Here are some pictures of the current state of evspq2. It's only about 25% done, but coming along nicely. This one is going to be a lot bigger, and not so linear like evspq1 was.

http://www.planetquake.com/sda/misc/evspq2_1.jpg

http://www.planetquake.com/sda/misc/evspq2_2.jpg

http://www.planetquake.com/sda/misc/evspq2_3.jpg

http://www.planetquake.com/sda/misc/evspq2_4.jpg

http://www.planetquake.com/sda/misc/evspq2_5.jpg

http://www.planetquake.com/sda/misc/evspq2_6.jpg

http://www.planetquake.com/sda/misc/evspq2_7.jpg

http://www.planetquake.com/sda/misc/evspq2_8.jpg

http://www.planetquake.com/sda/misc/evspq2_9.jpg

I'll keep you guys posted as things progress... 

too dark 

Pretty interesting classic Quake base map, worked for me. Maybe a bit short of ammo (not many shells), or maybe that's what I used up looking for secrets. I also think the secrets are excessively rewarding, it would have been tough and even shorter of ammo without finding them, although this was hard diff... I took 21 mins.

also evan [and any other mapper, ever!] ignore anything bad shambler says about your map, its just his "sense of humor".

Yep, but even if the one it is aimed at always knows this, I can't see negatism like that being a good thing, especially since it's usually or always aimed at new or upcoming mappers. 

Thanks spentron. The secrets were overly rewarding for 100% nightmare runs :) I tried to balance it out a little, with the pentagram secret replaced by a super nailgun on easy skill. But if you find them all I doubt you'd lose a health point on this map :)

I don't think Shambler meant any hard. I know him from way back in the day, and doubt he would greet me again like that after all these years :) 

I couldn't see the cross until I had landed. 

ever tried saving your game pushplay? ;)

seriously though, that's just a minor thing and not really worth complaining about (imo of course).

good level evan, it gave me a few minutes of fun playing time. I'm looking forward to new levels with more complex architechture. 

Nice first map windlash, except for the door entities being see-thru and the ogres being positioned below the player in most cases, where they are least effective. But the architecture was modest but decently done, and now I'm REALLY wanting to do another metal/runic/whatever map =) 

looks really nice too. I love that arch in the first couple of shots, that just looks cool the way it's curvy at the edges too. 

Simple, yet effective. I liked it, great for a nice blast, and the atmosphere was great. Very oldskool feeling. Just needs some sharpening up on the architecture and you're onto a winning stretch. I couldn't interest you in this little tut by any chance? http://xen.quakepit.com/tut1.htm ..remember, big bold angles be the key!

Nice job.. would like more maps like this :-) 

I think I would've stopped at step 3 in that tutorial... 

I was at first put off by the screenshots, I didn't wanna try it. But I tried anyway, and I would agree it's near id quality. I think it shows potential so I'm interested in your 2nd (and so on) map as well. I finished it 9:20, because I got down to just the ax during a shotgun/fire trade between the first hellknight on the pillar. I then backtracked the map in search of any ammo I may have missed, only to find none. I had to use impulse 9. A bug which is most likely just my system was I could see through some closed doors, what was beyond them.

I think this is a good start though, keep going. 

This tutorial is more vague, and it may be a little below you, windlash, but you might want to check it out. I find I do most of the stuff suggested in the article without thinking about it, but it's interesting to see it put into words.

http://www.notthisway.com/writing/counterpoint.shtml 

http://www.planetquake.com/underworld/index.html

[thanx RPG] 

definitly good to see an oldskool id map, make the gameplay more exciting and harder and greats things may happen! :) 

takes me back to my hair band days (then I discovered Helmet, shaved my head, and learned to snarl and not to smile. I was developing a beer gut anyway, so the Bon Jovi approach wasn't working out) when I studied Classical Guitar, taking in a ton of Villa-Lobos, Bach, Sor, Paganini and the like, like every other Satriani wannabe. The only problem was, the better I got at classical the worst I sucked at rock.

Loved how the article was text book perfect in the language, but then in note 5 there,

'5) No, I can not transport you 15 minutes back in time in order to regain the 15 minutes you "f***ing wasted reading this pile of sh*t!" '

That's classic! Ah, the times we live in. 

I had no idea the Quake mapping scene was still this much alive :) I've already looked through the tutorials and am learning a lot. Thanks once again for the feedback everyone, I can't wait to make more levels. 

"I had no idea the Quake mapping scene was still this much alive"

Quiet! More than a whisper and we might all vanish =) Quake will never die unless we let it, I geuss "we" is pretty accurate as I dont know of any other large communities still mapping for quake. 

I have the feeling that on Zanzibar stands several proud men who can perform bsp miracles that would humble even the best of us on decade old PIIs; and in the Mongolian Steppes there are artist who possess a computer system any of us would envy from wence they recieved from kindly Bahrain born Strangers who requested nothing more than the missile the Soviets* left in the ground just outside the village decades ago at the height of tensions with China. These young, unsung visionaries have built a phantasia of several dozen interconnected levels whose designs are more true to the vision of H. P Lovecraft than anything we have yet to see (a dogeared copy of The Lurking Fear and other stories was retained from the last tasty missionary who ventured there in the dead of winter**).

But for the limitations of current telecommunications technology, we can only infer the existence of our brother communities in Quake.

*Not saying they were the only ones with an irresponsable foreign policy; those stinger missiles we gave the Afghanies have come back to bite us on the ass, eh?
** I know, the last recorded case of cannabalism in Mongolia was in 1972, but I neaded to pep the story up a bit. 

Think of all the time you spent writing that you could have spent mapping instead... But still it was very entertaining to read ^_^ 

windlash: shots of that second map look like an improvement already. try to break up the flat walls a bit, that would help. Also, I personally like the dark and moody lighting very much, it looks fine on my monitor.

headthump: maybe if the entire quake community got together we could actually do that. nah that'd never happen... would it? 

ignore anything bad shambler says about your map, its just his "sense of humor".

Yes, heaven forbid they should listen to someone with years of playing/reviewing Q1SP custom maps.

If you don't know your stuff sucks, how the hell will you improve? 

Regardless of how many years of experience you have "this is a festering camel turd of a map" on it's own is not a particularly helpful comment to a rookie.

"this is a festering camel turd of a map because in all my many years of playing/reviewing Q1SP custom maps I have noticed that...." could be.


Still, everyone knows Shambles contracted review-jaundice some years back so it's to be expected. Probably kindest if someone was to take him to a quiet spot with a shotgun and put him out of his misery. I wonder if it'd take 25 shotgun blasts to kill him... :-) 

we perform that shotgun action every day on irc, so don't worry, he's in reliable hands ;) 

Yes, heaven forbid they should listen to someone with years of playing/reviewing Q1SP custom maps.

If you don't know your stuff sucks, how the hell will you improve?

It really doesn't take much intelligence to distinguish between 'anything bad' (in the context of UWF's post) and constructive negative criticism. Added to the fact that Shambler wasn't being serious in the first place (I think...), your evaluation seems kinda useless.

Not that being told your map is a 'festering piece of camel turd' can help you improve in the slightest anyway... 

My post wasn't necessarily a defense of Shambler's post in this instance, it was far more a critism of underworldfan's comment of 'ignore anything bad said'.

Yes, while you can read that to mean 'ignore stupid flame bait insults', it is the lack of differentiation on underworldfan's (and others') part that leads to nothing but mindless praise, which is even worse than mindless insult.