Going to do a playthrough on this.

http://www.twitch.tv/ionous 

GO MAP. 

I only wish I could have been there when it was live, but it was the middle of the night. It looked like you enjoyed yourself, and took time to soak in the scenery. You didn't get frustrated when you were killed, as you approached the situation different each time.

There was a double barrel shotgun at the very start of the first map that you missed, after you defeated the grunts and knights, at the top of the staircase adjacent to the others that lead to the descending elevators. This certainly would have helped to have, but you did exceptional without it.

Again I apologize I wasn't there when you were streaming it, I would have like to have seen how many were watching and what was said in the comments. The very end of you getting stuck on the bridge twice, was an oversight on my part, hopefully it didn't ruin much of the experience. 

On the first map and did not want to install an engine to play the second. I can imagine how disappointed you must be but of what I did play my feeble brain was boiling in amazement. Tonight I will watch Ionous' play through and report back. 

Okay Orl. I watched the Ionous' feed all the way through. Pretty damn amazing. I will install the necessary port and play this for myself or at the very least make my kids play through it on nightmare and laugh at their folly.

So here's my 2 centavos:

Where the designers behind Arcane Dimensions can be compared to Frank Lloyd Wright at times with their impeccable trims, spot on lighting effects and cleans lines, your work can be described closer to Picasso or your man - Giger. There are many shapes and motifs in your work that are unique in the Quake mapping arena. Nicely non-derivative... but that is only the beginning.

Sock, MFX and their AD brethren have distilled in their maps what is rightly "Quake" and added "spice" to a 20 year old game. Their efforts are infused with the thirst for outdoing what has come before (out-designing id). Artistically, and mechanically explosive in each levels' makeup is the struggle against what is expected - and what can be achieved.

But what you have done in your 5 year project has broken expectations, challenged established forms and has moved into a concrete but almost unrecognizable abstraction. A comet-like apparition that is not seen often enough. Playable, entertaining but uniquely challenging and ultimately - original.

Yes there are some rough patches. But there are some pretty inspired moments. Without SPOILERS - there's quite a big set-piece that arises mid-way through that really blew my mind.

So sock and the gang are the traditionalist, over-achievers in refining level dynamics to razor sharp pops of color and tightly shaped game play. But you are the trail blazer in form and shape and scope.

You have much to be proud of. Quake level design is an art form and you are not a follower or an after-thought. You are a trailblazer. I guarantee there will be significant motifs in future maps inspired by your work. At the very least -- you can claim that your maps are the 'Gone with the Wind' of the Quake mapping scene.

This is not to say that AD isn't very close to the Sistine Chapel of Quake mods (it kind of is) but more to say that art is infinite and inclusive of all wonderful executions -both profane and sublime.

Cheer and congrats. 

That was impressive! I used to think that had made abstract things in quake. Now I know, that I didn't.

Tho the map really needs some clipping (floors especially) and often can be cramped in places, I must say that this map is good. Very unusual visuals. The zombie section was absolutely amazing. I think it's the best zombie section I've seen in a long while. I think that type of gameplay suits your style much better than those spawning bunches of different monsters.

I think the map could have benefited from fog, skybox and some colored lighting.

I'm surprised that it was made in jackhammer. I suppposed that those shapes were made using trechbroom.

Great job and congrats on release! 

Just bad timing as well - and between one thing and another it usually takes me at least a month to play a Quake release. 

But I will have the time this weekend. 

Not time enough! 

The end was great! Loved the zombie part, though I kept falling into holes...I can't see them! gah. Anyways the twisted bits were great. Loved the ending. Very sinister. 

Some of the longer reviews left here and on Quaddicted, really tug at my heart strings. I'm glad I was able to provide such a unique experience, particularly in the theme. I have plans for even more uncommon types of environments in possible future maps.

I know many are still occupied with real life, but I eagerly await demo playthroughs from you. 

I will try. I'm off work sick atm. Framerate seems to be an issue on this map for me and I have a decent pc 

I haven't even played rubicon rumble yet. :( 

Recording while playing adds some frustration - I can't reload my usual every-5-sec-nervous-tic saves, maybe it is the same for some others and that explains lack of demos.

Here is mine.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/58150516/q1/oms3.7z
oms3_2 is incomplete, died in zombie part and can't do this all over again atm.
BTW imho everything after SK door could be separate map. From what I saw it was a one way drop without returning path.

As mentioned already maps are a bit too claustrophobic often and floors need more clipping. As it is - easy felt as hard, and hard as nightamre++ to me 8)

Though visuals make up for it. Style is different from anything I saw. Pretty cool. 

 

cl_alwaysrecorddemo 1
cl_generatedemonameautomagically 1
cl_requiemisthebestengineever 666 

cl_democleanuptoamount 32 (default 10) Ya...because since I play nightmare. 

I know aguiRe in an unreleased enhanced gl/winquake engines made it so that a demo is always recording to one file, no matter how many times you die and reload the map from a save file. 

demo https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/33279452/daz_oms3.zip

I love the theme, very original and alien - Don't see that very much in Quake these days!

The game play style you went for isn't really my cup of tea, but it was consistent throughout the first map and therefore a certain amount of pre-planning and setup can be done to counter the insane ambushes :) I actually think it ends up working because of this. If it had been "standard" Quake game play and then suddenly a brutal as fuck ambush it would feel very cheap. You set the players expectations right at the start and don't deviate from that formula.

A lot of the platforms you move around on are too small and very fiddly. Especially so when you are required to fight on them too. Frankly I pulled off some MLG pro manoeuvres platforming around these areas and again, it actually started to become fun after a while because of the pre-planning allowed by the consistent enemy ambushing.

It is very rare that I will study the layout of an area closely before tripping the ambush but this level I was doing it practically in every area. Granted it was a necessity in most cases to avoid death but still, I found it refreshing and enjoyable by the end.

I think with perhaps a more organic way to introduce enemies into the environment, something like this could work extremely well in the future.

I will get around to playing the rest of it soon, I haven't downloaded the experimental QuakeSpasm yet! 

You flatterer :)

Great demo there Daz, your strategic studying of each area before setting off a potential wave of monsters is what kept you alive, not to mention you remain collective under intense pressure when many enemies are attacking you at once.

Be expected to further plan out your course of action for most areas in the second map, but also breathe a sigh of relief as there are not nearly as many places where you can fall to your death, but don't let your guard down entirely.

Looking forward to your second demo :) 

Very unique style and theme, loved it! Great atmosphere.

Oddly shaped industrial structures of unknown purpose, a random bunch of factory and spaceship parts dumped onto a scrapyard, and some wasteland vermin/scum settling in. The weird hands, unclear whether also scrap of unknown origin or possibly some otherworldly means of managing the scrap piles. Hazardous materials and parasitic alien biomass fusing and evolving into a twisted hivemind corrupting the place further from within.

Impressive vistas, it's a marvel to look at all the shapes and odd stuff. I don't really like the faces, but the rest is top notch. Maybe even more generic scrap piles would have been good. Underwater ground is pretty flat. It's nice how one transitions from open areas to enclosed dark places, each environment hiding further hostilities. The structure rising out of the water is very cool, too. A twist on the empty water area in the first level.

The nonlinear way in which one can approach each building is nice. Button hunting makes sense here; it certainly allows the player to get a more complete sense of the environment.
The industrial nature of it all comes across well in the sense that it's recognizable but vague enough that, to me at least, it doesn't look unrealistic. Apart from the fact that it's all in ruins and all.

In this regard, the tightness and crampedness make sense. However, it makes movement very awkward most of the time. I realize such shapes and twisted walkways clash with Quake clunky physics and there's only so much one can do about it. Still, on many occasions better clipping (and other movement enhancements; nonsolid bits, additional railings here and there) would have been possible. It's just too easy to get stuck on things and subsequently get cornered by enemies; or fall off structures - into the water if you're lucky; to your death otherwise. This gets annoying if it happens several times in a row.

Gameplay wasn't that much fun for me. I did enjoy it overall, but there were several frustrating situations. The majority of encounters is teleport ambushes, often right in your face, and maybe a little too predictable quickly. Admittedly, with an open layout like these map have, there's little choice.
I played on Hard skill expecting such big areas would be too empty on Easy. Guess that was a mistake. Thinking about it now, it would probably add to the map/atmosphere if there weren't as many enemies overall. In consequence, I had quite a hard time. Some ambushes or traps are downright assholish.

The underwater cave with where you raise the green structure is very problematic. It's easy to miss the biosuit, and the buttons to lower/raise the lift only work once = likely many deaths there, also the possibility of locking oneself out (or in). Should have been accessible continously times, perhaps two buisuits or a respawning one (in sight, not behind the player!), maybe an additional path to the area, e.g. part of the ceiling opening up after pressing the required button.

The final 'infestation' area has a nice twist - having the player be able to only use grenades initially. It's also very cool to see the fenced part, like someone used to live there, eventually to be drained and corrupted by the Shub creature - or maybe they sought refuge there? Unfortunately, the area proved to be very difficult as well. Little in the way of supplies (health) and attacks out of the darkness. The decent into the flesh part is a bit of shame, because it forced me to rush it - pressure from behind, quad, awkward movement, time-sensitive boss fight without cover. Would have loved to take a moment and enjoy the scenery.

I had to switch to the RMQ engine half-way though which made things a little less smooth. Was under the impression my version of QS supports protocol 999, though apparently it doesn't. Shame it doesn't fit into 666 limits.

Started recording demos, but quickly stopped. Instead, you can watch it on stream for the next 7 days.

By and large a great experimental map with very particularistic gameplay. Not for everyone, but worth checking out for the scenery alone. 

OTP with his standard complaint about knights in a non-medieval environment... But here I imagined them not as knights in the classic sense, but some sort of wasteland gangers wearing makeshift armors made of scrap metal welded together - and suddenly it worked in the map's favor.

Apart from the Giger'ish influences, the style also somewhat reminded me of Borderlands, with a bit desolation from that one old Dr. Who episode I watched as a child and probably remember all wrong. 

I'm glad to hear you for the most part, enjoyed it. Watching your playthrough, you persevered even in the toughest of situations. As you said, the gameplay is not for everyone and I'm further realizing that. The comments during the stream reflect that very much, most were very critical of certain choices I made, and overall didn't have many positive things to say, other than that the map looked good.

I've come to accept that, that is probably my only forte of mapping, painting a pretty scene. I can't make decent gameplay, and it shows. With such openness of the maps themselves, it was very difficult to insert enemies where they wouldn't just be a sniping target, which is the main reason why I relied so much on teleport ambushes. viewing gameplay footage now, I can see no one likes that.

I'm on the fence of throwing in the towel, considering gameplay is not my strong suit. You can't have a pretty map without strong gameplay to back it up. Otherwise, it just becomes a walking simulator.

And I'm sorry to see that RMQ gave you so much trouble, especially since there was an experimental version of Quakespasm released meant for oms3_2. Seeing you struggle to get it running to your liking, you became frustrated afterwards and a bit reckless, in a sense that you just wanted to get the map over and done with. I can understand that, its not fun. 

The sunken ruins that rise up into an entire new section was one of the most amazing things I have seen a Quake map do. There were so many different paths to ultimately get to the silver key...and the fact you are launched into the hand (The most iconic set piece in the map) is just wicked awesome. Thoughts that went through my mind when I went outside was: "I want to be able to get onto one those structures."

I think you are far too critical on yourself and should be proud of what you have accomplished. The frantic underwater search for the button and the 180 degree change of pace with the abandoned brain/zombie section is some really cool stuff!

Please don't throw in the towel as I would be excited to see what you would come up with next! 

Yep ORL you are being way too hard on yourself and it's actually making me kind of angry. You shouldn't be pandering to others and their expectations of what a quake map should be. Make whatever the hell you want, nobody is going to complain about more Quake maps in 2016. The people who are giving criticism on here are veterans who have been mapping for many years and people who are pissed they have to use another engine. Seriously just make whatever you want and people will play it. No reason to throw in the towel just because someone didn't think the gameplay was Quakey enough. If anything, find those elements and make them even more extreme in your next map just to spite them.