DROP DEAD is a modification for Quake made by Walter Lord. This modification is designed primarily for Deathmatch.
The creator of the modification was disappointed with the vanilla Deathmatch, missing the inclusion of Monsters. He also felt it was too easy to cheat with teams, players could change at will without any consequence, allowing for quick turncoats just to rack up kills.
New Content
Weapons
- Flamethrower - Sets fire to opponents.
- Morning Star - A flail that can be used primarily as a grappling hook.
Gameplay Changes
- MultiSkin is included with 19 skins. This modification was considered the inspiration for DROP DEAD. Impulses 150-168 select individual skins, these can be set in a .CFG file known as "RUN.CFG" to automatically set the player as said skin. As the code is designed to run said .CFG on every level, an error will be displayed if no "RUN.CFG" is found.
- Deathmatch 3 now allows the player to have Deathmatch with Monsters included.
- Monsters now have solid corpses, thereby allowing for speed bumps and blockades. This version also has solid Ranger bodies. Furthermore, bodies no longer float in mid-air, and the player is able to jump while standing on a corpse. This feature can be enabled/disabled as desired with the "temp1 4" Console Command.
- Monsters now can hear combat and will become altered from further distances. This depends based on the Weapon the player holds, an Axe will cause little noise while a Rocket Launcher shall cause every opponent to be alerted. The higher the difficulty, the better the hearing of opponents. It also attempts to base this detection chance off the geometry around the opponent, muffling noises if more obstacles are in the way. No longer can the player safely fire down a corridor without alerting the Monsters in the next room.
- Crucified Zombies are now solid and can be destroyed. They also can detach from the wall if the player gets too close; they function as normal Zombies in every way. Shooting them while they are still on the wall results in extremely loud audio glitches. Furthermore, they are counted as Monsters, meaning levels where the Zombies are inaccessible (such as the area to Shub-Niggurath in Introduction) prior to the end of the game) will result in a lower possible kill count.
- Ricochet mechanics are included from CSPIKE10.
Teamplay Changes
- Teamplay 2, 3, and 4 now are used to control the number of teams. Team 1 uses the default Ranger skin and is red, Team 2 uses the Duke Nukem skin and is yellow, Team 3 uses the Stormtrooper skin and is white, and Team 4 uses the Toad skin and is green. While the author would have liked more teams, he was limited by the engine.
- Teams are automatically assigned, meaning the player joining the server joins the team with the fewest members. In the event of a tie, they go to the earlier number team. The player is prevented from changing colors, instead just swapping back to their former team.
- Teammates cannot injure each other, but they can now injure themselves, meaning repercussions for Rocket Jumps and Splash Damage.
- At the start of each level, the team that won the previous level will be displayed. This tends not to work reliably, it is supposed to prevent this from being displayed if the level is exited prematurely. The only time this tends to display is if a level is restarted, whereby it will state that a tie was made.
- Teamplay -1 will switch the game to be somewhat like tag. One player will be granted the title of "IT", it will be the job of the other players to kill him. Achieving this goal nets the player three frags, but also results in said player becoming "IT". The player that survives as "IT" will be awarded a frag for each minute they remain alive. Note that this is like a regular Deathmatch, players can fight each other, but all players will have a red color and appear to be Ranger. "IT" is the exception to the rule, being yellow and looking like Duke Nukem, thus providing an easy target to hunt for.
- Teamplay -2 is similar to Teamplay -1. However, "IT" can touch other players in this mode to transfer "IT" to someone else. This allows them to ambush another player and earn the bonus frags while risking their title, thereby giving the "IT" player an incentive to pursue other players as opposed to fleeing. There is a two second grace period where "IT" cannot be swapped.
Sounds
| Sounds | |
|---|---|
| Corpse being broken apart | |
Version History
v106a - October 21, 1996
- Added support for 1.06, changed version numbering system to represent this.
- The Morning Star has been added. It must be enabled with the "temp1 3" Console Command.
- Added the "temp1 4" Console Command, allowing the player the ability to turn on and off solid corpses.
- Added mechanic for winning team to be displayed at the start of the next level.
- Added Monster alert mechanics.
- Added impulses for each MultiSkin. A specific skin can automatically be set upon joining a server by having a .CFG file known as "RUN.CFG".
- Crosshair does not appear to work right. It will automatically turn itself off.
- A message appears when teamplay is enabled to tell players how to access the new Weapons.
- The solid monster code has had some minor bug fixes. However, Backpacks now float above each corpse.
v1e - September 6, 1996
- Added the Flamethrower.
- Restored MultiSkin capabilities to manually change skin. This was previously removed due to teams automatically assigning a skin. They can be toggled using impulses 200 and 201.
- The ricochet mechanics of CSPIKE10 were included. Instead of ricochets not harming the firer, it now does not ricochet if at too straight of an angle. It is supposed to be able to be toggled with "temp1 1" and disabled by default, but it appears to always be enabled.
v1c
- Crucified Zombies are now solid entities and are essentially dormant Zombies.
- Teamplay 5 and 6 are switched to -1 and -2. This allows for better differentiation, plus possible ability to expand teams.
v1a - August 22, 1996
- Official release