QUAKE *** The Game That is Still Becoming.. ***
Weeks back you all remember me ranting and raving how QUAKE fell short. Well
perhaps after seeing the incredible levels and 3 new baddies: ENFORCER (mega
kuel dude!! Super version of the GRUNTS), HELL KNIGHT (like Barons of Hell in
DOOM and tough as a Mac Truck!), and the Aracno-Sorceress.
The dynamic lighting/light sourcing is unreal and the feel of walking down
corridors and seeing baddies patrolling is quite something but... but..
.always a but with now Commercial release of QUAKE as my friend and I
played it he and I made comments similiar to those I left weeks back in
point form:
- Everything that is QUAKE landscape and architecture is the BEST EVER!
- Dynamic Lighting and Light Sourcing are very immersing!
- Ambient sounds are spectacular!!
- Ability to enter/leave a Network game without affecting it simply the
best!!!
- Use of the "mlook" like in Terminator:Future Shock! THANK YOU iD!!
- Team Deathmatch - makes Quake one of if not the first to implement this!
After that works needs to be done:
Enemies
-------
-GRUNT..Good all around bad dude but his weapon he holds is NOT a bloody
shotgun! Looks like a laser blaster! Cant we just make the weapon what it
is! Shotguns dont have consoles and red LED buttons on it!
-DOGS..Damn fine additions to the game and man was I suprised how well iD
did these canines! However, wish they'd attack just a bit faster and take
better damage as they are easy kills. Still, their polygon bodies are
amazing!
-OGRE..Big fat guy who still looks like a draft or Work in Progress. Needs
more frames of Animation and looks very rough looking up close. Further
when he lobs grenades at you especially from a platform above he does
not throw them with enough variability in distance.
-SCRAG..Flying snake thingys who, as mentioned by most of you, are perhaps
the worst creature. I actually like them but their weapons need
major improving, their ambient hissing needs cleaning and when they die
looks horrid although a nice >thump!< when they hit the floor would be
niffy as their bodies hit the pavement like dropping a walrus!
-KNIGHTS..Again Iike these fellows and do like when they attack in numbers
but they are again cannon-fodder and they should move and even strafe out
of the way of my attacks to make them a real pain. Otherwise they are
about right..
-ZOMBIES..Quite damn amusing and entertaining watching these half-rotted
undeadites rip parts of themself and seizing the air with decaying carcass
bits! Only real way to kill these guys is with Grenades but unfortunately
(and dont know if its a game bug..) but sometimes they die with carcass
intact. Love how you see their body TWITCH as if to be alive. I think most
baddies should do this when the game is set on Nightmare mode!
-FIEND..Yep! My favourite guy! Upon seeing this bad ass leap right out of
a doorway at the speed of sound and pummel me to gibbetsville I knew HE
WAS THE MAN!!! :) These guys are done to perfection and are FAST as sin!
Finally a challenge! Hell.. Lets get a SUPER FIEND going that actually can
hyper-leap and stick to walls to get at you!
-SHAMBLER..well..I am disappointed with this white evil mammoth teddy bear!
The later screenshots of this DUMP TRUCK WITH A SEVERE ATTITUDE looked
bad ass but when I faced him the thrill died. No sound effects that remind
me of him - even a memoriable roar would have been nice; low frames of
animation make him lacking in fierosity, his lightning attack is utter
sadness as its just a mono-coloured streak with little sound or ambience
or palette.. however, his close range claw thrusts are quite nasty.. I want
the SHAMBLER to be THE MAN but it needs rework and memorability!
-ENFORCER..Second but close to first favorite enemy in the game! These guys
look SUPERB! Hire that polgyon artist will ya!! :)) Wish we could see more
of these guys carrying different weapons or an ADVANCED ENFORCER with
all sorts of carry-on weapons and an AI to boot. Further he could easily
strafe out of harms way. Try taking on 3 of these by yourself smartie pants!
Otherwise, the laser bullet they fire is quite silly and needs work! Looks
like a flying Italian Sausauge!
-HELL KNIGHT..Gorgeous Medieval armour, Excalibur-like sword, and tough!
These guys are like DOOM's Baron of Hells! They are almost perfect until
I saw their range weapons! PIXEL-MANIA anyone?!?!? It needs major
smoothing and refinement but otherwise a wicked advanced version of
the KNIGHT.
-VORE..Them aracnets (Medusas) with guided weapons! Very interesting
and good threat to face!
-ROTFISH..Sickly Yellow underwater dwellers that unfortunately look
uninteresting and are much too easy to kill.
-SPAWN..slime dwellers.. didnt see these yet in my travels through 3rd,
and 4th levels so wont spoil it!
-RED DRAGON..I had the unfortunate news that someone left saying iD
was not including it in the final. I HOPE TO HELL THIS IS FALSE! Why would
it not be feasible to include this?!?!!? Look to one of HEXEN's wicked
InGame bosses (which was a flying dragon with a wicked pyrotechic
effect even with secondary explosions!!) for ideas! Please include!!
-1ST END WORLD BOSS..Mr Big Boiling Puss face nasty! Well.. He looked OKIE
as he was massive but otherwise unmemorable! We wasnt interactive enough
compared to the First end level bosses (Barons of Hell) in DOOM! Should
have more weapons!! Why cant we duplicate what even HERETIC did: make
enemies with multiple weapon systems that are original!!! MINOTAUR
comes to mind!!!!
-OTHER BOSSES..Never went that far so wont spoil it for myself or the world!
-POSSIBLE CREATURES for future QUAKE? How about a baddy that reanimates
DOOM classics like the SHOTGUN SARGENT or IMPS or BARONS OF HELL?!
However this time their QUAKEized as 3D mapped creatures or flat bitmaps
would do to rekindle the good olde days!
Enemy AI
--------
-Overall needs general improvement but impressed that iD has monsters
that patrol/guard certain areas and will search out and find you..
Still.. if it were technologically possible we need enemies that can:
o Strafe out of the way if a rocket/grenade comes towards them
o Strafe out of the way as they approach to attack you
o Tumble and Play dead randomly
o Enemies that will jump up blocks like you can in order to follow you.
Is this Possible?
o Attack in mass numbers (would love to see a legion of Knights do this!)
o Retreat quickly and search for health if damaged badly (as promised they
would)
o When an enemy kills you it would be quite damn funny hearing him gloat
over your carcass saying "Impudent Fool", or "Easy Kill" or just laughs.
o If an enemy is so irrate and so cross it would jump from a 50 foot high
bridge just to hug you with undying love! (what was mentioned the
SHAMBLER would do!).
Environment
-----------
- Flying Blood and Gibs waaayyyy to pixelishess, almost annoying to see all
these red squares flying around. They need to be smoothed out! Perhaps
make blood as sprites like in DUKE NUKEM 3D as seeing red squares flash
by looks, well, old.
- Flying Blood and Gibs that actually stay on the floor or at least paint it
red would be absoluely superb! Currently in QUAKE when you kill someone
violently you see the flying gibs and a head or stump.. where is all
the blood like in DN3D?
- Firing a Rocket or lobing a grenade at a dead carcass SHOULD explode
it into hundreds of gibs... I mean.. DUKE NUKEM 3D did it to
perfection!
- Is it not possible to aim at an enemy's arm or leg and blow it off as
was promised before? This is perhaps one of the single greatest
challenges in coding but QUAKE could be the one to break the envelope.
- Auto-sliding down stairs/slopes stupid and unrealistic. If I were standing
on a concrete slope I would not slide unless it was frozen! Its a niffy
feature but on bare concrete?! Surely a muscle-bound warrior can hold
his footing.
- Dead bodies dont float in water they just sink..granted they are weighted
down by armour and spent weaponry but some should float such as when you
kill a SCRAG
- When a dead carcass lies on a lift (even if most of it is off it) it
still gets taken up with the lift and looks horribly transected within
the floor. Should it not be cut up at least?! Soo many little extras
missing.
- When you kill an enemy or player from above and their body is right near the
edge where their carcass collapses should it not fall down as it did in
DOOM? This is gravity which QUAKE actually has. Adds tremendous colour
and flair to a game! Little extras go along way to overall immersion!
- When you kill an enemy should not sometimes their weapon be dislodged from
their hands? All the time when a carcass is intact the enemy is still
holding on to their weapon. HEXEN did a great job of making hand held
weapons fly off enemies when they died violently! Please reproduce
this unpredictable event!
- Splashing effect when objects such as dead carcasses/rocket/grenade/
bullets fall in water. Hope this gets implemented as again this was a
damn fine extra in DUKE NUKEM 3D! Is it also possible to have large
splash effects when whole body parts fall in the water? Sorta ripple
effects?!
- Explosions.. or lack there of need vast improvements as the grenade/rocket
detonations are once again a pixel bash! Hate to say this but look to DUKE
NUKEM 3D for digital pyrotechnics done very well! BTW: Having MASS
EXPLOSIONS like in DUKE NUKEM 3D added tremendous flair and comedy
to the battle.. we need to see this in QUAKE as it is an engine that
would be SUPERB with such displays killing many opponents!
- When in a dark corridor/room your Muzzel Blast should light up the entire
surrounding darkness for a split second! Currently it just flashes a
minor glow locally. Its a step but it needs to be more realistic!
- Any future QUAKE upgrades planned to include the great DUKE NUKEM
3D feature of leaving bullet marks and wall blood stains caused by
shotgun/repeater discharges hitting other people??!
- Any future QUAKE upgrades planned to include breaking of lights (to
purposefully darken areas to hide/ambush) or cracking glass to find
secrets?!
- Any future QUAKE upgrades to include the **ABSOLUTELY UTOPIAN
ABILITY** to fire at any wall, door, lift, etc etc and be able to
knock a hole or cut a chunk from it (within reason?!).. Golly..
The Day 3D virtual shootem ups do this is the day I go to Disneyland!!
- Any future QUAKE upgrades to allow the LONG AWAITED feature of being
able to look into or out of water? A framerate determinant but
remember there was talk wayy back that QUAKE would have this! Oh well..
- Wind effects planned like in HERETIC and HEXEN?
- Climatic effects like FOG (done quite well in HEXEN!), Rain or Snow (no
3D game has done this properly...still waiting), Earthquake (HEXEN again),
Thunder and Lightning (HEXEN did a good job here again).
- While Dynamic Lighting and Light Sourcing are implemented are we also
going to see SHADOWS? Heard this was going to be a late addition and
would be a unbelievably tremendous ACHIEVEMENT.
- Enemies stand out too much against the environment! In DOOM the
baddies LOOKED like they belonged there - they melded with the environs
but in QUAKE SW they look out of place. They move too rigidly and look
as if they arent even walking on the floor. They need more FRAMES OF
ANIMATIONS to look more fluid and should blend in more with the
absolutely gorgeous landscape!
- **Major Bug** that when an explosion or a lava rock occurs near the
outside wall of another opposing room its light source is there!
** PLEASE iD FIX THIS!!!! ** Can stand seeing parts of an explosion bleeding
through a wall where it shouldnt be.
Movement
--------
- Enemies need to look up/Down more as when they fire up/down to get me they
are still looking forward! This is very noticable but it may be too much to
ask iD to incorporate the extra frames of animation for baddies to point
their guns and faces up or down?! Maybe in a future engine upgrade?!
- The Swimming aspect to the game needs slight tweaking not really for the
player himself but when baddies enter the water they either just sink or
float as if not hindered by water (that is unless the SCRAG is designed for
optimal submarine abilities would be a niffy plus for it!!?!)
- Jumping needs serious correction as it should be more like HEXEN! Very
annoying trying to make jumps that should be a simply hop.
- Crawling... very surprised this was excluded considering most 3D games have
this. Lest I mention how useful it would be to crawl to dodge rockets, find
secrets or avoid wall traps!
- Flight to be included in QUAKE final? Will Jetpack include exhaust? Little
extras go a long way adding ambience and realism to the larger scope!
- Possible to have a full 180 degree up/down movement like in Terminator:
Future Shock as when shooting people above you in QUAKE it doesnt fire
perfectly 90 degrees straight up.
- I think we need a USE button which was the spacebar in DOOM as at least
it adds some interactivity and plus why subdue chemistry that already
worked? Simply banging into a wall switch seems too convienent.
Is QUAKE perhaps slipping backward to more Spoon-fed combat even further
than DOOM?! Perish the thought!
- Enemies should have a recoil effect when they fire their own weapons
especially high-powered ones.
- When you hit an enemy hard how about they get thrown back too like when
they hit us hard?!
- Ability of the player to tumble forward or roll sideways to quickly
avoid incoming threats? Is this truely possible? Sincerely, this would
be simply amazing to do this and again is LONG AWAITED UPON.
- Somewhat of a bug! Noticed during a 16-player deathmatch that if I
fire a rocket right infront of someone standing next to me I dont
suffer much damage while the target is incinerated! I think as in DOOM
when a rocket explodes nearby whomever launched it should suffer 6/10ths
the damage of the intended target. Hate seeing people kill me with a
rocket while they were literally beside me and not even get killed.
Weapons
-------
- *** PLEASE oh PLEASE ohh Please make QUAKE the first game ever that
when you pick up or change weapons on yourself people CAN SEE WHAT
you are carrying!!!!!!!!!!! Bin waiting for 3 years for this as no
other game has ever done this yet!! Some people may say "Whats the
point?" Point is that its TIME FOR A CHANGE and the technology should
be there to do it! Plus WHY NOT?! I hate not knowing what weapon others
have even if it is for a flash before I die.
- Axe is the first weapon in any game you actually see the player using!!
- Shotguns dont feel like your cocking them.. should go back to DOOM-style
- Super Nailgun looks too Polygon-ish where Nail Gun looks damn fine IMHO.
Also this damn thing has such a small kill zone. Have to be on a real
hot fast server to be able to aim this thing as it requires close to
pinpoint accuracy. Guess this is what we call a Sniper's Chaingun! :)
Otherwise, no real major quam about the SuperNailgun.
- Grenade and Rocket Launchers need revamping especially the pixelfest that
is the exploding grenade! Further, their blast radius is extremely small.
This needs major increasing as well as more secondary explosions would
add colour to mundane and mono-visual pyrotechnics.
- Grenade Launcher should have a variable range.. maybe someone will also
design regular and napalm grenades like in STRIFE... Quite damn niffy!
- Lightning Gun is AWEFUL! Weapon graphic is fine but the beam it emits
is horrible and has no palette like the SHAMBLER's Lightning attack.
Needs tremendous amount of work. BTW: When the Lightning bolt hits
the water should it not cause little blue streaks all around the water?
Perhaps all the water should glow a light blue?
- Lightning Gun is TOTALLY UNFAIR! Accidentally fire it underwater no
matter how much armour/health you have and your'e vapourfest! Dumb! Plus
in Deathmatch killed 7 people in 3 seconds by simply spraying it into
a crowd! Oh the Humanity of a lack of weapon variety!
- Impact blasts from Shotgun look like an airplane just dropped CHAFF! Hell..
even DOOM's shotgun impact against a wall looks waayyyy better.
- Muzzel Blast when seen from your buddy looks too small! Compared it to a
little roman candle. If possible, please make it more pronounced!
-MORE WEAPONS would definately be nice! Now that we have seen them all
there isnt any surprises left.. Need a BFG9000-type Mega Cannon!!!
-WEAPON IDEAS - TRIPLE-BARELLED SHOTGUN, FLAMETHROWER, FLOOR-DROPPED
SENSOR MINES, EXPLOSIVE-TIPPED SINGE BARELLED SHOTGUN
(remember Van Damme's movie HARD TARGET?),
EARTHSHAKER DEVICE (shakes entire area around device
which paralizes anything for 10 seconds)..etc..etc..
Multiplayer Issues
------------------
- Inability during Coop Multiplay to see your buddy's view?
Please tell me: WHAT IS UP WITH THAT?!?!!? You cant implement this
even though every other game has?! What are you guys at iD thinking??!
- In Deathmatch Team mode will you be able to view your team mates' view?
- Will the option be available to enter a networked game simply as an
observer?
- Built In Randomizer during Deathmatch that will place weapons, ammo
packs, health, and power icons in random locations.
--STILL WAITING FOR THIS to add tremendous variety during a Fragfest!--
- Plan to majorly OPTIMIZE Internet Quake server speeds and allow acceptable
refreshes using TCP/IP for us with only modems to dialup to? KALI royally
bites hard and with Cable modem coming this Fall will QUAKE lead the way?!
- Ability (as promised) to move from one Quake Server to another linked
by a SlipGate. Question is: How will this be handled in Deathmatch for
us with limited bandwidth twisted-pair analog converters (modems)?
Considering each server linked in the global Quake grid may have its
own customized Quake Deathmatch levels and this map data will have to
be piped to all 8-16 participants. Could this be possible?
Miscellaneous
-------------
-Probably one of the greatest disappointments in QUAKE was that your
first person perspective view of your gun is NOT where it actually is
in relation to your body and how others see you! Its still DOOM!
More and more I play QUAKE the more I think I'm simply playing a
glorified DOOM with 6DOF, true 3D, amazing landscapes, and wicked
network support but nothing else that DUKE NUKEM 3D couldnt draw
me back to and make me want to play it then QUAKE.
-The end of MAP MODE: TRUELY STUPID and short sighted! Who ever decided
to have this excluded forget that its an industry standard to have it
and any deviation only detracts from the game. Plus why remove
something that was good for a game anyways?!?!
-STATUS BAR? That isnt the official final look of our beloved Status Bar is
it? Frankly it LOOKS AWEFUL! Please make major changes to it.
Also can we please have a Half Status bar like in DUKE NUKEM 3D where Health,
Ammo, and Armour are semi-transparent fonts on the background?
-Please include an indicator on the STATUS BAR as to "How much air we have
to breath Underwater."
-INVENTORY SYSTEM like in HERETIC/HEXEN/STRIFE? Please dont tell us you're
regressing backward?!?! I dont want to pick up a POWER ICON then have
to run to the area of battle just before it runs out. PLEASE HAVE IT SO
WE CAN CHOOSE WHEN TO USE IT or have it a Game option perhaps?!
- POWER ICONS.. Generally I think their fine but what about ones that can:
o Player speed increases 2x
o Player's weapon reload speed increases 2x
o Infrared Heat Sensor
o Morphant - makes you randomly morph into any QUAKE Enemy in the game
for 30 seconds! Again, no other game HAS EVER DONE THIS!!
Heck! Wouldnt it be interesting to become the CYBER
DEMON or Baron of Hell from DOOM?! More like a cheat..
o Translocator device that allows you to teleport up to 3 times to
random locations - good for getting out of spots but fatal if you
accidentally phase into a wall!
o JetPack
o Blackout device that can turn off all the lights in your area
making it easy to kill people (granted if you had the Heat Sensor).
Would love to see the Muzzle Blast effects in this situation!!
o Inverter device that when it hits one or more people it INVERTS
their controls thus screwing them up!
o Clone Diversion - very interesting idea similar to a Hologram but
takes it to the next step! Creates 3 holograms of yourself which not
only walk around randomly they also will fire blanks that dont hurt
anyone. This would be damn wierd to see especially during Deathmatch
to majorly confuse people!
o Randomizer Icon that spins fast so you dont know which of the above
you are getting.
There are perhaps others but these ideas are meant just for future
expansion.
- When wearing the BIOSUIT during multiplay was told you'd see yourself
wearing it but still dont see it being worn. Oh well.. little extras
can go along way...
- Extremely disappointed how sad the Non-Intro to QUAKE is..
What ever happened to the simple DOOM/HERETIC/HEXEN splash screens
where when you start up the game YOU ARE NOT FORCED to watch the
intro before starting!!??! Are we not stepping backwards?! I realize
the +MAP command disabled the intro from playing but the point was made.
Certainly one does not submit a university thesis without a nice cover
page?!!!
- Full Level, Environment, Sound, Enemy, AI, and Weapon Builders would be
extremely great! My greatest concern is that such editors/builders will
be very complex to use as it seems the editor was done on a NextStep
or Unix system then ported down.
- And now for the Greatest question summing all of the above:
How easy will it possibly be to upgrade QUAKE using QuakeC? I get
a grand feeling that many little "cottage industries" will be popping
up taking their fair stab at QuakeC trying to make more DUKE NUKEM
3Dish improvements to QUAKE. This would open up the possibility of
people with all sorts of QUAKE variations causing "Out of Synch"
errors with themselves only (hopefully) when trying to get on a
server without their own changes.
------------------------
The future of QUAKE indeed looks bright with people working with QuakeC
to include what was unrightfully removed from QUAKE to make it a more
"environmentally interactive" game with many "InGame Extras" that are
grossly missing.
QUAKE: The Game that still is becoming with the help of us all.
A shell of a Game more game engine then a finished product. The more
I play it through the more I do appreciate what iD has done but
unfortunately the subtle reminder of the DUKESTER pains me to think
that QUAKE has fallen short of the hype. A hype not yet satisfied
with many broken promises since the first unofficial FAQ files two
years previous.
All in all.. I have faith QUAKE will see major upgrades and with the
advent of QUAKE 2 now on the way (release date likely Mid-1997) which
parallels the release of what was DOOM 2, I looks like QUAKE will be
the first Game ever to be FULLY UPGRADABLE by not just the masters
themselves. Perhaps this is the greater legacy that makes the QUAKE
phenonmenon so much more interesting and exciting..
Edwin.