Over 10 years ago, Unreal Tournament 2004 was blessed with the Clone Bandits Mod, and it was fantastic, so much fun with all the custom maps, vehicles and the theft of the other teams clones. Props to the mod designers when working on this mod!
In 2022, replaying this mod is super fun to the point where I would love to get involved and make some edits and updates to the mod, to get some additions into the mod to make the playability at the highest is can be. Not to say it already is of course!
First off, a little graphical update of the HUD, with the implementation of Azaraels HUDFix mutator as shown in the screenshots below. The current mod has no support for widescreen, along with all other game modes in UT2004, but with a simple code change, the HUD will work with widescreen support up to 8K, unlike the standard 1024x768. Below is the current HUD verses the widescreen fix HUD. Allowing for this change will stop stretching of the HUD and will scale the HUD down for larger screens, for better gameplay.
Second off, there are many community maps out lost in archived downloads, I will hopefully be combining all the bonus packs together to ensure all content is in one place. So far i have gained over 10 custom maps not included within the original pack and within the community bonus content on ModDB.
Next off, I shall be finishing and polishing and BETA content left by the developers to ensure the mod is finished and polished. Some maps were left unfinished either by the original developers or by community content creators, so completing this content for everyone to play will be very helpful as new content
Another change that I will be looking into will be the vehicles. The vehicles are amazing for the mod and probably the best part of the mod. However i will be looking into the implementation of team skins to the vehicles to ensure online play is easier for the community to understand which team is which. I will also be making sure the vehicles can be enabled via mutator instead of map defaults. This allows for more modular gameplay as users are able to enable other custom vehicles within the mod.
I will also be making changes to the spawning of weapons. The use of weapon lockers allows for more modular gameplay due to the addition of custom weapons from outside of the mod to be used within the mod, since currently standard weapons are forced into the spawn rotation.
Lastly, i will be making a few gameplay changes. The current pumps require you to destroy the old pump before claiming the new pump. Using the control point game mode, it is possible to turn these pumps into area claimed pumps, so by standing in the vicinity of the pump will give the user access to the pump, without needing to shoot or charge the pump. With more people within the controlled point, the faster the pump will be claimed. This opens up faster gameplay but also opens up interest for change in the "Cloning" process.
Thats all for the changes i wish to work on for this mod. If you guys have any interest in what changes could be included in another release of this mod, hit me up and i can look into those changes. I do not want to sway far from the original mod as i want to keep to what the original mod creators intended as it brought me many years of joy throughout my childhood and most changes are to keep up with the changing times. Thank you
How to get involved
Social Media
There are a number of ways to get involved:
Discord: discord.gg/2XTfKPa
To get involved with the Mod, head over to our discord. Our Discord holds the download for the BETA, all information on "In the works" and current projects as well as teasers for future projects! You can also get involved with the conversation regarding bug reports, ideas and what goes on inside the minds of the Developers. Hope you enjoy! Highly recommend the discord to gain access to the latest updates and betas.
