Few maps are great, other are not even "meh" :/

Hmm. Got stuck in the room in Palmlix' map where the door closes before you can get to it. Can't figure out how to get out... must be slow or something.

Strange door on Palmlix' map, I tried to put a lot of stucked zombies to it, but is does not work, becouse door continue closing and door can squish player. May be door must be auto-open if somebody is between doors?

Palmlix simply forgot to set up the door's closing time and did not test the map. Right now is at default's time. I also tried to do the same as Vasya and use the zombies, or rely on bunny hopping, before i noticed it was at the default wait.

About the pack, it is interesting in seeing how each person took the theme, with some changing the layout while keeping the size, scale and shape of the rooms, others did the opposite, and a third group changed nothing but the brushwork detail. There is some maps who put a novel design there for the gameplay.

On the other side, there is a group of maps who put too much focus on eyecandy and lack severely on gameplay and others where it is directly impossible to finish them, with some where it is clear that they weren't tested even once. In my map it was more like the opposite so i did not add any eyecandy and the looks are only there to enhance gameplay, hence the unfinished tag.

I have to confess something with the door issue on my map, it wasn't a case of forgetting to set the closing time and not testing, it's actually worse than that in a way because it was actually MY IDEA to have the door close too fast.

The idea was that the player would have to bunnyhop/strafejump to get out of the room in time before the door closes. IF they are successful in reaching the right speed to leave the room before the door closes, it actually triggers a couple shamblers to spawn in and blocks their escape until they win the battle.

The major mistake I made was assuming that most/all Quake players would be able to bunnyhop out of the room quickly enough to trigger that encounter and get out. It's a mistake I'll never make again, my apologies to all rightfully frustrated players.

The Successor (qbb1_artistical) is a terrible waste of some lovely architecture. To wander aimlessly all through that only to fall into an arena horde battle just seems like a misapplication of all those mapping skills. I thought — and hoped — it would be like True Love Waits from (I think) Zerstorer, where you walk through an empty area, then have to fight your way back to the start after you reach the end.

I hope the bones of this map are destined for greater things.

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DeMarkated (qbb1_burnham) has a more satisfying progression, but also ends in a no-escape arena fight, albeit a more realistic one. More enjoyable ... Though the "strange door" secret at the end is particularly unrewarding :-)

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Really enjoyed Dangerous Curves (qbb1greenwood) — and it's particularly fascinating playing it directly after _The Successor and DeMarkated, since it's so obviously the same basic layout. This time, everything works right: combat balance, ammo allocation (at least until it gets a bit over-generous at the end), sense of discovery, and sheer quadded chaos. The Chthon was fun, too.

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But Blended Blender (qbb1_coce) was a bit much for me. At first I enjoyed the novelty of the fog, and the challenge of picking off half-seen enemies, luring them to areas where I had a bit more room for manoeuvre. But after a while, I found the continual invisible assaults, combined with the chronic lack of ammo, just stopped being much fun. Promising, but not quite there.

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MikeTaylor I would need to see a demo to know what happened, but the map has several ammo boxes more than needed even if you try to kill them all, not counting secrets. In fact the people who provided demos finished it without taking some.

Tried it again just in case and finished with 170 nails, 2 rockets and 86 cells, and no infighting. I did not kill the shamblers but the exit usually opens before they even appear. The only place i was a bit low in ammo was before getting the NG/SNG.

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Oh, Cocerello is Coce! I guess that was obvious in retrospect.

I did go back and try it again, and finished legitimately, with I think all but three kills. I never saw a shambler so I guess you're right, I exited before they arrived.

I think what happened before is that I did part of the level in the wrong order — jumped past barriers — and so supplies did not materialise at the times they were supposed to.

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Starting out on Mimene Kolbei (qbb1_ish). Come on, ish, give me some ammo. Nothing is less fun in a Quake map that running around trying to avoid monsters because you've got nothing to kill them with.

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Pushing on with Mimene Kolbei, using some infighting and some careful running away, I was able to reach the point where you can unlock the rocket-launcher secret. At that point, it started to feel tractable, and I quite enjoyed the rest of it, including the double surprise at the end.

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After that, Ruins of Pillars (qbb1_nolcoz) was relatively straightforward, especially as I was able to mitigate the early ammo shortage by having the ogre and death knight infight each other almost to death. I enjoyed the traps in this one, which is unusual!

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Pael Folke Keep (qbb1_palmlix) was OK, but like everyone else I got stuck behind the too-fast door. After I noclipped out, I went to the final battle, which was quite funny the first time, but much less so when I had to sit through all the comedy again a second time, after losing the fight due to taking the quad too soon.

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Raging Nali (qbb1_poolboyq) is among my favourites of these maps, for a gnarly sense of place and a slightly more inventive progression than some of the others. I particularly enjoyed the way the gold-key combat came in waves, and the end combat could be done by sniping.

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I'm Sorry LOL (qbb1_quasiotter) is a nice idea, but just too frustrating to actually play.

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Untitled (qbb1_rhoq) is a blast, especially the quadded final battle. But I'm taking a point off for not bothering to name the map. Name your maps, people! It takes, what, 20 seconds?

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I admired the attempt to do something different in Growth and Decay (qbb1_snaut), but in the end I found the puzzles too awkward to work, and "Bill" too awkward to manipulate. So I gave up pretty quickly once I'd reached the puzzle area. Sorr

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Excruciating Commute (qbb1_strwrk) is a breath of fresh air, with its London Underground theme. Maybe the combats are nothing particularly special, but the setting made it a lot of fun. Also, it diverged rather more from the base layout than some of the other maps in this pack do \u2014 which I think is to the good.

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Cthulhu Resort Demo (qbb1_void) is just an empty and largely untextured area. It's pleasant enough to run around in, but it really shouldn't have been released in this nowhere-near-ready state. I'll hope to play the real thing some time in the future.

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Finally, Under a Black Sky (qbb1_zig1) is an enjoyably straightforward blast with ugly early-1990s Doom-style textures and even uglier early-1990s Doom-style music. Lots of opportunity here to take combats carefully and strategically, which I always enjoy.

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Overall, playing this pack has been a strange experience. There were times when I became bored with playing very similar layouts over and over, times when I was intrigued to see how the next mapper would use the same setup, and times when I was pleasantly surprised by a clever departure. But in the end, no one of these maps really ticked my Quake spot, and I am left feeling a degree of relief that I am finally done with this pack. It was an interesting experiment, but not one that I am keen to see repeated.

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