The suggestions with the most thumbs up will be taken into consideration.

By whom? Most suggestions will require cooperation from id..

I always thought it would be neat to have a couple of fixed cameras on a map. So streamers can quickly switch between observing red-room to quad-room to bs-room etc. No more hectically pov switching right before the powerups.

Also health/armor bars (in 3rd person view, as in a RTS) would be nice.

God no, you wouldn't want people to suggest or even add useful features ?

I just felt like sharing it. As if anything really gonna happen..

I've said the exact same thing about the fixed cams, but afaik it would take a full update, as the .pk3 files would be altered. This is a heavy reliance on id, and I don't think it wise to jump in at the deep end of the pool.

What I'm polling here are user interface changes, largely for spectating and casting. This was not really meant to be about gameplay or modifying in-game settings.

Keep it simple, keep it concise - as of now I've yet to hear from any devs or admins about server-to-stream communication, and whether Java will actually allow anything to be extracted.

I realise that many people are skeptical, but I believe with the backing of streaming sites (better casts, more specs, more potential revenue) and community involvement, there's a sliver of a chance that id might actually pay attention. I will hopefully have more information once I hear back from LvL^.

I'm pretty sure that would be possible without touching the actual map. Instead, for each (supported) map a .caminfo textfile could be added, containing camera positions and directions. Those files could be distributed in a separate pk3 (e.g. caminfos.pk3). Not really a big deal, even though the game client would need some adjustments too.

Extracting data from the server-to-client (stream) communication sounds far more unrealistic/complicated tbh. Also keep in mind that the server wont send all the data you need (e.g. health/armor of players that are far away from your position to fill a teamoverlay).

I got your msg mate, and we will come up with some ideas and post them.

team overlays of both teams + healthbars, a minimap would take too much space i think

like this first image mixed with the weapon showing of the second, would be nice
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS1kq...XMoc9-IB1N
http://pics.kz/s4/2e/d2/55/2ed25558275c917f42822b1ae70046e0.png

yeah maybe, i just dont like how it clutters the screen massively :/ but atleast health/armor bars similar to cg_showplayernames 1 on top of players' models

that would be cool, but maybe not as helpful for streamers

Teamoverlay is the most important thing in TDM I think, We should have both teams' overlay on the screen so that we can see where all the players are.

Duel : multi point of view could be useful sometimes.

I think the team overlay thing wouldn't make too much trouble to integrate but the multi POV is perhaps more complex.

In TDM games, there should be a player list divided by team (with an area for each team's tag\title too). It should show their HP, ARMOR, and the individual player's current weapon.

why? It's not cs, you don't need to know that stuff
A sort of overlay like that should be implemented in duel, would be much more useful imho

I remember seeing a ctf splitscreen action in the Stickrunners osp ctf cup, the screen was split horizontally showing the pov of both carriers on wcp1. It was informative and easy to follow.

Some ideas are simple in-game implementations. Some others are more a production effort. I haven't refrained from going beyond what is reasonable.

General:

- Timer of items respawn displayed as floating decal at the spawning location (in addition to what exists now).

- Stats for the last 5 seconds of play. Weapon accuracies, damage given/taken. It could automatically appear after any of the parameters exceeds a certain level (crazy aim, uber damage, etc)

- A dodge-meter that displays how crazily people strafe (ex during LG fights). The frequency of hitting directional keys may do the job.

TDM:

- Fullscreen schematic view (minimap like) with icons moving around in realtime, to assess who is where (before quad for instance). Vertical maps should be split per floor.

Duel:

- Display the opponent's health and Armor.

- Opponent's pov in a small window.

- Microphone to hear the swearing.

- Camera in their face plus hud designed to see both faces every now and then.

- Player bio stats (heart beat, sweating, blood pressure, anything that gives hint of players stress).

loving it all and should be easy to do (: not sure about the heart rate monitor if ppl would actually like that. (i mean the players, not the spectator)

snap!

- A dodge-meter that displays how crazily people strafe (ex during LG fights). The frequency of hitting directional keys may do the job.

You don't need to go all sc2-apm-alien-style to dodge

- Microphone to hear the swearing.

/..

- Player bio stats (heart beat, sweating, blood pressure, anything that gives hint of players stress).

you can see that already by the players decision making and mouse movement, but i guess it would be interesting at some point

Maybe I'm just a sour old twat but I completely disagree with every suggestion you just made.

Quake is the heart of raw skill FPS, no other games come close. I would have liked to elaborate more on this but my brain is bacon right now. As a consequence of Quake being the heart of raw skill FPS, it is the true 'old-school' game. It is sitting on the throne of the multiplayer fps genre, surrounded by wannabe's who rise and fall over the years, but to Quake they seem like days.

Yes, unfortunately due to the apparent incompetence of the QL Dev team, QL really needs a boost in players and followers alike. But this doesn't mean sacrificing elements of it's old school roots to make it more appealing to the masses.

And In my opinion, for one reason or another, every one of your suggestions takes something away from Quake's roots. It's bad enough walking down the street or lurking the nets or playing xbox games and seeing just how ignorant, pandered, and plain stupid the younger generations of today are. I don't want this CoD ridden air to spoil my Quake.

Quake for me, from a spectators point of view, is all about seeing the action exactly how the players themselves see it. Pure Fucking Action. We already have well established features, old and new: Impressive medal, Excellent medal, Gauntlet medal, and the +acc popup.

Older people aren't that crazy or butthurt when they recall yesteryear and admire how much more decent, efficient and true things where back then (football, car engines, mobile phones, video games...). QL, with all it's holes, still manages to warm my heart, because after all it's just like Q3.

Crazy aim popup notification? Uber Damage popup notification? Extreme Dodging popup notification? Opponents pov in SMALL WINDOW? MICROPHONE???? CAMERA IN THEIR FUCKING FACE???????????!1111111 I'll stop but you get the idea.

Quake is minimalistic, it's one of it's traits. I remember a friend came over while I was playing QL and he just said, "never seen a game with such little info on-screen mate". It's minimalistic nature should not be ignored for spectators POV, "just because".

tl;dr: If QL needs to be promoted, it needs to be promoted as the plain old raw skill game that it is, it needs to continue standing out from the crowd because of these same characteristics, not change it's face and become one of the rest.

That said, there ARE some minor changes that could be done to improve spectator POV, but they are basically to do with optimizing the current layout, not adding NEW PHEATUREZ OLOLO

flame away

Fair enough. I respect your pov.

My take is, if something can improve the understanding for non-experts without harming the experience for the veterans, then it is a good thing.

There is probably a limit, as you don't want to transform the hud into a cluster-fuck, but we are far from there.

I don't know, your idea for duel does seem like a cluster-fuck-hud, could you do a quick photoshop to convey what you really have in mind?

Think of these as the weapon accuracy table, which casters turn on when they need it.

The production could have different views, one with the players faces + microphones, one with the bio stats, one with the opponent pov, and show them at will.

Here you go.

For case 2, I've always found it distracting more than informative as in "oh wow I have both POVs I can examine this match like a motherfucker - oh wait did I just miss that what happened who did what ohfuckshitshitshit".

For cases 1 and 3, they could be combined into the same, reducing their size. This would be okay, I agree.

[+] for the effort!

I think player pov (case 2) is not a substitute for showing the opponents health and armor, which is what most of the time one would like to know.

I like the ideas, I don't know if I missed it (if it were said above). Though the duel aspects should be similar to the +acc command. The person streaming has control over what statistic is showed, and it will be just as annoying as someone pressing the +acc bind for 2 seconds (which in fairness, isn't annoying at all).

It's not like it will be the equivalent of the streamer holding down tab to show the scores, gameplay will still be seen and it will offer some really nice insight - also it could give interviewers a chance to ask some interesting questions.

Also a minimap would be nice on the screen, this could easily fit in the bottom left - the players would be drawn on it with different coloured dots (depending on the team etc). Depending on how many levels there are on the map, the dot would fade or increase in brightness to indicate how high/low they are.

TDM: Maybe as well as the quad counter, there could be a quad: damage indicator. So during the quadrun it would display how much damage was done during the whole run. Also the display should be customisable - as well as appearing for about 5 seconds after the quadrun has ended so that the commentator may have a chance to comment about it rather than just the action that's going on (or purely for players to have a look after they're done watching the players hit sick rails).

and stuff...

The duel stuff sounds rather annoying, but the rest would be a great addition imo.

Jamalz, when did you hack Memento_Mori's account?

someone smart suggested that when you shot there could be numbers poping up from nmy showing hw much damages you dealt, it was well presented with a video etc

good ideas you have.

I think the QL spec HUD is too fat and could have some smart re designing.

gl =)

Yeah, damage-dealt popups could be a really good idea for spectators. Makes it a lot easier for inexperienced players to follow the significance of certain shots, and could act as a bit of a learning aid too.

are you sure it can't be done without id software?

I said before I think on the stream, I have lots of ideas on how Quake Live could be changed/improved in both gameplay and spectator features. Probably best I sit down with and write out what kind of things would help our stream. I mean me and vor have talked about these things for years but I guess until id actually know what we would like then they can't really do a anything.

Dis said it, and that's why I'm using all these threads to act as a sort of community filter to whittle it down to something that may eventually be presented to id.

@melechesh - I too am an old-guard quaker, starting with q1 speedrunning. While I agree with you on many levels, consider a) what QL would seem to someone who does not have your embedded experience and b) there are some fundamental changes that would drastically improve speccing, regardless of your knowledge of the game.

@memento - While i agree with some of your ideas, it's best to think of improvements that don't turn the HUD into some graphical hodgepdge. I am striving towards straightforward minimalism.

People keep mentioning something in terms of a map overlay, akin to say CS 1.6. CS had those overlay files included in the .bsp, so while the idea is nice I can't think of a proper way to extract or create them. I think they would have to be done by hand, and when you consider incremental map fixes - yikes.

Keep it going, please!

The only way anything here can be done is with cooperation from id. Also remember the HUD is only a 640x480 grid. That's all.

I think it's fine the way it is tbh. Especially duel. I don't want a million things scattered around the screen telling me every minor detail.

Although one thing I would like is to have a smaller permanant version of +acc, or even include it within the weapon bar.

real men turns the HUD off!

For LAN stuff actually showing each player's face ropes people in a lot more than just avatars on a screen. There has to be a human element for your average "channel-surfer" to really give a shit.

From a quake enthusiast's point of view, an overlay showing the other player's POV would be nice. I hate when casters switch POVs at some random moment when you weren't expecting it. Gets really confusing.