This chapter was written for players, technical background not being a prerequisite, to introduce them to the "player only" features of UTF, which can be used without being administrator on a server.
In case you're looking for something specific, here's an overview of the topics discussed on this page:
Since version 10 (Press F1 to see the scoreboard, then look for a red box in the lower right corner to see what version is running on the server you play on) UTF comes along with a new set of menues.
To access them, you normally have to press your normal menu-key executing the command ShowMenu. In most cases, that is the ESCape key, but GOLD users as well as Unreal Tournament players will not see the UTF menu this way. GOLD and UT users must bind a new key to "ShowMenu", one which is not ESC - note: hitting tab and TYPING "ShowMenu" will bring up the menu, but make it impossible to use. You MUST bind a key!!
227+ users with the UMenu.UnrealConsole will face the same problem and are required to bind a key to access the UTF menu.
If you don't know how to do raw keybindings, do the following: enter the game,
hit TAB and TYPE this exactly as given:
set input m showmenu
From now on you can use the M letter to access the menu. If you don't
like "M", pick any other key, assigning letters is just easiest
this way.
The first time enter UTF with Unreal Gold, 227+ with UMenu Console or Unreal Tournament, a menu will automatically open up and tell you if critical keys (fire keys) and non-critical keys (an alternate showmenu key as explained above) are missing and presents you with the option of going straight to the internal UTF keybind menu, where you can bind any missing keybinds in game.
Your absolute minimal screen resolution to bring up the main menu must be no smaller than 412x186 but even so, this will not get you far because other submenues may refuse to work at this resolution. I made everything work okay with 640x480 which should be doable by any PC nowadays.
Depending on your resolution, the main-menu may look more or less like this.
You can use both the keyboard AND the mouse interchangeably, whatever you prefer. Cursor up/down selects an option, RETURN enters. Escape will get you back or out of the menu. Mouse control is point and left-click on an option, right-click will get you one step back or out of the menu.
Main Menu options | |
---|---|
Button | Effect |
SPECTATE | Makes you a spectator if you are a regular player. In case spectating is not allowed or you can not spectate at the moment, you will be notified. |
PLAY | OPPOSITE of above, you can join the game when you
are spectating without rejoining the server. One thing to consider
though, you may find yourself using a different mesh/skin than you
originally had selected in your multiplayer menu, if you joined the
server as spectator in the first place. Whether or not this happens depends on servers-settings and whether or not you have been a regular player before in any UTF-10 server. |
change teams RED BLUE etc.. |
These buttons let you change teams easily right in the
game. You will normally see only those teams existing on the server, an
administrator may see more buttons there though. If you can't join a
particular team at the moment, you will be notified. Of course, these buttons are not available in non-teamgames |
ADMIN ... | The big ADMIN button would let you go into the administration menu if you HAD admin privileges on that server, the ADMIN LOGIN and ADMIN LOGOUT buttons are simply menu versions of the console commands ALOGIN and ALOGOUT and do exactly that... |
CLIENT MENU | Opens a submenu which lets you change various client settings, see later on below. |
UNREAL MENU | Brings up the old normal Unreal Menu, with the standard
Unreal options that come from the original Unreal game as it is without
UTF. While normal users may be accustomed to it, GOLD users may
not be used to this old style menu as in normal circumstances they have
the UT-styled menu to replace that particular menu. You can no longer use mouse in this old menu, because that is a UTF feature and this old menu is no UTF-menu. |
MAP VOTE | This opens the map and map-skip voting menu, if the server
is configured to allow it. If not you will just be notified that the
feature is disabled. (also see commands 'voteskip' and 'votemap' -->Commands) |
CALL VOTE | This opens the call vote menu if no vote is currently
called, or the YES/NO call vote reply menu if a vote is currently
active. If callvotes are disabled on the server you will get a message
telling you so. (also see the 'callvote' -->Command) |
QUIT GAME | Hmm... now what could this button do...?! |
DISCONNECT | What it actually does is send a kick-request to the server, because in 224/225 there is no real disconnect-command as in 226. Locally it executes an "open entry" command which effectively puts you back in the cellblock. |
Client Menu | |
---|---|
Option | Effect | Scoreboard |
Use old ScoreBoards |
Since UTF-9E, the scoreboards were the first to
implement the new modular GFX system. While the new GFX
system is highly advanced to conventional Canvas GFX display, it
has also erupted a discussion of taste. Some people preferred the old
"9b" style scoreboards. So here you may pick how your scoreboard should
look like now, old or new.
Be aware though, that the old scoreboards have less overall abilities and may not show everything as accurately as the new ones - especially in modded environments, in normal Unreal games everything will be displayed just ok. |
Never show FRAGS |
Epic made a crude mistake in wording since UT, and
unfortunately it has taken over. They describe a "frag" as a point,
which may be in order, but a "frag" is just a "kill", not score. You can select whether or not to show this extra piece of stats. Enabling this will automatically set "Never show TEAMKILLS" to true also due to the space distribution on display. |
Never show TEAMKILLS |
Obviously only a teamgame option, and only of real consequence in teamgames with friendly fire on (such as MonsterMash and some tactical games usually). DISABLING this option will automatically disable "Never show FRAGS" due to the space distribution on the display. |
Show TeamColor Background |
Select whether or not the background on the score boxes in team games should have a transparent taint in the associated team-color or not... | Messaging |
Show [special type] |
Numerous switches to enable or disable the display of
special messages like the HEADSHOT or "YOU KILLED..." notifications.
Disabling "Low Critical" messages will disable the "Orientation Phase"
messages but possibly also some other low critical warning messages
from the system. Disabling DEATHMATCHES is possible for people who prefer to use Unreal as chatroom rather than actual fraggin |
Max. Number Messages |
By default, the max. number of messages you see on the
top is 4. You can set this to an arbitrary number between 1 and 99,
although personally I recommend 6. Too low and you won't catch all
messages, too high and you will have your screen cluttered in no time
|
[special type] Time (sec) |
Numerous selectors how long a defined message type should stay on screen. "Normal" messages are those on top, any other are special messages which are described by name. | Miscellanious |
Fullscreen GUI MouseSpeed |
If you play in windowed mode, this setting is entirely
irrelevant, because the windows mouse cursor replaces the Unreal
engine mouse handling. In fullscreen mode, you should get a different
mouse cursor and also moving the mouse cursor will feel a bit different
than the window-mode variant. I discovered the default speed (which is
sensitivity dependent) is not good for everybody, so I allow a special
mouse sensitivity change which ONLY applies to these menues. Enter any arbitrary POSITIVE float value. |
INFILTRATION: AutoReload Guns |
Infiltration Game Bridge only! If true, Infiltration guns can be settable to reload automatically when the clip is empty but you have additional ammo in your inventory. Default is false. |
INFILTRATION: Aim is toggle |
Infiltration Game Bridge only! Some Infiltration guns (M9, MP5, M16...) have alt-fire set to enable a 'to hip' view to improve your aim, so in the game when you use alt-fire on these guns, they are moved more towards your hip and a crosshair is drawn (normally there is no crosshair except on the Rifles in scope-mode). If this setting is TRUE, hitting the alt-fire button once will switch the guns to hip mode, and hitting the button again will reverse the setting. The M9 pistol shoots slower in hip mode, the other weapons (those without zoom) do not change in speed in hip-mode. If the setting is FALSE (default), you have to keep the alt-fire pressed for the guns to remain in hip-mode (or in zoom-mode for the Sniper Rifles). |
UTF Control: Disable Mouse Smoothing |
If turned on, mouse smoothing will be disabled. Be aware that with this feature turned on your mouse will react notably different! Default is false. |
UTF Control: UTF MouseSensitivity |
If you enter a value greater than 0 here, this will be
used instead of the normal mouse sensitivity. This is especially useful
if you disable the mouse sensitivity, because the mouse reacts differently
and you may want to always have a different sensitivity setting when playing
in UTF servers without mouse smoothing. Default is 0 (off). |
Buttons |
UTF KEYBINDS | Opens the keybind menu, which allows you to configure special UTF related keybinds. Please note that for normal keybinds, you have to use your old menues just like before, the UTF keybind menu is responsible exclusively for NEW keybinds related to UTF. |
DEFAULTS | This will reset all above options to the internal UTF defaults as they were when you first downloaded UTF. |
LAST SAVED |
If you changed any above option but did NOT exit the menu yet, you can restore your last settings by hitting this button. |
This menu should be pretty straight forward. On the left, you see the keybind that can be used in UTF (forget about the first 2 unless you play UT), in the middle (with the white border) you see which key on your keyboard is currently bound to the keybind show left. The right column has always unbind key clickable for you to quickly delete the currently bound key from the function show left. You will also see messages what the keybinder has done to your configuration in the lower area.
Note:
Keys you can bind are... | |
---|---|
NOTE: please also read about Player Commands below this paragraph! | |
Key | Function in UTF |
UTF Fire | UT only: this is the key used to fire in UT. Do not worry about it, you will be notified if you do not have the fire key bound in UT, and the keychecker can even auto-bind it for you! |
UTF Alt-Fire | Same as above for alt-fire... |
Alternate Menu Key | Needed only for UT and Unreal Gold! If you bind a key to this function, you can access the UTF main menu. Normally this would be easily done by pressing ESCape, but alas, both UT and Unreal Gold have ESCape statically bound to open the internal new menu, so you can not access the UTF menu with it - or any other classic menu for that matter... |
UTF Weapon Reload | If you play with weapons that have clips, you can press that key to reload your gun (also see chapter Clip Guns). |
ThrowItem | If the server allows it, you can toss your currently selected inventory item - this works exactly like throwing a weapon, only for inventory items! |
Holster Weapon | Pressing this key allows you to put away your gun. |
Mapvoting already existed as standalone mod (WMapVote), however using it was quite cumbersome. I have been asked to include mapvoting directly into UTeamFix, and guess what, you got your wish...
Please note the 'transmission' indicator left of the menu remains visible during the whole time you use the menu, because it updates your information when players vote. Also normal messages (top rows on screen) will indicate certain voting actions...
The menu itself consists of several parts:
The voting process is simple:
Every player can vote skip and has one vote to cast on a map of his choice. The maps that are eligible for are displayed on the left middle part, the maps that already received votes are displayed in the right middle part, the number in front of the map name indicating the number of votes it received.
Also, any map that received a vote will be colored differently in the list of votable maps for ease of finding maps that received votes already.
Map voting is a simple majority vote, the map with the most number of votes wins, if 2 or more maps have an equal number of votes, the one map which got its votes FIRST wins.
When a map ends, every player automatically is put on the mapvoting menu. Then there is a timer (also set by the server admin - defaults to 30 seconds) running down indicating how much time there is left for all players to vote. If ALL players present cast their votes, the timer is stopped immediately and the next map is started.
Map SKIPPING works as majority too! The server admin sets a certain percentage of players that need to vote for skipping the map (defaults to 51%) in order for the map to be skipped. Once this percentage is reached, the currently played map ends instantaniously.
Restrictions:
The text EXTRA MAPS..... indicates that the server admin has chosen to add additional maps on the map voting menu. All maps below that text are NOT necessarily in the map cycle (although they CAN - UTF does not check for identical double entries). You can of course NOT vote for the 2 lines of text that indicate where the list of extra maps start...
Map Vote Menu options | |
---|---|
Button | Effect |
<< PREV << | If more maps are votable than can be displayed on one
screen at a time (62/64+) this button lets you see the
PREVIOUS 64. Also see the PAGE indicator in the top middle
of the menu which tells you on which page of maps you are
and how many pages with maps exist in total. Note that if there is only one page or you are on page 1, naturally this button has effect. |
>> NEXT >> | The opposite of above, only that this button shows you the NEXT 64 maps... |
Votable Maps | Click on any map listed below eligible maps to cast your vote for that map. |
CLEAR VOTE | Removes your current map vote. |
VOTE SKIP | Toggles between voting for skipping/not skipping the currently |
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Calling a vote is a principle Quake III players are supposedly very familiar with. Basically one player calls a vote, then all players decide with yes or no on it, and the majority wins.
You can type 'callvote' on the console or hit the menu button from the main menu to open the call vote menu. Unless free votes are enabled on the server - which it NEVER is on public servers - you can only vote on what the server administrator decided is okay to vote on, and the menu shows you the picks.
The server admin may put any admin command in the list of callable votes, provided these can be executed on the server console. Practically all of the game commands belong to that type of commands, but playerpawn or inventory commands do not.
You can also just type 'callvote (your vote)' but without free votes you would have to type the exact texts shown in the menu, so using the menu is easier. Then again, should an admin be crazy enough to enable free votes, you could even type callvote exit to have players decide whether or not the Unreal server should shut down! You can also type 'callvote yes' or 'callvote no' to reply to currently active votes.
Do not forget, the number of votes a player can call is limited, by default 2 is the maximum number of votes a player can call per round. There may be exceptions to this rule, if the server administrator decides one vote is okay to be able to vote infinitely often.
The default votes are:
Aside from the menu, any player may also issue a few UTF commands to UTF.
Command | Effect |
---|---|
alogin [password] | Logs you in as admin during game! |
alogin [username] [password] | Logs you in as admin during game trying to use an
individualized account! If your current playername is one of the registered admins usernames, just enter your own password. |
alogout | Logs you OUT as admin during game. |
callvote | Convenience command: immediately opens the callvote menu if enabled on server. |
grab | This is not a new command really, since standard Unreal
already allows you to grab decoration (and carry it around, e.g. Books) or
trigger movers without touching them. UTF adds the following twists to
the command:
|
holstergun | Holsters your weapon / Puts your gun away. Yea, you may run around with literally 'no gun'! |
mapvote | Convenience command: immediately opens the mapvote menu if enabled on server. |
play | If you are a spectator, this makes you a player (if allowed). |
ps [id] [message] | Privatesay, send a message to player [id]. No other player can see these messages. implemented but not very nice |
Setconsoletyped [text] | Meant to use as keybinds, you can pre-type any text to your console.
For example when you hit the key executing "TALK" you go to your console prompt
with the text "SAY" pretyped for you, the same can be achieved with this keybind
nowSetconsoletyped say Instead of "SAY" you can put arbitrary text there, allowing for any pre-written text on your console prompt. Idea came from Smartball, actually this feature is identical to EDM, so if you have any EDM binds they will work with UTF-10 as well (provided the binds make sense in UTF hehe). |
Shapeshift [arg] (UTF 10B only) |
This requires the server to use "MultiMeshPlayers" which the admin
can decide to turn on or off at will. If the feature is disabled, you can still
use it instead of PLAY or SPECTATE, but just using these 2 other commands is
easier for the purpose. [arg] can be
|
specsay [message] SpecTalk |
Spectators only: Spectating people can use specsay to talk to other spectators.
This talk is not visible to normal players, only to spectators.
Also, this is allowed even if spectators are muted. NOTE: You can bind a key to SpecTalk, this will prepare you to specsay (autobind) like say is autobound by talk. |
spectate | If you are a player, this makes you a spectator (if allowed). |
ThrowItem | If allowed, tosses your currently selected item - much like 'ThrowWeapon'. |
UTF_ReloadWeapon | Will reload your gun if you are using a Clip Gun and it is possible at the time to reload it. |
utfdebug [arg] | Client debugging commands, they may work/not work and/or be
be changed at will. [arg] may be:
|
viewid [id] | View the player indicated by [id] rather than clicking yourself through. Works for spectators and teammates. Btw, "coop" style games are considered "team games". |
votemap [mapname] | Convenience command: Casts your vote for the map specified in mapname. Leave [mapname] blank to rescind your choice. No effect if mapvoting is disabled on the server. |
voteskip | Convenience command: Toggles your vote for or against skipping the map. No effect if mapvoting is disabled on the server. |
Since version 10, UTF includes experimental support for Unreal Tournament. This enables you to play Unreal One inside the engine of UT.
If you are a UT player, there are a few things you should know before joining a UTF server - or one which is marked as Unreal Classic.
Unreal feels a bit different than UT, although if you are an Unreal player playing UTF in UT, it will also feel a bit different than original Unreal. From the player movement feeling my personal impression is something in between Unreal and UT, though I can't really put my finger on it nor explain why that would be so.
One major important difference, one which came along the transition of Unreal One to the UT engine, was an incompatibility. To make a long story short, it is not possible to fire guns using the normal fire and alt-fire binds.
Due to that incompatibility, UTeamFix uses its own fire commands in Unreal Tournament, commands which of course new players will not have in their User.ini. The player configuration (stored in user.ini) will have to be adjusted. In detail, the following commands must be added:
You may also need all the normal old Unreal keybinds (to select and use inventory), but they are not that much important, and could even be bound using the old Unreal menu itself (please read the Menues part on this page to see how to access the menu in UTF, then select Unreal Menu to reach the original old Unreal menu).
The good news is, that UTF is capable of scanning your keybinds and if critical keys are missing (and you have not chosen the option to ignore critical missing keybinds) can automatically bind them for you. What happens is, that the missing fire and altfire commands are added automatically in game to your old and normal UT fire and altfire binds. If you do not trust having your user.ini modified, then you can also choose to end the game immediately and you will leave the server again. But I would never dare to change any critical settings without the player's consent! By my best knowledge, the alteration of the user.ini in the required manner has no side-effects on your normal UT game! And it is alsways undo-able.
Since version 10C, the keychecker has been improved and should be able to detect fire and alt-fire on whatever keys a player has them bound. However, in the rare case when this fails (or when the player accidently hits the wrong answer on the menu question if it is wanted to auto-adjust the user.ini), it can also be done by hand. Effectively, there are 2 possibilities, for both an ASCII eidtor (like notepad) is required to open and edit the user.ini in the UT/System directory:
Aliases[0]=(Command="Button bFire | Fire",Alias=Fire) Aliases[1]=(Command="Button bAltFire | AltFire",Alias=AltFire)You will be able to fire UTF guns by changing them to:
Aliases[0]=(Command="Button bFire | Fire | UTFFire",Alias=Fire) Aliases[1]=(Command="Button bAltFire | AltFire | UTFAltFire",Alias=AltFire)
LeftMouse=Fire RightMouse=AltFirebecomes
LeftMouse=Fire|UTFFire RightMouse=AltFire|UTFAltFireThis 2nd method is exactly what the automation process does if successfully detected.
Nowadays computers are rather fast. Still sometimes you may find that you can't connect to UTeamFix servers while you can connect towards other servers. UTF servers need longer to initialize, and the client too. In most cases the problem can be resolved by changing the Network Connection Timeout setting, which is an advanced option (select 'Advanced Options' from your Unreal menu or type 'preferences' and hit return).
The picture shows the setting in question, which defaults to 15. Server administrators should always at least DOUBLE it.
Normal Unreal players usually do not need to bother, however, Unreal Tournament players may need to increase the timeout as well! For an unknown reason, the UT build takes longer to initalize than the original Unreal One build - that is strange because the UT engine is supposed to be more efficient!
One last thing, if you can't connect to a server, all you see is the message CONNECTION FAILED. While the server does log the exact error and reason why you were unable to join (server full, password or whatever), the messaging to convey the error works differently in UT than it does in Unreal, so you will unfortunately NOT see that reason.
In Unreal One, you can pick up various items which are displayed on your screen. Some activate instantly, some can be carried for a while and activated on demand by the user.
In Unreal Tournament, there are fewer items and none are displayed on screen ever. All items (even those that you can carry around in Unreal One) are immediately used. So, in UT you never need keybinds that let you select which item to use and when to activate it, simply because you use the item the instant you pick it up!
If you want to make use of Unreal One items, you should bind some keys. Useful commands to bind would be:
Bind these to free keys (you might not need both 'nextitem' AND 'previtem', since you can cycle through your complete inventory with each one alike) and you should be good to use Unreal One inventory.
You might also want to bind the command 'SHOWMENU' to another key! By default, your escape key is mapped to that command. However, it always brings up the normal UT menu (same problem as in Unreal Gold), but not the Unreal Menu. Bind the command to a different key which is NOT your escape key and you're good to go though!
This paragraph is just a little listing as to what else to be aware of when playing Unreal inside UT.
Players may wish to familiarize themselves with some of the other game modes that come along with UTF, not to learn about settings and technical details, but to understand what they are about should they enter a server and be confused as to what is going on.