sounds cool. Would be nice if a short video could be made to summarise the key concepts. I think a more bitesize format would lead to more exposure.

Agreed. Make a trailer/promotion vid to show off what makes it unique.

Same here sounds cool but I'd like to see a little something something

Thanks for your suggestions!

As requested, I have made a quick overview video of Uber Arena's new features:

the rocket launcher is funné. which target does it chose if there is more than one player.

holy crap man the weapon demo sold me

hah - this reminds me of these very old Q1 mods where people got creative with weapons and physics. Nice job!

*hits tha blunt*

I feel like maybe there should be a fun mode for some of the super weapons.. Not sure ill have to try it first.

I love homing missle, the lg is funny, shotgun is pretiie scary too etc

I really like that the ammo crates etc can be moved around, makes sense.

Trampoline eyedea is cool.

Rampage reminds me of Scaleberer now haha.

Prettie sure there were at least 5 more really neat things

Thanks a bunch for your comments / feedback guys!

Here's some commentary / feedback for anyone who's interested:

- The uberweapon mechanic was inspired by a mechanic from the Dissolution of Eternity mission pack for the original Quake. Instead of featuring all-new weapons, the mission pack introduced alternate ammo types for existing weapons that made them more powerful; the Multi-Grenade Launcher being the most blatant example. Of course, the alternate ammo idea was scrapped in favor of the 3 regular weapons --> 1 uberweapon idea, which I feel is more elegant since it requires no new items; only using ones that already exist.

- The Toxic Railgun's effect of reducing player health to 1 if it doesn't frag was inspired by Half Life 2's Poison Headcrab.

- Item Knockback is basically a generic version of the Airfist weapon from Painkeep, a mod for Quake (and later Quake 3) by Team Evolve.

- The Conservation power-up's effect of giving the player infinite ammo was actually one of my first ideas for a mod ever, as it was very simple but also something that Quake never really touched upon (apart from Team Arena's Ammo Regen, which got changed to Armor Regen in Quake Live). I later realized why though: The Quad Damage effectively already conserves ammo, since obviously if you do more damage per shot you don't have to use up as much ammo to frag someone. While Conservation gives truly infinite ammo, it takes longer to frag someone than with Quad. Then I realized the Haste power-up would also be a weaker Quad if it didn't have its speed boost effect. Like Quad, Haste lets you frag enemies faster, but it doesn't conserve your ammo since you eat through it just as fast. Haste has a reason for existing because of its secondary ability to make the player run faster. Thus I decided to give the Conservation its own secondary ability, and tied it to one of the main game mechanics of Uber Arena - weapon limits.

There is a really cool mechanical duality, then, between the Haste and Conservation power-ups in relation to the Quad, summarized here:

Quad: Frags enemies faster and conserves ammo.
Haste: Frags enemies faster, does not conserve ammo. Compensates by increasing running speed.
Conservation: Conserves ammo, does not frag enemies faster. Compensates by removing weapon limits.

- The Rampage power-up's initial / working name was Deathstroke, after the DC character.

- The Scavenger power-up's model is supposed to resemble a horn of plenty / cornucopia. It has dual symbolism: the first interpretation is that the player is "scavenging" for items using their weapons, and as a result will be collecting more items than they usually would, hence the horn of "plenty". It could also be interpreted as a traditional viking horn, and that players are using divine magic to "call forth" items towards them using the horn.

- The two colors used for the two new holdable items - green and blue - when considered alongside the holdable items from the original game and Team Arena, complete the set of additive and subtractive primary colors (RGB / CMY):

Personal Teleporter: Cyan
Medkit: Red
Invulnerability Sphere: Magenta
Kamikaze: Yellow
Tuning Device: Green
Storage Capsule: Blue

- As described in the manual, the Ammo Crate is supposed to fill a sort of void, as both health and armor have their major items - the Mega Health and Red Armor, respectively - but no such item existed for ammo. Alongside weapon pouches, perhaps there could be interesting new duel item layout setups where a MH or RA is swapped out for an Ammo Crate, resulting in radical new metagames where ammo and weapon management is favored over health and armor domination. (I wouldn't put all three items in a single duel map though, that might be a bit much)

- The trampoline mechanic was inspired by Portal 2's repulsion gel, though unlike the Portal 2 mechanic, the trampoline doesn't give an initial minimum vertical boost. I liked the idea of trampolines as it fits Quake's existing movement mechanics and flow really well without feeling too gimmicky or out-of-place. The fact that the player gets an additional vertical boost from their forward and sideways velocities not only increases its usability and versatility in maps, but also gives it a nice mechanical consistency with standard strafe jumping.

- One of the reasons I made this mod was to encourage discussion on how to innovate the arena shooter genre without violating Quake's core principles. Understandably, the champions idea from Quake Champions is very divisive, since it goes against Quake's notion of on-spawn equality (Loadouts in Quake Live were met with similar distaste for the same reason). I wanted to demonstrate that Quake and arena shooters in general could go forward into new territory and embrace new concepts / ideas while still remaining true to what makes Quake the game it is. The key and lock mechanic from Quake Live's Elder was something I thought was really awesome and unique while still being Quake (they're items that can be timed and controlled like any other), and it's a shame it didn't get implemented in some other maps.

Hi, I remember you from the QL mapping scene. Thanks for working on this since innovation in arena FPS has been stagnant for years. Putting ideas, especially crazy ones, into a working prototype is good for testing viability.

Uberweapons
Traditionally, the player in control has more options. Running defensive items (armour, health) is already a big buff. At first glance, incorporating Uberweapons into your pathing would create an even greater divide since the in control player now has better offensive as well as defensive capabilities. I have no idea if this is actually the case during matches. Maybe Uberweapons are enough for the out-of-control player to gain weapon control over health/armour control. The closest implementation of this that I can think of is the HMG, SNG, and SSG in QC, although the analogy doesn't translate well since those aren't core to QC--except SNG in some matchups/patches.

The auxiliary weapons in Quake Live (MG, SG, PG, pummel) never mattered that much since they require specific situations, so increasing their functionality in the form of an Uberweapon overlaps with the trinity. Personally I don't like overlap since it's UT's approach (i.e., tons of weapons covering really specific use cases) rather than Quake's approach, which has few but flexible weapons. The explosive shotgun, for instance, looks like an instant rocket launcher (not sure about damage; it's not in the docs). The homing rocket launcher I'm not a fan of since the game aims for me. Xonotic's is a bit better with the player in control of the rocket. Arc lightning gun reminds me of Q1 LG in water--good for team situations. Toxic railgun gives it a lot more power than I like for a hitscan weapon with already plenty of ammo. Ion plasma gun reminds me of the razorjack from Unreal, and the wall reflection amplifies the function of the PG in tight corridors.

I haven't seen or played enough to make a judgment, but it looks like these changes make the game more damage based rather than the weapon-based one you're aiming for. It's a subtle difference. I don't know if you've seen that during playtesting. Hope you can give some insight here.

Item knockback
I also had the idea many years ago for item interaction and was surprised to see it implemented here. I always thought it'd be cool to see someone jumping for a MH only to see it smacked away by a rail. Or a player could hoard two cycles of MH in a long forgotten corner of the map and take a seemingly bad fight there only for--surprise, he's suddenly got 200 extra health to his back. That'd be sick. I see you've implemented it a bit differently, with only splash affecting knockback.

Reduced starting ammo
I wager most would be in agreement of this. QL has way too much ammo, and most of their caps make no sense. I have a different take on this idea that I plan to implement on a QL server some time in the future.

Weapon carry limit
For me, this, in addition to Uberweapons, places too many limitations on the out-of-control player. The docs and video don't say, so I assume that when you die, these addons go away. It's already hard enough to spawn, grab a weapon, and stay alive. Having to do that, pick up a pouch, then grab another item just to get to a starting point feels like too many artificial barriers. If my weapon selection is limited, I'd rather it arise from my opponent's ability to deny weapons or my inability to take adequate risks. That's more organic.

Crouching deceleration
Actually pretty cool. Just hope immediately pressing crouch doesn't let me crouch jump like Sorlag.

Mega ammo crate
Once again, I'm surprised to see this implemented because I had this idea as well. There are a few ways to do it. You could use a mega universal ammo crate like QL's white ones that give ammunition for your current weapon, or you could go down your route. The latter version clashes with the ammo scarcity philosophy if the respawn time is too quick.

Trampoline
I like it. Interactive environments have had variety in Quake throughout the years--water, shallow water, lava, ice. I'd like to see trampolines also placed on walls, pillars, and ceilings. Players will come up with interesting uses for them.

Overall
The only recently innovative arena FPS games I can think of are Insight and Wickland, so it's good to see that you addressed past problems while adding new features. I think only item knockback, ammo scarcity, the mega ammo crate, and trampolines are viable for competition, but you could throw the lot in FFA. I once heard a designer remark, "OP things are fun, too." For casual modes like FFA, I agree.

Depending on who you ask, you'll get different answers on the spirit of Quake. In comparison to most games, Quake has a simpler ruleset that results in a lot of complexity. The game design is actually pretty elegant. For me, simplicity is part of Quake's core, which is why I dislike QC's approach of adding memorization for little gain in depth. Simplicity is also part of why I choose Quake over fighting games, strategy games, and other shooters. Simplicity is the reason I prefer integrated changes, such as item knockback, over additions, such as weapon pouches.

I played Lawbreakers for a while, even after it dropped below QL numbers and went underground. Cliffy B called it an arena FPS, but the game didn't feel like one at all. Yes, it was fast and skill based, and movement was important, but the game lacked a heartbeat of control, which is present in every arena FPS game. This shifted reliance to execution over tactics, causing the thought component to suffer immensely, which is something to think about if Uberweapons paradoxically reduce the importance of control. Nevertheless it looks like your changes and additions stay true to the concept of a feedback loop in arena FPS and opens up the possibility for multiple disparate cycles, e.g., one player cycles weapons or cycles ammo while the other cycles armour and health. That would be a new, fundamental innovation in arena FPS imo.

There is a lot more depth hiding in Quake design, and you hit upon some of it with item knockback and ammo scarcity. id could learn a thing or two.

Hey Dbzruler72, thanks so much for your in-depth response! This kind of high-level, detailed feedback is exactly the kind of discussion I've been hoping to kindle, and I always love reading this stuff. I'm definitely glad to hear you enjoy some of the mechanics and that some of them sound competitively viable - yet you're not afraid to make your criticisms and concerns known about other things. The latter variety of commentary is absolutely vital for furthering progress and finding out where attention and focus needs to go to in evolving the mod, so I appreciate it.

Uberweapons:
As the trademark mechanic of Uber Arena, uberweapons are definitely a concept that I'd like to try and tune for both competitive and casual play (if possible). I understand your concerns about how the in-control player might end up dominating even more with uberweapons thrown into the mix. The way I've seen it is that any potential comeback for the out-of-control player can end up in the hands of the in-control player if they are not planning correctly, which I theorized would apply to uberweapons as well. It's one of the aspects that I feel makes Quake such a challenging and unforgiving game. There is usually potential for someone to make a comeback even against a strong opponent, but they have to be very skilled in order to do so. A player with a lesser stack would, ideally, position themselves, listen carefully for their opponent, and occasionally try to discourage their opponent's movement or progress in order to buy time for getting an uberweapon. A lot of this would focus on exerting weapon control to prevent their opponent from upgrading. If they can outwit their opponent to survive long enough to acquire an uberweapon and use it to regain control over their opponent, they would, in theory, deserve it - and likewise if they fail to do this. If the out-of-control player can use an uberweapon to finally frag their formerly in-control opponent then they now shift to in-control upon their opponent's respawning, as they now have the uberweapon and well, their opponent doesn't (for now). It would be a drastic shift in power balance that I feel could make for interesting, spectator-worthy matches.

In any case, my intention was that uberweapons would provide an alternative method for the out-of-control player to regain advantage instead of just purely controlling less powerful armors, but of course if they don't act wisely then the in-control player is just going to steal their shot at coming back. I did feel that having multiple opportunities for comebacks - armor and weapon control - as opposed to just armor control - would help to level the playing field a bit while still encouraging skill. Obviously multiple duels between skilled opponents would have to be conducted with these mechanics (very unlikely) to truly determine their effect on the metagame, though. I come nowhere close to having enough authority to judge that potential (which is again, why all of this is theory, not fact) on my own.

One idea I had floating around to make uberweapons potentially less dominating is making them - at least in Duel only - provide a fixed, limited amount of "ubered" shots, before reverting back into a standard weapon. This idea ties into the concept of impermanency in control. Health, armor, and ammo are both impermanent, in that they naturally degrade as a consequence of normal gameplay actions. Health and armor gets chipped away by damage, and ammo gets used up in order to inflict that damage in the first place. Uberweapons, as-is, are not impermanent. Once you get an uberweapon, it's yours forever until you die and respawn, and there's nothing the opponent can do to get rid of it from your grasp other than frag you. At best you can force them to waste their ammo, but once they restock they're back in full form ready to whoop your ass into submission. With limited ubered shots, the uberweapon holder has to make every shot count, the out-of-control player can make them waste those shots, and if they do then the opponent is forced to go through the task of collecting an uberweapon again.

Toxic Railgun was deliberately made pretty powerful since it tends to be placed in more dangerous or slow-to-reach locations, (like how it's in the noise-creating water at a very low and easily ambushed area in Furious Heights) and having to pull off collecting it three times would in theory be challenging and risky. I'm curious as to which aspect(s) of the Toxic Railgun may be too powerful, since it offers more than one upgrade. Is it the instantly reduce health to 1 effect? The ability to get credit for the frags of other players by proxy? Or the nature of both of those being on the same weapon (and of course taking into account ammo).

On another note, I've also had the suggestion sent to me to give uberweapon holders an identifier similar to power-ups. It's something I'm actually trying to implement now, but certain client-game programming obstacles are preventing me from implementing this idea.

Item Knockback:
For right now, item knockback indeed only works off of splash damage, though I've already considered doing the same for non-splash-based weapons as well. The way I see it, there would be subtle differences in applications for splash versus non-splash based item knockback. With non-splash knockback, items can only ever be pushed forward. With splash damage knockback, it is possible to not only move items forward, but to the side and towards you, since a rocket can for example explode in front of the item and propel it in your direction. This would make non-splash knockback more suited for item denial as it would be instantaneous (as the SG, LG, and RG are hitscan) so the projectile doesn't have to take its time to get to the item. It would also be helpful in CTF for moving the flag towards your teammates or away from the enemy. Splash-based weapons would be more for the player's own benefit as opposed to the opponent's detriment, helping make items more accessible and moving items toward the player. There might be potential for overlap / role reversal of course, which is something I'd definitely encourage - those kind of subtleties and exceptions to the rule can only add more skill.

Reduced starting ammo:
Haha, glad to see I'm not the only one who feels that way. I'm interested in checking out your interpretation of limiting ammo in your custom QL server. What specific ideas did you have in mind, and how do they differ from Uber Arena's philosophies?

Weapon carry limit:
I feel your sentiments here. In all honesty, weapon limits were probably the most experimental, shot-in-the-dark idea of the entire mod - so much so that I considered explicitly declaring it as such and putting it behind a cvar that disabled it by default, with the option to enable it. This is probably something I'll end up doing for all the new mechanics, as a way to test them individually without being affected by other mechanics. As with any sound science, you must eliminate the external variables to ensure your results are accurate and reliable. I especially like your point on natural weapon limitations as a result of player interaction. It's definitely a facet of Quake gameplay that I'd hate to lose without something to gain in return. My hopes with weapon limits were that in the loss of such gameplay that new types of organic situations would arise from their existence - in this case, the natural consequence of being unable to deny weapons because of having hit your limit, and the emphasis on creating situations to make weapons effective, as opposed to switching to different weapons to fit a certain situation (basically reversed ideology). Though even that latter aspect has always existed to an extent, weapon limits just push it even more.

Crouching deceleration:
I originally designed it with the intention of making trampolines easier to use whenever a player needed to get to lower ground - the video demonstrates it pretty well at the very end, with the player using it to get into the side hallways - it'd be a lot trickier to pull that off without crouching deceleration. Even without considering trampolines, however, crouching deceleration I feel helps slightly speed up the game in any situation where the player is just hanging in the air, like right after using a jump pad. Granted, there's a valid argument to be made against that, as that time spent in the air can be used as a potential way to punish recklessness and add vulnerability / risk to jump pad use, in exchange for slightly slower gameplay. It depends on your preferences in this case (another reason to make these game mechanics cvar-based).

Ammo Crate:
As of this time, ammo crates are on a 40-second respawn timer, the same as standard specialized ammo boxes. This already makes it more infrequent than both the RA (25 seconds) and MH (35 seconds), though I'm not sure if it's infrequent enough to balance it out against ammo scarcity. The respawn time of the ammo crate is something that would definitely necessitate more testing to determine the best course of action.

The idea of a crate like QL's generic ammo boxes could actually be implemented as its own separate item (I'll call it Ammo Crate 2 for now), now that I think about it. To compensate for only granting ammo for one weapon, Ammo Crate 2 could give a far bigger reward for that individual weapon, whereas Ammo Crate 1 only sets to a fixed, non-maxed amount in exchange for providing ammo for all weapons. If tweaked properly, perhaps these two items could serve as the ammo-based counterpart to the prevailing RA + MH layout that has been present in the majority of duel maps, and further reinforce the weapon and ammo based metagame Uber Arena attempts to promote.

Speaking of which, there's also some interesting potential for more varied duel map item configurations with the existence of the Ammo Crate, and even more so if Ammo Crate 2 is implemented (I'll abbreviate Ammo Crate to AC at this point, and the hypothesized Ammo Crate 2 will be AC2):

MH + RA
MH + AC
MH + AC2
RA + AC
RA + AC2
AC + AC2

And that's not considering the smaller items like the YA / GA or standard ammo boxes to add even more variety. MH + RA is a "pure" armor/health based layout, AC + AC2 is a pure ammo layout, and everything in between is a hybrid between armor/health and ammo/weapon control. There is a good possibility of radically shaking up the duel metagame. It's one of Uber Arena's most exciting prospects, IMO.

Trampoline:
Even though trampolines aren't the trademark mechanic of Uber Arena, they're definitely my personal favorite. They're incredibly fun to use, more flexible than jump pads or accel pads, and as mentioned in my earlier commentary post, complement Quake's physics nicely. Definitely glad to hear that they're being received well. Currently trampolines are only coded to work with floors (or at least walkable surfaces - I have yet to test a slightly sloped trampoline, but nothing a quick test map in GTKRadiant can't find out), but I'll do some digging in bg_pmove for ways to make it work with wall and ceilings as well. If I can get some of the major mod issues sorted out then I might even consider making an original map built with trampolines in mind, as opposed to adapting older maps to include them.

I'm curious as to what your thoughts are on the new power-ups and holdable items. Obviously they wouldn't be in duel maps, but for TDM and CTF, how would they fit in? Just like how the Battle Suit is suited for TDM and Haste / Regen for CTF, which of the three new power-ups would fit TDM and which ones would be better for CTF (or like Quad, both)?

While competitive viability is definitely something I'd love to shoot for - especially for uberweapons - in the end, making enjoyable mechanics and items that mesh well with Quake's gameplay - casual or competitive - is really the end goal here. Being able to add or discover hidden aspects of Quake's inherent depth is also very rewarding and I'm happy to hear that I've hit some of the right targets.

I know Reflex is basically the "definitive", non-id modern revival of the Quake-style arena FPS, and it seems to have so far stuck fairly close to the Quake 3 CPMA formula. I think in this day in age, it would be cool to see modern takes on arena FPS games experiment with new ideas that stay true to Quake's roots, especially with Quake Champions existing. Send a message that there's ways to innovate and freshen up an old formula without utterly shattering the very foundations that formula is built upon.

Again, I really appreciate that you took the time to give such thoughtful and in-depth feedback. Very, very insightful and enjoyable read all-around, and something I'll keep in mind as I progress with the mod.

The Toxic Railgun is a three-second TTK on someone >80 HP, which now that I think about it, probably isn't too far off from the other Uberweapons against someone stacked. It's a bit much for me since it negates all stack regardless of its amount, but then again, players would prioritize it over defensive items because of that. So it fits into the Uberweapon philosophy.

As for my QL server, I'd like to recreate ZTN with all armour replaced with ammo crates at 25 sec respawn instead of 45. Initial weapon ammo is either nothing or meager. It would be interesting to see the effect of cycling ammo + health instead of the more inherently defensive health + armour.

Having never seriously played CTF or TDM (only watched), powerups aren't something I can comment on. I will say that inventory management was always less complicated in duel. Perhaps you have also considered the storage capsule for duel. The key in Elder comes to mind.

I see your point about the Toxic Railgun being questionable, since its existence could potentially undermine the value of armors. Granted, having a high enough stack is still helpful since it still means the difference between getting insta-fragged or just getting reduced to 1 health, and given the reload time of the railgun that could be just enough time for the other player to retaliate or seek cover long enough to regain health. But you are right on the money; one of the driving points behind Uberweapons - and Uber Arena as a whole - is offensive (weapons, ammo, and weapon pouches) control versus defensive (armor, health) control, so if it accomplishes that goal then that is great, though I wouldn't want to completely remove defensive control altogether, but rather attempt to have the two coexist to allow for more complex matches, as you make mention of. It's still my hope that, in theory, the difficulty of getting 3 railguns without dying would be enough to deter most players from going out of their way to obtain it, and that if they did they would have more than earned its abilities. My limited uber ammo idea could help matters as well, if need be.

I forgot to make mention of it earlier, but in regards to weapon pouches, you only need to collect them if you want to carry more than one non-starter weapon. Freshly spawned players are allowed to pick up one non-starter weapon before they need to go for pouches, so they can still get their hands on a RL, LG, etc. upon startup. That being said, one flaw I see in weapon pouches is that, like uberweapons, they are permanent and don't "naturally" go away like health, armor and ammo - you keep them once you get them. But unlike the ubered ammo idea, I'm not exactly sure of a good way to make weapon pouches impermanent. This isn't too big of a deal for FFA, TDM or CTF I feel, but in Duel that could be more serious. Worst case scenario is that I remove them from Duel altogether but keep them in other gametypes, keep the uberweapons in duel and experiment with limited uber ammo.

That server sounds like an interesting idea. I've also been wanting to get a test server set up sometime for Uber Arena to get some real human interactions with the items and mechanics of the mod. On the subject of ammo crates, I wonder if there should be an "intermediate" ammo crate that's less powerful than the currently existing one, but still better than standard ammo boxes. Basically the ammo equivalent of the YA, while the current one is the ammo equivalent of the RA / Mega Health - and to complete the analogy, that'd make standard ammo boxes like 25+ health bubbles / shards in terms of power level. This might necessitate reducing the amount of ammo given by standard boxes though.

Storage Capsule for duel sounds interesting, though my main concern is that no competitive duel maps (to my knowledge) have ever made use of holdable items. I remember reading on wviperw's excellent competitive level design guide that it's because players apparently don't like being surprised in the middle of a firefight with say, a player teleporting away with the personal teleporter, or suddenly getting a boost with medkit. I'm curious to know what the general opinion is from duel players. Is it the holdable item mechanic as a whole being fundamentally unfit for duel, or just that the effects of the existing ones are too powerful / unbalanced? If it's the latter then I could see the Storage Capsule working out, as it doesn't really give any direct benefits and relies on the player controlling and grabbing other items (I actually decided on putting 2 capsules in maps because of this). I do personally love the idea of keeping something of value on hand until you really need it, and being able to do that with any item - which the Storage Capsule enables - could result in some very interesting gameplay the likes of which haven't been seen before in duel.

My only grip with holdables is that they aren't predictable. Remember that QL CTF has medkit, which is not so bad since it's easily calculated.

In QC, abilities are basically holdables that can be popped at any time. They are somewhat calculable, but because they are often unpredictable, they occupy a few roles: as a comeback mechanic, an offensive tool, a defensive one, movement mod.

I would say that this layer of unpredictable execution is a major difference between QC and previous Quakes, but air control in Q1 and CPMA making movement unpredictable is similar. In those Quakes, unpredictability was limited to movement. QC on the other hand runs away with the idea.

Now that you mention it, I had a thought about making holdables potentially easier to play around. With the exception of the Kamikaze holdable (though that item seems relegated to the casual space, as well as the Invulnerability because it brings duel to a grinding halt), none of the holdable items give any visual indicator that they're being carried by the player until they are actually used. What if the holdable model / icon appeared above the player's head (or some similar, easily identifiable marker is used)?

They'd still be technically unpredictable since they can still be activated at any time (it's the core, fundamental aspect of their mechanic), but knowing what they have can let the other player plan around it or make reasonable predictions as to when they'll use them.

If player A knows player B has medkit then player A also knows that player B is logically going to boost themselves as soon as their stack gets too low (listening for hitbeep pitch), and instead of being surprised player A can prepare themselves in advance by positioning themselves to apply further damage or at least deny player B further health / armor.

Personal Teleporter can be calculated similarly to the Medkit since they can both be used for brink-of-death situations, though PT might also be used whenever the other player is just positionally disadvantaged. I can't remember if PT spawn rules are predictable in the same way duel spawns are, but that is always something that can be adjusted.

If player A knows player B has the tuning device then player A could keep an eye on what weapon player B is currently holding so they know exactly what uberweapon they'll be going for, and maybe attempt to stack up or get their own uberweapon in retaliation. Admittedly, the Tuning Device as-is does feel a bit cheap, as it totally skips the item control aspect of collecting uberweapons the normal way, and there's no advance warning apart from the mechanical whirring sound (which usually isn't enough time to get in a good position, especially against the explosive shotgun or homing rocket launcher) Even holdable visibility might not be good enough to make it viable for duel, so it'd probably be relegated to TDM / CTF material at best.

Storage Capsule would be less predictable since the player can carry any item with it, unless the carried item is displayed in some way too, but that could begin to look cluttered / silly really fast. Maybe just show the capsule model when in standby mode, then change the model to the actual item being carried when something is captured? (And maybe even change the color of the capsule when its in capture mode, but before an item is actually captured, just for more communication)

I don't know if this idea would make holdables duel-worthy but any form of communication about a player's state (within reason) helps other players to figure out their opponent's or their own course of action (there's a reason Quake frequently receives comparisons to chess). Power-ups already have this (though they wouldn't be suited for duel at all because they slow gameplay down by encouraging the other player to hide until the countdown ends) so now that I think about it, it's weird that holdables aren't the same way.

Another way around is a short preactivation time with a sound and/or visual indicator. The BFG in Doom did this.

i dont have time for a deserved long review so im just gonna say excellent job. all these features would rock in the single player mode.. what was it called again?, i know its erasers project from q3w...

No big deal man, I understand. I'm glad you enjoyed it! The project you're thinking of is Eraser's "EntityPlus" mod, which is a fantastic mod all-around. As a matter of fact Eraser is actually working on a new mission, which you can find here: https://www.quake3world.com/forum/viewtopic.p...start=7280

Looks like a fun project! Good luck. I haven't read all the comments, but here's an idea I've been kicking around: a mashup between Super Smash Bros and Quake.

The idea would be that you cannot actually kill your enemy but the more damage they take to their health, the greater the knockback effect of weapons. The only way to get points would be to send opponents into the void. So, for instance, players start with 100hp, they can get 200hp w/ mega, but weapon multiplier effects start to kick in if their hp drops below 0hp. -100hp would be 100% knockback increase. -200hp = 200% knockback increase, etc.

All the old Q3 maps might need to be tossed except the space maps. I think ideally maps might look like towers surrounded by void. Very vertically shaped maps w/ teles and jumppads between the levels.

Thanks man! I like that idea, sounds like an awesome game mode for casual matches haha. I think there was a mod somewhere that was similar to your idea (can't remember the name though, or even what game it was for). I really feel like having some kind of separate, less serious mode for players who want their Quake fix without stressing too much over the constant analytical processes of competitive gameplay is a great idea to draw in players, without sacrificing the gameplay of the primary modes.

One fun idea I had was 2D sidescrolling maps, where you always view the player from the side in a third-person perspective like in classic platformers. The most obvious gameplay consequence would be that you wouldn't be able to hide (except by being off-screen, of course) anywhere, since it's 2D and nothing would be obscured. It wouldn't be completely flat obviously; a little bit of depth would be allowed to give players breathing room and give space to put in teleporters or other map-specific mechanics that the player can pass by if needed, but nothing that would conceal the player.

On another note, I originally wanted to implement upside-down gravity surfaces in Uber Arena. I was able to make the player start out upside-down and re-adjust the physics as needed, but for some reason I can't make the game change the view properly in the middle of a game. I kind of gave up on it for now, but once I get some of the other features settled in I might return to it. (I would've went even further with fully dynamic gravity that adheres the player to the surface normal, but it seems to me like I'd have to modify some mouse-related code that's outside of the scope of a regular mod to adjust the view properly; i.e. not in game, cgame or ui)

hooooly shit I want this

Now on GitHub!
https://github.com/EmeraldTiger/Uber-Arena

Hello,

Right now I'm doing a bit of cleaning up on my code (I switched to the ioquake3 codebase) and making frequent commits to GitHub to make it easier to track down issues and for people to collaborate or throw in suggestions / insight. If you have any coding advice / suggestions or potential solutions to issues, feel free to message me!

Next release probably won't have many code-related changes; I have plans for visual aids like uberweapon effects on other players but issues transmitting entity flags are posing an obstacle. There are two more revised maps on the way, both of which work extremely well with the trampoline mechanic. Afterwards I'll make a video that focuses exclusively on showing off the new tricks / movement possibilities that trampolines provide.

Some more discussion food for thought: I've noticed the power-ups / holdable items haven't gotten as much feedback / attention as some of the other new things in the mod. I was curious as to what people's thoughts were on them, and how'd they fit into traditional TDM / CTF gameplay.

The power-ups:

Conservation: 30 seconds, gives infinite ammo; removes weapon limits.
Rampage: 30 seconds, instantly frags any player that touches you.
Scavenger: 30 seconds, lets you use your weapon fire to pick up items.

Which of these power-ups would best fit TDM? Which would suit CTF better? Which could work in either gametype? If there are issues that prevent them from having competitive relevancy, what would those be, and how could they be fixed without changing the fundamental idea behind them?

The holdable items:

Tuning Device: Upgrades currently held weapon into an uberweapon.
Storage Capsule: Stores items to be used later. Activate once to capture the next item you pickup (without immediately applying its effects), activate again while having captured an item to use it.

Tuning Device is self-explanatory. Storage Capsule lets you save items for the right time and situation which could lead to some interesting gameplay / decision-making. For example, you could capture a Red Armor while you're still fairly stacked, and then later use it when you are actually low. Or capture a power-up so that you don't waste the time remaining trying to find a good place to use it.

I just did a huge rework of the mod, cleaning up a lot of bad / leftover code and porting the entire mod over to the ioquake3 source, thanks to a suggestion from Quake3World community member Toku. Version 0.2 is currently underway and should be seeing a release soon. If you check the Uber Arena repository on Github and look at the commits you'll get an idea of what to expect in the upcoming release.

In the meantime, here's a new video demonstrating the trampoline mechanic in detail, and the possibilities they open up for movement. It features all three maps from Version 0.1 and three new maps which will be in the upcoming 0.2 release (see video and description for author credits). Also a cool new logo!



Only thing really stopping me from releasing at this point is an issue with getting the mod to run on standard Quake 3, as opposed to ioquake3. Whenever I run my mod using the standard Quake 3 executable, I get this message:

vm/ui.qvm has bad header

The ioquake3 source code base I'm using is designed to be compatible with standard Quake 3; it's simply cleaned up and more optimized / bugfixed than the original source code, so this should not be the issue. I looked on Google and found a few posts on it, but nothing that really helped me. Supposedly reinstalling a fresh copy of the 1.32 release is supposed to fix it, but I just tried that and it doesn't do anything for me at all. I changed the "vm_" variables to 1 and 2, and that didn't fix it either. I compiled my .qvm files using Cygwin with both 32-bit and 64-bit settings, and both sets of output .qvm files share the same issue. The same message appears whether I go through the mod menu through vanilla Q3 or using a shortcut with "fs_game uberarena". This only happens with standard Quake 3, btw - it works fine if running in ioquake3. Using Windows 10.

Way to reinvent jump pads.

Version 0.2 is now available for download!
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1b8BCsNDr4cs...kRWpJyxAHl



Changelog:

- Added 3 new maps:

- Run Don't Walk (ua_wvwq3dm5)
Original Author: Joel "wviperw" McDonald

- Chaos Citadel (ua_kaos)
Original Author: Dmitry "Vondur" Svetlichny

- Coriolis Effect (ua_lun3dm1)
Original Author: Matthew "Lunaran" Breit

- Added an alternate upgrade for the Arc Lightning Gun for duel mode only. It multiplies the LG's knockback 25 times, allowing for pinning enemies against walls.

- Added Light Armor (gives 25 armor points). The entity name used is identical to the one used by the CPMA mod, which means any maps that use CPMA's light armor will work with Uber Arena as well.

- Conservation now allows players to use weapons that have run out of ammo. In addition, the ammo and weapon pouch counters turn green while Conservation is active.

- Rampage now plays an ambient heartbeat noise while active.

- Ion Plasma Gun now plays its own unique bounce sounds, rather than using the grenade bounce sounds.

- A 3D weapon pouch model now appears next to the weapon pouch counter.

- Renamed Ammo Crate to Super Ammo Crate.

- All sounds converted from stereo to mono, for compatability with standard Quake 3.

- All 2D icons and trampoline surfaces are now unaffected by r_picmip.

- Entire codebase moved to the ioquake3 codebase. Does not affect compatability with standard Quake 3.

If any Q3 mappers are interested I set up a "mapjam"-like event for Uber Arena maps over on Quake3World, focused on taking advantage of the trampoline mechanic. It's more of an experiment and I'm not expecting a lot of entries (if any), but I figured it couldn't hurt to try.

Details here:
https://www.quake3world.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=53972

Impressive work! damn this looks fun and the mechanics are interesting. I like how it kind of makes you think about your 'loadout' more as a player instead of just vaccuuming up every thing you come across.

This kind of stuff takes me back to the early HL/quake days where there were so many new and interesting mods on the regular. Really crazy game changing stuff like Natural Selection was so dope.

Thank you f-shawn! Really happy to hear that you like it. I'm assuming that your comment regarding "loadouts" refers to weapon limits / weapon pouches, which if so is great to hear. The mechanic is one that has valid arguments both for and against it, but one of the intentions of the mechanic (if not the main reason) is to force players to put more thought into collecting weapons, since as you mentioned players tend to "vacuum up" whatever weapons they come across in normal gameplay, so I'm glad to see that the gameplay theories behind the mechanics are being communicated and interpreted as intended, regardless of whether or not they work out in practice.

Some of the intended consequences for weapon limits and pouches would be making the player ask questions like, "Is this a weapon that could be useful right now, given my current positioning and where my opponent may be at this time?". "Even if it isn't, would it be worth grabbing to deny it from my opponent?". Once you pick up a weapon, you can't drop it so you make a commitment every time you grab one, and weapon pouches themselves are limited and thus heavily contested so it isn't always practical or advisable to go for one straight away (especially because their unzipping sound is so distinctive). Weapon pouches / limits also have an intimate connection with the uberweapon mechanic - if you reach your limit, you can't deny weapons from your opponent anymore (they just stay there if you walk over them), so that weapon is free for your opponent to grab, which is more serious when uberweapons come into play, since uberweapons make weapon control exponentially more important than in standard gameplay. It also forces players who pickup pouches to make a choice between investing in more weapon diversity or an uberweapon, especially since a new weapon can be used right away but an uberweapon requires 3 pickups before becoming usable (instant gratification vs. delayed but bigger reward). Both weapon pouches and uberweapons work in tandem to promote a weapons-focused metagame with emphasis on arsenal control over health and armor control.

There's definitely still more fine-tuning that could possibly be done. I still haven't settled on what would be a "good" number of weapon pouches to have per map, depending on map size (and how many of those should be single vs. double pouches). They also currently have a 15-second respawn timer, which makes them more frequent than armors but less so than weapons (except in TDM, so maybe weapon pouches might need special adjustments in that gametype to account for that). I want them to make them relatively available but not so much that everyone is stepping on them wherever they go, which would defeat the point of the mechanic in the first place.

So, is anybody playing this?

Started a dedicated test server for Uber Arena. I have made an attempt to forward the necessary ports, but if you still have issues connecting please let me know.

IP is 47.219.38.45.

Recently posted Uber Arena on to ModDB to gather up some more publicity. Little did I know just how much it would actually get though - it has been featured in the September 23rd ModDB Editorial, as well as receiving a mention on the official ModDB Twitter and Facebook accounts!

https://www.moddb.com/features/this-week-in-m...er-23-2018
(Scroll down to the bottom of the post in the "Friday" section)

Needless to say, this is a very exciting honor and I can't thank the good people over at ModDB enough for deciding to feature it. It certainly wouldn't have been possible without the great support of all the people who have tried it out and offered feedback, suggestions, and even development support. If you still haven't checked out Uber Arena, now is definitely a great time to do so!

Congrats! Nice work!

Started work on a new original map for Uber Arena, Daedalus.
You can download it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZWZPLhP5da1D...ccAN4/view

Also, if you have a few seconds of your time available, feel free to vote on which game mechanic(s) you think a new arena FPS game with Quake-style gameplay should implement. The champions mechanic from Quake Champions is also included if you prefer it to, or would like it alongside the Uber Arena mechanics. (Note: this doesn't mean champions are coming to Uber Arena; the poll exists purely to see which mechanics are the most well-liked and how they compare to id software's "official" new mechanic of Champions)

Poll available here:
https://www.strawpoll.me/16611264

WIP screenshot of Daedalus. Took some inspiration from the original Deus Ex while I was working on it: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16Schhd7RiDkj...UYdM4/view

Hope everyone is having an excellent 2019 so far! This year will be Quake 3's 20th anniversary and to kick things off Uber Arena Version 0.3 is now available for download:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1le_Nstht68c...3SpEj2KmOi



Changelog:

- Added 2 new maps:

- Tarnished Steel (ua_bal3dm4)
Original Author: Benoit "Bal" Stordeur
NOTE: Item layout based on the OSP version (ospdm3)

- Tyrant Twilight (ua_tyrant)
Original Author: Tim "spirit" Schäfer

- Added uberweapons for the gauntlet and machinegun. Only two pickups of these weapons are needed to acquire them.

- Vampire Gauntlet: Damage inflicted by this weapon is given back to the player as health / armor. 1.3x increased speed and 25% damage resistance.

- Piercing Machinegun: Does full damage regardless of armor (while still damaging armor); zero spread.

- Changed how uberweapons work in duel. Every time the player obtains an uberweapon, a limited amount of "ubered" ammo is provided to them. This can be viewed through a separate ammo counter at the bottom-right corner of the ammo icon next to the regular ammo counter. Once a player uses up all of their ubered ammo, the weapon reverts back to normal.

The intention behind this change was to address a potentially serious balance issue for uberweapons in duel, making them far less likely to result in runaway victories. Before, the only way to lose an uberweapon was to die. If the uberweapon user kept armor and health control then the chances of the out-of-control player making a comeback would be very thin as there would be nothing they could do about the uberweapon. With ubered ammo, the uberweapon user not only has to use their shots wisely, but after they use them - whether successfully or not - they go back to having a standard weapon and thus no longer carry the permanent advantage of an uberweapon in previous versions. That being said, uberweapons should still be seen as a viable alternative to armor and health in terms of map control, as a way to fight against an in-control player with a high stack. The out-of-control player simply needs to be careful with their shots and if they succeed in regaining control this way then depending on how much uber ammo they used they will either have a slight advantage after the other player respawns, or both will be back on equal ground in terms of weapon control.

- Added the Tyrant medal, awarded for obtaining 2 uberweapons in a single life and for every uberweapon picked up afterwards.

- Power-up initial spawns are no longer random; they are now always guaranteed to spawn 45 seconds after the match begins. The 120-second respawn time is still in effect.

- If the player has 3+ copies of a weapon (in other words, they have an uberweapon), any additional copies they pickup won't count towards their weapon limit, and they can continue to pick that weapon up even if they have reached their limit. Suggested by CannerZ45 at ModDB: https://www.moddb.com/mods/uber-arena/downloa...version-02

- In previous versions, only players that were first hit and poisoned by the Toxic Railgun, then were fragged afterwards, would lose a frag. Now, players fragged by the Toxic Railgun will always lose a frag, whether it is immediate or after being poisoned.

- Weapon quantity / uberweapon indicators now present in the weapon selection bar. Silver squares with "2" for weapons the player owns 2 copies of, and gold squares with "3" for uberweapons.

- Super Ammo Crate colors revamped - now cycles through multiple colors instead of a single rainbow-colored texture. Icon remains the same. In vertex lighting the box will be gray.

- Uberweapon names now appear on the weapon selection bar (intended from the beginning, but accidentally left out due to a qvm-related issue).

- Fixed a bug where dropped items that received knockback would respawn at the map origin instead of disappearing. Thanks to Martinus for bringing this to my attention.

- Fixed a bug that caused rockets to try to fly towards previously fired homing rockets if only one player was present.

- Fixed a bug in which an item that shared a spawn with another item(s) could cause the next item in the team chain to spawn early, instead of having the knocked item return to its original location. Such items would either be stuck in their new positions post-knockback or even be removed from the map entirely after pickup.

---------

I've also restarted the Uber Arena server (address 47.219.38.45) updated with version 0.3 and the new maps. As always feedback (especially in-depth gameplay feedback) is appreciated; create conversations about how to innovate the arena FPS genre while remaining true to its principles. Remember, Uber Arena promises no loadouts, no champions, no on-spawn inequality, and no random number generators.

Uber Arena now has a Discord server! You can join through here:
https://discord.gg/M2yJZyj

Use it to discuss Uber Arena's mechanics, provide feedback or to get online matches going.

You can also check out the ModDB Uber Arena forums at https://www.moddb.com/mods/uber-arena/forum

Time to gather up some more input.

What, do you feel, is an ideal number of weapon pouches / double weapon pouches for small, medium, and large size maps respectively? Currently both types of weapon pouches are on 15-second timers. Should they be more or less frequent?

The Super Ammo Crate is currently on a 45-second respawn timer (like regular ammo boxes). Do you think it should be lower or higher?

What are your opinions on the ubered ammo changes in duel? Do you feel they make uberweapons more balanced in this gametype, since they are now non-permanent just like armor, health, and ammo? Would you apply this change to all gametypes?

How do you feel about non-random initial power-up spawns? Do you feel that this removal of randomness adds more skill, or do you feel this is one of the very few instances of randomness from the original game that was there for a good reason? Explain your reasoning (if you think the randomness was good, explain why it's an exception to the rule of randomness generally being bad).

What would your playstyle be in Uber Arena in regards to uberweapons and weapon pouches? Would you prefer to spend your pouches on a variety of different weapons, or invest your pouches in one or two uberweapons?

One of Uber Arena's goals is promoting a weapon-focused metagame in addition to a health/armor-based one. What would your playstyle lean towards? Weapon / ammo control, health/armor control, or a hybrid?

How many active players does it have?

Unfortunately, none at this time. It will be undeniably challenging to kindle activity, given that Q3 is such an old game, which is why I've been banking on two things.

1. This year is Q3's 20th anniversary, which is "special" - so various gaming websites will likely be doing nostalgic retrospectives and editorials on it. I know sites like PC Gamer and Rock Paper Shotgun occasionally do coverage on the more notable user-made mods for older games like Quake, Doom, Half Life, and so on. After I do some more work / polish on the mod, if there's some way I can get in contact with them then I'd love to see if they'd be interested in featuring Uber Arena for a short while to get some more promotion, and doing it close to Q3's 20th anniversary seems like a good a bet as any. On smaller-scale editorials / blogs I'd be up for doing interviews.

2. Capitalizing on the controversy around Quake Champions and using it as leverage to highlight the mechanics of Uber Arena and present it as an alternative, both to people who may be disillusioned / don't care for the Champions mechanic (I'm neutral on them myself), and/or those who have played more traditional arena shooters like Reflex (which is awesome, don't get me wrong) and want something different, but still skillful and true to core principles like on-spawn equality.

It's also why I've started the Discord server to hopefully make it easier to get games going, and I might try and set aside some time for a session later this week.

If anyone has suggestions for spreading the word about Uber Arena then feel free to send me a line!

Good idea to leverage the 20th anniversary, can't believe its been that long really

Hopefully some articles from big gaming sites etc send people toward Q3 and it's mods like this!

looks pretty cool and interesting

Maybe you could get the people of timconlan to try it for a few hours?
http://www.esreality.com/post/2931197/timconlan-7/

Great idea! I went ahead and sent them an email. Would be a very exciting opportunity to get some in-depth gameplay feedback!

If anyone has some good experience with Quake 3 modding (more than I do anyways, hehe) I am still running into issues with server-to-client game transmission via entity flags:

https://www.quake3world.com/forum/viewtopic.p...2#p1060782

Basically I want to begin adding more distinctive effects for uberweapons like making the homing rockets make beeping noises, have the ion plasma bolts be a different color, etc. but my attempts at making it work fall flat on their face. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Version 0.4 should be coming pretty soon, though I have ran into an issue where the .vm's output by my makefile screw up my mod in various random ways (https://discourse.ioquake.org/t/compiling-vm-files-gives-bizarre-results-on-mod-dll-works-fine/1226), though the .dll's work fine. Hoping to get that sorted out soon so non-Windows users can enjoy the new release.

In the meantime, there's a pretty big surprise in store for the next release when it comes out. I won't spoil too much about it, but I will say that a well-known individual who did work on the original release of Quake 3, as well as Quake Live, will be directly involved in some way. Feel free to speculate!

So after a week of hype, Version 0.4 has landed on the internet, and guess who the well-known guy is?





Download:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=12MtwF40oILn...eWDcFKG0G3

- Christian Antkow, the original Quake 3 announcer, now voices the Conservation and Scavenger power-ups, the Tyrant medal, and the main menu intro. HUGE thanks for your work; it is a real honor to have you involved in my mod!

- Added 4 new maps:

- Torn to Shreds (uadm9)
Original Author: Dan "CardO" Shannon
NOTE: Based on the QueToo version; originally a Quake 2 map

- Factory Frenzy (uadm10)
Original Author: Nick "Nickster" Hambrecht

- Out on a Capture (uactf1)
Original Author: Tigger-On
NOTE: CTF version of Out on a Rampage (uadm3)

- Spirit Collision (uactf2)
Original Author: Tim "spirit" Schäfer

- Newly redesigned menu, with a cool Matrix background effect courtesy of Stefan "sst13" Scholz (from his "Campgrounds Matrix Edition" map)

- Holdable items, as well as the gauntlet / machinegun, can now be dropped by players upon death or specating. If the Storage Capsule is dropped, it will revert to Standby Mode, and any item carried in it at the time (if any) will be dropped along with it, including items that normally couldn't be dropped like armor and health.

- Storage Capsule now displays the icon of the item it is currently carrying above its own icon.

- Players carrying uberweapons can now be identified by glowing orbs encircling their player model. The color of the orb corresponds to whatever weapon they are currently carrying; for example, players with the Homing Rocket Launcher will have a red orb.

- New piercing machinegun sound.

- New homing rocket sound (tracking beep noises).

- New multi-grenade skin (hazard stripes; brighter green light flash).

- New arc lightning color (gold).

- New ion plasma bolt color (magenta); inspired by the Q3Test plasma gun.

- New toxic railgun sound (hiss).

- New BFG30K bolt color (blue).

- New Conservation firing sounds.

- New Scavenger aura.

- New map loading screen.

- Added the g_bouncy cmd. Treats all walkable surfaces as trampolines. Intended for development purposes, but can be fun to play around with.

- Ubered ammo no longer used up while Conservation is active.

- Moved Storage Capsule state messages to the client; now prints as large text in the same manner as the normal holdable activation message.

- Fixed a bug where players that approached a flag with a capture-mode Storage Capsule would look like they picked up the flag, even though they really didn't (and cannot)

- Fixed weapon limit stats being hidden by flag indicators in CTF.

- Fixed a bug that would cause items knocked onto movers to continue to be affected by those movers after respawning.

- Fixed a bug that prevented players who weren't carrying the enemy flag from returning their own flag by touching it.

- Fixed a bug in which a knocked-away flag that returned to its location didn't generate a return announcement, and would continue to identify as missing.

- Fixed a bug in which a player who uses an item they were currently carrying in the Storage Capsule would cause the original item (the one they picked up and captured in the first place) to disappear as if it had been picked up.

- Fixed a homing rocket related movement bug that persisted due to only appearing in .vm compiled game code.

- Fixed a bug in which the game would crash if a player attempted to use an item in the Storage Capsule that was originally a dropped item.

-Christian Antkow, the original Quake 3 announcer, now voices the Conservation and Scavenger power-ups, the Tyrant medal, and the main menu intro. HUGE thanks for your work; it is a real honor to have you involved in my mod!

X I A N
I
A
N


Now get him to be a announcer VO for Diabotical with that nostalgic beautiful voice.

Didn't get a whole match in, but I did finally find an opportunity to play some Uber Arena online with human players, even if only for a few minutes. It's really amazing and enlightening to see how others work with the rules that you have set in place yourself, and it's fun getting your ass kicked by your own mechanics :)

Also I mistakenly left out the port for the server IP and assumed it was 27960. It's actually 27961, so /connect 47.219.38.45:27961 should work. Editing the main post as well.

BTW, ModDB made another Twitter post on my mod: https://twitter.com/ModDB/status/1098341525346504704 (Didn't get featured again, but no big deal as I'm aiming for bigger outlets anyways)

At the risk of stirring up controversy, I may consider adding support for the TA weapons (using OpenArena assets most likely if it happens, to avoid legal issues) and giving them uber versions. But do note that if it does happen that the chaingun and prox launcher will get some heavy nerfs. Nailgun will probably be left alone; I don't feel it's all that game-breaking.

For the chaingun, I'd give it a long spin-up / spin-down time to make it much riskier to use. Player would have to preemptively start using it (by listening for other players) and they're left vulnerable for the spin-down period. Always thought it was stupid that TA removed spin-up / spin-down altogether as that was one of the big things that balanced it out and gave it a unique risk-reward mechanic in Quake 2, and Quake Live only brought back the spin-up without returning the spin-down.

For the prox launcher I want to keep the intended function of a passive area denial weapon, but make it a lot less spammy and demand more thought in mine placement out of its users. My idea was a max of 3 mines at any one time, and if a 4th is laid then the oldest mine is automatically detonated. So you could either put 3 in a doorway for high damage, or spread them out for lower damage, but better coverage. Basically put more skill / thought into mine laying.

A new separate branch for TA weapon support has been made:
https://github.com/EmeraldTiger/Uber-Arena/tree/ta_weaps

So as I mentioned in my last post, the Chaingun has been given the spin-up time its QL version had (have yet to code the spin-down; it's not quite as simple it seems), and the prox launcher now has a 3-mine limit. Definitely nowhere near as spammable now, while still being usable for what it was meant for.

Will soon begin work on the TA uberweapons - the Phantom Nailgun, Laser Prox Launcher, and Infinity Chaingun. No big spoilers on what they do exactly, but if you look at the obituary messages for them in this commit you will probably get a sense of what they're capable of...

So for the next release of Uber Arena I've been scouting out several more mappers who haven't yet had maps included in the mod yet for permission to use their work. One of the people I'm trying to reach out to is well-known CPM / Quake Live mapper swelt, but his current contact details are bouncing. If you have any details, PM me (don't post any contact details publicly) or ask swelt to get in touch please (if he is okay with it, of course). :)

Things are going well so far for the next update; the major functions for all the TA uberweapons are pretty much finalized at this point. There will be several new maps in the upcoming update as well, including some alterations of former Rocket Arena 3 maps with items included.

I noticed there's a lot of new arena FPS projects brewing (Glitch, etc.); it's nice to see that interest in the genre still exists. If you're an arena FPS developer and are looking for ideas to make your game unique then you are more than welcome to use my ideas; no credit needed (though I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know so I can see it for myself!).

Uber Arena is very much a project by the community, for the community, and the concepts introduced in it are all pretty much public domain. The hope is that arena FPS designers can take some ideas from it to innovate their own games. It'd be really cool to see players bouncing around on Trampolines in, say, Reflex, while attempting to control the Scavenger power-up instead of the Quad in a TDM match, while also taking advantage of the Storage Capsule to maximize temporal and spatial positioning. Don't be afraid to try something new because the only way arena FPS can go forward is by doing just that; you don't have to follow the Quake Champions route to accomplish this.

Version 0.5 is now available, with 7 new maps, Team Arena weapons (with nerfs for better game balance), and match customization options as highlight features!



Download:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=19qpQk8KLnOQ...QrV89ToO1i

- Added 7 new maps:

- Claws of Nehemoth (uadm11)
Original Author: Tim "spirit" Schäfer
NOTE: Originally a QueToo map

- Serenity Garden (uadm12)
Original Author: Tigger-On
NOTE: Based on the Clan Arena of Tigger-On's RA3 map "Certain Ruin"

- Dissension of Eternity (uadm13)
Original Author: Eraser

- Starlight Run (uadm14)
Original Author: acid

- Periphery (uadm15)
Original Author: Richard "swelt" Jacques

- Pitch Black Moon (uadm16)
Original Author: Justin "StormShadow" Ingels
NOTE: Based on the Clan Arena of StormShadow's RA3 map "Black Moon"

- Revolution Industries (uactf3)
Original Author: Joel "JohnnyLaw" Baxter

- Added support for the three Team Arena weapons, as well as uberweapons for each.

NOTE: For legal reasons, the assets used for the Team Arena weapons are taken from OpenArena. I have attempted to contact the rights owners, and they did indeed respond back, and the response can pretty much be summed up as "no". So unfortunately the possibility of using the original TA assets is basically zero.

- Phantom Nailgun: Fires nails that go through level geometry, with a slightly larger damage radius than normal.

- Infinity Chaingun: Returns approximately 70% of all damage inflicted (rounded down) as chaingun belt ammo.

- Laser Prox Launcher: Fires accurate laser beams every second at players within the mine's sight cone.

- The standard chaingun now has a spin-up / spin-down time.

- Prox launcher can now only launch a maximum of 3 mines at any one time. If more than 3 are launched, the oldest one is detonated.

- New "Advanced Settings" menu that lets you customize various mod-related options. They can be accessed through the match menu, or set the old-fashioned way through the console.

- List of new console commands (see documentation for more details):

g_knockback_item
g_knockedItemRespawnTime
g_startingAmmoPercentage
g_startingWeaponLimit
g_startingPowerupSpawnTime
g_powerupRespawnTime
g_dropHoldables
g_maxProxMines

- Holdable items are now visible above the heads of other players, making them much more predictable, and easier to counter.

- If a player with the Storage Capsule is currently carrying an item inside of it, the stored item will be displayed instead of the capsule.

- Item knockback now scales based on distance from the explosion origin.

- Negative vertical velocity that would be imparted on items (due to the splash origin being above the item) is now reflected instead of being cleared. This makes knocking items from high ledges much easier as the items will always bounce upwards, instead of being thrust downwards and moving very little.

- Uberweapon names are now gold-colored when selected in the status bar.

- Fixed a bug where the missing model axes would show up on dead corpses (related to the uberweapon orb effect).

- Fixed a bug where the player would be launched by a trampoline much higher than they were supposed to.

Check out the new Uber Arena subreddit as well:
https://www.reddit.com/r/UberArena/

For those interested, I was recently a guest on the InTheKeep podcast with TheMotherload, where we discuss my mod Uber Arena, as well as some other topics related to level design and the gaming industry. Worth checking out if you can put up with my terrible voice quaity lol.

https://inthekeep.com/in-the-keep-podcast-77-...ber-arena/

I'm pretty busy with other stuff nowadays, but if I ever get back to UA, then one of the new ideas I mentioned in the podcast is a timestop holdable, called the Moratorium. The player can activate it to freeze time for everyone but themselves for 10 seconds. So you can fire a barrage of rockets at a frozen player and then have them all hit them at once, like DIO's time-stopped knives against Jotaro (for those who watch JJBA).