Great stuff, as usual Negke. Great, great stuff.
Second run on normal (first one I was up to 3 runes and 2 secrets, missing only the gk) 30 mins-something, 90/90, 2 secrets.

The 2 Secrets is what troubles me. The first time through I had not found the ROS and still had 2. (NG&Tidiness, I suppose)... Hmm, shall have to Nightmare it... 

If you have trouble getting it to run, try one of the engines/versions listed in the readme.

Judging from the demos, it seems most people don't take the hint messages seriously. My idea was that players should return to them, see which ones are still working, then go to the area they hint at and search it thoroughly until the secret door is revealed. Instead, at some point they just run around the map aimlessly and in patterns, always revisiting the same areas and axing this and that as if the way to proceed would just open up by itself.
Perhaps two hints per rune would have been better, at least on the lower skills. And in retrospect, I should have put the stash note (up the ladder in the kitchen) out in the open, so that people wandering around spot it more easily. Library and especially rear balcony (roof negcony) are the nasty ones. Though it should be clear what the front of the building is - big stairs, large door... if in doubt, look at the painting in the hall.

I also found that people sometimes don't seem to understand the seals. I assume that's what Daz meant by "pressing buttons and not knowing what they did". It may be another case where someone doesn't use the second line in the status bar that shows ammo and runes, but it's really quite obvious, now, isn't it: you collect runes, there are runes painted on the seal clamps, go figure. 

One of the problems with the rune clamp areas is that there are two of them and also different hint areas. I think if you had all the clamps and hints in one area as a kind of "hub" then that would be much easier to comprehend as a player. You'd still get some aimless wandering about but probably a lot less then now.
The other problematic areas are the picture puzzle and the hidden door. Making the hidden door a very slightly misaligned texture would have been better, and for the picture puzzle I think a subtle animation would have been brilliant (and the player would have blamed himself for not noticing the animation rather than the mapper for not giving you a clue). 

Nahk: you need low fps? you found some very fancy low fps trick? Or did you get some words mixed up there :) But thats not enough reason to let mandel keep silly records:

http://members.upc.nl/verorber/mce_022.dem

if you got good bunny power showing "faith" should be doable from the first fence (i could only do it hfr) 

Nahk: you need low fps? you found some very fancy low fps trick? Or did you get some words mixed up there :) But thats not enough reason to let mandel keep silly records:

http://members.upc.nl/verorber/mce_022.dem

if you got good bunny power showing "faith" should be doable from the first fence (i could only do it hfr) 

i give up been searching for that last rune for atleast an hour. secret stash near balcony...? Il stash my secret up your rear balcony. 

foudn that stupid door :) 

http://members.upc.nl/verorber/mce_019.dem

bit smoother and found a way i can bunny,still a bit longer then straight of the fence 

wow, that's a cool run! 

My demo showed more of the map... Seriously though, that's great! 

I geuss in the old days taking the void secret might be considered the cheap way, though its still a bit to long for that 

Finally got to play this one properly, and now see what everyone was complaining about :)

Full of details that make me laugh - although the knights doing the ascending have been getting on my nerves for about half an hour as I run round looking for... something.

As always, reminds me of a properly interactive adventure game book. 

I cheated and followed your spoilers. That damn S rune.

A better indicator would have saved a lot of headaches there, as has been mentioned.

Texturing the 'rear balcony' in red for example and hinting at such in the kitchen ogres text.

Mind-bending fun nonetheless. Thanks. 

So I didn't actually record a demo, since everyone made it sound like it would be 2 hours long, revealing me to be an idiot, axing everythign in sight.

But after having read some of the posts (but not your explicit hints) and playing with a certain mental framework in place, I kind of regret not recording a demo; I think I performed very admirably!

I really only had trouble with the painting button, like everyone else. I I found the S rune immediately upon entering that section of the map! I think my overall play time was around 40 minutes. I actually enjoyed my experience wholeheartedly, other than the time I spent searching for that painting-button.

BUt yeah Negke - this is so polished and atmospheric and has such a perfectly realised aesthetic to it. You should definitely be proud of what you've accomplished! A very well rounded locale - loved the basement, loved the courtyard area, everything in the looks department!

Really enjoyed the magic curtain scenario, the library, the 'interactive adventure game book' feel overall! No idea how you managed all that shit in Vanilla... but that's nothing new on my end!

Thanks again, as always, for being more committed to this Quake shit, and not being a flake like me! 

great map 

As usual, here is a 100% demo for those who are interested in seeing the (official) secrets and how to deal with the puzzles.

Demo
Youtube (quality sucks, watch on HD if you can)
I'll look into redoing the video properly.

Thanks everyone for playing or at least giving it a try. Drew, I'm proud of you. <3 

... impressive ! 

hahaha! 

Tried this 2 weeks back and liked it a lot, had a nice puzzle feel like Red Slammer mappi did. Had to watch some of Scragbait's demo to progress, ironic perhaps as map reminded me of his Haunted House level hhouse.

Didn't actually finish map entirely. Enjoyed a number of the puzzles; like your brush models trick. Didn't find Mandel's demo particularly useful in solving map. ;-)

Initial failure to achieve progress using axe on all surfaces caused intrigue and frustration causing obsessive need to make progress. Irritated that did not solve wine barrel secret on own; inspected room several times, not sure how I could have missed the obvious except I may have thought activator caused text to appear and looked like button. 

Silly me - figured I have to jump for the first key, somehow didn't see that for second. Ran around for ten minutes then got the clue from your tube vid. It was enough for me to get the 'logic' and go on by myself.

But enough of that.

This is marvellous. Even though it is contained in a single building, it reeks of Hexen - highly adventureous feel that I think would add greatly to some medieval themed custom maps of the past. The way you open up your path by following the logically placed hints and all the little details (additional texts especially) make this one come alive and give it a proper sense of place. Surely a unique approach for Quake and a winner without a doubt.

I hope you will design more experimental maps like this negke. Thanks for the great experience. 

Heh, hope you're not incurring the wrath of everyone else for encouraging me to make more experimental maps... 

It even made me begin my Assassin run through Portal of Praevus that I had in in mind for a long time. I have only played it as Demoness before (or the original as Paladin and Crusader for that matter). Hopefully your next 'experiment' will make me go for Necromancer in a few years. :) 

I think that I started this map over the summer but I wasn't able to finish it before things got busy. It has been on my mind since then and I finally decided to tackle it again. I had made some great progress before but this map is so convoluted that I couldn't easily pick up from my last save, so I started fresh.

Somehow I was able to complete it within a reasonable amount of time. This time, the routes and secrets came more naturally to me. Even then, I was surprised every single time that I managed to find a secret, rune, or a new route. The fact that you managed to squeeze all of this into a tiny space and generally cramped architecture was nothing short of amazing.

The hints were great. I found 2/3 secrets although I could've sworn I heard the secret chime 3 times (bookcases, nailgun, and mega health at the top). I'm really glad that I didn't look up a walkthrough or get any outside help. You said that it requires thinking outside the box but I still feel like I might have done things incorrectly. Nevertheless, I can't really imagine any other solution apart from what I did.

Even though I was a little frustrated on my first attempt many months ago, I loved the hell out of this map and it's absolutely one of my favorites out of the many maps that I have played so far. It's crazy how you managed to design something like this - really challenging and strange but still pretty fair. This is the kind of map that I'll be revisiting and recommending to anyone interested in Quake. 

Screenshot link doesn't seem to work 

I think the lesson learned (hopefully) is to make things more obvious even if they seem too easy to the author himself. Originally some of the secrets were a little bit easier to spot, but then I thought they'd be too obvious so I changed it back. Of course, it's only obvious if you know exactly where to look.
And now I get purpled every time I fail at a puzzle...