| Q4Max 0.71 Release [] |
24/12/2005 03:19 |
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| Posted by: swelt
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The time has come for our first proper, real, post-SDK beta release. Before I talk about what features we’ve got, what features we are working on and what we plan to do in the future, I’d first like to offer out some thanks. First thanks go to the Q4Max programming team for the insane amount of effort they put in to get the mod into a fit state for use in the Winter CPL. That there were no reported problems with Q4Max was a major achievement. Our hearts were racing on the second day when we heard that no-one could connect to the servers but with some support from cha0ticz that turned out to be an installation problem and everything after that ran smoothly.
I’d like to extend those thanks to the new members of the team, without whose efforts we’d never had made it:
- AnthonyJ, author of the Domination mod, working on GUI and Game Modes
- custom3, contributor to sabot, working on bots
- ech, working on tools and GUI
- Mogul, working on sounds
- qrealka, author of spiterbot, also working on bots
- shaun, tools and support
By now you’ve probably seen the CPL release – albeit without a changelog that shows all the included features. Since that time, we’ve carried on working hard for the first public release. Getting a version ready for the CPL, with their tightly controlled and enclosed environment playing a single game type, is a lot different to getting something ready for general usage. This is an ongoing development project, there are bound to be some rough edges in there, but we think we are ready to let you get your hands on Q4Max.
Our development approach is very much based on experience from past projects. With that in mind, we’ve put in some basic building blocks that evolved in OSP and CPMA that will make further development simpler. One of those things is game modes. The mod ships with a set of standard modes for TDM, CTF, 1v1 etc. If you vote for one of those modes, you get a standard configuration – standard timelimit, fraglimit, weapon respawn etc. This makes things a lot easier for competitions using internet servers, as they just have one vote to call to know everything is set up correctly. These modes cannot be changed, but of course we allow for server admins to set up their own custom modes too. On top of that, we have a flexible voting system with support for referees (by password, election or automatically by GUID) and with an extensive list of votes already added to the system. Enter “callvote ?” to get started. Each of these votes can be easily regulated by the server admin. With these fundamental elements in place, we can start adding more options to the game.
So let’s look at some of the key features we’ve got in the 0.71 beta of Q4Max:
- Competition support: standard modes, referees, warmup and overtime modes, automatic demo recording and screenshot (server forced or client option), competitive settings GUI, high vis weapon skins.
- Team mode support: fullbright team and enemy skins, custom enemy model, text chat tokens, team overlay with locations (go ech!), lockable teams.
- Performance options: ‘vertex light’, r_lightscale unlocked, rocket and grenade smoke toggle, gib toggle, ambient sound filter.
- New Mode: Clan Arena - callvote mode CA (address worship to AJ)
- New Mode: Instagib - callvote mode iffa/ictf/itdm
What next? There are still a few key features that need addressing, some of the harder things that we’ve not had time to address yet like pauses and a complete overhaul of the team code to enable better and more flexible team handling. I’m sure there must be some bugs lurking in there that’ll need fixing, and some more performance optimisations. Bot intelligence is something that will take a lot of work. We’ve got additional game modes like CTFS and Domination. And of course, we’ve got a bunch of nice-to-have features that we’d like to include, like more hud options, graphic tweaks and such.
What about gameplay changes? This mod is a competition mod. It has long been the basic premise of this class of mod that it should make no changes to the stock game rules. We’ve had a bit of an issue with the shotgun, where an exploited bug became quite popular in certain circles, but (with guidance from CPL/CAL/GGL and Raven) we’ve fixed that. Beyond that, with our custom modes, we do have the option to build on variations to gameplay without affecting the base game. Included in the distribution is something to prompt some thought and discussion: a custom mode called ATDM (Advanced TDM) which uses a strong tiered armor system, 90 second quad respawn, no powerup drop and with droppable weapons enabled. However, gameplay changes to the ‘vanilla’ base are not in the plan.
You can read the full changelog here. Download Q4Max 0.71 from one of the following mirrors:
* Minor item missing from the changelog: hud_lagometerPosition "x y" - "576 428" works nicely for me.
Information regarding SteamFish will follow shortly.
Have a nice holiday season.
- The Q4Max Team. |
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Comments |
| #1 Posted by: Flake 24/12/2005 03:41
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| Well done guys |
| #2 Posted by: RaaD 24/12/2005 05:22
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| i hope ATDM gets used in all TDM circles |
| #3 Posted by: pogo 24/12/2005 10:02
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| 0 FPS in menu nice... wtf? |
| #4 Posted by: Mogul 24/12/2005 10:41
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| You will probably want to delete your pre-existing q4max folder and use a fresh mod install for this update. If not, deletion of your old cfg might help. |
| #5 Posted by: koddy 24/12/2005 10:51
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| wow nice! |
| #6 Posted by: Nukm 24/12/2005 14:59
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| gj, ty! |
| #7 Posted by: heavyy 24/12/2005 22:56
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| thanks a lot. |
| #8 Posted by: bigredseany 01/02/2006 16:30
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| I too am getting 0 fps in the menu. Please Help me. |
| #9 Posted by: nArf 05/02/2006 17:31
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| n1 work guys! |
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