Diaries of a Nightmarist

[SpectrumVixen]

When I go single player, I go crazy. No, I never get much satisfaction from just nuking things on easy (its, well, too easy) or normal (harder, but still too smoothe). When I go out and hunt shambler, I hunt them on their turf - Hard and Nightmare difficulties.

Why? Why get pummeled day in, day out, with little hope of victory, when the ammo boxes seem scarce, when your stores read numbers like
20 shells, 14 nails, 2 rockets, 19 cells
and you have a whole room full of shambler, fiend, and hellknight whupass to worry about, between you and your exit to another level of such abuse...

Why? What could be the reason? What do you stand to gain, fox?

My response is simple: You have no idea. This is my shoutout to singleplayer mayhem. The shit I write in this diary of destruction will be helpful to players, new and old alike, or vaporize into obscurity like so many depleted cells and empty shotgun casings fired into the night.

[SpectrumVixen]

Know your damn guns.

I hope you are not the kind of player that thinks the rocket is best.

Indeed, one cannot deny its effectiveness against something as dangerous as another player, making the mayhem it can wreak in deathmatch games priceless.

Player vs Environment combat is not simple like that. Against a shambler, a rocket launcher is something of a curse and will do you little good. Sure, it will be effective, but how many shots must you waste? How many do they suck up before your victory? Ten? Twelve?

I'll come right out and say it. Aside the fact that you're likely to hurt YOURSELF with a rocket a LOT more than a shammy, its complete, utter, bull-headedness, and will get. you. killed.

But, then, so will running around, guns a'blazing with a supernailgun, blasting the bujezzus out of everything. sure, it'll work... but um... wheres your nails now that you've got a swarm of scrags, a shotgun, an axe, and two cells? It is a bitch to kill a scrag with a shotgun, two cells, and an axe, my friend. You have no clue.

So whats the alternative?

I find that no gun is useless, not even your basic shotgun! This is my survival rundown of the weapons at your disposal, and my suggestions on their use. Take it or leave it, kids, but this shit works.

The Axe
"Aw fuck it"
Witness the bloody glory (or is it Gory) of the humble axe. Useful, no? Its good for chopping wood, and some sense into those hell-crazed grunts, and there's a lot of sense in death.

Vs. Grunts and dogs: employ liberally. These arent all that dangerous (though at higher difficulties, they will pepper and maul the everloving crap out of you). Against one or two, the axe is optimal, so whip it out and save yourself some shells, but if you can at ALL avoid it, don't run into a group with this badboy, or you're GONNA get hurt.

Vs. Ogres: Axe vs. Chainsaw + Grenades. Aw hellfire. Actually, since ogres aren't THAT tough, its not a bad plan, just get good at dodging 'nades, and as you close the distance, expect a final nade (he was firing before you closed the distance). Once closed, you have a chainsaw to contend with, too! Dance, baby, dance. When he swings that heavy object, dance back, then dash in as he finishes to smack him some more. Simple, right?

Vs. Scrags: Patience is a virtue. They're dumb enough to follow you into a narrow passage and sacrifice their altitude, reward them with lots of choppitychop. Beware though - they shrug quickly. You have to dance with them to kill them, like an ogre, but with an ogre your dance is lazier. Scrags fire QUICK in higher difficulties and lead shots *okay*, so move, and strafe the hell out of em as quick as you can.

Vs Enforcers: Good idea, actually. They dont like axes - its too close. As long as you keep on em and dodge that damn laser, you're fine. Against a group... um... perhaps not a good idea. Circle quickly and stay close so they lead shots into each other.

Vs Fiends: Oh god, why are you doing this? Such a bad plan... Fiends are melee fucking masters, and will tear you to shreds if you try this alot. But, if you're in this position, know their tricks as well as your own. They jump (repeatedly at higher difficulties) and do their slish-slash if you stay close too long. Their pounce is rape. They're like a flying, blade-covered rocket, and you will NOT survive them. Your game plan with an axe is their weak moment - midflight. Don't touch them like that with your body, but your axe has a range, believe it or not. If you're ninja, you can slash their sides as they pass. Aside that, keep them from jumping as much as possible - let them use their wussy slish-slash attack, and dodge that as much as you can in melee. Be careful - dont dance back too far, or they'll point-blank leap, right up into your face, ker-WHAP, and if you survived, they'll have bounced off and done it again before you even had a chance to scratch your balls, boys.

Vs Hellknights - they're badass in melee and got a pretty annoying ranged attack, so my advice to you is strafe them in circles. Repeatedly. They'll die just fine. This also works GREAT against groups of these suckers, just be sure you're in an open area.

Vs. Knights - Actually, the basic knight is a bit more troublesome than the hellknight in melee - they're smaller, faster, and more numerous. Droves of these are BAD news when you've only got an axe. Dance. Dance like you've never danced before. Hack the hell out of them, fight, and dodge. Best advice. spin in circles around them to increase their pain, and know, friend, that you're faster than them and you can hit more often. Lead them through doors so you can pick off limited numbers of them at a time.

Vs. Vores - Boy, I hope you're athletic. Strafe them in circles, as fast as you freaking can, and dont suck up their boatloads of hurt. Stop, for a moment, and you're toast. Dead, fucked, canned, fired, a'sploded. Then run around in circles real fast with strafing until their attacks get bored and explode.

Vs. Shambler - This will take you a while. Dance out when he attacks, keep close so he wont try to fry you, and utilize nearby baddies as much as possible - meaning, lead his lightning or their attacks into each other.

Final diagnosis - What a world, what a world. Nothing will ruin your day like finding yourself with this as your only means of survival. Use it when you need the ammo for something else, and/or are feeling especially ninja that day.

[SpectrumVixen]

Armaments with actual ammo.

Use your guns. Each of them, all of them, every last bloody shell, nail, rocket, and cell used to the fullest potential. What is this fullest potential? Well, lets see here

First off, shotgun is basic. Its your all purpose "Im gonna hurt you now" weapon, each shell full little pellets of pain. Doesnt do much good against the horrors of quake, but guess what, kids? You have lots of it, and its common beans. Best used in mid-range combat (like with ogres and grunts).

Super-Shotgun is Shotgun's big brother. Its not better, though, than the shotgun outright, like some will have you think. When you close with an ogre, or need to smack around a shambler close up, this is your boy. It can also be used at some range as a cheap area-of-effect weapon on groups of enemies.

Nailgun: No, this is not just a wussy super nailgun. I find the Nailgun to be a weapon similar to the Battle Rifle in Halo games- you use it in long-range combat. Nails are fast and furious weapons with incredible accuracy at any range, and the nailgun can fire in pulses that render it rifle-like. This is your idyllic switch-tripper and trick-shooter weapon, and THE BEST for taking scrags down a notch. Use it accurately, in short, controlled bursts, and you will prosper with this gun.

Super Nailgun: This badboy puts out two nails a shot, just as fast as a nailgun shoots one. Wow, what a monster... and it's accurate, too. You *can* use it like a nailgun on scrags, but it eats ammo too quick, friend! Look at it go... Really, this weapon is your best bet for hosing down droves of foes as quick as you fucking can, when time spent killing is inversely proportional to your time spent dying, when taking a while is just not an option. Lots and lots of little to medium foes are humped against this weapon.

grenade launcher: What a fun weapon! Your good ol' pineapple launcher is zombie bane, friend. It'll feel like its got a broader splash than a rocket simply because it so merrily bounces around. sometimes, you KNOW someones just around a corner, waiting to slash your ass open. Dont give them the joy of it - bounce a pineapple in their face and see how they like that shit. Its also good for going ape-shit on pitfulls of demons and other such nonsense.

Rocket: Another rape-master weapon. You know this gun already - its too cool to ignore, damnit! Its uses are many, both as a tool and a weapon. Its a squad-killer weapon - used best against clusters of small foes. Efficiency is your key here with this as a weapon - dont take shots with it that just are not worth it and will hurt you (or not hurt them enough). Rocket jumping greatly expands your mobility in a fight at the cost of a little health (if you do it right), and works GREAT for raining death on foes from above, where they aren't closing distances on you. Two things though - if they're close enough to be swinging at you, you have to aim straight down at them, or there is only one or well spread out foes, DO NOT USE IT. Also, don't use it on shamblers. Just dont. I will smack the hell out of you for it - they just about ignore that weapon.

Lightning Gun: Put the fear in them. This weapon is one of THE most badass in the game, and your own, personal super-weapon. The rape is great, children, so guard and protect it - you deserve to have it when you NEED it. A humble ten cells will kill to death an entire room of grunts when you hose them down with it, and no other weapon can boast that kind of wonton destruction for so small a price. But we both know that price is not negligible - cells are relatively rare. This is your trump card, dated for their destruction, issued with love by the hand of man. Use it wisely, and please - be sure your aim is good. On a passing note, Lightning + water = BAD. I have this weapon aliased and bound to a key I call my panic button, so that when I press it, it plays a "BWAAAAH" sound as I shoop the whoop their asses. Ahma firin mah lazarr.

[Canadian*Sniper]

Vs. Shambler - This will take you a while. Dance out when he attacks, keep close so he wont try to fry you, and utilize nearby baddies as much as possible - meaning, lead his lightning or their attacks into each other.

For one of my quakeone challenges I made a quick mod where the shambler's melee attacks would have the monster leap at you similar to what a fiend does. This made shambler dancing impossible (or a lot harder) to do without taking damage.

[golden_boy]

More please.

This is your trump card, dated for their destruction, issued with love by the hand of man.

I actually think this is an alien weapon. I remember somwhere it says "Yithian". -> from the planet Yith.

I also think the shotguns and battle axe are the only human-derived weapons in the game. The ogre has a grenade launcher, and originally had a nailgun (QTest). Shaft is confirmed alien, unless I'm hugely mistaken. Leaves the rocket launcher. IMO some ogre blacksmith somewhere came up with that one. I mean, they have chainsaws.

[Senban]

The rape is great, children,

Now that's a post-modern statement if ever I heard one.

[SpectrumVixen]

Canadian - Dear sweet jesus. What is wrong with you people? lol... What an evil, brilliant idea. Alternatively, I'd make it so that one in three shamblers can do that :3 A mod that made each monster type more of a "class" - some monsters have different capabilities and ranks among their own kind - would be extremely interesting, especially if theres a large number of monster variants in each type and they're balanced carefully. I guarantee, you'd be using cover against the jumpyshambler at range rather than meeleeing them with a bloody axe anyday.

Golden_Boy - Thats an interesting thought I wasn't aware of, and you know, it does make sense considering you're not just going into a series of dungeons, but an entire alien world's militaries! Actually, I'd like to see more of this fact expressed.

Which raises an interesting point, kids :3
The axe, your most basic weapon, needs some love. I dont think it needs to do more damage, but I do think it needs some more finesse and capability added to it to make it more of a survival tool.
-Blocking. Come on, wouldnt this be sweet? A well timed block could deflect a nailtrap's shot, or bounce an ogre's grenade, in addition to providing protection from melee attacks (though big boy melees, like from shamblers and ogres, throw you a little, ogre less, shambler alot, and the fiend's jump attack is not blockable.) This raises the issue of a stamina feature. As you swing to hell with it, block, and use abilities, it costs you stamina, an attribute that regenerates, naturally :3

-Wall grappling. Check this out - swing the axe at a wall you're close enough to hit, and you'll stick the axe in a crack or something and dangle off it. Sure, it occupies the axe, but you can switch to another weapon real quick. Dangling prolly eats stamina (its hard)
I know this isnt really related to it all... but these would be additions I would feel reasonable and worthwhile, playing the game alot.

[Senban]

Which raises an interesting point, kids :3
The axe, your most basic weapon, needs some love. I dont think it needs to do more damage, but I do think it needs some more finesse and capability added to it to make it more of a survival tool.
-Blocking. Come on, wouldnt this be sweet? A well timed block could deflect a nailtrap's shot, or bounce an ogre's grenade, in addition to providing protection from melee attacks (though big boy melees, like from shamblers and ogres, throw you a little, ogre less, shambler alot, and the fiend's jump attack is not blockable.) This raises the issue of a stamina feature. As you swing to hell with it, block, and use abilities, it costs you stamina, an attribute that regenerates, naturally :3

Yeah if someone could cook up some nice blocking code (and apply it to the knights and hell knights) that would be awesome, a bit out my league, to do properly I'm afraid but I'd love to see a mod which concentrated on "melee" weapons, swords, spears, daggers, axes. Quake might not be quite the ideal platform due to only having one fire button and the difficulty of implementing a satisfactory alt-fire system, but with an engine mod or even (gasp) using a different engine you could put together something pretty cool.

[SpectrumVixen]

The Configuration

Back on topic here, let's talk configurations.

I dont know if you've noticed, but the standard 1-8 weapons selection method just doesn't cut it in a firefight. Those weapons involve you taking your hand from the movement keys (wasd in my case) to select them, and there are few things that will ruin your day faster than finding yourself with the wrong weapon on a twitch reflex.

Check this shit out:

;+mlook
echo COMBO SYSTEM 1.0 LOAD SUCCESSFUL
alias gimp1 "impulse 1; alias gweap "impulse 1""
alias gimp2 "impulse 2; alias gweap "impulse 2""
alias gimp3 "impulse 3; alias gweap "impulse 3""
alias gimp4 "impulse 4; alias gweap "impulse 4""
alias gimp5 "impulse 5; alias gweap "impulse 5""
alias gimp6 "impulse 6; alias gweap "impulse 6""
alias gimp7 "impulse 7; alias gweap "impulse 7""
alias gimp8 "impulse 8; alias gweap "impulse 8""
bind 1 gimp1
bind 2 gimp2
bind 3 gimp3
bind 4 gimp4
bind 5 gimp5
bind 6 gimp6
bind 7 gimp7
bind 8 gimp8
alias -aweap "gweap"
bind mouse2 +aweap
alias pimp1 "alias +aweap "impulse 1""
alias pimp2 "alias +aweap "impulse 2""
alias pimp3 "alias +aweap "impulse 3""
alias pimp4 "alias +aweap "impulse 4""
alias pimp5 "alias +aweap "impulse 5""
alias pimp6 "alias +aweap "impulse 6""
alias pimp7 "alias +aweap "impulse 7""
alias pimp8 "alias +aweap "impulse 8""
bind F1 "pimp1; echo Secondary Weapon: Axe"
bind F2 "pimp2; echo Secondary Weapon: Shotgun"
bind F3 "pimp3; echo Secondary Weapon: Doublebarrel"
bind F4 "pimp4; echo Secondary Weapon: Nailgun"
bind F5 "pimp5; echo Secondary Weapon: Supernailgun"
bind F6 "pimp6; echo Secondary Weapon: Grenade Launcher"
bind F7 "pimp7; echo Secondary Weapon: Rocket Launcher"
bind F8 "pimp8; echo Secondary Weapon: Lightning-gun"
alias +nails "Impulse 4; wait"
alias -nails "gweap"
alias +rock "impulse 7; wait"
alias -rock "gweap"
alias +saw "impulse 5; wait"
alias -saw "gweap"
alias +nade "impulse 6; wait"
alias -nade "gweap"
alias +shoop "impulse 8; wait"
alias -shoop "gweap"
alias +hack "impulse 1; wait"
alias -hack "gweap"
bind shift +nails
bind alt +nade
bind ctrl +rock
bind q +saw
bind tab "+shoop"
bind mouse3 +hack
bind w +forward
bind s +back
bind a +moveleft
bind d +moveright
bind c +movedown

this is the Bare Ass of my configuration file for playing quake, in other words, the general framework. Here's the rundown!

1-8 keys select your "base" weapon, the one from which you shall deviate all your attacks, your basic weapon. for this I actually suggest the humble shotgun.

F1-F8 keys select your Alternate weapon. this alt-weapon is selected by pressing the F* keys. When you press one, a message will pop up and tell you what you picked, but it will NOT switch to that weapon. When you select your alternate gun (mouse2 by default), it will switch you to this weapon, and releasing it brings you right back to the one you selected as your primary. Thank you much for the insight into the Gweap function, whoever did it!

For your alt-fire, may I suggest the doublebarreled shotgun?

Then we get into the specific weapons.

+nails selects the nailgun
+saw selects the supernailgun
+nade selects the grenade launcher
+rock selects the rocket launcher
+shoop selects the lightning gun.
and NONE of these will automatically fire the weapon.

I would suggest putting the dangerous explosive doom-machines into the CTRL and ALT keys, with +Rock and +Nade respectively. This puts them at easy reach when you need them, but hard enough that you have to move your fingers from their natural positions to reach them just half an inch or so. you'll want +rock in ctrl, mostly because it doesn't occupy your thumb then like the alt key would, so you can do rocket jumps, and alt because nade shots are a bit more... precise than rockets for cornering and stuff, and you prolly wont be bounding around like a lunatic as you pop pineapples around that corner.

shift is my +nails key. Since I use the nailgun a bit like a battle rifle, the shift key is ideally placed for easy access - you dont have to move any fingers, it can be accessed on twitch reflex. Try it - you'll like it.

I usually make a habit of binding +saw, the supernailgun, to Q. Its my panic gun, used to hose down droves of enemies with non-explosive, cheap dishes of hurt when I need them to die quick. Its easy enough to access, and my pinky can take over the movement key, but I DO NOT Forget I'm using it halfway through a firefight, since my fingers are now in a slightly uncomfortable position, important for saving your ammo from your itchy trigger finger.

+shoop often finds itself on the TAB key, where my pinky can pop up and tap it when something just needs to die. It shifts your whole hand - notice this. If you are shooping the whoop, you dont wanna be too uncomfortable - trust me, you know you're firing your lazar, but no sense being impeded - its a weapon you use in a pinch, you need to be moving as you use it.

+hack selects your axe. Why not? Its useful, right? Kill things and save ammo. now... where the hell do you put it? Mouse3, of course.

Mouse1 is assumed to be shoot, space assumed to be jump, and wasd is assumed to be forward-strafe left-back-strafe right respectively. This setup is ergonomic - just takes some getting used to.

Also, CUDDLES!

[Canadian*Sniper]

Canadian - Dear sweet jesus. What is wrong with you people? lol... What an evil, brilliant idea.

I also gave the shambler more health.

I also increased the fiends' health, leap speed, and (i think) more damage output as well as changed the zombie behavior entirely making them rush towards you (they actually charged at you at quake marine running speed) when they got close. If they touched you, you died instantly. (and this was on e3m2). They didn't throw guts at you but they were twice as resistant to anything. Grenades would only make them fall down. You needed a Quad to kill them.

Ya I pushed the difficulty scale on that challenge but I knew someone would succeed in the 2 minute speedrun. That person was Slugnut. I also received a lot of criticism from parasite (paradise)about it's difficulty >_> Thanks a lot bitch. I spend my free time making something unique and I get flamed.

I don't want to derail this thread so if you want to respond to this post, respond in this thread

http://www.quakeone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2914

[golden_boy]

axe -> 25% chance of beheading enemy. No damage increase.

my approach. Not terribly useful, so turn it into a "fun weapon".

[Senban]

axe -> 25% chance of beheading enemy. No damage increase.

my approach. Not terribly useful, so turn it into a "fun weapon".

Even if you just added an axe_death animation to each model where the head fell off, no game play change at all, just the simple old fashioned pleasure of decapitated foes. /reminiscing.

That seems right up Metch's street. Chuck it in a mod with the dismembered monsters and everyone's happy. Well everyone with a Vlad the Impaler side to their personality anyway.

[metchsteekle]

well, right now ima making some kind of mod, its actually up at qrf.mine.nu:26002

so far the biggest thing is the ssg its kind of like a shaved elephant gun, accept it takes excessivly large shells, it havs massive kick back, and theres a chance a shell will explode in it [aka it kills you, i cant get a death message to work but atm it says "shell exploded"]


...i think i spelled exploded wrong though

is in development though

im thinking it will come out to be somthin like this
http://www.videosift.com/video/FEAR-...ic-Performance


dis-co-nek-ted

[Senban]

well, right now ima making some kind of mod, its actually up at qrf.mine.nu:26002

so far the biggest thing is the ssg its kind of like a shaved elephant gun, accept it takes excessivly large shells, it havs massive kick back, and theres a chance a shell will explode in it [aka it kills you, i cant get a death message to work but atm it says "shell exploded"]


...i think i spelled exploded wrong though

is in development though

im thinking it will come out to be somthin like this
http://www.videosift.com/video/FEAR-...ic-Performance


dis-co-nek-ted

Cool! Hope it's as obnoxious and punk before it gets pulled.

[golden_boy]

nsoe has beheading, right? I don't know how they did it, I would just copy and paste one of the death animations, remove the head, and call ThrowHead() along the way.

Bit too much work for something that's just a fun effect though.