Recent developments in Quake Live and at holysh1t.net

Time has gone by and things have changed. Not just at holysh1t.net, but mainly in quake live itself. Here are some key developments that occurred in the last few weeks:

Change #1: The Quake Live website has permanently moved

The Quake Live website has changed its location from quakelive.idsoftware.com to beta.quakelive.com. The beta is still closed and you still need an invitation to get in. Yet id software is sending out a massive amount of invites and it is said that the current user base of approx 25,000 will be doubled in no time, bringing Quake Live to about 50,000 closed beta testers very soon (rough estimates). Ask around in #qlpickup.eu on mIRC if you need an invite, you will surely be assisted soon enough.

Change #2: Quake Live changes server slots limit

Old school quakers often grind their teeth each time id software decides to tweak quake live’s core game play (compared to the Quake 3 game play). A few months ago it were the rocket launcher,  railgun and lightning gun that caused for ruckus, … now it might just be the maximum server slots change on the TDM/CA/CTF servers that cause for a mayhem. Concerning CA and CTF, the increase in max server slots to 10 won’t be much of a problem. In fact, the CTF players have been explicitly asking for this change.

Yet when turning our heads and looking at the TDM side of the table, things are a lot different. Never before in the quake (3) history has a TDM match been 5v5 and the first reactions are not to be called “positive”. 5v5 TDM games more heavily promote anti-quake game play such as camping, spamming and general disorganized team play. This might be more fun for beginners (kudos quake live developers!), yet I’m sure more seasoned quakers are smashing their heads against the wall right now.

The increased server slots in the TDM games have actually managed to put the organized competitions in the beta (such as the quake.cz TDM cup)  to a near complete halt. Many in the community see only these 3 options available right now:

1. Have two people stay in spectator mode to fill up the slot and allow 4v4 TDM games this way. This of course causes problems when spectators are of the same team as a competing team. These spectators can very easily pass on information about the opposing team through ventrilo or teamspeak.
2. We can hope id software changes the system soon. A possibility for the TDM servers could be to reserve 2 slots for spectators at all time. This way spectators that are AFK don’t clog up slots and the TDM games don’t turn into camping FFA games.
3. Wait for some kind of modification for competitive game play or private servers, which would enable lock teams, timeout, etc… Yet this could still take a while.

Either way, the #qlpickup.eu CTF community welcomes the changes to the servers. 5v5 CTF games will enable more advanced teamplay, hopefully making the games more fun. How exactly this server slot increase will translate to the new Quake Live CTF maps, however, is yet to be seen. To the TDM teams out there,… our condolences 🙂 .

Change #3: Holysh1t.net now has a Quake Live Community Forum!

Hopefully it will allow discussion more easily. The comments section can be kind of rusty from time to time. Registering can be done either on this website on the right, or in the forum itself: Holysh1t Quake Live Community Forum. Have fun! 🙂

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