Finished on hard. No deaths, plenty of ammo by the end but I used a bunch of cheap infighting (especially in the last area, getting ogres/knights/fiends in a big brawl).

I think most of the times you used Shamblers were 'cheap', ie damage was unavoidable, especially on a first playthrough. Having a shambler drop on you in a room with no cover isn't particularly entertaining, even if you can shambler-shuffle :) Worst example being the one in the raft section. Zero cover, I'd used my nail ammo up by that point and I couldn't even get close to zone it.

The Vores were good though, there was room to kite the balls and then a way to quickly detonate them. Only played on hard though, on nightmare maybe it's different :p

I'm also one of those who are against putting powerful weapons in secrets, especially in a map that is trying to be nasty too. I think I almost skipped the Lightning gun, and that kind of thing is what leaves you with vastly different play experiences. I'm terrible at finding secrets, and hate them being an important thing for finishing stuff :) 

Oh, I liked the look, very classic. The floor texture thing wouldn't have bothered me but it's when you use the same texture for the floor and walls in the same area. Looks weird. Lighting was also a bit flat imo, could have used some more contrast and shadows, especially in the large room at the end. 

perfect 

You look down, you see zombies and a fuck load of ammo.... 

I don't think the difficulty needs toned down on skill 2 at all, except perhaps the armour swap I mentioned.

However I had a brief look on skill 0 for a speedrun possibility, and it seems almost as hard on that, so better skill settings would be good. 

You don't see the LG itself, though, and more importantly, (1) you don't see any obvious way back up -- so you don't know if dropping down isn't going to force you to take a detour to get back to where you were -- and (2) you don't know that the map never gives you another chance to visit that area.

So although a player might see the zombies and ammo and choose to drop down, it is (for the reasons above) an equally reasonable choice to keep moving forward at that point. And then you're forever stuck without that LG (and without knowing that it was there). 

We might be getting into the realms of nit-picking discussion for the purpose of this short-build-time map, but these are issues which are good to get explored for general mapping principles e.g. don't put too many high tier weapons in secrets, and consider what players might miss (and maybe how to signpost them to explore enough). 

"the map never gives you another chance to visit that area." <-- main reason. It is assuming the player will go that way first, rather than being curious about what's through the door and then getting locked in. You could force the player to go through the area with the LG then into the next area with a switch or a key and you've changed little except avoiding the chance of some people missing the LG.

"I don't think the difficulty needs toned down on skill 2 at all, except perhaps the armour swap I mentioned."

I'm not saying it should be easier at all. My point was that the hard parts are only hard due to being a surprise/giving you no cover. In my opinion it could actually be made a bit harder. Generally the map had a lot of open space to avoid damage and not much in the way of evil monster placement in the larger areas :) 

I agree, a better solution would have been walkable terrain that the player can clearly see.

There are too many teleporters and a better solution would be to have terrain, but its much faster to setup a teleporter than building terrain. 

Any hints to how I can activate the nightmare difficulty? 

Played on easy. 19 minutes, missing 2 kills and 2 secrets, no deaths. Fun map. I enjoyed the variety offered. Didn't get lost. Mission felt clear at all times. Had fun with slopes and explosives! 

Visit easy skill door is my hint. :) 

https://aww.moe/kq0poc.zip
skill 1 demo

I like the combat and the space to move around while fighting with monsters.
Had fun with slopes and jumping too :)
Killed by last 2 ogres :P 

The darkness really sets the tone for this large atmospheric castle. Gameplay on skill 2 was just right, enough health and ammo to squeeze by until the end. And boy did I enjoy that boat ride.

Congratulations on your first and very successful solo release!

First run demo, hard skill: http://qrf.servequake.com/~orl/misc/orl_goldenskull.rar 

I have read some comment after playing and commenting.

I liked the raft ride. I thought it was fun but the shambler was over the top maybe.
Also other ambushes were fine with me, always room to escape. The 2 vores in small room were biggest problem.
Died only at the end after being careless.
I think skill 1 was a bit to hard but manageable even on first try.
Keep it up. Good and enjoyable map. 

Map of epic proportions. Good job!
First run witt one death: https://cloud.mail.ru/public/7Cu1/LjHvGMzWL 

Maybe on nightmare enemies has more health? Because I run out of ammo all the time, and need to use god-mode because there wasn't any way I could have survived the ending hall, vores and shamblers, thousand ogres, and you only have shotgun, run out of nails immediately, and soon run out of shells too, just axing shambler? I didn't find sng neither lg. I really recommend balancing ammo a bit more, then this would be a really enjoyable map.

Even though it wasn't polished in that aspect I really enjoyed my time. 

The day before he threw out his first April Fools joke. I really thought he was closing his chanel. The only Quake Youtuber still running is Rob Martens, although he's fighting through Retrojam 6. I myself didn't complete this map because I miss- quicksaved and decided to try it again in a while. The double Vore-fight was a quite unfair, I wouldn't have put a knight ambush directly behind. 

Good Necropolis vibe here, plus dem cratez!!!

I like the tallness of it all, even if it means taking falling damage quite often. Bit samey-looking in the ceiling parts, maybe could have used some beams or the like to make things look more structural.

I wasn't too fond of the lighting; it seems quite bland, because there aren't many bright light sources, only dim ones. The colored lighting increases the effect, as colored lights are even darker than their normal counterparts (plus the colors don't really manage to improve the visuals here). Without the .lit file, the map looks quite a bit better, in my view.

Don't use BSP2 format unless it's necessary! Slightly exceeded limits still run with the regular BSP format on ports with increased limits. No need to restrict such a map to Quakespasm.

OMG sacrilege! Misaligned wizmet1_2 rivets are an instaban reason. :)

Brushwork tip: if you noclip around, you'll notice many empty compartments behind walls and such, those pitch black enclosed spaces. Try to remove them by either opening them up to the void or filling them with brushes. Things like that can play a role in optimizing a level towards certain bsp limits.

For next time: don't include folders in the zip if it isn't absolutely required. I noticed sloppy packaging in several of the recent releases - a hassle for players and the file won't work in the Quake Injector, either. Just have all files, .bsp/.lit/.txt, in a simple zip, ideally all with the same filename for maximum usability.

Gameplay is as advertised. While I did find the SNG secret, I would have prefered if it had also been available in the open at some later point.
What happens if one falls off the raft and fails to catch up - death? Shame the areas past the bridge and around the slime canal aren't accessible afterwards.

Demo 

#42 i fell from the raft and died. quite funny. i managed to get above again, but took a grenade in the face
http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/goldenskull_demo_topher.7z 

Because khreathor reminded me what a massive cock I was making the spoof poster ;) :D

Enjoyed it once more, especially the NG area and the final arena which is definitely one of the most fun and fair arenas around. And the visual hook of the funky light cube things. I still get surprised that I survive that bloody raft (missed the Quad this time).

So yeah.....cool. 

I still have to play so many of alls yours maps, me thinks i have to quits job for that... But well, i'm glad about it, i haven't played quake for a full decade and now it's a thing again. I have much to catch up. 

Lots of fun.
One of the best oldschool maps of the year. Looks beautiful. The slime boat ride was fun.

Minor gripes:
Lots of inaccessible areas that look accessible.
Dead end routes with teleports feel cheap, the map was almost really well interconnected or felt like it could be.
No method to return back to previous areas once finished for secret hunting.
Some hidden goodies weren't secrets.
All encounters with vores were horribly unfair...but I did play on nightmare so... 

What a wonderful map. My only gripe is perhaps that you can't continue if you jump off the ferry, which I did the first time to better fight the Ogres. I thought it would continue in a loop or go back and forth. Besides that, I love everything in it. As I did Troubled Hearts in SM192. Lots of other maps by Naitelveni I haven't checked out, though, so I'll surely do. 

really fun map, but yeah, the shamblers were my least favourite parts:
a. the raftride
b. the rune pillar room or whatever, i only had a GL
c. after that room, i only had 2 health (lol) and some GL ammo. maybe i'm not great but maybe i should have played normal instead of hard. i just completed it on godmode just because i wanted to see the end.
was really great!