And what about making the start map session next week (sm59), as someone said here? I think it will be funny. And the best start map will be included in the megapack. 

ok. I guess we'll do the vote thing like I originally planned. My thought to throw them all in a pack was going to be 'ask everyone who mapped to put an four or so of polish on their map if they wanted, and I'd include that'. See, the biggest 'problem' with going either way is that CZG dominates the pack, and I don't want to push a bunch of extra work onto him.

So I guess what we'll do is include the favorite 3-4 from each pack. We'll play it by ear and get a good amount from each. I'll make a discussion thread for voting and debating after Saturday's speedmap.

Also, I'll be making the start map. Just simpler logistically to have me do it so I can link to everyone's map I include. 

"ask everyone who mapped to put an four or so of polish on their map if they wanted"

obviously I meant, an HOUR or so... early morning here... :D 

just out of curiosity, will you be using the same textures (green brick + wizmet) for the start map, in keeping with the original theme? Would seem logical to do so. 

Why should anyone download a new pack if all they get is a startmap?
The maps must be polished and if needed expanded if it should be worthwhile to get a new pack. 

...be happy to spend another evening or so expanding my e2/e3 maps into more proper affairs with better gameplay. I'm not sure they'd totally fit with the other maps however...

In fairness though, I think we need another shot at E1... there were only 4 maps total and only two of them I'd say were worthy of being remade into episode maps.

For E2 though.. i reckon these maps in order would work:

sm56_RPG - would start it off well
sm56_hrim - would need slightly easier gameplay though, 4 shamblers on the 2nd map is a bit extreme!
sm56_czg - again, slightly easier gameplay
sm56_pulsar - has some nice arena style battles
sm56_scampie - needs a bit of architecture refinery but would be good for an end battle

(am kinda happy with my map but it wouldn't fit in with the style)


And E3:

sm57_rpg - take the shambler out though
sm57_pulsar
sm57_xen
sm57_distrans - but replace those gazillions of knights in the end battle with a smaller amount of more powerful monsters, like fiends
sm57_hrim - with a harder end battle would be a great finisher map

(czg's was also great, but I personally don't think it would fit again, and he'll probably already feature in the other episodes)

Any comments on those? 

5 maps total in sm55. I can't count.

All seemed a lil bit lacklustre though, apart from maybe CZG's. 

It could have a really corny ripoff name, like Quake Mapped Quick :D 

it could... 

It'll be on my download list for sure. It'll be a very nice distraction from evil college homework.

Good luck with the speed mapping, all! 

speedmapping sucks!

/me continues his hidden agenda and evile propaganda 

Xen: It will not be ordered. Maps will link back to the start. Speaking of which, is start.bsp hardcoded for players to lose their weapons? or is that something I can set up in a player_start? Never investigated, but I'd like for each map to remain as a single shot deal and not have other map's weapons effect them.

As for sm55, I think czg's, metlslime's, and starbuck's, each with maybe a bit of work put into them, would be perfect. Again, we can debate all this after episode 4 is done.

QuestionMark: The maps are being packed together to be a nice, easy to get selection of maps for speedrunners and other Quake players. I doubt the average Quake player even grabs the regular packs. And all the maps I can convince mappers to improve for the pack, will be. Beyond that, I could care less if you download the pack or not, I'll make it availible for anyone who wants it anyway. 

the "megapack" I really like the idea of the maps linking as Xen suggest, but as Scampie says, some of the maps would suffer if the player had weapons and ammo from the previeous map.

Anyway I would love to finish sm57_hrim (if you want it and I might do it anyway somtime)as I visioned it the day it was build.
As is the map falls apart after the second rune and the killing of the Ogres. After that it is just a "Hey the time is up I better finish this map to get it into the sm-pack"
8-/ Two more rooms to hold the last runes and then a better end battle would be good! 

The losing weapons thing can be done easily enough by adding a rune at the end of each map.

And if that's the way it's gonna be done... can my maps be kept out of it? Not wanting to be anal or anything.. just that they'd be better suited as episode maps than single ones I'd have thought... might revamp them and stick them into a small episode one day.

Hrim: twas why i suggested amending the gameplay, but no matter... would quite like to see a proper version of your map anyway :-) 

I agree that making the maps into 'episodes' is a cool idea, and I had thought of doing it as well. But in terms of making it work, it'd require a good amount of effort by all parties involved to rebalance their maps to be better suited. I don't feel like the effort would serve to make it THAT much better of a pack, and would push back it's release forever.

I'd rather everything be kept to the ideals of KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) and just release a solid pack of cool maps. Making this a huge project isn't what I'm aiming for.

If you don't want your maps included xen, that's fine by me. But 'picking up your toys and leaving' just because I'm not using your idea seems a bit childish to me. Please reconsider.



also, adding runes at the ends of maps won't work. It'd mean a maximum of 4 maps could be played before you couldn't pick up runes again, and it'd break Hrim's map. Perhaps we'll have to use some simple qc. 

i think some modified maps [obviously by those who want to] would be good.

Otherwise [IMHO] essentially you are re-releasing maps that have already been released. 

re-release only makes sense if there's enough added value to make it worth re-downloading. If adding that much value is too much work, then maybe we should just say "check out these four SM packs! they have quake-like themes! download all four at these four URLs!" 

If you don't want your maps included xen, that's fine by me. But 'picking up your toys and leaving' just because I'm not using your idea seems a bit childish to me. Please reconsider.

Yeah, noticed it seemed like that after writing it, didn't intend for it to come across that way (hence the hurried explanation afterwards). It's just that I initially had a neat idea for those maps, and figured if this megapack thing was going to be a full proper episode, then I could've just used them up on that... but at the moment it isn't looking that way...

And hm.. can't say the KISS approach really appeals to me in this case; I pretty much agree with uwf/metlslime on the points they raised.

So if it turns out as just a simple bundle, then I'd probably favour picking up my toys and leaving in the most diplomatic, respectable and mature adult-like way ;-)

About the runes though... always thought you could pick up the same tune more than once? No matter if not though, if you want to use qc I recommend just taking the progs.dat that Aard created for 100b2. Resets items after each changelevel, simple as. Tis available at http://xen.quakepit.com I think.. 

"...always thought you could pick up the same rune more than once..." 

... and I thought sm57_hrim was a high point of the last pack too.

Ep. 4 summary: "Structures are built mostly with stone with wooden supports.": illogical, oh well, "that which is rot cannot rot", Lovecraftian Water-Seal, or something. 

I don't know if this has been used as a level name in a speed map before or if it's a very old joke that I've never seen before, but given the usual style of play of most of the speedmaps how about calling it the very obvious play on words "Whored Combat"?

Made me laugh, anyway. In fact, if it hasn't been used before then I'm going to learn to map just so I can produce a speedmap of this name. 

Let's try a new approach then.

Rather than a pack, how about I say 'Anyone who's made a speedmap in the last few weeks, make an expanded/polished version of your map, and we'll release them all at once at the speedmap site'? We give people 3 or 4 weeks to work the speedmap basemaps, and then release them all seperately as examples of what a speedmap can become.

Better plan? 

That sounds kinda cool. If that's the case, would it be copacetic if I made another speedmap in the idbase theme, so I could link up the four sm*_rpg speedmaps and have a comprehensive speed mini-episode?

Also, what time Sunday were you going to stop accepting SM58 contributions? 

I don't care if you want to make an extra map to go along with all your other maps if we're going to 'everyone fix your maps and I'll host/pimp them' route.

Let's say 4pm est sunday I'll stop accepting. Seems like a good round time. 

release them all seperately as examples of what a speedmap can become.

Better plan?

sounds good.