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Sunday, 21 May 2000 -
Methos ? comment
Methos is well known as a commentator on the Quake scene, with a wealth of experience going back to the "early days" of Quake. His website, Methos Quake, is always updated with thought-provoking (and often controversial) stuff.

Perhaps Methos is known to you for that "infamous" letter to id Software, in which he and Recluse offered suggestions for how to make Q3A the best it could be. Methos got lambasted (mostly by Q2 players) for appearing to try to "speak for the entire Quake community". He has always had strong views about what consitutes good gameplay and has never been afraid to speak his mind.

Q3 Pro Mode, Do We Want It?
Over on Challenge-World, Hoony has been promoting what he and many others considers the "mod of choice" for Quake 3. In an effort to make Q3A a better, more exciting, more challenging and certainly a more competitive game, Hoony has been asking for people's ideas on what they would want to see in a Pro Mode.

Much like Quake 2 was, Quake 3 is boring to watch. It's a lot of fun for those that like to play but, only in rare cases is the game exciting from a spectator point of view. The cool thing about a Pro Mode is that since the game would be made more exciting, this can only help the watching of the game.

Since Hoony asked for my thoughts on what I would like to see in a Pro Mode type of mod, here is my list. I'll try to keep these in some relative kind of order so that you won't get confused. I will preface this by saying that I have not looked at anybody's suggestions for a pro mode. I haven't even read the article on Challenge-World so, you'll be seeing my unbiased thoughts on this.

Weapons

• Rocket Launcher - Should be made faster (1000 firing rate) and have more splash. Not sure why but, it just doesn't seem to do the same damage as previous versions even though the damage count is still the same.

• Lightning Gun - The last time I saw somebody get hit by lightning, they were tossed about 40 yards (meters) from where they were standing. In Q3A, you just hear the beep of hitting somebody and they don't move. Oh, and I miss being able to hold somebody in the air with the shaft.

• Grenade Launcher - The bounce is much higher than it was in Quake and thus, it makes it much harder to "place" a grenade where you would like it to be. On the other hand, real grenade launchers can't be controlled that way so, why should game grenades.

• Plasma Gun - So, if the Grenade Launcher is more realistic, what's the deal with this cartoonish weapon? Nothing but an FFA spam weapon, rarely used in 1on1 or clan matches unless the player doesn't have other weapons. It should be removed or made so that you need some talent to shoot with it.

• Super Shotgun - Somebody explain to me why you can't kill a player that has no armor with a Rocket Launcher but, two shots from a SSG will drop them dead? This is not my idea of a balanced weapon. This needs to be made weaker or at least weaken it from a closer distance. To explain, have the SSG do this much damage only when really close up.

• Weapons Switch - Needs to be faster (or instant) and you shouldn't be able to switch to an empty weapon.

• Weapon View - Is there a way to get the weapons viewable from the center and not off to the side? This would be very cool. For some reason, I can't get the aim of the weapons like other players can. Perhaps this is more to do with the lousy crosshairs which I always have a hard time seeing.

• Ammo - Every player I've seen play the game is always running out of ammo too fast. This was done on purpose by id Software to stop the dominance of one particular weapon. In my opinion, this stinks. Put more ammo (or backpacks) in the game, it will help game play and stops promoting camping of players always going for their favorite weapon.

• Dropping Weapons - One of the few features I liked in Q2 team games. This could be implemented for Q3A team games. I'm not sure how it would work with the ammo though. Would the pick-up player get 10 rockets or just 1?

Environment & Misc

• Air Movement - I would love to see this back in the game. Without it, the game plays like Quake2. Players are to the point where they just make a Rocket Jump script (pffft, pussies!) because you can't move in the air anyway, unless you're on a jump pad. Watching the XSI games and seeing players like Lakerman, Timber and all the other players that are known for their fancy moves was almost sad. All the players jump the same way and seem very robotic.

• Footsteps - I'm sure you know how I feel about these, dump them.

• Armor - Two things here. First, why does it seem that the armor doesn't protect you from anything? Second, what's with the armor countdown? The countdown has to go.

• Models - As much as I like the models in Q3A, there should be a default model and team color for team matches. Right now, another model would have to be chosen. Speaking of models, is there anyway to get rid of the death animation? After seeing it once, it's just a waste of time after that.

• Teleporters - Bring back Quake 1 teleporters. The double teleporter moves became an important part of Quake and QW duels. Having said that, there aren't any teleporters that are 2-way in Q3A.

• Maps - We all know (or you will now) that id Software and an unidentified company are working on a map pak addon for Q3A. Let's hope some of these are more conducive to 1on1 and clan matches. Having said that, they can't be much worse. Oh, but the skies are soooo pretty.

• Heads Up Display (HUD) - Two points here. Any reason we can't have a side display with all weapons and ammo? With people running the game at 1024 and higher, there's lots of room. Speaking of 1024 and higher, does anybody other than me have trouble reading the small text at that resolution? I would like to see the -conwidth 320 (or higher) command added into Q3A the same as it was in QW. What this means is that no matter what resolution you play the game in, it will show printed text at the same size as though it was at 320x240 (or whatever you set the conwidth to). This was a huge bonus for higher resolutions.

• Screen Messages - YOU KILLED THRESH (yeah, I know it would never happen). Couldn't they make that text a tad smaller? Also, what's the deal with the "Recording Demo" text? Both are pretty lame.

• Spectating - Add a "spectator only" mode for 1on1 mode. When you spectate a game, if you're the only other one on the server, you get thrown into the match after the game finishes and the loser gets kicked out. What if it was best of 3? What if you're just a proxycam? Dumb, dumb, dumb!

• Sounds and Music - Have different sound for different health, weapons and armor. On at least one map, I think it was The Grim Dungeons (Q3DM14), there are parts of the map where music plays. I checked and I had cd-audio shut off and music shut off. All of a sudden, I hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing when I went by certain walls. What is with that?

So, there you have it, my thoughts and suggestions for a Q3 Pro Mode. Does it sound like I want it to be like Quake? If it does, it's only because I mentioned the RL speed, Teleporters and Air Movement. Other than that, I think the changes would be accepted by "most" players.

The question we have to ask ourselves is, "Will the Q3 community want, need, use or even accept a Pro Mode"? Some people say that QW improved Quake and it became widely accepted. That may be true but, the Quakeworld mod was made by id Software so, it had a better chance from the start. There are very few Quake or Quake2 mods that have been widely accepted by the players when the mod wasn't made by id. This doesn't mean that a Pro Mode won't work but, it will have an uphill climb from the moment it's released. Everything that the Pro Mode changes will have to be user configurable. If a certain percentage of players don't like one particular aspect of the mod and they're not able to change it, they won't use the Pro Mode mod.

I wish Hoony and all the gang lots of luck with it.

Methos - come visit at www.methosq.com.

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