WASD and number keys

[vibok]

@R00k
Wow, didn't knew hook existed in quake.

@Polarite
Can I get more details? Maybe you meant numpad?

[Polarite]

@Polarite
Can I get more details? Maybe you meant numpad?

No numpad, its a sidewinder gamepad ;-)

[DJLawson]

I generally use the mouse wheel to change weapons but I sometimes press the numbers to flick between them.

Movement wise I always use W, A, S, D.

[Mugwump]

I never use WASD (or more accurately ZQSD on my french keyboard) because these keys are lost in a sea of other keys and it causes me to press the wrong key much too often. I always use the arrow keys when a game allows for it. In Quake, I use right-CTRL to toggle walk/run, numpad 0 to jump and mwheel to cycle weapons. There's only very few occasions where I have to use the number keys: in a few mods, mwheel ignores the alternate weapons that are accessible by toggling the number keys. Edit: Forgot to mention that I have swim up bound to mouse2 and swim down to mouse4 (under my thumb). In later games with more controls, I usually bind use to right-click, crouch to right-CTRL, walk/run toggle to right-SHIFT, lean left/right to DEL/PgDn, inventory to RETURN and holster weapon to BACKSPACE.

I could just use the mousewheel probably, but that's too slow.

Uhh, what?! How is that slower than having to look at your keyboard? Buy a mouse with a dented wheel and you can count the dents to cycle to your desired weapon in a blink.

[vibok]

Uhh, what?! How is that slower than having to look at your keyboard? Buy a mouse with a dented wheel and you can count the dents to cycle to your desired weapon in a blink.

I probably could get used to that, after a bit of practice. The problem is that I don't have enough of a visual feedback when I do that, I don't know what weapon I'm holding until I shoot it a few times. All weapons look pretty simular.

I will need to add a few beeps when switching weapons, and a better gui. FTE seems to have a good gui already, I need to try it.



Interesting how Team Fortress 2 uses only 3 number buttons to switch weapons, for most classes. You still need all 10 of them for chat commands and choosing a class, I wonder how they type them.

[Focalor]

I use numpad with left hand and mouse with right. Mouse is freelook, fire and jump. Numpad is everything else. 7 and 9 are used for previous/next weapon while 1 and 3 are dedicated to rl and plasma directly.

Dunno if it's possible with a Q1 config, but for Q2 I use a kinda-sorta similar setup. I use the arrow keys for movement (forward, backward, strafe left, strafe right) and then I use the numpad keys for weapon binds. The numbers work just like they would with the default binds to the number keys across the top 1 for blaster, 2 for shotgun, 3 for SSG, 4 for MG, etc etc) The 0 key at the bottom of the numpad is BFG, and then for hand grenades I have the "Del" key beside the 0 key. With all those keys located on the right side of the keyboard, it allows me to slide the KB over and have more desk surface area for mouse aiming.

As for the mouse, M1 is fire, M2 is jump, scroll wheel button (middle mouse button) is crouch. Dunno if you can use aliases and scripts and whatever in Q1, but I used to have another nifty bind for the mousewheel where scrolling up would lower the FOV to something like 50 and adjust the aiming sensitivity so you could basically have access to a zoom-in function. Then you could also create a custom crosshair to bind to that action as well that would have black around a circle reticle like a sniper scope. Used to use a zoom bind like that a little back when I used to play lots of Q2 instagib on large maps.

[Mugwump]

Dunno if you can use aliases and scripts and whatever in Q1

Yes you can. At least in DarkPlaces, not sure about other engines (FTE & QSS probably support this too). I have a nice zooming in/out script in my DP.

But TBH, a zoom isn't really necessary in Quake, except in a handful of huge maps with long lines of sight (Something Wicked comes to mind).

[Focalor]

Yeah. I STILL haven't had a chance to play any Q1 multiplayer. But I don't anticipate there's any kind of mod like Q2's instagib where landing one single shot at long range with consistency would be advantageous. Zoom was good for landing railgun shots on wide-open maps like the football stadium one (I forget the name of it). One of the reasons why I think I'd still prefer Q2's multiplayer to Q1: the weapon choice is more varied and certain weapons are better in certain situations than others (hitscan vs projectile). Just off the top of my head, I think the only hitscan weapons employed in Q1 are the shotguns. Not very useful at longer distances because of the diminished damage points based on distance to simulate spread and loss of shot velocity. But in Q2, as long you've got a full compliment of bullets, you can harass someone with a machinegun as they flee from you and eventually whittle them down to zero with the same effectiveness regardless of distance from target.

[Mugwump]

The lightning gun also is insta-hit (I've been told I shouldn't call it hitscan) but has limited range. The single-barrelled shotgun doesn't spread that much and is the n°1 sniping weapon in Q1. But yeah, Q2's multiplayer was definitely more refined. I don't play MP much but my reference MP shooter still is Q3A. To play solo, I prefer Q1 for the lovecraftian universe, NIN and the movement speed more akin to Doom.

[Dutch]

Alias should work for all engines. If you have Quake on CD (like I do, from 1996) and you unpack the original, totally un-adultered PAK0 and take a peek in quake.rc, there actually are alias bindings for a zoom feature that adjusts FOV and sensitivity, like Focalor was saying. I was surprised to see that myself.

EDIT: sorry, not quake.rc, it's in default.cfg

[Dutch]

Yeah. I STILL haven't had a chance to play any Q1 multiplayer. But I don't anticipate there's any kind of mod like Q2's instagib where landing one single shot at long range with consistency would be advantageous. Zoom was good for landing railgun shots on wide-open maps like the football stadium one (I forget the name of it). One of the reasons why I think I'd still prefer Q2's multiplayer to Q1: the weapon choice is more varied and certain weapons are better in certain situations than others (hitscan vs projectile). Just off the top of my head, I think the only hitscan weapons employed in Q1 are the shotguns. Not very useful at longer distances because of the diminished damage points based on distance to simulate spread and loss of shot velocity. But in Q2, as long you've got a full compliment of bullets, you can harass someone with a machinegun as they flee from you and eventually whittle them down to zero with the same effectiveness regardless of distance from target.

Yeah, the shotguns and LG are the only Q1 hitscan weapons. The shotgun damage actually does not change based on distance, just the shot pattern gets looser. Mod I'm working on actually 'corrects' this...up close the shotguns are nasty, far away they only sting. Damage is based on a square root function of distance... I think I'm also gonna replace the nailguns with rifles. I HATE the nailguns, never liked them from the get-go.

[Focalor]

The lightning gun also is insta-hit (I've been told I shouldn't call it hitscan) but has limited range. The single-barrelled shotgun doesn't spread that much and is the n°1 sniping weapon in Q1. But yeah, Q2's multiplayer was definitely more refined. I don't play MP much but my reference MP shooter still is Q3A. To play solo, I prefer Q1 for the lovecraftian universe, NIN and the movement speed more akin to Doom.

I played Q3 a little, and on the surface it seemed like a better version of Q2, but one thing it lacks is the quirky movement physics native to Q2, like strafe jumping, wall strafing, etc. The Q2 jumpmod focuses entirely on the movement physics. It adds an extra skill to the game, and better movement skill can be a decisive factor in the outcome of 1v1 duels.

Q3's modelling blew Q2 away, no question. In Q3 you can actually get detailed with the small parts, and models can actually use more than one image to texture a single model. Makes Q1 and Q2's vertex based models and animation look like the total bullshit that it is. Then again, the MD2 format gives the game it's unique and dated look that I find so attractive, so it's not all bad.

I HATE the nailguns

Never had a chance to wield one against a human opponent, but I image the nail flight time would make it challenging to use with high accuracy. I guess the hyperblaster in Q2 would be similar. Leading a target gets harder the farther away it is, so I usually just aim at the general area where I should be leading and vigorously shake the mouse back and forth over their predicted path. At least then SOME of the rounds will land.

I love the nailgun though. Without a doubt the coolest weapon in the entire Quake franchise.

[Dutch]

I love the nailgun though. Without a doubt the coolest weapon in the entire Quake franchise.

I agree the premise is cool. The Nailgun in Q3 Team Arena was functionally better than Q1's nailguns. They would be much better if:

1) The nails moved at least twice as fast
2) The nails ricocheted
3) Did marginally more damage.

All of the above I could do, but I still like the idea of rifles better, and including both is a pain in the ass, because without getting super hacky the in-game HUD in faithful engines only accepts 4 different ammotypes and 7 different weapon pictures. Sure, I could just forgo the additional weapon and ammo pictures, but that doesn't jive well with my OCD. Lol.

@ bfg

The shotguns and LG both use a function called traceline, which draws a vector from the player firing to the end of the shot path (4096 quake units for shotgun and 600 units for LG IIRC). If an enemy obstructs that vector, damage is dealt to them. In a nutshell, anyways. The lightning beam and all that fancy stuff is just for effect. Point being is, I don't see how it could possibly be incorrect to call them both 'hitscan' weapons, seeing how the way they deal damage is almost identical.

If we want to really get technical, the axe is too, because that also runs a short traceline in front of the swinging player. It's just delayed because the attack function actually happens based on the player's model frame, and not when he presses the fire button.