The @utgame Project Stream was short but sweet today. RZE took the helm today and discussed a few bits and pieces in the new build. The highlight of the stream was Stu Fitzsimmons showing off a couple of screenshots from the upcoming, fully meshed version of DM-Chill. Is it a painting or UE4??

One other tidbit was Pete Knepley showing off his Twitter alert for new builds. He has set up a bot to Tweet when a new build is out. Just follow @UTBuildBot on Twitter and you’ll never be left in the dark. Check out the stream replay HERE.

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The long awaited update of UT4 to Unreal Engine 4.11 is finally here! The most notable changes are the 15% player size increase which is quite noticeable. Hopefully everyone will take their time to test it out properly and be respectful to the devs. You can view the changelog HERE.

Henrik Ryosa put together a gameplay video here which covers the major changes in the build.
 

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So this one caught me totally by surprise. Epic uploaded a prerecorded chat session to the UT YouTube channel that features the guys that are working on player animations for UT4.

Great to see Nate Horsfall (R.E.D. on the UT forums) on there since his work is fantastic but those forum threads aren’t front and center. Follow his latest forum thread HERE.
 

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Is it the Omega-13?? Nope, just a new playable area in the upcoming Alpha 2 release of DM-UC-SpaceNoxx. I’m hoping to have A2 ready to go in the next week or two.

Bear in mind that there is still tons of work to be done after A2 and many critiques to absorb.  Follow my dev thread HERE.

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It struck me while playing the other night and seeing more and more artsy player names, that some players might not be aware that UT4 supports using “alt-codes” natively in the playername setup window.

If you don’t know what the codes are, you can check out a site like Alt-Codes. To use these, make sure your num-lock is on since you need to use your keypad. While in game and the cursor positioned in the player name box, hold the alt-key down, type the code number, then release the alt-key. On occasion, you may not get what you want.

The game will also accept many Unicode characters (also found on the Alt-Codes website) but I’ve only had luck typing these into an html friendly editor such as Microsoft Word, then cutting/pasting into the game. In an editor such as Word, hold the alt-key down, type &# followed by the unicode number, then release the alt-key. With UT running, you can then copy from Word and paste into the UT player name window. As with alt codes, your mileage may vary.

I am the α and the Ω ☺.

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Konseptzzz is building a DM-Grendelkeep for UT which is looking great! You can follow his progress HERE.

His first WIP release is up and running on the UC Hub. Look for it under the “All Maps” gametypes or set up a Custom match.

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There’s an exciting thread on the forum right now, started by Floatharr, showing several paintovers that he has done for both stock and community maps. This is one of those feel-good threads where you see someone who taps right into the heart of UT, and pumps out one beautiful piece of art after another.

His paintovers remind me of Gooba’s early work on the forums so hopefully he will stay with the community and keep up the great work!

The image below shows his fantastic paintover of DM-Focus.

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Feeling bad about no holiday event on the UT scene, Joe Wilcox decided to cook one up on his own for us! It’s called Capture the Tree. To read more about how this came about, you can read Joe’s thread HERE on the forums.

Capture the Tree is up and running on the Unreal Carnage Hub under the “Holiday” tab.
 

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ESL has added the new UT to it’s line up.  From the ESL site:

“In the near future, starting globally, with European and North American regions, supported by Epic Games and Zaccubus as shoutcaster, ESL will open ladders in various gametypes, run various cups and leagues, each supported by powerful Anti Cheat client. News about first competitions at ESL will be out in few weeks!”

Predictably, tongues are wagging in the UT forums saying that it is not ready. Only time will tell if they are right. I have to trust that Epic and ESL have had many discussions about making sure this goes smoothly. The mention of the ESL Anti Cheat client is interesting. Could it be incorporated into the UT core at some point?
 

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Pete Hayes (aka YemYam) started a new thread in the UT Forums to show off concepts for robot designs in the new UT. They are considering a three phase approach with the following framework:

– Phase 1: Industrial bots non-modified for combat. Can hold their own in combat but look like they should be doing construction not fighting. They should look cool but not necessarily dangerous and have minimal armored parts.

– Phase 2: Multipurpose bots used for industrial or combat purposes. They have some utilitarian looking components and some exposed areas but it’s obvious they have upgraded various parts to be more effective in combat. They should look a little chunkier and more armored.

– Phase 3: Combat specific bots, the most powerful and deadly version. They have been engineered from the ground up to be the deadliest bots in the tournament. They have sleeker and more armored components and visually look like the strongest, toughest and meanest out of the three.

The Phase 1 robot will be the first up. Gooba has put together an initial concept (below) and Pete will start modeling this right away. The game desperately needs some robots asap to feel like UT. I can’t wait to get all three phases in game!

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