Just played through this one. AMAZING work. Could be added to the AD lineup and not feel at all out of place. Took me about 37 minutes. SOLID design and layout, great encounter design, unique ideas, amazing atmosphere. I’m impressed. Thanks for putting so much time and care into this!
[quote=Zothique]Great!
Too bad you are playing the Dark Portal… my map will pale at its side!!![/quote]
I disagree, your map is superior. I gave Dark Portal a 3.5/5 in comparison to yours, which is a 4.5/5.
Great work Zoothique! You have a very distinctive style, it was a joy to explore the conventions of Oozing Blasphemy.
Two particular things stood out: the eccentricly ambiguous architecture and the trickle of monsters appearing in sequence.
These often clash with each-other in ways I found a bit irritating. For instance many of the huge architectural set-pieces are distracted from by a continuous barrage of monsters and interactions which often leads away from an appreciation of the space. This is notably the case when you first discover the chamber sealing in the abomination: a band of knights and archers emerge when the door opens; we see the health pickups and the readable interactions; we don’t have time to read these because we’re ambushed by vorelings and a scrag. The readables are (both) functionally superfluous so we don’t need to return for them. The experience continuously distracts from the fantastic edifice of a vast chained seal, which ought to speak for itself and be impressive on its own terms. Similarly, the sequence with the Quad & teleporting Vores introduces constant distraction which make us miss out on views of an incredible chamber. You can’t see what’s going on until you’ve gone through a scripted sequence - at the end of which you are guided on to your next engagement: there is no natural time to appreciate the view.
The one exception to this is, ironically, one of the least impressive views: the slime chamber whose vast arches the Scrags break through when we ascend the platform spiraling around the tower.
By and wide I was not a fan of the enemy spawn points: it felt irritating and distracting rather than challenging or interesting. But it is very distinctive and it was stimulating to have this departure from conventional style.
I think the bits of flesh falling from the pipes in the aforementioned slime room ought to be removed. The sound is unusually loud in adjoining rooms (from the start room even), and it sounds like Zombie projectiles - at a later point there is a solitary Zombie in a constrained space that I ignored because I’d zoned out of the projectile sound. Unpleasant and unnerving. The effect itself looks disappointing when it is finally seen in context: the occasional tiny gibs bouncing off of the vast cyclopean pipes just looks silly.
I adored the tanks with runes on them, very, very cool feature & inventive use of id1 assets. Also the boxes with slime in them! There is some awesome environmental story telling that the combat sequences unfortunately get in the way of.
Really looking forward to your next map already. Other worlds await!
Thanks Aesopolis!
Thank you zaratzara: sorry but my next map will also be full of monsters that prevent you from enjoying the scenery! I do not recommend it to you!
Hello, I tried running it (from Quake Injector), but got the following error, below… Any idea?
I have AD 1.81 installed as well (from QI too), and running properly.
Using QSS 0.93.2 with : quakespasm-spiked-win64.exe -heapsize 524288 -particles 8000 -game ad +map ad_blasphemy
========= Quake Initialized =========
execing quake.rc
execing default.cfg
execing config.cfg
Unknown command “r_useportalculling”
Unknown command “cl_beams_polygons”
couldn’t exec autoexec.cfg
No spawn function for:
EDICT 354:
origin ‘-1216.0 128.0 -210.0’
angles ’ 0.0 90.0 0.0’
classname corpse_lynched3
No spawn function for:
EDICT 354:
origin ‘-1152.0 128.0 -210.0’
classname corpse_flayed4
No spawn function for:
EDICT 354:
origin ‘-1280.0 128.0 -210.0’
classname corpse_flayed3
No spawn function for:
EDICT 354:
origin ‘-1152.0 -512.0 -210.0’
classname corpse_lynched1
No spawn function for:
EDICT 354:
origin ‘-1216.0 -512.0 -210.0’
angles ’ 0.0 90.0 0.0’
classname corpse_flayed2
No spawn function for:
EDICT 354:
origin ‘-1280.0 -512.0 -210.0’
classname corpse_flayed1
No spawn function for:
EDICT 385:
origin ‘-475.1 138.7 -256.0’
angles ’ 0.0 45.0 0.0’
classname misc_breakable_pot2b
exactskin 1.0
No spawn function for:
EDICT 530:
origin ‘1952.0 336.0 -352.0’
classname corpse_lynched1
No spawn function for:
EDICT 530:
origin ‘1856.0 336.0 -352.0’
angles ’ 0.0 90.0 0.0’
classname corpse_flayed2
No spawn function for:
EDICT 530:
origin ‘1744.0 336.0 -352.0’
classname corpse_flayed1
CALL1 513(precache_model)precache_model()
items.qc : item_key2
Thanks for your help!
Edit: Well nevermind; works properly with Ironwail 0.5 / Simple Quake Launcher.
[quote=zaratzara_is_locked_out]…There is some awesome environmental story telling that the combat sequences unfortunately get in the way of.[/quote]I totally agree on 1st part, and disagree on 2nd. I am explorer myself and I appreciated Zothique’s environmental storytelling in full. I even playtested that map & recording of my slooow explorations may exist. So no - it’s only up to you to explore & appreciate space. It’s unfair to say that it’s a Zothique’s problem. Untrue
More of that. Zothique’s encounters are quite irregular. With big pauses in between. Unlike for example Mazu maps - check them out! (Great mapper by the way. My favs of his are in Insomnia Jam and another one in Jumping Jam 2 and last one in Alkaline)
[quote=zaratzara_is_locked_out]Really looking forward to your next map already. Other worlds await![/quote]Check out his other map if you didn’t https://www.quaddicted.com/reviews/purifier.html