 by Avatar | |
|---|---|
| A.k.a. | TargetQuake TQ TQA |
| Current version | 1.02 |
| Status | Inactive |
Description
Target Quake Arena is a mod that changes Q3A/OA gameplay to 2D. It uses its own, expressly-designed maps. You will see your character from a lateral view, and you will be able to move left and right, to jump and to crouch, but not to directly move in depth. There are however multiple depth planes that can be reached by using teleports; you can hit only the players in your same depth plane. Maps scroll both horizontally and vertically as you move around the arena, and you can push the zoom button to see at longer distance ahead your character. You turn yourself left or right and accurately aim by moving around your mouse (a crosshair will help you), so you can run in a direction and shoot in another one, like in the regular Q3/OA.
Compared with Quake III Platformer (another insteresting 2D gameplay mod), TargetQuake keeps the gameplay/feeling more similar to the regular game (accurate aiming, rocket jumping...), than to old-style platform games. A notable exception, however, is that in TQA you can do much higher jumps than in Platformer (only in TQA you can jump over a standing character starting from the same height).
It is advisable to read the included "readme.txt" file.
Special game types
You will find the usual Quake3 weapons, and will find its gametypes in the menu (from deathmatch to capture the flag). But the mod contains some maps that enable special game types: TQ Volley Ball, TQ Wild West Shootout and TQ Team Ball; these three gametypes require Team Deathmatch mode (g_gametype 3). From the skirmish or multiplayer/create menu, choose Team Deathmatch mode and then the map corresponding to the mode you wish.
- TQ Volley Ball: ever tought about using Q3A/OA to play beach volley? Throw the ball to the opposite team's field. Bots are not able to correctly play this mode. Select TQVBALL map in TDM mode to play it.
- TQ Wild West Shootout: your team is facing the opposite team. All standing in the desert, without moving. When the "DRAW" message will appear on the screen, you will have to be very quick to click the "fire" button, before the enemy shoots. You can play it with one player in each team, or with more players: in that case, the "draw" is repeated, with less players, until a team runs out of players, and the other one scores. Bots work with this mode. Select TQWEST map in TDM mode to play it.
- TQ Team Ball: it's team deathmatch, but with bouncing powerup balls in addition. If you manage to push the powerup ball into the energy field/portal of the color of your team, all your team will get the powerup (e.g. quad damage) contained in the ball. The red skull ball, instead, should be pushed into the opposite team's force field, because it kills all the members of that team, bringing down their score. An arrow displayed on screen helps you in locating the ball. Mod documentation reports that bots ability to play it varies in the various maps, and they should do well on TQDM1. Select TQDM1, TQTEAM1, TQTEAM2 or TQTEAM3 map in TDM mode to play it.
Hidden game type
Hidden in the mod there is even another game type: TQMARIO is another map with unconventional gameplay. It is not documented in the readme, is not listed in the menus, while playing it shows some debugging infos, and it has got some bugs... so we can assume it is an unfinished feature. However, it is possible to play it anyway, if you wish. It's the old Mario Bros. game, but playing with Q3A/OA characters instead of Mario and Lugi.
To play it, you can try to follow these instructions:
- Load the map: /map tqmario (in standard free for all mode, g_gametype 0)
- You will notice you will not spawn, but don't worry about it (altough it's annoying).
- Add one or more bots as you wish (it seems the match does not start with only one player, maybe because, due to some bug, the first player does not spawn correctly during warmup). If you do it by using the ESC menu, the match will automatically begin; it you do it by using the /addbot command, instead, you will need a /map_restart to make the match begin.
- If, instead of using bots, you are playing online with another human, you will however need a /map_restart to make the match begin. This can also be asked by the players by using /callvote <map_restart> (other players have to vote "yes" -usually F1 button-).
- The round will start (you will spawn and the "POW" brick will appear) and crabs will begin appearing from the upper pipes. You have to stun them (jump to hit the bricks below the crabs a couple of times) before you can touch them to kill them. If they touch you, instead, the first time you willbecome smaller, and the second time you will die (and will not enter the game again until the end of the round). Who becomes killed gets a negative score at the end of the round.
- The "POW" brick can be used only three times and only when you are not small. Using it makes all the crabs jump like when you hit the bricks behind them, but is only useful if it is the first hit they get: if they were already hit once, the POW will not stun them, but will make them more angry instead.
- Unfortunately, bots don't recognize the game rules, and will only try to kill you with the gauntlet (that is absolutely useless, considering you cannot kill other players in this map), and they will be quite annoying because they may obstruct the way. You may "kick" them (/kick <botname> or /kick allbots) and fight against the crabs freely, but at the end of the round (when you will die), you will need to add a bot from the ESC menu again again, or the match will not start again.
Note: if you know other ways to workaround the problems of this map, let us know... add notes here.
Installation
Get the v1.02 package (tqarena1_02-ZP.zip 30,3 MB file) and extract it into your OpenArena installation folder (this should automatically create a folder named "tq" at the same level as your "baseoa" folder).
Compatibility chart
| Works | Mod Version | OA Version | Notes | Operating System |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | 1.00 1.01 (aka 1_1) |
0.8.8 | It doesn't work, because it was designed for the old 1.17 Quake3 PointRelease (version). | |
| Yes | 1.02 | 0.8.8 | Some textures are missing, but you can play it anyway... or you may install a third-party "Q3A2OA" texture compatibility pack to fix the problem. The single player deathmatch mode searches for some Q3 bot names that are not included in OA 0.8.8, so you may manually add some more bots to populate the arenas... or you may install the very simple fix we created that adds "fakes" (meaning "replacements") for the bots it searches for. |
Troubleshooting
- Capture the Flag mode works but, unluckily, due to some bug in the mod, flags are not displayed when someone holds them. You can know who on your team holds the enemy flag by enabling the draw team overlay feature, but to know who of the enemy team holds your flag, you have to display (and take a look to) the score table (usually holding TAB key) now and then... otherwise, you would have to pay attention to the "<Player> got the <Red/Blue> flag" messages in command console. If you know a workaround for the problem of flags not displayed while carried by a character, let us know... but it's unlikely, because it happens also under Q3... it appears to be a bug in mods gamecode.
- How to manage the hidden (probably unfinished feature) TQMARIO map is explained in the Hidden game type section above.
- How to manage missing textures and bots is explained in the Compatibility chart section above.
Screenshots
Download mirrors
- Tqarena1_02-ZP.zip from superkeff.net (30,3 MB)
- Tqarena1_02-ZP.zip alternate download from a Dropbox user
- TQfixbotsOA-02.pk3 (7 KB), very small patch to replace some missing Q3 bots with some avaiable in OA 0.8.8. Not required to play the mod, but handy. Just copy the .pk3 file into your "tq" folder.
- TQfixbotsOA-02.pk3 alternate download from OA forums. Note: registration on OpenArena forums required to download from there.
External links
- TargetQuake on Zeroping.com - Former TQ official site, from the Internet Archive.
- TQ 1.02 readme on the former TQ official site, from the Internet Archive.
- A "Target Quake" mod for the first Quake game was created by the same author: see here.
- Q3A2OA texture compatibility pack v4: smaller (469 KB), but very simple textures (third party)
- Q3A2OA texture compatibility pack v5: bigger (24.9 MB), but with better textures (third party)
See also
- ModCompat/Quake 3 Platformer - Another 2D gameplay mod.