damage and the ability to self boost around the maps with varying weapons. Originally tested by CFH (Calibrated for Harm, originally Clan of the Flaming Hair), the oldest Excessive Overkill UT clan in existence.
    • ChaosUT - A weapon mod based on destructive, chaotic weapons such as gravity vortexes and flamethrowers. One of the most famous ChaosUT weapons are the Proxy Mines which are mines, shaped like a ball with a smiley face on it, which jump all over the map targeting enemy players and detonating themselves. http://www.chaoticdreams.org

    Cheat codes

    These codes can be used in the single player game by typing them in the console, by default the ~ key.
    • "god" - become invincible
    • "loaded" - all weapons
    • "allammo" - max ammunition
    • "addbots #" - add more bots (one or two digit number)
    • "killbots" - removes all bots at once
    • "playersonly" - freeze everything but the player character
    • "fly" - be able to move faster and fly around
    • "ghost" - become etheral and fly through walls

    External links

    Unreal | Linux games | Windows games | Mac OS games | Dreamcast games | PlayStation 2 games | First-person shooters | 1999 computer and video games | Multiplayer online games

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Unreal Tournament".

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