Enter Quake 3: The Mods

The CPL, the most prestigious E-Sports organisation has stirred up a lot of controversy. Both sponsors and players consider the pro's and con's of this decision and every single one of them has an opinion on the subject. What is this thing that is causing so much controversy and might split up the community? Quake 4, the long awaited last part in this infamous series by ID Software was released in October 2005 and was immediately criticised by the community. Some onorthodox changes were made to the near-perfect gameplay of Quake 3 and not every machine was capable of running this graphic-intense game. Most of the stock maps weren't suitable for competitive play, and neither were the player models. Modders immediately started tweaking the game and Raven released 2 patches, but still some complaints were muttered by the community.

Although most agreed that Quake 4 was still enjoyable to play, most gamers still prefered the older version of this game. An older version which was still popular, with new patches to mods aimed at competitive gameplay, a lively community and gameplay nearing perfection. This is where the CPL steps in. Although Quake 4 was the primary duel game at their events since the release, with big pools of prizemoney and a respectable ammount of viewers, a poll the CPL held showed a shocking conclusion. This poll, considering whether Quake 3 or Quake 4 should be played at the CPL tournaments was given to 4 groups of people related to the CPL. The CPL tournament staff voted 90% in favor of Quake 3, the CPL World partners voted 90% in favor of Quake 3 too. The CPL 1v1 Committee which holds some of the greater names in the scene voted 85% in favor of Quake 3. And finally, the players themself, who all could vote at the CPL forums voted 80% that they prefered Quake 3 as primary duel game at the CPL. The CPL acknowledged that almost everyone wanted to see Quake 3 back at the CPL and decided to make sure that that would happen. And that is the reason why I'm here.

Not everyone has played Quake 3 competitively. You might be one of the many players that first got in contact with professional gaming when the CPL broadcasted Painkiller for their World Tour, or you might got interested in 1v1 Duelling when you saw the amazing skills performed at the later CPL tournaments with Quake 4. Or you might have played Quake 3 competitively but took a break. When you take a look at all the maps, mods and gametypes you can choose from, this might seem overwhelming. VQ3, CPM, CPMA VQ3, GTV, ztn3tourney1, pro-q3dm6, CPMA, OSP, all terms a Quake 3 player should be familiar with. To help you all get started (again) with Quake 3, I'm here to explain everything. The mods, the maps that are played the most, the players. I think it's best to start out at the fundamentals of Quake 3, the gameplay.


Vanilla Quake 3 (VQ3)

When you boot Quake 3 for the first time and play around a little, you will be experiencing the fundamental gameplay of Quake 3 Arena. VQ3. This is just the gameplay of Quake 3 without any whipped cream added to the cake. The config tweaking is limited and server admins will have a hard time maintaining their servers, because the server commands are very basic too. The players who play VQ3 are mostly beginners. It will give you a nice start when you just play a couple of hours to get to know the maps and the gameplay. A nice thing to practice from the start is timing. Instead of the ticking down clock in Quake 4, in VQ3 the clock adds up. How would this help you get to items at the correct time, you ask? Very easy. At most maps the Yellow Armor (YA, +50 Armor adding up to 100) respawns 25 seconds after you've picked it up. So if you grab the YA, take a quick peek at the clock and just add 0.25 to the time. The Red Armor (RA, +100 Armor adding up to 200) has the same timing. 25 Seconds after you've boosted your armor with 100 you can do this again. Another very important item is the Mega Health (MH, +100 Health adding up to 200) which usually respawns after 35 seconds.


Orange Smoothie Productions (OSP)

If you're running bored of playing at the same handful of servers VQ3 offers and want to meet other players who play at a higher level, but not change the gameplay from VQ3, it's time to start playing OSP. But unlike VQ3, you can't just connect to any OSP server and start playing, you will have to download it first. Although there is no site of OSP, (mainly because the developers have gone inactive) there are still many mirrors to download this mod. You can find a mirror at the bottom of this article. When you've downloaded this .zip file from the mirror, all you have to is extract the entire OSP map to you Quake 3 Folder and you are ready to hop onto a server and try it out.

OSP offers 2 types of gameplay. VQ3 and Pro Mode. VQ3 is the regular gameplay you know from the basic Quake 3, but with improved UI options, the possibility of chaning huds, and major improvements for server admins. Pro Mode on the other hand dramatically changes the gameplay of Quake 3. You have better aircontrol, making manouvering easier, your weapons will change lightning fast. The damage values of the weapons are tweaked, resulting in a whole different approach to Quake 3. Even though most OSP players are very good (both the VQ3 and Pro Mode players), when you will first start playing Pro Mode you will be astonished by the speed and accuracy the players will move through the level. Don't worry, after a couple of hours you too will most likely be the envy of any beginner spectating you. Pro Mode offers some changes to the armor system too, which will be further explained when we get to the next mod.


Challenge Pro Mode Arena (CPMA)

The final mod to be discussed here is the one to be used by the CPL. The CPMA team made some tweaks to the Q3A engine, giving the game better performance. The netcode has been improved, the 125fps issue has been terminated, and there are more settings to be tweaked in the config. Just like OSP, CPMA features two types of gameplay. VQ3 and Pro Mode. Although CPMA differs from OSP, these 2 modes are practically the same, only with the improved engined features of CPMA. CPMA is a bit harder to install and configure if you don't download all the correct files. First you will need the most recent version of CPMA, which is currently 1.35. Download it through the link at the bottom and extract just like you did with OSP. Then, what you definately shouldnt forget: download the CPMA Mappack. This mirror can too be found at the bottom of the article. Extract all maps to your CPMA folder. Once you've completed this step, you are ready to hop ingame and experience the pleasure CPMA has to offer.

The biggest difference between VQ3 and CPMA however is the armor system. Unlike in VQ3 where YA adds up until 100 Armor and RA does the same until 200 armor, in CPMA both armors can add up to 200. Thus it's more important to control all the armors in the map, instead of only the RA.

CPMA also makes some changes to the spawnsystem, the soundsystem and some other small features. It's best to just jump ingame and try it out.


GTV

Another great advantage of Quake 3 over Quake 4, especially for coverage's sake, is GTV. Some of you might be familiar with HLTV. GTV is the Quake counterpart of this great tool. GTV allows you to spectate games live, in your own settings, very easily. All you have to do is receive a GTV ip. Then just open your console, and connect to the server. (/connect ip:port) You will be placed in a lobby area and you will see in which GTV rooms players currently are playing. Then just type /gtv_watch {Number of the room} in your console and you're ready to spectate these games live.

That concludes this first part of this multi-part guide. If you have any further questions, please don't hestitate to ask them, either in the comments or on IRC. We hope this guide helped you out a bit when entering the fantastic world of Quake 3, and we hope you will tune in later for the second part.


Related
Quake 3 Arena 1.32 Patch
OSP v1.03 (.exe)
CPMA v1.35 (.zip)
CPMA Mappack

GROUP A
#	Team	M	W	D	L	Pts.
1	fnatic	-	-	-	-	0
2	Virtus.Pro	-	-	-	-	0
3	Evil Geniuses	-	-	-	-	0
4	Team Dignitas	-	-	-	-	0
5	Damage Control	-	-	-	-	0

 fnatic (xx:xx) Virtus.Pro
 Damage Control (xx:xx) Evil Geniuses
 fnatic (xx:xx) Damage Control
 Team Dignitas (xx:xx) Evil Geniuses
 Virtus.Pro (xx:xx) Team Dignitas
 fnatic (xx:xx) Evil Geniuses
 Virtus.Pro (xx:xx) Damage Control
 fnatic (xx:xx) Team Dignitas
 Virtus.Pro (xx:xx) Evil Geniuses
 Damage Control (xx:xx) Team Dignitas

GROUP B
#	Team	M	W	D	L	Pts.
1	team roccat	-	-	-	-	0
2	Mousesports	-	-	-	-	0
3	HellRaisers	-	-	-	-	0
4	The Eldery Gods	-	-	-	-	0
5	Dark Passage	-	-	-	-	0

 Mousesports (xx:xx) HellRaisers
 team roccat (xx:xx) The Eldery Gods
 team roccat (xx:xx) Mousesports
 Dark Passage (xx:xx) The Eldery Gods
 Dark Passage (xx:xx) team roccat
 HellRaisers (xx:xx) The Eldery Gods
 Mousesports (xx:xx) The Eldery Gods
 Dark Passage (xx:xx) HellRaisers
 Mousesports (xx:xx) Dark Passage
 team roccat (xx:xx) HellRaisers

GROUP C
#	Team	M	W	D	L	Pts.
1	MeetYourMakers	-	-	-	-	0
2	mTw	-	-	-	-	0
3	Gravitas Gaming	-	-	-	-	0
4	tp.uSports	-	-	-	-	0
5	Team XQR.AG	-	-	-	-	0

 MeetYourMakers (xx:xx) Team XQR.AG
 mTw (xx:xx) tp.uSports
 Team XQR.AG (xx:xx) tp.uSports
 mTw (xx:xx) Gravitas Gaming
 mTw (xx:xx) MeetYourMakers
 tp.uSports (xx:xx) Gravitas Gaming
 tp.uSports (xx:xx) MeetYourMakers
 Gravitas Gaming (xx:xx) Team XQR.AG
 Gravitas Gaming (xx:xx) MeetYourMakers
 mTw (xx:xx) Team XQR.AG

GROUP D
#	Team	M	W	D	L	Pts.
1	SK Gaming	-	-	-	-	0
2	Made in Brazil	-	-	-	-	0
3	EYESports	-	-	-	-	0
4	Dragon	-	-	-	-	0
5	ATE	-	-	-	-	0

 SK Gaming (xx:xx) Dragon
 EYESports (xx:xx) ATE
 Made in Brazil (xx:xx) EYESports
 SK Gaming (xx:xx) ATE
 SK Gaming (xx:xx) mibr 
 Dragon (xx:xx) ATE
 Dragon (xx:xx) EYESports
 Made in Brazil (xx:xx) ATE
 SK Gaming (xx:xx) EYESports
 Made in Brazil (xx:xx) Dragon

 

GROUP A
#	Team	M	W	D	L	Pts.
1	mouz.ToD	-	-	-	-	0
2	mouz.HasuObs	-	-	-	-	0
3	Wicked TeRRoR	-	-	-	-	0
4	hoorai Bianconero	-	-	-	-	0
5	ENZA	-	-	-	-	0

mouz.ToD (xx:xx) mouz.HasuObs
 hoorai Bianconero (xx:xx) ENZA 
mouz.ToD (xx:xx) Wicked TeRRoR
mouz.HasuObs (xx:xx) ENZA 
mouz.ToD (xx:xx) hoorai Bianconero
Wicked TeRRoR (xx:xx) mouz.HasuObs
mouz.ToD (xx:xx) ENZA 
Wicked TeRRoR (xx:xx) hoorai Bianconero
mouz.HasuObs (xx:xx) hoorai Bianconero
Wicked TeRRoR (xx:xx) ENZA

GROUP B
#	Team	M	W	D	L	Pts.
1	MYM^Grubby	-	-	-	-	0
2	Gravitas XyLigan	-	-	-	-	0
3	hoorai BrinGeR	-	-	-	-	0
4	PaTo	-	-	-	-	0
5	girlyluck	-	-	-	-	0

MYM^Grubby (xx:xx) Gravitas XyLigan
girlyluck (xx:xx) PaTo 
MYM^Grubby (xx:xx) hoorai BrinGeR
girlyluck (xx:xx) Gravitas XyLigan
MYM^Grubby (xx:xx) PaTo
hoorai Bringer (xx:xx) Gravitas XyLigan
MYM^Grubby (xx:xx) girlyluck 
hoorai Bringer (xx:xx) PaTo
Gravitas XyLigan (xx:xx) PaTo
hoorai Bringer (xx:xx) girlyluck

GROUP C
#	Team	M	W	D	L	Pts.
1	WE Infi	-	-	-	-	0
2	fnatic Shy	-	-	-	-	0
3	serious.RotterdaM	-	-	-	-	0
4	Frozen	-	-	-	-	0
5	Reaver	-	-	-	-	0

WE Infi (xx:xx) fnatic Shy
 serious.RotterdaM (xx:xx) Reaver
WE Infi (xx:xx) Frozen 
fnatic Shy (xx:xx) Reaver
WE Infi (xx:xx) serious.RotterdaM
fnatic Shy (xx:xx) Frozen 
WE Infi (xx:xx) Reaver
 Frozen (xx:xx) serious.RotterdaM
fnatic Shy (xx:xx) serious.RotterdaM
 Frozen (xx:xx) Reaver

GROUP D
#	Team	M	W	D	L	Pts.
1	Wicked Soccer	-	-	-	-	0
2	mouz.Happy	-	-	-	-	0
3	hoorai FiX	-	-	-	-	0
4	Deadman	-	-	-	-	0
5	Darkboi	-	-	-	-	0

Wicked Soccer (xx:xx) Deadman 
 hoorai FiX (xx:xx) Darkboi 
Wicked Soccer (xx:xx) mouz.Happy
Deadman (xx:xx) Darkboi 
Wicked Soccer (xx:xx) hoorai FiX
Deadman (xx:xx) mouz.Happy
Wicked Soccer (xx:xx) Darkboi 
mouz.Happy (xx:xx) hoorai FiX
Deadman (xx:xx) hoorai FiX
mouz.Happy (xx:xx) Darkboi 

KODE5 Playoffs
Round 1		Round 2		Grand Final
TBA	00
		TBA	00
TBA	00
				TBA	00
TBA	00
		TBA	00
TBA	00</