Category: quaddicted.com
Dear hosted people who did not receive a mail from me
please send one to me instead because apparently I do not have your current e-mail address. Thanks!
Some review links finally point to archived sites
negke forced me into updating some reviews links to point at my mirrors of the delete sites (thank IGN for that). So now all links that point to TEAMShambler (teamshambler), the Quake Map Hotel (hotel) or SPQ Level Heaven (spq2) should point to their mirrors on Quaddicted. Left are underworldfan’s (haven’t fixed those yet, I wanted to contact him to ask if I may add links to the Quaddicted filebase on his pages), Retroquake (massive headache because they used WordPress without fancy URLs).
Shambler gave permission to include direct links to the ZIPs are Quaddicted on his archived pages, if someone feels like going through them, that would be really cool.
negke’s Red Slammer voted best map 2010
Everyone likes Quaddicted contributor #1 negke and the same applies to his mapping work. Almost every fourth participant in the poll gave his/her vote to Red Slammer. Runner-up is ORL’s Conflagrant Rodent. Congratulations and thanks to all mappers for providing us with endless entertainment!
Problems with mods #1: Packaging and compression format
Continuing previous thoughts, I need ideas and brainstorming on this. Mods come in all variances of compressed formats. A quick glance into my small collection shows me at least: zip, 7z, sit, rar, bzipped or gzipped tarballs, executable installers. This would not be a problem for a collection that is just an archive. Let the user handle it. But in a perfect world one could install and launch those mods with the Quake Injector. And for that we would need zip archives with a directory structure that can be extracted straight into the quake directory or a directory within.
For the current map archive I manually repackaged almost 5% of the files to fulfill that requirement. My archivist heart bled but I did it anyways (and added notes about where to find the original files).
Does anyone have insight on mod files? Most surely are zip and hopefully well packaged but what amount of possible repacking should one estimate? And can anyone think of a good way to handle the repacking while at the same time prioritising the archival part of it all? Last but probably most important, would anyone be willing in doing the actual work?
Total conversion, partial conversion, mod, map?
gb recently published a very childish rant about why RemakeQuake/RMQ was not covered at Quaddicted. He went on a huge hyperbole, steering well clear of the actual issue at hand but instead insulting me deeply. He even went so far as to plaster an image with “Stop” signs. He and I are german, german government planned to put such signs infront of websites related to child abuse. I gave him some time to cool down and reconsider his accusations but the post is still there.
So, now hear me, the censor, the abuser of monopoly.
Too long; won’t read: Quaddicted focuses on Quake singleplayer releases that do not drastically change the game. RemakeQuake drastically changes the game and does not feel like the original Quake. Thus RemakeQuake has no place at Quaddicted.
Read on if you are interested in the background:
Since the dawn of user generated content for Quake there has been trouble categorising it. Let’s try it ourselves for “maps” and “mods/conversions”.
- A plain .bsp file is a Quake map.
- Replacing content with user creations = mod. For example using different sounds, graphics or models.
- A progs.dat file is a modification of the original game code. It might even be written from scratch but we will ignore that.
It could be modifications.
For example a weapon’s damage was changed, a monster’s behaviour was modified or things like that. Those are rare, I actually cannot think of any mods that are purely modifications in this sense.
It could be additions.
For example a monster or weapon was added, additional functionality in terms of the environment, special effects and the like.
The scope of change is different for each release. Some try to introduce small changes to the game world, enhancing the original idea with tailored content. Others use the engine, content and code at hand to create completely new worlds or gameplay mechanics. Quake has been turned into a racing game, into a real-time strategy game, into side scrollers.
So far this should be without controversy but a simple collection of facts. Controversy arises once we try to divide mods into two groups: partial and total conversions.
idgames2 says
-= partial_conversions =-
Quake add ons that change at least two of the following
aspects: levels, graphics, sounds, Quake C, but do not
(yet) qualify for a ‘total conversion’.
Examples from idgames2/partial_conversions that are listed at Quaddicted: Beyond Belief, Abyss of Pandemonium, Zerstörer. But there are also things like starwars, airquake, James Bond 007, that are adding drastic changes to Quake and do not fit into the Quake universe.
-= total_conversions =-
Attempts to convert the look, feel and gameplay of Quake
by converting _all_ aspects of Quake (graphics, sound, levels
and Quake C).
Among many others this directory includes burnnman, 007 again, atf, fantasy quake, quakerally.
By the idgames2 definition you can have partial conversions that do not feel like the original Quake and you can have total conversions that absolutely do so. It is a technical differentiation. You could make it more strict You could call everything that changes anything a partial conversion and releases that do not include anything from Quake a total conversions. That would not be even less useful. Also, this particular issue (PC vs TC) does not really matter here. Our issue is distinguishing what still feels like Quake (in terms of singleplayer maps) and what does not, because that is what this site is about. What is appropiate and what is too much change?
Most mods from the #qc/i3d crowd change the gameplay a lot or are code-only releases (no new maps) so those do not qualify. func focuses on Q1SP, so usually things posted there, get posted here. There might be some quite obscure maps, but you still battle the same enemies with the same armoury and mechanics. There might be some borderline mods but I tried to focus on ones that still feel like Quake to me. It obviously is a subjective feeling, it is impossible to do this on a technical basis. Maybe it is just new gameplay mechanics, small changes (think of ladders, rotating elements), new enemies, that add to the existing rules. Maybe it is some tiny change that changes the whole game.
Nehahra does the former. It builts upon the Quake base and (apart from the idiotic monster strafing) introduces new lovecraftian additions. The main gameplay mechanics are undamaged and it generally feels like the original game.
Hellsmash (recent example #1) fundamentally changes the game. All weapons and enemies are new. Some core gameplay is alive but the rest is a whole different game.
RMQ (recent example #2) fundamentally changes the game. It is easier to list what has not been changed. Actually the only thing I can think of from the top of my head are walking speed and jumping height, anything else? I am serious about this, this is not supposed to be some lazy attack.
So Nehahra is here, but Hellsmash and RMQ are not.
Since currently I can not be more lenient about this, should I instead be more strict? Should I censor remove releases that slipped in earlier or were added because I personally felt they were appropiate or were I was asked nicely (atf, nsoe, e1m1red, etc)?
This ultimately leads to gb’s main accusations, me, Spirit, controlling what gets added to Quaddicted, abusing its alleged monopoly and censoring things I do not like. I hope I could make it clear how I tried to focus this site on a special kind of Quake releases.
Quaddicted once was meant to be fully user-driven but no-one really cared. Some awkward content management systems were used and user contribution was sparse. In the end I tried programming things myself, controlling content with a strong hand and whine so people like negke or erc would do a lot of excrutiating work for it. And that put us where we are now. Having one’s release posted and hosted at Quaddicted is a privilege, not a right.
It originally started as “Quakeblog” on which I tried to collect news about everything Quake. Why? Because there was no central hub. Then it became about hosting map zip files. Why? Because there was no central archive. We now have a wonderful collection that allows people to easily download Quake singleplayer map files without any restrictions or signup. I wish the multiplayer communities had something like this. And even more so, the modding community.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently pondered opening Quaddicted to all kinds of mods (no, no user would be able to upload) but that task seems impossible to me. How we could categorise mods, handle special requirements, filename issues and different compression methods?
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