alpha: spirit1dm2 -- Ultima ratio

[dfsp_spirit]

EDIT: The final version has been released so leave your comments in there.


Hi there,

here's my first try to create a serious 1vs1 map for Quake 1. I gotta admit I'm not much of a q1 player but I recently rediscovered the game and thought it would be fun to make a map for it.

I know you guys here are hardcore q1 players so I'd like to ask for your opinion on it. Constructive criticism is very welcome and since the map is in an early stage of development I'm open to change things.

Enough talk for now, a screenshot never hurts:


Lighting is a placeholder, same applies to textures. I want to get the gameplay done first.

Direct download link: get spirit1dm2 alpha2
More screenies, info and readme: spirit1dm2 info

I already played the map against a friend (3 hours non-stop) and it's not complete BS imo. Maybe it's a bit too small or it needs a bit more cover. I'm also not 100% happy with the MH/RL area. Maybe somebody in here has a suggestion on that?

Thanks for your time!

[Baker]

I'm too busy to test a map (time constraints of life) but I will say that your screenshot looks very nice.

[metchsteekle]

looks like a nice clean shaven map, i must test soon... but like baker my hands are tied via the chains of life atm :S

[dfsp_spirit]

Yeah, I know these kind of problems.

Does anybody have a suggestion on where to post the map to get some feedback? And is there a review website or map database for q1 (something like LvL for q3 or map-factory for other games) where people post final versions of their maps?

[Baker]

There are 2 places that might be better to get feedback.

1. Func_msgboard Func_Msgboard: Latest News (the mapping center of Quake)
2. Quakeworld.nu QuakeWorld.nu - Your portal to everything Quake! (they play deathmatch, deathmatch, deathmatch and more deathmatch)

[One problem to be prepared for: Quake already has a megaton of DM maps. At least with new singleplayer maps, it offers a new experience. New DM maps have to be super-fancy in the screenshot department to get attention because everyone has 10-15 that are their established favorites.]

[dfsp_spirit]

Thanks for the links. I know about func_msgboard of course, good idea nevertheless! I'll also try that other website.

On the favourites: that's true for most games, though q1 may be an extreme. But if the game is like 6 months old, players have usually found their 5-10 favourite maps as you said. If you want playtime, your map has to be very good and it has to be released asap after the SDK for the game is available.

[Baker]

Ah yea!

So I see that you are the "famous" Spirit who is the maker of fine FPS maps for Quake 3 and other "more cool" FPS games who oftens gets confused with Quake 1's "famous" Spirit who is the maker of Quaddicted, map archives and otherwise is one of the most potent forces of organization and good deeds in Quake.

You certainly have all the skills that any mapper needs to be successful; I already was aware of the beauty of your works.

I don't claim to have all the answers, but I do know that for a DM map to be successful in Quake it needs to break the mold in some department (qtdm3 attracted attention because it was a void map; schloss because of the high resolution texture set).

It doesn't necessarily have to be beautiful (but that helps) but it certainly needs to be different.

Well, either way welcome to the QuakeOne forums. I recommend that you pimp your work in progress not only here, but func_msgboard and definitely Quakeworld.nu and for extra credit you could pimp it at Inside3d.com.

[Spirit]

IMPOSTER!


I so got to find some other cool nick some day. Already thought "oh noes, yet another spirit" because of your new prefix but then I was relieved to see that mapper one who actually releases stuff.

quakeone.com surely is the most new map friendly place there is, your map seems meant for QW though (the slope jumps would be super hard in NQ, or is that completely similar?). quakeworld.nu might give you some publicity but unless you hang out in IRC 24/7 and network with all the cool kids, there is not a big chance to get the map played. I suggest you find whoever was thinking about relaunching the Kenya tourneys soon, there was a post. Those guys and the participants are open-minded for sure. Also spam it in #qwrookie in Quakenet (I'll do that too).

The map seems fun but not my type. Too open for me. Reminds me of that crazy catwalk one.

[dfsp_spirit]

@Baker: Thanks for the nice words. From time to time I meet people in forums or on IRC who played one of my maps and liked it but I'm not really good, let alone famous. I doubt that my maps get a lot of playtime. If q2w ever gets popular, lilith may. I like that one.

IMPOSTER!

Hehe, ofc I heard about you before, saw your website and knew that something like this would happen as soon as I'd dive into Quake 1. Nice to finally to meet you.

Btw, I had a look around and it seems you didn't release any maps named spirit1dm*. Do you think it's ok if I name my maps like that?

I so got to find some other cool nick some day.

I had that idea more than once. But once some people know you under your nick and you're used to it and got like 100 accounts on different forums with it, it's hard to change... Guess I'm too lazy to change it so I decided for that prefix. I've been using it for quite a while whereever the other nick was already taken. Hope the confusion won't be too bad.

quakeworld.nu might give you some publicity but unless you hang out in IRC 24/7 and network with all the cool kids, there is not a big chance to get the map played. I suggest you find whoever was thinking about relaunching the Kenya tourneys soon, there was a post. Those guys and the participants are open-minded for sure. Also spam it in #qwrookie in Quakenet (I'll do that too).

OK, thanks for the tips. I'll show up in #qwrookie soon.

quakeone.com surely is the most new map friendly place there is, your map seems meant for QW though (the slope jumps would be super hard in NQ, or is that completely similar?). The map seems fun but not my type. Too open for me. Reminds me of that crazy catwalk one.

Yeah, it was made for and tested with qw, but as I said I may change things. Good to hear that my observation that it may lack some cover was right. I'm thinking about ways to improve that a bit but if you don't like open maps at all, this one's not gonna be yours I guess.

[Spirit]

Hey, we ran into eachother before at quake.de if I recall correctly.

It's not like I will ever release any proper map (apart from speedmapping) so you should not care at all about it.


PS: I really like your Q3 CTF map, play it with bots every now and then.

[metchsteekle]

got to step around it a bit, looks and feels good, will have to see how it plays at bigfoot when peg gets back

[dfsp_spirit]

@spirit: Ah, you're that spirit! I considered it but wasn't really sure. Good to know.

I played some q1 on bigfoot today, some great maps I didn't know on there!

[Dreadful]

Looks nice Ill check it out when i get a chance.

[Baker]

I ended up taking some extra time to check out your site; I am very sure I've been to your site before probably to double-verify that you weren't the Quake 1 Spirit a few years back.

And I see these things ... and I think ...

I finally took the time and updated the readme files of most of my maps. Now the .map files of spirit2dm1, spirit2dm2, spirit3dm1, spirit3t1, spirit3t2, spirit3t3, spirit3t3a and spirit3ctfduel1 are officially released under the GPL.

Ok, he's on the "good guys team" for sure and solidly in the category of "people who get it".

Awaiting Resurrection: watch at youtube | download (wmv, high-quality, ~20MB)

And he's media aware. He knows it is the age of YouTube. And even made a native format video upload.

(Will spare you diatribe of peeve of mine where someone releases a map or mod without screenshot; sometimes I express irritation of media-deaf mappers/modders who don't make a video of their work and well ... I personally get irritated with any Quake engine that doesn't have AVI capture capability at least in Windows because it is SO easy to add the code ...

Ah ... I said I'd spare you, but I didn't. Sorry. Media is essential to effective promotion. It is easy to do. And vital. And people don't. And then complain no one played their map/mod/whatever. Grrrr. And I get upset when people don't pimp their work everywhere they should ....)

And he's made skyboxes with terrain generators.

You are officially on my list of people who I think are awesome.

I can tell you an INSTANT ticket to "Quake 1 fame" if you are interested in that. It is sure fire and automatic.

Take a map like this:



And then ... you'll find this funny ... convert it to Half-Life format (virtually identical to Quake map format) and release it. You'd have to turn some stairs into slopes and other adjustments to reduce the brush count and remove curves and so forth.

Plus the textures would need slightly scaled down.

Then you use the "compile the textures into the map" option for compilation.

And because ezQuake, DarkPlaces, FTEQW, FuhQuake, Qrack and ProQuake can load Half-Life maps, a beautiful nearly Quake 3 looking map with just slightly lower texture resolution is made that requires no external textures.

Doing such a thing would open minds and be highly receptive, especially in the Quakeworld community where they love porting Quake 3 and CPMA maps to Quakeworld.

You'd be a megahit.

The Quakeworld community in particular is heavily into replacement textures because most of them would love to play Quake 1 with Quake 3 level of graphics and a new map that fulfilled that type of mindset is ALWAYS noticed.

But using the HL map route, not even external textures would be required and compiling it into the .bsp would mean that everything would operate just like normal where the Quakeworld server downloads the map to the client and the client has everything needed to play in full glory.

[Plus you can ditch the Quake palette! And using the HL map format, you can compile the colored lits into the map, unlike the Q1 format. And you can use alpha textures and ezQuake supports those too. And you can keep the "glass" in the HL map format and that works in ezQuake now I'm told due to Avirox.]

/Just an idea. I tend to have the irresistible urge to communicate an idea that I've spontaneous thought of.

[dfsp_spirit]

Hm, not a nad idea maybe. I haven't played the map in a while but it plays pretty well I think. I'll have a look at that hl conversion process.

Tbh I'm not a big fan of converting maps because what I like most about mapping is coming up with a cool new layout. That's the most important, fun and creative part imo. Conversion usually means lots of texture and lighting work and I'm not really good at those (because I don't like to do that kind of stuff). But I'd be interested to see the result and how it plays in qw/q1 so I guess I'll give it a try.

Btw I'll be travelling to NYC for like 2 weeks soon so don't think I'm gone for good if I don't show up after monday.