finally!

Finally what? Alien invasion?

Well, Sock showing us his astounding mapping skills once again! Tight combat areas combined with everpresent danger of falling into the void is what this map is all about. Perfectly used Quoth base bestiary, the texturetheme is suberb! And i like its shortness. Cant praise it enough i guess.. Well done Sock!

Cool architecture. Map is easy to follow. Gorgeous skybox, it really adds to the enviroment.

Secrets are very well hidden, considering that I can see pretty much all of the map, all of the time.

I did manage to find all of them, while only falling into the void while being attacked by monsters I thought weren't there, a few times.

Yes, my English spelling is rubbish. What I'm trying to say is; I really REALLY like this map :)

Quoth monsters is hard to fight with. Looks good this level. My english is bad i know. Sock must make more of this maps!

A complex and very nice map.

skacky, I really enjoyed your demo. Your comments throughout were very entertaining and I am absolutely humbled by your skill as a player (and I was already in awe of your skill as a mapper).

As for the map: always nice to see something new from sock and this is a very nice map -- even though I am not a big fan of void maps in general and I don't think this is quite up to the standard of Backsteingotik, The Ivory Tower or Midnight Stalker, all of which were near-perfect in my eyes (still have not played The Horde of Zendar, which I'm saving for later).

As I recall from what I read on Func_msgboard, this was initially supposed to remain an unreleased experiment -- which would have been a big loss.

Vague SPOILERS to follow:

Loved the forcefield bridges, although I wish there were more obvious opportunities to use them strategically as enemy traps. The skybox certainly adds a lot to the experience and I'm glad this is not a standard coagula map floating in pitch blackness. The final battle was interesting, though less so than the final battle in e.g. Backsteingotik: as with the bridges, I kind of wish it were possible to use the lightning strategically, whereas it just seemed to add a fairly random variable to the battle. I do like the appearance of the arena, though, and the exit teleporter really made me wish it led to a second map...

Is this a BSP2 format map?

No. It exceeds the standard limits, but it does not require BSP2 support.

So which smartass is tagging it bsp2 then?

Hey, be nice on this site.

I'll remove the tag later.

Excellent work from sock, as usual. Lots of small nooks and crannies to find and a climactic battle in the end. Should've found the modded lightning gun before I started it, though. And I'm still hoping that eventually sock will release a commercial mappack.

I seem to be in a minority in this one. I loved the look of the map, but I didn't actually enjoy playing it all that much. It felt too arbitrary to have a real sense of progression. Still well worth 3*, though, for visuals alone.

Great looking level. Although this is already released and it probably doesn't matter to much, I fell off and didn't die,cheats were not being used.

Use quoth mod, xtg..

Yep, will do. I just ran it Regularly.

Quoth maps should crash when not being ran in quothmod. With a bold message:USE QUOTH!

This map is completely gordeous, loved exploring all the nooks and crannies in this, found it nicely balanced, and the finale was pretty tense.

Man, there's more complexity in these Quake maps than there is in most GZDoom maps.

Very good map! I like the new monsters too.

I've been around for a while, but never registered. Will comment on these as I remember them or trip over them. This on definitely stands out as one of the best maps I have downloaded and played all of the maps rated 4 or 5 as well as many others. This one is on my top 5 easily.

Very Nice! Best use of Quoth critters I've seen in awhile (though too many Bobs for my taste). Lots of fun on Hard, you should have added a Nightmare setting :-)

From the start there's enough non-linearity to give you freedom but not enough to confuse you. I knew this was a good omen, and I felt vindicated climbing up this derelict prison in the sky (or is it a superweapon?). The Quoth bestiary works very well here, with just the right placement for certain enemies (Pyros, Rocketeers, Edies, and Enforcers). Closet-style closets and teleports spread squarely around the map makes progression agile—I wish the enemies could use these as well, or they would if they could. Skybox and detailing are gorgeous, but the combat stands out most here, rewarding precision at every step up through the arena fight. Biggest disappointment here is how little motivation you have to deactivate bridges, since grounded enemies don't follow you as much as they'll try and pick you off away from bridges. This doesn't invalidate the rest of the map's quality ofc.

the exit is not in sight but it's a good map

Not the best shot - for one of the best designers in the contemporary 'Quake' space.

Simon, you are one of the 'Quake' community rockstars. Therefore, the expectations of you, are high - they are even higher than that. "Metal monstrosity", is not a good map. It reminds me of one 'Quake 4' level - the one having a boss fight with utterly unbalanced, flying blob, somewhere on a tower rooftop. "Metal monstrosity", is beautiful - you are a decent artist; there is a clear concept to the design; but it does not fit the 'Quake' dynamics; making the map difficult for all the wrong reasons. Tripping over a bridge switcher, to find oneself suddenly fall and perish, is not very unlikely. Spaces, are sublime, but the player movement, is more like that of a raging bull - making the gameplay a struggle against the momentum; which could frustrate on the long run. The gameplay, does feel like a mountain hike, but it is a hike when the hiker, is already exhausted. Such as you have pointed out in the map description, the 'Quoth' enemies are artificially made tougher. I assume you must had felt out of touch with this base of assets - and this lack of connection, has projected upon the final player experience. It does feel somewhat blunt, all in place but null. The final area with two closing portals, is confusing - initially, I thought it is required to return downwards, in order to reach exit; while that, was simply an option, without any clear purpose. Even though the path throughout the map is arguably intuitive and the entire space does have a focal point, it all feels scattered and missing a meaningful emphasis. It must be true, that the real emphasis - was simply the skybox. Thus, the emphasis, was everywhere around and visible all the time.

I feel like you have made this map against yourself, in a way. While "Metal monstrosity" is a genuine display of your artistic and designer abilities, it does not represent your best.

@tripleagent Set svstopspeed to 300. That kills the jump momentum. I feel that the default value of 100 is too low, makes it feel like being on slippery ground. With 300 you'll get a good grip and manage jumps efficiently. Another thing to add in one's personal configuration file.

It appears that Markdown interpreted the underscore between "sv" and "stopspeed" as a signal to italicize. Yeah, it connected it with the underscore in the name. It would be better to interpret [space][underscore][text][underscore][space] as a signal to italicize the text in between. The way it does it is a hindrance, especially when you wanna send links that have underscores in them.