Awesome brushwork, nice atmosphere, good weapons/monsters balance, but I need more healthkits ) 

I did play this map the day it was released, but I've just been lazy in leaving my comment, my fault on that :)

Considering that I really enjoyed 5 rivers land, I knew I was going to be in for a treat. And needless to say, I certainly was. Maybe its me, but I think the Doom 3 textures look really good in Quake, the hellish ones anyway.

Theres really nothing to complain about here. With good brushwork and lighting, and (in my opinion) fair and balanced gameplay, Gateway to Hell is another gem from JPL that you don't want to miss :)

For your viewing pleasure, my first run demo, died only once and found no secrets. I never was good at finding secrets anyway.

http://qrf.mine.nu/~orl/misc/orl_gth.rar 

Sorry for my n00bness but .. what about If I don't VIS(or fast vis) a map..
I mean is it possible to publish them anyway for the community?
Could Fast-Vis be enough ?

Thanks 

If you really want to release a Quake map, don't be a cow by passing this stage.

Not for the sake of worse, but there still are people without a giant computer to play Quake, and then it's possible your map will suffer from fallouts. In the most worse case grey outs.

Fastvis is enough for testing, but when it comes to playing on line, then this extra info wilo cause the engine to slow operating.

It's all about framerates and how fast they can be supported. That's what's real vis does.
Making largere area's will make the compiler slow at counting this vis date, but will fasten the game afterwartds.

Largest time I had was two days for a cavey place. but there are longer times. Three months if I'm not wrong. 

You can think of VIS as an algorithm that defines which parts of the map you can see from any given spot on the map. Later in the game the engine only draws the parts you can see from your location as drawing the rest makes no sense anyway. Computing VIS data takes time but has to be done only once, the data is then stored in the bsp.

If you don't do it the engine doesn't know what you can see and thus assumes you can see everything. This means you saved compilation time (once, offline) but the map will be slower for everyone (always, online).

Bottom line: do a VIS compile. :) 

And that's why there are mostly "indoor" maps. 

@Scragbait:
Cool, you liked the map. I am always very happy when legendary mappers like you enjoyed my humble work ;) Thanks a lot for the feedback about the background ambiance: I spent a lot of time polishing it.. It is something that definitely increase "immersion" (with the darkness areas) of the player in this map :D

@Scrama:
Thanks for the feedback, and I am sorry if the easy skill is not that "easy" actually... :P


@Orl:
Thanks a lot for the good words, I was not expecting so much support ;) I'll watch the demo this evening for sure.
Definitely, I should have liked this map to "Five Rivers Land - episode 1"... ;)

@Futur4:
What dfsp_spirit and MadFox said... Equivalent as Vondur said in his thread... BTW, for such mapping question you can ask dirrectly in "Mapping Help" thread (i.e http://celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=4&start=10464 )

I'll see whether you guys will be able to find all the secrets in the coming days.. If it is not the case, I'll record a demo to show the tricks... BTW: which secrets did you find ? I am curious to know :/ 

Anybody experimented any fps "massive dropage" while playing ? 

When


(SPOILER)


I spammed the area with the first two ogres. One of their grenades hit a button or I pressed a button near there. Then I back-tracked a little and found one of the plaques had moved and a health pack was there.


(END SPOILER) 

Ogres are not supposed to help the player to find secrets... wtf ? 

I got 8 year old computers (1 gig athlons) and poured boiling water all over the computers while playing this level. No slow downs at all. I think it was only your Fort Driant and 5 Rivers that had some problems. 

same here. had good performance throughout with a middle of the road machine. 

I�m using DirectQ and never had a problem! 

I am always very happy when legendary mappers like you enjoyed my humble work ;)

No mention of me? That hurts JPL... :'(











:) 

... oops.. sorry if I hurted you, it was not the intention: you are all legends :D 

...are sneaky bastards it seems!

A similar thing happened to me at the beginning of "Castle of the Dark Ages". I was fighting an Ogre at that crypt when the MH secret was suddenly opened. I don't know what I did & I also thought it was the Ogre who opened it. oO

Seems if they realize they can't beat you they try to spoil the fun! 

.. you rather hit the stuff that triggered the secret in both cases...
I don't think Ogres are able to spoil the secret like this...

Anyway... 

 

opened that secret for me too 

Great theme and architecture all around. The combat pieces were thought out and nicely executed. The atmosphere, sound-wise, was superb. The texture set and attention to detail were also top notch.

I found only one secret :(

The final combat was a bit borked, too. On Normal, I managed to end the map with 1 gug still alive. The repeating countdowns were also a little annoying.

Awesome stuff, JPL!!! 

@Drew:
Impossible, I guess you hit the "hidden-button" that triggers the secret.. It is indeed close to one of the ogre area... just look carefully: I am pretty sure you'll find it :D

@generic:
You shall go replay the map to find all secrets now ;) Cool you enjoyed the map :) As I said already, I tried to polish the map ambiance and the visuals.. I know some areas are dark, but it is intentional.. for the ambiance ;) 

some shocking rockwork at the start immediately after you turn the first corner ;)

i'll be honest i didn't really like 5 rivers apart from the end fight (which was awesome), but i liked this. simply because i actually felt nervous playing it, for the most part. health was thin but i *just* managed to avoid dying (on normal), monsters were sparse but effective (and seemed to sneak up on me a lot from around corners & suchlike), and the ambiance was well executed (especially with the background sound)

actually i think the health/armour balance was the best thing about it, as i was never above 50-60 and frequently got down to >10, which kept me on my toes & kept the adrenaline flowing. but it was always possible to avoid damage when i really needed to, either by dodging, backtracking or sourcing cover.

the end battle was cool, but not as cool as 5 rivers ;)

i think CDA is still your best in terms of look/feel/layout, but this had more enjoyable gameplay. 

i'm largely indifferent about most of the quoth monsters but the drole is awesome when used properly, like the one just after the SK/vore room. scared the shit out of me like shamblers used to all those years ago :) 

igghy 

I agree with most of what's been said. no problems with the darkness, worked well. great atmosphere, should have linked to 5 rivers
also really enjoyed drole usage.
recorded demo but uninstalled quake (papers due and that shit kills me).