id Software's Usenet Group Posts Archive!

quake/creation/RFD2



From: quinet@montefiore.ulg.ac.be (Raphael Quinet)


Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,rec.games.computer.quake.announce,rec.games.computer.quake.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,rec.games.computer.doom.misc


Subject: RFD: rec.games.computer.quake.{playing,programmer,servers}


Date: 6 Mar 1996 20:53:01 -0000


Organization: .


Message-ID: <826145579.24330@uunet.uu.net>


Archive-Name: rec.games.computer.quake.playing



REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)


unmoderated group rec.games.computer.quake.playing


unmoderated group rec.games.computer.quake.programmer


unmoderated group rec.games.computer.quake.servers



Newsgroups lines:


rec.games.computer.quake.playing Playing Quake and user-created levels.


rec.games.computer.quake.programmer Programming in QuakeC.


rec.games.computer.quake.servers Setup and maintainance of servers.



This is a formal Request for Discussion (RFD) for the creation of


three world-wide unmoderated Usenet newsgroups


rec.games.computer.quake.*. This is not a Call for Votes (CFV); you


cannot vote at this time. Procedural details are below.



RATIONALE: all groups



The computer game Quake, written by id Software (the makers of Doom)


was already very popular even before the first demo version was


released (on the 24th of February). Last year, on the 10th of


November, the first three groups in the rec.games.computer.quake.*


hierarchy passed their vote. Their creation was delayed until the 8th


of January because of possible trademark problems regarding the name


of the game, but they are available now. These are: r.g.c.q.announce,


r.g.c.q.editing, r.g.c.q.misc. The latter replaces the old group


alt.games.quake, which got more than 1800 articles per month until it


was removed or aliased to r.g.c.q.misc (on some servers, at least).



Since its creation, r.g.c.q.misc has received an average of more than


2000 articles per month, and the traffic is still increasing. Only


three groups were created at first, because we didn't want to create


too many groups about a game which was not yet available (read the


section "why three groups?" in the RFD for


r.g.c.q.{announce,editing,misc}, which is available on ftp.uu.net).


But now that a first version of Quake has been distributed, it is


necessary to add new groups to the Quake hierarchy in order to cover


the new topics and even out the traffic. Statistics from AltNet's


server show that the traffic averages 400-450 articles a day since


Monday Feb 26. The most important addition to the existing hierarchy


is a .playing group which will cover all gameplay issues.



Quake is more customizable than its predecessors Doom, Heretic, Hexen


and other games based on the same engine, as the behaviour of a game


is controlled by scripts written in QuakeC, a language using a syntax


similar to C. The traffic in r.g.c.q.editing is increasing at a fast


rate, as new editors and tools are developed. Considering the


success of its cousin r.g.c.doom.editing, it is better to separate the


topics related to QuakeC from the level editing discussions. A new


group, r.g.c.q.programmer, will help the people who want to become


familiar with the language and discuss the technical issues related to


it.



A mailing list dedicated to the technical discussion of Quake servers


had been running for several months (with 170+ subscribers), but had


to be closed because its traffic was too high. It has now been


restarted on a new server, but a newsgroup dedicated to this subject


has been requested several times, in order to reach a wider audience


and help more people who want to start their own server. Hence the


proposal for r.g.c.q.servers.



CHARTER: all groups



[ This is a copy of the charter for the existing r.g.c.q.* groups. ]



In general, cross-posting among discussion groups is strongly


discouraged. Articles posted to .announce can be cross-posted to


other relevant groups.



No binaries should be posted in these groups. When relevant, short


excerpts of source code or configuration files may be included in an


article, but binaries and code in general should be posted in a more


appropriate alt.binaries group (such as alt.binaries.quake if this


group is available).



END CHARTER.



CHARTER: rec.games.computer.quake.playing



Discussion about playing original or user-written Quake levels takes


place here. Topics include:


- how to complete the levels (in the original game or modified


versions) and how to find the weapons and secrets areas,


- playing tactics and keyboard/mouse movement techniques,


- discussions and comparisons of user-written levels,


- multi-player games and tournaments,


- announcements of new levels (if not already posted in .announce),


- announcements of new servers and how to connect to them.



Non-play-related topics belong in the .misc group.



END CHARTER.



CHARTER: rec.games.computer.quake.programmer



This group is for discussing QuakeC, the language which defines


Quake's behaviour. All technical topics related to QuakeC are


allowed, such as programming tricks and special effects, how to enable


some features, etc. Level editing topics do not belong here and


should be posted in .editing.



Excerpts of source code may be posted here, as long as they do not


exceed about 150 lines. Longer scripts or compiled code should only


be announced here and posted in a binaries group or uploaded on a ftp


or http server.



END CHARTER.



CHARTER: rec.games.computer.quake.servers



This group is for technical discussion of Quake servers. It should


serve as a forum in which maintainers of public servers can exchange


information about the configuration of Quake servers. Setup questions


about large public servers (TCP/IP or modem) as well as local servers


(on a LAN running IPX or TCP/IP) can be posted here.



Announcements of new servers should be posted in .announce and may be


crossposted to .playing, but they should not be posted here.



Discussion about how to use a server from the client side (i.e. how to


play a multiplayer game) belongs in the .playing group.



END CHARTER.



PROCEDURE:



This is a request for discussion, not a call for votes. In this phase


of the process, any potential problems with the proposed newsgroups


should be raised and resolved. The discussion period will continue


for a minimum of 21 days (starting from when the first RFD for this


proposal is posted to news.announce.newgroups), after which a Call For


Votes (CFV) may be posted by a neutral vote taker if the discussion


warrants it. Please do not attempt to vote until this happens.



All discussion of this proposal should be posted to news.groups.



This RFD attempts to comply fully with the Usenet newsgroup creation


guidelines outlined in "How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup" and "How


to Format and Submit a New Group Proposal". Please refer to these


documents (available in news.announce.newgroups) if you have any


questions about the process.



DISTRIBUTION:



This RFD has been posted to the following newsgroups:



news.announce.newgroups, news.groups,


rec.games.computer.quake.announce, rec.games.computer.quake.misc,


comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, rec.games.computer.doom.misc



and following mailing list:



quake-servers@premier.net (technical discussion of Quake servers)


Send a message with the single word "info" in the body to


for more information.


-


Proponent: Raphael Quinet




From: Raphael.Quinet@eed.ericsson.se (Raphael Quinet)


Newsgroups: rec.games.computer.quake.misc,alt.games.quake,alt.games.upcoming-3d


Subject: Announce: RFD: rec.games.computer.quake.{playing,programmer,servers}


Date: 7 Mar 1996 11:13:29 GMT


Organization: Ericsson Eurolab Deutschland GmbH


Followup-To: poster



Greetings, fellow Quake players!



The creation of three additional groups for Quake is now being discussed


in news.groups. These groups will cover new topics that appeared since


the test version of Quake was released and will even out the traffic in


rec.games.computer.quake.misc.



The proposed groups are:



rec.games.computer.quake.playing Playing Quake and user-created levels.


rec.games.computer.quake.programmer Programming in QuakeC.


rec.games.computer.quake.servers Setup and maintainance of servers.



The official Request For Discussion (RFD) for these groups has been posted


to the following groups, and I encourage you to get a copy from there:



news.announce.newgroups, news.groups,


rec.games.computer.quake.announce, rec.games.computer.quake.misc,


comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, rec.games.computer.doom.misc



Please take the time to read the whole RFD before replying to it. Also


note that, as with all Usenet RFDs, the discussion should take place in


news.groups only, and not in other groups. If you want to participate,


I suggest that you subscribe to news.groups.



Misc notes:


- The RFD was written a long time ago and was submitted last week to the


moderator of news.announce.newgroups. It was only approved and posted


last night.


- The RFD could not be cross-posted to alt.games.quake because Usenet


RFDs cannot be posted to alt groups which are not available at UUnet.


That's why I am posting this separate announcement, for those whose


server is still carrying alt.games.quake and who haven't discovered


the r.g.c.q.* groups yet.



-Raphael


--


+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+


| WWW: http://www.montefiore.ulg.ac.be/~quinet |


| E-mail: Raphael.Quinet@eed.ericsson.se or quinet@montefiore.ulg.ac.be |


| S-mail: Raphael Quinet, 9 rue des Martyrs, 4550 Nandrin (Belgium) |


+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+




From: quinet@montefiore.ulg.ac.be (Raphael Quinet)


Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,rec.games.computer.quake.announce,rec.games.computer.quake.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,rec.games.computer.doom.misc


Subject: 2nd RFD: rec.games.computer.quake.{playing,servers}


Date: 26 Mar 1996 21:02:46 -0000


Organization: .


Message-ID: <827874164.201@uunet.uu.net>


Archive-Name: rec.games.computer.quake.playing



REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)


unmoderated group rec.games.computer.quake.playing


unmoderated group rec.games.computer.quake.servers



CHANGES from previous RFD:



The proposal to create rec.games.computer.quake.programmer has been


removed. There is not enough information available for the moment


about "Quake C". If the need for this group arises once the final


version of the game is released, it will be part of a new RFD. Minor


updates have also been made to the "rationale" section.



Newsgroups lines:


rec.games.computer.quake.playing Playing Quake and user-created levels.


rec.games.computer.quake.servers Setup and maintainance of servers.



This is a formal Request for Discussion (RFD) for the creation of two


world-wide unmoderated Usenet newsgroups


rec.games.computer.quake.playing and rec.games.computer.quake.servers.


This is not a Call for Votes (CFV); you cannot vote at this time.


Procedural details are below.



RATIONALE: all groups



The computer game Quake, written by id Software (the makers of Doom)


was already very popular even before the first demo version was


released (on the 24th of February). Last year, on the 10th of


November, the first three groups in the rec.games.computer.quake.*


hierarchy passed their vote. Their creation was delayed until the 8th


of January because of possible trademark problems regarding the name


of the game, but they are available now. These are: r.g.c.q.announce,


r.g.c.q.editing, r.g.c.q.misc. The latter replaces the old group


alt.games.quake, which got more than 1800 articles per month until it


was removed or aliased to r.g.c.q.misc (on some servers, at least).



Since its creation, r.g.c.q.misc has received an average of more than


2000 articles per month, and the traffic is still increasing. Only


three groups were created at first, because we didn't want to create


too many groups about a game which was not yet available (read the


section "why three groups?" in the RFD for


r.g.c.q.{announce,editing,misc}, which is available on ftp.uu.net).


But now that a first version of Quake has been distributed, it is


necessary to add new groups to the Quake hierarchy in order to cover


the new topics and even out the traffic. Statistics from AltNet's


server show that the traffic averaged 400-450 a day during two weeks


after the release of the test version of Quake. A new test release or


the shareware release will probably raise the traffic even more. The


most important addition to the existing hierarchy is a .playing group


which will cover all gameplay issues.



A mailing list dedicated to the technical discussion of Quake servers


had been running for several months (with 170+ subscribers), but had


to be closed because its traffic was too high. It has now been


restarted on a new server, but a newsgroup dedicated to this subject


has been requested several times, in order to reach a wider audience


and help more people who want to start their own server. Hence the


proposal for r.g.c.q.servers.



CHARTER: all groups



[ This is a copy of the charter for the existing r.g.c.q.* groups. ]



In general, cross-posting among discussion groups is strongly


discouraged. Articles posted to .announce can be cross-posted to


other relevant groups.



No binaries should be posted in these groups. When relevant, short


excerpts of source code or configuration files may be included in an


article, but binaries and code in general should be posted in a more


appropriate alt.binaries group (such as alt.binaries.quake if this


group is available).



END CHARTER.



CHARTER: rec.games.computer.quake.playing



Discussion about playing original or user-written Quake levels takes


place here. Topics include:


- how to complete the levels (in the original game or modified


versions) and how to find the weapons and secrets areas,


- playing tactics and keyboard/mouse movement techniques,


- discussions and comparisons of user-written levels,


- multi-player games and tournaments,


- announcements of new levels (if not already posted in .announce),


- announcements of new servers and how to connect to them.



Non-play-related topics belong in the .misc group.



END CHARTER.



CHARTER: rec.games.computer.quake.servers



This group is for technical discussion of Quake servers. It should


serve as a forum in which maintainers of public servers can exchange


information about the configuration of Quake servers. Setup questions


about large public servers (TCP/IP or modem) as well as local servers


(on a LAN running IPX or TCP/IP) can be posted here.



Announcements of new servers should be posted in .announce and may be


crossposted to .playing, but they should not be posted here.



Discussion about how to use a server from the client side (i.e. how to


play a multiplayer game) belongs in the .playing group.



END CHARTER.



PROCEDURE:



This is a request for discussion, not a call for votes. In this phase


of the process, any potential problems with the proposed newsgroups


should be raised and resolved. The discussion period will continue


for a minimum of 21 days (starting from when the first RFD for this


proposal is posted to news.announce.newgroups), after which a Call For


Votes (CFV) may be posted by a neutral vote taker if the discussion


warrants it. Please do not attempt to vote until this happens.



All discussion of this proposal should be posted to news.groups.



This RFD attempts to comply fully with the Usenet newsgroup creation


guidelines outlined in "How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup" and "How


to Format and Submit a New Group Proposal". Please refer to these


documents (available in news.announce.newgroups) if you have any


questions about the process.



DISTRIBUTION:



This RFD has been posted to the following newsgroups:



news.announce.newgroups, news.groups,


rec.games.computer.quake.announce, rec.games.computer.quake.misc,


comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, rec.games.computer.doom.misc



and following mailing list:



quake-servers@premier.net (technical discussion of Quake servers)


Send a message with the single word "info" in the body to


for more information.


-


Proponent: Raphael Quinet