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Kira

Is Quake 2 community dead?

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I'd rather not post this on Doomworld as it's (captain obvious to the rescue!) a Doom community. But it seems Google is playing against me here.

I wanted to find some map packs for Quake 2 to give it some love but it appears that every website I find are full of deadlinks, like ten four, 3D Gamer's Edge or Ethereal Hell. They doesn't appear to be that much updated on the Quake 2 side too. I managed to find what interested me (like Castle of Stroggos Series, Kona's and Mark Shan's maps) but still, I'm sure I am missing gems because of this death toll of download links.

So, I guess Quake 2 community seems much less resilient than the Doom/Quake1 ones. Is there a place where people are still active and archiving levels?

BTW, didn't search for Doom 3 and Quake IV yet, but I'm afraid about what I may not find too on those lands.

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K!r4 said:

BTW, didn't search for Doom 3 and Quake IV yet, but I'm afraid about what I may not find too on those lands.

Doom 3 still has some following, but considering the slowness of Doom 3 mapping, a new map is a rare event.

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printz said:

Doom 3 still has some following, but considering the slowness of Doom 3 mapping, a new map is a rare event.


The source code release didn't create much of a boom? I guess it's tough to realize it really wasn't the smash hit its predecessors were... Doom's longevity is nothing short of incredible.

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Problem is, the more advanced the engine, the more difficult it is to create professional quality maps for it. Modding for Doom is exceedingly easy; for Quake it's a bit harder but still manageable; for Doom 3 it becomes complicated; for Rage it's probably nightmarish.

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Gez said:

Problem is, the more advanced the engine, the more difficult it is to create professional quality maps for it.

From my (limited) understanding of the Quake family of engines, Quake 2's engine is very close to 1's, just with a good amount of polishing and extra features, and isn't that much more advanced than 1's engine.

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From what I understand, people were pulling tons of maps for Quake 2 until HL got released and then all the guys either moved on the next thing or came back to Quake 1.

It's a shame no one bothered to centralize everything on a well-maintained database with multiple mirrors. A lot of modding history is going to trash.

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K!r4 said:

It's a shame no one bothered to centralize everything on a well-maintained database with multiple mirrors. A lot of modding history is going to trash.

I wish /idgames2 would reopen. I mean, why is /idgames open and /idgames2 not... People are uploading their Quake 1 maps to quaddicted (or somewhere there) because of this.

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Sodaholic said:

From my (limited) understanding of the Quake family of engines, Quake 2's engine is very close to 1's, just with a good amount of polishing and extra features, and isn't that much more advanced than 1's engine.

Quake 2 is coded like a plate of spaghetti.

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I didn't know Quake 2 ever had much of a community to begin with. It had lot less shovelware/third party addons than previous id titles too if I'm not mistaken.

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Clonehunter said:

I didn't know Quake 2 ever had much of a community to begin with.

WHAAAT? Quake 2 had a huge multiplayer/modding/mapping community in its time. It vanished overnight when ut/q3 came out, but it certainly existed.

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The reason why Quake has a more vibrant mapping community is that Quake 2 is about as nice to look at as an ashtray in a sandstorm.

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Quast said:

WHAAAT? Quake 2 had a huge multiplayer/modding/mapping community in its time. It vanished overnight when ut/q3 came out, but it certainly existed.


There's a few remnants here and there, such as over at Tasty Spleen and the Quake 2 Cafe. IIRC the only mods that people still play are CTF, Gloom and Action Quake 2. Everything else is pretty much dead.

Sodaholic said:

From my (limited) understanding of the Quake family of engines, Quake 2's engine is very close to 1's, just with a good amount of polishing and extra features, and isn't that much more advanced than 1's engine.


I'm pretty sure that's what Romero thought when he switched Daikatana over to the Quake 2 engine, and look what happened there. :P

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I finally found something maintained by passionated people: http://www.deaconstomb.org/

Over the years myself and Clan WOS have been collecting and gathering Quake 2 files in hopes of preserving this great game. At present we have over 5500 Quake 2 maps, and just about every modification made for Quake 2. The file archive grows by the day so check back often for new files and especially new Quake 2 maps.


I am glad people like them exist.

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AndrewB said:

The reason why Quake has a more vibrant mapping community is that Quake 2 is about as nice to look at as an ashtray in a sandstorm.


I love me some ashtray in a sandstorm goodness. :)

K!r4 said:

I finally found something maintained by passionated people: http://www.deaconstomb.org/


Ahh good find K!r4. :)

I've mapped for Quake and Quake 2 but never finished anything. Turned out it was good practice and a learning experience. Wish I had kept all the tutorials and things I had printed off way back when, some of that stuff was from sites that are dead now.

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Gez said:

for Rage it's probably nightmarish

Not that we'll ever know by getting any hands-on experience with it. I think id just want to forget about Rage and move on.

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A damn shame. Quake2 got me into deathmatch and the modding scene, I liked making my own player models and stuff.

Clonehunter said:

I didn't know Quake 2 ever had much of a community to begin with.


Well it was 1997, something tells me you weren't aware of much beyond having your diapers changed.

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DoomUK said:

I think id just want to forget about Rage and move on.

What? Id are displeased with Rage's sales?

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The SDK takes ages to come, perhaps is it what DoomUK was thinking about.

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printz said:

What? Id are displeased with Rage's sales?

Well no, but there hasn't been a shred of news about the editor since.... before last August? And some people are still experiencing technical issues which appear to have been forgotten about.

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I haven't played the game in a long time, but I have fond memories of a user map that recreated Goldeneye's Facility level and was great fun in MP.

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Speaking of which, isn't that Quake Night still going on? I'd love to get me some classic quake2.

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Quast said:

WHAAAT? Quake 2 had a huge multiplayer/modding/mapping community in its time. It vanished overnight when ut/q3 came out, but it certainly existed.


So it was just really short lived and now only a few fragments remain. Well that explains me not having found much for it.

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Justince said:

Speaking of which, isn't that Quake Night still going on? I'd love to get me some classic quake2.

I don't think we've had a successful session for over two years.

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Clonehunter said:

So it was just really short lived and now only a few fragments remain. Well that explains me not having found much for it.

Well, looking back, I don't know if I'd say that much for it's longevity, but rather that q2 had very real competition in unreal and half-life 'stealing' some of the community. But even despite that, Q2 was THE multiplayer FPS to be playing in its time.

What are you looking for though? 99% of user content for q2 is multiplayer oriented, you ain't gonna find shit for single player if that's your thing unless you can find the Zaero mission pack, which is actually pretty dang good...But iirc it was never free to dl and I don't know if it ever became free and who the fuck knows if it can even be bought anymore.

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Quast said:

Well, looking back, I don't know if I'd say that much for it's longevity, but rather that q2 had very real competition in unreal and half-life 'stealing' some of the community. But even despite that, Q2 was THE multiplayer FPS to be playing in its time.


True, by the time Q2 was coming out, I guess fps games were starting to become original feeling and not just endless clones of the trend starter, or something.

Even though imo I've never liked Q2 mp. I just, I don't know. Didn't like it as much.

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Quast said:

What are you looking for though? 99% of user content for q2 is multiplayer oriented, you ain't gonna find shit for single player if that's your thing unless you can find the Zaero mission pack, which is actually pretty dang good...But iirc it was never free to dl and I don't know if it ever became free and who the fuck knows if it can even be bought anymore.

You'd be surprised how much spmaps were there. I actually have downloaded a big load of them restricting my choices to those that have a great reputation (like Pax Imperia).

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K!r4 said:

Perhaps could you find them on the PlanetQuake archives? There are long dead websites like the excellent underworldfan SP reviews.


Yeah maybe, not quite into the Q2 editing at teh moment, but if I wasn't working on my Doom stuff, id be tempted.

K!r4 said:

You'd be surprised how much spmaps were there. I actually have downloaded a big load of them restricting my choices to those that have a great reputation (like Pax Imperia).


Indeed. I recall playing quite a few decent SP maps way back when. I think the weirdest thing I played for Q2 was that Juggernaut expansion thing... now that did look like an ashtray in a sandstorm.

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