Nait,remember me?
I'm gonna try your map. 

Okay so I read some more comments and it got me thinking that maybe I was pretty lucky on my playthrough, i.e. I got 4/5 secrets including the crucial SNG and Quad ones.

I replayed it without getting any secrets AND without using the stash AND doing the "Shambler sewer tunnel" first in the final arena (harder cos both Shamblers are aggroed when you exit that tunnel), and died once and that was in the SK door room because I'd stupidly got hit by a Fiend twice outdoors and messed up the Ogre ambush. The DBS / GA secret is REALLY hard to ignore as you see the shootable switch so many times.

Anyway the rest of it went fine. Lost a total of 90 AP+HP on the raft ride (you get a GA before so I started on 100/100). Exited with 100/100, 60 shells 50 nails 30 grenades 0 cells. I might have struggled as a first playthrough but then if I struggle I'm going to actively hunt for secrets. As it was I forgot about the ambush after the SK door teleporter and the knight ambush in the Vore sewer tunnel and they were still fun.

Oh, I spotted another progression glitch - the bridge stays closed after the raft ride so you can't re-collect any spare ammo there.

In retrospect I agree with some comments about a few of the trickier locations. The raft would be a pain if you fell off - although it is a good size to begin with. Providing a YA there and a GA later would have been better, as would a teleporter by the Quad platform. The 2 Vore room could have had 1 vore on normal and 1 vore and the exit open on Easy.

I think it's small tweaks that could improve things, not big changes.

The DBS as a secret is fine, if you miss that one you should give up playing Quake full stop.

Nait for a short build time this is really good. The end room combat actually feels deliberately designed, for example. I also like that is is very Id style but also pushes the design a bit.

Definitely keep the mapping going! 

Shambler tunnel LAST in the main arena. 

Very childish shambler* 

Where that last poster mix post went? 

Yes like Shambler I finished with 100% health and a LOT of rockets, almost full cells and nails. I was mostly using rockets for the last 30 enemies. There were a number of hairy moments though, but in particular having you on the raft with the Shambler above - no cover, no sng for me, in fact I was lucky to even spot the dsg. Without that the level would have been a real chore, so next time out I'd definitely recommend not hiding it in a secret area. The sg is no fun for a full level that's challenging as it is.

But yeah so escaped the raft on 2% health haha. The 2 vores trap I avoided since you can pickup the gk without triggering the trap. Realised that after the first time they killed me and the exit door opened anyway.

Plus a couple other Shambler reveals (with no cover and no sng) were painful. Otherwise it was all pretty good, nice old skool style I could imagine this being in the game. Just keep working on that detail, it's not at Sock level yet. 

Demo on nightmare, no secrets:
https://www.mediafire.com/?c2dc7oe7q6zf1as

I Will dial down the difficulty tomorrow and reupload the map. 

Thank you~ will definitely play more, if it is a bit more packed with the ammo. 

Finished on hard. No deaths, plenty of ammo by the end but I used a bunch of cheap infighting (especially in the last area, getting ogres/knights/fiends in a big brawl).

I think most of the times you used Shamblers were 'cheap', ie damage was unavoidable, especially on a first playthrough. Having a shambler drop on you in a room with no cover isn't particularly entertaining, even if you can shambler-shuffle :) Worst example being the one in the raft section. Zero cover, I'd used my nail ammo up by that point and I couldn't even get close to zone it.

The Vores were good though, there was room to kite the balls and then a way to quickly detonate them. Only played on hard though, on nightmare maybe it's different :p

I'm also one of those who are against putting powerful weapons in secrets, especially in a map that is trying to be nasty too. I think I almost skipped the Lightning gun, and that kind of thing is what leaves you with vastly different play experiences. I'm terrible at finding secrets, and hate them being an important thing for finishing stuff :) 

Oh, I liked the look, very classic. The floor texture thing wouldn't have bothered me but it's when you use the same texture for the floor and walls in the same area. Looks weird. Lighting was also a bit flat imo, could have used some more contrast and shadows, especially in the large room at the end. 

perfect 

You look down, you see zombies and a fuck load of ammo.... 

I don't think the difficulty needs toned down on skill 2 at all, except perhaps the armour swap I mentioned.

However I had a brief look on skill 0 for a speedrun possibility, and it seems almost as hard on that, so better skill settings would be good. 

You don't see the LG itself, though, and more importantly, (1) you don't see any obvious way back up -- so you don't know if dropping down isn't going to force you to take a detour to get back to where you were -- and (2) you don't know that the map never gives you another chance to visit that area.

So although a player might see the zombies and ammo and choose to drop down, it is (for the reasons above) an equally reasonable choice to keep moving forward at that point. And then you're forever stuck without that LG (and without knowing that it was there). 

We might be getting into the realms of nit-picking discussion for the purpose of this short-build-time map, but these are issues which are good to get explored for general mapping principles e.g. don't put too many high tier weapons in secrets, and consider what players might miss (and maybe how to signpost them to explore enough). 

"the map never gives you another chance to visit that area." <-- main reason. It is assuming the player will go that way first, rather than being curious about what's through the door and then getting locked in. You could force the player to go through the area with the LG then into the next area with a switch or a key and you've changed little except avoiding the chance of some people missing the LG.

"I don't think the difficulty needs toned down on skill 2 at all, except perhaps the armour swap I mentioned."

I'm not saying it should be easier at all. My point was that the hard parts are only hard due to being a surprise/giving you no cover. In my opinion it could actually be made a bit harder. Generally the map had a lot of open space to avoid damage and not much in the way of evil monster placement in the larger areas :) 

I agree, a better solution would have been walkable terrain that the player can clearly see.

There are too many teleporters and a better solution would be to have terrain, but its much faster to setup a teleporter than building terrain. 

Any hints to how I can activate the nightmare difficulty? 

Played on easy. 19 minutes, missing 2 kills and 2 secrets, no deaths. Fun map. I enjoyed the variety offered. Didn't get lost. Mission felt clear at all times. Had fun with slopes and explosives! 

Visit easy skill door is my hint. :) 

https://aww.moe/kq0poc.zip
skill 1 demo

I like the combat and the space to move around while fighting with monsters.
Had fun with slopes and jumping too :)
Killed by last 2 ogres :P 

The darkness really sets the tone for this large atmospheric castle. Gameplay on skill 2 was just right, enough health and ammo to squeeze by until the end. And boy did I enjoy that boat ride.

Congratulations on your first and very successful solo release!

First run demo, hard skill: http://qrf.servequake.com/~orl/misc/orl_goldenskull.rar 

I have read some comment after playing and commenting.

I liked the raft ride. I thought it was fun but the shambler was over the top maybe.
Also other ambushes were fine with me, always room to escape. The 2 vores in small room were biggest problem.
Died only at the end after being careless.
I think skill 1 was a bit to hard but manageable even on first try.
Keep it up. Good and enjoyable map. 

Map of epic proportions. Good job!
First run witt one death: https://cloud.mail.ru/public/7Cu1/LjHvGMzWL 

Maybe on nightmare enemies has more health? Because I run out of ammo all the time, and need to use god-mode because there wasn't any way I could have survived the ending hall, vores and shamblers, thousand ogres, and you only have shotgun, run out of nails immediately, and soon run out of shells too, just axing shambler? I didn't find sng neither lg. I really recommend balancing ammo a bit more, then this would be a really enjoyable map.

Even though it wasn't polished in that aspect I really enjoyed my time.