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| Author: | ijed |
| Title: | Warp Spasm |
| Download: | warpspasm.zip (8df7fc5d394cbc31da826dea01fd947c) |
| Filesize: | 42296 Kilobytes |
| Release date: | 10.05.2007 |
| Homepage: | |
| Additional Links: | Tronyn's Top 10: Elder World • Underworldfan's • erc's Quality • |
| Type: | Partial conversion |
BSP:  • PAK: • PROGS.DAT: • Custom Models/Sounds: | |
| Dependencies: | quoth • |
Files in the ZIP archive
| File | Size | Date |
|---|---|---|
| winwarp.exe | 518 KB | 14.04.2007 |
| warp/org8.jpg | 21 KB | 11.05.2007 |
| warp/pak1.pak | 20460 KB | 11.05.2007 |
| warp/pak2.pak | 19 KB | 20.04.2007 |
| warp/readme.html | 96 KB | 11.05.2007 |
| warp/pak0.pak | 62902 KB | 11.05.2007 |
| warp/autoexec.cfg | 1 KB | 30.04.2007 |
| nehwarp.exe | 489 KB | 20.04.2007 |
| FMOD.DLL | 115 KB | 19.02.2001 |
| glwarp.exe | 416 KB | 14.04.2007 |
warpspasm.zip
Warp Spasm
Probably the most evil and hostile atmosphere a Quake release ever had. This episode is built upon Quoth code and monsters. It comes with "dark ambient" music which adds to the feeling. The levels are huge, and the number of monsters in each one is extreme. An essential release, but clearly not for everyone.Note: This episode requires Quoth and an engine port with raised limits. A modified version of GLQuake is included.
Tags: huge, difficult, epic, episode, evil, industrial, base, medieval, music, horror, exhausting, rubicon, knave, ikbase, quoth
Editor's Rating: Excellent
User Rating:
4.5/5 with 70 ratings
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It's an engrossing story. Wouldn't mind reading a full novel along this path.
Host_Error: Mod_LoadModel: progs/s_plas.spr not found
Any suggestions? :(
I know that these questions may seem very basic & all but, although I have been on the internet for almost a decade, it's been almost four years since I've played any type of first person game.
I've been out of that loop for a while.
Thanks,
Morpheus
I recommend you save yourself a lot of hassle and instead install Java ( http://www.java.com/en/download/ )and then get our Quake Injector ( http://www.quaddicted.com/quake-injector/ ). It will enabled you to install and run all the maps and mods from this website with a few mouseclicks. Otherwise Quoth is available here: http://www.quaddicted.com/reviews/quoth.html
Yes, you need a full copy of Quake. Once you have it, download http://www.celephais.net/fitzquake/ and extract it into the Quake directory. Use it to play.
Be aware that if you buy Quake from Steam or other stupid download/renting services, the soundtrack is not included and you would miss a lot of atmosphere. I'd recommend ebay, amazon and the like. If you get an old CD with no Windows support, just send me a mail (spirit aatt quaddicted doodot com) and I will help you out with the files.
The maps can drag on a bit. They're for those who enjoy map crawling - I was trying to emulate Insomnia, but didn't reach the same level of visuals, nowhere near.
Mind you, not sure how closely I should listen to someone who calls themself 'felch'.
New stuff is underway, though when it'll finish is anyone's guess.
http://kneedeepinthedoomed.wordpress.com/
That's the blog, made and maintained by Gb - though we should all be contributing sooner or later.
When I saw monster count of second level I thought I gonna be playing Serious Sam port to quake. But it positively surprised me, as there's no horde combat - killcount so high because level is extremely huge! It's longer than hipnotic or rogue mission packs...
Very immersive levels and good health balance. Ammo was kinda short, even at skill 1. At skill 2 I often found myself with nothing but bunch of shotgun shells and plenty of monsters wanting me dead. Don't be cocky and select skill 3 right away. Here skill 1 is actually harder than original quake nightmare mode! Plasma gun is kinda overpowered to me so not gibbing enforcers is essential. 6 cells are enough for a fiend, 12 for shambler. It's very good for Spawns too.
I still liked it, but this is a case where "less" would have meant so much more...
The level length was far too long, true. I was aiming for a very deep level of immersion, so that when the shit hit the fan or the player got lost the impact would be greater.
It was a bit hit and miss, I don't have the knack for making visual set pieces or environment art, which makes me lazy, so many parts ended up c+p+modify.
So these maps defaulted to a hostile, hopefully unnerving place to imagine.
This is the best pack on the site. Insomnia was great, as was Zerstorer, but this is unforgettable.
Also I found all the runes. That was pretty intense at the end, not to mention the special kill message, AND the actual rooms I found a few of the runes in.
I could rant about this pack all day. This is why I still browse Quaddicted.
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QUAKE ERROR: Mod_LoadModel: progs/s_plas.spr not found
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Note that the quake directory that contains your "id1" directory, should not just contain "warp", but also "quoth"! This is because quoth is a dependency.
http://www.quaddicted.com/reviews/quoth.html
As others said, this could have been a half-decent map if it was about 1/4 the size, and had some kind of coherence to it. Sorry to be so harsh, I'm sure the author spent a lot of time, but that's the point. This map is a terrible waste of the player's time.
What makes the map so great are the points in it at which you exhaustedly stop and think, fuck, I'm never getting out of here--I'm so totally lost and confused. To me, THAT'S THE POINT OF THE MAP--it is a full-on war of attrition. To say the map is the worst piece of crap ever is just plain stupid. ShakeNquake, stick to the shallow end of the pool.
Luna's Loyal Subject makes a great point about wishing he could play it again for the first time. That is so totally true.
Bottom line, ijed is awesome. This map should be in everyone's collection, well maybe not everyone. . . ; )
bcbc2, everyone is entitled to their opinions. Calling someone stupid or making snide comments doesn't reflect well on your own level of maturity or intelligence.
To respond, to the worthy parts of your comment, I'm all for a challenging map. Look at Troyn's latest ( heel, any of his maps ) as an example. Excellent design and flow, lots of areas to get lost in, but not feeling like a bad movie on repeat. Or Honey, or The Anomaly 2: Water, or... there are just so many superior maps to warpspasm's complete lack of interesting play. Again, I'll state my main problem. Nice set pieces, but with endless, dull slogging between them, with no coherence or relationship of those set pieces. It was boring, not fun to solve the map, and just not worth the player's time when there are so many great alternatives.
The author has talent, they just need to tell a better story
ShakeNquake - I didn't call you stupid, I called your comments stupid. Most boring, pointless, worst-designed map EVER? Really?? That's just, well, . . . ; )
Anyhoo, I do get what you are saying, but I LIKE the rare map that is a pure war of wills. And ijed throws down a helluva challenge.
Sounds crazy, but I would have liked the map to be even longer and more complex! Perhaps it's akin to the mega-crossword puzzle that's as big as a coffee table top, or the 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. Neither of those are my cup of tea, but it's the challenge, not the game itself perhaps.
Cheers.
'Tell a better story'
That's great feedback, thanks. Although my next release won't be smaller, and the story I've chosen to tell certainly won't be to everyone's taste.
i thought this pack was great. this mod is worth ANY player's time, at least to try. no, it's not everyone's cup o' tea. if the player doesn't like it, move on! i think if the original quake was smushed together into five maps it may be similar to warpspasm. anyone want to take that on? :-P anyway, i'm excited to see your next epic adventure!
ijed, do what you do. everyone doesn't like everything.
not for me. i found it really boring and tedious. this pretty much put the final nail in the coffin of quoth for me. it really serves to highlight for me that the whole mentality behind quoth and so many of the releases that use it, is that some people think a good way to increase challenge is to throw enemies with huge hp reserves at you, and to be stingy with ammo placements on the map. dude, no. that is boring as hell. i play quake because i have a short attention span, and this just ruins it for me. don't make enemies harder to kill, make me easier to kill!
this set doesn't suffer too much from the stingy ammo thing, but still, just sayin... eff quoth. unless you are gonna spawn me with a rl and give me plenty of rockets the whole time, just say no to quoth.
Hey Ijed, since you apparently check this every now and then, is Schism still happening? :)
(As for Warp Spasm, can't believe I never played this, dl'ing now...)
boink182,
Sounds like you should be playing Doom.
Lane, it's dead I'm afraid.
Enormous levels, good use of quoth monsters, intense battles - and yes, "exhausting" is the proper word here, after each map I had to take a break :) The story in the Readme was very nice and climactic.
best ever maps so far! Top marks to the developer(s). Very absorbing.
Now, can I find more from the same?
Just filter the download list for "ijed".
This map pack was fantastic, with only a couple problems. I'll go over them below:
The overwhelming ambiance of the maps are amazing. The first two maps were phenomenal with getting the general feel of the story in place. One of the reasons was the unsettling music. Quake itself had some interesting music to set the mood, this was no different.
However I'd have to say that the most unusual aspect of the music that really added to the feel of the maps was that the music seemed to generate from somewhere on the map itself, rather than just play over the game like normal. Its a unique phenomenon that this pack has that grants a much more mysterious and unexplainable feeling to it. its super hard to put into words but it was extremely satisfying.
The graphics were well done and they meshed very well with the general level design. The heavy use of accent panels and textures made trying to find secrets a total pain, but significantly helped the immersion of the maps as opposed to having one texture all over the place.
The only problem I had with the maps was the "OH MAN monsters behind you!" motif that was prevalent throughout the series. To some, it might not be a problem. However i LOVE to go slow and stare at the scenery, and its a bit frustrating to constantly have a dog up ass for no reason.
No clipping around the map after finishing it in an attempt to find the 15 secrets i missed was also very fun! Though I couldn't figure out a legit was to get into the Rune Shrine in the 3rd map legitimately at all.
Overall, I loved this set. Great job!
Cheers!
Just a note to anyone else who made the mistake I made last year ... I started playing this, and found the first map ugly and tedious, and gave up. Don't do that.
I came back to WarpSpasm partly because of Tronyn's very positive review of Sealed City (one of the five maps in this page), and partly because of loving ijed's Telefragged so much. This time I hacked my way, slowly and painfully through level 1, only to find that level 2 was completely different and very much more enjoyable (not to mention five times bigger!)
My advice would be to play map 1 on normal or even easy, then manually set difficulty to 2 (hard) just before you exit the map, so that you get the full challenge in map 2.
Some way into Sealed City ... I see what some of the earlier commenters mean. I really could use a bit less of the old New Monsters Appearing Behind You In Areas You Just Cleared trick. Once or twice is a clever surprise. To do it constantly just makes the level feel like work.
Well, I'm on (what I assume it) the final boss fight, with the vermis, the gugs, the numerous fiends and the void. I have no idea how to stay alive for more than a second or so -- and that's only on hard, I hate to imagine what it's like on nightmare.
I assume there has to be a secret that you need to find to stand a chance -- a pentagram. But I don't see it. Can anyone help me?
Got bored of the final, stupidly difficult, combat, and unashamedly did it in god-mode. I realised that completing the game had started to feel like an obligation, a burden, rather than fun.
It's a shame that such a magnificent experience should end in such an unsatisfactory way, but I'm scoring this as a 5* download anyway, because there is just so much awesomeness here. No, it's not for everyone, but the scale and scope, it's still pretty much unrivalled.
Finally: please, everyone who enjoyed Warpspasm, play ijed's Telefragged from the Rubicon Rumble Pack. It's just magnificent: it has everything that makes Warpspasm great (scale, brutality) but adds everything that's sometimes missing in this package, most notably a sense of progression and narrative beyond "enter room, kill monsters, repeat".
Oh, one more thing. I am really going to miss the plasma gun on other levels. Lovely weapon, really adds something to the game.
@MikeTaylor on the final map, you can grab deflection cross pickup in the secret, you need to do a leap of faith from a certain platform (the sound of a working teleporter is a hint there), the artifact is located on the invisible ledge. after obtaining it, you can warp to the boss room really fast using a shortcut teleporter not far away from the start of the map. it'd allow you to spam all the enemies with rockets/plasma point blank. however, playing this pack on skill 2 isn't everyone's cup of tea, that's understandable.
plasma cannon is a standart quoth feature by the way, it can be found on various quoth custom levels.
Mike, now try "map warps"
1path0gen1, thanks for the tip. Stupidly, although I found and used the Cross Of Deflection, it didn't occur to me that I could have saved it for the final combat. I think its protection against splash damage just might be enough to make the final battle not completely impossible.
I've seen the plasma cannon in other Quoth levels, but somehow never felt I've had the time to get familiar with it like I did in WarpSpasm.
Spirit, I did play Murder Mandala (warps), but straight away realised it was going to be ludicrous and went into god mode. I highly doubt anyone, anywhere has ever completed that level without cheating.
^^^ https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13399338/murder%20mandala.JPG - no cheats here :)
Yes, people still play this... after all where do you find another shooter fun as Quake? ;) besides, people still play Chess and Go that are much older :D
Unfortunately, I am one of the people that disliked this map set. I really got bored at about 250 kills in the second map. The map kinda drag,
I think it is because (a) it is huge, (b) the classic trick "go in the hallway, get attacked from behind" is used too times, (c) sometime the doors are hard too see, (d) I felt a lack of "action", (e) I feel that the quoth monster are often nothing special, just overpowered or annoying (I just loathe the Flying Polyps and Vorelings, and I dislike the Drole) and drop ridiculous amount of ammo.
However, obviously this is a great work of love and there are people that loves it. So, if you are reading this and never played this one, go for it! But do not expect the adrenaline of maps like The Masque of Red Death or Drysorrow.
I did not like this...mostly. The levels were way way oversized, horribly long, tedious, boring, well scripted, well made, but very very sparse. Pack it denser, delete 3/5ths of the enemies, compress it, eliminate half of the backside ambushes, make doors more obvious, have a more consistent button/door/teleport scheme for visual clarity, minimize the teleportation of enemies, add more variation in height - maps were very flat (Doomish I suppose, not that that's bad in all cases), and make maze areas slightly less repetitive so that they are somewhat more navigable. If you love Doom more than Quake, this is your haven.
Memorable sections were toggling the bridges over the lava in Sealed City and its dark vast halls of books filled with Droles (I kinda love those guys...the death animation! hoo!). Also memorable was the purely evil themesets, I hated them immediately which I believe was intended. This definitely had an evil feel to it. Which I ended up liking in spite of my immediate distaste. I do think it was intended to give the feel of "Oh man am I ever going to get out of here!"
So it's ok. Not great imo, but ok. The maps had the feel of being first maps all put together...they reminded me of my younger days' maps.
Brutally difficult (Played on Skill 3) but engrossing to say the least. Each map feels like an arduous undertaking with the exit seemingly non-existent. Quoth enemies tend to get a little annoying to deal with throughout and the immense amount of "behind" spawns could have been lessened.
A must play for those seeking endurance maps!
How do I access the rune shrine in Nightmare Tangents?
I'm speechless
I'll won't be too critical of the gameplay. Yes some people are going to hate the many situations which could be considered unbalanced, 'cheap' traps and enemies constantly teleporting behind the player. Others will love being challenged to come out alive after being dropped in the shit time and time again. Adjust the skill level depending on your level of masochism and take it for what it is, or don't bother.
Visually, the maps would look much better if more effort had been put into attractive and interesting lighting. It almost looks like some of them were compiled with automatic ambient light enabled. 'Sealed City' was by far the high point of the pack, aesthetically and probably gameplay. 'Bile Plant' isn't too bad either. I wonder if the mapper just ran out of patience and wanted to be done with the rest of it. It's a shame because 'Nightmare Tangents', the final large map, is pretty good architecturally and had the potential to be epic (with a lot more polishing). Instead it seems like it was indeed bulked out with a lot of copy+pasting and repetitive combat. This map also suffers the most (along with the boss map) from the bland lighting described above. See 'Telefragged' in the Rubicon Rumble Pack for what this mapper became capable of.
Hah, yes - we were all young once :)
I did terminate work on nightmare tangents before it was really ready to be honest. Back when I released it a few people picked up on this; the meatech theme was supposed to be a lot more pronounced. The veins and organ that gib at the end were just a test for this, but compilers at the time weren't really capable of doing it within the time frame I had in mind.
Telefragged was only possible because of the the amazing tools and engines created by others years after warp was released.
One thing I will say in my defence/autocritique of the backspawns - they wouldn't have bothered anyone if I hadn't used the 'silent' flag from Quoth which stops the monsters from playing their alert sound.
Everything I make is a self indulgence really, and I don't compromise on the vision unless it's a 9-5 thing where I don't have a choice.
I don't think I'll be coming back to Quake. There is one project I could finish, or even just patch up and launch with a single level, but I've got other things to work on that can (potentially) bring home the bacon.
All the same, very happy that you guys played the pack and felt that there was enough substance to warrant such honest and considered commentary.
"I don't think I'll be coming back to Quake."
:(((
One thing that consistently annoyed me was how the BSP model pickups' visible location often didn't match their actual bounding box. Probably because of some flawed random rotation code. AFAIK, such objects have their pivot points at the corner of the model instead of the center, so rotation is tricky. Another symptom is that some of the pickups were visibly stuck in walls.
Nothing like trying to pick up a Megahealth in the heat of the battle, only to miss it and catch a deathblow a moment later.
Please, please do patch-and-launch this project, even if you don't finish it. I've said several times that (check the comments) that I think Telefragged if the single best Quake level of them all, and I would hate anything else you've done to go unreleased.
This is just too much.
The maps go on forever with non-stop ambushes from some of the toughest enemies. Playing "high level" Quake for hours on end is very exhausting. And every time you take a turn or go through a corridor expect the game to silently spawn more enemies behind you, because getting assassinated by a stealthy fiend is so much fun, right? This kind of gameplay encourages constant save-scumming which is not very fun in an action packed game like Quake.
I got through the Bile Plant and about two thirds of the Sealed City. Way too long, the environments don't change much and it all feels copy-pasted and unnecessary dragged out.
Finished this map pack. Even took a peek at the lolwut secret level.
It can be fun in some places, if you go for a strategical side of things and carefully manage your ammo and health, snipe the enemies from afar, etc. But ultimately, the maps drag on way too long, the scenery stays similar and is not very interesting anyway. Mostly you just go from one huge room to another, fight a lot of enemies and make sure to stop and wait for those GOD DAMN stealthed dogs and fiends that always spawn behind you. Nice story in the readme file though, good choice for the ambient tracks. And liked the little details, e.g. how the player is actually a zombie (you can see it if you switch to the chase camera).
Still, too exhausting.
Bile Plant is the best custom Quake map I have ever played. Point. Even better than Zerstörer.
The atmosphere is disturbing, the sound is creepy with this electric noises and the whole plant is just... death. Corpses, dirty bricks and foul acid water, what more could I ask for? ^^ Everything smells of disease and the big monsters that will surprise you. Ahh my heart :D
I'll never forget this experience and even playing it again after some months, it's just amazing. This is exactly my taste. Do yourself a favor and get this now. Thanks ijed :)
I finally beat WarpSpasm on skill3, and I must say it is one of my favorite games of all time. The levels are so long and there are so many monsters that it literally effects my psyche. The horror and apprehension just keep on mounting until I finally kill the last monsters and open up the portal out, only to begin yet another grueling stress-fest of a level. To be honest, I had to use noclip three times. Once in Sealed City because I ran out of grenades and I couldn't reach the Quad Damage that was absolutely necessary to kill the 6 Shamblers in the "library," another time in Map 4 (I can't remember the name) because I could not figure out how to open the bars that blocked a mega health and a Trinity, and finally I ran out of ammo completely and had to fly through the exit of Map 4 without killing all the monsters. Although I'm disappointed that I could not beat this game without a very little bit of cheating, I still doubt I could ever play it again. Just too much stress. 5/5 work, great job ijed.
I finally beat WarpSpasm on skill3, and I must say it is one of my favorite games of all time. The levels are so long and there are so many monsters that it literally effects my psyche. The horror and apprehension just keep on mounting until I finally kill the last monsters and open up the portal out, only to begin yet another grueling stress-fest of a level. To be honest, I had to use noclip three times. Once in Sealed City because I ran out of grenades and I couldn't reach the Quad Damage that was absolutely necessary to kill the 6 Shamblers in the "library," another time in Map 4 (I can't remember the name) because I could not figure out how to open the bars that blocked a mega health and a Trinity, and finally I ran out of ammo completely and had to fly through the exit of Map 4 without killing all the monsters. Although I'm disappointed that I could not beat this game without a very little bit of cheating, I still doubt I could ever play it again. Just too much stress. 5/5 work, great job ijed.
I guess everyone it's own, what you call "so many monsters" to me appeared just as a long walk. Horror quickly vanished replaced by boredom. I agree with the "apprehension," but only for the lack of ammo.
Try "Dry Sorrow" or "Masque of Red Death" to see what I think is "so many monsters."
There's a common phenomenon with game modding where the community takes an interpretation of the creators' intent - thematics, gameplay, anything or everything - and sculpts a greater exaggeration of it, far beyond the scope of the original. It's not really possible to describe such efforts as "original" because their purpose is to capture and enhance the "feel" of the game, but they can't be called totally derivative either since they're not concerned with refinement or expansion as much as transformation and reimagining.
Quake has several possible examples of this and some are more effective than others. Quoth is probably one of the best, but Quoth's just content; it's not itself something you can play. A better attempt than any other mapset I've played, Warpspasm takes Quoth's "world", the "Quake beyond Quake" so to speak, and actually implements it.
No small part of this is due to the background story and use of ambient sounds and music - such things are worth far more for getting the player invested than the sum of the effort that goes into implementing them, and I'm surprised to see them so rare among Quake mappers. Maybe the lack of such things in the id1 resources leads people to generally not bother, or perhaps early attempts to tell stories by turning Quake into a cutscene-led, statically-mapped game such as Zerstörer and Nehahra poisoned the well. But better yet is how the world is expressed through the attitude of the maps themselves: There's lot of criticism of the maps for being too big and too samey; however, I would argue that's the point. They're not maps, not places, but entire hostile, oppressive dimensions, with nothing but death for an interloper. The player has no idea where they're going or when or how any of this is going to end, but can only keep spiralling deeper into their mad crusade. Reality breaks down and intersects with the elder world until all that's left is abstract chaos and one lunatic tearing through it with a rocket launcher... and then the final map ends and there isn't any conclusion whatsoever. Besides the total lack of an ending, is there anything more Quakey in theme than what I've just described?
I am afraid one should not forget gameplay.
Also, I am not sure "boredom" should be the feeling one gets from playing a Quake map; doubly so if it meant to be atmospheric.
If you can't handle Warp Spasm at its Nightmare Tangents-est then you don't deserve it at its Sealed City-est. ;-)
I played this a few years ago and gave a pretty harsh review on it. I never finished it due to its fatal flaws. So, in the interest of giving things a second chance and because it's raining like waterfalls today, I gave it another shot. Sad to say, it was even worse the second time. I gave up on the very first map, lol. Why, you ask??
Well, aside from the numerous issues myself and others have called out here already, I remembered the single, worst thing about this pack. It is impossible (or made such that you'd spend hours knocking on walls looking for how to get somewhere, fun!) to play without noclip. I got the silver key card but the gold was never to be found. So, I noclipped and scoured every possible inch the player could reach without fly or noclip. Gold key card is not reachable.
I noclipped into the Gold key area and there is nothing there that does anything to further the map objectives. Nothing. I did (with noclip) fly over the impassable wall behind this area and from there you can get.... the gold key card. But, of course because there was no way back in, you have to noclip back and as stated, it is pointless to do so. Nothing happens there. Once I exited the map I saw a number of unkilled monsters which even noclipping I never saw. This is what I remembered from last time. Long, empty areas, pointless objectives, critical things that are unreachable without noclip.
Final thoughts. This map should be called noclip spasm as you need it everywhere. However, when you get deeper into the pack there are some really great areas architecture-wise. The pack author shows they have the talent to make good stuff but the game play is beyond terrible thus ruining the whole thing.
It's possible to play it from start to end, with 100% kills and 100% secrets, and without noclipping anywhere, I've done it.
Are you sure the map and the mod are loaded properly?
A truly awe-inspiring, monumental pack. Calling them endurance maps was certainly fitting - my shoulders even got sore a few times!
One of my favourite things in this work was the backstory. It was really engrossing, and put the whole experience in a new light, the mere implication of you playing as a depraved lunatic, relishing in the slaughter, not that much better than the demons and Iron Hand cultists you murder by the hundreds.
What's great, though, is that the story wasn't entirely limited to the readme, without resorting to cutscenes akin to the Zerstorer. The first map has implications that you could understand even without reading the prologue, and really, isn't the way most people play Quake quite in-character? The start map was brutal in appearance as well, introducing you to the thematic of flesh invading "normal" landscapes. (That nightmare hallway was sneaky, by the way!)
I played on Hard, and the difficulty was respectable, but far from overwhelming. Both the first and starting stage left a good impression. However, the Bile Plant almost crushed me. Meeting packs of defenders and fiends around every corner, always encountering constantly renewed groups of foes while walking about the maze... It felt unfair, and I started to fear that those criticizing comments above were correct after all. Opening a door to be met by a line-up of fiends or shamblers packed up tightly certainly doesn't leave a good impression.
The environment looked repetitive, even if I did like the aesthetic at first, it still felt like it was missing something - contrast, perhaps. Nevertheless, I stuck through, and then came across the main element, that, IMO, really brought the subsequent maps to a really unique and amazing level. The pieces of flesh stuck along the wall in the pit of that first Gug, their red contours clashing wildly against all the browns. Then, an open arena - tiles atop a massive block of compressed meat.
The time came in at about 50 minutes, and all the other maps took around the same amount of time as well. Thus, came the Sealed City, and oh boy, it completely changed my opinion, and really uplifted my mood. Instead of reminding me of Doom's slaughtermaps, it was instead a steady flow of challenging, yet fair encounters, all in interesting and incredibly detailed areas.
The Sealed City was the best, but the next map, Nightmare Tangent, for me felt just as good, followed by a short but sweet action-packed finale. All unlike the Bile Plant, I rarely got lost, and only for a short while, never emptied my reserves of rockets or cells, and enjoyed every single encounter, despite their relentless, constant nature.
All the while, it was coated by a hostile atmosphere which I haven't yet met anywhere else, granted I didn't experience many works so far. I couldn't call it dreadful, like in Zerstorer - combat was too common for that, but I could certainly call it... Wrong. And I think I can thank the flesh for that. It was everywhere. You were seeing it, walking upon it, jumping into it, drowning in it, it's tendons supporting almost every piece of architecture; even the console and the readme were covered in gore. It was so beautifully blasphemous - endlessly hammering in the fact that you were somewhere wrong. Not just a castle, but an aggressive, alien dimension, vying for violence and blood. Further enhanced by the impossible landscape of Nightmare Tangent and beyond. And yet, for Sacren, it all must have felt just how it should be.
The nitpicks are obvious by now - the Bile Plant really felt like a bit of a chore, even if it wasn't that brutal if you trod carefully and took your time. I also disliked the use of the Spawns, even in excellent maps such as the Sealed City, but that's my personal dislike of the enemy type speaking.
My major complaint was the lack of an ending, though I did enjoy having so much left up to interpretation. After the journey, all the bloodshed, it ends as a regular Quake map would, with you unceremoniously booted back to the start. What happened to him? Did he perish, ailed by the killswitch? Or maybe he 'ascended', as planned. And what exactly was that device capable of doing - why was it so important? All interesting threads, left loose, hanging, leaving me both disappointed due to the lack of answer and glad for the presence of absence.
I definitely won't be forgetting these maps any time soon.
ShakeNQuake If you noclip, at all, then the maps will be unplayable. You must complete the critical path in order to spawn the items and enemies up ahead in the following areas. There is no need to cheat in order to complete the levels, but if you feel the need to then clearly the pack isn't for you.
gamevoin There was/is an ending but it needs some clarification. The secret level, in theory only accessible by playing on nightmare and collecting all four runes, although also accessible by typing 'map warps' in the console, was not just a slaughtermap puzzle originally.
Sarcen was supposed to ascend to his ideal state of being (killing monsters forever in a loop) in this level. There was a series of texts which explained this (in a very oblique way) during the fight, but as Sielfwolf or maybe Bengt pointed out during playtesting, it was impossible to read / understand while dodging the hordes of Vores, Droles and Fiends.
I also wasn't happy with that solution and didn't have the patience or technical ability to hack around the Quoth mod and make a proper outro cutscene at the beginning of warps as I should have. If I remember rightly, warps doesn't even point to itself on map completion either.
Well. The mere selection of Nightmare mode certainly sets the tone. This is going to be a demanding journey ...
This map pack is so brutal that players even take the fight outside the game and into the comments.
Jokes aside, I can see where all the frustration comes from. I understand that some comments downplay the author's work and may have hurt his feelings, but the gameplay is exceptionally brutal. I wanted to wait to be able to boast about finishing this in Nightmare mode, but I'm stuck at about what must be the 2/3rds of the last map (if estimating its size by my kill ratio makes any sense) with poor health, next to no ammo, and assaulted by Gaunts, so I might take an indefinitely long break from this one.
I'll share a few thoughts for people who haven't tried this pack yet. Hopefully that won't spoil the "fun":
if you can't handle frustration or losing, don't play this. If you can, great, but do take long hard breaths anyway, because you're about to be thoroughly tested. Every monster you hate is in there (and then some: I had never seen Gugs before and I don't look forward to that happening again), and they hate you too. What's more, some of them seem to have been pumped up (I don't remember Death Knights running that fast, and apparently Droles can jump now. How nice).
gameplay is extremely unfair, so swallow your pride and run when you have to. You don't have to kill every monster to make it out alive, and certainly not everyone can achieve that anyway. Spare your ammo and health for when you really need them.
in the same spirit, try and leave a few gifts behind when you can. You'll find yourself revisiting some places time and again, and you may need those resources on your way back.
save often, and use several slots just in case. There were areas where I literally saved after every kill I made, and others where I restarted from an earlier saved game because I clearly was not going to make it.
use an even larger heapsize than advised (e.g. 128000). The game crashed on me when I was finally able to exit the Bile Plant after numerous attempts, and I think if anyone had showed up at that moment I would have killed them just to let out all my anger. Good thing I wasn't collecting runes.
there are surprisingly relatively few opportunities for infighting, but they exist, so make sure you seize every single one of them.
push yourself. The game isn't over until you're dead, and you'll be surprised at how long you can survive with less than 10% of your health if you act smart enough.
Just out of curiosity, I gave the secret map a try (I didn't bother looking for any runes and I don't think I'll play the pack again if I ever complete it), and it didn't seem as hard as I expected. Simply running around the square and randomly taunting monsters with rockets allowed me to achieve 49/61 kills before dying, so there's hope for that one.
I didn't noclip, and would rather use god mode if I had to cheat. I was really tempted to more than a few times (including right now at the point where I'm stuck), especially when meeting those six Shamblers as mentioned above, but in the end I managed to make it without cheating. I did have to finish the last one with my sword though.
I'll probably end up rating this a 4/5, but again, this is not for everyone, as many have already noted.
While not among the best of the best, this clearly deserves 5 stars for its rewarding combat (not as tough as I thought, at least on Normal) and atmosphere variety from map to map. Within each map, however, there is not enough variety to justify its size; one feels each of them could be (selectively) cut in half and still be able to "get its point across", just as meandering sequences can be edited out from an overlong movie without loss of meaning.
I am enjoying this is Quakespasm, but would you guys recommend getting Nehahra engine running? The readme seems to recommend using that, but I dont have it installed.
I liked the atmosphere, but the constant enemies spawning behind me was lame.
It's really nice change of pace, comparing with other maps, with pretty vast areas and unstopping action with lots of enemies. It's interesting how unconventional it feels, but at the same time doesn't feel out of place in quake.
I run quoth, then command line game warp spasm and it dosnt load stating HostError: ModLoadModel: progs/splas.spr not found. Thens no progs folder in quoth or warp spasm.Theres a progs folder in id1, but hasnt got that splas.spr. So tried many ways and things yest it keeps saying HostError: ModLoadModel: progs/s_plas.spr not found
You're not running it correctly. Quoth must be loaded from commandline, like an expansion pack, to allow Warp Spasm to work.
I am now trying the whole episode again from scratch (mostly because for some reason my previously saved games became unusable after an upgrade) and it is more enjoyable than my first try. Finding the Rune shrine in the Bile Plant is a now incentive to try and find the others.
Finding only 3/16 secrets in the Bile Plant says something about my secret-hunting skills. On the other hand, unlike most other maps I've played, some of these secrets come at a price (rocket jumping to get a mega-health, back-spawning Shambler when you get the super nailgun), which is also why I've stopped looking too hard. I usually look for them when I'm low on ammo or health, but in the Bile Plant they have not really been worth the effort so far.
If you've hated this episode before, give Quenching Urges of Constant Killing a few tries. You'll feel more relaxed when you get back to Warpspam :)
Completed Warp Spasm... Well, after reading some comments, I expected some sort of mediocrity, but... nope, this is diffrent case. It's a high-quality mod, though it does suffer from one particular problem. Level design is well-thought, maps are atmospheric, the Quoth monsters are great and the only new weapon (which replaces the Thunderbolt) is essintial! Gameplay is balanced, but hard as hell. Still, the mod is 4/5, not all five-star. All because of... THE PROBLEM. Which is... the pacing. Mod relies on the tricks well-established in Id original episodes, only with added difficulty. Add to this the size of the 3 of 6 maps (400-500 monsters), and you'll find yourself stuck for hours in nearly the same combat scenarios... Take Tronyn's maps for comparison. They cleverly use different combat situations. Some of them rely on a new weapon, on special power-up, on sheer numbers of foes or some other idea... sometimes, you're greatly overwhelmed... but sometimes, overpowered... some segments are just for fun, like when horde of Scrags apppear and you blow them all up with rocketlaucnher, in a few shots. Tronyn's Wicked, Unforgiven, ARWOP, Arcanum, Soul of Evil... combat there is so perfect it's comaprable to modern standard: Doom Eternal! Problem with Warp Spasm is that it's combat situations are very old-school in a bad way... they just repetitive, not imaginative enough. They pale in comparison to a modern level-design, which Tronyn uses well. But still........ it's not bad. The new gun helps to easily deal with Gugs, Droles and - surprisingly - yellow polyps and bad-old Spawns. Vermis boss returns from The Lost Chapters. It's okay, i guess, I just love to see a new boss in any new mod. The last levels provide fascinating challenge... expect tough scenarios. Heh, Warp Spasm could as well be called "Quoth: the campaign". Anyway, it's good... but it's repetitive. 4 of 5.
Hi. I started playing Warpspasm and I was wondering if somebody could tell me how to set corpse_time to -1 so the corpses of the dead monsters don't vanish?
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Hi - corpse_time is a per map setting and cannot be overriden by the player, sorry.
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Oh, thanks
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Hi. Aardappel's map, The Secret Castle (aard100), .zip download comes with a file, progs.dat, whose readme specifies that one of its two only functions is to make the corpses disappear after 5 seconds. I removed that file, loaded the map, and the corpses didn't disappear. Conversely, I moved that file to a different game folder and the corpses did disappear after 5 seconds on the maps therein where otherwise they would not. My question is: how do I edit that .dat file to set the corpses to never disappear and make that its only function or create another if it's easier? Then I can just add it to the Warp Spasm pak.
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I think Quoth's default behaviour is to make those corpses disappear, so I'd look at that mod's config files, not Warpspasm's.
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Yeah, if I load Warp Spasm's first map outside of Quoth, the bodies don't disappear. But what I'm lead to understand is that there's no console command that can change corpsetime to -1 that I could enter into a .cfg file. I looked into Quoth's pack but I can't identify a specific file that would regulate this behaviour. However, the file progs.dat, that comes with Aardappel's map does set corpsetime to 5 seconds. So, I'd like to get a .dat file to set corpse time to -1 (where corpses don't disappear) and that should allow me to override corpse_time in the maps in whose game folder I place it in.
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Quoth is currently closed source, so a new progs.dat is unfortunately out of the question.
It should however be possible to change the corpse time to -1 with an external entity file for each map.
I'll be able to look into this only after NYE thoug
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Oh, I don't mean to modify Quoth, just add a .dat file that would override corpse_time (or whatever variable deals with corpses' disappearing time in non-Quoth mods) in any game folder that I place it in, like the .dat file that comes with Aardappel's map that sets it to 5 seconds.
Anyway, I don't wanna encumber, I just stumbled upon that .dat file and its readme and it rekindled my curiosity on the matter.
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Each mod only comes with one progs.dat file that contains all the game logic pertaining to that mod.
Warp Spasm has its progs.dat hidden in pak0.pak, which takes priority over loose folders in the game directory, so placing a different progs.dat wouldn't change it. However, if its progs.dat was freely exposed, and you overwrote it, it would remove all the Quoth game logic the maps depend on.
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Huh, I only looked with PakExplorer and in Warp Spasm's Progs folder it only shows .mdl files. That's all I could find related to the name "progs". I didn't find a "progs.dat". But maybe PakExplorer doesn't show them all, I don't know.
Anyways, it doesn't have to be named progs.dat, it can be named progs2.dat, for example. The idea is to have a simple add-on file that only tweaks the corpse_time variable and leaves everything else the same. It already works, the file I mentioned came with Aardappel's map, but that file sets it to 5 seconds. I opened it with Notepad, thought there would be a line where I could replace 5 with -1 but I can't make sense of it.
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"Anyways, it doesn't have to be named progs.dat, it can be named progs2.dat, for example. The idea is to have a simple add-on file that only tweaks the corpse_time variable and leaves everything else the same."
Quake doesn't work like that, sorry.
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Yeah, you're right: it doesn't work if I rename it to progs2 (the file I mentioned changing the variable to 5 seconds, that is). And it seems to only work for game folders that only contain the "maps" subfolder, so I guess it wouldn't have worked for Warp Spasm even if I somehow got it modified.
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progs.dat is compiled game code. You can probably hack it, just like any other instance of compiled code, but it's gonna be a huge bother.
You can't stack these files on top of each other, because they contain all game logic. You'd be completely replacing one ruleset with another, most likely breaking a lot of things in the process.
The reason why folders with only maps work is that they don't have a pak with their own progs.dat. In Quake, contents of pak files override any files outside of them.
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✓
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Works fine with quakespasm spiked, no hacking needed.But what a fantastic episode 5 star, but hard as hell on nightnare. Some levels i finshed with still another 60 or 70 kills left ? I even found the secret shrine secret room, jaw dropping episode neck and neck with dwell.
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BTW, if you are using QSS and see a lot of error messages that a soundfile "is missing data chunk" and "has zero samples", you can fix it by putting this wav file in a sound\soldier subdirectory of your warpspasm directory:
https://github.com/neogeographica/quakestarter/raw/v2.0.2/quakestarterscripts/modextras/warpspasm/sound/soldier/idle.wav
(In QSS this file override will work even though the original sound is in the pak file, because QSS (unlike most engines) prioritizes loose files over pak'd files.)
The problem is that the original idle.wav contains literally no samples (because it's intended to be silent) and I guess the current version of the relevant sound library doesn't like that. This new version I made just includes a few silent samples.
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Sorry, a better link here: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/neogeographica/quakestarter/v2.0.2/quakestarterscripts/modextras/warpspasm/sound/soldier/idle.wav
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OK the comments software here is mangling the links because it sees an underscore as markup. There should be an underscore between quakestarter and scripts in the link. I'll try one more time to make the markdown processor ignore it, then I'll stop spamming this thread. :-)
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/neogeographica/quakestarter/v2.0.2/quakestarter\scripts/modextras/warpspasm/sound/soldier/idle.wav
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Using QSS gives no sound issues, no warning text, sounds are 100% ok, the whole game runs perfect, no glitches, the game runs perfect on windows 7 x 64 bit with a gtx 1080ti, ddr4 16gb ram, with QSS No probs.I think you are looking for problems, that only excist in your o/s or your mind lol
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I have been too hard on Warpspasm in the past. The rough edges and exhausting size of the levels is definitely the point, and once you get into the groove of the absolutely insane density of monsters and just get to blasting... Nothing comes close to the experience you get with this map set. I will say, navigation could have been a bit better, and sometimes the combat felt a bit same-y. There were some great highlights and setpieces, but I just wish something like the Murder Mandala was in an actual map. Looking forward to whatever you've been working on, Ijed
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I played "Warpspasm" some time ago; even though I do intend to replay, eventually. From my original playthrough, best I remember the first map, for the insane soundtrack and "The Thing" vibe. Other map that I remember - the "Bile Plant" - is for amazing soundscape and "Rubicon"-style ambiance, well worth the "Quoth" trademark. The start map, was also impressive. Otherwise than that, I remember little; infact, I remember the pack quality to systematically slide with each consecutive level afterwards the few early mentioned. To me, "Warpspasm" is an idea, an epitome of cosmic horror that "Quoth" spoke about; cemented with flesh, blood and metal - a perfect 'Quake' reiteration - that we never really received in proper form, unfortunately.
perhaps the only mod that I might consider to be better than the base game. absolutely brutal and exhausting, and I mean that in the best way. the first map is a bit lame, and enemy placement can be cruel at times... but the cruelty is the point, no?
Warp Spasm's atmosphere is absolutely immaculate. the map design is incredible, and the music paired with it is impeccable. a nightmarish fusion of metal, stone, and flesh that creates an extremely hostile atmosphere. it must be played to experienced. hands down the best Quake mod I have ever played.
Some of the biggest and baddest (in a good way!) maps ever made. Hearing the soundtrack as you play is A MUST! I CAN NOT STRESS THAT ENOUGH!
It feels like a direct expansion to Quake years later, and then some.
wow... just wow man... I've been playing Quake since it first came out I was like 9 or 10 and and this episode made me feel that wow factor all over again. plus with all hd textures and real time lighting this is so bada$$. great soundtrack too. thanx man... for real...
Are you supposed to immediately have all weapons as soon as you destroy the substation at the start of the first map?
I don't want to cheat.
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Did you read the file's readme?