Is it possible to include Green Flag functionality in Q3?

[coltonquake3]

I think should've done this earlier, but is it possible to include the Green Flag & even a 3-way CTF gametype in ? Although I think it's possible, there ARE green skins for everyone in Q3A to warrant this... That skin pack's available for download on ws.q3df.org if you're wondering...
I'm thinking the way the gametype should be done is the flags could be captured just like regular 2-way CTF, but if you're on one team, you can take both the other teams' flags & score 2 points for your team. Although it would require custom maps to work though. Would love to see what people would be thinking of this if I was gonna make a mod that did just this... Announcer sounds would have to be created. "You have the flags!", "Green leads!" and "Green scores!" to be exact. If you guys want this, I'll start on the green flag textures/shaders. EDIT: I've already finished up the green flag textures/shaders & even got the model finished too, it's a hexedited copy of the blue flag model. The green team's sounds relating to flags are copies of the blue team sounds as well.
Also, I'd like to know where the "Blue/Red Scores!" announcer sounds are in pak0 so that way I could use them as a reference for the new "Green Scores!" announcer sound I'm planning to make. EDIT: Those were in pak4. I recorded the "Green" section myself, but it's merely a prototype as of yet. If someone wants to help me out with this project, then they should go ahead & say so here in this post.

[CZghost]

You mean something like "Neutral Flag"? That was already implemented in Team Arena as one of the CTF-related team games. It's a Grey Flag, though, but the principle is the same. You have to bring the Grey Flag to opponent's base (say you're in Red Team - you have to bring Grey Flag to the Blue Flag). Is this something like you meant? For the TA Grey Flag - you can easily customize that skin, just make a new version of the flag texture (with all the effects including the pad) with white color replaced by green. Make sure to name these re-colored variations the same as the original white ones and place it in new pk3 file using the original diretories setup. Be sure that pk3 be loaded after original game packs (pak#.pk3 where # is the actual number of the pack). Very favourite and very useful is the zzzt_greenflag.pk3 scheme of naming... That way you can customize the original assets

[coltonquake3]

I meant the green flag, CZghost. If you want to see what I mean, I can send you the files shortly through PM if you wish.

[CZghost]

Go ahead

[coltonquake3]

Gimme a minute, I'll make a QL version of the green flag as well... I would LOVE to see this become a reality in QL as well, to be honest with you...

[CZghost]

Oh, I understand now You mean adding extra team I think this is something the Exccesive Plus Mod already implemented, but I'm not sure now

[coltonquake3]

Yooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu got it! And no, E+ doesn't have any new CTF/TDM teams either.

[coltonquake3]

With an extra twist CZghost: it'll also add a new gametype, 3-way CTF! Meaning it's only gonna get even more hectic around the Q3A battlefield...

[coltonquake3]

Also CZghost: PM sent.

[CZghost]

Thank you

// EDIT: After seeing I must say that these sounds are outdated and not used anymore in most recent Point Release (1.32 and 1.32c). These sounds got replaced by Team Arena's arrival in 2000 (with Q3 PR 1.27g), which just made some complex changes to the game code including these team sounds. They are now stored as voice announce messages both for Red and Blue Team. So you might want to eighter re-use these old sounds or make just new announce messages for the new Green Team. It should be the same voice with the same echo effect. Good luck with obtaining such text-to-voice software with the exactly same voice configuration...


I have Windows and most of applications here in Czech, so sorry, if something seems to be hard to understand.

The Team Arena package is actually placed in baseq3 folder (it's called pak4.pk3 and contains all these new Team sounds including the ones used by Team Arena only game modes; also funny is that the same package is also placed in missionpack folder as pak0.pk3 with additional Team Arena core files - the .qvm files). This is the Quake 3 Arena Point Release 1.27g update, released at the end of the 2000. The most recent PRs - 1.32 and 1.32c keep those new Team sounds alive...

[coltonquake3]

I saw that when I accessed the pak4.pk3. I made new ones since then. I can send you the new ones if you wish. CTF icons have now been made for the Green Team flag. I made new Green Team voiceover sounds, I could certainly use your help with them if you wish... Green Team sounds for TDM were made too, but the announcer sounds were with one of the id Software staff whom is unknown (to me at least).

[CZghost]

Okay, go ahead I'm hungry to hear that

[coltonquake3]

Already sent you that yesterday... Check your PMs... Also, you can still hear the original CTF sounds underneath these announcer sounds (just you have to listen really closely to hear them). Makes the "(team) scores!" sound pretty cool.

[CZghost]

You mean flagcapture_opponnent.wav and flagcapture_yourteam.wav right? Yes, there are sounds that can be heard pretty similar to the original ones released back in 1999. But all of them are new reworked and with new filename. All of these got reworked with the Team Arena release as Team Arena was released alongside with the 1.27g Point Release. This PR was also included in the Team Arena install. When you bought the TA CD and clicked Install, this PR got installed in your Q3 dir with the TA alongside in order to get that datadisc working. Team Arena itself installs inside missionpack folder...

In generall all of the CTF specifications with the announcement sounds got reworked. From TA release the sounds are not fixed to desired flag color or the actual team. It points flexibly to YOUR team and the OPPONENT instead, which makes the CTF game more distinguishible and you know whose flag was taken, returned or captured just by hearing the announcement not actually looking to the icons. This is much more convenient compared to previous color-fixed sounds, which were made the same for both teams, though... With the addition of Green Team this wouldn't be better. With the TA-like system it would be wonderful to play the additional Green Team

With the Green Team addition there would be TWO opponents. I think there is no need to distinguish each other opponent and thus this would make some wonderful hunt for two flags of both opponents and you should actually watch the icons again

Can't wait for the new mod be released, though

[coltonquake3]

You could help with it if you wish, CZghost. I'm also gonna need some help with this mod. I've got modified code from Spearmint to help us out. Unknown if it compiles with the new code though. I'll pass you along the zip with the files to insert in a fresh Cygwin git clone of mint-arena to see if it does soon. Anyways, to make it work, it's gonna need new custom maps. Probably starting with the stock Q3 CTF maps & adding a green base to them will definitely make for a lot of fun. 2 flags, this is gonna be interesting... Also, I made new CTF green team textures from baseq3, I'm probably also gonna do the ThreeWave textures as well soon. One of the textures has a story behind it... Maybe making the "Your team has the enemy flag!" sound use the siren sound (flagtaken_yourteam.wav) would make the situation a bit more important.

[CZghost]

I already made some green skin for my TankJr model I also made a bot for that skin If you like, I could release that skin (with the bot), though I never meant to actually release that skin as it was made only for testing purposes, if I could make custom skins I also made skin for Grunt, but it's not green I named him Simon and he wears tattoes - two on head (as his head is half-mirrored) and two on his arms (each arm wears one tattoo) Pretty dangerous guy

[coltonquake3]

I already know where a full green skin pack is, but yes, go ahead and pass it over to me, & it'll be included in the mod.

[Eraser]

You're getting yourself into level design hell I'm afraid. If you want three way CTF you'll need to build your level in some kind of triangle shape to keep it fair. This means all kinds of non-axial brushes and stuff like that.

Might actually be easier to just bite the bullet and just go for four-way CTF. Then you could build levels in a plus-shaped way.

[CZghost]

Actually I like the idea of three-way CTF with three Teams And the level could be also in a star-shaped way (like in electricity) with all the ways go through the center

[coltonquake3]

You actually get to watch the icons again making for an extremely fun experience, Eraser.

[coltonquake3]

You're getting yourself into level design hell I'm afraid. If you want three way CTF you'll need to build your level in some kind of triangle shape to keep it fair. This means all kinds of non-axial brushes and stuff like that.

Might actually be easier to just bite the bullet and just go for four-way CTF. Then you could build levels in a plus-shaped way.

Could be possible to make modified versions of the original levels for the new gametype. Just needs another base, that's all. I imagine q3ctf1 would be fast paced as hell due to the mainly horizontal nature of the level. q3ctf4 would be really fun & it'd also be hard to keep from falling in the void (it really is). Although for some reason I feel like adding the neutral team into the mix using Q3TA's neutral flag asset and the default skins...

[coltonquake3]

Welp, most of it compiles, there's only a few things left to fix...

[themuffinman]

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=50129&p=972903&hilit=Theteammod

[CZghost]

@coltonquake3: If you make entities.def available for Radiant, I could start remaking some maps for that mod

You know, that file which code looks like that

Code: Select all

////////////////////////////////
// CTF entities
////////////////////////////////

/* QUAKED ctf_flag_green (.2 .8 .2) (-16 -16 -16) (16 16 16)
angle : Angle, in which entity spawns.

======= SPAWNFLAGS =======
SUSPENDED : Item spawns hung up in air as is placed in map, doesn't fall down to the floor

======= MODEL FOR RADIANT ONLY, DO NOT MODIFY =======
model="models/flags/flag_green.md3"
*/

[coltonquake3]

I use g_flag.md3 as present in the green team stuff pk3 I sent to you earlier, CZghost. But yes, I will get to work on the entities.def. The mod also allows you to play CTF maps as TDM/DM/Tourney because the flags will no longer show up in these gametypes.