alright, after taking a cursory glance at this topic, and having played FvF for over 8 years now i have only this to say --
no one person can "ruin" FvF. the only thing that "ruins" FvF is the attitude of certain players. so what? someone pwns you in deathmatch. big deal.
quite honestly, there isn't a moment that goes by playing FvF that i think to myself "holy crap! this game is still alive and people are still playing it online??"
Gunter: your improvements are great. I'll admit i'm not particularly fond of the assraping theme, but I can certainly appreciate the added element to gameplay it gives. the brainsucker does the same thing as the dogs, but since it bprint()s something else, people don't get upset about it....
all i know is this. as long as FvF is available online for download, and i'm able to compile/download/install any given quake engine i'll be playing FvF. even if it's with vanilla 2.09 (or 4.x) only on a local LAN.
players come and go, but this mod will never die. the balance is just too great and gameplay too engaging. not many quake mods come close.
ORL: you are also awesome for hosting the server. without this crucial part, there would be no way for us all to play online! we all know bandwidth costs $$ so i for one am extremely grateful for your offering to host the server. you can bet i'll be playing on it on the regular now that i've foudn it.
some years ago, there used to be tons of FvF servers. some years from now I bet there will still be at least one FvF server. things like QRACK contribute to this longevity. as the technology improves, the look of the game can improve, but will still ultimately be the same game.
one last thing....
Gunter: I sincerely hope that one day you will release the source code for FvF. despite your misgivings about what people might do with the sources, this is the single most effective way you can ensure the permanence of FvF. recently i decompiled the progs.dat successfully so i have the sources, which are interesting to see, but i'd almost be more interested in seeing your comments etc
also, for the time being I think it would be great if you offered up your compiled progs.dat with the modifications you made (such has hyper fighting, additional monster attacks etc) so that the possibility of additional servers running your code would potentially breathe new life into FvF.
people can do what they want with your code, but the fact that you wrote it will never change. regardless, the modifications to the 2.09 sources are great and fun to play.