Background/Lineage

The first mod in the UltraXL lineage is Renegades.  Well... this may not be totally accurate.  Renegades did heavy "borrowing" from other mods.  Some people have even accused  Renegades of using code without giving appropriate credit.  No matter to me, it's still a pretty damn good mod.

Next in line is Ultra Renegades.  What this mod team did was speed things up, strengthened and increased fire rate of weapons, give unlimited energy for jetpack-ing, etc.  This team then went on to put out many different variations of this mod.  Many have described the UR mod family as stupid and lame (damn base players).  Also many have called this mod fun and exciting.  I am in the latter group.

Now my mod.  I have done my fair share of snarfing other peoples code.  I have lost track of all the sources.  Off the top of my head, I have code from the Ideal, Havoc and the mini-mods, as well as the two mods mentioned above.  Go to to the Renegades and Ultra Renegades pages for their credits.  I also have some of my own unique code, which will be described below.

For the most complete list of UR related mods, go to http://www.ultrarenegades.com

Helpful Hints:

Before I actually get into describing the mod itself, I want to present the 2 biggest helpful hints in playing UtraXL.

GET A SHIELD PACK AND SPEED BOOSTERS !!!!

Without a shield or stealthshield pack on, it only takes one hit from any weapon for death to occur.  You can take multiple hits with a shield on.

Hit your 'beacons' key (default is B) for a speed boost.  You of course need to buy 'beacons' in order to use the speed boost.  You can not use the speed booster while carrying the flag (unique to UltraXL).

And now my weapons in order preference.  Go to the "Weapons and Items" section below for a complete description of these items:

• Sniper rifle mainly for open areas.
• The Defense Buster for taking out the enemy turrets/defenses.
• Turrets for defense.  You remember defense don't you. That's when you try and keep the other team from getting your flag... is it coming back to you now.  I actually had someone call me a camper while I was defending the flag.  I keep telling myself he was joking but I'm not really sure.  Back to the turrets, I always place a few turrets before I make my flag runs.  After capping or respawning, I inspect the turrets for damage and replace/fix when necessary... a very good habit to get into.  If our team has plenty of quality flag runners, I just chill near our flag and "camp".
• Mortars or Napalm Launcher for flushing/killing the opposing team when they take over your base.  In general, I see an overuse of the Mortar.
• ELF Gun, for knocking flag carriers to the ground so I can finish them off.
• Rocket or Disc Launcher, mainly for the increased splash damage compared to the rifle.

Flag Capture Locations - You can cap the flag at the flag capture point as well as at your flag.  In other words, if the flag isn't at your base, just go to the capture point instead and cap it there.  The flag capture point is usually collocated with the flag (flag stand).  I have altered Snowblind and Iceridge so the capture point is within the base on the bottom level.  If you want maps with flag capture points, send me a note and I'll give you some of mine.  I may include a few flagstand maps with this distribution.

This feature was added to keep the game moving.  I had too many games when a team would get an early lead, then the winning team would get the flag and go hide in some far reach of a map.  As a result, the game would come to a dead stop.  This forces teams with a lead to keep playing offense.

Cap Limit Multiplier - I have added a variable so the server admin can change the cap limits with a multiplier.  This was instituted because the previous rule will increase caps.  I have been using a multiplier of 1.5 in my test server.  Seems to be working well.  The only silly thing is every so often a fraction appears.  For instance, if the cap limit is said to be 7.5, the cap limit is really 8.

Respawn Invulnerability - This is from the plus mod developed by the fine people at Dynamics.  After a death, you respawn with a server defined amount of invulnerability.  Unlike the plus mode, you can kill people while in this state.  One of the biggest, ugliest issues with UR3 was spawn fraggers or opposing turrets near the spawn points.  This feature has done a good job of improving this situation.

No Turrets on Enemy Bases - The llama activity of placing turrets inside of enemy bases has been outlawed.  The surrounding terrain is still fair game.

No Speed Boost while carrying the flag - As mentioned in the helpful hints, you cannot speed boost (Beacons) whille carrying the flag.  This is an attempt at balancing a touch toward the defense.

You spawn with a shield pack instead of the repair pack, just turn it on.  You also spawn with the Engineer Repair Pack (weapon slot instead of pack slot).

Weapons and Items:

For a good general guide on some of the items in my mod, go to the newbies guide at the ultra-renegades site.  This page has information on most of the stuff in this mod.

IX-2000 Sniper Rifle - Probably the most used weapon in the mod.  Very powerful, long range weapon.  No splash damage.  Good for taking out turrets from long range.  The fire rate was slowed from UR3.

Flesh Eating Bacteria Rifle (FEB) - Similar to the IX-2000 sniper rifle, except projectiles do less damage.  The projectiles do, however, inject a poison which eats away at your internal organs, turning them into spammy pudding.  After the skin melts away, your innards spill out into a gooey, puke colored pile, which you view with your last remaining gasp of life.  Really a fun weapon.

Defense Buster - Use to take out the enemies defenses.  This bases off of the FFB in the original version of UR3-Mayhem.  The FFB caused a big weapons imbalance when I placed it into this mod.  I have toned down the damage it does on light armor, and it does no damage on medium or heavy armor.  The FFB still takes out turrets with one grenade, however.

Flamer - Short-range weapon that sets the victim on fire.  Yep, fire is fun.

Napalm Launcher - A UltraXL original weapon.  Let me know if I am lying.  In summary, the Napalm Launcher is a Grenade Launcher that sets the victims on fire.  Also has splash damage near the explosion.  More FIRE!!!

Disc Launcher - ...is back to the original strength from UR3.  I did shrink the splash damage range.  I was tired of killing myself when I shot it indoors.

Flame Rocket Launcher - More fire. Just a rocket launcher that sets it's target on fire.  This gets plenty of use on servers, partly because it has cool explosion effects.

Mortar - Still there.  Doesn't fire as rapidly as in UR3.  Still good for scooping out the base raiders.  Just spam the room with mortars, and eventually they will die or flee.  Don't use this for shooting at someone jetpacking (just to let you know, only inbreed idiots do this).  This is not an open spaces weapon.  Mortars also do a poor job of taking out turrets.  Use the Defense Buster for this.

EMP Weapons - Have beend taken out, hazzah!

ELF - The ELF will have the same effect as the EMP's but will be a less irritating than those weapons.  It does next to zero heath damage, but will knock down their energy.I haven't gotten the ELF to act like this as of this writing, but hopefully by the time your read this, it will.  This weapon will do next to no damage, outside of frying your energy system.

Plasma Turrets - (from the UR3 page) Deployable on any surface, these turrets fire plasma bolts, and can be jammed.  Of special interest, whoever places one of these turrets will receive points for whoever it kills.

Flame Turret - Short range turret with FIRE!!!!  'nuf said.

Plasma Bomb - Drop the bomb, it explodes in 10 seconds destroying everything within a rather large range.

Engineer repair gun - You spawn with this.  This repair gun uses a weapon slot, not the pack slot.  Borrowed from the Havoc mod, thanks guys.  The normal repair pack is still available.

Smoker -  Produces a "blinding" smoke plume for ten seconds.  This smoke screen is not perfect.  Once you enter the smoke plume, you have perfect vision of what is inside.

Force Fields - Both large and small force fields.  I ditched the force field doors.  The llama activity of placing them on the flag really began to piss me off.  I s'pose I could put them back in but make them easier to destroy. ...but...why.

Vehicles - I have not touched the vehicles from base UR3. Unfortunately,  the newbies guide for UR3 talks only about the vehicles in UR3-Mayhem.  Nobody uses them in this mod anyway except to goof around.  So don't worry about them.  If you know of a way to get these back into the action, let me know.  The unlimited jet packing has pretty much rendered these useless.

Server Setup Notes:

First of all, when installing this mod, the files should be in a directory off of the tribes root directory called "ultrXL".

To set up a server, go to http://www.planetstarsiege.com/ultra/serversetup.htm for help.  If your are new to the server set up business, go to http://www.tribesplayers.com/tribesplayers/server-index.html for thorough help on setting up a server.  This is the main document I used to learn how to admin.  Some of the content is dated, however.  For example, you no longer need the files "missionlist.cs" for setting up mission lists.   One of the latest tribes patches has this file included.

The command line for a UltraXL dedicated server should be:

<enter tribes root path here>tribes.exe -mod ultraXL -dedicated

Drop the "-dedicated" if you want to run a listen server (with a listen server you play and host at the same time, dedicated is host only).

If using infinitespawn (recommended for dedicated servers), create a batch file with the following lines:

c: (assuming tribes was installed on the c: drive)
cd <enter tribes root path here>
infiniteSpawn *tribes -mod ultraXL -dedicated

There is one screwy thing that I haven't quite figured out.  You fire up the mod and it is still a base like game.  You may have to go into your "base" directory and rename "scripts.vol", to something like, "scripts.vol.base".  When you run the server, the mod will then be read properly.  If you want to run base again, you will have to rename the above file back to "scripts.vol".

The following are the variables that you can use to define your game.  Some of these are UR3k specific.  I place these lines into a file called "autoexec.cs" and I place it in my "config" directory.  If I remember correctly, the game will automatically run all *.cs files in your "config" directory, without adding it to the command line.

$Server::respawnInvulnerableTime = "10";  //  How long (10 seconds in this case) client is invulnerable after respawn.
$Server::empTimeSet = "5";  // How long before energy begins to restore after an EMP.
$teamScoreLimitMultiplier = "1.5";  //  Multiply the cap limit by X times (X = 1.5 in this case).
$insomniax::PAMission = "true";  //  If true, allows client voting for different missions.
$insomniax::PATeamDamage = "false";  //  If true, allows client voting on enable/disable team damage.
$insomniax::PATourneyMode = "false";  //  If true, allows client voting on tourney versus Free For All mode.

Below is an example of a missionlist, also place this into your "autoexec.cs" file.

MissionList::clear();
                          MissionList::addMission("Blastside_fs");
                          MissionList::addMission("SnowBlind_fs");
                          MissionList::addMission("Original");
                          MissionList::addMission("Stonehenge_fs");
                          MissionList::addMission("Raindance2");
                          MissionList::initNextMission();";
                          $nextMission["Blastside_fs"] = "Original";
                          $nextMission["Blastside_fs"] = "Original";
                          $nextMission["SnowBlind_fs"] = "PurpleHaze";
                          $nextMission["PurpleHaze"] = "Raindance2";
                          $nextMission["Raindance2"] = "Blastside_fs";
$pref::LastMission = "Snowblind_fs";

Note the "_fs" on some of the mission names.  These are missions I modified so they contain flag capture points (flagstand entities).  Except Dangerous Crossing, I don't believe any of the base CTF missions contained flagstand entities.   I will include these modified missions with the mod.  If you unzipped the mod correctly, these special missions will be in the 'missions' sub-directory withing the UltraXL folder.

That about raps it up for now.  Please send me a note with any comments to me, Kurt Mayer.