To say it in the words of Vondur: sock si teh rock of my life! 

First run on Nightmare: 30ish minutes, 215/224 kills and 4/10 secrets. I died 3 times. Horribly.

Demos: https://www.dropbox.com/s/pcg7866zmlvfu31/zendar_demos.zip 

of my life
indeed! 

I'll leave it a surprise if I make it all the way through :)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ru5sbhazdwyrqy4/5thzend.zip

I really enjoyed it, though it seems to perform less than stellar on my Surface Pro. I also noticed some disappearing brushes when I booted it up in DirectQ, not sure why so I dropped out and recorded in FQ instead. 

I added some fun commentary, I figured out if I click singleplayer first and go to the start map then it will pause gameplay while I type :) 

By far the best Quake map ever made bar none.

The combat setups, the nonlinear layout, the setting, the atmosphere, the secrets, the lighting, the detailing... are all flawless.

Hats off to you sock.

normal skill, 100% kills, 4/10 secrets ~30mins
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/103186490/scamp_hoz.zip 

Y'all are setting the bar kind of high for when I get home and try this out. 

You will believe the hype. It's going to be considered the greatest map by probably everyone. I'm on the fence a little, it's an epic map but I think the sheer detail in some areas (especially the terrain bits) makes the movement feel a bit funky. I got caught on some vertices a few times due to their angles. 

Skill 0, 82/96, 2/10 secrets, 28:13.

http://michael.hudsondoyle.geek.nz/mwh.zip

Reminded me of shadow over innsmouth and (a bit) the final-but-one level of dissolution of eternity. Sometimes I wasn't sure if I was following the normal progression or finding secrets but since I enjoy both I don't really mind :-) Need to go back and explore some more... 

Great map, Sock.

Why the under water tunnel, near the end portal ? It appears to be useless, since it's ending with a closed trap in the middle of the end portal room.

No demo from me, since I'm a retard player, playing with God mode and all weapons... 

Have you seen that room before? 

Hmmm, I don't think so, or I don't remember. What is it ? 

84/96 3/10. Very nice, Thanks, Sock 

Very beautiful map! Thank you!

Here is my demo recorded with quakespasm:
https://mega.co.nz/#!IsgCRaqY!RKu_Ug3l6i7nevK3yLt2kB0_vRgM5J2Pn3cS5P9XgaA

I found one immortal zombie there .... is it a bug? 

 

@negke, thanks it was a long journey with many bumps in the road but it got there in one piece!
@skacky, your demo's are epic stuff, especially considering they are on nightmare skill! amazing stuff.
@Vondur, thanks :)
@Fifth, yeah I should have mentioned it ... HARD SKILL IS FREAKY HARD! but your demo was epic, you nearly died so many times but you came back and beat the horde of zendar!
@Scampie, thanks man :D Now go and complete it on hard skill! :D
@JL, I would recommend normal skill first, hard skill does not take any prisoners!
@mhw, thanks I will check out the demo.
@Barnak, that water tunnel is the nightmare skill selection, you only need at the beginning which is why is blocked off at the end!
@Digs, I am surprised I thought you would have demo'd this map on hard skillz! :D
@AAS, thanks I will check out the demo. 

This is one of those "makes you want to delete all your wip maps and start over" type of maps.

Maybe the most convincing and immersive environment ever made in Quake? Certainly one of them. 

congrats on the release

skill3 demo, second run, as a first run was interrupted by some reason

i have no words just wow

http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/spy3demo_zendar1d.rar 

(for the best experience) I'll wait until the new year (back at my pc then) to play\review this. But first of all, anything anyone says reminds one of SHADOW... that's very exciting. Plus I've been more and more impressed by your designs. If you took the ultimate "q1sp design" cake in 2013, that would be great - there have been some contenders since 2005 (Kinn's marcher), but god I want to stand where that screenshot was taken. 

but god I want to stand where that screenshot was taken Go to Brugge!

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20060605224903/travel/en/images/thumb/c/c3/Brugge.jpg/500px-Brugge.jpg

Definitely a merry christmas. Really looking forward to playing this one, props on the release! 

Go to Brugge!

The dogs are friendly, there are no knights to shoot.

At the worst, you may be asked directions by another tourist. Or tread in horse shit. 

Just finished a ER in 2:14 but it wont playback as it is a multipledemo demo (i tought FQ mark V could handle those nowadays?) + im to lazy to decompile it.
Let me first state its a nice map.
But im not as enthousiastic as some others in this thread. Probably due to how i experienced it first try:
Pretty fast i realised it was a big structure with probably lots of rooms interconectivity and secret areas/passages. Multiple blue key doors! and a goldkeysoemwhere up, first dissapointment: lift to get it is next to it. Go to Gk-doortake rune doen even have to killthat room teleport, hordes of zendar...after I kill this i wil probablyopen up way to all those room i havent seen yet ( 0nly killed like 30 monsters). I can go explore the lower city! WOw map is evenbigger then i thought?!
Oh wtf exit? Big antimclimax to me

I geuss its a first map of an episode? 

@Kinn, thanks! an awesome compliment coming from you! :D
@spy, looking forward to watching another nightmare run :D
@Tronyn, the bridge is one of my favourite parts!
@ijed, that location is not vertical enough!
@Orbs, The map is about exploring, certainly not speed. This is a standalone map, this is no more. This is my final vanilla Q1 map.

I think that is the hardest part about releasing stuff, you can never please everyone!?! :P oh well, I certainly enjoyed creating this map, there is some lovely flow between areas. 

I'm looking at my map now, and how flat it is.. 

Upload your demo somewhere, if you want I can try to fix it.