Game Modes

Game Modes

Action Quake II has a variety of game modes, as listed here.

Standard Deathmatch

Action Quake II was originally a deathmatch mod, with realistic weaponry, weapon effects and locational damage. In general, players are spawned into the map with a weapon in hand and the goal is to kill as many other players as possible before a time limit or frag limit is reached, whereupon a new map is rotated in and play begins anew.

Standard Teamplay

Teamplay (TDM) is a round-based game mode, where players join one of two teams and battle it out. Players choose a weapon and special item, and may change those choices at any time, but that choice will only go into affect in the next round. When one team eliminates all of the members of the other team, the are awarded a team point. Matches generally end when either a roundlimit (team points) or timelimit is reached. This was the precursor to Counter-Strike's round-based system.

3Team Teamplay

This mode is identical to Standard Teamplay, but with another team added to the mix. This changes the dynamic of some map strategies and can be a lot of fun.

Espionage

This mode plays very similarly to Standard Teamplay, with the exception that the team points are awarded based on successful completion of a scenario. Players also respawn periodically, a fixed amount of time, if a certain amount of members of the team are dead, or instantly. Scenario types CNH, CTB and OFC are continuous play, as in there's no 'end' to a round until the roundlimit or timelimit is reached. The others types rounds end when an objective is met.

Scenario types:

• ETV - Escort the VIP
  • One team must ESCORT their Leader to a point on the map. The other team's objective is to kill the enemy Leader before they reach the point on the map. This is similar to Assassinate the Leader in that the most important member of the team is the Leader, and the team that is escorting them must protect him.
    • If the escorting team brings the Leader to the defined ESCORT point, the defending team all dies at once immediately, the escorting team earns a team point, and all players on the escorting team earn points.
    • If the defending team kills the escorting team's Leader, the escorting team all dies at once immediately, the defending team earns a team point, and all players on the defending team earn points.

• ATL - Assassinate the Leader
  • The objective of the scenario is to kill the other team's leader before they kill yours. When a team team kills the opposing team's Leader, all members of the opposing team dies, the round ends, and your team scores a team point (exactly like Teamplay). Players on both teams will respawn periodically, with the exception of the Leader, based on the scene's settings.

• CNH - Capture 'n Hold
  • Your team must capture an area and hold it. As long as your team 'owns' that area, everyone on the team gains points on an interval. To capture an area, you must stand in or near the area with no other enemies in that same area for 2 seconds. You can define up to two areas, one for each team to defend. It tends to be more exciting to fight over one area, though ;)

• CTB - Capture the Briefcase
  • This is CTF, but with briefcases, and a few twists. One unique aspect of this is that in order to pick up the briefcase, you must have a single MK23 or throwing/slashing knives equipped. You can't hold a briefcase with two hands on a gun, after all. If you pick up the briefcase with a knife in hand, for instance, and you switch to a handcannon, you will drop the briefcase at the point you switched weapons. If you attempt to walk over a briefcase to pick it up and you don't have a free hand, you do not pick up or return the briefcase, you walk through it. Another aspect is that you cannot return your briefcase unless your own briefcase is at home base. This means you have to decide how many team members to send after the enemy briefcase holder while still defending your own.

• OFC - One Flag Capture
  • This is CTB with a single flag.

• FRD - Find, Retrieve, Defend
  • This is a mixture of Escort the VIP and Capture the Briefcase. A player on one team is chosen to pickup a package from a fixed location, and deposit it at another fixed location. The enemy team's objective is to assassinate that player. This scene involves a two goals for the escorting team -- one goal is to escort the carrier/leader to a target area to retrieve an object (briefcase), and then escort the carrier from that location to the delivery point. An example scene in avenue1 is to retrieve a briefcase of drugs from a truck and deliver it to the limo on the other side of the map.

Darkmatch

Darkmatch has 3 modes. In it's first mode, the map will be pitch black, except for certain lights. This means that players have to be carefull where they walk as they do not know when they will walk off a building. Also, firing your weapon will make you show up clearly.

In the second mode, the map is in it's near black mode. The map will be very dark, and it will allow formore stealthy play.

The third mode will simulate a real day. The map will go from normal lighting to pitch black and then back again to normal lighting.

Of course, to assist players, there is a flashlight available in darkmatch only. When used, it will create a circle of light at wherever you point, but it will also light you up, making you an easy target.

Domination

The newest game mode added to the suite is Domination mode. Very similar to Espionage's Capture 'n Hold, here there are fixed flags (typically 3) scattered around the map, and touching a flag will claim it for your team. Keep control of flags to score points; your team gains 1 point per flag controlled every second. The score limit is 200 per flag in 2-team mode, or 150 per flag in 3-team mode, which means a typical 2-team game with 3 flags has a score limit of 600.