Starting to plan QuakeWars 4 Dummies .... err Newbies

(Ifurita) #1

Sooo … you open your shiny new box and start installing the game. What would you want to read, while the game is installing, that would bring you up the learning curve the fastest/furthest and let you jump right in and start dominating the server?

Perspectives from ET players, BF2/2142 players, and people new to the franchise are welcome.

(senator) #2

  • how to access a description of the objectives you have to complete to win a map

  • how to choose your class / side

  • a quick overview of the different class abilities

  • a screenshot with an overlay, showing the most important keys and what they are used for (r = reload, ./, to zoom in/out in your minimap etc)

…and maybe a tip-of-the-day function

(DarkangelUK) #3

I hope you mean QuakeWars 4 Newbies, you know what happened last time :wink:

(Ifurita) #4

Yep … damn lawyers.

Here’s what I’m starting to rough out:

  1. Comparison table of job functions between ET, BF2, and QW
  2. Table of objective types - what it takes to complete and what it takes to defend. Vetern ET player would pick this up 3 seconds into the game, but it would be helpful for new players or people coming from BF2.
  3. Probably a map summary table: objectives, who’s attacking, tips, etc
  4. Metagame discussion: For example, with all of the vehicles about and the ability for any weapon to damage them, should everyone contribute damage or do you leave this to the heavy weapons guys, etc
  5. FAQ. I’m less interested in questions like “what system specs are required” and more interested in “can you shoot while parachuting down to the spawn point?”, “can you cancel an airstrike marker and how?”.

The community can start providing some answers based on demo play at QCon and Liepzig, but other discussions will have to wait until the beta process works (open or closed). The goal is to have something that could be published the first day of public release to start getting people up the learning curve.

(Ifurita) #5

The discussion about Strogg spawn hosts is an interesting example of a discussion I’d like to write up:

  1. As GDF, how do you ensure that your people can’t be turned into spawn hosts? Having to expend ammo/grenades on gibbing your own guys raises some issues. This may also mean that as GDF, you don’t have to worry about gibbing opposing bodies - assuming Strogg can’t revive their own.

Also, defensively (and depending on how many respawns a single host can support) when (if at all) does it make sense to push a medic out to destroy it?

  1. As Strogg, this raises 2 interesting questions.
    a. Offensively, the lack of a revive capability means that you can’t push a medic train and therefore Strogg offensive strategy may be quite different from what you can do as GDF. How do you adjust for this.

b. If, as stated in the related thread, which bodies do you turn into spawn hosts, which classes do you push through them, and when. Ideally, you’d think that you’d convert a body in cover and out of site, and you’d be pretty selective about who spawns there - the class that can best gain from the brief tactical advantage that spawn provides.

In reality, on a pub, a Technician would create a spawn host, and some random noob is going to pop out of there, be disoriented, and immediately get gunned down – wasting the tactical advantage provided by that spawn.

(Graham) #6

I reckon you should call it ‘4 Dummies’ just to piss them off.

Basicly, put everything on about classes, abilities, features that help people.

(Ifurita) #7

Well, it did … and they threatened to sue me.

Round 1 to them

Care to be any more specific. What would you prioritize for your 5 minutes of reading? What you basically recommended is that people RTFM, which no one does.

(SCDS_reyalP) #8

He already got the lawyer nastygram once, so that’s not likely to be a good idea.

(kamikazee) #9

I’m going out on a limb here, but I read that a Technician can either revive or make spawnhosts, but not both.

How they will implement the “or” is still open to speculation. (Maybe some weapon loadout?)

(carnage) #10

if strogg need enemy players to turn into spawn host what are the storg weapons like in terms of gibbing? if the strog are making heavy use of rockets and tanks and thing does that mean the storgg will actuly be less effective since they cant make use of revives/strogigication

(Ifurita) #11

This would be very interesting. The way I read that (assuming this is how it plays out) is that if Strogg are pushing against a defensive line, but haven’t pushed through, they should stick to reviving. However, once they’ve achieved a breakthrough and have a moving fight, where they’re pushing the GDF back, they may want to change to spawn-host making technicians, which would allow Strogg to change class mix on the fly and spawn them near the front line

(Graham) #12

Well… we can’t ask what features to explain until we know for certain what features are going to be IN the game. I do read the game manual if there is more than just simple DM in a game.

(senator) #13

Oh, so you were more looking for a FAQ than a short newbie friendly 2-minute guide?

In that case I guess you have to wait until the game has arrived in the lokal stores, because otherwise we could only theorize about possible strategies or abilities, as notheeeng is final :wink:

(Ifurita) #14

Senator, wasn’t sure if your comment was directed towards me or not - but your original suggestions are pieces I have started working on - comparion of game roles and how they differ between QW, BF2, and ET. I think a summary table of maps is needed too.

(zig-zag) #15

CVAR dump. Which ones worked in ET that carry over to ETQW. Bindings for v_says and spawn/classes, are they the same?

(t-readyroc) #16

The sooner you get the “scripting” section done; the better. That thing was a bible for me in RtCW/ET. 8)

That’s one of the main questions I’ve got about this thing: will the cfg’s be roughly the same in the approach & formatting…?

Not sure if it’s been said yet, but thanks for all of your efforts over the yrs, Iffy. :notworthy:

(Ifurita) #17

I will definately be working on that – in fact, I have a couple of scipts I know I want to write right off.

(CrazyGuy) #18

I hope not. When i was helping testing out DeGeneration Mod for RTCW by Tram Design.

You could do just that. But after an week or two of shooting while parachuting. It just gave the enemy team that was paraspawning ( as we called it ) an advantage.

It was just abit too hard for the players on the ground to kill the paraspawners. Because they have the rate of decending inwhich you had to adjust your aim to even try to kill them in flight.

(Zhou Yu) #19

I doubt that sd would be allowed to directly reference bf2 in their et:qw newbie faq, maybe “in comparison with other popular team based shooters” or something

But yes, loading screens in installation explaining a newbies way through the first five minutes of setting up and playing could be an intelligent move. Maybe a short lesson about netiquity could be included to speed up the ‘de-tardation’ process that sometimes must occur with new players.

(kamikazee) #20

Also check Modwiki: Scripting, Modwiki: SCRIPT (file format) and especially Modwiki: Scripting basics. It’s not really newbie-friendly yet, but you might pick up some interesting things.