A rather unorthodox question, I know, but: what would be the recommended Quake engine to use if I wanted to play Quake on OS X with a gamepad? 

Eh... I agree with Kinn. Most Blizzard wanabe companies follow that business model, and the kids working there don't know any better.

Building your own company is the only way to break the cycle really, unless you get lucky and find a company with morals. Like Bal says, they do exist although sometimes it can seem like an urban myth.

So... if you are thinking about getting into the games industry, think about it very carefully and make sure you know which role you're aiming for beforehand. Talk to some real devs about it who can dispel the bullshit hearsay.

Games can be a meat grinder - it's big business, with all that is implied by the phrase. 

This is referring to a discussion that spawned out of the Mapping Help thread. Sorry for jumping in on this thread!

It's difficult to address the concept of Shamblers, Fiends or Vores in base-themed maps in Quake. Certainly, in the base game, there's no precedent for it. The only enemies that appear in the e*m1 maps are rottweilers, grunts and enforcers. The story certainly does nothing to preclude anything else being sent through, though.

However, there is precedent for base enemies to appear outside of their theme, although it's only slight. Grunts make an appearance in e1m2, mixed in with their fantasy-themed compatriots.

So, can otherworld-themed enemies be used in base? Of course they can. Is it appropriate to do so, however?

If you want to be strict about it, no. Canonically, they never make an appearance in the base game of Quake. That said, rules like that are often subverted, both in the canon and outside of it. In the official mission pack, Scourge of Armagon, the entire first episode was base themed, as opposed to the first mission, as had been the case in the original game's four episodes. I could go on, but it would be simply repeating the same point again and again.

Obviously what goes into a map is the creator's discretion. I just hope this post describes my position on the issue well enough. 

"An enemy codenamed Quake, is using his own slipgates to insert death
squads inside our bases to kill, steal, and kidnap.. 

"The story certainly does nothing to preclude anything else being sent through, though."

Just because the only "death squad" members that were sent through were three different types of troop, it doesn't mean they can't send anything else. They apparently just didn't choose to, it seems. 

When you say troops, I'm assuming you refer to enforcers, grunts and their dogs. Those weren't sent through, they were zombified on spot by the actual death squads. All this happened in the backstory, not in-game. You never get to meet the invaders in military bases because you're one step behind and they've already left. Though unofficial, Nehahra did a pretty good job at telling this backstory. That said, nothing prevents you from creating a base map in which the invaders are still here. For me, it would beat including semi-bosses who seem to have lost the way back to Stroggos. 

Of course, to each their own, and not everyone has to like everything yadda yadda...

It's a good point to mention that the player is "one step behind" in the first mission of an episode. It wasn't something that had really crossed my mind, but that's more a fault with Quake's plot "delivery" (is it even fair to call it that?) and my own poor memory than any of the actual evidence.

One wonders though what that original invading force would have looked like. I can't imagine many of the enemies we see in the game being a part of an invading force. I suppose the knights would be the ground troops? Or zombies, or ogres...

This is all very subjective. Very, very subjective... I think I'd rather go back to not caring much about the lore and just existing in a simple FPS playpen with "bad guys". 

Shamblers, Fiends or Vores can be scientific experimentation creatures. They fit into base theme 

 

It's more likely than you think! 

That's an interesting take on it. So many fresh ideas! now I want to go put a shambler in a cage... 

Yes, I was referring to the Edie Pritchard and I were talking about earlier in the mapping help thread. 

Well in Nehahra, pretty much everyone except the bosses show their mugs.

If I'm not mistaken, the "story" in the game manual does touch upon the fact that you arrive too late to save your fellow soldiers.

Of course, you're perfectly entitled to ignore all this, as the scenario was never relevant to the game itself. But it is there nonetheless, for those who want to pay attention to it.

Bottom line: do as you want. Quake with Edies is still better than no Quake at all. I must say I do like yhe1's idea, if you really feel like pursuing it. 

HTH. 

Granted, medieval knights look a bit out of place in a futuristic setting, but since you travel to their world, why couldn't they do the same like the rest of Shub's army? 

Granted, mechanical ogres look a bit out of place in a medieval setting, but since you travel to their world, why couldn't they do the same like the rest of Shub's army? 

Imagine a base on a planet. Shamblers, vores and fiends could be fauna in the surroundings. 

...but it's hard to make good looking flora in Quake. 

not "hard" per se, but totally off-limits in any way i'd say.

Get Quakespasm to render 10000k* of polys smoothly, and we talk again.

*thats 10 mega polys actually, so ten million at a time.

Where is Baker when we need him? 

i forgot my pw long ago. 

Mark V supports "fence" textures on models. Good for leafy stuff.

You could do a lot of cool vegetation stuff with that at fairly low polycounts. 

Latest Quakespasm supports gamepads on osx, should just work. there are some config options in the readme 

I agree it's impossible to expect "modern" foliage in quake, but I've often wondered what's stopped people from using the methods people actually used in the era around when it came out (and for quite a while after)?

I'm thinking something like this, which I could see as being achievable with mods that allow loading custom models. Has anyone tried this method? 

Yes, I intend to do it in my ex-jam7 entry.