Quake 2 Unmaster Mod

[nickgovier]

I put together a mod that allows you to customise some of the more significant gameplay tweaks of the Nightdive Studios remaster of Quake 2.

Each change can be enabled or disabled with a new console variable.

The mod is available here:
https://www.nexusmods.com/quake2/mods/15

Please see the readme for the full list of options.

*** New version 1.06 released ***
- Remove the damage indicator from the HUD
- Stop the monsters from being able to jump from floor to floor when chasing the player
- Stop the flyer from relentlessly advancing while shooting until they smother the player
- Remove the increased power shield drain when energy weapons are used

*** New version 1.01 released ***
Tweak some of the new AI behaviour:
- Make the monsters less aware, stop them sidestepping grenades and ducking your projectiles all the time, stop them blind firing at corners, remove their footstep sounds and stop them noclipping when they die.
- Also revert the blaster damage change back to original Q2 levels.

*** New version 0.97 released ***
- Significant improvements to the machinegun kick to more closely replicate original Quake 2 behaviour
- Option to add trails to the hyperblaster bolts, like the normal blaster bolts.

*** Original post ***
un_railgun_nerf (set to 0 for original Quake 2 higher Railgun damage, set to 1 for Remastered behaviour)

un_barrel_delay (set to 0 for barrels to explode immediately, set to 1 for Remastered behaviour, where they explode on a timer)

un_machinegun_smooth (set to 0 for the machinegun to kick up like in original Quake 2, set to 1 for Remastered behaviour)

un_compass (set to 0 to not have a compass, set to 1 to have it by default. If this is set to 0, you can type "give compass" or "give all" to get it)

un_beserker_jump (set to 0 to disable berserker jumping, set to 1 for Remastered behaviour. You can also set it to 2, which utilises a new berserker jump behaviour - with this enabled, it will crouch/hunker down before jumping, so you can see it coming, and the radius of the splash damage on landing is reduced, so you have a chance to avoid it).

The mod is available here:
https://www.nexusmods.com/quake2/mods/15

Please report any bugs or additional feature requests!

[matthew]

As this uses another folder for settings and saves, have you tested this with existing saves? I know you can move the saves to the new folder, but when I tried the railgun mod on nexus, when saving and loading games, the saves would be messed up, as the game still looks in the original save folder when saving, and the new folder for loading saves.

So have you tested this? I will download and check myself. hopefully this can be fixed, or isn't an issue here?

[Krypto]

Great idea. I've yet to play the remaster, as I only heard about it today and despite already owning Quake II on Steam from getting it as a free gift for some reason on the Bethesda launcher like 2 years ago? xD But I've played the originally extensively since owning a disc copy from when it first came out in 97. I heard they changed the grenade physics, I assume you couldn't or didn't want to change that? Do you know whether this affects unlocking achievements?

[matthew]

Just tested this, same problem as the railgun mod, this works for fresh saves, but doesn't work for existing saves. The game gets confused with two folders, it still detects the original folder, while it uses the new folder for saves. If you save a game from an existing save, it will create the save, but the level will be different, when you load the save.

Seems this is an error with the game itself.

[nickgovier]

Originally posted by matthew:

Just tested this, same problem as the railgun mod, this works for fresh saves, but doesn't work for existing saves. The game gets confused with two folders, it still detects the original folder, while it uses the new folder for saves. If you save a game from an existing save, it will create the save, but the level will be different, when you load the save.

Seems this is an error with the game itself.

Thanks for testing. I'm not sure what a mod author could do in the game source to fix this. The core engine should use the save folder local to the game source it is running (baseq2, unmaster, or whatever) to both save and load.

In the meantime it's best to start new saves for mods.

[matthew]

I guess only fixing the game main code could probably fix it. as I tried a few attempts to see if I can make this work, either by deleting the original folder, (it recreates it if you load the game) what is really strange is, that when saving an existing game, it keeps the name, but the level is totally different.

Seems mods like this were never considered. So another issue wit fix in the source code.

but if you start a fresh game, it seems to work fine. just not with existing saves.

[McCovican]

This should not alter the save data location for the remaster. I have used the original railgun unfix mod with no impact to my saves. You should not be copying the "./unmaster" folder, simply the contents of it, into ./Quake 2/rerelease/baseq2/

[nickgovier]

Originally posted by McCovican:

You should not be copying the "./unmaster" folder, simply the contents of it, into ./Quake 2/rerelease/baseq2/

Please do not do that, or you will overwrite the game_x64.dll that comes with the remaster.

[NOBLE SIX]

Originally posted by nickgovier:

I put together a mod that allows you to customise some of the more significant gameplay tweaks of the Nightdive Studios remaster of Quake 2.

Each change can be enabled or disabled with a new console variable:

un_railgun_nerf (set to 0 for original Quake 2 higher Railgun damage, set to 1 for Remastered behaviour)

un_barrel_delay (set to 0 for barrels to explode immediately, set to 1 for Remastered behaviour, where they explode on a timer)

un_machinegun_smooth (set to 0 for the machinegun to kick up like in original Quake 2, set to 1 for Remastered behaviour)

un_compass (set to 0 to not have a compass, set to 1 to have it by default. If this is set to 0, you can type "give compass" or "give all" to get it)

un_beserker_jump (set to 0 to disable berserker jumping, set to 1 for Remastered behaviour. You can also set it to 2, which utilises a new berserker jump behaviour - with this enabled, it will crouch/hunker down before jumping, so you can see it coming, and the radius of the splash damage on landing is reduced, so you have a chance to avoid it).

The mod is available here:
https://www.nexusmods.com/quake2/mods/15

Please report any bugs or additional feature requests!

Could we get it so the hyper blaster leaves trails on the particles? That'd be a new feature.

[McCovican]

Originally posted by nickgovier:

Please do not do that, or you will overwrite the game_x64.dll that comes with the remaster.

You know you can rename files, right? I mean, it's either that, or folk have... *checks notes* exactly this issue.

[RangerXT]

Cool mod! I don't mind the changes but it's cool to have the option for legacy functionality

[nickgovier]

Originally posted by McCovican:

You know you can rename files, right? I mean, it's either that, or folk have... *checks notes* exactly this issue.

Even if you successfully manage to juggle different game sources/mods in a single folder without screwing anything up, there's no guarantee that a save game created with one game source will be 100% compatible with a different game source that has different cvars, enemy and weapon behaviour, etc.

My recommendation is to leave baseq2 alone and have unique saves for each mod. You can of course choose to ignore this recommendation.

[matthew]

I would recommend otherwise, it just gets messy. At least there is a level select, so you can jump back into the action if you do use modded files.

[Lord_Kane]

A fix for animated textures?

[matthew]

Just a small bump and thanks, I did a level select to get me back where I was, enabled the mod, and this works a treat now, disabled the barrel delay and reverted the RG nerf.

So thanks for making this, and as long as you don't use existing saves, then saves won't get messed up. so far, able to save and load with fresh saves just fine.

So no bugs per say. So thumbs up on this mod.

[pauldiazberrio]

To undo or to do? I can see the treasures of the past are now taking up more development time for many companies. It started with the remakes and now, the old titles are resurfacing, better than ever, sometimes better than the new games. Did the 90's have such sway?