Saturday, December 29, 2018

Jaga's Guide to Quake 3, Part 3: The Basics

INTRODUCTION
PREVIOUS PART: Running the Game
(Images provided by QuakeWiki)

    Q3A's gameplay is simple on the surface.  You see something, you shoot it.  There's more to it than that, of course, but most of the game boils down to this simple pointing and clicking.
 
    Before we get started, it's worth going into options and adjusting some things like screen resolution and controls.  If you're using a game controller, I recommend using a program called AntiMicro to map the inputs of the controller to keyboard and mouse inputs.  Quake 3 does have gamepad support, but making use of it requires console commands, and Spearmint has its own system for gamepad input... AntiMicro is just less painful all around.  (For those interested, though, I do intend on writing guides on using gamepads later.)
    Useful information is on the bottom of the screen.  The left-most number is the ammo for your current weapon, the middle number next to the face is health, and the right number is armor.  Also on the right is the frag counter (right of the armor number) and the powerup timer (above the armor number).
    While you're adjusting the game to your liking, it's worth noting that Quake 3 lets you adjust your field of vision, or FOV.  The default FOV in Q3A is 90 degrees, but the game was also released in an era without prevalent widescreen displays.  If the screen is feeling a little cramped even after you set the resolution, open up the console by pressing tilde (`) and enter the command 'cg_fov x', where x is the desired field of view.  I personally prefer a FOV of 110 degrees - 'cg_fov 110'.
    Once you're starting to feel at home, let's go over the basics.


    HEALTH
    A simple measure of your vitality, as long as you keep it above 0 you can keep running, jumping, and shooting as well as you could at 100.  It's fairly cheap, too.  You can lose it by falling, jumping into slime, staying underwater too long, and of course by getting shot.  Ideally you want to keep this at 100 or above.  But Jaga! you exclaim.  How am I supposed to play the game well if I'm always glancing down to check how much health I have left?  Here's a tip - whenever you hear your character's pain grunts, make a mental note to find some health packs.  You'll stay stocked up on health without needing to check every three seconds.
    You start out with 125 health.  As long as your health stays above 100, it'll tick back down to the default value of 100 at a rate of 1 HP per second.  To replenish it, grab one of the four health pickups scattered around the map.

    The green health packs are the smallest, sometimes called stimpacks.  These give you 5 HP when picked up, and can be picked up even when you're at 100 health, giving you a boost.

    Next are the yellow packs.  These heal 25 HP, but will only bring your health up to a maximum of 100.  If you're already at 100, you'll simply walk over the packs instead of picking them up.  Orange-gold packs work the same way, healing 50 HP.

     Finally, the blue Megahealth is easy to distinguish and the most powerful of the four - it gives you 100 health up to a maximum of 200 HP and can be picked up any time.  It can bring you back from the brink of death or let you take double the beating.  Try healing up with the smaller packs first if any are handy to get the most out of the Megahealth.


    ARMOR
    One way to think of armor is as a second healthbar.  You start with none, but can find pickups around the map.  When taking a hit with armor on, some fraction of the damage (2/3) will be subtracted from the armor and the rest will be subtracted from your health.  It's a quick way to boost your durability, if a little more confusing to keep track of two numbers.  Another useful fact is that having full health and any amount of armor will grant you immunity to any one single shot, provided your attacker doesn't have Quad Damage.  I think of it as railgun insurance.

    The small, green-glowing Armor Shards will give you 5 points of armor, yellow armor suits 50, and red armor suits 100.  Like health, if you have over 100, it'll tick back down to 100 at a rate of one point per second.  Unlike Health, you can pick up any armor at any point, the only limit being a maximum of 200 armor points.  If you see some, go for it.


    POWERUPS
    These give you a handy little boost, provided you can get to them in time.  They're usually hotly contested on a map, so know where they show up and get there first.

    Q3A has no invulnerability powerup, but it does have the gold Battle Suit.  This absorbs a good chunk of incoming damage for 30 seconds, prevents splash damage from explosives, and makes you immune to slime and lava.
    If you're dealing with someone with a Battle Suit, the best response is to run - there's no good way to kill them until it runs out.  Failing that, try getting them squished or dropped into a bottomless pit or such.

    Flight lets you hover around for 30 seconds.  Control your height with the Jump and Crouch buttons (Space and C by default).  What weapons work best with it is a matter of preference - there's nothing quite like hovering above the rest of the game and raining down shots.
    If you're fighting someone with Flight, hitscan weapons like the Railgun, Shotgun, Machinegun, and Lightning Gun are your best options to pick them out of the sky with.  Alternatively, if you can lure them into close quarters, the Plasma Gun could work and they'll be more vulnerable to explosive splash damage.

    Haste boosts your movement speed and firing rate before burning out after 30 seconds.  Normally slow weapons like the Railgun and Rocket Launcher get huge boosts from Haste, letting you form quick chains of lethal shots.  Watch your ammo meter though, especially with rapid-fire guns.
    If you're up against a Haste user, try luring them into making tricky jumps over bottomless pits or lava.  The increased speed from the powerup could make them lose their footing.  If they have explosive weapons like the Rocket Launcher or the BFG10K in particular, you could get them to whittle their own health down by shooting rapid-fire explosions into themselves.  Finally, since they're moving so fast, the Shotgun might be useful to catch them in its spread.

    Invisibility makes you transparent with a few shimmering effects, so remember you're not completely invisible when using it.  Keep moving, taking opportune shots as you go, and you'll be very tricky to hunt down.  Take care not to get caught in other player's crossfires though.  Like the others, it wears off after 30 seconds.
    There are few good ways to stop an Invisibility user, but a quick spray with the Lightning Gun may serve to reveal them.  On that note, don't use bright, flashy weapons like the Plasma Gun and Lightning Gun with Invisibility on.  The stream of bright blue balls/beam of death kindof defeats the purpose of the powerup.

    Regeneration heals 15 HP per second if its user has less than 100, then an additional 5 HP per second after 100 until they reach 200 HP.  The constant healing makes you much more difficult to kill, so take the 30-second timer and start hunting down frags.
    Regeneration is a powerup where players will gang up on its holder before they start fighting each other.  If you want to kill a Regeneration user, lure them into an angry crowd, preferably with hefty guns like the Rocket Launcher and Railgun.  Those kinds of weapons can knock off health faster than the powerup can replace it.  Also, be on the lookout for extra health and armor around the map and get it before the powered-up player can to keep them from becoming even more of a tank.

    Finally, the signature powerup of the series, the Quad Damage.  Despite its name this only multiplies the damage you do by 3, not 4.  Grab your favorite weapon and go to town - the Quad can take powerful guns like the Rocket Launcher and turn them into complete overkill, or take less potent guns like the Shotgun and Machinegun and turn them into reliable frag winners.
    The Quad is another powerup where players will gang up on the wielder.  Keep moving - players will either try to target you or run from you, and standing still helps with neither.  Also, take care when using weapons with splash damage like the Rocket Launcher and the Plasma Gun, it's a quick route to an embarrassing end.  Though if you really want to shut down a Quad wielder, get in their face when they're using explosives.  With any luck they'll blow themselves (and you) to smithereens.

    Next part I'll go in depth on each of the guns and how to use them best.

NEXT PART: The Guns

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