but I was wondering; did you sample some nine inch nails songs? Specifically Closer and Sin from what I've heard so far (menu sounds, some aspects of some ambiance). Or am I just hearing things? 

yeah, there are a few sounds sampled from recognizable sources in there. The menu sounds are the only ones from NIN (specifically the downward spiral), though. 

Just played your levels Metl - pure awesomeness. Love the centurions, they look great!

This has made me happier than dead space 2 so far, tbh.
Congratulations, by the way, on finally getting it all done, and thank you! 

The attention to detail everywhere is great, really good to see.

I focused in a lot on the monsters - the dustbin guy is good, although I felt he could have used a fire rate increase to make him more of an all-rounder. Is he explosion resistant? Also, his uncertain gib state is a nasty surprise.

The flamethrower were cool, almost a melee enemy although weaker near water, which was a nice dynamic to the levels, as was the occasional helpful healthpack placement.

The flyers were a bit outlandlish, but I grew to like them. Maybe a rocket variant would have been good in the more spacious areas, but the SNG was pretty good. And some have learned to phase through walls? I see what you did there :)

I played through hydro-something which was good and detailed. The combat could have used a fiend or two I think, just for the getting in your face shock factor. More guns as well, as some have mentioned. It felt like a warm up for an episode, because of Quake's standard difficulty curve with base enemies. I noticed that the Enforcer has a health bump for that. The stacked layout was oldschool, by which I mean well realised, complex yet intuitive to learn.

CZG's map was great as expected. Gameplay had lots of neat stuff, things that tend to get ignored. Did think that some of really open bits could have used more criss-crossing beams to make better use of the fog, but was more a changeover shock after coming from the metslime hyper-detail.

Haven't played the third map yet, saving that one.

Also, why did I never think 'what a cool mechanic' about the Q2 lasers? Oh yeah, layout design. 

scampie drunk-tested this 

If you download the latest version (readme should now say version 1.1) from the same URL it should now play the demos correctly. Thanks to a hex editor and an ancient copy of the Quake Demo Specs i was able to do some surgery and save the patient! 

Just finished playing this, highly enjoyable!

The levels were as expected visually pleasing, loved the detailing, and especially the textures were cool! Makes me want to make a map with the texture set myself.

The new enemies were good, but the sentry robot thing looks so silly, particularly the walking animation - like something out of a 50's sci-fi film! Still like it though.

Didn't think any of the maps presented a huge challenge (skill3), but managed to get low on health on a couple occassions still. Fun nonetheless. Have to second that it should have been an episode, though, instead of three independent maps, or at least give the player some beefier weaponry in the first two maps.

All in all, a great release! Will definitely be replaying this many times for sure. 

Anhk: nice work getting the MH in rub2m1 without hitting the trigger_secret :)

Mandel: i like your shortcut in rub2m3. Also, you seem pretty skilled, i'm suprised you played in easy mode. 

Grown up R2D2s firing Lasers,
Nail Enforcers on Hoverboards....
Quake is alive and well!!
Thanks metlslime and czg! 

demos http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/demos/rubicon2-SpiritQuaddict.7z
I think I did not record some parts.

Fantastic work. I like the first map the most. 

The build quality and texturing in this release were absolutely spot on. And the detailing was completely over-the-top. Even the outdoor portions that look cheesy in typical maps looked great in these. I particularly liked the little homage to e1m1. The new effects really contributed to the overall awesome atmosphere.

The gameplay was great, too. I liked each of the new enemies -- although the flamethrower guys surprised more than I would like -- and thought they were put to good use. I accidentally broke the flow of CZG's map, though, by jumping to an early ledge and found myself catching a lot of baddies facing the wrong way :(

Please release the complete texture set and development kit so we can see even more maps based on this excellent theme.

RUBICON ROCKS!!!

P.S. The fallen Floyd had me cracking up :) 

just finished this superb map pack and i'd like to thank you guys for this afterchristmas present. i played with the latest dp autobuit and there were no problems besides some minor light glitches like the litlle dark spots on otherwise lit textures here and there. i haven't tried fitzquake or directq so i can't tell whether it's just dp bug or not. it doesn't matter anyway... these maps are top. thanks 

I've played only first level, but I'm in love with it already. Amazing job. Beautiful design and texturing, really neat gameplay. Just perfect Q1 sp experience. 

been waiting for this for so long... what a glorious day! contrats metl! 

Great vibe, loved the HalfLife feel of the maps, the layouts were tight and interwoven with cool back tracking. I suck at finding secrets.

DEMOS

http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/demos/rubicon2_zwiffle.7z

Awesome work you guys, when can we expect Rubicon 3? 

...crawls out into the light

*thumbs up*

lurks back into the shadows... 

 

Hey, are you still fixing up that Q2 oblivion pack? 

Argh of arghlite fame? 

I didn't play original Rubicon :(
Are these 2 episodes linked by sort of plot/theme ?

-I take this chance to thank CZG for his "mapcols.wad" very handy textures! 

Minor touches: The new help screens are very useful (Baker mentioned a few years ago that mods could use them, but this is the first time I've noticed them being used). The main menu option does look like it's grayed out, though. A different colour would probably have worked better.

Dreadnaught: This felt like Quoth's Pyro done right. Does enough damage to be dangerous, but not too much to leave you without a chance. The lingering damage is enough of a deterrent to not get hit, but not enough to leave you with no chance. Slightly difficult to tell apart from a normal enforcer, but doesn't need the bright yellow skin of the Pyro because you don't need to terminate with extreme prejudice. Not sure of how much health it has (and this, for all of the new monsters, felt a little unsettling), but feels to be around 150.

Centurion: Probably the most "fitting" base monster with MOVETYPE_FLY I've seen. Dangerous enough to need to be respected, without being impossible. Would possibly be an unfair fight if the player doesn't have the nailgun. Tough (200?), but killable before its stream of nails gets old. Feels like it would be best when used sparingly, which is seems you did. My only gripe with this monster is that the reward for killing it doesn't feel enough. Maybe 10 nails instead of 5 would have been better.

Floyd: First impression is an immediate comparison to Super Metroid. Is that the same sound effect that I hear? And then it starts shooting. Damage feels maybe a point or two too high (but I can see why it is what it is, as it makes things simpler). Seems that this monster doesn't open doors when near. If so, this is a nice touch. Health (200?) feels enough, and the explosion (don't know how much damage this does as I was never close enough) is a nice touch. Comparisons to the Spawn may be made, but this moves slower, so is less dangerous by being more avoidable. I feel that it should do less damage than the Spawn, maybe 80?

Welcome to Rubicon 2: Nice start map. Demonstrates how ladders work for those that didn't RTFM. Being able to climb down them (with +movedown perhaps) would've been nice. I like the skill selection system. Wonder if the nightmare switch can be reached without assistance. Obvious homage to The Slipgate Complex.

Hydroexploitation Plant: Take note people. Small arms play is fun. This is how to do it right. Played on normal, as from past experience, you have a good feel for skill levels. Completed first time, 24:13, 73/73, 1/7 (the mega health that everyone seems to notice; was very much needed at the time). The boxes that looked like misc_explobox were worrying. Noticed a texture homage to Doom (the exit sign font). In a few places, it wasn't obvious that you had to jump to progress, but the jumps were easy to do. Another homage to e1m1, which suggested another secret, but I didn't find it. I'm also disappointed that items were reset after the map was over, as the lack of firepower would be unlikely to throw off the balance of the next map (and I think that the next map would not need much tweaking to accompany it).

Other observations: The lighting felt overall slightly darker than I'm used to, but not dark enough to make me want to fiddle with brightness controls. Was getting some crashes when trying to load the maps from start using RMQ engine (Jan 25th build - mh, can you take a look? rj seemed to have the same problem), but wasn't able to reliably reproduce it or isolate what causes it.

So far, though, a solid release. This + digs05 = 2011 might be the best year for Q1SP we've had in a while... 

Once again congratz on great release. Alsmost perfect sp piece. My only remarks would be that maps in few places are a little bit too dark, and tbh it's all rather low fps :/. While the dark maps are not big issue, I must admit it was first time I had so low fps in DP (sometimes even about 20, while normally I have ~100). 

Darkplaces problem... same happens in other, er, pretty detailed/large/complex maps. 

So it's fair to say that as far as reference for easy/medium skill balance goes these maps are golden then? :) 

I really enjoyed these maps. Usually I'm not a fan of base/industrial style (though I prefer industrial) but these I liked. Nice moody, dark, quakey atmosphere. I really have no complaints except that maybe it could be a bit harder. (I was playing on Hard). And its devoid of fiends/shamblers! I know it's a base map, but its still fun to throw in the occasional elder world monster. Base experiments gone wrong! :P

Here are my demos (I played in Darkplaces latest autobuild, used sv_protocolname QUAKE before playing to ensure the demos are compatible with other engines):

http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/demos/monster_rubicon2demos.zip

rub2m1 was my 3rd or so time playing, rub2m2 my 2nd time playing, and rub2m3 was my first playthrough! :D Suprised I survived... Congratulations czg and metlslime!