QL or QC, really. The only ones left with some proper activity.
However, you will definetly be able to find games in CPM (Q3 Mod) and QW (Q1).
It depends what you want, to be honest. Why do you want to pick up Quake? Did u hear about its allegedly high skill ceiling? Then you shouldnt pick up QC. Go for QL then.
QC, its much better suited to noobs, you'll get destroyed in other version due to mechanics and the fact your opposition has played those maps and weapons for years.
Same will happen in QC but it will be less brutal about it.
If you've never played a Quake game before, expect to have lots of games with like 1 frag and 20 deaths.
Try to focus simply on improving, not on your score. What can you do different and get slightly better every time.
Most people got better over the course of dozens, hundreds of hours. So you won't be "on par" anytime soon.
I would suggest Quake Champions because the abilities will at least allow you to have a small edge at some points, but honestly even the abilities require to know how to use them with the right timing, etc...
If you somehow decide to abandon the idea of getting either game, know that at some point in 2018, Quake Champions will become free-to-try (that is you will have access to only 1 champion, and progressively a few more, and at any point you can buy the game and have access to all champions), so you can always at least try it out for free later this year.
If you want to only play one of them, then the choices are either Quake Live or Quake Champions. If you want the classic experience, then get Quake Live. If you want the current game, with the benefits that carries such as better graphics but that deviated due to imitating others, then get Quake Champions.
Don't think of getting the other Quakes (1 through 4): they are just dead, no players.
If you want a more comprehensive experience, then you could play both. First get QL, whenever the next Steam sale is (probably February), and when QC becomes F2P then get that one for free (probably September 2018).
And the last option is to just don't try Quake. Both games share the problems of current players being way too good, so that you'll never catch up, and that none of your friends is going to be interested in playing with you. Other games might be a better choice, such as PUBG, Fornite, OW, CSGO, Dota 2, League of Legends.
Glad I asked. Very daunting but very useful answers, thanks for that.
I’m gonna try QL and QC as well as PUBG.
A big part of the appeal of Q3 that I have seen is the insane movement and high level weapons skills.
Sounds like I missed the boat there.
I swed already 😉
Thanks for the replies.
Come to think about it, I've been spending roughly half a year solid ingame in different Quake games... Maybe more. (I think most people here did.) Still getting my (clean and pretty) ass whooped quite a lot. Them bastards.
Must say that at these times I'm of course not really trying hard.
*cough*
However, I don't want to discourage you to try.
But I sincerely hope you're more talented than me :-)
Edit:
You should probably try both QL and QC and just see which one suits you best.
But as others in this thread already wrote: you should prepare for being slaughtered big time. Even when you've been playing other shooters for a shitload of time, you're lightyears behind of players who have been playing Quake for years. (Also I hope you've not been playing shooters on consoles. That's like guys playing with barbie dolls.)
Which is probably the single reason why any future Quake version will not be succesful. The experience gap between noobs... starters and experienced players widens too far.
Which goes for any game. I for one ain't going to start playing Dota at this time for example.
Imma have me another beer.
Come to think again, it shouldn't be very hard to come up with a mathematical formula describing how long a game can last in general.
In theory this means any game can only exist for some limited time. Which on the other hand is logical, due to technological improvement. People desire fancy shizzle. Have to confess, I'd choose modern day Lara Croft over the early day Lara Croft, even when she's gotten a boob job which I wouldn't have recommended. 8 pixel large boobs don't beat 500 pixel mediocre boobs for some reason.
So, clearly it seems building up ingame experience as well as technological improvements are ultimate gamekillers.
Therefor I say, we should vote for stopping technolocical improvement and also stop becoming better at playing games. (Joining the Muckyman server is a good step I'd say.)
Otherwise Quake will die with our generation.
Which wouldn't be cool if you ask me.
Imma have me another beer.
Come to think of it, maybe I shouldn't care too much about Quake being dead when me and my generation are dead.
But imma play Quake even after I'm dead I hope.
Edited by Toilet_paper at 22:01 CST, 27 January 2018
I agree, I think that's a really good mode for beginners, like eternal warmup. Had there been an eternal warmup mode in QC I really think the game would cater more towards beginners. Learning the weapons/weapons balance goes so much easier when you actually get to use all weapons. Once you get a hold of the weapons the natural step in the evolution is learning the movement.
Learning the movement I think is best done in any other Quake game than QC. In QC there are quite a few movement systems to learn but if you get a grasp of vanilla quake movement (or crouchsliding for that matter) it will be easier to pick up the different movement systems within QC.
That's 10 min bot warmup before TDM. A long warmup with some people already checking in even better.
I mean seriously, classic 8-12 player FFA (fraglimit 50 timelimit 15 125 / 0 no item timer no hmg no uinified ammo yes bfg) on several maps is just glorious, especially with capable people. But these custom servers are really just a waste of time.
Classical FFA is a good practice ground for a new player who doesn't even know where the weapons are? I rarely can be arsed to join regular FFA servers nowadays.
Without the glimpse of the actual meta, he will just pick up bad habits and they will be hard to get rid of later. It's the same issue when you play too much bot games.
Imo he shouldn't really force online play until he can consistently beat Nightmare bots with relative ease, unless he plays with his skill level (which is doubtful). Then he can work his way up from the lower tiers, being already somewhat familiar with the game.
Uhm I guess I'd rather be div3 in Quake than someone whos unable to defend himself in a conversation (I count 3 dialogues between us already that ended with you replying "NO U" to me) and having my whole life revolve around anime and fat neighbours who circlejerk every afternoon with you.
Haha, your counterattack shifted planes so easily, as expected. Don't worry, you are fine where you are. )
I count 3 dialogues between us that ended with you going full emo random personal attack mode, since your usual, bitter rant is ineffective. I have my own problems, I don't need somebody else's self-loathing taking form above my head.
I bet you would feel better in slightly upper divs though, so all that time wasted would have some visible result. )
Actually, I think everything would be ineffective against you, reason or context hold no meaning in your world.
If anything, you are just a weird anime virgin who keeps being irrational af in our little twist. I expected a better enemy. I ended up with chris-chan.
Why would I look at a pathologically bitter, self-loathing griefer on a random website as an enemy? Your social life / broken dreams are already sad enough without me crucifying you.
Constant grieving undermines the recognition of any positive trait you may have. As I said, look for friends instead of opposition during a conversation and maybe the plug in your ass ease up on your venomous gland a bit then and people start to appreciate you.
But I love that you didn't deny the fail-then-full-emo stuff.
Dont bother, our boy freiya is a little bit slow in da head, he probably doesnt understand what the thread is about, but thats what 100.000 hours watching anime will do to you
We get it, you have problems, both with your memory and both with your way of living.
I don't need further argument, anybody can search for that brief exchange (but why the hell would want to) and anybody who reads your posts (at least they are consistently toxic) on a regular basis sees - disregarding like or dislike - that you have some issues, wherever those coming from.
But it's time for you to realize that we are not responsible for your failures in life. Getting some friends is a good start.
I know this might sound incomprehensible for you and you have to go CSI: Miami-mode when you hear the utter nonsense that somebody has some real social life, but I have LANs and friends over regularily - and those 3 are basically neighbours for decades now.
QL is basically Q3 which still is somewhat alive after 20 years. If there ever to be a popular arena shooter, it will likely be inspired by Q3 gameplay.
There is zero chance that QC will last a long time and no one will ever try to imitate it.
You need to understand that when you become quaker, you can't go back anymore. No one yet ever managed to retire from quake. So I suggest you learn the gameplay that's most likely to live forever than some random short-lived spin-off.
don't start. if u want to play for months in order to get promoted to a common noob of a niche community, do it. because at the start, u won't even be a noob, u will be more like a training punching bag of the noobs and the noobs will be like your gods. u will eat all their rockets and lick their shafts with obedience. do you want to go through hell in order to make it into a fraternity that nobody knows?
the only positives that I can think of are that this kind of games, never really die and that by learning it you will enjoy more watching streams and tourneys
Play Reflex instead. Indie developer, great features (built-in map editor, replay editor, matchmaker, etc.), and a nice community. (Don't listen to any of the haters who reply to this post. :D)
This might actually be an excellent idea because they have an awesome feature, namely 'in game item timers' which will really help out someone new to arena shooters. Obviously no good for veterans etc, but great for you ;)
sure. you just said: "We might see some more 2-4 player Heroes of Might and Magic III Complete LANs in the basement again, just like through the whole summer of 2016. I hope at least."
homm3 is good but not that good. don't waste your time
It greatly depends on your past gaming experience. If you already played fast fps games, then in a few weeks/months, you're likely to feel comfortable in quake also
- Whine about Quake Champions cause it's not 'Quake'
- Play the game, enjoy it slightly, get a bit pissed off at all the rocket spam.
- Whine about Quake Champions a bit more cause it's still not 'Quake' after a few patches.
- Try out the bigger tanky Champs, get pissed off a bit more because rockets hit you from about 3 walls away.
- Try not breaking the keyboard when you move around the map hitting very small bits of the geometry which would have never happened in any other Quake title.
play with bots in QL or cpm or even qw then once u get the hang of moevemnt and maps load whatever game u been practicing, look for people in discord these days u will find someone to play with for sure
then u have QC which has players but it's still in development and if you want a better experience i'd advice u to wait until they figure out themselves.