Urban terror

The mod appeared in 1999 as a set of additional maps for Quake 3, in which the real environment was planned. He grew from this small package to a complete modification that included real weapons and gameplay similar to Action Quake 2 . Silicon Ice Development's international team formed in the spring of 2000. There were many similarities with other modifications on the Quake engine, so development was pretty quick. The first beta version of the game was presented in August 2000 at the Quakecon conference. Then it was already a realistic mod with a lot of features and realism. This beta quickly became popular, and a large number of cards from third-party developers began to appear. At the end of 2000, the last beta release was completed - 1.27

The development team grew to 20-30 people, and began work on the next release ( Beta 2 ). The work that was done on this version helped the game take a big step forward compared to its old versions. The appearance, effects and features of the game have been significantly improved in this version. Due to this success, several game developers have begun personal professional careers in the gaming industry. Beta 2.3 has become one of the most popular versions of Urban Terror.

Beta 3 was another big step in developing Urban Terror. Among the many additions, there was a mission-based gameplay. The mod was ported to the Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory engine in 2004 . At this time, Silicon Ice was renamed Frozen Sand.

Finally, when the Quake 3 engine became free, a version of the game 4.0 was released in early 2007. A large number of cards from third-party developers were added to this version, and now it could be distributed as a full distribution or as an addition to the already installed Quake 3 Arena. Frozen Sand continues to work on Urban Terror, and at the end of 2007 the current version 4.1 was released, which became the most popular version in the history of the game.

Development Team

FrozenSand, LLC is an independent computer game development team founded by enthusiasts specializing in custom mods . Previously, the team was called "Silicon Ice Development".

The first project of FrozenSand is the popular modification for the game Quake 3 on the subject of combating special forces and terrorists Urban Terror. Subsequently, the modification turned into an independent free game on the modified id Tech 3 game engine . The development of this game as a mod began in 1999 . Gradually, the project grew from a set of maps to a total modification, completely processing weapons, locations and gameplay.

In the spring of 2000, the Silicon Ice Development team was formed, consisting of several developers - representatives of different industries of the mod industry. Modification was demonstrated at QuakeCon . Gradually, the development team grew to 20-30 people, and began work on the next release. In early 2007 , the game became independent and ceased to need Quake 3 for its work.

Urban Terror has realistic gameplay and high speed (which is comparable to Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament ). Realism in the game is represented by some features. For example, all weapons exist in real life, have recoil, varying degrees of accuracy, require reloading.

When moving, the accuracy of aiming decreases; in a squat, on the contrary, it increases. Weapons are not bought, but always available, but the amount of equipment is limited to three slots for weapons and four for items. Moreover, some types of weapons, due to cumbersomeness, block slots and even impose restrictions on the ability to move (machine gun).

The damage system is also realistic: it is based on dividing the player into zones of damage to the body (arms, trunk, legs and head). When it gets into the hands and feet, the wounds bleed, and then the percentage of health gradually decreases, up to death. These wounds require dressing, which can take a large amount of time (by game standards), depending on the type, number of wounds and lethal force of the weapon from which they were wounded. Wounds alone can only be bandaged. Players can complete the treatment, but usually only up to 50%. Quickly and almost completely (90%), health can be restored only if the player has a special first-aid kit. Wounds are shown on the indicator in the form of a person’s model in the lower left corner of the screen.

Urban Terror has acrobatic abilities (tricks) built in. Their implementation requires knowledge of the principles of movements and good coordination. So, the player is able to push off from walls, accelerate greatly, jump long distances, jumping over various buildings and objects. For example, when jumping (bunny-hop), increasing speed, and squats immediately after the last jump - the player slides on the ground, which gives him additional advantages: he moves quickly, and this does not consume energy. Additionally, the effect increases the smooth rotation of vision (using the mouse) in one of the sides during sliding. The rotation is also applicable during a jump, and allows you to move at a breathtaking speed (on average 3-6 times faster), but requires training (see below).

There are even special servers ( jump-servers ) dedicated exclusively to cards (not included in the standard package), which have everything for developing acrobatic abilities. Weapons and supplies are not used on these cards, and are not generally approved, since wearing them reduces energy reserves.

Untreated damage to the legs greatly slows down the movement, the ability to jump almost disappears; elements of acrobatics in this case are not feasible.

With the exhaustion of any type of weapon (even knives, there are as many as 5 of them in the game), it is possible to kill the enemy, literally stomping him to death. You can kick the enemy by running up to him with a gun or knife and jumping directly into your face or chest. One kick takes about 20% of your health. Falling from a great height onto the enemy’s head will kill him, the player will remain unharmed.

Urban Terror provides 7 game modes:

• Free For All (FFA) - Everyone plays for himself. The main goal is the accumulation of frags .
• Team Deathmatch - team deathmatch. The goal is the accumulation by the team of the total number of frags more than that of the opposing team before the time runs out.
• Team Survivor - team survival. The goal of the game is the destruction of all players of the opposite team with at least one surviving player from his team.
• Capture the Flag (CTF) - Capture the flag .
• Capture and Hold (C&H) - capture and hold. The team captures sections of the map and holds them until it captures all sections.
• Follow the Leader (FTL) - follow the leader. Each team has a flag in place of respawn (or near it). The goal of the team leader is to touch the enemy flag. In the event of the death of a leader, the team must destroy all members of the other team.
• Bomb mode (BM) - bomb laying in a specific place. One team must plant a bomb, and prevent the other team from defusing it before it explodes. The mode is completely identical to that in Counter-Strike .

All modes except Free For All are team modes. Players are divided into two teams - “blue” and “red”. Their names are determined by the server’s settings, but by default the commands are called “Red Dragons” (red), and “SWAT” (blue). In Bomb Mode, the "red" plant a bomb, and the "blue" neutralize it. When connecting to the server, the player chooses which team will play for, or can join the desired team automatically. In this case, he joins the team in which there are fewer players. If the players in both teams are the same number, the new player joins the losing / breaking team.

The game ends after the limit of frags / rounds won by the team / player, or after the limit of playing time (depends on the server settings).

The game has many different types of weapons: from sniper rifles to a hand grenade launcher. The player himself selects weapons and ammunition after connecting to the server, or can call up the weapon selection menu at any time. There is no concept of money in a game; thus, the chances of experienced players and beginners are even a little equal (from the practice of playing Counter-Strike it is known that the team that constantly wins the other team always earns a lot of money, and buys a powerful weapon that does not give the opposing team with a small amount of money to recoup). A player will have a new weapon after rebirth, or immediately if he did not move after rebirth (the beginning of the round). All weapons are available to both teams. But on some servers for the use of certain weapons may be banned or forced to choose another. There are also individual protective equipment: body armor and helmet, and other types of additional supplies (medical package, laser target designator, night vision device, silencer).

Any unit of weapons and ammunition occupies one slot in the player’s arsenal. There are 7 of these slots: three for weapons (for primary, secondary weapons and for a pistol), three for equipment, plus one for grenades (however, its use excludes one slot from the arsenal of ammunition).

The minimum set of weapons and supplies that a player can carry is a unit of primary weapons, a pistol, and one unit of additional equipment. Carrying additional weapons with you is optional (it can be replaced with additional equipment: silencers, grenades, etc.), but with all the slots occupied it can be picked up from the killed enemy. An exception is the IMI Negev light machine gun - when using it, carrying additional weapons is impossible, and when carrying this machine gun the player has less energy to move.

Armament is divided into:

• primary weapon ( AK103 , M4A1 , LR-300 , G36 assault rifles ; SR-8 , PSG-1 , FR-F1 sniper rifles ; HK-69 hand grenade launcher, IMI Negev light machine gun);
• secondary weapons (shotguns SPAS12 , XM1014 submachine guns MP5 , P90 , UMP );
• pistols ( Beretta 92G , Desert Eagle , Glock17 , Colt1911 );
• grenades ( smoke and fragmentation ;
• knife (can be thrown and picked up)

Secondary weapons can also be taken into the primary slot.

Types of equipment: silencer; additional cartridges; laser target designator; a night vision device (which allows players to see more contrast, but reduces the viewing angle and replaces the colors with the gamut of green (the default color can be changed), making visual recognition of friend-enemy clothing colors impossible), a first-aid kit (treats wounded teammates), and personal protective equipment: Kevlar body armor and helmet.

Assault rifles have three fire modes: automatic, single shooting and shooting in bursts of 3 rounds. The submachine guns do not have a single mode, there is only automatic and bursts. When the charges of all types of weapons expire, you can use a knife. This is a constant element of the player’s arsenal, it is always present. However, knives can be thrown (there are 5 knives in the player’s arsenal in total), and you can simply wave them.

Initially, Urban Terror is intended solely as a multiplayer game. However, from earlier versions of the game, it has bots for single-player battle. However, these bots are no longer supported and work only on some cards. You can’t add them from the game menu - you need to edit the game’s configuration files or write some commands in the console every time you add bots. ^[2]

Moreover, when playing with bots, the game is unstable and often crashes .

Earlier versions of Urban Terror used the PunkBuster system. But since it does not support modifications to the Quake 3 engine, from version 4.0, it was decided to switch to the BattlEye system. But support for this system ceased on August 4, 2007, so developers are still looking for a suitable anti-cheat system.

The increased popularity of the game necessitated the creation of the UAA project “Urban Terror Server Administrators Alliance” , which serves to review the demonstrations sent by ordinary players from servers belonging to the UAA and, in the case of a positive verdict of experts, the subsequent addition of IP ranges of cheaters to the official list of cheaters Urban Terror. This list can be easily applied on any server. Any player can record a demo (default F12) of a suspicious member and submit it to the UAA.

Version 4.2 seamlessly integrates the profile system. The profile traces all the information about the client and the connection and provides, on the one hand, the uniqueness of the user and protection against doubles, and on the other hand, the consistency of the anti-cheating policy.

• Quake iii
• Openrena
• Nexuiz
• Tremulous
• Warsow
• Alien arena

• Official UrbanTerror Website
• UAA - Urban Terror Server Administrators Alliance
• Russian community of players in Urban Terror
• ut-ukraine.org.ua Ukrainian community of players in Urban Terror
• UrTConnector - server browser and launcher specifically designed for Urban Terror
• Creating a dedicated Urban Terror server on the local network

Developers

• FrozenSand - about the team on the official website of the game. Date of treatment September 27, 2010. Archived March 17, 2012.
• FrozenSand Wakoopa . Date of treatment September 27, 2010. Archived March 17, 2012.
• FrozenSand Software Informer (site). Date of treatment September 27, 2010. Archived March 17, 2012.
• Silicon Ice Development . Download.com . Date of treatment September 27, 2010. Archived March 17, 2012.
• Silicon Ice Development . GAMEPRESSURE.com. Date of treatment September 27, 2010. Archived March 17, 2012.