who *didn't* contribute to the pack..ahem

Great work. 1hour/5hours...I care not. Xen's rocked the most interms of overall completeness AND incorporating the most ( well, recognisable to me ) E4 references. The bricks used, as well as in dm1 were used in the Tower Of Hate alongside a few orange arches. Plus, that map and some of the other E4s were notoriously repetitive and labyrinthine in their layouts, so I think it's justifiable in this map.
Starbucks captured the feel of The Nameless City really well for such a small map ( in terms of brushcount ): gameplay was unsurprising mostly, could maybe have benefited from abrupter ambushing. But nice.
R.P.G.'s was confusingly short, but neat. The catacombs/arches had a cool vibe.
Scampie: whoa. dude. easy with the shamblas; if you're going to dump that hard on the player with both shamblers AND spawn, I would expect to be toting a perf or at least nailer by then. Otherwise, the Gloom Keep thang worked and the graveyard was a good way to start the map.

Having thought about the nature of the 'final release' of the megatheme quite a bit, I would now really like the chance to play through all the maps in a properly refined episodic structure. Most of the maps successfully evoke the episodes in question and the experience of Ye Olde Quake rough-hewn division of theme would be very, very cool to revisit.
A fair bit of extra work is involved, so it's up to you guys what you want to do, but I for one would appreciate it.

2/- 

Green, brown; what's the diff? 

SPEEDMAPPING is now UNPOLISHED TURD MAPPING.
Your maps are allowed to be ass with 100min, but not with 500min. Regardless I liked the pak, with scampie's(or someone else) little outdoor bit being the highlight, the fiends in the darkness were classy. Looking forward to all of these in the proper megapak of <3.

and also, FUCK SHAKESPEARE
he is a bad bad man 

since I think that E4 is the most underrated episode, I'm glad to see some mappers take on the challenge of using its themes. In general, there are a *hell* of a lot of runic and idbase maps, and a lot of medieval/E2 maps, but hardly any e4 styled maps.

My favourite was probably the bizarre bazaar. Nice nameless city style map, clean and open architecture. Rpg's elder world map also really captured the E4 atmosphere well.

Maybe the next megatheme could be themes from the official mission packs? scourge base, scourge medieval, scourge runic, rogue temple, rogue runic, rogue medieval? or not, hehe 

Your maps are allowed to be ass with 100min, but not with 500min.

Since when did 5 hours = 500 minutes? 

The next megatheme I was thinking of doing was 'old skool texture themes'. Ikbase, Rubicon, Ikblue (maybe), and... well anything else for older texture themes. Red Brick or Dapak styles sound good for this too.

Other plan I had for the future was a 'turtle chain map'. 1 week, I build a start area Sunday, pass it to the next person who gets all of Monday to work on the map, etc etc... until returning to me the next Sunday when I finish it off and clean it up. But this will be well down the road and I'll need to do some thinking as to getting the logistics of it to work out.


inertia: You mean 'Speedmapping is now INERTIA IS A FAGGOT WHO COULDN'T EVEN FINISH ANYTHING IN ANY TIMELIMIT BUT HE'LL WHINE THAT ALL THE OTHER MAPS AREN'T UP TO HIS SATISFACTION' mapping. 

Expanding this into branching themes could add a big helping of subtle variance to the eventual map pack. Also you could expand the weekly theme to include Ikbase, Rubicon, Quake 2, UnReal and Doomish themes. You can expand the theme of the week to include particular progs.dat builds (custent, Nehara, Zeroester, OUM) in the weekly speedmaps.

One way you could make the time factor relevant if limiting the pre-baking, so to speak, is an actual concern, is to have the participants download a set of prefabs* to use in their levels and not make the prefabs available until the day of the competition.
The addition of prefab sets could also boost the quality of the speedmaps significantly.

* Of course, let's not start stripping them from the maps of mappers who have expressed they would prefer their maps not to be decompiled. 

I owe Scampie a nod of acknowledgement as our postings have similar and even overlapping suggestions. It was definitely in the backgound noise inside me noggin when I composed mine.

Props, dadio. 

no. there will never be prefabs in speedmaps, the idea is for mappers to create, not peice together crap. but it may be a neat idea to run an event with a set of premade rooms, and the mappers need to connect them. I never run a speedmap with custom entities.

timelimit isn't heavily enforced becuase I'd rather a bunch of maps than a few rushed half cooked ideas. the point is to make maps quickly, not be exactly on 100 mins. q3 speedmapping eventually lost many of it's mappers because Akuma would never budge a moment on it's 60 min (or turtlemap's 1 week to the second) timelimit. If a map was late, it was not allowed. I will not run my events that way. 

and props to you dude :D 

timelimit isn't heavily enforced becuase I'd rather have a bunch of maps than a few rushed half cooked ideas.

And the entertainment I've had out of the last half-dozen or so speedmap packs is sufficient proof of this policy for me. 

if a mapper wants to spend substantial extra time, i always let them, because at the end of the day, it should be their choice what they want to get out of the session. Whether you want to test yourself under pressure and complete a map strictly under the 100 minute 'limit' or make something at a more leisurely pace, it doesn't matter. The whole point is to have fun, in making the pack and in playing it.
If we ran these events like nazis then no one would want to join in :) 

yeah. It's a good thing we don't run it like nazis, becuase I'd be the Hitler.

MWH!!! 

 

of using oldschool texture themes... that includes ikbase, rubicon, hipnotic, rogue, etc. I'd say wait until you've exhausted these possibilities before using other games' texture sets, though I really would like to see a doom-theme pack. 

ikbase, ikblue and rubicon are very distinct and internally consistent themes, so that would work fine.
But Armagon's textures really just supplement the id wads with some occassionally quite garish and aberrant stuff, like the bright gray bricks from the - ironically titled in this case - Black Cathedral ( the one with the clock ). There's some half-hearted attempts at celtic knotwork and a series of vivid blue skull motifs that wouldn't look out of place in Azure Agony. That's about it.
Can't really comment on DOE cos I've never played it, but I'm aware that they followed a cheesier 'travel through history' idea with more specific themes like the ubiquitous egyptian thing, so that might work.
I think the mish packs are defined more by their bonus weapons, monsters, entities etc. than by their textures. 

damn! You used around 5 hours too?
I made a E4 speedmap yesterday in abouth 5� hours but didn't mail it because I thought that people would find it to extreme to use 5 hours on a sm. Hmm looks like they don't mind so I will mail it to Scrampie to include it in the sm59 pack.

Other than that I got to say I really enjoyed all the maps this week. Very good work! 

yeah Hrimfaxi, email it to me, and call it sm59_hrim and we'll include it with sm59. Leviathan started a map, but was unable to finish before having to go somewhere and will be doing the same. I think Starbuck (shock! he's still alive and may accually run an event again! :D) is planning an unthemed event anyway as a break from the few weeks of themes. 

but if anyone has any ideas for a theme for this week's session, i'd be happy to hear them....

maybe something a bit more silly is in order, like another "bad speedmap" themed event. If people would prefer an unthemed session though, ill hold the silliness until sm61 :D 

Mission Pack 2 definately has some entirely new themes: ancient Egyptian and ancient Roman among them. Additionally, I think they've got their own variety of medieval, runic and wizard; the latter being most distinct, adding lightning, machinery, surgery tables and other pseudo-sci-fi/frankenstein style elements.

As for Mission Pack 1, I'd say that hipnotic base is rather different from idbase, and that that pack potentially deserves credit for variations on medieval and runic as well.

Mission Pack 2 is obviously much better suited to speedmapping sessions, but I think hipnotic base might also be suitable. 

You are most likely right that the next logical step would be to use the custom sets created for Quake first in the order of things. I'd like to see a Doom attempt sometime though too.

I was over my brother's the other weekend playing some old style LAN head to head Doom Death Match, and he had the ZDoom build installed with the Doom 2 retextures, and OMG! were they truly stunning. I got fragged more times from being distracted by the layouts than any smart moves my brother made.

Now I know why those TeamShambler guys always complained about maps being too hard and the combat too distracting for their walk arounds. 

have doom speedmaps. check out doomworld.com or something.

also: i still haven't played any of the quake flavoured speedmaps. i'm waiting for the superrelease or i'll just play them all at the same time when i have the time.

cheers anyway. 

Can't really comment on DOE cos I've never played it

you philstine, sir!

really, everyone should try to play both mission packs, and personally i rate DOE significantly better than armagon. 

Now I know why those TeamShambler guys always complained about maps being too hard and the combat too distracting for their walk arounds.

Make sense, please. 

'Make sense, please.'

Oh come off of it, Shambler, you know exactly what I'm talking about and so do any of the mappers who are familiar with the TeamShambler site. Make an attempt to read my remark in the inferred context I put it in, and the 'sense' I make is crystal clear.

How many excellent maps did you rate down because you thought they were too hard? In gameplay terms, you had a very wimpish standard in your reviews.

Here are just a few examples.

"Unfortunately that same complex layout does lead to some odd situations where you'll have cleared out some areas, with difficulty, earlier on in the map, and they're empty of monsters later. Also, although skill settings are present, some players may find the gameplay a bit too gruelling in places."

Review of CZG03

"Again, I do have a few criticisms: a couple of sections can be very hard to survive first go, the end is fairly challenging but not the quite apocalyptic climax I expected, and most seriously, the skill settings make little difference, meaning it could be unpleasantly hard for some players. But if you are up to the challenge, the gameplay is rewarding indeed."

Review of DaMaul6

"On the downside, as well as the minor flaws mentioned above, some may find this level rather hard in places. Aside from that the gameplay is good, and the architecture is just great, and overall it is one of the best base levels ever - go play!"

Review of Rubicon review.

"Architecture elsewhere is good too. Gameplay is fair overall, and the rocket launcher is a welcome relief, but the introduction of the lethal insect/human enemy, in an area where you go a *very* long way without any health is frustrating and badly unbalanced. Aside from that problem, it's good, but challenging."

Review of Neh1m5

No one ever played Quake just to have their balls tickled, so next time you pick of the pen to review please leave your teacup home.

My case is made and my case is hereby closed, and the only thing left for you to do is say, 'Oh, you have got me there, HeadThump. I apologize for being an obstinate jackass. In the future I will try to be more civil on my end of our discourse.'

That said, TeamShambler is an extremely valuable resource for anyone interested in the Quake single player scene, so I don't get any pleasure having to make such a public correction of your behavior, but you did confront me and make a false accusation questioning my abilaty to write in clearly stated English.

I hope this posting serves as a fair warning to you if you so decide to keep to the scurrilous standards you exhibited here of what you can expect in the future.