Ahh yes, the Rocker Launcher. Alot of the people at the show were saying 'the rocket is really slow, like the q2 RL''. Well I dont agree. I think it's that the gun doesnt actually FIRE the rocket untill a few miliseconds after your press fire. As soon as you shoot it does the whole 'fire animation' which I think causes a slight delay and adversly affecting the amount of lead needed to hit an enemy.

Double jumping was ok but it kinda felt like it slowed you down more than made the game faster. Ever try strafing up a small ramp or incline with double jump on? It sends you kinda high in the air (based on how fast you're going i think) but doesnt make you move faster, it almost feels like you hit an invisible jumpad that send your straight up. This can be quite annoying when trying to run from someone in that not only does it completely slow you down.. but also makes you an extremely easy target to rail whores. **note** I'm a total noob to double jumping, I never mastered it in Q2 or CPMA so I could be tottaly wrong **note**.

thx netrex - very good info.



hope they fix this - i don't like the idea of artifical delays, especially when they're implemented just to conform to animations.

*Disclaimer* This write-up is my take on Quake 4 from the 7-8 hours I played @ Quakecon. My grammar isnt pro, i'm not politically correct and I'm horridly honest about how I feel about things. I am, however, the average competetive FPS gamer and i'm really looking forward to having a great new game to play.

The overall feel of quake 4 multiplayer is very similar to quake 3.. base q3 that is. I'll be honest, after playing q4 for 3 days for about 2.5 hours a day and running around in a FFA versus random noobs who dont know how to jump, let alone strafe jump I started to grow tired of it in my final hours of play. Keep in mind though, for me (and most pro gamers) its all about competition, thats what takes any game to the next level... and there wasnt much of that at qcon. However, let this not take anything from quake4, it was only a demo of one stage in baseq4 and think about it... how much baseq3 FFA on dm1 could you take? I had a blast though, everytime i got a chance to play one of the two CTF maps they had available at qcon.. if only I could have played it longer 8[. As much as it may feel and resemble quake 3 it was surprising how hard it was for me and everyone else to get really comfortable. You'd think that if you played the same game with just updraded eye candy that you'd be able to get in, throw on some binds and feel right at home but that surely wasnt the case for quake 4, it felt the same but very differnt somehow. I couldnt find my grove, i couldnt get comfortable with the controls and just tottaly rape everyone, why? I dunno. This isnt a bad thing though, this only furthers the fact that q4 is indeed a whole brand new game, serperate from quake 3. I'll break down some of it's aspects :

Weapons :

There is ofcourse the Gauntlet, which looks like a mini-q3 gauntlet but acts just as brutal. I really liked the way it felt and handled and managed to get a ton of nice humiliations of people chasing me through a teleporter.

Then you have the Machine Gun, which is visually alot differnt from q3 but acts the same and seem to have the same rate of fire and damage. The only twist with the q4 MG is the scope mode, this mode is deadly in the hands of a good player. The MG also has a bit of recoil but it seems more like a graphical setting rather than one to affect your aim (theres probably a command to disable it, kinda like how u can disable weapon bob). I dont know if it's just me, but it seems as if the damage is increased while zoomed... in fact it was almost lame the amount of kills people (noobs, might I add) were getting using the scoped MG.

Moving on there is the Shotgun, which works like any other shotty and feels alot like the doom 3 shotty.

Q4 also features the Hyperblaster, which is nothing (atleast visually) like the q2 hyperblaster. In a nutshell all it is is a plasma rifle on crack. Higher rate of fire, smaller projectiles and even smaller splash damage (although its there). This weapon is crucial with quad damage. The projectiles also travel through teleporters.

They also brought back the Nailgun, which IMO is the funnest gun other than the RL. This gun has a fairly fast RoF that shoots fairly large nails that travel fast... but not as fast as a bullet. I like this gun because it requires to lead infront of the enemy but not to an extreme amount (like, imo, the q3 plasma). In the hands of a noob this gun is not that effective, but deadly in the hands of a pro ( or a LPB :/). This gun also has splash damage (moreso than the hyperblaster) which is kinda weird, but works well. You can nailgun climb up walls and such like the q3 plasma as well. The nails go through teleporters too.

Making another apearence is the Lightning Gun. Although is looks TOTTALY differnt it works relatively the same. The gun model itself looks good but the shaft is pretty lame. Its this thin light blue 'laser' instead of a beefy bolt of lighting. Fatal1ty's noob ass was using this weapon as if it was the only weapon on the map in his shootouts so it must be powerful with 0 ping eh?..... douche bag.

The Gernade launcher is back too. The actual gernades seem to be a bit bigger and still pack quite the punch. The RoF seems to have been increased just a bit and they take a bit longer to blow. These ofcourse go through teleporters as well... which is kinda lame when some guy just picks it up and starts spamming a portal where he know people will eventually spawn and since he's standing right on the nade launcher pick-up he has an unlimited supply of ammo.

Ahh yes, the Rocker Launcher. Alot of the people at the show were saying 'the rocket is really slow, like the q2 RL''. Well I dont agree. I think it's that the gun doesnt actually FIRE the rocket untill a few miliseconds after your press fire. As soon as you shoot it does the whole 'fire animation' which I think causes a slight delay and adversly affecting the amount of lead needed to hit an enemy. Rocket jumping is insane. It seems to do less damage to yourself than q3's RJing but also shoots you alot higher in the air. ALOT Higher. Air-rockets are still pretty easy to do too.

Egh, the Rail Gun. It definatly has a new face in q4 but acts the same. I think the RoF was increased a bit though? I cant remember.. I barely picked it up. I could never hit shit with q3's rail and I still couldnt in Q4. Sorry rail whores... but not much to report here.

Theres also a new incarnation of the BFG. I forget what it's called but when you pick it up you get one shot, It's this really huge pruple projectile that travels EXTREMELY slow and when it makes contact causes a massive explosion. I think the damage the based off how close the enemy is to the explosion. Dont worry though, it's not to the point where the weapon is lame or too overpowered. I think it's good enough that it could be used in clan play. (seriously)

Oh, there is this really cool award now though for getting a rocket/rail combo. I was playing on the CTF map and someone had just took our flag, I lead a rocket towards the jumpad because I knew thats where he was heading. It hit him mid-air and I had already switched to rail after shooting the rocket so as soon as the rocket made contact I hit him with a rail too. I couldnt hear what the announcer guy said when he announced the reward but I saw the symbol. It's just a mix of the rocket and rail ammo symbols split in half horizontally and vertically. It's a really nice touch though.

Movement :

It's hard to describe q4's movement. At first it feels like Quake 2 with the double jumping and all but towards the final moments of me playing I really got into it and it reminded me of old q3ospctf games. The maps at qcon were fairly small (they were tall, but not very big horizonally) so it was hard to pick up alot of speed at any point but you could obviously tell that strafe jumping was in and still working alot like q3's strafe system. Double jumping was ok but it kinda felt like it slowed you down more than made the game faster. Ever try strafing up a small ramp or incline with double jump on? It sends you kinda high in the air (based on how fast you're going i think) but doesnt make you move faster, it almost feels like you hit an invisible jumpad that send your straight up. This can be quite annoying when trying to run from someone in that not only does it completely slow you down.. but also makes you an extremely easy target to rail whores. **note** I'm a total noob to double jumping, I never mastered it in Q2 or CPMA so I could be tottaly wrong **note**. The one DM map that was playable at qcon had a ton of portals and jumpads as well.. so it was less about owning the movement and more about memorizing the map. This was gay for me, because I'ma speed feind when it comes to gaming especially in being a flag runner in CTF. Oh, and the air control is the same as Q3 (sorry qw'ers/cpma'ers)

Misc: **note** I'll be adding stuff here as I remember them

A new feature to q4 are custom crosshairs for each weapon, which I think is a good thing to steal from ut2k4. A callvote system comes standard as well, which works pretty damn well. CPMA-style hit-sounds were also stock. All the old rewards are back with 2 new ones (Rail/Rocket combo and some kinda ultra kill reward, I think you get it if you get 2 excellents in a row). Ammo and pick-ups now leave a 'ghostly shadow' of themselves when someone picks them up.. so if you walk past where a pick-up should be you can actually still kinda see it and wait for it to reapear if you want. The HUD is a bit a clunky and partically hard to see when you have low health.. I dont think it flashes or turns red or anything when you're dying. Your crosshair turns red when you hit someone. A decent amount of stats are available to you after ach game.. it'll give you you're accuracy per weapon and awards (and some other stuff), you can also click on other player's names and get their stats as well. Although not in the qcon demo, there seems to be some kind of in-game comms in the works.. when you look at the scoreboard evryone's name has a little volume picture beside it. Clan tags are gonna work a bit differntly too, In the player settings menu there is a 'Name' and 'Clan' category, when you put a clan name under your alias it shows up on the scoreboard and when an enemy mouse-over's you. I'm sure this also effects stats and such. Death messages now work like CS. ie.

substance [rocket launcher symbol] somenoob


The bottom line :

Q4 is gonna own. Even if raven manages to shitify (yeh, its a word.) the maps and whatever else q4 is now lacking in.. the community has the power to pick up what they fucked up. I'm confident that any blemeshes Q4 has will be easily solved by the community. We've been waiting for a good, competetive FPS to play since Q3 (not to shit on the UT series or PK for that matter) and Q4 will be that FPS.

P.S. If anyone has specific questions they want to be answered, I'd be more than happy to help.

I dunno, I like the delay and feel of the UT2003/2004 rocket. There's nothing wrong with delays.

Hope he's wrong - one of the best things about quake2 was its unique double jumping physics. Would love to see it return.

The RL doesnt have a delay, the only weapon that has a delay is the nailgun. I think he meant ramp jumping instead of double jumping.

I couldn't agree more. Q3's nearly-instant fire on the RL was what made it better than RLs in other games. You need it like that for a fast-paced game, which is what it's supposed to be. Having a delay only turns it into a spamfest, and makes it difficult to lead people.

Hope he's wrong - one of the best things about quake2 was its unique double jumping physics. Would love to see it return.

Theres some q4 movies out there that really show people getting some air with ramp jumps. I dont think i've seen it that extreme in a quake game.

Theres some q4 movies out there that really show people getting some air with ramp jumps. I dont think i've seen it that extreme in a quake game.

linkage?

No, it just means you need to have more SKILL to use it... much like in ET. Honestly, I hope they leave it in.

I'm pretty sure the air movement is the same. Ramp jumping throws people off, and it makes the game seem floaty like cpma.