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Overly long and disappointing demo
Nice map, probably would have come 2nd in this competition. My only complaint is that lacking any sort of ambient sounds, which is weird especially for a Quoth map... but I suppose there was a self-imposed deadline going on here. Will play this and record demo soon (along with that other demo I owe you, which is coming shortly I promise)!
I love maps which have the Q2 atmosphere and this one sure hits that sweet spot for me.
Heavy on puzzles and jumping/climbing. Perhaps an overuse of quoth enemies vs. vanilla enemies. But at least the enemy count was reasonably restrained. Overall, I appreciated it. Some feedback:
- the "one puzzle per room" cadence set up the player's expectations well. After the first room, i understood the type of map i was playing and you fufilled that expectation. This is good! - first puzzle i actually solved the "wrong" way first, by passing through the player-sized gap between the lasers and the lift track. It was only after dying and starting over that i realized what i was supposed to do. You should close up up false solutions like that so that players actually solve the puzzle the way you intended (otherwise those players will be underpowered in the next room without the armor and gun.) Not because players finding alternate solutions is inherently bad, but because it may confuse players into thinking they found the intended solution. - a couple of rooms required jumping across gaps that were so wide you basically had to strafe jump across. I'm not very good at strafe jumping. Requiring a trick jump (or an extremely perfect normal jump) to progress in a map is probably a bad idea, it probably locks out a group of players that don't have that skill. (one of the jumps i had to quicksave and try about 10 times.) - there was a puzzle on the 2nd or 3rd room where the player needs to disable some lasers with a switch on the floor before they can do some jumps, problem was you are likely to see the button before you see the lasers (i did.) It's good to show the problem first, solution second, otehrwise players won't realize what the button does. (I didn't the first time.) - at the top, when it says "escape to teh teleporter", i actually didn't know where that was. after searching the top room for a while, i guessed that you might intend the player to go back to the start. Might be better to be more explicit about where to go. Or, maybe at the beginning of the map you could have a centerprint that sets up the idea that you will do a task and then return to the start point. - nice oblivion crate textures! I can't believe how many textures i've made over the years for quake 1 and quake 2 combined. Yeah I see all the problems with the map now that I've released it.
I suppose this is the deal with speed maps in general, no testing or feedback. Just make, release and then receive the hatred. And I certainly expected some hate for the jump puzzles and stuff. I completely forgot about the ambient noises and I feel like an idiot now. Oh well, it was a nice distraction from the big project (need a break from mapping, so I made a map!) Overall a nice little release. We need more of such small quick releases.
Style and construction are fairly simple and adequate. Unfortunately the map falls into the same trap as mine and most or all of the other 768 maps by having a room-over-room structure rather than an intricate truly vertical layout that defies the individual room approach that's inherent in normal ('horizontal') maps. Almost exclusively Quoth enemies, but it was okay still. The jumping puzzles became a little annoying after falling down a couple of times. I thought the 'boss' fight was a bit unnecessarily tough with the instagib lightning and the shamblers - or I got unlucky there. Demos Basically i go with what nekge says.
And we need more maps. Yup. Nice map 5th, little dark on some parts. And hard. "Noclipped a bit" demos Demos at normal and nightmare.
Demos No complaints, aside from moving a bit forward the first pyro, so it still isn't harmful and it serves to warm up the player but still threatens a bit the player. I do the opposite of unlimited ammo in my maps, but i can appreciate the change in gameplay. The monster placement and choices are almost perfect, even the centroid or the gug isn't that much because you have guns big enough and a RA to take them down. Difficulty is in the middle of normal and hard. I loved the fact that even though is a jumping map, there isn't more than one hard jump at each part, so redoing it isn't that painful. Not that it would matter a lot, you could always release it to people that love jumping challenges (Orbs). I agree with Negke that making it room by room is a bit simple, but it adds to the fact that it is easier to the player to get going, as it is one puzzle per room. For a more straight-forward map, or for a twice or thrice the number of rooms jumping map that would be boring, yes. Haven't checked what Negke said about being show the button before the lasers, but for me, as the way to proceed is always the same, i had it clear what i needed to do. Maybe it is because i like to explore and touch everything... - a couple of rooms required jumping across gaps that were so wide you basically had to strafe jump across. Metlslime, none of the jumps require strafe jumping or any type of trick jumping. In fact, i don't know any trick jump besides rocket jumping, and i am very bad at it. at the top, when it says "escape to teh teleporter", i actually didn't know where that was Maybe the version i played is newer, but in mine it says the ''escape to the teleporter BELOW'', so the direction is given. Everyone noclipped on this. The look was ok but gameplay admittedly has some annoying elements It isn't annoying at all, it is just that it isn't a mainstream straightforward map, so it will mainly appeal to those that don't mind playing jumping maps. In fact, even what i have said just now isn't true, as a jumping map it is quite subtle at it: there is only one slightly hard to do jump (you don't even need trickjumping) and the rest is easy to medium difficulty, as a jumping map its on the lowest difficulty. Most jumping maps resemble more Orbs speedmaps than this. Another map on Preach's backlog down. This map left you wanting more, which was to say it was short but enjoyable throughout. The reuse of the map on the trip back down worked really well; the one-two of the gug and shambler used up all my nails and armour, so the tension was sustained as my weaker loadout traded off against lower tiers of enemies.
Visually the map was solid for being put together quickly, if a bit airless and boxed-in (although most 768s are). I don't know if I'd quite call it a puzzle map, it's more of an exploration map, each time you need to find a button, then find a route through the lasers you just turned off. I thought the solution to the room you exit by the ladder would be to ride the lift with the crate a 2nd time, this time on top of the crate, so I was disappointed the solution there was simpler. My one real nitpicky criticism was that there's a stuck point behind crates in the 2nd or 3rd room where you have to fly out (the only time I had to cheat though!). Why it rankled so much was that the map is all about exploring, so even an unintended and small discouragement to that is disproportionately negative. Nitpicking over, good stuff! |
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