Why should I play Pure Quake Arena? If you enjoy predictably gunning down your opponents with the help of your aim and ping without a care in the world, you fortunately already have Quake 3: Arena for your pleasure, and you should go back to having fun shooting. However, if you are looking for more variety, intensity, and strategy, you have come to the right place. The best games are not resolved by who has the better aim, but primarily by which player better manages the level's resources and the player's opponent in order to gradually take control and then dominate the arena. Pure Quake Arena is the accumulation of all that is good in Quake ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ How does Pure Quake Arena work? Each aspect of the game has been carefully tweaked to accomodate a deep and fresh playing style, as outlined in each section below. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Items In a regular Quake 3 game, mappers choose from 3 armor, 4 health, 6 power-up, 7 weapon, 8 ammo, and 2 holdable items (for a grand total of 30) to place in their maps. PQA optimizes this set to include 2 armor, 3 health, 4 power-up, 6 weapon, and 6 ammo items (for a total of 21). Pure Quake Arena replaces the leftover 9 items with the most similar of the remaining items. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Weapons The complete PQA arsenal includes 8 unique weapons of varying usefulness and purpose. The progressive weapon set is designed to reward players in control while requiring "down" players to gather the right tools to battle "in-control" players. Players can switch weapons instantly to perform more interesting and more effective use of any weapons a player manages to gather. The respawn times for weapons is relatively high for 1vs1 and TDM but relatively low in FFA and CTF, for gametypes where controlling weapons is not intended to be a high priority. Gauntlet (Weapon 1) If you don't have any other weapon besides a Machinegun, and you have no hope of escaping, you may want to take a shot at playing tag with this "weak" toy, but you will have a tough time even getting close to anyone using a serious weapon. The Gauntlet is the only weapon not changed by PQA. Machinegun (Weapon 2) Players still spawn with this "weak" weapon, and they even receive unlimited ammo. The drawback is that the weapon only does 36 damage per second, whereas a normal Quake 3 MG can do 70 damage per second. The advantages about having unlimited ammo is that you will never be forced to use the Gauntlet, which means you will always be able to bother other players, but because the increased bullet spread keeps players from using the machinegun as effectively from a distance, you are better off trying to find a better weapon. Shotgun (Weapon 3) The Shotgun is the best weapon for landing potentially a lot of damage immediately at a target, and is useful up to medium range regardless of whether or not the target is high or lower than the weapon user. However, this weapon is the weakest of the "average" weapons, so the Shotgun should only be used as protection to get to better items, not to score lots of kills. The weapon does fire a little faster, but each spray is also a little weaker. Grenade Launcher (Weapon 4) The Grenade Launcher is the ultimate in defensive firepower. The best way of keeping your opponent out of the room you are in is to plug up the hallway, and for as long as you have adequate ammo, the Grenade Launcher can save your life. However, since the grenades do full damage to their users, they can also take your life. Just like with the Shotgun, the GL shoots faster but fires slightly weaker ammo. This "average" weapon is also useful for "up" players that want to keep overzealous losing players out of an important room. Plasma Gun (Weapon 8) In Team DM and especially DM 1vs1, the Plasma Gun is the most important "average" weapon because the Plasma Gun is actually most powerful in the hands of a "down" player finally gaining some ground. While the weapon is no different against weak armor and is weaker against players with no armor, the Plasma Gun is actually more powerful against players wearing Red Armor, literally melting away any armor the person has. Once you have erased a player's armor, you should be able to safely finish off your opponent with another weapon, but you will need to harvest cells to make sure you have enough power to do the deed. Given that Plasma Guns are only useful against armor wearers, you should try to a Plasma Gun as a "starting" weapon while your opponent still has armor, rather than as a "finishing" weapon. Nuke Launcher (Weapon 9) The Nuke Launcher, despite what the name suggests, is actually just another specialized weapon not to be used all the time. The weapon fires projectile balls that are affected by gravity and explode on impact with any surface. The explosions are not very strong, but the blast radius itself is huge, enabling players to easily their targets from afar. However, the balls also do full damage to their user, so you will not want to use the NL in close range combat. You will merely hurt yourself as much as your target, resulting in destruction of both you and your opponent at best. This marginally "strong" weapon can be useful if you use it just like you use your Railgun, when your opponent is too far away to hurt you with any other weapon. Rocket Launcher (Weapon 5) The Rocket Launcher is probably the most exciting weapon of all Pure Quake Arena. A RL is a fundamental weapon in any Quake game, but PQA makes this RL probably the 2nd most imposing version ever seen. The rockets travel faster, the damage is slightly higher, and the blast radius is 50% larger. On the downside, the RL does fire more slowly, and players will be more dependant on rocket clips to keep this monster fed. This "strong" weapon is the key to any close range combat, altough players can still have some success at medium range and around corners. Lightning Gun (Weapon 6) The Lightning Gun is the most pivotal weapon in all of Pure Quake Arena. It can serve as an instant killer with Quad Damage, as a last resort against a threatening attacker, a powerful finishing weapon, or merely a medium range devastator. The weapon is more powerful than its regular Quake 3 counterpart, but it is more starved for ammo as well. An extra lightning clip can easily mean the difference between life and death, so if you can keep this "strong" weapon fed, you'll have plenty of insurance to keep you on top. Railgun? The Railgun is not a part of Pure Quake Arena, and for a good reason. PQA is about strategy, not about aim. PQA is about diverse combat situations, not about seeing one weapon single-handedly dominating the game at a certain range. PQA is about encouraging players to take the initiative, not about rewarding those who sit back and control much of the level from one or two positions. PQA will even reward those who make the right decisions, not award a kill merely because a player is lucky enough to land a couple shots in a row. The Nuke Launcher is a substitute that not only works at long range and around corners, but actually punishes players who use it at close range. The Nuke Launcher is just as much of a situational weapon as the Railgun but without the unlimited range side-effect of the Railgun, and as a result, the substitution is a must. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Armor Armor comes in two simple flavors. The Grey Armor gives a down player some breathing room and allows him/her to focus on stealing a Red Armor or battle for better items without needing to constantly run off for armor repairs. The Red Armor is a staple of an in-control player, but the protection is mostly for not if the player faces a long onslaught of plasma cells. Armor does not stack or rot, so the focus of the game is placed on all the items rather than mostly on the armors as is typical in Quake 3 Deathmatch experiences. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Health Health comes in three varieties. The +5 health balls are the smallest items in the game but can easily make a difference for "up" and "down" players alike. The short respawn time keep the +5s in play most of the time. The +25 health balls are one of the keys to survival to the "down" player. If supplemented with a Grey Armor, each +25 can contribute another 42 damage protection, and the shortened respawn time for the +25s enable a player to merely go to the recharge points rather than have to hunt to survive. The Megahealth is the most critical defensive item for an "up" player. When an "up" player is brought to his/her knees, it is only the Megahealth that will always provide a necessary kick to allow some extra protection. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Ammo Rather than have players merely focus on weapons to keep their firepower going, Pure Quake Arena demands that the ammo clips deserve some thought. Because the respawn times have been reduced, the guesswork of ammo management has removed, and players can carefully calculate their movements to the major items while still bringing consideration for the ammo clips that can make a difference in the long run. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Power-Ups Power-ups are the key to taking control in any Team DM or CTF game (they have been kindly removed for 1vs1 and FFA). The shorter respawn times and more powerful power-ups make it important for teams to stay on the move, which ultimately keeps the game more exciting and interesting. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Other Knockback The knockback for all fulldamage impacts is increased by 40%. This extra kick enables players to juggle their opponents more easily with rockets, and perform "combos" with various permutations of weapons. Footsteps Footsteps have been removed to simply the game and incrementally improve the gameplay. Since players can strafe jump to attain high speeds, merely running is not beneficial because a runner makes noise just as a strafe jumper does. As a result, we can justify removing footsteps of runners, allowing players to move at a more reasonable pace without alerting other players. Air control Players now have CPMA air control, primarily allowing them to circle strafe to maintain high speeds as they turn narrow corners. These tweaks keep the action fast without compromising gameplay (players can already move through corners somewhat quickly without making noise by running). Slime and Lava The damage effects of Slime and Lava have been adjusted to make the damage measured more realistically without negatively affecting the gameplay, by checking for damage four times a second rather than just once a second. Team Damage Team damage is always enabled for both Team Deathmatch and Capture The Flag. This tweak is not only necessary to keep players from blindly spamming with the Nuke Launcher, but it also forces players to work more closely with their teammates to avoid careless team kills. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Conclusion With patience and plenty of practice, Pure Quake Arena will be your ultimate gaming mod. You will find yourself making clever decisions rather than engaging in frustrating battles settled primarily by reflexes and luck. Let the games begin! Yours Truly, -Pure Imaginary Integral Studios