Please do not use Darkplaces :-(
Just when I started growing comfortable with Darkplaces and thought it would be fine to play with it, I discover yet another great gameplay fix. You can simply walk over the moving platforms on DM2. No more need to jump, there is no danger at all.
darkplaces_gameplayfix_dm2.avi (5 Megabytes, XviD and MP3 in AVI)
That is sv_gameplayfix_stepwhilejumping. It is 1 by default, because obviously it was a bug that you could fall into that lava pool and those platforms were only decoration.
Thanks to Sajt for mentioning this variable.
Edit: Wait, is it? I set it to 0 and I can still shamble over those platforms like a stroller on a sugar rush.
Abyss of Pandemonium goodies
While we are at AoP (read the interview with mexx if you are confused as to why), I recently found its CD image on some nice gaming nostalgia site. So for a limited time you can download it here and for a long time you can download its soundtrack in Ogg Vorbis Q5 goodness here.
An interview with mexx
Last year Marcus “mexx” Dromowicz popped up in the quakeone.com forums, setting some things straight about Abyss of Pandemonium. I could not let the opportunity slip and asked if I could interview him. He accepted but I did not notice the reply for a week, then I forgot, then I remembered and forgot again. Finally some time ago I sent him questions and we chatted a bit. So, without further ado, dive into my interview with a Quake legend: mexx.
A history of A Roman Wilderness of Pain, 1999-2009 by Tronyn
The A Roman Wilderness of Pain maps spent ten years in development, on and off. The project began in 1999 as a series of 13 short maps, each basically a setpiece surrounded by a few small hallways. The first 12 maps each featured a roman numeral marking the map number, and the final map had a Quake-style Q. These maps were eventually scrapped, the lighting in particular was annoying and generally too dark, though the scrapped maps were generally playable, featuring items and monsters (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, Q). A while later I returned to the maps with the intent of remaking the same layouts with a much greater level of architectural detail, and explicitly trying to develop a very gruesome style with flesh, skulls, spikes, blood and so forth. This effort produced NewI and NewII, the first with totally revamped architecture, the second with just a few rooms revamped. I then abandoned the maps again and released all of the map sources.
In 2004, five years after the inception of the maps, Mike Woodham released A Roaming Wildebeest In Spain his second level based on my scraps (the first one was FMB8, a large open Egyptian temple map). The story behind this map is its own epic saga; Mike Woodham had been trying to create a large terrain map called “Caves and Canyons” for months, and was having a very tough time of it due to engine and compiler limitations. Mike writes, “I lost weight, friends and the will to live many times during the last several months and I wont be doing another terrain based map.” The result of this was Mike combining one of his terrain sections with Roman Wilderness of Pain maps i, ii, viii, ix. He explains, “I removed all lights in the individual maps and re-lit, changed 95% of the textures and only changed brushwork to make joining the individual sections easier.” The new texture theme was sunny and Egyptian, rather than dark and metallic, with lava rather than blood.
In the meantime I had been trying to string together most of the Roman Wilderness scraps into a single map (BigRome). The layout was very flat, but I did manage to get most of the maps into a single map. Luckily, this map was so huge that I could not get it to work properly. aguirRe had a few laughs at this map. The outside of the map was surrounded with rockwork, which he advised me to keep and cut other parts of the map. I eventually decided to chop up this large map into four maps, so that each one could have a more coherent design and theme. The first map, CanyonRome, kept a lot of the terrain work, and had only the gatehouse structure in terms of manmade architecture (a combination of VI and VII). The second map began where the first one ended, and consisted of everything after the gold key door in the final Roman1 (this is why, as many players noted, the second section of Roman1 is not really linked with the first section, and has a distinct style). After having trouble with getting this outdoor terrain and rockwork to vis properly, I rebuild the entranceway to the first map as a smaller, enclosed canyon with a bridge in the centre. I then realized that the second map was quite small, and could be pasted onto the first map as a second section, and the whole thing would still compile faster and better than the version with wide open terrain at the start. I had now moved from four maps to three. Roman1 now incorporated I, II, VI, and VII. The theme of the first half of Roman1, “A Roman Wilderness of Pain,” was more runic-metallic, with a brick temple sitting on top of a metallic fortress with a sewer and a dock. I included tech monsters as well to reflect the Doom 1 or Quake 3 style of mix-n-match evil. The second half was a series of rooms and hallways which mixed flesh and metal.
Roman2 incorporated only maps IV and IX, but it was important to stick to these two sources only for this map, as it had a very specific theme, a “Venice of Blood,” and only IV and IX of the original Roman Wilderness maps had architecture overtop pools of blood. The pools were on different levels so I had to adjust the level of blood to fit the two maps together. The final raft ride at the end leads to the entrance to Roman3, a section I built from scratch. Roman3 incorporates V, X, XII, and Q. There is a fair amount of totally new architecture in the map, especially the higher levels, huge arches have been stacked on top of the V map for example. Thematically, I decided to go for a slightly gothic look, using some flying buttresses and spiked arches right alongside the usual Roman architecture with metallic details and flesh/blood wherever possible. I was particularly happy with the player’s ascent in this most vertical of the three maps. The final confrontation might be too difficult, with two boss characters, however.
A Roman Wilderness of Pain was released in December of 2009, ten years after the maps were first started, and five years after Mike Woodham released his map based on the scraps. It was very nice to be able to use most of the good architecture from the original project and build it into three coherent subthemed levels.
BSPs and map sources for all of the versions of the maps here mentioned can be downloaded here. Mike Woodham’s FMB100 can be downloaded here. The Quake episode, A Roman Wilderness of Pain, can be downloaded here.
Written by Tronyn
Tronyn reviews: VeniVidiFuzzi by Madfox
- veni05a.zip – VeniVidiFuzzi by Madfox
- Download: veni05a.zip
Madfox’s new map takes place in a large, interconnected city/castle/cavern landscape. The sprawling layout connects all of these different areas in sometimes unexpected ways. There is a fair amount of water in the layout, one of the first main areas is a venice-style city street (stone walkways and a road of water) and numerous water tunnels connect other areas to this section. I liked this use of water, in some places you can use the water areas as an alternate route through the map, which is nice (and reminded me a bit of my old map The Autumn Citadel). Now to turn from the layout to the gameplay and architecture.
The architecture is great throughout, a mixture of detailed blocky town buildings, arches and pillars, which (along with the use of Hexen II textures) provides a Graeco-Roman feel. Later there is a more castle-like section. There are also some very Quakey darker indoor bits with stained glass, some caverns, and a very nice canyon bit which shows the best rockwork in the map (though there is some nice rockwork elsewhere as well). Generally, the look is very “busy,” yet despite the complexity of the architecture and the “mix ‘n match ancient/medieval” architecture, the map feels quite coherent as a place. This is probably due to the fact that the texture set is wisely chosen (and limited, so that all the areas appear related), and that even in the most “townish” areas rocks appear, while even in the most “rocky” areas town stuff appears. There is a light fog which adds to the atmosphere, and some nice new map objects are used to decorate the town parts of the level. The use of ruined temple architecture that you can climb on was nice; for me the design highlight was the gold key area, a sort of open cave with a temple in it, which came across as nicely designed, cool-looking, and unique. Finally I should mention the cool touches like the entrance (look backwards when you spawn in), and the secrets, which keep you exploring. There’s much worth noticing here, including plenty of Quakey detailed ceiling beams.
The gameplay is good throughout, though a bit more mileage might have been squeezed out of the layout (especially the initial town section). The new monsters are cool, the crossbow knight has always been decent, but it’s the totally new skeleton character (from Q3) that shines here. His two attacks are effective, you as a player have to adapt to these guys, so this is a new monster well-implemented, filling a new niche. His effects look cool as well. Other than that, it’s the usual mix of medieval monsters, though surprisingly no zombies. I played on normal since I haven’t played Quake in months, and I still died a couple times; my one complaint is that ammo is a bit short, adding in a better melee weapon or more ammo would fix this. Also sometimes the messages directing the player where to go are not entirely clear, so be careful to look around when you get a message saying a door opened. Monster infighting was a useful tactic for me, if you can get it going you can save yourself ammo and health.
The ending is very dramatic, there is a very imposing circle of arches, and a highly challenging confrontation in the pit below. All in all, this is a very nice map, it’s basically setpiece after setpiece which is awesome, with a unique style, variety in design, and new features. The ambition on display here, and the effort that went into making this, have to be admired. Enjoy.
Score: 17/20
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