QUAKE LIVE Update 22 – December 2, 2014

QUAKE LIVE Update 22 is now online. This update features Steam Trading Cards, 9 new arenas, 1 returning renovated arena, unlocked map rotation, 1 new in-game medal, announcer VO updates and volume controls, and subscriber map voting.

Steam Updates:

Steam Trading Cards

The Quake Live Steam Trading Card set has been released, featuring 11 beautifully crafted cards — including 10 new character portraits by John Mueller, the artist behind the official Quake III Arena Visor painting! Collect trading cards just for playing Quake Live on Steam. Trading cards may be traded, sold, or collected. Completed card sets may be crafted into special game badges. Crafting game badges earns you cool new Steam items like emoticons, profile backgrounds, and coupons!

New Map Rotations:

We are retiring our Monthly Standard Map Rotation system, all maps are now free for all users at all times. All maps (with the exclusion of Small CA and large Terra maps) are available on public servers, including newly released arenas, and come up for vote in the end-game subscriber voting portal. Small CA and Terra maps are not included due to their sizes, but these maps remain available for selection by pro users via Create Match.

New Arenas Added:

Bitter Embrace

Set in the stone ruins of an ancient temple, battle in the sand and beneath a golden sky in Bitter Embrace, a map that comes from Todd ‘Mr. Clean’ Rose. Designed for Free For All, but also plays exceptionally well in Clan Arena, Freeze Tag, and Team Deathmatch.

Castle Deathstalker

In the valley of a mountain pass lies a large, foreboding keep with protective walls surrounding its halls and courtyards. Designed by H. Scott ‘Deathstalker’ Maclean for Clan Arena, Castle Deathstalker became famous in Rocket Arena 3 for its open courtyards which allow players to explore the castle walls and roof with ease.

Death or Glory

This Small CA map from David ‘SgtGhost’ Levesque (Overkill, Dead and Gone, Revolver) leaves players fighting for cover as they launch themselves atop the wicked compass rose bridge structure.

Drunken Mummy

Risen from the grave by popular demand comes this RA3 legend so good even your Mum will love it. Servants of Thunderstruck, be prepared to get wrapped up in an all new arena to test the might of your lightning. Designed by Till Merker (Evolution, Hen House, Thunderstruck, Theatre of Pain). Tested and proven through the years for Small CA.

Industrial Revolution

Industrial Revolution hearkens back to the days when CTF was played in strange factories that specialized in slime and conveyor belts. The layout is tuned for fast but tactical gameplay. The architecture is built for three-dimensional combat. And the revolution will not be televised. Designed for CTF by author Joel ‘Johnny Law’ Baxter, this iron fortress is also available in Race.

Ragnarok

In a time past coexistance, the mythical cycle is coming to an end and the doom of the gods is percipiated by the fierce battle of hallowed elements. Sacred nordic grounds that once formed the home of the gods’ children are now desecrated by a curse of frost and seclusion. Ragnarok, from authors Ferdinand ‘cityy’ List and Timo ‘frs’ Laakso, brings the fire and ice to competetive deathmatch. Designed for TDM, as well as Free For All, Race, Domination, Clan Arena and Freeze Tag the arena provides for intense combat and a journey to the norse world.

Refinery

Long abandoned and forgotten, Refinery is a series of complex levels and pathways. Battle from the factory’s highest catwalks to its lowest pools of toxic waste. Keep your senses sharp and your reflexes primed, as danger can come from any direction in this new map from Justin ‘StormShadow’ Ingels. Designed for Duel, it provides an exciting challenge in Free For All

Satanic

A throwback to the 90’s with it’s over-the-top demonic presence comes Satanic, from Justin ‘StormShadow’ Ingels (Devilish, Cold War). Fight the forces of evil for the freedom of your soul in this cathedral of pain and lava. Fun family-friendly entertainment in Free For All, Clan Arena, and Freeze Tag.

Solarium

Powered and fed by the cool winds, this greenhouse habitat by Tom ‘Phantazm11’ Perryman (Battleforged, Black Cathedral, Corrosion) comes alive as plants sprout throughout its vertically winding halls as they reach for the light above. Available in both Duel and FFA.

Renovated Arenas:

Sorrow

Remastered with a new layout, Sorrow, by Pawel ‘ShadoW’ Chrapka, now sports a more open and connected Red Armor room and lower lightning gun dungeon area for more exciting and visceral play. Fight to maintain control of the high ground and be rewarded with Mega Health and Yellow Armor, but not without losing sight of the lower halls where the crucial Red Armor, Lightning Gun, and Railgun lie.

In-game Medals:

Added new ‘Perforated’ in-game medal, earned by telefragging an enemy.
Reduce max time between weapon shots for COMBOKILL from 3s to 1.5s.

Announcer VO Changes:

‘First Frag’ award extended to all appropriate gametypes, now earn it in team games as well as FFA/Duel!
Updated VO for the “Fight!”, “two frags left”, and “one frag left” voice-overs.
Added an independent volume control for the Announcer VO (s_announcerVolume).
Added a sound buffer to properly queue the Announcer VO and remove overlapping VO sounds.
Moved non VO sounds out of the announcer sound channel and into the local sound channel, to allow for the announcer volume controls, as well as fix some odd delays between flag returned sound and flag returned VO.
Updated “lead taken” and “lead lost” VO behavior.
Removed “Teams are Tied” VO to reduce VO clutter.

Code/UI Changes:

Removed Round Draws from Freeze Tag, now using number of living players and/or health to determine a round winner if round time limit elapses.
Added player obituaries to all scoreboards (race excluded), this fixes the delayed obituary messages.
Fixed the obituary icon fading, the weapon icons now fade out.
Double stack obituaries for players killed at the same time.
Show all obituaries for 1.5s, instead of cutting them short when a new one occurs on a following frame.
Hide the Join Red | Join Blue buttons when the match is in progress, as those are actually treated as Join Auto buttons.
Disallow choosing specific teams while joining during the countdown (in favor of auto-join).
Added an overtime indicator on the HUD.
Added Win/Loss music at the endgame scoreboard (Win/Loss background music controlled with s_musicVolume).
Fixed swapped flag returned sounds.
Fixed the missing/broken ‘Round in Progress’ spectator message when joining an elimination based game in progress.
Restored the alignment of the timer on the comp HUD.
No longer issue 1 & 5 Minute Warnings to players who join after that event should have occurred.
Disable taunt animation with cg_allowTaunt 0.
Added premium icons to the FFA and RR scoreboards.
Added some padding between the CA alive icons and the team names in the comp spec hud scorebox.
Fixed aspect ratio of caster respawn timers.
Fixed the scores misalignment on the comphud.
Fixed “Sudden Death” message for roundlimit 0 matches.
Fixed incorrect ratio on Red Rover obituaries on default HUD.
Fixed missing Red Rover obituaries on large HUD.