Quake Champions, what we know so far

To be honest, we don't really know that much about the upcoming new title in the Quake series yet. Since it's announcement last year in June not a lot of information was made public. When the first reveal trailer was shown, it got mixed reactions. On the one hand, it seemed like a very run-off-the-mill, nothing is set in stone yet, kind of cinematic trailer. Sure, one could see the old characters and weapon models getting an overhaul, but in terms of gameplay nothing concrete was shown. What made most of the oldschool players skeptic, were the hinted character specific abilities. On the other hand, the die-hard Quake players were excited and relieved, that in fact there will be coming a new Quake game. Three months later at Quakecon 2016 the first debut gameplay trailer was released. Compared to the first cinematic trailer, one could actually see somewhat tangible gameplay – and it doesn't look bad. It contained everything that one expects from a Quake game: familiar weapons, movement and map structure (arenas). "Pure speed, pure skill, pure FPS!" These seem to be the pillars on which they are going to advertise this new title.

"Pure FPS"
According to the official website the developers are aiming for a game with unlocked framerate, playable at 120Hz while keeping the "classic Quake speed". What this means, is that it is going to be PC exclusive, promising a more refined experience unhindered by possible restriction of a console release. Anyone who has played a FPS game more than just casually is probably most excited about the fact, that the game should run on at least 120 FPS. When it comes to the "classic Quake speed", the developers probably refer to the generally fast gameplay of the former titles, since throughout the history of the series the "gameplay speed" varied quite a bit. In an official youtube video from publisher Bethesda, Tim Willits, Studio Director of id Software, assured the fans that they are trying to preserve "the feeling that [the fans] know and love" from Quake. In general they want the game to be accesible for newer players as well as cater to the world's best players. "We are commited to a long beta phase where we will work closely together with the community and pro players", says Willits. He also explained in an interview with PCGamesN that Quake Champions is going to run on a hybrid engine of Id Tech and Saber Interactive's Saber3D Engine. "We use the id Tech engine to get the feel of the core gameplay right and the Saber Tech for rendering and other elements around that." He also mentions that the business model for the game is not yet decided.

The Champions and eSports
The new feature that Quake Champions brings to the table are – who would have guessed – the so called champions. This newest addition is simultaneously the most controversial, basically splitting the community in half. Tim Willits explains the thought process behind adding champions to the game by saying that seemingly everyone plays Quake in a different style: be it offensively or defensively. In an interview with GamereactorTV Willits explained that the champions are designed to have slightly altered rulesets fitting various playstyles. Combined with new active abilities allow for more depth in gameplay. However at this point it's just speculation about how these champions are going to influence the gameplay.

Quake and eSports
What would a modern multiplayer game be without the eSports component. With Quake, Id Software created one of the first eSports titles – some might even argue the first ever. With the new game coming up, they're planning to expand on their experience and knowledge. We want better spectating, better shoutcasting as well as tournaments, leagues and championships, says Willits.

According to the official Bethesda news site, the game should go into closed beta in 2017.

Bullet points of what we can expect (so far):

Feel free to add stuff I forgot in the comment section.

noctis

SyncError recently mentioned this on discord concerning the 120hz marketing for QC:

SyncError: It's basically a cross the board message. I think the most important part is that the client runs at 120hz tickrate, meaning that you're sampling client data often which is very important to feeling responsive and means the rendering guarantees you nice framerate. But it also means the server can run 120hz if needed (which isn't always needed in normal online environments, but is nice for LAN competitions).
SyncError: On less important level it means that we're making a game where 120hz monitors matter, actively seeking to encourage gaming monitors, not that they are necessary but that if you own one the game will benefit from it unlike many games. Obviously there we'll be supporting well above 120hz as well.
SyncError: Framerates are unlocked, but with a 120 fps target, we make it clear that we're not pulling 60hz or 30hz punches where you take a significant hit on fps just to bring out more visual quality.
SyncError: Basically we want to be as good looking we can without sacrificing what is important to us, responsiveness.

Also wow at the japanese translation. :D

posted 7 years ago

neeple

Some old school players are getting insanely upset about the whole champions thing and those people are kind of beyond convincing at this point. But there are also casual fans of the series or people semi-following this game but not really the finer details who think its just going to be an overwatch clone.

For people like that I think its important to point out the following, some of which was missed in this article:

- strafe jumping is included
- additional movement on some champions
- rocket jumping
- map and weapon pickups still exist
- no weapon carry limit
- only a single activated ability per hero, not 4 or 5 like in overwatch
- abilities dont seem to be on the same scale as ultimates in overwatch and so wont grant free, no-effort kills

Some of this is extrapolating on whats been in the trailers and some of it is stuff willits has mentioned in interviews and could of course change between now and beta, but this sort of thing demonstrates that you still are going to be doing everything you were doing in QL more or less. You just have abilities on top of that and will be considering hero compositions and matchups

From stuff sync has said on discord too, there doesnt seem to be dedicated support champions like in mobas or overwatch. All champions seem to be fraggers, just in different ways, and I think thats important. Mercy cant kill Roadhog one on one for example and that causes people to clump together, but the method QC is going with theoretically should allow for individual skill to shine through

Its too early to know if the game will be good or not, but if the things I have listed remain true then I think it stands a good chance

lemming

My guess would be that the champions will differ in HP as well. If Anarki gets air control/cpma like movement (and I don't think that will be an active ability he can pop on a certain cooldown), then they will have to balance that with more umpf for other heroes.

taharasan

wow @ japanese translation

hYperion

Guess we will also see Powerups (not in the list).

filo

Was just thinking, ... in a way quake 3 always had abilities they just came as medikit or teleport and such. Basicly we are geting upgraded holdable powerups.

Exactly filo! All those powerups (haste, regen, tele, quad, battle suit etc) are basically temporary ruleset changers. The only difference is that you probably will have them as abilities with cooldowns, while you had to pick them up in former quake games.

To me thats not really a big difference honestly. I just hope they are not as overpowered as ultimates in OW where you can perform a full teamwipe but still lose, because of stupidly overpowered ults.

So far we've seen a bullrush (no idea how powerful it is), a teleport, a wraith form thing, a wallhack.

None of those are free kill abilities. They are based on movement (teleport), information (wallhack) and defensive play (wraith form). I would bet that bullrush requires them to be below a certain amount of health to get gibbed and that its not easy to hit

If they keep on this trend then the abilities will surely just be things to assist you in some way rather than a straight up "press Q to win" button. Thats what I'm hoping at least

yep, i agree not OP abilities like OW, although they give alot of satisfaction.
That satisfaction is short term "happines", so QC abilities could give you just an extension to defeat an enemy that has maybe cca 20% hp left which.