An excellent episode. First of all, it's great to have a third episode for the Copper mod, a mod for which my appreciation is deepening the more I play it. This is probably the best of the three to my taste (though all of them are great). It's definitely more consistent between maps in terms of style compared to Realm of the Lost (which would have near-AD levels of detail in one map followed by something closer to id) and also has a clear narrative with its Egyptian ruin theme that gradually becomes more fleshy and otherworldly, with the last couple of maps being messy hellish void levels. It also gets pretty hard toward the end but I'm not complaining. Great stuff, and the promise of three more episodes to follow is exciting.

"nine medium to large Egyptian-themed levels including a start map" There appears to be no start map. -game dwell does nothing. I can access each map individually d1m1 etc but not base map.

Hi Ryewee, you've not installed the game correctly. It needs to be a seperate folder from your ID1 directory, but you've installed it on top it seems. Install it next to the directory, and type "game dwell", hit "tab" to autocomplete to the patch version and then hit Enter.

Hi fairweather, thanx! I probably did install it incorrectly. So I reinstalled it where you suggested but it didn't solve the problem straight away. It seems that it did not work when it was named "dwell" but renaming it to "dwellv1p2" fixed the problem.

Oh hey, my palm tree from sm194 is in there, pictured in all its glory for eternity (or at least until Quake is forgotten)! ;p How coincidental that this comes out now, just when I've started making my first egyptian map barely a few weeks ago.

easy 5/5 for me. Even though it's a bit hard on the gameplay edges, I cant give it any other score than max for all the stuff that's made right in this episode.

Map design, graphics, colors, overall tone, and that OST - it had fun exploring from start to finish.

Excellent set of maps, I've only played a few so far but have been blown away. Love the music too, thanks for creating this.

I've been very satisfied with this episode. Very playful, not a frustrating game at all, kinda testing at times, amazing design. I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to see episode 2 being released! It's a project worth to keep working on.

Great pack! Amazing work all around, thanks to all who created this. I agree with funcmsgboard post by StroggSothoth that episode has "a sort of Dissolution of Eternity meets Zerstorer" feel to it, mixing egyptian themes with 'evil' and organic/meat stuff.

This release actually feels like a cohesive episode, since the themes mostly flow from one another level to level, though maps might seem to have different amount of 'eyecandy' or detail - for example d1m6 might seem 'overdetailed' compared to, say, d1m2. The included ambient music is also very good and adds to the atmosphere.

At first I started this on Hard and it was a bit much, so I dropped to Normal and it felt very comfy. Waiting for the following episodes, wondering what new themes (or variants) will they bring!

There's ever such a lot to love about this, so that it would be ridiculous not to give it the full five stars. But I do lament that it ended with such a ridiculous arena fight. I had a couple of goes at doing it legitimately, but in the end just gave up and god-moded to get through it. I don't regret it: even with that done, I nearly ran out of the necessary ammo to kill the Big Bad. Such a disappointing way to end what had up to that been the best level of the pack — which is really saying something.

One of the best big-box releases for Quake of the modern mapping scene.

It's got dark, oppressive atmosphere coming out the wazoo.

The custom soundtrack is spot-on, and, because it's the same artist, helps to bring together the levels as one cohesive set.

It's got a proper boss fight, with brilliant custom models (not to be sniffed at - to often the new models look a little janky compared to the originals.)

Yes, it's hard - the final boss fight even more so - but that's what difficulty levels are for. It just goes slightly further than the AD difficulty curve, I think. So easy on Dwell is somewhere between Normal and Hard on original Quake. Normal somewhere between Hard and Nightmare, etc.

The way the aesthetic descends from egyptian temples to hybrid eqypt/flesh horror and then into hellraiser void temple territory is possibly my favourite thing about the episode - possibly the most cohesive visual journey of any quake episode, original or modded, that I've played.

Can't wait for the second Episode.

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So you get out of those rectangular corridors and face the glorious portal to another world. You go through it. What do you see? Is there suspense? Is there awe?

Nope, just monsters throwing things at you in the Challenging Quake Map #3443.

I'm sure the rest of the episode is great, but can we at least pretend that dimensional travel is still exciting?

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No doubt the best episode released for Quake, bar none. The cosmic horror element is fantastic, slowly creeping in underneath the veneer of a typical Egyptian theme (Hinted at in the start map).

The maps are all beautifully detailed and scripted, progressively getting more difficult as they go on all culminating in my favorite map in the pack, the final one.

Other standouts are levels 2, 4 and 7. 7 in particular had an insane feeling, nothing like I've played in Quake before. Felt more like a Half Life Xen map somehow invaded by Quake monsters.

It's hard, like proper difficult. I haven't played much in Quake that has really challenged me like this, and it's good to see something that isn't afraid to maybe alienate people for that sake (Dark Souls comes to mind XD).

The music is pretty decent too, sometimes veering into the realm of cheesy (level 2 and 3 themes) but mostly in-keeping with the style of the original OST with it's own flavor.

I can't wait for more, hope we see updates soon.

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Loved this episode although I didn't make it to the end. Here are some thoughts on the individual levels. Into the Mvoid: Despite using a lot of standard textures, it didn't have a Quake atmosphere at all - more Half-Life "aliens in a lab" vibe. The architecture was clean, smooth, readable. A tidy and enjoyable level that flowed easily, with a fresh, simple look. Duet with Duat: A visual treat. Small and medium-sized pyramids and high platforms offered new shooting angles and grenade bounces. The pacing is great - once the high platforms are reached the level transforms into an arena combat. Coloured light recalls Unreal's Nali temples, but the prettiest spot was a gorgeously-textured beige and silver underground hall. Combat was perfectly calibrated with numerous 1HP moments. A cheerful, memorable level, with nice music too. Under A Funeral Moon: The brilliant final fight was built up to by a long and beautiful indoor section: stone decorations, columns, steps, all contributing to a weighty Egyptian dungeon feel. Then there was calm moment in the desert night, before a pacy, drawn-out yet exciting combat making good use of modern regenerating enemies and ammo, in a subtle open U-shaped space. I shouted and swore a lot, but made it through first time. Only problem with this level is that I was able to run through the whole first part. Otherwise, excellent. Arrivee de L'Etranger: A conventional medieval dungeon with tall stone chambers, effective water interludes and strong vertical combats against opponents on high platforms and niches. I thought the final combat and also the disgusting but innovative genocidal interlude (involving shooting dozens of teleported-in grunts) both lacked some difficulty. That Which Can Eternal Lie: Despite the massive and gorgeous stonework, this level is actually structured around a small, tight spiral ascent, throwing in ever tougher encounters on it and in surrounding chambers. The balance is perfect. I was pushed to switch strategies and lead enemies into infighting or weaker locations. Ingeniously, the craziness of the resource- and kill-rich side-chambers is gated off from the rigorous, tactical, spatial combat in the central ring. Really impressive visual and game design. Into The Flayed: A traditional interconnected, medium-scale map with ferociously skilled brushwork. Complex detailing gave areas a rich identity. Fun and fairly varied combats and monster mixes, but less dramatic than earlier levels. Darkstar Triumvirate: This level pushes the envelope of what environments we can expect in Quake with a visionary tombs and tentacles in space aesthetic. I really appreciated the boldness and also the conveniences like well-placed teleports. However I found the heavily-scripted flow to be too much and lost patience. All in all, a great dose of fun. I can't agree with JP that it was cohesive though.... Even though the textures and themes are similar, the individual mappers' styles were quite distinct - which is fine!

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Really cool architecture, especially maps 4 and 7. I did miss the part where the path branches and got lost in map 7, and ran out of ammo a little too often. I also didn't care for for the end boss, it took so long I wasn't sure anything was happening. I am very happy to see that more episodes are planned.

Beautiful set of maps and a good challenge on skill 2, including health and ammo management! Very much enjoyed the entire episode as well as the contributions from Markie Music.

Not at all a fan of the pretty much unbeatable hoard at the end. It's a decent end, it's just much too much.

Thanks for a great episode. I can't wait for the next!

Does anybody know the correct spellings for sound effect folders and files, minding uppercase and lowercase letters - since apparently because of this issue, the sound effects, do not load properly on case-sensitive systems? I would like to play this map but it is a loss if I do it without all proper soundscape. Exemplary cases requiring fix, basing on early levels:

jcrsounds/monsterscream1.wav markie/rumble.wav misc/coin.wav ambience/engineroom1.wav

I can fix it for myself, just give me the proper spelling.

My fav along with AD. THANK you very much for investing your time into creation of this masterpiece. Felt totally pro & it is pro

I should have played this before arcane dimensions (I played AD to soon and was too overwhelmed by it to fully enjoy and appreciate it)

This was a absolutely PERFECT episode. Great maps and great level design/architecture - superb enemy positions/encounters! I had so much fun playing this, outstanding!

I did not found all secrets, but the one I found were a lot of fun and felt rewarding.

5/5 please give us the second episode!

Prepare yourself for the last boss fight tho, this nut is hard to crack.

Get through the entire episode on NM only to be cockblocked at the end by a ludicrously OTT fight? Not fun.

Throughout the EP I was scraping by, often with single-digit health and low ammo, playing smart, encouraging in-fighting, shotgun sniping, running away, etc. All the usual tricks.

None of that mattered in the end.

I would have given this 5/5 if the final fight had been remotely fair. I understand it's NM mode, but seriously; I had 200HP, a ton of armor, loads of ammo and there was just no way I could avoid the absolute fuckton of projectiles. God mode to the finish line.

The main episode is 5/5. The final battle is 1/5. Averaged to 3.

Awesome :) Runs great on the Remastered edition too, except for the secret level which had a few seconds lag on saving for some reason (awesome level though, hi Coconut!) and as the episode I went on I noticed a lot of the creatures (particularly Vores and some Deathknights) would be periodically transparent - possibly some conflict with the fog graphics in the Remastered edition. Not a big issue.

5/5

Had so much fun playing it. The last map was so big and awesome and the last horde fight blew my mind and got me sweating. Great work. Thank you very much.

Despite my reservations given its reputation, Dwell at skill 0 is a hard, but mostly fair experience. There's mostly lovely level design and architecture (map 2 sort of reminds me a little of Serious Sam, as well as of DoE).

Where the maps fall down is in the occasional over-done horde combat (also a Serious Sam thing...), where even in skill 0, it's a bit much.

The penultimate map's "flesh-under-stone" motif (which I thought was effective throughout, and made for a still functional level architecture) unfortunately is replaced by a more aesthetically interesting "space flesh tentacles meets Xen" final map. Which looks amazing (and getting those organic shapes in the Quake engine is impressive)... but is sadly far too annoying to play, even with the "helpful" teleport on falling. Apparently there's a horde combat at the end, but I honestly couldn't be bothered with the jumping after a while, so I wouldn't know.

Oh, and the OST is amazing, so well done to the composer, too.

Addendum to last comment: the map I thought was the last (with the aesthetically interesting but annoying gameplay-wise Xen design) is the second last level. The interminable wave-based horde combat is in the last level, which, like every other level by Mazu I have ever seen is... really awesome, design wise, and simultaneously both far too hard and also far too long gameplay wise. (I hear this sequence is getting revised for the next Dwell release, which is all to the good.)

One of the best episodes for that 120 field-of-view stoner quake. The maps just work well together and let you enter a flow state of running and gunning. Great design with enemy encounters, no bullshit. Maybe not as visually stunning as other new releases. The egyptian theme gets a little corny at times. I was stuck for a couple minutes at maximum, never got frustrated. 5/5

Another great mod (is there no end to the quake community talent?!), I'm a few levels in and enjoying it very much but I've read somewhere that you need a newer version of the copper mod to avoid some issues. Sure enough I've seen a few minor issues so I've installed Copper (1.17 I think)... but, how do I play Dwell with the Copper mod?! I thought maybe Dwell looks for the Copper mod but no, I still get Copper version 1.0 when I check the version from the console in Dwell. This is very confusing! Is this an issue with quakespasm? I think that, like the original quake, it only allows one game mod at a time. I think I read that other source ports support multiple mods with each one inheriting from the previous along the path? So dwell would run on top of copper which runs on top of id1. Or is the problem that dwell has an embedded version of copper (ver 1.0) and will always use that regardless of any updates to the copper mod? A definitive clarification of how this all works would be very much appreciated!

@Mac Dwell is its own mod. It is based on Copper, but it has some additional things (mainly the boss and the keys in this episode.) I believe this version is Copper 1.11 with some but not all 1.15 features. Running latest Copper with it is not recommended, as it will break the custom aspects.

I don't know of any issues solved by using the latest Copper, I know some maps in other packs won't load in the rerelease using pre-1.17 Copper, but that isn't the case here as far as I'm aware; the only rerelease problem I know if is a crash when exiting the final map. Since you're using Quakespasm, even that wouldn't be a problem. The version packaged here should work just fine.

@Mac Quake's compiled QC gamecode is monolithic. All game behaviour, enemies, weapons, items, entities, how the player interacts with the world etc, is governed by that gamecode, which is coded and compiled as a single thing. So you cannot mix and match behaviors from different mods. It'd be like taking two different compiled apps and trying to "blend" them together at runtime somehow.

There are some sourceports that allow you to load things from more than one mod folder simultaneously, but it's mostly for replacement models/sounds, or to load maps from a separate pack while using some mod as a base for example. As for the gamecode itself, there's no way.

I am once again approaching to play the pack in full glory and as soon as I go through the teleporter, into the first mission, I get an error msg:

Mod_LoadTexinfo: 9 texture(s) missing from BSP file

I play on 'Ubuntu' - do the 'Windows' users see a similar issue?