http://necros.quaddicted.com/temp/ne_digs05_1.zip

wtf, my head is killing me now. :D

some seriously mind-bending shit in here.
also, all high quality brushwork! a little cramped, but as a base map, it doesn't feel out of place to be cramped like that.
reminds me of the more creative doom maps where the authors would find all sorts of interesting tricks to mess with you. very cool layout, got lost for a little while, but not long enough to annoy me.
seriously, a great map! thanks! :D 

http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/demos/digs05_negke.zip

Nice weirdness vibe and some pretty cool fucking with the player's mind. I like how you always try add an original twist to the map/gameplay.
The style is good and reminds me a bit of many custom Doom levels with a mix of stock and new textures and somewhat unorthodox layout/scale. Great construction, especially the tilted parts. Gameplay was fun, I didn't have any larger problems on Normal.

Will inspect the map more thoroughly for some of the tricks. 

A good possibly great map for the reasons mentioned above. Or maybe, a good map but a great Quake experience - definitely added a fresh and intriguing vibe. The detailing and style was very well done, gameplay was continually good with one small exception: the GK ambush was almost impossible first go, whilst the end was quite easy with some patience. Other than that, cool stuff. 

the GK ambush was almost impossible first go

the two scrags? you talking about hard? 

http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/demos/otp_digs05.zip

The brushwork was really good, I liked the mix of idbase and ikbase and Rubicon, the gameplay was fun (the LG made it quite easy, though), the secrets were well placed, etc.

I got a severe case of blueballs at the end, though, because this map had all those intriguing secrets and weird pents and weird keycards and a general sense of dread and knowing something's off, and then just abruptly ended without closure. :( I exited the map with the feeling that I missed the point of the entire thing.

The upside down room took me like 10 minutes.

I'll have to replay this some time. 

yeah, i felt that way about the ending too. i didn't even realize it was the exit teleporter. :( 

On hard I jumped for the GK that was upside down, and got two vores in close proximity with awkward scenery and weak ammo....! 

haha damn. :x

yeah, in normal, it's just two scrags that teleport in. talk about your jump in difficulty. :P 

-spoilers-

The thing that really bothered me (in a good way) was how the hallways connected to the outdoor area with the slime pit seemed to change! I gradually started to feel there was something *wrong* with that part of the map.. I wasn't totally sure if the routes were changing, or it was just my bad memory, or maybe there were two similar looking outdoor areas.

Heh, I wonder if there is a way to open the green key door. :D 

what really makes this map great isn't that it's trying to fuck you up, but that it does so with subtlety. oh, there are obvious things like the bars covering the pent in the slanted room, but some of the things are changed in a way that feels like it should be that way. hard to explain i guess. :P

my hats off to you, digs. this is probably the most novel thing i've seen in ages. 

i think the most amazing thing about this map is that i didn't get lost longer than i did. the number of red herrings should have been confusing as fuck. and... well, i mean, they WERE, but i still finished it in one go without being frustrated.

put another way, i've been frustrated and lost in maps that weren't trying to mess with my head. 

After playing through the map I noclipped around to see if more than that one room were tilted (however slightly). I couldn't tell. Most likely they're not, but when starting from that room, many others didn't look perfectly horizontal, either. A bit like those 3D images or the fractals that look like they're moving. 

Didn't finish it yet but it looks great so far. Cramped but in a good way.

Tried it 2 times on easy and died twice but it was my fault (hit myself with granade the 1st time, fell into acid at large crate room 2nd time). I should save I guess, hehe. Gonna try again later today. 

1. He always gets lost. :)
2. There are at least two things that make progression unnecessarily confusing: the upper button in the upside-down area, which suggests it has to be jumped to and pressed to get the GK - it would have been better if it had used the green (activated) texture; the SK/GK door sign switch - while you're right in assuming that the majority of players will probably touch the door for the message regardless of the sings (however strange this behavior seems), switching them seemingly randomly is prone to confuse others - I for example only tried the door by chance when carrying the GK while the sign was still set to SK (iirc).
3. The 'optical illusions' are in fact really simple tricks. But effective. 

parts of it kinda reminded me of a map from 1997 called 'the fly' by marcus klar...


seriously, very inspiring. i wasn't sure if i was playing it or it was playing me half the time. my favourite touch was the disappearing pent by the SK.. thought i was going mad til i realised what was happening!

least favourite part was the upper (or should that be lower.. heh) button in the GK area. being as tricky to get to as it was i thought it would at least open a secret

more maps should do creative stuff like this! 

yeah, i was looking over the map a second time and rocket jumped to get the button. very disappointing. :(

but honestly, it holds with the rest of the map and it's numerous red herrings but it is the only one that can actually be reached. 

a couple times, for a long time.
Found one secret
died near the end
Had a really good time.
will put demo up later.

Thanks Digs! 

A nice map to play. I didn't bother with the apparently blocked pentagrams etc. and the map was pretty straight forward for me.
I liked the gameplay a lot. Everything well balanced. The layout of the map was great. I loved the interconnectivity.

skill 1 first play demo. A nice experience
http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/demos/digs05ankh01.zip 

very nice map! didn't have any probs with ammo on normal. liked the idea of inverted and slanted rooms. didn't get the idea with wooden pentagram.
all in all - awesome map! 

Pipes ;> The first couple of mind-f**ks was great... but then i got just kind of - screwed over in the end. And spent 10 minutes looking for the green key, not having seen the teleporter exit. Cheers. 

i just realised...the green key is a lie

at first i thought damn not another base map,
and then i realised "something isnt right here"
this is pure mind rape, its like David Cronenberg has taken up q1 mapping,

are any of the pents reachable? 

i never really tried but i don't think so.
a shame digs didn't put a bunch of empty rooms completely seperate from the map and completely unreachable with pents in them.

when you're noclipping around later checking things out... talk about mind rape. >:D 

With a dead Quakeguy lying on the floor. 

I misread your post a bit.

But, he's still there. 

******more Spoilers*****

second playthrough

damn the silver door changes into the gold door!, the genius of this map is how subtley it rapes your subconcious while your brain is asleep