..I've been playing and installing mods and maps for Quake for years, and I almost always read readme's. Am I the only one? 

Clever or what? 

I haven't read the other posts, so I'm probably just repeating what's already been said, but I'll do it anyway, because omg and yeah.

Awesome q1sp experience. One of the best in recent years, hands down. It all comes together nicely, even if it possibly wasn't layed out like this from the beginning. Basically two epic maps in between a simple story/setting and a breeze of refreshing humor that one doesn't seem to come by often in (Quake) maps these days.

The two levels have a strong Alice/Zer/Portal2 vibe for me which I liked a lot. It's always suprising how height, distance and fog can create such highly atmospheric environments so easily. Wouldn't have believed it when looking at them in an editor view or fullbright game with no fog. Apart from a few more filigrane details, much of the effectiveness comes from beams, butresses and other structures high above or far away that appear on the brink of visiblity in the fog. The other architecture has just the right amount of indentation and slanted surfaces to round it off.
Cool start map, too. There have been a few village maps in Quake, but this one has something special to it. Maybe because it was just slapped together for the sake of it?

Gameplay is pretty much great. Many monster encounters set up as events rather than just simple 'populating' of areas. Good challenge on Hard, with appropriate item balance for the most part. Fortunately, the z-aware Ogres are used sparingly and with consideration.
Grenade and rocket switches add a nice touch, a variation from regular shootable buttons that open as you proceed.
I didn't find that many secrets, maybe 3/7 in each map - this could be the downside of the thick fog. Or perhaps I was just too blind. Good there's a fairly high number of them, though.

Progression is okay, but at times it felt to me like there was quite a bit of backtracking or revisiting forced into it, particularly in Saint. I liked how you first descend in Honey with no or hardly any monster encounters. That's what made me feel the Zer vibe (like in the bloodcube temple).

Uh, yeah: crates!!! Not that they make any sense in a cistern or abandoned temple. But the shapes made up for this.

The epilogue bit had me in tears. Maybe I'm idealizing, but it seemed like proper czg humor again (well, the sfw variety at least). The credits were cool as well, though I didn't get all the references. Also, l�l you look like Dickie Bennett in Justified?!

Anyway, tl:dr = truely outstanding. Too bad you had to read the whole post nevertheless. Finally, here is a demo of me playing so and so on hard skill and dying ten times and commenting on things not worth mentioning... you can watch it if you have nothing to do, if you're feeling miserable, or not but want to, or whatever. GG 

Fuck off (or thank you) for destroying my and other people's ambition to ever make another Quake map. 

opposite for me... i can't wait to start mapping again in a few weeks. :) 

No one has mentioned this afaik but...

The tingle sound is fucking awesome. I really really wish such a thing existed in default Quake. 

negke

I had that exact thought while playing. "Well, I guess I don't need to bother making anymore maps, we're done for this year..." :) 

I'll keep it short since my late post means that most of this will have been said anyways...

- Unbelievable atmosphere in the two major maps (village was cool as well). It just totally sucks me out of my computer room and into a far away scary place. Quake will never leave my HDD.
- Excellent texture choices. The maps were wonderous and eye filling but never cluttered. Details enhanced and didn't overwhelm.
- I played on Hard for both maps and I shut off the poison first (seemed logical) before turning on the water. I loved both maps hugely but the poison map was simply genius in both construction and gameplay. It has many hazards and looked hard to navigate but it wasn't at all. Fantastic. Even retracing felt fresh and suspensful because who knows what happens after you trigger yet another switch?
- CZG just seems to nail proportions dead on whether its arches, barn beam framing, lifts, rusty wrought iron fencing, machinery, trusses - doesn't matter - it's geometrically spot on. This makes it feel very real and not 'gamey'.
- The secrets were fun and fair (and I had no audio clues on Hard.) Secret hunting makes you examine the map from all angles and these settings were a joy to inspect. I was in no rush.
- Never had ammo or monster problems. It felt balanced. Yes, I died but retrys were succesful - fair and fun - no frustration. There was lots of breath catching time between bouts. Maps eased the player into the atmosphere gently before turning on the combat.
- Ending. Can't think of another more original.
- I remember CZG making a ground shattering episode years ago and it was the botox jab that made Quake refreshed and worthy of your gaming time, keeping SP players loyal despite so many modern titles competing for PC time. This map set feels the same - it raises the bar, not so much with novelty, but with visual and gameplay craft and worthy innovations that show how no other FPS presents imaginative people with a more perfect pallette from which to create wonderful new worlds. 

- CZG just seems to nail proportions dead on whether its arches, barn beam framing, lifts, rusty wrought iron fencing, machinery, trusses - doesn't matter - it's geometrically spot on. This makes it feel very real and not 'gamey'.

This. I always had it in my head that "thin" geometry never looks right in Quake - but these maps have completely kicked that preconception in the balls. 

The tingle sound is fucking awesome. I really really wish such a thing existed in default Quake.

crap. i should have played with headphones on. >_< 

you only hear it on easy... 

There's no way you should be put off mapping. Sure these maps are awesome and have a big wow factor, but a lot of your ideas and maps have a similar wow factor (and often WTF factor) on a smaller scale. Believe me, your mapping in particular shows how much potential there is in Quake.

As for the rest of you....seriously as a player, I value all sorts of maps. A bog standard Quakey map doesn't really get overshadowed by these epics, because it's still great in it's own right... 

Here's a couple of lame 99.99% demos for those who have some trouble with the secrets: http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/demos/otp_honey100.zip 

Got the poison turned off.

Some things:

Didn't shoot a single fiend or spawn yet
Nice infighting
Didn't really get the Ogres with familiars - seemed like they could have been rocket ogres instead.
Fog changes were ok I spose. Kind of reminded me of a horrible night to have a curse.
Metroid key system was clever.
Progression and looping were very well done.
Precision of brushwork... fucking hell.

Great fun so far, agree with Scragbait's comments. 

And, this makes me want to map more, not less :) 

second map was amazing IMHO (saint), the atmosphere was absolutely stunning. First map was also very nice but not as immersive. 

and I have no idea how you pulled off that second map in what is pretty much standard quake. 

Both maps exceed the usual limits and require Fitz 0.85 at least. 

So you didn't use the built in .map saving of whatever the last Ogier version to support the Quake GDK? 

Besides, any Q1 support in the latest Ogier is broken at best. 

yeah I know, and it has fog, but without too much custom tomfoolery (or so it seemed anyway). 

Great atmosphere. 

.. and I cannot add more than what others said already. Really brilliant atmosphere and design, fun gameplay and never boring. Lightning also is very well done. Definitely you are an ace mapper.
I also discovered the limit of my computer (or I may forgot to increaze heapsize to a decent value... though..): i.e I got a lot of choppy areas particularly in the old temple part.
Anyway... that was really 2 good hours of fun, never get lost, never ran out of ammo, never died...
But what the fuck was this ending sequence ??? :) 

cannot save nor quick save in darkplaces. I also tried to load maps separately, they load but again cannot save.
The message I get is PRVM_EDICT_NUM: SERVER BAD NUMBER 603 CALLED AT C:538.
any ideas 

http://taw.duke4.net/2012/04/quake/honey/