Although the map was made by a great speedrunner and it was first posted on SDA it's not actually a speedrunning map. It's a single player map.

Don't let the fact that all speedrunners are evil and smell funny discourage you from giving Evan some feedback on his first map.

Sorry for the intrusion. I'll go back to cleaning out my rectum with your toothbrush now... 

I'd add from the first glance at the map that this is a festering camel turd of a map. 

It'd be really helpful for everyone to have a couple of screens and a bit wider map' description done by author.

Sometimes it's hard to moderate ;) 

Download link doesn't work for me 

I had to click the link twice. The first time there was an error, but it worked the second time. 

First, the screenies:
http://rpg.spawnpoint.org/images/blah/evspq1_1.jpg
http://rpg.spawnpoint.org/images/blah/evspq1_2.jpg
http://rpg.spawnpoint.org/images/blah/evspq1_3.jpg

And now the review, LvL style:
I played on skill 2 (hard), and completed the map in just under 10 minutes. The map was longer than I expected it to be, but it was also a lot easier. There were a few traps and suprises, but despite that I only needed to use one health pack. There are five secrets, of which I found none; though I did accidentally opened one, but it closed before I could get inside. Visuals ranged from mediocre to decent (see the shots -- I tried to take shots that represented the map), but were on average about the same as id maps. Lighting was extremely dark in a few spots, and one time I couldn't see that there were stairs to go up. Navigation was straightforward with some backtracking, but it was done well overall. There is one side area that you are required to visit, but other than that there are no route choices or non-linearity.

Overall, I thought it was worth getting, but it is fairly short and too easy (at least on hard skill). The author has a lot of potential, and I'm looking forward to EVSPQ2. 

I should also mention that ammo is in short supply. I finished the map with 32 nails and my axe.

Also, I'd like to point out that although the level of detail is similar to id maps, the visuals are indeed different. And I don't just mean the detailing style. id maps usually have interesting and nice room design, and a good sense of proportion. This map uses a bit too much of the Big-Rectangular-Box room design style. 

RPG... you said in one part of that review that the map was 10 mins long, which was longer than expected... and then later said it was too short...? make up your mind. 

Thought I'd share a little more information about my level. It's your standard linear style runic level of fairly easy skill. There are five total secrets which can be found by watching this demo:

http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~sda/demo.pl?nightmare/ev1_203.dz

So is it a 'festering camel turd'? Well, it's not exactly oblivion.bsp but I wouldn't say it's a terrible map being my first piece of work. I tried to keep the level very neat and clean looking when it came to texture placement - architechture and map proportion is still something I'm working on. Thus the box look to the rooms.

I am currently working on EVSPQ2, which is in my opinion, a big improvement over part 1. It features a bigger and more curved design. I will have some screen shots up of part 2 as soon as I find a place to host them.

I appreciate the helpful feedback so far everyone :) 

gameplay-wise. The end-battle was an easy and fun exercise in starting monster in-fighting.

Visually, the architecture is nice but lighting is way too dark.

Technically, the map has surprisingly many leaks (FYI, entities like doors don't seal the map), is boxed and has only fast lighting (possibly fastvised also due to being boxed).

Also, you should check for items falling out of the map at load time. Move them to a better position or delete them altogether.

Looking forward to the next map! 

I dislike getting into semantics, I was misunderstood, so here goes.

Yes, the map is longer than I expected. Saying this is in reference to my own preconceived notions. There are plenty of speedmaps that have 50 monsters; and those are maps that don't have hoard combat. I think of a 50 monster map as being really quite short. This one is short, but not THAT short.

No, I did not say it was "too short." I said it was "fairly short." Again, semantics. You interpretted my statement to mean something I did not intend. Note that I said this in the summary paragraph, and thus I was describing the general characteristics of the map.

Basically, I meant that it was shorter than most maps because it has about 50 monsters, but it was longer than most 50-monster maps are. Perhaps I should have just said, "it's small."

P.S. Yes, I already regret taking the flame bait. 

Thanks aguirRe. And RPG for the screenshots and review.

I am a noob when it comes to bsp-technicality :) I am using the qbsp, light, vis (now rvis) that came with Qoole 2.50. Does anyone know where I could go to get the latest & greatest compiling tools? Thanks a lot. 

I assume windlash = Evan Wagner?

aguiRe develops some really great compiling tools. A lot of people here use them. His site is here: http://user.tninet.se/~xir870k 

Thank you. And your assumption was correct also. 

that wasn't flame bait RPG... 10 mins is a fairly decent length for a map IMO. It just seemed strange to me that you would call it 10 mins long, then say it was short. 

my first glance didn't let me down. it's indeed oldkool-ish map. and it's nice.
for me it was enough ammo/health, i didn't die etc. gameplay is average, nothing spectacular there. architecture is simple, some textures applied rather weird tho: i.e. floor tex on the walls, etc.
i got a good laugh when just spawned in the map and observed rocks nearby, they looked really fun. this is first time i see such a simplistic rocks design :)
overall: strong average oldskool mappage.
keep on, Evan :) 

looks quite decent, RPG you rock for posting shots and reviewing already 

I will have a review up soon at my site:

http://www.planetquake.com/underworld/

also evan [and any other mapper, ever!] ignore anything bad shambler says about your map, its just his "sense of humor".

I have also just discovered RPG'S "condensed speedmap" episode which i may be able to review, not sure yet, maybe just a news post. 

I think Scampie wants to hold off on a news post for that until he gets the Speedmap Site done, and then have a post for all the updated maps at once. Dunno when that will be. I'd like to see a review of the episode, though.

Okay, half the posts in this thread are from me. I'm going to stop now. 

check your email. 

I took 11 minutes and I did die twice: I still had the Autumn Haunting new monsters etc, which took me by surprise.

Good map and I look forward to your next one. 

I've taken the liberty to use Evan's map to display one of my later Light features, the _anglesense key.

The three screenshots below show the end battle area with the upper lights having the _anglesense key set to 0, 0.5 and 1 respectively.

0 is the brightest (no angle sensitivity at all), 0.5 is the old default and 1 is the darkest (full angle sensitivity). Notice the difference in light levels on the different faces depending on their angle against the lights.

http://user.tninet.se/~xir870k/sense00.jpg
http://user.tninet.se/~xir870k/sense05.jpg
http://user.tninet.se/~xir870k/sense10.jpg 

I have two major comments to make. First, unavoidable fall damage is lame. It kills players who are on their last legs but still should have a chance. Second, in a map with limited ammo, having knights on the pillars makes it possible to not be able to finish the map. IIRC, the knights aren't going to come down so that you can use the axe, but their slow ass projectiles take a week and a half to cross the distance, so the map ends in a draw.

Also, there was a dead end where the nail gun was. It would have been nice to have some monsters spawn back the way you came so you have something to do on your way back. 

its very good for a first map, some areas even reminded me of dazsp1, my first (released) map! :)

Keep it up, looking forward to seeing the next one, and yeah Vondur has a point, try to make the rocks look a little nicer =) 

pushplay: where was there unavoidable falling damage? If your refering to the lowered-altar part, you can actually avoid damage, simply land ontop of the cross instead of the altar itself. As for the ending pillars & lack of ammo, good point, I will remember this in the future. Thanks for the feedback.