Thread:Deathstalker666/@comment-1496755-20180827202615/@comment-3547390-20190723221559



I can understand that, loneliness in company can be worse. At least when fully by yourself you can indulge in your own world, around others you are stuck with them intruding while also having shallow interactions that make you question the purpose for them existing in your sphere. That is one thing that makes things all the worse for me, doing things in the wrong way would be so utterly destructive that it wouldn't be worth doing at all. This means just having a server with hundreds of people wouldn't be for me, the people would be far too normal and unaccepting of my unusual tendencies.

Oh, it will be quite a grandiose thing indeed to make it there, and that is one of the good parts of doing things the way I do it. Sure, you can easily play whatever, but with me it ends up becoming some big milestone as it took a lot of hours to get there. Plus I have managed to have my taste of the modern world enough to know I don't need to rush anything, I think it almost ideal I do things at a moderate and unrushed pace just so I can enjoy it at leisure instead of treating it like a job, plus it prevents me from ever hitting a more modern era where I would likely hit a million more frustrating walls and become all the more stressed, especially as I would have less to really check out (and would have to rely more on replay factor).

Note that Quake is one of the greatest choices for documentation. There are just thousands of mods and files out there, quite the collection of shovelware, and plenty of detailed mods to cover. I am mostly just touching the surface, focusing primarily on what interests me. Avenues I am not really touching include the insurmountable number of clans that have existed, servers that were hosted, and all the software used just to access MDL files. Glitches could probably be more fleshed out, it is almost so normal for levels to have a couple shell boxes falling out of the level that it becomes tiresome to cover, especially due to it meaning little in terms of gameplay. Needless to say, even with all I am doing, there is still plenty for others to excavate further. I do enough content as is without tiring myself out from routes that serve zero purpose to the overall scheme besides detailing some little piece of history. There are still plenty of console commands that could be detailed out, including all the net based ones Quakeworld added. Really, my interest is just geared towards what exists in the game proper, all the meta stuff can get tiresome. Overall though? I mostly like touching things that serve some degree of practicality today, as opposed to the history of a Quake clan that has been gone for 20 years and mostly consisted of a few people at a school in Finland. That is sort of the curse of the craze that Quake 1 had, there is just so much random stuff to sift through, and for my sanity I am still selective in comparison to a complete experience. Documenting random students in 1996 just is so tiresome that even during slow periods, I cannot be motivated to doing it. Ah well, it leaves a bunch for people that might have niche interests in Quake to do in the future. Perhaps the most uninviting thing of a Wikia is if it was 100% detailed, since then there is no way for others to really contribute, so instead I just provide a fleshed out look at maps and mods without going too insane. Thorough enough that I am trying to ensure I don't miss anything, including oddly hidden files, but not so thorough as to document things that just are tiresome to even cover. There is even a whole avenue people could focus on involving the ALIAS console command, you can essentially make lengthy scripted sequences, making such things as the zoom mechanic and a quick swapping to the Rocket Launcher to fire a single rocket before switching back.

I think Quake could be even greater for documenting than something like Doom due to all this extra meta stuff that people could focus on. The internet craze means we just had a lot of server and clans, plus the demo files which in turn resulted in the whole creation of machinima. Quake is a game with a LOT of history and avenues to really cover, so no matter how thorough I may appear to be, there is actually quite a bit out there that I don't even put much effort into. But, you know, everyone just wants to write up Armagon, DOE, and now the Episode 5 stuff. Perhaps that is one of the most insane things about Quake, it is one of the most modded games of all time with endless avenues to excavate, yet for some reason the community wants to focus on such a tiny portion of the overall grand scheme. I guess when the amount gets so daunting, people instead just jump to the creme of the crop as rated by other people, forgetting the rest that exists out there. After all, for all I just said, I am the only one who seems to do the things I do. Nobody delves into Doom shovelware for example, the only stuff people would touch for Quake would be on a nice list on Quaddicted and even then you aren't likely to find someone on Nightmare finding ways to actually beat every level and find every secret. Even if someone would delve into shovelware, the mindset is often to get through it quickly, so the people end up just rushing through without much of a completionist mindset. Needless to say, what I am doing is very rare indeed, and it gets more insane to think about all the avenues even I find overly tiresome to touch. As said, sticking to the vanilla game, I don't think we ever have had a fully concrete list of console commands due to the rather detailed (and yet at the same time almost worthless most of the time, since none really do the fun sort of things like summon enemies) nature of them all.

It is scary when you think that there are certain add-ons out there that might be too obscure to even find. For example, I cannot find anything on GameMania for Quake beyond the fact it exists. No places to buy it, no info of what was on the CD, nothing.

I am still questioning if I will document out Demo files (specifically the area I wrote about "Normal Demos", Pre-loaded feel like part of the game proper), since there are also thousands of "recordings" out there of someone playing through E1M6 or something. It probably wouldn't be too bad, just mostly recording out the videos and converting them to Youtube videos, mostly it just will become a question if the number will require a designated page (most likely as each clan seems to insist on showing that they can beat E1M6 as well). I have a collection of them on hand (note it isn't easy to get them working, since for some reason they were stored inside Windows 95 executables that require a 32-bit OS and thus a VM that can port files back and forth to the main OS), mostly I just have yet to cover them since the first ones in my lengthy list have focused on modifications I have yet to cover. Plus they just serve little practicality, I can't imagine much reason for watching some random people we don't know completing E1M6 over and over, especially without commentary or much of real interest. Maps can add playability, mods add extensions and a better cooperative experience. Skins even can add customizability for the server. But what would we do with hundreds of demo files? Would there even be an interest in them? I can't find myself seeing much purpose to them, maybe to demonstrate a mod like DemoCam, but clans completing E1M6 just seems very mundane to the point that Q2 deathmatch levels and pipebomb mods seem like golden treasures.

Expect a bit of a slowdown this week anyway, been dealing with severe lightning storms and tornado warnings. Yes, it is Heretic all over again, we just need some giant Minotaurs.

I definitely am hoping to eventually find some greater treasures for the Quake cooperative server. We definitely need more consequences for death for sure, plus we need something to add greater incentive to replay, some sort of randomizer or enemy spawner. I have imagined that due to bots being a thing and bots being just glorified monsters that there should be some way to spawn in monsters at Deathmatch spawn points, especially as some mods have proven they can work in Deathmatch (if highly unreliable). Granted, this would come with the issue of Singleplayer levels (as opposed to Supported) being unable to be used for this specific style, so adding more maps also is quite important. For full support, I would likely have two different mods, much like I did for Monster DM, so we could have one to play stuff like the Q2 levels while having another that supported Deathmatch levels (especially since such SHOULD mean that it would add playability to Multiplayer in the form of waves). Maybe Multiplayer exclusive levels would be even better so there is no goal of exiting the level, but instead surviving waves. Ideally, this mod would be open source, then I could figure out how to expand it and start adding custom enemies galore, including trying to recreate the Psionic Slug from scratch somehow.

Granted, all the above is speculation. There might even be a mod that exists for Quake that could easily do this, but existed in 2003 or so, making it thus something I am not going to be focusing on for a long time. It just is the type of mod I would really like to run into (as opposed to endless pipebomb mods). Maybe some mods that could even fix that Singleplayer spawn so it works as a Deathmatch spawn, once we get that main dream mod we could easily expand it with some more Multiplayer centric mods since then they would benefit us. There is an item randomizer for example that only works in Deathmatch. Maybe bring back permanent death (?) so that it would be a sort of survival based server, where the goal is to stay alive as long as possible or something. Even if all of this existed, I am of course not sure how well it would work or if it would make things better, but I imagine wave based would be a bit better for the simple reason that you could make it far more unpredictable and thus keep it interesting. Especially if combined with the hundreds of (currently useless) deathmatch maps. Ah well, this is all speculation for what could exist, and isn't something to be concerned with for the time being. Just more of an idea what I would be looking for as an alternative to the normal cooperative server, which primarily would be enhanced with extended difficulty.

Needless to say, for all I have been covering for 1996, expect quite a bit more. The excavation is far from being done, even with the one corner I am currently working on. I have a collection of archived links which in turn store more files, plus plenty more shovelware CDs which probably offer a lot of similar stuff while having some different. Note it gets a lot faster once we get through a giant one like I am doing right now, since I can skip over what has already been done or quickly document it out if it just is some slight changes. So this means the Aftershock Toolbox stuff already has cut down on the amount I had to do here, of course the project I am working on is so massive that it is pretty much a drop in the bucket (it is easily the largest collection of content I have yet to cover, so thus why it has been so long and daunting, but this was intentionally done to get a much greater picture of the content available in 1996 before we start sifting and looking for more specific files). So yes, it is pretty meticulous all told. My goal with documenting all of this has been to do it with a high level of detail while also being thorough in the hopes of not missing anything. So easy to pass off a file that seems to serve little purpose, but actually can be converted out through some ambiguous means to a test level.

As said, most of the changes are all Multiplayer centric, so don't expect anything grandiose at all. 1.05a was a basic fix just because 1.05 was pretty broken, Backpacks could actually remove all your weapons when you touched them! There was a big change in regards to Cell ammo, 1.05 was the version where it changed from 200 to 100 maximum. It also made that Shub-Niggurath exit feature totally worthless, the reason it was made was because in Quake 1.01 you couldn't go anywhere from the final level, while 1.05 fixed that mechanic. Both are so old that the only links that really exist are those saved by the Wayback Machine. Thank goodness for references to old links and the old links having their files being backed up.


 * 1.05
 * 1.05a

TES does have a degree of scaling in each game, but the problem is that you can eventually hit a point where you outlevel things and end up feeling too powerful for the world. This would be most notable in Morrowind, once you know how to play you will end up getting so overpowered that it becomes boring, you need to fight the game at every point if you want to avoid that fate. Also, the more modern Elder Scrolls make Thieves more powerful... Skyrim is pretty much infamous for how overpowered the stealth mechanics are. Arena/Daggerfall had much better scaling systems in a way outside of Oblivion, but Oblivion was so controversial that most absolutely hate it, because it goes against the power fantasy mindset.

To play Oblivion, the game mindset is often "See that rat? Well, kill it and it will get even harder to kill future rats!". It is pretty much an inverse to every normal leveling system, you don't get stronger, the enemies do and so you can end up in some pretty masochist situations. Out of the ES titles, Oblivion was definitely the best mechanically, the only real issue I had was the infamous level of instability. When modding the game (vanilla isn't too bad), the game often just breaks apart at the seams to the point that you experience CTDs more often than you actually play. Skyrim is notably better here and is one reason to generally touch that, but it can be a lot more of a pain to get working, especially due to the lack of legality off Steam (which is a nightmare and destroys stability) and the newer SE. Skyrim has two versions, one made in 2011 and one just recently released called SE which is just an overhauled 64-bit engine. Great for vanilla, but for mods you end up needing to convert them to the newer engine. Note it is very rare that someone makes a new mod, it is all conversions being done, and they are often left in early alpha states if converted at all. Essentially, SE provides greater stability, but then you remove that stability with a bunch of unstable mods that were made for an older engine, while being unable to touch many mods that weren't converted because the author just hated the mindset of SE (forced update every time the DLC store updates, totally breaking the engine). Needless to say, as sketchy as it may be, the best way to play Skyrim in 2019 seems to be to pirate the older version to get it totally disconnected from DRM, then use that to get your mod collection. Also, stay away from Death Alternative, for such a popular mod it is also unstable to the point that it causes people to constantly crash.

Simple mistake, I was thinking shareware when I said shovelware, I was rushing to get to guitar lessons when I wrote that. Truthfully, it isn't exactly wrong either, since the shareware release can often find its way onto shovelware collections. This means that 1.01 can technically be shovelware.

EDIT: The server finally has the Rotfish glitch fix included since I ran across one finally. Surprising how long it took. Apparently, 2,000 Wikia pages...

In other news, the room in the screenshot looks a bit familiar. I found a program that allows you to convert Doom PWADs to Quake maps, something that was allegedly impossible to do. Now, the main issue with this conversion mechanic is that it is rather... unreliable. Many maps such as E1M1 have areas where you can just fall through the level, or like E1M2 has a wall too short to fit through. There are also levels impossible to convert, such as E1M8. There are also maps which can just fail with some errors, usually large scale maps like E1M6. E2M9 works well pretty well, mainly because it is two rooms. Even if the level works, lighting can be a problem. Don't light your level, it will be extremely bright, thus feeling unnatural. Light it up, you will realize just how drastic Quake vs Doom lighting is, Quake lights travel a much shorter range than Doom lighting.

The biggest issue with conversions? Radioactive Containers were never made to exist in large clusters like the barrels in Doom. Almost every explosion results in the game just crashing.