The rivival of Chicago 1.

[MMA_T1mesh1fter]

So, it seems more and more old and new players find their way to MMC1, probably because most new multiplayer shooters don't offer the same vibe as UT2K4 does on these servers:P However in all this time i was away (2 to 3 years), absolutely nothing has changed. While it still is as much fun as it was before (Even without some of the most epic people i ever met in this game) At some point a little change would add a lot to the gameplay. I understand that programming such things is a lot of work, but i'm sure people would donate for it if it makes their experience of the game more intense.

Monster Evolution has all sorts of wonderfull gimmicks, some of the best monster designs, occasional updates and because of that, it has a more thriving community behind it.

Maybe it's an idea to give MM1 a little make-over, just to give the players some new things like:
-challenges
-more class based skills to increase the fun and duration of leveling and the release of the 3 featured skills(using some examples from Evolution?)
-an updated wave bestiary (maybe a 3rd possible wavebuild like hypothermia and pneumonia with monsters from evolution?)
-some new maps created by known or unknown editors
-updated weapon enchantments (Adren transfer When shooting an ally, it pumps your adrenaline in his body. when hitting a monster it disables their abilities for a short time, however they can still move freely. Shieldcraft[When shooting a player, it creates a damage absorbing shield which gets stronger for each point of friendly damage done, with a max ofcoarse..lets say the same as the players HP bonus level?] Animation Reduced damage output, but when you kill a monster with it, it revives as your ally for ** seconds, where ?? is the level 1-10 of the weapon. Wallbreach less damage output, but the ability to shoot through walls, only for shock rifle, Amril and grenade launcher. Confusion When you damage a monster, it will attack it's own kind for a few seconds and give you the xp for the hit/kill, NOT for splash weapons.
Again these are just ideas, feel free to add things to your liking.

and optionally:

-A commander wave on 5, 10 and 15. just the usual wave, but with a clearly stronger entity.(like the miniboss, but with less punch and more xp then normal monsters) examples: The den mother(big queen)or the Angus brothers/ Ultimate angus (angus duh) on wave 5, Jurassic Monstrosity(big raptor) or Alpha titan on wave 10, ]The crackler(Big red toned seeker) or Tony's breedmother (A muscular tony's creation)
Cause who wouldn't piss his pants when a commander seeker 4 times the size with multitarget capability enters wave 15. again just an idea :swink:

-Co-op class abilities/strategies. Things like Adrentransfer between players (either with a hotkey or a Link gun of transfer?), portable medic bombs which medics can give to other players at the cost of adren(in the form of an artifact perhaps?) Companion shielding for medics (damage caused to the player is transferred to the medic monster) Ammo box creator as artifact for WM, at the cost of adren, you throw an ammo box on the ground which restores 1/4th (or any other number) of the maximum ammo to players who walk through it. The box will vanish after a few secs.

-Something diffrent or completely new for wave 16? (Again, a big ass seeker would surely add a challenge:P)

-A solution for the high monster level problem, since most players are over 150, The monsters are too. This takes away a lot of balance between classes and renders any other weapon then piercing or vorpal useless. (not that we even use Hunter or skaarjbane weapons)

-2 new adren button combinations(like berserk and speed): Rock skin(+50% damage reduction at the cost of 25 adren each second) and Bio-magnet(Makes you a magnet for monsters, pulling them towards you for 50 adren per second)

-And last but not least, The revival of some old friends like the P&J Sandwich titans, Wailord overlords and the superweapon: Black hole generator/rifle

Sorry for the long post, just asking for changes or improvement has no use without examples and ideas. I'd love to hear your own ideas about this, and ofcoarse if this is even possible or worth the trouble.
For now, Happy Mashing!

[DW_WailofSuicide]

I'd like to do some things with Monster Mash, however there are two major issues:

(1) Time
(2) Monster Mash players have sort of voiced their opinions to me before effectively saying they'd rather the game stayed the same, rather than continuing to improve the game (which is to say, adding new things and correcting broken things). I have a ton of ideas on things I'd like to do, but when it comes down to it if players are just going to disparage new things -- "Oh, that sucks, it's not as good as Vorpal, Energy, etc." then why bother?

[MMA_T1mesh1fter]

You have a point there, i remember the last time things changed,I actually liked the changes but all people could do was complain, but it are not those people who play on server 1 these days, most of them are new players. most of the old server addicts quit, play on evolution or went on to another game(probably cause they began to think it got boring.. which is not weird when everyone is against a change every once in a while). I talked about it on the server today and it seems I am not the only one craving for change in some way.
The fact that the average number of online players is between 5 and 7 instead of 20 with people waiting in queue to log in makes clear to me that people indeed got bored with playing on the server.
since i am not easily bored, i don't know if it's because of the age of the game or the lack of changes to the server.

Maybe it's an idea to open a poll for it (if people still check the site enough to answer)I personally don't mind that things haven't changed since i quit to get my school in order 2-3 years ago, but for how long are people gonna be interested in playing on a server with no new challenges and the same routine day after day?
If those people also quit, I might be the only one left playing most of the time.. and i can't handle monsters which have my level hahaha :sgiggle:
As for the new weapon ideas, it's not that they would replace vorpal, energy, piercing or petri, since those are the key weapons for the server. But who uses Hunter weapons and skaarjbane weapons? and how important is Freezing since petri has a simular, but better effect? I personally detest flying weapons, but i know there are people who use them so it might not be a replacable magic.

Anyways, since this whole operation is gonna cost time, I understand that it might be a bit too much to ask for such an old game. But IF, then take as much time as you need for it:) i won't be going anywhere:P
The changes don't have to take place all at once, but just the idea that new things are being added every once in a while might just be enough to keep people active:)

[MMA_T1mesh1fter]

A good way to test if people like the new changes would be to limit them to a few maps only (probably only possible for testing new monsters, since the DruidRPG is embedded). For instance, take a few of the most popular maps, make copies in the map list and rename them to BETA, like uhm.. [Beta]Candyland, that way people can choose for themselves when to play a match with newly applied updates.
I have no idea how this works excactly, my programming and Animation skills are on the same level as my dog's:P But if it is possible (like with the miniboss appearing in specific maps) it is probably the best way for beta testing the updates.

[DW_WailofSuicide]

You have a point there, i remember the last time things changed,I actually liked the changes but all people could do was complain, but it are not those people who play on server 1 these days, most of them are new players. most of the old server addicts quit, play on evolution or went on to another game(probably cause they began to think it got boring.. which is not weird when everyone is against a change every once in a while). I talked about it on the server today and it seems I am not the only one craving for change in some way.
The fact that the average number of online players is between 5 and 7 instead of 20 with people waiting in queue to log in makes clear to me that people indeed got bored with playing on the server.
since i am not easily bored, i don't know if it's because of the age of the game or the lack of changes to the server.

Maybe it's an idea to open a poll for it (if people still check the site enough to answer)I personally don't mind that things haven't changed since i quit to get my school in order 2-3 years ago, but for how long are people gonna be interested in playing on a server with no new challenges and the same routine day after day?
If those people also quit, I might be the only one left playing most of the time.. and i can't handle monsters which have my level hahaha :sgiggle:
As for the new weapon ideas, it's not that they would replace vorpal, energy, piercing or petri, since those are the key weapons for the server. But who uses Hunter weapons and skaarjbane weapons? and how important is Freezing since petri has a simular, but better effect? I personally detest flying weapons, but i know there are people who use them so it might not be a replacable magic.

Anyways, since this whole operation is gonna cost time, I understand that it might be a bit too much to ask for such an old game. But IF, then take as much time as you need for it:) i won't be going anywhere:P
The changes don't have to take place all at once, but just the idea that new things are being added every once in a while might just be enough to keep people active:)

There are a couple of things to address:
First off, I agree that monster level needs looking at. That's actually something I really want to do as I think monsters should not scale infinitely.

As for other stuff, one of the big problems with Monster Mash is that the options that already exist pretty much make everything else obsolete. As you yourself ask, why bother using X or Y when Z is similar but better? When it comes down to it, a few weapon types are heads and shoulders above others -- These need to be brought down in line, but do you really support major nerfs to Energy or Vorpal (w/DMM)? I mean, I personally think it'd make for a much more interesting play experience, but I don't think that opinion is too widely spread. Once you have weapons that instant kill and weapons that give you infinite adrenaline to run a power that gives you invulnerability, there isn't much design space left to explore.

The only way I can think of to deal with this is by creating new classes and abilities that are actually designed to be balanced from the ground up. However if these coexisted with players in Monster Mash I don't know why anyone would play them (aside from just the novelty factor). Ultimately I kind of feel like the best solution is to start from scratch, and when I think about starting from scratch I wonder whether it'd be better to just use UDK to build something like that.

[MMA_T1mesh1fter]

In my opinion, starting from scratch and downgrading some weapons would be the best option there is, but since the game is from 2004, I don't know if people recieve the message in the first place, as much less people play these days.
I never use globe on my weapon master, the reason is that the game is much more fun when you know you could die at any moment when you stop moving even for a second:P

Creating a new class will be a hard task, I can't even think of a proper class that fits within the aspect of the game at this moment:P But after reading your replies i know you have a list somewhere with ready-to-go ideas for the server which had no chance to be tested.
When downgrading weapons you must also take into account that some other skills get weaker, thus the balance between monster damage and for instance Vampirism changes ( if that skill even exists after the start from scratch haha)

Also, if you could tell me what the total costs to run a UT2004 server is monthly, I might even consider renting a server so that the new ideas get their own place to be tested.

[DW_Bomzin]

How about I just hit the big red reset button on MM1. Make it fresh again. Nothing like a bunch of lo levels. I remember the first time we beat Luci.


The problems with change have already been stated. It's worse then pulling teeth sometimes.

[MMA_T1mesh1fter]

Not a bad idea, but that doesn't change much besides the fact that everyone needs to start over. It will provide a good challenge, but without real change, it will still be the same thing.
Besides, how will people react to the news that all progress they made and time they put into certain characters has just been erased with a little push on a button:P I don't care for it much, At level 500+ you do miss the joy of leveling, instead most of the fun lies in protecting and leveling the few weaker players that play daily at this moment. as long as it does not reset the gametracker scorelist i am fine with whatever choice is made. :swink:

[warhead2]

hi, just to let people know, I have not lost interest in the server in the least, it's just that time is limited so currently that time is being spent playing evo while I get two rank 4 characters established. once I am finished with that task I will be returning. I would not want to find my characters have been reset upon returning. regarding the monster level issue, we dealt with that a long time ago in another thread where the issue was beat into the ground. however, now that player involvement is actually getting to that low point, it would be interesting to see how attitudes would change about it. I of course would welcome any change to this area but even something as simple as making it easier to obtain piercing weapons would suffice. weapon masters never got skill which was supposed to give them rolling artifacts and something like that would be along those lines. at any rate, I am happy with the game play of the server and really miss it and looking forward to returning after I stubbornly carry out my grinding on evo.

[MMA_T1mesh1fter]

Aye warhead, the gameplay still does the trick, for us at least. Making the odds on piercing better, or changing the level at which monsters adapt to player levels would solve it mostly. But it doesn't change the fact that the balance between the effectiveness of certain weapon types is off.
And of coarse resetting the levels would hurt, since we all spent a lot of time to get them. But with new abilities, new classes, new monsters and perhaps even new weapons and challenges it might actually be MORE fun to level again. Since everyone is back to square 1, there are no overpowered people, and Teamwork will get a big boost from it.
Besides, We either play for fun or to best the highscore list (in my case both:P) And as long as those remain, why would it be a problem to set all players to an equal level? The extra challenge would boost my fun in the game rather than take it away. But i guess it's a matter of opinion here.