http://steamcommunity.com/groups/quakechampio...2082779734

Friday, Oct 27, 2017 Live Stream Session

Quake Champions Community Managers
Andre 'MortalEmperor' Carlos
Joshua 'TokyoPunchOut' Boyle

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Bullet Points of Discussion:

Q2 Railgun
Q2 Railgun corkscrew trail effect will become blue in color (currently green) as it is not finished yet. (Was not supposed to be released yet, and is green by default, but long story short, it will become blue soon.)

Oct 26 Patch
Oct 26 Patch has the 'Terror Billy' skin and hype for the release of Wolfenstein: The New Colossus out now.

Oct 26 Patch has fixed the 1 FPS loss that occurred per each player in a match. It was most noticeable in TDM, DM and Sacrifice (as Duel only has 2 players obviously). Also, the initial dropped frame at the start of a match seems to be fixed too.

Majority of players are reporting on reddit, discord and bethesda forums that the Oct 26 patch has improved the game performance for them. However, if a player is still having issues with the above frame issues, then please continue giving the feedback. It is greatly appreciated

The devs and the issues
The devs and the staff know about the issues - from the feedback they receive in submitted reports, forums and discord. The devs also play the game daily and experience the issues themselves firsthand. Thus, the issues are always being worked on.

The staff have daily meetings to discuss the issues, the feedback, the game play, the roadmap of development and so on.

It will take time to get the game optimized to end result goal. The analogy of the netcode being a 'bucket' of things still applies. The 'bucket' has holes and the holes are patched with the patches and updates.

Quake Community
The Quake community is amazing and the devs appreciate the patience and the feedback. The Quake community is one of the strongest gaming communities - it is like a family. Together, this family working together will get there!

Live Streams
Planning on doing Live Stream Sessions every-other-week on Fridays.

Today was the Community Managers first time doing a Live Session (previously, only the devs were doing Live Sessions.)
So in two weeks, there will be another Live Session.

The plan is to alternate who does the Live Sessions - maybe the devs will do the next one, etc. They want to get different people in the Live Sessions too. This means that the Community Managers will be doing more Live Sessions along with other staff members from time to time.

Official Discord
There is now an official discord channel at discord.gg.quake
Check it out, talk to other players and talk to the devs there too.
Make friends in discord to play the game and have fun!

Last Weekend
Last weekend (Oct 20-22) was busy with TwitchCon and DreamHack Denver. 'MortalEmperor' was at TwitchCon while 'TokyoPunchOut' attended DreamHack Denver.
Both events were great fun and very happy with the attendance and participation and viewers.

It is great to see 'new faces' in the Quake tournament(s) final results for top finishers - so far at QuakeCon and DreamHack Denver.

Upcoming Events & Announcements
Next up is ESWC and Italian Open - both tournaments in the first weekend of November (Nov 1-4 date range). 'TokyoPunchOut' working on a forum listing section for tournament announcements and results - so all this information will be handy and available in one place.

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'TokyoPunchOut' then played two TDM matches and one DM match while 'MortalEmperor' and he were answering Twitch chat questions during the Live Stream.

in-game mouse sensitivity -
'TokyoPunchOut' currently uses in-game mouse sensitivity at .375 with 3200 DPI while 'MortalEmperor' (who did not play today) said he currently uses in-game mouse sensitivity of .9 with 800 DPI. Everyone is different and must find what works best for them. (Sidenote: I hope I caught the numbers correctly - especially the DPI numbers - as they spoke fast in this section.)

Hit boxes -
Hitbox changes are coming as everyone knows. The new hit boxes will be a 'blanket' style (like a static mesh) to shore up holes in the pixel perfect hit detection.

Hit boxes will still be different sizes per champions but ALL hit boxes will be increased in size along with the new 'blanket' style of hit box. (Thus, heavy champions will still have larger hit boxes than the lighter champions.)

The hit box changes will make hit registration more 'consistent' than it is now.

IMPORTANT: Hit box changes will NOT be in the November patch / update. There will also probably NOT be any new content changes in the November patch / update - as the goal for November is a continuation of the Oct 26 patch for more performance improvements.

Friends -
It is more fun to play any game with friends. If you need in-game friends, hang out at discord or the forums and participate with the community.

More on the Quake Community -
Again, the community is amazing. The community tutorials and videos are great (such as those done by ZenAku, Rocket Jumping Ninja, zoot and his casting of events, Noctis and his rocket shooting tips - he goes more by prediction than just always aiming at an opponent's feet, etc etc etc)

Again, the devs play the game and are very aware of the issues. They experience the issues first hand. Even in today's Live Stream, it was possible a quick boot-to-screen crash occurred, but 'TokyoPunchOut' was able to re-join the same TDM match in a matter of moments. He also stated it may have been his own user error - as he may have escaped/quit by accident. Just an example of things that the devs experience themselves and are always working on.

The community is a vast asset of help. Mostly because there are only so many 'test' pc's being used in house. The community will find and expose so many more issues by the volume of players and pc's playing the game. So again, keep up the feedback.

Nowadays, players are more connected to a game's development than in the past - whether they realize it or not. This helps the development because there are so many things to discover and report.

Gauntlets -
The gauntlet range is based on the bigger (heavy) champions hit box size and is currently carried over to ALL the champions. Thus, the devs are looking at adjusting the gauntlet range to be associated with each champion's hit box when using it. For example, Anarki's (light champion) gauntlet range will be lessened than what it currently is now. This is still being discussed for a future patch, etc.

Net code -
Always working on - as everyone knows.

Game balance -
Always monitoring, with tweaks being done - as everyone knows. As new champions are brought into the game, the balance will change. This is a good thing - it shakes things up. At the same time, new champions possibly trigger balance tweaks - as balance is constantly monitored and tweaked, etc. Things that are 'over powered' are part of balance (tweaks).

Cross Hairs -
One of the 'quality of life' things that are coming.

Roadmap (4th quarter - end of 2017) -
A communication on the roadmap (4th quarter - end of 2017) is being planned. Stay tuned.
Tentative plans and goals, etc.

Game Play Tips -
Have fun first and foremost. Winning is nice, but have fun - and it is easier to have fun playing with friends (see above on discord, etc).
Pick your battles. Quake is about not dying. Don't always engage every single battle with a plus-forward mentality.

Ranked Mode -
Ranked mode planned for end of 2017, so it is coming soon.
Currently, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond and Elite are ranks, but this is subject to change!

Seasons -
Seasons are something being discussed and are pending, but no news on it yet.

Tutorials -
An advanced movement tutorial is being planned.
The current tutorial (balloon shooting) is being improved upon too.

Matchmaking -
It is based on skill level. However, to get a player in a match as fast as possible, the system 'expands' the search after a certain amount of time to include more players in the search. This can sometimes match a player in with higher skilled players, etc. Obviously, as the pool of players grows, the matchmaking gets closer to matching.
The devs are aware of how uneven matches occur and are always looking at improving the system too.

Note: XP is not skill level, as most already know. XP is just the number of matches and the time played. A 1-XP player with heavy FPS experience can (and does) dominate a 30-XP player who plays very casually. So do not let high XP numbers influence your thinking too much on matchmaking (good or bad) in every match.

Defrag -
Once again, nothing being planned for it at the moment.

CTF -
Once again, Capture The Flag mode is being planned.

Mods -
Instagib, community maps, other modes (FreezeTag) - once again, NOTHING being planned for any modding allowed right now. However, in the future, modding MAY be welcomed and allowed - as mods have always been a part of every Quake. Once again, thank you for your patience as the game has a lot of things to be worked on first.

Community Help and the Low FPS related to Low Fire Rate bug -
As stated in the Bethesda forums - a perfect example of the community feedback and discovery helping with the development of the game. Also, as stated in the Bethesda forums, the problem has been identified and the solution is now in the works and will be released in an upcoming patch.

Another example of the community help was the bug for Canadian players who could not fire their weapons. With their feedback (KSVIA numbers, IPs, bug reports), the devs could isolate the problem and were able to resolve it.

There are too many examples to list - of all the community help so far. The devs thank you and appreciate it very much.

Quake Art Contest -
A quick Quake Art Contest going on right now - until Halloween night Oct 31!
More information here:
https://bethesda.net/community/topic/117052/e...rt-contest

Next Live Stream -
In two weeks (Friday, 11-10-17).
More talk, more game play, more prizes - which MAY include some Quake Caps. They will check into that!

Note: This Live Session was about 1 1/2 hours with a peak viewer total of 650.

Video Replay here:
https://go.twitch.tv/videos/185532231##

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Extra Message Below From 'MortalEmperor'
(from Thursday, Oct 26, 2017, in the Bethesda Forums)

Q. "Why does vanity content come out when there are still issues with the game? Does this mean vanity is more important than fixing existing problems in Quake Champions?"

A. So, this may not be evident to everyone, but not everyone on a development team works on all aspects of the game.

Dev teams have different departments for different game design disciplines: programmers and game designers build the architecture of the game; people on the backend team work on netcode and other services; artists make maps, UI, models and textures, and yes--vanity items.

And these are all tasks that are working in tandem on a daily basis. The art team, for example, doesn't stop making art because the netcode isn't working properly. UI folks don't get to go home if a bug arises that needs to be addressed.

To put it succinctly: the people working on vanity items don't work on network code. Our artists work on building and texturing maps, they work on creating the Champions, they work on building the upcoming gore system, which btw is REALLY awesome.
They work on things that aren't related to the netcode. They don't touch the netcode, they don't fix bugs.

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Q. "Ok, I understand that, but even so, why release that stuff at all when there are problems with the gameplay?"

A. As I said, work doesn't stop for any department based on what's going on in other departments.
While the backend team and the game design team are working on improving the overall experience for players, our art team is able to concentrate their creative energies on other things.

With The Evil Within 2 and Wolfenstein II both releasing this month, we thought it'd be really cool if players who purchased either of those games could also get something fun in Quake Champions.

This decision did not hold up any efforts to work on netcode. It did not impede us investigating bugs or figuring out solutions.
(In fact, we're releasing a patch today that includes some fixes.) These vanity items were ready to go, and it made the most sense to tie them in with the release dates of TEW2 and Wolfenstein II.

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Q. "Alright, you've convinced me. But I still have issues, and I'm upset. Do the devs even listen to us?"

A. The team IS listening. I'm not "just a PR guy," despite what you might think. My job is specifically to relay your honest, unfiltered, uncensored thoughts to the development team, and we have DAILY meetings and conversations about game direction, about the biggest issues our players are facing, and most importantly: what the heck we're going to do about it!

And I get that it's frustrating when your game experience isn't as fun as you'd expect. I completely, wholeheartedly understand. I can even understand where you're coming from with wondering why we've got cosmetic items going out into the store, and I hope I answered that questions to your satisfaction.
And we're making real efforts to become more transparent with what we're working on, how we're working on it, and how it benefits YOU, the player.

That's been the crux of our discussions recently, and everybody on the Quake Champions team is onboard. The proof is in the pudding though, and I hope we can prove that to you. We do ask, though, that you give us time.

I know that's not everyone's favorite thing to hear, but things will get better with time. We intend to make sure of it.

Thanks again for your posts and allowing me to clear up some things.

MortalEmperor (Quake Champions Community Manager)

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-Bit late, but here it is
-Can someone explain what is a "blanket" hitbox?
-Also the art contest have country limit(!?) Only some countries are allowed to participate "because of the laws"
https://cdn.bethsoft.com/quake/Quake_Art_Contest_Rules.pdf