Answer: Team Arena has the same executable Quake III Arena, so it will only require any full retail version of Quake III Arena. It will automatically update any customer’s Quake III Arena executable to the version shipped on the Team Arena CD.


Question:  What new changes were made to the Quake3 Engine to make Team Arena? Any detailed tech info would be appreciated. 

Answer: That kind of depends on what you want to call the "engine". Overall, we’ve made a few changes here and there, but the majority of our time was spent getting the most utilization out of what was already there. We’ve got tons of new visual special effects, better shader integration, and an improved model system, but that understates what we’ve done with the UI, team communication sytems and lots of other areas. I think the results speak for themselves as evidenced by the demo and the upcoming .avi. 


Question:  If Team Arena is distributed on separate CDs for each OS, will you still be able to use the Windows CD to install Team Arena like you can with Quake 3 Arena?

Answer: The only SKU that I can say for certain as of this moment that will make it onto CD is the Windows version. Linux players will need to download binaries, and that may be required for Mac users. The data is interchangeable, just like Quake III Arena, so anyone buying the Windows CD version can run the game under Linux and Mac after downloading the appropriate binary. 


Question: Will Team Arena have it's own cdkey, and has protection been put in place?

Answer: Yes, Team Arena will have it’s own CD Key and it will work very similar to the way the Quake III Arena CD Key system works. 


Question: Will any of the existing maps be tweaked? Like being able to play the new gametypes on the old Quake3 maps?

Answer: We have a couple of surprises along those lines, but I’m not going to spoil them before Team Arena is on the shelves. 


Question: Will we receive the Dreamcast Maps on the Team Arena CD? or Will it be separate download?

Answer: The DC map pack isn’t related to Team Arena and those maps will be made available separately once they’re finished. 


Question: Will GlobalRankings be enabled by default in Team Arena? That way it won't be so damn hard to find a rankings-enabled server. I'm really looking forward to that feature, it's the only reason I ever played UT. (ngworldstats).

Answer: GlobalRankings will not be enabled in the retail release of Team Arena. We are continuing to work with the GR folks to get the support into both Team Arena and Quake III Arena.


Question: : Are there any more sounds to be in the full version such as types of voice communications?

Answer: The demo was only one map with two characters, so the retail version will have much more in the way of characters, voices, etc.


Question: Will Team Arena be utilizing skeletal animation and mesh deformation, like recent games based on the Q3 Engine, such as Elite Force?

Answer: Team Arena uses the same animation system as Quake III Arena.


Question:  I've noticed that there's at least one or two "terrain maps" (ones where there's a lot of natural outdoor terrain). How many of those can we expect to see in the final game, and how hard were they to make?

Answer: There are more clues about the Terrain Maps in an .avi that we released with IGN on Friday, December 1. This movie will definitely be worth downloading even for people who have already downloaded the demo because it shows all sorts of Team Arena goodies that aren’t in the Demo, such as additional maps and all of the powerups and holdable items. I will say this, those maps are a blast to play and I am really looking forward to playing them online once Team Arena is on store shelves.


Question: Will just the in-game menu system be scriptable, or will other aspects of the game be scriptable as well - other than the source?

Answer: We don’t use scripting in Team Arena apart from the operational aspect of the menu system. The bots are AI’s that operate without scripts.


Question: Balanced teams sizes means better teamplay. Will id Software be making Team Arena Autobalance the players in each team to prevent the typical onsided onslaught that a lot of Team Arena demo servers are proving to be?

Answer: Server admins have had the ability to use a "force join" option since Quake II was released. Team Arena incorporates this option as well as an "auto team" option for players to use when joining team games online. Server admins, and especially players, should learn to use these features when appropriate.

The most common reason why team games become unbalanced at times is because of normal player traffic. For example, in a 4-on-4 match, if 2 blue players leave the game with no one joining, the teams become unbalanced (4 red vs. 2 blue). This isn’t the red team’s fault, and randomly penalizing its’ players by arbitrarily throwing a random red team member on the blue team to balance the teams would only be aggravating. 


Question: In the Team Arena Demo, I noticed that there's a new sound when you overtake your own rockets on an accelerator pad. Is this really a newer noise or are my  ears getting old?

Answer: It’s a new doppler effect we’ve put on certain projectile weapons. Pretty cool. 


Question:  There have been recent hinting and suggestions to some of the maps being much larger and against what many thought id would say makes a bad map. Are there any particular influences or reasons that id Software chose to make these larger terrain maps? Or is that all speculation on the hinting?

Answer: We definitely have some VERY large maps in Team Arena. Again, you can check out the .avi for a sneak peek at some of them. We put them in because we think they’re a blast to play team games on (although probably pretty horrible for one-on-one tourney play ;-) 


Question:Will it be possible, as it is in Vanilla Quake 3, to use custom player models? If so, will it be possible to mix and match heads with bodies as with the OOTB models?

Answer: Yes to both. 


Question:Will Team Arena have a complete new sound track? If so, is id Software making the new music, or will they get someone like Trant Reznor or Front Line Assembly to do it again?

Answer: We have some new music and we have some music that was either used for Quake III Arena or created for Quake III Arena, but not included for one reason or another. I think all of the music is either by FLA or Sonic Mayhem.


Question:  Will there be an option to choose crosshair color? (something like osp)

Answer: All of the crosshairs are white, but we have a number of different ones from which to choose.


Question: How has the bot AI been adjusted? Will they be patient and/or pause if the situation requires it?

Answer: The bots are pretty smart. They play different styles based on what gametype they are playing, and there was significant work that went into that. They’ll even tell players on skill levels below Hardcore that they have a certain play style preference based on things such as what powerup and weapon type they have. For example, if Gammy picks up the Rocket Launcer and Doubler and the player has her assigned to offense, she might say something like "I want to be on defense". It’s then up to the player to change her orders from offense to defense, if the player so desires.

They will also ignore orders under certain "common sense" circumstances. By way of example, if they are ordered to "camp" a spot and see an enemy run by with their flag, they will temporarily abandon the "camp" order and will go on flag retrieval. They will remain on retrieval until they are either successful, they lose track of the enemy, or they are fragged. At this point they will resume camping the instructed location.

Thanks to the following people who sent in the above questions: AntiToniC, BJBlazkowitz ,BakedBeef, chiQ, Chemical Burn, DrooG, djenkinson, Gutspiller, keditok, Maverick Ryker, Postal, ReelExterminator, ScaryLion, The Evil, Xanthates, Zorten