It just doesn't seem to work out for us.

Okay, Pain... Want to try a game with me? Starting with 2 players seems like a good idea, so we can see if our playstyles conflict, which is a possibility. I try to clear out every enemy, get every item, find every secret, visit every secret map, before moving on. Some people like to just rush through the early maps ignoring enemies, which I'm not willing to do. How well do you cope with high ping? I prefer hosting, since I've set things up pretty well: latest R1Q2 dedicated, correct settings, etc.

That would be great, fsad! You can host if you want, I'll see if ping is a problem, but I don't think it'll be. I'm more of a rusher type, actually, especially when someone has just died and we must start over, but I'd be glad to try and adapt to your style.

Any style seems good to me, as long as you don't die!

The thing I hate the most are lasers, so you might want to take those jumps in Receiving Center. As for ammo, I use pretty much everything, but tend to stick with Super Shotgun, up until palace or so.

By the way, do you already have a third player in mind, when we're done with our test?

And then my video card broke down in my gaming system... A replacement is on its way, but it'll be a few days before I'm ready.

Third player? Maybe. I've got plenty of people in mind that I'd like to join us, but most are too busy or they've long since moved on to other games.

And truth is, I would much rather be playing one of the Q2 mission packs with standard co-op. I really like what friendly fire adds to the experience; I know that's a minority opinion. The mission packs -- Ground Zero in particular -- are balanced pretty well for co-op, and if both players decide to not use power armor, it makes things a lot more tense.

Power armor kinda ruins Q2 gameplay, in my opinion. I don't think people realize the insane amount of damage it lets you soak up -- 2/3 of all damage (1/3 for free, 1/3 cells) and the remaining 1/3 gets further dampened by armor, keeping in mind how generously armor and cell packs are spread around. So at 200/200 + power armor with 300 charge, you're practically invincible. You don't need to worry about enemies directly, but rather their relationship with these 3 things: lasers, inescapable lava, and unavoidable glitchy physics.

Lasers are only a problem in a couple spots (you definitely remember which spots I'm talking about). The danger with inescapable lava isn't so much missing a crucial jump, but rather being bumped by something at the wrong time. Physics glitches can be as simple as two players using a lift. Both get on, and halfway up, one spontaneously implodes. Or, you could be standing too close to one of those walls that breaks down to reveal more enemies. Dying sucks, no way around that... but when somebody dies to one of these and the entire campaign is reset, it sucks so much that you don't really want to keep playing. And that's hard to imagine because Quake II is my favorite game in my favorite series.

On the other hand, I have a friend who won't play co-op games if they don't have a strict penalty for losing. For him, that adds to the experience, but for me it doesn't work that way, nor does it affect the way I play.

What I would suggest then is instead of having Regular and Challenge modes, just have one mode, that if played from start to finish without any deaths counts as a victory, to be accompanied with a little star or whatever. But if somebody dies, the unit is simply restarted, so the game goes on, hopefully. That seems like a graceful compromise.

Anyway, I think I've said enough. I'm going to go ahead and post this before something in this computer spontaneously implodes.

Too bad to hear that something like that happened.

Nevertheless, everything you said makes perfect sense to me. Friendly fire mode might would just add another factor to your list of unexpected death dealers. It might be kind of fun at first, but dieing because of a teammate who missed with his railgun? I wouldn't play together with him ever again. Or at least for a week!

Now that you mention it, after unit 4 the game does become increasingly easy with routine hack&slash tasks before you and little to no fear of death (from monsters).

However, I think that Power Shield is an absolutely necessary asset to the game. It would be great if you would use it only for hard areas where there are no health packs around and is difficult to dodge attacks. It's just that the supply of cells and ammo in overall must have been meant for a group of at least 10 people, as soloing has never gotten me in a situation where I must choose between using several weapons, shooting from a hyperblaster or BFG instead of conserving for shield, turn the shield off in some areas or use blaster for any other purpose than pure fun. My ammo was always at max and gaming tactics would go somewhere along these lines:

"Ok, it's a Light Guard, whatever, I'm not going to take my time unequipping Railgun for something like that.

*peaou-u-uo!*

Oops, another Light Guard.

*peaou-u-uo!*

Oh, a whole pack is there. I didn't remember they were at this spot because I forgot in which unit I was. Well, let's use a Rocket Launcher this time. No, wait! Wouldn't a Grenade Launcher fit more with my model skin? I got to look good in front of the Maiden following around since unit start and clawing me all the time.

Ok, let's see. Both ammo types are full, but there are 4 unused grenades lying in front of me, as opposed to 3 rocket packs. Makes grenades even less likely to run out than rockets.

Huh? Looks like someone is shooting at me. I better put an end to his now.

*squishey!*"

I see that some people are really willing to play some Mission Pack co-op. If anyone is interested, I have created a Hamachi network. Join, write me, and let's play!

Network Name: quake2teo3
Network Password: quake2

Can't we just go on without that thing? Well, either way, we must first have both of us online at the same time.

Hamachi is used as a Chat Program as well, so it is quite necessary. Also, if you don't have Real IP, you can't host without Hamachi. And even if you do, Hamachi boosts up the connection greatly, so it should run much more smoothly. So, I'd say it is quite an important program.

Ok. Are you able to play right now?

I saw your messages. When I am green and you are able to chat with me it means that my PC is turned on and that I have turned out Hamachi, but you never know whether or not I will be at the PC at that time. Do not lose hope - I will respond as quickly as possible. I am in Hamachi regularly. And time zones shouldn't be a problem.