QL Update: Premium Pack 4

Wow, it’s already November and that means the 4th content update!

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Two new arenas, 20 new premium awards and our first of many advanced server options!

What he doesn’t highlight at first is that yesterday’s update also involved a needed back-end update regarding the Quake Live database, which no doubt should affect website performance, especially concerning profile requesting and statistics.

But let’s see what Quake Live has in stock for us this month:

As always, I look upon an update from a competitive point of view. Not saying that some changes aren’t appreciated, but some things are just silly, such as the 20 new Premium Awards, the Awards to recognize past events like QuakeCon 2008, IEM5, and others. Fun but not actually making Quake Live a richer game. 😉

One of the points of my focus are the 2 added maps, originating from Rocket Arena 3! Both are targeting the Small CA category so I doubt any will be used in a regular 4v4 CA competition, but maybe they will in 2v2 or even 1v1. Both maps feature the classic set of weaponry: shotgun, grenades, rockets, lightning, rail and plasma.

Evolution Evolution is a wide open map. Regular Quake gothic look, a rather isolated back hallway that leads to the teleporter exiting up high, which serves more as an escape route to catch a quick breath from the massive amount of action in the open area, than actually being a fast way to reach the upper platform. After all, it’s Clan Arena so rocketjumps are the default means of transport. Don’t think there are any ‘good’ spawns on it 😀 Immediate action guaranteed! (Created by Till Merker, also responsible for Thunderstruck and Theatre of Pain.)

Three Story Very nice looking castle map. The improved step-height from earlier update will increase the smoothness with which you can climb the huge stairway. Not sure whether this map is better or not than Evolution as it’s a different approach. While still small, the design is less prone to randomly missed spam because of the separate areas. Accessibility is dangerous: jumps all around to get everywhere but this is Quake, boys and girls, the moment you lift off, you’re 99% dead meat! 😉 (Created by Mike Burbidge, author of Japanese Castles.)

As in Content Update 3, also several map updates have been applied. Read up on them in the full changelog. But something fresh I really want to point out is the fact that Pro users can now spawn rune maps without runes! That means some CTF maps now can be looked upon for being part of the competition pool, while with runes they could not. Awesome! This will of course require some tactical adjustments opposed to when runes are active.

Speaking of these new advanced server launch features, idsoftware announced more to come, but started with the following: toggle power-ups, runes, damage through floors, ramp jumping, change gravity, weapon switch speed and the quad damage factor! Some rather silly, some can make the game more challenging!

Last thing to point out, for new players, is the removal of the Crash Training Match, which assessed your initial skill level. Now you will have a probation time before skill matching gets active. This could mean that you may end up on servers that own your ass or where you in turn do the butt whooping! 😉

Other minor changes, web updates and such in the full news item.

More info:

• November 16, 2010 newspost
• Quake Live on IRC in #quakelive and #quakelive.support (Quakenet)