For my taste one of the best gameguide/demo analysis out there. Especially the implications of the MH timing in QW and ammo management are insightful.

<3

So, I made this mostly with people who don't play QW in mind. Is there any chance someone could find a way to get this post to the attention of some of the QL/Q3 duelers so I could get feedback on things that didn't make sense to them?

Also, thanks for posting this to ESR :).

-KovaaK

Some nice viewing material waiting for me once I get home. Thanks!

The aerowalk episode raises some interesting things that can be looked at from a game design/development/mapping standpoint.

Anyone who has watched DDKs qw tdm series knows that LG on DM3 is not a key weapon as there is little ammo to use for it. At times it might be useful due to backpacks, but overall it is not.

A similar thing seems to apply to aerowalk in duel. While it is fairly obvious to a non-qw player that rockets are very important, the reason why LG may be utilised less on aerowalk is not obvious straight away. Even though duel is played with weapon stayonf, if a player wants to deny LG to their in control opponent they can simply opt to not pick up the weapon. The in control player who is not dying cannot get more ammo besides the ammo spawns. The 4 ammo packs is a low amount and there is no option like quad in duel to amp it up If the other play never picks up the weapon there is only ammo available every 20 second..

Where is this going? Basically the LG is not a key weapon on aerowalk in quakeworld. It is supplementary. However it is there. When recreating the map, hubster would have put weapons in that were included in the QW version. The ammo system in q3 sort of catered to this - you did not have unlimited LG ammo.

This is not intended as a dissertation on ammo or weapon denial in games, even if it is starting to read that way. The goal is to point out that unless someone creating a remake understands the game to this level, it will rarely play or be true to the original.

Other things are obviously missing as well - the ceiling above LG is obvious to anyone who has played qw very much. It is very useful for putting damage on the player at the top of the stairs. While the RA jump could be made in QW, according to that guy most players simply rocket jumped instead of using movement to get there. This means that in order to get the RA reliably you need a RL - very much not the case in QL. And so on.

So these changes obviously lead to a map with the same layout but plays very differently.

Sadly the rocket launcher heavy gameplay of the original would have been easy to have in QL, -rail +PG, +respawn time on LG, no ammo packs as it spawns with a lot more dmg capability. Done. The SSG/PG in QL are more dangerous than the ssg/sng in qw so there is already more firepower on the map.

So even though the map looks the same it is really not at all the same.

I disagree with DDK's statement on DM3 and LG. It really is a key weapon if you want to get back in control. In water you have 27 cells (including the weapon itself) which is 810 potential damage and if you also picked up the cells by the tele on your way there, you suddenly have 39 cells. If under total lockdown it's usually also easier to get than the RL as enemies will avoid diving into the water to prevent discharge (which is another use of the LG to reset parts of the enemy team).

On DM3 the LG ammo outside of the water area is positioned in such a way, i.e. around sng/tele, that it makes LG a great tool for RA control or ambushes if you have LG. It also gives you a huge advantage in heads up fights around Quad even if you have RL.

edited to make it news-worthy.

KovaaK owns you all. Any noob can play quake live or vq3. Try quakeworld. It's like life. But better