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MapEval - v2.10 (c) Copyright Marith 2004
  Map Evaluation Mutator
by Marith (Martin Smith)
http://www.marith.demon.co.uk
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Credits: Adequate_Andy (Andy Smith)
Kage (Nick Martin)
Songe
Trev (Trevor Brice)
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Description:

This is a mutator which allows you to record your own personal evaluation of downloaded maps. This isn't a Map voting mutator like UT2Vote, but a mutator which allows you go through all the maps that you've downloaded and record your evaluation for each map.

If, like me, you download lots of custom maps, either for offline use or for running a server, or you evaluate maps for websites, magazines or contests, then you may find this mutator useful for keeping track of your opinion of these maps.

I thought of creating this mutator after having too many pieces of paper lying around (cluttering up my desk), containing names of downloaded maps I like or dislike. I decided it would be better (and quicker) to record what I think of the maps from within UT2004 instead.

You can use this mutator to store in a file lists of maps with different evaluations - i.e. Ownage, Good, Bad, etc

If you review maps for a website or magazine, you can select the "Advanced" evaluation mode where you can use sliders to give a score (based on a scale between 1 and 100) against different categories - e.g. Gameplay, Graphics, Item and Weapon Placement etc.

The captions or names of the evaluation categories in each mode - Standard and Advanced - and the description for both lists are customisable allowing you to create different files with alternate evaluation lists. The ability to have up to 10 different categories in each mode gives you the flexibility when evaluating.

Installation:

Install either by using the MapEval UT2Mod or by extracting the contents of this zip file (if you haven't already) into your UT2004 directory keeping the same directory structure within the zip file.

Note: The following four files will get created, the first time you run this mutator:
First Time Usage:

You will need to go into "Settings | Input | Configure Controls" within UT2004 and configure at least one key to bring up the MapEval "Main Menu". The other key bindings are optional. If you don't do this, MapEval will display a reminder message at the beginning of the game.

Note that the "Alternate Menu" brings up the "Advanced Evaluation Mode", if "Standard Mode" is your default and vice-versa.

Instructions for running in Instant Action:

Go into Instant Action, adding "Map Evaluation" as a Mutator, and once in the game bring up the MapEval Main Menu by pressing the key you chose earlier. Change any options as required and you're ready to start evaluating maps.

Instructions for running in MultiPlayer:

MapEval is capable of running in Multiplayer ONLY if the Server administrator has set up the server to run MapEval. If you are the Server administrator, see the instructions below for setting up the server.

Instructions for running on a Server:
  1. Add "ServerPackages=MapEval" (without quotes) to UT2004.ini.
  2. Add "MapEval.MapEval" (without quotes) to the list of mutators on the command line when starting UT2004 (e.g. Mutator=MapEval.MapEval).
Configuring MapEval:

The Maplist Manager, Map Rotation Manager, and the various Option menus can either be accessed within a game or before you start a game.

To configure MapEval before starting a game, go into Instant Action (or Host Game if you are wanting to host a server), select "Mutators" and then click on the "Configure Mutators" button at the bottom right of the screen. Click on "Open" directly underneath the "Map Evaluation" heading and the Maplist Manager will be displayed. The Map Rotation Manager and the Options Menu can then be accessed from here.

Maplist Types:

There are 4 different Maplist Types maintained by MapEval.

Options:

This tab allows you to change the following options:

Advanced Evaluation (Default: Off):-
If you do evaluate maps for a website or magazine, you can select Advanced Evaluation to display sliders instead of evaluation buttons. These sliders allow you to choose a value for different categories. An average is calculated based on the different values.

Auto Sort (Default: On):-
If this option is selected, the evaluation Map lists are automatically kept sorted. If you have Auto Sort switched off and you decide later that you want the Map lists sorted, you can type "mutate MapEval Sort" on the console to sort the lists.

Close after Evaluating (Default: On):-
When this option is selected the Evaluation Menu is closed immediately after evaluating a Map.

Command Panel (Default: On):-
When selected the Evaluation Menu displays a command panel which has "Skip", "Restart", and "Options" buttons. If you find the Evaluation Menu too cluttered you can remove the panel with these buttons. To go into Options again without having the "Options" button visible, you can press 'O' whilst on the Evaluation Menu.

Map Info Panel (Default: On):-
When selected the Evaluation Menu displays an information panel showing the Map Name, and Map Author, etc. If you find the Evaluation Menu too cluttered you can remove this panel. If you remove the Map Info panel the advanced evaluation score is still displayed (but in a different location).

Map Manager Auto Save (Default: On):-
When selected, the Map Manager automatically saves any changes to Maplists when changing to another Maplist or exiting the Map Manager. The "Save" button, however, is still available to allow you to make incremental saves.
Message at Login (Default: On):-
When selected, you can display a message showing your evaluation of the current map before you start/join a game.

Message at Start (Default: Off):-
When selected, you can display a message showing your evaluation of the current map after you started/joined a game.

Pause Game (Default: Off):-
When selected, the game will pause when showing any one of the Evaluation, Option or Caption Menus. This is only available in Instant Action.

Pause Net Game (Default: Off):-
When selected, the game will pause when showing any one of the Evaluation, Option or Caption Menus. This is only available in Multiplayer and only if you're an Admin of the server you're playing (be careful you don't annoy anyone with this option).

Popup Evaluation at End (Default: On):-
When selected, the evaluation menu will popup at the end of the game, allowing you to evaluate the map (Note: see the information about the UT2Vote mutator).

Reset Map Number (Default: On):-
When selected, MapEval will reset the Map number in the UT2004 Map list to the map being played.

Search at Start (Default: On):-
When selected, MapEval will search the evaluation lists for the Map being played. If you have a slow PC and you have evaluated a lot of maps, and you are finding that MapEval is taking too long to find Maps, then you can deselect this option. Please note that the evaluation messages will not appear if you have switched this option off.

Skip Countdown (Default: Off):-
When selected UT2004 will not do a countdown at the start of the game. This allows you to evaluate maps quicker as you don't have to wait for the countdown to finish. This is only available in Instant Action.
Skip Failed Maps (Default: On):-
When selected, you can skip Maps which fail to load (because of a missing texture file etc.).

Wait for Evaluation (Default: Off):-
When selected, MapEval will not go on to the next map until the Evaluation, Option and Caption menus have been closed. This is only available in Instant Action.

Use Decimal Points (Default: Off):-
When selected, use decimal points on the sliders in Advanced Evaluation mode, otherwise just use whole numbers.

Zero Evaluations Count (Default: Off):-
Normally, when a slider in Advanced Evaluation Mode is set to 0, that value is not taken into account when calculating the average. If this option is selected, then the 0 values are used in the average calculations.

Slider Scale (Default: 100):-
Allows you to change the scale of the sliders in Advanced Evaluation Mode.

Colors:

This tab allows you to change some of the colors used within MapEval. This allows people who don't like the default colors, or are color blind, to change the colors to suit their needs.

Captions:

This tab allows you to edit the Standard Captions on the evaluation buttons.

Advanced Captions:

This tab allows you to edit the Advanced Captions on the evaluation buttons.

Defaults:

This tab allows you to save the current Options, Captions, Advanced Captions or Colors as your default settings.

Map Manager:

The Map Manager within MapEval allows you to copy or move (depending on the type of list) maps between the different Map lists.  You are also able to sort Map lists which haven't been sorted by the AutoSort option.

The type of Map lists available within the Map Manager are:
You are not able to copy or move maps to the Advanced Map list as the entries in the Advanced Map list must have scores included with it. However, you are able to move or copy maps from the Advanced Map list.

Please note that if you make a mistake copying or moving a map between lists you may need to click on "Undo All" on both the left and right Map lists to undo the changes on both lists.

If Auto Save is not enabled (see Options), you must save the lists (both sides) once you are happy with them.

You can disable the displaying of Map Screenshots by right clicking the image box and selecting "Disable Map Screenshot. This allows you to select maps quicker as the screenshot does not have to be loaded from disk. To re-enable the Map Screenshot again, right click the image box and select "Enable Map Screenshot".

To see more information about a map, click on the Map Screenshot image box and a information dialog box showing details about the map will be displayed. This will work regardless of whether Map Screenshots are enabled or not. You can also display the same information by right clicking the image box and and selecting "View Map Information".

Map Rotation Manager:

The Map Rotation Manager within MapEval allows you to play Maps from the different Evaluation Maplists. Alternatively, it can allow you to play Maps which aren't evaluated yet, so you are able to evaluate them. The options on the Map Rotation Manager are as follows:

Enabled (Default: Off):-
When selected, MapEval takes over the Map Rotations. When de-selected, UT2004 does the Map Rotations.

Map Rotation List:
Use this to choose which maps you want to play. The lists available are:
Standard Evaluations:-
When Evaluation Maplists (Standard) has been chosen as a Map Rotation List, you may select which Standard Maplists are used for picking maps.

Advanced Evaluations - Minimum Average:-
When Evaluation Maplists (Advanced) has been chosen as a Map Rotation List, you may set the Minimum Average allowed for picking maps. Any map on the Advanced Maplist which has an average equal or more than what is set here will be chosen.

Map Rotation Options - Choose Maps:-
You may select whether the Map Rotation Manager picks Maps from the Maplists sequentially or randomly.

Play all Game Type (Default: Off):-
When selected, the Map Rotation Manager plays all game types contained within the list. If this is not selected, only maps with a gameplay similar to the current map are chosen.

Failback to UT2004 Maplist (Default: On):-
If selected, when a Map cannot be found in the chosen Maplists, then the Map Rotation Manager will switch back to using the UT2004 Maplist rotations.

Player Filter (Default: Off):-
When selected, you are able to filter the maps played, based on the player count settings embedded in the map. Choose the Min and Max players to select maps of a certain size.

Statistics:

The Statistics tab shows the map count for each type of maplist within MapEval.

Note: Maplists on the Map Manager tab must be saved for map counts to show correctly on the Statistics tab.

Advanced Evaluation Results and Spreadsheets:

The Advanced Evaluation Results are held as fractions of the scale. If you wish to take these results (held in MapEvalA.ini) into a spreadsheet, you will need to multiply these results by the scale you have chosen within the spreadsheet program to get the right values.

Map List Limits:

I have limited the number of maps in the evaluation Map lists to avoid any problems which may arise with very large lists.  The limits I have chosen are as follows:
If you find yourself with a full Map list, you may have to rename the existing list file (MapEvalS.ini or MapEvalA.ini) so that MapEval creates a new empty list. I plan to include a program (external to UT2004) in the future to manage different lists.

Mutator Compatibility:

I have written MapEval to coexist happily with other Mutators as long as you let MapEval know about them.

If you have a mutator which you would rather popup at the end of the game instead of MapEval, you can configure MapEval to NOT popup if this mutator is loaded.   Also, if you have a mutator which you would rather handle the map rotations you can configure MapEval to NOT do map rotations if this mutator is loaded.

To configure MapEval to check if these mutators are loaded you need to change the "[MapEval.ME_Mutators]" section in the file "MapEval.ini" adding in the mutators you want MapEval to check (Note: multiple mutators are supported). The syntax is as follows:

      [MapEval.ME_Mutators]
      Popups=
      Rotations=

For example to configure MapEval to not popup if UT2Vote or MapVote is loaded and not do map rotations if MapMixer or RandomMap is loaded, add the following lines to MapEval.ini:

      [MapEval.ME_Mutators]
      Popups=UT2Vote
      Popups=MapVote
      Rotations=MapMixer
      Rotations=RandomMap

Note: UT2Vote and MapMixer are checked by default so they do not need to be added.

Feedback:
Please provide any feedback (good or bad) or bug reports via my email address which can be found on my website listed at the top of this page.

Known Issues:

None known :-)

To-do:
Version History:
Credits:

Thanks to Adequate_Andy (Andy Smith), Kage (Nick Martin ), Songe and Trev (Trevor Brice) for suggestions and assisting in the testing of MapEval.

Thanks to Epic for making an excellent Games Engine with a great Scripting language.

Thanks to the UnrealWiki site and the 3dBuzz site for taking the time to put up documentation or tutorials on UnrealScript. Both sites have been invaluable in helping me learn UnrealScript.

Thanks also to the people in the Atari Unreal Scripting forum that have answered the odd question or two.