Hey Champions!

You've been asking us questions, and we've compiled some of the top ones from this week to answer! You can find previous Q&A threads on the official Bethesda.net forums here:

Ask Us Anything - September 1
Livestream Q&A Answers

[Questions answered by Lead Designer Adam Pyle]

Q: Are you going to rework some of the rune challenges? Some of them are very difficult, especially for new players. Other challenges require insane luck.
A:Yes, absolutely. While it was great to get the Rune System out there to introduce it to players, we plan on going over all of the existing challenges and making adjustments. Some challenges will have their goals adjusted, while others may be replaced entirely.

Will there be more passive ability focus on mobility? (Like wall jump, crouch slide, etc.)
I think we will continue our current trend of having a mix of passives, some that provide movement mechanics, others than provide gameplay buffs. We certainly have a few Champions slated for next year with movement passives.

Visor’s passive, Full Sprint, is not too useful due to his slow acceleration, especially with small maps. Its uniqueness is also lessened since every character can break their speed cap by rocket/tri-bolt boosting. Will you look at retooling his passive to better match his kit?
I don’t anticipate changing his passive or adding a new passive ability to Visor. We have some changes coming in the next couple of update that will make his active ability more effective. We’d like to see how Visor plays after making those changes before looking at further changes, but I would be more tempted to increase his acceleration, causing him to make better use of his passive, than change the passive itself.

When will Tim Willits be a playable character?
We don’t foresee making Tim or any other developers Champions. We have so many Champions right now that we’d like to get into the game.

Are there any ideas for maps with volumetric fog?
Ideas? Sure. But nothing we're going to capitalize on yet. A lot of players dislike heavy fog maps, and we probably need a lot more maps in our library before we brand out into those.

Are we going to get fast weapon switch?
Not sure. If it ever is desirable for one of our upcoming modes then we may add the feature and make it available as a Custom Game option, but we probably won’t pursue it until such time.

Will there be a chainsaw skin for the Gauntlet?
We’d love to have one eventually, but it may present some technical challenges that prevent us from doing so immediately. We would have to build a lot of new animations to support custom melee weapons.

Do you plan to add an option for raw mouse input?
I would like to eventually add raw mouse input.

Any new info on customizing crosshairs?
No new info yet. I reviewed some crosshair work last week while visiting Saber, but most of this work is planned for October and November.

How is progress going on the zoom sensitivity slider?
We’re slated to work on those features in October for release later this year.

Can we expect quality of life additions like the client remembering data center choices?
Yes, this is another one of those features we’re tackling in October for a release later this year.

Can we have the option to disable chat completely to avoid toxic players?
Perhaps, although I would personally prefer just the ability to mute or report such player behavior so that we may address the issue at hand.

Can we get shaders for our names? I want my colored name back from Q3A!
We’ll discuss it, but there are currently no plans right now for colored names. While they were fun, I actually prefer the clarity gained from being able to have team colored names in UI and chat, and colored names either interfere with that, or you have to choose only select places to display those colored names.

Do you have any information you can share about how ranked will work? Are there different divisions? Will there be different ranks for each ranked mode? (A player having one ranking for Duel, one for TDM, etc.?)
Currently there are 5 divisions, with room to expand if needed. Players will be able to see their division in all modes, and in ranked play players will see their division rank as well as their MMR value.

Will Custom Game allow us to adjust things like champion stats, item pickup placements, respawn/ability timers?
While Custom Game does have a lot of planned features, we don’t plan for players to be able to make these adjustments in Custom Game.

Can you talk about what each developer works on for Quake Champions? Specifically, what does id Software do, and what does Saber Interactive do?
That's not an easy question to answer! We have a lot of developers at both Saber and id. The bulk of design direction comes straight from id, and a lot of the art and programming is done at Saber. But in all cases, we have people at both studios doing work. There's no single part of the game - level design, character creation, programming, animation - that we can point to as being 100% developed by one studio or the other. It's a collaboration.

Hey Champions!

You've been asking us questions, and we've compiled some of the top ones from this week to answer! You can find previous Q&A threads on the official Bethesda.net forums here:

Ask Us Anything - September 1
Livestream Q&A Answers

[Questions answered by Lead Designer Adam Pyle]

Q: Are you going to rework some of the rune challenges? Some of them are very difficult, especially for new players. Other challenges require insane luck.
A:Yes, absolutely. While it was great to get the Rune System out there to introduce it to players, we plan on going over all of the existing challenges and making adjustments. Some challenges will have their goals adjusted, while others may be replaced entirely.

Will there be more passive ability focus on mobility? (Like wall jump, crouch slide, etc.)
I think we will continue our current trend of having a mix of passives, some that provide movement mechanics, others than provide gameplay buffs. We certainly have a few Champions slated for next year with movement passives.

Visor’s passive, Full Sprint, is not too useful due to his slow acceleration, especially with small maps. Its uniqueness is also lessened since every character can break their speed cap by rocket/tri-bolt boosting. Will you look at retooling his passive to better match his kit?
I don’t anticipate changing his passive or adding a new passive ability to Visor. We have some changes coming in the next couple of update that will make his active ability more effective. We’d like to see how Visor plays after making those changes before looking at further changes, but I would be more tempted to increase his acceleration, causing him to make better use of his passive, than change the passive itself.

When will Tim Willits be a playable character?
We don’t foresee making Tim or any other developers Champions. We have so many Champions right now that we’d like to get into the game.

Are there any ideas for maps with volumetric fog?
Ideas? Sure. But nothing we're going to capitalize on yet. A lot of players dislike heavy fog maps, and we probably need a lot more maps in our library before we brand out into those.

Are we going to get fast weapon switch?
Not sure. If it ever is desirable for one of our upcoming modes then we may add the feature and make it available as a Custom Game option, but we probably won’t pursue it until such time.

Will there be a chainsaw skin for the Gauntlet?
We’d love to have one eventually, but it may present some technical challenges that prevent us from doing so immediately. We would have to build a lot of new animations to support custom melee weapons.

Do you plan to add an option for raw mouse input?
I would like to eventually add raw mouse input.

Any new info on customizing crosshairs?
No new info yet. I reviewed some crosshair work last week while visiting Saber, but most of this work is planned for October and November.

How is progress going on the zoom sensitivity slider?
We’re slated to work on those features in October for release later this year.

Can we expect quality of life additions like the client remembering data center choices?
Yes, this is another one of those features we’re tackling in October for a release later this year.

Can we have the option to disable chat completely to avoid toxic players?
Perhaps, although I would personally prefer just the ability to mute or report such player behavior so that we may address the issue at hand.

Can we get shaders for our names? I want my colored name back from Q3A!
We’ll discuss it, but there are currently no plans right now for colored names. While they were fun, I actually prefer the clarity gained from being able to have team colored names in UI and chat, and colored names either interfere with that, or you have to choose only select places to display those colored names.

Do you have any information you can share about how ranked will work? Are there different divisions? Will there be different ranks for each ranked mode? (A player having one ranking for Duel, one for TDM, etc.?)
Currently there are 5 divisions, with room to expand if needed. Players will be able to see their division in all modes, and in ranked play players will see their division rank as well as their MMR value.

Will Custom Game allow us to adjust things like champion stats, item pickup placements, respawn/ability timers?
While Custom Game does have a lot of planned features, we don’t plan for players to be able to make these adjustments in Custom Game.

Can you talk about what each developer works on for Quake Champions? Specifically, what does id Software do, and what does Saber Interactive do?
That's not an easy question to answer! We have a lot of developers at both Saber and id. The bulk of design direction comes straight from id, and a lot of the art and programming is done at Saber. But in all cases, we have people at both studios doing work. There's no single part of the game - level design, character creation, programming, animation - that we can point to as being 100% developed by one studio or the other. It's a collaboration.

Hey everybody,

We've just finished deploying a minor update for Quake Champions and resolved the following issues:

• Improvements made to mitigate players getting stuck in rematch if most participants have declined it
  
• Fix: DOOM Slayer's Thak Rune Challenge can now be completed
  
• Fix: Podium crash that would rarely occur
  
• Removed: Lore scrolls drop in Duel

Thanks!

Hey everybody,

We've just finished deploying a minor update for Quake Champions and resolved the following issues:

• Improvements made to mitigate players getting stuck in rematch if most participants have declined it
  
• Fix: DOOM Slayer's Thak Rune Challenge can now be completed
  
• Fix: Podium crash that would rarely occur
  
• Removed: Lore scrolls drop in Duel

Thanks!

Hello everyone!

We're just rounding out our third week in Early Access, and we wanted to give you an update of our ongoing progress on making Quake Champions an amazing, multiplayer arena shooter experience. Our players have had a lot of feedback and questions that we've been reading, and on today's Developer Livestream, id Software Studio Director Tim Willits and Design Manager Adam Pyle answered many of the important comments and issues you've brought up. If you'd like to watch the Video on Demand of the stream, you can find it here:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/173305221

We've also transcribed the questions and answers for you below. Look forward to more Q&A sessions from the team soon!
--------------------


Updates since QuakeCon
Our current focus is on getting the backend fixed up, getting more solid and consistent performance going. We should have a patch going out next week (if it passes QA) that contains a number of bug fixes and performance updates.

Development Process
When we architected the network code, we designed it for every system we could, but a game that's as complex as this, with worldwide servers, multiple ISPs, and millions of PC configurations connecting, we do run into issues. Our process is then to identify the problem, think of the solution, test it internally, and release it into the wild, all of which takes time.

Your experience online really is the entire game, so if you feel the game is rubber-banding, or your ping fluctuates, we're actively trying to fix those issues and we'll continue to make improvements over time. A lot of comments about "netcode" are a bucket of events and issues that get lumped together, and there isn't "one big fix," but we're actively breaking down those issues and working to identify their solutions.

When will Early Access end?
When we feel we're ready. We're committed to ensuring the game is the best possible experience we can make. We want to work with the players to make it great.


Memory leak issue (performance degreding after several matches, stuttering)
We've addressed some issues, the memory leak is being fixed, and we'll continue to work on that. We're optimizing and improving memory management; memory management is anything from loading into the game, characters entering/leaving the game, maps; all that tends to leave memory fragments, and we have to clean them up.

Client and Server Authority
In a multiplayer game where you have ping and latency, we try to put lots of things on the client to make it smooth, and have the server trust the client. If you let the client make too many decisions for the game, it can be hacked, so we put important decisions on the server: who you hit, where you move, etc.

We're actively working to push things from client-side to server-side. We have run across issues like rockets and rubber-banding, but as we make improvements to client/server authority that will hopefully improve, making the experience much better. (And it will be harder for players to cheat!)

Static Meshes for Animation States
Previously, hit detection worked with a model moving around on your screen, and you could hit where the model was. The server had to calculate all those animations, which was too CPU-intensive, less forgiving, and caused desync between where the server thinks things are and where your client says things are.

Static meshes are like a blanket around the character that encompasses the space they occupy, and doesn't leave openings. (Like having a shot pass under a model's arm.) This is also more reliable than a cylindrical hitbox. As time goes on, we'll add static meshes for more animation states.

Rocket and Railgun updates
In the next update, rocket explosions will move from client-side to server authority. Previously, there had been a hitbox just for rockets, and a different hitbox for other weapons, and because we're moving from the animation system to static meshes there would be a discrepancy, causing rockets to collide with the meshes and incorrectly be seen as a hit in the client, but it would actually be a miss on the server.

With the railgun, if you fired and moved your mouse in the same frame, the trail would draw late. This is a different issue than rockets. We've identified the solution, and we need to test it, but we're aiming to fix it in our big October update.

Rubber-banding
Rubber-banding is a symptom of a few different issues. We're pushing packets every client frame, which saturates your bandwidth data (especially if you have high fps), which causes rubber-banding. We're addressing this by limiting the amount of data we're pushing out--not just how often, but also compressing the data to be as little as possible.

Disconnect Issues
These can be a symptom of different problems. Track your ping, upward bandwidth, and ISP to see if it isn't a client problem. Report to us if you're having issues. Data compression fixes next month may help, but it might just be that your connection failed to ping our backend.


Will you make the game more friendly to casuals?
We aren't going to casualize the gameplay, but we want to create fun experiences for players even if you aren't competitive. We want to introduce things like new modes, new things you can be interested in and work towards, so the fun isn't just about winning the match.

Will you charge for future maps or modes?
No. No, no, no. Players having to pay for different maps or modes would split the community, and we want everyone to play together.

Can we get a server in my region?
We have a guy whose sole job is to look at where people are playing and how they're connecting, and spin up servers for you. We're looking at where our players are; we can set up servers globally.

Ranked Play?
Ranked Play will be in Early Access! It's coming soon.

Will there be more tutorials?
We're actively working on advanced movement tutorials for strafe jumping and rocket jumping.

Can we have instagib mode?
Yeah, I think that's fun. 1-hit railguns, frag and move on.

Any seasonal content planned?
Yes. We're looking at seasonal game modes; we have a lot mapped out for years to come. Our focus in Early Access is making the game solid, but seasonal content is enjoyable.

Please tell us about CTF.
CTF is important to us. It's not coming immediately, but it's on the roadmap.

Will you limit Cvar commands, like "gun 0?"
Yes, we will limit cvars to create as level a playing field as possible. Some commandline stuff is good, others are exploitive. We want to find features we like and make them available in the settings menu.

Can you add the option to play Quake 1 during the waiting screens?
That would be cool, but our waiting times aren't long enough. Minigames are always great though! Quake 1 would be high on the list.

Will there be Steam Cards?
Adam had a great time doing Steam Cards for Quake Live, so we'll absolutely do it.


Why is over-health/over-armor decay slower on tanky characters than on light characters?
We're always willing to balance this, but that came from light characters traditionally being more successful because they were fast and difficult to hit, and faster decay keeps them in check.

Will rocket splash damage be tweaked?
There are different opinions, even within the studio, and hearing what our pro players think from the QWC. We need to figure out what we want to pursue.

Are you going to buff Clutch?
We have a lot of ideas for clutch, definitely changes for his passives. We're happy with the dodge. The speed you need to double-tap to dodge will have a slider. His mining drill hasn't been successful, we might make some buffs or improvements to it, or we might reevaluate it.

We have a backlog of features, but right now we're focused on network issues and fixing any problems you may have first. But we're adding to that content backlog.

What about Sorlag's spit?
Sorlag's spit has a 600ms delay before she can fire, but her ability lasts for a second, so we'll tweak it to have some more padding before she can shoot after spitting.

Any changes to the Lightning Gun?
We want to keep the dynamic of rocket launcher/railgun/lightning gun, but we're going to lean towards rockets so that it's not just hitscan weapons that are important. The LG is powerful because it was firing invisible projectiles to smooth out detection; we're going back to a linear trace, like previous Quake games.

What changes are you making to Doom Slayer's berserk ability?
The leap strike is hard to hit enemies, sometimes it'll miss or it won't activate when you want. We're testing improved targeting that we hope to have out by October. Any time we adjust melee distance for one Champion, we need to make sure it doesn't break other Champions.

Are you fixing the DPI bug for Scalebearer's bullrush?
We can recode it so that the DPI doesn't affect the turnrate.

The gauntlet is really strong right now!
It's not the damage, it's the distance. The gauntlet has a long range. We're going to adjust the range to hit each Champion, and then we'll see where we're at.


Will you please confirm Orbb?
We can't do his Quake 3 sound effect, people only used it to troll. But we love Orbb, he's one of our fan favorites. He's super unique, and it's important for us to have unique characters.

What about Hunter?
I like the idea of Hunter. She was Sorlag's enemy in Quake 3. But you shouldn't infer too much because of lore, it doesn't mean it's an obvious hint. We'd love to hear players' thoughts on what they think would be a good active ability for Hunter.


Will color shaders be purchasable with favor?
No, probably not. We talked about possible purchasable premium shaders in a previous AMA, but we feel that standard shaders give players something to earn.

Will we be able to select left/right/centered weapon placement?
Skins will decide gun position, like with the classic skins. We might not have left-positioned weapons, due to screen space and the UI.

How about sliders for weapon bloom effects?
There won't be a slider, but we are adjusting the bloom for the Lightning Gun.

New announcers?
We want to introduce Announcer Packs, but not during Early Access; because if we're adding new modes, it would be too difficult and costly to keep bringing announcers back to record new lines.

Will there be taunts?
Taunts are being tested in the weeks ahead, we have the animations recorded.


Will we be able to send direct messages?
Chat improvements are coming. SMS direct messages are on our backlog.

Can we mouseover reward medals in the future to see what they are?
We're going to keep adding mouseover tooltips to medals and UI elements. We want to give more information and educate players on what they need to do, so they can say, "I may not win this match, but I can work on these things."


Can we get more music tracks?
We have some cool music picked out, more ambient tracks are coming. Maybe some music drops...

How is Vulkan support coming?
We're working with AMD on Vulkan, they've been great. We need to make sure it's the best possible version it can be.

Will there be a Linux version?
It's currently not on the roadmap.

When will Adam get a vacation?
Not until the network issues are fixed!

Hello everyone!

We're just rounding out our third week in Early Access, and we wanted to give you an update of our ongoing progress on making Quake Champions an amazing, multiplayer arena shooter experience. Our players have had a lot of feedback and questions that we've been reading, and on today's Developer Livestream, id Software Studio Director Tim Willits and Design Manager Adam Pyle answered many of the important comments and issues you've brought up. If you'd like to watch the Video on Demand of the stream, you can find it here:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/173305221

We've also transcribed the questions and answers for you below. Look forward to more Q&A sessions from the team soon!
--------------------


Updates since QuakeCon
Our current focus is on getting the backend fixed up, getting more solid and consistent performance going. We should have a patch going out next week (if it passes QA) that contains a number of bug fixes and performance updates.

Development Process
When we architected the network code, we designed it for every system we could, but a game that's as complex as this, with worldwide servers, multiple ISPs, and millions of PC configurations connecting, we do run into issues. Our process is then to identify the problem, think of the solution, test it internally, and release it into the wild, all of which takes time.

Your experience online really is the entire game, so if you feel the game is rubber-banding, or your ping fluctuates, we're actively trying to fix those issues and we'll continue to make improvements over time. A lot of comments about "netcode" are a bucket of events and issues that get lumped together, and there isn't "one big fix," but we're actively breaking down those issues and working to identify their solutions.

When will Early Access end?
When we feel we're ready. We're committed to ensuring the game is the best possible experience we can make. We want to work with the players to make it great.


Memory leak issue (performance degreding after several matches, stuttering)
We've addressed some issues, the memory leak is being fixed, and we'll continue to work on that. We're optimizing and improving memory management; memory management is anything from loading into the game, characters entering/leaving the game, maps; all that tends to leave memory fragments, and we have to clean them up.

Client and Server Authority
In a multiplayer game where you have ping and latency, we try to put lots of things on the client to make it smooth, and have the server trust the client. If you let the client make too many decisions for the game, it can be hacked, so we put important decisions on the server: who you hit, where you move, etc.

We're actively working to push things from client-side to server-side. We have run across issues like rockets and rubber-banding, but as we make improvements to client/server authority that will hopefully improve, making the experience much better. (And it will be harder for players to cheat!)

Static Meshes for Animation States
Previously, hit detection worked with a model moving around on your screen, and you could hit where the model was. The server had to calculate all those animations, which was too CPU-intensive, less forgiving, and caused desync between where the server thinks things are and where your client says things are.

Static meshes are like a blanket around the character that encompasses the space they occupy, and doesn't leave openings. (Like having a shot pass under a model's arm.) This is also more reliable than a cylindrical hitbox. As time goes on, we'll add static meshes for more animation states.

Rocket and Railgun updates
In the next update, rocket explosions will move from client-side to server authority. Previously, there had been a hitbox just for rockets, and a different hitbox for other weapons, and because we're moving from the animation system to static meshes there would be a discrepancy, causing rockets to collide with the meshes and incorrectly be seen as a hit in the client, but it would actually be a miss on the server.

With the railgun, if you fired and moved your mouse in the same frame, the trail would draw late. This is a different issue than rockets. We've identified the solution, and we need to test it, but we're aiming to fix it in our big October update.

Rubber-banding
Rubber-banding is a symptom of a few different issues. We're pushing packets every client frame, which saturates your bandwidth data (especially if you have high fps), which causes rubber-banding. We're addressing this by limiting the amount of data we're pushing out--not just how often, but also compressing the data to be as little as possible.

Disconnect Issues
These can be a symptom of different problems. Track your ping, upward bandwidth, and ISP to see if it isn't a client problem. Report to us if you're having issues. Data compression fixes next month may help, but it might just be that your connection failed to ping our backend.


Will you make the game more friendly to casuals?
We aren't going to casualize the gameplay, but we want to create fun experiences for players even if you aren't competitive. We want to introduce things like new modes, new things you can be interested in and work towards, so the fun isn't just about winning the match.

Will you charge for future maps or modes?
No. No, no, no. Players having to pay for different maps or modes would split the community, and we want everyone to play together.

Can we get a server in my region?
We have a guy whose sole job is to look at where people are playing and how they're connecting, and spin up servers for you. We're looking at where our players are; we can set up servers globally.

Ranked Play?
Ranked Play will be in Early Access! It's coming soon.

Will there be more tutorials?
We're actively working on advanced movement tutorials for strafe jumping and rocket jumping.

Can we have instagib mode?
Yeah, I think that's fun. 1-hit railguns, frag and move on.

Any seasonal content planned?
Yes. We're looking at seasonal game modes; we have a lot mapped out for years to come. Our focus in Early Access is making the game solid, but seasonal content is enjoyable.

Please tell us about CTF.
CTF is important to us. It's not coming immediately, but it's on the roadmap.

Will you limit Cvar commands, like "gun 0?"
Yes, we will limit cvars to create as level a playing field as possible. Some commandline stuff is good, others are exploitive. We want to find features we like and make them available in the settings menu.

Can you add the option to play Quake 1 during the waiting screens?
That would be cool, but our waiting times aren't long enough. Minigames are always great though! Quake 1 would be high on the list.

Will there be Steam Cards?
Adam had a great time doing Steam Cards for Quake Live, so we'll absolutely do it.


Why is over-health/over-armor decay slower on tanky characters than on light characters?
We're always willing to balance this, but that came from light characters traditionally being more successful because they were fast and difficult to hit, and faster decay keeps them in check.

Will rocket splash damage be tweaked?
There are different opinions, even within the studio, and hearing what our pro players think from the QWC. We need to figure out what we want to pursue.

Are you going to buff Clutch?
We have a lot of ideas for clutch, definitely changes for his passives. We're happy with the dodge. The speed you need to double-tap to dodge will have a slider. His mining drill hasn't been successful, we might make some buffs or improvements to it, or we might reevaluate it.

We have a backlog of features, but right now we're focused on network issues and fixing any problems you may have first. But we're adding to that content backlog.

What about Sorlag's spit?
Sorlag's spit has a 600ms delay before she can fire, but her ability lasts for a second, so we'll tweak it to have some more padding before she can shoot after spitting.

Any changes to the Lightning Gun?
We want to keep the dynamic of rocket launcher/railgun/lightning gun, but we're going to lean towards rockets so that it's not just hitscan weapons that are important. The LG is powerful because it was firing invisible projectiles to smooth out detection; we're going back to a linear trace, like previous Quake games.

What changes are you making to Doom Slayer's berserk ability?
The leap strike is hard to hit enemies, sometimes it'll miss or it won't activate when you want. We're testing improved targeting that we hope to have out by October. Any time we adjust melee distance for one Champion, we need to make sure it doesn't break other Champions.

Are you fixing the DPI bug for Scalebearer's bullrush?
We can recode it so that the DPI doesn't affect the turnrate.

The gauntlet is really strong right now!
It's not the damage, it's the distance. The gauntlet has a long range. We're going to adjust the range to hit each Champion, and then we'll see where we're at.


Will you please confirm Orbb?
We can't do his Quake 3 sound effect, people only used it to troll. But we love Orbb, he's one of our fan favorites. He's super unique, and it's important for us to have unique characters.

What about Hunter?
I like the idea of Hunter. She was Sorlag's enemy in Quake 3. But you shouldn't infer too much because of lore, it doesn't mean it's an obvious hint. We'd love to hear players' thoughts on what they think would be a good active ability for Hunter.


Will color shaders be purchasable with favor?
No, probably not. We talked about possible purchasable premium shaders in a previous AMA, but we feel that standard shaders give players something to earn.

Will we be able to select left/right/centered weapon placement?
Skins will decide gun position, like with the classic skins. We might not have left-positioned weapons, due to screen space and the UI.

How about sliders for weapon bloom effects?
There won't be a slider, but we are adjusting the bloom for the Lightning Gun.

New announcers?
We want to introduce Announcer Packs, but not during Early Access; because if we're adding new modes, it would be too difficult and costly to keep bringing announcers back to record new lines.

Will there be taunts?
Taunts are being tested in the weeks ahead, we have the animations recorded.


Will we be able to send direct messages?
Chat improvements are coming. SMS direct messages are on our backlog.

Can we mouseover reward medals in the future to see what they are?
We're going to keep adding mouseover tooltips to medals and UI elements. We want to give more information and educate players on what they need to do, so they can say, "I may not win this match, but I can work on these things."


Can we get more music tracks?
We have some cool music picked out, more ambient tracks are coming. Maybe some music drops...

How is Vulkan support coming?
We're working with AMD on Vulkan, they've been great. We need to make sure it's the best possible version it can be.

Will there be a Linux version?
It's currently not on the roadmap.

When will Adam get a vacation?
Not until the network issues are fixed!

Update: Maintenance is now complete and the update is live.

--

Hey all,

Today (9am ET) we are deploying an update for Quake Champions to resolve a few issues. Here are the notes:

- Steam: Fixed a problem with an account already linked to another Bethesda game.
- Steam: Allowed special symbols in the password field.
- Removed spam from logs.
- Ended Bonus XP
- Ended QuakeCon Lightning Gun Promotion - If you received it during QuakeCon, it's still yours forever!
- Fixed: Wrong lootbox highlight for rare armor shaders for BJ Blazkowicz and DOOM Slayer
- Fixed: Wrong legendary Machinegun drop.


Thanks for your patience while we work to deploy the patch!

Update: Maintenance is now complete and the update is live.

--

Hey all,

Today (9am ET) we are deploying an update for Quake Champions to resolve a few issues. Here are the notes:

- Steam: Fixed a problem with an account already linked to another Bethesda game.
- Steam: Allowed special symbols in the password field.
- Removed spam from logs.
- Ended Bonus XP
- Ended QuakeCon Lightning Gun Promotion - If you received it during QuakeCon, it's still yours forever!
- Fixed: Wrong lootbox highlight for rare armor shaders for BJ Blazkowicz and DOOM Slayer
- Fixed: Wrong legendary Machinegun drop.


Thanks for your patience while we work to deploy the patch!

Hey all,

With today’s launch of Quake Champions Early Access on Steam, some users may notice that the game will hang when first loading. This will only occur for players that previously linked their Bethesda.net accounts on Steam. In order to resolve the issue, we ask that you please close and relaunch the game, as the hang should only occur your first time opening the game. The issue should be permanently resolved once you relaunch. We are working to resolve the issue to prevent it from occurring going forward.

Thank you for your understanding.

Hey all,

With today’s launch of Quake Champions Early Access on Steam, some users may notice that the game will hang when first loading. This will only occur for players that previously linked their Bethesda.net accounts on Steam. In order to resolve the issue, we ask that you please close and relaunch the game, as the hang should only occur your first time opening the game. The issue should be permanently resolved once you relaunch. We are working to resolve the issue to prevent it from occurring going forward.

Thank you for your understanding.