Universal Server Project
Summary:
One server runs EVERY MOD. Voteable by players.
Features:
All maps votable. All mods votable. Anything you want, anywhere you are. The favorites plus mods you have never played. Utilizes ProQuake/Qrack map download --- you don't need the files.
Status:
Almost done. Was hoping for today or yesterday. Looks like Tuesday, December 29.
Pilot Servers:
Chicago and New York. Courtesy of Master Splinter and Kathos
Benefits:
Want to play Rocket Arena? Slide? AirQuake? ThreeWave? Team Fortress? Have you ever played Zerstorer deathmatch (me neither) and killed other players with a chain saw or Zerstorer's "Riot Controller"? Have you ever played Qmatrix? NQ Team Fortress? Want to have 200 maps available? It is.
Something that has, in a way, been killing this community is the lack of diversity in what is available to play. A lot of mods aren't hosted on servers or might be on some server you ping poorly on. They aren't available for the most part; and not popular enough to merit their own server or at least that is a big risk. With this, there is no risk because if no one wants to play a certain mod, it runs something else unless the players vote a different mod.
We think of servers as "this kind" or "that kind" and if the mod a server is running isn't popular enough to merit it's own server, no one is going to pay to have it up.
Quake has a ton of variety, but the limited access to this stuff is a killer. It causes people to not play because they don't have anything that interests them available or it isn't hosted where they want it.
In addition, the clients have not in the past had map download capability or a server browser.
ProQuake 4.01
And the lack of a server browser does 2 things:
1. You can't easily find what servers have players on them.
2. New players expect a server browser.
The lack of a server browser means that no one is going to find a game going on a less common server.
These new servers will be up and running by Tuesday, I was hoping to have them done yesterday or today, but working on the fine details has been a pain and I won't have any time this weekend.
But this also means something else: if worthy new mods are developed, they can be available on a server too.
There is one catch ... the mods have to have the source code available, so some "dead mod" with no source code is going to remain dead. Mods with open source codes will live on and be coming to a server near you.
