proper quoth experience, with deadly ambushes and mighty brushwerks

first run demo:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/d2si0enfl0pps1d/sk.7z 

I broke normal, it has two night gaunts and two death guards that should only be there on skill 2. >:(
Fixing this, will post a new link soon. 

I fixed skill 1 and added a light above the Plasma Gun so players can't miss it. Thanks, Vondur! That makes it 220 monsters on skill 1 instead of 224.

New link: http://quaketastic.com/files/single_player/maps/sksp2a.zip 

Here's 2 demos... (I die early on my first impression)

Is this BSP2? I encountered some weird bugs...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6sg8bzzlu9a13ci/fesk2.zip 

kinda find it to big, nah correction just to few shortcuts:) (or i didnt find them yet). 

@FifthElephant
There is the same amount of ammo in the starting area on all difficulties, and this area is balanced even on skill 2. Also, you can get back to the lower court by going down the elevator shaft and backpedaling.

Concerning your issues with DirectQ, the map is not BSP2. You were already having problems with zendar and something tells me DirectQ has some issues handling maps like that. The map was only tested using Fitz variants. 

I started this up again using the BSP2 compatible version of Fitz.... I get pretty far but it crashes when I grab the rune.

Still, here's a demo.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rqgwthblbxdedsw/ffe3.zip

I disagree with the ammo balancing on skill 2, at one point I was down to using my axe to conserve ammo despite being frugal with ammo and maximising in-fighting.

The map looks great, really impeccable throughout and the combat scenarios are good but I think the ammo needs bumping in areas. Plus I am not a fan of those 3 knights at the beginning on normal skill. Feels a little much for the first encounter, hard mode is fair game IMO. 

I'll play it right now! 

This map has some seriously nice looking architecture and the layout is also quite intricate without getting too confusing. Texturing seems top notch also. However the lighting seems quite unbalanced - it is too bright in the outside and inside there's often not enough contrast IMO. The great architecture, esp. in the areas with the open skies, could have been even more impressive if the light in those areas was a bit more moody and provided interesting shadows on the walls and floors.

HERE BE SPOILERS

The real problems of this map lie in the area of gameplay though, which is unfortunately mostly boring. Many of the encounters are too easy because the player can circumvent the enemies and take them out from a safe spot - this is esp. apparent in the final boss fight where the player can just stay where he is when the final boss shows up and be safe from its attacks. I could easily kill it without getting hit once. The same thing happens in many other encounters.

Another problem is that many of the enemies are misused and are therefore easy to kill. Compare this to socks maps where each fight is properly set up so that the player ends up frantically looking for cover while trying to kill the enemies. In this map, it was often a matter of taking cover and sniping.

The final problem I had with this map is in finding the secrets - I didn't find a single one. I haven't found out how secrets are marked and I didn't want to end up trying to push every book in every bookcase or randomly shooting at lamps and crosses. The map should have taught the player how secrets are marked right from the start (or maybe it tried and I missed it?).

Here's a first run demo on skill 2:
http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/sleep_sksp2.dem.7z 

Hey skacky !

Very great map ! Thanks a lot for it (it's still Christmass !?).

I guess this map is BSP2 ? At least, it's working great with the latest version of QuakeSpasm OSX.

I always play my maps in Nightmare mode, all cheats ON. (sorry, I'm really a goof player). 

to have a go at a skill 3 clearance. Had a look for a route for a run earlier when i got the map, but there doesnt seem to be many to shortcut's. Dont agree with the secrets to hard to find, im bad at secret finding but found atleast 7 with not to much effort. 

demo, skill 1, died once but recorded a 2nd demo starting from that point https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/33279452/daz_sksp2.rar

I found 0 secrets! :) This was actually really frustrating as I could find nothing in the levels that looked like it would be a secret or open access to a secret. I looked in every corner and studied every ceiling but nothing stood out to me.

Some monster spawning and position I didn't like. A few times you spawn ogres below the player where they are literally no threat at all, and there are a few cases where you can see monsters off in the distance and out of aggro range just sitting there. It wouldn't mind this so much if it was a Shambler or something similar but typically it was knights or other cannon fodder.

I enjoyed the fight in the small walled in arena with the MH at the center. When all the walls started opening you have a bit of time to position yourself and prepare which I liked a lot. The fight itself was good fun :)

As you can see in the demo, it is possible to cheese the final "boss" fight :(

I felt a lot of areas just couldn't wait to throw enemies at you, which diminished the level somewhat for me. A few areas could have worked a lot better if the player had a chance to explore the layout a little first before introducing enemies.

Architecture was very cool. Great structures off in the distance or above the player in most areas, very cool. Lighting was a bit overbright or perhaps just lacking contrast in many areas though. 

Here's a first-play demo on easy skill: http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/sksp2_mandel.zip

Honestly it's the 3rd attempt... I died very early on the first time, and the second time I couldn't continue past the room after the wind tunnel since I wasn't using Quoth.

I had to save myself twice using noclip; once because of a small map issue, once because of a small player issue caused by a small unknown issue - I got some weird polygon errors in that dark outdoorsy area, as can be seen in this screenshot: http://quaketastic.com/files/screen_shots/sksp2_poly_issue.jpg

Liked it anyway! Didn't feel too linear to me but still I didn't get lost a lot. The backtracking was a bit unusual, and the vermis fight seemed broken (too easy). Nice environment. 

Thanks everyone! It is my first "real" release so things could definitely be better. I'll try to answer the best I can:

@FifthElephant: Vondur told me he crashed with Mark V as soon as he wakes the Vermis, but it works on my end. He managed to finish the map with FitzQuake 0.85 though. Not sure what's going on as I no technical wizard unfortunately. As for the death guards on skill 1, you me be right. Replacing these with 1 death knight and 2 knights might be better. As I said there is plenty of ammo there even on skill 2, but I could always add some more, probably inside the flooded hallway with the tarbaby since it's empty.

Vermis fight: Vermis fights are always difficult to make I feared it may be too harsh so this is why the high ledge is a "safe" spot. I wanted to have to almost completely destroyed at first but voted against in the end. I can still make that happen, however, seeing the map is not on QInjector yet. Doesn't take too long to do.

Secrets: they are probably too well hidden, my fault entirely. Some of them are reachable through shooting animated textures (� la Kell), others through pressing books and others through devious means. Not sure how I could make them look more apparent, to be honest. I'll try something in the next version of the map.

@DaZ: on the topic of ogres, I think I could modify some positions. The second switch (the one on the high tower at the beginning) spawns some but you can safely kill them from above. At first there was a blocker on the ledge that forced players to take the teleporters to go back on the ground level, but I thought it looked cheap and quite sucked visually. I may bring that back though as it makes the fight more balanced for our chainsaw-wielding friends.

As for monsters waiting for you, may fault again. I could maybe use triggers to alert these guys or something, so they don't stand there like idiots. 

All kidding aside, amazing level shacky. I enjoyed it very much. Loved the lighting, architecture and texturing. Gameplay was good too.

I played on skill 3 and it took me well, we'll jus' say forever with a shit ton of quick saves!

Thank you very much, you made my super slow Sunday quite entertaining. 

any hint on what i am missing and i might redo it to get a proper 100%, gave up trying to play fast else i never finish:)

http://members.upc.nl/verorber/demos/sksp2_nh_orbs.rar 

I'd advise people to avoid playing the map in its current state (that is no uploading it to quaddicted yet), I am working on a new version that I hope will be better. 

okay will wait till final version 

LOL didn't read this and just played... :)

Just died in that dark montain places :( dawn the only part i didn't like in map, the rest is art, really great arquitecture in there!

Thanks for this good minutes of fun Skacky ;)

here it goes first demo...

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/tr_sksp2.rar 

 

 

Cheers. Gameplay was a little boring, but I enjoyed getting up personal with the hammer... and got a too ambitious when i went and tried it on a Drole, haha. They rip into you pretty quick. Nice envirs, and good use of the Quorlings 3/11 secrets and 218/220. 

If there is one version of the map you must play, it's this one right here: http://quaketastic.com/files/single_player/maps/sksp2b.zip

Changes are massive and too long to list, but let's say gameplay is much better this time overall.
Don't forget demos! 

I have a string of demos (died and saved my progress)...

Seriously though, I'm surprised at how many changes you have made and I'm sure this will be received as one of the best maps released recently. 

Yep, the new version is better !

Wow, already a new Quake1 map the first day of 2014 !