This map is pretty cool!

My only critic is that you don't let the player to get back in the woods, once he entered the bunker. I would prefer to return back in the woods to explore, especially to find all the wood crosses up there and find the super-secret (which is very cool too, by the way! ;-)

Also, the bunker is a bit too small for my taste. It would be great to add some abandoned rusty industrial tunnels in there...

I love the atmosphere of this map. Feels like the start to something much bigger... 

Oh no, seems like I uploaded the wrong files. When Barnak mentioned he couldn't go back to explore this told me that he was playing an old wip version of the map. And indeed, I packed the wrong files. Is there a way to update/overwrite an upload on Quaketastic? 

and add a message saying that the files were changed.

Did you made more changes to the map, relative to the one I played? 

For now I've hosted the proper map files on my personal hosting space:

--> http://plaw.info/quakemaps/plaw02/plaw02.zip

@Barnak: The biggest change to the map was that you can exit the bunker after the final fight. Other than that it was mostly visual fixes, an additional secret, and removing some too generous clipping brushes.

Thank you for playing and for the nice words. And sorry for the inconvenience. 

I updated the link 

Thank you very much! 

This is probably the most convincing forest map ever seen in Quake. You managed to pull off a theme that is very hard to do in Quake, and you did it with flying colors. With a forest environment you'd think it would be easy to get lost but you put in enough signposting and details to help the player find his way around, such as the crane and wooden bridge. There was one moment where a downed tree trunk broke off and fell but then popped right back into place, a bug I imagine.

First run, hard skill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3EGblrSjcY

Great work pLaw! This was a fun one :) 

That's the Forest I always wanted to be in a game.
Nice job! 

Plaw has solved what many have tried to do before without success: a convincing outdoor area.

Previously there were other attempts such as those of Fat Controller, quite primitive and limited, very similar to Crystal Lake map in Blood.

Later others created maps inside a giant box that only runs if you have a good graphics card, vulkan or similar.

There is also the issue of encounters, mostly forced and artificial in this type of maps.

This is not the case of Plaw: this map has a perfect optimization, it runs like Usainbolt and the enemies emerge from the vegetation, zombies coming out of the swamp, ogres lurking in caves... good for him!

The way monsters appear and how boundaries of the forest are drawn feels natural like professional level design.

Visually it's a marvel, very nice style.

The gameplay is good, some interesting looping, good ambushes and some surprises like the rabbit hole when the log falls down.

The terrain is difficult to get around, and a bit cramped, but hey! it's a fucking forest!

As a but, just that it is totally linear to be an exterior, I was left wanting to get lost exploring the forest and alternative routes, caves... etc.. not a complain, just a wish cause I liked the environment.

The final bunker is pure chaos, it seems Plaw was already tired and wanted to finish the fucking map.

Nevertheless, a milestone in Quake maps and leaves me full of ideas of the possibilities offered by such a design.

One of the best mappers of this new wave!

Thanks mate! 

As everyone else has said, big thumbs up here for the execution of a slightly unusual (for Quake) setting. A cross between a forest in a spooky old fable, and a logging camp. :-) I really enjoyed the feel! FWIW, I used Ironwail and set r_softemu 3 and r_scale 2 to kind of evoke olden-days Quake where mappers were a little more likely to dive into odd themes without worrying if they could be perfectly represented.

BTW it's interesting to contrast this with one of my other gold-standard forest-y maps, "Binding Tower". That one has a more cartoonish and stylized approach; both work well.

The forest path here was linear-ish but with fun loops and glimpses of things and secrets; that was a really pleasant jog. The encounters each felt nicely crafted for surprise and challenge. Maybe a little too much use of spawning-in enemies? but I know it's difficult to come up with alternatives in a space like this. Sometimes it felt like the baddies were just appearing out of the trees, which was neat.

Yeah the bunker was a slight disappointment. It's an enjoyable crazy fight, actually a good climax in that way, but I was hoping/expecting that the map was transitioning into another kind of space rather than just ending. Anyway, if my worst criticism is "awww I wanted more!" then that's pretty good! 

It really makes me happy to hear that people have enjoyed playing this map! All your feedback is deeply appreciated.

I'll take your criticisms into account in future projects. I think the uneven terrain and the final encounter were pain points that were mentioned the most.

Regarding the falling log bug: yeah, I don't know what was going on there. I couldn't reproduce it on my end. Maybe some sort of source port glitch? 

nice job on this, awesome aesthetically and I personally quite enjoyed the gameplay!
Please keep it up! 

Just wanted to encourage everyone who hasn't yet played this to give this one a try! This is a highly-successful take on creating an organic environment and on top of that, the combat feels fresh and well-designed! 

This is actually a landmark map.

Quite a few people have had a go at doing trees/forest /woodland in Quake, but it has up until this point not remotely hit the mark.

This hits the mark. Actually blown away by the vibe you've created here. 

Everything fits together thematically, enemies lurking in dark brushes and caverns, ambushing you as you make your way through a dark swampy forest. Even some extra exploration for good measure. Good pacing, good mix of various encounters.

Getting stuck on the terrain is just a fact of life in Quake.