Revision as of 18:05, 16 February 2008

In each round, one team takes the role of the attacker, while the other team defends, in recreations of famous (or infamous) scenarios. After a pair of rounds, the most successful attacking team scores a point. --UT2004

Assault is an objective-oriented gametype in Unreal Tournament and Unreal Tournament 2004 in which one team attacks the objectives (usually one at a time in a specific order) while another defends. Often, attackers will be rewarded for completing an objective by being allowed to spawn closer to the next objective. If the attacking team completes the final objective within the allowed time, the teams switch roles and another round on the same map begins. If not, the original attackers lose. If a second round begins and the new attackers complete the final objective in less time than the first attackers, they win; if not, they lose.

Objectives

Common overall objectives for both UT and UT2004 include capturing or destroying a vehicle, generator, or missile. Sometimes, as in AS-BP2-Outback, the objectives get more creative (in this case, the goal of your assault is to restore alcoholic beer to your favorite pub).

Specific objectives range widely (below is a list of their categorization). They can also be classified as "optional" or mandatory. Usually objectives are linear, meaning attackers can only complete one objective at a time in a specific order, but sometimes multiple objectives are available for completion at one time and can be completed in any order (for example, "destroy all three locks"). When an optional objective becomes available, it must be completed before the next mandatory objective.

Unreal Tournament

Objectives in UT are typically categorized in two ways:

• The objective must be destroyed before attackers can continue to the next objective. This is usually used for "destroy the door/generator/counterweight/missile/computer" objectives.
• An attacker must come within the radius of a certain location in order to complete the objective. This is usually used in "press the button" or "get to the ship/control room/etc." objectives.

Unreal Tournament 2004

Objectives in UT2004 take several different forms:.

• An Energy Core must be delivered to a certain location; Energy Cores are picked up when an attacker runs over them and dropped when an attacker dies. They cannot be thrown and defenders cannot move them, although they will reset to their original spawnpoint if no attacker touches them for 30 seconds. The only use of this objective in a stock map is in AS-Junkyard, where delivering the energy core will revive a vehicle.
• An objective must be destroyed before attackers can continue to the next objective. This is usually used for "destroy the door/generator/counterweight/missile/computer" objectives.
• An attacker must come within the radius of a certain location in order to complete the objective. This is usually used in "press the button" or "get to the ship/control room/etc." objectives.
• When a member of the attacking team comes within the radius of a certain location, a timer begins to count down. If that player dies or leaves the radius, the timer stops. When the timer reaches zero, the objective is complete. This type of objective is usually used for "open the door" or "pull the lever" objectives.
• An attacking player carrying a certain item must come within the radius of a certain location to complete the objective. Usually, the item would be a key or other lock-breaker, but it could potentially be used in the context of a delivery.
• An attacking player within the radius of a certain location must press the "use" key to complete the objective. Often this is used to enable/disable a computer system, press a button, open a door, or similar use.

Construction and Map Layout

Assault is the most difficult gametype to map for because it involves not only the creation of a vast map, but also many other assets which must accompany the map including voice commands to alert players to objectives, an opening and closing matinee sequence, a credible story, and the use of many actors which are unnecessary in other gametypes. The Backstory is particularly important in Assault because the entire map revolves around it. Therefore, a lot of planning needs to go in to creating an Assault map in order to add realism, flow, and balance. Assault maps are oriented like singleplayer maps, so they're set up in a more or less linear fashion. Because of this, creating a balance between attackers and defenders is extraordinarily difficult. Assault maps are generally huge because they require players to run towards more-or-less distant objectives. Because of this, they are usually set wholly or partially outside. However, the size and gameplay of Assault maps allows authors to be creative with the layout, as in AS-Convoy where the play area appears to be moving on a convoy of trucks and AS-Mothership where the first few objectives take place in spacefighters outside the Mothership and the remaining objectives are inside the ship. Assault maps are almost always asymetrical and players advance/retreat to different areas of the map as the game goes on. The length and size of Assault maps vary widely, but a typical completion time is 5-15 minutes per round.

Weapons, Pickups, and Other Stuff

Assault supports all weapons, including the normal "Deathmatch" weapons plus the "Onslaught" weapons. Adrenaline is (usually) disabled, but health and powerups remain the same. In UT2004, weapons, except sometimes more powerful weapons like the AVRiL, are usually obtained via WeaponLockers near the spawnpoints. Often the attacking team has less powerful weapons than the defense, and each team's weapon supply is specific to their needs. For example, the defense is often supplied with hitscan weapons while the offense usually has spammier weapons. Vehicles and turrets are supported in Assault. Sometimes, as in AS-Junkyard, an objective involves getting a vehicle to a certain location. Vehicles are also often unlocked for the attackers upon the completion of an optional objective. Turrets sometimes guard an objective or entrance, but more commonly they guard a team's spawnpoints. This is to prevent "spawn rape," and make the game more fair.

Assault Trials

Since the release of UT2004, Assault as been used as the basis of creating Assault Trials; which has been proven popular throughout the online assault community. This is where the players usually form on one team and must complete numerous challenges or puzzles in order to disable the objectives. The aim of this Gametype is to finish all the challenges and disable all the objectives in the quickest time possible, thus giving you rewarded points for every objective you complete. Specifically designed mutators have been created that allow the quickest map times to be recorded and display the player who completed the map in the quickest time. Some of the popular challenges involve jump combos and shield jumping.

Default Assault Maps

Unreal Tournament

• AS-Frigate
• AS-Guardia
• AS-HiSpeed
• AS-Mazon
• AS-OceanFloor
• AS-Overlord
• AS-Rook
• AS-Tutorial

Unreal Tournament 2004

• AS-Convoy
• AS-FallenCity
• AS-Glacier
• AS-Junkyard
• AS-Mothership
• AS-RobotFactory

Unreal Tournament 2004 Official Epic Bonus Pack

• AS-BP2-Acatana
• AS-BP2-Jumpship
• AS-BP2-Outback
• AS-BP2-Subrosa
• AS-BP2-Thrust

See Also

• Warfare - Assault won't be returning in UT3, but some of its gameplay elements will be included in Warfare. Epic claims that, along with new features, Warfare will combine the best parts of Assault and Onslaught.