This game is great fun but it shares the same weakness as any other single sided player games (players vs enviroment):
as soon as the hardest difficulty is beaten it is no longer fun beating it again...

so i thought of some new fun ways to kick the difficutly level a notch or 2 :

here is what i had in mind :


3 star - Coop challange - Normal :
Available to all players, This is to teach them to play in a more cooperative way rather
than just rushing all the maps then dying to some random gunner behind a corner..

This introduces a "classes" idea to quake 2 coop, and the players will be able to choose between 3 marine classes (should be selectable in profile).

- The classes idea is fairly easy to implement, all that has to be done is the removal of weapons (and all random weapon drops) from all maps. And giving the classes that dont use a specific ammo type maximum ammo of that type

So, for example if you use machine gun you wont need to pick up shotgun shells , and the easiest way to do it is simply to have 100 shotgun shells already. But since you dont have the shotgun itself, you wont even know you have those.

- The only weapons that are shared among the classes are the Hyperblaster, the BFG, and Grenades.
(I suggest removing the chaingun, since it quite unbalanced in quake 2)

Grunt (2 max) -


Marksman (1 max) -


Heavysupport (1 max) -


Class Notes :
- Hyperblaster and the BFG are the only weapons that are to be found on the maps
- Each player will start out with his class' weapons and will be unable to pick items that do not belong to his class.
- Each player will be able to pick up the Hyperblaster, BFG, and grenades as they do not belong to any class
- Chain gun should be removed as it's use discourages team play (and eats ammo o.O)

Difficulty Notes :
- Monsters Should have up to 25% increase in HP.
- Makron Should have 750% increase in hp (so he wont die that fast =D)
- There will be more random tough monsters in early levels (gladiators, tanks, and gunnners)

Conflicts :
- If players decide to pick same class (eg. 2 players pick marksman), one of them (random) will be given a random other class.
so selecting a class in the profile doesnt guarantee you will get it, only increases the chances of getting it. The players will have to sort it out for themselves who is better at the specific class they want.
- Giving a Railgun or a Rocket Launcher at the start may seem unbalanced, but it is known there are no ammo pick ups on early maps for those weapons (except maybe a random ammo drop from a monster).
So it is fairly balanced, as the players will have to save that ammo on harder Stroggs (like gladiators or tanks).


Should this idea be accepted here are 2 more difficulty levels based on that.


4 star - Coop challange - Nightmare :

Available only to players who beat the Coop mode above, and uses the same classes idea. This is a harder mode and will challange them as individuals as well as a team.
Stroggs are alot tougher, and there are no super power ups (quad damage, invincibility )

Difficulty Notes :
- Monsters Should have up to 200% increase in HP.
- Makron Should have 1000% increase in hp . (x 10 hp)
- There will be alot more random tough monsters in early levels (gladiators, tanks, and gunnners)
- Quad damage and invincibility removed.

5 star - Coop challange - Suicide Mission :

Only to players who beat the 4 star holders, This is virtually an impossible mode, those who beat it will recieve their final star.
Stroggs are alot tougher, and there are no super power ups (quad damage, invincibility ), and the power shield is removed.
To compencate, the power shields will be replaced with body armor (+100).

Difficulty Notes :
- Monsters Should have up to 300% increase in HP.
- Makron Should have 1500% increase in hp . (x 15 hp !!)
- Quad damage and invincibility removed.
- Power shield replaced with body armor
- Should be Impossible or near Impossible to beat =)


Worldserver Notes

- When a 4 star player joins a 3 star player's server the difficulty will be automaticly set to 3 star, and level progress to the lowest level available to the 3 star player.
(4 star player refers to somone who already has 3 stars and is playing for their 4th star, while a 3 star player is playing for their 3rd star)

- When a player dies on any difficulty above, all the players will restart at level 1 with their class' inventory restarted.
However only the dying person will have his score reset, and that death will not effect inventory and/or status of other players that are also playing for higher stars.

eg.
- if 2 players start fresh on 3 star mode, and one dies, they reset to level 1 with fresh inventory both losing all level progress, and the dead person will have his score reset.
- if 2 players start on 3 star mode, but one already has 3 stars, death of other person will not effect his 4 star and 5 star progresses
however, if a 3 star holder dies on a 3 star mode, he will lose his score as well as progress on 4, and 5 stars too.
- deaths on softcore, 1,2 star modes will not effect progress in higher modes, but will reset score.

softcore will not yeild any score
1 star mode (currently the challange mode) will yeild x1 score.
1 star mode with more than 1 player (making it a 2 star mode) will yeild x 2 score.
3 star mode x3 and so on.

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Woot for boredom !

comments and questions are welcome,

Hope I gave enough detail describing this idea
I also have suggestion for star rewards and scoreboard rewards, however they will be obsolete if this will not be accepted =)

certainly hope to see it in coop or die as it may keep some players playing longer

All these propositions are interesting, but in fact I don't plan to invest more time on Quake2 coopordie. I will merge the player database with a phpBB, correct some bugs, and maybe release a Linux version, but probably nothing more.

Of course this modification is opensource, including the website and the RPC server, so if anybody is interested in modding it, there is no problem.