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Only real problem with major improvements to 'Quake' gameplay and the way things are put in the game, is that it would cost compatibility with major map editors, which is a suicide without organized effort involved, minding the way game survives nowadays.
Which is also probably why mods beyond mapping toolkits are risky as well.
In reference to this post; every navigational beacon, could also have a perimeter, established by a mapmaker. Entering the perimeter, would make the "beeper" signal go constant or otherwise altered, meaning the destination, has been reached - with destination, not necessarily needing to be a point, but possibly an area.
Some beacons, may not have a perimeter, but then, only touching the beacon directly, will make the "beeper" signal altered. This way, trying to navigate towards a large hall, could be done two ways: either towards a focal point of the area, represented best by a permanent object - or towards "geographical" boundaries of the area, entering which, should be considered objective reached.
I think the beacons and the sound-nav system in 'Quake', could be useful for large maps - but only well described maps, in which places or transparent objects of representation, are properly correlated with names. I mean, the name of a beacon, has to be associated with the name of a place, otherwise nobody would be able to read and effectively use the function list, especially if it expands.
If there was taxable difference between running mode and walking mode in 'Quake', then the stealth-mode device - mentioned here - should use up much more energy in the running mode, than in the walking mode; eventually making it simply costly to carry out fast-paced 'Quake' combat, while in-stealth. By default, turning on the stealth-mode, should also automatically toggle on the walking mode, although such solution, could be customizable in game options menu, whether one wishes to "always run" or "always walk" - technically speaking - in stealth, which would be alterable on demand by the "run" key, on actual basis.
Invisibility or stealth mode. There is already a thing called "Ring of Shadows" in 'Quake', that grants invisibility to the owner, while artifact power lasting - quite like the good old ring from the good old 'Lord of the Rings'. The "Copper" mod, perfected the mechanics around the "Ring of Shadows", making it more convenient and possibly sensible to relay on, but my point, approaches the subject from a different angle. What if to make the "Ring of Shadows", a battery-like utility, the use of which, should be bound to a key; much like with the thunderbolt weapon, where as long as the player presses a key, the device, is being used - alternatively, a toggle mode, could be implemented, for better ease. Reason for, being that sometimes it is the case of situational strategy, in which one would request to assume better position for further proceeding combat, especially in large areas, where sniper type enemies, are plenty. Such stealth-mode device, allowing the player to choose when, where and how much of it to use given moment, would add to the tactical aspect of 'Quake', awarding environmental awareness, instead of always rushing in guns-blazing or becoming victim to sometimes rather obvious "monster-closet" traps and scenario-fixed gameplay loops, determined by artifact duration. The economy of stealth-mode device - as it does not recharge otherwise than by collecting another item of the same kind - could also become an asset, adding to the value of 'Quake' gameplay, making it more diverse.
Returning to the case of resurrections, the case was about unfeasibility of the option in certain areas - such as traps or precipices - where becoming resurrected or self-resurrected, makes no sense. We speculated about teleportation, being built in the mechanics of resurrection, which in turn, was argumented against, due to causing possible technical complications in mapmaking, especially on a non-professional level. If one were to accept some degree of technical complications anyway, in order to have the resurrection function implemented in the game mechanics, the maps could involve something I temporarily call the "red zone". In the "red zone", one simply does not resurrect - the function, is disabled, regardless how many resurrections one has accumulated - and while in-game, it should always be clearly announced, when one does enter the "red zone". There are couple of nuances with it, though. First, if you cannot use the resurrections collected, then what sense does it make to have them? Second, is quicksaving or even autosaving, not better than resurrections anyway? Third, "red zones" can still be abused by the mappers, further practically devaluing the resurrections. Last but not least, "red zone" is still yet another element and thus may cause technical issues. In the end, I do not think the resurrections, do make sense in 'Quake', the way we know 'Quake'.
To see well underwater I use "gl_cshiftpercent" set to 25 (the default is 100).
Nice. I find the value between "35" and "40", do just fine.
Overly low value, looses the sense of altered environment.
Even though, technically, changing the cvar, should be considered equal to cheating.
To see well underwater I use "gl_cshiftpercent" set to 25 (the default is 100).
Copper also makes Environment Suit dampen some lava damage, but it depends on how deep player is submerged in it.
As for the faster movement, that was implemented in Scourge of Armagon's Wet Suit, which speeds up player's swimming speed and also gives full protection from lightning. It doesn't make the underwater view clearer though.
The effect of BioSuit making things harder to see is probably a typical oversight because for powerups and various liquids Quake engine tints the whole screen. However I don't remember how it is in the game, are the color tints combined or one overrides the other. Which reminds me of a bug in Blood (still not fixed to this day) when Deathmask (Invulnerability) does not tint the screen and you can see that powerup ran out only by a tiny message.
Perhaps instead of making things even harder to see underwater, the enviro suit and other likewise utilities, should actually make things more clear.
It would be good if it also allowed to move faster, while itself, lasting a bit longer.
Water is very hostile environment in 'Quake' and sometimes it is abused by the mappers, in terms of enhancing the difficulty level of combat.
Fortunately, the "Copper" mod - as far as I am informed - allows to eventually restore certain amount of health, lost due to possibly drowning.
I think that thing actually exists in Doom Eternal, and existed in some older shooters like Wolfenstein 3D, but they are just called "lives".
Kind of destiny special favors, I guess. The idea, is certainly not novel, but the question is, does it fit 'Quake'?
As for dying in lava or some trap that gibs the player, just respawn on a nearby checkpoint, but those must be placed manually by level designer near these areas to be useful like that.
In some contemporary, custom 'Quake' maps, if one falls to void, sometimes - instead of dying - the protagonist would be teleported to a nearby steady location. I think with the actual resurrections, it would take more effort to implement, as compared to simply teleportation. I believe the "lives", should not make one avoid death - the death, must be present and the resurrection, to remain a decision of the player. It makes the difference, whether it is invisible and automated or when one actually gets the interruption, caused by death in game.
That is why, the idea, is probably less operable than it could seem to be - not impossible, but logistically challenging; likely causing a lot of issues if not meticulously consistent with in application.
I think that thing actually exists in Doom Eternal, and existed in some older shooters like Wolfenstein 3D, but they are just called "lives".
Doom Eternal:
If the player has an extra life, it will automatically be consumed when their health reaches zero, fully restoring health and offering a brief period of invincibility rather than forcing the player to restart from the last checkpoint
Not sure how it worked in Wolfenstein 3D, probably respawned you at the (re)start of the level.
As for dying in lava or some trap that gibs the player, just respawn on a nearby checkpoint, but those must be placed manually by level designer near these areas to be useful like that.
Do you know this trick in "Copper" mod, when - in case of having perished in combat - executing "god" command in the commandline, will resurrect the protagonist with refreshed health bar and preserved equipment state, with a telefrag effect on spot, to it? It is actually very practical in certain casual gameplay cases.
What if to actually make the thing legit?
I mean, an artifact, that would give the player an option to resurrect the protagonist, on demand. Each instance of such artifact collected, would add one resurrection available. The resurrection, could be invoked with a dedicated key, bound to the function.
The drawback, is taking away from the tension of combat. Another drawback, is - what if the protagonist, has perished in an environmental hazard, such as lava, slime or downright fallen into some trap or abyss? Resurrection, would not make sense then or should require further quirky tricks, making the entire idea, rather inoperable or very inefficient to implement.
It is interesting, nonetheless, from a theoretical standpoint. How would you argument the possibility of having the protagonist, resurrected - even more than once?
The question, is: torch equivalent.
Some may say: muzzleflash, is enough - albeit it doubt the economics of it.
Some mods, come up with flashlight. While the flashlight, is a modernday answer to the function of classic torch, unnecessarily is it the only solution - especially within the limitations of "Fitz"-based 'Quake' engines.
Following the trail of 'Aliens versus Predator: Classic' game, from the year 2000 - why not introduce alternative illumination tools, such as flares? The flare, could either be thrown or "burnt on the protagonist". I am against the notion of a flare, having to be ejected from a gun only, like a grenade - but in the end, the flare itself, could remind of a grenade in shape, illuminating an area and lightly exploding at the end of duration time.
If to think about it, though, the option of "burning the flare on protagonist", conflicts with the notion of a flare exploding, therefore, I would stay with the flares just being a throwable object.
The protagonist, would have infinite amount of flares, but only being allowed to use a limited number of them, at a time; say, only two or three flares may burn simultaneously.
Another example, is the night-vision mode, which could roughly become a proper artifact, with limited duration - giving a crystal-clear image of an area, with somewhat distorted colortones; until certain arbitrary line of sight, therefore not good for "sniping", perhaps.
In this thread, we speak mostly of adding to the game, some things potential. What about going the other direction, instead? What I mean by that, I will explain shortly.
The way I imagine it - in a toolbox of every mapper, there is a major asset, called: choice. One makes use of that privilege-asset as soon as with the first decision, regarding the map aesthetic theme. In order to make a choice, one must disinclude more than one will include. This quality, makes the asset of choice, remind the art of sculpture.
The piece of sculpture, according to what I was told, begins as a block - a shapeless object, full of rough matter; arguably speaking. It is a mess, one would say - a mess that asks to become organized. Organization, is proceeding entropy - the narrowing of possibilities. The same, happens to the universe we live in - from chaos, to order killing life; I refer the "heat death" theorem.
With taking away certain strategic elements, said block, begins to remind a thing an artist has projected upon it. Perfect sculpture, must maintain balance, between being neither too much, nor too little - there must be just enough, making coherent sense, within acceptable range of proportions.
In terms of mapping - using my imagination, rather than experience - if I do not like the hitscan combat system, while having to relay solely on vanilla 'Quake' conditions; I may simply disinclude all enemies dealing the hitscan damage. If that is not enough, I may even disinclude all protagonist weapons that deal the hitscan damage. In order to avoid depriving the game of having anything available at all, in my vision, I will need to make sure that there is something essential to use or fight against, for the player, to enjoy the map under common conditions.
That is why, I often pay attention to what kinds of decisions - allowances and disallowances - has the mapper done, design-wise, as well as how coherent these end up looking to myself, in the end.
Speaking of transparency driven design, the lightning-gun in original 'Quake', is definitely not an example of having this principle cultivated; with the hidden trait of limited range. It is not about pointing out really whether the old days did mind transparency or not - it is about pointing out how impractical it is from sheer gameplay perspective.