Vehicles in Unreal Tournament 2004

There are many vehicles available for use in the first-person shooter game Unreal Tournament 2004. These vehicles are primarily used in the Onslaught game type, although there are a few Assault maps which utilise vehicles. The vehicles consist of air vehicles (the manta, cicada and raptor), and land vehicles (all others).

Three of the vehicle types (the SPMA, Cicada and Paladin) are only officially available on maps from the Editor's Choice edition or Editor's Choice bonus pack, but user-edited versions of the standard maps often include some or all of these extra vehicles.

Some vehicles are in the code of the game but not normally seen. It is also possible to create user-modified vehicles (not included in this article).

This article provides details of each vehicle, its typical uses in the game, and tactical information.

Contents

1 Land vehicles 1.1 Hellbender 1.2 Scorpion 1.3 Leviathan 1.4 Goliath 1.5 SPMA 1.6 Paladin 2 Air vehicles 2.1 Manta 2.2 Raptor 2.3 Cicada 3 Non-standard vehicles 3.1 Ion Tank 3.2 Bulldog 3.3 TC-1200 3.4 Dragonfly/Phoenix Bomber

Land vehicles

Hellbender

The Hellbender is an all-purpose vehicle which can carry 3, and is most effective when fully manned. Unique among the game's vehicles, the driver does not control any weapons, and can only control the vehicle and honk the horn, which is used to order bots to enter the vehicle, signal other human players to hop on or taunt/provoke the enemy. A feature of interest for the driver is the license plate on the back, which changes from "HELLBNDR" to an 8-character representation of the driver's name - cutting out vowels and then truncating if it doesn't fit.

The side turret is a weapon similar to the game's Shock Rifle. The differences are that the primary/alternative fire modes are reversed, and numerous slow moving "shock cores" fired by this turret can be detonated via a chain-reaction, whereas the Shock Rifle can only detonate one shock core at a time. Such an attack is termed a "Skymine Combo", and is capable of massive explosive damage along its chain. However, if the chain of skymines are too far apart, they may not necessarily all detonate.

The rear turret is a powerful dual laser beam which can be "charged up" to increase damage. Its alt-fire activates a variable zoom for pinpointing distant targets.

For a single player, the Hellbender can also be useful as a mobile gun emplacement by switching between seating positions. For example, a player can drive the Hellbender to a particular position, then man the laser turret by pressing '3' using it to provide 'sniper' fire, then switch back to the driver's position by pressing '1', driving closer to a battle, then pressing '2' to man the shock turret and lay down skymines. Without someone manning the driver position, the vehicle cannot move.

The Hellbender can run over foot-bound players. It is fairly well armoured, but can be easily defeated by larger vehicles.

3 positions:

• 1 Driver, honk horn alt-fire
• 1 Skymine gunner, shock lance alt-fire
• 1 Dual-laser gunner, zoom alt-fire

Scorpion

The Scorpion is a lightly armoured jeep, and is one of the fastest wheeled vehicles. Its primary fire is a chargeable "energy bola" which wraps itself around its target before exploding. This wrapping effect makes it especially effective against Mantas and power nodes. The longer the fire button is held, the wider the bola. Because the bola will tend to adhere to anything it hits, it is sometimes preferable to fire shorter bolas rather than fully charged, longer ones.

The Alternative fire button extends specialized anti-personnel blades on either side, which instantly (and grusomely) kill any foot-bound enemy it hits. The blades are spectacular to watch, but more or less ineffective against skilled human opponents, who can easily evade their limited range. However they can be deployed with some success against bots. The blades will break off if they strike solid objects such as some pieces of terrain or other vehicles. (In technical terms, BSP brushes and Static Meshes by default break off the blades, but the actual Terrain made with the TerrainInfo actor does not.)

Although the Scorpion is a one-seater, it is possible for another friendly player to jump on top and hitch a ride, although they are very vulnerable to enemy fire, and may get knocked off. In addition, a player on top of the Scorpion may prevent the energy bola from firing as normal.

1 position:

• Driver/Energy bola cannon operator

2 position:

• Lightning gun + alternative fire mode

Leviathan

Type: Mobile Assault Station

The Leviathan is the slowest, most powerful standard vehicle in UT2004. Its main turret fires a continuous stream of homing rockets, which are very effective against all targets. Unlike AVRiL rockets they continue to home in on a target without any attention from the base. the Leviathan has four energy turrets that can be individually manned to increase its defensive power against infantry and air vehicles, but are hard to aim accurately and suffer from poor visibility. Better defence can often be achieved by infantry escorting it on the ground rather than in the turrets, although the Levi can safely, if slowly, transport up to five players around, and this in itself is a useful capacity.

The alternative fire button causes it to transform into Deployed mode. Stabilizer arms deploy, and its devastating Ion Cannon is raised and activated. This transformation takes about 5-6 seconds, during which time the vehicle is unable to move or fire the main weapon, which is a window of opportunity for serious damage to be done to the vehicle by enemy forces. Transforming back to the normal undeployed state is a similar process. When deployed, the Ion Cannon delivers incredible damage over a very long range, but is inaccurate, has a very slow reload rate, and has a build-up which makes it very clear just where the cannon's impact will be.

It must be stationary and on level ground to transform to Deployed mode, and when thus transformed, it is immobile, making it extremely vulnerable to air vehicles and nimbler enemies, such as mantas and raptors, although (if manned) its corner turrets can provide some defence. The Levi (as it is frequently abbreviated) is extremely difficult to destroy. While Raptors and Mantas can avoid its devastating deployed attack and sometimes its homing rockets, the Levi is extremely resilient, and they can seldom do enough damage on their own to bring it down from the 5000 armour it spawns with. Similarly, it's difficult to repair the Levi back to full health after any notable encounter.

Infantry can get close enough to get under the range of fire of the corner guns (although they are vulnerable to being squashed), and can do serious damage before they can be destroyed. Because of the limited visibility and accuracy of the guns, daring players dropping from flying vehicles can land on the top of the vehicle and deal damage whilst avoiding the weapons.

Stealing a Leviathan is a very lucrative proposition, and can easily change the tide of the match.

5 positions:

• 1 Driver/Main Turret/Ion Cannon gunner
• 4 Corner Turrets

Goliath

Type: Battle Tank

The Goliath is a standard tank with a powerful main cannon that devastates infantry, energy nodes and other vehicles alike. It has limited vertical elevation, however, which makes it vulnerable to the Raptor. In addition, its turret is slow-moving, taking time to position, making it difficult to draw a bead on a quick moving target. Rotating the tank itself in the same direction as the turret, will increase the turret's rotation speed quite a bit.

Its 2nd position offers a zoomable machinegun turret atop the main turret, that can offset these weaknesses to a limited degree, although it is also unable to point straight up, one of the preferred places to attack the Goliath, either on foot or in a Raptor.

2 positions:

• 1 Driver/Main Cannon gunner
• 1 Machinegun Turret gunner

SPMA

Type: Long-range Artillery

The Self-Propelled Mobile Artillery, introduced in the UT2004 Editor's Choice Pack, is a powerful support vehicle that fulfils a role largely ignored by the original vehicles. The driver has control of the main cannon. Its primary fire is a limited-range arcing shot, which is powerful but difficult to aim over a long distance.

The secondary fire is where the SPMA shows its true prowess: it fires a special shell that transforms into a stationary floating field camera when the secondary fire function is used again. Once the camera is deployed, a targeting reticle appears superimposed on the camera's view of the map, and the vehicle's driver is able to use the driving keys to aim and pinpoint distant targets. This camera is clearly visible to others and is easily destroyed. Also, if an enemy AvRil rocket locks onto the SPMA field camera, and gets a line of sight with the SPMA itself during flight, it will automatically and immediately home in on the vehicle, rather than taking out the camera. This allows ground troopers to take out a well-concealed SPMA from great distances.

When using the camera, prior to landing, the SPMA shell breaks apart above the target area, spreading its explosive shrapnel to all below. A single well-aimed artillery shot can cripple all but the strongest of vehicles (although nimble Manta drivers can avoid it). The long range, high-damage capability provides reasoning in to the anagram of this vehicle's name (SPAM).

The gunner's seat fires a Shock/Skymine turret much like the Hellbender. The vehicle handles like a much lighter Hellbender, although it is more heavily armoured, and is surprisingly faster and more agile, enabling it to scale hills and even some mountains with enough speed. The profile of the vehicle resembles the buggy in the classic game Moon Patrol.

2 positions:

• 1 Driver/Artillery gunner
• 1 Skymine gunner

Paladin

Type: Defensive Tank

Although it somewhat resembles a Goliath with a shield at first glance, the Paladin's role is very different on the battlefield. It is very slow moving, has similar armour, and is capable of climbing steep inclines that no other land vehicles can match.

The Paladin's primary attack fires a somewhat slow-moving energy ball from the cannon in its turret. The projectile's lack of speed, and the lack of a zoom facility makes accurate long distance shooting far inferior to that of a Goliath or even Hellbender rear turret.

The unique feature of the Paladin is its ability to generate an energy shield with the secondary fire. This shield consumes no energy itself, and can be maintained indefinitely, or until it absorbs enough damage to be destroyed, It can take a great deal of direct damage (several Goliath shots) but is not as strong against large amounts of splash damage (extremely vulnerable to a Leviathan's deployed gun). The shield blocks shots, but enemies on foot or in vehicles can pass through the shield without problems. The shield extends over a fairly wide area around the direction the turret is aimed, and is quite useful at protecting friendly infantry (the vehicle only has one seat).

In addition, firing the primary cannon while its shield is activated creates an energy explosion to radiate in all direction of the tank, deal great damage to anything within its short range. It will cost de driver a mere 1 health point. While it can fire as soon as its shield is lowered, the Paladin's primary attack consumes a lot of energy, and it cannot regenerate the shield again for several seconds after firing. Also, its turret is very slow moving, nimble opponents can circle-strafe around the tank faster that it can aim/redirect its shield, making it an easy target to such attacks. Rotating the tank itself in the same direction as the turret will make the final turret rotation quite a bit faster.

In short, the Paladin is well-designed to defend an area from infantry and has a decent discouraging effect against lighter vehicles. A Paladin is not well suited for offensive unless it is supported by troops or other vehicles.

1 position:

• Driver/Main Cannon/Shield

Air vehicles

Manta

Type: Hovercraft

The Manta is the fastest, and also the most vulnerable of the vehicles. It does not technically fly but "hovers" across terrain just a few meters above ground level. It is capable of a "jump" manoeuvre, as well as a "dive" which give the Manta its notoriety for "squashing" opposing infantry. Entering a Manta will automatically make it do a little hop, which can be augmented by jumping, creating a much bigger jump than possible during flight. Proper use of these unique abilities can allow a speeding manta to fly in high arcs above otherwise impassable terrain, and cover ground very rapidly. A skilled Manta pilot is very difficult to deal with.

The Manta is particularly vulnerable to the primary fire of the Scorpion, its energy bolas get sucked up in the Manta's fans if they are close. Once a Manta is hit by a bola, it will always be completely destroyed, however, the delayed nature of energy bola damage allows the Manta pilot enough time to eject before that.

It possesses dual plasma casters which do light damage, but can effectively destroy stationary or slow moving targets. The weapon has some splash damage, if the Manta is too close to its target, it will damage itself.

Although it only has one seat, it is possible for two or more players to "ride" on the Manta's wings. As with the Scorpion, such riders run the risk of falling off if the ride gets too bumpy. This trick works equally well with Spider Mines.

1 position:

• Pilot/Plasma casters

Raptor

Type: Airfighter

The Raptor is an aircraft well suited to take out other flying craft, such as Mantas or other Raptors. It has a fairly fast top speed, but is slow to accelerate, elevate and descend, and has very minimal cornering ability, making it vulnerable to infantry AVRiL rockets.

It possesses a Plasma cannon similar to, but much more powerful than that of the Manta. Its secondary attack launches a rocket that automatically homes in on Mantas, other Raptors, and Cicadas, and does light damage. These rockets are not nearly as agile as the Levi's homing rockets, and skilled opponents can dodge/evade them. It takes about 2 rockets to destroy a Manta or other Raptor, and 5-6 to destroy a Cicada.

1 position:

• Pilot/Plasma turret/Homing rocket

Cicada

Type: Ground Assault Craft

The Cicada is an air vehicle that, while quite ineffective against other air vehicles, is superb at devastating enemy ground forces and energy nodes with volleys of missiles, anti-AVRiL flares, and a rapid firing laser turret for distant and hardened targets.

The pilot is tasked with control of the vehicle itself (which is quite different from the Raptor, as the Cicada is much slower, and lacks as much horizontal control but is much more impressive in climbing and diving) and the side-mounted missile batteries. The pilot's primary fire causes a continuous barrage of missiles to fly towards the target in a wide drunken pattern. Secondary fire "Starburst attack" locks on to the fixed area indicated by the targeting cross-hair, and begins loading up to 16 missiles, as long as the trigger is pressed. Once the driver lets go of the trigger, or the maximum amount of missiles is loaded (indicated on the cross-hair), they will all launch right after another in a minimal timespan, and will fly towards the locked-on point, causing great damage. It is useful to note that between locking and launching, the Cicada can safely duck behind an obstacle for cover. Aiming your craft in the right direction can help the missiles arc over such obstacles they would've crashed into otherwise. It is also worth noting at any time while loading missiles, regular fire will pause the loading, making it possible to fly around a locked area indefinately while fully armed.

The gunner position is vital to the defence and use of the vehicle. Their primary attack triggers an accurate, powerful, rapid-firing laser from the bottom turret, and the secondary attack launches a flare that will lure any AVRiL missiles locked onto the vehicle. The gunner's targeting camera clearly identifies the location of inbound AvRils, aiding in properly timing the flare launch.

It is worth noting that the Cicada will continue to hover in place if the driver switches seats, or if the driver bails out while the gunner is still on-board. An empty Cicada will fall to the ground.

2 positions:

• Pilot/Missile gunner
• Flare/Laser gunner

Non-standard vehicles

Ion Tank

Type: Battle Tank

Found only in AS-Glacier in the official releases (although occasionally used by custom level-makers elsewhere), this is a huge, slow, tank with a massive ion-blast weapon which takes some time to recharge. It also has a secondary machine-gun turret identical to the Goliath. It has very thick armour and takes some time to destroy. Its prowess against other vehicles is unknown, as it is the only vehicle on the level.

2 positions:

• Driver/Main Ion Weapon
• Mini gun turret

Bulldog

The Bulldog doesn't feature as a functional vehicle in UT2004, as it was actually made for Unreal Tournament 2003, although it doesn't feature there either. The vehicle only has place for 1 driver that can shoot rockets towards the sky from its unmovable turret. These rockets will automatically lock onto enemies on foot if they are in sight.

However a few user-made maps were available which used the vehicle - at the time a unique and much discussed feature of the Unreal series, and obviously a precursor to the vehicles in Unreal Tournament 2004. It still exists in the code for Unreal Tournament 2004 but no examples of the vehicle being used actively by level creators in the latest game are known, as the official vehicles provide a superior alternative due to superior coding resulting in much less resource intensive end result, especially in larger numbers.

The map AS-Convoy features the Thundercrash team attacking an enemy convoy with an assortment of Bulldogs (accompanying a much larger, similarly military themed attack vehicle) with or without trailers to transport troops (spawn points) as well as the objective, the Nexus Missiles. One of the Bulldogs can be jumped on and used as a shortcut towards the goal.

A 'wrecked' and non-functional Bulldog chassis can be seen in some of the Junkyard levels of Unreal Tournament 2004, providing perhaps some ironic comment on the superiority of the new vehicles. A picture of the Bulldog is also one of the team logos used on the flags in CTF games and other team-related objects.

Positions:

• 1 Driver/Main Cannon gunner

TC-1200

The TC-1200 or Toilet Car is a vehicle that does not appear in the normal game. By using the console in single player mode a player can make the car appear. Additionally, several mapmakers have included the vehicle in custom assault maps, mostly the "racing maps" which involve large numbers of players in vehicles competing against each other. It moves in a similar way to the Scorpion but is slightly slower, has a far better turning rate and is better at climbing. It has no weapons, but some entertaining toilet-like sounds. The game refers to the vehicle as TC-1200 but for obvious reasons it is invariably referred to as the Toilet Car.

The vehicle is a fully-specified vehicle, unlike most of the other non-standard vehicles which do not appear in official levels. It is animated and, when destroyed, explodes convincingly. Unlike the Bulldog or the Dragonfly it seems likely not to be a bit of left-over code but a deliberately-created easter egg, with the typical humourous nature of such artefacts.

One Position:

• Toilet seat

• To use the car: Go into the console and type "summon OnslaughtFull.ONSGenericSD" without the quotation marks.

Dragonfly/Phoenix Bomber

The Dragonfly, like the Bulldog, cannot be used in the game normally. The code for making a controllable Phoenix Bomber (the aircraft that the Target Painter summons) was unfinished but left in the game. It can be summoned but will be pretty much useless.

Positions:

• Unknown

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