Ropes and Spewers
There are a ton of different particle system classes that we added, but most are pretty self-explanatory. The main thing with them is to experiment with the default settings... and make them look as good as you can without using many particles, since they can be a big performance hit if you get too silly with them.

But our implementation of Ropes could use some explaining. It's a little confusing and unfortunately less unified than we'd like, but there are a couple different types of "rope" in Rune and they all work a little differently:

"HangingChains" are decorative and have cool physics, but you can't climb them - though you can attach something to them, like a 'dead guy'. In Rune I believe we had HangingChains holding skulls, and some holding dead guys. It can be a little fishy getting them all set up right... our programmers gave us some default ones that we just exported/imported into our own maps to save time.

Under ParticleSystem->BeamSystem, you'll find BeamChain, BeamRope, and BeamVine. They will draw a non-climbable visual Rope/etc. to whatever target location you give them (under the property BeamSystem->TargetTag). If the target moves around, the rope will automatically draw to it as it goes for a cool effect.

Under ParticleSystem->BeamSystem->Rope you'll find ClimbableChain and ClimbableVine. These are the ones in the game that have an ambient sway and can be climbed. You can adjust their height using the Collision->CollisionHeight property.

The ClimbableChain and ClimbableVine appear in the editor as a rectangular, yellow icon, which stands at the rope's "center". The BeamChain/etc. appear as the blue "particle".

Spewers are extremely handy for setting up timed fire pits, steam blasts, and the like. You can also control the degree to which they damage the player, if at all. You'll find it at ParticleSystem->Spewer->FireSpewer. The SteamSpewer should be good to go, as well - but I'd avoid the MechFireSpewer. We used FireSpewers and SteamSpewers exclusively. They don't have to shoot fire or steam. Under the Spewer's ParticleSystem->ParticleTexture slot, you can put it whatever particle texture you'd like. The bubbles that shoot out when the Vikings 'splash' into the water in SailingShip were done using non-damaging FireSpewers pumping out the Bubble texture that's in RuneFX.utx, and the natural effect was achieved by tweaking the Spewer's velocity settings and ZoneVelocityScale. But on to the more commonly needed FireSpewer settings:

The basic way the FireSpewer operates is that is has an "on" time, and an "off" time, and it cycles between them. You can use them for precise timings or for more random, ambient timings. If they are set to do damage, the damage is applied only when the Spewer is fully on, not when it is either building up or shrinking down in its cycle.

ActiveDurationMax/Min: The amount of time the Spewer is "on", and hence doing damaged if so set up.

DormanDurationMax/Min: The amount of time the Spewer is completely off. Keep these numbers the same if you don't want randomness.

bAutoStart: If set to FALSE, then the name of the Spewer must be triggered for it to turn on and begin doing its thing.

ExpandDuration/ShrinkDuration: How long it takes the Spewer to build up into its full, damaging flame, and how long it takes it to shrink down to "off". Again, actors receive no damage during these phases.

MotionPitch/MotionYaw: Never messed with these, but I think you can get some bad-ass looking effects with them.

SpewerDamage: The amount of damage delivered when the Spewer is fully on and in its "Active" state. This damage amount is delivered 4 times a second, so you'll want to go easy on it.


SpewerForceMax/Min: This defines with how much force the particles are 'shot out'. Use it in conjuction with ParticleSystem->ParticleCount and ->LifeSpanMax/Min to get yourself a good-looking flame with a minimum number of particles.

SpewerLength/SpewerRadius: These are the important ones for making the Spewer cause damage. If they are set to zero, no damage will be done. Getting good values for these that match the apperance of the flame can entail some trial-and-error, but the best way to imagine the Spewer's damage zone is as a cylinder extending out from the Spewer's origin toward wherever the Spewer's directional arrow is pointed. SpewerLength defines how far out the damage cylinder goes, while SpewerRadius defines how 'fat' or 'skinny' that damage cylinder is.

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