Giving away 2 Quake Live beta invites

[naymlis]

who wants them? first two people who reply that does will get them

[opt1ckz]

me!

[PANTONE 7717C]

That is an offer I can't refuse. 

[kren.Z]

 

[PANTONE 7717C]

Alright, I just received the beta test invitation from quakelive.idsoftware.com. Thnx naymlis:)

[haunted]

Where did the invites even come from? i got one through e-mail 'reminding me of my beta test invitation' aug 6th when I don't even remember receiving one initially.....

[Whirlingdervish]

they never sent mine to the email adress I gave 'em.

It's ok tho, since it's just q3 with some fancy browser window dressing..

I just wanted another free game.

[opt1ckz]

thanks naymlis. . oh by the way i would like to play you 1v1 on edge. if you don't mind raping me. i haven't played dm for a while, the last time was 05.

[The Happy Friar]

Where did the invites even come from? i got one through e-mail 'reminding me of my beta test invitation' aug 6th when I don't even remember receiving one initially.....

if you signed up for quakecon before a certain date you got one.

I tried to give mine away, noone wanted it.  So I told id I didn't want it.

It's like Q3a-cool exploding FX & cool level details. 

[PANTONE 7717C]

It's ok tho, since it's just q3 with some fancy browser window dressing..

I can't say too much about it here but for anyone who's curious as to what this quakelive thing is about, yeah it's q3 (in fact it partly is kind of a plugin) but it's more than just that. I'd post some screenshots of the automatic (and live) stats page but I agreed not to share content:/ 
Visuals: I read that they polished up the maps and some of the models and skins but as far as I could see with my mapper's eye I didn't notice anything that stood out except for some tastfully placed ad boards, so it's just q3.

Think "all-in-one"; game, server browser, updates/downloads, live statistics, even has a skill matching system (as an extra) that -based on your current stats- lists servers with players who suck as much as you, and it has an offline mode which lets you play against bots so you can get your shit and cfg together. All I can say is that if you're a stats junkie then you're gonna love that part of it.
I thought sod it and just jumped in and played against some freakshows who obviously play as much q3 as I play q2 and needless to say I didn't do too well, but of course i hadn't taken the time to properly setup my controls first.. hah!
Of course, in the end it *is* Q3, so if you simply can't stand that game you won't really get into this new free version either. But from what I've seen so far it's definitely worth checking when it's officially out, if only to see how they integrated all that shit into your browser(?). It made me think of the Steam concept but it's not exactly the same. Once you're logged on you're taken to a personal stats/config page from where you can configure your game settings or immediately pick a server and start playing. (It loads damn fast). When you leave the game you're immediately back in your personal page, which will show your stats.

To play I had to create an account with my superduper secret key and fill in a form, click on the activation link they sent me and then log in. Following the instructions I downloaded a 6.5mb QuakLive plugin and while things were installing and downloading I could start a "training" session against a bot that seemed to adjust itself to my skill, thus making it impossible to beat!:P
Oh and I just found out that the rest of the game files silently installed themselves to C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\id Software\quakelive and measure ~275 mb, but I could start playing before all files were downloaded. Kinda cool.
So... it does not beat Q2 in any way as far as gameplay goes (yeah duh) but it would rock if we would ever see a web-version of Q2 in the future with some of these features

[[BTF]Defiant!]

... it does not beat Q2 in any way as far as gameplay goes (yeah duh) but it would rock if we would ever see a web-version of Q2 in the future with some of these features

I recall a .NET and a Java Quake2, so a CLR or applet may or may not be hard to do.

[kren.Z]

Thank you Panj. for sharing that information. I've sent my request for the beta test but haven't received an e-mail. However, i want to talk a little bit about Quake Live.


I think that we can safely say that Quake Live is the first of it's kind. Once again, we marvel at id's technical prowess as they deliver impressive technology through a new medium all the while defining the model of future PC gaming. Let's take a step back and look at this model from a technical standpoint.

Perhaps the greatest benefit is eliminating the dependence of a stand-alone binary. No longer is one constrained to the hassles of  delivering a product to suit the needs of a vendor specific operating system, or worse, failing to meet the average standard for minimal hardware performances, rather the product remains cross-platform by adopting a certain type of virtualization (in this case, the browser) where computational resources are left to a server-side infrastructure (a.k.a "cloud computing").

However, there is a severe limitation to this model of gaming. id has always been able to keep a large user-base to even some of it's most earliest titles for one reason and one reason only. The ability to extend it's functionality to third party mappers and modders alike.


So now i must inquire the recommendations and/or assistance of the more experienced developers about implementing a system that can modify the logic of a piece of software which resides on the back-end of a server-side infrastructure.

-it's a given that a custom protocol is needed. But my question is, does one implement a more standard protocol (something similar to the REST architecture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_State_Transfer ), or something more informal. If you were to design a protocol for this type of project, how would you design it and what would be your guidelines and specifications to maximize optimization?

-is it possible to realease a set of API's where developers have access to the engine and core components of the gaming logic? is it possible for a dynamic code base where developers can add a completely customized feature (e.g. a weapons model and it's correlating code) without the need to re-compile?

-is it possible to interpret a language with an interpreted language? (I know quadz had gave me an explanation about this, but i had lost the conversation.)

Since quake live and this model of gaming is so extremely new, the potential pay-off for seizing this early market is very very lucrative. On the premise of the latter discussions, i must state that my intentions are not in any way, shape, or form to escalate the ambitions of my own agenda. However, please be aware that this is an open invitation to participating in a very profound business opportunity

Comments and feedback are welcome.

                                                                           -krenZ

[peewee_RotA]

I've had an overall bad exeperience with Quake Live. Anyone want my beta account?

 

[kren.Z]

I'll take it. 

[Chocobo Joe]

I want it