very nice use of ambient sounds. it's good to hear some new sounds for a map, especially one that moves so far away from most maps.

played on normal, wasn't too hard. felt just right, actually. good use of all the different base reskins. i died at the end though, from one of my own quadded grenades. :S i don't think the fight would have been impossible or anything, it's just that i was backpedaling and i lobbed a grenade just as a scrag flew above me.

consistent brushwork with a good mix of doom3 and i think hl, hl2 textures? made for a solid looking map. some railings looked too think though, but that's more a limitation of the engine.

n1. :)

http://necros.quaddicted.com/temp/ne_driant.zip 

Downloading the bsp than the entire Quoth pack - it must be a behamoth. 

Can't wait to play this.
Shots look nice 

Really great stuff. The tank and the truck sitting at the front gate at the start were superb. I have never seen a tank look that good in Quake before. You went all out with the details and it really paid off.

The rest of the map was also splendid with plenty of heavy firefights and exploration with some good lighting and textures.

The many ambient sound effects really added to the experience. Plenty of sounds I recognized from Doom 3.

My only complaint is that the beginning of the map is VERY hard on skill 2. I must have died about 10 times before I got plenty of health and better weapons.

But other than that, awesome work. Will surely play again, because I only played the fast vis one, and now that you released the full vis map I will give it another go with no framerate drops :) 

jakub: Thanks for comment, and also thanks for the DarkPlace testing: it is a good info that DP didn't crash ;)

Spirit / necros: thanks a lot for the demos. I started to watch it, but I need more time... as it is quite long demo ;)

Orl: Thank for the feedback. I already had this comment that the beginning was quite hard, and I already reduced the monster count twice there (outside, first part of the bunker, till the first crate storage area...)

More details are writen in the txt file about textures and sound: please read it ;)

To summarize, I've used Half Life texture (95%), Doom3 texture set (4%) and some from Kell's fury (1%). Regarding the sounds, most of them come from Doom3 and have been already used by distrans' Ruined Nation map. I reworked them with reverb addition, low pass filtering and bass amplification.. There are also some of COD2, and some I found on the Free Sound Project website (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/ )

I'm glad the first set of comment is positive. thanks a lot for your support !

I'll come back with a new map... "soon"... (depending of the new monster I start :P ) 

...that tank, truck and fork-lift are Half-Life prefabs I found there: http://www.snarkpit.net/

While the prefabs were already "textured", I had to work a lot to improve their respective initial look, as texture placement is a little bit different between Quake and HL... ;) 

the bad r_speeds version is the way to go unfortumately, the HOMS are too noticeable.

great map still. 

can somebody post screenshots of the HOMs? 

First one visible from the crates tunnel (can be open from the first storage crate area in the bunker): http://lambert.jeanphilippe.free.fr/Divers/FD-HOM1.JPG

Same HOM visible from the inside of central reactor: http://lambert.jeanphilippe.free.fr/Divers/FD-HOM2.JPG

There's also a HOM in a part the player cannot go, except flying: http://lambert.jeanphilippe.free.fr/Divers/FD-HOM4.JPG

The last one can be visible after the SK door, just before the stairs up, in your back: http://lambert.jeanphilippe.free.fr/Divers/FD-HOM3.JPG

Too much visible in a fullvis version... :P 

This is with gl_clear 1? 

 

Very impressive level - the attention to detail was amazing, and gameplay was tense & exciting. There was a good sense of purpose & direction, and even though the map was huge, it was "revealed" slowly so it wasn't overwhelming.

I played the fullvis version; I noticed the HOMs but they weren't too distracting, and I had good framerates throughout. Lighting was excellent - I especially liked all the floor lights which gave everything an eerie feel. My only complaint is that the brown tunnel areas were too dark to see much of anything.

On my first run, I did okay until the final battle outside. Then I got a little reckless with the quad and died. Played on skill 2, and got 7/14 secrets. Second run, I was more careful at the end, and finished quite easily. Got 12 secrets this time.

There were only 2 secrets that I probably would've died without: the early health stash behind the glass, and the plasma gun. The others just made things a little less stressful.

I would have liked to have seen some breakable objects (the crates in particular, but maybe some doors or air vents). I guess because the map had a real HL/RTCW feel to it, I kinda expected it. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed it! 

I would have liked to have seen some breakable objects (the crates in particular, but maybe some doors or air vents). I guess because the map had a real HL/RTCW feel to it, I kinda expected it. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed it!

i noticed that too. i've been conditioned to want to break crates regardless of game. o.o 

Just what I always wanted in a Quake map. 

is there a command to set the gl clear color to black to minimize the results of the HOM? 

Depends on the engine, check the documentation for *void* or *clear* variables. 

Still didn't finish Fort Driant, but I have to say that it's like a Marcher Fortress epic. Really interesting vehicle brushwork, and ambient sounds. The whole level has a mystery about it that has to be explored.

If this was my map I'd still polish it up for a final version. JPL, this world has tons of computers doing nothin. So go down to a local BestBuy and load 20 different map versions of your level to compile, and come back 17 days later! Nobody at BestBuy will know what the hell is going on anyways.

Map Notes
At around the 100 monster mark, I heard a total of 3 times that a nearby enemy (behind walls or something) had gotten gibbed for no apparent reason. It sounds like they are spawning inside other monsters, or a triger_hurt of 1000 damage. I dunno what's happening cause I can't see them.

I didn't know that HOM's were created after the vis process. HOM's are the only error I never got in my maps... yet. In FD-HOM3.jpg, would a brush added in front of that corner get rid of the HOM? And also, maybe try omiting the cutout views at FD-HOM1.jpg/FD-HOM2.jpg? Cutout windows don't have to be everywhere. That FD-HOM4.jpg can be walked into, giving all kinds of leak visuals. Maybe replacing brushes there, or deleting that area is a fix.

Lastly, that elevator disappears when viewed at the bottom, from a short distance. Check that all the elevator entity brushes are inside the level, or just delete the pulley cable. There's not that much brush data up there to vis-block against, so the elevator should be visable. Something's funny with the elevator's brushes.

Another thing, the eagle's head on that presidential emblem is visable in Aguirre's engine but almost invisable in Fitz?

Overall, excellent brushwork, lighting, sounds and gameplay... Way to go! 

The engine is Fitzquake 0.85, I can't even find the word "void" in the documentation. 

r_clearcolor 

what value is black? 

what value is black?

the penultimate achievement in American art was Davis' early 70's release, Bitches Brew, so that is a start. 

I am sorry, I don't get that. The documentation said default is 2, so does that mean 2 = Grey? Thx 

try gl_clear 1 in the console 

the numbers for r_clearcolor specify a color index in the quake palette. 0 is black, 1-15 are shades of grey, etc. 

Mixed bag.

That is this level, for me. Obviously, it's architecturally stunning and very satisfyingly explorable. 14 secrets well mixed and generally helpful. Maybe too much.
Sure, this wealth of supplies (if u find the secrets) lets you go in head first without worrying too much about saving ammo, but it feels a bit unbalanced.

The real, let's say let down, for me is gameplay. After a somewhat challenging start, by the time you come back from getting the blue key, it is all over. Nice and varied as they are, Quoth base monsters are still base monsters, at the core, i.e. cannon fodder.

RL and SNG are pure overkill. A lot less Ammo would have been maybe better, given the quantity of it that you get from any monster in the level.

Monter placement is a bit flawed, too, IMHO... Packs of edies and grunts can be disposed of with ease from a distance, the central area is a piece of candy to pass through and go back...

The end battle is nasty, on paper, but if you find the right strategy (I did by accident on my 1st romp through) is easy as it gets, just a matter of time. Recurring waves of monsters would have limited infighting given more of a challenge to the player, maybe...

I played on skill 3 and did a 353/353, 7/14, 38:something on 1st run. Died 3 times.

On 2nd romp, I did 100% secrets and kills. Strangely, the door after the collapsed bridge did not close after I got in, allowing for some backtracking and secret hunting...

I dunno... I love it and I don't... Mixed Bag.

I'll post a full run demo later, if anyone's interested...