ZlatkO & Kandyman's DeathMatch - v0.1 - 04/Jul/97
=================================================

Intro
-----

This is a rather simple hack to improve original Quake's somewhat lousy
DM gameplay, mainly addressing weapon balance issues. With the original
settings, noone would ever notice if all other weapons but the RL were
suddenly removed from the game ... back in the good ol' days o' DooM(2),
I can't even remember one single occasion where the RL was everbody's
_only_ weapon of choice. Every single weapon (except maybe the pistol &
chainsaw) was deadly when used properly, and could be used against any
attacker, no matter what weapon he was using himself. For some reason,
id decided to change that in Quake - as we all know, the RL was given
any advantage you could think of ... it does a great deal of damage to
others, doesn't hurt the owner a lot even when fired against a wall at
point-blank range, and has a virtually unlimited supply of ammo due to
that silly backpack collecting action that was introduced with Quake. All
the other weapons are a bad joke either damage wise (the SG/SSG blasts would
rather make you deaf than dead) or ammo wise (you usually run out of nails
just at the very moment you finally locked on your target after chasing
it a few seconds, don't you?).

This patch tries to overcome the above mentioned issues as much as
possible, it's our attempt at bringing back the (IOHO no less than perfect,
it just can't be said often enough ;-) DooM(2) DM gameplay & balance.
It is mainly aimed at a "deathmatch 2" environment , which is the only
real way to play DM anyway. ;-)

Modifications
-------------

* combat.qc

- Radius damage immunity for attacker removed (hi rocket jumpers! :-)
- Beam   "      "        "   "        "       (was this ever used anyway?)

* items.qc

- NG/SNG has 80 (was 30) nails loaded on pickup
- Backpacks don't contain any weapons at all
- Backpack ammo limited: max. 20 shells,
                         max. 50 nails,
                         max. 2 rockets (no more rocket-only games, w00! :-),
                         max. 50 cells.

* weapons.qc

- SG fires 14 (was 6) bullets,   slightly less spread (it's a _weapon_ now!)
- SSG fires 32 (was 14) bullets, "        more "      (meet your DooM! :-)
- SSG takes longer to reload (0.9, was 0.7)
- Rockets move at 3/4 speed
- NG/SNG does more damage now (12/24, was 9/18)

Thoughts
--------

This patch enhances Quake's DM gameplay I_O_HO, we understand that this
is not necessarily everbody else's cup of tea as well. However, we guess
that at least 60 % of today's Quake community was (or still is) part the
former DooM(2) community, where things like weapon balance, unlike now,
have never been something to bitch about, so this patch should actually
be well received throughout the 'net. OTOH, with this patch one might
miss things he got used to or even learned to love, both due to Quake's
default settings ("deathmatch 1") and/or the fact that a QuakeC compiler was
not available in the early days of Quake (weapon balance). The most noticeable
drawback for many of you will be the fact that doing a rocket jump will
now make you land with less than 10% health, if not kill you - this is
one of Kandyman's main concerns as well, so be assured we'll be trying
to find a satisfying solution ASAP. Keeping in mind that the whole point
of the patch is balancing things out, the first solution that comes to
our minds would be some way to switch between "soft" and "hard" rockets,
with "soft" ones allowing rocket jumps _but_ doing less damage to your
opponents as well, and "hard" ones (uh huh huh ;-) just like they are
now.

Feedback
--------

So far, this patch has only been tested for a few hours, in a 1on1
"deathmatch 2" environment (which has become pretty much an exception
in Quake), and we're quite satisfied. Still, we need feedback about how
this patch plays with 3+ players in terms of ammo (too much/little of
a certain kind), general feel about weapon strenghts (too weak/strong),
and probably feedback about how it works with the "deathmatch 1/3" setting
(though it is mainly aimed at "deathmatch 2", due to the fact that we'd
have to take care about proper armor settings as well otherwise).
Suggestions about possible rocket jump solutions are especially welcome!

Base
----

This patch is based on the v1.06/1.06a source (the fish bug doesn't
matter in DM anyway), the modified .qc files (combat/items/weapons)
are included, all modifications are marked with "@Z@". Comments have
been completely left out to reflect artistical freedom. :-) Should
be pretty obvious, anyway.

Copyright
---------

Yeahright. :-)

History
-------

04/Jul/97 - v0.1 - Initial (public?) release

Future
------

! Fine-tune current weapon/ammo settings based on beta testing & feedback
! Rocket Jumps
? DeathMatch 1/3
? Upper limits on ammo one can carry to really force usage of _all_ weapons
? Other stuff that comes to (y)our minds :-)

Authors
-------

Marin Gazzari aka Kandyman, e-mail <mgazzari@netway.at> or <Kandyman@ims.at>
Thomas Zajic aka ZlatkO ThE GoDFatheR, e-mail <thomas_zajic@hp.com>
