The spawn is the worst thing ever

[Quadsword]

I want to slap the person who thought these enemies were a good idea. They're small, they jump around all over the place, and they explode upon death (usually right in your face thanks to the aforementioned jumping around). On nightmare, that explosion will often just kill you outright since your max health is cut in half.

It's annoying enough dealing with these things on a mouse and keyboard. I can't even imagine how hard they are to hit when playing with a controller.

[Insidious]

The Spike Mines from Scourge of Armagon are probably worse.

[Raton]

That's the beauty of Quake :D

[metal_hamster]

Originally posted by dangmz:

That's the beauty of Quake :D

No, just bad design.

[TH3V01D]

I also dislike how the vore's projectiles sometimes go around corners, It's scary as hell.

[V I D A L]

It was bad design. It came from Sandy Petersen, the main person responsible for the Love Craft influences in the game and the level designer responsible for Episode 4.
He also knows the Spawn sucks.. that's because it was made pretty late in development and they didn't have much time to refine it and balance it. Which is why you only encounter in Episode 4 and it only exists because it was one of the creatures in Sandy's Love Craft book.

[Cr0m]

the vores projectiles are awesome because it can be fun having to run, panicked, looking for some corner you can take sharply. unless you're caught off guard by them, vores aren't actually much of a problem. but yes, spawns just suck. you're almost always caught off guard by them, unless you have the maps memorized or something.

they're small, and hop around like they're on crack. hitting them can be almost impossible, and it's likely you'll finally get the fatal shot in right as they bounce in your face.

the thing about health being capped to 50 on nightmare, i could see it making them more of a problem than before. i don't think it's totally fair to chalk that up to 'poor design' though, because the original game didn't cap your health at 50 on nightmare. it seems like they didn't fully think that change through when they did it for the remaster. i do agree spawns aren't great designs in general but they weren't as much of a problem in the original release.

i think those walking ballzombie things the modders created for Arcane Dimensions are a similar concept but 100x better. they can still catch you off guard too but you have so much more of a fair chance of dealing with them before they explode in your face, usually.

and yes i would agree with the previous poster who said the spike mines in armagon are worse. F those things. they're just awful.

[Yaeri]

the thing about those spike mines in armagon is that they often spawn behind or above you right as you activate some scripted trigger.

[Gila]

In original game, Nightmare skill did not limit player's base HP to 50, so there would be less dying from Spawn exploding in your face, although it happened, of course.

Originally posted by V I D A L:

It was bad design. It came from Sandy Petersen, the main person responsible for the Love Craft influences in the game and the level designer responsible for Episode 4.
He also knows the Spawn sucks.. that's because it was made pretty late in development and they didn't have much time to refine it and balance it. Which is why you only encounter in Episode 4 and it only exists because it was one of the creatures in Sandy's Love Craft book.

The artists designed Spawn (and Shambler too) based on pictures from that book, yes. However, John Romero recently stated that Spawns are in Episode 4 because they wanted to have a new enemy appear in later part of the game.

Spawn is a very polarizing monster but mappers and players who's been playing the game for long time sort of 'respect' and 'appreciate' them - it's a monster that will almost guaranteed to cause some panic in player's actions, even having full HP and 200 points of Red Armor.

What I noticed from the latest 'newcomers' to Quake (even before rerelease), is that they hate Shamblers, Vores and Spawns. But would the game be fun or more fun without these?

[Soulmarine]

Shamblers and Vores are harmless on any difficulty, you just need to know how to "dance" with them. Spawns on the other hand are d1cks on any difficulty.

[Xhoas]

I like fighting Spawn, they have an unusual behavior that you don't see in modern shooters.

[S73v3NH4wk1n9]

its a unique enemy, they can be shutdown very quick in a blink of an eye, or it can be an epic unlucky struggle resulting in a frustrating death

[ghostrider]

*pineapple intensifies*

[JarlFrank]

Spawns are the only enemies I hate. All the others... they can be played out against each other, hehe.

I love vores in bigger battles. Make it attack you, run past an enemy, make it so the vore projectile hits the other enemy... boom, infighting!

[Darkstar]

Check out this video from Sandy Peterson, he talks about the spawn, starting around the 11 minute mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUeu96TKQwU

[V I D A L]

Originally posted by gila:

In original game, Nightmare skill did not limit player's base HP to 50, so there would be less dying from Spawn exploding in your face, although it happened, of course.

Originally posted by V I D A L:

It was bad design. It came from Sandy Petersen, the main person responsible for the Love Craft influences in the game and the level designer responsible for Episode 4.
He also knows the Spawn sucks.. that's because it was made pretty late in development and they didn't have much time to refine it and balance it. Which is why you only encounter in Episode 4 and it only exists because it was one of the creatures in Sandy's Love Craft book.

The artists designed Spawn (and Shambler too) based on pictures from that book, yes. However, John Romero recently stated that Spawns are in Episode 4 because they wanted to have a new enemy appear in later part of the game.

Spawn is a very polarizing monster but mappers and players who's been playing the game for long time sort of 'respect' and 'appreciate' them - it's a monster that will almost guaranteed to cause some panic in player's actions, even having full HP and 200 points of Red Armor.

What I noticed from the latest 'newcomers' to Quake (even before rerelease), is that they hate Shamblers, Vores and Spawns. But would the game be fun or more fun without these?

Well the word I would use regarding what they guarantee to cause is annoyance rather than panic. They just don't feel well coded. They feel broken and unfinished.. that's what they feel like.

I've been playing Quake since 1996 very soon after release. I love Shamblers and Vores and I would take them over Spawns anyday. You could replace every Spawn with a Shambler or a Vore in The Pain Maze and it would immediately make it a more fun level to play. (joke)