No coloured lights, fog, or fancy skyboxes
All these options enhance and add to the atmosphere of a map. Not sure why you would take away the fun parts of the map creation process.
Quake map protocol
Why? Most people use modern clients and computers, we are not in 1996 anymore. Restricting protocol will not make people map faster or complete their map to higher quality.
id1 progs (next time AD jam, sorry sock)
I assume you will wanting to do something different with
Chthon this time as you seem to be mirroring the style of episode 1. Also WTF no Triple Barrel Shotgun!?! Talk about shooting yourself in the foot! :P
If you want to place restrictions to help people finish stuff quicker and not create large maps or monster death marches then restrict size and monster counts. Aim for each map being 15mins of gameplay with 3-4 secrets at most.
Bear in mind that Id has made Episode 1 already, you don't want to make it again by enforcing 1996 restrictions. Let people explore the theme, create new parts and not simply repaint the E1 map source layouts!
Decide on weapon progression early (including secret stash), which monsters appear in what maps and try to agree on skill levels and what they mean for each map.