Realistic Weapons

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Realistic Weapons is a modification for Quake made by Cameron Newham on August 11, 1996. This modification adds various features to Weapons to make them more realistic and difficult to use.

Weapons are not entirely reliable within this modification, meaning that the Shotgun, Double-Barrelled Shotgun, Nailgun, and Super Nailgun can jam, while the Grenade Launcher and Rocket Launcher will explode from overuse. The player should not run into these unless they are continuously spamming their Weapon; for example this prevents campers from spamming an endless stream of grenades. Note that players with slower connections on a server will experience this mechanic less since they cannot fire fast enough to cause the Weapon to jam, Newham felt this was fairer for those players.

The over-usage mechanism is determined by a random variable combined with the time the player has been firing the Weapon. The time between each shot is averaged; if it is lower than a certain number the Weapon will fail from overuse. Stopping a half second can be enough to raise the average time and prevent a jam/explosion. A Shotgun will be jammed for 2 seconds, while a Double-Barrelled Shotgun will be jammed for 4 seconds. The time it takes to no longer be jammed will be increased if the player continues to fire the Weapon while it is jammed. The player can expect to fire the Shotgun 18 times, the Double-Barrelled Shotgun 14 times, the Grenade Launcher 12 times, and the Rocket Launcher 8 times continuously before it will fail on average.

This modification also slows down the Nailgun, Super Nailgun, and Rocket Launcher when the projectile travels through Water as it holds more resistance than air (though they are still relatively fast). The Grenade Launcher is even more severe, being able to only travel a short distance from the player's location and thus not being ideal for underwater combat. The Rocket Launcher will produce bubbles when it explodes in Water.

This modification also punishes players that hold a large number of Rockets by forcing them to move slower. The player is limited to 20 Rockets at max, but each Rocket/Grenade now does 50% greater damage to balance it out. Note that a player with 20 Rockets will be moving at an extremely slow rate, this speed decrease happens around 10 Rockets. One advantage is that the recoil is less with more Rockets in the player's possession.

In a similar manner, the player is slowed down based on the amount of Armor units they have, meaning a player with 100 or more units will not be able to jump in any practical sense.

Furthermore, all Weapons but the Thunderbolt and Axe have recoil, adding a realistic kickback from Weapons that would be shoulder-mounted in real life. While this recoil is small, it is noticeable enough that the player should be careful to not be too close to the edge of a platform. Note that the Rocket Launcher recoil, if combined with a small number of Rockets, can lead to ridiculously large Rocket Jumps.

Impulse 182 or alias "dumpr" can be used to drop a Backpack with half of the player's currently held Rockets. This can be used to decrease the player's weight and give them more speed, thus allowing them to clear jumps they otherwise would not be able to get across. Note however that the Backpack will drop on the player, meaning it will be taken immediately and thus does not function properly. The player can also get a minor speed increase (up to the default speed, this is used to speed up a player being slowed down by Rockets) if they pick up a 100 Health; it is proportional to the percentage of health above 100.

Almost all physical objects, including any projectiles, can now go through Teleporters. Note however that this feature is buggy and shall result in certain levels, such as E2M1: the Installation, crashing immediately.

1.3 - August 22, 1996

 * Impulse 180 (Alias "Help-rw") command added to provide additional help info.
 * Impulse 181 (Alias "last") can be used to determine the last player that left the server.
 * Dropping Rockets has been moved from impulse 20 to impulse 182, added alias "dumpr".
 * Impulse 183 (Alias "features-rw") lists various features of the modification.
 * Recoil now exists on all weapons but the Thunderbolt and Axe; previously it was just the Grenade Launcher and Rocket Launcher.
 * Armor now slows down the player as well, meaning players cannot really jump with Armor on.
 * Limited rockets to 20, but increased damage output. Note the scale for when Rockets starts slowing down the player has been altered as well, meaning a player with 20 Rockets is now essentially a sitting duck.
 * Nailgun and Super Nailgun can now get jammed. Note that previous releases would state that due to being gas powered, these Weapons would not be able to be jammed.

1.2 - August 20, 1996

 * Message appears on entering level to provide basic information about commands.
 * Fixed a bug where the Rocket Launcher or Grenade Launcher would not explode if teamplay was turned on, previously the screen would just flash red constantly.

1.1 - August 17, 1996

 * Name was changed from Unreliable Weapons to Realistic Weapons. Focus has changed to include more features to further the idea of realism.
 * Source was included, previous release was closed-source.
 * Parameters are more permitting than they previously were until a Weapon fails. Every Weapon can fire at least two more times, the Shotgun can fire 3 more times until it jams.
 * Added recoil to the Rocket Launcher and Grenade Launcher.
 * Added slowdown in Water and bubbles.
 * The player now moves slower and jump lower if they hold more Rockets, they can move a bit quicker if they find a 100 Health.
 * Projectiles can travel through Teleporters.
 * The player can drop Rockets by using impulse 20.

1.00 - August 11, 1996

 * Official release