Concepts

How To Read the MapMixer Help

Items in the MapMixer Help are split into two sections.  One part deals with broad Concepts and the other with Configuration (as shown in the Index on the left).  For example, the Concepts section introduces you to a feature in MapMixer and the Configuration section explains how to configure that feature in the Menus.

 

The Grand Scheme of Things

The purpose of MapMixer is to give you extended control over your game experience by changing the parameters that maps are invoked with.  It will take over the standard map list system, supplementing it with it's own system and switching maps when required.

The following is a brief outline of things you need to understand.

Map Defaults and Map List Specific Settings

MapMixer allows you to take control of many options that relate specifically to individual maps, such as Game Types, Game Rules, Mutators, Player Counts, Bot Skill and Bots.  There are two ways to do this:

Map Defaults - enable you to change the default options for every map installed on a per-game type basis.  This means that every time a map of a particular game type is invoked, it appears with its own particular default settings.  You could call these - global settings.
Map List Specific settings enable you to customise every map in a user created map list.

The first thing to decide when customising MapMixer is what settings you will apply to maps as a default or if you are creating a custom map list then you may wish to apply settings for each map in the map list.

Some examples of Map Default settings:

Note that Map Default settings are applied for individual maps of each game type.  That means that you can apply different default settings for each game type that a map can be used with.  Alternatively you can apply some settings to the map regardless of game type.

Some examples for Map List Specific settings:

See Map Defaults in the Configuration for more info on setting default map properties.

Settings Priority (or Precedence)

MapMixer helps manage the options that can be applied to maps and importantly it allows you to set each option in different ways.  For example a Game Rules List might set the Time Limit for Onslaught maps to 30 minutes but you've might have also given a particular Onslaught map a default time limit of 40 minutes in the Map Defaults.  The question arises - which setting will be used? or more importantly - what setting overrides (or takes precedence) over the other(s)?

MapMixer gives a certain priority to each way it can apply a setting, so you have a predictable way of overriding settings.  It is important to understand this hierarchy of precedence so you end up with the result you desire.

The following lists the order (or steps) that MapMixer applies Game Rules, Mutators, Player Counts and Bot Skill.

The order indicates priority, with the last item listed as having the greatest priority.

(You may wish to refer back to the following information, once you have discovered how they each individually work.)

Games Rules
  1. Game rules chosen from the UT Game Menu
  2. Game rules used in a Game Rules List (Optional)
  3. Map Default settings for a specific map of a specific game type (Optional)
  4. Game Rules specified for a map in a Custom Map List (Optional)
  5. Game Rules set in-game from the Admin Menu that have been "saved" for a particular game type.

Mutators

  1. Mutators chosen from the UT Game Menu
  2. Custom Mutator List (Optional)
  3. Map Default Mutators for a specific map of a specific game type (Optional)
  4. Mutators specified for a map in a Custom Map List (Optional)
Player Counts (using MapMixer Player Matching)
  1. Map Default Player Counts for a map of a particular game type (Optional)
  2. Map Player Counts specified for a map in a Custom Map List (Optional)
Bot Skill
  1. Bot Skill that started the session
  2. Bot Skill assigned to a Game Rules List (Optional)
  3. Map Default Bot Skill (Optional)
  4. Custom Map List Bot Skill (Optional)
  5. Bot Skill Saved via the Admin Menu (Optional)
  6. Bot Skill Set via the Admin Menu (without Saving)
Bots
  1. Custom Bots selection that started the session
  2. BotMixer* (if installed and Active - Optional)
  3. Map Default Custom Bots selection (Optional)
  4. Custom Map List Custom Bots selection (Optional)

Table of Settings Precedence

The following table further illustrates the priorities for each different part of MapMixer.  Listed on the left are the different sections of MapMixer where settings are applied and across the top are listed each type of settings that can be modified.  The marks in the chart are where a setting can be altered (or overridden).  The items are listed such that the top of the list takes precedence over the lower parts.

  Game Rules Mutators Player Counts Bot Skill Bots
In-Game Admin *     *  
Map List * * * * *
Map Defaults [Game Type List] * * * * *
Map Defaults [Default Properties] * * * *  
Mutator List [Game Type List]   *      
Mutator List [Default Mutators]   *      
Custom Game Type * * *1    
Rules List *   *2 *  
BotMixer**         *
Session Start (ie not launching from MapMixer Config) * *   * *

*n indicates a different order

** BotMixer is an optional add-on for MapMixer that manages Custom Bot Teams.

Making sure MapMixer has full control

The main purpose of MapMixer is to take control of the options that are used to invoke maps.  There are two different way to launch a UT2004 game session that is controlled by MapMixer. See Starting a Session with MapMixer for full details on these two methods.