QL

I play Quake because there is nothing better to do - lots of times - on the internet.

QuakeLive is a in-browser version of a game i used to own in 1998 (Quake3Arena) as i was a Doom fan, but could never get my head around. Q3A was extremely hard, and my first game on a instagib server while on 56k was my last. But as it turns out, Quake is brilliant. The engine is ultralight, very fast and quite complex. Learning how to play can be a frustrating experience, since there are so many "hidden" rules concerning the physics, and mastering these is key to playing the game decently. To get any better, since Quake is quite possibly the second most popular - and first in difficulty - eSport in the world, with the crown going dubiously to Starcraft, you need more than patience, you need superhuman reflexes and extreme precision. Surgeons will have nothing on you.

Anyway, i sometimes get frustrated at QL even though i have gotten pretty good at it, because of some faults (or at least i think they are faults) within the game engine.

Unfortunately, the QuakeLive community is the biggest bunch of douchebags ever assembled on the internet, so trying to get help - or even a shoulder to cry on - from them is impossible. So i vent on this here blog.

I apologise to anyone who reads this and understands nothing of it. I especially apologise for what is coming next. It will make no sense whatsoever.


The LG (and everything else, really) is screwed up.


I have recently found out what mouse acceleration is, and turned it off, to the expense of everything else on my desktop. Turned down the sensitivity, which has helped but fucked my rockets.
Already i wonder why the fuck the QL website doesnt have a big "THIS IS HOW YOU TURN YOU MOUSE ACCELERATION OFF ON XP" sign on the login page. Since having it on stops you from possibly playing this game decently.

Yet still i cant get results with the LG.

This is because.. bear with me .. the client-server packets lose some informations about the hitscan location on some cells.

I have ran right behind newly spawned players (not glowing) and wasted 60 cells on them.. that 420 damage, and they didnt die.
I wasted a whole clip of MG on a player, hitting with every shot, and he didnt die. newly spawned, no armor or health pickup.
I have hit people 4 times with the shotgun while with Quad, and they didnt die.

On the other hand, i have been killed by gauntlets when hit twice. I have been hit for 70 damage from the other fucking side of the room with a shotgun, while i hit the same guy from the same distance 4 times with no avail.

I HAVE SEEN WITH MY OWN EYES the beam of the LG hit a model, the white spot of the crosshair in the middle of their hitbox, and no hit is recorded. for a cool quarter second, then the bells begin.

Since over a second your opponent might get in and out of the beam maybe 5-6 times, a quarter second bug makes the LG pretty much useless.
And since this is arguably the second most powerful gun in the game, of three, playing without it means i'm bound to lose no matter what.


Different reactions from playing against different clients.

Some players in the same arena, same server, have a hitbox as big as a house. i have hit people who were well gone behind a corner, while some other people have a hitbox that disappears from time to time.

hey sure, its a fun game, but when the community agrees that a ping above 60ms is too high for professional gaming, didnt you think something was wrong ? That maybe you should change the physics model to accomodate the reality of technology? And remember, this is a 1998 game, was even worse back then.

As it stands now, Quake is only playable properly in LAN. And i know it cannot be fixed, and i am sad. But it is still the best FPS out there, and its free.