Skill 2 run knowing all the secrets and tricks. Got through it easily apart from a worrying moment in the final arena when I got trapped in a stone blitz and only just made it to the RA secret. Had a lot of fun this time, the secrets make a lot of difference.

WRT to the balance issues....the armour situation at the start might be problematic.

First GA is 0 monsters
Next GA is 87 monsters (87 later)
This is after 2 traps, 1 combat where if you retreat you have to go through a trap again, 10 zombies you have to axe, the introduction of new ranged attack vorelings, numerous ambushes, with the DBS in a secret.
Next GA is 142 monsters (55 later)
Next YA is 176 monsters (34 later)
Next YA is 199 monsters (23 later)
Next YA is 249 monsters (50 later)
After that I went questing into super-secrets and got lost. 

After watching ArrrCee's playthrough of necromancer's keep, I realised how badass it would have been for those player models to come to life as "posessed players" or something, (maybe using bot code for AI) without respawning.

It would make the single player experience way harder, but it would make it feel like you were actually fighting another slipgate warrior that had risen from the grave. 

bot-like ai in single player quake usually plays terrible. I remember how bad combat against Nehahra's strafing base enemies felt. 

if they were risen from the dead you'd probably gimp their movement speed or something.

either that or treat them like a boss-enemy. 

I don't really want this for Necrokeep...


...but you could just make them essentially a grunt. You'd need a whole set of new standup anims though, Quakeguy only falls down and there are no animations for getting back up from his various on the ground poses.

But I don't really like the idea of fighting other quakeguys anyway, or there being living quakeguys. I like being the sole survivor and lone warrior (coop discounted) 

risen from the dead
gimp their movement speed

Which sounds a bit like the existing grunt with its AD weapon variations. 

I was thinking that rising from the dead suited the theme of the map. I mean, you start in a grave, and the boss at the end asks you what you're doing out of it. So to me it kinda stands to reason that other "players" should be able to rise too.

That aside, I really like the changes from 1.4 to 1.5 :) 

I'd say risen players are basically grunts. Definitely not needed imo. 

Impressive in every way. So much new stuff, and amazing maps on top. Top notch quality. You can be proud of yourselves! Some of the new gameplay mechanics take some getting used to, both in a good and a bad way.

Tbh, it discourages me even more from continuing mapping, and new people from starting at all, so in this sense it's actually a pretty terrible mod You should be ashamed of yourselves!

More comments later, maybe. Some first run demos below. Beware: there's a lot of derping, dying and getting lost, probably annoying to watch and barely worth sharing, but didn't want to have wasted 10gb for nothing. Most of it played on stream, so distractions and pressure from the unforgiving Roman audience along the way. Scampie tricked me into playing on Hard, which probably wasn't be wisest move to follow...

http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/ad15_azad_negke.7z
http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/ad15_crucial_negke.7z
http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/ad15_dm1_negke.7z
http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/ad15_dm5_negke.7z
http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/ad15_e2m2_negke.7z
http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/ad15_firetop_negke.7z
http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/ad15_magna_negke_a.7z
http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/ad15_magna_negke_b.7z
http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/ad15_metmon_negke.7z
http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/ad15_necroblood_negke.7z
http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/ad15_obd_negke.7z
http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/ad15_swampy_negke.7z
http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/ad15_tfuma_negke.7z
http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/ad15_zendar_negke.7z

No demos for: ad_e1m1, because Scampie sucks; ad_e2m7, because I forgot to record; ad_lavatomb, because I ran out of ammo and cba to grind; ad_end, because mfx sucks; ad_tests, because. 

What changes are there in 1.5 on Necromancer's? I havent had time to play it again yet, but I flew through on noclip for a sec the other day, all I saw were more colored lights and someone removed the "bones of children". Oh and the graves were breakable. 

Tbh, it discourages me even more from continuing mapping, and new people from starting at all
...or it can inspire them. I firmly believe that great art encourages inspiration and emulation rather than the opposite. 

DICK.

Simple, good, fun maps are still good. Look at the retrojam5 pack. 

With making smaller, quicker projects tbh. Episode 4 retro jam was my favourite 

Discourage anyone just because of AD. It's a showpiece! 

to what shambler and fifth said 

With the others on this, I have fun just making worlds. The AD maps are there to inspire, and like Fifth said I really enjoyed making my retrojam5 map. 

Qmaster: I redid the lighting of Necrokeep entirely, added some more detailing and effects in places, and did some small gameplay changes (plus, supported coop so no one gets stuck and forward spawnpoints exist).

It's nothing major that fundamentally changes the map in any radical ways, just a bunch of little things I wanted to do. 

it discourages me even more from continuing mapping, and new people from starting at all, so in this sense it's actually a pretty terrible mod You should be ashamed of yourselves!
There are plenty of good maps/mods around, "Honey" by CZG certainly has not discouraged anyone from mapping, in fact the opposite has happened with plenty of (tribute) maps using the style and gameplay.

Are the older maps updated or something?
Crucial, Mountain, Necrokeep and Swampy have been updated.

sounds like a typo in AD. older versions of fteqcc (but not other qccs) had a bug that caused them to not check properly
Yeah indeed a typo, fixed thanks.

Golem knights (not sure what they're called) play the classic squishy gib sound when gibbed rather than a stony debris sound
Fixed in next patch

Monsters repeat pain sounds on death, this is confusing!
Fixed in next patch

Various *stuff* broken in Fitz
Stop using Fitz with AD, its never going to be properly supported. Always use QS or MarkV.

I'll be replaying the original Zendar rather than the AD update
That is indeed a shame, because the new version has more routes, much better flow and lots of extra visual fixes.

Are there any serious consequences/side effects from overwriting files in my original AD folder with the 1.5 AD files
Yes, plenty of stuff has moved around, been replaced and works differently. Always create a new directory for 1.5, otherwise it will end in broken stuff and lots of frustrating at weird errors.

Fortunately the rating system prevents these idiots from harming the average rating too much
Troll downvoting will prevent this mod from ever being in the top 10 list, which is why AD 1.42 score has been ruined. Internet score voting systems always suck, there is always one spiteful person who will ruin for everyone else.

AD monsters, overall, are not Quakey in the same way
You make it sound like its a bad thing! :) AD is mostly fantasy due to lack of resources on my part. I did not want to spend large amounts of time creating new monster models, so I re-used from other sources. I assumed it would be fine as Drake and AoS both use the Heretic stuff. I don't think AD has turned out too bad with regards to Quake Aesthetics, I still think it can co-exist with vanilla content.

I've just noticed the current readme is pretty scary for newcomers.
It has a lot of good information for anyone to search through. I am sure anyone from the AD team can help if people post questions. The MOD comes with all source/test maps included, so there is plenty of examples for anyone who is curious! 

Why is everyone taking negke's comment so painfully literally? It was obviously just meant as a (humorously formulated) compliment to Sock and the rest of the AD team. There have been many comments in that vein here on func: "Wow, [insert mapper name], your map is good it makes me want to give up mapping right now". Clearly it's not meant literally. Sheesh.


(Unless you're all operating on a meta-level of irony that I've completely missed, in which I retract all of the above.) 

Troll downvoting will prevent this mod from ever being in the top 10 list, which is why AD 1.42 score has been ruined.
According to this page: https://www.quaddicted.com/help/maps#rating (scroll down to the bottom), troll downvoting shouldn't have too big of an impact on the overall rating. However, maybe you should take the issue to Spirit if he has a way to remove such downvotes.

I did not want to spend large amounts of time creating new monster models, so I re-used from other sources.
Where does the Hunter model come from? I love it! You should use the Hydra from Seven's SMC (I think it originally comes from Hexen, not sure though). I find it a much more interesting aquatic monster to fight than the rotfish and it would make for some very welcome variety in water areas. 

Where does the Hunter model come from?

Attributed to RRP in the readme, but I saw the model in Malice with a different skin. 

 

AD broken my func_ tags. I demand a refund.

Also the troll downvoters can fuck off whoever they are. 

Would be good. Need a decent water map though as an excuse to expand the bestiary. I have some ideas in mind but need the motivation for it