This mod (compatible with both the classic and remastered releases of Quake 1) has a very simple task: replace ALL the monsters and objects in a level with another of the same type. That first Grunt you encounter in E1M1? Now it could be an Enforcer, a Knight... or maybe a Shambler!
This mod is installed like any other. Extract the zip file as a folder where your Quake executable is located, then use the -game launch parameter so that it executes the mod on launch (some source ports also have a mod selection menu).
To set up the game modes, press the 'M' key, and the Randomization Menu will show up. Follow the instructions in there.
In case you accidentally overwrote the 'M' keybind, the command to bring up the menu is
impulse 24.
The Randomizer modes are stored in the
savedgamecfgcvar.
It is possible to preset a seed by storing it in the
gamecfgcvar. In the "Seed settings" menu you can see the seed used for the actual level in case you wish to keep it (as well as the option to force the game to reuse that seed until it's closed or the option is changed).
For conversion, all items are split into five categories. Save for some exceptions in Biased Mode, all convertible entities can only be replaced with one of the same type:
- Monsters: Includes all monsters with the exception of Chthon, Shub-Niggurath and cruficied Zombies.
- Pickup: Includes Health Packs (15 and 25 Health) and Armor Suits (Green and Yellow).
- Ammo: Includes all Ammo Crates.
- Powerup: Includes all Powerups, as well as 100 Health Packs and Red Armor Suits.
- Weapon: Includes all Weapons.
This is the default playthrough mode. You go through all of vanilla Quake's levels (plus any compatible maps through the map command), albeit with randomization affecting all existing objects.
All the odds used in this mode are the same as the Endless Castle in Normal Odds difficulty.
Added in v1.7, this mode, which can only be enabled through the Randomization Menu, puts you through an endless stream of vanilla Quake levels. The levels themselves are randomized, so that every time you get to the exit of a level, you may end up in a completely different place.
Every level is set up to only show up once until all other levels have been set as exits. This has two consequences:
- Since there are four levels with secret exits, two different levels will be set up as exits in their case. That means that, out of 31 possible levels, you will only see 28 per sequence.
- Every level may only appear again 28 levels after the previous one.
Furthermore, as you venture through the Endless Castle, with every passing level, the Randomization itself starts playing less and less fair (on Biased Mode, on Unbiased Mode it always stays the same):
- Easy Odds start at the lowest levels of the Endless Castle, until Level 5.
- Normal Odds start at Level 6, until Level 10.
- Hard Odds start at Level 11, until Level 20.
- Nightmare Odds start at Level 21, until Level 35.
- Super Nightmare Odds start at Level 36, until Level 60.
- Unfair Odds start at Level 61, and will never end.
Within the Endless Castle menu itself, there are four possible difficulty modes:
- Easy: Sets up the levels to their Easy difficulty setting. The Endless Castle starts at Level 1.
- Normal: Sets up the levels to their Normal difficulty setting. The Endless Castle starts at Level 8.
- Hard: Sets up the levels to their Hard difficulty setting. The Endless Castle starts at Level 16.
- Nightmare: Sets up the levels to their Nightmare difficulty setting. The Endless Castle starts at Level 26.
This "Endless Castle starts at Level X" bit of information is not informed to the player in-game. This is intentional, so please keep track at how the randomization starts to change as you get further and further into the Endless Castle, lest you may get a nasty surprise...
Dying in the Endless Castle IS FINAL. There's no retrying a level after you get killed by the monsters (outside of reloading the savegame; this option might be removed in the future).
Using the map command will instantly end Endless Castle mode.
This is the default Randomizer mode. Here, the game will try to be fair (keyword being 'try') to avoid spawning too many of the most powerful enemies. It can still accidentally spawn too many Shamblers or Vores, or simply not give you enough ammo for the weapons you have, but you can always restart...
- For Monsters in the ground or air:
| Name | Easy Odds | Normal Odds | Hard Odds | Nightmare Odds | Super Nightmare Odds | Unfair Odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fiend | 5% | 7% | 8% | 10% | 11% | 12% |
| Rottweiler | 11% | 7% | 6% | 4% | 2% | 0% |
| Enforcer | 11% | 9% | 9% | 7% | 6% | 0% |
| Hell Knight | 9% | 10% | 11% | 13% | 14% | 12% |
| Knight | 11% | 12% | 8% | 8% | 7% | 0% |
| Zombie | 10% | 9% | 10% | 11% | 9% | 11% |
| Vore | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | 7% | 20% |
| Shambler | 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 6% | 20% |
| Grunt | 16% | 13% | 11% | 8% | 6% | 0% |
| Spawn | 1% | 3% | 4% | 6% | 6% | 15% |
| Scrag | 11% | 12% | 13% | 13% | 13% | 10% |
| Ogre | 12% | 13% | 13% | 11% | 13% | 0% |
Rotfish aren't allowed to spawn outside of water surfaces because they can't move there.
- For Monsters in the water:
| Name | Easy Odds | Normal Odds | Hard Odds | Nightmare Odds | Super Nightmare Odds | Unfair Odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fiend | 8% | 6% | 4% | 2% | 1% | 0% |
| Enforcer | 8% | 12% | 14% | 15% | 15% | 0% |
| Hell Knight | 8% | 12% | 14% | 14% | 15% | 5% |
| Zombie | 16% | 11% | 8% | 6% | 3% | 10% |
| Vore | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | 7% | 25% |
| Shambler | 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 6% | 25% |
| Grunt | 9% | 13% | 11% | 15% | 10% | 0% |
| Spawn | 5% | 3% | 4% | 4% | 7% | 0% |
| Scrag | 10% | 12% | 14% | 15% | 17% | 35% |
| Ogre | 8% | 9% | 9% | 9% | 11% | 0% |
| Rotfish | 25% | 17% | 15% | 11% | 8% | 0% |
Rottweilers and Knights aren't allowed to spawn inside water surfaces because their attacks are almost completely useless there.
| From | To | Odds |
|---|---|---|
| Health Pack | Health Pack | 90% |
| Health Pack | Armor Suit | 10% |
| Armor Suit | Health Pack | 10% |
| Armor Suit | Armor Suit | 90% |
Whichever quality of Pickup that is spawned depends on the Odds difficulty level:
| Quality | Easy Odds | Normal Odds | Hard Odds | Nightmare Odds | Super Nightmare Odds | Unfair Odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | 70% | 50% | 35% | 25% | 15% | 0% |
| Low | 30% | 50% | 65% | 75% | 85% | 100% |
Exclusive to Endless Castle Mode, there's a chance that the Pickup will be removed from the level altogether. This applies before calculating the aforementioned odds:
| - | Easy Odds | Normal Odds | Hard Odds | Nightmare Odds | Super Nightmare Odds | Unfair Odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Odds to Remove | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 5% | 10% |
"High Quality" Pickups denote a 25 Health Pack or Yellow Armor. "Low Quality" Pickups denote a 15 Health Pack or Green Armor.
An Armor Suit are not meant to spawn if there's another Armor Suit (regardless of color) up to 512 units away from it. If there is, it spawns a Health Crate of the same quality level instead.
- Ammo type:
| Name | Easy Odds | Normal Odds | Hard Odds | Nightmare Odds | Super Nightmare Odds | Unfair Odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shells | 25% | 32% | 38% | 45% | 60% | 80% |
| Nails | 25% | 31% | 38% | 31% | 25% | 10% |
| Rockets | 20% | 16% | 13% | 15% | 12% | 5% |
| Cells | 20% | 16% | 8% | 7% | 16% | 5% |
| A weapon | 10% | 5% | 3% | 2% | 0% | 0% |
The odds for which weapon to be spawned are defined below.
- Ammo crate size (in case a weapon is not spawned):
| Size | Easy Odds | Normal Odds | Hard Odds | Nightmare Odds | Super Nightmare Odds | Unfair Odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small | 50% | 65% | 70% | 75% | 80% | 100% |
| Big | 50% | 35% | 30% | 25% | 20% | 0% |
Exclusive to Endless Castle Mode, there's a chance that the Ammo Pack will be removed from the level altogether. This applies before calculating the aforementioned odds:
| - | Easy Odds | Normal Odds | Hard Odds | Nightmare Odds | Super Nightmare Odds | Unfair Odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Odds to Remove | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 5% | 10% |
- If there's a liquid body within 512 units of distance
| Name | Easy Odds | Normal Odds | Hard Odds | Nightmare Odds | Super Nightmare Odds | Unfair Odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pentagram of Protection | 20% | 18% | 17% | 15% | 12% | 5% |
| Quad Damage | 20% | 18% | 17% | 15% | 12% | 5% |
| Ring of Shadows | 20% | 18% | 17% | 15% | 12% | 5% |
| 100 Health Pack | 15% | 18% | 17% | 20% | 24% | 30% |
| Red Armor Suit | 20% | 17% | 15% | 12% | 18% | 10% |
| Biosuit | 5% | 10% | 15% | 20% | 28% | 45% |
- If there's no liquid body within 512 units of distance
| Name | Easy Odds | Normal Odds | Hard Odds | Nightmare Odds | Super Nightmare Odds | Unfair Odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pentagram of Protection | 20% | 19% | 18% | 15% | 12% | 5% |
| Quad Damage | 20% | 19% | 18% | 15% | 12% | 5% |
| Ring of Shadows | 20% | 19% | 18% | 15% | 12% | 5% |
| 100 Health Pack | 15% | 19% | 18% | 20% | 24% | 45% |
| Red Armor Suit | 20% | 19% | 18% | 15% | 12% | 10% |
| A weapon | 5% | 5% | 10% | 20% | 28% | 30% |
Exclusive to Endless Castle Mode, there's a chance that the Powerup will be removed from the level altogether. This applies before calculating the aforementioned odds:
| - | Easy Odds | Normal Odds | Hard Odds | Nightmare Odds | Super Nightmare Odds | Unfair Odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Odds to Remove | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 5% | 10% |
A Red Armor suit is not meant to spawn if there's another suit of armor (regardless of color) up to 512 units away from its center. If it does, then it spawns another powerup (except for a Biosuit) instead.
Preferably, Powerups of the same type will avoid spawning within 512 units of distance from each other. It should only happen when no other powerup or weapon is available for spawning instead.
The odds for which weapon to be spawned are defined below.
If weapon randomization is disabled, the weapon will be replaced by a Quad Damage, or a random Powerup in case proximity checks prevent it.
Every weapon has an even chance to be spawned.
It works as follows:
- The Randomizer creates a "bag" of 6 shuffled weapons (Double-barreled Shotgun, Nailgun, Super Nailgun, Grenade Launcher, Rocket Launcher, Thunderbolt). If the map has been loaded via
changelevel(such as by reaching a map exit), the weapons that were spawned in the previous map will be skipped (prioritizing weapons that the player could not have obtained yet); otherwise, the ones to be skipped will be the weapons the player already owns. - It moves across the "bag" until it finds a weapon that hasn't been spawned or skipped yet and can be spawned in the target location. Having placed the already-owned weapons first, this gives priority to weapons the player isn't currently carrying.
- If it reaches the end of the bag without picking a weapon that can be spawned in the target location*, it spawns a powerup (except for a Biosuit or Red Armor suit) instead.
- If all weapons have spawned, it creates a new "bag", and goes back to Step 2.
The "can be spawned" rule specifically involves that the Thunderbolt can't be spawned inside liquid surfaces, due to the fact it will instantly kill a non-invulnerable player if used in there.
At every point in the weapon "bag", the following odds are calculated:
| Name | Easy Odds | Normal Odds | Hard Odds | Nightmare Odds | Super Nightmare Odds | Unfair Odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A weapon | 97% | 95% | 92% | 89% | 75% | 65% |
| A powerup | 3% | 5% | 8% | 10% | 15% | 20% |
| An Ammo Pack | 0% | 0% | 1% | 5% | 10% | 15% |
The odds for a Powerup only apply if the ability to randomize Powerups is enabled
Exclusive to Endless Castle Mode, there's a chance that the Weapon will be removed from the level altogether. This applies before calculating the aforementioned odds:
| - | Easy Odds | Normal Odds | Hard Odds | Nightmare Odds | Super Nightmare Odds | Unfair Odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Odds to Remove | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 5% | 10% |
When the weapon "bag" is complete, there's a 50% chance to spawn a Powerup (if Powerup randomization is enabled) or an Ammo Pack (if Powerup randomization is disabled) instead of immediately create a new weapon "bag".
Here, the Randomizer just does not care on whether the randomization is fair or not. All convertible objects have the same chance to replace another of the same type, with the exclusive exception that Rotfish can't spawn outside of water surfaces because they wouldn't be able to move.
Have fun!
This mode is disabled by default. Here, all the weapons and ammo pickups are "disguised" as backpacks, so you can't know what you get until you actually get it!
To match the behaviour of ammo crates, Backpacks that only contain ammo can't be picked up if your respective ammo reserves are full.
The mod works as intended, but there are still a bunch of things in the mod that can be done better, which are as follows:
- Give more 'fair' odds for the Biased mode.
- Create forks of this mod in which it can fully work for Scourge of Armagon and Dissolution of Eternity.
- Have the mod use its own, custom cvar instead of
savedgamecfg. - Use a better logic for
UnstuckMonsterandUnstuckObject. Currently, what the game does is reposition the entity in random locations around its starting spot up to 1500 times, and if it can't get the entity unstuck, it either kills it gruesomely (if it's a monster) or removes it from the game (if it's an object). Monsters touching teleporters are excluded from this logic because they are expected to move out of those positions.