UT3 still going?

Taylor Hood

Hey. I just got the game two days ago, I realise it was released in 2007 and I'm a bit late but is it still kicking? There doesnt seem to be much people playing. More importantly is the mod side going strong still? I mean, I've seen the Ball and isn't that quite recent?

Peace.

MoP

I don't think there were ever many people playing UT3

Taylor Hood

: S is it something to do with 2004? Whats the deal?

MoP

I have no idea. I mean, it's not a bad game. I own it (although admittedly mainly to look at the nice assets and use the editor rather than actually play it).

I think it was just released at a bad time (alongside CoD4, Halo3 etc) and had a fair few UI issues on the PC on launch (console-ified menus) which people disliked instantly, so it just never really took off as an online multiplayer game on PC. I dunno if the gameplay brought much to the table either.

Taylor Hood

Yeah I feel the editor is the best part of the game.. heh. I'm keeping it so I can try and make my models look awesome. I need to learn how to put characters in.. some day.

crazyfingers

The root game of UT3 is kinda dead (if you want to play against actual people your best bet is a warfare type game, maps without bots wont have the "+" next to the population count).

Modding's a lot of fun when you get the hang of it, i highly reccomend it. It can be your ticket into the industry if you're interested. That is if you can find a good mod team, it's hard these days. Learn a bit on your own and when you're decent see if there's a spot open somewhere. If you're good with 3d you wont even need to know the engine to find a team.

It seems like game engines are getting so complicated/ proprietary that mods have all but disappeared. Game engine knowledge these days is essentially worth its weight in gold so there's not a lot of free support out there. When a mod DOES come out, they've spent so much time figuring out that engine the core gameplay isn't very fun or special. I dunno about you but i thought The Ball, though pretty, was boring as all hell, and other more popular mods are blatent rip offs of other games.

UT3 modding isn't dead, in fact there's a competition going on right now for modding with some respectable cash prizes:
http://www.makesomethingunreal.com/phase4.aspx

Here are some forums where you'll feel right at home modding and getting feedback (the forums are quite active):
http://utforums.epicgames.com/forumdisplay.php?f=335
I found the advanced search function to help IMMENSELY, i would confine my search to the UT3 mod forums and had access to years worth of online knowledge.

The core game may be dead or dying, but UT3's probably the best engine you can learn. Visually it wont make your models awesomely pretty with amazing lighting like crytech might, which is good and bad. I prefer to think more good as it forces you to touch things up by hand.

metalliandy

@MoP
The new(ish) Titan update improved much of the stuff that the vanilla UT3 lacked, but i dont think it will ever be as popular as it should have been.
It a really cool game in its own right but the impression i had gotten from the community was that it too much like GOW to be part of the Unreal series.

@LoM Chaos

We have some free tutorials over at Eat3d that show the pipeline for importing characters (along with load of other free tuts )

http://eat3d.com/free_ue3_import

Hope that helps


I dont think the game is dead though...i never have a hard time finding an finding a reasonably full server, though its not as busy as it could be for sure :S

Xoliul

Hmm Andy, GoW is a substantially different game than UT3 is,i even prefer to play Gears on Xbox since it's pretty much made for coop and the PC version lacks this.
UT3, well the editor is the most interesting part, I agree. I was really into UT2004 (deathmatch, not boring Onslaught) but UT3 doesn't match up. It just seems more sluggish, weapons make less sense to me and it's not as fun as 2004 when you're limited to 3 themes (scifi, industrial and asian temple).

dfacto

UT3 is dead, and was so from the start more or less. Epic's fault, they released what was basically a beta. The gameplay itself was always fun, and the most polished UT so far, but the UI and multiplayer killed it right out of the gate. For a game that absolutely requires multiplayer the poor browser system and lag issues were just puzzling.

I guess the engine was more important than the game for Epic since it makes bank from licensing though.

Xoliul

UT3 was Epic's proof of concept multiplatform project I guess, showing that their engine can be used for a game on X360,PS3 and PC. That was probably more important to them than creating a good PC multiplayer fps. I'm pretty sure the lack of UT3 sales has been more than compensated by developers shelling out 1 million dollars each to Epic. To save themselves the trouble of having to deal with too much programming for the PS3

PieJesu

The Make Something Unreal Contest doesn't mean that the mod scene is good, you know.

Most of the MSUC winners are the same entries over and over again. There aren't many people competing unlike UT2004.

UT2004 was a great game, UT3 just wasn't as good.

ElysiumGX

No. And No. I remember getting it for cheap soon after release, and few people were playing online. On top of that, it's the only game I know that can suddenly bring a new high-end system to a crashing halt without warning. The mod community is active, but I believe that's mostly due to the number of studios demanding applicants have experience using the editor in order to get a job. UT3 felt uninspired. A big art demo to sell the engine. Likely the reason Epic is letting it go. Cool things can be made with it, if you can tolerate how clunky it feels, and how few people will play your results.

metalliandy

Xoliul wrote: »

Hmm Andy, GoW is a substantially different game than UT3 is,i even prefer to play Gears on Xbox since it's pretty much made for coop and the PC version lacks this.

Ahh yea i agree with you...i meant more artisticly similar rather than the gameplay. As you know, the previous unreal games were very colourful in comparison and UT3 uses much the same palette as GOW. :S

The PC version or GOW does have co-op btw...i regularly play it with my brother

Taylor Hood

Alot of replies. Thanks guys.

Taylor Hood

Oh and CrazyFingers, I found myself a COD WaW team who has actually been contracted by Treyarch. They make awesome maps. I'm actually the first custom model maker for them.

Taylor Hood

ElysiumGX @ I have a gaming PC but it doesn't like UT3 ; P

Blaizer

i bought a copy years ago after playing the beta, but it seems like nobody wants to play it. My friends prefer ut2k4 and it's because it's more intense, and it's a game that can be played very well on old machines. I missed a lot of things from ut2k4, ut3 is a good game but like incomplete.

Hmm Andy, GoW is a substantially different game than UT3 is,i even prefer to play Gears on Xbox since it's pretty much made for coop and the PC version lacks this.

Gears of wars pc version have coop... ¬¬ i have finished the game 4 times with my bro. sighs... and the PC version is ten thousand times better.

Mongrelman

I enjoyed previous UT games, but I think personally my tastes just changed by the time UT3 came out. I much prefer games like battlefield, TF2, COD4 etc. now than the super-twitch shooters. I only played UT3 a few times but just felt so detached I just ended up focusing on looking at the art.

I wonder if many others felt the same way.

sicsided

Mongrelman wrote: »

I enjoyed previous UT games, but I think personally my tastes just changed by the time UT3 came out. I much prefer games like battlefield, TF2, COD4 etc. now than the super-twitch shooters. I only played UT3 a few times but just felt so detached I just ended up focusing on looking at the art.

I wonder if many others felt the same way.

I too am in that boat. UT3 actually seemed way more sluggish to me (gameplay wise) than UT2004 which I still play often. It seems like the graphical style of UT3 just doesn't match the gameplay for me anymore, as it goes towards a more realistic look with steroids injected into everything.

crazyfingers

There's actually a thread in the UT3 forums, "why is this game so unpopular?", i made a lengthy post in it, if you want to read it it's here:
http://utforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=698578&page=5
don't want to clutter this forum too much.

TheMadArtist

I just picked it up for cheap myself a few months ago, and most of my thoughts are echoed in crazyfingers post. Really good post, hit the nail on the head.