I don't think I like it as a fiend replacement, but it has the beginnings of an interesting monster -- maybe an additional variety on the fiend? The thinner claws make it look a little like a bird carcass or a Half-Life headcrab in-game, which is unsettling (in a good way). If it had a faster clawing animation than the fiend, I could see it becoming a nicely terrifying monster.

The whitish hooves look fine in the editor shot, but in-game it looks like the fiend is wearing white running shoes. The open mouth during the attack animation also doesn't work for me aesthetically. 

I can adjust the biceps, maybe adjust the coloring on the hooves. Adding blood will probably help as well.

I'll also see if I can adjust the mouth during the attack animations. Make it more subtle.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! 

I can adjust the biceps, maybe adjust the on the hooves. Adding blood will probably help as well.

I'll also see if I can adjust the mouth during the attwck animations. Make it more subtle.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! 

Can you adjust the eyes, to make them exist? 

Ban OTP. 

Never understood the eyes vs no eyes Fiend argument myself. At least the Shambler's fuzziness is questionable enough to be worth arguing about (including two opposing official stances, A. Carmack saying it's flesh and Romero saying it's a shaggy yeti coat), but this isn't 1973, it's easy enough to open up the pak files and look at the Fiend's texture and gaze into its piercing yellow eyes. Yes, there's an extra bit at the top that, if applied, removes the eyes, but it's unused in-game (as everyone should damn well know because we're not barbarians playing with texture filtering enabled making the eyes impossible to distinguish anyway, right?). 

 

they're turn signals. 

Fiends have eyes
Vores are called vores
Spawns are called spawns
Scrags are called scrags, have eyes, and are fleshy. 

Dude, why not adding a spiky cock under your fiend model? That kind of long and thin spike that kills a butt! 

Again, I think I like the concept art more than the model. The texture is very clean/flat and I think the enemy design is kind of homogeneous so far. It's good to keep in mind the silhouettes when designing a character

http://www.chimpsahoy.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/images/2011/01/silhouettes.jpg

Plus I think more colour variation would help make the different enemies stand out even more. :) 

@chillo - I agree with the advice given here so far. In-game his arms look small and awkward rather than intimidating. Otherwise, he's very cool and still a sweet model nonetheless!

@qmaster - I thought shamblers had matted fur?

@fifth - useful feedback, thanks! I think they can be pushed more in their shape and paint job as well. They're a bit bland atm. There will be much more diversity/stylization among the remaining ten enemies :D 

Shamblers and scrags have similar skin. Scrags don't have fur.

Shamblers have sinewy features in their skin texture, notably on their right arm and thighs. This looks more like skin stretched over a gaunt bone structure (similar to a scrag or vore).

Shambler is derivative of a Lovecraftian Dimensional Shambler, which is definitely NOT a yeti. 

despite whatever 

@killpixel whatever you do, just do it; explode! your talent is exponential. Then back-step and pick up the bigger pieces. You do good work. stop worrying about the now. you will, kick ass when you meet your goal. 

Shamblers have shaggy hair, matted with the blood of their victims. The hair around their claws gets singed when they charge up their lightning bolt which produced a sulphurous odour that follows them around.

Fiends have vestigial eyes inherited from whatever lowly wretch Quake corrupted many millennia ago, but the once vibrant orange glow has been lost as the eyeballs have receeded in to the skull and the horns (once standing proud and vertical atop their head) have migrated down to obscure them further, making their charge attack all the more deadly. Who needs to see in Quake's gloomy halls, especially when you're a mere puppet of some omniscient ancient evil?

Scrags have a faintly transparent, pallid reptilian skin, and they can turn incorporeal to move through walls.

But real Quake fans know all that already, so I don't even know why I wrote it really. 

From: Adrian Carmack <adrianc@idsoftware.com>
Subject: Re: Shambler: Fur or no fur?

Not fur.

Adrian 

 

 

@qmaster - interesting. Apparently It's confirmed by adrian carmack as well. I will do my best to unsee the fur :/

@r00k - Thanks r00k, I appreciate it :D I'll take your advice. 

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/models/demon_chillo_replacement.zip

So I've added more blood, beefed up the biceps a little bit, and darkened the hooves.

I've also added eyes. There's no question that the fiend has eyes, they're just so subtle that I didn't think it would matter.

Please let me know what you think now.

Thanks! 

Yo!

I'm still fairly new to this forum (and Quake mapping in general) so I'm just following the convention set by SavageX regarding the format of Beta posts.

So I finally got around to finish my first beta version of a quake map. It's pretty rough around the edges, it's currently only balanced for "normal" difficulty and the artpass is absolutely not done for the time being, but I really want to make sure the gameplay is at least tolerable before giving it some visual polish.

It is a medium sized map, takes about 20-30 minutes to complete, with 106 monsters and nine secrets. Its main gimmick revolves around button-operated dynamic "planes".

Screens:
https://i.imgur.com/5XmCbcl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/1fZDJdb.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/EEZTnR6.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/lOgSl4C.jpg

Download:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/m1vodslo3kn3vth/movplan_a1a.zip?dl=0

(Includes .bsp and .lit. Requires Qouth) 

2nd screenshot is very moody! Nice! 

Nice lighting in 1 and 2. Lighting in 3 and 4 is a bit flat / bright.

Textures in 2 and 4 are a bit OTT with that repeating grille. 3 could do with something to break up the walls.

I'll let someone else do the gameplay :) 

Some feedback (possible spoilers):

Played through a sizeable chunk of the map but got stuck at the big fight in that arena-like area with the silver key door, where you fight several waves of monsters. I'd still like to finish, but I can write what I thought so far (before I forget what I think).

The "moving planes" gimmick is really nice, and it's effectively introduced at the beginning of the map, in a relatively simple space, before things get more complex.

The secrets are fun; I've found 6 out of 9 so far. I really like the way they utilise the main mechanic of the map, although I was in pretty much every instance surprised that I had found a secret, as I thought I was just going where the map directed me. But that might just be because of my play style; I like exploration-heavy gameplay.

I find that the map can get pretty confusing and disorientating fast. This might partly be intentional, but I think it would still help if the player can get their bearings more easily. That would arguably also make the unconventional means of traversing the map (i.e. by means of the shifting planes) more impressive: "Oh, I'm here now!" instead of "err, am I somewhere else or back in the same spot?". I would suggest using the detail pass not just for visual polish, but also visually to differentiate the various areas more.

I have two things to say about the arena/horde/wave fight where I'm currently stuck:

The first thing, which is probably a matter of preference/play style, is that I really don't like it. It's too hard and it seems to go on forever, and it's the kind of thing that's been done to death. The rest of the map was so interesting; to have to plough through yet another cliched over-the-top fight was a real let-down. It doesn't make use of the unique mechanic either -- it's just a bog standard wave fight. I don't know, if nothing else, maybe tone it down and shorten it somewhat, at least for normal and easy? I realise other players might have the exact opposite opinion, though.

The second thing is about the messages, and it applies if if you disregard my criticism above. I'm guessing each wave --or at least certain monsters in each wave-- trigger the start of the next wave. That in and of itself is not a bad way of doing things, but the messages to the player ("there are more to go", "only x more to go", "sequence completed") are a bad idea in this instance. What happens in practice is that you're in the middle of this chaotic battle, where you're killing monsters left and right -- and since this is Quake, they're killing one another too, in which case the player does not see any messages. And then seemingly at random, you see these messages: "only three more to go"; "sequence completed"; "there are more to go"; "sequence completed", etc. But there is no clear objective and no sequence to complete that the player is aware of, so it all just comes across as random gibberish.

Overall, though, this is the start of a really great map, I think. I hope some other people give you feedback too and I am excited to see the final version. No demo, sorry. I always get stage fright when recording demos and then can't play as I normally would.