http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/shamofsolace.zip

Pros:
Main rooms have some real strong designs
Consistent E3-ish theme
Blood is a cool addition
Little wall damage / alcove things cool
Nice secret alcoves to explore
Generally fun gameplay
Double Shamblers good

Cons:
Design structures pretty inconsistent in terms of angles / styles
Stronger design ideas not capitalised on
Coloured lighting really needed toned down by half
Some areas could have been better used / more populated
End-game relatively weak 

I had fun playing it and some areas / details grabbed me, but I think there was something more amazing trying to get out here. 

shots look kvlt 

this was quite cool, somehow completely missed NG/SNG on skill 1 

A couple of the items are released by killing baddies. Maybe you missed one the of the enemies. Weird tho no one in testing missed those. 

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/181301474?t=01m15s

Streaming is better for me as the rips make for sooo many fragmented demos :(

Also, I haven't streamed in a while, bit rusty with the settings(mic to low), sorry.

I tried to update my channel to show I was playing it but it kept giving me an error, meh... whutevah!!!

Really fun level, it just felt fun/right.

Thanks dumptruck 

Thanks so much for the stream - it's so fun to watch people play after playing it myself a million times. You can never expect what people are going to do. It was great to watch someone play on skill 2. I only tested it a few times. Glad you liked it! 

liked the geometry/lighting/gameplay (final fight should not be avoidable imho tho). did not understand how to get to gold key room (blocked corridor with defunct trap/button?) or what gold key was good for too 

98/101 kills, 5/11 secrets, skill 3, 1 death (I think you know where), 31:31 time. demo (quakespasm, if that matters. I normally use MarkV but I'm unfamiliar with demos/compatibility).

PROS
-interesting/diverse layouts
-good pacing (introduced to a new space often/consistently)
-tasteful bit of platforming

CONS
-could be more condensed (smaller map with 1 or 2 stong visual themes more deply integrated with gameplay)
-colored lights too saturated
-some misaligned textures

Good map, IMO. However, the spaces felt more suited for doom-like combat rather than quake. I think the vanilla quake map design is best (fast, tight, often vertical 3-5 minute maps). Large spaces seem to be the norm in modern quake mapping and people appear to like that just fine, so maybe take my advice with a grain of salt :P 

I am baffled and not sure how you could have avoided the final fight and still got out. Would you mind recording a demo of that? You can use cheats but the final switch is not available until all enemies are dead. Maybe I screwed up something with the final exit accidentally -- it should have a func_wall blocking it until you hit that last switch. 

Thanks for the demo! I can't wait to watch it.

As far as the size - it's my issue with the map too but I am proud of that final facade area after the gold door. It felt cool to me - but was a bitch to light.

The number one problem I have in all of my SP maps is the initial scale I block out. From my latest speed map to Jam 9 everything is just too large. I started this map in 2015 having never made an SP map. I learned so much by participating in the map jams and I think as time went on ideas started to flow better.

I say all this all for the benefit of new mappers. Take killpixel's advice. In almost every case tighter is better. If you look at Ionous' maps they feel expansive but he is limiting the play area with good design. Something to learn. 

final facade area after the gold door

Yeah, I agree, it is cool. I'm looking forward to future maps! I didn't even finish my first/only quake map for a variety of reasons, one of which is that I planned for it to be huge.

I just noticed, demos stop recording upon death so the demo I linked only has like half the map :( I'd replay it but then it would't be a blind playthrough. I should of just made a video, sorry about that :/ 

 

No worries about the demo. Your suggestions are great though. Thanks. 

Gloomy map. I liked the style.
Here are my skill 1 demos.


http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/solace_ankh.zip 

I won't go into things I didn't like. I assume that map authors can discern for themselves, artistically, what was bad, or good, from watching playthru's of their maps.

Besides, there's enough constructive criticism to go around without my adding to it ;)

Let's proceed at random...

This map was very easy to navigate, your brain just "gets it"(for the most part). Although I had a brain fade going for the Gold key door, hehe. I only mention this due to the fact that I for one get tired of endlessly being lost in a Quake level. This map was not the case.

I really liked all the little open nooks and crannies that not only gave a visual to another area but was also used for fight scenario's. It was a nice touch.

As stated above, the colorized green texture while simplistic in use, was neat visually.

I played on Hard but to be honest, it didn't feel like Hard, Which, I think I'm okay with ;) There is a spot that I failed at numerous times, ad nauseam, but hey... I play like a newb mostly! It's not that I choose to play bad, I just don't choose to play better!!!

Health, ammo and monster count were all decent enough. Neither one out pacing the other.

IDGAF who you are..."Under the lift" secrets still RULE, even in 2017, GG. There I said it. lul

The traps were implemented well and, again, I liked how it was just easy to put it together. Similar to the navigation. You were instantly like... "Hey, I can use this to MY advantage".

In the end, I play games to have fun, first and foremost. This qualified.

Anyway, congrats on the technical first release, very solid and enjoyed playing it, as was evidenced in the video.

Thank you very much for your time and effort,
- damage_ 

demo https://uloz.to/!yjK7ZEjh2jUL/aaaaa-dem

gold key room unreacheable, no gold door, avoidable final fight

I start game like
quakespasm -game bastion +r_farclip 100000 +sv_protocol 999 +sv_aim 1 +scr_conscale 2 +gl_flashblend 1 +scr_crosshairscale 2 +scr_menuscale 2 +scr_sbarscale 2 +scr_conwidth 1920 +sv_aim 1 +r_maxsurfs 4000 +r_maxedges 16000 +skill 1 +map endofsolace

maybe bastion mod corrupts the map? I use it for better axe/SNG sound/explosions visuals 

yeah, works ok without the bastion mod, sorry 

yeah, works ok without the bastion mod, sorry

Oh yes this was only designed for id1. Although I played thru it on AD to check out some of the mapping tools integrated into that mod. Hah -I don't even know what Bastion is. Will check it out. 

Congratulations on the solo debut! It was a fun map. Felt very retro, in a good way. Really enjoyed the secrets (found 7; will have to go back for the rest).

One thing kind of bothered me is that the RL secret seems to be required for progression, as the only trigger that opens the doors to the higher level is located inside this secret area. Once I had passed through said secret area I went back to a saved game and out of curiosity tried to continue without opening the secret, but couldn't not see any way to do so.

Or did I miss something?