Yesterday were lots of EQL games played. I suppose most spectators came via qtv.quakeworld.nu and thus there was lots of "is this eql??" "is this official??" questions asked since most clans don't advertize their EQL games with .QW.

Is this a problem?

Nope.

Could it be done better?

Yes.

So, how cold it be done? I'm not very good with any of this computer stuff (people at #qwrookie and #quakeworld should know that already o_O ) but I'd suggest:

EQL-FRAGBANNER
EQL fragrank.jpg, so when you connect to a server and do +showscores you could see straight away from the frag banner that it's a official EQL game. I suppose there should be a server variable similar to no_specs (This would also confirm to players that it is a official game) and EzQuake client would force EQL-banner if that variable would be "1". Making such a banner is pretty easy task and there could be a nice Vote about which banner would be chosen.

EQL-CLANSKINS
I've been dreaming about individual teamskins for every clan, similar to football/icehockey shirts. Most sport teams are known of their outfit why not QW-clans? Actually this used to be like that back in the days. Nowdays when f_fullbright is used it's not even hard to see customized non-one-colored skins. There's a tons of old really wellmade skins lying around that could be customized for clans. Besides nowdays when one's able to use .PNG as a skin it would be really easy to make skins. In my eyes clan-skins could become similar to clan tags, who's not afraid of ]SR[ or [tVS]? (ofcourse you'd be able to set teamskins so you wouldn't have to watch clan-skins) At least to me Clan is all about being a team, and I'd be proud to wear my really shitty clans skin (Go ODDBALLS!).

How would these implementions do any good for QW?
I think that main priority is to make spectating official games as pleasant as possible. QW's gameplay is pretty much perfect, at least nobody wants it to be changed. These things seem really minor improvements and they're, but I'd say they would be pretty fun and I'd be really really bumbed to see clanskins in EQL-finals.

I had the exact same idea at the exact same night (yesterday). Strange!
I didn't think of replacing fragrank.jpg, but more a short text somewhere in the scoreboard and then set it with something like:
/set gametype eql
but then it might be necessary with a check before all games are readied up like "you forgot to set gametype", which would be annoying. Hmm. Ideas on solution?

Maybe something like
and the server would simply mirror this to serverinfo. That way ezQuake can see it and QTV can be easily changed to show it too.
After reset.cfg (when everybody leaves the server) matchtag would be set to empty. Further ideas: cmd dlist tag:eql

I love that EQL banner idea. If that's possible, I would handle it more gerenic, though, and just name it "official game" or something (afaik there's also a russian 4on4 league going and it could be used for duel leagues that occasionally take place as well). That could also be very well the question the majority of players is asked..."confirm: this is official".

Regarding your skin idea, I'm probably not the right person to comment because I never used any skins but the fullbright ones and base for watching demos/observing. What I'd like to see a is a wider number of colors and maybe even the introduction of a third one (that would make it also possible to represent some nation's colours more adequately ).

Add gametype to the countdown centerprint.

A tag for pickup/mix games could be useful too... or just allow any text.

Why not just have /4on4eql or just /eql in addition to the usual 4on4/2on2 server commands? Plus you could make it disable teamoverlay automatically for that mode too

edit: if it was it's own gamemode, it could also name demos appropriately with 4on4eql_ or eql_ prefix. Which would work nicely with cmd dlist eql

And /4on4thompen / 2on2thompen just for us :E

To take it a step further, you could have games played in eql mode automatically submit results and upload logfiles to the eql site for confirmation.

I hope developers will not hardwire any league's name into KTX. Having /ruleset smackdown in the client already causes lots of confusion and questions.

Oh heh, identical idea 4 years back -> http://qw-dev.net/issues/90
Priority: low
Target version: distant future
yeah...

No, we want your screenshots...

Other than that, I agree with Johnny_cz, don't hardcode any league names or do a million commands that does the same. eg. /4on4eql, /2on2eql etc

The alias to se official match could be like "set_official XXX" ie. "set_official EQL" or "set_official Showdown Final" it would be brilliant if you could see that on qtv.quakeworld.nu so you could easily spot when some official matches are played

I was just thinking from a general player pov, it would be easier to remember something like that than something like cmd set xxx xxx etc ^^

I think being able to somehow differentiate offical games from pracs in qtv, and in the demos list would be great though.


I'd settle for having enough leagues that would make this a problem

Can't figure out something more difficult to remember? Or maybe use even more commands to do it? Not like KTX has enough commands already...


If there is ever going to be anything, it will be just an additional parameter for already existing commands. For example

/1on1 sd
/4on4 eql


If you do not specify any parameter, nothing will change on the server. If you specify the additional parameter, it will create specific serverinfo key that can be read from the server and maybe even be displayed during countdown, like timelimit and such. This way the parameter can be eql_final or eql_semi or sd_wb_final or whatever you want it to be.

That solution gets a positive vote from me, but no need to be so harsh on pek

Harsh is my middle name.

But really, johnny_cz already pasted the url to an existing KTX tracker item, in which I had already explained how the command should work (message #4). Those trackers should be the primary (preferrably the only) place to request something, or check if something is already requested.

Yep, it was a stupid post, my bad.

+1 to /4on4 eql

Yeah we've talked around this a little a while back on mumble, what I'd thought of like to see is some kind of votable /official or whatever command in KTX that:

-Sets a serverinfo flag / servername or whatever, to indicate that it is an official match
-Enables nospecs
-Disables teamoverlay
-Can be identified by QTV webpage (via the serverinfo flag or whatever)
-Puts an indicator in the mvd name (so for example you could do "cmd dlist EQL" to quickly find EQL demos, provided people used the relevant parameter)
-Enables autopause for players timing out (controversial - would need debate/testing before implementation first - but that's a whole different debate)
-If there are exactly two distinct teams using the server, automatically randomly selects one of them and states that this team must choose the first map
-Issues a cmd check f_modified and cmd check f_version

As mentioned if it could be passed as a parameter to /4on4 that would be great, as it would save an impulse and also as mentioned let you set some kinda msg like EQL_SEMI or whatever

The reason I say it should be votable is to reduce the risk of abuse, and also because I want it to toggle enable nospecs, which is a voteable command

Obviously some of the stuff it does, like f_checks, declaring who picks first map won't always be applicable say if both teams aren't on server yet, but you are no worse off, you can still do them manually later if required.

That doesn't make much sense. You certainly want the first thing be done only for the first map, while the second point you want to be performed before every map start (after each reconnect, even after each player's individual reconnect). You simply want too much in here.

Maybe - orginally I was thinking that "/4on4 eql-final" would only be needed once, before the first map, but logically I guess you'd need to set it every game in order to set the serverinfo or whatever, which knocks out the first point.