The PC gaming Thread. Steam/GOG/Origin/Etc. Game/Software/Hardware talk

DarkArchville · August 27, 2014, 9:06pm

Hey, folks, remember those supposedly leaked Quake Live patch notes that were posted in this thread a few pages ago ? They were REAL.

http://www.quakelive.com/forum/showthread.php?37858

For new players, it has been quite clear what the greatest barriers are: effectiveness on spawn, movement, and item control. These elements on several levels also make our game great, so we wanted to see what could be done to make the game a more enjoyable experience, all while teaching players a bit of the meta-game depth.

We tested several ideas including granting players better starting weapons and compared that to the lessons learned in Clan Arena where players get to try out various weapons and see their effectiveness each round. We found that providing the player one single “primary” weapon of their choice in addition to letting them have a bit more freedom as to which “secondary” they spawn with allows players to try out various weapons and become more effective on spawn which has been the key complaint of newcomers. Meanwhile we still want to highly encourage picking up weapons throughout the arena, so we have minimized the amount of ammo granted on spawn so that players will continue to roam and gather both weapons and ammo. Allowing the new behavior of choosing some starting weapons greatly improved the experience in modes such as FFA and TDM and helped make some of the more chaotic modes like Domination quite enjoyable. Hence, Domination will now be ran publicly for all to play.

Additionally we wanted to find a way to teach players a few core bits of information concerning item timing. We have introduced item timers, present transparently in the world (not on your HUD), that all relay item respawn information under the following design guidelines: Each item timer has a radial display divided into slices. Elapsed time is drawn as solid slices. Each slice represents 5 seconds. Active regions are represented by blinking slices that blink once per second. The timers should adequately teach players when an item is about to respawn or when it is better to move along even without this knowledge. And as players continue to play, they will begin to understand exactly how much time elapses per slice and can begin utilizing the timer indicator in coordination with their match timer to know when items will become available. To both minimize visual noise that the timers could incur and to prevent an unnecessary flood of information throughout the world, item timers are only visible while in close proximity, gently fading in as you approach.

The final hurdle for new players to overcome was strafe jumping. We wanted to preserve strafe jumping as is, as both its intentional use and its subtle influences as you traverse the map are what make Quake feel incredibly smooth and responsive. For many of us, learning strafe jumping came naturally or for long time players was simply the foundation of our FPS experience. But we wanted to assist players and provide them with a simpler means of movement to allow them to keep up the pace as they overtime learn to more fully benefit from strafing. A **basic “bunny” and auto-hop mechanic has been introduced **that allows players to simply hold forward and jump to build up some speed. However, because the new bunnyjumping only provides a limited amount of accel gain, and is only effective on straightaways, players will still need to learn strafe jumping over time – we hope that this new mechanic will allow both general movement and gameplay to become more accessible encouraging them to continue to play so that they may over time become more accustom to the finer side of Quake.

But ultimately these changes have not been introduced for the new player alone. We feel that these elements overall help bring Quake one step closer to being a modern shooter, while still holding true to our roots of remaining an incredibly fast paced old school shooter. We’ve had a lot of fun with these new additions, and hope that you learn to appreciate them.

RIP Quake.

PozerWolf · August 27, 2014, 9:13pm

Wow, this game looked interesting. Sucks to hear it didn’t happen. Wasn’t aware of this game until now.

As for the Walking Dead Episode 5
[spoiler=]Let’s face it, Season 2 WAS FUCKIN GARBAGE!!
I can go on a long rant on all the errors within the story, but holy shit did the character development suck ass. When one of the new characters died in Season 2, I could careless. Even when Luke got downed in the ice, I was like “uhhhh…” it felt soooooo fuckin empty. The character should have been cool, but due to lack of interaction with the cast, I just didn’t bridge any connection.

Episode 5 to Season 1 was insane, and I love how it ended.
Season 2’s finale was literally out of no where. Jane hides the baby, fights Kenny, you’re force to decide between the two. Well for one, HOW THE FUCK DID JANE KNOW WHERE THEY WERE TO BEGIN WITH?!!?

It was terrible, terrible, writing, it was shit, and the conflict between Jane vs Kenny was forced in a failed attempt to top anything on Season 1 did. Now, I know Season 1 has it’s flaws, but at least the character interaction and conflicts had been well written. Here… fuck Season 2. I would say don’t bother with Season 2, but that’s hard to say after beating Season 1.
Season 2’s writing was just godawful, omg…

Overall; Season 2 had it’s “moments”, but it was nothing to highlight. Very forgettable, and it was a complete mess towards the last few episodes. Unless they bring back the writers from Season 1 (which are still in staff for TaleTell) for Season 3, as its only thing that can save this.[/spoiler]

Lord_Raptor · August 27, 2014, 9:53pm

Not sure it’s RIP QUake yet. Ammo timers are fine, takes out a pointless barrier, the bunny hopping change is eh, the auto hop isn’t that good and can only be used in a straight path so it’s not gonna be used 24/7. The weapon change is pretty iffy.

Korbidon · August 28, 2014, 12:24am

To be fair, it’s not like Quake has a growing audience. They need something to attract people to game that is really, really hard to get into.

Ki_Shima · August 28, 2014, 2:10am

this is really weird. as evidence of my ever climbing need for more frames per second (200 is the safe zone) playing the crew beta today comparing the 60fps to the 30fps the lower fps gave the world more weight, interest and believability, in 60fps it feels like crazy taxi, the environments are full of assets but have such a disjointed feeling to them it feels toy like. im going to go back and make sure it was set on Ultra

yeah every thing is on Ultra and it is very smooth but so is 30fps. its just with 60fps theres more information being projected into the eye. but im guessing its happening at such an uneven rate that it just feels like you’re driving in a toy town.

im quite surprised by this and a bit annoyed because I wanted to use the rift in this game but it looks too fake at high frame rates.

I’m not overly surprised though since I’ve told people this before that a lot of games look better at 30fps

RoGE9 · August 28, 2014, 3:03am

Played a FFA match with the new Quake Live patch, to be honest I actually like some of these changes. The timers on items are nice, helps keep track of them easier, I also liked the numbers showing how much damage you dealt. auto bunny hops are fine. Not sure about loadouts yet, seems like they still got some tweaking to do.

Overall it was enjoyable, it’s still a bit too early to draw conclusion but hopefully it’ll bring in some new players. I mean they are still keeping duel pretty much the same right?

Ugh… I need to sleep lol

King9999 · August 28, 2014, 3:11am

Anyone here gonna buy Lethal League?

Korbidon · August 28, 2014, 2:51pm

But it? Isn’t it a free game?

AreEyeSeaKay · August 29, 2014, 6:30pm

There is a gtx 770 2 gb sitting under $280 on Newegg and Amazon. I think that’s the lowest I’ve seen for a 770, and I really hope it is in anticipation of the 800 series. I’m losing my willpower to wait.

Ki_Shima · August 29, 2014, 8:55pm

***Nvidia is rumoured to be launching its next-generation high-end Maxwell-based graphics boards in mid-September, skipping the GeForce 800-Series branding in favour of GTX 900 model numbering.

That Nvidia is working on new graphics boards based around its Maxwell microarchitecture is no secret, but this far the company has been playing its cards close to its chest with regard to launch dates and nomenclature. According to anonymous yet ‘credible’ sources speaking to VideoCardz, its plans are now laid bare: a Maxwell-related GPU announcement on the 9th or 10th of September, followed by a formal launch of two high-end Maxwell-based reference designs on the 19th of September.

While little is known about the specification of the boards, beyond both featuring 4GB of memory as standard, their naming may raise eyebrows: Nvidia is skipping the GTX 800 family altogether in favour of naming the two new boards the GeForce GTX 970 and GTX 980. These two designs will be joined by lower-end Maxwell hardware in October with a GTX 960 model, along with GeForce 900M Series mobile graphics.

Maxwell’s first outing was on the budget-friendly GeForce GTX 750 Ti, which concentrated more on reducing the power draw and price than offering market-leading performance. At the time, Nvidia described it as ‘first-generation Maxwell,’ promising that high-performance second-generation parts would be due ‘at a later date’ - that date being, it would appear, September.

Nvidia has, as is to be expected, not commented on the launch date claims nor on its plans for high-end Maxwell parts and their names.***

AreEyeSeaKay · August 29, 2014, 9:07pm

Wow that would be very interesting. I hope it’s right!

StockyJam · August 30, 2014, 1:23pm

coming to steam next month.

I never played the original nes Gauntlet back in grade school…but i remember my friends always raved about it.

I LIKE TURKEY!

PozerWolf · August 31, 2014, 2:57am

I still wonder how the game will play like.
Will it still be an Arcade-style game with a shit load of stages, or will it try to mimic the Diablo-style how to progress through the game?

I kinda hope it’s the arcade-style, but making it difficult.
I like that style of gameplay, but the console versions of these games always sucked since on console you never get any life drain, so you just always had a shit load of life.

KowtowRobinson · August 31, 2014, 3:13am

New Gauntlets tend to give you a bunch of huge wave clearing abilities, sort of defeats the purpose of the original game. I’ll check it out on a Steam sale, maybe?

If you’re looking for a game that’s similar to Gauntlet right now, try Hammerwatch.

xiceman191 · August 31, 2014, 3:55am

I am buying this shit as soon as it comes out. My mom and dad were huge gauntlet fans when it came out in arcades and nes. Plus I loved the gauntlet legends games as well. Lately with these remade classics they have been doing a good job. I bought the Shadowrun returns, Shadowgate, and soon Gauntlet.

orochizoolander · August 31, 2014, 4:16am

Why are you guys excited about a Diablo clone with the Gauntlet name slapped on it?

I guess you guys really like Diablo clones. It would be nice to see more ARPGs that are original like Mass Effect or Dark Souls, the Diablo style of ARPG is cool, but it shouldn’t be the only one out there.

xiceman191 · August 31, 2014, 4:21am

I’ve never played any of the diablo games. Honestly it is nostalgia of the series. I like seeing older games get a little bit of a modern twist.

KowtowRobinson · August 31, 2014, 4:49am

This is less of a modern twist on a classic, and more a classic name slapped atop a bare bones Diablo clone. HOWEVER if you’ve never played a Diablo game? Maybe you’ll like it, idk.

Korbidon · August 31, 2014, 1:32pm

Diablo is a pretty good game!

S00perCam · August 31, 2014, 4:24pm

All early impressions and comments on the game seem to indicate its much more Gauntlet than Diablo the most Diablo thing about it is that theres loot now

I personally have no problem with it borrowing from Diablo as in my opinion Gauntlet was the base they used to create Diablo in the first place

Just like how I wasn’t mad at the new Tomb Raider for Borrowing from Uncharted as Uncharted built upon the foundations that the original Tomb Raider laid out.