This is a fan-made overhaul mod for the popular 1997 MALICE total conversion for Quake. Included are a combination of bugfixes, adjustments for modern Quake ports, enhanced mapping features, added visual effects, and gameplay tweaks that should make MALICE a less frustrating but still challenging experience.
An initial public test release of MALICE REFINED.
Based on the unofficial patch found here: Moddb.com
Simply install as any other Quake mod. Ironwail or vkQuake are the recommended sourceports.
DO NOT install over an existing Malice installation, as PAK files will overwrite the loose files in this installation.
Gameplay, Fixes, and Presentation:
game no longer changes player FOV
shell casings wait upwards of 10x longer before despawning and have different physics underwater
various enemies will now eject shell casings
various hitscan weapons now have tracers, bulletholes, water splash effects, and underwater bubble trail effects
fixed 'trigger in clipping list' crash
scuba gear will no longer be picked up if your air level is already at 9
enemy health scaling by skill removed and replaced with +10% faster think rate per skill level and various behavior changes
both shotguns now don't consume double the expected number of shells, and spreads are biased towards the center
explosive barrel health reduced from 120 to 40 to be actually worth shooting
exploding barrels now bounce slightly before exploding like Doom
fixed issues with various multimodel enemies having their upper halves disappear (may need more testing)
fixed issue with the Uzi and Minigun always ejecting an extra casing when stopping firing
ALL enemy idle frames now call AI functions (there were gaps before), negating the potential for awkward delays in reacting to the player
"damn plant" commentary on shooting office plants now actually comes from the player instead of the plant (lol) and has a cooldown
moveable crate adjustments
should be less likely to phase through other objects
can now be pushed up gentle inclines
can now ride on plats and trains if flat on them when activated
now use MDL models for proper lighting
implemented the cutsceneonly footstep sound effect for the player during gameplay
added 2 slight variations that are randomly selected from
less volume the slower you're moving
player run animation rate is based on movement speed
reloading and pistol idle animations (in firstperson) are now no longer interrupted by jumping and other thirdperson animations
loading a game now correctly sets all cvars that previously required the start of a new game
modern always run settings should now work as expected
fixed an issue with the player falling animation not playing, and increased its threshold from 300 vertical speed to 200
parachute can now be manually deactived midair, but with a cooldown before it can be used again
rats no longer count as monsters for the counter or AI activation
implemented fix for vanilla Quake bug where fish count twice on the monster counter
disco ball model adjusted to not be offcenter and now glows
various hitscan weapons will now have visible bulletholes and tracers
implemented unused ricochet sound with variations
deathmatch spawning is more random instead of spawns just being checked sequentially
this comes with a hard limit of 128 deathmatch spawns per level
rain now splashes on liquid
dancer adjustments
bounding box reduced to a sensible size to prevent getting stuck
will turn to face a player who recently bumped into them
siren adjustments
now have a skin change when activating
can now be broken when shot because they're fucking annoying
monster_swat adjustments
weapon is now hitscan, but aim lags behind player movement
may now attempt to back away from the player if too close
monster_banshee adjustments
health increased from 1300 to 2000
monster_torcher adjustments
now fires a series of sprite flames instead of a single projectile
flames have predictable physics on surfaces and float upwards a bit before despawning
switched 'melee' and 'missile' attacks
monster_turret adjustments
model modified to look like it should hang
now hangs from ceilings without help of clip brushes
hitbox adjusted to fit better
will swivel to face the player instead of aimbotting
new barrel spin and muzzle flash animation
monster_hunter adjustments
run speed increased by 25% since it's the same animation as walking
footestep noises now play on the walking animation also
shooting animation has a chance to play from the opposite side
chance to start shooting per step increases with skill level
monster_rider adjustments
burst attack fires more shots with increased skill level
burst attack is no longer attempted if the player is not in front
upper body has a slightly higher maximum turn angle per skill level
now attempts to lead shots
laser projectiles are slightly faster
health increased from 600 to 1000
monster_probe adjustments
body model edited to have matching frames with turret model (prevents console warning)
will now attempt to circlestrafe when within 256 units of the target
monster_bara adjustments
damage range slightly increased
will now attempt to keep distance from other enemies to prevents multiple fish from 'stacking' in one spot
monster_merc adjustments
various 'fake' (audio only) attack frames now actually shoot
teleportation 'walking' has the potential to go a bit further
teleporting now has a cooldown to prevent it awkwardly chaining in place of shooting
on skill 2 or above, will now attempt to teleport to a location behind the player at the end of their teleport 'walk'
location is based on 'breadcrumb' entities the player AND merc babes occasionally leave behind
monster_riot adjustments
lunge attack has slightly more range with increased skill level
on skill 2 or above, may now throw a 'flashbang' at the player while closing distance
this briefly makes the screen white, slows horizontal movement, and make a loud ringing noise
hoverboard item adjustments
hovering over water should be *slightly* less awkward to navigate (fucking Quake 1 physics man)
jumping while hovering over water will now perform a normal jump first instead of the midair boost
minisub vehicle adjustments
seperate health pool from the player
can now be destroyed, even while unoccupied
sends debris flying around
attached torpedos will float away and detonate on touch
ammo count now displays available torpedos
now bobs up and down on the surface of water
no longer sinks if exited underwater
enhanced torpedo think/tracking function
tracking now requires a target that is actually in front of the torpedo
homing is more gradual
punisher weapon adjustments
no longer damages the firing player, and can be used to safely (fall damage aside) 'rocket' jump like the Vasquez bots do
projectile now uses the minlight effect
direct hit damage increased from 60 to 100
direct hits now knockback enemies considerably
mortar weapon adjustments
flame entities now have a size of '0 0 0' but use MOVETYPE_BOUNCEMISSILE instead of MOVETYPE_BOUNCE
this gives them a larger hitbox vs the player and enemies and prevents them from glitching through walls
flames last slightly longer
explosion causes large bursting bubble underwater
projectile will exhibit different physics underwater
the occasional 'misfire' after shooting the weapon now prints "Misfire!" to the player to make it obvious that it's not a bug
pistol weapon adjustments
fire a single hitscan instead of 6
small amount of spread with continued fire
rocket launcher weapon adjustments
explosion causes a large bursting bubble underwater
rocket velocity decreases underwater
air bubbles will vary in scale if playing on a source port that supports it
Development and Mapping:
numerous QC compiler and developer mode console warnings fixed (still some lingering console warnings)
FGD now includes various modern compiler settings (from Progs Dump 3)
the following entities have been added or upgraded to their Violent Rumble / Progs Dump 3 equivalents:
misc_model
misc_sparks
func_newplat
func_rain (an upgraded version of the just 'rain' entity that is now hidden, but still in code for compatibility)
func_breakable (exploding_object now hidden, but still in code)
func_indexmodel (used by breakable to create inmap debris models)
func_explobox
func_particlefield
func_togglewall
func_counter
func_oncount
trigger_ladder
trigger_monsterface
trigger_look
air_bubbles has the following new settings:
wait: time before bubbles despawn
speed: vertical velocity of bubbles
delay: time between spawning bubbles (this has a small random value added to it)
lip: turbulence multiplier
fan_turbine now has a 'speed' multiplier setting
sirens can be triggered
new entity: fish_school
spawns an ambient, dynamic school of fish to swim around the level
3 presets controlled by the 'style' key: bass, clownfish, and pufferfish
various other settings to control size, spawning, and behavior
new enemy: monster_minisub
must be placed in water
fires torpedos, but they only lockon to a player if they're in a minisub
torpedo homing power increases with skill level
will revert to an idle state if targeted player has left water
upon taking over 50 damage from a single hit, has a chance to spin out of control briefly
will attempt to keep distance from other subs
will circle strafe the player if close enough and the player is visible, but will back away without firing if too close
on skill 2 or above, will actively attempt to dodge player torpedos
new item: weapon_44
gives the player a second pistol, enabling a greater rate of fire and double the shots before needing to reload
Known Issues
turrets in last level will act odd if the player has yet to jump down from the spawn point
rocket launcher readying animation can still be interrupted by thirdperson animations (though does not affect gameplay)
Ironwail has poor performance relative to vkQuake with many fish and/or bullet tracers active at once (may depend on hardware, needs testing)
vkQuake may occasionally give a warning that the dual .44 pistol weaponmodel has an extremely large negative frame
I just wanted to say that this is awesome, and it is wonderful to Malice get the love it needs. Maybe this is the start of a wonderful new era of potential Malice maps
Also that new map is friggin stellar.
Thank you. I doubt this will cause a big outburst of Malice mapping, but hopefully a few maps will trickle out over the coming years. Mostly I want to give a less janky, 'what if Malice had more time in the oven' experience to both old fans, and those who may have stumbled across it more recently but couldn't really get into it.
You never know. At the very least it will lead to a burst of maps from me lmao.
A progs_dump version for Malice has been something I wanted for Malice for a long time, and finally having a significantly better toolset with the mod is an absolute godsend.
Also wished I knew about this earlier before starting the Malice mapping jam. This could have been the perfect set of progs to stress test with it.
I'll probably make a few more maps myself as more features are added in order to test and show them off. CSQC HUD and options for toggling some of the new stuff (tracers, bulletholes, etc.) are next though and will take a while.
I've been working on this on and off since November and only really posted about it on 4chan's retro game board since there's a lot of guys into obscure shooters and mods over there. I actually only found out there is a Malice jam a few days ago because someone on there asked if I'm you (and I just now made the connection with your name). lol
Fortunately, any vanilla Malice map should be completely compatible with this mod, so I guess people can choose to play maps from the jam with it or not.