Niiiiiice map Mr Glassman! Love the original id map influence at the beginning, a nice touch :)

Gameplay was cool and quite tough on normal skill which was cool, tho I did find myself wondering around a lot and not sure what to try next at the beginning, that was less of a problem when I eventually found the ways into the castle proper.

Lovin' it hard overall, q1sp returns YEAY!1 

Glassman, this map is clear teh rawk!

played on medium,
36:30
2/5
152/162

there were fish though, so i think i got all the monsters.

what a great map though! so big, in brushwork and gameplay. not only that, but the paths twist and turn all over the place... i'd be going through corridors and all of a sudden pop back into a familiar place. awesome!

gameplay though... it was really tough at the start, because there was a major shortage of ammo... i dunno... maybe i missed something, but at one point, i was axing ogres and knights, so something was a little wrong... after i got the sng, ammo improved muchly. and so did the difficulty! jesus! it's amazing how hectic it got sometimes! i died a few times (all in the same spot), and i came real close another couple of times. sweet!

texture and architecture wise... i'm so glad someone finally made use of the rtgnosis textures. i took a shot at it a while ago but wisely didn't release the map. you did an excellent job with the textures nice curves in some places, esp. liked the ascending curved staircases.

the begining threw me off a little... i thought at first it was an -ish map. :) nice!

problems: well, gameplay, like i said, is hard at the start... in particular, the fight after getting the silver key outside, with the two vores was very hard. i died three times before i just settled for picking off the vore with the shotgun. (i only had 4 rockets at the time, so i used those on one of the vores. no nails)
there was also a place where you get one of the runes... the waterlevel is equal to the step height which looks stupid.
some other things i remember noticing, but i honestly got so caught up in the map, i forgot! :P

great work, glassman! 

i like how everything fits together -- even though the path through it was very confusing, i got a strong sense that the map as a whole was very structured. Noclipping above the map confirms this.

With vondur's map and now this, it almost feels like quake mapping isn't dead! 

Let me get my gripe out of the way first. There's an invisible barrier above the crenelations above the rune door. You can grenade-jump up to it, you can shoot through it, you just can't walk through it. What's that all about???

Other than that this was a sheer pleasure to play from start to finish. I LOLed at the e2m2 start, had no real trouble finding my way around (probably more down to luck than skill) and spent a lot of time just looking around and soaking up the ambience. I'd go there for my holidays.

I would say "this is the most balanced and best thought out gameplay I've seen since...", but as the next word would be "Nastrond" and that was only released a couple of days ago that might sound insulting so I won't say it.

Vondur, Glassman and Necros's sm52. What a blissful week this has been. :-) 

so instead I shall ask that you finish up gm3dm1 :) 

Absolutely Magnificent, I played it through on Hard, and it was a complete joy to play. Some outstanding gameplay setups, and looks fantastic, great atmosphere. We have been truely spoiled the last couple of days. Only if it would continue.

Well done 

Glassman, this map took me 50 minutes to complete! That rocks! I love the maps with complex route and puzzle-like gameplay.
I've recorded the demo of my first try.
A pity i got killed (cratered, heh) when only 1 rune left. Had only 3 health and a couple of grenades. Was trying to jump somewhere and fell off and died :) But of course I managed to find the exit afterall. Very nice experience, Glassman! The design is dark and evil which is good of course :) Nice secrets, probly i missed one.

Here is the demo: http://vondur.net/files/von_gmsp3.dz (1.7 megs zipped) (and 40megs unzipped ;) 

Played on hard it took about an hour but that was because I got lost in the hallways several times. Well I found the way out at last. 4 out of 5 secrets and all 172 monsters.

Thank you for a good experince on a lazy sunday.

What a week this has been! Who's next? 

32:26
2/5
152/162

Ending was magnificent, I mean, all of those shamblers and vores :) LOAD/SAVE is a cool option tho ;)
Great architecture (especially the outside area, Vondur! that's the way you should do maps, bastid!), cool textures, excellent devilish-quakeish atmosphere.

And cool ideas. I was pretty scared when the floor fall down. Also, all of these rune-puzzles were cool.

Good map.

Vondur, it's better map than your square one, mwahahaha, go awaey, kthxbyedie, moron. 

Glad you like it :)

The navigation is a bit non-linear as you can get the 4 runes in any order you like although once you know the layout there is a more natural order to get them.

This does cause problems with ammo sometimes as it's difficult to keep the balance right not knowing which route the player would take. There are a couple of ammo stashes in out of the way places. (not secrets)

You do need to conserve ammo so don't waste it sniping at long distance targets - if you find all the secrets you will get up close & personal with all the monsters. The kill stats are:
Normal: 158 of 162
Hard : 172 of 176
There's only 4 fish.

necros - rtgnosis is a very nice set (and much larger than just these textures) but it was difficult to convert. The colours of the original stone blocks were more black but I made them the warm brown colour to fit with the quake palette better.

morfans - I think you mean in the central courtyard - the clip is to stop pesky grenade jumpers jumping over & therefore not having to get the 4 runes :) 

I just watched your demo. I hope you don't want to charge me for boot leather ;)

I would like to know how you managed to bewitch that fiend in the first dungeon area :) 

Here, no, but more health/ammo would be better :)

As for the fiend, well, that's just the experience ;) 

. 

. 

Vondur has a way with Fiends.... 

Nice ambience overall, great gameplay all over the map (thought i could kill the last vore I found)...

I got scared on the floor falling down and the dogs on the elevator(I didnt expect dogs on the map :).

the only thing I dont like is the water texture... but that it just a personal preference...

great work! 

I beta tested the map so Glassman already knows my feelings on it. Saying anything else would merely be for the benefit of everyone else, but there's already been much sp00ging so I won't bother to elaborate.

Great map. This is one of my all-time favorites. 

This is definitelly one of best castle maps.
So it joins the group of my favs: Moonlite, Koohoo, A3 and Neh2m2.

And the water texture was cool for me, I liked that outside it's clean and refreshing water, but inside- muddy and dirty :) 

Nice map Glassman. Had fun with both playing and looking at it, definatly one of the best maps I've ever played.

Only flaw was the ammo shortage, don't like killing Shamblers with an axe. 

pr4(t1CE t3h aim1nG yu0 unsk1ll3d play4h! 

I hate you because this map is so beautiful, in all its gloriously ruined gothicness, with its (at last) use of the rtGnosis textures, its multipathedness, its hard-as-holy-fucking-hell, but-wonderfully-stocked game balance, but most of all, I hate you because you're British.

I take it all back.

Well, except the British part. 

Great piece of work, Glassman!!! Glad there's still someone around that cares to put out such wonderful Q1SP!!! Ya rool!!! 

This is quite possibly the best custom map I've ever played. Pure genius. Now for the love of God (or Morfans, he'll be more gentle with you) go make more maps. 

I'm blushing. Thank you very much guys.

The ammo situation is a tricky one. I think ona second run through you will find the balance is good but, like I said before, if you take an unusual route it does seem you can run into problems. I guess I shoud have tried to be more 'modular' with the ammo/monster groupings so that each area was self-sufficient..or something. 

I helped test it and ammo is in adequate supply - you have to play with caution and not waste shots at distant enemies. It is a cool strategy map. It is a good map to loiter in - to soak up the atmosphere. Don't rush this one.

This map is just perfect for the cold, damp, drizzly and sordid fall days leading up to halloween. It embraces the magesty and despair that is Quake.