How to change weapon damage or rate-of-fire in Quake 2 console/config?

[Arclite]

 

Title serves my main question. I'm a newbie to the Quake 2 console, so forgive me if something like this is going over my head. I've been able to mess around with player movement speed, RFX effects and some server settings in console/config but through all my research haven't found anything that specifically explains how to alter attributes on weapons (like damage, etc). 

I'm trying to "buff" the Blaster and Shotgun in Quake 2 for me and my bros' competitive Quake 2 deathmatch sessions, so any instructions or advice that don't involve going into the main .cpp file and rebuilding source code would be appreciated! Thanks in advance!

[SaladBadger]

There is no option to change beyond going into the game's source code and changing it (well I suppose you could use a hex editor to change the constants in the binary...), it isn't externalized to the console by default. Someone may have already made a mod that adds cvars for these things, but off the top of my head I don't know of any

[Jello]

I really don't know of any cvars that would change it either, unless some source port that I don't know about added it.

 

I think the only option would be changing the source code. I remember reading an article about Soldier of Fortune where they talked about having to modify the Quake 2 source code to enable them to increase the rate of fire for the two machine guns in that game.

 

The chaingun in Quake 2 seemed fast, but just used nine rounds at once, had a ridiculously powerful firing sound, and was essentially a shotgun with a tighter spread. I think the firing rate of the machine gun, hyperblaster, and chaingun is the fastest you'll get from the base game unless you modify some code.

 

Edit: Maybe someone can correct me, I'm not an expert on Quake 2. I made some levels for it years ago, but I never delved in to it's code. I could be wrong, all my statements are just made on personal observations of the game.

Edited May 6, 2021 by Jello

[SaladBadger]

You're not incorrect with the firing rate thing, though the amount of bullets fired by the chaingun is (it just fires 3 at its top speed). Quake 2 ran at a staggeringly low 10hz tick rate (though the client ran faster and would interpolate), I think picked since that was the speed animations and monster thinking happened in Quake 1.

 

The chaingun goes from firing one shot per tick (the same as the machinegun), to two, and ending at three as you hold down the fire button, with the client running multiple sounds to make it sound faster. Without such hacks, the fastest you can get is the machinegun or hyperblaster. (the mods with double speed firing powerups would usually run two weapon frames in one game frame, and then make spinning weapons look like crap thanks to the simple linear interpolation for models)

[Jello]

2 hours ago, SaladBadger said:

You're not incorrect with the firing rate thing, though the amount of bullets fired by the chaingun is (it just fires 3 at its top speed). Quake 2 ran at a staggeringly low 10hz tick rate (though the client ran faster and would interpolate), I think picked since that was the speed animations and monster thinking happened in Quake 1.

 

The chaingun goes from firing one shot per tick (the same as the machinegun), to two, and ending at three as you hold down the fire button, with the client running multiple sounds to make it sound faster. Without such hacks, the fastest you can get is the machinegun or hyperblaster. (the mods with double speed firing powerups would usually run two weapon frames in one game frame, and then make spinning weapons look like crap thanks to the simple linear interpolation for models)

I just tried it again, been years since I've played Quake 2, and it fires nine rounds per press of the button, which takes about 3/4s of a second. For some reason I thought it fired them all at once, but no, it does fire nine shots in succession in a tight pattern close to the shotgun. The machinegun and the hyper blaster seem to get off around nine shots in the same time frame as well. Although I did notice the machinegun seems to have a tighter pattern than the chaingun, and of course the hyper blaster has the tightest pattern, it's dead on every time.

 

But yeah, even using vanilla Quake 2, it uses nine rounds every time you fire it, and they're fired in succession, with no spin up time.

 

Edit: You know what, never mind. You're talking about shots per tick, I was talking about the number of shots every time you fired it. I see what you're saying now, I should probably read and understand things before I respond. Interesting to know though, thank you!

Edited May 7, 2021 by Jello

[SaladBadger]

ah, I should have clarified, the chaingun is odd. It has a 9 frame firing sequence, which it always has to go through before it'll stop firing. If you're still holding the fire button by the point it gets to I think the fifth frame, it will start firing two bullets per frame. Hold it by the 10th frame (I need to double check these numbers myself, but I know the basic nature of this is accurate), it'll start firing 3 at a time. If you aren't holding down fire by the time it gets to these frames, it won't start firing multiple bullets and just use the 9 as expected.

[Jello]

Huh, interesting to know. I never really used it for more than one, two, or three bursts, so I really never paid much attention to it's behavior. When I did just hold it down, I usually had Quad damage activated, and I was paying more attention to what I was trying to kill. Thanks for explaining, I appreciate it.

 

I knew there was someone out there that knew far more than I did about Quake 2's weapons.

[Arclite]

I would be excited about exploring the source code if I wasn't a newcomer to the C/C++ programming realm. Visual Studios throwing unspecified compiling errors when attempting to build anything doesn't incite arousal either. Oh well, I will explore some of the DM mods out there as I've heard some of those have weapon customization of some sort. 

 

And if anyone knows some fundamentals to Quake modding (best compiler to use, what libraries/frameworks must be on my computer for it to build, etc.) I'd be happy to hear it.

In the meantime thanks for the inquiries/replies! I'll check back later.

Edited May 7, 2021 by Arclite