Reiterating my argument from akm1: I'd very gladly give this a 9/10 instead, if given the opportunity, as this is a very good release but not on the same level as something like Honey or Rubicon 2, IMO.

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@otp

Granularity in an aggregated ratings system is universally a bad idea. A 3/5 can mean something completely different from one person to another.

There's a reason why most websites have moved to a thumbs up/down system.

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Well, I don't know about "most websites". I know that YouTube moved to thumbs up/thumbs down because 5 stars and 1 stars were the vast majority of ratings left. I'm making a safe assumption that other enterprises followed suit for a similar reason (or for none).

And even still, YouTube does sometimes bring up a prompt with a request to rate a video on a 1-5 scale, for whatever algorithmical reason.

Having administrated https://www.jazz2online.com/ for almost 15 years and counting, I'm aware that increasing rating granularity tends to bring diminishing results over time, and that it's a pointless experience to try and reverse-quantify the actual meaning of ratings like 7.3 and 7.4, or 82% and 83%.

There is probably also an argument to be had that granularity in the lower half of the range serves no purpose - you probably don't need 6 different ways to say "I didn't like this map".

However, my point still stands - there's currently 269 uploads on Quaddicted with a 5/5 rating, from my own experience I can tell that there's still a wide variance of quality between all of those, which is not appropiately reflected by the rating. This also makes the rating an useless metric for the average end user who will often want to check only the very best of the best.

And inversely, this would also mean the people who weren't as fond of Ter Shibboleth didn't have to place it in the "worst possible rating" tier alongside all the fullbright, unexitable boxmaps from 1997.

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I'd suggest you take these thoughts into a forum thread? I have some input on this but won't post it hidden in a discussion thread of a release.

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Its great!

Thank you for this peace of work. The graphics are AAA and the gameplay is challenging.

Best wishes Gunny Highway

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Great maps. Show completed when you finish so you won't be playing levels twice.

Great Christmas present in a wack year. Do a new years/2020 pack!

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Hi, I'm using the markv engine and in the menu when I try to view the maps of Arcane Dimensions (from the "Levels" option) the engine crashes and the error message "Can't open adrock1" is displayed. I looked and "ad_rock1" isn't among the maps. Same error with the Xmasjam2020 pack. Can somebody help me fix this?

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Alex, Mark V's level menu just doesn't seem to work with AD as it's trying to parse some bsp files it shouldn't. Unfortunately there's no fix unless you want to fix Mark V, just use the map command in the console or use the start maps like in other engines.

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Thank you, good to know.

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Bal's map here is something else

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Cool collection of maps

How do I get back to playing the actual Arcane Dimensions maps though? When I type Map Start it takes me to the XMAS hub

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Never mind, I made a separate folder called "XMAS" in my directory with all of these maps instead.

Bal's map was awesome!

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Outstanding level architecture and level design hindered by cruel enemy placement. Vores and Shamblers spawning out of thin air on open arenas with no way to take cover myself, multiple stacked Spawn on underwater corridors ready to blow you up or Fiends jumpscaring me on pitch black mazes and usually getting out of ammo let me believe I was playing some sort of halloweenjam...

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Hi, I did a complete walkthrough on Nightmare:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr4HZzMzIWs&list=PLl2feK8Fmw9uqzuVVxpBHfSOR979YuR

I didn't like Village of Claws and Hrim Hrevenge, the arenas were balls to the wall not fun, Knowledge is not Made for Understanding was a little more permissive...

All is Dust is a good concept but also ruined by its difficulty, there was no need to start with 20 hp...

I personally don't like these maps where you have to memorize it 100% to have a chance of success...

Nice architecture overall, though, looking forward to next year's jam...

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Artistical, Edgar Froese's PA701 is interesting choise for soundtrack

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[I had to replace language and discussion that was out of place here.

See https://www.quaddicted.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=847 for what happened next...

-Spirit]

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1) Vasya shkolnik, that kind of language is not welcome here. Keep your expletives at home and don't stink up the community like that.

2) I am not going to allow political discussion to take place here, that path leads to a toxic environment and is completely out of place for a gaming archive.

A comment like "I don't like the political aspects of XXX's map" is perfectly ok. Discussing their contents is not.

Thanks for understanding. Anyone who posts on the topic in this comment feed again risks their account.

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I really enjoyed Red Ranger (xj2020_vbs), with its novel challenge of surviving with single hit-point and absolutely no weapon until discovery of the axe, and with its unusual theme of clearing out a ruined tenement building. Really solid work, and with a satisfying rooftop climax.

House of Cards (xj2020_ish) was confusing but fun. It was a surprise to start both of my first two maps with no weapon and low health, but this time there's a nice and brief backstory here that explains your predicament.

After I reached the staircase that takes you up and down into differet areas from the one you started in (you know what I mean), I was reduced to wandering around searching for something new, which I did find the form of newly spawned monsters. But I would have preferred to have a stronger sense of what I was trying to achieve.

Microcosmosophy (xj2020_ionotp) is a lovely example of doing a lot in a small space. It goes through areas representing most of an ID episode all within its 1024x1024x1024 boundary, offering some horrible ambushes and a very generous 13 secrets (of which I found nine). Consistently interesting, and hard enough to give a real sense of accomplishment on completion.

We have a winner!

Nuclear Winter is Coming (xj2020_heresy) is by far the best 1024x1024x1024 map I've ever played. It's beautiful to look at, fascinating to explore, satisfying to fight in and filled with secrets (I got nine of the ten, and particularly enjoyed the triple-shotgun secret). And as it that were not enough, that is an excellent endgame in which the castle is repopulated with four Christmas-themed monsters. Truly outstanding and easily worth five stars all on its own.

Well, in the end I gave up and god-moded for the last part of the incessant arena combat near the end of Hrim Hrevenge (xj2020_grome). Which is shame, because I was really enjoying it up to that point: a claustrophobic exploration using RRP textures and enjoyably tactical combats. And I enjoyed the code, too, working my way back to the start of the map to reach the exit teleport. But, really, there is only so much running round and round an arena that I can take.

It would have been a 5/5 map for me if only that arena combat had ended a few rounds earlier.

Yuletide Slayer (xj2020_greenwood) is a lovely example of how a relatively constrained map can work really well as a coherent and complete whole, rather than feeling like a disconnected assemlage of chunks from a bigger map. What really makes it stand out is the combats: in monster selection and positioning, it feel like the author again and again asked himself "What would be fun to fight here?"

All Is Dust (xj202_entsoy) provides a fascinating location and some great atmosphere, but rather spoils it with ridiculously too-hard combats where you find yourself repeatedly fighting zombie hordes without explosives while in single-digit health. In the end I shrugged and god-moded through a couple of the more ludicrous parts. Shame — it was nearly outstanding.

Nice and simple in Ghadamons pit (xj2020_dfl), where you have to climb your way up to the top of a cubic open area, fighting along the way. Perhaps relies a bit too much on monsters spawning in, but it's always pleasant to see the jump-boots put in an appearance.

We Can All Fly (xj2020_chrisholden) is interestingly different, a science base with only 12 enemies, all robotic, which must be avoided on an unarmed climb to the top where a weapon is found. Only then can they be eliminated, and the exit found. Doesn't take long to play, but it's fun while it lasts.

What a marvellous piece of invention is Eternal Return (xj2020_bal) — a map taking place in a 1024 cube, which is nevertheless infinite in extent. I've never seen anything like this before, and the execution of the wrapping architecture is flawless. Of course, nothing comes for free, and monsters and items can suddenly vanish and reappear as you pass the boundaries, but that if anything adds to the eerie atmosphere of this bizarre floating city. Great stuff.

Igneous (xj2020_artistical) is perfectly competent, but short and honestly a bit lacking in inspiration. The ssslllooowww prologue adds nothing, and the ending is anticlimactic. Sorry.

Lovely work in I Climb the Stairs, Wearing My Best (xj2020_strideh), and excellent demonstration that a map can be small but still memorable. It takes place around a huge drill which you must sabotage, fighting with only the plasma gun. Progression is largely vertical, with small waves of enemies warping in when you perform elements of the sabotage. Really fun to play, and lovely to look at.

From the moment of entering Village of Claws (xj2020_ shades) I was stuck by how lovely it was to look at, and looked forward to exploring this beautiful environment. How deeply disappointing, then, to find that it's merely an intense and tactically vacuous arena fight surrounded by invisible walls.

I just god-moded. And as the combats escalated into ever more ludicrous overmatching, I've never been more glad to have done so. A ridiculous waste of architecture.

Gay kisses for Christmas (xj2020_quasiotter) is all kinds of weird. I enjoyed the theme of helping the Quake-world denizens for once, instead of killing them, but I would gave preferred less out-there textures, so that the maze of rooms, ramps and passages felt more navigable. It was too easy to get lost — though the map is small enough that it wasn't too hard to just wander around until I re-found (say) the silver-key door. Anyway, refreshingly different. C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la Quake!

I loved all the exploration and rooftop climbing of Removing Canyon Invaders (xj2020_qmaster1), though the combats felt a bit mundane my comparison. My only real complaint is that, having obtained the gold key, the rest of the level was anticlimactic, with no further enemies. A bit of repopulation would really have helped. Oh, and the skybox! Beautiful!

There is an astonishing amount of gameplay packed into Pentori Aurum (xj2020_qalten): four differently themed sub-quests that can be taken in any order, one final quest, and a coda, all making up a story of sorts. How all that fits into the 1024^3 cube is amazing — each of the individual quests twists and turns, and at various points on any given quest you see glimpses of the others through windows and breaks in the walls. At 120 kills (including a little bit of spawning) there is plenty of combat, and there's also a lot of variation between one fight and the next. The whole thing took me 35 minutes to complete, which is pretty amazing for a cube-map.

So far, so outstanding. What stops this short of being among the very very best maps is the ugliness of the build: both architecture and lighting are poor, perhaps because of the limited timeframe to get the map done in time for the jam. But those cosmetic problems are easy to forgive in light of the sheer amount of stuff here.

Market Cube (xj2020_pinchy) is lovely to look at, but disappointing to play. The bulk of the game happens in an underground flooded area, and results in your obtaining the gold key. Then you have to snipe your way to safety from the cover of the gold-key shed, and then ... that's it. I thought the gold key would take me to the next area, but instead the map just ended. It left me wanting to visit all the areas I could see.

And so to Knowledge is not made for understanding; it is made for cutting (xj2020_naitelveni). This is just a very very long and very chaotic arena battle which I admit I got bored of trying to survive legitimately, and instead god-moded through. I feel like there are big difficulty issues here.

A Door-Key Level (xj2020_mux) seems to be the last level available from the main hub, and what a great one to end on. It's a beautifully inventive floating castle, half ruined and full of secrets and surprising paths. Very well balanced diffculty meant I was often low on health or ammo, without ever feeling it reached the point of taking the fun out of it. And I loved the super-secret climax, where you get the joy of the rocket launcher in exchange for the curse of the scrag-mother. An absolutely marvellous achievement in 1024^3.

Sorry, I meant xj2020_muk, not xj2020_mux!

Is there a legitimate way to get to xj2020_qmaster2? I see it in the maps directory, but no portal to it from the start map.

I had a blast with most of the maps in this pack! It's way past Christmas time, but ho, ho, ho to all you Merry Mappers who contributed.

There were definitely some five-star maps there! Thank you all!