Send it to me too 

As I hoped my comments indicated before, I also really liked the wonkier version of Luke's map. I think that it captures a certain strand or element of old school custom mapping which gets diminished with improving "taste" and certain communally accepted standards re texture combos. Again, that was one thing I liked about ShadoW's maps - in a way it *is* noobish or whatever, but that is part of the appeal. 

Onetruepurple, i liked the previous shot better (the second one) for its spotlights and because it has more character, the newer one is better for the more coherent theme, but loses its special touch and i don't find the lighting with enough contrast.
I do think as others pointed that ou should put again the light below the stairs, it adds a point that calls for the people to look, making them thinking if it hides something or not, eyecandy or item.

Mechtech, that looks gorgeous, the second shot made me remember of the underground part of Alone in the Dark 1, but as you have pointed, both look a bit simple, not only for the textures, maybe it needs another type of detail, from lighting or from detail in brushwork.

About the textures, i prefer to make experiments, as much as possible, there is always new possibilities to find, even with iD textures.

For example, I am currently using some medieval/wizard textures in a base map, mainly for details. 

Not my shots, but I pretty much agree. 

I forgot about that. Sorry, LukeN. 

I have a Q1 map that needs some input on the item placement etc.

http://spawnhost.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/greybox_rmqe.jpg

It is literally a greybox.

Files:

https://anonfiles.com/file/a4da656b2eef6bf697011eba0a753b4e

Includes Frikbot waypoints. 

No problem Cocerello.

Part of the reason I decided to go more traditional medieval was that I think that it's important with this level to work within pretty tight creative restrictions. So creating a new visual look is way out of scope. For this same reason I've decided to go with stock quake progs, no quoth monsters for instance. Similarly, what I could have done is taken the textures I was using and colorize them in photoshop to work together, but that'd take more time. It's a good idea for another level design.

Restrictions are good. Restrictions mean that the toybox I'm learning is smaller, more managable. It also means that working to a tight self-imposed schedule is doable. Restrictions get stuff finished.

That said, I was going to release last Saturday, but decided to delay while the forums was down until this coming Saturday so I can release it here.

A restriction that I wanted to work to but failed, was to stick with original Quake map limits. This hasn't happened, the map is too big. Only just though.

Next level, sure I'll go way more adventurous. 

colorize them in photoshop

You might like this. 

Kinn's curves for photoshop: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/61424391/Temp/photoshop%20curves/photoshop%20curves.rar 

 

Just realised. 

Saturday arrived, and I wasn't yet happy with the quality of the level, so I'm just going to let it cook naturally, and release it when it's finished for real.

Here's a screenshot of an outside part. It's a bit close to the start of the level.

http://i.imgur.com/MMEeJOT.jpg 

looking forward to it!
PS - please get testers if you're becoming a deadline breaker! I'd offer but super busy lately. 

I like the texture combination, feels unique for Quake somehow. 

yay, medieval!

have you thought about using a skybox?
Duske at https://www.quaddicted.com/webarchive/kell.quaddicted.com/skyboxes.html is a bit overused, but I think it might look good with your map. 

Damn that looks good. Something about it looks clean and modern, even if the textures are dirty medieval. The brushwork is also elegant and effective, looking swell! 

yeah duske is nice. or even tramonto looks good. 

 

That map does not need a skybox. 

A couple things:

- maybe make the wooden roofs darker and the windows yellow?

- the grass would look more organic and less Minecrafty if you rotated the texture a bit, like 30 or 45 degrees.

- might be a good idea to use a seamless texture on top of the white trims. 

OTP I'm not trying to argue for the new for its own sake. Indeed, if you know my maps, I've lazily done next to nothing to accommodate new tech, except as it allows for bigger scale.

I think that the outdoors-inclined mapper, can have rocks in the background (see Beyond Belief 2008) or a skybox. BBelief2008 could have led the player to higher levels - as could have Termination Mental - if they built more rocks to surround the level. Anyway, I like levels to give the illusion of being part of a larger area, and while I totally fucked that over specifically and deliberately with Masque, I think a skybox is better than a normal sky for a map with a visible horizon. 

Hey, thanks for all the feedback everyone.

Onetruepurple, great points, I'm going to action each of them.

I won't use a skybox in this map because I don't want to use anything that takes away from the feel of original Quake. The skyboxes that have been linked to are absolutely fantastic, and would really help create the feeling of the level existing as a part of something much larger around it, but it's not period accurate. The overarching theme of this level is that when you play it, it should feel like it could have just come from some BBS in 1996.

With slightly higher r_speeds.

I also really think that the way the sky material flows and warps in quake is absolutely lovely, it's an effect that hasn't quite been done before or since. 

they tried to recreate the Q1-style scrolling sky in Q3, but it was never the same. I really like the idea of making a Quake map with the idea of making a 1996 map, rather than making a Quake map of 2013.

Still though, my ideal Quake map has always been The Shadow Over Innsmouth, which never gave you a look at the Quake sky's scroll-point, despite how ridiculously panoramic it was. What I'm trying to say is, build more rocks around the outside, like hipnotic did back in the day, god bless. 

Here is a prototype of my remake of DM-Stalwart from UT99. No screenshot or video, because it's not really tuned for looks yet. Source so far is included.

http://db.tt/UpUx2JIL

It plays pretty well, but hasn't been detailed yet. The boxes you see littered about are mostly just placeholders until I think of a theme to build some widgets around. Same for the textures, just wanted to see how big/small the rooms felt without the greybox.

I altered the proportions of some places (the halls mostly) to make more room. Movement in Quake is faster than UT99, so the thinner halls from the source material felt too cramped and bouncy. I also altered the weapon placement for the same reason, with how fast Quake players can move it was too easy to camp all of the weapons.

I left myself plenty of room to do detailing and and lighting. The ceilings are all going to have channels/grooves for lighting like the original. I just threw some torches around in this version, so lighting is temporary as well. Still deciding on a theme for the map, so I'm not sure if the lighting will be industrial, or moody, or torch/fire based or what. The original would suggest metal, but I think it might be fun to do something different. 

Keeping in mind this is a boxy beta I plan to make less boxy when I detail and shape the rooms more, please be brutally honest and correct me if you see any bad habits developing, or if I'm doing something outright stupid I'm not aware of. Source was included for this reason.

I can take it!