And that's why there are mostly "indoor" maps. 

@Scragbait:
Cool, you liked the map. I am always very happy when legendary mappers like you enjoyed my humble work ;) Thanks a lot for the feedback about the background ambiance: I spent a lot of time polishing it.. It is something that definitely increase "immersion" (with the darkness areas) of the player in this map :D

@Scrama:
Thanks for the feedback, and I am sorry if the easy skill is not that "easy" actually... :P


@Orl:
Thanks a lot for the good words, I was not expecting so much support ;) I'll watch the demo this evening for sure.
Definitely, I should have liked this map to "Five Rivers Land - episode 1"... ;)

@Futur4:
What dfsp_spirit and MadFox said... Equivalent as Vondur said in his thread... BTW, for such mapping question you can ask dirrectly in "Mapping Help" thread (i.e http://celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=4&start=10464 )

I'll see whether you guys will be able to find all the secrets in the coming days.. If it is not the case, I'll record a demo to show the tricks... BTW: which secrets did you find ? I am curious to know :/ 

Anybody experimented any fps "massive dropage" while playing ? 

When


(SPOILER)


I spammed the area with the first two ogres. One of their grenades hit a button or I pressed a button near there. Then I back-tracked a little and found one of the plaques had moved and a health pack was there.


(END SPOILER) 

Ogres are not supposed to help the player to find secrets... wtf ? 

I got 8 year old computers (1 gig athlons) and poured boiling water all over the computers while playing this level. No slow downs at all. I think it was only your Fort Driant and 5 Rivers that had some problems. 

same here. had good performance throughout with a middle of the road machine. 

I�m using DirectQ and never had a problem! 

I am always very happy when legendary mappers like you enjoyed my humble work ;)

No mention of me? That hurts JPL... :'(











:) 

... oops.. sorry if I hurted you, it was not the intention: you are all legends :D 

...are sneaky bastards it seems!

A similar thing happened to me at the beginning of "Castle of the Dark Ages". I was fighting an Ogre at that crypt when the MH secret was suddenly opened. I don't know what I did & I also thought it was the Ogre who opened it. oO

Seems if they realize they can't beat you they try to spoil the fun! 

.. you rather hit the stuff that triggered the secret in both cases...
I don't think Ogres are able to spoil the secret like this...

Anyway... 

 

opened that secret for me too 

Great theme and architecture all around. The combat pieces were thought out and nicely executed. The atmosphere, sound-wise, was superb. The texture set and attention to detail were also top notch.

I found only one secret :(

The final combat was a bit borked, too. On Normal, I managed to end the map with 1 gug still alive. The repeating countdowns were also a little annoying.

Awesome stuff, JPL!!! 

@Drew:
Impossible, I guess you hit the "hidden-button" that triggers the secret.. It is indeed close to one of the ogre area... just look carefully: I am pretty sure you'll find it :D

@generic:
You shall go replay the map to find all secrets now ;) Cool you enjoyed the map :) As I said already, I tried to polish the map ambiance and the visuals.. I know some areas are dark, but it is intentional.. for the ambiance ;) 

some shocking rockwork at the start immediately after you turn the first corner ;)

i'll be honest i didn't really like 5 rivers apart from the end fight (which was awesome), but i liked this. simply because i actually felt nervous playing it, for the most part. health was thin but i *just* managed to avoid dying (on normal), monsters were sparse but effective (and seemed to sneak up on me a lot from around corners & suchlike), and the ambiance was well executed (especially with the background sound)

actually i think the health/armour balance was the best thing about it, as i was never above 50-60 and frequently got down to >10, which kept me on my toes & kept the adrenaline flowing. but it was always possible to avoid damage when i really needed to, either by dodging, backtracking or sourcing cover.

the end battle was cool, but not as cool as 5 rivers ;)

i think CDA is still your best in terms of look/feel/layout, but this had more enjoyable gameplay. 

i'm largely indifferent about most of the quoth monsters but the drole is awesome when used properly, like the one just after the SK/vore room. scared the shit out of me like shamblers used to all those years ago :) 

igghy 

I agree with most of what's been said. no problems with the darkness, worked well. great atmosphere, should have linked to 5 rivers
also really enjoyed drole usage.
recorded demo but uninstalled quake (papers due and that shit kills me). 

Cool map, nice style. Enjoyed the gameplay until after the GK, then it got silly and far too Quothy, godmoded the rest and glad I did as I wouldn't have enjoyed the final arena. Very coherently done although I agree it's a bit too dark. Spent a lot of time not finding the MH nor plasma secrets, grrrr. 

@rj:
Thanks a lot for your feedback.
I know that Hell-ish / Doom3-ish theme is not the cup of tea of all the players here. I also understand that darkness made the map artificially harder than it is, but it was really intentional in order to put the emphasis onto the atmosphere. Regarding all the comments, I should have made the end battle longer, maybe with weaker monsters..

@Drew
A shame you can't show me your demo ;)
About the Drole, it is cool you are saying you've been scared in this area.. it was exactely the effect I was looking for, like: "cool this the end.. errr not really, damn.."

@Shambler:
Shambler, shame on you for godmoding :P !! Anyway, the most important is that you globally enjoyed the map...

So I am going to give some help for secrets:

1st secret: the trigger is in the first part just after the first bar moves: shoot the lightened demon face (right in between the eyes), and downstairs a door opens

2nd secret: in the ogre area, on the left, a stone can be pushed. It opens a door in the entry hall

3rd secret: in the ogre area, after jumping over the hole, just look at the Doom3-ish door, on the right top under the platform, there a small switch in a corner, shoot it: a second door will move near the 2nd secret location

4th secret: look at the bars where the MH is located, turn back (i.e 180 degrees rotation) and look at bar that maintain the rocks at the entry, there's a small skull right in the middle, shoot it

5th secret: in the vore area, under the big arch, there a wood lightened skull: shoot it, a wall will move that gives access to the platform.

Again, thanks a lot for all the provided feedback ;) 

Awesome map, JPL! For some reason I hadn't played your other medieval maps when they came out, so I just played 5rivers and CDA this summer and enjoyed them a lot as well.
The atmosphere was really great - the skybox, sounds, floating teleport platforms, etc. all worked really well. I thought the gameplay was maybe your best as well.. like rj, I had around 50 health most of the time so it was tense, but never unfair (only died because of a stupid mistake on my part with the RL.) 

like negke I was expecting something more epic given the development time and your past maps.

Still a solid map with nice atmosphere.

Gameplay wise, it was hardish till you got the RL, after which it was too easy. 

@erics:
I am glad you liked the map. Now you have to play others from me and post feedback ;)

@nitin:
I am aware that the map is not perfect, and that some improvements can be made in some areas here and there particularly after the RL as you mentioned... I think I was pissed of delaying and delaying the release month after month... and at some point I had to move forward. Looking back to the past year, I just realized that I started with plenty of time for my hobbies, and that it ended up (as it is today) without any free time for neither mapping nor playing (not even for windsurf that is the most terrible one)....
My job is eating me more and more each day...

Anyway, thanks a lot to all the good feedback you wrote, for all the support and the good advices I got from you guys. I hope to be able to sort out something this year... but not sure at all actually :/ ... oh, and this is not a farewell post ;)