Usually Saturdays, 4:00 pm EST on #speedq1, forget what server though. There is none this week because Scampie sucks.
As for tools, Valve's Hammer editor with Aguirre's tools works really and reliably. Also GtKRadiant with whatever tools you want seems to be popular, but I can't say how well it works. 

why don't you speedmap anyway? why does scampie need to be there for you to map?

if you want to do it, heck, even you could run the speedmap session, then email the results to scampie so he can post it on the site... 

I say Shambler should be given the keys to the kingdom when Scampie is a way. Can you imagine getting detailed, ego crippling e-mails from Shambler on why and how bad your map sucked. It would be like being pissed on by Alice Cooper at a concert. So warm and tingly. 

i have no problems if anyone else wanted to be there to organize one, but it's a bit late to get it all together now. if I'd known there'd be so much interest I would've asked 

anyone want to speedmap Sunday? an hour earlier than normal (3 PM EST) would be optimal. I'd be happy to run one then. 

as for themes, a few I've heard that I liked:

Obilvion theme. Floating islands in space maps.

Shambler's mini proper maps theme could work, but seems like something people want to see for playing, not a theme that really inspires mappers to do fun things, which is what speedmapping is about. I could give a flying fuck about how much people enjoy playing the maps.

long ago, Metlslime suggested 'maps you play thru twice'. I like that idea.

I'd like to suggest a 'gimmick' theme as well. Maps are built to some specific gameplay idea/theme and not just 'run around, shoot things, win'. Things like my speedmap with a Toilet in a Crate DM map, or Starbuck's shooter/shambler shambler shambler maps are good examples. But the idea can be as simple as a large room with tons of enemies and you have to kill as many as possible before dying. etc etc.


WyldeSnake: I see you found the irc channel alright. I would suggest you familarize yourself with q1 mapping before speedmapping though :D 

long ago, Metlslime suggested 'maps you play thru twice'. I like that idea.

yeah that sounds interesting. 

long ago, Metlslime suggested 'maps you play thru twice'. I like that idea.

i might do another one of those... sunday you say? 

yeah. 

long ago, Metlslime suggested 'maps you play thru twice'.

Aren't we normally allowed to play Speedmaps more than once then? Because if so, I need to apologise to most of the Speedmappers out there! 

"maps you have to play through twice"

This means that, without cheating, you can't see and do everything in a map in a single play-through. 

He means using runes & episode gates to change the gameplay of a map the second/third/fourth time round. Necros did an interesting example once, one sec while I just find it... 

twas sm47_necros

http://speedq1.spawnpoint.org/files/sm47_pack.zip

Thinking about it, you might not have to use runes... if you were to just have two routes through the map with two different exits. I've always wanted to try the rune thing though. 

I want to get into the speedmapping just so I can get re-acquainted with it, and actually get good at it this time :)

GtkRadiant...I spent a whle getting that running some time ago, and it was pretty nice. I used to map with QuArK, usin the basic compile tools. I'll have to poke around and get my stuff back. I might have it on a CD somewhere...

Odd thing is, I still have Quake installed after 5-1/2 years, but all the tools for modding it are missing :-o

Necros: It's infinitely more fun to speedmap, or speedmodel as I'm more familiar with, when you're doing it with other ppl at the same time. I like the rush of the competition, to try and get done before the other guy(s) and have a blast doin it. I'm a longtime vet of www.3dfightclub.com, and that started off fun as hell, modelling joysticks and mechabeavers in 15 minutes or less. Even if it looked like crap, the fun was had in just tryin to get it done and having a good laugh at the results :) 

I'll try to make it to the mapping session. I'll be at my parent's for the weekend, but I should be able to steal some time on one of their PCs and map :) 

If I run the 'maps you play through twice' theme, it won't require the use of episode gates and runes and such. That's an acceptible interpretation of the theme, but I'd say layouts that double back, or just using a teleport to make the player restart at the beginning and play through again are both cool too. 

I got an idea for it already :) I can't wait to get a crack at this 

the rune thing necros did was the inspiration, but i can think of a number of ways to do it. 

Mmmm, I think I might be missing something here.

I like the idea of going through maps more than once (I actually posted about this before) but necros map textures did not allow me to play through :-) I'm a pipe and cardigan sort of person!

So, can someone point me towards an explanation of runes and episode gates? 

...blah blah random stuff about clipping errors in maps. This leads into the following:
<scampwork> but... as I said, if you use a single brush, you're ok, so you could just use a clip brush that's a few pixels off to avoid the error in places where 1 brush architecture is not possible
<Vondur> just compile the map with -hull 1, and you might see that clipping bugg0r
<metlslime> scamp: yeah, but it'd be cool to fix the bug, too
<Shambler> 1 brush map contest
<Shambler> hmmmm
<metlslime> that sounds cool.
<metlslime> next SM i'm doing a one brush map.
<Vondur> i'll participate

I find it disappointing that neither metlslime nor Vondur have contributed a 1 brush speedmap. :( 

Shambler: Oh! misunderstood what you mean by the theme. I thought you were talking about making (for example) czg07 and just making it a shorter/less detailed. Miniscale maps sounds like a cool idea. 

So, can someone point me towards an explanation of runes and episode gates?

Heh... yeah should've mentioned that map is probably the most fucked up piece of Quake you'll ever play :-p

Basically... take start.bsp. When you first spawn in at the start of a game, all four episodes are available since you have no runes. If you return to the map after picking up a rune, you'll spawn in at an entity called info_player_start2 which is in a different place to the intial start point. If you enter with the first rune, then the entrance to the first entrance is blocked, and so on. Each of the four blockades are brush entities called func_episodegates, with the following spawnflags values:

1 - appears if you have the episode 1 rune
2 - appears if you have the episode 2 rune
4 - appears if you have the episode 3 rune
8 - appears if you have the episode 4 rune

...I think, someone correct me if I'm wrong.

So for instance if you pick up the first rune at the end of your map and set the changelevel to point to the same map, you'll respawn at the info_player_start2 and can use an episodegate w/ spawnflags 1 to block off or bridge certain sections that weren't available before. Has loads of options.. surprised necros has been the only one to really make use it so far.

I *think* the info_player_start2 is optional though, if it isn't there then you'll just start at at info_player start again. But don't quote me on that :-p 

When I said 'Has loads of options.. ', I should've said 'oppurtunities'.. as in ways it could be used. 

Methinks the thot plickens.