FRIEND

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FRIEND is a modification for Quake made by Jeff Epler. In 1996, this was one of the most requested features, leading to modifications such as this one. This modification comes with Rottweilers being modified to be friendly to the player, so it can be quickly tested in E1M1: the Slipgate Complex without much effort on the player's part. Friendly Monsters can be pushed as needed (they hold next to no resistance), plus will follow the player and protect them from any dangers they detect (the opponent must attack and hurt the player for a danger to be found). Note that Monsters that are friendly to the player are always loyal, even if the player attacks them repeatedly.

By pressing impulse 250, the player will throw a chunk of Gibs. If the area the Gibs lands in is large enough, it will spawn a Monster that is never hostile to the player. If the area is not large enough (or another entity already exists in that location), the Monster will burst into a pile of Gibs. The summoned monster will usually be a Rottweiler, but can sometimes be a Grunt, and rarely the player will get a Fiend or Shambler. However, each usage of impulse 250 shall require 50 health from the player. Note the health penalty shall happen regardless if the player gets a Monster or not, plus will still occur even if it will kill the player. This penalty will not occur when the player has a Pentagram of Protection.

Also note that Monsters will change their colors based on the individual that spawned them. This feature does not work properly in hardware accelerated versions of Quake, such as GLQuake. In a similar manner, the original DOS version will print letters based on the action the Monster takes; note however that this can quickly get out of hand and be highly unstable.

Impulse 250 Monsters work in Deathmatch games, though the author didn't have time to fix various flaws, meaning it does not work well. Most notably, Monsters tend to go to whomever the nearest player is, and can be quick to turn on one another (or the attacking player) in the event one of the players are hurt (even if it was not the summoner). The player does not lose any health in Deathmatch from summoning friendly Monsters.

Note that while friendly Monsters can be pushed, they cannot be pushed into one another, meaning two friendly Monsters standing next to each other might provide an obstruction for the player. Just like the vanilla AI, they are also highly limited by ledges, meaning they cannot be pushed off a ledge. A friendly Monster can only detect attacks when they exist, if a player spawns one after they were attacked they must wait until the next attack hits them for the Monster to come to their defense.

There is a glitch in this modification whereby the player can get a frag for killing their own Monster.

FRIEND - August 9, 1996

 * Modification has had its name changed from F_SPAWN to FRIEND.
 * Changed the projectile from a Grenade Launcher grenade to a Zombie chunk.
 * Fixed a bug whereby Rottweilers and Fiends could not be pushed around after they leaped.
 * Fixed a bug where Monster patrols were broken.
 * Monsters will now change their color to be the same as that of the player that spawned them.
 * Now prints letters based on the action the friendly Monster is doing.

F_SPAWN - August 1, 1996

 * Official release