awesome!

I found the narrow walkways were a fun challenge, because the map is small so it's not too annoying to die.

here's a skill 1 demo that starts part way through the map; messed up recording the start. I died twice earlier attempting jumps to get secrets.
http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/metmon_ericw.dem.zip

time to try it on hard, and find all the secrets..

only complaint: what happened to the moon? :D 

I can play the map fine. thats not the problem, quoth 2.2 is installed. I just cant watch the demos, no matter what i try.. 

Lots of demos on hard where I fall to my death attempting stupid jumps to secrets.

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/metmon-preach.zip

The first few minutes are missing because I forgot to record. Eventually I learnt that all the secrets I saw can be reached in a safe way, and beat the map. Think I found 6 out of 10, maybe 7?

Architecture and theme is really cool here, I loved the floating antennae which were so inviting to climb around. The hard light bridges looked even cooler in action, and the little training segment in the first two encounters was well done (it's missed off the demo but I did kill the grunt with it). It's a bit of a shame that they didn't tie into the final arena at all, but perhaps they would have been too effective as a trap to use against the horde.

Combat-wise, I liked the initial climb where monsters gradually noticed you as you ascend. It felt very organic, like it could probably play out differently in subsequent plays, and denying the nailgun in the early portion made sure you couldn't just snipe everything from safety. The gold key marked a change into more wave-style brawls, but that fight was a transition as the monsters did filter in slowly from all around.

The final arena was neat with the lightning to avoid - I guess it was kind of like the final arena traps in earlier maps but I couldn't exploit it as easily, perhaps because it triggered at random. The waves had a good ramp of difficulty, I think that the last one would have been harder had I not found the plasma gun, but with it the Gug went down quickly enough.

Cool stuff, now I'm off to update the Quoth page with a link to this map! 

 

Maybe I'm just an idiot? I would like to know what's up if anyone knows... 

@digs, RickyT23, glad you liked the map.

@ericw, looks like you had plenty of fun, good luck with the next skill level its tough.

@Preach, I love the way you deal with quoth monsters, it is like you know their weakness and how to defeat them quickly! If you want include my map on the Quoth page in the correct launcher format (metmon.pak), that is fine with me! :D

@KillPixel, I assume you enjoyed the map and curious to see how it was built? What version of GTK are using? Is it configured for Quake 1? What errors are you getting? 

Ah, yes, I did enjoy the map very much (like a majority of your maps). I've only played it once so far. Played on normal without issue, felt very balanced at that difficulty. The open look with constrained paths of movement offered an interesting feel. I was impressed by the lighting, you were able to have interesting shadows and dark areas without looking ridiculous against a bright skybox.

I've attempted to look at all your maps simply to see if there is anything to learn from your brushwork. Unfortunately, or bizarrely, they open but nothing appears in the editor. No errors, nothing. I've never had this issue with any other map, and I look at map sources when they're available. I'm using GTKRadiant 1.5. It's odd... 

Unfortunately, or bizarrely, they open but nothing appears in the editor. No errors, nothing. I've never had this issue with any other map, and I look at map sources when they're available.

I create maps differently, I always func_group stuff so I can select/hide large chunks of the map quickly (like using layers) and recently I have started using func_detail to reduce compiler times.

Download THIS entity def file. Either put the file in the same directory as your other entity files (depends on how you setup gtk) or merge it into your existing quake 1 entity def file. 

I wanted to see how you made those light bridges. 

thank you sock for new quake gem. generally, i'm not a big fan of base maps. the original set of quake monsters doesn't work well for base themed maps. quoth changed it all.

i played on hard without much problems. i died a couple of times usually by my fault. my search for secret areas led me several times off the edge. that's fine. important is that gameplay wasn't unfair, even on hard. it was always manageable including the final fight.

played on latest darkplaces and everything worked fine. in one older post you mentioned that your level would be really hardware demanding. my phenom X4 + hd6950 was enough for 1920*1200. it's a big difference in comparison with zendar. that map runs slooooowly on my rig no matter what resolution i use, but that's probably some strange darkplaces thingy.

yellow walkways are beautiful. luring enemies on them, turning them off and watching the poor grunts falling was satisfying. i wish they scream in horror :-)

skybox is truly piece of art. 

I wanted to see how you made those light bridges.
Download this FILE file. (sadly missing all texture information)

@jakub, thanks, I am glad you enjoyed it. :) 

What's particularly nice about this map is that despite its small size and cramped layout it offers a surprising amount of possibilities for exploration with all the ledges to jump over or drop down to, usually rewarded by being secrets. It comes at the price of them being predictable, but the benefit is that every bit of the level is made or left accessible.

Gameplay is more challenging than in the previous socks, but I found it to be quite managable if one keeps their cool and examines the environment carefully. I played it on hard with both Quoth 2.0 and 2.2, and the rebalancing of the latest patch, however subtle, was noticable in a couple of situations. So this map is the perfect opportunity to update one's Quoth installation if it hasn't already been done. 

Thanks for the source. Those light bridges are really complex set ups. Worth it though, one of the coolest effects I have seen for a while. 

You know what really would have made this map tense (since tarbabies are out of the question)? Polyps! 

Played thru it on hard just now. Good times!

One of the things I enjoyed was that sometimes I was really motivated to stay out of the open, and then the situation would flip and make me desperate to get out into the open.

P.S. Quake Injector will incorrectly try to start map metmon1d, instead of metmon. 

one of the best thing about metal monstrosity is that there are no polyps. these little bastards would make gameplay unfair. what would you fight polyps on narrow bridges?

it's good they are absent this time.. 

Johnny: fixed.
jakub: joked. 

i know :-)

but i couldn't help myself. hate those green little f**ers. 

This is a great map. Cheers man :)
7/10 secrets on normal skill. Fights were fun, and only died from ledge/adventure mishaps. Loved the whole setup, and portal sphere was an ace touch.

My granny nag is - having the bfg where it is, i didnt find it mainly cause i lost track of which i'd visited and couldnt be arsed. But probably made the finale fairer that way. 

quakespasm, quoth 2.2, skill2, no deaths, 5 secrets, most of the monsters.
I'm supposed to be doing something else so this was a break, and as such I didn't get too crazy with the secret hunting. I did play carefully and methodically doing lots of sniping etc, mainly due to everyones comments regarding difficulty. Actually I think my playing style is well suited to this map, and also I'm super familiar with the Quoth bestiary due to my own mapping predilections. As such I didn't find it overly difficult. It was pretty spot on.

That's an understatement of course. This map is so good, glad you finally got around to doing a quoth/ base-ish map/ coagula map. Makes me want to do a shitty rip off! Of course, I'm going to stick with a black skybox and more darkness all around if I do so... as is my way.

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

Just reading thread now... maybe I played in normal? I never saw a Gug. That would explain why it was so 'easy'... 

@negke, I wanted to keep the monster theme consist and avoid any medieval creatures, Polyps falls into that category for me. I can see players getting really frustrated with that mob after being knocked off bridges and ledges!

@Fifth, the bridges can be costly on entities, remember to stagger the setup state of them at the beginning otherwise you might get packet over errors with the state of too many entities changing at once. The func_togglewalls have a relay delay so that the monster drops into the void and not slide with the func_door entity.

@JohnnyLaw, glad you enjoyed it, the bobs always make me run for the inside areas of the towers.

@stevenaaus, The Plasma Gun is difficult to find because it makes the map far too easy. Every time a tester found the gun I kept moving it to someone more difficult to find!

@Drew, indeed you played on normal skill level, the next skill up is crazy hard, even for Quoth veterans. 

I wouldn't call it crazy hard. There were no tarbabies!! 

Gugs are totally medieval.

Anyway, will try a hard run soon!