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Quake Episode - Epochs Of Enmity
Announcing Epochs of Enmity, a new "unofficial 6th," 10 map episode.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjfIQGDzOuo

Epochs of Enmity (EoE) is a collection of 10 maps (12, if you include the start & end/credits map). A group of some reputable mappers have been gathered together to form a nice little “vanilla feel” episode.

The goal was to create an “unofficial 6th” episode, to follow Quake’s unofficial 5th, Dimension of the Past. The focus was to create a series of various themed maps, since Ranger is traveling through time to stop the evil that is tainting the time continuum.

Main maps had to include at least one quad, stay within the range of 100 enemies (more if multiple quads exist), and not use external models or sounds; however, skyboxes, colored lighting, and fog was okay.

Download & screenshots: https://www.quaddicted.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=4108#p4108

Enjoy!
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Music Issues (?) 
I have played through the first two maps now and did not hear any music playing. Is this intended or what's going on? Using Quakespasm-Spiked (x64 build from Oct 17, 2020). 
Disregard Previous Post 
Just found out CVAR bgm_extmusic was set to 0 for some reason. Facepalm. 
Stuck 
I'm stuck on Bunker of Barzai. I watched the youtube video posted by Orl, the problem is that after I enter the room that is closed by the gold key I kill all the enemies, I get only one more to go, but there's no monsters left, so the platform to the room bellow is not opening :( I'm playing on easy, so probably the monster is missing there, kinda disappointing. Any ideas, except cheating? 
@RaverX 
Holy Cow! You found an issue that I didn't notice, since very few folks play on easy. That's entirely my fault. I overlooked a trigger_counter sequence when creating that particular skill level for that map.

Here is a fix that should solve the problem. Drop the "maps" folder in your EoE install folder and you should be good to go. You will probably have to restart that level by typing "map eoem7" in the console, or load a save point prior, for it to work. I apologize for the hiccup. Easy playtesters are hard to find. :)

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/single_player/maps/eoem7_fix.zip 
Thanks 
Greenwood, thanks, I'll try it. No need to apologize, it's a great episode for Quake and it's free :) 
Tnx 
I'll focus on what I really liked:

The music throughout. Excellent ambience.

Map 4 - “The Augur’s Mold” by Rhoq. Very old school and vanilla like. Really nice.

Map 6 - “Knavel Orange” by Fairweather & Greenwood. Just beautiful.

Map 9 - “Terrorcotta” by Markie Music. Yet another masterpiece by Markie. Some really neat secrets as well.

Overall a very fun and varied episode. 
 
I picked this up again after a break, quick comments:

Map 4 warmed the cockles of my grisly grotto heart. What a fun place to work through. This is the map I had paused in previously, and it was nice that even without remembering anything about my context I had no problems progressing... very navigable for a somewhat big/complex area. A real accomplishment for Rhoq!

Map 5, ha ha, I knew the author (JPal) before I looked. A build reminiscent of missionpack-era architecture but a little more neat and detailed, beautifully scaled spaces to run and fight in, always nice clarity about the playable area / where to go / what to do ... just a top experience beginning to end.

Thematically both maps were pretty safe -- but very confident, "turned to 11" compared to the scale of their inspirations, and packing some good nostalgia. Excited to see where it goes from here! 
 
Almost forgot to add a bit of appreciation for the music track in map 5. Reminds me of parts of the Alien soundtrack, which is a neat juxtaposition for the giant-partially-ruined-medieval-castlefort setting. 
 
Finished! Great work dudes. I hope folks that might have overlooked this in the "fall deluge" of Quake map releases will eventually come back to it.

More quick notes:

Secret map (Downfire): Some silly fun. Lasted about long enough. :-) A fine palette cleanser.

Map 6 (Knavel Orange): Quake being mean to me in funny ways. In several spots it was funnier to me than explicit "joke maps". Love it. This one's a gem.

Map 7 (Bunker of Barzai): Has this been tweaked a bit since the previous release? Felt about the same, which is fine really since the original was nice, just curious. Still like the lava diving! This map does feel a little "off" inserted at this point in the episode sequence where the maps are getting more tense and weird.

Map 8 (Obliteration Domain): Quake being mean to me in scary ways. Genuinely put me on edge! It was interesting to compare my "what's going to happen to me when I do this / go in there" reactions between this map and map 6.

Map 9 (Terrorcotta): Yeah this one's good, like people say. :-) Nice work fighting against the "sameyness" demons of using this texture theme. Good structure to the way you work through the map, and good pacing as well, although maybe it gets a LITTLE bit too swingy between the extremes of "exploring with mild occasional shooting" and "SUPER HORDE MODE". Several lovely surprises leading to fun fights. The music track's also doing a lot of heavy lifting to set a sort of alert-and-excited tone to the exploration.

My only criticism of Map 9 would be that the final fight was a little familiar. Circle strafe around the big boss, dump ammo, dodge as best you can and try to make some infighting happen... you know the drill. And a little savescummy too (skill 2), although it's hard to put my finger on exactly why; perhaps because the Cthon missiles seemed to be hitting and killing me even when missing me. Probably hitting on geometry behind me and having a quite large area damage effect. Anyway, it's tough to make a final boss fight work in Quake, and I don't think this stuck the landing, but the rest of the map was superb.


I think some folks mentioned that you start to really have an arsenal carried into the later maps which can trivialize some of the combats. While that does have an effect, I still had a lot of fun fights in the last maps. Partly because rockets and grenades are just fun to use! and also there's some close-up stuff that doesn't lend itself well to rockets or grenades. A bit of an issue but I've seen it bite much worse in other episodes.

I would love to have seen some sort of small connection or thematic progression across the maps, something that makes them feel more like a sequence that means to be in that particular order. But I realize that's a tough row to hoe when you're organizing this sort of thing. 
@Joel B 
Thanks for the feedback! Glad to see that you had a nice experience with the episode. Some great guys put a lot of work into it.

However, you didn't comment about maps 1 through 3. I'm sure that JCR, FifthElephant, & I would like to know your thoughts about those too. :) 
 
Oops! Hmm. Well, that was in October so my memory is foggy :-) I will have to come back when I replay! 
 
Cheers. EoE is mostly pretty good so far :) Up to map 8 now. I did enjoy the first couple of maps - old school base vibe without being tired. 
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