I wasted my grenades on them in an attempt to kill them or weaken then before having to actually face them up close. Was a great relief when the lift stopped :) 

They shoot back though. Thus the conclusion that there is too little time to do the necessary shooting and ducking before the lift lands and you are trapped (as it looks like will happen). I suppose you could gamble that the lift will miraculously stop before the Shamblers....but it's more natural to take an active step to control the situation... 

Its good time being a Quake Player!
So awesome! Sock you rock! 

@gb, thanks for the feedback :)
It always good to get detailed comments.

It didn't occur to me that the blue window things were teleporters
This does confuse me because I am big fan of visual consistency and all teleporters in the map (including the skill selection ones) are the same texture so I am not sure why you were confused.

Got stuck right in front of the LG which almost stupid-killed me.
Yeah this is certainly my fault, a bad design decision. I assumed everyone would go round and see the ramp hint on the floor, but players always take the path of least resistance. I should of put bars there to make the visuals rights.

Final battle was a bit hectic, it was also pushing the upper limit for an Easy skill fight.
I originally planned for a different skill version of the final battle but then I thought I want the final to be memorable and give the player a sense of achievement. There is subtle difference (less trash spawns) but it is the last room and should feel like an epic battle.

The traps and teleporters in the final room are purely optional and something that players will either use or not. I thought the trap shooters would encouraged players to circle the room which is the best method for the fight (unless of course you are orbs!) 

looks like my demo ends when I go through the skill select teleporter :( Crap that was an awesome demo! 

it will play fine in fitz mark 5 (what about quakespasm?) 

I watched your demo, it worked in the latest version of Fitz 

All the demo's work perfectly (except spirit, unknown protocol) with the markV engine. It is the best engine for recording and playing demos and it is thanks to baker for his awesome code. The other engines would be wise to integrate the baker code, it really makes the engine shine. 

I thought with mark 5 it kept recording even if you die, and would only cease if you manually stop it.
apparently this isn't the case. 

This does confuse me because I am big fan of visual consistency and all teleporters in the map (including the skill selection ones) are the same texture so I am not sure why you were confused.

I guess the arrangement of the skill select portals (and the familiar text on them) made it immediately clear to Quake players what those were; so I used them as teleporters instinctively. I had forgotten that they have a different texture by the time I reached the window-teleporters. Everything else in the map felt like Quake, so when I heard the teleporter noise, I instinctively looked for the starfield texture.

About the idea to add bars in front of that LG at the lava, well more power to you, but I'd suggest to fix the bug / make the route that *looks* as if it should work actually work. 

I like the bar idea more personally, as the pathway and its slanty indicator is cooler. 

Thanks Necros/fifth. I really need to change all my Quake shortcuts to use MarkV I guess. 

Superb application of deliberately limited texture package, minimal but solid brushwork all around, smooth lighting with added color where applicable, great level layout that doesn't get confusing and perfect gameplay thanks to ingenius monster/choice placement and balanced loadout. Even two weeks work from you results in a brilliant map.

Many thanks sock, much appreciated!

1stRunDemo (Vanilla)
QuakeSpasm 0.85.8
skill 2; 15:52, 9/10 secrets, 101/101 kills 

Great brushwork, and having recently read "Mountains of Madness" it really captured this "Elder World" feel for me. The layout was great, nicely interconnected and not confusing at all. Also liked how only parts of the map were damaged.

Skill 1 first run demo 

And extremely well done :) The creative texturing and architectural details really set this map apart. The gameplay was good and should have been survivable but, as you can see in my demo, it wasn't on my first run (on normal, too). The lighting was cool.

Cheers!

Demo: http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/demos/mstalk_generic.7z 

@erc, thanks for the demo. I was wondering why all the entities were missing and then I realized you must of used the new 1d version (no extra models etc)
@sleep, cool demo, you were very cautious. The zombies woke up early (next RL) because of a trigger problem, oh well my fault on that one.
@generic, when you said you were going to die in your demo I thought it was being squashed by lift bars or by the shamblers at the bottom of the lift, but you made it too the end room! :D

I've got 17 demo files so far, I will do another big demo zip file at the end of the week if anyone is interested. 

My demo is probably protocol 10002 or 10005 or whatever bengt's protocol was 

Duuuuude, what's with the constant messages that pop up everywhere? This is such an irresponsible thing to do for the designer because it simply destroys immersion. It's a reminder that you are playing a map and not visiting a new environment, and the words are from designer, not from the world. Man. It also reeks of a new mapper who just discovered the message function and is itching to say something just for the sake of it.

I also didn't like the dbs secret right behind the player's spawn, the button should have been some place else, to promote exploration.

I'm not sure that 2 Death Knights were a good choice for the RL ambush (playing on Nightmare). They couldn't reach me with their swords and their ranged attacks almost always bumped into the border or were easily dodged. They went down fast and unimpressive.

Map has good flow and visuals in general, thanks Simon (BUT STOP WITH THE MESSAGES FFS DUDE!). 

"Constant messages"

Sock reeks of "new mapper" to me for sure.

Luckily having a great big fucking HUD doesn't break the immersion too much. 

?? There's only the 1 message at the start that i remember sticking out. 

dude. 

So much nicer not having to dick around with stuff to play it properly rather than pixelly. Fun having another play-through. I got all the gameplay tricks this time around.

Can't for the life of me work out how to get the bridge secret in the lava area. Am looking for a button or a jump or indeed ANYTHING... 

@Harmata, have not been called a newbie mapper for a while! :D Not everyone plays a map the same, there are some who love the rush of combat and others who want to explore. Finding a balance between the two is always going to leave some feeling they want things different.

Not many people (watching demos) bothered with getting the SSG or NG early, they just moved on and found it from natural progression. The SSG is designed to be found easily so that everyone can experience the feeling of finding secrets.

Most of the messages are simply my humour, the map is nothing serious, just a midnight snack. The environment has no rhyme or reason, it is a brushwork doodle playing to the strength's of each monster you fight. Did you have fun playing the map?

@Shambler, the lava bridge secret (daggers fall) is triggered from the wall spike shooter room. It is close enough to hear/see the gate being moved from infront of the teleporter window. 

"Sock reeks of "new mapper" to me for sure."
For those with reading comprehension problems: i didn't call him a new mapper, i said that these "humorous" messages are often used by newbie mappers to no good. They are no good here too. I know Simon since his Quake 3 levels, i've read his website often.
"Most of the messages are simply my humour, the map is nothing serious, just a midnight snack."
Do you know that if you'd remove these messages the map would become a level with good Quake atmosphere?
I mean, nothing else on this map is funny, it's certainly not a joke map. This is why i think that these messages are out of place, they hurt atmosphere that you yourself created.
"The SSG is designed to be found easily so that everyone can experience the feeling of finding secrets."
I see, i see.
"Did you have fun playing the map?"
Oh yes. I'd tell you otherwise, don't worry :). 

Apart from Q3?