Weapons Factory

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The Weapons Factory (also abbreviated as WF) is a series of video game capture the flag class-based mods, originally created for Quake II by brothers Tom "Tumorhead" Reno and Gregg "Headache" Reno. It since has had several incarnations (six plus three currently in development) on most of the predominant FPS games released since 1998 (in the Quake, Unreal, Half-Life and Tribes series).

The Weapons Factory is partly based on the Team Fortress mod for QuakeWorld. Its idea sprung when Quake II was announced but the Team Fortress development team decided to join Valve Software and work on a Half-Life sequel to the mod instead of a Quake II one.^[1] It consists of two teams of six players each who can choose between seven to ten classes of combatants (depending on the incarnation of WF) each having their own specificities and special abilities, amongst which is a grappling hook (Weapons Factory's signature).

Contents 1 In the Quake Series 1.1 Weapons Factory (Quake II) 1.1.1 History 1.1.2 Facts & Community 1.1.2.1 Community 1.1.2.2 Competition 1.2 Weapons Factory Arena (Quake III Arena) 1.2.1 History 1.2.2 Facts & Community 1.2.2.1 Community 1.2.2.2 Competition 1.3 Weapons Factory: Fusion (Quake II & III) 1.4 Weapons Factory Revolution (Quake IV) 2 In the Half-Life Series 2.1 Half-Life Weapons Factory 2.2 Weapons Factory 2 (Half-Life 2) 3 In the Unreal Tournament Series 3.1 Weapons Factory Unreal Tournament 3.2 WF 2003 (Unreal Tournament 2003) & WF: Evolution (Unreal Tournament 2004) 3.3 Weapons Factory: EVO (Unreal Tournament 2007) 4 In the Tribes Series 5 References 6 External links

[edit] In the Quake Series

[edit] Weapons Factory (Quake II)

[edit] History

Gregg Reno started programming Weapons Factory (WF or Q2WF) as an experiment to learn how to create a Quake 2 mod while his brother started looking at how to build maps.^[2] Weapons Factory was the first CTF-type mod to be released (on March 6, 1998), only two days after Zoid's Q2 CTF source was published^[3] and as such got some press and early success. They soon decided to merge with another mod, Star Troopers by John "Cryect" Rittenhouse on May 1, 1998,^[4] which had a vast arsenal of weapons that WF lacked. The initial versions of WF featuring only three classes (notably version 2.1b, the "merger" one), they had to bring this number up to six (final beta version 2.2^[5]) and then nine (version 3.0^[6]) simply to have somebody to give the weapons to.^[7] In that configuration, it fulfilled their goal of creating something close to a Team Fortress for Quake II.^[8]

Along with the Weapons Factory, Gregg Reno introduced a new technology for mod makers, the Mod Construction Kit^[9] (also abbreviated as the MOCK) released with WF version 3.0. The MOCK is an user-friendly tool that lets one modify the number of classes and their attributes (such as health, armor, weapons...) from the original WF. It also allowed WF to keep the three (team3) and six (team6) classes configurations available for the community along with the now standard nine (team9), even if those were less successful.

Later in the development of the mod, the project of a tenth class was considered. The original idea was of a powerful class that would spawn only in the losing team. Later this last bit was dropped but the Mercenary class indeed saw light with WF version 4.0 released on January 19, 1999.^[10] However, the class being considered too powerful along with some bugs & server crashing problems on versions 4.0 and 4.1 prevented those to be successful releases. Most of the community carried on playing the previous version (3.3) until a more stable 4.21 was released.

Nevertheless, the community started growing thinner at this point. The coming of next generation games Quake III Arena, Unreal Tournament and the Development team beginning work on sequel projects WFA, WFUT and Tribes WF marks the end of the mass appealing period for Quake2's Weapons Factory mod.

The last version developed by the original Development team, Weapons Factory version 4.25, was released on September 27, 1999.^[11]

[edit] Facts & Community

In Quake II, CTF introduces the idea of teamplay but everybody is the same. The Weapons Factory goes further with the use of player classes that lets people specialize. Now players feel they are part of a real team where they need to depend on each other because one can't do everything alone. The Weapons Factory for Quake II features up to ten different classes : Arsonist, Cyborg, Engineer, Gunner, Marine, Mercenary, Nurse, Recon, Sniper and Spy. Some are primarily Offensive minded (Recon, Cyborg, Spy, Arsonist) when others are more Defensive (Gunner, Engineer, Sniper, Nurse). Only the Marine and Mercenary are pretty balanced between offensive and defensive efficiency.

[edit] Community

Like in most of the Quake II mods the community played an important role in the direction Weapons Factory took. Several community websites such as Gun Dreams or WF Direct were widely followed and lots of community maps were submitted. Aside from Tumorhead's, Lunitari, B=Ware and Odalisque's maps were very successful. They joined the Development team in the process.

[edit] Competition

Most of the competition in Weapons Factory took place in the OGL (Online Gaming League) WF ladder. The internet connections at the time and network code flexibilities of Quake II allowed for North American and European players and clans to play in the same competition against each other (which hasn't been possible since). The rest of the competition happened in the DEF-CON league which was a tournament format. Late in the mod's life, an European league (WFEL) was created. A couple of smaller scale tourneys were also organised, like Solicitor's Invite Yourself Weapons Factory Tournament or the Relentless Assault Invitational Tournament.

[edit] Weapons Factory Arena (Quake III Arena)

[edit] History

Since the release of Q3Test (in May 1999), the Weapons Factory Development team was considering a port of the mod to Quake II's sequel Quake III Arena. However, when the game is released on December 2, 1999 and work on Weapons Factory Arena (WFA) really starts, Tumorhead drops from the team soon followed by his brother Headache. Harvi "Acrid" Wray then takes the lead of the project. The first beta of the mod is released on May 20, 2000, featuring eight classes, the nurse being implemented later in the development process. Finally WFA version 1.0 is officially released online on July 26, 2000 and is featured on the September 2000 issue of the popular gaming magazine PC GAMER.

Acrid worked on WFA up to version 2.9 and then decided to leave and work on another Quake III mod, True Combat. Fellow programmer Shayne "Static" Uhr took his succession as the Development team Leader. Static managed the work on version 3.0 where his first priority was the balance of the game. This version also implemented a particles system similar to the Quake II one. It was released on January 12, 2002.

The next version focused on graphical enhancement. The WFA Development team pushed the boundaries of the four years old Quake III engine to bring it up on par with more recent technologies and added new visual effects such as sky portals or bump mapping. The team also worked in close collaboration with Randy "Ydnar" Reddig, creator of the Q3MAP2 technology, a tool notably used to enhance the lighting compilation in maps. It resulted in versions 3.5 and then 3.5b, released on January 15, 2003 which is the last official version of Weapons Factory Arena.

[edit] Facts & Community

In Weapons Factory Arena, there are nine different classes of players : Arsonist, Assassin, Cyborg, Engineer, Gunner, Marine, Nurse, Recon and Sniper. The Assassin replaced the Spy and has new abilities such as Cloaking or Back Stabbing. The Mercenary class was left out for understandable reasons.

[edit] Community

The success of WFA wasn't as wide as its predecessor's but it still had an important following and a very dedicated community. Gun Dreams and WF Direct were still running even if the latter changed from being a community website to being more of a 'community maps' database. To those two websites, we can add wfamaps.com, wfa.us, wfa-europe.net, and the ever popular (to this day) Planetice Forums.

[edit] Competition

With the improvement of internet connections and the network requirements of this new generation of games, it wasn't possible to have intercontinental matches in fair conditions anymore. The OGL league still existed but was less popular than in the Q2WF times. The community split in two and a real European community saw light. The American community moved from the OGL to the STA (Stronger Than All) league which had a two ladders format, the silver and the gold (more competitive) divisions.

In Europe, the community settled in the massive online competitions website Clanbase and had a two divisions league format with seasons (went on for eight of them).

[edit] Weapons Factory: Fusion (Quake II & III)

[edit] Weapons Factory Revolution (Quake IV)

When Doom 3 was released Static decided to port WF to the latest id Software platform. The WFA Development team was reunited along with the help of some old time players to work on a new incarnation of WF, Weapons Factory Revolution (WFR). However as time went by, it became more and more obvious that Doom 3 wasn't the suitable platform the team initially thought it would be. The game was obviously directed towards single player and wasn't optimized at all for multiplayer. The poor network code and per-poly collision detection of weapon hits didn't allow for enjoyable online playing experience (besides the fact Weapons Factory is already pretty demanding in terms of network traffic).
The team then decided to switch games and work on the Quake 4 platform (due late 2005), which focuses a lot more on the multiplayer aspect of the game. The recent showcase of Quake 4's multiplayer at Quakecon 2005 seems to prove the team right.

The WFR mod is currently in development.

[edit] In the Half-Life Series

[edit] Half-Life Weapons Factory

[edit] Weapons Factory 2 (Half-Life 2)

[edit] In the Unreal Tournament Series

[edit] Weapons Factory Unreal Tournament

Around the same time Weapons Factory was ported to Quake III Arena, another team (headed by Shane "Col. Kassad" Brennan) did their own unique conversion of WF on the Unreal Tournament engine which was rising in popularity. Weapons Factory Unreal Tournament (WFUT) took the classes and weapons from the Quake II version and adapted them to the Unreal style of gameplay, in addition to being inspired by MegaTF. WFUT gathered a popular following of Unreal Tournament players and a large clan community took form. It had a significant rivalry with the Unreal Fortress mod (another class based mod for Unreal Tournament) although the development teams for both mods supported each other.

There were several major changes to the Unreal Tournament version that helped made it unique from the other WF mods. The grappling hook was replaced with a translocator that used limited ammo and was given to all the classes. The standard Quake II weapons were replaced by Unreal Tournament versions with the custom WF weapons now having alt-fire modes. The grenades were thrown "offhand" in the same manner as in MegaTF instead of being used as weapons. In addition, while the classes suffered only minor changes to their weapon loadout and special abilities, the major change was the Mercenary class being replaced by the Demoman class. The Demoman had a pipebomb launcher and explosive tripmines but neither the Stinger missile launcher nor the controversial AK-47 rifle.

Although the development of WFUT has stopped due to real life conflicts, it can still be downloaded (click here). While it never officially got past being a beta version, the mod is still considered quite complete.

[edit] WF 2003 (Unreal Tournament 2003) & WF: Evolution (Unreal Tournament 2004)

After the WFUT mod stopped further development, Unreal Tournament's successor, Unreal Tournament 2003 was released on September 27, 2002. A group of WFUT clan members headed by Dave "demonrage" Steinhauer and "WackMF" started work on the UT2003 version of Weapons Factory, obviously called Weapons Factory 2003 (WF2003). They started with a web site where they posted updates to the development of the mod while the WF community discussed ideas and suggestions in the forums and on an IRC channel. There were many disputes if WF2003 should be a remake of WFUT or WFA since the emerging community was composed of fans of both mods. After a while, with the lack of updates from the development team, interest for WF2003 died out and the website no longer exists though it's still listed on the Weapons Factory main page.

After WF2003 was ended, the Unreal Fortress: Evolution mod team recruited some people from WF2003 to help work on the Team Fortress port for UT2003 and later UT2004. In addition to UnF:Evolution, a side project called Weapons Factory: Evolution (WF:E) was initiated, and was being worked on by some members of the development team. However, after UnF: Evolution was put on hold due to real life issues, it was decided that WF: E would be continued on its own for Unreal Tournament 2007 instead.

[edit] Weapons Factory: EVO (Unreal Tournament 2007)

Originally intended for UT2004, Weapons Factory: EVO will take popular gametypes from Unreal Tournament 2007, such as CTF & Onslaught, and add in the Weapons Factory style of gameplay. It is mostly based on WFUT with some elements from other WF mods including the original Quake 2 version. A new class, the Mech, will replace the WFUT Demoman. Not only will the Mech have pipebomb/grenade lauchers & tripmines that the Demoman had, but also an automatic rifle and a missile launcher (AVRiL) that the Q2WF Mercenary used. Vehicles will also be supported as each class will also have a "vehicle killing" weapon in order to maintain balance.

The WF:EVO mod is currently in development.

[edit] In the Tribes Series

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Weapons Factory for Quake II
• Weapons Factory Arena for Quake III
• Weapons Factory Revolution for Quake 4
• Weapons Factory Fusion
• Weapons Factory 2 for Half-Life 2
• Weapons Factory for Unreal Tournament
• Weapons Factory: Evolution for Unreal Tournament 2004 (Defunct)
• Planetice Forums
• BioSentral Q2WF Forums