It wasn't till the last second when I realized "Uh oh, I need to get off this thing real quick"

This is exactly what I was going for :D 

 

 

but I was also curious as to exactly how I would die once I realized I'd screwed up :-) 

where's the last secret?

i've searched the map after killing everything, but i'm missing one.

i have:

nails
megahealth
yellow armor
thunderbolt
pentagram of protection 

That Pent has a special use... 

e1m8 

 

...i'll give that another shot then! 

I got a new version of my map in the works. Expanded (silver key area) and cleaned up a bit ( also removed some areas that hindered the game play). Going to release it sometime this weekend. This version won't have the future gold key area yet. 

that was tough!

there was a good mixture of enemies for the majority of the battles, which made them very tough at times.

i spazzed about alot having issues maneuvering underwater, shooting scrags while watching my air.

like others have said, tough secrets.

i really enjoyed playing that section where you are in a room with four ogres with grenades bouncing off every wall...very nasty, but fun!

i found the thunderbolt.
i found the megahealth (well, i found the steps in the wall, but i needed to see someones demo to relise to shoot the button and reach the top step)).
i needed help finding the yellow armor.

i spent a while going around the cleaned out map looking for the 4th and final secret, but couldn't find it :( 

It worked really well. On my 2nd playthrough, I noticed the flashing light above the little door, and thought "That's a really neat and natural way to highlight where the player needs to go". Same with the cable from the button-less lift. 

I ventured through WarrenM's, Necros, Scampie's and Daz's levels. All very creative and enjoyable. Simply love what you guys do with Quake. It's awesome :)

My stream wasn't setup up correctly for QS(my own fault) so I deleted the archive. And I'm not a demo recording person, sowwee.

Anyways, just wanted to stop by and say a BIG "Thank You" to all those who participated, Thank you ;) 

adib - lovely atmosphere, wish this was longer. The lighting was exquisite, some of the vore placement was devious but the end arena seemed a bit rushed.

matecha - also had lovely atmosphere, again wish this was longer because gameplay was pretty much non-existent.

breezeep - solid if unspectacular map. Gameplay was on the tough side but manageable.

shotro - definitely a map that feels like uncohesive as a whole and more like different ideas stuck together but some of the gameplay ideas as well as some of the individual visual ideas are very neat. Definitely worthwhile on the whole just for the intrigue factor as to what comes next.

exelzhar - this seemed a bit more speedmappish, some very basic designs and gameplay was also not that interesting. 

ItEndsWithTens - love it, my favorite so far. Very very creative and original.

Rick - lovely atmosphere in this one as well, again wish it was longer.

Warren - very polished, great atmosphere, some of the monsters get stuck on the geometry a bit too much but otherwise very enjoyable map, although again wish it was longer. 

I have been gone a week, I was across the pond in the US on business, but it gave me time to create a todo list and redesign of my map, but also a plan. In the next 48 hours I will work on what will be the final version of "From Ashes" on this forum, if you want to replay the map as-is with better balance, a few surprises, and a few fixes, this might be worth it for you. Later, months down the road, I will release "Forged From Ashes" a map built on the ideas and feedback received. Without a time limit you can expect the quality to be much higher with a few bits of modified code thrown in to boot. 

Jackhammer screwed up the entities on the map, so I have to relink everything... I am back to being busy at work, so, if I get something in the future done, I will release it, but right now the MapJam is being pushed to the back of my mind now. 

Here is a new and final version of my level Signati:

http://www.mediafire.com/download/pfdjoxfqyq04gkb/signati.zip

It has better:
- Polishment: some things were bugging me aesthetically, some geometry was too messy, some were just not finalized;
- Gameplay: many changes based on your feedback, some improvements, a new battle after the last seal breaks, polished ending.
- Deathmatch ready! A full blown DM setup, including geometry for better bot navigation, only visible in DM mode. Not the best DM ever, but it's playable. I'm not fiddling with it any longer, Jackhammer and MAP sources available for anyone up to.

I made it just to empty the buffer, finish it and have a closed version. Don't think it screws jam's purpose. It's the same level, with its pros and cons. If you're serious about DLC, it can include this version along with new stuff. 

Adib - haha - inspirational map, but dang annoying gotchas more experienced mappers wouldnt make.
Necros - yah, real moody(dark) little seque of a map with typical aaa style. Love seeing doom mixed up ... but those doom door sounds become a bit much when they keep going off.
My demo ends abruptly because my pc overheated
:)
Eric+Tronyn - typical T. stuff. I found 7 secrets or so, including the weed. But a repeating issue with T's maps is , that the quad secrets are always found *after* f-ing busting your guts 10 times, when there's no-one left to nuke, laugh. Great atmosphere all these three. I loved the intro, which was just as well as had to play it ~int(pi^2) times :).
Scampie's intro is sweet... still lots of playing to do.
Played Tens map is old school crazy. Love the totem.
Warrens looks good - another day. 

I have nothing to add that everyone hasn't already said (scampie's was best, the eyes in Tens' map were lol fucked up, great efforts by the guys just trying out quake mapping, daz plz learn 2 compile, etc) but this pack was real neato. GJ etc. 

So how do you get into the "sharp eyes" secret? 

If I remember right, it's the one that is opened by means of something very hard to see. Turning on fullbright lighting might help you find it. 

Daz's map is freaking awesome, and worth a bugfix release (if it hasnt been done already). 

While that lavafall texture worked well in jam2_lunaran, I found it looks out of place in most of these maps. Guess it's not to be used on larger surfaces, only or mostly in combination with the standard lava texture, and not in a way that one can see the transition. 

It didn't even work that well in jam2_lunaran. Had to do a lot of wacky things with func_walls to stop it from drawing in front of lava it was supposed to be behind (like around the lg secret), and it still doesn't transition well. Nothing transitions well with quake liquids.

Looks better than the Heretic waterfall texture though.