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February 28, 1997

Hipnotic Replies
There is a response from Hipnotic regarding the controversy over who gets the most credit for Duke Nukem 3D (id software?) on PC Gamer, following up their initial article on the subject. Thanks Jason Pollock.

CTF Variants
There is an update from Zoid on Threewave converning all the variant on Threewave Capture the Flag that have been appearing. Thanks Fedaykin

Roaming Riblets
The new home of the Pork Riblets Page is http://www.demonspawn.com/porkriblets/.

Capture the Head
No not a hunt for Cheech or Chong, Capture the Head is a new Quake patch.

Ack
Or is that AFK. This should be the final piece in my technical diffficulties puzzle. NYNEX (yes Redwood's translation of that is correct), is installing my ISDN connection today, so I'll be offline until this evening (I'm using my voice line--which cannot be tied up this way--to upload this). I'll catch up this evening (presuming terminal addapter installation doesn't terminate me), but in the meantime, QSpy 5.01 has been released.

February 27, 1997

Bot I'm Concerned...
The Stanford Quake Project has posted the StoogeBot Manifesto, a very well-written essay on the issue of proxy bots in Quake. Thanks Mr. Bad Example.

Scourge
Scourge of Armagon has begun appearing in stores. I have received several very positive initial reactions. Fargo has posted his first impressions on PlanetQuake.

UK Clan News
News From the Front is a new site covering the UK Clan scene.

War?
There seems to be a little battle going on between 3D Realms and Activision, with 3D Realms refuting Activision's claim that Hipnotic has enlisted the Duke Nukem 3D development team (Activision Spreading Misleading Info about Duke3D Team) citing a recent www.newsbytes.com article. Thanks J. Jefferson Gray. There is also an article (Apogee Hits Back at Duke Lie) on Next-Generation on the subject (thanks Jason).

Quake Cross-Reference
Jason Pollock's new site is an attempt at linking all the available online articles about Quake.

Worldcraft and 3rd Party Entities
There is a tutorial by Imaginos on the Official Worldcraft Editing Site for modifying Worldcraft's quake.fgd file to include support for third-party entities. There is an HTML version there, and it is also available in a zipped file.

qED Custom Prefabs
The Buddhakhan has opened for business, with one section to start, a qED Prefab Repository.

Custents 2.0
General WarT' sends along word that he has released Custents 2.0 on his page. Custents is a patch to help map authors create smoother func_trains:

"...What it does is to make the func_trains move smoothly, allowing for doing things like the esclator (the included demo map), moveing walkways, and the subway map. It also has a universal ambient sound entity so that map makers can make all the new ambient sound they want without editing any QuakeC code."

NT Vérité Drivers
I pulled those NT Vérité Drivers I posted yesterday after finding out they aren't an official release. Thanks Robert A. Zawarski.

Pinkdogg's Palette Mania!
Map authors, TC creators, and possibly movie-makers might want to check out Pinkdogg's Palette Mania! (Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Screwing your Quake Palette). The site includes a couple of utilities, including ScrewPal v1.0 - the Quake palette and colormap manipulator.

CTF News
Attempting to track the news surrounding Threewave CTF, CTF News has begun. To kick the site off there's a short interview with Zoid.

Quake Sounds
There's word on the brand-new Quake Sound Editing page that Quake won a special award for its sound effects in the new PC Gamer. You can also find the first QSEP Sound Pack Grunts and Other Odd Human Noises.

February 26, 1997

FvF
FVF 1.86 is out featuring the Doom Marine class (can't use mlook?) and stuff to interfere with client bots. Thanks Steve.

Is this a Joke?
Just trying to figure out new and innovative ways to experience technical difficulties here at Blue's. Of course I got all over my host about all the outages last week, and I was subsequently told I was being moved to a different server, with a faster more reliable disk sub-system. Knowing the pitfalls in changing IP addresses (we've already suffered with the vagaries of DNS propagation once here) I requested that new updates be mirrored in the old directory, until we were sure everyone was getting the current page. You can guess the rest. That auto-updating never happened, and I had to waste the entire morning straightening this out, because for some of you, there are a bunch of updates you haven't seen since Sunday... (welcome back, BTW).

32 Players
Thanks to DR_dakine for sending along this screenshot showing some of the kookiness we have to look forward to in 32 player QuakeWorld. (Click for a full size image):

Screenshot

Quake PC World Article
In PC World Online there is a lengthy article in about multiplayer gaming including a small section about Quake. Thanks Reverb.

Quake MAP Specs in Theory & Practice
Liger's returned, and as promised, has created a new site, Quake MAP Specs in Theory & Practice. This applies the Quake MAP Specs to Worldcraft, so you can see how those specs relate to the editor. He's also looking for resources for the project, so all you resources out there might want to take a look.

Dr. Sleep Speaks
Thanks to Phoebus (CULT OF PHOEBUS) for the word that Dr. Sleep explains his move to ION Storm on the Unreal MessageBoard, refuting the notion that he sold out:

"Money had nothing to do with it. In fact, I took a pay cut in going with ION Storm. I wish Epic well, but I do want to dispel the notion that my decision to leave was based on money, because it most certainly wasn't. It was a difficult decision personally, but I'm sure UNREAL will carry on just fine without me. Epic still has two of the best level designers in the business working for them."

Plan
John Cash updated hios w00p/llama list (thanks Paul Tenny):

w00p list
---------
M3's (red or black)
Girl Scout cookies (Samoas)

llama list
----------
anybody who uses a client side bot
(without making it *REALLY* obvious it's a bot)

BTW, IMO, the chocolate mints are the best Girl Scout cookies. w00p!

Requiem 1.07c
The Requiem 1.07c beta is out on the Requiem page. Thanks gladi8r.

Stomped BBS
I'm not the BBS guy, so I guess I failed to see the significance, but there is a WorldGroup BBS running at Stomped. Just telnet to bbs.stomped.com, and go do Bulletin Board stuff (BYO Push-Pins). Thanks ]km[jerk.

S-Stats Beta 3 Available
Beta 3 of S-Stats, a program that can parse a QW Server console log file into four .html files, which display stats for Rank, Efficiency, Frags & Deaths (just for that server) . Versions for Windows95/NT4 and Linux are availible on the S-Stats homepage.

Sound of Distant Thunder
The Thunder page is promising a release of this highly anticipated Quake editor this week sometime. Thanks to DaKiller, who says thet frag.com will be back up:

in "2 weeks" <G> actually very soon

Quake Sound Editing Page
Frequent contributer to Blue's News, Jason (LoonyBoi), has started a useful new site, QSEP, the Quake Sound Editing page.

Can You Move Your Toes?
The hompage of the ToeTag Quake editor has moved to http://www.visi.com/~tmaster/.

Clan Classifieds
DemonEater has started a Clan Classifieds page to help Clans find players, and vice versa at DemonEater's Diner.

QuakeWorld Top 10
Boywonder has created an accross-all-masters QuakeWorld Top 10 Skill ranking (compiled by hand).

Skillz
The skillz page dedicated to the Quake contests has moved, since Toe has handed off the site to Hs.

February 25, 1997

QView/QHost
There is a new QView/QHost at Wasatchfault (gesundheit). Version 4.01 is all bug fixes, there are no new functions.

Bots
James Loe, author of the Loefbot, a Stooge-like bot, wrote in with an angry response to some of the angry responses to the StoogeBot:

"...I think it would be a great injustice if id Software went and rewrote the Quake code so that these bots no longer work with Quake. I put alot of time into my bot, and I would be extremely angered if such things were done. I think that the authors of these bots have shown alot of responsibility in agreeing on the "No bots please" banning protocol, and I feel that everyone in the internet Quake community is highly overreacting to what is simply the expansion of the QuakeC bot phase."

Here's my brief editorial: To be honest, I don't blame programmers for creating these bots, in point of fact these "publicized" bots are at least out in the public eye, and do respond to the "No Bots Please" message. However, it would be naive to think there aren't client bots out there that aren't so well behaved, which is the more frightening implication. This obviously needs to be addressed--James' "complete injustice" stuff is horse-hooey. If id doesn't do something to curtail the possibility of cheating in this way (and John Cash's comments yesterday indicate they will) it could, no, will, ruin the game.

On the subject of anti-bot sympathies, SoulHarvest points out that on the Banning the StoogeBot page there is a modified progs.dat, and instructions for server operators that are having trouble accomplishing the No Bots Please welcome message.

Custom QSpy Tabs
Jack Mathews of Team QSpy has whipped up some instructions for how patch authors can make their own custom tabs for QSpy 5.0:

Hey all you mod authors out there. If you've noticed in QSpy 5.0, there are now custom tabs. As well, there's one for CTF servers included. You can now add your own custom tab files for your mods too!
Basically, the format I want it to follow is this:

  1. You add a '?' and a unique moniker to the end of the "teamplay" variable: i.e. TEAMPLAY 256?QWCTF3.5
  2. Go into QSpy and then to View/Custom Tabs. Name the tab to be the name of your mod (i.e. "Capture the Flag"), fill in the default "game" folder, check the "Use this game when selected..." box.
  3. Go to the filtering tab. Add "Server Passes Standard Filters". Add "Rule->Teamplay does contain [moniker]" where moniker is the one you chose above (i.e. CTF)
  4. Hit OK. Select the tab from the list and hit "Export." Name the file and you're done!

Now you can distribute the .qst file with your client packs or on the home page or wherever. Note that when a user double-clicks an exported tab, it lets them know exactly how to use it. All they need to do is import the tab and voila! The tab is there.

Worldcraft
There is a patch to upgrade registered versions of Worldcraft from 1.0b to 1.2 on the Worldcraft page. Thanks X.Slayer.

JoinInAndDie!
The JoinInAndDie! Quake page has moved for the second time in a short span. The new URL is: http://www.housegirl.interfire.net/quake/

Plan
Tom Hall updated his .plan, mentioning his DM level Corpseyard IIa. Thanks Shane Wendel.

February 24, 1997

Happy Birthday Quake
QTest came out one year ago today. Saw that in Lone Wolf's .plan.

Cash's .plan
Thanks to elizabeth h. for the word that John Cash updated his .plan. Contained therein is the heartening implication that a priority will be placed on addressing the problem presented by client side bots:

The insurance company finally figured out my car was totalled (the guys at the shop knew it after about 5 minutes). I got a new M3 this weekend; black one this time - they didn't have any red ones and I didn't have time to wait for one.

I checked out the client side bots last night. Grrrrr. The R&D that went into them is cool, but the results are most definitely not. I guess somebody wants us to have to take time off from Quake2 to stop this.

QuakeC Tips
-----------
If an entity does not need to think then just do not update it's nextthink field. Having a think function that really doesn't do anything is bad for the same reasons as the touch function in the previous tip.

Do not have an entity think more often than is necessary. This is mainly to keep your prgs net friendly. Let's say you have an entity that thinks every 0.05 seconds (20 times per sec, the default max rate for a dedicated server). Yes, you could do some really cool stuff. The problem is that you are potentially causing that entity to be updated in every single message from the client to the server; it depends on what you do in the think, but it quite likely.
Remember: The bigger the messages, the more likely it is the clients will see lag.

w00p list
---------
M3's (red or black)

llama list
----------
anybody who uses a client side bot

SoftChoice Master Down
There is an update on the RevCo page with the news that the SoftChoice Master Server (204.50.178.66) will come down today in preparation for its move to id. Thanks SewellTang.

Official Clan List Moves
Thanks to Joost Schuur for reminding me I failed to mention that the Official Clan list is no longer on id's page, but will now be officially handled by the ClanRing. If your clan was registered with id, but not with the ClanRing, you will need to re-register.

Official Editor?
There is an article on Next-Generation Online called Id Blesses Quake Editor, subtitled, Id Software has given the nod to Virtus Corporation's forthcoming Deathmatch Maker level editor. That is the gist of the article, that Deathmatch Maker has become the first Id-authorized level editor on the market, or will be, as it is currently in beta. The finished product is expected to ship in March. Thanks Mike.

QuakeWorld Rankings
Barf's QuakeWorld Rankings have been updated. Thanks SadnoX.

Hexen II via Activision
There is an article on OGR reporting that Activision will be distributing Hexen II in addition to the upcoming Quake Mission Packs. Thanks Max. Speaking of the mission packs, DrSbaitso points out that according to the Activision page, Scourge of Armagon will be out tomorrow (February 25).

Da Party
OneThumb is in the process of uploading his 163 pictures of Da Party to his page. Thanks tin.

FvF Level Solicitation
S W i F T, a programmer on the Future vs. Fantasy Quake team, sent along the following request for level designers:

FvF has already added Quest mode (coop) and will soon be adding two teamplay variations: Purge (designed by Hap) and Mana (designed by me). More info will be forthcoming when they're closer to completion. Anyhow, we need levels for Quest mode (coop - and remember, make the monsters TOUGH, because we've got lots of people. Also, try to place more ammo and weapons than usual as you'll have many mouths to feed) Purge mode (design bases branching off into complex open areas - not necessarily symmetrical) and Mana mode (same as Purge mode, but put a lot more emphasis on base defense and complex architecture - also, outside would be more appropiate here). In related news, I'm looking for three or so level makers with whom to design a new episode. The first 9 levels will be designed for single-player, Quest, and regular deathmatch; the last 4 will be designed for Purge, Mana, and perhaps CTF. If you have a level you want to contribute to FvF, email it to me (although I'd prefer if you put it on your website or something and put a link in your email) and I'll check it out. If you want to join me in creating the new episode, email me and include the levels you've made which are on ftp.cdrom.com.

TeamFortress Update
There is a large update to the TeamFortress page. Thanks EmBRioNiC p3t3 of the North American War Council.

QuakeMe
There's a screenshot and features list at QuakeMe homepage. Thanks Hosebag of the North American War Council.

Deadline?
Due to huge last-minute interest, Team USA has extended its deadline ("indefinitely for now") for the ever-upcoming USA v. Canada Tournament.

Results!
A contest with winners! There were two winners to the MDC homepage's Mush Fest contest. Both went 20-0 versus two Skill 3 reapers with teamplay 1 on E1M1. The winning demos are posted there.

No Dialtone
Huge problems for a change... today's difficulties are with my phone, apparently due to the immanence of my ISDN installation. I'll have to run out now, and update this evening. Ugh. Sorry.

February 23, 1997

John Carmack and the Future of Quake
Thanks to Richard Pistole for word that John Carmack made a .plan update that speaks of a welcome convergence of the different versions of Quake:

I took an entire day and a half off from work to spend some quality time with my F40 at Texas World Speedway. I had a lovely moment pitching my quarter million dollar car off the track backwards (no harm done), but otherwise I had a great time. Back to work now.

I should have updates of both QuakeWorld and GlQuake within a week. QW is crapping out at 27 players for some reason (rather difficult to debug...), and glquake needs a fix for the hipnotic level pack to work.

My next project is to define a new rendering architecture that will clean a bunch of stuff up and allow me to combine regular quake, glquake, and a windows version of vquake into a single executable. I plan on doing the development work with QW, so I won't be stepping on Michael or Cash's toes as I go hacking and slashing through the codebase. If everything goes well, that will become the new guts of Quake 2, and I will probably also release a unified Quake 1 executable.

FvF
Version 1.853 of Future vs. Fantasy Quake has been released on the Future vs. Fantasy page.

Haiku Move
The Quake Haiku page has moved to... oh, hell I'm sure you know where they've moved. The new URL is http://www.planetquake.com/haiku/. The pages are now being maintained by Maelstrom.

Ion Storm
A pretty reliable rumor has Nelno the Amoeba landing a job at Ion Storm. Congratulations to him, and a sincere big thanks to I.S. for making the dreams of so many deserving members of our community come true. Speaking of Ion, I understand that Whaleboy is pretty sick (pneumonia--ouch!!), so you might want to drop him a get well soon email (just don't expect a response from the poor guy). Feel better Whaleboy!!

Mod Master
Patch authors should check out Mod Master by Mojapo. This is a modular system for writing, distributing, and maintaining mods which are (in almost all cases) portable between Quake and QuakeWorld.

Stoneless
The new Stoneless, version 0.92 features a powerful vertice-manipulating tool (said to be unlike anything seen before) and "dramatically improved stability." On the Stoneless page.

Harry Miller
There is a RealAudio interview with Harry Miller of Hipnotic Interactive concerning the Scourge of Armagon on the latest Friday Multiplayer show at the All Games Network.

Team USA
The US team in the US versus Canada tournament will stop taking nominees at 5:00 PM EST today.

ClanRing League Standings and Schedule
The ClanRing League Standings and Schedule are up. Thanks EmBRioNiC p3t3 of the NAWC.

Clans of QuakeWorld Tournament
Grunt, of the Clans of QuakeWorld page, Saturn-[LoD] and Entropy9 are running a Clanring QuakeWorld Tournament, which could possibly be expanded into a league if there's enough interest.

Reaper Clanskins
Douglas has cooked up a MDL with a set of 16 Clan skins for the Reaper Bot. Here's clanrps2.zip (286 KB).

Deathmatch Map Survey
Got some opinions? Check out the Deathmatch Map Survey.

February 22, 1997

Cujo Server
Nelno the Amoeba has released a Cujo server patch on his PlanetQuake page, which allows server operators to have Cujo the doggie bot running around in their games (just don't use it in conjunction with the Dark Forest maps or a mess will ensue). The source is included, sort of... here's the scoop straight from the Amoeba's, errr, mouth?:

The source is included, except for the new movement routines (which are shared with the no-source-released Zeus bot). Anyone who wants to modify the code and still have the new movement routines can send me their code and I will recompile it to use the the unreleased code. Otherwise, they can just replace CUJO_movetogoal in cujoai.qc with movetogoal.

Dipper Dispossessed
Steve "Dipstick" Towle has moved his Almost Authoritative Quake Deathmatch Frag and Player List, Too Much Quake, and Alternative Names of Quake to the Pages to the New Vore Times (his finger has been updated to reflect this). They are updated with new stuff.

Modem Play
Check out MISERY's TOTALLY UNOFFICIAL QUAKE MODEM/MODEM FAQ hosted by Lag City, full of valuable information on the neglected subject of modem play.

Crash's Quake Page
Crash's Quake Page has been redesigned. Look to Crash for the latest and greatest in maps devoted to single player play.

QuakeFest '97
MooD DoG has posted his pictures from the big event here.

WorldCraft TeamFortress
autolycus from the Official Worldcraft Editing Site sends along this patch written by Gene Jones (also available at the Worldcraft Editing Site). Cut and paste the contents into Worldcraft's quake.fgd file (the game definition file), and Worldcraft will support Team Fortress (when used in conjunction with EntEd).

Map Projects
The Quake .BSP eXpansion page has been updated with information about the upcoming 32 player dm level project for QuakeWorld. FishmAn tells me their first project (a set of new DM levels for Internet servers to run for a little variety) will be out by the beginning of next week.

CTF Variants
ShredCo CTF has been released on the ShredCo page, featuring:

Also, SCTF v2.5 (CTF with more runes, weapons,and rules) is out (which "hopefully has no "cheapness") on Inferno's SCTF. Servers running the mod are:

cluster.fys.ku.dk port 26000
and
q.student.harvard.edu port 26001

Last but not least, Clan ThunderWalker has released its ThunderWalker Capture the Flag server for QuakeWorld on the Valley of the Thunderwalkers:

In development for the past 4 months, the TW server is a highly customized version of the 3wave CTF server featuring new weapons, sounds, models, and internal bells-and-whistles to bring new life to any classic CTF game.
Also as part of the package are three new maps, including a CTF version of Jim Lowell's famous CRITTERS map, as well as customized entity files to rebalance several levels for the new mods.

Moving House
Red Silencer's House of Frags, featuring Quake classified ads, has moved to http://www.planetquake.com/frags/hof/.

More Bots
There is a new release of the Client/Server bot (version 0.80) on the QuakeBots page.

Also, if you are curious between the difference between a Stooge Bot, and a Stooge, read Lone Wolf's finger. LW is very sympathetic about my recent technical difficulties here (yesterday's news, grrrrrr).

ToeTag
Version 1a of the Toe Tag Quake editor has been released. The new version features bug fixes, some performance tweaks, and improved brush subtraction.

Quake Demo Land
Quake Demo Land has been overhauled, and now features more streamlined ratings and a search engine.

Swinging Hookers Unite!
The new version of Bort's swinging grappling hook patch is on Bort's Quake page.

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All rights reserved. Copyright © 1997 by Stephen Heaslip