http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/shamfernal.zip

I died cos I lost loads of health trying to get a non-secret near the slime.

It was okay, decent build quality and some fun, crafty combats, but I thought the theme could have been better executed. 

Liked the concept of unlocking doors in a main hub to gradually get closer to the exit. Some nice use of lighting and shadows, felt very quakey at times. Combat was so-so, not very challenging and a bit predictable. Skill 3 demo

Found only two secrets, granted I wasn't looking very closely, also fell into the lava at one point and had to noclip out. 

How are you guys unzipping this? Windows 7 gives "unspecified error" and 7-zip says unsupported compression method for the lit and txt files. 

WinRAR says the archive is corrupt. 

...you don't need the .lit to play the map. You can even make one yourself using MHColour. The .bsp seems to extract fine.

Ubiquitous, if you used MHC to generate the .lit it's fine, but if you made it manually it may be better if you reuploaded a fixed archive. 

I uploaded a new zip, so hopefully nobody will encounter corruption problems any more. 

But the download link in the news post is now outdated. Please go to the blog page and use the download link there. 

 

Nice little map. The mixed themes are fine and the details appropriate (execpt for sacrilege of not aligning the rivets!). The colored lighting is odd, though. Indeed a bit "all over the place" as Bloughy put it.

Somewhat awkward movement in places due to clippy bits on the walls where one can get stuck on. Some sensible clipping here and there for next time (SP maps don't have to super smooth, of course); something to ensure one can move around and circle monsters without having to worry about touching the odd trim. Alternatively, geometry sticking out of the wall can be turned into func_illusionary to allow movement without substracing even more space in already tight areas. The slope-clipped stairs feel weird. Sure, it's a bumpy run otherwise, but preferable over sliding around.

Demo

Newbie tip: Load the map with "developer 1" to see console warnings for monsters stuck in walls and items falling out of the level. 

"The slope-clipped stairs feel weird. Sure, it's a bumpy run otherwise, but preferable over sliding around."
I completely agree with that. I faced the same problem not long ago in my first map I'm currently making. I put a clip brush slope to fix a chance-of-getting-stuck issue (long story short, because of how I designed my stairs) but had to remove it for this very reason (I did manage to find a workaround). In the heat of the action, choppiness of movement is ancillary anyway. If your clip slope isn't there to fix a problem, discard it. 

Thanks for the further feedback. I have uploaded a new version (v1.3) with the following changes:

- all 'entity in wall' errors fixed (these were caused not by monsters in walls, but rather by monsters standing on platforms smaller than their bounding box; I did't know this could be problematic).

- removed clip brushes on stairs.

- fewer coloured lights.

- created some func_illusionaries to prevent clipping on protruding wall geometry in some key locations.

- added some geometry to emphasise that a particular alcove is not a secret area.

At least for the time being, the download link in the first post is wrong again. You can always download the latest version by going to the linked blog post. At the time of writing, the correct direct DL link is http://www.mediafire.com/download/6ox7ubq3efdja1j/infernal_v13.zip and the filename is infernal_v13.zip.

I'm planning to submit this version to Quaddicted and then look ahead to my next project, where I can hopefully apply some of what I have learnt here.

Further comments are, of course, welcome.

Thanks again! 

(these were caused not by monsters in walls, but rather by monsters standing on platforms smaller than their bounding box; I did't know this could be problematic).

That shouldn't cause errors at all or be reported on the console. If you put a enemy on a too small platform, what will happen is just that on the moment they move the first time, they will jump off that platform automatically. In fact, I used it as a trick to make melle enemies ambushes from above without using trigger_monsterjumps or teleporters, for map jam 2.

I can only suppose is not only that what happened in your case. 

Before you submit to Quaddicted, I must tell you that I've found a clipping bug. I can't post a demo right now since I'm typing this on my phone, so I'll explain: in section 2, after taking a swim you arrive in a room with arches on the sides and a door in front of you. Pass the door, turn the corner and follow the right side wall. Just before entering the next room, you can fall through the wall in the room behind it. 

Thanks Mugwump, it's fixed now. 

 

To avoid ambiguity, the current link to the latest version (infernal_v14.zi) is

http://www.mediafire.com/download/0j7px431pgsbm4c/infernal_v14.zip 

Just finished playing your map and I quite enjoyed it. I liked the thematic variations in each section paying homage to the classic id themes, but I think the story of why this mixture of styles exists in the first place is not apparent enough within the map. You should at least write a synopsis in the readme but in your future projects, you should try to convey the narrative through set pieces and action.

The netherworld section especially stood out to me, both for good and bad reasons: I loved its design, and its darkness suited it perfectly, but its decidedly more low-key lighting had the side effect of kinda clashing with the rest of the map. Some vistas I loved, like the perspective in the hallway to the gold key and the chiaroscuro cast by those bars over a lava pool.

As Kaffikopp said, I liked that sense of progression conveyed by unlocking successive doors. Said progression could have used a little less linearity, though, with alternative routes and more interconnectedness. All in all, you're off to a pretty good start and I'll be looking forward to your future releases.

BTW, it works perfectly fine in Darkplaces, provided that the player turns the RTworld option off. You should update your readme accordingly. 

Mediafire in 2016 is ridiculous. Thanks 

This is a great map. It feels a bit like a Sandy Petersen map, more specifically E4M2.

Good enemy placement, some nice ambushes but none too difficult. Good weapon progression and multiple routes. I only found one secret.

Also, nice use of edited textures.

There's a weird rectangular block on the ceiling of the first shambler area, I thought it was a secret trigger but shooting it triggered nothing. And there's a few misaligned textures in the brushes at the bottom left of the second shot here. 

I noticed that too when I imported the bsp in blender 

I have submitted the map to Quaddicted; I'm jjust waiting for it to show up on the site.

@Mugwump: Totally agree with all your points. Although I have been fiddling with BSP mapping (on and off) for as long as Quake has been around, this is the first time I ever sat down and made a complete map. As such, I ended up throwing in a lot of different ideas with less regard to the overall theme and story.

But I learnt a lot and I already started work on my next map, where the emphasis is much more on theme and narrative. 

A narrative isn't an obligation either, especially in Quake. Sometimes, mindless rampage without purpose or logic is perfectly fine. But when you do something like this map, it's better to pay closer attention to it.

I'm curious to see what you'll come up with next. 

Your approach is fine, Ubiquitous. Id Software themselves created Quake this way � despite all the design plans they had, in the end they just put together the best ideas they could get to work.

And the different themes in Quake blend together well. It's not as if you were mixing Mario Kart Wii and GTA V artwork. Your map gives the impression of being a human base set in Shub-Niggurath's dimension, with all the different security layers to protect the base against her forces.

Making sense out of things is easy, so don't worry about it. 

good old skool feel
Wasn't always a fan of the coloured lighting but didn't mind the darkness overall
difficulty and progression were pretty nicely done I thought, though could have used more of a final fight perhaps - one last surprise detour before the final teleporter perhaps.
But yeah, overall quite a nice break from real life,
so thanks 

https://www.quaddicted.com/reviews/infernal_v14.html