Quake Live updates

In the past week 2 updates have been released by Id Software. The first update features the most updates and are updates in all areas: maps, web and gamemodes. Some issues with this update pack were resolved in the second update. I’m referring to the Clan Arena idle-time change, where anyone AFK during a round gets automatically kicked.

Some updates that caught my eye were that the premium duel scoreboard now preserves match data when someone forfeits, the teamkill complaint system has returned, a bunch of PQL fixes and you can now use +moveup and +movedown on ladders to go up or down while looking in the opposite position. Yes. Ladders.

Update 26/2/2013
Today’s update is an interim update featuring many fixes to improve the game experience, and numerous fixes and gameplay improvements to our arenas.

Duel Updates

• Premium Duel Scoreboard now preserves match data, addressing issues caused by forfeited matches or disconnected players.
• Duels can no longer start with more than 2 players, who were added via the admin ‘put’ command.
• Server admins may no longer use the ‘put’ command to place more than two players into a match in progress.
• Server admins may no longer use of the ‘allready’ command if more or less than two players are in the match.
• Fixed Duel’s short name display to read “DUEL” instead of “DM” on the Premium Duel Scoreboard.

Round Based Game Mode Updates

• Players who die during a round countdown will now immediately respawn alive, rather than be excluded from the round as a dead player.
• Inactivity kicks are no longer triggered while dead or frozen.
• Players are now dropped after 25 seconds of inactivity in round based game modes.
• Fixed players in Freeze Tag from being able to prematurely fire if they respawned during a match or round countdown.
• In addition to held power-ups, we now remove dropped power-ups between rounds in Freeze Tag.
• Players may no longer use of the ‘forfeit’ command during round countdowns.
• Prevent infected from getting weapons in warmup in Infected Red Rover.
• Fixed instaInfected, zombies were spawning with the set Starting Weapons value instead of just gauntlets.
• Gametypes that do not allow item spawning will now utilize the best starting weapons order in warmup, if no weapons are present.

PQL Ruleset Updates

• Increased the consistency of the chain jump boost, also improving telejumps.
• Increased the speed gained by circle strafing.
• Increased the speed while turning with air control.
• Clamp weapon respawn time to a minimum of 10 seconds.
• Max ammo values decreased in item collection based gametypes.
  – MG: 100, SG: 20, GL: 20, RL: 20, LG: 100, RG: 20, PG: 100, BFG: 10, NG: 20, PL: 5, CG: 100
• Adjusted player respawn delay, now within a 0.5 and 3.5 second window.
• Vertical jump velocity gets capped, keeping the cumulative effect of chain jumps in check.
• Draw Tiered Armor Availability icons added to inform players when an armor is unavailable for pickup.
• Removed extraneous console variable spam when rulesets are changed.

Misc Game Updates

• Removed /systeminfo command, could be exploited to cause a client crash.
• Rail trails are now properly aligned with the gun barrel, taking custom values of cg_gunX/Y/Z into account.
• Re-enabled the TeamKill Complaint system.
• Fixed an issue that would occur when using a medkit with more than 125HP and firing the weapon in the same frame.
• Lightning Gun muzzle point is positioned correctly when crouching.
• Fixed clientside prediction errors when using custom values of RampJumpScale.
• Weapon Gravity options in Start-a-Match now properly take in account custom values of g_gravity.
• Freecam spectating no longer uses a third person offset, and custom values of cg_thirdPersonAngle will no longer break spec cameras.
• Smoothed out changes in height/viewheight when the spectatorCam flies into a flight of stairs.
• Smooth out viewheight change when crouching while in third person.
• Allow +moveup/+movedown on ladders to help dictate direction (ala Q2). This allows you to be looking up as you crawl down the ladder.
• Draw “-” on the scoreboard in place of the -999 forfeit score on all scoreboard feeders.
• Corrected end game scoreboard messages during a forfeit. “You finished with a score of -999”
• Corrected end game scoreboard messages in Harvester, and improved capture messages when only one capture was made.

Web Updates

• Added 5 Premium Experience PQL Awards
  – Too Fast: Complete 1 online PQL match.
  – Air Bender: Complete 1 online PQL match in Duel, Capture the Flag, Clan Arena, and Team Deathmatch.
  – Paratrooper: Complete 100 online PQL matches.
  – Dogfighter: Complete 500 online PQL matches.
  – Ethereal: Complete 1,000 online PQL matches.

Arena Updates

• Aerowalk
  – Fixed a hall of mirrors effect on the green armor teleporter.
  – Fixed the skywalk ceiling clip exploit.
  – Fixed the alignment of the ceiling clips in the lightning gun room and the central atrium.
  – Fixed clipping above two door archways.
  – Fixed texture alignment on trim of the teleporter exit ledge.
  – Made the fencing no longer cast shadows so that you can see the pipe detail work behind them.
  – Fixed the mispositioned weaponclip on the fencing near yellow armor.
  – Improving lighting, getting rid of the black wall section near the grenade launcher teleporter and the black stair faces in mid.
  – Improved the positioning of some of the small ceiling lights.
  – Fixed the position of the angled light near high RL.
• Campgrounds
  – Fixed texture alignments on the upper level floors, near both railgun and rocket launcher.
• Foolish legacy
  – Removed the no-weapon-drop from the waterfog in the megahealth pool.
• Infinity
  – Added a new route from mid to high base rocket launcher.
  – Added a ladder connection between the water tube and the new high route.
  – Moved the railgun to the new water tunnel ledge.
  – Removed one of the spawns near plasmagun and one of the spawns near the mid shotgun.
  – Added a wall in the perimeter to give the teleporter pool more cover.
  – Added 25hp to the new doorway in mid.
  – Added 25hp to the teleporter pool.
  – Made water in mid deeper, added underwater route below the bridge.
  – Fixed skull dispenser in Harvester.
• Left Behind
  – Removed no-weapon-drop from the waterfog in the railgun pool.
• Overkill
  – Renamed the ‘Visor courtyard’ to ‘Ranger courtyard’.
  – Fixed z-fighting in hall near Ranger courtyard. 
  – Fixed texture misalignment on floor near fog pit. 
  – Removed some exploitative clips. 
  – Clipped some exploitative ledges.
• Quarantine
  – Fixed two clips on the staircase between red armor and the back teleporter.
• Reflux
  – Fixed texture alignment on curved brick wall by megahealth.
• Realm of Steel Rats
  – Texture density and alignment fixed on the curved brick walls in the lightning gun, lower rocket launcher, and quad rooms.
• Space Chamber
  – Fixed the inappropriately sized red armor item timer due to a stray ‘team’ key on the item.
• Terminatria
  – Total Health increased from 525 to 700.
  – Total Armor increased from 235 to 280.
  – Jump pad behind the railgun area replaced with teleporter
  – Quad and Megahealth areas rebuilt.
  – Numerous graphical and gameplay orientated tweaks.
  – Duel mode added – item and weapons layouts changes, upper Rocket Launcher and Grenade Launcher rooms are blocked off.
  – Duel mode: Two way teleporter added at the Lightning Gun.
  – Made tesla sfx on teleporter nonsolid
  – Replaced cables with a new dark cable version for improved alpha blend
  – Fixed trim construction near quad
  – Fixed trim construction near lg
  – Fixed texture alignment on all volumetric lights
  – Fixed wall texture scale behind GA teleporter
  – Fixed stair ramps near quad
  – Deleted obscured portions of the decorative pipes outside of the arena
  – Cleanup, making some structural brushes into detail brushes
• The Edge
  – Removed the no-weapon-drop from the waterfog in the railgun pool.
• Wicked
  – Fixed duplicate spawn point at RL spawn, which caused an imbalance in the spawn point selection process

Update 1/3/2013
We have applied a small follow-up update to address a few issues that arose following our Feb 26th update.

Code Updates:

• Fixed the ‘Air Control’ Start-a-Match option.
• Fixed the Freeze Tag ‘Round Delay 0’ Start-a-Match option.
• Fixed the ‘Teams are tied at 0’ team score message.
• Round based games once again will kick players after 180 seconds of inactivity, but the new code will now accumulate time across rounds, but does not count time dead/froze/paused against them.
• Addressed an issue that would perpetuate telefrags in some round based gametypes, when a map had too few spawn points available.