Congrats on releasing this map. I know you spent a lot of time working on it and waiting for it to compile. It was worth the effort! 

You left this compiling for a month and a half?

:-o 

Tron: Yep... vis doens't like huge wide open area... Big mistake of a "young" mapper ;P

Moderator: could restore in the thread title the map title "Castle of the Dark Ages" please ? 

just finished the level. very nice, didn't have any overflow erros and such (used fitzquake tho). well the level is okay i liked the usage of colored lights there. and the whole idea of open level is ok as long as it doesn't crash quake ;) i liked that you can walk on the roofs there.

good work jpl!

ps. and that vis time is something really evil. 

Most engines (including original Win/GLQuake) should be able to load this map, but may experience packet overflows or other choking symptoms occasionally.

However, there may be visual differences as there are both fog and coloured lights in this map for engines that support that. Since it's a big map, there may be farclip issues in the distance. Adjust engine cvars if necessary/possible. 

Some yummy visuals.

Down loading now.

Congrats, JPL 

To get a fog/sky look similar to FitzQuake in my GL/NehQuake, you can use this cfg:

gl_skyclip 16384; wait
r_oldsky 0; wait

or for JoeQuake (also add -nehahra option):

gl_fogdensity 0.05
gl_fogred 0
gl_foggreen 0.05
gl_fogblue 0.05
gl_fogenable 1
r_fastsky 1
r_skycolor 0
r_farclip 16384 

Damn, awesome release, great work man! =)
Loved the very open layout, some good exploration, there are some really easy shortcuts though, I'm sure some speed runner will be able to finish this really fast. Gameplay was very balanced too, maybe a bit on the easy side though.
Colored lighting was nice. ;) 

Played this with JoeQuake, and it was problem free...

...until I was right in front of the gold key and everything hung. A short while later the whole computer rebooted. Dunno why exactly but it was a pity because I was really enjoying the map!

I really liked the visuals all the way through, the nehahra fog in joequake looked nice and the colored lights were just right in my opinion. I was playing on easy and never ran out of ammo. Perhaps a bit too easy, but then again, that's why it's called 'easy' isn't it! I found myself being surprised again and again that I didn't get lost more than I did. The church interior was really sweet, as was most of the map in fact. Nice work, the vis time seems worth it... I could feel the engine having some problems updating the screen fast enough for 72 Hz but it was never unacceptable.

And yeah the joequake variables worked well except r_fastsky which I turned off, is it really supposed to be set to 1? Why? For performance? 

By the way, yes there are some really easy shortcuts and the map can be (I just did =) finished in below 2 minutes. But that's not the point... yet ;) 

This is a very nice map and I really enjoyed playing it. The visuals are great in many places. The church was so sweet. I liked the textures very much and the ligting was also fine for me. I was playing on easy and for sure gona play it on the other skills also. Easy was to easy though I think. There was too much ammo and sometimes I could'n find any monsters to fight. But I'm sure on the other skills there will be much more of them. I was lost very often - for example couldn't find the way back to the gold door. I will write something more after I play the map on hard. I want to repeat this a really good map. Good job! 

^ that Smilie says: Yummy!

Mirrored at quaddicted:
http://www.quaddicted.com/filebase/cda.zip

I can't wait to play this tomorrow!

Please make all files lowercase next time. Linux doesn't like PAK0.pak when it searches for pak0.pak, heh. Everyone else does it please too, it won't hurt ;) 

i played on nightmare:

time 37:26
kills 212/214
secrets 2/4

it's a distinctive looking map with some cool looking places. even with 200+ enemies parts of the map felt empty.

i found it too easy until the end combat, the monster selection seemed a bit on the weak side compared to the ammo you get. eg with so much open space i was suprised there were so few fiends.

thanks for the map jp! 

JoeQuake's r_fastsky 1 is just to hide the skybox in fog, similar to FitzQuake. If you prefer to see the skybox, omit that setting. Same goes for my engines, since they also default to show the skybox through fog (like Nehahra).

Btw, what JQ version did you use when it crashed? Was it repeatable? 

Very nice map, well done JPL. Love the scale, the exploration, the theme, and the overall design and interconnectivity, had a good sense of place and of getting a feel of the whole castle, and the gameplay was fun, nice to have space to move around, although it was surprisingly empty for 200+ monsters. 300 monsters would have been no problem, but on the other hand it's nice to have something you can explore without it being action all the time. The ending could have done with some more monsters, or no Quad, as it was fun but a bit easy.

Speedrun: Run to GL, GJ over lava, GJ over GK door, down pit, GJ over exit-closing trigger - sub 1 minute I expect.

But yeah there are hundreds of possible shortcuts....a no-GL but RL run, or a non-explosive run, would be equally fun. 

I was using build 1140, GL variant, and the computer hung as I entered messagemode right in front of the gold key room. Haven't tried repeating it! But it's OK, never mind. I was just saddened because it disrupted my playing the map. 

The dark/foggy/humid look was great, and I loved the expansive layout.

I spent time early on exploring, so I didn't get lost at all later on - found a few secrets, and a trigger for a secret where I couldn't find the actual secret.

38:44, 164/177 on Normal, 3 secrets - and I thought it was a slight bit easy too - mainly because I could always find some pretty decent cover while being attacked - but still great fun to play (I'll try a harder skill later).

The cross-shaped holes in the roof were nice - first roof combat I fell right through ;)

When you say: "I'm glad to present my last map.
" I'm hoping you mean your Latest map, because I've enjoyed your mapping so far and would like to play more of your maps in the future! 

The colored lighting gave it as much Diakatana like ambiance as the DKT E3 textures did. I was half expecting some deadly toads and killer misquitos to attack in some of the more 'swamp' or natural habitat like areas.

I also congratulate you on getting such good frame rates in your build. No slow downs what so ever on my antique. It doesn't look like you skimped on details either; It seems likely that you were very careful about how you placed your structures. 

the coolness factor of this map is very hard to describe.

This is very much a modern map, with enough scale to provide great immersion and exploration, and enough combat to keep actioners happy. I liked the more sedated pace but I think ammo/armor could have been cut down a bit to make it more challenging (played on normal).

The look is excellently executed. Nice use of fog, good texturing and excellent lighting. Coloured lighting was used well too.

JPL, this is a great map, one of the best releases I've played. Great work, and the improvement from your last two maps is good to see. 

Great improvement.
The map reminds me of Serious Sam, which I mean as a good thing, but take it as you will. 

nice map ^_^

lighting was bad though :( a lot of places were almost pitch black, and some important gameplay furthuring switches and buttons weren't very visible (and i wasted some time searching around because of that)

still though, the way this was built made it feel like one big area (which it was) instead of a bunch of small rooms connected together.

gg :)

http://www.planetquake.com/necros/temp/ne_cda.dz
/\ demo /\ 

I'm really happy to read that most of you enjoyed my latest map (yes CETME, it was a mispelling from me, this was not my last map, for sure... :D ...)...
Thanks a lot for all your very positive feedback, it really encourages me to start a new project... ;) 

1 hp Quake you say? SDA is way ahead of you :)

http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/otherdemos/demos.php?records=careful 

Just watched your demo ! Nice piece of kake ! I was just a little bit afraid when I saw you starting the final underearth battle, and I really thought your were really good there, unless you were very very lucky... ;P
In anyway, thanks for the demo ! 

Congratulations on a fine map JPL, had much fun playing it, nice looking, some good gameplay moments... You really show improvement with every map you release. Look forward to your next one.