I was particularly impressed with the secrets -- even if I only got 4/8 -- and how the teleporters "opened up" to allow for easier backtracking. Good layout, well-balanced difficulty -- on normal, at least -- and a nice mix of textures help this map shine.

Great job! 

Dude is starting to rise up to my top 5, definitely.
This map is a nice big hunk of Distrans goodness, with all the hallmarks of his style - great secrets, wierd but great texturing, a very clean build, and several distinct "themes" kind of smashed together, in a good way.
Everything Generic said - I never felt like I was going to die, so I would have liked a slight increase in difficulty on hard, but that's probably just me.

Secrets were great, and I'm looking forward to replaying until I can discover the few I missed!

Negke - I'm glad that you rode Distrans til release, even though I'm not sure what that means exactly. 

Drew: I actually complained about it being too hard in places on skill 2. So either distrans toned it down again or you are teh 1337.

Atmosphere > difficulty. 

Non-"broken" zip here: http://www.quaddicted.com/filebase/qt_pre02.zip
You will probably be able to extract the other fine but to me it seems that the header is broken.

Loved the map. More later. 

A new QSP offering! And from Distrans, no less!!!

Great architecture, awesomest(!) blend o' textures.

Good fights, tried out only skill 3, died 2 times in the last room, 6/8 secrets (at least one found in a non Kosher way). The level is a little underpopulated, and this is probably a good thing, lots of atmosphere here (Negke: agreed). Sure, it's not hard as it could, but, given the kind of heat Dis received upon Ruined Nation, I wouldn't complain about it. This is a great offering!

SPAWNS!!! So nice to be greeted by them!
Why don't they get more love?

Juggernaut: not really threatening, you're able to bomb him well before he even gets near... A flock of red enforcers would have been a little more innerving.

Fantastic backwards connectivity, apart from not being able to get back up after final fight to search remaining 2 secrets (useless, I know, but I always like to grind monsters first and then complete the secrets count).

Awesome effort, Dis, Thank you!
Come back soon with some other stuff this awesome!!! 

But, I did a 2nd run through, found all secrets the intended way and a coupla unmarked ones(neat!).

One thing I did not mention in the previous post is the optimum health/armor balance in here.

Gorgeous scenery. 

The raisins of Quake. 

... again released a pure jewel.

We want more ! We want more ! 

I replayed it today and I think it actually benefits from not getting too heavy until later on in the level.

I withdraw my previous statement. 

Cool map.

Layout feels pretty Kona-like in parts.

Difficulty is well balanced, until after the silver key where too many of these blue enforcers show up in cramped spaces.

I didn't finish it, because around that part I started dying too often and got frustrated.

I think the blue and red enforcers suck, quite simply - sadly, this reminds me of the crappy Quoth enforcers (and the difficulty that comes with those) in Ruined Nation. One of the problems with those is that they have ridiculous HP - the red guys are super hard to kill, which feels crappy. Are they made of explosion-resistant titanium or something? Meh.

Well. I got lost after the button that opens all these security panels - I ran around looking for them. Did not find where I was supposed to go until I had pretty much gotten lost, which contributed to my frustration.

Basically, unreasonably hard monsters + getting lost = frustration = I Quit.

Otherwise, this was cool .

Thanks distrans. 

I helped test and that was over quite a long period of time. Distrans takes his time with his maps and it shows in the quality.

I liked the classic Quake vibe even with newer textures. The exploration and winding layout was fun along with the Zerstor gore. I had enough practice that I could record it start to end without dying on Hard but that's because I had practice and knew where all the secrets are. While I don't know the mechanics of the Red Guys, I believe you need to keep mhammering on them or they regenerate but I could be wrong. I fought them aggressively but was more cautious with spawns. 

And they goes down. 

playable map :) Likes: The sound of the new enforcers and their interesting attack, the atmospheric generator domes and plasma details, water environs, map interconnectivity, and finale. Nice to see that mech boss again (tweaked?), though he didn't put up much of a fight - stuck on the incline against the GL. 

The build quality kicks ass. I liked the textures and architecture a lot. Fights were also very good on hard skill. The end room was too hard with too many monsters attacking at once. I died twice on hard. Can't say much about secrets because I didn't find many.
Distrans is one of my favourite mappers and this map confirms it to me more strongly.

Here are my demos:
http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/demos/ankh_qt_pre2_demos.zip 

I enjoyed it a lot. The build has a classic feeling, it's composed and evocative.

The gameplay was smooth, I had a run in normal, great fun and not at all easy.

Thanks to the not too hard gameplay, well placed entities, great architecture, I got really immersed in the atmosphere. 

I got lost big time! Maybe you'll find it interesting anyway.

http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/demos/ci475_qt_pre02.zip 

the silent, if you don't jump through the final port you can descend on the lift and jump back down, then you find a teleporter open next to GK switch, this goes back in to level. 

...I noticed that after I posted. And forgot to rectify... 

 

I agree

This map deserves to be played, and demos should be recorded, and where is Distrans? 

... on quakeOne now... As far as I understood, he had some "respect" issue with people here after Ruined Nation map... and decided to move to a less "puristic" area.... though... ask him for further details ;) 

An observation is that quite some "recent" (2 years or so?) custom maps don't give the player clear enough instructions where to go at certain points.

Tronyn's Roman map with the platform from the water that isn't clearly identified, this map which says "all security panels have opened" and thus creates the impression that you should backtrack somehow, which is misleading, and also Than's Plumbers map where some people managed to get lost in the flooded area.

Not knowing where to go is a source of frustration for me. Obviously total linearity ala Quake 4 is a bit boring, but it should always be clear where you're supposed to go, at least where the main route is.

One way to do this are cameras that show you where a door opened, or where you're supposed to go next. Basically upon triggering it, the player's view goes to the camera entity, which shows the way, then back again. Needs a custom progs.dat of course. 

i've always found cameras and cutscenes as a copout.
this map could have easily avoided the routing problem after unlocking the security barriers simply by not having the doorway in that room open.
if the door had not even been there, the player would have been forced to back track up the lift and would have run into the opened security barrier there. 

How you think about them. Sure its a personal opinion thing, but I just see a camera as a nice replacement for 'a door has opened'.

Clever use of them can hint stuff to the player as well. 

Depending on if you even include messages of course...