Player or Modder?

[Hipnotic Rogue]

As someone who enjoys playing old games immensely but lacks the courage (don't ask!) to get into modding or mapping I sometimes feel bad. I feel like I'm the only one not contributing and I just take everyone else's work without giving much more than a thank you post back.

So, am I the only one here who just plays the game without modding or mapping? Do you only map and/or mod without playing these days?

Just curious after reading some of the posts in the QExpo thread...

[Dutch]

I've yet to release a Quake mod (never could lock down exactly what I wanted to do or how I wanted it to turn out...still working on stuff though), but as an avid game mapper (any Far Cry fans here??) and builder of stuff in general, I can assure you this: if it weren't for guys like you enjoying all the stuff other guys make, there'd be no reason at all to make it. Lol. So keep it up!

[Hipnotic Rogue]

Thanks for your kind words, dude. Sometimes, it just kinda feels like modders making stuff for their fellow modders, if that makes sense.

On some other topics in other forums I've often made suggestions on how to make things more noob friendly (being one myself) and welcoming to new players. I can't tell you how many times I've been told "If you want that, go code it yourself - it's not that difficult". Not the most heartening of sentiments with regards to keeping old games alive with fresh blood...

Anyway, that probably sounds like I'm whinging. I hope it doesn't come across that way. Just more curious to see if there are others here, like me, who 'only' play the game.

[Dutch]

You bet man.

You most likely won't find much of that "go do it yourself" mentality here...most of the modders here are decent guys/gals. This is a pretty tight-knit community, but also very welcoming. We all love seeing fresh blood here, we love feedback, and we appreciate it when our work is appreciated.

I honestly believe this site has single-handedly kept Quake alive for 20 years and running. Sure, there are other great sites like Quaddicted, inside3d, and func_msg, but IMO this site has it all, and a great group of fellow gamers and modders alike. It's the perfect blend.

Guys like Mindz keep the DM community strong. Gals like Talisa keep all the new content front and center. Guys like MadGypsy share every scrap of coding info in general, much of it can directly relate to Quake. The Baker-type guys keep the classic engines/mods going. Spike and Rook are always there to help with coding. Guys like Sock keep single-player fresh. And they're all right here at Q1.

But arguably the most important people are the ones that actually use the stuff that all the aformentioned people, and those like them, make. I can't speak for everyone, but I certainly wouldn't be making stuff for Quake if I didn't think it would ever be enjoyed.

Good to have you on board dude.

[Sgt-PieFace]

You most likely won't find much of that "go do it yourself" mentality here...most of the modders here are decent guys/gals. This is a pretty tight-knit community, but also very welcoming. We all love seeing fresh blood here, we love feedback, and we appreciate it when our work is appreciated.

Ditto.

I used to 'only play' Quake, but recently I have started mapping. If I was told by everybody to 'go do it yourself' I wouldn't have gotten very far. I did teach most of it to myself, but I had help from some community members. I am by no means an experienced mapper, but if you want to get into it, I would love to help you out. It actually is pretty simple, once you learn how to use the tools. Its a bit tricky at first, but you'll get the hang of it.

Anyway, if you want to get into mapping, leme know, and I'll show you what I know

[Voros]

I'm just a consumer who is enjoying the product from the suppliers.

I don't play Quake anymore (due to the fact that my PC is gone, and my phone is crap when running QI4A or Q-Touch), but I would take the first chance I get to play it decently... Even though i already finished it with Dosbox. Good days.

Then I discovered sourceports, and those days came back. Went out looking for good mods. Decided to try the crazy Super Duper Quake (what madness, but hey its a good one)
I'm still new in the mods of Quake, so I really don't know much mods that people claim as "classic" "original" "perfect" "insanely good" etc. Feel free to give recommendations, I could use it when I play Quake again (oh, I will)

I'M A PLAYER! (I DON'T KNOW HOW TO MAKE BSP FILES)

[MadGypsy]

I have at one point or another hit every aspect of quake modding, to the point where I'm now building a quake-tech engine. I have shared pretty much every scrap of my work since day 1. My personal opinion on your question is this:

You have a membership here, show up with a name other than guest and appear to want to participate even if it's just in a supportive way. As far as I'm concerned, you deserve to play and use the content that our members release. If this was my site, every single external link would be masked with a log in/sign up field (unless of course you were already logged in). And members would even have an option on the post/reply page to make their post/thread/whatever members only. To be even more of a nazi, I would make it to where your posts per day have to be above a certain number to see the threads/links and the reputation system could be included in some way. I mean that the system would consider how much rep you are spreading. The number doesn't have to be high. Figure out what the number would be if someone participated one day a month. The bottom line would be participate or miss everything. Guests come, take, leave. That is stealing in my opinion. You have a membership, enjoy the stuff we make cause you are part of this.

As far as go do it yourself goes, I have mixed ideals. You should definitely attempt to do it yourself and use the help here when you hit a spot that you can't solve no matter how much searching you do. It really isn't hard and there is a tome of info out there for the majority of this. I have written a chunk of that tome. Like right now Spike isn't answering one of my questions cause he is (I guess) confident that I will (or should ) figure it out. OK. It bes like that sometimes. You can't always expect help so being self-sufficient is a must.

@BSP files
You create a map in the quake compatible editor of your choice which will save it as a .map file
You then run QBSP, LIGHT & VIS compilers against the .map file which will spit out your completed BSP.

If you are using any of my radiant gamepacks all you have to do is make a map and click build/nameOfBuild and it is set up to abstract all the compiler commands so you don't really have to worry about managing your compilers. This isn't a fix-all though cause each compiler has commandline switches which modify the compile in one way or another but, it at least gives you a starting point that you can learn to modify.