Marty Stratton over at id Software has released some exciting information concerning the upcoming official Mission Pack for Quake III Arena! The Mission Pack will be developed by id Software. There's also some information about the mission pack being showed at Activision’s booth this year at Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), which will be held May 11th - 13th, 2000.

This is the first mission pack developed by id Software since the Master Levels for Doom pack. The focus of this mission pack is TEAM PLAY. Each tier consists arenas designed for teamplay along with a final tournament arena. Players will team with bots for the single player game, and with online counterparts for play over the Internet or LAN. This teamplay focus is apparent in every aspect of the game including map design, character design, user interface, additional gameplay types and AI development.

Players will be able to select from different teams, each with their own logo and skin. There will be a new male and female model, each with a number of unique heads to represent a different team member.

There will be at least 3 new game types (maybe more) in the mission pack (in addition to tournament mode and traditional CTF). Many of the game types can be played with team power-ups, which alter a players health, weapon characteristics, armor, etc. One of the team power-ups is the Doubler, which increases a players weapon damage by 2X. The power-up has no time limit and is active until the player dies - it then re-spawns in the team base.

We have included additional useable, carried items such as the Kamikaze which when detonated, gibs not only the carrier but any enemies in the massive blast radius.

Enhancing the already lethal arsenal of weapons will be a new shotgun type Nail Gun, and a proximity mine launcher, to name only a couple of the new weapons.

The user interface and menu system are being redesigned to compliment the team play focus and facilitate team awareness and communication.

Anyone who knows id, knows that the mission pack will be released when it’s done. Any other speculation about features or release dates is only that…speculation.

This is just a taste of the great stuff that is included in the mission pack. We are very excited about the game and will be releasing more information as things are finalized. We will be showing the mission pack at E3 this year, so anyone attending the show is encouraged to stop by Activision’s booth and have some fun playing the game.  

- Marty Stratton

If you're craving another exclusive screenshot, be sure to check out PlanetQuake.com!