@Gioyo3aa thanks, one clue : there's a visible breakable crate. I guess you miss the huge trick jump secret.
@AAS thanks you so much for the demo, I was surprise on the way you dies x) 

@here: Thanks! Obvious in hindsight, as is often the case, and way better than attempting a swim back :) I don't know if by "huge trick jump" you mean the one that gets you the "A nice trick diserve a nice reward." (sic) message, I found that one. And I was wrong, I was missing 4 kills. I'll keep looking.

By the way, Linux users will miss a few sounds because of case sensitivity. You can fix those by typing:

ln -s markiev1 Markiev1
ln -s markiev1 MarkieV1

in the ad/sound directory. 

@here
I stuck there and couldn't get out :\
On my second playthrough I drowned in lava again somewhere in final battle.
So, here is 3rd demo where I noclipped from lava in 1st 1/3 of map :\

https://send.firefox.com/download/d5a1f4c3d058938c/#G5Y6kmulCDdm4yB0PFPO1g 

What an amacing map!
love it all, the environment, lighting, design, gameplay.
Can't stop playing. :D 

Wow! Just amazing. I didn't play such great map for a long time.
Everything is perfect, the music and sound, the gameplay, the visuals.
How can one even create such a thing?

Here are my first play demos:
http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/ad_heresp1_ankh_demos.7z

Recommend to play this map for everyone! 

A wonderfully crafted hot rock and metal fortress, guaranteed to give you a good 45 minutes of gameplay. Its dark, foreboding, and dangerous at every step. A real treat!

First run demo, hard skill: http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/orl_ad_heresp1.7z 

FYI there's some sound problems on non-Windows OS because of capitalizations. The zip contains a sound folder named MarkieV1 but the map refers to it variously as MarkieV1, Markiev1, and markiev1. 

Ah Gioyo3aa already mentioned this above. Not quite the ln operations that I needed to do to fix this since the created directory was already called MarkieV1, but that's the gist of it. 

ORL-maybe I was too mean but there's a way back from the lava clue there's a breakable crate !

Ankh- At the begining 2 spiders were stucked into a brush and lava that's anoying :/

thanks for demo it's so tasty ! 

... found all secrets, finally! I'm still missing three kills but I'm less inclined to find them now.

Johnny Law, yes, sorry, I realised after posting that I already had renamed the directory in the hope of fixing things, but I figured Linux users would find out how to adapt those commands. 

The skybox with the dark cloud and volcano could be better. It feels crude to me, compared to the rest of the map.

Also, some roofs are a bit crude looking compared to the interior parts.

Despite these, this map is awesome. I love that big exit door ! 

Could'a sworn I tried to hit all of them. Well I didn't want to waste too much time trying to find it, hope I didn't skip out on anything by noclipping back to the surface. 

Skill 2 demo
Great map!
A bit weird having both a killable Chthon and then a gimmick one in the same map, but eh.
Not seeing anyone else mention problems picking up yellow armor (behind the triple rune door). 

Yup, couldn't figure out YA either.
I'm also seeing some weird fog gradation. It backlights background geometry in a way that is a bit distracting. Otherwise nice map. 

Very good map yeah. Some beautiful stuff, the intro segment is A++. Slightly stream-of-consciousness: I enjoyed the big puzzle or setpiece rooms but also something about them made those parts of the map feel like disconnected/unrelated pieces. On the other hand, climbing around on the outside of the upper bits of the structure, and also the "battlements" spots and the area around the blacksmith, had a superb feel of place... really fun to move and fight in. 

Epic goodness. I basically agree with most points already made. 

I should add that the custom music was pretty choice as well. It's interesting how much of a difference it can make to have the standard very well-worn tracks replaced with something else that's quality. 

Those are really nice screenshots.
I love this mix in between lava and dark green lights. 

Beautiful map. Textures are sharp and LotR theme and lighting create great atmosphere.

I was amazed at the scale and architecture of the final underground area. Although I think the door to transition to the boss area was hard to see and not as prominent as it should have been, I got looped around trying to find it.

Very good.
Demo here:
http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/red_oxy.7z 

Hey all, this looks like a great map! Any suggestions for how to improve my framerate though? It mostly dips during the sections outside. 

Now that's what I call a goddamn mordor! 10/10, at the portal puzzle at first I've thought that lava tubes are connected to the three rune buttons and you need to push them in some sequences to drain lava from floor with opening gates or smth. Notion that you got to go into lava gates and they're actual portals got to me pretty late. 

Replayed it on Nightmare and it's perhaps my favourite map of the year. Yeah, I know I said it about Grim Gallows, but let's just say that there have been several 10/10 maps this year.

Superb atmosphere, dozens of very clever ideas, beautiful build and textures, excellent sounds and music, great combat. Also very clever secrets, although I'm still missing 5 of them. Will replay on Evil and try to hunt down the last of them. 

This was written as I played so, not very well organized. A one paragraph summary is, this level has really impressive layout, scale, architecture, and texturing. In some rooms, the lighting and fog are nearly perfect. There are other areas where lighting felt too washed out, or the fog didn't seem to match it. Gameplay felt good for the most part and I enjoyed the feeling of having just enough choices to explore in what is still a traditional linear key/door level. The connectedness of the level is great as the player begins to open it up and conquer more of it. The biggest gameplay weakness is some areas were too awkwardly scaled for combat, or too detailed, with lots of small objects on the ground to step up onto and tight pillars or obstructions that create the feeling of constantly getting snagged and bumped as I tried to maneuver around during fights. More notes follow.

Classic Q1SP opening, starting low with a view up to a large castle, and of course the moat is lava.

The first puzzle (SPOILER) with 3 buttons and 6 gates, looked more complicated than it was, which was slightly disappointing -- it seemed like you needed to figure out which buttons to press but in the end, you are told which buttons to press and just have to learn to read the indicators. The indicators start out looking like the clues but are actually just the answers. The 3 holes pouring lava coming from the ceiling, with 3 other holes without lava, added to the sense of complexity and were ultimately irrelevant.

I really appreciated the megahealth secret just after that room, It's a nice way to reward players's learning.

There are a number of places where the colored light is so bright it becomes white, this looks weird to be in a room with a lot of yellow light sources but have a white area near the torches. I know quake 3 lighting compiler would solve that by clamping brightness to guarantee the hue/saturation would be preserved. I wonder if it would be easy for quake 1 light compilers could add that feature.

Sound design is really great and evocative, not only the music but the custom ambient sounds, which felt localized and like they were actually telling a story rather than just filling the space. (e.g. blacksmith sounds)

I wish the various lava textures were more harmonious in terms of color palette, some were very yellow/grey and others were low contrast orange and others were orange/yellow/black.

The early sense of exploring a cramped, winding catacombs deep under the fortress is really strong, due to the complicated layout and the bulky shapes in smallish rooms and hallways. There was a bit of copy/paste in this area (I feel like the same bendy room appears like 3 times.)

The platforming area with the hanging crates was well concieved but relied on some pretty fiddly jumps.

Once I got back outside, this is a really impressive, large are with branching, non-obvious connections. This overall outside area with the multiple levels and massive facade, is really a distinctive look in terms of architecture and texturing, nothing felt borrowed from other quake levels. (other than basic ideas like stairs, stacks of crates, planks over gaps, etc.) After cris-crossing the level a few times to get keys, it's clear that the outdoor space is pretty simple, but first exploring it it feels like it's full of possibility.

The two circular platforms that move up and down have slightly different periods, which means after a while they get out of sync and are unusuable, and you have to wait a while longer to get them back in sync. Would be better for them to be synced up so the player is always presented with a jump they can make, at the right time in the cycle.

Room where you get the silver key -- this looks soo good, with the lighting and fog and architecture. Also liked the "puzzle" using the giant cauldron/bell things, which were a distinctive element of the rest of the level. It was a simple idea that has been done before, but felt fresh because of the visuals (the angled cubes floating over the bell-shaped pots.)

The giant underground chamber with the final battle(s), this is even more impressive than what I've seen previously in the level. However, the combat space on and around these gazebos is really awkward, the pillars are small and tightly spaced, the floors have tons of bumps that pop you up and down... and the long piano key bridges don't really provide much choice in how to use them in combat. It's pretty awkward to have to do all the combat on this geometry.

Skill 1
55:31 (I got confused after chthon appeared and wandered back through the level)
secrets 10/16
kills 228/234 

I agree about the out of synch playforms, but in practice you only need to use them once as you can lower a ladder in the courtyard and take that route instead. 

*platforms