Leveling The Playing Feild

[Team Xlink]

[Wazat]

[ceriux]

i like the idea. i think the psp builds should have their own protocol , but servers should still be allowed to be ran off a pc.

[Wazat]

[Arkage]

Yea, I agree PC and PSP should be keep serprate as there is no fair way to make it even. Keyboard and mouse are far better than the PSPs controls.

[Teiman]

[frag.machine]

[Teiman]

[Team Xlink]

[ceriux]

but it would be impossible, reguardless im a noob quake player put me up against a pro on a console i probably would still will. just because i have the pc.

[Wazat]

Dividing gamers in half may be unattractive, but there's only so much you can do to compensate for non-mouse controls. Giving the player an aimbot is potentially very evil. Were the PSP a touch screen like the DS or infrared like the Wii, you could maybe do something with that, but basic D-pads and joysticks are terrible against a keyboard+mouse.

Also, giving the player auto-aiming may still not help. Much of Quake DM is shooting where the target will be, not where he is. With a rocket launcher you fire at the ground where the enemy will likely be in .5 seconds or so. Nails travel quickly but they still require some leading. Adding these things as aim helpers to the engine would be a very bad idea -- it takes all the Quake out of Quake, and turns the player into a pilot (I just steer and press the fire button) instead of a combatant. Doing any less than that, however, may turn out to be too little to level the playing field.

Trying to get PSP and PC controls to compete fairly with each other is a big problem, bigger than I think we want to deal with. Even though different network codes divides the community in half, it's better than combining players under unfair terms.

Think of it this way -- if you're a PSP player, do you really want to end up on servers with PC players? Or do you want PC players to be able to join your games? Almost no matter how good you are, you're going to get stomped.

If you're a PC player you might care less because you get to dominate, but would you want a PSP player on your team? And is it really that much fun to trample players who take half a second or a second just to turn around and aim at you? Frankly, that's not my idea of good sport.

Whether I'm on PC or PSP, I don't want to mix the two unless both sides have agreed in advance.

Aim enhancements will only take us so far, and (if too ambitious/accomodating) may demolish what makes Quake DM what it is. They won't level the playing field at all, unfortunately. That's my opinion.

And besides, there's one crucial thing to understand here. We're not dividing the community in half. We're not taking a huge butcher's knife and cleaving off a huge chunk of the existing community. The PSP community is just getting started, and personally I'm fine with them being allowed to develop on a separate netcode protocol.

After all, QW would not be as strong as it is if it had not been allowed to define its own protocol to improve network latency. The PSP's need is different (not net efficiency but controls fairness), but the need may be just as great or greater. IMO the PSP community may not develop nearly as fast if they can't play multiplayer without some PC player coming along with a ridiculous controls advantage and stomping them. Giving them their own fair & safe PSP-only servers may be the best way to encourage people to play PSP Quake online. Otherwise why bother?

At the very least make it a server option in the menus:
Platforms Allowed: {PSP only (default)} {PC only} {Any}

Just my opinion, not necessarily fact. I'm sure people will disagree and for good reason, but at least consider what I've said. Engine aim helpers may help, but I don't see them going far enough without going too far.

(lord I'm chatty today. Sorry for the wall of text.)

[Wazat]

Team Xlink: Sorry, I don't mean to get on my soap box and ignore the original question. I think some aim assistance is at least worth trying. Quake has some aim stuff by default (the aim function), so you could build on that.

If only you could plug in one of those little USB mini-mice.

I think some (though perhaps not all, given the limited number of buttons) of the following things would help a lot:

* A command to flip the player 180 degrees to turn around fast; or perhaps 90 degrees to the left or right (depending on what direction the player is turning when they use the command). Perhaps a double or triple tap on the dpad?

* A command to increase the player's turn speed. Perhaps this is a button you hold down while turning (shoulder button maybe), then release when you're pointed in about the right direction and want slower, more precise aiming.

* Perhaps a command to rocket jump. That seems like it would be a real bitch to pull off without a mouse (lots of "pro" players use an alias for rocket jumps even without a mouse)

* A button that can be tapped to instantly aim at the nearest target to your crosshair. Tap only, then you aim from there (keep up with or lead the target). In fact this may be the most useful, along with the button to turn 90/180 degrees instantly.

I hope that helps. It will by no means level the playing field, but it's hopefully a start.

[Baker]

[ceriux]

[Team Xlink]