Wow, looks awesome ! There is no Speedmapping pack 220 in the list ?

This is nice. Incredible what can be created by skilled mappers in such short time. I'm envious, and curse my own poor skills.

Old hands and new mappers. The result is beautiful.

Well done everyone. Thanks for your efforts, and thanks for sharing!

I think each map deserves its own rate but the ones I played so far are quite good, top-notch creativity. I want to specially remark HCM map by Mazu, fun to play, hard to stay alive and with a compelling storytelling. I enjoyed causing lots of infighting and chaos among the hordes to find new, creative ways to be killed, each time in a different fashion.

Some extremely pretty maps, sm221_hcm is going to take me more time to get through than the whole rest of the pack though lol

I wonder if there isn't something missing from the included version of Copper. I noticed the lava in Greenwood's "Volcanic Panic" looked pixelated. As a test, I copied the relevant files to the appropriate places in my "copper" folder, modified the startup to include "+game copper", vs "+game sm221", started the map, and everything then looked pretty-as-expected.

@ Apiai: you can get the SM220 download here: https://www.slipseer.com/index.php?resources/sm220-prototype-jam-3-copper-edition.115/

Omg. Thank you so much. That was amazing. Had a lot of fun.

Another awesome community pack! I thoroughly enjoyed every map as usual.

Thanks for sharing with us.

Off to a good start with the enigmatically named Iitu Emzyks (sm221_alekswithak). This recalls The Dismal Oubliette (e2m6 from the original Quake) in its central area of raising and lowering bridges radiating from a central island, and offers satisfying combats in a properly gloomy dungeon.

Grand Bridge of the Abyss (sm221_chrisholden) is utterly beautiful to look at and to inhabit, a gigantic multi-span bridge across a wide chasm, connecting two castles. The only thing that could make it look better would be if the supporting columns disappeared down into mist rather than just stopping.

Unfortunately, the gameplay doesn't come close to matching the lovely setting, with a sequence of relatively mundane combats on the successive spans of the bridge, and virtually nothing at the far end. Also, we see so much architecture (in the castles at the start and end) that we never get to visit, and that's always frustrating.

I'd love to see this reworked, with more gameplay in the existing areas and something added at each end. For example, there might be an exit door right at the start, but to open it you need to cross the bridge, find a key in the distant castle, then return across the (repopulated) bridge.

This is on the way to greatness, but not there.

The Radiation Complex (sm221_colossus) is fun, because it's always nice to experience a reworking of our old friend E1M1, but it doesn't really do anything especially exciting or innovative with the format. The most interesting challenges came near the beginning, when tactics were needed to beat a couple of turret-like enforcers shooting down a long, straight corridor-bridge.

Tree Village (sm221_gnemeth) is an enjoyable climb up and around a group of tall trees — a setting that I had never seen before in Quake until just a couple of weeks ago when I played Breakfast Under The Balloons by radiatoryang (ctsj2_radiatoryang) in Coppertone Summer Jam 2 v1.2. The present map inevitably suffers in comparison with that one, which is a really lovely piece of work, but it's not really fair to condemn Tree Village for that reason. It does fall down on its own account in several ways — not least the blockiness of the design and the over-reliance on teleporters. But it's redeemed by a fun ending, and really the whole thing is a pleasant play.

Volcanic Panic (sm221_greenwood) is small, but essentially perfect. It's in effect a coagula map, except that it takes place over a lava lake rather than an infinite void, and its sequence of spawned-in monsters is nicely judged to provide a challenge at every stage but never one that feels unfair. There is plenty of scope to use the various platforms as cover to fight tactically. It also features the most narratively inevitable shamber imaginable :-) A lovely piece of work, all in all.

Half way through Ranger on the Big Bridge (sm221_hcm), and I can't figure out a decent tactic to kill the annoying bouncing shambler while all the knights swarm around me. Is there a trick to this, or do I just need to move to a computer with a mouse and do a lot of good aiming?

I got bored and god-moded my way through that bit of the map. On to more enjoyable areas!

Well, I finished Ranger on the Big Bridge (sm221_hcm) with eight of ten secrets and — infuriatingly — 649 of 650 kills. And apart from that bouncing shambler in the middle, I loved it from start to finish: proper Doom-style horde combat, but with lots of opportunities for clever tacts, and especially for creative running away. Deeply, deeply satisfying. If it were not for the silly mid-level boss, it would be among my very favourite maps. Highly recommended.

Run Rabbit Run (sm221_lzj124) is a little anticlimactic after the epic scope and frantic combats of HCM's map: leaping around rooftops and shotgunning grunts and the occasional knight. I feel like the is a better map waiting to be built on this foundation, with alternative weapons turning up along the way, escalating monster difficulty, and some combat set pieces. Nice start, though.

Bridge Lockdown (sm221_mrtaufner) is an uncomplicated run along a bridge with several gated sections. I enjoyed it well enough, but found it a bit under-populated and over-provisioned, so the whole thing was rather a romp rather than an adventure.

Plum Pylons (sm221_omni) is a get-as-high-up-as-you-can map with some well-graded challenges as you make your way upwards, and with plenty of opportunities for creative retreating and sniping. Visually it's all a bit one-note, which made it hard for me to know exactly where I was among all the similar-looking towers. I actually quite enjoyed how I was able to win the final massive battle for the loss of almost no health just by keeping my distance. Nice.

I really enjoyed Knight Shrine (sm221_pinchy), partly because it's such a nice change be outdoors in the sunshine, and in a relatively pleasant environment. This is one of those maps that does more with less, almost all the action taking place in and around a circular tower whose affordances provide plenty of opportunity for fighting smart. I was able to get all 75 kills, despite missing all four secrets, with carefully managed infighting playing a part in that. It's physically small — it could almost be a 1024^3 map — but uses the space so well that it feels more substantial.

Viaduct Athena (sm221_riktoi) is another sunny outdoor map, this time with the goal of making it across a broad viaduct. This is another map where tactical retreating makes all the difference, and I was able in particular to make very good use of the barricade across the middle of the bridge. My only real quibble is that it took me a long while to realise what had happened when I was told that the bull gate had opened. (It's that the four pillars supporting the superstructure had all opened, giving access to wind-tunnel things that take you up on to the superstructure.) Nice.

The pack is rounded out by You Shall Not Overpass (sm221_shades), a welcome change in genre as we find ourselves in a modern urban setting with the goal of reaching and crossing an overpass. I found most of this pretty enjoyable, though I could really have done without the three-spawn-in-front, three-spawns-behind ambush. My biggest regret is that the map doesn't provide a way to get up on top of the overpass that passes over the overpass. But most enjoyable, nonetheless.

All of this means that the pack as a whole easily scores five stars, and HMC's map would probably have been that alone were it not for the stupid bouncing shambler. A truly great speedmap pack, up there with plenty of the actual jams. What a time to be alive!