you rock beyond reality.
this is the best level i ever played!
thanks for quality quake experience, atmosphere, balance and end boss. it was perfect!

thou art rock! 

I'm with you on the gameplay thing, it was good, and suited the map well. Almost every enemy counted in it, which is a welcome change of pace from horde combat. Felt like it was supposed to in a base like that. I like the RL/GL as well, much better choice than SNG, the limited rockets meant you could use it to take the sting out of situations a bit, but couldn't be wasteful. 

it should have been very slightly harder, but I forgot to flag a couple of items dm only and didn't notice until after release :( Still, it didn't ruin it or anything.

Again, thanks for the comments. Just to let you guys know, Ricky has a really big map that is of a high quality in beta, so maybe this will be topped very quickly :) 

your map is classic quake gold. even though its quoth! I just think that the brushwork is phenomenal. Some of the textures I dont know where they came from. Did you make any of these yourself Than? Like the one on the edie crates, and theres one animated texture behind where the player starts, it has alternate flashing red lights at the bottom. There are others I dont remember seein anywhere else too. Im just asking cause I wanna use them! 

most are standard idbase textures or textures modified by other people (mostly Biff and Ray I think), although I made a few myself for this map, such as the window surrounds and the edie crates.

I'll upload the wad I used when I get chance, but until then feel free to rip the textures from this map and use them in your own. There are a few more I didn't use, but most are in the map I think. 

WOW!!! best looking level ever. gameplay was trully unquake, felt more like Half Life1 of System Shock2. was really tough to navigate for the first time, but visuals were so stunning (that flooded train with crates) that it was completely fun to rumble around. it would be nice to have crates on the water-line float a bit though, you know, few pixels up and down, slight movement. I had idea to create similar large flooded areas for my own quake level but it never happened (lazyness). final boss was great too. 45mins, 3/8 secrets. overally absolut OWNAGE!!! 

Flooded train was ace.

This was definitely in the "convincing alternate reality" genre, it's the way forward I reckon. 

 

Jaromir83 wrote: "it would be nice to have crates on the water-line float a bit though, you know, few pixels up and down, slight movement." I belive this movement could be player triggered, if player jumps/mounts on a crate floating on water, it would move slightly up'n'down for a while (5secs?, few waypoints placed within crate). 

it would use a lot of edicts I think, although it is possible. But there are a lot of crates in the level. And it really wouldn't add that much to the experience.

Interesting idea though! 

It would look very artificial without acceleration though. 

That would take some minimal QuakeC work though and he already said that most of them are func_'s already. Not to take away from an amazing level though. It great without that - however, that WAS one thought I had while running around.

Of course, that might mess with collision somewhat. Not sure. 

Sorry you didn't enjoyed it, you are missing something and I think it's very quake, contrary to what many of you said, even if I see that quakeish or not every one had fun.

RickyT23: are you working on a new map? can't wait to play it. 

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Not much more to say, except thet you're one funny mutha, Than. Best storyline ever.

Did a skill 3, 100% secrets and monsters demo. 23 mins or so... if anyone's interested.
My usual suckage is bitterly improved on this one, though. I played through the level while at home on antibiotics...

Oh, and the boss fight was perfect, too. Hardly beatable if you did not find the safe spot, but beatable... Flooded Vermis is ace! 

This is the most atmospheric Quake release I have played in a looong time. Everything was top notch: gameplay, texturing, and architecture, even despite your "DM only" woes (nice demo, BTW). The flooded areas really kept the player moving and maintained a perfect level of anxiety throughout. This is one release that everybody should play!

Great work, Than! You've outdone yourself! 

again, great gameplay, no hordes, every single enemy counted instead. incredible brushwork/texturing/lighting. I have seen detailed maps before, but this one was so extensive at the same time! you must have been working on it for years Than. first run a bit confusing, due to complex layout, every other much easier, still fun to listen to some moody ambient NIN tracks while accidentally lost on the way from one area to another.

+I nearly forgot: story. may I call you new Shakespear, Than? 

I thought the game play became tedious so I quit after 15 to 20 minutes of playing. I must have been in a bad mod and recognizing that fact I waited a few days to replay it. Second run through, I freakin' loved it.

Now, to learn to semi-speed run it, send it to video, put a 5 minute clip up on youtube and amaze a lot of people who assume a game they haven't touched in ten years would have to look like shit now. 

Agree with what most have said on top notch brushwork, texturing etc that you would expect from someone who made dm3rmx. The slow paced gameplay was ok but could have done with some more threatening moments such as shamblers (Edies need to move faster, they are pussies with the slightest amount of cover). Even on skill 3 my health only dropped below 20 about once before the boss. The rather easy RL secret maybe influences the gameplay too much, an early GL would have been more balanced. I found the boss fight somewhat annoying, but this was mainly because I was getting low framerates. Far more irritating was the stupid jumping in the crate puzzle. Why the useless hint about a 'ladder room'?
So in conclusion, although I didn't enjoy it as much as others apparently did and there are other maps that I prefer with the same theme and gameplay style, the technical build quality and design are good enough to let the map stand out on these points alone. 

The one image of a wall of flame coming at you down a vent from a pyro enforcer should be enough to make this map a Mandatory Quake Experience (TM). 

Great map again than. Everything was said already. I must say I like the quoth base mosters a lot and you have used each of them very well in this map. All encounters were a challenge. The flooded level looks great.
I was also lost after I have reached the silver key area. I felt that I should go to the red armor area but I couldn't find it.
First time ever that I have managed to kill vermis during first play of a map. I didn't even have to use the LG.
Here is my demo on skill 2. Really enjoyed everything apart from the time when I was lost.
http://www.quaketastic.com/upload/files/demos/apsp2_ankh.zip
I have played in joequake-gl and everything was fine apart from the lack of fog. I won't use fitz untill I know how to disable the muzzle flash and gun kick. 

Yet another fantastic than map!
Brushwork was really good, as was lighting.
Progress was not that easy, didn't always know where to go but got lost more than once! 8-)

Now who dares to release another basemap for the next couple of months? I know I don't! 

Haha, yeah, that's the thing ... this map is awesome but it sort of puts a hold on base maps for awhile. :P But that's not a bad thng, really. A killer map is such a great thing to see in a 10 year old game! 

I loved it, combat had that same sort of unquakey feel like distrans' last level but once you adjusted, it was heaps of fun.

brsuhwork ,texturing etc have been already praised but lighting was top notch too.

The underwater sections were phenomenally done! 

... by your skills, than. this is the perfect base map. from now on one can do different, but one cannot do better!
i love the looks and the atmosphere of this one. gameplay is fine, too. =) 

Because this is just one sort of base map. Inside, compact, flooded, id-style textures. No outdoor bits, no real walkways, bridges, towers, no large scale scenes, no terrain, not so much 3D action, not many non-base monsters. There's plenty of potential in other base directions...