What exactly is one supposed to do about the underwater Spawn? 

...I, for one, found gameplay and flow amusing with a little bit o' backtracking (so to speak, to get the YA). Maybe I agree with Aguirre about lightning and I just didn't like the way you texed the yellow key door... Anyway, no one can complain much about nothing since you're the only one carrying the banner of speedmapping, supplying weekly doses of new scenery to us ol' Q freaks. Keep 'em coming I say. And thanks. 

I, for one, shoot them. 

What do you mean by lighting being digital?
I can't really defend the tedious gameplay comment, I tried to make it a bit more circular with some secrets (anyone find the lightning gun + ammo cells?), but I agree the underwater passage was a bit tucked away. 

I meant in an on/off sort of way, or too high-contrast. You have strong sunlight directly from zenith next to pitch-black (no minlight level) areas. With sunlight at a lower angle and utilizing outdoor/indoor minlight, brushwork becomes less flat and more 3D.

Tedious was perhaps a too strong word, but I felt limited in movement as there was only one way through it. I found the LG and it was pretty much essential for me to pass the first shambler ...

The passage would just need some bubbles to indicate its presence, otherwise it was fine.

I also want to say thanks for keeping up the SM tradition, hopefully more mappers can contribute further on. 

I find this to be a useful rule of thumb, the more complex the geometry the more stark you can get away with making your shadows when enhancing its 3-Dimensionality, and counterwise, the simpler the geometry the more you may want to soften the shadows to achieve the illusion of depth.

Of course, it isn't a matter of right and wrong. Schools of art approach shadowing differently. The Spanish Masters used highly contrasting shadows to give a stark feel to their work and the Dutch Masters used soft, 'foggy' shadowing for the affected mood of their art. 

So....there's 3 or more spawn down there, you can't see jack shit because of the water, and they're all bouncing about furiously trying to get up to you. So the only way to do it is stand on the edge, randomly shooting down. And then, they explode in your face.

No, sorry, it simply doesn't work. 

shoot randomly, I said shoot THEM. As in, THE SPAWN. :O 

...jump in the water, shoot the fishes, wake the spawns, shoot the first one, it'll take off the 2nd exploding inside the tunnel... done. No health lost in the process. ;)) 

impulse 9.
noclip into the water.
god.
lightning gun.
shoot.
;) 

you forgot impulse 255, that's very important for a delicate situation like this. 

This week I thought it'd be fun to speedmap in the same style of one of my favorite DM maps: Black Coffee by Drannerz. Not my favorite because of gameplay or anything, just mood, style, layout and architecture. So...
Theme: Black Coffee (SP or DM)
When: Saturday, November 20th, 2004, 3:00 PM Central
Where: gamesurge.irc.net, #speedq1
If you even attempt this most daring of challenges, then brownie points for you. If you attempt AND complete it, then send it on over to zerglingxx@ameritech.net or zerglingxx@operamail.com so I can strap everything up in one nice package.

If you plan on participating but not on Saturday, let me know beforehand so I don't go ahead and release my map by its lonesome. It hates being alone. :(

I should have the .wad in Q1 format by end of the week, probably later today. 

In Q1 format.
http://speedq1.spawnpoint.org/files/DRANZDM6.zip 

Two maps, one by me, one by FMB superstar Mike Woodham who made an AWESOME map. Couple really great moments in there. PLAY NOW YOU MONKEY PEOPLE.
http://speedq1.spawnpoint.org/files/sm91_pack.zip 

maybe it's about time to submit a news story about the last few weeks or so of speedmap packs to let everyone know that it's still going and show off the stuff. Would be good to get all the links to the last few weeks of packs together. 

...btw, this week's maps ROCK! Thanks, guys. 

Are excellent. Took me loads of tries on both (good sign). Nice work guys. 

sm91_zwiffle was a bit "fighting optional". Still pretty cool, though it probably suffered from being compared to sm91_fmb, which was just absurdly good for a speedmap :) 

Copy of original ReadMe file...

Prefabs of arches taken from Dranzdm6
Wad from Dranzdm6

Prefab build: 15 minutes
Other walls: 75 minutes
Lighting: 60 minutes
Monsters: 30 minutes
Buttons etc: 35 minutes
Compiles: 20 minutes
Playtesting: 30 minutes

It's no good, I cannot do anything in 100 minutes.

I've now got a headache and a HOM effect that I have no time to deal with. 

A lot of speedmaps in the past has taken a lot longer that 100 mins. Some of mine took more like 300 mins and I'm aware that this applies to other maps as well.

I wanted to make a map this week as well and sat down friday to make it. Well the map grew and grew so saturday morning I continued the map and then again this sunday morning. Well now it's done, I'm waiting for vis to finish it's work (still 8 hours left) and then I will release it in this thread although I can't call it a speedmap, but it is in theme and was started as such.

So speedmaps are not always so speedy. 

Took about 150 minutes. Total compile/light/vis was around 5 minutes. Still, Woodham's was exceptionally good for its build time. 

As said above I made a map for the 91 speedmap pack. Well after three sessions and 19 hours of vis it is done.
Maybe I can't call it speedmap but it is a fatter, bigger brother to the two good maps in the sm91_pack.
Anyone that wants to try it can get it here:

http://www.hrimfaxi.dk/maps/cappuccino.zip 

Hrimfaxi! You must be joking! This map is ridicolously good! It's Fantastic! Ya rule! 

I'm really busy, I've just found MacNehahra and downloaded the associated four hour movie and all these cool maps keep appearing! Bah. 

Hrim, that is awesome. Great design, great gameplay. Only real problems are bugged messages (keys, buttons), and some build quality flaws. Very good as a Quake map let alone a speed-ish map.

W3rd!