Challenge ProMode Arena | |
---|---|
![]() Official logo | |
Developer(s) | CPMA team The Promode Team |
Designer(s) | Concept Richard "Hoony" Sandlant Gameplay design leads Contents |
Engine | id Tech 3 ( Quake III Arena ) |
Platform(s) | Macintosh, PC (Linux/Windows) |
Release | beta 3 / March 24, 2000 1.0 / August 28, 2000 1.52 / March 31, 2019 |
Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
Challenge ProMode Arena (CPMA, formerly Challenge ProMode [CPM], unofficially Promode) is a freeware modification for id Software's first-person shooter computer game Quake III Arena (Q3A). CPMA includes modified gameplays that feature air-control, rebalanced weapons, instant weapon switching and additional jumping techniques. It also supports the unmodified vanilla Quake III (VQ3) physics, multi-view GameTV and demos, enhanced bots artificial intelligence, new maps, highly customisable HUD and many other features.
Challenge ProMode Arena has become the standard competitive mod for Q3A since the Cyberathlete Professional League announced CPMA as its competition mod of choice. [1] The mod has its own division in Cyberathlete Amateur League, [2] is used in Electronic Sports World Cup, [3] and has its own competitions and leagues.
Promode physics have been implemented in other Q3A notable modifications— DeFRaG (DF) and Orange Smoothie Productions (OSP). Quake Live introduced Promode Quake Live (PQL) physics and ruleset which is similar to CPMA. [4]
The Challenge ProMode project was created by Richard "Hoony" Sandlant in May 1999, following the release of Q3Test, the beta version of Quake III Arena. Its goals were to make a more exciting and challenging game in the hope that this would help advance Q3A as a professional sport. [5] John Carmack, lead programmer of Q3A, suggested a more challenging version of the game might be better for professional gamers:
If there were a small set of professional rules that I agree with in theory but have chosen not to pursue because they conflict with more common play, then an official "pro mode" might make sense.
— John Carmack, October 2, 1999 [6]
Before the design team began their work the CPM team asked the community to brainstorm a list of possible changes. The designers used these suggestions in a process of tweaking and testing to develop the Challenge ProMode gameplay. Two public beta versions were then released for feedback and input from the community.
On August 28, 2000, the final version, 1.0, was released which was followed in December 2000 by the project changing its name to Challenge ProMode Arena to reflected the added multi-arena capability as Kevin "arQon" Blenkinsopp became the lead programmer.
Among typical Quake III Arena modes—Free for All (FFA), Team Deathmatch (TDM), Tournament (DM\1v1), Capture the Flag (CTF)—CPMA features new game modes: HoonyMode (HM), Not Team Fortress (NTF), arQmode (APM), Clan Arena (CA), Freeze Tag (FTAG/FT), and Capture Strike (CTFS/CS).
HoonyMode is a form of tournament introduced in November 2003 which is loosely based on the rules of tennis. During the warm-up, each player chooses a spawn-point or they are randomly generated if none are chosen. One player typically has a "stronger" spawn and the other a "weaker" one. When the game begins the player with the stronger spawn is considered to have the "serve" and each player death is treated as a point. After each point is scored players and the arena are reset and a new point is played; players switch spawn-points, so the player who had the "weak" spawn for the previous point now has the "strong" one, effecting a change of serve. All in-game behaviour (i.e. weapons, physics, etc.) remains the same as in the standard deathmatch. [7]
Referencing the video game Team Fortress , Not Team Fortress is a class-based form of Capture the Flag introduced in April 2004. Players spawn with no armour and weapons determined by their class with health and armour regenerating during play. By default, there are four classes—Fighter, Scout, Sniper and Tank which can all be customised by the server administrator. [7]
arQmode is a test mode which in 2003 became the official ruleset of Challenge ProMode, also known as PM2 (PMC or Promode Classic being PM1). The main aim of mode is to decrease the damage and knock-back of high-damage hit-scan weapons to reward use of predictive weapons as well as reduce the randomness in the spawn system. arQmode is now used to mean the development mode used to test new changes at the beta stage.
Clan Arena is a team-play mode similar to Rocket Arena in which every player spawns with weaponry, health and armor and only respawns after one side has won the round by killing the opposition.
The aim of Freeze Tag is to freeze the entire enemy team. Players are frozen instead of killed and teammates can rescue them by standing next to the icy body for three seconds. This frees the player to join the battle once more.
Capture Strike is a CTF–variant similar to the Threewave CTF mod. According to the official Threewave CTF manual "Capture Strike is a fast paced blend of Capture the Flag, Rocket Arena, and Counter-Strike . Teams take turns being Offence or Defence and battle until one team is dead, or the Offence team captures the flag." [8] Each player respawns with weaponry, health and armor.
The mod features three different promode gameplays—Challenge ProMode II (CPM/PM2), ProMode Classic (PMC/PM1), and Challenge Quake3 (CQ3), as well as vanilla (i.e. standard) Quake 3 (VQ3) physics and ruleset.
Quake III Arena is a 1999 multiplayer-focused first-person shooter developed by id Software. The third installment of the Quake series, Arena differs from previous games by excluding a story-based single-player mode and focusing primarily on multiplayer gameplay. The single-player mode is played against computer-controlled bots. It features music composed by Sonic Mayhem and Front Line Assembly founder Bill Leeb.
Quake is a first-person shooter game developed by id Software and published by GT Interactive. The first game in the Quake series, it was originally released for MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows and Linux in 1996, followed by Mac OS and Sega Saturn in 1997 and Nintendo 64 in 1998. In the game, players must find their way through various maze-like, medieval environments while battling monsters using an array of weaponry. The overall atmosphere is dark and gritty, with many stone textures and a rusty, capitalized font. Quake takes inspiration from gothic fiction and the works of H. P. Lovecraft.
Deathmatch, also known as free-for-all, is a gameplay mode integrated into many shooter games, including first-person shooter (FPS), and real-time strategy (RTS) video games, where the goal is to kill the other players' characters as many times as possible. The deathmatch may end on a frag limit or a time limit, and the winner is the player that accumulated the greatest number of frags.
Urban Terror is a freeware multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by FrozenSand. Originally a total conversion of id Software's Quake III Arena, FrozenSand released Urban Terror as a free standalone game in 2007 utilizing ioquake3 as the game engine. While the game engine is licensed under the open-source GPL, Urban Terror's game code is closed source and its assets are freeware but not open content.
Quake 4 is a 2005 military science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Raven Software and published by Activision. It is the fourth title in the Quake series, after the multiplayer Quake III Arena, and a sequel to Quake II. Raven Software collaborated with id Software, who supervised the development of the game as well as provided the id Tech 4 engine upon which it was built. The game has an increased emphasis on single-player gameplay compared to previous installments; its multiplayer mode does not support playable bots.
Rocket Arena (RA) is a free modification (mod) for the multiplayer first-person shooter games Quake, Quake II, Quake III Arena and Quake 4. There are also ports for Half-Life and Unreal Tournament. Rocket Arena was created by David "crt" Wright of GameSpy and first released for Quake in 1997, less than a year after Quake's debut. It became a successful and influential user-created game modification.
Action Quake 2 is a mod for the video game Quake II created by The A-Team. Action Quake 2 was developed to recreate the look and feel of an action movie, having a fast pace and a semi-realistic damage system. It features many maps recreating realistic settings, such as city streets and office buildings, with a balanced range of weapons and equipment inspired by action movies.
Soldat is a 2D multiplayer video game for Microsoft Windows. It is a run and gun game influenced by Liero and Scorched Earth, combined with elements from Counter-Strike and Worms.
id Tech 3, popularly known as the Quake III Arena engine, is a game engine developed by id Software for their video game Quake III Arena. It has been adopted by numerous games. During its time, it competed with the Unreal Engine; both engines were widely licensed.
GoldenEye: Source is a total conversion mod developed using Valve's Source engine. GoldenEye: Source is a multiplayer remake of the 1997 Nintendo 64 video game GoldenEye 007, itself based on the James Bond film GoldenEye. The mod's development began in 2005, and remains in active development as of 2019.
Sander Kaasjager, who plays under the pseudonym Vo0, is a Dutch professional player of the first-person shooter games Painkiller, Quake II, Quake III , Quake 4, Quake Live and Quake Champions, and also World of Warcraft. He has won more titles and prize money—over US$250,000—at professional Painkiller tournaments than any other player.
OpenArena is a free and open-source video game. It is a first-person shooter, and a video game clone of Quake III Arena.
Nerf Arena Blast is a first-person shooter developed by Visionary Media, Inc. and published by Hasbro Interactive, released under their Atari Interactive label. The game, based on Nerf, was touted as a "family-friendly version of multiplayer combat games like Quake III: Arena and Unreal Tournament", and was supported by Hasbro Interactive until that company gave its rights and properties over to Infogrames. The cutscenes were animated by Mondo Media alongside them doing the in-game art.
DeFRaG is a free software modification for id Software's first-person shooter computer game Quake III Arena (Q3A). The mod is dedicated to player movements and trickjumping. It aims at providing a platform for self-training, competition, online tricking, machinima making, and trickjumping. Hence it constitutes an exception among other Q3A mods.
Half-Life 2: Capture The Flag is a multiplayer team-based capture the flag mod developed around Half-Life 2. The public beta version was released on February 23, 2005. The latest version of the mod was released to the public on December 8, 2011. On October 16, 2013, Half-Life 2: Capture The Flag was greenlit on Steam Greenlight. As of 2022, the mod has yet to be released on Steam.
Quake Live is a first-person arena shooter video game by id Software. It is an updated version of Quake III Arena that was originally designed as a free-to-play game launched via a web browser plug-in. On September 17, 2014, the game was re-launched as a standalone title on Steam.
CPMA may refer to:
Mechwarrior: Living Legends is a free, fan-created multiplayer-only game based in the BattleTech universe - originally a total-conversion mod for Crysis, it's since become stand-alone - running on Crysis Wars, and using CryEngine 2 as its engine. It's one of the few mods based on the BattleTech universe to have been sanctioned by Microsoft—who currently owns the rights to the Mechwarrior video-game franchise—and additionally received pre-SDK support and sanctioning directly from Crytek, producers of the games' engine. On December 26, 2009, an open beta was released via BitTorrent and other distribution methods. Because the project changes the play-style and feel of the game it is originally based on so completely as to be unrecognizable in comparison, it is billed as a "full-conversion" mod, since little to no trace of the original game's art or play-style exists any longer within MW:LL. It was created by American developer Wandering Samurai Studios.
Smokin' Guns is a first-person shooter video game. Smokin' Guns is intended to be a semi-realistic simulation of the American Old West's atmosphere. Gameplay as well as locations are inspired by Western movies, particularly those from the Spaghetti Western genre.
Based on Id Software's open stance towards game modifications, their Quake series became a popular subject for player mods beginning with Quake in 1996. Spurred by user-created hacked content on their previous games and the company's desire to encourage the hacker ethic, Id included dedicated modification tools into Quake, including the QuakeC programming language and a level editor. As a game that popularized online first-person shooter multiplayer, early games were team- and strategy-based and led to prominent mods like Team Fortress, whose developers were later hired by Valve to create a dedicated version for the company. Id's openness and modding tools led to a "Quake movie" community, which altered gameplay data to add camera angles in post-production, a practice that became known as machinima.