News | Forum | People | FAQ | Links | Search | Register | Log in
Ter Shibboleth - A New Quake Episode
Presenting a new Quake custom episode, Ter Shibboleth. You will traverse through new environments including a tropical hotel resort, a far east structure nestled on the edge of a cliff, and a western mining town. Each map is designed to be as non-linear as possible, so don't be afraid to explore and take different routes as you progress. While each map can be played with a shotgun start, the episode was designed to be played from start to finish. Saving periodically is encouraged, you will face hard encounters.

This episode MUST be played with the customized Quakespasm engine that was included in the release of ad_sepulcher (Quakespasm 0.92.2-qss-r7-admod). It has been included in this .zip as well for convienience. Any other engine has not been tested and probably will not work as intended. The next official Quakespasm release will be version 0.93.0, and will have the ability to run these maps without issue, so you have the option of using that instead once it is out.

While also stated in the readme, I will repeat it here because it is important.
sv_protocol 999 must be used at all times. Likewise, gl_farclip must be set to 100000 or higher. Quake's soundtrack is also recommended. All skill settings are available. You will more than likely encounter framerate drops when looking at far distant scenery. I only hope it will not hinder your experience when playing.

Map sources and texture wads used are included in the .zip for your convienience.

Demos are always appreciated, but not mandatory.

I give great special thanks to EricW for assisting me along the way with this episode, for if it were not for his expertise and development tools these maps simply would not exist.

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/single_player/Ter%20Shibboleth.zip

Please enjoy the episode and be sure to share your thoughts. I look forward to hearing from you!
First | Previous | Next | Last
 
It is different and it plays different compared to most other maps. There is no doubt about it.
Anyway, I had fun the most time I played. Thumbs up from me. 
Ter Shibboleth: Drake Redux 
I am submitting this within the Ter Shibboleth thread because I feel it doesn't warrant its own news thread. Not feeling satisfied with part 1, I have decided to go back and Drake-ify each map so that it blends nicely with part 2, except now there is no part 2. Ter Shibboleth: Drake Redux is the entirety of Ter Shibboleth, eight maps all within the Drake mod. Its main purpose was to fix the overly difficult gameplay by providing plenty of ammunition, health and new power ups for the player to have at their disposal, as well as giving it a more complete feeling. It's still a challenge on hard but you won't be hemorrhaging ammo at every turn. In addition to the updated gameplay with new monsters, weapons and items provided by Drake, I went ahead and made some significant changes to the first five maps that I felt needed it:

Shib1 has closed its doors on half the hotel rooms as they were deemed not necessary. The rooms that are open now look like you could actually live in one, complete with a bed, television, drawers and night stands. Much better than an empty room with a rug and four walls. More detail has been added to keep it looking interesting such as carpets, more paintings, chandeliers, patches of grass, distant sailboats and cityscapes, a flying airplane, and the bridge which now appears to extend into the horizon instead of being cut off in the middle.

Shib2 adds a new secret area, and on easy skill the timed two button teleport puzzle has been trivialized.

Shib3 changes the sky to a pleasant orange purple sunset backdrop, instead of just plain bright orange. The gold key segment where you float to the teleporter has been replaced with walking along the roof eave. The rockets raining down are less frequent. Gongs now emit a noise when hit, and a secret area has also been added. The map ends early on easy skill, skipping the circular pagoda segment.

Shib4 has had the biggest overhaul. Many areas have had texture replacements and adjustments to keep things looking fresh. More distant scenery has been added to compliment the overall unsettling atmosphere. The all seeing eye is more realistic looking. Progression has changed to be more linear now, as some of the multiple branching paths have been blocked off to avoid confusion. This not only makes the map both longer and less intimidating on finding your way around. The final arena with the mirrored rooms segment has been removed entirely, as I felt it was too low in quality to keep.

Shib5 has better distant scenery along with added details such as large grass patches, gravestones, and towns on the horizon.

Shib6 removes the unnecessarily long walk from the underground bunker to the cave exit.

Shib7 and 8 are by and large the same with a few minor bug fixes and enemy replacements.

I understand Ter Shibboleth is old news and most of you have played through it already, which is I felt news thread is unneeded. Though I hope with all of it now being Drake-ified might entice new comers to try it out, or warrant a second playthrough.

Ter Shibboleth Drake Redux has been tested and compatible with Quakespasm 0.93.2, vkQuake 1.04.1, Quakespasm-Spiked 0.93.2 and FTE 5776.

For much better framerate especially in the later maps, use FTE. Though a few things to note while using FTE:

Game saves and demo recording are in its own unique format.
Doors and platforms can play very loudly on Shib2
The dragonscale armor powerup has movement difficulties.
The lightning effect in shib7 is not present due to how FTE handles dynamic light differently.

Screenshots:
http://quaketastic.com/files/screen_shots/shib1_drake.jpg
http://quaketastic.com/files/screen_shots/shib4_drake.jpg
http://quaketastic.com/files/screen_shots/shib5_drake.jpg

Download:
https://archive.org/download/ter-shibboleth-drake-redux/Ter%20shibboleth%20Drake%20Redux.zip (213MB) 
 
Hey KenChannar: Thanks for the email you sent to me a little while back. I'll make it a priority to replay these maps and finally get to shib8! 
 
Cool news! 
 
Hmm well. On Linux with either Quakespasm or QSS, I get a fatal error of "QUAKE ERROR: Hunk_Alloc: failed on 176 bytes" when loading shib1_drake. This is regardless of the value provided for -heapsize on the commandline.

The other maps can load OK. 
 
I got this error too. 
 
Same here. I also get several "unknown command" errors in the console when I launch the game/mod. 
 
Unfortunately I don't have Linux to test these out, so I wasn't aware there was a problem with shib1 not loading properly. Strange considering its probably the least resource intensive map of the bunch.

The unknown commands are from the quake.rc file, and they are FTE exclusive commands to allow the maps to run at stable, high framerates. Since Quakespasm and its variants don't recognize these commands, they should cause no problems. But if they are being a distraction, just open the quake.rc file with notepad and remove the offending commands. 
 
I'm on Windows 10, not Linux. Good to hear the missing commands aren't the issue, but there must be another issue.

I'll go ahead and play the other maps, since they're all designed for shotgun start anyway.

I may have said this already in the Shib Part 2 thread, but Drake is a good choice of mod, especially since there's nothing for it outside of the Tronyn stuff and he's been pretty quiet lately. 
 
map 1 loads with fte, does not with quakespasm 
 
Yeah, I get the same error on Shib1. I'm on Win 10 and using QSS.

Still, I'm sure there's plenty of fun to be had with the other maps until you find a fix. :) 
 
Using -heapsize 524288 doesn't resolve the problem? Because without it I get the same error. 
 
I was using that, and tried it with twice that number as well. 
 
Just wondering, is anyone else having issues with the lift in Shib2? I keep bumping my head on empty air and can't proceed. I'm using QSS wit Host_maxfps set to 72 and my framerate is 60. I've got vsync on in my nvidia driver and the monitor is set to 60Hz so I don't think it's a funny physics thang. 
 
Played shib2-4.

Blastocyst - Played on skill 1. This was one of my favorite maps in the original pack and that hasn't changed. The big teleport puzzle room is a great setpiece that exploits the idea to the maximum extent without getting too obscure, and the spinning machinery surrounding the end section is a really cool bit of wizardry.

Sun - Switched to skill 2 and played from shotgun start. Nice map with some extraordinary scenery. I actually forgot how it was incorporated into the level gameplay-wise with the rockets being hurled from the "other fotress" toward the end. I found the map to be pretty difficult actually. Since I didn't carry over ammo from the previous map I found the ammo situation pretty tight, and health as well, especially once the rockets started falling. I like that you can climb on the roofs of the pagodas, even though it's not incorporated into the gameplay much (unless the secret I missed has to do with them).

Shattered Soul of the Scarab - Skill 2, shotgun start. This was my other favorite map from the original pack, and is my favorite overall so far. As before I love the traps/moving parts and Escher-esque and general weirdness. Comparing the new version visually with noclipping around the original I like the changes. I only vaguely remember the original nonlinear layout but I had no problems with the new one. Fairly tough but not so much as shib3. Easily one of the great wizard maps. 
 
Honestly, KenChennar, if you fix the issue with the first map I'd recommend posting a news thread about it anyway. Major updates for at least a few of the maps + a whole new mod for several of them is worthy enough. I think people are more likely to click on a new thread that a bumped old one to see what's up anyway. 
Heapsize Needed To Run Shib1_drake 
About the heapsize needed to run shib1_drake, in my case, the needed amount is 2048000.

So this is my command line now for launching this pack:

quakespasm-spiked-win64 -heapsize 2048000 -game Tershibboleth +snd_speed 44100 +host_maxfps 0 +sys_throttle 0

I have been struggling with heapsize 1048576 for a long while and seeing again and again the same "QUAKE ERROR: Hunk_Alloc: failed on 176 bytes" message. So today I decided to crank the heapsize all the way up to 2048000, and voila! Behold, I am in the shib1_drake map finally!

So hopefully this may be helpful for those of you who are also facing the same situation as I did. 
 
I'm glad you managed to get it working Kingold. I suppose the needed heapsize value is different for everyone, and if one doesn't work just keep changing it and eventually they'll find the right value.

And lpowell, I'm not sure if half a remaster of an episode is news worthy, especially when there is other recent stuff that actually is new content. But I guess its up to metlslime to decide that. 
 
Got the first map working! Weird, I actually tried a higher heapsize, guess I should have tried even higher.

Needlehorn - The changes are all for the better, especially the bridge no longer being truncated. There's some optional gameplay that's not technically secret, including an Armagon fight on the roof--neat.

Across the Tattered Amyclaean - The "western" level. Definitely my favorite of the realism levels no far, it's big but there are a lot of interesting ways to traverse the level, and this version has a dragon to put pressure on the outdoor areas (I treated it like a hazardous local wildlife and let it fly around and dodged it's fireballs when I had to.) Layout's great: since the map is so open, you can see almost the whole map from several different places; just go everywhere you haven't been and find the keys in any order to progress. A great exploratory level. Also it's actually possible to slope jump out of bounds and find out how much bigger the scenery is than the playable area (!). As with all the previous levels the updates are even more pleasing to the eye than the original. 
Lpowell Is Right: This Deserves Its Own News Thread 
Honestly, KenChennar, if you fix the issue with the first map I'd recommend posting a news thread about it anyway. Major updates for at least a few of the maps + a whole new mod for several of them is worthy enough. I think people are more likely to click on a new thread that a bumped old one to see what's up anyway.

This.

Reworking a map set to use a mod instead of id1 PLUS polishing the gameplay and visuals PLUS combining two previously separate releases into one continuous episode add up to a pretty significant set of changes and a fundamentally different gameplay experience. Lots of people would be interested to try this, regardless of whether they've played Ter 1 and/or 2 before (I confess I've only played one of the original Ter 1 maps so far), but many or most of them are not going to notice it exists if it stays buried in the comments on the original Ter 1 release. They are going to assume (as I did) that the new comments are just from recent playthroughs of the original release.

I understand Ter Shibboleth is old news and most of you have played through it already, which is I felt news thread is unneeded.

Bah! It's not like people play Quake maps only immediately after their release and never touch anything older. Besides, oms3 and the two Ter Shibboleth episodes are milestone releases within Q1SP. Even a far less extensive update would be newsworthy. 
Agree! Make It A News! 
See above. 
 
Thank you for the kind words. I wanted to submit this while we were going through this no new content drought, but it seems October is the month for new stuff to come out of the woodworks. I know many have been eagerly waiting for AD 1.8 and I don't want to take away focus on that. (Not like Ter Shib would anyway, but just out of respect)

I'll submit a news post in the following week or two when things have settled down some. 
In The Mean Time, Here's Some Feedback On Shib1_drake 
I wasn't planning on playing this now, partly there are other things I should be doing and partly because my computer isn't really up to the task. However, curiosity got the better of me and I took a peek at shib1_drake ... and then ended up playing the whole map.

The original shib1 was something special, but this is a marked improvement. In terms of aesthetics, it went from technically very impressive but a little quirky and very obviously straining the limits of Quake to near-breaking point, to a pretty convincing, immersive world that I had fun exploring. I even stopped noticing my low framerate most of the time.

The aeroplane is a wonderful touch. The rooms look much more lived-in and the horizon looks a lot more real. The new ambient sounds are great and make the entire experience just so much more immersive.

Level progression I found likewise to be much better. I was never able to finish the original shib1, as I could never locate the first two keys. Every time I tried to play the level I just ended up jumping onto the roof (via the potted plant on the balcony) and from there onto the beach. At that point I would always quit as it was clear to me that I had broken the map's intended progression. In the reworked version of the map, I found the keys fairly quickly. This might just be due to your locking several of the rooms (a very wise choice, by the way). It's still possible to break progression, but at least the intended path is now a lot clearer.

I had a bit of trouble finding the second set of keys, though. It's not that they were hard to get to, but rather that they weren't that well signposted. I kept overlooking them and ended up spending a fair amount of time running around feeling kind of frustrated.

The drake-ification of the map suffered a bit from the same lack of restraint one sees in many of Tronyn's maps, where you get the sense that everything the mod has to offer has been thrown into one map, with little regard for thematic consistency. It's not nearly as bad here as in, say, nsoe2, but it still felt odd having some clearly fantasy-themed monsters and items mixed in among the techbase enemies, and to have powerful items such as the Horn of Conjuring just unceremoniously plonked right in the player's path.

These niggles aside, this is a tremendous piece of work. I feel that with shib1_drake, I'm finally getting to see the vision you spoke about in post #23 above. 
Unable To Load Shib5_drake, Shib6 And Shib8 
When trying to load shib5_drake from console, I get
QUAKE ERROR: AllocBlock: full

When trying to load shib6 and shib8, I get
QUAKE ERROR: Bad surface extents

This is on Quakespasm 0.93.1 on Linux. Using -heapsize 2048000 as per Kingold's advice above. All the other maps load fine.

Is this happening to anyone else? 
 
It could be worth trying 0.93.2. 
First | Previous | Next | Last
You must be logged in to post in this thread.
Website copyright © 2002-2024 John Fitzgibbons. All posts are copyright their respective authors.