WOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! Now this is what I'm talking about!

Excellent map design enhanced by even the smallest of engine tweaks goes a long way to improving what can be done. There's very little I can say to really impress just how amazing the work of the past year has been. Just bravo! Bravo! 

How do I save settings after quitting the game? It resets graphics on defaults on the next launch. 

PERHAPS SLIGHT SPOILER?

So now I have 15/16 secrets in ad_tears, which is more annoying than when I was missing 2. Anyway, hunting for the last one I happened upon this strange board or whatever it is in the last arena. Does anyone know what's up with it?

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/ad_tears_01.jpg 

It's a clock, measuring your completion time of the super secret arena in seconds. 

@onetrupurple, that's awesome. Thanks! 

I can't change the HUD (version 1.8 Patch 1) when pressing H anymore. The only thing I'm getting is a "[Impulse] Custom HUDs not supported" error message. I'm having this issue in vkQuake (1.04.1, Win64) and Quakespasm-Spiked (0.93.2ish, Win64). Any ideas what the reason for this could be? 

Of course, Tears of the False God is amazing. Both boss battles arenas are great, especially the "below" one. The music and overall visuals of white textures and bright blue water reminded me of a mix of Ulduar, Vortex Pinnacle and Storm Peaks from WOW.

Also liked Akahlakhalahlahka a lot as well, sort of like a mini-Sepulcher'y thing. Sand castle and Grendel's Blade I played as separate releases that were before, are there any changes/updates for them in the AD1.8? Or any other maps from previous version(s)?

I noticed that AirTank in Tears map displayed a message "now you can BREATH underwater", shouldn't it be "breathe"?

Also, shouldn't finishing the maps started from the ad_chapters hub send players back there, instead of the main start hub? 

Nyarlathoteps Sand Castle is changed for the AD release. Mainly monsters and secrets/rewards. For exmaple, you can't get the Widow Maker right from the start now, which is more balanced IMO.

I do think the ending is too hard now on Evil difficulty. I mean, I've done it twice so it can be done, but it's more annoying than fun now IMO.

@Berzerk2k2, the customizable HUD seems to be a bit glitchy with QSS. For me it works most of the time, but I've also gotten the message once - and then it worked again when restarting. 

*example*

Oh and Grendel's Blade seems to be exactly the same as before, unless I've missed something. 

So I understand the appeal of Tears Of The False God (ad_tears), this is basically Paradise Sickness(ad_paradise) meets Outer Sea Ruins(jjj_pinchy). A LOT of effort and hours of gameplay. Started playing today, gave up after finding 13 shards and took the path to exit portal... only to discover that it's not exit portal! And there's final grand showdown!

At the end of this day I've found 15/16 shards, 12/16 secrets and 389 kills. Where's the last one, you know which one I mean?

p.s. I don't know if its bug or feature, but some torches and fire dishes, for example ones near the ascension portal still burns at touch even with fire shield equipped.

Also I like the revamped Nyarlathoteps Sand Castle with explosion belt and stuff at the end, not being able to inflict infight between fire and acid shamblers was kind dissappointing but final battle was worth it anyways. https://i.imgur.com/ugHzpkJ.png Good that you can finish this map without touching a half of all Q-pedestals, this nonlinearity is so cool.

Now about revamped classic campaign.
I noticed that first episode can be finished just from starting ad_s1m1 from arcane_chapters and playing it to the very end. This basically blocks player from starting episode 1 through basement, entrance to e1m1 slipgate will be blocked (why block them at all?). Also, the idea that you can obtain runes from standard quake and not AD maps' secrets and vice versa is great.

Now I kinda expect that you AD guys will add 37th Relic Retrieval (37_hcm1) to the collection, its scale and enthusiasm makes it match other official mod maps. It's not ideal, and certainly could use some polish/optimization, otherwise... just look at it yourselves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhL1vyD2vSg Such good and big base maps are so rare. 

Grendel's Blade is just perfect as is, so good that it is a part of official primary map pack. So many hours on it spent with joy and fun. 

Unfortunately it's not working for me but since I wanted to play with the default HUD anyway I just disabled them in "quake.rc". As impressive as it is to have custom huds now I still prefer the vanilla one.

Now if only AD 1.8 would work fine in vkQuake. I'm getting much better fps there compared to QSS (tested in "Tears of the False God") but unfortunately AD will crash every time you die when running it through vkQuake so QSS seems to be the only workig way at the moment. I hope a future patch will include vkQuake as a supported source port. 

Agreed, one of my all time favourites. Must have played it 10-15 times. Agree about 37th Relic Retrieval as well. Not sure if all good AD maps must be in the main release, but it's an amazing map. 

and also to ad_heresp1- Oxyblack Fortress and ... oh god ! there are many : sp_maxx, heresp5_rev, ad_beep1m2, 

At the end of this day I've found 15/16 shards, 12/16 secrets and 389 kills. Where's the last one, you know which one I mean?

If you've found 15 shards, then you must have entered at least one of the portals from the other way around. Did you try this with both of them? 

Finally found the last secret in ad_tears. Must have spent a couple of hours just hunting the last ones.

Speaking of secrets, does anyone have a 100% demo of Arcane Adamantine? I must have played it 5 times, but there are several secrets I can't figure out - plus I can't find all those grids to destroy either. Frustrating. 

Here's one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aFgLFBaLZU

I gave up on the last secret in "Tears ...", although I killed everyone. I assume there is a way to visit the circular hall surrounding the final area of the True Source, but I haven't found it (and that may not be a secret anyway).

With all this well-deserved talk about Bal's map, let's not forget Pulsar's. I had the same feeling about it being a mini-Sepulcher, and its placement in the hub is therefore very fitting. I searched for the Swamp Key for such a long time... but in the end managed to find all secrets. The map has way more to offer than might appear at first, and also reminded me of ionous' map from a recent jam (forgot the title, it's the one you can choose to either exit pretty quickly or explore thoroughly to find its many, many secrets).

Speaking of ionous and Pulsar, Leptis Magna is one of my all-time favourites, and I'd be very happy to see the result of another collaboration. 

don't have the demo, but here's 100% walkthrough on youtube. https://youtu.be/3aFgLFBaLZU 

> I assume there is a way to visit the circular hall surrounding the final area of the True Source, but I haven't found it (and that may not be a secret anyway).

Blast Belt + Rocket Launcher + Quad may do wonders.

Leptis Magna is the masterpiece, one of the best maps out there. 

If you do a full metroidvania approach to level design, probably you should add triggers to display territory/room names, just like with secrets in ad_tears but they appear every time you visit them, like area names in WoW when you approach them. 

@Gioyo3aa & @So Rangers name's Jim?, much appreciated! 

What @So Rangers name's Jim? said. There's a quad on the cliffs outside the arena, which seems to be placed there just for that. The gallery doesn't count as a secret. 

I agree about the zone/area names!

Not to mention that the secrets actually kind of display that, although only once, for example "North Tower Top" or "The Lost Tunnel".

Forgot to mention but I liked the metroidvania style where items allow access to new areas. 

First off, Arcane Adamintine was really elevated by finding all breakable grids and unlocking the secret behind the place. Can't believe I've played it for years without succeeding doing so (especially as the grids I've been missing were in plain sight).

Anyway, the custom HUDs have made me switch to QuakeSpasm Spiked as I really like the Quake Champion-inspired HUD. Is there a way to lock the HUD so it always is the one you want? As it is, I have to set it to my favorite each time I load the game. Not a big deal of course.

Also, is it possible to turn of the particles for the weapons somehow? I kind of like everything else in AD Spiked, but the weapon particles are not my cup of tea, plus the effects can make it more difficult to actually see the enemies you are firing at.

Lastly, I have an odd issue with the sound with AD 1.8. It often sound like it's ”too loud”, resulting in distortion. In AD 1.7 I don't have the issue. I compared the start map of Arcane Monstrosity in both and with 1.8 it sounds distorted and ”too loud” as said, while it sounds just fine in 1.7.

It's weird as I have no idea what might be causing it. The settings seems identical when checking the configs. 

Hey everyone, thanks for the all the kind words!
Spreading out the credit a bit for my map, it wouldn't be what it is without Sock, Makkon and Markie, powerful Code/Texture/Music wizards.


arkngt : Custom huds, you can edit quake.rc in the mod folder, look for sratch1 and put the HUD you like best there.
Not sure you can disable just the weapon particles, but in that same file you can switch back to old-style particles by setting temp1 to 512.
No idea about the sound issues! I don't think AD is doing anything specific there... sounds more like random engine issues... :(

Gioyo3aa : There's a way to reach the circular hall in the Sanctum without rocket-jumping, but haven't seen anyone do it yet (you only get one chance to get to it).

Thanks for everyone reporting bugs (even spelling mistakes), if/when there's a future patch we'll fix as much as we can.