VOGONS


First post, by xjas

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I've been playing a bit of O.G. Quake lately (both the DOS version and GLQuake/QuakeSpasm on the PowerMac.) I love the game but don't particularly care for its standard mission. Too dingy & too much brown. 😜

What's a good map pack or mod that goes for a more futuristic style? Give me some bright colors, technological themes, and preferably a focus on exploration and visuals rather than constant combat. Is there something like an "Unreal for Quake" floating around out there?

I never got into the Quake modding scene so I'm really starting from square one here. 😀

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Reply 1 of 11, by leileilol

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X-Men: Ravages of the Apocalypse has some additional purple and looks good, though it's not that much fun and hasn't aged well for that.

Malice is a total conversion set in the future but that's retail. also loads of gray

There's really not that many that dare to alter the palette at all so you're going to end up with a lot of brown anyway. There is no Back to Saturn equivalent for Quake.

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Reply 2 of 11, by F2bnp

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leileilol wrote:

X-Men: Ravages of the Apocalypse has some additional purple and looks good, though it's not that much fun and hasn't aged well for that.

Those screams as you were killing X-Men clones gave me nightmares as a kid. 🤣

There's also this gigantic level that was released a while ago, which offered some pretty insane architecture to behold, I was very impressed by that, although it's not exactly what the OP is looking for. Unfortunately, Quake == brown and lots of it. I'd say you're better off playing a modern source port that allows you to disable texture filtering so that you can get a somewhat authentic software rendering look, which I feel looks best for Quake.

Reply 3 of 11, by dr_st

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There's Quake Rally, but it doesn't feel like Quake either.

xjas wrote:

Give me some bright colors, technological themes

Quake II (although gameplay-wise it's worse than the original, IMO).

xjas wrote:

preferably a focus on exploration and visuals rather than constant combat

Daikatana (as long as you use community edition 1.3 and disable the sidekicks)

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Reply 4 of 11, by F2bnp

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dr_st wrote:

Daikatana (as long as you use community edition 1.3 and disable the sidekicks)

That's a really good idea. You don't have to disable sidekicks actually, just make them invincible. You'll also have to hang in there for the first episode, it's pretty bad. But the rest of the game, especially the 2nd Episode in Greece and the 3rd one in Gothic-Medieval Norway are pretty good.

Reply 5 of 11, by dr_st

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F2bnp wrote:
dr_st wrote:

Daikatana (as long as you use community edition 1.3 and disable the sidekicks)

That's a really good idea. You don't have to disable sidekicks actually, just make them invincible. You'll also have to hang in there for the first episode, it's pretty bad. But the rest of the game, especially the 2nd Episode in Greece and the 3rd one in Gothic-Medieval Norway are pretty good.

Yeah, invincible sidekicks is probably good enough, but I did feel at some point that just waiting for them before I could transition between levels was a chore. Then again, it was my second time through. On the first playthrough, having them around may be important for the complete experience, so to speak.

Design-wise, the first episode is clearly inferior to the others, but in itself that's not so bad; what killed me during it (multiple times, literally) was the difficulty - you get attacked by a lot of hit-scanning enemies, and you haven't yet accumulated enough experience to boost your health or weapon powers, so it's rather hard. It's obvious good playtesting was one thing they lacked during development - the first episode prevented many people from continuing through a game which in the end, they might have enjoyed.

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Reply 6 of 11, by F2bnp

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Agreed on every point.
It's especially sad since the 4th and final episode plays similarly to the first in the sense that you have shootouts in smaller, confined areas, but it is infinitely better, although still not as good as the 2nd and 3rd IMO.
I was really on the verge of quitting while playing the 1st episode, it really was that annoying to me, but I'm glad I kept playing.

Reply 7 of 11, by xjas

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Haha I actually have a Daikatana big box that I bought back when it was "new" (well, a few months old and therefore heavily discounted when everyone figured out how much it sucked.) I think I played through the first few maps before giving up. That was before any of the patches that made it playable even existed. 😜 I played the hell out of Quake II multiplayer back in the day, but never really got into the single player mission. Still very brown. Deathmatch was the way to go with that one IMHO. To be honest, if we're talking Q2 or Daikatana, then may as well go whole hog and play Half Life.

Anyway the point is I'm looking for vanilla Q1 maps specifically so I can play them on my DOS machine & PowerMac where I already have Quake set up. 😀 I was sort of after a BTSX for Q1 as Leilei suggested, but I'll take anything interesting. I can't believe such a popular game didn't get at least a few mods that push the envelope in terms of visuals and architecture.

That X-men conversion looks interesting, will give it a try.

Come to think of it, any Hexen 2 map packs / total conversions out there worth checking out? Got that one already running too.

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Reply 9 of 11, by dr_st

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xjas wrote:

To be honest, if we're talking Q2 or Daikatana, then may as well go whole hog and play Half Life.

Well, Half-Life is already a very different style of FPS. Much more story-driven and paced, rather than the mindless exploration / carnage style of the old shooters.

xjas wrote:

Anyway the point is I'm looking for vanilla Q1 maps specifically so I can play them on my DOS machine & PowerMac where I already have Quake set up. 😀

Going through the random list of mods / mission packs I have for Quake, I have:

Scourge of Armagon
Dissolution of Eternity
Abyss of Pandemonium
Aftershock
Shrak

I don't recall actually playing them, but you can look them up and see if any of them sounds like it would be fun.

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