Very short but still good. I liked the ancient technology concept, especially the shifting walls. It made the final fight more interesting. I actually think that the shifting walls would be great to recycle into future maps because it adds a new combat mechanic in terms of dodging attacks in what would otherwise be an open space with no cover.

The only suggestion I would give is to make the secrets a little harder to find. I found 3 of them without really even looking. Not a big deal but it's always nice when a secret requires a little more explanation or good intuition. I've barely played any other custom maps so I don't have a baseline to compare but I think that this was a good first map. 

Feels like a good deathmatch map. The visuals are very coherent. A bit easy. Here's a demo:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dqspz8dnc11uj8m/mydemo.dem?dl=0 

Here's another download link via quaketastic if that works better for you: http://www.quaketastic.com/files/single_player/maps/mazotac.zip 

I liked this a lot. Everything in this map felt dynamic, and seeing everything spring into motion was satisfying. Combat was alright. Few things I noticed as I was playing:

* Texture use is very appropriate and works well with the brushwork. I just plain like the look of it. Nothing seemed out of place, even though it isn't your traditional flooded cavern-type wizard map.
* It's short, but I don't think it's necessarily too short. The ending is a bit anti-climactic, though, at least when I played it (since I could just shoot at the shambler through the bars while he couldn't hit me).
* Secrets are way too easy to find. The first one I found, I wasn't even looking for.
* Monster variety could've been a bit better. I have my doubts as to if grunts and enforcers really fit in wizard maps, especially with the frequency they show up here.
* The moving walls were neat, but I think they could've been used a bit more effectively. The concept is definitely worth revisiting though, they give the map a lot of motion and personality. The platforming puzzle to the thunderbolt was cool (not something you see in a lot of Quake maps), but calling it a secret is, again, a stretch.

Here's a demo, skill 2. 4:46, 2/4 secrets, 33/33 kills. Highlights include me not realizing the doors to the second half open on their own and going searching again, and wasting all my cells right before the shambler appeared.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9e5xcidp545vrmu/mx_mazotac.7z?dl=1 

Excellent for a first Quake map. I really like the look of it (I've always loved green wizard textures.) The biggest issue was that I found the outdoor lighting a bit too harsh. The textures and theme worked very well together though I wouldn't change too much about your layout except maybe a bit more vertical encounters i.e. Wizards (Scrags.) For a first Quake map I am very impressed by your brushwork and consistency in theme throughout.

I agree with comments about more monster variety but it was still very fun little map. I prefer these bite-sized maps so the play time for me was fine. I also agree you could really utilize those moving platforms for more game play.

I think your sunlight settings are too high maybe - or did you use bounce in your lighting compile?

Great job and please keep making maps for Quake.

Skill 1 demo with an "oops" ending.

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/mazotac_dumptrk1.zip 

Thanks for the demos and feedback! They've helped me identify some things to do differently with my next map :) 

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/h_mazotac.7z

Solid first map. I agree with #1 regarding the concept & shifting brushes. Some great ideas to build on as you certainly have the "feel" down, now to improve the flow (layout/monsters) and you're well on your way.
The lighting is far better than 99% of first attempts and the consistent texture choices also really helped there. Mossy textures are underused imo, so I'm happy to see them.
The GK area was the highlight for me.. the entry, details and ceiling were spot on. It felt almost tomb raider-ish?
Keep it up and thanks for hosting on quaketastic. 

Here is my blind playthrough =D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQTKNXV_pgI 

I put "record demo" on my command line but didn't notice the message in the console that it wasn't working. At least you don't have to sit through me messing up the thunderbolt jumping 4 times in a row.

Really liked how the design was consistent in theme and level of detail, while each area was distinctive at the same time: the natural terrain starting area, the central hub, the dim-lit underground gold key room, the ledges round the water. The way the last button overlooked the exit door it operated was a nice touch as well.

The gold key area was my favourite combat of the map, made good use of the space. I went for rushing down the ogre and taking the high ground, but it presented a fight with interesting options. Other areas of the map were a bit underutilised, there were interesting rooms overlooking the hub before the silver key platforms that weren't used - just hiding a secret or items in them would be cool. And I agree with other posters that the finale could have been bigger.

All in all, great stuff! 

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/otp_maz.zip

Cool little map! Hope to see more soon. 

Nicely done. I predict you can come up with very interesting gameplay elements in future maps just from what I've seen here.

First run demo hard skill: http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/orl_mazotac.zip 

A bit on the easy side, would have probably replaced the grunts and enforcers with tougher enemies, and engineered the end battle a bit better so the player has less cover.

But the theme was cool, architecture was cool and the layout felt non-linear and nice. Agreed it would make a great DM map

http://x901.net/quake/misc/mazotac_rj.zip 

Cute little classic-style mappy. The consistent greeness made it feel to me like a jungle setting even without any corresponding textures or details.

Short and simple gameplay-wise. A good snack (though I wouldn't have minded more).
The machinery bits add a bit of a unique characteristic to the place.
Easy secrets, yeah, but that's not an issue. I gave up on the LG after a few attempts, but only because I couldn't stand my derping there - the jump puzzle isn't difficult at all.

Technically, the map is not only boxed (enclosed it a giant sky-textured box) but also unvised. This is bad. If there's a leak, QBSP will print a warning and create a .PTS file which can be loaded in the editor or the game ("pointfile" command) in order to identify the origin. I could imagine you may not even have noticed it due to using some compiling GUI?
Additionally, despite the very open nature of the level, you shouldn't just put a big box around it in most cases. Put the sky brushes along the outer walls and on top for a cleaner result.

Demo (protocol 666) 

Is there a way you can tell the map is not VIS'd without trying a compile? This is very important info I would have imparted to Andrew myself, I had no idea. 

Oh dang, I must have broken the vis between the beta version and this release :(

Anyhow, here's a fixed version. I've also made a change to the final fight so it is harder to cheese the shambler: https://www.dropbox.com/s/75i0e84j3fesv9i/mazotac_v2.zip?dl=1

Thank you all for the feedback and demos! It has given me a lot of good information to keep in mind for my next map :) 

Turn on r_showtris 1; if the entire map is rendered regardless of where you are (inside), then it's probably unvised (or only fastvised which in an open map like this pretty much amounts to the same). Additionally, you can run bspinfo.exe on the file and may find the visdata size is 0. 

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/250985799

In short, nice map, good layout, could do with more gameplay. 

My demo can be found here:

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/mazotac_esrael1.7z

I think my favourite combat area was the one after awakening the ancient machinery with the gold key. The moving walls really introduced a cool mechanic for combat. Too bad I couldn't utilize the explobox very well in my first playthrough.

I think the best part about the map was its architecture. I also liked the little details you put on your map, such as individual loose bricks among the ruined walls.

The secrets were really quite trivial, but I couldn't find the fourth one until opening the map source in TB. I think you could have made the wall texture stand out a bit more from the surrounding walls, because even after learning where the secret is, I still have a hard time telling the texture alignment apart from the rest. 

Thanks for your map Mclogenog. The ancient technology is unique. Really good work for a first map! Hope to see more from you. 

Love the look of it, neat setpieces too! demo below

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1S3dA7-tUHCitV-fSdjtgg27OBfpQMIdS 

I like the jungle theme. That's what got my attention from the screens. Level was pretty easy on hard and 3/4 of the secrets are basically braindead. The last half or so of my demo is me just trying to find the last secret, which I don't. As others have said, I thought the "machine" was a neat, unique mechanic of the level. It would have been nice to be able to explore the dynamic cover the machine provides with harder monsters; as it was, I could just blast through everyone without really worrying about cover. I liked that your buttons provided immediate visual cues as to what they did. I think most buttons should give you visual feedback so you're sure of what they do. Nice job.

skill 2 demo 

Nice map! Quake maps rarely uses so many moving brushes at once, which gives this map a kinda unique feel.

The last encounter was a bit too easy, due to the bars protecting us from the shambler. 

Really loved the atmosphere of this one. Nicely done! In my futile attempts to get better at Quake I'm playing everything on skill 2, and this one was way too easy. There is something wrong if I'm able to beat map on skill 2 on my first attempt :D

3 out of 4 secrets I've found do not feel like secrets at all. You have to blind to miss them.

Anyway, here is my demo if you want it. Warning! My platforming skills are pure embarrassment :)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4i1oeczbncadxoj/Mazotac_dbear_demo_skill2_qs093.zip?dl=0 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUS7hN7bXEk&t=1790s

First up, welcome to the community!

This is a very strong first map. I love the sunny jungle theme and form the first screenshot of the map, I wanted to play it!

My only real critiques here are that it's a bit too short (more a compliment that I wanted to play more of it) and some of the secrets were too easy to find. And if I say they're too easy to find, you know it's true, I'm terrible at finding them.

Nice work on this!

Just as a note: I also played through your other map Simplex in this video. =)