Just played to the first autosave and... DIED!...
Errr... Sorry I have to go back...
This. Is. Insanely. AWSOME!...
omfg! 

Fast zombies were a giggle, quad shotgun = fun, Hexen 2 spell thingies were a bit confusing at first. The slow spawns...well, usually I hate spawns, and people who use them constantly in surprise situations (neg hello) but when slower like this, ended up using them as moving trip mines which was good fun when room allowed for it :)

Boss was great, the phase switches were really stylishly handled, though the void phase gameplay wise was a little meh.

The mini-boss Frost guy was neat too :)

Generally this kind of map isn't particularly my cup of tea, but I really enjoyed the atmosphere and getting lost a few times was just part of the feel :p

I think it could have done with more traditional Quake monsters though :E 

btw I first ran it with directq but it kind of went a bit mental (mainly the collision detection). Switched to RMQ half way through and worked fine from then on. 

i guess i should warn everyone this isn't normal quake. :) it's definitely got a more fantasy side to it. 

People who need warnings for things that "aren't Quake" need to question why they are holding onto ideas that just don't make any sense...

Besides, a "this is not for Quoth" warning is all that some people should need... 

Great atmosphere, a scenario. Constant feeling of unity that places the elements and all its inhabitants. The game itself was just as exciting: the first wave of zombies for me was just a psychological attack. So many things have been interesting to be done. Thanks for the great game! 

 

Lots of fun, great setpieces. Lots of nice little touches. (e.g. the pots, and the "surprise" pots.) New enemies worked, especially the golems which seemed to be perfect for this map. Layout was nice in that there was the illusion of route choices. Sometimes the samey-ness of the rooms and hallways made navigation difficult -- better landmarks would have helped. Also surprised there wasn't a skill-selection map. Some elements (like the pushable rotating door, and the mine traps) could have been used more. Lots of nice effects like the new blood splats -- i can see why the max_edicts need to be so high. What was the source for all the new models? 

This has a refreshing vibe, good new style and monsters. 

But seeing necros say DO NOT use quoth is an end of an era, sort of... 

Loved it. Great and refreshing theme, well built setpieces, possibly the best vistas in a map since Marcher? It felt a lot like an ice-themed sequel to Marcher. Liked the openness of the first map, though I wish it wasn't possible to wake up the boss before getting the rune.

My favorite thing about this is how it establishes its own branch of the Quake 'mythology' without a single word of exposition. That alone makes this release Quake enough :P (It makes one wish for a devkit though...)

I also found none of the 7 secrets overall... 

I haven't finished it yet (i keep running out of ammo) but there are many parts that i liked, namely: the hordes of fast zombies, the new shotgun, breakable vases (i had to break them all - even those with the spawns, which is probably why i'm running out of ammo all the time trying to kill them :-P), the giants, the way the fog was used (most of the time i see the use of fog as an optional gimmick, but in this case i loved it), etc. I wish the vases had some ammo though :-P.

The atmosphere while not Quake-ish it feels like it could be Quake-ish if Quake had a more "cold" feeling.

I have to mention that somehow the interiors gave me a strong feeling of the Ayleid ruins from Oblivion - from the cold greenish palette and architecture to the way some "stone doors" open. I didn't paid much attention to the description parts of the .txt file and after playing it for a while i read it again to see if that was intentional. As it seems, it was, and so the desired outcome was achieved :-) 

This was amazing :)

Only thing that pissed me off was that I kept dying in that lava trap, either backing into it by accident or going down there on purpose to grab the MH and then dying as I cound't see any way out??? :P

That open air area in the first map was seriously impressive. What was the vis time on that one? :) 

Some elements (like the pushable rotating door, and the mine traps) could have been used more.

the thing with this mod is that it continually had things added to it while the map was getting made, so stuff like the pushable rotaters were added nearly when the map was finished. also more advanced pathfinding is present but it's barely noticeable because i built all the rooms to funnel monsters through without it.

What was the source for all the new models?

reskinned tarbabies, dog and fiend were mine.

the ice blocks the frost golem uses, tiny particles and worm gear models are mine.

fast zombies are stock zombies re-animated (haha) by me.

quad shotgun is q2 super shotgun with the barrel copied and rotated 180 degrees to look like four barrels. :P

everything else is hexen2. great models in there, even though some animations are a bit iffy.
they all have custom (well, modified anyway) skins. the end boss was originally red, for example. i think the only one that is largely unchanged was the normal golem.

for sprites, the flames are from duke3d, large blood splat was from strife (awesome game) and small blood splats are from hl1.
the red and yellow magical looking sprites were from kinn's marcher. i don't know where he got them.

btw, if anyone wants to use the new zombie model for their own monster, go ahead.

i had a lot of fun animating that zombie. i think if i do another mod like this, i'd like to re-animate more of the old monsters, like that starving shambler i posted a while ago.

It makes one wish for a devkit though...
is there really interest in this kind of thing? i did not have a quoth-like developer mod in mind when i was doing this. most of these entities were not made 'mapper friendly'. some have only one purpose and are not very flexible. there also isn't many 'safety features' so it's totally possible to crash the engine without knowing why. :P

Only thing that pissed me off was that I kept dying in that lava trap, either backing into it by accident or going down there on purpose to grab the MH and then dying as I cound't see any way out??? :P
at the back of the hallway where the MH is, there's a button on the wall that opens back up to the main room.
unless... it is possible to trip the trap but not initially fall in. if you do that, the platform will not rise again and when the room floods with lava, it becomes an inescapable trap because even if you somehow opened the door, the floor is completely covered in lava.
that's one alternative that i did not plan for!

That open air area in the first map was seriously impressive. What was the vis time on that one? :)

2 minutes....... fast vised. it's just one giant room and i didn't bother with a full vis. i tried initially, but when the estimate got up to 500 hours at 45% i just gave up.
by complete luck, the fast vis cuts off the exterior geometry almost complete as soon as you walk underground. i was pleasantly surprised! :D

thanks again for the comments! i got pretty burned out at the end of this and it helps me recharge to read them! 

... only one screenshot that looks amazing... I have to download the stuff and play it at home now !

More feedback later ;) 

The screenshot is tasty but wait until you enter the game. I have not beaten the boss yet but this is jaw-dropping. The ruins map is a bit too samey for my taste and I often felt lost or unable to fulfill my desire to explore everything properly. But the "fillings" easily make up for this. Ice boss fight was just unreal, wow, the effects. And then the actual (I think) boss fight. Bloody fantastic.


Some people do not realise they have to simply start a new game (load start.bsp), it might be a good idea to add this in bold to the first post. 

yeah, the file names are a bit nonstandard. i just wanted it so you could use the start new game menu but i suppose a proper start map with skill settings would have been in order. i kind of ran out of steam at the end there and just really wanted to release this sucker. :) 

THANKS A FUCKING LOT necros, NOW MY MAP LOOKS EVEN SHITTIER THAN IT DID BEFORE.

Seriously though, this is pretty damn breath taking, might even kick Marcher out of top place for Most Epicest Map Ever award, if it existed. Your skills are truly humbling. 

I think it should be clear by now that anything released by necros is going to be outstanding, and this is no exception.

I don't know where to begin. The great environments, the new and altered monsters, the gameplay, the level details, its all fantastic. I'm having trouble finding any sort of criticism, but the only thing I can think of is not using more of those doors like the silver key door. That made my jaw drop the first time I saw it :)

Even though I'm not a huge fan of colored lighting, I didn't find this bad at all. It really set the mood to the theme, a theme I've never seen done before in Quake, but you pulled it off nicely.

My final verdict: Play this now. Its incredible and hopefully we'll get to see more of it in the future.

I included a first run demo of ne_ruins, but not the start map, as I didn't know at the time that the start map played a crucial role in the gameplay, before and after.

http://qrf.servequake.com/~orl/misc/orl_ne_ruins.7z

Great job as always necros :) 

seems everyone has said everything. I thought there were more than enough regular enemies in this, and REALLY enjoyed everything about it. Seriously, if you watch my demo all I say is "awesome" or "Jesus, fuck" over and over again. Congratulations on releasing a more or less definitive release Necros, even if it isn't 'quake'. Definitely good enough for me. I actually would have liked it if there were even more wandering before combat began in earnest, with more grenade traps, and etc.

Another thing you might notice is that I accidentally skipped out on a part of the map, activating the GK lift before properly exploring the gears area. don't know what I missed, but I'll make sure to check it out the next 10 times I play this!

http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/demos/start_drew.7z 

and I thought the boss combat was the best thing evar. 

to play this uninterrupted.

These comments have me salivating. 

I'm just holding it back to savour everything properly... 

Don't really have much to add that hasn't already been said, pretty fun!

I really liked the outdoor areas with the cliffs and snow, the crisp and clear textures, the mountains and constructions in the distance, and of course sloped terrain that allows you to gain speed! Always great.

I also enjoyed the main (underground) part of course, lots of room for movement and different maneuvers. Fast zombies were hilarious and fun to fight, especially considering they went down with one shot with whatever weapon, even the nailgun.

The only thing I thought was a bit "meh" was the final boss fight in the void area, as I basically resorted to just waiting out in the healing pools while the boss did his thing, jump out and fire at him a little, and repeat until he died. The mechanism and moving parts of the architecture was pretty impressive, though.

Here's my skill 3 demo, though I forgot to restart the recording once I reached the final map, so no boss fight:

http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/demos/ne_ruins_bern.7z 

I did both skill 0 and skill 3 just now on 2 trys and one of my only real complaints is that there was hardly a difference between the skills. I took quite some risks a the end fight ignoring the stone golems (did pick up a ring at some point) getting close to deliver that punch with that shotgun. As berntsen said the endfight is a bit to easy , especialy since the void is safe to

Didnt find (nor look hard) of the secrets, maybe thats the hard part :)