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Khaile 23 May
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Sunday, 21 May 2000 -
Hoony ? comment
Hoony is one of the producers, managers if you like, of the Challenge pro mode. He is also the Chairman of the Challenge network. A long time commentator on the Quake scene, he is perhaps better known for Challenge.AU, which was one of the first scene sites.

Hoony is actually writing this introduction about himself, so anything he says here is probably very, very biased ;-). Basically, Hoony asked Methos, Cache and Recluse for their opinions on what would make for a good "pro mode", and now he wants his turn :P.

Q3 Pro Mode - Hoony's view
Why pro mode? What is motivating me, you might be asking? Well, I seriously believe that the "Quake" game can be a "sport", and I have done for a long time. I think it's viable for the players, for the audience, and for the sponsors. But I worry that Q3A, as it stands now, will not be exciting enough to sustain that. The guys from id Software also think it's too early, apparently.

Well I'm getting old, and I don't want to wait around. I believe that we as a community can make a platform for "Quake as Sport", that will do the job, at least for now. Id Software tell us that there will be no "Quake 4", so maybe this is our last chance for a while.

Q3A as it stands now is fun but let's face it, the game was not designed for "sport". Instead, it's a game which is easy to get into for newbies. It's designed so that good players cannot dominate the newbies so easily (of course, they still can :P).

The extra health at spawn which counts down, the armors which count down, the small splash damage, the reduced air movement, the weaker rockets, and so on. All are designed to produce a game in which newbies are given decent chances on your average FFA server, so they can have some fun, so they won't get killed straight away. They're also designed so that good players won't get owned by the pros.

Sure id Software tried to "square the circle", they tried to make the game exciting for experts too. Remember how they speed up the rockets slightly, sped up weapon change, and even increased the RL splash? Of course they wanted a game that could be used for tournaments. And yes, Q3A can be used for tournaments, as events such as the XSi and the CPL are showing us.

The question I am posing to you is this, though - could it be a whole lot better?

It's not just me who is saying this either. If you read the other "pundits" views you will find that we are in agreement about this stuff. Two of those guys, note, are ex-Q2. These guys have all lived and breathed the Quake game for years, they have studied demos in great depth, mixed with the players.

What these pundits say is worth listening to. There is a real consensus here - I hope that it makes you stop and think.

OOOMPH
I'm not going to repeat everything that Methos, Cache and Recluse say about the RL, LG, weapon-switching, air movement and footsteps except to note that we pretty much agree. What's needed in pro mode is some serious OOOMMPPHH. The sort of stuff that makes you go "oooh, that must have really hurt". We need those OOOH and AAAH moments.

Beefing up the RL will help to do that. Let's face it, Quake IS about RL-dominated play in maps where the Rail is not present. No-one suggests messing with the rail, so pro mode won't change the game in that respect. But the rocket needs to be faster and gruntier, a weapon of consequence.

The LG similarly needs to have "push". I also agree the sound effects for rocket and shaft could be improved (I hope we can change them). There ought to be more echo and reverbration in there, and the explosions should shake your brain a little. Same with the shaft, when it goes off you need to feel your hair standing on end.

We need instant weapons switch to be amazed by those crazy combinations. I tried the tweak mod with instant switch and even I could do air shots with the RL - think what the pros will be able to do. I totally agree with the guys that without air movement Q3A is "robotic" to watch. Put some in, and it becomes flowing, smooth, we're back to enjoying a demo just watching how sweetly the guy moves around the map! Footsteps? I think they should be removed totally, but if not they have to be vastly reduced.

Look, what Methos, Cache and Recluse says goes, and I didn't just choose them because I knew that I would agree with them. Honest!

OWNAGE
So are we doing the right thing, making a game that will enable players to "OWN" others? I keep hearing people complaining about "blow-outs" and how bad they are ("pleeease don't make pro mode like that").

Well let me tell you, this is pro mode so be prepared to get your ass handed to you in little strips, barbecued, with extra lashings of "meat lovers" sauce. Especially if you are a newbie, of course. You wouldn't expect anything else from someone like D16-Makaveli (for example) but total ownage on any hapless "non-pros" he came across. This happens already with Q3A (we've all seen the demos) so you have nothing to complain about.

But even with very good players we will still see OWNAGE. It's half the fun, seeing the king of some local server playing a "pro" for the first time. I like to compare pro mode to tennis. The pro player has all these extra weapons - deep knowledge, experience, a powerful serve, slice out wide, top-spin bounce, forehand/backhand smash, they just hit the ball a whole lot harder - the list goes on and on.

What do you think happens when even a decent club Tennis player goes onto the pro tour? You guessed it, OWNED. And what happens when they finally make the top 200? Well, they still get owned but now the scores are a little better: (6,2), (6,4), (6,1). Then after another year they get in the top 100 and they take a set: (6,2), (6,7), (6,4), (6,4).

The truly brilliant players will often totally OWN even very good players, and sometimes make it look easy (LakermaN vs Reload, DM6, DM4). You will watch those games to learn, not for the thrill of a close game. But usually there are reasons for the dominance - a superior technique or they have more practice on a particular map.

Where the players and the conditions are more equal you will get CLOSE and EXTREMELY hard-fought games (Kane vs LakermaN, TGi finals). This will happen with pro mode games, but if a player doesn't work hard and learn how to master the game, they WILL get owned. Count on it.

STRATEGY
The element of strategy is absent from Q3A, it seems to me, because newbies would get OWNED in a game where a better player could always control resources. But in pro mode, we should not have to worry about the newbies. There should be no excuses for getting owned. Learn strategy, and apply it. That's the game I want to see.

What do we mean by saying "Q3A lacks strategy"? Well you're not penalised for getting killed so much - and actually too many times you don't get killed, you can run away. And when you do get fragged, you don't have to work as hard to get back into the game. There are plenty of weapons around, the rockets don't hurt you as much as they could, your opponent will be losing his armour and MH advantage etc. Instead of relying on strategy - controlling the map (or fighting to regain control), denying resources (or sneaking in to get them), patrolling key locations (or attacking them), you are tempted to rely on aim.

Teamplay games, as well have heard, have this characteristic of being a bit like FFA games. Sure there are winning strategies, but somehow the games seem to lack real bite. I am of the school where a good strategy should enable a team to get a "lockdown" on the map and start OWNING. I want to see some ass getting kicked when the other team doesn't have a clue about strategy. At the moment, we see blow-outs due to one team having better aim and getting more quads, but we don't see a meaningful game. It's hard to say "oh they used THIS strategy".

Luckily on the "core design team" we have some of the best teamplay experts in the world. I am counting on them to make the game they want to play. Changing things like the armor countdown will enhance strategy in pro mode. That will do me for starters.

DOPE
In order to kick serious bootie, pro mode needs a lot of enhancements in my view. Many of these I would classify as belonging to the "Sport" version. If pro mode is successful, I hope we can get a lot of this stuff done with pro mode "SPORT".

For example, pro mode needs a demo editor and manager that enables you to fast forward, rewind, freeze-frame, move ahead frame-by-frame, move back frame-by-frame, zoom in and zoom out, change POV, change view, switch to match statistics, change HUD, save and file in a demos directory with sub-folders, view from within zipped format, save high-lights, edit and make another demo (eg promotional demos), add commentary afterwards, add music, broastcast (using QTV) in a weekly "demos programme" hosted by Stayne and Methos, and at the end of the game, produce screens with match statistics, analysis and commentary.

When watching QTV, you should be able to view a special live chat screen, view a list of all other spectators (like IRC), select to see only "commentator's comments" (rather than the chat of other spectators), and configure the hud in-game to your liking so that it displays the information you want to see.

When there are 1000+ other spectators watching across 6 servers and 36 ports, you need to be able to see that you are in such a large crowd, you need to feel somehow that you are part of a big event, in a big stadium. Even better, if we can do this then sponsors will pay to advertise to the crowd and this will fund more events.

I have a wacky idea - a 'clap-0-meter' which registers spectators "clapping" (hitting the "c" key) and plays a sound - like the roar of the crowd - on your PC. Think about it, Fatality pulls off a brilliant shot and as you hit that "c" key so do thousands of others - the crowd roars, the commentators gush. Your PC blows a fuse.

The HUD needs to be a cybernetic information repository which will make any self-respecting g33k get w00d. It needs to be configurable to show stuff like time remaining, frag-rate required (frags per minute required to win), total score, ploss, time, ping, locational info, ownage indicator (eg red team control 75% of Quads), team messages, pre-saved teamplays (switch to the "hail Mary strategy"), and you should be able to select the font, colour and resolution, as well as the way it is displayed on your screen. Get rid of that lame "Following k1ll3r" stuff and the "recording demo" stuff. Oh and it should change your underpants too - you're gonna need it.

MODEL
Go read the section entitled Challenge Pro Mode - Player Model to read what I think we should try and do with the model. Hopefully, Paul Steed will help us out on that one (he's apparently making a model based on a conversation we had while he was in Australia). If that happens - far out!

MORE
There's more stuff but, you get the idea. Those other pundits said it all too well. These are just my views, of course, so don't get too excited over it - but the fact that all the pundits agree on this stuff means I will be pushing for the core design team to try out a test version of pro mode with just these sorts of changes. Hopefully, they will also like it. At the end of the day, this is a modification we are making for the expert players. Not the armchair critics :)

I would like to thank Methos, Cache and Recluse for their support and contribution.

Hoony - come visit at challenge-world.com.

Read Methos.

Read Cache.

Read Recluse.

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