Foibos requested that I release this here, so here you go!

Some new toys for the mappers! Onslaught Toys #1 is a package for mappers featuring new vehicles and other toys for mappers to enjoy.

Included in the package: Link Tank 2.0, Go-Kart, Firefly, ONS-style Ion Plasma Tank, Grapple Gun, Vehicle Healer, and ONS-compatible versions of various Assault Turrets, including Sentinels, Link Turrets, Machinegun Turrets, and more. Also included is a sample map, ONS-Torlan-Toys1Test, which demonstrates the usage of the new toys.

Please direct any questions, comments, bug reports, etc. in this thread. Enjoy!

Download (Update 1): http://www.gamefront.com/files/20172603/OnslaughtToys1+Update1+Full.zip (just copy and paste the url, this forum seems to mangle it)

Hello Kamek, welcome to our community!

Before anything else, I'd just like to say thanks for your continued Uscripting efforts; this old game has been steadily drained of most of its creatively skilled contributors (coders, mappers, modelers, etc.) and there's very few new ones that arise to take their place so everyone's efforts are probably even more appreciated these days. Now, let's move on to the new stuff.

The AS turrets: Bringing more stationary defense variety to ONS, I find, is a good idea. The only one that seems at odds with my own AS memories is the Cannon turret (was such a thing ever featured in any AS map at all or is it new?), but despite its spammy rate of fire it doesn't seem to do as much damage as normal tank shells (125hp vs 300hp) - still more than enough to hurt gameplay regarding pedestrian attackers if placed too prominently. One other thing (bug?) I noticed when using a remotely operated turret through its panel was that your own footsteps' sound would keep playing until you'd exit again. This got me paranoid at first, testing these over the middle node in your Torlan test map with bots, making me constantly think some enemy was running around up there trying to take out my turret when in fact there was nobody around. Perhaps this can be fixed by forcing the player into a sitting animation before the take and possess part kicks in or something like that. Finally, I am a bit concerned about those automated, unfolding plasma turrets because they're both quite tough to defeat (1000hp) and even if you manage to do that, they respawn in a bloody second and go at you again! I think, unless the respawn variable is left up to the mapper to edit, this might be over the top for any place beside right next to the cores at each team's base.

The Ion tank: Pretty much the same ion we've been using for years with team coloured skins and aiming beams. The combo of its health increased to 900hp as well as its new, much more momentum/damage effective, instant ped killing proximity blast have me concerned about this vehicle becoming overpowered and much harder to stand a chance against now though :/. Btw, lol @ anti-mino code; good luck finding a careless driver to let you get that close to them though :p.

The Link tank: Here's where things start getting weird. For one, I really don't see the wisdom behind giving what is clearly meant to be a support vehicle so much health, let alone 3 seats. Bender and levi variants aside, most other custom vecs that were ever given more than 2 seats have historically served as good examples for why this practice is bad: firetank's 2nd seat flamethrower was a total failure and nobody uses it, dragon's 2nd seat is also pointless against anything other than enemy peds and nobody wants to use it and then there's the mino which swung completely to the other side of the balance spectrum with all its weaponry being ridiculously overpowered (its minigun turret outputs 200hp/sec and is almost as devastating as the main cannon itself because of its low profile). In this link tank's case, the 2nd turret is a miniaturized version of the driver's weapon. What's the point in doing that? Not to mention that, because of the main turret's weird shape, no passenger gun could be placed on top so they had to be moved to the front making it damn near impossible to deal with threats right behind the tank while its driver is focused on something else. Lastly, 3rd seat gun is a repeater laser that does 200hp/sec damage! This is now the 3rd most powerful repeater laser turret, right after the hurricane's (225hp/sec) and the troop carrier's (300hp/sec)!
All in all this seems to be a vehicle that was conceived with a different approach to it in mind, one that I personaly very much applauded and welcomed from the first moment I read about - i.e. to be a support vehicle that could only survive in the field symbiotically by healing stronger vecs and, in turn, being protected by their superior firepower (its own weapons could stave off only up to medium level/speed threats); a much more realistic, novel and interesting gameplay concept (typically found in RTS game design) - but through public "brainstorming" and "wouldn't it be cool" suggestions is now eventually molded into into yet another jack of all trades and expected to be sent out in open battlefields and survive/prevail on its own. To finish as I started, I fail to see the wisdom in these changes and I have to wonder, aside from the tensor/tread movement issues, what was so fundamentally wrong with the link tank's previous version that it had to be beefed up this much?
PS: New skins look nice, albeit not quite teamcolour-correct.

Firefly: Ever since the first time I saw this manta variant in your Arena of Evil I've been trying to understand the exact point of its existence. Now, by admitting it into a custom vecs compiliation, thereby archiving and preserving its code for the ages (and seemingly suggesting this is worth doing), this puzzles me even more. I mean, okay, so it banks when strafing, it's got flashier looks (and an "aooga!" secondary horn) and it jumps a bit higher while moving a bit slower... how is this a substantial vehicle edit worth preserving? I'd say just keep its code contained within the maps it appears in and let it fade out eventually; nothing new here.

The Go-Kart: Other than for oddball amusement purposes, I don't really see this vec going places - seems to be par for the course for most scorp variants so far too :/ (EONS scorp excepted!). Sure, it fits the BlockFort theme and all, but if some other mapper in a lapse of judgement decides to pit it in serious combat on any other map (and you know it's only a matter of time 'til someone does), its defenselessness against any kind of airborne or distant enemy combined with its unremarkable speed and durability will surely make it a chew toy for every other predator out there. Perhaps a blue shell might help ^^... Btw, some custom gear ratio or wheel inertia value you changed seems to've broken its vehicle flipping ability.

The grapple gun: I did not find a grapple gun in the Torlan test map, I could not summon one myself either. Still, assuming it'd work as the MasterShower one does, this is what I'd written before trying to test it: moo wrote:
The grapple gun is cool, the grapple gun is good. The only thing better than a grapple gun that can attach its endpoint to a friendly vehicle would be one that could attach it to any surface and with a much longer beam too. Then we'd be talking about a truly new way that (spider)peds could move around and be empowered from. Make that too please!
Secret Turbo Scorpion: Same chassis, more torque when alt-firing! The BMW of scorpions!


Anyway, that's all I got on your new stuff. I hope this didn't come across as a "first post roast" kinda treatment (that wasn't my intention here, I assure you) as I'm simply trying to get some honest feedback through with the hope that it'll stir up some productive commentary which might help make these items even better in the long run. Again, welcome to the msg board.

Thanks for the input. Link tank could definitely use some tweaking, we'll see how it plays out. I'll agree that I got a bit carried away here on that..

AS turrets: The anti-spawnkill sentinel turrets are intended just for that -- to place deep in the powercore area where you don't want players from the other team going to spawnkill, that can be difficult for the home team to expel. For instance, the spider mine towers on Dria-Gorz.. In almost every other case you'll want to use the regular sentinel. Also, you can definitely change the respawn time on any of these turrets, just change the RespawnTime in the properties (I think it's under ONSVehicleFactory)

The firefly and go-karts are just novelty vehicles that I've included to round out the package. You can take them or leave them

The "secret turbo scorpion" was an aborted attempt at another new scorpion, but I forgot to remove it. Oops!

Thanks again for the feedback.

pegasus_ wrote:

The grapple gun: I did not find a grapple gun in the Torlan test map, I could not summon one myself either.

Any weapon locker, then second weapon in the link gun slot (5).

Must've missed that, thanks.

Grapple gun works as expected. Still wondering why I can't summon one though.

Hello again, now public. I agree with Peg and as I already posted on Omni forum, one main turret and one secondary for AA purposes would fit the Link tank better, it's too gaudy now. Partially off-topic: Could you describe the changes between BlockFort V4a and V5? And could you make a non-fog version for us? I haven't seen any complaints about low FPS there. The GT forum is erratic, always copy your post into clipboard before clicking the Add button.

Not very many changes between V4 and V5 -- V5 is set up to use the OnslaughtToys1 package for the Go-Kart and Grapple Gun, to allow tweaks to those without needing to remake the map. Plus, the node header names were fixed (previously they reported the wrong node numbers, which was quite confusing). And the distance fog was added, at the request of some )o( players.

V5 without the fog: http://www.gamefront.com/files/20117711/ONS-BlockFort-V5-TC.zip

Here's an update to OnslaughtToys1 to tone down the broken link tank.

Update: http://www.gamefront.com/files/20172604/OnslaughtToys1+Update1.zip
Full package: http://www.gamefront.com/files/20172603/OnslaughtToys1+Update1+Full.zip

I see that in ArenaOfDarkness the Sentinels are in some "standby" mode - closed, but the Sentinels on Torlan are deployed and ready for action. Is the default mode configurable or not? Btw, they work flawlessly here.

foibos wrote:
I see that in ArenaOfDarkness the Sentinels are in some "standby" mode - closed, but the Sentinels on Torlan are deployed and ready for action. Is the default mode configurable or not? Btw, they work flawlessly here.

The sentinels at Torlan's PowerCores are of the anti-spawnkill variety, and thus remain deployed for the duration of the battle. The sentinels at the primaries are "regular" sentinels, and take a second to deploy before firing.

The sentinels on Arena are also anti-spawnkill sentinels, but it's an older version of the ONSSentinel that predates OnslaughtToys1 and won't stay deployed unless an enemy comes near.