Again, I return with another rant. Actually if you read my previous 2 rants (which were like over a year ago) you'll see not much has changed in QL. The game is still pretty much shit with the same shitty netcode and pretty much the same shitty maps.

I still play the game often, but only because I am so extremely bored and it's very convenient to play using the web interface - which IMO is the only big plus of this entire game.
But I still can't believe how incredibly shit the netcode is. And people play in tournaments for prize money with this? There isn't a single match that I didn't encounter at least a rail going through someones body, never mind the occasional rails through the wall, unregistered rocket splash hits, unregistered SG hits etc...

So RG is pretty much a joke in this game. I still can't figure out how to shoot this biatch. It feels completely random; i.e. sometimes you get a hit by aiming in front of the enemy, sometimes behind,... And every now and then you get that "holy shit I can't believe this was a hit" moment. Basically, with RG it comes down to: aim and fire, you might get a hit.
Then there's the SG which I believe is the most fucked up weapon in the entire game. Sometimes it feels incredibly overpowered and other times (especially up close) you can't hit shit. Of course there's the overpowered LG with its knockback etc... but this has been debated a lot already.

What really pisses me off is the netcode. Remember how loud arqon was about competitive gaming and competitive features before he joined id (I'm assuming he's still working for them?). Where the fuck is this guy now? Everything about the netcode is horrendous. They can't even code a proper code to show the real ping; yeah, I have 21ms on every server I join, sure id. Why can't they just strip out the code from CPMA or OSP?
If I weren't bored as fuck I'd delete this shit immediately, instead of getting pissed off, because my rails go straight through the models.

It's been like a year since arqon joined and what exactly has been done? You can't even vote when a match is in progress. What kind of shit is this? So every now and then some asshole joins and starts team killing and you can't even vote to kick him. Instead you have to either play till the end, or convince everyone to go spec so the match restarts and you can vote. Which is useless anyway, because he'll reconnect back when the match starts. Jesus fucking christ, are you people serious?
Basically the way that I see it, they are trying to dumb down the game and increase the luck factor to get more noobs to play it. And keep all the good (competitive) feature in the "pro" (payable) version (is that shit even available yet?).

IMO they fucked up the game at the very beginning by including dm6 and later ztn. Now no one plays anything else than dm6 in tdm, ztn in duel, dm6 and ca1 (or whatever it is) in CA,... thank god there's at least some map rotation in CTF. Instead of starting from scratch and include some new (good) maps, they put it ztn and dm6. And of course, you can't get anyone to play anything else. Frankly, after 8 years of dm6 I am getting a bit sick of it.

Arqon post some shit about this game. Is this still being developed at all? When can we expect this going out of beta, in 2012? And will the beta finally have those bug fixed? You know, the ones that weren't in the same game 9 years ago...

After playing countless hours of this game (not, because I enjoy it, but because it's pretty much the only thing I can play on this PC) I am still amazed, absolutely amazed what crap we are playing. It's unbelievable with what enthusiasm we were waiting for "the next big thing", yet were presented with a dumbed down, retarded copy of Q3. Anyone who calls this progress should be cock slapped on the spot.

Let me break it down for you:
10 years have passed since Q3 was released, I had a Duron 600 when I started playing Q3 and it was considered top of the line. And god knows how many years have passed since the last OSP update. Yet this game (at current state) doesn't even touch Q3 and OSP in terms of functionality and balance.
Just think about this for a second; 10 years and you get a game that's more fscked up than Q3 was at release. Basically 1 man in his SPARE TIME programmed timeouts, brightskins, coaching, team locking,... and countless other useful things what id can't do in 6+ months. I remember how Syncerror promised everything will be fixed/added when the game went open beta. How many of these things have been added? 0.
Don't even try to tell me it's hard doing these things, because if one man can pretty much do it all in his spare time without even having full access tot he source as you guys have, then just quit your job. Now that arqon is working for them he pretty much has the entire source of CPMA which has all those things + a lot more already done. It's pretty much the same game damnit.
Just as Syncerror was promising that weapon respawns will be fixed... Don't even buy any bullshit from that guy. That's one vote command in OSP. He's their PR guy who's been spreading bullshit since the beginning, yet nothing he said has come true.

The netcode is foobared completely. At times it feels like unlagged and other times like I have 100+ ping. I simply can't explain how shit this netcode is, there have to be some major bugs happening there, because when I can rail a guy exactly straight through his model and not register a hit and get railed when I'm already 3 feet behind a wall, than there must be something _really_ wrong. And those things happen all the time, not just now and then.
And how can it be possible that I hear the sound of picking up the armor, getting killed right after that, seeing that I actually didn't pick up the armor, and watch the armor spawn as I wait to get respawned?

Here's my list of most annoying bugs/annoyances in the game:
- the netcode is utter shit (try playing with ping 40+ before commenting on this)
- reporting 'server full' when in fact it isn't
- the sound is complete shit compared to any other game, let alone Q3
- absolutely no competitive features
- you pick up the armor, hear the sound, walk away, turn around.... and see that the armor is still there
- getting killed/shot when you are behind a wall, like my box model has a 100ms delay than my view/model
- railing someone straight in the middle, yet not registering a hit, sometimes you actually have to miss to get a hit
- armor/weapon balance which I ranted about in my original post. still hasn't changed 1%. You can still SG someone from 6 feet and take away 100 health, rocket splashes seem like completely bugged, MG feels like on LAN, any TDM game is like instagib... one thing I noticed is that it's incredibly easy to hit with the GL.

The game is such a step backwards and it will be interesting to see how'll buy the "pro" monthly subscription fee for this pathetic excuse for a competitive game. My guess is not many.


Anyone who disagrees with this is either an idiot or hasn't played OSP or CPMA before and thinks we're expecting something impossible. I deliberately didn't compared this shit to CPMA, because it would just make id look silly. The amount of customization and features and id bug fixes done by a small group programming in spare time, while still having jobs/college against QL is just silly. Don't let the hiring of arqon confuse you. QL will never be improved to the point Q3 was. Mark my words.

Also, great job at including ztn in the game. Now I can not only rape noobs on dm6 but also ztn. This include alone demonstrates that people at id have no idea about gaming. Instead of having only new maps at this stage they're raping us with dm6 and ztn. Now all we need is aerowalk and ospdm5 and al noobs can just find something else to play.


P.S.
I read somewhere that they won't make Quake 5 if this game doesn't do good. At first I was kind of afraid, but now I think it's for the best. Because if this game is any indication of what they're (un)capable of releasing than I think we're just fine without Q5.
Also, thanks for that statement id. I fucking bought Q3(and Q2 and Q1) even though I could played the warez version just out of respect for the developers. I don't care if I sound like a little girl, but from now on I'm torrenting every game you make. Fuck you.

I'm surprised no one started an epic rant since it went open beta. Anyway, here it goes...

1. The weapons are a joke. SG seems to be the most powerful weapon, making huge damage even from mid range. Up close it's just insanely overpowered.
RG is a joke. What was once a powerful and hard to master weapon is now (also thanks to netcode, see below) a joke. Hitting someone 3, 4 or 5 times in a row without killing him is not uncommon in this game.
MG is (also thanks to netcode) overpowered. I can't believe someone can MG you to death before you can kill them with the LG. What was once a weapon you spawn with is no a killing machine for far range targets and also if used carefully can make a hell of a lot damage up close.
All weapons seem unbalanced. Even RL is weird.

2. I don't know what I think of the netcode. It seems like playing insta unlagged when using the LG or MG, but seems like I have 100 ping when I try RG or SG for example. I can't seem to RG hit any fast moving targets, the ones I hit are purely accidental. It seems like everytime I should aim differently - aim infront of him, directly on him, behind him.... Lotto. You might hit or might miss, nothing seems to be consistent.
But when using weapons like the LG, the netcode seems like lan. It's insanely easy to shaft in this game, but difficult to plasma someone. This whole netcode seems like it has gazillion bugs in it or something.

3. WTF is up with armor? Like it's not even worth anything? You might have 100 armor but be fragged with 2-3 SG hits. Having RA in Q3 you knew you could afford some shit to gain frags, but in this game 100 armor is like having just a little extra health. A few MG hits or just touch the shaft for a sec and you're down to like 30... WTF?

4. The entire game, hud, tweaks is a joke. With all the improvements that have been made in Q3 over the past 10(?) years it seems like we stepped back to the ice age. For one thing, I don't think it's even possible to switch teams once you're in the game. There's no join blue/red button or anything, no timeouts, no team lock when the game starts, items respawn after like 10 secs, sometimes you can't see what someone is voting (10 year old bug)m no team (item, took) chats,...

5. The game is riddled with bugs. From taking insane amounts of damage from a RL rocket splash 3 feet away to hitting someone when you aimed 3 feet away, occasional (read: every 3 mins) freeze-ups,... you name it. Probably the biggest joke are the respawns; often they work, but when they don't.... I played a game like 20 mins ago and spawned like 3 or 4 times on almost the same place and was quad killed every time, so that was fun. Also, there seem to be 28978 spawn points in DM6 and on every other map. Good respawn system is cool, but not when there are so many respawn points, there's someone spawning next to you almost every other second, no matter where on the map you are.

6. Maps: Why include all the shitty Q3 maps no one ever played in Q3 instead of ztn, hub,... And why not include pro-t4, why fuck up with the items on pro-dm6? But there are some great new maps in QL. Like Trinity - which is like the new dm6 for CA, Furious Heights - great duel map. But they rarely get played. I think they made a mistake to include dm6 since the start. They should've left it out and include it like 2 months before going out of beta. Now it's like Q3 all over again - dm6 all the time, all game types.

I still like and play the game, but only because I'm incredibly bored. I know it's still in beta, but given how the gameplay and the bugs haven't changes since December, I wouldn't have high hopes. You would have thought that from the knowledge and experience from OSP/CPMA throughout, we'd have a kick ass game with all the features sorted out + minor balancing tweaks, but what we have looks like they didn't even know those mods existed. Because of the the fast weapon respawns (which means unlimited ammo) and dodgy netcode, every TDM game feels like instagib. 5v5 TDM with 9 out of 10 people railing away at any second.

I was really excited once I got an invite, but now that I've played it for a couple of months I formed my opinion that this game is shit compared to Q3.

edit: should have mentioned the strongest point of this game; the online/website system. I think it is great and I can't see myself ever using a server scanner again. They were obviously unprepared for the open beta so they have quite a few problems with the queue were you had to wait like 30 mins just to play, but that seems to be sorted out now.

I just saw this on Digg.com.

Michael Richards apologizes on BBC after his appearance on Letterman for his on-stage tirade and gets spit in the face several times live on TV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjnm8fzRExc&am...mp;search=



you have to admit it's funny

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hNlrOx6GCFA

Two things came to my mind while watching this clip. First I remembered watching The mind of Mencia once when he was talking about the 'nigger' word with some black people. Amongst them was either Redman or Methodman (not sure which one). I remember Mencia asking him if he thinks white people should be "allowed" to say the word nigger. And then Redman/Methodman said no, explained how it's a black word and only blacks should be allowed to use it. Naturally, trying to say that when white people use it it's racist, while blacks calling themselves niggers is OK.

The second thing was how America is obsessed with words. How people soften the words in time. I remember George Carlin talking about this in one of his shows. He used various examples but I'll take the word midget. 10-15 years ago it was OK to say the word midget. No one was insulted by it and they all knew who you mean. All of a sudden these short fucks wanted be called as little people and decided that the word midget is offensive. If you look up the word midget in the dictionary it says:

1. (not in technical use) an extremely small person having normal physical proportions.

Which is exactly what these people are. So why do they decide one day that this word is offensive. It's like people take the words themselves too seriously. It's like, if that word can be used to say something offensive, then people just make up "nicer" words. Similar examples can be found everywhere. Like saying a fat person he's a fat person instead of the new made up word "strong person". That's considered offensive even if it's 100% true. The same is with the word black man. Nowadays people are expected to describe a black man as African American which is just a load of crap. You are not African, you're black. Just as I'm not European American but white. And there's no problem with that.


So I'd specifically like to talk about the word nigger. What somehow puzzles me is how can black people call themselves niggers and it doesn't sound one bit racist while any white man saying it is immediately called a racist. Black people who feel like mr. Redman are hypocrites and are quite probably racists. Another thing about these niggers is that while they think it's OK for them to say the word and not let white people use it, they also use words that offend white people. Like cracker or whitey. I wouldn't have a problem with that if I'd be OK for me to say to him nigger. You can see how this pattern is evolving. It's having double standards.

And this is precisely why there's so much hate amongst people and why racism will never die. There will always be racism in a society where a black person is allowed to wear a t-shirt that says "I'm proud to be black" while any white person wearing a the same t-shirt about his race would be called a racist. There's nothing wrong with being proud to be black. Just as there is nothing wrong with being white. It's the way you express yourselves with words that's important.

Coming back to that Kramer incident; First of all we don't know what caused this incident and NO ONE on the news has even remotely mentioned that the black person he was yelling at was saying to him that he's a cracker. Of course people might say that he was upset and didn't really mean it, but Kramer was also upset and we don't know how it started. The black person could have started it by calling him a cracker and Kramer just said the exact back. Still, the black guy is nowhere mentioned as a racist while they seem to teat the shit out of Kramer. And this just proves my point with double standards. If there was Chris Rock on that stage calling a white guy a cracker nothing would have happened. No one would've probably even bothered to tape it let alone report about it.

On the other side, there are comedians that will literally rip you apart with profanity and attack your personality and your looks. I've never seen none of them in the news about offending people. If he'd attacked a fat white bitch he'd probably come up with some harsh words to say, but I doubt it would leave an impact such as the word nigger. David Letterman said it best; what if he attacked muslims or christians or gays,... would that have the same effect as now?

I just don't understand how we can live in a society where such double standards are a norm. I'll leave you with a George Carlin quote.

"Words are just sounds that we make! There is nothing wrong with the word nigger in and of itself. It's the racist asshole who's using it that you gotta watch out for! It's all about context. We don't care when Richard Pryor or Eddie Murphy use the word nigger. We know they're not racists.... they're niggers...niggers cannot be racists because they are niggers"