Gugs are totally medieval
Yep, very true, there is nothing else to end a tech based map with? Gug, Drole, Shambler, Shalrath, Fiends (all mid to high level monsters, all medieval) Only option I could think of was a couple of Edie's, but that is not much fun to fight and I had those throughout the map already.

The tech theme/style has always been at odds with the Quake universe because it was always a starting theme. Quoth certainly adds some extra units (mostly re-skins) but a tech style boss monster is really needed. 

It seems my news post got put on the front page of the site! :) 

Gugs are perfectly fine in tech maps, they work wonders with the theme in warpb for example. 

 

"my immersion" 

Cool stuff there Sock. Great to see Quake still getting first page news, it's kind of weird to see you get first page for this map though since Zendar is clearly your magnum opus and ITS is also well worthy of first page news. 

A really beautiful map with a nice layout. Quite challenging due to the constant threat of falling down. Good use of flamethrower enforcers. I found the Gug a bit out of place, but apart from that the final fight was nice! I also find the limited weapon selection a plus.

Sorry, I don't have any constructive criticism... but I recorded a demo on skill 2. Two demos, actually, because I dropped to my death in the first one...

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/sleep_metmon.7z 

@OTP, I see you want to join the #evilgameplay club with Negke! :P

@Fifth, I am totally surprised by the news, it is indeed a shame that Zendar did not get noticed the same way, but Zendar does look traditional brown Quake, Metal Monstrosity is bright and purple!

@SleepwalkR, nice first run, funny to see the bob at the end fighting the Gug! Hard skill is a frugal ammo situation, you need to explore. 

really this is easily one of the best coagula/void maps ever made. The gameplay was an absolute blast IMHO, the layout and forcefield pathways allow so many variations in both route and attack choice.

Looks wise, I loved some of the cubic type detailing, very nice touch. The skybox is of course every fitting, especially with that fog. 

 

took to make 

Most of the level was built over a long weekend (4 day) holiday.

The first part was to create the central tower and dish as this was the primary landmark which would determine the scale of the structure. I always build the landmark first because it sets the tone and style of the rest of the map.

The second day was to create a second tower with platforms that spirals upwards towards the dish tower. This was rough blocks, ramps and simple monster placement. I generally place AI as I go because I want them to suit the architecture for paths, line of sight etc.

The third day was creating the power cube idea of what makes the structures float. This was about the detail that went downwards and across to other platforms. I originally had solid walkways connecting the lower stuff but it looked too chunky so I went back to my test map and played with some entities and textures until I had something that was fun to play with and looked good.

The fourth day was to create the rest of the central platforms and AI placement using new Quoth units as accents to the encounters. I spent a while creating more textures, expanding the theme of runic metal and removing the brown metal as much as possible.

The next week was about getting the skybox sorted, it took me several attempts (over night renders) to get the right light source orientation and lower cloud setup. The latest version of Terragen has a lot of options which affect how fast or slow the render can be and the resolution was really high, so it took a lot longer than normal.

The second week was creating the final arena battle, playing with lightning and expanding the texture set with more trims and details which worked their way into the structure.

The third week was testing, testing and more testing. Trying to find bugs, balance the AI and build the skill selection area. I always build the first part of the map last so it looks the best with the textures. After a while of using a texture set you get into a certain rhyme of how they lock together and this usually leads to the best architecture / texture combinations.

Total time to build the map was about 3 weeks, but the majority of the time was spent in the first couple of days and there was a lot of overnight skybox rendering. 

I'm no mapper but that sounds like very very efficient mapping timewise. 

I must be crazy... I quite often will make my maps room by room (pretty much fleshing each one with bsp detail, then cutting up bsp to make trims and texturing, then lighting it... once the whole map is made only then do I generally add monsters). 

Perhaps that's a distinction between you and sock: architecture first vs gameplay first. 

That's how I made maps back in the day ... just string a bunch of interesting looks areas together and add monsters at the end. Sock definitely takes a more purposeful approach. 

Oh definitely. I will design areas with gameplay ideas in mind but I don't add the monsters until the end (in most cases)

Romero once mentioned that he made maps in this way... 

like 15 times trying to make a freakin' demo, GRRRRRRRRRR :(

I keep dying in a DIFFERENT way! I know that's a "good" thing but trying to supply a demo is pizzin' me off.

QS only let's me start recording before I enter the map? So loading a save and then recording from there won't seem to work...

meh... anyways,

Awesome map SOCK, jus' can't get it right to show me playing it. 

It's in two demo's though.

http://www.inchoate.com/qdemo/metmon_damage_demo.7z

THANKS for the map sock, totally ROCKS. 

I must be crazy... I quite often will make my maps room by room
That's how I made maps back in the day
Romero once mentioned that he made maps in this way

This is how most level designers start, the joy of building, exploring and playing with virtual space. Eventually you have to move beyond that and start thinking of architecture and spaces as gameplay.

The initial building part is perfect for working out scale and distance so that the AI have the best possible position. It is also good to try sketches or block-outs, but ultimately you should know where the AI is going to be in each area before the detail phase.

This is not to say I don't make architecture for the fun of it, I sometimes specially design some architectural to look a certain way, but that is usually landmark scale stuff. It really depends on how far the player is into the map.

@damage_inc, yeah this map can be unforgiving if you are not careful with ledges and where you jump. There is always two ways to get somewhere, early with tricky jumps or later with easier drop downs. Thanks for the demo, it was cool to watch. 

but if you change your mind, but if you make another small map, I'd love to see a kind of step by step development log from you! 

This just looks incredible. 

my favorite part of this map is the entire first half. The main player path through the level seemed linear but there are so many side areas, secret ledges, and so on that I spent most of my time jumping around, looking at different platforms and figuring out how to get there. In your readme you say the secrets aren't satisfying (due to the items they contain) but I think the satisfaction of finding them is good enough.

Your maps have all had good secrets, but I think what i especially like about these ledge-hunting secrets is that the player understands the rules of the game physics, so when looking around, you are using that understanding to judge the geometry you're looking at for it's climbability/jumpability. Other classes of quake secrets are commonly "shoot the unmarked button" type secrets where it is less about players applying their knowledge and more about random experimentation and luck.

One small negative I think is that for a first-time player, the different ledges and vertical "trunks" of the level all looked pretty similar. This alone would have been okay but then whenever i used a teleporter to get back up from a secret I completely lost my sense of orientation. There was a particular secret (blue armor i think) where every time i saw it from below, i could see how to get there, but after teleporting up i had no idea which direction that ledge was.

The final arena battle is very well done, good combat pacing and visual spectacle. Giving the players buttons to start each wave was a nice touch, it allows the player to control the pacing but not in a way that makes it too easy (since each wave was a pretty strong combat.) I am not a huge fan of these arena battles since so many maps seem to have them and the gameplay is always pretty similar, but like i said, it was still done.

Visually the level was very distinctive, the brushwork plus the overall structural shape of the level. It seemed that it might be inspured by Lun3DM5, but also didn't seem in any way to be a clone of that, just the general feeling of clusters of cubes with "ambient occlusion"-type lighting.

The translucent energy bridges were a nice addition as well. Good technique of training the player in the start map (though the first bridge in the main map is right in front of the player so that could have served the same purpose.) Also in the start map it took me about a minute to see the button. All the red runes looked much more noticable! Anyway, I managed to kill an NPC by turning off the bridge he was on, that was another nice emergent moment that didn't feel contrived.

Bobs were used well, the wide open sky was a good place to put them on big patrol paths and randomize how the player encountered them. I think what I have disliked about bobs in the past is how they were placed -- in super tight hallways where I can't dodge, in groups when I am underpowered, and sometimes at a distance where their small bounding box makes my SSG useless! In this case when i have a nailgun and they are usually solo, they felt pretty good.

Someone else said, sometimes they were in a tight place and wanted to be out in the open, other times they were in the open and they rushed for cover. That was a good feature of this map's combat. The small ledge with a Pyro on it was an example of this. 

And recorded a first run demo, hard skill. I technically died once from falling, but I guess a magic fairy grabbed me and floated me back onto the tower.

Lots of fast action, no time to let your guard down. No complaints from me. :)

By the way, this map for whatever reason doesn't work in enhanced glquake. It exits with an error:
PR_LoadProgs9: statement 50737: bad opcode 80

http://qrf.servequake.com/~orl/misc/orl_metmon.rar

Recorded in Fitzquake. 

Fun map. I probably wasn't really giving it the concentration it deserved (was more in the mood for a mindless blast) and died a few times for a variety of silly reasons. None of them felt unfair though, and I loved the fact that exploration was generally rewarded. I had the problem that metlslime mentioned about being very disoriented when teleporting back from secrets. Oh and I forgot to record a demo. Need to go back and play on hard and find all the secrets...