Time for a full-scale pimp of my upcoming debut map:

http://photopile.com/photos/sloochyslooch/auctions/112129.jpg

http://photopile.com/photos/sloochyslooch/auctions/112130.jpg

http://photopile.com/photos/sloochyslooch/auctions/112131.jpg

http://photopile.com/photos/sloochyslooch/auctions/112132.jpg

http://photopile.com/photos/sloochyslooch/auctions/112133.jpg

http://photopile.com/photos/sloochyslooch/auctions/112155.jpg

http://photopile.com/photos/sloochyslooch/auctions/112156.jpg

Quake 1 single player; new monsters, Q2 weapons; compatible with all engines.

The first of many, I hope :) 

Do those weapons have the changeover/reload time of the ones used in Q2 also? One of the game's major flaws imho. 

changeover time is halved from q2 - i have kept the "weapon up" anim, but "weapon down" has been dropped in default mode.

I plan to support 4 weapon modes in my SP mod (dubbed "Total Slaughter" of which BotU is the first map):

Q2 Enhanced (Default) - weapon up but no weapon down.
Q2 Classic - weapon up and down.
Q2 Instant - instant switching like Q1.
Classic - classic Q1 guns.

Some weapons may not be in though - the railgun doesn't really sit with the Quake 1 feel imo, and i haven't even begun on the BFG. Hyperblaster is currently a plasmagun but i may change it to a nailgun for a "grittier" feel. 

lighting looks very washed out, could be a lot lot more moodier. 

Kinn: I'd suggest not releasing a map with models and textures that aren't legal for distribution. The textures could be overlooked, and normally are... but when you start grabbing models as well... well, that's just asking for a letter from id's legal department.

The map looks decent enough, rather dull architecture in my opinion, q3gothic needs a ton of details to look cool. Agree with nitin's comment about the lighting. Not fond of colored lights in q1 maps, but that's your choice. Sounds like you're looking to keep things cross engine and such, which gains you points in my book, as I'd be playing in standard glquake only.

I will say, it looks like you have ambition to spare and that map looks a hell a lot better than most people's first map. Hope to see it do well and be a fun map. 

'The textures could be overlooked, and normally are... but when you start grabbing models as well... well, that's just asking for a letter from id's legal department'

There are custom made versions of the standard weapons from Quake 3 and UnReal2. One guy had a site booth at last year's QuakeCon. I remember that they looked pretty nice but I don't remember the name of the mod. 

http://www.cursesandepithets.com/quake3/pushscb1.pk3 (5megs ish)

This is my first q3 map, but I'd really like this to be a good map. I'd appreciate a lot of feedback on what I can do better and what I did right. The more specific the better. :) 

I'll try to take a look tonight. 

i don't get it...

is this a q2 map for quake2 with monsters from q1 ported over or is this q1 with q2 weapons ported over?

what engines?

what's going on! i'm confused!

the map looks cool though 

from what he said, its a q1 map with q2 weapons. 

Hello, thanks for your comments..

As I said, these screenshots are previews... so even if comments are not good, I take them into account to improve map quality... Don't be afraid, I'm not offenced if someone doesn't like my work... while good advices are given....

About the first screenshot, it's true, sarcophage textures doesn't match with the top... because I only have the top texture, and not the side.. I haven't find it yet... grrr...

About the second screenshot, I have not added yet some brushes to break the clean rock look... I'm still working on it...

For the third screenshot, that's the same... sorry..

For the fourth screenshot, yes, this is the arrival of the well (see third screenshot)... a little swim in lava naver kill the player unless he misses the pentagram ;-)) he he he ...

Anyway, I will made another screenshots release in a near future.... trying to improve map look quality...

Thanks again...

Bye 

Necros, this is a Q1 map which uses a number of md2 models (including weapons) converted to mdl. About the legality of it - yes, I feared it might be a bit dodgy, but I ploughed on regardless (I was having too much fun!) At the end of the day, if it's too risky I will remove the Quake2 models rather than risk upsetting id. A shame really, because it was always my grand vision to create a sort of hybrid between all three Quakes.

As mentioned before, I have gone to some lengths to make sure this will work in all engines, even good old WinQuake. Screenshots were taken in DarkPlaces, and that uses the actual md2 weaponmodels, along with coloured lighting, and some custom sprite effects (made by me so they can stay!).

Monster count is huge (around 250) but to ensure no risk of max edicts in standard quake, most monsters are spawned on the fly, according to player progression via my own "gang spawner" QC code, which uses a single entity to spawn whole groups of monsters into the level in various spatial distributions. (eg. - you can place a single entity in the map that says "when triggered - spawn X fiends, Y hellknights, Z shamblers D units apart, in ranks of R, starting from this point" and so on... I have also set up special triggers that purge monster corpses from previously cleared areas, as well as numerous other misc. edict-minimising QC changes.

About the lighting - if the outside areas appear washed out, then i may lower the sky light value. As for the rest of the map - I am using my own modified version of Tyrlite, which mimics a kind of radiosity effect. Every single light is placed with this attenuation in mind, so it's far too late to change the indoor areas - besides I personally think they look great (which is what matters, after all ;) ).

re: Scampie's comment about the architecture - if some areas appear plain, that's hopefully balanced by the vastness of it all - nearly 6000 brushes and counting!

I am taking the legality issue very seriously, and that may delay the map as I rethink the item/monster placement to reflect the changes. 

(around 250)
just because of that, i now really want to play this map!

also, don't worry about brushes, you've still got lots more to go before any serious problems arise.

i'm also intrigued by your solution to edict problems and gang monster spawning! i never thought of letter qc take care of the positioning of the monsters at spawn time! :D 

necros, in a nutshell, gang spawners are quite complicated, but the main idea is as follows:

i have given all known monster types a bitflag reference, eg. knight = 1, ogre = 2, scrag = 4, hellknight = 8,

etc etc.

work out the sum of the bitflags for each monster type present in the gang and put it in a field (eg. i use

".items2") this tells the gang spawner what monsters it contains, and to do the necessary precaches. monsters

are also ranked in a "placing order" which dictates where each monster type appears in the gang.

you specify the total no. of monsters present, and you can optionally fix the numbers of up to four unique types

in a gang - the rest are allocated in equal numbers.

next i have a series of fields that describes the geometrical shape of the gang - rank/file, spacing, height

offsets, radial, vertical (good for scrags!) face inward/outward/forward etc. etc. (there's a lot to play

around with here!)

loads of spawnflags are available - (spawn angry, no tfog, no droptofloor - to name but a few)

obviously to make this all work, i had to write code that enables monsters to be spawned dynamically, rather

than just at the start.

hope that's given you something to think about - i'll never forget the feeling on my first successful test of

this - pressing a button and watching an army of 100 knights spring into existence, all in perfect formation!

couple this with corpse-removal code, archvile-type monsters and things and you've the basis for a very unique game experience :) 

oh, crap - sorry for the formatting on that last post. 

Impressive stuff, though you are quite likely to be sent a polite mail from Tod H. because you are using both Q2 model and Q3 texture content. Shame.

But your architecture looks good. As mentioned above, the lighting is on the bland side which isn't helped by the low detail or texture trim/variation. But it's still solid Quakelicious mappage.
And custom qc as well? Scampie's right, you are ambitious. Good to see this sort of dedication in the community.
Overall, looks like you're going to make a more than competent debut.


Your name is also curiously similar to mine :/ 

ok, i'm going to retire my pimp hat for a while, as i'm running the risk of overhyping this.

i very much appreciate everyone's crits/comments - i will look into improving the lighting and it looks like i'm going to have to say goodbye to my lovely Q2 arsenal. the Q3 textures are here to stay though - as many people have got away with that in the past ;)

headthump - thanks for the weapons suggestion, but i will probably go back to the good ol' classic quake guns.

kell, our names are similar :) - mine's short for Kinnschmerzen, which is german for "chin ache" ;) 

very nice map you got going there. everything is clean and put together well. the texture choices are sharp and the theme is executed nicely. that ankh shaped mirror is really cool the placement makes me think there is another path there instead of a mirror. excellent sky color too.

here go my suggestions:

-the map fits sort of an ancient ruins theme, however it is in pristine condition, i'd like to see some broken tiles, pillars, supports, exposed dirt/sand etc scattered around a bit.

-also i was thinking you should add some 6-12 unit thick circular details like handrails or something to that effect, just to bring some of the large architecture down to scale with the models sizes. right now i just feel a bit too small in that map in relation to some architecture.

-i feel the blue lighting color is too strong, try desaturating and darkening it a bit and see how it looks.

-maybe a nice mapobject or two from here http://fps.brainerd.net/mapmodeltext.htm

ill shuttup now, cool map man. 

pushplay's comment the other day made me remember I said I'm make a map for that burial grounds contest... not sure I'll finish, but here's 2 nights of mapping... deadline is 'before sunday'... :D

(monday)
http://scampie.spawnpoint.org/screens/bgmap_1.jpg
(tuesday)
http://scampie.spawnpoint.org/screens/bgmap_2.jpg
http://scampie.spawnpoint.org/screens/bgmap_3.jpg 

ill shuttup now
No! The more comments the better. Thanks.

I'm a little bit down on decay and magic cause I think they've been done. You'll notice I chose a shader-free jumppad. I think I will throw some more sand around though, and the hand rails is an excellent idea. I'll desaturate the large blue lights too.

The big wooden thingy(?) that circles the centre room connects to the wall in two different ways. One side is done with brushes and looks ok, the other side is done with meshes and looks great except for cracks on the inside bends which I can't get rid of. Got any opinions on that section?

Scampie: looks like a good start. If you crank out a good map by Sunday I'll be helluva impressed. 

dude, i like what you have so far! i'm guessing that's q3 judging by the presence of nodraw textures... that would make a cool looking q1sp! :P

i want to check this out when it's done, even though it's q3dm. wicked dude! 

I know I said I'd comment but unfortunately a whole buttload of stuff has been dumped upon me. Some quick comments after a brief runabout though :

I'm with eggman on the lighting, too strong and needs to be implemented better.

Texturng and detailing are good in general but perhaps break up the monotonous color tone by mixing the grye brick textures with the yellow brick ones.

Layout wise, cant comment too muche xcept that it felt odd in scale. Too cramped in some areas and a little too big in others.

I got noticeable slowdowns in some areas. I'm no mapper but it seemed as if stuff was being drawn even when not in view. Have you hinted this fully?

Overall, I'd say it's fairly solid on first impressions but I dont know if this is really going to be appreciated by the BG people. From their mappacks, it looks like they're after heavily themed maps that suggest a sense of place. Whilst, this is a pretty solid map, it does seemlike another egyptian textured DM arena rather than a proper egyptian place.

anyway, just my $0.02. If I get some time, Iwill try to offer more detailed feedback. 

Do you mean the large blue lights or the lighting as a whole? Can you be more specific?

Maybe I should mix the yellows and greys together.

I've barely hinted the map, I thought that was vis' problem. Is that something I should be looking in to, or will the final vis do an adequate job? 

http://www.planetquake.com/necros/ne_doom2.jpg

knave textures, never tried those before. 

sorry in advance for the quick response, dont have much time.

I meant the large blue lights mainly but you could have some really funky shadows etc given some of your roof architecture and the new features of q3map2.

As for hinting, like I said I'm no mapper, but from what I understand, hinting is very useful and quite important to keeping FPS up. I'm sure some of the people here can help you out.

As for pure technical ffedback, post over at Q3W, could get some useful answers there.