This is the user documentation for Rune Quake. You can learn
more about Rune Quake at http://www.runequake.com
Finding Servers
---------------
If you use Gamespy (http://www.gamespy3d.com) to find servers, you can
use the tab I made to single out the Rune Quake games. It's in
the distribution, and you can download it from
ftp://ftp.runequake.com/quake/runequake/runequake.qst
Save it to your disk and run View/Custom Tab/Import from Gamespy.
If you don't use Gamespy, you can find a list of the servers I know
about on the Rune Quake web page (URL above).
Observer Mode
-------------
You start the game as an observer with the main menu up. The menu
contains these commands:
1. View instructions
This shows you an abbreviated version of the instructions.
Alternately, this puts the menu up on your screen if you're
observing or riding.
2. Join the game
This is how you start playing the game. Because the game
sends an "init" command to you when you connect, you can
automatically join when you connect if you set
alias init impulse 2
in your autoexec.cfg file.
If the game is full when you press 2, you'll join the game
queue but remain an observer. When one of the players
leaves the game or becomes an observer, the person at the
front of the game queue will automatically join the game,
and everybody else in the queue will move forward in the
line. You can press 2 once you're in the queue to see how
close you are to the front of the line.
3. View credits
This displays the Rune Quake credits.
4. Observe
Since you're already an observer when you're looking at the
menu, this really just turns the menu off.
5. Ride next player
Rider mode is an observer mode similar to a chase cam, but
it's more intimate. You'll see through the eyes of the
person you're riding. It's a bit choppy, I hope to do
something about that in a future release.
If you press 5 while you're an observer you'll be made a
rider and put into fast track mode. In this mode you'll
always ride the person who has the highest weighted frag
rate. (The rate is weighted to give more recent frags more
oomph. The idea is for the game to put you on somebody who
is probably interesting to watch.)
If you press 5 a second time you'll enter high track mode.
This causes you to ride the person who has the most frags.
Pressing 5 a third time causes you to ride somebody else.
You'll stay riding that person until you change by pressing
5 again (or 4 to stop riding and observe, or 2 to join the
game).
If you're a player you'll get a message when somebody starts
riding you, plus the gold key will light up in your status bar
to let you know you have a rider. The show-riders command
will list who is riding you, or who you're riding.
6. Admin menu
This activates the admin menu (if you've already entered
your admin passcode) or prompts you for the passcode (if you
haven't). See the Configuring file for information about
admin mode and the admin commands.
7. Weapon toggles
If alternate weapons are enabled normally pressing a weapon
selection command multiple times toggles between the regular
and alternate weapons available from that key. Eg, if you
press the 3 key repeatedly you'll switch from the super
shotgun to the flamethrower and back again. This is useful
for most people, but it interferes with some client-side
weapon selection setups (quick-rocket keys and the like).
If you run this menu item then the toggling behavior of the
weapon selection impulses will be disabled.
You can use these commands any time when you're an observer or a
rider, you don't have to have the menu up for them to work. Pressing
1 brings the menu up.
If you press 4 while you're dead you'll become an observer again.
Player Commands
---------------
You'll need to bind at least two keys in order to use the runes
effectively. It's useful to bind a few other keys as well, but you
can get by with just two.
On the main menu there's a command which will bind the most useful
commands to standard keys. The keys which are used are listed along
with the descriptions of the commands below.
command rune-use, key X
This command is needed to activate some of the runes, such as
death spots and radiation. Most runes don't require activation.
command rune-delete, key Q
This command deletes your current rune. Since you can only have
one rune at a time, you have to do this to get a different rune.
command rune-tell, key C
This command tells you what rune you currently have.
If your rune description is already on your screen (either from
using rune-tell or just from picking up a rune), this command
removes it. Jumping and firing will also remove the description
from your screen.
command show-riders, key [
This will list the observers currently riding you. If you're a
rider, it also lists who you're riding. If you have any riders
the gold key will light up in your status bar.
command fix-angles, key ]
There's a bug which causes your view to be tilted to the side, I
call it batman villain syndrome. You can fix it by teleporting,
or by using this command.
Also, sometimes you're left with a one of the weirdness affects
inappropriately. The fix-angles command will take care of that,
too.
command show-players
This command lists the players connected to the server, and
whether each is playing, observing or riding.
command show-settings
This command shows how the mod is currently configured. The
"Configuring" document explains what all the settings mean.
command best-weapon
This command will make current the best safe weapon for which
you've got ammo.
command rider-hide
This toggles rider-hide mode. If you have this rider-hide mode
enabled then your riders won't be able to see your armor, health,
ammo or items. They'll still be able to see your current weapon,
for aesthetic reasons. The idea behind this is not to make
available to riders more info then they'd be able to glean from
observer mode. This is necessary because some people have a
better time ruining other people's games then having one of
their own.
This command is not available in the default server. The server
admin has to enable this mode and recompile the sources if she
wants the players to be able to use it.
command hook-on
command hook-off
command hook-toggle
command +hook
There are five different ways to operate the grappling hook.
These five commands are three of them. hook-on and hook-off do
what you'd think. hook-toggle fires the hook if it isn't out, or
drops it if it is. When bound directly to a key, +hook will fire
the hook when you press the key and drop it when you release.
The other two ways are by selecting the alternate axe (by
pressing it twice or any of the other ways you can select a
weapon alternate) and using the fire key, and by using
rune-use if you've got the grappling hook as your main rune
(which behaves just like hook-toggle).
command remove-frags
This drops your frags to zero, if they're greater than that.
command weapon-mode, key 9
This is one of ways you can select alternate weapons. See the
alternate weapon section for more info.
command hud-toggle
This enables or disables the HUD. The HUD isn't quite ready
for prime time yet, so it isn't on by default. Eg, it's only
properly placed if you're running in 320x200 mode. A future
version will have ways to configure this.
command quiet-toggle
This toggles quiet mode. In quiet mode you don't get the
centerprinted messages about runes being picked up or deleted.
You might want to use this if you use the HUD.
command team-change
This changes the team you're on in enforced team mode. What
teams you can join depend on the current teamplay settings. This
command will cycle you through all the teams you're allowed to
switch to. It's always safe to use this, if you aren't allowed
to switch teams nothing bad will happen.
command team-stats
This shows how many frags each team has, and which team is
winning. It's run automatically at the end of every level when
the game is in team mode, but you can run it yourself any time
you like (even if the game isn't in team mode).
command weapon-toggles
command weapon-toggles-toggle
These toggle the state of weapon toggles. See the "weapon toggles"
entry in the observer mode section for more information.
command
You can vote for a specific level by typing its name in the
console. For example, typing "e4m3" will vote for The Elder
God Shrine.
command vote-exit
If enough players vote to exit the level, the level will end.
(This only works for players, riders and observers can't vote.)
The number of people who need to vote in order to exit the
level can be changed by the server operator, by default it's
50% (rounded up).
If you give the vote-exit command after you've already voted, or
if you do it while you're an observer or rider, the game will
tell you how many more votes are needed to exit the level. The
show-players list shows which players have voted.
command vote-team
This does a similar thing for team mode. When team mode isn't on
using vote-team means you want to turn it on, otherwise it means
you want to turn it off. Your team vote stays with you across
levels, you don't have to vote again.
Just like with vote-exit, using vote-team as an observer or after
you've voted will tell you how many more votes are required to
change modes, and the show-players command lists people who have
voted to change the team mode.
command vote-hook
The server is setup by default with hook as a rune. If you want
all players to have the hook (aka free hook), use this command.
Server admins have the ability to change the default mode of free
hook to lithium hook. For information on Lithium hook see the
Grappling Hook Modes section of this document.
command vote-free
Vote for free hook mode, if it's disabled.
command vote-lithium
Vote for lithium hook mode, if it's disabled.
command vote-hook-damage
Hook damage occurs when players grapple other players. Using this
command will vote to toggle that abililty.
command vote-arena
command arena
You can vote the server into Rocket Arena mode by using this
command. Rocket Arena is a popular Quake modification that allows
only two players to battle it out to the death using the same
complement of weapons. When a player dies, he loses the round
and the next person in line battles the winner. The loser is then
placed at the end of the line.
For more information about the original Rocket Arena, check out the
official website
http://www.planetquake.com/servers/arena/
command vote-practice
command practice
You can vote the server into Practice mode by using this
command. Practice Mode is a mode from a popular Quake
modification called Clan Ring Mod (CRMod for short). The goal
behind this mode is allow all players to battle it out without
having to search the levels for weapons and ammo. You don't
need this items because you spawn with everything and get
an unlimited supply. The only thing you do need to do is make
sure your replenish your health and ammo.
For more information about the Clan Ring Modification, check out
the official website
http://www.crmod.com/
command vote-match
command match
You can vote the server into Match mode by using this
command. Match Mode is a mode from a popular Quake
modification called Clan Ring Mod (CRMod for short). Match
mode allows you to play a timed match against other players
either 1v1 or team against team.
For more information about the Clan Ring Modification, check out
the official website
http://www.crmod.com/
command vote-normal
command normal
command ffa
This sets the server back into runes mode.
command vote-quad
command setquad
Vote to enable or disable Quad Damage on the level.
command vote-pent
command setpent
Vote to enable or disable Pentagram of Protection on the level.
command vote-ring
command setring
Vote to enable or disable Ring of Shadows on the level.
command vote-suit
command setsuit
Vote to enable or disable Environmental Protection Suit on the level.
command vote-powerup-drop
Toggles the ability to drop your powerup.
command vote-armor
Vote to enable or disable armor on the level.
command vote-armor-drop
Vote to enable or disable armor dropping on the level. This only works
if vote-armor is enabled.
command vote-rotate
Vote to enable or disable rotating armors. Rotating armors, by default,
cycles through all the classes of armor, no matter what armor it was
originally.
Server ops can change the rotation from a linear rotation to a random
rotation.
command vote-mega
Vote to enable or disable mega healths on the level.
command vote-runes
Vote to enable or disable runes on the level.
command vote-alt-weapons
command vote-alts
Vote to enable or disable alternate weapons on the level. For more
information on alternate weapons, see the Alternate Weapons section
in this document.
command vote-shields
Vote to enable or disable spawn shields. Spawn shields help protect
newly spawned players again blind shots at spawn spots and the occasional
spawn camper.
command vote-weapons-stay
Vote to enable or disable weapons stay on the level. If weapons stay
is enabled, weapons will remain on the level even when picked up. For
more information on Weapons Stay, see the Weapons Stay section in this
document.
command vote-backpacks
Vote to enable or disable backpack dropping.
command levels
You can vote for a specific level by typing its map name into the
quake console. The levels command provides a list of the standard
Quake levels.
command custom
This provides a list of all custom maps on the server. To vote for a
custom map, simply its name in the Quake console.
Alternate Weapons
-----------------
The server supplies a number of new weapons (though they can be
turned off by the server operator). There are several ways to
access them.
Most people will use the weapon toggles. Eg, the flame thrower is
the alternate for the super shotgun. Pressing 3 while you're already
wielding the super shotgun will switch to the flamethrower. Pressing
it while you're wielding the flamethrower will switch back to the
super shotgun. (If you don't care for this behavior you can turn it
off via the observer menu or the weapon-toggles command.)
The regular Quake weapon cycling commands (impulses 10 and 12) work
with the alternate weapons. You reach the alternates by going up
from the lightning gun or down from the axe. They cycle around in
the usual manner.
If you use the weapon-mode command you will change the default mode
you use for the currently selected weapon. This only affects what
happens when you use the regular weapon selection impulses (and the
mode of the weapon you're wielding right now), you can still use
the other methods of selecting the weapons. Eg, if you haven't
used weapon-mode before and you press it while you've got the 3 gun
selected, then later pressing the 3 button will cause you to select
the flame thrower rather than the super shotgun. You can still
toggle or use one of the other methods to get at the super shotgun.
You can also bind keys to select the alternate weapons directly.
Bind to the commands weapon9 (grappling hook) through weapon16
(BFG). This works for weapon1 through weapon8 as well. These
don't toggle even when you haven't turned weapon toggles off.
Finally, you can use switch firing to select them. See the section
on switch firing for details.
Here are the alternate weapons:
grappling hook
This can always be selected as an alternate weapon, but it
isn't always available -- sometimes everybody gets it,
sometimes it's a rune and sometimes it's a special item you
can pick up. See the section on the grappling hook for
details.
magic shotgun (alternate for shotgun)
Like the shotgun, you the damage done is instantaneous. Instead
of shotgun pellets though you dish out magic powder that produces
a blast radius similar to the rocket launcher, but much less
effective.
flame thrower (alternate for super shotgun)
This weapon throws flames that do a fair amount of damage
but don't travel very far. They might set the target on
fire. You can hurt yourself with the flames if you're too
close to them.
There are multiple levels of burning -- the more flames you
get hit by the more damage the fire itself does to you. You
can douse the flames by jumping in water (or slime) or by
getting armor. Don't touch a burning player, or you might be
set on fire yourself.
lava gun (alternate for nail gun)
This is another burning missile weapon, but the blobs of
flame shoot in an arcing pattern (though they can go further)
and do a bit less damage. It can still set people on fire.
bomb (alternate for super nail gun)
The bomb launches like a rocket, but it sticks to whatever
it hits. It ticks for a few seconds then explodes. It does
quite a bit of damage near to the explosion, and some damage
a long way away for people in line of sight. It takes 10
rockets to fire one.
The idea for this weapon came from DM Plus.
gas grenades (alternate for grenade launcher)
This weapon is much like a mini-version of the radio activity
rune. After your grenade exlplodes, a cloud of red particles
appear and inflict damage to anyone around them.
reflective rocket (alternate for rocket launcher)
Your rockets bounce of the walls for a maximum of three times
doing damage in the process. It takes 3 rockets to fire this
weapon.
The idea comes from the hipnotic expansion pack.
BFG (alternate for lightning gun)
This is like Quake 2's BFG rather than Doom's. When you
fire it a lava ball appears in front of you. This is the
shot you're going to fire, but it takes a couple of seconds
to warm up. When it fires the lavaball flies off (at rather
a slow pace). It zaps people that it flies near, then does
a huge amount of damage when it impacts. It takes 30 cells
to fire.
Weapons Stay (aka. Deathmatch 3 Mode)
-------------------------------------
In the version of deathmatch 3 mode the server implements, you can
get ammo from a weapon even if you have it already, just like in
normal deathmatch mode. So, the same amount of ammo is available,
but you never have to wait around for a weapon.
When a weapon is charged with ammo it is raised up a bit. If you
see a weapon which is higher than normal it means that you can get
ammo from it, even if you have that kind of weapon already.
Team Mode
---------
The server can be configured to use a team mode in which everybody
is forced to be on one of the teams the server op has set up. When
you join the game you'll automatically be assigned to the team with
the fewest players. You can change teams, but only to a team which
has fewer players than the one you are already on (this can happen
as people leave the game). The game can also be set so that the
winning player can change to any team. If you try to change teams
by setting your color but you're not allowed to be on the team you
choose, the game will kill you. To avoid that use the team-change
command to try to change teams, it will do nothing if you aren't
allowed.
The team-stats command lists the current team frag counts.
Spawn Protection
----------------
When you first spawn you'll be invulnerable (and surrounded by
orbiting yellow dots) for a little while. This is to help cut down
on spawn camping. The invulnerability will stop immediately if you
pick something up or attack.
Grappling Hook Modes
--------------------
Normally the grappling hook is a rune like any other. The server
can be configured to treat the hook specially, though. You can use
the show-settings command to see which hook mode the server is using.
In free hook mode everybody gets the hook.
In Lithium hook mode vore balls (little spiky purple balls) appear on
the level, picking one up gives you a hook. There's one of these for
every three players (rounding up -- 7 players means 3 hooks). You
don't drop the hook when you die, so you have to get lucky to
find one.
See the commands section for information on how to activate the
hook.
Switch Firing
-------------
Unlike in normal Quake, impulses work even when you are attacking.
For most people, the most important thing this will affect is that
you can use your rune even while attacking. Eg, if you shoot a
rocket and then activate the shield rune, the shield will come up
immediately rather than waiting until the rocket animation finishes.
Additionally, if you're using a complex binding scheme to do client
side switch firing, it will generally work better because the only
time an impulse command is lost is when two are sent in the same
game tick. Use the "wait" command to make sure the impulses each
arrive in a different tick.
There's a server side switch firing system in place to allow easier
and more robust quick-rocket and quick-grenade and the like bindings.
Eg:
bind s +sattack7 // quick rocket
bind d +sattack6 // quick grenade
You can use +sattack1 (axe) through +sattack8 (lightning gun) for the
normal weapons, and +sattack9 (grappling hook) through sattack16 (BFG)
for the alternate weapons. You can also bind to +sattack-best to
have it choose your best safe close-combat weapon (as the best-weapon
command would choose).
The idea for server side switch firing came from Expert Quake. Part
of what they were trying to solve is mostly fixed by my other impulse
command change, but I implemented the switch firing anyway because
dropped impulses are still a problem.
The way I currently use this is my main attack binding uses
+sattack-best, and I also use separate keys for firing rockets and
grenades (and slightly harder to reach bindings for firing bombs,
the BFG, flash grenades and mortars). Using +sattack-best rather
than +attack means I'm never in danger of zapping myself under
water. This isn't perfect, though, because there's no way to
override the game's idea of what weapon is best (other than via the
weapon-mode hints), so it's inconvenient to stop using the flaming
guns while berserk, eg. I hope to make this more configurable in
the future.
Rune Descriptions
-----------------
Rune of Strength (1)
All of your attacks do double damage.
Rune of Regeneration (2)
Your health and armor both regenerate up to their normal limits or
instantly restore them by activating your rune. Rune is removed
upon activation.
Rune of Resistance (3)
You only take half damage from any attack. This applies both to
your health and to your armor.
Rune of Haste (4)
Your attacks happen faster or go farther or the like. The axe,
shotgun, super shotgun, grenade, and rocket fire twice as fast,
nails fly twice as fast, and the lightning gun reaches twice as
far.
Rune of Environmental Protection (5)
The most obvious effect of this rune is that water, slime and
lava, which normally hurt you, heal you instead. It also
protects you from many of the other runes and various conditions
which normally would be harmful.
If you've got this rune then the rune-use button acts as a super
jump if you're in a liquid. This can be used to get out of lava
and slime that the level designers didn't expect you to survive.
Point yourself up out of the liquid and hit the button a few
times in quick succession.
Rune of Flight (6)
With this fine rune you can fly (hover, really). Stay away from
the ceilings and walls as you dodge and you are very hard to
hit.
Berserker Rune (7)
All of your attacks do 6x as much damage, but all damage you
sustain hurts 3x as much as normal. Plus, you get to quiver and
bleed in a disturbing manner.
Rune of Recall (8)
Activate rune-use and you'll set your recall location. Go
elsewhere and press it again and you'll teleport to your
location. You place your location somewhere else by pressing
rune-use twice, this will forget your old location so you can
set a new one.
Electric Rune (9)
You zap anybody who gets too close to you. Each zap uses up a
cell, the rune comes with 10 of them, plus you generate 1 every
5 seconds.
Rune of Cloaking (10)
You never make any noise. Also, if you don't attack and aren't
hurt for a few seconds, you become invisible (as with the ring
of shadows).
Rune of Divine Wind (11)
You explode when killed, doing a fair amount of damage and so
often taking some other players out with you. If you activate
your rune via rune-use, you explode much more violently,
gibbing anybody within line of sight. You don't lose a frag
for activating the rune.
Death Spots (12)
When you activate this rune you place a multicolored death spot
which will arm in a few seconds. The spot will kill anybody who
touches it (including you, so be careful). Beware of somebody
with vengeance hitting your death spot!
Holorune (13)
Activating this rune leaves a holographic image of yourself
behind. The image stays in place but otherwise is animated just
as you are. The image goes away after 30 seconds. You can have
up to 5 holograms active at a time.
Orb of Death (14)
An orange orb replete with yellow spots orbits around you. It
does a huge amount of damage to any of your foes that it contacts.
Blink Rune (15)
This is a semi-random teleport. It teleports you onto objects
around the level. You can normally use it often, but if you
keep using it to quickly it will require some time to recharge.
This rune puts a bubble over your head. I'm not sure why.
Rune of Camouflage (16)
If you stand still, don't fire, and aren't being hurt, you are
completely invisible, not even your eyes show. You can still
look around without becoming visible. This rune is a camper's
delight.
Rune of Uncontrollable Jumping (17)
Everybody is so happy to see you that they jump for joy, though
there are red slippers overtones. Also known as the rune of
dancing. "Now you will dance for me."
Action Movie Arsenal (18)
Just like Arnold in the latest big budget shoot-em-up, you have
a virtually inexhaustible supply of ammunition. (All of your
ammo is replenished at a steady rate.) In addition, when you
become full of any particular type of ammo, you're given the
guns which go along with it. It is a fine thing to pull
out a lightning gun in one of the episode one levels.
In Lithium hook mode, having all weapons and ammo gives you the
hook.
Vampiric Rune (19)
When you damage other players, you get their health. (You don't
get back the damage you do to their armor.) You can go above
100 health this way, but your health above 100 rots away very
fast. Normal health boxes, which normally give you 15 or 25
points of health, only give you 5 points when you're a vampire.
If you leech enough some health after you die (by hurting somebody
with a grenade you fired before you died, for example) to bring
your own health back above 0, you come back to life! This only
works if you're still dead, of course, so don't respawn too quickly
when you die while you have this rune.
Rune of Shielding (20)
When you press the button you're rendered invulnerable for 3
seconds. (Your opponents can tell this has happened both by
the invulnerability fading sound and by the yellow dots which
surround you.) The shield takes 4.5 seconds to recharge after
use. If you press the button while the shield is recharging
it will activate again as soon as it can. (If you press the
button a second time before it activates, the pending activation
is canceled.)
Rune of Good Health (21)
Your maximum health value is 666, plus you get 100 health just
for picking up the rune.
Rune of Radioactivity (22)
When you press the button you drop a radiation point. After it
arms in a few seconds, it does damage to any of your foes which
it can see (save those with radiation runes or enviro suits).
Additionally, if you are within its zone of influence and you
haven't gotten rid of the radiation rune, it heals you.
You can have three of these spots extant at a time. You can't
drop them within sight of each other, but if you try you can set
it up so that two or even three radiation points have overlapping
fields in certain areas. This is very powerful.
Switch Rune (23)
Point at another creature and activate the button and you'll
switch with them. You'll swap positions, health, armor, ammo,
items and powerups, but not runes.
Ice Traps (24)
Pressing the button with this rune creates a freeze trap which
will arm in a few seconds. Anybody who touches this trap
(including you) is frozen in place for an excruciatingly long
while. If nobody touches the trap for a couple of minutes it
disappears. You can have 6 traps active at once.
Gravity Rune (25)
Pressing the button drops an orange globe which attracts
everything but you and (if in team mode) your teammates.
Pressing the button again recalls the gravity well. If you
place it right the other players will be sucked into orbit
around it. It's usually possible to escape the orbit, but it
can be tricky. This rune can also be very useful for denying
your opponents access to certain key items, such as the red
armor in The Ogre Citadel.
The Teleport Shuffle (26)
Aim a little above the floor at some distant point and press
the button and you'll (usually) be teleported there. (I'll be
working on the code to make this easier to use.) Additionally,
point it at a player and you have a chance of telefragging
them. If the dice don't roll in your favor for the telefrag,
you'll switch places with them.
Impact Rune (27)
Your attacks move people around much more than normal, your
attacks do a little more damage than normal, and if you touch
somebody you'll do a bunch of damage to them. You'll have a
spike over your head so the other players can know to try to
stay away from you.
Rune of Vengeance (28)
You get an enormous bleeding head. As if that weren't enough,
any damage people do to you is visited right back upon them, and
if that kills them, you get the frag.
Shub Hat (29)
You're surrounded by a holographic projection of Shub-Niggurath.
After you get past the surprise factor, this is useful both
because it can be deceptively hard to hit somebody wearing a
shub hat, and because the other players won't see which way
you're facing and when you're firing.
Rune of Repulsion (30)
Most things in the game, including players, projectiles and
death spots, are repulsed away from you. It is a lot of fun to
use the grenade launcher when you have this rune.
Phasing Rune (31)
You can walk through walls. You'll have to experiment a little
to get the technique down, get close to a wall and activate your
rune. If you should fall in the lava, activate your rune to 'blink'
to a new location.
Shambler Helper (32)
You'll get a pet shambler of your very own. He'll follow you
around and attack anybody he sees (including your teammates
right now, I'll be fixing that). If you press the button or if
he absorbs too much damage he'll teleport to you.
Rune of Dual Recall (33)
This is another teleport rune, this one teleports you back
to the last place at which you activated it. Telefragging
is a popular attack with this rune, but it's also great for
getting out of a fight to someplace where you can juice up,
then teleporting back into the fight. This maneuver is
called "the pause that refreshes." This rune puts an
upward-pointing spike over your head so your opponents know not
to let you get close.
Rune of Weirdness (34)
Little bubbles float off of you (or are pushed off, if you press
the button) and wander randomly. If your enemy touches one
he'll experience one of a variety of unpleasant effects for a
while. When you die you give off a bunch of bubbles all at
once.
Phoenix Rune (35)
When you are killed you respawn right where your body landed,
with all your items and 15 seconds of quad damage. You can do
this three times.
When somebody dies with the phoenix rune they don't drop a
backpack. Watch for that and don't run over their body (or
gibbed head) lest you be fragged when they respawn. Also,
when you die, you can't respawn using the fire button. There
will be a warning message to indicate such.
Rune of Floating Spiky Death Cloud (36)
A large cloud floats above you, randomly giving off little spiky
balls which bounce and cause a lot of damage if they hit an enemy.
Rune of Fire Walking (37)
You leave spots of fire behind when you walk. The fire does a
lot of damage to your foes.
Grappling Hook (38)
This rune gives you a grappling hook. See the section on the
grappling hook for details.
Rune of Athletics (39)
This allows you to swim further, and the button performs a
really big jump. I'd like to have it let you run faster,
but I don't think there's a safe way to do that in POQ.
Lumberjack Rune (40)
Being a hale and hearty sort accustomed to a fit life in the
wilds of Canada, your maximum health is 250 rather than the
paltry 100 allotted lesser men and women. Also, of course, you
work with your axe much more effectively. It does a lot more
damage, and you've got a longer reach with it. As a bit of a
bonus, your attacks do a little more damage than normal, as with
the impact rune.
Houngan Rune (41)
When you activate this rune you'll place a camping zombie slave.
The zombie will stay right where you put him and attack anybody
who comes near. He's more robust than the zombies found in the
normal game, he can't be killed (even with rockets) and he gets
up faster when you knock him down. He also reacts to enemies
faster, fires more frequently, does more damage with each flesh
whack, and is more accurate at targeting. You can have three
zombie campers. If you try to place a fourth you'll really just
move the one you'd placed least recently.
A houngan is a Vodun (aka Voodoo) priest.
Rune of Armor Piercing (42)
Your attacks ignore your opponent's armor. This is nice both in
that it lets you kill them more easily (most people die with
just 1 rocket), and in that there's more armor left for you when
they die. This is a powerful rune, but not so bad as you might
at first think, mostly because when you damage yourself you
pierce your own armor.
Rune of Self Preservation (43)
This rune is a rocket jumper's delight. When you've got it
your own attacks don't hurt you. (This is nicer than the buggy
teamplay 1 rules, not even your armor is affected.) This lets
you be a real menace with the BFG and (on servers which haven't
disabled it) underwater discharge.
Zen Monk (44)
You're mostly invulnerable if you stand still if you haven't
attacked for a few seconds. You're still vulnerable to kamikaze,
berserk, lumberjack axe, and BFG blast/hit attacks. Damage doesn't
move you around. You're not affected by most kinds of splash damage.
Plus, of course, you don't take damage from falling.
Human Torch (45)
Lava doesn't hurt you (though you can still drown in it if you
stay submerged), but water does. Bumping into people can set
them on fire (but it lasts longer than the fire caused by
bumping into a non-torch burning person). Flaming weapons
(alt 3 and 4) don't hurt you, and attacks you do with them do
more damage. You can toss flaming traps which ignite people
when they're triggered.
Pack Rat (46)
You can pick up extra runes and carry them around. (You don't
actually use them, you just carry them.) This helps you in
several ways:
- If you pick up enough, you get bonus frags for every kill.
By default you get 1 bonus frag for each 33% of the runes
which you're holding, so with the default maximum of 16
runes you'll get 1 bonus frag per kill if you have 6 to 10
runes, 2 bonus frags for 11 to 15 runes, and 3 bonus frags
for each kill if you've got all 16 runes.
- The runes you hold are kept out of the game, so it gets
harder for the other players to get runes. Of course, that
will make you a juicy target for the runeless multitudes.
- In team games, you can give the runes to your teammates.
Use your rune-delete key to drop the runes you're carrying.
(Use it a second time to actually delete the pack rat
rune, in which case you can pick up one of the runes you
were holding.)
- As you pick up each rune, the name of that rune is displayed.
This makes pack rat useful as a rune finder, when you find the
rune you want, just drop it, delete pack rat, and pick up your
new rune!
You can't pick up a rune if you killed the owner (that would
make it too easy for good players).
Rune of Good Armor (47)
When you have this rune all the armor you get counts as red
armor, plus you can hold a ton of the stuff.
Quake won't display an armor value over 255, though. So, I've
set it to use the armor color to give you an idea of how much
armor you've got. If you have this rune then your status bar
shows green armor for armor values from 0 through 255, yellow
armor for 256 through 511, and red armor for 512 through 767.
In other words,
color on status bar actual amount of armor
------------------- ---------------------------
green displayed value
yellow displayed value + 256
red displayed value + 256 + 256
No matter what color is displayed, the armor you've got works at
80% absorption, just like red armor.
Rune of Quad Damage (48)
Activating this rune gives you quad damage for a few seconds. As
with the shield rune, there's a delay while the rune recharges
before you can activate it again.
Jack of All Runes (49)
You get the abilities of a number of other runes but in less
potent form. It gives you some of the features of regen, good
health, resistance, strength, haste, piercing, and action movie
arsenal.
Super Blue Stuff (50)
Also known as The Glun Gun, launch a glob of blue glue that locks
a player down for a little bit before releasing. Your opponent can
still pivot and fire.
Blizzard Rune (51)
Send out a blast of cold air that freezes everyone in site. The
storm only lasts a second or two but it's enough to get off the
first shot! You can pick up ice traps for a longer burst.
Rune of Thor (52)
Supplies you with a lightning gun and 50 cells. Your ammo will
rapidly increase until weapon is full. Your BFG range also
increases.
Sniper Rune (53)
Activate your rune to gib just about anyone. You start off losing
health with each activation. Your potential health loss will
increase with every kill. There is no recharge time!
Anti-Packs Rune (54)
Drop backpacks that remove ammo and weapons from your enemies. The
backpacks will bleed to indicate they are not standard backpacks.
Telefrag Deflect Rune (55)
Deflects most telefrags!
Bouncing Betty Rune (56)
Also known as cluster grenades. You launch a single grenade which
after a second spawns multiple clusters of grenades. A real
crowd pleaser!
Tornado Rune (57)
Launch a massive tornado that sucks you, and everyone else into its
center. If you touch the center you will be gibbed.
Requiem Rune (58)
Walking over ammo, health, or armor doesn't pick it up but provides a
continuous supply.
Lithium Hook (59)
This isn't a standard rune, it's the quasi-rune used to give you
a grappling hook in Lithium hook mode. You can use impulse 159
to get a Lithium hook in rune cheating is turned on.
Rune Models
-----------
Unless the server operator has disabled this (you can tell with the
show-settings command), a particular type of rune always uses a
particular model. Here's how they match up:
Earth magic: haste, recall, death spots, camouflage, shielding,
ice traps, vengeance, shambler, floating cloud, lumberjack,
monk, quad, thor, betty
Black magic: good health, environmental protection, electricity,
holograms, jumping, strength, gravity, Shub hat, dual recall,
firewalking, houngan, torch, jack of all runes, sniper, tornado
Hell magic: regeneration, flight, cloaking, orb of death,
action movie arsenal, radiation, teleport shuffle, repulsion,
weirdness, grappling hook, piercing, pack rat, glue traps,
antipack, requiem
Elder magic: resistance, berserk, divine wind, blink, vampiric,
switch, impact, phasing, phoenix, athlete, self preservation,
good armor, blizzard, deflect
End
---
That's it! Have fun playing the game and please email me if you find
any bugs or have any suggestions.
Slot Zero