Q1 SP views and articles: January 1999:

In praise of coop gameplay.

If there is one underused and underrated aspect of Quake or Quake2 gameplay, it is cooperative play through the single player game. For those who don't know, there IS an option in Quake to play the single player game with more than one person... For those who don't know or have never tried it, it IS often a lot of fun. Well you lot know all that right??? So why I am bothering to rant about it??? Well clearly coop hasn't got the credit it deserves...for example, here are some actual quotes by Q1 SP map authors, taken from the texts to single player maps (and all good maps at that):

Cooperative    : No (I don't know who the hell even plays cooperative... :)

Cooperative    : No, I've never met a single Quaker who played Coop.

Cooperative    : NO - (for what reason ?)

Cooperative    : NEVER !!

Cooperative    : No (I forgot all about that)

Cooperative    : No (Does anyone actually do this?)

Cooperative    : No, it'd be way too easy for two people.

If any map authors are reading this and read a quote that is their's, don't be offended, I'm not complaining about you personally, I'm just showing the general perception of coop. Of course there are some map authors who are more enlightened:

Cooperative    : Yes - bring some friends for the hardest skill setting.

Cooperative    : Yes (made for this especially, play the levels with a friend)

It's also worth mentioning the level M_Palace, which even has seperate rooms for coop starts - a really nice touch.But the general trend I perceive is that coop is ignored or regarded as a "third best" to single player or deathmatch. I guess there is a variety of reasons for this: Firstly, it's awkward to set up - you can't do it via QuakeWorld, so playing over the internet is not an option, without dedicated coop servers, of which there are very few, or unless you both have T1s... Secondly, while on a LAN, most people want to use their often limited LAN time to play deathmatch...which leads onto: Thirdly, people regard it as inferior to deathmatch - after all, what is the point in playing with another human when you can play against them??? Fourthly, people who have never tried it probably don't understand that there are fun aspects to coop, even if it lacks the challenge of deathmatch or even single player.
Well in my view, there are a lot of fun aspects to coop, such as: Firstly, there is something truly special about having a friend by your side in the Quake universe - it adds to the realism and sense of place, after all, if you were in Quake as reality, you'd want a friend to be there supporting you. Also, it's rather pleasant having a friend ON your side, someone to watch your 6 and shoot that Vore you missed - and you do the same in turn, it gives you someone to look out for other than yourself. Secondly, it's an ideal way to experience harder skill levels, or good but extremely hard custom maps, if you are a less experienced or less patient player. Not only is there the benefit of having 2 guns on your side, but also if you die, you do not have to restart, as the game will still be in play due to the other person (unless they die too). Thirdly, you can play with a more carefree attitude, due to being able to rejoin the game, and having teamplay on, so you can't damage yourself nor your partner with explosions. Fourthly, it is less tense, antagonistic and stressful than deathmatch, the other multiplayer option. Sure deathmatch is fun, exciting and challenging, but intrinsic in it's nature is that you are trying to beat another person, to be better than them, to analise them, rather than help and support them as in coop - may sound a bit sickly, but it is nice to take a break from the confrontation of deathmatch. Finally, you can take advantage of having two players to do cool *stuff*, like just playing around with weapons and tricks, or better, doing coop speedruns, which while tricky, are heavily dependant on teamplay and working together, and allow you to do runs that are impossible in single player.
To illustrate my point, here are the most prominent of my coop experiences, all of which were from a 2 person LAN formed at various times with my partner in crime SCRAD:

* Playing the entirety of Quake through on Nightmare:
This was at a time when I was still playing on Medium skill... SCRAD and I had just spent most of 3 days trying to get an Ethernet card to work, and we finally got it sorted late one night, and celebrated by diving straight into Episode1. And believe me, if it was not the most fun I've ever had playing Quake, it is very close - it was fast paced, carefree, and most of the time completely hilarious =). Lots of dying, "accidental" team-mate deaths, messing around, and working out all sorts of fun tactics. This continued with the rest of the game over the next few days, and continued to be extremely fun. It's interesting to note that later on we tried playing a game of deathmatch against each other, the first time either of us had played a human rather than a bot....and that was utterly unpleasant, it was tense, nervous, and antagonistic. Both of us hated it, and it took us quite a while to get used to playing deathmatch against humans. Took us no time at all to get used to coop though...

* Playing the extremely hard Quake level The Middle Evil, and the extremely impossible Quake2 level The PowerSphere Quest:
These were two levels, that though stunning in architecture and design, had gameplay that was just too hard to make single player worthwhile (though I have completed both in single player). The Middle Evil is a fantastic medieval level that unfortunately has extremely little health and armour, and nowhere near enough ammo to kill all the monsters in the first part of the map. Playing with 2 players enabled us to gain a little more ammo from extra weapons, as well as the freedom to attack against ridiculous odds and then die to recollect weapons etc. Certainly a lot more fun than the "quicksave-fest" in single player. The PowerSphere Quest contains arguabley the most beautiful Quake2 maps ever made, a unit of truly impressive design and looks. However, it has nowhere near enough ammo to complete even half the unit, again with coop, you can keep dying to recollect weapons and the ammo they contain - sad to resort to that, but it's a lot more fun that the "killing 2 Tank bosses and 5 Flying bosses with just the blaster-fest" in single player... Actually, The PowerSphere Quest was apparently designed for coop - but obviously not very well, since although many of the fighting situations and map designs (though not all) reap benefits in coop play, the lack of ammo still makes the coop gameplay significantly worse than it should be.

* Doing 5 Quake1 coop speedruns (see Demos page):
I'd found a few cool levels that had obvious shortcuts that would result in great speedruns, but that seemed almost impossible in single player. So I "persuaded" SCRAD, who has never done any speedruns, and has little interest in them, to try out some coop runs. For most runs they actually turned out to be harder than I expected, both due to the difficulty of the tricks involved, and the coordination required. Nevertheless, SCRAD was very patient, and eventually we managed 5 rather cool runs - I'd really recommend that you head over to the Demos page, and download the demos so you will see what I mean. This was coop at it's most cooperative, a lot of coordination, timing, and teamplay was required, and the results were quite satisfying, especially since it enabled us to do things that were impossible in single player.

* Playing through the Quake2 level Pipe Dream in a strict military fashion:
This was a level we played recently, in which I placed more of an emphasis on playing the level in an organised coop style: I had played it before, and SCRAD hadn't, so to add interest, I designated him my commanding officer, while I was a lowly grunt who followed his orders. Thus I obeyed his commands, followed his tactics, respectfully asked his permission before trying out any strategies and joining fights. Also, I learned how to salute, and we shared and dropped ammo and weapons as needed. This added a new and quite appropriate twist to coop, it was fun doing things in a more organised style, and not having to think for myself, as well as seeing how Captain SCRAD reacted to each situation. Certainly something I would recommend, I'd like to try it again myself.

So what's my advice for coop??? That you should try it at least - I am well aware that you may have tried it already, or try it and find it utterly boring, but it's worth a try if you haven't - or even if you have, perhaps I have shown you some other coop ideas that might make it more exciting (how about a race to the exit, for example, or a competition to get the most kills???). Anyway, here's some suggestions:
1. You need a LAN, obviously. Worth getting a LAN organised for the best deathmatch play anyway, and this means you can coop properly, and with friends.
2. To make a coop game, you must be connected together over the LAN. One person acts as the server, and does the following:
A. Go to the "MultiPlayer" menu in Quake, choose "New Game".
B. Choose "IPX" from the next menu.
C. Choose "OK" in the next menu.
D. In the final menu, set "Game Type" to "Cooperative", and select the skill you want.
E. If you want all players to be invulnerable to each other's shots, then set "Teamplay" to "No Friendly Fire", and you MUST have the same coloured trousers on (err, in the game, that is...). Set your colours from the "Multiplayer - Setup" menu, or you can just leave teamplay "Off" if you want.
F. Then simply begin the game.
Then all other players will be clients, and can join the game as follows:
A. Go to the "MultiPlayer" menu in Quake, choose "Join a Game".
B. Choose "IPX" from the next menu.
C. Choose "Search for local games..." in the next menu. If you've set-up the LAN correctly, then your computer should find the server pretty quickly. If not, then you'll have to tinker around with your LAN set-up.
D. When you find the server, simply click to join it and appear in the game.
3. You do NOT, and I mean NOT, need to pay any attention to single player maps that say they have no coop mode, for example if the text says:
Single player  : Yes
Cooperative    : No
Deathmatch    : No
All this means is that there are no seperate coop starts, so if you both appear in the map at the same time, one person will telefrag the other. To avoid this, the server should start a game, then move off the single player spawn spot before the other player joins, and then there is no problem at all.
4. I'd personally recommend that you choose harder levels or harder skill settings than you normally play. This will make having two or more players in the game more worthwhile, and probably more fun as some levels/skills could be too easy with coop. Also, it might be best to choose levels that have plenty of room to move, and multiple enemy attacks, as this will be more suitable for coop play.
5. Have fun =).