Assault

Assault
Goal limits	Missions Rounds Time
Is team-based?	Yes
Appears in	Unreal Tournament Unreal Tournament 2004

"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 in-game description

Assault is a gametype found in the Unreal series.

Overview

Assault is a round-based, team-based gametype where there are two teams: attackers and defenders. The attackers must complete the objectives of the map before the time runs out, while the defenders must prevent this. Once a round finishes, the teams are switched, and the defenders now attack and viceversa. At the end of the match, the team with the highest amount of objectives completed scores a point.

The objective for an attacker is to complete all the missions before the time runs out. The attacker may have to turn switches, destroy doors and escape the battlefield. The round ends when the attackers complete all missions, or when the time runs out. The faster attackers win the round, the less time the attackers will have to defend next round. Often, attackers will be rewarded for completing an objective by being allowed to spawn closer to the next objective.

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 weapon lockers 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.

The objective for a defender is to prevent the attackers from completing all the missions and winning the match. Usually an entire team will "camp" by an objective to prevent attackers from destroying doors, turning switches etc. The longer a team defends, the more time a team has to attack next round.

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.

Usually in an Assault match, there are two phases: the Attacking phase, and the Defending phase.

Attacking phase

In the Attacking phase, the Red team is the attacking team, and the Blue team is the defending team. The Red team must complete all of the objectives within the set time, or the highest amount of objectives possible before the time runs out.

Defending phase

In the Defending phase, the Blue team is now the attacking team, and must complete all of the objectives within the time previously set by the Red team, or at least more objectives than the Red team did.

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.

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.

On the other hand, 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. This objective is used in AS-Junkyard (Energy Core), AS-BP2-Acatana (Blueprints), AS-BP2-Outback (Hops Canister) and AS-BP2-SubRosa (Data Stick).
• 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.

Scoring

At the end of the Attacking phase, the Red team scores a point if they manage to achieve all of the objectives, while the Blue team gets one otherwise. At the end of the Defending phase, the Blue team scores two points if they manage to outperform the Red team. As such, if the Red Team team fails to complete the objectives, the Blue Team wins. If the Red Team completes the objectives, but the Blue Team completes them in less time, the Blue Team wins. If the Red Team completes the objectives and prevents the Blue Team from doing the same before time is up, the Red Team wins.

Configurable options

Unreal Tournament 2004

Item	Type	Default	Description
Bots
Number of Bots	Integer	0	Specify the number of bots that should join your match.
Bot Mode	List	Use Map Defaults	Specify how the number of bots in the match is determined.
Bots Balance Teams	Boolean	Yes	Bots will join or change teams to make sure they are even.
Bot Skill	List	Average	Set the skill of your bot opponents.
Game
Weapons Stay	Boolean	Yes	When enabled, weapons will always be available for pickup.
Enable Player Highlighting	Boolean	No	At a distance, players have a team colored glow.
Delay at End of Game	Float	4.000000	How long to wait after the match ends before switching to the next map.
Friendly Fire Scale	Float	0.00	Specifies how much damage players from the same team can do to each other.
Pair of Rounds	Integer	1	Number of pair of rounds (Attack and Defense) for this match.
Practice Time	Integer	60	Specifies how much time lasts the online practice round. (In seconds)
Reinforcements Time	Integer	7	Specifies time between reinforcements spawning.
Reset Countdown	Integer	8	Specifies how much time there is between each round.
Round Time Limit	Integer	10	Specifies how long each round lasts.
Spawn Protection Time	Float	3.00	Specifies how long players are invulnerable after they spawn (unless they fire).
Rules
Allow Weapon Throwing	Boolean	Yes	When enabled, players can throw their current weapon out.
Weapons Shake View	Boolean	Yes	When enabled, some weapons cause view shaking while firing.
Allow Taunts	Boolean	Yes	Enables players to use the recorded taunts.

Tips and tricks

• The attackers must complete the missions in a specific order or in a specific manner, unless otherwise stated.
• The second team to attack receives only the same amount of time the first team took to fully complete the Assault. So faster the Assault by the first team, the higher the odds of their success.
• If an attacker starts to trigger a lever or a switch and dies, it will stay triggered to that extent. Defenders cannot reset the lever or the switch back into its original position. (UT 2004 only).
• If an attacker is in close proximity, a siren will sound to both teams (UT 2004 only).
• There are a few vehicles that are only found (at least in the official maps) in AS maps. These are the Ion Tank, the Ion Cannon, the Human and Skaarj fighters, and the Minigun turret.

Trivia

• Assault and Onslaught are the only gametypes in UT 2004 that have vehicles.
• The reason for Assault's removal from Unreal Tournament 2003 is that it "did not fit into the sports nature of UT'03".

Author's notes

"We wanted to add several new game types that were fun, simple to understand and play, yet required significantly different strategies and play styles- and had strategic depth (people would continue to find better strategies and ways of playing these games). The other key element was that they had to be games that the AI could be programmed to really understand well (Assault was definitely the most ambitious game from that point of view, but its coolness outweighed the complexity of programming it). I originally proposed these new gametypes, since I was writing the AI and knew what could reasonably be done. (...) Assault we wanted to be like a war movie. After I prototyped these games, they evolved substantially as everyone on the team gave feedback on how they should work. The fact that we had these game types working for over a year really allowed us to polish the rules and gameplay. We made major changes to the rules of both games, and constantly tweaked to the HUDs and scoreboards for these games."

– Steve Polge

"Assault is an objective/team based game mode in which two teams (attackers and defenders) battle each other in epic (and sometimes historical) battles taking place in the Unreal universe.

Attackers have several objectives to accomplish in order to win the round.

Defenders must prevent the attackers from doing so in order to win. Several rounds are played and teams can exchange roles after each round. There are several configurable options, such as the number of rounds in a match, and the time limit for each round.

Accomplishing objectives may involve reaching a key location, using machinery or computers in the level, or destroying a critical piece of hardware.

Assault also features many different useable vehicles and turrets, including Space Fighters, Buggies, Tanks, Energy Turrets, a Minigun Turret and the all powerful Ion Cannon."

– Mark Rein

Manual descriptions

"Players are divided into two teams, attackers and defenders. The attackers are attempting to destroy or take over an objective, such as blowing up a computer terminal, or escaping a castle. The defenders’ job is to prevent them from doing this. The way to win assault is to conquer the base in less time than your opponents’ team. If the first attacking team completes the objective in three minutes, then the sides switch and the team that was defending is now attacking and has three minutes to take the base. If they fail, they lose."

– UT manual

Preview notes

"Not unlike Team Fortress, players are split into attackers and defenders, wrangling for control of the other side's bases. The attackers must invade the enemy base and accomplish an objective, such as destroying a computer terminal, liberating a hostage, or hijacking a train. The defenders must stave off the attackers--they'll win if they can hold them off until time expires, while the attackers win if they can get the mission done."

– IGN, UT

"However, the big news for original UT fans is the return of the Assault mode, which was very much missed from UT2003. Polge said that while Assault was popular offline they wanted to make it more multiplayer friendly. However, don’t expect your father’s Assault maps in UT2004. The one Assault map we were shown at E3 took place in space. Yes, in space, with one team flying one man fighters to try and dock at a space station to take it over while the defending team fires turrets and launches its own fighters to stop them. Think UT mixed with the Death Star attack and you will get the idea."

– HomeLan Fed

Gallery

A defender defending the Barricade in AS-Fallen City (UT 2004).

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See also

• Warfare, a mix of Assault and Onslaught in Unreal Tournament 3.
• Blitz, also called "Flag Run", a mix of Assault, Last Man Standing and Capture The Flag in Unreal Tournament 4.