🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <79ht0a$39$4...@news4.svr.pol.co.uk>, "Satan"
<Sa...@hell81.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:

> I read in a magazine quite a while ago that quake 3 was going to be quake 2
> with better multiplayer, and no single player.
> Isn't half life going to beat it in single player and multiplayer.

Quake 3 has several main areas of improvement over Quake 2:

1) Graphics. Q2 graphics were an extended version of the Q1 graphics. Q3
has an all-new rendering system. It now includes such features as true
curved surfaces, specular highlighting, 24-bit source art, larger
textures, better mirrors (including moving/rotating mirrors), improved
transparencies, fog effects, and segmented character models (with more
polygons than were used in Q2). Also, you'll see what weapon your opponent
is carrying, and other little touches. (Hopefully there should be similar
improvements in sound.) And while all that's a lot more demanding on the
computer, it's designed to be very scalable, and due to being optimized
for a 3D hardware pipeline only, it should still perform well on moderate
computers.

2) Networking. Q3 again has an all-new, much improved networking
architecture, with better, tighter prediction, and more-efficient data
transfer, so it should be both smoother than Q1/QW/Q2 under various
conditions (ie, high-ping/high PL/limited bandwidth), and at the same
time, more correct (than QW/Q2) in terms of timing and position of items
such as rockets.

3) Gameplay. Q2 had a lot of elements that Q1 fans didn't like about the
gameplay (such as slow rocket launcher, slow weapon switch times, slow
movement speeds, too-large levels, less bouncy physics, crappy
teleporters). Q3 is rectifying many of those problems, in some cases (such
as rocket speed and weapon switch times) taking a compromise between the
two previous games. (I'm still worried about the availability of Q1-style
teleporters though, it looks like teles are still going to suck in Q3 just
like they did in Q2.)

In addition, since the game is designed solely as a multiplaer game, they
can focus fully on creating great deathmatch levels, great variations on
multiplayer gaming, and tweaking the gameply (and everything else in the
game) to work perfectly in a multiplayer setting. Its aim is to be
no-compromises the best multiplayer game possible at this time (though
probably not emphasizing complex teamwork and class roles as much as
Tribes or TF2). Previously they'd only designed the multiplayer levels as
an afterthought, in their spare time or on weekends, and most of the
gameplay considerations pertained to single-player. Since they're now
focusing fully on multiplayer levels, hopefully they can be much better
than what we've seen in the past.

In addition, instead of creating standard monster AI, they're working hard
on creating great bots, especially ones with varying weaknesses and
personalities. Hopefully the "ranking ladder" against the bots will also
be fun and engaging (though I still think a lot of people will pretty much
skip straight to the online stuff--id thinks people will spend a long time
trying to beat the bot ladder, but I think a lot of people will get
through it in one day and never touch it again...)

-- 
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Matthew Vaughan
matt...@best.com
http://www.best.com/~matthewv/
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