AAO25.com
Community => Games & Programming => Topic started by: Jonnym on Friday, December 18, 2009, 17:15:54 PM
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Hey, does anyone know if there is a map editor for AA2.3?
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do people still play 2.3?
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No, We can start it up again. Call it AA Classic or Classic AA
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It's called UnrealEd :D Publically, no. Only the 2.5 one was leaked/stolen. In my research, it is/was possible to do it for 2.3 but it involved some hacking. Something along the lines of exporting the resources to the free/student version of UnrealEd then building a map, compiling and then hex editing the map to work with the "paid" engine. There was also something about a bytecode converter which I looked into at one point but never found one for 2.3. There seems to be 2.5 and 2.6 versions though. I contacted iZi (original starter of this mayhem and aa-maps.net) about mapping on 2.3. He actually took the time to convert a texture to the free version of UnrealEd for me when I was first interested in all of this.
iZi's work:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/464376/mAApPackFiles/facade.7z
I did have a decent amount of fun with a hex editor and the maps. You can change staticmeshes or just delete things altogether. Here's some simple stuff I did a while back:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/464376/mAApPackFiles/2.3%20mod%20maps.7z
Also, I don't know what Crusade would think of this but I know he released a BUNCH of his work and sources on various forums and a lot of this stuff is super old... here's a huge collection of mods for 2.3 that I've collected over the years if you want them:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/464376/mAApPackFiles/2.3%20Server%20Mods.7z
I also have hacks:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/464376/mAApPackFiles/2.3%20Hacks.7z
Quote from a forum about making maps with the free version of UnrealEd:
Basically, you can make a mesh in 3d studio max, export it as ASE,
and import into UnrealEd, or open an existing meshes package in UTPT,
extract the mesh as 3ds, load in 3d studio max and export as ASE, then import to UnrealEd.
Assuming 2.6 or earlier...
With unrealed make a little map, make an interaction, make some actor in their
thats capable of loading up your inbedded interaction. Build and save the map,
run it throught the necessary bytecode converter. Open up with hex editor,
change the sixth, i think, byte from 01 to 00. This changes the licensee mode
stuff, so AA will actually load it. Save as a .aao then drag it onto your AA icon.
AA should load, drop you in that map, and load your interaction up for ya.
Quite ingenious in its simplicity.
If there's something specific you need or can't find, let me know. I literally have 7.29GB of AA stuff... and that's compressed with 7Zip. Enjoy :)
On a personal note.. AA 2.3 was and is still the best.
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what makes 2.3 better than 2.5?
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It was a small community but very much different from 2.5. It could be small and you could play with people you knew but there was always random people on so games were more random and unique. When I enjoyed 2.3, the community was smaller than when I first opened 2.5 and it was much more fun on 2.3, that should say something. Maybe someone else can shed some light onto some better reasons.
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I wish I could.. 2.3 was better and I don't have a definite reason why. It just.. was ???
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It was a small community but very much different from 2.5. It could be small and you could play with people you knew but there was always random people on so games were more random and unique. When I enjoyed 2.3, the community was smaller than when I first opened 2.5 and it was much more fun on 2.3, that should say something. Maybe someone else can shed some light onto some better reasons.
'
oh, you meant that it was more fun. I was thinking that you meant that somehow the gameplay and what not was better.
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I would say the gameplay was different because of the community. 2.5 hits me as a group of whores playing on the same maps. 2.3 was the case with the same maps, although at times there might have been more variation, but the community was different, like I said the games were more random and unpredictable. There were clans but not everyone HAD to be in one. Of course, hard-coded there are changes in animation timing and settings are different.
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If anybody is interested, I'm going to start a thread showing all the stuff for AA I've collected through the years. If you want any of it, let me know and I'll upload.
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How much work would be involved in porting you mAAp pipeline and Urban assault SE to 2.3
Was thinking about launching AA Classic, Based on 2.3 But re-making all the maps.
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Honestly, I don't know that I would spend time doing that. It may be as simple as 2 minutes in a hex-editor to change the bytecode or it may be as complicated as starting from scratch. The dev's hardly changed anything in Pipeline or it's texture/mesh/sound packages since 1.0 except engine conversions so it is entirely possible to just need to change the bytecode. I don't really know much about it, in fact with that above quote posted, you kinda know as much as I do about it.
That I know of, there's 2 people that could help:
Crusade
Humm3r - http://www.freewebs.com/humm3rjack/binaries.html
Keep in mind, Uscript was dead when I was looking around for help, that was a year or two ago. On the upside... you could just wait until 2.5 completely dies and then start up AAClassic :D As far as I'm concerned, if you want to give it a shot, you have my permission to do what you want with Pipeline. I highly doubt the other devs would mind either. However, I can't speak for Urban Assault SE.
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Yeah, Think i will just wait for 2.5 to die. Because the problem with 2.5 is the people who play it, Not the game itself.
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the problem with 2.5 is the people who play it, Not the game itself.
Yet another genuine smile :)
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Yeah, Think i will just wait for 2.5 to die. Because the problem with 2.5 is the people who play it, Not the game itself.
That is the case with every game. There are always idiots playing the game, it is just with bigger communities they don't stand out as much.
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When we launch Classic AA we will have out own auth system so will we control who plays.
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It's really uncanny how nothing will happen for a while then someone always comes along and starts it up again.
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I'll slander a note around:
We are bound to work together for fucking ever.
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We are bound to work together for fucking ever.
Till death do us part? If so, I got some rat poi... I mean feel-good pills that I can send you free of charge :)
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Since the bitch has spoken, I guess I can also add:
AA Classic can become one of the best out there, if Spanky gets money-drop on his Paypal.
This is a true fact.
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I'll have you know that I am no longer using Paypal since eBay tried to screw me over. I prefer cash via mail now kthxbai.
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IMO: 2.3 is still the best version out there, that is somwhat remotely playable. I think S2K still has their server up on there. If they don't, I know there is at least one up. I had one of my old buddies check it a few weeks ago. I seemingly regret moving to 2.5 because of the community. 2.3 had OBG for a while, and it was definitely a good game to play. If the amount of effort some people take to free 2.5/2.8.5 of cheaters was placed on 2.3, it'd definitely draw a crowd back.
When I played 2.3, I loved it because of the no bullshit attitudes people had, and if you fucked up, you had to deal with it. Hardly any politics involved, and it was just a great place to be around. Lastly, everyone there was mature...to some point. Older players understood newer players and didn't treat them like shit when they couldn't figure out how to open doors.
2.5 is much much much different. I'd say 2.8.5 is even more understanding of new players than 2.5 is.
I think I still have all the server files for 2.3...but that's on my external that died last night. If people do want to go back there, I'd be happy to find my AA2.3 installation again.
Oh, and the reason AA is starting to suck big time is the players that play. Now its all foreign players who don't speak english and are kinda annoying...plus 95% of the guys I gamed with back on 2.3+ are no longer gaming, or no longer wish to play AA due to the above stated facts.
just my imo
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I seemingly regret moving to 2.5 because of the community. 2.3 had OBG for a while, and it was definitely a good game to play. If the amount of effort some people take to free 2.5/2.8.5 of cheaters was placed on 2.3, it'd definitely draw a crowd back.
When I played 2.3, I loved it because of the no bullshit attitudes people had, and if you fucked up, you had to deal with it. Hardly any politics involved, and it was just a great place to be around. Lastly, everyone there was mature...to some point. Older players understood newer players and didn't treat them like shit when they couldn't figure out how to open doors.
2.5 is much much much different. I'd say 2.8.5 is even more understanding of new players than 2.5 is.
Oh, and the reason AA is starting to suck big time is the players that play. Now its all foreign players who don't speak english and are kinda annoying...plus 95% of the guys I gamed with back on 2.3+ are no longer gaming, or no longer wish to play AA due to the above stated facts.
I knew someone would be able to explain it :) This is exactly how I feel, every last word. With that said though, there are quite a few obstacles to do things for 2.3. 2.5 has pretty much endless possibilities as far as modding and mapping. I would have chosen 2.3 to work on when I first started with mAAp but the UnrealEd we have doesn't work there. It was 2.5 or 2.6... I'm still not sure if I/we made the right choice...
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If I remember correctly, AA went from UE2 to UE2.5 on version 2.4
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If I remember correctly, AA went from UE2 to UE2.5 on version 2.4
Bingo. Although I do find it funny that UE2.5 can open maps from AA1.0 :D
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This is slightly off-topic but I think this is a good read pertaining to UE and AA.
http://www.bebo.com/BlogView.jsp?MemberId=74931766&BlogId=1745354522
Scroll down to Unreal Engine 2.5 and look at America's Army. It says it uses UE2.5 from version 2.4 to 2.9 (MOVES Institute). But next notice how this blog post was made 1224 days ago or August 18, 2006. They must of gotten this info from somewhere to know that AA would go to version 2.9 and that there would be an AA3 on Unreal Engine 3.
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I don't think it's surprising. AA3 was probably announced (it was for a long time) and so the logical choice would say that v2.9.9.9 would use UE2.5 although 2.9 will probably never exist.
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Isnt AA on like 2.8.6 or something ridiculous?
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I believe the full version is 2.8.6.2.45 :)
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I knew I wanted to use 2.3... Spanky needs to find a way of getting his maps onto 2.3.
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I knew I wanted to use 2.3... Spanky needs to find a way of getting his maps onto 2.3.
To be perfectly honest, it was the people, the community, the atmosphere that made 2.3 what it was. Same for 2.5, the only difference is that 2.3's "community" is non-existent so it's just a shell.
Storytime:
When I first mingled with BlueBlaster I believe he played 2.6. My version of choice was 2.3 even having played a lot of 2.6. I gave him some maps I had downloaded and hoarded many months prior from aa-maps.net. Time passed, 2.8 was released and naturally I checked out the editor and made crappy modifications that I thought were really 1337. None of us really liked to play 2.8, we really liked to stick to our version. Eventually the idea came up to ask iZi about making our own maps. I tried long and hard to figure out how to map for 2.3 with the help of iZi (iZi mentioned possibly having made maps for that version but in my years of collecting, I have never seen a map that works with 2.3) Finally, after much harassing and research about doing things for 2.3, he said that he might have an easier way. He gave me a rar and in it was UnrealEd... 2.4.1.
The version I received was the only leaked/stole one (besides betas that were leaked but they don't come with the editor). It's the only one that works straight up with versions 2.4-2.6.38. 2.3 is a different bytecode and a different engine. I have tried before and maps don't open because of the bytecode difference (something the devs implemented to basically mess up hacks so they didn't work with the next release right away). If one could change the bytecode after building a map for 2.5 to make it compatible with 2.3, the issue would come up with the engine version. I've opened maps from AA1.0 (same engine as 2.3) and while they opened, there were build errors. Things were changed in the engine and as well in the game. In fact there's minor issues with our editor and 2.5 (2.5 has things the editor doesn't). Going backwards at a version would be difficult. We wouldn't know build errors since we can't compile/build on 2.3 and thus any problems that arise might be harder to diagnose.
It is also my understanding from Crusade that coding is much easier on 2.5 and also has more possibilities. This would have to be thanks to the devs for implementing new features and not covering exploits up.
I'm just trying to give some facts. It may not matter which version for a server-browser, authentication system or tracker but from my experience and point of view it matters a lot for mapping and coding.
Bottom line for me, 2.3 vs 2.5... they'll both be dead. My vote is 2.5 once the a-holes are gone.
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people of HsC u know it be impossible to start playing on 2.3 again we are going to be the only retards there Lol but i guess ill help too on whatever u guys are planing to do
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So I guess we gave up on AA Classic/2.3?
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Spanky thinks it can't be done, Map editing that is. I'm still going to put up some 2.3 server though later.
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IMO, I'd go for something a bit more modern. 2.3 runs a
fairly really old engine. The whole point of revitalizing an older AA version would be to build new concepts on top of the old ones that are already there.
What you can do is send a nice letter/email to someone at licensing at AA if you could have the source or tools of the depreciated AA version or you can ask Epic for the SDK or source for Unreal Engine 2 and reverse engineer AA from that. Have fun getting anything out of them though, they don't like to answer their mail or the mail boy throws it away not even getting to the eyes of someone important.
You can do what you want, cuz a pirate is free. But honestly I'm answering because I haven't seen any new posts for a while and I feel like I have to post something somewhere.