I feel like I should try making a Q2 map now... with Q1 textures. It would surely be the most popular Q2 map on this forum. 

someone should convert SPOG into a Quake base map 

http://q2s.tastyspleen.net 

There's plenty of awesome Q2 textures out there, people just never used them. Look at all the idtech2 games you can steal textures from, even half the q3 stuff and hl can be converted. Not that hl ever had any good textures. 

Might try to make a small map in October, just to get the feel of Quake 2. We shall see 

It's always nice to see what people can do for the 2 of Quake. :3 

Oh, yeah, now I remember. Another problem with Quake 2 level design is that it relied more on colored lighting than on textures to define the environments.

Some areas are mostly red, some are mostly yellow, others are mostly blue... It was their first game with colored lighting, so they ended up focusing too much on making sure that the players would notice it. And it's easier to notice variations of colored lighting across the same textures than across different texture sets, because when the textures are different, we can't be too sure of whether the colors are coming from the lighting or from the texture itself.

Quake had a bunch of similar textures with different colors. However, the changes in color usually were associated with subtle changes in the material - the green variant of the brown bricks is green because there's mud on it. The Quake 2 approach of relying too much on colored lighting to represent environmental changes works a lot smoother, but is also simplistic. This is why it looks more bland for some people. 

Also is less realistic, not that we care about that ;) 

Look at NewHouse's maps or Unreal 1, they're very colorful and personally I love it. 

Unreal does have greater texture variation than Q2, though, which is also thanks to using 16-bit colors. But Quake 2 has better architecture.

IMHO, while Unreal has some flaws, Quake 2 has some weak points. Quake 2 could be better, but I wouldn't say it's flawed. And Unreal could be more polished. 

Right here:

https://colonthreeenterprises.tumblr.com/post/149101737526/some-of-my-personal-favourite-details-of-quake-2

It's those little details that make all the difference in the world. 

in that article actually feels more Q1 than Q2... 

My favorite from your post are these:
screenshot 1

screenshot 2

screenshot 3

Your Quake 2 unit looks really impressive and fun, by the way. I gotta play it when I get around to playing Quake 2 again. 

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/32374587 all I see is base. 

Me too. 

Well, allow me to spell it out for you:

Quake 2 is absolutely based.

B3 

Thanks, man. I hope it will be worth it.

Also, yes, Quake 2 does share elements with Quake but that's because they are great architectural elements, universal in application.

It is recommended to study up on architecture when doing this kind of level design, lest you end up with a McMansion. 

Actually, looking at that video (it's been ages since I've played Q2), the theme isn't the problem.

The problem is that most of the environments looks sterile. Too sterile.

It lacks mud, grass, slime, wood, gore, and so on, yet it doesn't try to achieve the clean look of the first Portal game. This makes it end up in a middle ground with no contrasts in its personality. Liveliness is made of contrasting elements that manages to coexist together, giving the impression of a dynamic balance between its parts. The lack of contrast in the environmental elements of Quake 2 makes it seem too static, despite of its visual effects such as rotating models.

Romero's gore was surely missed in it. 

The Strogg planet is a dry planet very much like Mars. It's probably in its last dying phase before it loses its atmosphere.

The "sterile" look (it's all rather rusty, worn and dirty to me) is probably because it's been blown clea by the winds, and that there are no plants or squishy little organisms that can inhabit abandoned spaces anymore. 

Storyline is not an excuse to be bland, I think you'll agree. You still can be contrastingly vibrantly dry and dying in an epic manner. 

But thanks for the inspiration. It's giving me the itch to install Q2 again. 

I'm still convinced that at least 95% of people only play through the first few units in Quake 2 and form an opinion of the rest of it based on what they see there.

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/MHQ2Shots/quake14.jpg

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/MHQ2Shots/quake15.jpg

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/MHQ2Shots/quake16.jpg 

After having played thru Citadel last week I don't miss Q2's game play at all.

I really wish they would have designed that the enemies give you 100-250 milliseconds before they respond from 1 pixels worth of LoS.

Especially given that so many weapons have delay(Hyper Blaster, Chaingun, Grenades, BFG). The Rocket Launcher while not delayed will not fire again until the first fired rocket has exploded. Then there's the weapon switching which has, ofc, delay. Walking in water is... delayed. See a pattern here.

It was quite funny in Citadel, he had a horde fight but horde fighting with slow weapon switching and delayed weapons firing is just... a no go. It doesn't work.

Maybe others have a different experience? I'm not saying it's completely rubbish, I'm just saying that it doesn't really make me want to play an old Quake game like Q1 still can do.

On a positive note though, RAILGUN bithes!! hehe 

Especially given that so many weapons have delay(Hyper Blaster, Chaingun, Grenades, BFG). The Rocket Launcher while not delayed will not fire again until the first fired rocket has exploded. Then there's the weapon switching which has, ofc, delay. Walking in water is... delayed. See a pattern here.

This is probably because of Citadel's brush with the expansions, because the original game lets you fire rockets as much as you want. Chaingun starts firing right away, just takes a while to spin up. Same for the hyperblaster. 

Maybe my game was bugged :( So sorry. Disregard I guess everything about the weapons other than slow switching, *sighs.

I loaded up both stock Quake2 and Kmquake2 and gave all... seemed "normal"

Thanks for the heads up Vigil.