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Archived News:
This cricket-chirping-quiet Sunday is livened up a bit more by a new version 1.22 of ZDoom, which includes a couple of additions to the script compiler, as well as several bug fixes. As usual, Win32, Linux and source downloads are provided.
The debut release of Servarena,
a Quake III Arena dedicated server launcher. Using a mouse-driven interface, the
program is said to " make setting up a Quake III Arena server as easy as it
gets."
Home of a zillion FAQs, GameFAQs has posted a Gameplay FAQ for Quake III Arena, providing multiplayer tips and tactics, advice on the use of the weapons, a list of the Easter Eggs, and more on id's game of deathmatch extravaganza.
Among the content on the newly-opened SOF Center
is an interview
with Kenn Hoekstra that I failed to mention in pointing out the screenshots on
the new site yesterday ( story).
The Q&A covers Kenn's work (obviously enough) on Soldier of Fortune. Here's
one Q&A that gives a feel for a bit of what impacted the game's development: Q: Now since Soldier of Fortune is practically done, if
you look back at the development, what has been the most difficult thing you
guys encountered?
A: The most difficult thing we encountered was a series of changes to the
overall design concept of the game. We started out as an action game and then we
thought about moving towards a simulation/strategy type game. When we got going
on that, we decided it just wasn’t going to work and we switched back to
action. Swapping horses midstream and second-guessing ourselves was a setback to
say the least.
Bullfrogged
interviews Nick Goldsworthy from Bullfrog in a very short Q&A about his
work on Dungeon Keeper 3, the upcoming installment in the DK series.
Two more new Blade screenshots have been added to TeleFragged's
Blade Interview showing off more hack-and-slash gameplay from this upcoming
third-person swordfighting game.
A utility called UT2mod is
now available to allow Linux users to extract the modules from the UT music
files and get music in the game. Thanks Jacek Fedoryñski.
Ingava's Domination
Guide is up with tips on this Unreal Tournament gameplay mode. Also up among
their game guides (their site was down the first time I meant to post
these) is the Ingava
UT CTF Lava Giant guide, and a Quake
III Arena Survival Guide. Back to Unreal Tournament, Unrealism's
Unreal Tournament Tips have been updated, their extensive list covers all
aspects of gameplay.
Maj's Stuff, devoted to Quake III Arena
editing, has posted Eutectic's Preliminary Q3 .def File,
a .def file for Q3Radiant users to get started making Q3A maps until real SDK
materials are available. Also, Maj's Shader Docs
are online trying to give insights into the proper use of this aspect of Q3A
modeling that's given some of the earliest model makers trouble.
Team 5150 has posted a
program called TeamStream, which offers real-time voice communication during
Internet gaming. According to their description, the program "provides
superior voice clarity and an extensive list of features, while only consuming
9% of a 56k modem line."
A new version 1.3 of Sven Co-op
is now available, offering an updated rendition of this modification that
allows for cooperative play in Valve's Half-Life. In the new release, map
transitions work in multiplayer, Valve single-player maps are easier to use, Radio
voices are included, and much more.
Anti-video games tome misses its target widely
is an article critical of Stop Teaching Our Children to Kill, the book by
former Army Ranger Lieutenant Colonel David Grossman that accuses first-person
shooter games of being "murder simulators," among other things. While
not claiming there is no reason for concern about children's exposure to
violence, the article is critical of the book's oft-repeated criticisms of the
gaming industry, accusing Lt. Col. Grossman of "leav(ing) reality
behind," and "ignoring facts." Thanks Taft.
Kwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiik! is a
QuakeWorld tournament planned for December 18 in London with a grand prize of
£250. While I'm busting out the fancy pound symbol, Redemption 99
gets underway today, offering £100 for the winner of this UT tourney, which
boasts over 200 registrants.
It was indeed one year ago today that we moved to a new server, though the minor
glitches we've had on this most recent move are cake compared with that one,
where it turned out an overly optimistic estimate of our impact on the system we
were being added to resulted in bringing the whole setup to a crashing halt.
That was the situation that resulted in our moving to Pair
networks, who saved us in a big way by getting our stuff moved over there
instantly, saving us from huge downtime. So as we're working things out after
moving off of Pair (the site is being hosted on UGO's servers now, BTW, I
don't think I ever mentioned it), it seems appropriate to once again thank the
fine folks at Pair for a year of sterling service. Speaking of the remaining
minor glitches on the new server, cookies (and therefore user preferences)
should be working as soon as your DNS is updated with the new server. Furn has
also addressed the problem that has caused the server to crash a few times, but
I think we won't know if that's cleared up until the weekend ends, since it
seems to be extreme traffic loads that provokes the crashes.
Link of the Day: Russian, Nuclear
Cruise-Missile-Carrying, Largest Existing Conventional Submarine Available for
Sale in Florida. Thanks Anne Curr.
Story of the Day: Man gets 10 days in jail for microwaving a parrot.
An urban legend graduates to the status of unfortunate reality. If I were the
judge, I'd have given him 10 years. Thanks Peyank.
Image of the Day: Quake
III Arena Wallpaper by Anson Vogt. Thanks Victor.
The Unreal Technology has been
updated with a workaround for problems that apparently happen when patching a
foreign install of Unreal Tournament. Here's the update made by Epic's Steven
Polge: Another patch glitch has been reported. Foreign language versions
of Unreal Tournament are changing to english after the patch is applied.
To fix it, after patching go into your Unreal Tournament system directory (e.g.
c:\UnrealTournament\System) and open the files UnrealTournament.ini and
Default.ini with a text editor. Change the line (in the [Engine.Engine] section)
Language=int to Language=frt (French), Language=itt (Italian), or Language=est
(Spanish).
As promised, this Adrenaline Vault Downloads Demo
page has the playable demo for Interstate '82, Activision's follow-up to the
funky fresh I'76. The demo is a 28 MB download. Here's the description from the
page: It’s 1982 and auto-terrorism is at an all-time high. The U.S. is
in crisis and you, legendary road warrior, Taurus, are dealing with a crisis of
your own. Your long-time partner, Groove Champion, is missing and it’s up to
you to keep him from becoming a skid mark in the mother of all wars on wheels.
Wage fully charged vehicular combat as you strive to uncover and destroy top
secret forces…before they drive you-and the entire country-to the brink.
id Software Designer Paul Jaquays made a
giant .plan update to follow up on his comments on the "lost"
Quake III Arena maps ( story),
as well as a boatload more on Q3A. It's all good stuff, so in spite of its
hugeness, I've chosen to reproduce the entire .plan here: Been a while
since I did a plan update ... and even longer since I did one discussing Quake
III Arena. Since the game is out now ... I can talk. I recently posted a version
of this on one of Scary’s discussions boards and thought I’d make it
available in a more general forum. This is what happened to some of the
"lost" things that have appeared in older screenshots, but not in the
final game.
Lost Models
There’s been some discussion on various boards as to whatever happened to the
"designer" models that appeared in early screenshots. They were
intended as tests for Steed and Carmack to work out the kinks in the MD3 models.
They were fun, but they weren’t final. Even with the eclectic mix of our final
models, they would have been out of place. And like the unused maps, the way
they were constructed (including the use of multiple component piece skins) is
not completely compatible with the final model versions.
Lost Particles
OK, now let’s talk about that weapon with the particle trail that the "xian"
model is shooting in some old screen shots. I’m pretty certain that was an
early version of the plasma gun. It looks cool and I like the particles. We
certainly could have done some awesome things with them as the shader functions
matured, but as a game feature in Q3A, they were problematic at best. While
testing Q3Test2 (now Q3dm17), we learned that a single rail shot added an
instant hit of 3000+ triangle faces (all Q3 particles are made of polygon
triangles) to the map. In bigger space maps that followed, it would have been
far worse. So the feature changed. We had similar problems with other functions
using particles. And so, particles left the game.
Many Hands
Touching on Tim Willits’ comments about many hands touching the maps.
Generally speaking, one designer created the map ... usually after discussing
feature ideas with the design group. He would work out the play concepts and
establish a general architectural style. At some point during development, the
map would be handed off to another designer to fix problems involving curves,
tweak some play problems, and maybe punch up the appearance of some of the
architecture. Then the artists would get involved, making special models and
custom textures. They did for our maps what an interior decorator does for real
world buildings -- taking fairly drab settings and making them into pieces of
art. And while everyone outside the company seems to want to pigeon-hole our
artists into narrow task functions, I’d like to point out that ALL our artists
worked on the arenas, not just Kevin Cloud and Adrian Carmack. I’d like to
mention that several arenas owe their distinctive and totally awe-inspiring
appearances to Kenneth Scott’s phenomenal "set design", model
building and texture-making abilities (and everyone thinks he just does skins
... Hah!).
Lost Maps
Back on the topic of "lost" maps. Anyone who has ever made a map,
professionally, semi-professionally, or just for fun, knows that map development
goes through stages. You build stuff. You make it look as "pretty" as
a map guy can. You test it, debate it with your peers and then rebuild the parts
that didn’t work. If it’s your job, you do this a lot. Along the way, you
leave a pretty hefty debris trail. Quite a number of the "lost" maps
that show up in early screenshots are prototypes of the final maps (or at least
things that ended up in the final maps).
By way of example, I can discuss Q3DM8: Brimstone Abbey. This map originally
began as a sprawling, mostly flat map; a literal maze of corridors. Several
early screenshots show parts of that "lost" map. As the game matured,
the design concept for that map was deemed inappropriate. That map was scrapped,
but at least one feature was salvaged ... the cathedral room. The next iteration
was another big map combining the cathedral with the base portion of a CTF map
that was under development. It was scrapped, but now the cathedral had balconies
and a lift up to the high ledges that connected to the power-up ledge. That
level consisted of the central cathedral, some halls around the upper level
(with stairs to the lower) and a large courtyard (where the drowing pool is now
located). The cathedral lift became a jump pad. Stairs were scrapped, the large
courtyard became a pool (to show water at E3), the hall connecting the drowning
pool with the cathedral was redesigned based on a suggestion from Jim Molinets
of Rogue and the rocket launcher courtyard with it’s distinctive "pop-up
toaster" jump pad was added. But architecturally, it’s not far removed
from that long lost original.
I took a look through the screenshots of the "lost"
"organic" maps that everyone is mooning over. They probably could be
built with the current status of the engine (please note that the way we built
curves changed at LEAST three times over the course of Quake 3 development). But
as you map makers will soon discover, curves are great, but their cost in
polygons adds up fast. Add some fog and it only gets worse. The IHV version of
the mouth that appears in Q3DM1 had to be completely rebuilt to make it a
playable area with a manageable polygon count.
Pining for the Great Outdoors
Regarding large, outdoor maps that seem to be on everyone’s wish list. I spent
a lot of my development time trying to make naturalistic looking outdoor terrain
work, including using both curve patches and the Q2 terrain-maker, Gensurf
(which I really like). During that period of development we had some issues with
sloped surfaces, which made movement over the terrain something between
unsatisfying and nearly impossible. And, as it is with the space maps and large
curve areas, when a lot of the map is in your view field all at once, those
polies add up quickly. None of these experiments developed into satisfying DM
maps. So when the maps were sorted and culled into the final tiers, there were
no outdoor maps selected for final development. I haven’t abandoned the idea
of large outdoor terrain maps and I am planning on more experimentation in that
area.
Finally, we haven’t thrown out the old "lost" maps. If we do
anything with them, it will be to go through them, pull out the workable ideas
that didn’t fit the final production maps and include them in new maps.
Paul Jaquays
designer
id Software, inc.
And, by the way, a lot of the Q3A reviews I’ve been reading lately look a
little rushed to me. I can’t help but wonder if they would been far better if
they just had more paragraphs in them. ;-)
The Starsiege TRIBES Players
page has the release of the maps for Starsiege TRIBES that were submitted
for the OpenCall that was looking for community content for inclusion with the
now-cancelled TRIBES Extreme. Here's the word on the release: The
Opencall missions sent to us for the TRIBES Extreme Opencall contest are out!
Scott Rudi and the rest of the Development team have brought us ten players
created maps that they feel really rock! Here is a blurb straight from the
readme:
Well, here they are - the Tribes Open Call submission finalists! Several
missions floored us with their creativity and overall artistic sense. However,
it really came down to gameplay issues on who made it and who didn't. The maps
that are included in the Open Call pack were the ones that we ended up wanting
to play again and again. Hopefully, you all will too! The dev team wants to
thank all who submitted maps - we're firmly convinced that we've got the best
audience out there! Note that some of the missions were "tweaked" a
bit to improve playability, but we tried to leave them as close to the original
as possible.
There are a pair of new exclusive Soldier of Fortune screenshots on Soldier of Fortune Center,
a newly-opened site dedicated to Raven Software's upcoming shooter that will use
the Quake II engine to create a world of simulated mercenary adventures. The new
site's opening is mentioned in Kenn Hoekstra's
.plan, where he also describes going back to the drawing board to redo the
game's manual.
DiabloII.Net Visits Blizzard North
in a write up of their visit to check out progress on Diablo II. The report is
short, but offers new details on how gameplay will work. Word is to expect more
reports on their visit in the coming days.
GA-RPG's Exclusive Gothic Screenshots
give a half-dozen shots showing off gameplay from Gothic, Piranha Bytes'
upcoming third-person RPG.
Dave "Zoid" Kirsch, contract programmer at id Software, sent along an
image showing all
the levels in Quake III Arena along with the level names and numbers
designations. As his accompanying note points out, he did this because, at
least for now, he finds these designations as confusing as the rest of us:
Lately, people have been telling me, "Wow did you see that cool
thing on q3dm14?" and I can't for the life of me remember what map q3dm14
is. I do plan to memorize them in the future, but for now I need some help.
Using the Unix ImageMagick montage utility, I was able to quickly cook up a
reference image for all the maps that include the BSP file name and the map
title. It's really handy when you just can't remember what map q3dm10 was. I
hope that other people find it useful as I have.
A new Wheel of Time update has lead designer Glen Dahlgren talking about the Server Front End that was released last night (see below) and the general plans for the upcoming point release patch. Also, there is mention of an upcoming IRC chat with the developers (December 16th at 6:00 PM EST), a look at what the WoT community has been coming up with, and, of course, the proverbial run-down of reviews of the game. Here is that bit about the upcoming patch:
I can't be too specific right now, but we're currently banging on many of the
outstanding issues that you may have seen people chatting about on the
board.
Fixes include D3D performance and copy protection incompatibility, along
with a load of other issues. New content includes 'bots (or
computer-controlled opponents) for Arena games, and some cool new maps
(including a citadel map that Scott's working on with the world area located in
the Ways!).
Again, there's lots more content planned, and I'll try to be more specific as we
get closer to release.
ION Storm has released a new movie of Daikatana, featuring gameplay from Episodes 2, 3, and 4, visual effects like volumetric fog, some in-game cinematics, and an intro by ION's Jake "Strider" Hughes. The 5.0 MB trailer comes in RealPlayer format only, and runs for 2:18 minutes.
GA-Source has posted an interview on Splinter, an upcoming 3D flying shooter in development by Stromlo Entertainment in Australia. Somewhat akin of the Descent series, the game sees you piloting a miniaturized craft with full 360 degrees freedom of movement, and the interview provides insights on the story, gameplay and technology of the game.
ION's Daily Informant has word of an update to the BrinksNet area of the official Anachronox site, adding more glimpes of the Anachronox universe as designed by Tom Hall ( Flash required).
Epic's bot-master Steven Polge made an update to the Unreal Technology page describing what to do if you used the minimum installation of Unreal Tournament and then applied the version 402 patch. Here is the workaround:
If you did a minimum install of Unreal Tournament in order to conserve HD space and use the 402 patch, your UnrealTournament.ini file is
overwritten and loses the CD path information needed to find content on the CD. The symptom you will see is the following error when
launching Unreal Tournament: "failed to enter Entry:Can't find file 'Entry' ...". To fix it, after patching go into your Unreal Tournament system
directory (e.g. c:\UnrealTournament\System) and open the files UnrealTournament.ini and Default.ini with a text editor:
Add the lines
CdPath=D:
ContentOnCD=True
to the end of the [Engine.Engine] section of each of those files. (D: is the CD drive letter)
The omnipresent I.am/Half-Life sent word that they have posted a detailed Half-Life: Opposing Force Weapons Guide, providing all the specs and stats you need on the tools of mass destruction in Gearbox' add-on pack.
Daily Radar has followed up an earlier preview of Allegiance with a quick Q&A session with the developers, sharing a few more details on Microsoft's upcoming space opus. A couple of new screenshots are included. Thanks Galaron.
Activision has opened another Support FAQ, this time for Interstate '82, offering solutions to some problems you may be experiencing with the game. In other Interstate '82 news, a playable demo should be released on the Adrenaline Vault sometime today.
id Software's Robert Duffy updated his .plan again with the latest news on the public
release of QERadiant, which should be happening next week (thanks raYGun
at Rust): A couple of things.
First, things look like they are still good to go on getting the editor and
map building tools out early next week. I am shooting for Tuesday sometime but
that can change based on a variety of things. In any event it should be soon.
Secondly, the editor and shader manuals will not be available right then but
will follow shortly after. The shader manual probably within a few days of the
tool release, the editor manual a bit after that.
At this point, the tools should ship with three sample maps ( all from the game
) and the additional shader textures and "mapobject" models required
to build those three maps. The maps represent a nice cross section of shader
and entity functionality for everyone to digest.
We have been using a P2-300 running Win98 with a variety of cards for testing.
To produce a production level map ( full vis and -extra light ) it takes 36
minutes for Q3DM1. Fast vis and normal light takes about 4 minutes on the same
map. That should give some idea on requirements but your results will vary.
As always, everything here is subject to change ( timing and content ) but this
is the current plan and I do not foresee any changes.
PC.IGN has posted the second part
of their developer's journal from Chris Parker, producer at Black Isle Studios
on Baldur's Gate II. This installment deals with the planning behind their announcement
party, where the world got its first glimpse of the game.
Legend has released a server configuration utility for their Unreal engine
game, The Wheel of Time. This handy little program allows you to launch a server
without having the second CD-ROM in the drive, as well as configuring all the
server options without launching a client. You can snag the 2MB download over
at FilePlanet.
id Software's Paul Jaquays made a
post to the Quake3World message board, addressing the issue of any possible
"lost" Quake III Arena maps being left over (thanks sCary).
Here's an excerpt from the lengthy post: We did indeed build more Q3A
maps than made it into the game. The ones that didn't make it were dropped out
of the running for one or more of the following reasons:
1. They weren't particularly fun (confusing, too large, etc.).
2. They added nothing substantial to the game (they may have been too much like
a map that was already going to be in the game).
3. They were built around what turned out to be non-bot compatible features
(like flight).
Along the way, we discovered a great deal about the performance costs of things
like mirrors and complex curved surfaces. Even with optimization, some things
were too expensive in terms of performance cost to use in a free and easy manner.
So, when the map ladder was determined earlier this year, the maps that were
cut were "mothballed" and left alone to focus on the intense fine
tuning and polishing phase that every Q3A map went through (several times for
some maps). We still have them archived, but very few, if any of those maps
are now in a state that they could just be "released". Most lack the
quality of game play and visual polish that we strove hard for in the final
map set.
Tom Hall, the evil genius behind ION Storm's Quake II engine RPG Anachronox,
updated his
.plan with a general status report on the game (as well as some thoughts
about Donkey Kong 64). Here's the latest on the game: Anachronox is going
well. Lots of cool stuff happening, neat gameplay, cool cinematics, and stuff.
I'm making sure the gameflow is all accounted for and shepherding content and
stuff. I'm trying to squeak in little APE interfaces and other stuff. All the
games items are in the database, and can be used. We should have the Boots voice
cast very soon. Music is really cool.
Daily Radar has posted a
Q&A with Greg Zeschuk, BioWare's producer on MDK 2. Topics discussed
include the capabilities of their in-house Omen engine (which powers the game),
the plot, what it's like to follow in Shiny's strange footsteps, and lots more.
MDK, as everyone knows, stands for My Dang Kleptomania.
Tweak3D has posted a demo for
Quake III Arena that's similar in concept to the infamous "Crusher"
demo for Quake II, in that it has been designed to push your hardware to its
limits. So be sure to download, benchmark, and brag to all your friends.
A new version of QIR, an IRC bot that
checks the status of any Quake III Arena server and prints it for all to see
has been released. This new release (v0.3) adds the ability to query any server
via the !q3a command, as well as various bug fixes.
Game Guides.com has posted three new guides of note: one covering Tomb
Raider: The Last Revelation (which, if this game is half as difficult as
its predecessor, I'm sure will come in handy), one for Indiana
Jones and the Infernal Machine, and lastly, one for the online RPG Asheron's
Call.
Well, yesterday was the sixth anniversary of Doom. Can you imagine? It's all
very strange to me. On the one hand, it feels like just yesterday that I was
all excited to be playing Wolfenstein 3D (and later was completely blown away).
And then it occurs to me how much has happened since then. The exponential growth
of the power of computers aside, I was still in high school when Doom
was released...and here I am now, out of college, and working for this here
site. Simply amazing.
Link of the Day: A big thanks to Raven's Kenn Hoekstra for this one... Blind
man charged with Memphis bank robbery. Truly strange stuff.
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