My name's Patrick Dinklage, a.k.a. pd.
I've been playing UT2004 almost since its release date in Germany and I still am. Right from the beginning, I also started playing with UnrealEd.
In April 2007, when my favorite game server moved to #1 BIG BATTLE SERVERS, I went on to become a UT2004 game administrator there. Having become more potent in both mapping and UnrealScript programming, I also took over development of the UT2004RPG based RPG mod we're running, and have been heavily improving it.
I was proud to be named a server administrator at a later point, and have been helping maintaining several of the UT2004 servers since.
By now, mainly thanks to the development of TitanRPG, I can call myself a UT2004 coding generalist and I also possess a little deeper knowledge on UnrealEngine 2.5 thanks to my hobby of reverse engineering things. ;)
Contents
Contact
#1 BIG BATTLE SERVERS - FORUM - Find the red bold nickname that reads "pd_".
UnrealEngine work
In my time, I've covered many areas of UnrealEngine (mainly 2.5) editing.
Yet, you might have never heard my name anywhere before. That's because I'm much too lazy to release things to the public. If you want anything of the things below released so you can use it, please kick my butt very hard.
Mapping
While I claim to have vast theoretical mapping knowledge, I run short of creativity. ;) Therefore, there are only a few VCTF maps that I actually released and only for my favorite server (although some of them have found their ways to other servers):
Finished maps
- VCTF-Oasis
- VCTF-Cookehs (beta, never really finished because it's not too great at all)
- VCTF-CookehMountain
- VCTF-Quaternity
- VCTF-ActionCity2 (based on VCTF-ACTIONCITY, heavily pimped visuals and altered balance, made from scratch)
- VCTF-Schlachtfeld (with support by Darkemule)
- VCTF-Forest (with support by Darkemule, still beta but basically finished)
- VCTF-XtremeWall
- VCTF4-QuaternarySpace (conversion of VCTF-BinarySpace for VCTF4)
- VCTF4-BlockFort (remake of the Mario Kart 64 map for VCTF4)
- VCTF4-Orb (currently beta as VCTF4-Orbital, name will be changed to avoid confusion with CTF-Orbital)
Unfinished maps
- VCTF-Moon (name?)
- VCTF-SpaceWars (name?)
- VCTF-TheLostWorld2010 (name? - based on VCTF-TheLostWorld2, heavily pimped visuals and altered balance, made from scratch)
- VCTF4-Oasis2
Modding
There are more projects in my portfolio than I'm listing here, but those are minor. Here's the bigger ones:
TitanRPG
This is my first and still ongoing UT2004 modding project. Its initial creators were fluffy and Jrubzjeknf, basically an extension of UT2004RPG on top of DruidsRPG. Since I took over, I have been merging all this into one package and have been fixing an astronomical amount of bugs and performance problems.
At this time, barely any of the original UT2004RPG code is left. My plan is to make it zero. The ideas, however, are basically still the same, because those worked quite well.
TitanRPG 1.60 has been released in October 2010, however, compared to now it is already outdated again. The project has an official website [1].
Conquest
Based on an idea by fluffy, I have implemented the Conquest gamemode for UT2004. It's practically ONS in overtime. The powercores drain from the start, however they're not attackable. The only way to win is to hold more power nodes than the enemy for a longer time, until the first core has drained down to zero. Also unlike ONS, there are no links between the nodes. Any node is attackable at any time.
See here for the full story.
No public release because the game type proved to be pretty boring, even in some 24+ player test games.
Raid
A game type where you have to clear a dungeon.
Basically like Invasion, just that each "wave" (they aren't actually waves, I call them "rooms") takes place in different rooms of the map you're playing. The monsters that spawn are also defined on the map rather than the gametype config (config-side overrides are on the TODO list). Bosses are supported. Monsters can also drop configurable rewards like health pickups and ammunition by chance.
Players spawn in the room they cleared last or in the initial spawning room if the game just started. The game is won when all rooms have been cleared, secret rooms that have not to be cleared to win are possible (interesting for RPG).
No release yet because I can't get a map done. Maybe a demo map will suffice.
VCTF4
Leaked in the Epic Games forum already (much to my dismay), the VCTF4 gametype. It builds upon CTF4 and adds vehicle support and - which was the major part of the work - vehicle skins and projectile coloring. Since CTF4 is unfortunately pretty buggy, I also attempt to fix a range of those bugs however possible by subclassing, so I don't have to edit CTF4 itself.
More on VCTF4 can be read here.
ONS4
The next logical step after VCTF4 would be ONS4. Node skins etc are done, but due to the amount (not necessarily difficulty) of coding work required for that, it is in alpha stage at best.
UT3004
This is a series of little mod projects for UT3, reviving the things we loved about UT2004. None of them are actually finished and therefore none are released yet.
The following mods are close to being done:
- Mine Layer - a UT2004-style parasite mine layer, with the original art converted by Jeffrey and uno_chaos.
- Adrenaline Combos - a fully working UT2004-style adrenaline system and HUD and working key combos (Speed, Booster, Invisible, Berserk), plus another optional mod to spawn adrenaline pickups on random PathNodes on any map, with pickup art done by uno_chaos.
Since I consider UT3 an utter failure from both a gamer and also partially from a developer perspective, I have no plans to finish these mods. I might release them as beta at some point so whomever is intertested can finish these.
The following mods are cancelled:
- Lightning Gun - a UT2004-style lightning gun.
- Grenade Launcher - UT2004-style happy fun balls.
UT3RPG
A UT3 RPG mod inspired by TitanRPG (see above). Unlike BattleRPG, this is configurable and supports custom weapons like the Mine Layer.
However, again, since I consider UT3 a failure, this mod was cancelled in alpha stage. No plans to finish it or release it in any form.
Server administration
I've been helping maintaining the UT2004 portion of #1 BIG BATTLE SERVERS for a while now. Thanks to my few UT3 projects, I also know how to run UT3 servers.