UT99 mapper - 5yr old rig - Subscription - New editor - Questions - Help

Hi folks,

I don’t really know where to start with this thread,… I’m an old-school, UT99 mapper, (who sometimes needed help, in all honesty), I have a 5yr old rig, I’m on a very low income, I’ve got no experience with ANY of the new editors, (I only know the UT99 editor), I’m not out to make any money from this, (I’d have no idea how and have no personal connections to help me even if I did anyway), and to top it all off, I’m so nervous about all of the aforementioned things and my ability to get back into map-making; will there be any use for my maps? Who’ll be playing them? What servers are there likely to be? What level of interest will there likely be in the main UT2015 game? Can my current rig cope with the new editor? What help is there available for when I need real-time help? Will I be forced to upgrade my PC/rig before I get the editor? From what I gather thus far, the UT2015 game is free for those wishing to play it, how will my maps get distributed? What resources are available for the editor’s content? There are so many more questions, I can’t think of them all now, so this list isn’t exhaustive by any means:

So many questions, so few answers:

  • I’ve read the recommended PC spec to run the new content; my rig is 5yrs old, and I THINK it’s JUST about ok, except the graphics card, (it’s a Sapphire ATI Radeon Toxic HD5850 1Gb, it’s a bit less than the recommended spec’d card, what level of graphics quality will I get with my card?). Should I still save the money needed for an upgrade to adequately run the editor/game or should I pay the monthly fee anyway and hope for the best?
  • Could any of my maps I make with this new UT4 engine be included in any content distributed by Epic? Or am I not understanding the distribution facts correctly?
  • What level of mapping craftsmanship would any maps I make need to be at before they’d be accepted for possible distribution?
  • Is there a widely active, localised mapper’s community chat-room?
  • How well is this game likely to be received by the general public upon its official release? Does anyone think or know if this game’s going to be popular AND widely populated with gamers? To be honest, as much as this saddens me to say, I can’t help but think this UE4 game’s going to suffer because there are far too many games out there, too few gamers spread over too many platforms, thus too few gamers to be interested in yet ANOTHER first person shooter. I can’t imagine this new game will ever be as widely populated as UT99 was when it was at the height of its popularity - but I do sincerely hope I am proven wrong!
  • Where are the old-school mappers now? Are there any who’re doing maps for this new engine, if so, where can they be found?

I stopped making maps for UT99 in about 2011/'12,… but since then I’ve not played any UT, (not any Unreal Tournament game; instead I’ve played Battlefield Bad Company 2, on n off and there’s about as much comradery and social connection/interaction in that as there is in an old, Victorian cemetery - it’s soulless; just rampant shooting and no chat or laughs or, “Great shot!”, or, “Got any new maps, R3p?”, etc), and I’ve made no maps since then, so I’ve lost touch with the old UT99 servers, mappers, gamers etc.

In short, I’m out of touch, incredibly lonely, suicidally bored and very keen to be doing something creative and productive again with a fun, lively, creative, interested, devoted, skilled, passionate gaming/mapping crowd as in the early days of UT99. I’m keen to get back designing maps, (with the new editor if possible), but also, I want to see if my design skills would make me an employable entity in the gaming industry some time soon down the line; I’m in my 40s now, I’m still unemployed, I’ve got bundles of spare time but I’m not getting any younger; time for me is running out. I want to be creative again - and busy.

Please, any help would be massively appreciated, thank you.

Welcome R3plicant!
I don’t know too much about the UT development but I know the UT forum have a nice community that is creating content together using UE4 here: https://forums.unrealtournament.com
It’s a bit hard to say if your computer can handle the engine well. Maybe if you posted exactly what kind of CPU and RAM you have we should be able to help.
Your graphics card is bellow the recommended 6870 but I haven’t tried using the engine with any of these cards so I’m not sure how well it would perform.
Surely someone can share their experience with similar cards.

Good luck!

Sitrec, thank you. If at all possible, I’d like to run the game on at least high settings because anything less makes the mapping process all but worthless, IMHO.

Ok, my PC rig consists of:

  • Intel Quad Core 920 i7 @ 2.67, (could OC a little if absolutely necessary, but am wary about doing this on such an old air-cooled rig with a 5yr old PSU).
  • Patriot 12Gb RAM (1600Mhz, I think, I maybe wrong).
  • Asus P6T motherboard, (Vanilla).
  • Antec 750w modular PSU.
  • Samsung F3 1Tb HDD, partitioned.
  • WD 1Tb storage HDD.
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD5850 Toxic 1Gb, (the blue one, looks a lot like the Frozr).
  • Crossover 27" 2560x1440 IPS monitor. *Glorious, glorious, glorious. :cool:

I’ve just today taken £50 out of my fortnightly living budget, (cheap breakfast cereal and malnutrition for the next 10days!), and am ready to go to my bank today to ask for an overdraft to get another £100 to put aside towards a new GFX card, but only if it’s absolutely necessary. There is of course the fact that if it’s determined my rig needs the upgrade, I’ll not be able to pay for the first monthly subscription until the middle of March, which would be a real bummer.

Would love to know what the general consensus is. Thanks all. :slight_smile: