Beach part does seem a little bit bland, at least the cliff view, but no idea what to do. Perhaps a few plants, logs, some grassy bits.

I don't like leech-infested puddles. Sure, it's part of the puzzle/careful approach, hmm...
The brick arches (or curved bits) look strange just like that. Trim or something?

For effects, perhaps have a burning headcrab climb out of the exploding missle near the stairs. And a single spider headcrab in the dark tunnel at the end for a brief shocking moment. 

Thanks guys. 

about the leech pools...
it kind of goes against how they are used in normal hl2, which may bother some players. i don't know that i bother me exactly, but it would probably feel contrived.

is this a mod btw? are the hopper mines instakill here? i mean, i'd just sprint past everything if i was playing.

if you want to puzzle it up... put in like loads and loads of solutions to the same puzzle. that way you can be assured that everyone will figure out at least 1 way to get through it.

ok, maybe not 'loads and loads' but like at least 2 ways, 3 would be better. 

i don't know that it bothers me exactly

keys got stuck there or something... 

The main idea with the hoppers and leech pools is to zone the player so that the beach doesnt feel like one large open empty space, but an area you progress through by exploring.

With that said, you are totally correct, you can basicly sprint through everything that is there currently, which is the fatal flaw at the moment. I think I need to create some artificial walls to help zone the player in better and keep things more focused.

I agree with necros also that more exploration of the house/combine fort area is needed, this will help make the level longer (5 minutes for 1 map in a slow playthrough is still ridiculously short for 1 map). The combine fort in particular is the visual focus of the map and yet you never really get near it.

Thanks guys, inspiration is acquired :D 

it would be cool if you could go under it and there's like rusty support structures and such... this is where you can put in some hard walls to route the player around traps and such. 

I think the beach is nice, clean, what is expected. maybe to make more interesting you could have an extended segment of base going out to a sub base oil riggy type seciton there, connected by wires or walkway.... of course totally unnecessary - maybe some more houses along the far cliff, or maybe some other architectural points of interest, or more vegetation would add a touch more interest at that end if needed.
agree about oddness of leach puddles but also loved the trickiness of that section with the turrets and other hazards. looked quite fun.

The big base - I wish you'd taken it in more - looks great but I would be looking at that thing from all angles, for a while just to take it in, if I were actually playing. as far as I can tell, it looks fucking awesome!

Agree about building - should be enterable, even if minimal details inside.

first thing I was gonna say was about theweird brick arches negke mentioned - flat tops with cropped edges would look better than the rounded off angle I think. mayb keep the inner curve though... maybe one crumbling.
Didn't think the single electro ball added much - would rather have negke's crabs.
not a big fan of electroballs anyways.

and yes. I did say that. fuck off. 

pay attention to comments re crabs and balls. but ignore oil rig shit. stupid. looks good without it. desolation is the key there.
one thing though - felt the sand texture looks REALLY tiled around 0:52 ... maybe put some more rocks/boats/debris? 

Worked on it some more today, the turret part is extended with some changes to make it more focused, in general the route up the beach will be more involved.

The houses area now has a combine forcefield just before you reach the grate leading into the sewer which will need to be gotten around somehow, involving a puzzle to get onto the top of the houses and navigate around it.

Decided that the sewer tunnel wont hold the level change as it does now, but it will re-surface inside the combine base where you will do some shit(tm) and open the route into the island.

Noted on the sand tiling, will work on it some more, generally with the new zoning props on the beach there is less sand visible over-all so it will be less of an issue, but I can spruce it up some for sure :) 

Don't spend too long on 2mins of gameplay on the beach when you're intending to make an entire episode. You'll end up mucking around with the beach scene for so long that you never get to any other maps. I actually think it's long enough as it is. More exploration once on/in the structure would be good though. 

time is 1st enemy of a game designer;
a mapper must be able to make choices and do them fast !
if you find yourself caught still with a specific issue for too long.. then it's too late already.
(funny I say that cause I got nothing released yet ;) 

As promised, here are a couple of screenshots of my current map in progress. It was hard to decide where I and what I wanted to screenshot, since I don't want to give out too much of the map.

I think the two screenshots shown give out enough detail on what to expect in the map, but obviously there is much more then what you see.

And of course, since this is still a map in the works, the screenshots do not show the final product, as the scenery may change as things progress.

http://qrf.servequake.com/~orl/oms31sm.jpg
http://qrf.servequake.com/~orl/oms32sm.jpg 

Those very tiny screenshots look awesome! 

I am a giant fan of your total disregard of r_speeds. I suspect it will continue to work out well. "Business" works well for a Q1SP map as long as the theme is tight/coherent. 

My mistake, I linked the small pictures instead of the full size ones.

http://qrf.servequake.com/~orl/oms31.jpg
http://qrf.servequake.com/~orl/oms32.jpg

Sorry :) 

They have a quake 2 vibe to them, not a bad thing. 

not a big fan of the rock texture in 2nd shot...
but the rest looks AMAZING.
also... shot 2 reminds me of ALIEN 3 a bit?
Definitely looking forward to this, whenever it gets done. I'd be happy to offer playtesting services, if you'd like, btw. 

also I meant BUSY-ness.
Nice alienish vibe. Like Unreal's Skaarj maps. 

those shots look wild, man. :)
same here, btw, not a fan of those rocks.
also, scale the water up at least 2x, even 3 or 4x in the second shot. it'll hide the tiling and the waterwarp + translucency will hide the pixelization.
very interested in seeing this map. 

That looks awesome. Like me (and almost everyone else) you have started to make huge open environments for Quake. Which lets face it just looks cool. Rlly nice work man, cant wait to see this.

The green tiled texture on the wall in the first shot - well, I think you should give it a 256x256 texture or maybe a 256x128 texture perhaps? Or even better still, break it up into horizontal layers or something. Or give it some support pillars embedded in the wall maybe. Bit of texture aligning here and there.

I wonder what fauna will be present in these maps?

Map limits B gone, the way things are going I dont think it will be long before people are making maps double the size of anything that has been made up until now. ;) 

Yeah, looks great!

Finish it bitch ;) 

The first shot looks so cool, it looks like an UT map. 

although I'm with ricky about the green tiled texture and the others about the rocks. 

Yes that is very cool indeed especially shot 1. Texturing could be a bit smarter but designs are great. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWcljfdhOkU

not as awesome as daz's playthroughs though.