Gem Feeder 3.0Gem Feeder 3.0 by Third Helix


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Table of Contents

Introduction

In this ancient Gen Mo'kai sport, two teams compete to gather valuable gems. Put all the gems on your altars to score, but watch out for the dreaded Altar Bomb! Gem Feeder also includes the Gem Feeder Content Editor, a user-friendly in-game system for converting your favorite maps in minutes.

The object of the game is to fill your team's altars with gems. Usually there will be three altars per team and three gems in the map. There are also Altar Bombs which can be placed on enemy altars. These will detonate after a period of time, robbing the enemy of any gems they had claimed.

Requirements

Gem Feeder 3.0 requires Unreal Tournament 2004 to be installed and patched to at least version 3355. You can download the 3355 patch from our website, Third Helix, or from the official Unreal Tournament site located at http://www.unrealtournament.com.

System requirements are the same as Unreal Tournament 2004.

Game Setup

To start Gem Feeder, you'll need to activate it. If you used the UMOD installer, it should have automatically installed a Gem Feeder shortcut: simply double-click it to play. Otherwise, there are two ways to activate the mod. You can start up UT2004, then click the Community menu, then the User Mods tab. Select Gem Feeder from the list and click Activate at the bottom of the screen. Alternatively, you can create your own Gem Feeder shortcut: point it to your UT2004 install folder and use this command line:

ut2004.exe -mod=GemFeeder

Once Gem Feeder is activated, you'll see the same options as in vanilla UT2004, but in a different layout. A quick review:

When hosting a LAN/internet game or setting up an Instant Action match, your next option will be to choose the game type. There are two options available: Gem Feeder, or the Content Editor. To start a game, choose Gem Feeder.

Next you will see the map selection screen. This works just like the one in UT2004, complete with custom map list support. Note the Show All Maps checkbox beneath the map list: checking this will display all installed maps, while unchecking it filters the map list to display only those maps which are currently playable with Gem Feeder (including GF-exclusive maps and CE conversions). Generally, you'll want to leave this filter unchecked when setting up a game, and only check it when using the Content Editor.

Once you've selected a map, click on the Game Rules tab. Here's a quick breakdown of the new options, located under the Gem Feeder section heading (you may have to check the Advanced Options box at the bottom of the screen to see them all):

Once you've set up the Game Rules to your liking, you're ready to pick mutators and start the match!

Playing the Game

The object of the game is to fill your team's altars with gems. Usually there will be three altars per team and three gems in the map. Many maps have their own number of altars and gems, but don’t often stray far from the generic formula. The altars can be displayed with different bases from map to map too, but for a majority of maps they use the default base. Here are the red and blue altars:

Red and Blue Team Altars

You can pick up a gem by simply running over it. You can only carry one gem or Altar Bomb at a time, and cannot carry one if you already have the other. Gems are always blue, and if Show Special Effects is turned on in Game Rules, they will look like this:

A Gem

There are four types of Altar Bombs in the game: Fusion, Chemical, Electric, and Gravity. They all serve the same general purpose: locking down an enemy altar for a short period of time, then detonating and thus destroying all nearby gems and players. Here's what each of the Altar Bombs looks like:

Fusion Bomb

Chemical Bomb

Electric Bomb

Gravity Bomb

 

Dropped gems and Altar Bombs can be shattered by weapons fire. Altar Bombs are considerably more fragile than gems. Altar Bombs also explode when shattered, though this explosion is significantly smaller than their detonation effect. Each Altar Bomb has its own unique explosion, just as they each have unique detonations. Gems have no special effect when shattered, aside from looking pretty. Gems and Altar Bombs respawn at their home bases almost immediately after being shattered. Altar Bombs which have detonated on an altar, however, will not respawn for 60 seconds.

If you are carrying a gem and come across an Altar Bomb you want to pick up instead (or vice versa) simply move to touch the other gem or Altar Bomb and press the Use key to switch. This also works when stealing gems from an enemy altar, allowing you to steal the gem and place the Altar Bomb in one swift motion!

Each player upon entering the game is equipped with a Gem Launcher which allows you to throw gems or A-Bombs. It uses the same inventory slot as the Translocator so you can access it with that key. Simply point and shoot, but remember that gems are affected by gravity, so you'll have to aim accordingly. Also, if you are moving when you fire the Gem Launcher, your movement will affect the speed and direction of the throw. Thus, it is possible to perform a "hook shot" by dodging to the side while firing the gem. You can use the Gem Launcher to pass gems and Altar Bombs to team mates, to throw them away if you're about to be killed, or to shoot them onto altars from afar.

Another tool at your disposal is a technique we call Link Drawing. This involves shooting a dropped gem or Altar Bomb with the Link Gun's secondary fire beam, which will not damage the gem and will instead pull it toward you. This is great for grabbing hard-to-reach gems, beating an enemy to a gem, or stealing gems from enemy altars without exposing yourself to [much] danger.

If an enemy has placed an Altar Bomb in your base, you'll want to do something about it before it explodes, taking all your hard-earned gems with it! You'll receive a text message when an Altar Bomb is placed, and the gem icon at the top of your HUD will change to indicate the type of A-Bomb present:

A-Bomb HUD Warning (for Fusion Bomb)

Note that if multiple Altar Bombs are present in your base at one time, the warning symbol will only reflect one of them. If the warning symbol appears, get back to your base to disarm that bomb! To disarm an Altar Bomb, simply touch it. The Disarm Interface will appear on your HUD. Note that only one player can use the Disarm Interface at a time, so if someone else is already using it, it won't appear for you.

Using the Disarm Interface is simple. In the top right of the interface you can see the countdown timer. When this reaches zero, it's goodbye gems and goodbye you. In the bottom right are three Lock Indicators. You must light all three of these to successfully disarm the bomb. Watch the large light on the left. When it turns green, press the Use key to open one of the locks. Do not press the Use key while the big light is red! If you mess up the timing, you'll be promptly shocked to death, and worse, the Disarm Interface will be locked down and totally inaccessible for the next fifteen seconds, while the countdown timer ticks happily away. Here's what the Disarm Interface looks like in-game:

Disarm Interface

            1: When this LED flashes green, quickly press the Use key to open one of the locks.

            2: The Countdown Timer tells you how many seconds are left until the A-Bomb detonates.

            3: The Lock Indicators are red when locked, green when unlocked. When all three are unlocked, the A-Bomb is disarmed.

GF HUD Layout

1: This "smart" radar points you toward the nearest relevant gem. It will not point to A-Bombs, or to gems which are already in your team's posession.

            2: This player is carrying a gem. Pretty obvious, isn't it?

            3: These two radars point toward the nearest red and blue altars. For your own team, the radar will not point to altars which already have a gem.

            4: This is the gem launcher, in all it's first-person glory.

            5: An icon appears here when you're carrying a gem or A-Bomb. The appearance of the icon indicates what you are carrying.

Some Gem Feeder maps contain vehicles. You can carry a gem or Altar Bomb in any vehicle except a Manta, Raptor, or Cicada (ECE only). If you try to enter any of these vehicles, you will drop the gem. Additionally, you cannot translocate while carrying a gem or Altar Bomb.

Content Editor

The Gem Feeder Content Editor is a user-friendly in-game system for converting your favorite maps in minutes. Simply load up just about any non-GF map, decide where to place altars, gems, and Altar Bombs, and you're ready to play!

To use the Content Editor, select it from the game type selection screen. If Show All Maps is checked, you'll have access to every map you have installed, regardless of game type. Select the map you wish to edit and click Play; there are no other settings. If you select a map which has an existing content definition (i.e. it has been edited before) it will load up with the previously-placed objects in place. You can then remove and replace these objects at will.

Within the Content Editor "game type" you will see a simple information display in the top left corner of the screen. This lists the numbers of gems, Altar Bombs, red altars, and blue altars currently present in the map, as well as some helpful hints for running the CE. Additionally, you may see a number of warnings, in red text beneath the information display. The warnings are self-explanatory, and should all be corrected before you attempt to play the map in a normal GF game. You will see several warnings when you open a fresh, unedited map, so don't be alarmed.

Weapon slots 1-4 contain gems, Altar Bombs, red altars, and blue altars (respectively). You can use the keys you've bound to these weapons (the number keys 1-4 by default) or the switch weapon keys (mousewheel up/down by default) to change between these. An icon in the lower left corner indicates the object type you have currently selected. Press Fire to place that object. All objects will snap to the ground beneath you, even if you're up in the air.

If you wish to remove an object, touch it and press Secondary Fire. It doesn't matter what object type you have currently selected. If you want to reposition an object, simply remove it and add another one in the correct place.

Note that you cannot pick up any items while working within the CE. Also, the third-person camera is highly recommended for object placement as it makes this task much easier to do accurately. You can toggle it with the console command behindview.

Content definitions (groups of data representing the placement of objects in non-GF maps) are stored under your UT2004\System folder in the file GF_ContentUser.ini. You can install other users' content definitions by copying the relevant lines into your version of the file. Note the map name near the beginning of each line, and make sure to grab all the lines with that map's name as each line represents one of the objects that was placed in the map. Do not modify the GF_Content3hx.ini, that is the "official" content database which will be updated by us from time to time.

Mapping

If the Content Editor just isn't enough, and you want to build totally custom Gem Feeder maps, then this section is for you. Gem Feeder maps are simple to create and generally follow a flow similar to CTF/BR maps.

In the Actor Browser, directly under Actor, you'll find GemSpawn and its child actor, ABombSpawn. Respectively, these are the home base locations for gems and Altar Bombs. Also directly under Actor you'll find GemAltar, which is not placeable, and its child actors RedGemAltar and BlueGemAltar. These are the red and blue altars, respectively. Be careful when placing these actors to make sure that you include enough gems for both teams to score, and you should generally keep each team's altar count the same. Note that the actual altar actors appear very small in the editor. The default DrawScale is necessary in order to properly scale the altar coronas. Note that you can select altars by clicking the corona: you don't have to hit the actor sprite itself. Nonetheless, if you choose to change the DrawScale for convenience, make sure to reset it to its default setting before releasing the map, otherwise the coronas will be blinding!

In order to ensure compatibility with the GF gametype, make sure you prefix your map's name with GF, like this: GF-MapName. Also, within the Level Properties window (F6) under the LevelInfo rollout, set the DefaultGameType to GemGame.GemGame.

Gem spawns, Altar Bomb spawns, and altars are not directly connected to the AI path network, so don't be alarmed when they don't show up as such in Show Paths. The bots will have no trouble reaching these actors as long as a valid path falls somewhere in the general vicinity. For the purposes of spacing and laying out your path network, however, treat these actors more or less as PathNodes.

If you want to add vehicles, I highly recommend using the ONSVehicleFactory. For gun turrets you can use ONSManualGunPawn. Other forms of vehicle factories and turrets are supported as well but have not been tested as extensively.

Finally, if you make a cool GF map, let us know! Post to our forums at Third Helix or email invicticide with a link to your map (please don't send the map file itself as an attachment).

Credits

Special thanks to Protocol 42 for supporting our work and lending us their valuable bandwidth!

Gem Feeder Copyright (c) 2004-2005 Third Helix. All rights reserved.