Still im wondering why they are using the stock q3 maps, 90% of them were utter shit or gimmick maps...

Because they made them and they can't tell.

Remember the Tim Willits multiplayer map advice I posted? He reccomends gimmick maps. 

but for casual players, gimmick maps are actually fun. The depth of a good "serious" map is not discernible to people that don't have a deep understanding of the game. So they don't miss the lack of depth in a gimmick map, but they do notice the gimmick, which is fun and interesting. You'd have to be a more seious player to notice that the gimmick overshadows the other game mechanics and distorts or breaks their usual balance. 

Take the 10% of gamers who bother to complete a game.

Remove from that the 80% with no aptitude.

Remove from that the 90% who prefer not to sit in a darkened office on the weekend, pissing about with new problem n.

There you have a game developer, probably the only people who can tell.

And most of the Q3 mappers can tell, but their bosses don't care if they're complaining, because they're not in that hallowed (socially misfit) group.

At least it pays the way. 

But what I mean is that the publishers want a few bells and whistles, some flashy visuals (not necessarily the latest graphics engine) and mediochre gameplay, because that appeases marketing, and they think that it'll sell.

And they're fucking right.

That's why there's so many people still playing and mapping / modding for this ancient game, and not a few developers. Its basically the inverse of the list above. 

and the rest of us (that is the minority) have to deal with that.

Although, surely id can tell BY NOW that most stock q3 maps were crap. It's actually amazing that they built such a compelling, efficient gameplay with so few good maps to test it in... 

 

Word. 

is like crossfire in half life - that annoying map where it's a big normal open map with a bunker at one end, and whenever some idiot presses the button there's an alarm and anybody who isn't in the bunker when the doors shut gets nuked. Or there's a chamber with an item in it and when some other idiot hits the button you get trapped in it and it fills with lava or something. Or the map is a maze with spawns at the edges, and whoever gets to the middle first hits the button that makes the floor drop out and fall into spikes or whatever other kind of contrived shenanigans that go above just the simple interaction of players, items, and layout, usually breaking the aforementioned in the process because now all anyone wants to do is camp the button.

At least, that's in multiplayer. I guess part of the whole tumult we've had recently here is a dearth of good single player gimmick maps. 

Crossfire was actually a nice map. The gimmick would work only every 5 minutes or so, which made it pretty balanced, and quite interesting. Most often turned the tables.

Agree on the other gimmicks ;) q3dm17 ftw 

Does anyone know if there exists video of it? i can't find anything anywhere :( And reading some dumbass reporters 'main points' isn't quite the same. 

q1 dm2 would be a gimmick map I guess. And just look how great it is.
A map can only be as good as the players play it and vice-versa. Who would give e1m2 or dm6 a first look and say they are good? 

And for the other 4 minutes and 30 seconds everyone clustered around the button waiting for it. 2/3 of the map was empty except for people who'd spawned out there and had to walk back to where the 'gameplay' actually was. 

hm, my games never were like that. all the action always is in the atrium. That's where i get the most frags, and every now and then someone pushes the button so all my powerups and weapons aren't that useful anymore and i need to actually move my arse ;) 

That map's weird. There's a cool secret area I found once. I like it inside the buildings because it's quite cramped and in a lot of places you really can't see very much at all. 

secret areas in DM maps! those are great for seperating the men from the noobs. 

Shoot something that doesn't look like a button and the RA area turns into a pit of death - thats the business.

Was it Deadmeat maps that did that? 

I agree some of those things are annoying in DM, although I'm not against certain unusual elements/features (eg. Quad trap) as long as they're not the main focus of the map that distracts from proper gameplay.

Which Q3A maps in particular qualify as gimmick maps then? I can't really think of any, except maybe the grenade shooter in the Quad room of one map, and maybe the crusher in that space tourney map.

Bler: You can't be seriously considering dancing monsters, exploding scenery, the goatse guy, happy textures, or silly centerprints as gimmicky... :P 

these guys think the space maps are all gimmick maps... i'd say they are just a genre of map, that happens to be shallower in some incarnations (but non-space maps can be shallow too) 

qualifies as a gimmick map. I recall the day the demo of Q3Arena was released, my brother invited me over to play. He had been practicing with bots for several hours before I got there, and I doubt I have to spell it out to anyone how he dominated my ass on that map. 

I agree with Metl, I don't think q3dm17 is really a gimmick map, and yeah even if it's totally overplayed, and forces a specific kind of gameplay onto the players, I still think it plays ok, and is one of the better maps in q3.

On the other hand some of the other space maps in q3 were more gimmicky in my opinion, like q3dm19 and it's stupid moving platforms. 

but only because they're my friends! 

 

 

 

Hello,
I'm Robert and I'm co-developing new quake1 project - portal gun mod (see wiki record: Portal_(video_game))
We already have portal gun and models of portal gates, but the main thing is still open: levels.
Could anybody who likes idea of portal gun AND making levels, help us? Just please send me mail on
boby_my[strange_a]mail.com
The project is OpenSource.

Edit: Post in the mappers wanted thread.