Forum thread for solarfall
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Off topic, but …
Does anyone remember a very atmospheric map where you work your way down a series of underground walkways, constantly expect an ambush but there are no monsters? Then you reach the bottom and press a button or ring a bell or something, the monsters all appear, and you have to fight your way back up. I downloaded Solarfall thinking it was this one, but it’s not. Anyone remember what it’s called?
That sounds a lot like one of the Zerstörer maps, if I recall correctly – at least when played without the v1.1 patch.
Yes – brilliant! It’s zer1m6, True Love Waits, by Kandyman. Many thanks for helping me to re-find it. (Shame that, I think, you have to play through all of Zerstorer to that point for the map to work properly.)
You say that as if replaying Zerstörer were a bad thing (I don’t think you need to replay the preceding maps for it to work, though).
Glad I could help, but these comments are rather spoiler-ish for people who have not played Zerstörer yet. Pity it is not possible to delete comments from Quaddicted…
Well, I’ve never been a big Zerstorer fan, to be honest. It’s probably my biggest deviation from Quake-fan orthodoxy. I get that the atmosphere is unique and the new weapons were innovative at the time, I just don’t find most of it much fun to play.
The reason I said you need to have played earlier levels is that, having reached the temple, I can’t get up onto the altar to grab the thingy. So either there’s a secret way that I’ve forgotten, or I need to rocket-jump and I don’t have the equipment.
Hopefully this thread will be more of a teaser than a spoiler for anyone who’s not played Zerstorer.
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Anyway, on to Solarfall: I like its looks, but the play is weak – kind of predictable and repetitive. And it suffers worse than any map I know from the tendency to get stuck on lumpy architecture when trying to manoeuvre away from monsters. That said
I replayed this because it’s Vondur’s first published map. He of course went on to much better things, including The Castle of Koohoo (which scores very high for atmosphere) and Adamantine Cruelty (which is the all-time great sewer map). But this ambitious first map falls short of its aspirations and earns only 3* from me.
Mike:
Whfg ercynlrq mre1z6 naq lbh qrsvavgryl qba’g arrq gur ebpxrg ynhapure – va snpg, vs lbh cynl gur zncf va beqre, gur cerivbhf znc erzbirf nyy lbhe jrncbaf naljnl, fb gung lbh fgneg jvgu whfg n fubgtha.
Whfg whzc ba gur nygne. Vg frrzf bayl gb jbex sebz gur sebag naq abg sebz gur onpx (jurer gur jrncba/fhccyvrf fgnfu vf).
Naq znxr fher lbh ner cynlvat jvgu gur i1.1 cngpu. V erzrzorerq va gur zrna gvzr gung jura V svefg cynlrq Mre, vg jnf jvgubhg gur cngpu, naq gura mre1z6 orpbzrf hapbzcyrgnoyr, nf tenoovat gur “guvatl” (ybir lbhe anzr sbe vg) qbrf abg gevttre gur rkvg onpx hc gb gur erfg bs gur ohvyqvat nf vg fubhyq (V xarj gur cngpu cynlrq fbzr ebyr; whfg pbhyq abg erzrzore juvpu jnl nebhaq).
Decrypter here.
Thanks, Icant. (Hope it’s OK to call you Icant.) With that in mind, I will make sure I have the patch and then replay just that one level.
Sure, feel free to abbreviate my ridiculous alias. I wish I had thought of something cleverer at the time, but, you know… (at least “Icant” sounds better than “Youcant” when said with an RP or related accent).
As for Solarfall: I agree to a large extent with MikeTaylor’s assessment.
For a first release, it is very nice. It certainly looks good (if perhaps a little on the bland side) and I particularly like that shifting wall at the start and the paternoster-like lift later on.
On skill 1, though, the map is noticeably underpopulated. On skill 2, it plays much better (and I say this as someone who virtually always plays on skill 1 and sometimes skill 0), but even then, the gameplay is a little uninspired.
The secrets, on the other hand (at least two of the four) are overly arcane. I only managed to locate all of them after obsessively scouring the map with and without noclip.
It is interesting to compare this map with the excellent Adamantine Cruelty where, in my opinion, Vondur gets the balance right: the gameplay is a lot more complex and rewarding, and the secrets a lot more reasonable (without being overly easy).
This is by no means a bad map, and it is certainly historically interesting, given that it is the first release of an accomplished mapper. Plus, the readme is priceless:
"… in the middle of this most hated summer '99 …”
With all due respect to Vondur, 3 plus.
Inspired by skacky’s demo with commentary for Metal Monstrosity, I am uploading my own far less amusing demo for this map. Unfortunately it features some bumbling and getting stupidly lost, but it also shows the location of all four secrets plus the easter egg, for those who might be interested.
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