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Cool #9
Cool #9
Joined: 01 Dec 2000
Posts: 44131
PostPosted: 02-10-2005 04:04 AM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


How can I change my name color?

When typing your name into the console, enter a caret: ^ (by holding down the SHIFT key, and pressing number 6 on the top row) and then a number between 1 and 7. The caret will disappear, and now all the text you type will be in a different colour. You can switch colors as often as you like. When you press return, the name is saved into your Quake 3 config so u only have to type it once.

The color codes are as follows
^1 = Red
^2 = Green
^3 = Yellow
^4 = Blue
^5 = Light Blue
^6 = Magenta
^7 = White

The same color codes can also be used to color chat text


How can I make my text blink or fade?

These are features of OSP. OSP knows an additional number of ^ controls next to the standard colors. Here's a list of the OSP controls:

^B or ^b = this makes your text blink
^F = only makes the text visible the 1st half of a second
^f = only makes the text visible the 2nd half of a second
^X[rrggbb] = Gives the text a colored shadow. Replace [rrggbb] with the hex value of the desired color. Example: ^XFF0000 is red and ^X777777 is some kind of grey.
^N = This resets all the ^ controls, making the text behind it look like normal again


How can I change my rail effect style?

Since the 1.30 Point Release of Q3, there are two differend possible appearances of the Railgun's trail. The first appearance is the old "laser" style trail:
Image

New, since 1.30 is the Quake2-ish style with an added spiral effect:
Image

You can choose for a differend appearance with the cg_oldrail variable through the console (see topic "Console: Using and finding" for more info on the console). Setting cg_oldrail to 1 will make the trail appear in the old style, setting it to 0 will make the trail appear in the new spiral style.


How can I change my rail color?

In the player setup menu under effects you have a slide of colours, choose any colour from the selection and it will become the colour of the trails that come out of your rail. To change the color of the spiral trail effect (see topic "How can I change my rail effect style?") and the little spot the railgun trail leaves behind on a wall you must set the variable color2 to the color of your preference using the console (see topic "Console: Using and finding" for more info on the console). You can not change this color through the menu. The colors you can assign to color2 are as follows:

\color2 1 sets the color to Blue.
\color2 2 sets the color to Green.
\color2 3 sets the color to Light Blue.
\color2 4 sets the color to Red.
\color2 5 sets the color to Magenta.
\color2 6 sets the color to Yellow.
\color2 7 sets the color to White.

The laser trail color can also be changed in the same fashion using the color1 variable instead of color2.


Armor & Damage

The color of the armor represents how much you get and it always absorbs 2/3 of the damage. Yellow = 50, Red = 100, (Green) shards = 5. When you get shot, Quake3 takes the damage done and multiplies it by 2/3 (Some damages: Rail=100, Rocket=100(max), Shotgun=115(max)) This amount is taken off your armor, then the rest is taken off your health.
If your armor is insufficient to cover the 'debt' the leftover comes out of your health: "Armor damaged first, up to 66% of the power of the shot, then the remaining taken off your health. Which means you must have at least 34 health and 67 armor to survive a rail. For every point of health you have above 34, you may have 1 point less of armor and you will live. (44H,57A=OK but 33H,200A=Dead)
It is only if there is a suitable large health debt (i.e. you have 20 health and the remaining power of a rail that hits you is worth 80) that you will gib (turn into bones, blood and beefburgers) otherwise you just flop on the floor.

Your health is represented by the number in the center bottom of the screen, next to the icon of your own head. Your armor is represented by the number in the right bottom of the screen, next to the icon of the armor.


Ammo & Weapons

At the bottom left there is a number with a symbol or ammobox icon next to it. This icon indicates what weapon you currently have in your hands, and the number next to it is the amount of ammo you have for that weapon. If you run out of ammo for a certain weapon, you will automatically switch to the next one. You cannot use the weapon without ammo until you pick up additional ammo for it (by picking up an ammobox for the required type of ammo or by picking up another one of the same weapon, as picking up a weapon adds ammo as well). The differend ammo types are recognizable by the color of the box and the icon on the box itself. If you completely run out of ammo, you will automatically switch to the gauntlet. This weapon uses no ammo, but only deals damage to your opponents by holding down the fire button, and walking up to someone else to deal a powerful blow.
Here's a list of the differend ammo types:

Bullets. Used for the Machinegun (MG). Represented by yellow ammo boxes.
Shells. Used for the Shotgun (SG). Represented by orange ammo boxes.
Grenades. Used for the Grenade Launcher (GL). Represented by green ammo boxes.
Rockets. used for the Rocket Launcher (RL). Represented by red ammo boxes.
Lightning. Used for the Lightninggun (LG). Represented by brown ammo boxes.
Slugs. Used for the Railgun (RG). Represented by light green ammo boxes.
Cells. Used for the Plasmagun (PG). Represented by magenta ammo boxes.
BFG Ammo. Used for the BFG10K (BFG). Represented by blue ammo boxes.


What is a Pure Server?

A pure server is a cheat-avoidance mechanism. When you connect to a pure server you cannot use any modifications to your own Quake 3 distribution, that the server is not running also.

Example:
If you have a really cool new skin, but the server doesn't, and it's pure, then you cant use this skin either. If the server has the skin, and is set to pure, and you have this skin, then you CAN use it.

In this sense a pure server is not a server that is only running the default files supplied by ID. As a cheat avoidance mechanism it is hoped that the server admins out there dont run modifications like an AIMBOT (you point, it shoots for you, you get good accuracy and a ludicrous amount of kills with the railgun, but whats the point of playing shoot-em-up game where you dont do any shooting? Its cheating of the most pathetic kind.


Chatting In Game

There are 4 talk commands available:
  • /say (words)
  • /say_team (words)
  • /tell_target (words)
  • /tell_attacker (words)
They should all be pretty obvious, if not here is a rundown: SAY tells everyone the (words) you wrote, SAY_TEAM sends the message to your team only, TELL_TARGET says something to the person you last sighted your gun on and TELL_ATTACKER says something to the last person who shot you.

Binding to a key through the console:

/bind KEY "CHAT words, words and more words etc"
replace KEY with a valid key replace CHAT with the chat command note that the quotes start before the chat command and finish at the end of the message.


Maps: Installing and Using

Maps come as one of 3 kinds of files:
  • a .bsp - a raw map file
  • a .pk3 - a .bsp file inside a zipfile with a .pk3 extension
  • a .zip - a zipfile containing the .bsp, .map or .pk3
Okay. If you have a ZIP file, open it up. Inside there is usually a readme.txt for you to read and a .pk3 file that contains the map.
If you have a pk3 file inside the ZIP, then the pk3 needs to go into the BASEQ3\ directory, alongside your pak0.pk3 and others.
If you have a .bsp (and/or a .aas/.map file, aas = a representation of the map for the bots to use) then this bsp (+ aas/map) file needs to go inside a directory called "maps" inside your baseq3 directory. Note that your pk3/bsp/aas/map files should NOT have any CAPITAL LETTERS in them, or they wont be detected by the game.

Playing The Map:
If the map was installed as pk3, it usually will show up in the map selection menu in Quake3. Go to the single player menu, and click on the "skirmish" button there. You now get a list of available maps and your newly installed map should be there in the list. Note that maps will only appear if they are compatible with the currently selected gametype at the bottom of the screen. Naturally, a Capture the Flag map won't show up if you have Free For All selected as gametype to play.

If your new map doesn't show up in the menu then that means it needs either one of three things:
  • The UIArena modification, that adds maps to menus even if they have no descriptive textfile associated with them.
  • A description file that the game uses, called arenas.txt, found inside the scripts directory inside BASEQ3, or inside a directory called scripts, inside the LAST PAKFILE TO BE LOADED (alphabetical order)
  • A description file called mapname.arena (mapname = the name of the map), also found in the scripts directory of a BASEQ3 or pk3 file. (recommended)
additionally, the map needs a .jpg file with the same name as the bsp (so q3dm7.bsp would need q3dm7.jpg). This jpg should go into a directory called "levelshots" inside the baseq3 folder.

It is not recommended that you edit your pak0.pk3
It is not recommended that you edit arenas.txt;

Good map makers organise their pk3 files correctly and include a .arena file. It takes about 2 minutes extra work.. (if they havent done it I doubt their map is very good).

Creating an arena file is very simple. An arena file is a simple text file with the following structure:

{
map "mymap"
bots "sarge klesk major"
longname "My Own Map"
fraglimit 20
type "ffa team ctf tourney"
}


The above example is for a map with the filename "mymap.bsp". You can add or remove names of bots at your own discretion, and you can also remove gametypes (behind type) if the map isn't compatible with those. Save the file with an .arena extension (make sure it isn't .txt) and put it in a directory called "scripts" inside your baseq3 folder or a pk3 file.

Alternatively, a map can also be loaded through the console (see topic "Console: Using and finding" for more info on the console) using the map command. Enter map MAPNAME in the console where MAPNAME should be replaced by the name of the .bsp file (often located inside the pk3).

Example:
If you wish to load the "Temple of Retribution" map (q3dm7.bsp) then you should enter \map q3dm7. Use devmap instead of map if you want cheats to be enabled.


Skins: Installing and Using

Before explaining how to use skins and models, I'll shortly explain the difference between the two. Models are 3-Dimensional (animated) objects. The model can be compared to the bones and muscles in your body. This defines the raw shape of your body.

A model also needs a texture to be drawn over it, otherwise a model has only one single color and no detail at all. This texture is called a 'skin'. The name is obvious as this skin can be compared to the skin around your body and the clothes you wear. Everything that is outside of your own body and which cannot be modeled can be made visual with a skin. Thus understand that a model and a skin are not the same. There can be differend skins for one model, but a skin will only fit one model. So skins and models are not completely interchangable.

Most skins and models come in .PK3 files. Often these .PK3 files are put in a zip file. To install the skin or model, simply unzip the .PK3 file into the baseq3\ folder located in your Quake 3 Arena installation folder (default is c:\program files\quake III arena. You will often find that you can download skins for existing models without the original model being included in the package. If the model that the skin was made for is not an original model that came with the game, then you will probably need to download the model the skin was made for as well. Models, on the other hand, always come with one or more skins since a model without a skin is useless (usually the only skin included are just a default skin and a red and blue variant for Capture the Flag and Team Deathmatch games)

When Now there are 2 ways to select the new model/skin. First way is through the player menu. If the modeller/skinner set up his .PK3 correctly, it should now appear somewhere in the playermodel selection menu (setup->player->model). Select the new model/skin of your choice and you're set. However, selecting your model through the playermodel menu only sets up the model you will use in 'Free For All' or 'Tournament' games. If you connect to a 'Capture the Flag' or 'Team Deathmatch' server you will notice you are still the default Sarge model.

The model used in teamgames cannot be changed through the menu, so this has to be done through the console (see topic "Console: Using and finding" for more info on the console). There are four differend commands to change the currently selected model/skin:
  • model. This command is used to change the body of your character (thus not the head) for FFA and Tourney games.
  • headmodel. This command is used to change the head of your character for FFA and Tourney games.
  • team_model. This command is used to change the body of your character for CTF, TDM and other team games.
  • team_headmodel. This command is used to change the head of your character for CTF, TDM and other team games.

These commands are always followed by "MODEL/SKIN" where model is the name of the model, and SKIN is the name of the skin.

Example:
If I wanted to use the Razor model with the Patriot skin, I'd enter \model razor/patriot.
If I don't like Patriot's head and think Visor looks better on Patriot's body, I'd enter \headmodel visor/default
If I wanted to use the Hunter model for teamgames, I'd enter \team_model hunter/default

Note that if you wish to use the "default" skin, you can remove the /default part since Q3 will automatically search for the skin named "default" for the selected model.

Also note that if you connect to a pure server using a model that is not on the server itself, you will revert to using the default Sarge model (see topic "What is a Pure Server?" for more info).


Mods: Installing and Using

Get the latest patch for Q3A, as there is a mods menu that loads mods in for you rather than havng to use shortcuts and console commands.

Now, download your mod. It will likely be a zipfile containing the PK3 (data file) and a load of readmes and maybe a few config files. All these files are to be placed in a subfolder under your Quake3 installation folder (default is c:\program files\quake III arena). Usually the mod author set the zip file up so that if you unzip the entire file into your Q3 folder all is set up and ready for play. Do make sure you recurse the folders inside the zip. If the mod author did not do this, you will have to create a directory inside your Q3 folder first, and unzip the files to there.

If you do want to create your own shortcuts on your desktop or start menu which automatically start up Q3 with a mod loaded, add +set fs_game MODDIR to the startup command. Replace MODDIR with the foldername the mod's files are in.

Example:
If I want a shortcut to OSP, and I have Q3 installed to c:\program files\quake III arena the shortcut startup command would look like this:

c:\games\quake III arena\quake3.exe +set fs_game osp

Note that the fs_game command cannot be used while Q3 is already loaded. Use the mods menu then instead.




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Cool #9
Cool #9
Joined: 01 Dec 2000
Posts: 44131
PostPosted: 02-15-2005 01:47 PM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Console: Using and Finding

"the console" is a phrase used a lot, but how is it accessed?
Press the tilde ( ~ ) key at any time in the game except during a map load. ~ key is found above TAB and to the left of number 1

What is it? What can it do?
The console is a command line type interface thing, a bit like DOS, its not DOS, its a custom command interface written by id software. The console can be used to change variables of the game or to enter commands. Every single thing that has a value one way or another can be changed through the console. The console contents can be scrolled up and down with the PAGEUP and PAGEDOWN keys. Commands you typed previously can be accessed with CURSOR_UP and CURSOR_DOWN keys. URSOR_LEFT and CURSOR_RIGHT let you go back along the string you typed and edit wrong bits. The console supports TAB COMPLETION, if you type part of a command then press TAB key the game will fill in the rest of the command. Note: if there is more than 1 possible match, all of the possibilities are displayed.

The difference between commands and variables
The difference between a command and a variable may not be clear at first, but it's quite easy to explain. A variable holds a value, whereas a command executes a certain function. For example, quit is a command. Entering \quit in the console will close Q3 and bring you back to your desktop. An example of a variable is cg_drawgun. Possible values are 0 (your gun will not be drawn) or 1 (your gun will be drawn). There are also a number of commands, often related to player movement, that are "key sensitive", meaning they act only while the key the command is assigned to is held down. The +forward command is an example of this. This command is used to let the player walk forward. While the forward key is held down, the player must walk. When the key is released, the player must stop walking. To check out how this works, just enter +forward in the console and you'll notice your character starts walking forward. He/she won't stop walking until you enter -forward in the console.

How to enter commands and change variables?
Whatever you wish to do with the console, always put a backslash or slash (\ or /) in front of what you type. Otherwise Quake3 will handle your entered text as a chat message.
To execute a command, simply enter the command and press enter. To change the value of a variable, enter the variable name followed by a space and the new value. When you hit enter the new value will be assigned to the variable. If you want to see what the current and default values of a certain variable are, enter the variable name without any value behind it and hit enter. The console will now show the current and default values.
Certain variables however will not show any immediate change. Mostly variables beginning with r_ (which are related to video settings) need a restart of the render system to be applied. To reset the render system enter vid_restart. If a variable value that needs a restart of something, you will see the pending value as "latched" when you only enter the variables name.

For a listing of Console Commands, head to Commander Keens Console Tweaking Page.


Console: Binding keys

Most primary functions (like walking, strafing, jumping, shooting) can be bound through the controls menu. However, sometimes you want to assign a certain command to a key. This can be done with the "bind" command.

Example:
I want to assign my 'W' key to walking forward. This can be done by entering

\bind w "+forward"




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Cool #9
Cool #9
Joined: 01 Dec 2000
Posts: 44131
PostPosted: 10-12-2005 11:32 PM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


wow I didn't even notice this.
Awesome work riddla :icon14:
You da man




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