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Mod: Remaster 1.3

The purpose of this mod was to make the game look more like Quake II.

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File Instructions:: =================
QUAKE 4: REMASTER
=================

by Culexus, 2007

v 1.3

THE BASICS
----------

INSTALLATION. One way or another, just move the contents of the included folder 'q4base' to the folder of the same
name in your Quake 4 directory. The 'models' and 'gfx' folders do not interfere with multiplayer, however the
'defs' do. At your leisure, you can omit the defs folder so that the gameplay is not altered.

USE. This mod is intended to enhance the single player. While it is incompatible with multiplayer, I have made sure
that the multiplayer is still balanced and interesting in its own right, so try a bot match (I use SABot), or you
could host your own game.

ABOUT
-----

HOW IT WAS MADE. With a program called ArcSoft Photostudio 5.5 and Notepad. Humble tools really. I taught myself
how to mod Quake 4 by studying other mods along the same lines, namely "Unbalanced" and "Dark Bloody Strogg Kane".

WHY IT WAS MADE. I could write an essay about this. Suffice to say, the first time I played Quake II, I was pretty
young and it made a huge impression on me, going so far as to influence a lot of my artistic sensibility. Learning
that Quake 4 would be set in the same universe, I was naturally pumped. When the game arrived several years later, it
just seemed to me that it fell short of its potential in almost every way; Raven apparently wasn't sure what it was doing,
and came up with a half-baked product that had incredibly simple and easy gameplay, and an art design that had mostly
lost sight of its namesake, the Quake series. Gone were the grungy, worn textures, the gestalt level design and the
crude-but-effective industrial aesthetic; they instead imported a lot of generic sci-fi and military imagery and tied
it around a story that, as we all know, was pretty ill-conceived. (The most interesting part, Kane's stroggification, only
barely affected the gameplay, and the story implications were mostly ignored.) The result of course was a game that
didn't really please anyone, and the Quake community that once awed me is now mostly dead, much of it deserted for the
greener pastures of the Half Life series. (We can at least look forward to Quake Wars to turn that around.)

My objective in making Remaster (which was an on-and-off project of over a year) was to improve Quake 4 in those few ways
I knew how, in order to ameliorate my disappointment, and perhaps yours. The idea was to make it-- both aesthetically and
in terms of gameplay-- more consistent with Quake II as well as with common sense. I went about this in the following ways:

EDITED SKINS. Most of the monsters, the marines, and some weapons have new skins. The changes might be hard for some to
appreciate, but you'll notice that things generally look grittier, and the color blue is now conspicuously absent.
The Quake aesthetic has only ever been about rusted, hard-edged metal and scorched colors; I tried to bring it back.

EDITED GFX. Included in this pack are edited sky boxes, because the default ones are kind of dull, and don't quite
resemble the Stroggos I remember. Also, the splash screen and main menu look different.

WEAPON CHANGES. The attention-deficit gameplay that Raven tried to sell as "back to basics" got on my nerves. Ammo was
cheap, and most of the weapons could be ignored the whole way through. I tried to re-balance the weapons and make them a
little more logical, functionally diverse, and fun. A short synopsis:

* Blaster fires projectiles once again, ala Quake II. It does higher damage in return for slower delivery.
* Machinegun has a tracer, a marginally slower rate of fire, slightly lower full-auto damage but increased scope
damage. The scope takes longer to zoom but zooms farther.
* Shotgun is mostly the same, but has smaller spread and thus is more useful at middle range.
* Grenade Launcher is more damaging, has a wider radius, but carries less ammo.
* Nailgun or "Perforator" has faster rate of fire, and is less accurate. Seeking nails are less damaging than dumbfire.
* Rocket Launcher substantially more heavy-duty. Stand back when you fire.
* Railgun is higher damage (as befits the scientific concept behind it). Propels strogg a great distance, try it.
* Lightning Gun is now a short-range weapon, but has higher damage. Wait 'til you get Chain Lightning!
* The DMG works mostly the same but gets things done a little quicker.

The changes go beyond those listed here, and many separate changes have been made for multiplayer. Additionally, you'll
notice that the weapon 'viewstyles', or their positions onscreen, have been altered for the sake of realism. Certain
weapons, most notably the machinegun, now shake your view more violently, for the same reason.

MONSTER STATS AND AI. The original easiness of Quake 4 was one of my biggest gripes, particularly the way the Strogg were
always shown as "intimidating" but never really stood a chance in battle. If they supposedly come close to conquering Earth,
they should be able to make a half-decent defense of their home planet (and measure up to the enemies of contemporary shooters).
Some changes:

* Stroggmarines are healthier, deal more damage, act more quickly and are generally more competent.
* Grunts are slightly resistent to headshots; this makes sense as their heads are both helmeted and altogether too easy to hit.
Their health, while in berserk rage, lasts a little longer.
* Gunners are healthier, as befits their armor, and fire faster rounds.
* Tacticals are vastly improved, being healthier, faster, more aggressive and mostly on par with human Marines.
* Gladiators' railgun is something you want to avoid.
* Sentries have a newer blaster-attack, as befits the model.
* Berserker has actually been "nerfed", having less health and exchanging some melee damage for stunning.
* All boss monsters have increased health.
* Strogg aicraft do increased damage.

One very noteworthy change is the head damage-scales. I have tweaked these on most monsters to reflect their appearance;
fleshy Strogg like Berserkers take normal damage from headshots, while more armored Strogg take variously multiplied damage.
Basically, if the only organic part of a Strogg that's showing is the head, you'll want to aim for it.

VEHICLES. Included are def files for the walker and hovertank. They are somewhat of a different experience now--
shields are weak, but recharge quickly. Armor takes more of a beating, but takes longer to self-repair. Altogether, both
vehicles are more fragile than they used to be, while their weapons are just as, if not more deadly. I find that the vehicle
levels are now more interesting.

ITEMS. The benefits of various pickups have been adjusted.

* Health packs have been reverted to the Quake II system, so that they confer 10 / 25 health, instead of 25 / 50. This has the
effect of making the game more survival-focused, and making you more grateful for Medics and health stations.
* Many ammo pickups now contain a little less ammo, often in accordance with how much ammo is actually shown. Nailgun ammo is now
more plentiful, however.
* A new class of armor has been introduced: Tactical armor, the kind worn by Transfers, which confers 75.

STATE OF THE MOD
----------------

I have playtested several times through, and there are no balance issues I'm aware of; gameplay retains a healthy challenge. There
are no real bugs that I know of, except for a stange phenomenon near the start of the Dispersal Facility where the game might crash
(citing that it can't find the hitscan for the Tactical Shotgun). However, you can load game and play again and there seems to be only
a 33% chance of this glitch happening. Another gaping flaw of this "mod" is that it isn't a mod yet; because I can't make .pk4 files
that the game will recognize, you have to implant the files directly to Q4base. Any *real* modders out there would know how to work
around this, and if you could let me know I'd appreciate it.

Where can Remaster go from here? Not sure. As Quake 4 fades further back into gaming history (and obscurity) the reasons to work on
this mod vanish likewise. I've been pleased, anyway, to improve the experience for myself, and I hope you see where I'm coming from and
appreciate it as well. If there's anything else forthcoming from me, it could be the alternative soundtracks for Quake 4 that I
experiemented with some time ago.

I hope you enjoy, comments and questions are welcome (I can be emailed via Planetquake).

Legal notice: I don't care what you do with any of the included art assets, since they're based on Raven's stuff
in the first place. Just don't make any money off it-- don't see how you could though.

File Name: q4remaster.zip		Author: Admin
File Size: 49.37 MB		Files Added: 9,384
Downloads: 188 (1 last week)		Author Downloads: 16,178,003 (85,186 last week)
Posted: 05.09.2007		Supporters: n/a