Q3 vs Q4 Online

Post by **corpse** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 1:48 am

I've noticed when you open the game browser in Q4, most servers have "0" players.

However, when you open Q3 and go to the game browser, most of the servers have people playing.

Is this because alot of people don't have computers good enough for Q4 or is it a popularity thing?

Post by **jester!** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 1:55 am

1. Q4 being a new game.
2. Q3 being established and polished.
3. Q4 being hard to run unless you have top gear, especially considering how well Q3 now runs.
4. Sound bugs.
5. Mods for Q3.

Plenty of reasons. A bunch of people are no doubt waiting for a patch to fix some of the issues...

Post by **Denz** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 2:01 am

Quake 4 will catch up.

Post by **corpse** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 4:10 am

Hope so. It's frustrating sometimes when you cant find a server with anyone playing

Post by **jester!** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 4:31 am

Where are you? I see ppl mention that but I am in Western Canada and I can always find a server, all either West or East US...

Post by **wviperw** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 6:49 am

Though I don't want to admit it, I'm starting to believe one of, and the main reason for the lack of players to Q4 is simply the fact that this generation of gamers is not interested. It seems that they have moved on to other things (either with more supposed "depth," more "realism," or more teamplay aspects). Seems that nobody is interested in good ole' fashioned deathmatch any more, which is kind of sad.

Post by **Ground_Zero** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 6:49 am

Denz wrote:Quake 4 will catch up.

There hasn't been a quake that's sucked yet, so no worries.

Post by **ShapeShifta** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 11:33 am

If it wasn't for that r_lightdetaillevel, I wouldn't be playing Quake 4 myself. Due to the fact I am bearly running the game as it is. I think this is the case with many of the people who aren't playing, rather than people not having interest and so forth.

In a DM game, if you don't have smooth fps, you really aint gonna have a fun time playign this game.

Post by **Eraser** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 12:08 pm

Quake 3 had the advantage of being unique in that it was, except for Unreal Tournament, the only big online gaming thing. Ofcourse there were older games like Quake 2 but Q3A was, together with Unreal Tournament*, the best multiplayer experience ever. Lots of people were drawn to Quake 3 then, which gave Q3 a big community base from the start.

Currently there are so many good MP games that Q4 doesn't automatically take the top spot as MP game anymore. That, coupled with the relatively negative reviews the MP gets and the technical issues the game has, really work against it.

*) only mentioned for the sake of completeness

Post by **busetibi** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 12:13 pm

nice post Eraser.
'bout sums it up

Post by **xchaser** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 12:53 pm

between ASE and the ingame browser being broken yea its no doubt you can't find a good game to play over at the uk. I have no problems finding a game to play here in the North east USA. Most ppl playing are more of experts and pros on private servers. n00bs are just scared to play the game with these guys cuz they suck and it make the game suck when you can't win one. give it a few when the pointrelease and new mods come out.

Post by **Eraser** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 5:07 pm

busetibi wrote:nice post Eraser.
'bout sums it up

Thanks.
The worst bit is that these days, people have come to expect complex gameplay like Battlefield or Unreal Tournament's Onslaught mode. However, they label that as complex by simply looking at the feature list and thus they have no idea of how complex Quake deathmatch is. IMO it's far more complex than Battlefield when played at a decent skill level. Getting a good grip on the map and keeping on top of your opponent all the time is far more complex than remembering which tank has the biggest gun.

Post by **jester!** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 5:57 pm

Good point, but one that will never be talked about in reviews because the reviewers dont have a grasp of that kind of depth either. :icon26:

Post by **waY2Kool** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 5:58 pm

Eraser wrote:Quake 3 had the advantage of being unique in that it was, except for Unreal Tournament, the only big online gaming thing. Ofcourse there were older games like Quake 2 but Q3A was, together with Unreal Tournament*, the best multiplayer experience ever. Lots of people were drawn to Quake 3 then, which gave Q3 a big community base from the start.

Currently there are so many good MP games that Q4 doesn't automatically take the top spot as MP game anymore. That, coupled with the relatively negative reviews the MP gets and the technical issues the game has, really work against it.

*) only mentioned for the sake of completeness

exactly, i was just having a similar conversation this morning...and this is pretty much the conclusion i came to. i'm hoping it still takes off tho....i really like Q4 - SP and MP.

Post by **ensiform** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 8:09 pm

xchaser wrote:between ASE and the ingame browser being broken yea its no doubt you can't find a good game to play over at the uk. I have no problems finding a game to play here in the North east USA. Most ppl playing are more of experts and pros on private servers. n00bs are just scared to play the game with these guys cuz they suck and it make the game suck when you can't win one. give it a few when the pointrelease and new mods come out.

the ingame browser isnt as broken as say ase. at least the ingame browser shows ppl actually playing and servers that have ppl

Post by **kleeks** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 8:41 pm

Says it all there really >> http://www.game-monitor.com/GameStats/quake4/

look at slots available compared to players

Things on the other hand are not all doom and gloom - Theres other server browsers to try (kquery) - that does a reasonable job (although i have noticed it misses some from time to time), and certainly around the uk, the jolt servers are usually active (ctf or dm)

the gamemonitor site might not list the pings, or enable a direct join from the browser, but i reckon it'll see more servers than other options

So i'm hoping that once people have opened their xmas stockings and installed their new components and the holidays are out the way so the leagues can start in earnest - things will pick up

and lol i haven't even mentioned the mods that will improve the game, or patches or improved map designs - tbh it all looks rosey from here

Post by **surgeon62** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 1:48 am

Eraser wrote:The worst bit is that these days, people have come to expect complex gameplay like Battlefield or Unreal Tournament's Onslaught mode. However, they label that as complex by simply looking at the feature list and thus they have no idea of how complex Quake deathmatch is. IMO it's far more complex than Battlefield when played at a decent skill level. Getting a good grip on the map and keeping on top of your opponent all the time is far more complex than remembering which tank has the biggest gun.

I started playing deathmatch with Q3 about a year after it came out. I waited because I didn't get how deathmatch could be any fun. I finally downloaded the Q3 demo and was instantly hooked. I own many FPS games (Q2, UT, HL, UT2K4 etc...), but Q3 and Q4 are the only games I play regularly. It's mainly because I love the way you can get around. I usually only get to spend as much time playing in a week as some of you guys spend in a day (due to that pesky real life interference

), but after playing enough, I realized that I will probably still be playing some kind of Quake game years from now and still finding new things to learn. That is a good thing.

However, there are the performance issues. I don't have the best system (XP2500, 6800GT, 1GB Ram), but it's good enough for now. Considering that, if UT2K4 had Q3 movement, I would definitely spend more time on it because I get a lot better performance. (There isn't a UT2K4 mod that does this is there?

)