Can this be hacked in?

Could be useful for in a boss fight, or even a respawning arena battle. 

See the Progs.dat Tricks thread.
Qte2m5 has a respawning Pentagram for instance. 

I'd forgotten it was there - I combed most of that thread during warp.

cheers. 

Played QTE1M2 and a bit of QTE1M3....

So, tell me Scraggy, on a scale of, say, 8 up to 10, how much were you inspired by Unreal and Half-Life mapping??

It's good stuff. The combat is good now too, tough and good. 

Travail E1 Influence Factor

Unreal: 5/10
Half-Life: 0/10
Tronyn: 7.5/10

I always liked Unreal - it was as immersive as Quake but in a spacious world. BTW, it even had a more open musical score then Quake's dark, almost claustrophobic selection.

I really liked Half-Life but it never entered my mind while producing E1.

If there was one stand out influence, it would be another Quake mapper rather then another game. I have always enjoyed Tronyn's sprawling, journey-like and id textured maps. Like Tronyn, I also used less repetitive geometry in QTe1m1 to QTe1m3 and QTe1m5. I tried to make a variety of structures to motivate the more curious player to continue without knowing what they might see next. This type of mapping dragged production of these maps over 4 years (crazy slow mapper Scraggy.)

My earlier maps - QTe1m1 to QTe1m3 are not well scaled and this has been made clear through feedback. With more experience, my other maps: QTe1m4 and 5 and QTFin2 and 3 are better. I still felt that the first three E1 maps had something to offer visually and that they did progress the Travail story through setpieces and were playable for players like myself, who progress in a more cautious and defensive manner and who like to sightsee along the way. Quake for me has always been about stopping amongst the corpses to take in the ambience. I knew that these maps wouldn't have universal appeal but I still like my ugly first-born children even with their zits and low foreheads. I agree that the first three E1 maps will frustrate a more aggressive and highly mobile player.

Thanks for all the feedback, func types. I do listen and for sure I learn. It is appreciated. This is the place to come to for the straight dope on map quality. 

I played through Travail twice and although the map I liked the most was the final map (*), the e2 maps were just too easy for me.

I really struggled and struggled on the e1 maps and was forced to explore the environment and manage ammo well.

Had the e1 maps not been so difficult, I probably would have just blown through all of the Travail without dying or having to get immersed in the environment.

(*) I really liked the mausoleum theme and the crack in the ceiling was just too great, plus I liked how the skybox changed to night at the end.) 

I vote the start of e1m1 as a temporary blip on the gameplay. Since then it has been interesting and fun and challenging in a good way. I'm a more cautious player so maybe it suits me, but I've found some pretty smart tactical challenges. The lower cave in the lava map being particularly interesting.

It's all good stuff. 

pack shines in the tactical/slow stuff. 

...speaking of influence. Did Painkiller enter the equation with respect to qtfin3, at least subconsciously? 

Well ever since the first cavern near the end of E1m1, this has been a blast. Just finished the spider secret level. Really liking a lot of the gameplay and general vibe to it....can't quite put my finger on it, it's just fun, a lot happens to keep the player on their toes but there's always a chance.

Some nice designs too. The outdoor bits in the previous E2 map and the mini-underground waterfall to name but a couple. 

I had just wrapped up Painkiller when I started that map. The influence was more then subconscious.

As a team member, I knew that E2 was going to be a big hit as it kept impressing me with the size, artful construction, imagination and intense but not unfair gameplay. That and good secrets too. Throughout, level-to-level transitions were made to create a continuous journey feel whether or not you found the secret mini-episode (and you owe it to yourself to find it). 

- generaly I liked the music (except some glitchy hissy stuff in map 2/3), but the monster sounds in it were annoying, i.e. e1m4 had lots of Vores, and there was the Vore wakeup sound in the music, same goes for other maps...

- Monsters: the new Deathknight is great, but I hated the cheating spiders, reminded me a lot in behaviour of the Stalkers in one of the Q2 missionpacks, they dodge grenades right when you fire etc.
Azoth seemed a bit rough in behaviour, too slow, and for a boss monster his attacks were too weak (same goes for the �berScrag). But I liked how the final fight stretched across two maps, that was new and different.

- Maps: E1M2/3 reminded me a lot of Unreal (as someone already mentioned) in their epic appearance, Episode II maps are just awesome, what more can be said :D
Negike�s secret levels were fun to play, but the Spider map seemed too repetitive in style; very confusing to navigate, everything looked the same.

- Gameplay: the difficulty could have been higher, as I was able to finish a good number of maps on the first try on nightmare, with cautious play.
Given the linearity of most maps, harder gameplay (skill settings ftw) would have increased the replay value; i.e. more daring stuff like in E1M4 with Vores in open spaces (hard but not as unfair as it seemed at first). Also, it was nice to include the Riot controller from Zerst�rer, but it seemed overpowered.
Overall an instant classic with good gameplay, fun secrets and easter-eggs ;)

- Demos:
E1M2: http://shub-hub.com/files/demos_singleplayer/qte1m2_sw1535.dz
E1M4: http://shub-hub.com/files/demos_singleplayer/qte1m4_sw1853.dz
E2M1: http://shub-hub.com/files/demos_singleplayer/qte2m1_sw1915.dz
E2M2: http://shub-hub.com/files/demos_singleplayer/qte2m2_sw1708.dz
E2M4: http://shub-hub.com/files/demos_singleplayer/qte2m4_sw559.dz
E2M5: http://shub-hub.com/files/demos_singleplayer/qte2m5_sw1342.dz
FIN1: http://shub-hub.com/files/demos_singleplayer/qtfin1_sw841.dz
FIN3: http://shub-hub.com/files/demos_singleplayer/qtfin3_sw528.dz 

... is THE demo maker ;) 

hehe i always forget to record at first try :p, i�m always more interresed on waste all the bad guys 

THE demo maker

nah, some SDA guys like Stubgaard et al are THE demo makers, thanks though, hope you all enjoy them :-) 

it seem so easy, although you were dangerously low on health in many areas ...

Btw, if some zombies get stuck on ground, you can still kill them in a one-second "window" every five seconds when they try to get up. 

Had plenty of stuck zombies in warp on curves and slopes, mainly in Bile Plant - didn't know that.

Will watch the demos when my Quake window comes around again. 

Thanks for the demos. Some entertaining and sometimes pretty close-to-demise action. 

...picture me tipping my hat (rasta beanie). I so like the way you push forward in a level then bring the action back, sweet! Thanks for only exposing one Easter Egg...gotta leave something for the other punters :) 

...picture me tipping my hat (rasta beanie)

I must of met you the other day on a street corner. I was the one who did a old timey Gold Prospector's jig to your rendition of Get Up, Stand up 

And I was the one who told you to get a job. 

Sorry but I can't collect my thoughts to write anything sensible about it. No carefully thought out constructive criticism.

What I can say is I really enjoyed it, once I got past the first map. Good varied mapping, good varied gameplay, lots of interest. I found a lot of fun in the gameplay, it was well balanced and had some great action moments, although it did get a bit easy at the end. I liked some the designs and mapping styles too, from the early semi-real stuff (although sometimes a bit random) to the later Quake fantasy styles. Some of the highlights being the spider caverns and the outdoor areas with rounded rocks and stuff. I can't really remember, it was good.

Oh, and the Q2 Oblivion style map, that was well nice. Bit easy with the weapons from previous maps.

I liked the first two boss fights (Scrag and Enforcer bots - the latter being quite an unusual challenge). The flying minotaur thing was a bit less interesting but okay.

I liked the spiders, pretty scary and a good challenge. Hard to hit with the super shotty thingy.

I had a few issues with continuity in the episodes, particularly the second episode where it was a bit of a mish-mash of stylistic progression in places. It sometimes felt more like a collection of maps than an episode, which was a bit out of place with the general high quality.

Good stuff. Good Quake. 

Today's FTK is played on qtdm3: http://quakeworld.nu/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2216

To observe the games do "observe clanwars.xs4all.nl:28510" or start qw with "+observe clanwars.xs4all.nl:28510"

:) 

Sorry to be late, but due to holidays, mapping, office restart, I was quite busy and I didn't find time to play the final Travail release.

Well, I can just say that I loved the Travail pack. For all maps, there is a level of quality I never saw before in any other pack (well, maybe I didn't played all of them before travail): details, item placement, ammo/monster balance, are really good, and the must is the overall global architecture that is awesome.

However, I really prefered episode 2 compared to episode 1, maybe because of my preferences that go on medieval style rather than on base style.

Well, for sure Travail is THE pack of the year, not to say THE pack of these last 11 years ;)

I can't wait to see Travail 2 :P 

...a full list of both is now available on the Travail site. Also, aguirRe has supplied hi-res skins for the Travail beasties, and these are available on the download page.

http://www.quakeone.com/travail

Thanks for updating the site Spirit!