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Messages - sirgalahadwizard

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1
dm / Re: DM8 bfg fix
« on: April 08, 2012, 03:42:24 PM »
@Barton:
No the Vanilla DM2 doesn't in my recollection. When the BFG is replaced by the Rail - then you've got a bunch of Cells sitting around with no weapon that uses them since there's no Hyperblaster.

The clause I was suggesting is that When the BFG is replaced by the Rail, the Cells are also replaced by Slugs.

 
 
I like Haunted's idea for Q2DM8 - replace the BFG with Quad Damage.
After all there's a Chaingun and SSG right off the conveyor belt, its the perfect choice.

And every other map cycle I think the server automatically replaces all Quads with Railguns anyway, with some cycles removing that item completely.


Again I guess these changes should only take place to the main DM server. I think this would clear up alot of frustration.
Maybe not even the subsidiary DM servers (eg DM1 thru DM8 which only play a single level).

I think Vanilla ought to be left alone, since people go there for nostalgia and variety.



2
dm / DM8 bfg fix
« on: March 30, 2012, 08:34:32 PM »
I don't know if this has been suggested/tried before...

But while I am an avid BFG user myself and am reluctant to suggest it...

Why don't we change the script for the warehouse map (q2dm8) on DM so that the BFG10K gets replaced by some other item, preferrably a powerup.

It gets rid of the bfg menace but at the same time it leaves a good reason to go up there (and camp from the conveyor) - Quad Damage, or a Megahealth, or a Red Armor.

Since these items always get used up when someone grabs them they stand to have far less of a destructive impact than having 3 guys running around with bfgs.


As far as I know there isn't a Quad Damage in q2dm8 so it would be a nice addition.
I would have suggested INV but there's already one there (in an insanely difficult area to reach) and its kinda broken anyway.

And if Quad is annoying, do your damn duty and rail the bastard, or camp the conveyor.



In an unrelated note, on Q2DM2 it should be possible (?) to alter the script to switch the Cells for Slugs when the BFG10K happens to be a Railgun. That's the most annoying thing in that map, even more than the lift camping, because the cells are useless and there are no slugs to be had.

-----

Oh by the way im going by ]---[oss now, and its probably here to stay.
Though I still respond to Cyanide, Sonja, or Flail.

3
Quake / R1Q2's hidden renderer
« on: February 09, 2012, 11:33:45 PM »
Okay so I stumbled across this in somebody's forums... somewhere... and I absolutely -Loved- it.
But it seems that not too many people around here even know about it, and nobody I talk to in the game seems to want to try it or something.

So im just putting it here, im tired of trying to explain it in the game.

In R1Q2 (or maybe R1GL, just to be sure) there is a command that enables a different kind of rendering routine. Ive noticed that the normal GL looks kinda greyish when you turn up the brightness, even when you use Intensity. But this rendering routine keeps the colors crisp and well defined, in fact it looks alot darker under normal settings.

The command is:  gl_texture_lighting_mode (set it to 1)

If you want to change the brightness settings you have to use the commands:
gl_contrast
gl_saturation
vid_gamma (lower is brighter, oddly enough)


Be sure to do a vid_restart after setting those, btw.


If you like it you might want to put it in your normal R1Q2 config or under an exec cfg command.
I took a few screenshots to show what it looks like (my settings are contrast 1, saturation 1, and vid_gamma 0.5)


The final screenshot is me using gl_contrast 1.5, gl_saturation 1.5, and vid_gamma 0.35

4
Quake / Re: Okay War Flail has hit the forum...
« on: November 28, 2011, 12:15:06 PM »
Quote
Sound Paks
Haha THERS they're pretty much maxed out. The only difference I could make at this point is changing the hand grenade bounce to equal the grenade launcher one (which I admittedly borrowed from quake 4).

At this point ive been fiddling with the high-res weapon skins to make the guns look more interesting, different colors and such.
And well I also did replace the 3d model for the Grenade Launcher Projectile to equal the Hand Grenade one.
And I replaced the blaster projectile.


Quote
Railgun
Actually the Railgun came from the movie Eraser with ahhhnold (it came out in 1996).
They stole the fact that the gun shoots through things and even stole the railgun-trail effect (as well as they could replicate it).

I bet they were looking for a good replacement for the Lightning Gun from Quake 1 and that was the ticket.
Its like saying Windows wasn't copying off Macintosh.
Without that inspiration it would probably just be a sniper rifle, like a high tech version of a .50cal.


The only thing they didn't copy was the x-ray scope - which im pretty sure they would have realized immediately would be unbalancing and possibly problematic to implement at that time. The fact that the gun doesnt shoot through scenery, or dead corpses, was probably an obvious balancing factor.


It should be mentioned also that the Railgun actually does 150 damage in single player... and campaign mode is the basis for this game.
So it didn't have to do 100 damage in deathmatch.
They could have made it do 99... because that'll take out a fresh player who got hit with a stray bullet or fell far enough to get hurt.

But they didnt want the weapons in the game to be balanced even in deathmatch.
They wanted the rocket launcher and railgun to be the kings of the kill.
They even dumbed down the Chaingun for deathmatch.

Balanced means Balanced, not Tiered. Basically anyone who knows anything about this game... is racing from the word go to find the Railgun or the Rocket Launcher and that's it - they don't care about any other weapons. IMO that's bad planning and design.


In UT2004 I loved globbing people with the Bio Rifle, even only as weapon #3 a charged up shot does 400 damage, and people can even step on it. And there are lots of people who love to get their hands on a Shock Rifle... which is only weapon #4.

The only weapons in that game which are inferior are the ones you start with. And even if you were to consider the basic Unreal Tournament, which is more in the same time period as Quake 2... this is basically the way it was. Those people were geniuses.
I never played the first Unreal game... but it predated UT even more and UT's weapons are basically just hand-me-downs from Unreal.


Quote
Why don't you just leave
The fact I cant play any other good FPS games was the driving force in me dusting off Quake 2 in the first place.
That situation hasn't changed.
So for example if I got a cute little $300 Netbook... or a PS3... you would see me jumping ship pretty fast.

Though I disagree about COD and/or MW - I do not like first person shooters that don't have sci-fi elements (ie strictly modern ones). Its not interesting enough for me.


Yeah why is Vae still here anyway?
Basically maxxed out your skills here, why don't you go after more meaningful pursuits?
Doesn't it get old after awhile?


I dunno, you might see me around here every once in awhile, just because of the BFG Nostalgia.
Im certainly not here to provide an extra body to gib, im not target practice.

5
Quake / Re: Okay War Flail has hit the forum...
« on: November 22, 2011, 05:10:18 AM »
Quote
Honestly Vae, it's people like you who drive others away from Quake with your elitism. Just because someone likes to have fun doesn't mean that's any grounds for downplaying their skill.
Yeah I think that's the case here. For me its not really about the frags, its actually more about not getting killed (or as little as possible). I lose frags that way, because I steer clear of people.

After I die there is also usually a downtime where I spend time going and collecting armor, powerups, and usually at least 2-3 weapons. I don't just grab the nearest high power weapon and go, I rebuild my base. And I might get fragged while im doing that, too.

And because of my playing style, because im not aggressive and don't thrust myself out in the arena like that usually... I effectively consider my number of frags to be like 50-100% more than they actually are.

And if I end up beating other people or hitting fragcount that tells me just how much more acute my overall skill is. THAT is why frags are still fun for me.

Oh - maybe Vae isn't in any danger from me - but for others if I end up in 2nd or 3rd place and you don't beat me like 3 to 1 as far as I am concerned you didn't really outdo me.

If there was a 3 Fraglimit I would probably win against these people, from the word go with no items.
Would probably win 80% of the time actually.


Quote
bfg is fairly boring and not as useful or fun as other weapons
Dear lord how on earth is it Not interesting?  Sure it fires a projectile like other weapons, but it shoots out these rays that hit people just because they dont have cover. And then when it explodes it nails them again. Oh and it explodes, too. About the only way it could get more interesting is if it set green fires that stuck to you when you touched them like acid.

Rocket launchers?  railguns?  grenades?  you can find that crap everywhere in all sorts of other games. Maybe they work a little different from game to game, but its become soo cliche.

Maybe the Half Life weapons have a little bit of quirks and originality to them, but I still don't really consider them all that interesting. The most interesting of those being the Hive Hand and the Gauss Weapon (I never played HL2 or beyond). And the rocket launcher there... operates differently enough to be fun too.

And I like some of the weapons in Halo series, but they're not all that interesting either. Maybe tagging someone with a plasma grenade... that never gets old... or tossing a Fuel Rod projectile halfway across the map from a Banshee and actually hitting someone with it...


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cl_defermodels 1

Im already doing that, and im thankful because instead of spending 10-15 seconds fully loading things while everyone can shoot me, it spends 5-10 seconds loading it without my hind end exposed.

However it also means that everyone else gets a head start on me - the action has already started by the time I actually get in the door.


Quote
Just curious, but considering the game as it was in its time, what would you have done differently?

Among other things, multiplayer and deathmatch would have a different feel than single player games. Specifically the weapons, they would be more balanced and wouldn't be arranged in a tiered system, where some are obviously more useful than others.

I would certainly make the projectiles for the grenades look the same. Either you're throwing a big brown beercan, or your lobbing a nice round hand grenade projectile from your launcher. That has irked me for so dam long I did something about it with models in a .pak file.


I would also, very much, have slowed down the character's movements (by probably 20-30%)... and the error in the physics code that allows the jump and strafe movement tricks would have been fixed. That means little or no jump tricks.

...Instead almost any surface could be Climbed for a short distance whether it was designated as a ladder or not. So long as you were in contact with the surface and probably within a certain number of map units from the next horizontal surface above. And maybe while you're Climbing (no matter where) you cant use your weapon.

Soldiers of any kind know how to jump, grab a ledge, and pull themselves up. You wouldn't need small boxes to jump onto larger ones. And this ability would be reflected in the map design and balance. And that would take care of the need for jump tricks.




Oh another thing I wouldn't have done is artificially code all the Monster weapons to do like 1/3 the amount of damage. Because when they shoot each other they don't do nearly as much damage as Your weapons do to them. Plus rockets and grenades fired from enemies have a pitifully small area of effect. Yet you still get ammunition from them? I mean WTF.

So I would have made the enemy's weapon stats generally on par with the player's, except that when it came to hitting a player they do 1/3 damage to them. That means the Gladiator for instance does 150 with their railgun but only 50 against a player. And when an Enforcer lobs 4 grenades in your direction the blast radius of such a thing would be quite large.


Quote
Hardware limitations? not to come off the wrong way, i don't know your budget but even the weakest CPU and graphics cards on the market today can run quake2 with 60 + fps.

I have no budget.

My system has 512mb ram (Im lucky not to have 256) and an ATI 128 32mb video card. I also have an optical mouse, which is actually better than the one I used a few months ago, but it has its own resolution limitations.

I Am using the high resolution models, and textures packs, but since im so used to (read: tired of) the old textures and models this is a requirement. Without the high-res stuff I wont play. In fact im considering modifying some of the high res stuff too even, like the water textures.

Combined with any applications I may be running in the background (ie, Skype since that is effectivly my Phone)... this produces about 20-40 frames per second. Sometimes it dips down to the teens.

This is the kind of computer that takes like 15-45 seconds to load webpages... not because of my connection... but because even an ultralight browser like Chrome has to load and process and run flash, and Windows has to rely on its virtual memory.

6
Quake / Re: A quake 2 mod
« on: November 21, 2011, 10:34:36 AM »
You wouldnt need to rework the player models for akimbo weapons. Whoever made the mod could just say they were too lazy to do it - and you should watch out for anyone carrying a Shotgun or Machinegun  ROFL

Seeing as an akimbo shotgun or machinegun would look normal but fire 2x as often.



Hah - I was actually thinking about the idea to remove the Slugs before...

And just realized actually they could be kept around - except I would replace the Shotgun with a gun-type Grenade Launcher, and the Slugs are actually a pack of are 25mm or 30mm gun grenades. The shotgun model looks ideal to be turned into a launcher.

And that basically makes those like little Rockets. The gun being a light pump-action rocket launcher. Except the projectiles do have a slight arc to them so you actually have to compensate at a distance. Sort of like a happy cross between the rockets and grenades in the game.

I would only suggest 90 damage maximum for it though - maybe the same splash profile as a rocket but only a little bit of direct impact damage (or just none at all, since grenades are fragmentation).


This actually works out much better - because of the Weapon Stay rule change you can always find ammo for a weapon if you wait around long enough. Losing the Slugs (which would have become Cells) as an ammo source for the railgun also keeps the ammo count the same for the Hyper and Bfg too.


Altfire for the 25mm Launcher would be warheads that Stick to the scenery and blow up after 2 seconds (as opposed to bounce like the normal grenades). Like the mine launcher in Res Evil 4.

7
Quake / Re: Okay War Flail has hit the forum...
« on: November 21, 2011, 10:12:36 AM »
Suicide Binges?  I dunno but ive seen it happen. I remember seeing Cheesy kill itself a number of times in a row when it got shot.


And ive deleted most of those crap skins that make people look like cows and whatnot. I don't think it belongs in the game. I want to see awesome and cool skins, not ridiculous ones, it totally ruins the atmosphere.

I also replaced the Female/Athena skin with a bright neon yellow colored armor skin just because so many people use it, so I might as well make these jerks stand out. Replaced the Male/Grunt skin with a Blue armor skin too for the same reason - or really just because I got tired of seeing the same dude being used by 8 people in the crowd because they're too lazy to pick a skin.

Yes... I did download the full Tasty skins pack. And then deleted a whole hell of alot of it.



I generally agree with Peewee on the Vanilla crowd.
For me Quake 2 is an outdated FPS that could have done better in a number of areas.
Even if it was revolutionary (but ID Software was noteworthy for that).

In my opinion ID Software is one of the poorer quality game manufacturers these days. Its like some old man that went out of his prime a long time ago, and we just keep tossing him kudos because he was the forefather.

Many other games that have come out have much more interesting and dynamic game concepts in them, are just as good visually. And I think the newer ID game engine is bloated and slow compared to the level of graphic capability it delivers. Its one thing to forecast 5 years into the future what computers will be capable of - its another thing to just add unnecessary complexity and not care about trimming the fat off.



As far as im concerned the only fun thing about playing Quake 2 is using the BFG on people, because its such a dynamic and unusual weapon among FPS games (and requires Different skills to use it effectively than normal weapons). And believe me that is probably 50% of the draw that keeps me playing it. Of course I do use other weapons too.

Oh - and also managing to actually hit Fragcount or come in 2nd-3rd place, that's a little fun too.
Otherwise im okay if I got 10 frags. And I feel pretty good if I got 20. That just means I don't get flustered.

Oh - and because im bored as hell.



Regardless of my skill level I have Hardware limitations - on any given map at any given time you would see somewhere between 20 and 40 frames per second on my fps meter. And whenever anyone enters the game I get LAG for a few seconds because the game is loading their skins and crap. And I get LAG at the beginning of every map for about 5-10 seconds while its loading the map.

Quake 2 isn't a normal FPS either, some of the skills translate but others do not. The characters move faster here than they do in many other games... for example... and projectile weapons usually move faster in other games (so you don't have to lead targets as much). Every game has its own quirks though - like those annoying dodge moves in UT2K4.

So for these reasons its not worth any considerable effort to increase my skills. My main skills are im a Sneaky Bas1ard, I stab people in the back, and I lead people into traps, and I am purposefully unpredictable when someone is chasing me. And im quite happy with those skills. I dont like direct confrontation. If you want to know why read Sun Tsu's Art of War.

And I cant really use those skills very well in Quake 2 because people dial up the brightness and Wallhack (and no, this time im not talking about you Vae, your complaint is well noted). So its like what the hell, why give a sh1t.

8
Quake / Re: A quake 2 mod
« on: November 20, 2011, 05:35:48 PM »
Haha awesome, I basically thought people might say my ideas were crap. I do remember some weapon mod I played a looong time ago that had a streetsweeper, which used the chaingun model. But I forgot what it was.

I might check out the .zips, but im into playing multiplayer on Q2 these days so unless there's a server running something (with people actually on it) its not that helpful.

Though I commend the effort, its tough making these mods, much more than it should be. If they had modding in mind, the kinda things people are likely to mod should've been put together pretty simply (like the .DDF files in the Edge Doom source port) and then have more complicated stuff in the source code.

I remember the days... of hex editing games to change stats.

9
Quake / A quake 2 mod
« on: November 19, 2011, 08:37:59 PM »
Okay here's that mod I keep talking about on chat. Not only am I not a programmer I don't even know where to find the stats for the weapons and stuff in the code. But maybe it'll give someone ideas or something. If anything its just a good place to brainstorm.

Spawn Protection: For 2 seconds after spawning all opponent weapons deal 1/2 damage to you (rounded down).

Weapon Stay: If you come across a spawned weapon it gives you ammo, and the weapon (if you don't have it) and then becomes unavailable for 30 seconds (it becomes translucent). If you die all the weapons become available to you again.

This would be a per-player kind of thing, the weapon may be available to someone else but not you, in which case it will not be translucent to them.

This also makes it feasible to Drop weapons, since you cant just go grab the same weapon again.


Extra Ammo: 
Some spawned weapons give more ammunition. The shotgun, SSG, Chaingun, and Rocket Launcher start with double ammo.
Weapons dropped by opponents, or picked up from refreshed weapon spawns only give normal ammo.


Weapon Changes:
-- All blaster projectiles travel 2x as fast.
-- Shotgun skips reloading frames (it only recoils a little). Thus its faster and not necessarily a subpar weapon.
-- Machinegun has staged accuracy degredation. The cone of potential trajectories starts out quite small, and jumps to its normal size after the first 3 consecutive shots.

-- Rocket Launcher has alot of changes:
Rocket goes 50% faster. Fire Rate reduced to 1 shot every 1.25 seconds.
75 impact damage and 75 splash damage, with a total splash radius of 120. Explosion has 2x knockback force.
...makes rocket whoring more difficult, and a direct hit more rewarding. And rocket jumps should still work the same.

-- Railgun does 90 damage against someone who has No Armor, otherwise it does 100 normally.
Basically its going to take 2+ shots to kill someone unless they're already wounded. This makes the railgun slightly less effective.

-- Slugs are now replaced with Cell Packs and the Railgun uses 5 Cells per shot.
This puts a crimp on the Hyperblaster and BFG by forcing the Railgun to share the same ammunition.
And likewise leaves you with less ammo for the Railgun if you use those weapons.
And yet at the same time produces more Cells on the map. Its a tradeoff.

-- BFG loses its spray damage attack, and instead the Lasers either do 2x damage... or hurt people 2x as often.
So the lasers are more lethal but otherwise the weapon is not as effective.
Total splash radius is increased to 300, to make it more dangerous for the shooter and reward hitting closer to the target.
And it still chews up 50 cells per shot.


Weapon Slot Options
For more discerning gameplay, this variety of the mod also limits the number of weapons you can carry, requiring more strategic planning over which weapons you will use. You'll inevitably have to Drop weapons to pick up ones you want to use.

Weapon Slots: You now have three weapon slots (plus the blaster, and grenades).
-- Weapon #2 can hold a Shotgun or Machinegun.
-- Weapon #3 can hold a Super Shotgun, Grenade Launcher, or Hyperblaster.
-- Weapon #4 can hold any weapon (and is the only slot for the Chaingun, Rocket Launcher, Railgun, or BFG).

If a slot doesnt have a weapon in it (not picked up yet, or weapon was dropped) it defaults to the Blaster... but that Weapon# is still considered selected.

If you Select Weapon #4 and it is empty - and you pick up a weapon you already have in Slot 1 - it becomes an Akimbo weapon (two shotguns, or two machineguns).


Alt-Fire Options
For an alternate version of the mod that also enables Alt-Fire modes.
If combined with the Weapon Slot, mode an Akimbo weapon cannot alt-fire (though the single weapon can).

-- Blaster has 100 "ammo", single shots use 5.
The weapon recharges 5 "ammo" every second. It will not fire until it has at least 10 ammo in its reservoir.
Alt Fire uses 50 "ammo" and shoots a different projectile. It has a small charge-up delay of 1/2 second.
The projectile travels as fast as a traditional quake 2 blaster, and has 5 trails arranged in a "+" figure behind it.
It does 20 damage plus 50 splash damage over a 100 radius. Causes rocket launcher impact graphic/model.

...technically this makes it possible to do an enhanced jump with it, but not as high as a rocket jump though.


-- Shotgun fires a single Shotgun Slug on altfire, it does 40 damage and has a narrow accuracy (but not perfect).

-- SSG fires 2 separate blasts on altfire 1/5 second apart. They have 10 pellets each and the same spread angle as the shotgun.

-- Machinegun fires a 3 shot burst on altfire at a rate of 900 rds per min cyclic. It has a 1/2 sec refresh before it can fire again.

-- Chaingun altfire just shoots as fast as the Machinegun does, but the barrel must spin down completely before it will fire at Normal speed in primary fire.
Ie, you cant just hold down Alt Fire and then speed it up when you want. Basically the altfire just mimics the normal machinegun fire.

-- Grenades and Grenade Launcher have an extended fuse for altfire. If you leave grenades sitting around for 10 seconds they basically become landmines. However all of them will use the "grenade ticking" countdown sound, even the grenade launcher projectiles.

-- Rocket Launcher fires spiralling rockets on altfire that move at traditional quake2 velocity. Ie they travel in a corkscrew pattern. But they also pick up a trajectory inaccuracy. The corkscrew spin has about a 3 foot diameter to it.

-- Hyperblaster shoots semi-automatic shots on altfire without spinning the carousel. It can shoot as fast as 1/5 sec this way.

-- Railgun altfire (hehe). Turns it into a rail-shotgun. Uses a shotgun shell plus 5 cells.
You get 6 small rail trails in a narrow spread that do 15 damage each.
The rail trails are identical to the central rail trail without the exterior corkscrew.
...Is it a lamer weapon?  No, its a good way of finishing someone off.


-- BFG altfire mode (hehe). It shoots a different projectile. Fire Rate 2 per second. No chargeup or heavy recoil from altfire shots.
Projectile uses BFG ball graphics, resized to 50% size. Impact is the grenade explosion graphic/model.
Moves as fast as a traditional quake2 rocket.
Deals 90 splash damage with a radius of 120. No lasers or spray.
Chews up 10 Cells per shot.

...so basically the altfire mode for the BFG is like a Quake 3 bfg, with less ammo. Though admittedly the Phalanx isn't much different.

10
Quake / Re: Okay War Flail has hit the forum...
« on: November 19, 2011, 05:37:17 PM »
Re: Brisket
Yeah I remember BTF IOU from somewhere. Would you happen to also be playing as "Brisk" too?
Its a funny name, I like it, it sounds like a Dog's name or something.
Here Brisket! aww such a good boy!


FFA Skills?  Haha I would be doing alot better if it wasn't for just having some bad luck. Half my deaths seem to come from 3rd party crossfire, and another 1/10th to 1/5th of them come from chat frags. Because of that I like big levels where I can ply my sneaky talents to the max, where its less likely someone will just walk around the corner and nail me while im dancing with someone else's railgun.

So basically big maps like Q2DM4 and FACT1, and only like 6-10 players. When it gets up to like 15-20 players I get lost in the background.

BFG whore?  Maybe but then again other people use it too whenever its available. So its not like im ruling the map with it.
Fact is I switch weapons alot - might use the BFG and then pull out the SSG to finish people off.

I really am better at Railz... and if you consider my Unreal Tournament experience im pretty good at CTF and TDM too. But I never see anyone playing it to be honest.

11
Quake / Okay War Flail has hit the forum...
« on: November 19, 2011, 08:26:05 AM »
Yeah its an introduction post. Woo hoo.
Not that anyone cares and I bet people have been fed up enough with me in the game.

I kinda vowed I would just stick to the game and wouldn't even bother touching the Forums considering how braindead the chat culture is in the game (which also probably accounts for 20% of my deaths).

But I just didnt think it was fair for Gazza to be here on the forum and I wasn't here to balance it out.
 :rocketright:


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