Nice, fast and hard maps.
Great job!

@dumptruck. I've cleared the first three rooms but can't reach the gold key couse the gate closes before my eyes. Have I missed a button or something? 

Nice pack, after playing these maps I want to replay previous q3-aesthetic maps.

Demos: https://we.tl/t-wucCr1QPlj (Sorry, Ionous, forgot to record your map.) 

Played them all on skill 1. I do understand these are speedmaps so gameplay quirks are inevitable. I did not record demos this time but I did record videos. If you want them for review I can upload them. They are 2k H264 files. Just let me know!

ChrisHolden

Wins "Most Faithful to Q3A Award" for this pack. Looks truly amazing. Def on the easy side overall. I don't suggest Red Armor on skill 1 outside of a tough secret but that's just my preference after some advice from others. Progression was weird depending on routes but I played it a few times and enjoyed it.

Cocerello

When I first loaded the map I cringed because I always hated that fog map in Q3A. BUT this version is pretty amazing when it comes to SP gameplay. Without spoiling anything, your monster setups were well done. DMSP in vanilla? Coce has you covered!!! Very clever mapping and fun. On Skill 1 I ran out of ammo at the very end and had a tough time with the "boss." But I was able to triumph after save scumming and it was a satisfying little map.

dumptruck_ds

I am happy with the way the map turned out but it wasn't 100% what I set out to do. Thanks to Ionous and Bal for valuable feedback that I implemented. Also I forgot to add a credit for the sky box I used "yellowcloud". The creator was Pieter ‘Spiney’ Verhoeven and you can find the pack here: https://opengameart.org/content/cloudy-skyboxes

Greenwood

Some great things in here and some "not so great". First, I had to cheat to finish this one on skill 1. The combat is pretty tight much of the time. So, I think it might be time to move away from the "boxes inside of a big box" format you like to use. I understand this is an easy way to make a map quickly AND this map is fun for the most part. But to me it causes some gameplay issues and even confusion at times. For example, because of the hectic combat nearby, I missed the gold key room at first. If you had had a more obvious entryway or funneled the player to it or showed the key from afar so we knew where to find it - it would have been better. Now on to the good stuff: your usage of the glass brushes was really fresh and made for some interesting setups. Your monster spawning-palooza kept me on my toes and I was interested in exploring the map and uncovering it's mysteries.

Ionous

While not exactly the approach I had pictured for this pack you created a nail-biting climb through one of your trademark circles of hell. Twas was a blast to play as we'd expect from your work. Your notoriously hard secrets will keep me coming back to this one to 100%. But I did find 2! Great messages to the player and a satisfying final battle - I won't spoil any more than that.

ish

First submission! GOLD STAR!! This was right on theme and looks great. A nice little DM arena that becomes a fun slaughter map when played in SP. Great usage of textures and the layout is damn satisfying. I plan on playing this with some bots in DM later today. Would love to see some 100% speed runs in SP of this map. My only critique is that the lighting level is pretty flat overall. This could have been a lot more moody. But this is my obsession with lighting coming through.

Zungreyware

Much like ish you created a great DM layout with a smart SP component that works really well. The two lock key system was a clever non-linear design. As with DM to SP maps the progression can get a bit weird but I played multiple times and enjoyed each run. Less of a slaughter map than others so GG on the SP aspects. This map isn't exactly on theme but still satisfying and would certainly be fun with 2-4 players in DM. Lighting was flat (see obsession comment above though). 

Yep there are two buttons in a room with a large tech pillar. Hit those to progress.

Most likely you missed that one of the barred gates has opened. Look in the pit where you found the Nailgun. 

Congrats and nice work, everyone! I really enjoyed this. :) 

Demos 

...but the pack is nice. i still suck at killing a shambler with a hammer.

https://mixer.com/mdvhimself?vod=bWs-u5MfEEay7OVE85HHjg 

Really great pack, nice work everyone!
Playthrough -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOcO2nhRDbc 

@medve your stream was illuminating. You are a very tactical player and my mind is too spazzy for that, so your play through was really fascinating to watch. I need to keep this play style in mind in my next map.

@zigi thanks for the video - always great to watch. I know you work hard on your channel. It's appreciated.

That red skull secret was badly implemented. Only one person has found it as far as I know.

The only hint I will give is: Look low, not high. 

as a former quake 3 player i think this mappack was really good and fun. it shows some love for q3.

greenwood was suprisingly creative.

the dumptruck map looks like q3. to find the red skull is doible, but yeah, it was a hard search.

a mate and i had a similar experience about some maps. sometimes my brain said "q3" but the gameplay and monsters are q1. confusing :) 

Yeah, finaly got it. Thanks!
At the end of the level you feel like Rambo. :D
Only three more maps to go.

"My name is ruin". A reference to Garry Numan? 

That's the one!

It's a great album, was listening to it while mapping.

https://youtu.be/lHomCiPFknY 

Here's a mirror of the download for sm204 on Quaddicted.
https://www.quaddicted.com/filebase/sm204.zip

It has not been added to their database just yet for comments and rankings. 

http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/sm204_cocerello.zip
Interesting pack of fast paced maps. Overall i am surprised to see so many shamblers and vores so early on the maps.

@Chrisholden: those last two rooms were the closest part to Quake 3 in this pack, but the map could have taken the focus it has on brushwork onto gameplay and be a lot better. Reducing the scale and the length of corridors and putting time instead on enemy placement would have worked better. Also it is too dark for the first half.

@Dumptruck: looks similar to Quake 3. Liked the interconnectivity and layout, but the placement of shamblers and some vores needed more thought, plus some of the ambushes. Like Chrisholden's more time on gameplay instead of on curves would have worked better. As you may have noticed i had a few moments of where do i go now and ammo needed to move a bit forwards at some times.

@Greenwood: interesting thing you created here. I was surprised b the amount of glass as unfortunately it is barely being used on Quake's custom maps. It looks a lot like a map from 1996 and i am surprised that you did not invest on looks more. It was also good that you took your time in creating side areas for it.
Some things need tweaks but that's normal for a speedmap. Some shamblers and vores were a bit unfair but it was Ok for most of the time. The map would benefit a lot from some more health packs and less armour, and cleaner brushwork so enemies get stuck less.

@Ionous: good jam map, but as you probably know already it is too cramped. Upscaling it by 100% on horizontal would have helped a lot. The pit was a nice and fast to make touch.
Combat was interesting even if half of the time i had to guess from where they would come, that would be a good thing with more room to move. The secrets were interesting and both well done, with consistent mechanics and well thought. The final fight really needed that extra room for moving around or block the way back.

@Ish: I see that this was thought first and foremost for deathmatch and enemies added later. It could have worked with less enemies or better hidden ones to force the player to get into the arena, but it was interesting to play. I have yet to try the map with bots but it seems hat it could make some good games.

@Zungryware: I am under the impression that you made this with death match in mind first and half the items were meant for it, mixed with those for singleplayer.
I liked the layout and most of the combats, highlighting the one after the armour on the narrow passage and the ramp down left of it. The main issue was that shambler ambush, and so early to booth, which was completely unfair. Getting to see first the gold and silver doors before the keys would have been good too. Will check later its use for deathmatch. 

Thanks for the demos and videos.

I am glad to see that it worked more or less how i intended it to be. Locking the player really makes wonders on these cases. The fog needing different values depending on the engine is a mess, now that i managed to get some looks and gameplay wise use to Quake's fog ...

About how different it turned for each of you, there is several types of triggers, some i can control and other are up to the player, so there is the possibility of two waves being released at the same time. Still i am not entirely sure of what happened with the vertical bombardment in medve's case, but i have some ideas to take advantage of it on future maps.

About those that had to axe the shambler, it is a pity that it ended that way, but if you check some of the demos you can see that there is ammo even for killing everyone and more. Seems that even if the map is small i have to give up on placing DBS on my maps: they do not work at all for half the players. 

Oh yeah. He's one of the great synth pioneers.

Listend to Jean Michell Jarre's "concerts in china" for mapping the last month.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgjqDL7BXQE 

Thanks for the demo. Ironically, I spent more time on gameplay than anything else on this map. Watching your demo gave me some good insights on how different pay styles really have to be taken into account. You are an extremely cautious player compared to other players I've seen play this map. I think that comes from your experience as a mapper.

i.e. you expected the nail gun to trigger a trap (which it didn't) so you didn't enter that lower area to see there was a gate there. That gate was opened by the first button above it. I should have had a message like: "Bars have lowered" but even if I had you wouldn't have really known which set of bars I meant.

You missed the gold key button, so yeah you broke all kinds of progression after that. I should have made one button in that room as opposed to two. That would have fixed that concern.

Lots of lessons learned. I also should have had the gold key doors lock you in that upper area. Too many players trigger monsters and retreat back through the door they came in. I always forget to address that and I hate watching someone cheese monsters when I could have fixed that easily.

One last thing. I added a teleporter to the upper area and I think you assumed it was an exit. I should have pout an arrow up to make things more clear. 

Ignore the comments about time spent on your map, i was half asleep and expecting the typical jam maps when i saw the skyboxes.

About the button, it was that i saw the other button first so i though that was all in the room, which became reinforced as it opened the exit.
It is still strange now that i think of it i did not notice it even though it had ammo left and right of it. Was maybe also because of the golden colour instead of bronze like the rest?

i.e. you expected the nail gun to trigger a trap

Not really, in fact did not see the NG till later when i entered through the upper part. It was that as all the enemies went after me before i could enter the room and as the entrance was narrow, there was no way i would storm in, as i could be blocked and without knowing if there would be more guys left and right hiding on the room or what was on the two corridors left and right. Later going through the upper part seemed safer and also easier to deal with a fiend, and the shells on the upper part told me i could venture for a bit more that way, so i did.

On the last fight i retreated because i could not see where the vore was or how many, and the path ahead to the Quad could hide more guys on the left. That and as this pack had so many shamblers, i was expecting one around here too left of the Quad, which became true later.

I think above everything cautiousness comes in these cases from not knowing yet the map's rules, and as this packs are usually short maps there is not much time to be sure there is no more rules in. This can make players twice cautious and even paranoid because they do not want to die while recording a demo which i have seen a lot, but it was not my case this time.
On other cases, strong behaviours can change how i play that and next maps. For example, some of the maps in this pack teleported guys at point blank range or to my back so i automatically checked my surroundings as soon as i heard something for the rest of the pack.
For longer maps like Greenwood's and Ionous', i stopped around half the map with that as i knew already what to expect.

I also should have had the gold key doors lock you in that upper area.

As boring as it is, it is sometimes the best way, as if not doing that players get into the nastiest situations misunderstanding them as safer and then think the encounter is harder than what it is. In this map i wanted to avoid that so i made it compact, reduced the places where one could see all the enemies incoming as it leads to death on DMSP even if it seems safer, and made the upper part unsafe without making it obvious.

In this case i do not think it is necessary to lock the player: just throwing the enemies after the player reaches the area around the Quad and feels more comfortable would have stopped most players from retreating, but still i do not think many would go down (maybe i am wrong, i have not checked others' demos). Trigger before taking it or at the same time would be both good.

I added a teleporter to the upper area and I think you assumed it was an exit.

Yes, i did. Maybe putting a light or an exit texture on the real exit could work, as i thought it was a set piece for the looks and cover. 

Thanks again for the insights! DMSP is a good format. Might be good to call another SM event in the new year with that as the theme. 

Had a nice time with these, cool work everyone. My playthrough : https://www.twitch.tv/videos/518040279 

I had the envy to participate but had my xmas jam to make great job to everyone the time was short !

here are my demos
Reminds I'm not a pro player !

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14EcGAJAVEkj4HV4xTtwnXuKBHrMxn2vV/view?usp=sharing

Have fun. 

Lots of memorable moments in this pack! You guys managed to capture the Q3A feel very well. I felt that Ionous' map was more Insomnia than Q3, but that was most welcome as well.

Playthrough