Man, I just know when I see that post that func_msgboard is really shooting up the PageRanks... 

Has anyone else tried loading saves on maps that have changed? Mine produced some fun results.

In other, off topic (well, it ought to be in mapping help at least) news... I have no idea what to do with the area the video is in. I can't figure out how to build anything fun there. I ALSO can't figure out how i'd want to get rid of it, though. Maybe i'll have to bite the bullet and nuke all that brushwork, we'll see... 

 

Why get rid of it? It looks cool. Do you mean fun gameplay-wise or detail-wise? 

Gameplay. It looks great, I could keep it with just a few monsters... That might be what I do, I guess. It'd be a lot of work if I kept it though, you can see in the video how unfinished it is. Straight edges everywhere! 

If you're building this for AD, you could set up an ambush with some monsters behind breakables. Or perhaps a little nasty trap involving lava below?

As for straight edges, a little vertex editing in TB could fix that, or adding some cavern entrances in the stone walls to break the lines. 

Another means to both add some gameplay and break the lines of the stone walls could be to set up some platforming along them with ledges and pillars. 

It's a Quoth map, but the same sorts of things can be done in quoth anyway so that's fine.

I'm not sure about adding hidden monsters and stuff. I think i'd rather teleport them in infront of the player, if anything. It's a simple pathway from area A to area B, there's not going to be a lot of clutter. (What would the monsters even be? grunts in boxes? dogs??) I'm becoming more and more convinced that I ought to just finish decorating the area and have it be a simple pathway.

Speaking of decoration, here's what I'm aiming for. I've done a section of it already, but it's a lot of really boring, time consuming work to get the level of detail I want.

Also, none of the rockwork in my map is func_detail-ed. I really need to go back and fix that, vis might actually finish quickly then... 

"it's a lot of really boring, time consuming work to get the level of detail I want."
Well, quality work is never done with a snap of the fingers!

If I were you, I wouldn't rely too much on monster teleport - I'm far from being the only one who finds it cheap. I see what seems to be a series of dark alcoves above, I would preferably use these instead of teleportation to hide some monsters and trigger them to jump on the player. 

Having monsters teleport in is a gimmick that has been used since the original Doom. While "cheap and easy" does come to mind, I prefer "done to death". That's not to say I haven't done it myself. 

I know, I was there back then. Somehow I find it more acceptable in Doom than in Quake but still, it has always bugged me a little. 

Yeah, that's why I'm not very keen on the area. Enemies that are there from the start will be engaging from maximum range, which is boring. Enemies breaking out of objects doesn't really suit the area either.

Teleporting enemies is fine if the player does something. Press a button to turn the lights on? Or activate a bridge? It seems reasonable to ambush the player there. They're a bit more in control of the situation, and I think most people are suspicious of buttons after years of similar abuse... 

One possible option that I have used is to place monsters out of sight with ambush flag set. Give them a targetname (can be shared) and when triggered they will set out after the player. Flying monsters such as a pack of scrags can work well this way, especially if one or two come from an opposite direction. 

Again not really feasible here :( I can hide some monsters, but not many and only in a small section as the whole area is one big open space with nothing substantial to block LoS. 

Rick, that's exactly what I meant earlier when I mentioned those dark alcoves seen in the [section] picture. Pritch, can't you make them come out of there? 

They're really just set dressing. The picture may not illustrate it very well, but they're very high up and ver far back from the playable space. Maybe I could get a very extreme monsterjump going, but then it's just monsters falling from the sky, or scrags/bobs attacking from far off in the sky.

I'm thinking one thing I might try is using Sentinels hiding underneath the lava (which will br there someday). Having them rise out of it would be a nice effect.