Copper, a single-player refinement mod for Quake and accompanying Underdark Overbright campaign are out now and both are well worth checking out!

[Slipgate Tourist]

Quote

 

We all like Quake, but if we're being honest, its gameplay isn't as tight as it could be. By the end of its development in 1996, id were burned out and just wanted to ship something and take a break (something I came to understand quite a bit as a game developer), and a hurried Doom clone sewn together from dark fantasy was what we got. Over the years since, several high-profile single-player mods have sought to expand Quake's breadth, perceiving problems in its design as gaps that need to be filled and new content as the solution. I wanted to instead polish Quake's existing gameplay the way id might have if they'd taken the time to do so, to improve its depth and clarity as much as possible before considering what could be built on its foundation.

Copper is therefore meant to be "Vanilla+", targeted at being a drop-in improvement to stock /id1/ gameplay and an equally suitable basis for new mods. It neither adds nor replaces any items, weapons, or monsters. It is not intended to be a kitchen-sink supermod like Quoth or Arcane Dimensions, nor move Quake towards some new 'vision' other than what it already is (or, at best, is trying to be).

 

A summary, if you'd like to just get the broad strokes and go play:

 

*Weapons fire is not blocked by monsters in death animations

*Ring of Shadows makes enemies less accurate in combat

*Vore missiles have a less-than-perfect turn rate

*Ogres are 'partially' Z-aware

*Zombie edge cases are fixed

*Armor protection is proportional to current quantity

*Nightmare skill is 50 max HP instead of turret-monsters

 

Detailed descriptions of every change and the thought process behind each one are all available, but if you're already psyched, download the mod.

 

 

 

Edited June 22, 2019 by Slipgate Tourist

[holaareola]

Thanks for posting, I'd have probably missed this otherwise. Scampie and Lunaran made some of my favourite Quake maps.

[Urthar]

Underdark Overbright is a great episode of maps, especially since it's a continous set which we don't see often. The Copper mod

itself is quite subtle in what it does, but seems to work very well. The only thing that felt off was a Backpack SFX replacement which

sounded janky in Winquake(MarkV). Sounded fine in Quakespasm though.

 

"The Truth Is Out There"

[Jello]

Yeah, the backpack replacement SFX sounds like water splashing in Fitzquake. 

[Slipgate Tourist]

Finished the episode last night. Didn't run into any problems with Quakespasm.

 

I'm very impressed with complex mods like Arcane Dimensions but I also liked Copper Quake, the changes it introduces are indeed subtle but all welcome IMO. I'm certainly going to use it again to play other maps and campaigns.

 

The episode itself was good. It has beautiful and varied architecture, some challenging arena encounters and rather complex, but still nicely flowing levels, I don't think I ever got lost for longer than a few seconds. I also liked how devious some of the traps were. The only part I disliked somewhat was the level with the long underwater sections. I didn't run into ammo issues on the Hard skill level.

 

It's cool that you can easily select one of the original episodes. It would be nice if AD had that feature.

 

I do miss the footstep sound from AD when I return to more vanilla Quake maps and episodes like this one. I also automatically tried to break crates and windows. I think I may have played too much AD lately :)

 

12 hours ago, Urthar said:

"The Truth Is Out There"

 

The episode contains many nuggets of wisdom like that:

 

Edited June 26, 2019 by Slipgate Tourist

[Mk7_Centipede]

so... i never played Quake. Really, any of them (mayeb a little Q3 on the Dreamcast). So I cannot really speculate on the subtle changes.  Anyhow- Underdark Overbright: I just died on map 3. The difficulty ramps up at an alarmingly fun pace. And I really only have nice things to say about what I have seen so far.

 

The underwater section was surprisingly fun, even after I just ranted about how underwater sections are lame in FPS like a week ago.  All the maps are really just amazingly crafted.  The architecture isnt insanely complicated but still pretty to look at and very moody.  I like how there are arrows to mark the way and most keys and doors are obviously placed so its hard to get lost in all the darkness and kills imo.

 

I guess I am curious as to why the Machine Games Episode was not included, but whatever. Do QUAKers (XD) not enjoy it?

 

Here is a stream for those semi-interested:

 

Edited June 28, 2019 by Mk7_Centipede

[[McD] James]

That's pretty cool to hear. The Nightmare difficulty setting definitely needs rebalancing, as it makes the game easier in ways that it really shouldn't. 

[HavoX]

I've heard about it at Quadaddicted, thanks for sharing. I'll check it out when I have time.

[Immorpher]

I just got back from my vacation, so I will give this a try!