From December 1, 2000 thru December 7, 2000, you can join us on PlanetUnreal's Assault The Base server at 216.107.36.4:8030!

01.12.2000: PlanetUnreal's Mod Feature on Eavy's Assault Bonus Pack gets out the GameSpy pimping stick again to beat some publicity into the Assault Bonus Pack for Unreal Tournament.

30.11.2000: GameSpy.com's Spotlight on Eavy talks with Stefan "Eavy" Schwarz, the creator of the ambitious Assault Bonus Pack for Unreal Tournament.

28.11.2000: Updated download links to the left, now using FilePlanet, and added a link to the code-only version without maps (36 KB ZIP, no maps, no UMOD setup - deprecated!).

26.11.2000: Uploaded the code-only package to my UT Mods site.

It's done, here it is, the Assault Bonuspack Update. The code has more than doubled since last version, and importance of features has grown exponentially, it's a must-have upgrade for Assault. With the update, I've managed to pull off the impossible, making client-side enhancements through a server-side-only mutator. The package also includes two more custom maps worthy of becoming standard levels. It's available both as a patch for users of the last release and a full download for newbies who don't have the Assault Bonus Pack yet. Documentation is included, too, and additional support is available right here on site.

Download AssaultBonuspack418 Now: 22.2 MB ZIP

Download AssaultBonuspackPatch Now: 3.49 MB ZIP

Although the patch can be used without a full version being installed, you'd be missing the other maps, and I can't support such a setup. I left out the requirement so you could patch a custom installation. There's also a code-only package available at my UT Mods site for those who already downloaded the custom maps before, although it's not recommended, either. Stick to the UMOD packages for best results!

UMOD Usage Information: Windows users should read UMOD Installation Advice for more information. Mac users should use Westlake's UMOD installer. Linux users should get UmodPack to handle UMOD packages.

Players: In case you haven't done so already, I highly recommend you check out some detailed information about the most important modifications, posted on Tuesday. Play a single player practice session to get used to them and see why Assault suddenly is even more fun than before. Once you're ready, join a multiplayer game by opening UT's built-in server browser and click on the "AssaultBonusPack" tab instead of "Assault", then only bonus pack servers will be listed. It's also a whole lot faster than the standard server browser. If nothing happens, servers haven't upgraded yet so none are listed, wait a bit until they catch up. Or politely inform them about the Assault Bonuspack Update!

Admins: The "Advertise Server" option determines if your server automatically advertises itself as a bonus pack server. It's on by default and I highly recommend you leave it enabled. It shows your server's Assault Game Style in the server browser, too, and refreshing the list using the Assault Bonus Pack tab is a lot faster than using the Assault one. So to sum it up, keep it active to attract an audience, only uncheck the setting to hide a restricted server. Because of a bug in recent UT versions, server advertisement is based on the server's name, not its mutators. Its name will be modified automatically to reflect its current Assault style, simply ignore the prefix, the advanced server browser tab will filter it accordingly. Because of the server browser enhancement, I urge administrators to upgrade their Assault servers immediately, so players can connect to their games easier and faster!

By the way, the last version has been downloaded over 24,736 times from my site alone! The update is even more of an improvement because of its additional enhancements, server-side as well as client-side, so make sure to upgrade as soon as possible...

Being sick sucks. Must have worked too much lately. Since I'm currently not in the condition to make big words about it, I'll update later, as soon as I'm doing better. I don't anticipate it affecting the release date any further, though, so the Assault Bonuspack Update is still on schedule for the weekend. Afterwards I probably should go on vacation for a bit.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sorry, no update today, I'm working on some last minute changes. It's quite possible that this also delays the Assault Bonuspack Update release date by a day, but to make up for the additional wait, there will be another custom map. A revised version of a great sci-fi level.

Rest assured we're going to release the update on the weekend!

Today we are going to take a look at the new actors available to level designers. After installation of the Assault Bonus Pack, they will be listed in the actor browser, ready for you to add them to your maps. Here is an overview including usage information.

• AssaultPlusRandomizer: AssaultRandomizer that works (special thanks to Mier).
• AssaultPlusTeleporter: Teleporter with one new property "Team" (0=Defenders, 1=Attackers, Default=0) so you can make team-teleporters which can only be used by players on that team; very useful to give defenders a chance to travel between different areas without risking attackers to follow them.
• AssaultPlusTrigger: Trigger to set FortStandard DefensePriority properties to its own Priority property when triggered (Default=0) so you can change objective priorities on the fly; should let you control bot behavior a lot better now.
  N.B.: If the FortStandard also is a FallBackFort of another objective, then keep in mind the priority will also be changed that way, make sure there's no conflict between your priorities and fallbackforts.
• EndCamDispatcher: Triggers switch to up to 8 different cameras in AS end scenes (courtesy of Shock Systems).
• GenericSpawner: Effects spawn any actor (courtesy of Shock Systems).
• MinigunCannonPlus: MinigunCannon with new property "Team" (0=Defenders, 1=Attackers, Default=0) which overrides the old MyTeam property so you can create cannons for the attackers as well; I also added a TCP property which provides additional special effects.
  N.B.: Also added a bExplode property, if it's True, cannon is destroyable.
• TeamCannonPlus: TeamCannon, similar to MinigunCannonPlus, and here's an explanation of the special effects as determined by the TCP property:
  TCP_Default = Default behavior, cannon will be deactivated when triggered, and remains deactivated.
  TCP_ChangeTeam = Whenever the cannon is triggered, it will change teams, and shoot the other team.
  TCP_DeActivated = Cannon starts off and will only be activated after being triggered.
  TCP_ShockWave = Triggering the cannon blows it up with a ShockWave explosion.
  TCP_WarExplosion = Cannon explodes with a Redeemer explosion when triggered.
  TCP_Destroy = Cannon simply disappears when triggered so you can create your own effects with ExplosionChains or something similar.
• FortStandardPlus: FortStandard - My new FortStandards, don't use them directly, the mutator will automatically replace them on its own!
• More to come: Over time I'll keep adding additional actors to give level designers even more possibilities to create entertaining maps. It's also possible for me to include third party additions, depending on quality and stability, so contact me if you know of anything similarly useful. Mappers are free to ship the stand-alone Assault Bonuspack Mutator with their maps, and if you need support, visit my forums.

Tomorrow it's time to reveal the really interesting news about final gameplay differences.

Today we'll discuss some of the most important changes and additions which will be part of the Assault Bonuspack Update:

So far all of the code was server-side-only to ensure full compatibility between all versions. Version mismatch errors simply can't happen. Unfortunately being restricted to the server limited my possibilities. With the update, I've pulled off the impossible, making client-side changes which work with as well as without the Assault Bonus Pack. Thanks to this great feature, players who don't have the bonus pack code can still connect to and play on bonus pack servers, but of course only bonus pack users will be able to use the new capabilities.

• Scoreboard: The Assault scoreboard has been improved, the Packet Loss indicator is back, plus a Health display for human team mates. Combined with the Location information, you can figure out what's going on by looking at the scoreboard. In the future I could build upon it by adding interesting stuff like a team radar, player order status, and so on.
• Serverbrowser: Finding an Assault server never was easier than with the new server browser tab for bonus pack servers. Using the original server browser, it was almost impossible to find a server, unless the admin mentioned the Assault Bonus Pack as part of the server name. Some did, but there was no common convention, and players couldn't check the Assault Game Style before being connected. The special tab I've added will solve all of those problems, it only lists bonus pack servers, and it displays the style they are running. By the way, it's very fast, you won't go back to the old browser once you've tried the new one. The old tabs query the master server for a list of all UT servers, thousands of them, then ping them all to filter out the couple dozen Assault servers. My new tab will only query Assault servers so instead of waiting for thousands of servers which you aren't interested in, it will instantly query the Assault Bonus Pack servers, and show the validated list immediately. Admins get an option to advertise their server as a bonus pack server, only then will it show up, and players get the advanced server browser.
• Spawnprotection: Despite the current spawnprotection, which respawns you invisible and invulnerable for some time, some people still argue about spawnkilling. They claim the spawning grounds to be a restricted area, and although I disagree, I'd rather give them the option than to continue the argument. So now there's an additional setting to activate restricted spawnprotection, based on location, instead of time. If a player is hit near their spawnpoint, they won't take any damage, all damage will be dealt to their enemy. Spawncampers can't hurt their victims anymore, they only hurt themselves, so eventually they will avoid the enemy spawnpoints completely. The restricted area is based on spawnprotection time, if a player runs straight ahead after respawning, they will leave the protected radius as soon as the time-based protection runs out. If they don't leave the area, their invisibility will run out after the protected time is over, but the strict protection remains until they leave the area. Returning there later won't resume their special protection. Now the futile argument about spawncamping is over, once and for all, never again argue about it but use the option provided.
• Anti-Spam-Protection: Sure, camping is annoying, but it's nothing compared to spamming. I can shoot a camper, especially with spawnprotection, but so far there was no protection against spam. First a definition, spam refers to excessive flooding, be it mail or chat messages or even shooting. The latest versions of UT have special chat-spam protection, and it's too generic a problem for the Assault Bonus Pack, so I'm only talking about ammo spam now. It's not a problem in most other gametypes since they aren't as linear as Assault, often there are other ways, but in Assault narrow passages and doors are common. Since the defenders know where the attackers have to pass through, they tend to shoot the passage instead of the enemy, and most of the time they will kill or at least hurt the attackers before they even see the enemy. I can't change the architecture of all maps, so that's out of question, and I don't want to change the weapons. So dropping the impossible factors, only ammo remains, there's too much of it. My design decision was to limit ammo in such a way as to let spammers run out of ammo fast while providing enough ammunition to others. Max ammo has been halved, ammunition hoarding won't work anymore, and you can't throw your weapon away so discarding it before it runs out of ammo to pick up a fresh one is also fixed. Ammo boxes are the only way to get more ammunition, and they respawns a little slower, too. As a side effect of preventing weapon throws, killed players won't drop their guns, either. This enforces gameplay based on leveldesign since it's harder to get the weapons intended for the enemy, you'd have to go there and get them yourself, quite a dangerous trip in most cases. To activate anti-spam-protection, the server admin has to deactivate "Weapons Stay", weapons will still stay anyway but the protection is active.
  [UPDATE - the implementation has been changed:
  1. You can't throw your weapons, but when you die, you drop the one you're holding as usual. So my comment that map-makers have full control over weapon placement is null and void now. You can't give a teammate your weapon without suiciding, but that's okay, as it also prevents the weapon-drop-trick.
  2. Max ammo remains halved, but now ammo boxes are also halved, initially I wanted to do it like that but the pickup message was still listing the default amount. I changed it so the message is updated properly. Now there won't be any wasted ammo.
  3. Ammo is also respawning twice as fast now to balance the ammo loss, and as a side effect, it's less likely you'll steal ammo from your teammates.
  4. Killing your teammates (using friendly fire) won't make them drop their weapon, so if the server allows teamdamage, others can't steal your guns. Suicide and killing the enemy keeps dropping as usual.
  5. I also decoupled the anti-spam-protection from weapons-stay, they are no longer related, and spamprotection is configurable through the Assault Bonus Pack GUI.
  -- 23.11.2000]
• Scoring: The scoring system got an overhaul as well, and although scores don't matter for the victory conditions of regular Assault, they aren't pointless anymore. My reasoning for this is that in Assault, attackers are supposed to attack, and defenders are supposed to defend. As a team. The old scoring system rewards defenders for fighting the enemy close to their spawnpoints, spawncampers usually got the highest scores, and the critical last line of defense only got a few frags for those who broke through. Regarding the attackers, instead of teamplay they were often competing, the one who gets the objective first will get the ten point bonus whereas the other one gets none. And awarding a hundred points for destroying the last objective is very extreme as well. The scoring system is broken as an example will demonstrate: Imagine an Assault on Guardia. The first objective is random, whoever shoots it first will get the bonus, there won't be any defenders so the attackers compete with each other. Then the fighting begins, spawncampers break through, and you fight for your life. After a while, the campers are dealt with, and you have a great run. Near an objective, you fight with a couple of defenders, and kill them all. By then another team-mate has caught up to you, you're running next to each other, he's just a meter in front of you. Of course he gets the bonus for the objective, he reached it first, although you cleared the area and are right behind him. In the last room, you trigger the switch to open the garage door, after fighting the last line of defense. You kill them, but before you can shoot the tank to get your well-deserved bonus, the other player on your team destroys it himself. The round ends, you have less than ten points but did most of the work, and your buddy boasts a score over one hundred. Next round begins, you go to the objective, making sure it's well-protected. One in a while an enemy breaks through the first line of defense, they almost reach your objective, but you manage to stop them. After time runs out, and a couple of very close encounters, you have saved your team several times. But since others fought near the spawnpoints against unarmed opponents, they got more frags, and are listed as better players on the scoreboard. Of course you know you were better than them, but wouldn't you like that fact to be shown on the scoreboard, for all to see? I believe proper playing deserves a reward! So here's how scoring works with my alternate scoring system: If you kill an enemy near their spawnpoint, you lose the frag, there's no reward for spawncamping. If you kill an enemy near an objective, you get a bonus point, both on offense or defense. This discourages spawnkilling and encourages attacking or defending the objectives. Destroying an objective gives you the ten points as usual, but any team-mate nearby will also get the bonus, teaming up and working together is better than competing with each other. Finally, the final bonus of 100 points will be divided among all players who destroyed objectives, and their names and times are listed for all to see. The bonus point distribution depends on how many objectives you destroyed, the more you got, the more you get. The objectives list can also be displayed at any time using the "Show Objectives Message" hotkey, it used to show only the last completed objective, now it also lists all of them complete with statistics. The number of destroyed and remaining objectives is displayed on the scoreboard as well.
• Mapping: There's also a lot of stuff for level designers. Apart of the better Assault randomisers and Shock System's ending cameras, I've added team teleporters, priority changers, destroyable cannons, advanced cannons, scripted textures, and additional support for monsters. Over time I'll keep adding more features for mappers so the Assault experience will remain fresh, exciting, and also cinematic.

All of that, but this isn't everything yet, there's a lot of other things going on behind the scenes. Several map lists (old maps, new maps, all maps), auto-kick players dropping below a certain score (to get rid of abusive users), fixed default settings (it's no longer necessary to change them immediately after installation), internal code optimization (for improved performance and future expansion), some bugs fixed (including the Overlord blocking possibility), and much more. In fact, the best is yet to come, check back tomorrow.

AS-Ballisic (SteelHORN)

The Assault Bonus Pack is coming along great. I'm going to release an update at the end of the week. The patch will be a smaller file than the first release, of course, including one more map.

As you can see, it's SteelHORN's AS-Ballistic (MappeD Review Score: 7.5), a worthy addition which was chosen by those of you who submitted your favorite wish list. Assault itself also got an important overhaul, the code has doubled in size, there will be some substantial changes to improve gameplay even more. In fact, the list of enhancements is so big, I'll spend the whole week explaining the main features in detail. The site will be updated daily, describing how the new stuff works, and why it was made.

While the previous version fixed all of the critical bugs, Assault is still far from perfect, and I'm working very hard on changing it for the better. Keep visiting the site for more information and feel free to check out my forums to discuss the changes directly with me and others. The next version is shaping up to be a big thing, as important as the initial one, but you'll see it for yourself during the week.

Quickie: Download Now (on the left) refers to a list of worldwide mirrors courtesy of FilePlanet...

Server List: Because of a bug in the latest versions of UT (432-436), servers won't advertise their Mutator List, making it almost impossible to filter Assault Bonus Pack (and other modified) servers. The GameSpy tab doesn't work, UT's built-in Server Browser doesn't display the mutators, and I'm not even sure which servers are running it. So, to make it easier for Assault players to play on bonus pack servers, here's a short list of known servers. Although the listing is incomplete, a dozen servers, they are verified to work and be set up properly. The soon-to-be-released update of the Assault Bonus Pack will come with advanced server browser support so even servers using the broken UT patches are going to be listed properly and filtered correctly. If you know of other servers which should be listed here, please click List a Server (on the right) to mail me their IP addresses, otherwise mail the admins of those servers which haven't upgraded to the Assault Bonus Pack yet.

UT Assault Bonus Pack Programmer Interview At Stomped: Stomped chats with Stefan Daniel "Eavy" Schwarz, the main programmer and organizer behind the hugely successful Assault Bonus Pack for Unreal Tournament. Check out the exclusive interview here.

Jeff Randall Interview At Stomped: Stomped chats with Unreal Tournament map maker Jeff 'Monger' Randall about his contribution to the recently released UT Assault Bonus Pack, AS-Cold(er)Steel (a revised version of his earlier AS_ColdSteel), and the brand new AS_ColdSteel2. Check out the exclusive interview here.

Phil Cole Interview At Stomped: Stomped continues its series of interviews with the UT Assault Bonus Pack team by chatting with Phil "Willhaven" Cole, the creator of the AS_Asthenosphere level for the pack. Check out the exclusive interview here.

Claude Meyer Interview At Stomped: Stomped concludes its interview series with the UT Assault Bonus Pack team by chatting with Claude "Mier" Meyer, the creator of four Assault levels for the pack. Check out the exclusive interview here.

I will release version 418 of the Assault Bonus Pack at the end of the month. This will be available as an upgrade only. The update package will contain the latest bonus pack mutator as well as another map. I'm going to choose an existing level, and as a bonus, I'll let you select it: Mail me a link to your favorite, I plan to collect your links and offer the most favorite ones for you to vote on, now is your chance to turn an old custom map into a new standard level! Please click here to submit a candidate... Your submission must use the proper subject to be accepted! Alternatively you're welcome to click on Comments and post your Map Wish List there.

I've also started to collect some bonus pack reviews so here's an overview:

• PlanetUnreal:
  I just got done playing all the maps in your Assault Bonus Pack, and a couple of 'bad', unbalanced maps that I used your mod options to help correct. What can I say? The Assault Bonus Pack integrates with UT seamlessly, and it has completely changed my mind about Assault mode! It fixes most of what was wrong with Assault mode, it adds some nice touches like configurable respawn protection and timing and it comes with some very special maps, most noteably AS-ColdSteel2 by Shock Systems. The mod changes things that should take the edge off for Assault level designers, as it can easily compensate for inbalance issues. This is a mod that any serious UT gamer should not be without. -- QAPete
• MappeD:
  Our reviews of the Eavy Assault Pack are in and, to say the least, we were impressed as hell. Back in June we began tightening up our map scores and reviewing everything a little bit harder and no longer handed out 8's and 9's like we did before. However, when C.H.U.D. and I sat down to play the most recent maps from Mier and Shock Systems, we were pretty much stunned. Little problems aside, these maps are truly top notch and belong on everyone's hard drive. Maps like these should even make true-believers of the skeptics that disdain Assault gameplay. The older maps (AS-Asthenosphere, AS-Bridge, and AS-Lavafort][) were all Hot Maps under our old scoring standards and are still some of the best. Along with these seven maps, Eavy's mod fixes many gameplay bugs that hindered online Assault play and makes it customizable for newbies on up to experts. Eavy really has accomplished something here: the Assault pack makes the gameplay mode more legitimate than ever and packages the seven best custom assault maps all in one. This pack is one of the few required downloads for any true UT fan along with February's Bonus Pack and Inoxx's map pack; it's 20 MB you just can't miss out on- but the 11,000 people who have already downloaded it know that already. Read on... -- BangOut
• AS-ColderSteel:
  MappeD Review Score: 8.0
• AS-Coldsteel2:
  MappeD Review Score: 9.0 Hot Map! & Map of the Week
  UT Booty Rating: 92 star marker & Map of the Week
• AS-Manticore:
  MappeD Review Score: 8.0
  UT Booty Rating: 82
• AS-RocketCommand:
  MappeD Review Score: 8.5 & Map of the Week
  UT Booty Rating: 84

Last but not least another important announcement: We've been talking about it for some time now, and it's finally official, I'll be collaborating with the WAM project. WAM is regularly publishing Assault map packs, but we're not competing, we'll be cooperating. My goal is to enhance Assault with my mutator as well as maintaining the standard game type to advance it further, I kind of adopted Assault while keeping in touch with Epic to ensure it lives up to our shared vision, continuing its development. The Assault Bonus Pack will be the base upon which the WAM packs are built to take Assault to the next level. The bonus pack is the foundation of Assault so it has to be solid, stable, fixed. It's essential, sure, yet we also need enterprising new developments to keep Assault fresh and interesting. That's why the WAM packs promote custom maps, early adopters can live on the bleeding edge to test all of the latest stuff, and once the dust settles the gems will become part of future bonus pack updates. People who just want official files and dislike any downloads only have to get the Assault Bonus Pack, whereas everybody who likes shiny new things will download and enjoy the WAM map packs, thus supporting custom maps and determining which might become standard maps later. Together, we'll cover both grounds, taking Assault to the next level.

PS: WAM is so serious about it that they even run a competition with a US$200 reward for the best level - visit their site right now...

For your convenience, I've replaced the old download file with a new one, here's its list of changes:

1. Help files included (previously available as Help.zip)
2. Release Notes button opens HTML instead of TXT
3. Last Minute Changes automatically applied during installation (DamageBalanceTeams=1 & MoverEncroachDamage=0)
4. Setup Window Title now displays version number
5. UMOD filename now includes bonus pack version

Other than that, the bonus pack contents are still the same, so the 10100 - not counting mirrors - people who already downloaded it before don't have to download it again.

UMOD Usage Information: Windows users should read UMOD Installation Advice for more information. Mac users should use Westlake's UMOD installer. Linux users should get UmodPack to handle UMOD packages.

Launch Day: Happy Halloween! Trick or treat? Here's a treat for you...

Download the Assault Bonus Pack right Now: 20 MB ZIP

Because of its file size, 57 MB unzipped, there's no simple .umod available for download. There's also no simple .zip because setup must make several INI changes. There's only one zipped UMOD, a single download, the full version which will automatically install and set up the Assault Bonus Pack.

Documentation is available online and as a separate download here. A GameSpy Tab to filter servers can be downloaded as well. Get GameSpy here.

Last Minute Changes: I urge you to change some options immediately after installation. While the default settings adhere to a "better safe than sorry" principle, some of them should be optimized for regular play, please update them for best performance. Set Damage Balance Teams from 0 to 2 (i.e. automatically adjust damage to balance teams when they become too outnumbered). Set Mover Encroach Damage from 5 to 0 (i.e. don't damage players for blocking movers, only use it for specific maps if such blocking becomes a problem, otherwise innocent people might be hurt or even killed by harmless movers). I'll describe the three ways of changing the settings now, the procedure applies to all the other options, too.

• Select the Assault Bonus Pack entry of the Mod menu to open its configuration window. Replace 0 with 2 in the Damage Balance Teams box and replace 5 with 0 in the Mover Encroach Damage box. Close the window by clicking on the X in the upper right corner.
• Start the game, adminlogin if necessary, then type the following console commands:
  Admin Set AssaultBonusPack.EavyAssaultPlus DamageBalanceTeams 2
  Admin Set AssaultBonusPack.EavyAssaultPlus MoverEncroachDamage 0
  You can omit Admin if you're the local player, and when the bonus pack mutator is running, you can omit AssaultBonusPack. as well.
• You could also edit the server configuration file by hand. By default UT stores its properties in UnrealTournament.ini. Look for section AssaultBonusPack.EavyAssaultPlus which will automatically be added once you use the bonus pack mutator. Change or add those lines so they look like these:
  [AssaultBonusPack.EavyAssaultPlus]
  DamageBalanceTeams=2
  MoverEncroachDamage=0

Advice for Players: After installing the Assault Bonus Pack, start up UT, go to Options - Preferences - Controls. Scroll to the bottom of the list and you'll notice the bonus pack hotkeys, you should bind the first four functions to keys, the others are only useful for administrators. Still, if you like to play Single Player, some of them could prove helpful. Especially Stop Countdown is great while trying to practice a map. Now go to Mod - AssaultBonuspack417. Set it up the way you like it, and if you don't yet know what to do, leave it as it is. Since your next step is probably trying the new Assault maps, let's configure it as a newbie game, simply click on Team Cannon Disabled and Fort Standard Displayed to activate both features. Automatic cannons won't shoot at you and the main objectives will be marked with little flags. It's time to check it out live, so go to Game - Start Practice Session. Map List and Mutators have been configured automatically by the UMOD so you can start right away. I'd suggest you play with a single bot on your team, and no enemies, then you can learn the map easily. Once in the game, press F3 to see the mission briefing, read all of the messages and keep looking at it again whenever you feel lost. Another possibility is to order your bot to assault the base on its own, follow and watch it, it can teach you a lot. Feel free to try altering some settings and see how Assault can be configured the way you like it best. As soon as you're ready, go play online, look for servers which announce their supported Assault style as part of the server name. Before joining a server, check the server info to see if it uses the latest version of the bonus pack mutator, only connect if its Rule "Mutators" says Value "AssaultBonuspack417". After connecting, the server will announce its current style and version number, too. Instead of UT's limited server browser, you can also use GameSpy, grab the tab and it will only display proper bonus pack servers. In case you encounter a server which hasn't upgraded to the Assault Bonus Pack yet, politely inform the server admin about it, and refer them to this website.

Server Advertisement Advice: I suggest you indicate that your servers use the Assault Bonus Pack by mentioning the Assault Game Style they are running as part of the server's name. This will tell people which way of playing your server supports so they can look for servers supporting their personal preferences. Classic appeals to those who prefer pure fighting skills over advanced trick techniques, Turbo appeals to those who enjoy short games of under a few minutes, and Hardcore provides the perfect balance between both camps. In case it's a Custom server, it's advisable to tell players about the changes you made, either as part of the server name or message of the day. Same with Multi servers which use different styles depending on the maps, it's best to mention Multi in the server name, and describe the choices you made in the message of the day. By the way, if you put the Assault Game Style identifier in front of the server name, players can discover it easier by sorting the list alphabetically.

Dedicated Server Advice: Here's an example of the command line used to run a dedicated server:
UCC Server AS-RocketCommand?game=Botpack.Assault?mutator=AssaultBonusPack.EavyAssaultPlus
Never mind the HTML formatting, it's a single command line, and there's no space behind the question marks.

UMOD Installation Advice: Normally UT is supposed to automatically set up file associations so clicking an .umod should launch the installer, but some people reported problems with it, try the following command line before resorting to a manual install:
Setup Install AssaultBonusPack.umod
If you don't specify a path to the UMOD, it's expected to be located in your UT System folder, the same directory where the setup executable itself is kept.

Custom Installation Advice: Unless you really need or want to execute a manual installation of the Assault Bonus Pack, stick to the UMOD, it's a lot easier and faster. However, in case you must undertake a manual install, here's how to do it:

1. Get the individual components you would like to install. The bonus pack mutator is available at my own site, download the latest version, then place both .int and .u files in your UT System folder. The bonus pack maps are available at the sites of their authors, download the proper versions, then follow their installation instructions.
2. Add the bonus pack mutator to your game mutators list. You can do it through the game configuration setup, by editing the game configuration file, or on the command line. Also make sure the mutator is always active, you don't have to remove it from the game mutators list even while playing other games than Assault, it will automatically deactivate itself in such a situation.
3. Add the bonus pack maps to your game maps list. You can do it through the game configuration setup or by editing the game configuration file. Now the game should be able to cycle through both old and new maps.

AS-RocketCommand (Claude Meyer aka Mier)

Today is the last day before the Assault Bonuspack Launch - and here is the final map:

The enemy is trying to launch a rocket from a secret base. The rocket will bring a modern spy satellite into orbit that will be able to scan and reveal your entire territory. You cannot allow such a thing. Your team has to first enter the enemy fort, then penetrate the underground base and search for the rocket launching pad. Once you're there you have to enter the rocket and destroy its navigation stability terminal to prevent a successful launch and destroy their satellite.

It's also one of the Assault Bonus Pack-optimized maps, making use of bonus pack enhancements, and requires the bonus pack mutator for proper operation! This one map, among all maps, is the best I have ever played. It has everything, hands down, thumbs up. You have to see it to believe it. Look at some of its features:

• Advanced Assault techniques like Impact Jumping and Rocket Launching have been considered, the map fully supports them, and even the bots can impact-jump.
• Approach the base with a moving vehicle, call for air support, watch air strikes. Reinforcements will arrive with a helicopter. A cinematic experience.
• There's a map inside the base that displays where the attackers are, defenders can actually have a commander, a player who relays enemy movement and gives orders.
• Detailed mission briefing, including maps and markers, plus optional objectives.
• And much more, of course, even little things like an exit for spectators so they won't be stuck in the spawning zone. It's all there. The best example of an Assault map.

And now let's talk about Assault Game Styles:

Different players prefer different styles. So far, it could cause conflicts whenever several styles collided, especially with controversial techniques like impact-jumping, rocket-launching, or spawn-killing. On the net, it really doesn't matter what's intended and what's unintentional, it's all about what's possible or impossible to do. Some time ago, I published a couple of articles about advanced Assault styles, still available here. At that time, people had to live with what was going on, there was no choice. Either play the way it's being played, or leave Assault, and a lot of players gave up on it before experiencing how great it could be. Now, thanks to the Assault Bonus Pack, several Assault styles will be supported. Administrators are free to choose which way of playing they will accept on their servers. That's why the bonus pack mutator is so configurable, there's only one problem, how do players discover which server uses their preferred style? Going through the list of options takes some time, nobody should be forced to deal with all of the different settings, so I added special Assault Game Styles to easily classify a server! Depending on its current settings, a server will be reported as Classic, Hardcore, Turbo, or Custom if none of the preset styles apply. This Assault Game Style classification has nothing to do with the UT Game Styles that use the same names. Instead, it's an identification label, to show you at a glance what's enabled and disabled on a bonus pack server.

• Classic: Allows neither Jumping/Launching nor Cheating! It's how the bots tend to play. Without advanced techniques, it's more Deathmatch-like, best suited to players who come from other UT Game Types. Also great for newbie servers, especially combined with team cannons disabled and fort standards displayed, a great way to learn Assault.
• Hardcore: Allows Jumping but not Launching or Cheating! It's how Assault should be played, the default style, based on the official design. Legit techniques like jumping are allowed, exploits like launching are disallowed, resulting in the best balance between Classic and Turbo Assault Styles. Highly recommended standard for most servers.
• Turbo: Allows Jumping and Launching but not Cheating! It's how Assault used to be played on the net, all techniques available, except for cheats like map bugs. Many matches often end within a minute unless both teams are very organized. Only really useful for legacy games between clans who are too used to impact and rocket launching.
• Custom: Any other combination of options! Although other combinations of protection against jumping, launching, cheating are possible, I recommend sticking to the mainstream styles, they are the three most common setups. To check out what's possible on a custom server, use the Show Server Info key or its console command, displaying the current mutator setup. Keep in mind that this style, like Assault without the bonuspack, is open to all kinds of cheats and map bug exploits.

As soon as you connect to an Assault server, a message will show you which version of the bonus pack mutator is running, plus the currently active Assault Game Style. In case it is an out-of-date version, or not running at all, disconnect and look for a better server. The latest version will always be available right here, of course, and I'll publicly announce new updates as soon as they are released. In addition to server browser filters, admins can make it easier for players to locate their servers by mentioning the bonus pack style as part of the server name, although over time all Assault servers should be expected to use the Assault Bonus Pack.

Very well, that's it for the day, see you tomorrow - then you can finally see the Assault Bonus Pack for yourself...

AS-Manticore (Claude Meyer aka Mier)

Here's another map, a great map, a Mier map:

The enemy attacked and sunk one of your secret research ships. Survivors that escaped with mini-subs reported that the enemy recovered three TechCrystals from the ship wreck. Those TechCrystals contain important strategic information and you must prevent the enemy from decoding them. The last radar signals you got from the crystals came from a small but heavily guarded research outpost named "Manticore". You cannot risk a big frontal attack so your team will have to sneak into the base and destroy the crystals. Naval troops will keep the main outpost defense busy while a jet will bring you to base's sewer/ventilation entrance.

It's also one of the Assault Bonus Pack-optimized maps, making use of bonus pack enhancements, and requires the bonus pack mutator for proper operation!

Today I'm going to show you the remaining console commands and how to make map-specific configurations of the Assault Bonus Pack:

• Load Maps Config: When loading a level, the bonus pack mutator always searches a map-specific configuration automatically, using it instead of its current settings if one is found. In case you make any changes to the settings while playing the map, you can reload the saved settings with this command, effectively discarding your own changes. Consider it a limited undo command, some special options are latched so it can't reset them, you'd have to restart the map instead.
• Reset Maps Config: Use this command to delete a map-specific configuration of the current map.
• Save Maps Config: With this command, all current settings of the bonus pack mutator will be saved as a map-specific configuration of the current map, and automatically be used whenever that level is loaded. To create map-specific configurations, all you have to do is load a map and configure the mutator, then store your settings with this command. Now it will always use that configuration instead of falling back to current settings while playing this map.

There can be up to 32 map-specific configurations. Due to a technical limitation, using any of the map config commands will also store the current settings as default configuration of the bonus pack mutator, so make sure to configure the standard options after the map-specific ones. Since UT keeps its configuration in a normal INI file, you could also configure it manually, take a look at the file to see how simple the format is.

Tomorrow you'll see the last map and learn about Assault Game Styles.

AS-ColdSteel2 (Shock Systems)

From now on, we're done with the old and revised maps, the remaining ones are all new:

ColdSteel2 is the successor of Cold(er)Steel. If you thought that was a big map, this one will really impress you, it's not as much a map as it is a game in its own right. Your mission is simple, capture a prototype Galaxy Cruiser, and escape with it. The problem is, it's heavily guarded inside a military research complex, a huge base. It certainly won't be a quickie so be prepared for the fight of your life.

It's also one of the Assault Bonus Pack-optimized maps, making use of bonus pack enhancements, and requires the bonus pack mutator for proper operation!

Now I'll show you some of the bonus pack commands, additional console commands which can be bound to keys through the UT Controls setup, the following list will be of interest to players and administrators alike:

• Player Change Team: This is the instant team-change command that I mentioned yesterday. Bind it to a key to switch teams on the fly. Works with the Team Change Time variable which determines if and when it can be used.
• Show Assault Version: Displays which version of the bonus pack mutator is running on the server you're playing on, plus Assault style, more about styles in another update.
• Show Objectives Message: Displays which objective has been destroyed last, very useful if you're joining a game in progress, or when you don't want to miss any objective messages.
• Show Server Info: Displays all current settings of the bonus pack mutator so you can verify that this server is using the options you prefer.
• Admin End Game: Admin command, can be used during a match, and ends the current round with a victory for the defenders.
• Admin Restart Game: Admin command, can be used before match ends, and restarts the current round.
• Admin Start Match: Admin command, can be used before match begins, and starts the current round without waiting for players to connect or get ready.
• Admin Stop Countdown: Admin command, can be used before match ends, and stops the countdown timer so only attackers can win.
• Admin Toggle Ready: Admin command, can be used before match begins, and readies all players in a tournament.

Tomorrow I'm going to show you the remaining console commands and how to make map-specific configurations of the Assault Bonus Pack.

AS-LavaFort][ (Claude Meyer aka Mier) Revision of AS-LavaFort Nali City Rating: 7 * MappeD Review Score: 9.0 UT Booty Rating: 94 * Review of original, not its revision!

Today it's halftime, four more days to go, so let's talk about our map of the day: AS-LavaFort][ by Claude Meyer aka Mier!

LavaFort][ is a revised version of Mier's first Assault map, LavaFort, turning his solid debut release into another masterpiece level. Nali City hasn't reviewed it yet, only the old original one, the revision is much better. MappeD, specializing in Assault and CTF map reviews, rated it 9.0 stars and gave it the Hot Map! Award. UT Booty map reviews gave it the second highest rating of 94. The remake certainly is one of the best Assault maps and thus part of the Assault Bonus Pack.

The version included with the bonus pack is the same one already available at Mier's site and mirrors worldwide. The map doesn't suffer from any notable bugs so there aren't any necessary fixes. It's one of the few Assault maps without known problems.

Now let me tell you about some other miscellaneous options of the bonus pack mutator:

• Team Cannon Disabled: This option, off by default, disables automated cannons. It's most useful to learn new maps, play without enemies, and turn off the auto-cannons. Or use it on newbie servers. And since you can configure all settings independently for each map, you could generally allow or disallow auto-cannons, and only enable or disable them in certain maps. If you really dislike automated cannons, like I do, there's another (undocumented) option which will deal with them as well (even more so)!
• Fort Standard Displayed: This option, off by default, displays Assault targets. Fort standards are made visible so all main objectives are marked with little flags. Again, it's most useful to learn new maps, all you have to do is follow and touch or shoot the flags. Great for newbie servers to show them what to do in Assault maps they don't know yet. Could also come in handy for designers to debug their own maps.
• Assault Defense Set: This option, off by default, won't swap teams. The defenders will always defend and the attackers will always attack. Instead of swapping teams and playing a map again, it will automatically switch to the next map after one is won or lost, so matches consist of one instead of two rounds. Could be useful for various purposes, especially certain leagues, or special tournaments. I'm sure you can think of something.
• Player Idle Time: This setting, at 60 seconds by default, determines when an idle player is kicked if they didn't move after respawning. That addresses several important issues. Firstly, it gets rid of those who connect but don't play, making sure all player slots are really in use. Secondly, by kicking them, it works closely with the team balancing feature. Lastly, it goes along with spawn protection, preventing people from being protected all the time. Ten seconds before kicking a player, the idle player will be notified with a countdown, moving before it runs out will abort the autokick.
• Team Change Time: This setting, at 3 seconds by default, determines how long it takes until players can change teams again after a player switches. It will prevent the common problem where one team is outnumbered, several players try to balance teams at the same time, and end up outnumbering the other team. Switching back and forth also counts as suicides if you're alive, so those helpful players might lose part of their score, all for nothing. That's why the bonus pack mutator supports a single team-change hotkey, using it will instantly switch teams while preventing other players from accidentally switching at the same time. Please note that the other way of changing teams, using player setup, won't stop the aforementioned problem as it isn't affected by this setting.
• Damage Balance Teams: This setting, default is 0, is part of the team balancing feature. Zero means none, so by default, it's not active. If it's greater than zero, team balancing damage is active, when the team size difference equals or exceeds its value. Then the mutator will recalculate damage dealt to support the outnumbered team. Attackers take less damage when outnumbered, defenders do more damage when outnumbered, and damage is scaled based on team size differences. When it's used, if players won't balance teams, the mutator will enforce balance by adjusting player damage. I highly recommend that this feature be used on open public servers to ensure fair play even while outnumbered, it's best set to 1 or 2, please try it.
• Mover Encroach Damage: This setting, default is 5, determines how much damage a player takes for blocking a mover. Whenever a mover (e.g. a door, an elevator, or a switch) is blocked, the blocker is damaged, possibly even killed. This protects against people camping under lifts as well as most blocking bugs in custom maps not covered by the bonus pack mutator.
• Player Suicide Limit: This setting, default is 5, determines how often a player can use the suicide console command. Assault players usually bind it to a key so they can suicide quickly, either to instantly jump to another spawnpoint, or to get a better chance after being mortally wounded. It costs a life, but lives don't matter, only time does. Because of the important role suicides play in Assault, they can now be configured, to counteract excessive use or abuse. The number of suicides remaining will be shown once it's below five, and after all have been used up, all it does is lower health to one. By the way, this also stops server crashing through continued suiciding, the bonus pack mutator actually solved that problem even before Epic fixed it!

Now you know the most important options. As you can clearly see, the bonus pack mutator is completely configurable to your liking, it lets administrators run the games they prefer and players play the way they enjoy. Tomorrow I'll show you some more interesting details about the Assault Bonus Pack.

AS-ColderSteel (Shock Systems) Revision of AS-ColdSteel Nali City Rating: 9 * MappeD Review Score: 9.0 * UT Booty Rating: 96 * * Review of original, not its revision!

Today I proudly present the third Assault Bonus Pack map, our first bonus pack exclusive, an optimized version of AS-ColdSteel: AS-ColderSteel by Shock Systems!

ColdSteel is the other of the two Assault maps to achieve the second highest rating at Nali City. Now you know that their three highest rated maps are all part of the Assault Bonus Pack. MappeD, specializing in Assault and CTF map reviews, rated it 9 stars and gave it the Hot Map! Award. UT Booty map reviews gave it the highest rating of 96 and a star marker. So much about ColdSteel, let's look at ColderSteel. It's a revision, fixing the bugs and enhancing the looks, and makes use of some map-specific Assault Bonus Pack features.

The most important bugs fixed were the following: 1. Attackers could open the hangar doors before shutting down the laser fence; 2. Attackers could jump through the defender sniper towers; 3. Attackers could bypass an objective; 4. Attackers could complete the map without activating the switches at the end; 5. Spawnpoints could get messed up. Please note that the Assault Bonus Pack will fix all of these bugs as well if you choose to use the old ColdSteel instead of the new ColderSteel! AS-ColderSteel has other improvements, though, and requires the bonus pack mutator for proper operation.

After its release, the bonus pack mutator will also be available stand-alone, as a separate download. So other level designers can use the map-specific features, too, by shipping their own maps with the mutator. All future revisions of the mutator are expected to be compatible with previous releases so there shouldn't be any conflicts between different versions. Here's a list of the main mapping possibilities:

• Assault Plus Randomizer: Mappers can replace the old UT Assault Randomizer with the new Assault Plus Randomizer which will work properly with bots.
• Unreal Monster Support: Mappers can place monsters in their maps without causing problems like First Blood, Headshot, or gaining frags for killing them.
• Modify Maps Feature: One of the most powerful features, it can alter any map, changing almost all actors at will. This function is responsible for fixing all bugs and can be used to redesign maps on the fly without requiring changes to the actual map file which would break compatibility between different versions of the same map. So if a mapper would like to fix some bugs in their map, they don't have to release an incompatible version which must be downloaded by all servers and clients, instead they could simply let me make the changes in code and instantly have the map fixed on all servers running the latest version of the mutator. Except for architecture, there are hardly any limits regarding what can be done, as the existing map bug fixes prove. Since updating the mutator is reserved for special situations when it's really necessary, I can only offer this capability to special maps, contact me about it if your maps have received rave reviews or if you plan to release a full map pack with the mutator.

The main advantage of using the mutator instead of releasing another version of your map is compatibility and distribution. While different versions of the same map would be incompatible and players can't play on servers with another version, that's not a problem with the mutator, it doesn't matter which version players use. Players don't even have to have the bonus pack mutator. And once an updated mutator is released, only administrators really need it, so ordinary players don't have to bother keeping it up to date. Of course upgrading the mutator, testing all changes, and certifying it for ngWorldStats takes a lot of time and effort, too much to do it often, so updates will only be done when really needed. Admins also must make sure they use the latest official version, when a custom map includes a mutator, replace it with the current version if the included one is out of date. The latest and official version, the only one compatible with ngWorldStats, will always be available here at the Assault Bonus Pack website. Future revisions will be announced properly, of course, so rest assured it will be easy to keep up with updates. As with UT, I'll maintain it and solve problems, but don't expect any more game play changes.

AS-Asthenosphere (Phil "-=¤willhaven¤=-" Cole) $150,000 Make Something Unreal Contest: 2nd CliffyB's 0wnage! Awards: 17. Nali City Rating: 9 MappeD Review Score: 10 UT Booty Rating: 90

Today I'm going to show you the second Assault Bonus Pack map, a very hot one indeed, as you can easily see: AS-Asthenosphere by Phil "-=¤willhaven¤=-" Cole!

Asthenosphere took the second place in the Best Assault Map category of the $150,000 Make Something Unreal Contest. It's the second Assault map to get CliffyB's 0wnage! Award, and to this date, only two Assault maps managed to get this prestigious award. Now you know that both of them are part of the Assault Bonus Pack. Up to now it's also one of only two Assault maps to achieve the second highest rating at Nali City. MappeD, specializing in Assault and CTF map reviews, rated it 10 stars and gave it the Hot Map! Platinum Award. It's the only Assault map which got that rating and this award. UT Booty map reviews gave it a rating of 90 and few other maps achieved a higher rating there. That's enough of a review overview. This custom map obviously had to become part of the Assault Bonus Pack, too, to turn it into a new standard map for Unreal Tournament Assault.

The version included with the bonus pack is the same one already available at Willhaven's site and mirrors worldwide. The map has a bug, though, which will be fixed by the bonus pack mutator. The air duct grates can be blocked from the outside, so when you position a defender in front of both grates, the respawning attackers can't get out of there. This blocking requires quite a bit of coordination, but if executed properly by the defenders, the attackers will be trapped. They can only prevent it by killing anyone who camps there from the outside, but if they get killed and spawn on the inside, there's nothing they could do about it. A defender who notices a team mate blocking the grate could knock them down with a little friendly fire, of course, stopping a cheater on your team is still fair play. The Assault Bonus Pack's anti-cheat-protection will ensure that the grates cannot be blocked anymore - and any attempt to block them will crush the blocker. Speaking of protection, I'm going to explain these features today, describing the other bonus pack protections.

Before I continue, let me refer you to some interesting websites, they're all about Assault techniques, tips, and tricks: www.planetunreal.com/cotd/tricks.html & www.energymech.net/users/ut/index.html. If you're new to Assault, you should definitely take a look at them, to see what's possible and why special protection is necessary. Since the sites do such a good job at describing the exploits, I won't repeat how they work, instead I'll explain how the bonus pack protection will solve those problems:

• Impact Jump Protection: This option, off by default, limits impact jumping. Impact jumping is a planned feature, it's mentioned in the manual and weapon description, but some Assault maps were designed without considering it. Without the bonus pack mutator, the only way to prevent impact jumping was using the Chainsaw mutator, affecting game play quite a bit. The bonus pack will allow jumping as before, but a server administrator can choose to enable protection against it, either in general or for certain maps only. While impact jump protection is on, you can still impact jump normally, but it's impossible to do a charged impact jump. That means small jumps are possible, like in the Overlord boiler room, but not big jumps, like over the Mazon front gate.
• Impact Launch Protection: This option, on by default, limits impact launching. Impact launching is a relatively new technique where one or more players hit a team mate with their impact hammers, giving the player a great boost, basically launching them very high and far away. While a single player hitting you won't launch you as much, if you run and jump into the charged hammers of several team members, you'll go flying. It's similar to rocket launching, but the most important difference is, you spawn with the Impact Hammer so it can be done whenever several team mates are together. As an example of how powerful it is, it's possible to impact launch a team mate from the beach through the gun cavern opening in Overlord, from start to finish in a few seconds. With protection against it active, which it is by default, charged impact launches are impossible to do.
• Rocket Launch Protection: This option, on by default, limits rocket launching. The momentum caused by several rockets hitting a player at the same time will send the player flying. Up, up, and away. This isn't as versatile as impact launching, but it's a lot easier to do, and only needs two team mates working together. Of course you also need a rocket launcher, but in some maps they are very easy to get, for example Mazon. There you can launch a team mate from the start onto the top of the castle, let them drop down the elevator shaft, and they're already at the crystal reactor room. Without the bonus pack mutator, the only ways to prevent launching were using the Single-Rocket-Mutator or friendly fire team damage, affecting game play quite a lot. Launching is prevented by default because it isn't a planned game play feature, it's a bug, momentum is supposed to be capped at a certain maximum. The bonus pack mutator does just that while rocket launch protection is active.
• Team Damage Protection: This is a special protection against team killers. It's obvious that using friendly fire team damage could attract annoying players who enjoy killing their team mates. But even if friendly fire doesn't do team damage, team killing is still possible, by shooting your team mates to their death. Off the train, into lava, or against a wall so they kill themselves with splash damage. The problem is that even if such an attack doesn't deal damage, its momentum knocks the team mate around. This option, on by default, absorbs the momentum so team mates can't knock each other back. And if friendly fire team damage is active at the same time, the damage done will not be suffered by the victim, but by the attacker. Team killers would simply kill themselves. Hand in hand with this option goes another setting, TeamDamageScale, which determines how much damage the target receives. By default the attacker takes full damage and the victim doesn't take any, but admins can change it to their liking, or even turn it off. This setting won't interfere with jumping and/or launching if their own options are used.
• Advanced Spawn Protection: Finally, there's spawn protection, of course. In a lot of maps it's possible for one team to push their enemies back into their spawning area, and proceed to kill the respawning players before they can fight back. This is as effective for the attackers as it is frustrating for the victims. Most often it's the assaulting team which is spawnkilled by the defenders, but in certain maps, it can work the other way around as well. Sure, offense often is the best defense, but spawncamping certainly wasn't a design goal of Assault. It should be up to the level designers to protect the spawnpoints, but since too many maps don't consider camping, it was a no-brainer to add spawn protection to the bonus pack. Because of the common balance differences between attackers and defenders, protection time can be configured independently, by default granting 3 seconds of invulnerability for the attackers, and 0 seconds for the defenders. Note that protection only runs out after moving, so if you don't move after respawning, you'll remain invulnerable. Turning and shooting doesn't count as moving, it's done like that to discourage camping near the spawning grounds, spawnkilling really doesn't pay off anymore. If a player doesn't move at all, they won't be protected forever, though. Idle players can be kicked automatically with another setting that I'll describe some other day. Also important to point out, spawn protection only protects against other players, it won't help you against automated cannons or environmental hazards. As all the other options, it's also configurable independently per map, so spawn protection timeout can be set according to what's best for each map.

With all of these options, and those I haven't introduced yet, you might think the Assault Bonus Pack could be complicated to use. It's not complicated, though, it's simply complex. Fortunately all of the complexity is hidden beneath a powerful yet easy-to-use graphical user interface. Normal players can set it up through the UT GUI menus, or stick to the default settings, I took great care in choosing the best defaults for most audiences. For power users, however, all of the functionality is available through the console and remote admin system. In fact, with the Assault Bonus Pack, the Assault game type becomes as mighty a game as UT itself.

AS-Bridge (Claude Meyer aka Mier) $150,000 Make Something Unreal Contest: 1st CliffyB's 0wnage! Awards: 14. Nali City Rating: 10 MappeD Review Score: 9.5 UT Booty Rating: 93

Today I'll introduce the first Assault Bonus Pack map, although it probably doesn't need any introduction, it's one of the best Unreal Tournament maps ever: AS-Bridge by Claude Meyer aka Mier!

Bridge took the first place in the Best Assault Map category of the $150,000 Make Something Unreal Contest. It's the first Assault map to get CliffyB's 0wnage! Award, and to this date, only two Assault maps managed to get this prestigious award. Up to now it's also the only Assault map to achieve the highest possible rating at Nali City. MappeD, specializing in Assault and CTF map reviews, rated it 9.5 stars and gave it the Hot Map! Award. UT Booty map reviews gave it a rating of 93 and a star marker. Of course this is just a quick overview, there are many more reviews out there, after all no serious reviewer could give this masterpiece anything but a top score. So it was quite obvious that this custom map must become part of the Assault Bonus Pack to turn it into a new standard map for Unreal Tournament Assault.

The version included with the bonus pack is the same one already available at Mier's site and mirrors worldwide. The map has two bugs, though, which will be fixed by the bonus pack mutator. Speaking of bugs, a lot of Assault maps have such problems, and one of the bonus pack features solves all of them in code without requiring changes to the actual maps. I'm going to explain this feature today, describing the bug exploits that exist, and their bonus pack fixes.

Before going on, I'd like to express my opinion on exploiting the bugs, though. People often argue about them, some consider it cheating, others claim it's still fair play because the bugs are part of the maps and everybody could use them. Personally, I count them as cheats, they can ruin the game. Although I'd never support their abuse, I can't advocate keeping them secret, either. Security through obscurity always fails, sooner or later, and most of the bugs are exploited all the time because not doing it would put you at a serious disadvantage if your opponents make use of them. Since regular Assault players know and often use the map bugs, all the secrecy does is confuse newbies, it's one of the reasons why the Assault community can't grow faster. That's why the Assault Bonus Pack will tackle the cheats to close all holes in this game type, making the game more enjoyable and fair for all kinds of players, except for cheaters perhaps. Next week, with the bonus pack release, all of those problems will be a thing of the past, but until then, here's an overview over the cheats and countermeasures you can take to prevent others from exploiting the bugs:

• AS-HiSpeed: The switch at the end that is supposed to open the control cabin can be blocked by a player who gets in the way of the mover once activated. If this happens, the mover will return to its starting position, and the door will remain closed. Then the map can't be completed by the attackers and the defenders will win once time runs out. To prevent this from happening, make sure you kill all the defenders in front of the switch before triggering it, and try not to hit it from a left side angle in front of it. Occasionally an attacker activates the switch from that angle and unintentionally blocks the switch, the door won't open, and both teams get confused. There's nothing that could be done in this case. The Assault Bonus Pack's anti-cheat-protection will ensure that this switch cannot be blocked anymore.
• AS-Mazon: If a player stands on top of the gate at the back entrance when it opens, they will block the gate, so it will close again and stay shut. The map can still be completed because people can climb the gate or jump in, but bots can't, and breaking bot support means that this isn't a feature but a bug. To prevent the gate block, make sure there's nobody standing or feigning death on top of the gate before destroying the chains, then they can't obstruct it. The Assault Bonus Pack's anti-cheat-protection will ensure that this gate cannot be blocked anymore - and any attempt to block it will crush the blocker.
• AS-Overlord: The gun controls can be destroyed without entering the control room at the end. You don't even have to go up the ramps. One of the destructible triggers extends out of the little control room through the wall behind the flag, an oversight of the level designer, so it can be hit from the ground. If the attackers know about it, the defenders can't do much once they breach the gun cavern, and assaulting becomes too easy. The only way to prevent the shortcut assault is by killing all enemies before they can shoot at the flag, so don't let them get into the gun cavern, otherwise the game ends quickly. The Assault Bonus Pack's anti-cheat-protection fixes the trigger so attackers can't shoot through the flag on the wall anymore.
• AS-Rook: On top of the guard house where the defenders spawn are several holes, oversights by the level designer, and a player could drop into one of them if they got on top of the building. There's no way out, but if they sit in there, they will block a mover that would open the library doors. If that mover is blocked, it returns to its starting position, and all the library doors will stay closed. Then the map can't be completed by the attackers and the defenders will win once time runs out. There's not much the attackers can do to prevent the block, they just have to be faster, open the library before the defenders could put somebody in the hole. If someone already got in the hole, kill them, although it will be hard to reach them there. Fortunately it's not so easy to get onto the roof in time, the quickest way requires two impact jumps, so it can only be done with armor. Let's hope a fair player will take it away before a cheater can grab it. The Assault Bonus Pack's anti-cheat-protection will ensure that the doors cannot be blocked anymore - and any attempt to block them will crush the blocker.
• AS-Bridge: The map can be completed without placing the explosives, the final trigger where you blow up the bridge extends out of the box that covers it before all charges are placed, and can be activated by touching it at the right spot. This is very similar to the Overlord problem. To prevent it, the defenders have to guard the box, making sure no attackers can get near it even if the charges haven't been placed yet. Another problem is placing the charges, if you get too close, you'll be stuck inside the charge. The only way to get free is to die. The Assault Bonus Pack's anti-cheat-protection will ensure that the bridge can only be blown up after all charges are in place - and players can't be caught inside the charges anymore.

There are many more bugs in other maps and fixes in the bonus pack - this was merely an overview about the most common problems and how the cheat protection solves them. AssaultCheatProtect is just one of the mutator options, and it's on by default, of course. Server admins are free to choose if they turn it off in general or for certain maps, though, so it will be a possibility to disable the major cheats (blocking and such) while enabling minor ones (like the flag shot in Overlord) if the administrator so desires. Players get several special commands, including one to check the current server configuration, so you can always verify which settings a server is using. There will be much more information about those features during the week.

For today, this is enough of an update, so see you all tomorrow.

About half a year in the making, it's finally time to publish the Assault Bonus Pack. Since it has been in beta testing for a couple of months now, some of you might have experienced a pre-release version already, and the official bonus pack will be released at the end of the month. This site has been launched today, a week in advance, to inform you all about the latest and greatest bonus pack for Unreal Tournament.

I'm going to update the site every day until the bonus pack launch, explaining some features and introducing a map per day, so keep checking the page daily. The bonus pack contains seven maps and a host of new features, vital Assault fixes, and lots of useful options. If you like the Assault game type, you'll love the bonus pack improvements. If you disliked Assault so far, try the bonus pack tweaks, it makes Assault much more playable and fun for everyone.

The main goal with the bonus pack is to enhance Assault. Consider it a much-needed update for Assault. That game type has great potential, but some problems have harmed it severely, so I kind of adopted it with Epic's blessings to unlock its full potential. Upgrading using the bonus pack will fix Assault and make it really playable for all kinds of players. It doesn't matter if you're a rookie, veteran, or experienced in other game types, with the bonuspack, you can play Assault the way you want. Another shortcoming of Assault was the limited map selection, only seven maps, and even those have serious flaws that could ruin the game quickly. Not only does the bonus pack fix all of the known map bugs in the original Epic maps, it also includes seven custom maps, stressing quality over quantity. Assault maps are very hard to make, so to ensure highest possible quality, I only accepted levels by critically acclaimed designers for the initial release of the bonus pack. The bonus pack will include some old classics as well as some new favorites. All of the maps and features will be explained here during the following week until the bonus pack is released.

The Assault Bonus Pack Mutator is server-side-only so it won't auto-download to clients when a server uses it. If the server also uses the bonus pack maps, they will have to be downloaded, of course. Downloading the full package here will be the best way, and also make the single player capabilities of the bonus pack available, plus easy controls and mod configuration. Since it's an Assault upgrade, ngWorldStats will certify the mutator, and updated servers will be counted properly as Assault instead of a Mod. In fact, stats logging and player ranking was quite pointless with the original state of Assault, it simply had too many holes and exploits to be accurate. To prove it, I tried and achieved the top rank weekly and quarterly within a single week, as explained in my article about it. With the bonus pack, both camping and cheating can be restricted, for the first time you can play a really fair game of Assault. Of course one can't please everyone all the time, one size doesn't always fit all, so the bonus pack mutator is highly configurable through an easy-to-use configuration screen or through powerful remote administration. All of this, and much more, will be shown throughout the week.

Current and previous versions have been successfully tested by several Assault leagues and on private as well as public servers. Although preview versions are still available at this time, they are unsupported, and documentation will only be provided for the final release of the full bonus pack. Official release date is Halloween.

That's it for the day, also take a look at what people said about the project (Feedback to the right), and see you tomorrow.