• The electricity rune gives you 10 cells rather than 25 again, but it still generates a cell every 5 seconds. Also, you don't get the initial stock of cells at the beginning of each level.
• The message you get when somebody with the teleport shuffle rune switches places with you is "Someone tried to telefrag you!" rather than "Someone stole your place!". I changed it because I was always getting it confused with the switch rune message ("You've switched places!") in the heat of the moment.
• When enforced team mode is switched off the game assigns random colors to everybody. This helps people realize that teams aren't active any more.
• Enforced team mode doesn't assign random shirt colors any more. This helps people figure out that team mode is on much faster.
• You won't get zapped when someone with the electric rune jumps in the water if you're not in water yourself.
• When the action movie arsenal rune gives you a weapon you'll switch to it if appropriate.
• The shambler rune is disabled in team mode, because it isn't team aware yet.
• The server can be set to allow people with the electricity rune to enter the water safely. This is controlled in settings.qc.
• The server can be set to allow rider-hide mode. In this mode a player can choose not to let riders know what armor, health and items he has. By default this is not available, the server has to be configured to allow it. This is controlled in settings.qc.

• I've dropped the new spawn point selection code, the resulting semantics were too problematic. I increased the spawn frag detection radius on the old code when reinstating it.
• Several enforced team mode problems are fixed:
  • Often observers were fragged when joining the game.
  • It was sometimes possible to join the game as an observer without being assigned to a team.
  • Observers are now forced to remain color 0.
• If you picked up the flight rune while standing ankle deep in slime or lava, you wouldn't stop being hurt even though you left the liquid. This is no longer the case.
• The keys aren't copied from a ridee to a rider. This is in anticipation of allowing people to ride observers, but that still doesn't work.
• There's an administrator mode. Currently this allows you to join a full game, and to ride people without their knowing it. You'll need to assign a passcode and recompile if you want to use this feature, see settings.qc in the source distribution
• The game's standard runes (in the last map of each episode) are removed.
• The rider's eyes are moved up a little to work around the problems with seeing when your ridee is in waist deep water (such as looking at the grenade launcher in the Ebon Fortress). This causes the eyes to be visible a little more often, alas.
• The mod's version is appended to the teamplay variable, so that servers running the mod can be spotted programmatically.

• Weapons are placed a little higher rather than blinking when they're charged with ammo. They drop again when somebody taps them. I made this change because I couldn't figure out a way to fix the weapons disappearing bug, but I like this effect better anyway. Thanks to Rubberneck for the idea.
• Teleporters work for observers.
• Impulses work even when you are attacking. Normally Quake ignores impulse commands while you're in the middle of an attack animation (for most weapons) or while you're attacking at all (for the nail and lightning guns). This makes things look a little nicer (for the player, because of the weapon animation, and from the outside, because of the player animation). It causes impulse commands to be lost if more than one is sent to the game before it checks for them, though (only the last one received works). I've changed it so that the game always pays attention to impulse commands, even if you're in the middle of attacking.

  For most people, the most important thing this will affect is that you can use your rune even while attacking. Eg, if you shoot a rocket and then activate the shield rune, the shield will come up immediately rather than waiting until the rocket animation finishes.

  Additionally, if you're using a complex binding scheme to do client side switch firing, it will generally work better because the only time an impulse command is lost is when two are sent in the same game tick. Use the "wait" command to make sure the impulses each arrive in a different tick.

• There's a new server side switch firing system in place to allow easier and more robust quick-rocket and quick-grenade and the like bindings. Eg:

  	      bind s +sattack7	// quick rocket
  	      bind d +sattack6	// quick grenade
  	  

  You can use +sattack1 (axe) through +sattack8 (lightning gun).

• There's a new command, best-weapon, which will make current the best safe weapon for which you've got ammo.
• The idea for server side switch firing came from Expert Quake. Part of what they were trying to solve is mostly fixed by my other impulse command change, but I implemented the switch firing anyway because combined with the best-weapon command it becomes possible never to have to select a weapon manually. If you bind keys for server side quick rockets and quick grenades, then add a binding to best-weapon to use when you enter or leave water, you won't have to manually select weapons again. If you do select a weapon manually, though (eg, to use the single shotgun with the haste rune) the game will leave your selection in place (because I've got it set so that the automatic weapon switching doesn't happen unless you're wielding your best weapon).
• Previously, if you picked up a megahealth box and it didn't put you over your maximum health (such as with the good health rune) it would respawn in 20 seconds. It now respawns in 60 seconds.
• The laser sight and chase cam, which were always buggy and never documented, have been dropped.
• The blue key is properly removed if your rider leaves the game.
• The old bug which caused you to appear to stand still while riding a lift or a moving platform while you had the camo rune is fixed (but note that you are not invisible while on a moving platform).
• The switch rune swaps your armor.
• Sometimes you would connect to the server and yet not be able to pick up certain runes (you'd get the "This was your rune" message). This is fixed.
• The game removes keys from maps (such as the buggy blue key in Hell's Atrium).
• It's easy to customize a number of game settings, including which maps the server will play, by editing the settings.qc file and recompiling. Download the source distribution if you want to do this. Instructions are at the top of the settings.qc file.
• Alternately, you can set NOEXIT_MARLINSPIKE_LEVELS to get the level selection that I use on my servers (regardless of how levels are selected).
• Setting NOEXIT_CHOOSE_BY_NPLAYERS doesn't restrict the levels to those I play on my server any more. Either edit the settings.qc or use NOEXIT_MARLINSPIKE_LEVELS for that.
• Setting NOEXIT_CHOOSE_BY_NPLAYERS without NOEXIT_RANDOMIZE works. The level which is played next is based on how many players there are, but the levels are played in order.
• The levels played by NOEXIT_RANDOMIZE on its own don't repeat until most of them have been played.

• The bug which caused the rocket launcher to be pushed through the floor in the squish room in Hell's Atrium is fixed.
• The spawn spot selection code now chooses the spot which maximizes the distance to the closest player. I intend this to cut down on spawn camping and quick spawn deaths, and to be a better solution for spawn frag protection. The algorithm might need some tweaking, time will tell.

• You don't drop a backpack when you die with the phoenix rune.
• Both the dual teleport and recall runes store the direction you are facing in addition to your position.

• If you're a vampire and you leech up some health after you die (by hurting somebody with a grenade you fired before you died, for example), you come back to life.
• In weapons-stay mode you can get ammo from a weapon even if you already have that type of weapon. The semantics of how much ammo can be gotten from a weapon are just like in normal weapons-respawn mode, except that you can always get the weapon if you don't have it already. The weapons blink if they're charged with ammo.

• You're given a little description of your rune when its name is shown to you.
• The dual recall rune gives you an upward pointing spike over your head, so your opponents will know to try to stay away from you.
• The bug which caused observers to join the game without asking to is fixed.
• The bug which caused kills via explicit use of kamikaze to report the wrong obituary is fixed (as is the obituary message for gravity well kills).

• The rune drop delay is more configurable. It can be set to no delay, 5, 15, 30, 60, 120 or 240 seconds, or set so that you can't drop runes at all. I think that an interesting variation on the game is to disable rune deleting, set random rune models, and set it so you don't drop your rune when you die. I've got the server set this way now, but it isn't permanent.
• The blink rune almost always works, and it won't put you over slime or lava. It has a higher chance of blinking you to somewhere nearby, though, so it still needs work.

• The observer and rider modes are working just about as I'd like. (The main problems remaining are the choppiness and that you can see a pair of eyes if the person you're riding runs backwards.) You can freely switch between playing, observing and riding (though you can only switch from playing when you're dead).
• You start off as an observer with a menu. The menu system contains instructions on how to play the game and a description of the commands. There's a option on the menu which will bind a set of standard keys to the Artifact commands.
• The server defines aliases for the impulse commands when you connect. The current aliases are:
  • rune-use
  • rune-tell
  • rune-delete
  • show-players
  • show-riders
  • fix-angles
  • cam-toggle
  • laser-toggle
  • cam-type
  • show-pos
• It's possible to set the server to limit the number of players in the game. I've set my server to allow only 10 people to play (as it used to be) but Quake will allow 16 people to connect. If you try to join the game while it is full you'll be put into a line of people waiting to play, while you wait you can observe or ride. As soon as somebody who is playing leaves or becomes an observer the first person in line will join the game and everybody else will move up.
• Previously the runes would bunch up on certain maps (such as at the end gate of e2m1), this is fixed.
• There's no "Released from ice trap" message if you're killed while frozen.
• A few weeks ago I added "enforced team mode", but I forgot to mention it here. This is a teamplay mode in which there are either 2 or 3 teams and everybody is required to be on one of them. (My server is still in deathmatch mode most of the time.)
• Some time last week I changed the electricity rune to give you 25 cells rather than 10. I think I'm also going to make it generate cells at about 1 every 5 seconds or so, but that isn't done yet.

Expert fans, I'm sorry to say that the QW server will be switched from Expert to Artifact soon. I've nearly got my Artifact mod generating both Quake and QW progs from the same source, and I'm going to be running the QW version on the server once it is working.

• As a workaround for batman villain syndrome, impulse 95 resets your angles. Use this if it seems that your head is tilted to the side after somebody switches with you or the like. (Another workaround is to use a teleporter.)
• Vertical movement works properly in observer mode.
• There's a new "rider" mode for observers. This allows you to follow players around. Press 2 while an observer (impulse 96) to try it out. Both rider mode and observer mode are still quite buggy. Notably, once you become an observer or a rider you can't switch back until the next level starts. This and other glitches will be fixed.

• Add run-time configuration switches. See the Configuring file for details.
• Parameterize quad replacement, long quad respawn delay, LAN mode, Singe's random level code, non-fatal exit touching, rune cheat mode, rune dropping on death, picking up your own rune, consistent rune models.
• Add optional pentagram replacement, fast rune spawning and long rune drop delay.
• Don't allow the start map hole to appear.
• Improve distribution and prototype handling in Makefile.
• Automatically notice when cvars change rather than checking them only when people spawn.

Late-breaking features and fixes are:

• The motd wasn't always shown to new connections, this is fixed.
• If you have the good health rune you don't lose all your health at the start of a level.
• Maps e3m2 and e3m3 were added to the small rotation, and maps e3m6, e3m7, e4m1 and e4m2 were added to the medium rotation.
• I've increased the recharge time on the shield rune from 5 to 6 seconds. Also, hitting the button a second time while the shield is recharging cancels the pending shield request.
• Trying to exit a level no longer kills you.
• Ice traps and death spots are team-aware.
• There's an observer mode, but it isn't fully functional yet. Use impulse 96 to try it. Be aware that you'll have to reconnect or to wait until the next level to switch back to being a player, and you'll need to use a `down' key to get around properly.

• If you have the shielding rune and you hit the button while it is recharging, it will be activated as soon as it is recharged.
• Previously, if you had one megahealth active and you picked up a second, the second would respawn in 20 seconds. It now respawns in 60 seconds.
• There was a bug which was triggered by killing somebody who had the weirdness rune. The effects varied by what rune you were carrying. Eg, if you had the phoenix rune and you killed somebody who had the weirdness rune, you were given 7 resurrections. This is fixed.

• Runes blink for a few seconds before they disappear.
• If a rune you dropped moves (this happens if it isn't picked up for a minute or two) you'll be able to pick it up.
• You only get the MOTD when you connect. Previously you'd get it at the beginning of every level, too. I also moved the MOTD handling out of the inner loop.

• You were able to get permanent invulnerability with the shielding rune by killing somebody who had a rune while your shields were up. This bug was probably responsible for some other weird behaviors, too. This was introduced on Tuesday. Thanks to the people who helped me with this one, particularly Razor.
• Sometimes you could get megahealth without having it rot. This happened if a level ended while you had a megahealth active. This bug had been around for a while.

In Artifact the shielding rune takes 5 seconds rather than 3 to recharge. The shield still lasts for 3 seconds.

Also in Artifact, both the good health and the vampiric runes will rot your health down to 100 after you drop them.

Artifact bug fixes: Action movie arsenal wouldn't give you the grenade if you already had the rocket, and vampiric was letting you suck your teammate's health.

Both servers are now frag/time limit 30/20 rather than 50/30.

Death spot color tweaked again.

If you die with the radiation rune in an area which is already irradiated you don't drop an additional radiation point.

The phoenix rune is automatically deleted when you use your last resurrection.

The electricity, jumping, gravity, repulsion, shambler and weirdness runes are all team-aware now.

Most team mode bot glitches are fixed, I can turn team mode on and off now and the bots react properly. The runes still don't know anything about team mode.

Runes won't appear in slime anymore.

I also added a grenade launcher to e1m6 (The Door to Chthon) and put that level into the rotation.

• When you die you drop the rune you were using. Incidentally, there was a bug which caused runes on the ground never to move, this is fixed.
• Electricity will not appear in water.
• Radiation doesn't hurt you if you placed it or if you have the radiation rune. If you placed it and you have the radiation rune it heals you.
• Another bug fix: The environmental protection rune doesn't cancel megahealth.

I installed Deathray's rune-drop-cancellation idea.

I fixed the spawn frag protection.

The firewalking, death orb, spiky cloud, impact and gravity runes all give you 1 frag per kill instead of 2.

I upped the vampiric health rot rate from 2x to 5x.