Quaddicted.com Forum

Speaking of the 'Quake 2' enemy rooster, I think that the biggest disappointment, was the Tank. It was a bullet sponge, but practically speaking, in the way of attacking, it was too anemic and somehow formulaic, to be effective. In my opinion, the very notion that it could not carry out simultaneous attacks with two or more weapons - out of three it was equipped with - was a remark of great limitation.

Machinegun attack, with spread fire, was faulty at making impact against solitary opponent. Rocket fire, once initiated, was not able to change or follow target, effectively freezing the Tank in a fixed position - as far as I remember. The hyperblaster attack, was the only sensible one - or was it?

Yep, autoexec.cfg isn't a very good solution. FTEQW and Kex just seem to ignore it altogether so I'm gonna look into what I can do with quake.rc.

I'm not reeeally a fan of what I did there tbh. It seemed like a good idea at the time to give players some variety, but it probably does more harm than good for mappers who want control over what players are given and when. So maybe I'll just go back to giving everyone the standard shotgun. Only problem is the Q2 shotgun is more like the Doom shotgun in terms of power so I feel like it might be a bit much for a staple weapon. Maybe I'll nerf it just a little bit.

On mapping, I forgot to add a couple of functions to give mappers full control over what weapons they can place in a level. Right now thunderbolts and sshotguns get converted to whatever weapon Q2 players *don't* have in their inventory, which is good for old maps, but not so good for new maps. So that's gonna get added in the next release for sure.

Yeah the blaster is meant to be like the axe: Better than nothing, but not by much.

The blaster actually does have some uses, like you can snipe faraway enemies with it to save on ammo. Kinda tedious but hey, it's an option.

@'basementApe', I see you put an "autoexec.cfg" in your mod data. I suggest you to turn it into an "quake.rc" file, which does take some extra definitions to be made, but in the end, the "autoexec.cfg", is meant to represent the user tweaks and if you bring your game definitions as an "autoexec.cfg", then your options, will possibly nullify the user options; there is a collision.

My particular "autoexec.cfg", includes:

	// movement dynamics
+mlook
cl_alwaysrun "1"
cl_upspeed "350"	// resurfacing speed when submerged, value taken after "cl_sidespeed"

	// field of view
fov "105"

	// aiming assistance
sv_aim "1"	// default value is "0.93", value "1" means minimum engine assistance
crosshair "1"
scr_crosshairscale "1.5"	// escalate to increase crosshair image size

	// onscreen feedback
scr_showfps "0"
scr_conspeed "3000"	// speed of engine console manifestation
scr_printspeed "16"	// speed of final credits roll
scr_centertime "4.5"	// lasting of narrative feedback
con_notifytime "1.5"	// lasting of engine feedback

	// aesthetic, particle shape - square particles
r_particles "2"

Beyond that, the screenshot bindings, but I see you have a likewise option already. // it does not work.

I guess my way out for now, is to manually merge the "autoexec" file contents.

NEXT:

I would tone it down even further. In my opinion, it is not a fun gun to use. It is just not a good choice, the way I see it, in the way of design. But I think it is nice you added it as a staple gun. Even though, regular shotgun, is the best.

Since I see you have personalized the weapon rooster for different models, depending on whether the model, comes from original 'Quake' or 'Quake 2', I would speculate, that the next step, is to truly personalize the weapon rooster, between the four available models, altogether. I do not think it is very practical, though, as it puts your mod, on a rather quirky trajectory, minding 'Quake' priorities. But it could be interesting.

___CUT:

I just saw this in the changelog for version "1.12":

Well then, the question is, balance. Unless, the character selection screen, is a crypto difficulty mode setup. If the declared, was the case; but I did notice only the machinegun option, when it comes to all the 'Quake 2' characters.

EDIT:

Dumb me, you talk about the skins, not the models. Correct: the skins, do alter the loadout. I think it is superfluous, quite unreadable to the player. The skin selection, is rather tricky, unintuitive, with the controls given. I think you need to make it more basic - more simple and accessible. Maybe just streamline it.

___/CUT

The blaster itself, is rather unsatisfying. I perfectly understand, it is not meant to be any staple weapon, but it could use some modding. Maybe it should be chargeable to a triple-power bolt, like the blaster in 'Quake 4'? I would add an overload risk, like with 'BFG' in 'Doom 3', so that running around with a charged weapon, was not very handy.

It would be good if you could suggest some comprehensible test-map for your mod; a map that would organically encourage to discover the most vital mod features, properly emphasized.

Speaking of the 'Quake 2' weapon rooster, I think the machinegun, had ridiculous recoil, making it eventually an annoying gun to use; in many ways inferior to the chaingun - which, in turn, offered both, a steady fire, as well as an all-out mode, while employing samewise ammo type as the machinegun.

Looks promising, @'HAL9000'. I would stick with the original, sinister dog models, for what I saw.

I do not believe you will "port" the experience of 'Quake 2' into the original 'Quake', unless you are willing to overdo yourself, probably for an insufficient result. What is feasible, though, is to build a new, customized experience. That is why, I am against ideological perspective on the notion of porting 'Quake 2' weapons into 'Quake'. In other terms, I think it is perfectly fine to just choose what weapons you want and what weapons do port easily, simply throwing away those that do not fit well, for contextual or technological reasons.

I believe the weapons, do not necessarily have to follow even the rule of traditional 'id' rooster continuum; where you go from a pistol to a shotgun, then to a machinegun, then to a rocket launcher, then to a special weapon and then to a mobile version of massive guillotine. You can easily tweak that order. In the end, it is up to how the map is constructed against available resources and priorities. If we assume energy cells are common, the hyperblaster, could become a new machinegun - if to tweak the power output it gives. Notwithstanding, it is not about doing this or that, it is about maintaining flexibility in perspective.

EDIT:

The notion of making the hyperblaster, an upgraded machinegun equivalent, is not new - 'Quake 4', already did that. Even though 'Quake 4', in my opinion, is by all means a very correct game, I am rather unconvinced, that we should look up to it, for inspiration. The inspiration, essentially speaking, is what it seems to be wanting the most.

By the way, this entire thread should be moved to the "mods" forum section.

NEXT:

Having given it a better look, the hyperblaster itself, works kind of janky. I also think it is unnecessary to put a 'Quake' marine in the model rooster, among the 'Quake 2' characters. Unless, you want to mix original 'Quake' weaponry, into the arsenal of 'Quake 2' that you bring in, as well. There is difference, the way I feel about it.

What if to remove all automatic weaponry from the game, altogether - at least speaking of those weapons, wielded by the protagonist? What I believe in regards to combat in 'Quake', is that the combat, needs to have certain rhythm to it - combined with adequate enemy behavior patterns. It results in certain kind of dance - the dance of 'Quake' combat. Continuous fire weapons, somewhat break that.

Incorrect enemy behavior patterns, can also break that. In 'Quake 2', there was this pattern, according to which, some antagonists, being under fire from a hyperblaster, would duck. It was terrible; made no sense altogether - handicapped their combat ability, questioned their robotic appeal and ultimately made them easy targets; because they, would usually duck in the open, sitting there like some dumb birds.

What I like about your mod, is that the 'Quake 2' weapon rooster, is made a bit more powerful, as compared to the original, rendering the combat, simply less tedious and thus the gameplay, that bit more dynamic.

I do feel like the combat in original 'Quake', is a little bit grindy.

From the two choices, I think it is better to have a fluently functioning, humble mod - than to have a rich and overflowing, but janky mod.

Even though one could expect that - who says you need to transfer all of 'Quake 2' weaponry into the matrix of original 'Quake'? Functional balance, is more important, I think.

If you dare, you could experiment a bit, change priority of some guns.

What about 'Quake 2' artifacts, though?