Several modern devices we have in Creative used to function as Traps & have “Plate” versions, however in v16.20 Epic removed all of those in favor of newer Prop versions.
Several of the old Plate Devices had quite a lot of functionality or usage, that the new versions are just completely missing, harming the creating experience & forcing creators to come up with tedious workarounds.
Perfect examples of this are the Mutator Zone Plate, Scoreboard & Timer Plate:
- Mutator Zone Plate: The Device’s unique blue visual is completely absent from the Prop version introduced later, which has most definitely harmed or at least reduced aesthetic options for creators
- Scoreboard: This Device’s main functionality was to count up score between 2 teams visible on an actor in the world, there was no prop version ever even made for this device, we just… no longer have any simple way to do this anymore
- Timer Plate: The distinct visuals of this version could have been incredibly useful in certain settings used by creators. The only other versions we have are the Timer Objective & Prop Timer which i don’t feel are sufficient enough.
Some of these devices also used way less Island Memory than their modern prop counterparts, which would also help creators optimize their maps much easier.
Therefore i suggest re-adding the following devices, and labeling them as “Legacy” in the Creative menu to both avoid confusion with the new versions, and make it obvious that the Devices may stop functioning as intended:
- Barrier Plate (Plate version is much faster & easier to work with in certain situations)
(TID_Ceiling_BarrierDevice] - Elimination Zone Plate (Features distinct useful SFX)
(TID_Ceiling_EliminationZone] - Mutator Zone Plate (Distinct visuals are very useful)
(TID_Floor_NoWeaponZone] - Item Spawner Plate (Better functionality in many cases due to it’s larger size)
(TID_Floor_Minigame_Spawner] - Player Spawn Plate (Better functionality in many cases due to it’s larger size)
(TID_Floor_Player_Start_Plate_VR_T01] - Player Checkpoint Plate (Better functionality in many cases due to it’s larger size)
(TID_Floor_PlayerCheckpoint] - Timer Plate (Distinct visuals are very useful)
(TID_Floor_Toy_Siren] - Scoreboard (Very useful for certain Minigames)
(TID_Floor_Scoreboard] - Sentry Plate (AI behavior differs noticeably from the Prop version)
(TID_Floor_Backup]
ALL of the functionality of these Devices is even still perfectly intact in the files, and the versions creators placed down prior to their removal work without any issues at all. Re-adding these would literally be as simple as putting them back in the Content Browser, therefore i see absolutely no reason not to make these available again.
(Some Devices I’ve intentionally excluded (ex. Vehicle Spawners), as i feel their modern counterparts are not distinct enough to warrant being re-added among other reasons.)