Project History

Sequels are never as easy to make as one would like to think they might be. The first map pack for Quake III: Team Arena had some really great maps in it. It’s hard to follow an act like that. We intended this second map pack to quickly follow the first. As is true with many parts of life, things did not go according to plans. When the project began, we identified approximately 8 maps to be included … then added a couple more not long after things began moving forward. We selected the maps based on download volume, popular acclaim, the design and play preferences of the project coordinators, and the likelihood that they could be easily converted for use with the Team Arena game types. Everyone contacted said “yes” and the two map packs were off and running.

The first pack, containing four maps, finished in relatively short order and was released in mid-February of 2001. The second, though it started at the same time as the first, received less direct attention initially and lagged behind in development. Along the way we lost contact with one mapmaker and encountered production problems that resulted in dropping two more from the schedule. In doing that, we ended up a map short of our desired total of four. As we looked around for another vintage Q3A CTF map that could be converted, we literally stumbled into the beta version of Pyrmageddon on the Quake3world Level Editing forums. A quick letter to mapmaker Yuri Davidoff and we had our final map.

As before, the maps were tweaked and tuned by suggestions from the project coordinators. In the case of Pyrmageddon, that included some significant hands on work by the project coordinators to significantly optimize the map (while retaining both the play style and visual character of the map) and then add a few play treats of our own. Access to the powerful compiler that id used to create the original Team Arena maps helped considerable, since even running full bore on 8 processors, the map took nearly 14 and a half hours to compile. The maps were once again run past MrElusive, creator of the bot code for Quake III Arena and Quake III: Team Arena for final bot play adjustment.

The completion of this project brings to a close my direct involvement in creating map packs for the gaming community. Yet it does not mean the end of quality map packs for Quake III Arena and Team Arena. There are plans in the works for other map packs involving the people from the id-approved packs. Casey (creator of Courtyard Conundrum for pack 2) is working with Threewave (http://www.threewave.com) on a monumental Capture the Flag mod project. The map packs for that project are scheduled to include the work of several Team Arena map pack contributors. AstroCreep, coordinator on this project, Webmaster at www.Quake3World.com, and moderator of the Level Editing forum there has undertaken to compile a substantial “members only” map pack featuring works submitted by and voted on by contributors to the Level Editing forum. The latter will support the original Quake III Arena game types. I think both are going to contain some high-quality fun.

Paul Jaquays

Designer

id Software, inc.

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