So I've been on Quake-cation about 11 years, and it seems that in that timespan most of the NA QW scene has died off, and what remains is very different. I kind of want to play again, but I had some questions/comments I was hoping to get feedback on.

- About Clients: I don't have as much time as I used to. I need to get up and running without hassle - don't want to spend weeks/months tweaking a cfg this time! I'd prefer not messing with reinstalls every time I switch computers/delete the game out of frustration/etc. With that in mind, is the online nQuake client a reasonable option? As a competitive player, what are the pros/cons of using that client? If it's not a reasonable option, what are the easiest ways to get set up with a config that won't hold me back from playing at a high level?

- What client are most players using these days? GL or software? Are there any important config settings people are using now that weren't available before?

- About Mice: During my heyday it was a pretty big deal when optical mice came out. Before then people tended to use ball versions of the MS Intellimouse, Logitech Wheel Mouse, Razer Boomslang (the first Razer!), etc. When optical mice flooded the market in the early 2000's the good players all switched fast, and in my opinion it made an incredible difference. My aim improved *hugely* when I switched to the standard Intellimouse Optical. Now that a decade has passed, I have no idea if these early optical mice have been surpassed. What mice are the best QW players using these days? How much better are these mice compared to the Intellimouse Optical, Wheel Mouse Optical, etc?

- About Monitors: During my time (I know how old I sound saying that, sigh), people played on CRT monitors, period. And they worked just fine. It seems that LCD monitors are a regression compared to the high refresh rate, low latency CRT's of yore. Right now I have a nice IPS panel that is pretty mediocre for gaming due to input latency, ghosting, etc. So my questions are: how do modern gaming LCD's stack up to CRT's? Does it make a big difference getting a 120 HZ (or greater) LCD? What are the best LCD models to get for QW?

- About Aim: It seems that around 2006 or so average player LG efficiency shot up to previously unheard of levels throughout the community. What caused this? A few ideas I came up with were: better computers, better mice, more experienced players, better monitors (?), the prominence of DMM4 practice matches, and/or improved server/client lag prediction. But honestly, I have no idea what the root cause is for this increase in aiming ability.

- About the Community: How hard is it to find games these days? Are there scheduled weekly pickup times? Are there active clans? Occasional tournaments? Are any other mods still active (ie CA, CTF, TF, etc)? It's really stunning to see the fall in popularity of Team Fortress, btw - it was much more popular than everything else put together in the early 2000's. Are there lots of old players that occasionally come out of "retirement" like I might do?


Thanks in advance for any help with all this stuff. If I can get myself set up here with out too much hassle, I look forward to growing the size of the NA QW community by ~5% just by myself :p

SNED

Hello, and thanks for contacting QW Tech Support!

I, cream, master of Q&A, have written a Q&A to help you on your way to becoming one of the QW leets:

Q. What's the best way to get started playing QuakeWorld? nQuake or...?
A. nQuake seems to be the de-facto standard, but IMO it takes quite a bit of configuration to get it feeling proper. You might want to check out something like Foogs QW Setup, which is pretty much the same thing, except it's set up the way Foogs plays (is there a newer version of this foogs??): http://www.quakeworld.nu/forum/topic/4852/foogs-quakeworld-setup-dec-4-2010

Q. What clients are most people using these days?
A. ezquake (GL)... It's the same client that nQuake, etc, use. IMO, it's pretty rare to see anyone using anything else. Also, there's jQuake for Linux, which is a version of ezQuake that Dimman has cleaned up and modified to use XINPUT2 for mouse input.

Q. What mice do people use these days?
A. See this thread that Kingpin made for some ideas of what people use recently: http://www.quakeworld.nu/forum/topic/6282/what-settings-do-you-use-for

Q. Do 120hz LCD's compare well against CRT's?
A. YES! Some of the newer 120hz and 144hz (as in the case of the Asus VG248QE, etc) compare very favourably to the old CRT's. There's a ton of threads on the forums with information about them, but the general consensus seems to be that the specific LCD panels are a matter of personal taste. A lot of people still swear by and use CRT's, but many have made the transition over to high-frequency LCD's which feel [almost] like CRT's.

Q. What caused LG % to fly up so drastically for a lot of people?
A. Antilag! Antilag is a feature which makes hitscan weapons such as the LG fire more properly despite the ping difference that players have. There's a HUGE amount of forum threads about antilag in modern QW. To aim well, make sure to set cl_fakeshaft (a lot of people use '2').

Q. How active are things lately?
A. In December/January, the player base in the USA usually goes way down while a lot of people (sane, zeeshan, squeeze, etc) _erroneously_ "try" to play other games. They'll be back. THEY ALWAYS COME BACK! Anyway, CA is still really active, and we're actually awaiting the finals of the latest CA tournament that claw is running! You'll still find a lot of people playing in the USA, and I've noticed a ton of old players returning, though I'm not sure if they're staying around since I, too, have been... not around much... :< Europe is always very active though. Some USA players like me also frequent servers in the UK, etc.

Again, thank you for contacting QW Tech Support! Plz lemme know if you have more questions :p

ALSO,

A random bit of information:

You'll be able to find a large percentage of the QW players on IRC. Everyone uses Quakenet IRC, and here're some interesting channels:

#qw.na is the default North American QW channel where a lot of people idle but hardly ever talk
#qwca is the all-around clan arena channel where sane and I spam epic tales of intrigue
#qwrookie is a channel where people ponder the secrets of the universe

etc etc

18sned pics that u? its me adren we used to play dm2 and dm4 alot as hpbs about 10 years ago greats times

http://www.amazon.com/BenQ-XL2420TE-Performance-24-Inch-Professional/dp/B00D7IG556/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381613772&sr=8-1&keywords=BenQ+-+XL2420TE


this is a good monitor and the asus they are best for qw atm or the eizo 240 hz but its abit of input lag

Nickname : "Sned"
Seems a little too close to "sane", I will rightfully ask you to configure your nickname in a way that it does not get confused with the likes of legendary sane.

Some helpful tips: "Snedster" , "Snedleston", "Snot"

Please, you have to respect THE SANE and thus respect the request. It is not a question, I am STATING for you to change your name, or you will be VERY MUCH UNHAPPY. TRUST ME

for private inquiries please visit #YoK @ Quakenet.Org, if you want to plead your case.

Yes Adren, that's me, and I remember you well! Our hpb DM4 matches were always competitive affairs. I wish I still had demos from back then!

And Sane, I totally hear what you're saying. But I'm gonna have to say "tough luck" anyways. Maybe this is the start of a great, extremely one-sided rivalry. What have I gotten myself into?

Sned.

welcome back sned!!! hopefully u can play some

hahahahah <333 lol rivalry ACCEPTED

I'm going to use this thread to continue documenting my journey of returning to QuakeWorld. Can't guarantee it will be interesting, but this sub-forum could use some more activity, so why not?

It's been fun messing around with Quakeworld these past two weeks.

I've tweaked my nQuake config, practiced against bots, and partook in the occasional online game on those rare occasions when others were around to play. I've dusted off my trusty old Intellimouse Optical, and overclocked my IPS monitor to 75 hz. While my setup isn't ideal, it's not holding me back much either.

Which makes it particularly stunning how bad I am at this game right now!

With classes starting up again for me tomorrow, I'll probably be ignoring this game again for a while starting now, but I'll post in here again when I have the time.

--
Potential future post topics:

- My experiences in the NA QW scene during my era.
- Learning from demos.
- Being inspired by, and learning from, great players.

HOW ARE YOU ALREADY LEAVING? WE HAVEN'T EVEN PLAYED YET. SO MUCH FOR A RIVALRY...... oh SNot i mean sned

If you were playing more the past few weeks I'm sure you would have gotten an opportunity to beat me by <50 to ~0 on Aerowalk. But you weren't. Where were you??

Regardless, I've always tended to play in spurts, so I'll be back more at some point. Our time will come good sir. Our time will come.

Progress report.

I've been playing rarely since classes started. On vacation this week. Here are thoughts and observations.

- My average LG% in POVDMM4 bot_arena was ~15% in mid-January against a skill [9] frogbot. It's ~40% now, with a personal best of 47%. Not amazing, but I'm happy with the progress. My muscle memory is ever so slowly coming back.

- Moving off my 75 Hz IPS monitor should add another 10% to that, I'm assuming?

- LG feels even more dominant than before now. Not a fan of that shift, but I can adapt.

- It's sad that people don't seem to duel much anymore on DM2/DM4/DM6 in NA. It seems to be all aerowalk all the time these days, with some ZTNDM3 on the side for variety. I don't mind learning new things, but DM4 is obviously the best map ever.

- So jealous of Europe - I'd kill for a nightly 4v4 in NA. Muchos respect to the NA players who play in Europe and manage to consistently do well. It'll be a while, if ever, before I'm decent enough to play across the pond without embarrassing myself.

- Due to the lack of activity in NA, my reluctance to play in Europe, and my current preference for team play, I'm mostly playing against bots lately. We NA'ers need to schedule a weekly 4v4 or something. We have enough people, it's just a matter of getting them all online at once.


That's all for now.

Sane, I won't tolerate your harassment of Snot any longer. Since he's obviously away and unable to defend himself in game I will step in on his behalf; and thrash you for your impertinence.

Let it be known, no meager QuakeLive player can mouth off to us and get away with it.

I know it's not quakeworld, but there are usually 3v3 or 4v4 DM3 TGs nightly at dm.quaketx.com. It's a centralized server (being in texas and all) that almost everyone has a good ping.

Check out www.quakeone.com for different clients if you're interested in trying NQ. We had TGs going on all day Saturday.