Graeme Devine over there at id Software has a .plan update at fingershack with a couple of items of note. First off is of course the confirmation that in fact there is no grappling hook use in the Q3CTF maps they are shipping, but it will be available for use.

Ah, grappling hook hoopla - when I read about the hoopla over UT grapple CTF I knew we'd have a similar impact (BTW, believe it or not, there is room for both games in the universe!). The grapple code is still going to be in Q3A (through bot reachability and so forth), it's just not on the maps we're shipping with the product. The CTF maps we have in there are designed for non-grapple use. CTF and grapple are not tied implicitly together.

Secondly, Graeme has word that Mr. Elusive, the guy behind the Omnicron bot for Quake1, and Gladiator bot for Quake2 has been contracted by id Software to work on the bot code for Quake3. A few astute gamers out there probably already spotted the mrelusive.cfg file in the Q3Test pk3 file and were wondering. Now you know!

Mr. Elusive (aka Jan Paul) is over here from The Netherlands helping finalize the game. He is of course the famed author of the Gladiator bot for Quake II. As some of you have been guessing he's been working with John Cash on the bots in Q3A. We're very pleased to have Jan's expertise on Q3A.

nV News has updated their Q3Test Tweaking Guide, with info on what impact some changes that John Carmack put in his .plan update yesterday have speed wise.

With the posting yesterday talking about gameplay between Q3Test and the Unreal Tournament demo, CliffyB of Epic made a post (#119) to the Shack board with a pretty interesting comment on the interface and ease of use they are shooting for with UT in an attempt to get more "main stream". Here are a few parts of it:

...So, we make the user interface similar to one they already know (windows,) we make the default skill slightly lower than normal, and we include tutorials that explain how to play. We don't give them the crutch of playing keyboard-exclusive; we say "here's your mouse, here's your keyboard, here's how most people control these kinds of games."
...
With UT we're trying to crack this genre open to more mainstream people while trying to avoid pissing off the hardcore guys. Having the AI stomp them makes them say "Well shit, this game is too hard. I guess I suck...I'll go back and play Minesweeper now." That's not a Good Thing when you're trying to expand a market.
...
Oh, and we're making Godlike harder.
Cliff
<snip>

Grinder wrote up a little Q3Test vs UT gameplay analysis which although I havent gotten to read yet, I'm sure you guys will enjoy talking about it.

Looks like it was a fairly slow weekend, the one interesting bit is a .plan update from Graeme up there at id Software on the number of Quake3 games that have been started up since the 20th of this month. Check this stat out:

A few of you have asked about the message of the day text. It’s giving you your exe startup number since last Monday. So basically, we’ve had over 2 million Quake 3 Arena games start worldwide since 9/20/99. That works out to around 4 games every second.

Of course, this stat doesnt even include all of the LAN games that are being fired up every day not connected to the internet.

Frosty was kind enough to send me 3 (high res) screenshots of the GeForce running Q3Test. Check out [shot1] [shot2] [shot3] or you can grab the zip file which is higher res.

So we're all sitting around waiting for the next Q3Test right? Well I sent off a few questions to Graeme Devine over at id Software this morning and he was kind enough to break the silence over there. Here you guys go. Oh yeah, and obligatory Q3Messageboard plug. :)

Steve: What are the new teamplay enhancements planned for v1.09? (hud, location tags, etc)
Graeme: There's a bunch of new stuff for teamplay. The HUD is perhaps the most changed with teamplay locations and information. The triangle above people's bodies is now for friends, not foes, since it was felt it was too easy to locate foes with the target looming over their heads!

Steve: how much of the single player game will be included in the test? will you just fire up a map and type "addbot" or a ladder system?
Graeme: It'll be a ladder type system in the demo and full game. You'll be able to set up and play skirmish type games as well. It's not determined yet which components will be in the next test.

Steve: you mentioned some changes to the server registration and server browser stuff. can you elaborate a bit?
Graeme: The server browser defaults to showing active games. You can browse keywords, select game types, and generally find where you want to go much easier. We've fixed some bugs in the 1.08 registration (# players on Tourney maps etc.) and that remains pretty much the same.

Got a literal flood of emails pointing out this Korean website which has published some of the first known benchmarks of the NVidia GeForce256 card running Quake2 and Q3Test as compared to a TNT2 Ultra board. Thanks ThreadZ. The card is showing up as only about 10% faster in 800x600 in Quake2 surprisingly. The GeForce seems to only really make a larger difference at higher resolutions looking at these marks:

GeForce256 800x600 = 58.3fps 1024x768 = 56.0fps
TNT2 Ultra  800x600  = 51.6fps 1024x768 = 38.7fps

While we all sit here waiting for Q3Test v1.09 and the D3D Unreal Tournament release I figure why not put our waiting to good use and help our fellow readers. An old fashioned chick hunt! Basically just dig up the hottest (non porn) image of a hot looking female and post it in a comment here. Keep it simple and only link 1-3 images per comment please. No need to use html to link the image, just type in the url including the http:// and it will automatically link. I'll have the incredibly difficult job of judging the winner later tonight.

Oh, and uh.. for the few dozen female readers, I guess if you send me enough email demanding a "man hunt" or something we can do that too. I've got a female judge handy who could be put to work.

FRAG3 Registration should have opened at 6pm CST today but obviously it didnt. Ok, now it is open only a few hours late. Click here to register. FRAG3 is that $10,000 1st prize Q3Test tournament to be held the 2 days leading up to, and on Halloween day. Oh yeah and I yanked the Makaveli comment since it seems a lot of people are incapable of grasping the concept of sarcasm :)

Another Q3Test strategy guide for you to check out today. This one sent along by Mike Greenwell. (Via Blue)

Registration for FRAG3 will be opening tomorrow on the CPL page. It's going to be another $10,000 cash prize for first place to the best Q3Test 1on1 player to show up in Dallas Texas around Halloween. Check around 4pm PST for the opening of registration.

The EuroGamers guys have posted their coverage of the recent UKPCGC, an 8 game competition including Q3Test, UT, and Age of Empires2.

A new version of the Game Name Builder which gives you all those purty colors in your name for Quake, Quake2, and Q3Test among other things has been released. Pretty handy if you're looking to impress your r33t h4x0r friends.

A post by Christian Antkow of id Software to the Shack UT Messageboard addresses something I've agree got to agree with. Comparing the full featured UT demo to the bare bones technology test Q3Test. Feel free to respond on the board.

I found the UT Demo quite enjoyable. Good job Epic. But something for all you "UT vs Q3A" people who are bickering back and forth about the merits and shortcomings of either product, keep in mind, Q3Test was just that, a technology test. We haven't even released a demo yet.

It seems that .plan update a while back from John Carmack at fingershack.com got some panties in a bunch since today marks the official "middle of the month". Well while trading a couple of emails with Mr. Carmack he mentioned that the skeletal animation system will not be in 1.09, however the next version is still a ways off:

1.09 will not have the skeletal system.  We are still messing with the single player gameflow, so 1.09 is still a bit off.

Here you go, the demos from CPL GroundZero. Hopefully you guys wont kill my server with all of the downloads. Make sure and use the links provided here so I can attempt to cover server bandwidth charges. The first player name is the POV that it is recorded from. Demo support is not officially supported by Q3Test v1.08 but if you're lucky you might be able to dig up someone on Chatshack to help ya.

GroundZero Finals
stx-wombat vs Gemini gz-womb-gem.zip
Gemini vs stx-wombat gz-gem-womb.zip

3rd / 4th place match:
Sujoy vs Sploid-r3v gz-suj-sploid.zip
Sploid-r3v vs Sujoy gz-sploid-suj.zip

Semi-Finals
Gemini vs Sujoy gz-gem-suj.zip
Sujoy vs Gemini gz-suj-gem.zip
Sploid-r3v vs Bane-1134 gz-sploid-bane.zip
DieharD-r3v vs Sujoy gz-die-suj.zip
Bane-1134 vs stx-wombat gz-bane-womb.zip
Bane-1134 vs Sploid-r3v gz-bane-sploid.zip
stx-wombat vs Bane-1134 gz-womb-bane.zip

Azrael pointed out this editorial on PlanetDaikatana comparing the Daikatana DM demo against the Q3Test release. I havent gotten to read it but he says that it is fairly interesting. Give you guys something to read over the morning coffee eh?

Word from the guys at Truegamers.net is that Eric Paik, aka Batch has won the ECTS Q3Test tournament with a close 15-14 victory over Rix-r3v and then a 14-11 victory over Sujoy for the finals. Check out QuakeNation.com as well for more info.

Truegamers.net has a new interview online with Mike Wardwell, the CPL Director of Tournaments who will be handling things at the upcoming $10,000 GroundZero Q3Test tournament going down this weekend in New York City.