Starting with the long-delayed conclusion of Naitelveni's map.

https://www.twitch.tv/ionous

Starts in an hour. 

Next would be Kell, but he's already seen demos from me before releasing, so next;

Then there's ShoTro, which I am itching to play but it's a commitment I don't have time for tonight, so next;

Taking the jump pad to the top floor and the first exit I see is to my map, I've played that time enough, so next;

Haunter!

It's practically jam tradition by now to have a small map from a newcomer and this time it's no different. The smallest map from all 16 but not the worst by any means.

What it lacks in length it makes up in level of detail, it's easy to notice how much effort went into decorating each and every room, either with lots of trims, or lots of bodies (the final area is almost unsettling looking).

It also makes up in intensity - it's probably easier to die in this 17 monster map than it is in others with ~100. It's relentless from the get go and doesn't really let on. Some of the difficulty comes more from the (small) map scale, too, however.

Overall a nice map and a fine debut! 

Nice demo, you were not nice to that poor drole! I actually intended to spawn him from the get go so he could snipe the player from the balcony during the brigade fight, but I quickly realized that woulndn't be a good idea.
Also regarding the possibility to give a minlight to brushes - I thought this was a worldspawn property that couldn't be applied to individual brushes. Maybe I'm wrong.

Thanks for the commentary anyway. I've recorded a bunch of demos for everyone but I end up dying before the end most of the time, will post them eventually. 

Thanks for the demo of "Knight Gaunts!" I enjoyed watching you play. Probably the best overall player who has played it. Conservative with ammo, patient and good with finding secrets. AND you've found the most secrets out of anyone!

The one secret )green armor) you and everyone has missed is in the first large room. It's hard to find, but if you aim high you just might...

Redfield did find it, but accidentally so his doesn't count!

I am blown away more people are missing the RL and SN secrets!!! 

JFC. 

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/otp9_shotro.zip

It's practically jam tradition by now to have a map from a newcomer that just gleefully ignores as many mapping conventions as it can.

Feels like everything that could have been said about this map has already been said, really. Quite a lot of commentary within the demos.

I intended to play more maps tonight but this one just really wore me down. :( 

Finally got to your jam9 map tonight. Really liked it. A little tough on ammo but not impossible. There are some imaginative encounters and I really liked how expansive the level was even though this is just a short-ish map. I liked the ending battle. Here are my demos The last demo was me trying to find secrets and well... you'll see what happens. :) Great first map! 

@Mike Woodham - Not sure what the problem is. Have you tried the updated version?
@Redfield - You didn't encounter a glitch that is how it is supposed to work. About the bleed. I fixed a lot of the bleeding in the update and eventually figured out what causes that and how to prevent it but different engines had different results and I had a lot to fix in the map. You should see the rest of it sometime.
Although. If you don't want to go through the chthon encounter again, just clip through the bars at the top and impulse 11 before jumping off.
@erc - You did really good. The map gets a little redundant on that third run through, which is where your demos end. Hope you enjoyed the rest of the map after that.
@Jaromir83 - You can jump across the pillars and smash the window to get out. Just go up the ramps and look out towards where shub is.
@OneTruePurple - Yep. It seems like a coin toss if you find the chthon fight difficult or too difficult. I enjoyed your play through. I am glad there were at least SOME things you enjoyed. I was torn between two comments about the map "The timings are too short" and "the timings are too long". I guess the lesson is... don't put too much in your map that depends on timers because people want to enjoy things at a different pace... Also it takes too much time to debug and test. 

I was torn between two comments about the map "The timings are too short" and "the timings are too long".

The latter referred to buttons taking too long to take action, most noticeable in the Chthon fight.

I don't remember what the first one referred to but i don't imagine it was the same thing. 

The parts I enjoyed outweigh the parts I didn't, on average. 

https://www.twitch.tv/doomed_spacemarine 

http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/otp9_dbear.zip

Another debut, another small fun map. With this one it really shows that you ran out of time and couldn't do the full map you wanted to, though.

Loved the first secret. However, is that the only armor available in the map? That would make everything a LOT harder!

Shame you weren't around on the Discord, since it seems like you submitted the map first and didn't know about the unofficial second extension. :(

Hope to see this released in its full one day! 

ok, for some reason there was no staircase on skill 1 first time I played it, now it is ok, unable to find the last red "button" in the Shub room tho. exit bars were not lowered after picking up the first rune on my todays run (skill 1) 

hey, thanks for the demo :) glad you liked it.

The map is actually fully completed, its the graphical fidelity that suffered because of my bad time management. You could tell in the beginning its much more detailed and in the end I was just argh, fuck it, this will do.

Obviously I did some mistakes such as no other source of armour, although to be honest you kinda don't really need it. Last secret and tbh whole arena fell victim of me not being familiar with Quoth mod capabilities. I sort of expected that last monster to be much tougher than it was. I tested it of course, but at that time I was already using matches to keep my eyes opened, so yeah, derp.

Some pacing issues that I've noticed only when demos started coming in. Play testing by someone other than yourself is obviously needed, because I tend to play the way I envisioned it, and you guys already proved that there are much more ways to go about it.

Anyway idk if I should go back and try to fix it maybe? Feel more like trying to do something completely new with what I've learned. 

Play testing by someone other than yourself is obviously needed
I second that. As for fixing stuff, if something is really broken in your map it's fine to release a patch, otherwise don't bother and move on. 

I saw the barred off doors at the end and assumed you wanted to expand the map more in those directions but had no time.

Feel more like trying to do something completely new with what I've learned.

In this case, yeah, this is probably a better idea. 

Barred doors at the end are just supposed to give you an idea that this place is much bigger than it actually is. Something that I've picked from all the articles about level design lol. Not sure if its working actually, but feels better than just walls. 

As you may have seen in my demo I missed the first secret and it was driving me crazy. I also was not sure how to get to the Quad. Watching OTP's demo I was so pissed off at myself!! As far as playtesting it's a must and I'd be happy to discretely playtest your next map, just reach out. My oldest son plays Quake quite a bit but I hate watching him test my maps because he's always in a rush. Misses obvious things, bunny hops all over the place and just plays to kill monsters. My youngest isn't as into Quake as I am so he kind of derps along also missing things etc.

The disparity in skill levels here on func is pretty vast. I never play on hard as I am not that good. But take a look at other levels and other demos as you will learn a lot about how people play. Ionous and Arrrcee really conserve ammo and health when they play. Other players play very slowly and methodically looking for every secret. It's fascinating and frustrating to try and guide the player.

Anyway, I really liked your map and I agree with the others - unless something is broken badly, move on to your next project. 

DBear, 2/3 of your secrets confused me. I figured the first room contained a secret since there were zombies behind bars that you can't kill without a GL. But where's the GL? You don't get one until the final arena. And to go back, you MUST take fall as you drop down the elevator shaft. And unless I missed something (which is totally possible), the 3rd secret requires you to take a substantial amount of damage as well, since you must rocket jump to it. Was this intended? Secrets should never require the player to take damage. What if they're too low health to attempt it? 

Shame on you, hehe 

I'm so ashamed. The rocket jump at the end still stands though. 

Enjoyed your map. Yours are always a a highlight although I had some trouble finding the secrets on this one. Here are my demos I omitted the last one of me searching for secrets. Lots of derping and well... you know where they are. I only found 4/6 and ran out of ammo so I figured that was it. no_clipped with r_fullbright 1 and still could not find them!!!!! (well their triggers anyway.)

Very cool vertical feeling we all love from your work. I will play it again and hopefully get all secrets. 

Please list a good demo from another player here (by post number if possible) I'd like to get some highlights for a promotional video for jam9. I will record the demos and cut a shot trailer that features some good moments from as many maps as possible. The more I play this the more impressed I am. I'd like to get the word out so more people play this fucker.

Mugwump I'd love to use your track if possible for the music. 

Possible it is. 

Great. Will start collecting footage and cut something very cool. Hoping map authors will share their favorite demos so I can get some great clips to cut to.