Good contest. 5 entrants is pretty impressive these days.

Not many comments on the maps, most people seem to be talking sense about them. Wasn't enjoying the gameplay much in general. Zwiffle's was kinda fun until the end. Blitz's looked great but wasn't possible to complete. Hrimfax's was an Unreal map and totally class. 

All maps had attractive architecture, textures and strong theme. With the bright snow textures, the deficiencies of the light tool are mercilessly revealed, though. There are many shadow artifacts along the face junctions.

Blitz' maps had some mixed sky/solid brush problems, which let sunlight shine through and make solids penetrable for rockets. Otherwise very nice town setting, but the clip brush jumping puzzle was really detrimental.

Headthump's had nice variety in texture usage and good-looking end area, although sunlight was a bit saturated. Gameflow was confusing due to the gate/SK issues and there was an abundance of armour. Some water brush problems in end area as well.

Hrimfaxi's was the best, featuring magnifique architecture and verticality. Some exploring was rewarded, but unmarked instant death areas felt uncalled for. Impressive end dome area with unusual spotlight effect. Many wooden textures put to good use here. Gameflow was good, although dome area battle felt a bit haphazard. A visually beautiful map.

Jago's map was very detailed for its size, but felt cramped at places. The fiend lift spiced things up, but I found the use of grunts a bit odd.

Zwiffle's had a bit confusing gameflow and a surprising, brutal end battle. One secret seemed like a Catch 22 ...

Thanks to all participants and especially to Blitz for arranging the pack, well done! 

I never got errors during the compile...the only thing I can think of though would be when you clip a brush in GTKrad 1.5, it automatically textures it with whatever the last texture you had selected was. I was careful to make sure this didn't happen when I realized it was happening (this is the first map I used GTKrad for) but it's possible in my haste to finish that I forgot about that happening.

Haha...alot of people are really angered by the clip brush jumping puzzle. I wanted to do something kind of gimmicky and fun, as well as make people read the readme (which no one ever does even though they should) but I guess people were really looking for more of a straightforward Quake map, rather than some gimmicky puzzle elements.

As for the snow, which I've also heard a number of complaints about, you really can't do much better on the Quake engine. Vondur pointed out that Quernl's north.bsp has the best snow he'd seen in a map, so I took a look at it and it's the same texture from the DKT E3 pack. (slightly doctored to cover up that one dark spot with more white)

I do appreciate all the comments about the maps though, especially because this is the first Q1SP I've ever done, so thank you for that.

I also wanna say thanks again to everyone who submitted a map...I had fun doing this. 

I dont think its the puzzle aspect that annoys but more that it doesnt fit in with the rest of the map. 

Really, this pack rocks !!! You made a very good work, and I really enjoyed to play these 5 maps... while I had to cheat (god mode, and ammo) to be able to finish them... I particularly enjoyed Hrimfaxi's one which is IMHO the best of the fifth: architecture, lightning effects, and ammo/weapon balancing is very very good...

But, I've just a question: are you really sure these 5 amazing maps were done using less than 1000 brushes ?? It's really incredible to build such quality map with only 1000 brushes.... I'm really surprized and stucked...

Anyway, this pack is a real good Xmas-box for everybody here... Thanks guys, for this great figthing session you gave me yesterday evening... 

All the source maps supplied have under 1000 brushes. Frostbite has 999, hehe. I'd have been tempted to go to 1001 just as a sort of "f*ck u", but that's just me. :)

Thanks for supplying the maps btw. It does actually help newbies like myself (not that I'm actually mapping much atm). 

I did it to serve two purposes...1) so people would know that they really were 1000 brushes, and 2) so people could actually have a look around and play with them and do whatever. 

I did it to serve two purposes...1) so people would know that they really were 1000 brushes, and 2) so people could actually have a look around and play with them and do whatever. 

Parkinson is back ??? 

The mixed sky/solid brushes won't be catched by qbsp. The most obvious place in blitz1000 is the sloping corridor with two knights just before the jump puzzle. If you look at the right wall, you can see strange light (sunlight) shining on the floor and a large part of this wall is penetrable with rockets. Noclip just outside and you'll see that the solid brushes seems to be liquid (a result of the sky/solid mix).

Especially the sunlight effect can look weird if the room is dark and the entire ceiling is mixed this way.

As for the snow, I thought it looked pretty good. It's always difficult with near-white textures. 

Mozilla froze up.

I see the area you're talking about now aguire. =/ Don't know how I could have missed that. Oh well.

I also noticed two other things just now...sometimes the LG doesn't spawn! I don't know why this happens. The last compile I did it showed up, so I don't know what happened there.

That being said, you should still have plenty of ammo to take care of Sham if you play the map right :) I will record a demo for anyone that wants proof. 

jago map is the best! 

start.bsp - rather werd map, with overbrighten telehall :>

jago - nice level brushwerk and monster wise, everything seems to be in order except grunts that are out of place (imo), once again, sweet brushwerk wins here.

blitz - nice level, i liked gameplay ideas there, and i'm proud that i managed to save czg, though that leap of faith bit was a bit frustrating (no hint were to step at all). gameplay wins here.

hrimfaxi - very very well done, vast castle with neat designs and funneh gameplay. everything wins here. rockage!

zwiffle - rather 2d level with lack of ammo/health closer to the end, tho the last bit with skylift and castle in the clouds was impressive. tough gameplay tho. gameplay would win if there would be more balanced ammo. (tho, some ppl played through it ok, maybe i just suck)

headthump - steap ahead in his own level design skills. texes are properly scaled now ;) and everything seemed to be in order. though, the design/quality was rather oldskool and n00bish, that's no wonder ;) keep it up, head! :) 

you all rock who participated!
blitz u rock for organizing such thingy!

thanks everyone for the fun! :D 

That just made every minute put into the map worth it. Also, every one else's remarks are apreciated as well (even though I had to double check to make sure I didn't submit box.bsp after some of the remarks ;)) 

people actually liked my map :o 

Mucho thanks to all for an excellent pack! Tho I dabble in a few games it's amazing how good ole Q1 can still be after many years. 

The LG is probably pushed out by the ogre bbox; separate them a bit more. 

your map is also great :) they all are!!! 

i'm bumping this, sorry, but i forgot to respond to this thread before.

basically, all the stuff that people were saying above. i liked all the maps, great competition!
not many maps use snow textures from dkt, so it was a fresh look. thanks for all the mappage, guys! 

This was a fun gaming session and I thought a great effort went into this pack. Most of the comments here make sense. Here's a bit from me:

Zwiffle: Nice map, cleanly built with 2 novel secrets. It played out nice and I had no problems completing although the end battle did get nasty. Interesting ending - great work.

Hrimfaxi: Impressive size and verticality. The dome near the ending is very cool. Found 2/4 secrets. Shambler is right, this map would fit the Unreal universe. Excellent use of less then 1000 brushes.

Blitz: Well made and lit map. Interesting feel and lighting. Tough but mostly fair until leap of fayth. I beat that by running through a few times instead of clearing it in one go (which didn't seem very doable.) I liked this one.

Headthump: This map was large and actually relaxing to play. Not hard at all but that's okay for a change of pace. That submerged boat was well built. I explored the whole map and didn't have any confusion.

Jago: Your map was short and well made. A tasty Quake snack with some fun combats. I liked standing on the ledge in the round well and popping the grunts and ogre. I also got some infighting going in the end arena. Grunts seemed out of place but they didn't hurt the gameplay.

Thanks all who participated and organized. 

WERD MAP