Remember when you first found out Santa Claus isn't real?

[iluvquake4]

Remember when you first found out Santa Clause isn't real?

That's how Quake 4 feels.

Please fix the game id.

[Foo]

Don't go off on a spack attack.

It benefits none.

Especially don't end up getting lumped in with Jenny.

[iluvquake4]

Sorry. I'm just sad.

I've been playing id games since Wolfenstein. I remember playing Doom 2 via LAN and we rigged it to work on a BBS. Then, Quake 1 came out and we were so blown away by the polygons in a game -- everyone compared it to the Duke Nuke Em. QuakeWorld came out and the world was pure bliss .. go to school, work, hang out with GF, come home and play hours of QW FFA, Matador, or Team Fortress Classic (hehe I remember this guy's server called "I'm 12s" always packed and fun to play on). I also remember there was this hillarious Quake 1 server called BodyCount and it was on the same map all the time, but man it was so fun -- had a whole community behind it. Quake 2 came out .. didn't feel right, kept with Quake World aslong as possible. Then on Xmas Quake 3 came out. I got my bundled with UT and Quake 3. Loaded UT first .. played it for 30 minutes. Installed Quake 3 -- played it for a good 6 hours. Been hooked on Quake ever since.

As cheesy as this sounds, id games have been a part of my social life and free-time, and very therapeutic when depressed, bored, or just in-between stages in life (work, relationships, school, etc.) I always had my dependable Quake game to put me into another world, a safe place to hide and have fun.

I just want Quake 4 to be like all those experiences. I guess I'm getting overly sentimental. id games have really touched my heart and soul, I just hope they realize how many people count on them for this kind of stuff.

[GODLIKE]

Thank the gods there's CounterStrike.. to keep all these idiots from playing Quake.

[jester!]

Honestly all I can think of lately is this.

The DooM movie didnt have demons. Way to sell out id.

[busetibi]

Santas not real?????

[iluvquake4]

I just want id to know that whether they like or not, they formed a sub-culture and they are our leader. Please keep us peasants happy. What they have done in the past has had a great effect on people's lives - for the good. :icon25:

[Bueller]

Don't go off on a spack attack.

It benefits none.

Especially don't end up getting lumped in with Jenny.

I thought his question and analogy was pretty funny. Sometimes its good to see people feel the same way, without the rude language and rants. Now Jenny is another subject, but this was nowhere close.

[kleeks]

Well i must be in a minority round here, because i get the same level of enjoyment from q4 as i did q3. I generally have no problems finding a game - and after an initial erk, its not q3, am finding the game good fun.

Its true the community is fledgeling, and certainly the game has issues (and i'm not talking about bugs, more the money required to actually build a pc that plays the game at a good lick) - but I still think its worth playing, and things can only improve (/me crosses fingers)
I think its a classic half full/half empty scenario - look past the annoyances and you'll see the potential. Its true id have shot themsleves in the foot already, but that doesn't neccessarily mean good things won't come from quake4 - It'll be interesting to see how it pans out tbh.

now for santa, does this mean the tooth fairies don't exist either ??

[Goofos]

Yes, the MP is good, but the crappy netcode and sound for online play and waiting month for a few improvement or bugfixes makes it a worthless game.

[GODLIKE]

Ahhh. Nerds. Give em something to fuss about.. and away they freakin run...

Me, I'm playing Q4. Every week. And digging it.

The netcode could be better, but it's not hurting me emotionally. I'd like to see autodownload, so custom map servers have more players.. and I'd like the mp sounds tweaked so it's easier to tell which way sounds come from.. and I'd like custom players models, etc.

Overall? I think it's a great game, and a nice follow-up to Q3. I've stopped playing Q3 altogether, and only play Q4. I AM anxious about the patch, though.. and I hope it's not too much longer. (guys? Raven?)

[Bueller]

Ahhh. Nerds. Give em something to fuss about.. and away they freakin run...

Me, I'm playing Q4. Every week. And digging it.

The netcode could be better, but it's not hurting me emotionally. I'd like to see autodownload, so custom map servers have more players.. and I'd like the mp sounds tweaked so it's easier to tell which way sounds come from.. and I'd like custom players models, etc.

Overall? I think it's a great game, and a nice follow-up to Q3. I've stopped playing Q3 altogether, and only play Q4. I AM anxious about the patch, though.. and I hope it's not too much longer. (guys? Raven?)

Hell I'd just like to see players period.
Q4 1193 servers, 480 players
http://archive.gamespy.com/stats/

[iluvquake4]

If the game had MP bots that would help a lot. Most people would rather join a busy server than an empty one, even if it's just to play with bots until a real player joins.

[I cant spell u]

Q4 is kinda cool, I sold it though because it just wouldn't run good enough for netplay. So I just play Q3 or 1 if I'm in the Quake mood, but I mostly play HL2 dm.

[kleeks]

I'd like to see autodownload, so custom map servers have more players.. and I'd like the mp sounds tweaked so it's easier to tell which way sounds come from.. and I'd like custom players models, etc.

Autodl problems needn't hinder custom map servers, provided the url redirect link points to an appropiately update page with plenty of links to the custom maps required. (cheers gibba for the help in setting this up correctly) - I think the redirect is in fact a better solution than downloading straight from the server (quicker times etc etc) - X-battle has introduced a pk4 list system, so server browsers can query the required paks and hopefully link to resources that will provide them - indeed skq4 has made moves to realise this end ( http://www.sexyfraggers.com/page.php?id=4 )

I find the locational sound in q4 second to none, and have no problems whatsoever in pinpointing direction. Although tbf i have a x-fi fatality, and play with openal enabled (perhaps the problem you're having is a result of a lack of openal ?)

[GibbaTheHutt]

Yeah sounds without openal is very difficult, not even sure if its actually true stereo or just mono coming out of 2 speakers. The switch to xfi was pretty much so impressive you could see how bad the sound was on default settings.

No problem for the redirect bits, I think I redid it and people can have the code if needed just I forgot about it expecting the patch to be out (hmm yeah right!), also I redid a php server query script with it to get players/server info which people could have if someone wants to test it (just never included any html to make it look sexy) so it would no longer need qstat and would all work on just a php enabled browser.

[GODLIKE]

I'd like to see autodownload, so custom map servers have more players.. and I'd like the mp sounds tweaked so it's easier to tell which way sounds come from.. and I'd like custom players models, etc.

Autodl problems needn't hinder custom map servers, provided the url redirect link points to an appropiately update page with plenty of links to the custom maps required. (cheers gibba for the help in setting this up correctly) - I think the redirect is in fact a better solution than downloading straight from the server (quicker times etc etc) - X-battle has introduced a pk4 list system, so server browsers can query the required paks and hopefully link to resources that will provide them - indeed skq4 has made moves to realise this end ( http://www.sexyfraggers.com/page.php?id=4 )

I find the locational sound in q4 second to none, and have no problems whatsoever in pinpointing direction. Although tbf i have a x-fi fatality, and play with openal enabled (perhaps the problem you're having is a result of a lack of openal ?)

(feeling odd reading a thinking post in this thread.)

I have URL redirect set up, and it's quite clear.. nonetheless, I find that my server gets a lot of "connect & bail" hits that are not followed up by a connection to my web service; many players are simply not patient enough to be redirected to a web page and download the maps. It works well for "old school" players who actually understand saving pk4 files to a path.. But I have noticed that actual autodownload is required to keep the cannon fodder on my server.

RE: Sound .. AL is a lot better than not... But I have an Audigy 2, and even with the latest drivers, I have trouble distinguishing sound locations. I'm encouraged that it works well for you, though.. maybe I just need to putz with my settings. I'm ashamed to say I read some nerd complaints about sound location, and assumed that my issues were an actual bug... Clearly, I should have simply tried to fix it myself. :icon26:

[jester!]

I have read several claims that an X-FI is the answer to the sound problems. I have an audigy 2 and the Q3 positioning is certainly far and beyond anything I can get in Q4...

[GibbaTheHutt]

X-fi is certainly very decent. I just picked up an x-fi xtrememusic which are fairly cheap as they don't have as much ram (don't think much uses it). Not just Q4, but can tell the difference a lot in other games like BF2. Tbh probably the best music card buy I've made (even if its partly for the wrong reasons) as normally I can't tell "that" much difference.

[Bueller]

X-fi is certainly very decent. I just picked up an x-fi xtrememusic which are fairly cheap as they don't have as much ram (don't think much uses it). Not just Q4, but can tell the difference a lot in other games like BF2. Tbh probably the best music card buy I've made (even if its partly for the wrong reasons) as normally I can't tell "that" much difference.

Well I'm running a nice rig myself, get 63fps on every map but apparently I should have gotton a better sound card because I can't tell if the footsteps I'm hearing are in front, behind, to the side, above, below, or out in my back yard !

[Goofos]

X-fi is certainly very decent. I just picked up an x-fi xtrememusic which are fairly cheap as they don't have as much ram (don't think much uses it). Not just Q4, but can tell the difference a lot in other games like BF2. Tbh probably the best music card buy I've made (even if its partly for the wrong reasons) as normally I can't tell "that" much difference.

I'm sure they must implement X-Ram support in the next Patch ))

[spookmineer]

If Q4 doesn't meet your expectations (yet) why not keep on playing Q3...? I'm with you, I wish the game would rock (and it's still not too late, in opposition to some posts I see on the net). I'm still playing a game that is 6 years old (the sequel to that game was quite bad) so I kept on playing the original.

Q3 still has a large community (considering) and maybe it gets a bit "old" in gameplay (not that it's not interesting anymore, but there is little more to explore for those who have played it for years).

I'd like Q4 to be sheer fun without the little annoyances I have with it (I haven't played it for a while) so until then I'll just keep on playing my old little game.
It's not that one has to play the newest, hottest game (I'm not talking about "the money" or anything like that - and referring to how Q3 played when it was released just gets messy because opinions are divided).
If I like a game, I play it. I will try out new games and if such a game is more fun then the one I'm currently playing, it's an easy choice.

If I hear a nice song on the radio, I buy the CD. It's nice to hear some new tunes. If after a week I go back to listening my most favorite CD's does it mean the new music I bought is bad? Or do I need to get accustomed to it more? Am I rusted in my habits? Maybe new music is just nice for a change and nothing more.
Bad analogy, I know...

I keep on wondering what it is, that people feel the need to play the newest games. CS is almost the oldest thing and look at it... it's corrupt :P but there is a huge amount of people playing it... Still! (no, don't go there heheh)

To complete this far too lengthy post from someone who should have been in bed for hours, there is a long read (don't say I didn't warn you) but very interesting, innovation in games is coming to a halt.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/8/3
(right bottom there is a "next" button to the next page)
I also read the sequel to this article http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/9/4 and now I'm at a point where I forgot what my point was... Maybe my question is, what do we expect?, how much can a fps game evolve? What do we expect from a sequel, what do we expect from newer games? What was wrong with the older game...

Anyway, read it if you like, the least it will do is put things in perspective.

[iluvquake4]

The more I play Quake 4 the more I like it. The nailgun rocks. The game has a very strategic feel to it. I think once auto download is working and we get custom maps -- that fit the game and aren't Quake 3 style -- the game will pick up. CTF is very well done, from a balance point of view. Some of the FFA maps are good, the ones that copy old Quake games are not as good, which is interesting.

Anyhow, the more I play it, the more Quake 1'ish it feels -- which is a good thing -- Quake 1 is the best Quake ever (imo). You just gotta give yourself about a week to get the hang of it.