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I had a discussion with Paul Steed about this while he was in Australia, and he actually suggested that I send him a photo of my head so that he could make a player model. I never did that, partly because I am so damn ugly, but also because I hoped that we could develop this model for "pro mode" and I didn't want to bother Paul about it until we were further down the track.

Since then a few people have emailed me with suggestions and some images (see two examples at the bottom of this page), and I even worked on an image myself. Then, just the other day, I saw this jpg on Stomped of a Q3A model with Redwood's mug on it.

Source: Stomped.

I fired off an email to Paul to ask if this was inspired by our conversation, to tell him about "pro mode" and that I was still working on getting back to him.

He replied and guess what, he is actually working on a model that we could use for "pro mode"! Here's what he said:

I'm currently doing a tutorial featuring 'cyberguy'. He's directly the result of our 'discussion' that night at the Shark Hotel. The intent is to make a visibly digital character that's easy to put your own mug on hence the aforementioned lack of suspension of disbelief while playing. Soon as I finish the guy I'll send him to you with the sound input you've mentioned.

The world's most talented modeller is having a crack at it - that is awesome :). Note that he is simply making a model based on our discussion in Australia, not making a model for "pro mode" specifically. But of course the ideas underlining the model are the same, and hopefully we will be able to use this model.

Ideas for the Player Model
Here is some of the stuff I said to Paul in my email. Note that they are just suggestions that I made - Paul is not making the model "to spec" or anything.

I have been working on this stuff. Just didn't send you anything yet because I don't like to waste your time unless it's worthwhile.

What I have been doing is organising various teams (admin, design, programming) to produce a modification for Q3A that we call the "Challenge Pro Mode". It looks like it is coming along, and if/when it reached a point where I felt justified in asking, I planned to ask if you and Kenneth would be interested in making the player model for this mod.

In the meantime, I played around with photoshop to see if I could illustrate what I had in mind for you. I produced this image (a pastiche) but it looks like the Michilin Man or something.

My pathetic attempt to illustrate the general idea.

However, while I'm here writing to you I may as well describe in a little more detail what it was that I tried to convey that night.

The Player Model I was talking about would be used for 1-on-1 and teamplay in "serious competitions".

These are the main characteristics:

• Visibility: it would have to be clearly visible (hence my bright yellow color). In major tournaments I have been involved with organising and covering, the players always used exactly the same model, with a bright skin. This is so that there can be no excuses, no "unfair" advantages. You already did this with Visor (and the rest of the skins) after the first test release. It's the same principle.
• Animation: it should not do leaping kung fu kicks, backflips etc. This is "serious stuff" you see ;-)
• Footsteps: it should make a low padding sound, making it difficult to hear your opponent unless they are very close but possible to hear your own footsteps. We don't need Major clanking for the newbies, but footsteps do add atmosphere.
• Model/ Skin: it should be something a CPL competitor might choose if he were to morph, Matrix-style, into the game for a $100,000 competition. What would he choose to wear?

My suggestion is that the player's head would be wearing a helmet. This can help make the clothing "generic" so anyone could "wear the model/skin".

Lots of the current models have helmets, what's wrong with using one of them? Well, the current models are all "characters" with personalities. This is fine for fun (and I told you, they are wonderful characters - the best I have ever seen - they shit all over UT for example), but for what I have in mind I'm looking for a "battlesuit" that an "actual" player could slip into to enter the 3D world. Not a character, but "clothing".

I would suggest that this "battlesuit" needs to look like it affords protection, while also providing great speed and flexibility. It will have to be "light-weight". I realise you are the expert, and can do this stuff better than me :). I also realise that you already thought through all these sorts of issues when designing the current models. Just not quite from this perspective, perhaps.

When Quake players meet in the virtual arena, they are more like Tennis players than American Football players. They are very quick, agile. They dodge, jump, leap, rocket-jump, bunny-hop, strafe-jump, flick 360 degrees etc. These manouvres are too quick for a "jock" wearing full body armour - so the "Stripe" style of model/skin is probably inappropriate.

I read somewhere that John imagined the player models to be like Arnold S. etc - this was one of his reasons for disliking the way players jumped around everywhere.

The design philosophy at work here is not to start with a prior image of the player, but to start with the behaviour of the actual competitors and derive the image from how they actually play the game.

The players I am trying to design a Mod for play as "themselves". It's really them there in the gameworld, battling their opponent(s). Most of them choose a model based currently on the (least annoying) jumping sound. Some choose the models that don't walk (those that skate), to make less sound. Many of the guys choose the female jump sound, for example.

Anyway, this is enough for you to understand what I was trying (badly) to say a little better I hope.

And there you have it. Well, as soon as I hear anything more from Paul I will update here. It looks like he will be producing something along the lines of the "Redwood" model, that you can scan your own face onto. It's great that he will also be taking into account the footsteps/ sound suggestions that I made. Steed is the best modeller/ animator that I know of in the business, and Kenneth Scott is the best skin artist. We simply could not do better than to have the professionals have a go at this. I think it underlines the degree of support that Paul offers to the "community" and I think it's great. Looking forward to seeing this model, and using it :).

Some more examples
Here are a couple of example images that were sent in for the Q3A model. I think they're really interesting, but maybe more along the lines of "characters" than "clothing" that you would wear if you morphed into a tournament map at the CPL.

A couple of example ideas emailed in to me - thx Matador and Orion.

Contact

If you have any questions or suggestions about all this stuff, or you would like to get involved with the Challenge pro mode project, feel free to .