Urban Terror News

Official news channel

As mentioned in a previous update, we will be including some level created by community level designers. One such developer is MaSheeN, of ut_eagle fame, the WW2 based, CTF level. Previously we showed off a few screenshots of his latest offering called Ambush, but we are pleased to also annouce the addition of ut_crossing to the the upcoming release.

The level was orignially released for 3.0, but MaSheeN has been working on the level again, updating it and streamlining the game play to have it included. The level takes a page out of the 1980s and the USSR, as this industrialized complex hold many "secrets." Now, vital documents have turned up missing that proves the existance of this facility, which has been denied by the government.



There have been a number of changes on this version, such as the removal of a section of underground corridors. Lighting fixtures have been replaced and the lighting in general as been increased through out the level. All game types, except CTF and "some DM spawns" have been removed (this level will support Bomb).

Coming next, we will show off some level shots of Suburb...

Due to a change in plans this past week with Oswald's wife giving birth Urban Radio was postponed until next week. We had scheduled a segment featuring one of the newest members to the development team. His alias is Fernando Gon?alves Bittar (aka Bittar) and he hails from S?o Paulo, Brazil.

While some developers toil on the nuts and bolts of the mod, the level designers continue to work on a plethora of levels. Most of the levels that will be released have been modified or updated from their previous release. Last week we showed off some work that had been done on Rommel (originally by Bar-B-Q) and Austria by Tub.



This week we present two other levels of interest, one of which is a virtual unknown. Why is that? Because until now no one has viewed of played this level inside Urban Terror. As many know, Tub has been a machine, working on problem areas, while improving the look and playability of his levels. Said Tub, "mmm, it's good to be finally releasing this stuff. I've been sitting on Austria for a year now and damn, I really want to see people playing it! For me this release will mean a final closing of the q3ut3 door."



The other levels being development that will be included in the Urban Terror release come from MaSheeN. You might remember him from his work on Eagle. His level Crossing has been featured on the web site previous. But we also get work from him we will see an all new level called Ambush.

All the questions posted came from the community after our initial news post last week titled, '20 Questions & 19 Answers.' Due to the nature of some of the questions, there might not be an answer or only general information provided. At this point, development is still in the early stages and plans could change. Thanks to the community for their continued interest and support. So, without further delay here are the follow up questions.

Urban Terror and the community has undergone many changes over the course of 5 years since our first release back in 2000 QuakeCon in Mesquite, Texas. The development team too, has changed over those years with many individuals working on the mod and providing their input, skills and talent to the game and community.

For those who seem to still be under that proverbial rock, we ARE working on another release for Urban Terror...the Quake III variety. I am sure this is news that is long overdue, right? What started out as a rather small "update" continues to grow to behemoth size.



The level designers have been busy at work, updating, modifying, gussying up their levels. Some of the more notable levels that have received some sort of update have been Algiers and Austria from Tub. He is currently looking at supplementing the release with an updated version of Alps that was created by Flash. No word on futher work on Abbey (CTF). ShminkyBoy has been tweaking and toying with Suburbs, while newcomer, Riche has been putting his time into Thingley (which I know some have seen playing on the test server) and Elgin.



We have enlisted the assitance of Sinni who is doing some techincal work on Santuary (orginally done by Bar-B-Q). Would you believe there has been further work accomplished on Rommel? Yeah, seems BladeKiller cannot put it down. As RabidCow explains, "ok, that's been an exercise in pain...BK was having trouble compiling Rommel because the bridge kept getting sparklies and cracks that couldn't be fixed...I decided I would replicate it in [3D Studio] max...it's the same visually but the tris (296 compared to 880) are less than half, so its been worth it, all sparklies are gone!" There have been some other strucutal portions of Rommel rendered in Max, such as the large, curved pieces on the tower.

As we have eluded to a few times, we are still working on two separate development cycles. We still have some ?things? we want to implement for Urban Terror (for Quake III). Development has also been underway for some time on the ?demo? or new version of Urban Terror using some of what we created using the MX demo we worked on last year.

This Q&A session will focus on both prongs of development and will feature a ?Q3UT3? for the Quake III version and a ?UrT? for the new version. Ready for some answers?

There have been many changes over the last 6-8 months in the Urban Terror Community. If you have been under a rock, we will quickly bring you up to date on development.

The question has been poised numerous times, "Is Urban Terror dead?" In short, no the mod is not dead, the team did not go AWOL. Granted, the community is smaller than it once was, but there can still be games found on the Internet.

Here's a little update of one of the new weapons we have been working on. This is a Benelli M9 shotgun which is almost finished. The low poly model is by Lt1 and the high res is by Macgregor for the bump mapping. The skin is by BladeKiller.