This week’s UT project update features a review of two well-deserving deathmatch maps. DM-WarHouse by FreEp and DM-Deck by one of my favorite mappers, Chonglee.

DM-WarHouse continues the tradition of giant-room maps in UT but takes it to an incredible level of realism. If you haven’t tried the latest version of the DM-Deck WIP, be sure to download it and give it a spin.

Also, on the stream was the announcement of RZE’s promotion to producer. RZE is tireless and has a great attitude in the forums so this is great to see.

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Epic has released a new build today which is primarily focused on bug fixes after the huge CTF exhibition build. Notable are two new map editions, DM-RGB and CTF-Quick. DM-RGB is a crazy wall-running map from Clawfist. A wall-running map? Count me in!

The big surprise in today’s release is the unlocking of the Garog-Interloper version of the Skaarj character. I’m not sure what new players need to do to earn it but I only am at level 13 at the moment and it was unlocked.  Thanks Epic!

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Chonglee has continued to work on not one, but two Deck remakes for the new UT even with a busy real-life schedule. DM-Deck8 is the surprise map that has spun off the map that he started with, DM-Deck-CLee. Deck8 is closer to the original Deck map while Deck-CLee will continue to explore new concepts.

He has replaced much of the BSP with static meshes (minus textures at this point) and it is looking quite amazing already. It’s easy to see the promise of this map and the potential to become THE Deck map in the new UT.  Follow the WIP thread HERE.

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The UT Blog has been updated with info regarding the new progression system. You can now checkout the requirements to earn all of the goodies. Get crackin’ peeps!

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The lead-in to today’s CTF event was this brilliant UT intro video. I’m reposting here just in case you need to get pumped up about UT all over again!

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The huge “CTF Event Build” is here with boatloads of changes! Highlights include Epic’s now fully meshed CTF-TitanPass and CTF-Face. In addition, Jayoplus’ CTF-Pistola is fully meshed and available on the Marketplace.  CTF-TitanPass will be the closest you ever get to playing UT inside one of Gooba’s paintings. It is quite astonishing to see!

Coinciding with the release today, Epic held a Twitch stream and covered some of the new functionality. You now need to gain experience points to unlock items such as the Skaarj character and other wearables. Obviously the current community will be split on this but Epic is doing the right thing by adding modern game functionality to UT to hopefully garner some new fans.

The only way to currently build XP points is to play on an Epic Hub or complete some of the offline challenges. Therein lies the rub for admins running their own Hubs e.g. the Unreal Carnage Hub. Hopefully Epic will allow both XP points and replays to work on non-Epic Hubs very soon.

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As Epic prepares for the big #UTCTF Event this weekend, they have started a multi-part series on the making of CTF-TitanPass. Part 1 doesn’t show footage of the completed map yet which undoubtedly is designed to keep us clamoring for Part 2 and beyond. If you like spoilers, more content can be found online that reveals more details…

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Epic has updated the Flickr page dedicated to their WIP efforts on the art side (Flickr link added to left sidebar).

The Skaarj images shown on the stream this week have been uploaded with several provided at very high resolution. Awesome!

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On today’s UT project update, Chris Perna officially revealed the new Skaarj character which will be released next week alongside the new female character.

In addition, Chris also showed off a screenshot of the meshed version of CTF-Outside which will be renamed CTF-TitanPass and it is looking beautiful. This will also lead to the release of the “Castle” asset set which should really fire up the mapping community.

Flak also announced the winners of the #UTCTF contest to send a couple of lucky winners to the 9/18-9/19 Epic Community Event. Congrats to fb.pb and Fe4r! Be sure to watch the stream replay HERE.

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YemYam released some new renders of the Rocket Launcher that we will see in the Community Event build expected on or before 9/18.

As is typical with YemYam, it is a beautiful, extremely professional piece of work!

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