Inside3D Asks #5 : What...

[Error]

[Team Xlink]

[frag.machine]

Realms of Quake (1999-2001): it was supposed to be some kind of coop only mmorpg (minus the "massive" part, when the term didn't even existed) set in a persistent version of the Quake universe, where you would collect 8 mystic artifacts spread in random places to build a super-duper-alien-ninja-zombie-pirate-robotic-magic armor (imagine the Spawn symbiont outfit and the Protoss energy shields and blades, but only much more cooler ) to fight and defeat nothing less than Quake itself. We had a custom engine (a messed version of TomazQuake cleansrc that later served as base to Q2K4) and we even had an alpha version running in a public server using stock id maps. As you may imagine by now, it was a project a bit too ambitious to only me and 3 friends (we had a kickass QC coder, but no real modelers, mappers or 2D artists; I tried to cover all this positions alone plus the engine coder role, without success).
Years later Error asked me to use the name, and since then RoQ is his mod name. I hope he manage to finish it;

place in the same map: Quake mariner, Duke Nukem, Lara Croft and Dr. Freeman. Give them lots of guns - and lots of ammo, too. Now, make hell break loose and unleash all kind of monsters in waves from different places, in a slightly less chaotic way than Super Duper Quake. Add lots of cool maps and movie level scenes (buildings and cars exploding, huge dimensional motherships ripping the space-time continuum, cats and dogs being friends...) and that's it. I know, sounds like Duke Nukem Forever . I don't know if I'll be able to deliver even a small part of what I have in mind, but I'll try my best.

[Baker]

I don't actually have an unfinished projects per se, just ones that I have to pause to wait for my skill level to increase to finish. I probably have 6-7 projects on hold for the time when I have enough knowledge to actually get the job done --- although in some cases it is time.

However, that being said on some occasions getting a new skill set has obsoleted "on pause" projects.

For example, back in 2005-2006 I had this really cool JoeQuake Launcher I made



But once you pick up engine coding, you don't need a launcher any longer ...

Likewise, I once made a fully functional mod downloader/installer prototype ()...







Likewise, there is no point in finishing that either ... I could just build it into the engine if I wanted too.

[Sajt]

Baker... do you ever play Quake? SP/Coop I mean. Or do you just like to make launchers and downloaders, make websites and guides, and play with engine coding for no apparent purpose except to post about it in the forum. It just occurred to me. You help people download and launch mods, but why?

Fortunately I know you will believe me when I say (honestly) "no offence" and that this isn't a hostile post. (It would be pretty dumb to bring up if it was.) I'm just curiooous. Maybe I bug you because you're one of those anonymous, ageless people that seem to be from another planet. Like Entar. He could be 15, or he could be a naive 40 year old, for all we know. And is he British or American? Probably American, but obviously he doesn't listen to a lot of hip hop music. As for you, I am 72% sure you're American, so don't worry about that.

[GiffE]

Uh... All of em?
I haven't released a mod since I modded for mohaa. I've never released a quake mod. Just done tons of small unreleased projects

Why I never released?
Lack of experience to finish all the parts that need done, I do as much as I can do easily for the most part then start to lose hope when the really hard shit hits the fan!

[mankrip]

What what?

Anyway, here's some:

- A Solitaire mod with SPR models for the cards, and with a camera floating around some pretty maps for the background. This mod would run on the Dreamcast, and it started as an idea to make my mom spend less time on my computer. But I've stopped working on it before doing any significant work since my other projects were more important, and because she eventually got her own computer.

- A party game like Mario Party, but with Quake monsters instead. After starting to write down some design specs I noticed how overly ambitious the whole thing would be and dropped it.

- . It's actually a TC, but oh well.

[Baker]

[Sajt]

[hondobondo]

[hondobondo]

oh yeah i did have a sdquake version where the monsters would spawn in waves, you know

weak monsters
wait
less weak monsters
wait
monsters
wait
stronger monsters
wait
strongest monsters

but for some reason i didn't like it. too slow. weapons too powerful. so i scrapped it. there might be remnants in the 2.6 patch code, or 2.7, i don't know

and i did release a few of those projects i mentioned earlier:

[r00k]

I had a rough arena mod (idea) but only coded the core components of arena gameplay (that ended up becoming ClanArenaX instead).

If anyone had a computer in the 80s you probably heard of a game called. You basically chose a monster, and put it in an arena against other monsters. Winner gets $$ for upgrades etc... not necessarily an original idea even back then, but the Quake-ish thing was to use the Quake monsters instead. Either a quake marine, a Hell Knight, a Fiend, Shambler, Scrag etc whatever. But each was to retain the physical attributes of the original game and shared abilities via bought powerup$. In 2004 someone wanted to host a CA tourney, but with specific tournament changes; disallowing players from chase camming players of other team was one feature, better stats, etc. and the mod i was tinkering with once a week became a nightly project for several months. To make matters worse the tournament never actually happened!! The guy who was going to host it bailed out!
I guess he wanted me to crap out a mod in a weekend

I never really had a name picked but Quake Monster Mash would have been fitting.

[Sajt]

This thread is pretty cool. Sometimes I hear about released mods but am too lazy to play them. In those cases, a YouTube "longplay" is wonderful. (I recall this existing for some colourful engine+qc TC a couple years ago.) Or, in the case of real games that I'll never get around to playing, I watch the speedrun on SDA to get the gist of it. Well, I'm on very limited bandwidth these days (due to supposedly remote location) so videos and such are right out. But it's fun even to read about mod ideas. It's the kind of thing that gets my own mind working.

I dug up and played one of my more fondly remembered mods (and by played, I mean loaded each of the 20 test maps in turn). Back in those days, the mod was probably supposed to be some sort of ambitious, high-concept thing that all made sense. But with those notes lost, playing it now, it just looks like a series of random, possibly drug-inspired, but regardlessly intriguing abstract adventures or "rooms". I'll find even a single brush inexplicably hanging somewhere like it's supposed to represent something, but I can't for the life of me figure out what it's supposed to be. Even a level's name (usually hinting at whatever the level was supposed to eventually turn into) can seem mysterious and intriguing.

It gave me this most excellent idea. I should create a new mod, based on all the tons of ideas from my previous more ambitious mods, taken out of context. That is, exactly how Quake itself was made. The end result should be very trippy, but since I have impeccable taste I should be able to pull it off.

Instead of trying to come up with new ideas, I'll just dig old fossils from the ground and join them into the best mutant deformed skeleton I can. I'll try to incorporate most things (weapon ideas, models, map fragments, gameplay ideas, etc.) that I find in all my old mods. Hopefully it will result in quite a trip for all of us.

I figure by now I should be wise enough to prioritize things in the right order and get some sort of one-level demo released in a relatively short period of time. I think one of the things that always stopped me before were these "high-concept" ideas, that everything was supposed to fall into place and make sense. If I throw out that idea and just make something totally stream of consciousness, forget to paint before beginning the painting, something good should come out.

Of course, these sudden sparks of inspiration have attacked me all my life, and they don't tend to last. So, I'll come back tomorrow and see if it still seems like a good idea.

[Team Xlink]

[Downsider]