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New Quake1 Map: Xlarve's Dream
author: xlarve
file name: xld (type in console)

Map size: large
Monsters: 520
Secrets: 13

A big-sized dark metal American McGee's style map.
The map requires some of quakes engines, because map is too big for original quake 1. (I'm using Quakesapsm).
Only single-player map, no DM. No choosing-skill room.

I really like the quick done 100% walkthrough. What also affected the map and its level of skill.

If you the real quaker: kill all monsters and find all secrets! Beware! The map is oriented for experienced players.
Supposed skill of the map: nightmare!

Hope you enjoy this map.
Have fun!

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/screen_shots/xlarves_dream_1.png
http://www.quaketastic.com/files/screen_shots/xlarves_dream_2.png
http://www.quaketastic.com/files/screen_shots/xlarves_dream_3.png
http://www.quaketastic.com/files/screen_shots/xlarves_dream_4.png
http://www.quaketastic.com/files/screen_shots/xlarves_dream_5.png

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/single_player/maps/xld.zip
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I want to thank: niger for radiant, ericw for binaries, spirit, negke, meag, ... all guys from q1 discord channel...
I'm always open to criticism - so feel free to write your opinions. I will try to keep this in mind for the future. 
A Huge Map! 
Hello xlarve, I assume English isn't your first language so I commend you for posting here.

I want to say this map is very, very impressive for its sheer scale, and the detail put into the brushwork. The map feels very true to id Episode 3 and has a great interconnected layout. The map is tight, and a "corridor crawler" so it feels like Wolfenstein 3D more so than Quake. Because of the size of the map I feel you could have used more textures than just the id textures to make things less repetitive. Ultimately the size and layout of this map are staggering. I give you 5/5 stars.

Now the gameplay is where I have to criticize and suggest you could make improvements in the future. I also think you could have left this map in beta longer to allow more feedback on the difficulty. I understand that this map is meant to be "hard" but I always play on hard anyway and never have problems beating a map. This map is unfairly difficult.

You have chosen to use "back-spawning" enemies that appear immediately behind and immediately in front of the player far too often. Back-spawning is the most disliked gameplay mechanic among Quake players and it can dissuade people from playing a map. You have also chosen to make Vores backspawn repeatedly. There are many instances where the backspawning prevents the player from moving and death results.

I could only complete your map using GOD mode after numerous deaths. I feel you could have balanced this map in several ways:
1) Remove all backspawning vores
2)Make rooms larger
3)You should have included difficulty levels. It is simple to do, just add spawnflags for not on easy, not on normal, etc.
I think the gameplay will dissuade people from completing this map. In the future do more iterating and add skill levels.

There is some polishing you could have done, for example, you did not put the spawnflag "Silent" for the teleport boxes the enemies are in. This means the player hears active teleporters all over the map. This is only a small issue though.

Overall, this is an extremely impressive, detailed runic map. A great first release. 
 
I died after some 90 monsters. The demo ends there. There are some comments in the demo too.

http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/xld_ankh.zip

The map looks nice and the combat is difficult but still enjoyable. It gets repetitive though. After some 7 rooms that feel pretty similar and ambushes with the same pattern I didn't feel like going through next 400 monsters.
Good effort still. Really nice.
I think the map should be cut down in size to 25%. Also lack of skill settings was not a good idea. 
Too Tired To Play Through This 
I know there was a lot of work that went into this but Please play some of Quake's classic levels and look at the room sizes for the battles. This was way too hard, way too cramped. More monsters isn't always better. You'll see from the demos I didn't get too far into the map and got frustrated early on. It seems like you did a lot of copying and pasting of rooms - or at least it felt like this. Here are my demos:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-xkqcrQhLm7LXZ1di1YendTUzg 
But I Wanted To Add 
don't give up. There are some very nice design features in your map Xlarve. You just need to work on game play balance and expand the battle areas a bit. Good luck! 
Not So Happy 
I play on nightmare usually but this was just unfair as told above. To complete the map I cheated too with permanent quad cheat thus giving monsters a chance to kill me.

That too grew dull when approaching new rooms meant throwing grenades all around. Not enjoyable. 
I Tried.... 
...I really did, but failed miserably. I ended up on fullbrite, God mode, 350 monsters down, and lost. I gave up.

I also felt that there were too many monsters in in too tight a space, too often. And I also felt that there was some cut'n'paste of rooms, which I think is why I ended up lost.

I liked the architecture, and the water areas. 
Trying Answering To All Of You 
thanx for comment!
My answers is...
About "silent" mjnsters teleport - dont know. Thinking teleport noise
is fair. Its normal for q1.
"Backspawning Vores" make special - that player cant runaway back.

About monsters and ammos. Every ammo ive tested till thee very start of map. Each monsters place tested very detailed. No random fasting placing item or monster.

Before each room player must save game and trying pass this room, thinking, finding the way how to do it. It like puzzle - need find the decision how to pass every monsters-trap.

About the tights corridors and rooms... in original q1 was the same. Dissolution of Eternity - too. Where are you see big open world in classic q1?
My favorits maps is The tomb of Terror and The Hunted Halls... this maps like and all episode3, q1 is so small.
Q1 - game with ideal balance between monsters and small rooms.
I don't want making a Serious Sam level :)

Map is so big because i have idea of the map and trying realize it. Size of the map was secondary.

Guys, you cant belive me - but - my favorites view was watching
special mode of quake with quickdone 100% demos -
videos in such ancient 2004 year dont exist...
i know the name of every map, know autors of thees maps, know every monster... 
Video 
Video 
I did not want to share the video because of the spoilers.
Dont call to look it whole, better way to look at a difficult place for you. This is just one of my testing path, i specially no took some of ammos and armors and mostly of secrets. 
Tnx For Demos 
Very unexpectedly and as I understood very few people memorized monsters places 
 
My demo is a recording of first try of your map, so no memorizing possible :)

I like the surprise in playing a new map. Small chance of repeated play of a map from my side.
You test your map knowing all traps and all monster positions. This way it feels much more easier for you than it is in reality.

There are still people doing quake speedruns:
http://celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=61446&start=4 
 
Oh and I like your passion for Quake! 
 
My demo https://www.dropbox.com/s/x4u1q1ihkex3mlc/xlarvedemo.dem?dl=0

First try I ragequit after the 2nd vore encounter. Read your post here about save whoring before every encounter and gave it another blast. Was pretty fun tbh. Finished 52~ mins with 6 secrets and around 487 kills.

Main criticism would be its too tight! Enemy encouncters felt a bit repetitive. Would've been nice to have a few less corridor sections and maybe a new space/idea like you did with the swimming; some more open area maybe to catch a breather considering it's a big map.

Cool stuff none the less 
 
corridor, small square room with columns, corridor, small square room with columns, corridor, small square room with columns, corridor, small square room with columns, corridor, small square room with columns, 
LLL 
All Quake maps...

A room, some monsters, another room, more monsters, a room, some monsters, another room, more monsters, a room, some monsters, another room, more monsters, a room, some monsters, another room, more monsters, 
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