@lpowell.

Looks nice, and I'm pleased that you've strayed from using solely the standard 'metal' texture set and done something a little more original. 

Except base enemy and knights together = totally unacceptable. I like the blend of map styles tho. 

You're probably gonna have to live with it. I mean the whole idea of the map is tech+medieval style anyway, so it would be weird to *not* mix monster types. 

Nice looking shots. The lighting feels flat but not terrible. I agree the theme mix feels pretty fresh here. 

@Shambler. I disagree, they can work together, as long as the mapper creates the right context.

I don't see why user created levels have to stick to any rules or themes used in the original Quake. I prefer to see mappers not limit themselves to specific texture sets or styles. 

from Operation Urth Majic

Gotta keep Shambler happy. 

base enemy and knights together = totally unacceptable.

E1M2...? 

 

It's literally right there.

There's more precedent in the original game for mixing Grunts and Knights than putting Knights in runic. 

...a coherent story. We have now transcended that with stronger thematic adherence. 

There was nothing mistaken about the monster order of appearance once the final episodic structure was settled. 

The grunts are just possessed by the entity known as "quake" in the story, so there is no reason why this entity wouldn't just mix his new recruits up with his old knight fellas without sparing a second thought.

What shums is alluding to is a question of personal taste, of no more validity than an objection to certain texture combinations.

The Hipnotic mission pack did a lot more of this if I recall. 

The Hipnotic mission pack did a lot more of this if I recall.

Yep and there's nothing wrong with it if you justify it with a Slipgate pad as otp alluded to. 

Zerstorer if I recall correctly did this?, as did a few good maps in the 90s. I don't remember anyone caring back then, and in the Doom modding community, there aren't such rules. It is as kinn said, just preference masquerading as a rule.

Personally, I like when authors follow their own style and do something original, and don't stick to a predefined iD style. lpowells screens look great, and the style seems to work. 

 

Base and Medieval enemies can be used together, but there needs to a reason why. A portal within a research lab where hell knights are coming through makes perfect sense. 

Thanks for the comments everyone. @dumptruck_ds, thanks for the comment about the lighting; getting the right Quakey contrast is something I really need to work on. 

It's detrimental to gameplay (enemy variety) to refuse to use base enemies in otherworldy settings for "thematic reasons". But even thematically it doesn't make logical sense. Why can Ranger travel through the slipgates, but the grunts can't? Is there an anti-grunt forcefield? It's perfectly reasonable to imagine grunts traveling through slipgates to act as backup. 

It's detrimental to gameplay (enemy variety) to refuse to use base enemies

If it's the mapper's choice to not use base enemies, then it ain't detrimental to jack shit, mr anonymous.

Let's try not to confuse "what mapper wants to do" with "what people are telling mapper to do". 

@lpowell I was just going to add to dumptruck_ds's comment about the lighting. At the moment from the screen shots, you can see the light spheres around obvious light sources (especially in the 3rd screen shot), but there isn't much to break the lighting up or give it a different flow and direction. It looks good now, but it would look better if you thought more about lighting in terms of how the architecture would cast shadows on itself, how light might flow from area to area, how light might flow out of a brighter area into a darker larger area (for example, having light spill out of a doorway or hallway). Let the architecture shape the lighting more. Doing this also increases the visual detail. 

I have been farting around in trenchbroom recently (it's been a while)...

https://twitter.com/GavinEdgington/status/1187881309873623040?s=20

I've been pottering away at it, though it's slow going now that Outer Worlds has been released. 

Fifth, that kind of fart would tear a butthole to shreds but what a visual stun ! Such a beautiful spiky-curvy shaped menace. Love it. Can't wait ! 

butthole shreds ahoy