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What an unexpected at the time and absolutely outstanding piece of work! 🏞️ This is probably the largest Quake 3 map I have ever seen. I could've probably commented (and registered) back when Martinus was here, but my English wasn't too good at the time :) One thing I could've never done, however, is to guess that remaking a WoW map for Q3 may be such an awesome idea C:
This level is a paradise for lovers of diversified landscapes in video games, and I'm definitely one of them:) Gameplay-wise such type of ground, with constantly varying height, allows for some maneuvers against campers, which I think is especially important on an enormous map like this. It helps move faster by side jumps, too — sometimes you can begin to implement a jump on the top of some slope and then go down the slope while in the air, at that from time to time you're able to use smaller pits as grounds to push off from. There are some buildings to hide inside on this level, but occasionally that is even possible thanks to the landscape alone itself. For example, you can dive deeper into the river or take cover under the roof of the tiny building that spawns weapons for you, because of how great the depth of the alcove it's located in is :)
Along with that, the size of this map involves the fact that the path from your base to the enemy base is a very fun journey, in case of some of the team game types, like CTF or Double Domination. Matter fact, one thing I found out about this map in the \devmap mode is that if you go to one of the bases and attempt to use the Grappling Hook (with the help of "\give grappling hook" command) to get to the other one, you won't be able to implement it just because of how far they're located from each other 😅
In my opinion, another interesting thing about this distance is that it gives the map an almost single-player explorative feel and the impression of progressing through the level. First, you start your path from one town hall / your base, next you dive into the atmosphere of a journey where you keep staying for a good while, and then you arrive at the other town hall / enemy base. Once you've done it, you can grab the enemy team's item like a flag or a skull if necessary, and finally direct yourself back to "homeland". Then, if you choose a different path to return, you will experience one even more adventure! The aforementioned is especially impressive if you consider the level's openness, because as far as I know, it's really not easy to properly render huge open-spaced maps, although in modern times it's probably not as big of an issue as it used to be.
Exactly! :)
It's wonderful to know that you can go on such a trip in games built on different engines. I truly admire the fact that World of Warcraft's Arathi Basin was remade for id Tech 3 this exact way, because I definitely enjoy the smoothness, physics and feeling of familiarity of the id Tech engine series. Moreover, this map is compatible with both TA and OA, and with all their game types, including CTF, One Flag CTF, Overload, Harvester, Elimination, CTF Elimination, LMS, Double Domination and Domination, just like Martinus states in the readme file!
...except Tig. Hi Tig, how are you? :)
How not to read a file that is made by the author of the level, contains some useful info about it and literally says to you: "ReadMe"? 😜
Actually, I usually play THEBASN in Open Arena, because that's where the map loads very easily and doesn't even require you to increase com_hunkmegs :}
Without that the bot support wouldn't be exist. Bots plays suprisingly pretty well in my opinion, but they can meet issues nevertheless.
Obrigado, maestro! 🎩 I have to give credit to Martinus for making proper bot support for this level, because this is indeed one of the largest maps in Quake 3 that I'm familiar with, and not only it has the AAS file, but also the bots don't just camp, but actually play and move around the map.
This was a hard part of the making. I had no idea how to add a good item placement system to the map.
So here how it works on the map:
On every base you can get power-ups/holdables, but only one spawns at a time per base. (3x chanche to get haste because of theres no mounts in Quake 3)
You can get weapons the same way (muliple weapons can spawn on the bases but only one of them. These bases are: Mine, Farm, Stables, Lumbertmill)
Also you can get more than one weapon too. (At the main bases and at the Blacksmith)
Railgun is obtainable with high chance at Lumbertmill and also with low chance at Mine.
This! The item placement is without a doubt one of the most amazing and amusing things about this map. All weapons are present (except maybe an MG that would be able to spawn and the Grappling Hook, but I don't think the level needs the first), including even the BFG10K and even all additional TA weapons, like Chaingun, Nailgun and Prox Launcher. There's also extrêmement beaucoup, ale naozaj že veľa, many, mucho, много, 許多, كثير, अनेक, but a lot of items in this piece of art, and even Kamikaze and Invulnerability are present, which by the way is something that makes the gameplay much more memorable and diversified. Their placement inside some smaller buildings (which in fact feel like some cosy barracks in the middle of the field), just like the placement of the syringe Medkits, makes sense and usually serves a great opportunity to either go with a boom 💥, repel some attacks 🛡 or completely heal up 💉, depending on the item. I'm not familiar with the WoW universe at all, and thus don't really distinguish bases' names, but the important part for me is that I like it the way it is here ;)
One more interesting fact to note about THEBASN is that it has all the major power-ups, ... except one. Flight. I asked myself: "Why doesn't this map have any Flight items?", and immediately found the answer: because
For whoever on this map decides to float
The damage that they will receive will be loads
😅
Seriously, this map has several Railguns, and one of them is located in a King of the Hill kind of sector, while other ones are in a deep pit that allows for players to sneak upon opponents. I think in most of the cases anyone with an RG has a ticket to fun for n slugs C: The feasibility of repelling a rail in the world of distance is already very often questionable per se, not to mention such a scenario for flying players :]
One even more interesting gameplay element on this level is the factor of randomness for some of the weapons and items that spawn around the map. It can be whatever: weapons, power-ups and even some less or more exclusive items. Well, at some point all of them are exclusive because every time an item spawns it "excludes" all those that had spawned before and are no longer present :) For me, this is exactly what the magic is, both for entertaining purposes and, of course, gameplay-wise. You never know which weapon/item will come next or already awaits you, and you do buy a pig in a poke, but it's always worth it thanks to its value. You know that you will like the timbre of grunting (sorry Grunt), whatever it is 😆 I like to keep standing in this somewhat cosy and somewhat spooky waterless canyon and guessing what weapon will spawn next, especially considering that nearby there's a valuable item (the one in the cart), such as Regeneration, Quad Damage or even Kamikaze. I also appreciate the fact that in other places the spawns of different specific items are randomised too — it pushes you to make better tactical decisions so that you don't depend on the same items in the same places and that you don't attach your strategy's moves to particular areas.
The grass is well and carefully executed, maybe the lighting could have been tweaked a little bit so that the buildings seem brighter, too. I'll write the next sentence in Small so that I don't spoil. The BFG secret gives the player an opportunity to have some good parkour times, and the weapon itself looks really cool on the top of the roof with Martinus' BFG model, in my opinion. Also, thumbs up for the Quakecute on this level, as this is some really fine motor work! The hearth in the boiler room feels especially cosy, so for me it's often a good idea to visit that area. The architecture is very impressive thanks to its detailedness and diversity, and from what I could see, manages to recreate the original WoW buildings very well.
However, I'd also like to provide my critics so that I'm more complete in my statements. I definitely wouldn't mind the opportunity to rocket jump over the fence to get to town halls, more options to get out of the river and less invisible walls. I also think that a Grappling Hook would have really come in handy, and maybe some smaller dead spots around the map could have made the gameplay even better. As for the Grappling Hook, I think this level is literally the most suitable for this weapon among all the Q3 maps I've ever seen, so I like to sometimes load this map in the \devmap mode :)
Other than that, The Basin is an obvious 5/5 and an absolute keeper for me, since it feels fresh, durable, adventurous and has a lot of verticality and diversified landscape! @Martinus If you're reading this, I'd like to let you know that your maps are usually very rich in visuals, smooth texture-wise and attractive, at that behind them they have an idea that is properly executed! This one, THECOURTYARD, Q3MAP_UNHOLYSANCTUARY_V1D and BLACKH are some of the most visually appealing custom Q3 maps I've ever seen! As for this map, it manages to keep the gameplay on a very high level even despite its asymmerty in places (which I think is also a good thing)!
In my opinion, releases like this are also definitely needed in and for our Quake 3 community, as it shows how much we've moved forward in terms of techniques and opportunities from 1999 to today. Don't get me wrong, new classic maps technically and spiritually close to the habitual vanilla standards are more than welcome for me and are the fundamental element and undeniable key to success and proper continuation of our history. However, I think mappers should not be afraid to try new features and implementation of new concepts thanks to them, just like they do on GZDoom, DSDA-Doom and so on. Numerous engine opportunities on different source ports, which promise great future thanks to community's many years and even decades of work. When it comes to source ports, we have some really decent software to impress the player with, such as ioQuake3, Quake3e, Spearmint etcetera. At the end of the day, with more intensive appearance/apparition and bigger range of custom maps with advanced features it's significantly more likely for some new intentions of further engine improvement, porting and overall amelioration to come. This map doesn't run on slower devices for me either, but that was explicitly stated by Martinus in the readme:
It's true that sometimes we need to make a choice whether we want more new awesome features and technical progress or better compatibility with what we already have and are used to. I think that as long as there are enough maps and mods, including newer releases too, that have the standard or habitual compatibility, it's absolutely not a crime to create something built on a more advanced engine. Quake Live has an autohop feature, for instance (cg_autohop). id Tech 3 has VQ3 and CPM physics which highly inspired both DeFRaG and Quake Champions. Not to mention all the amazing stand-alone games that we have and that were built with the use of ioQuake3 and id Tech 3, such as Open Arena, World of Padman, Urban Terror (not exactly my cup of tea, but still)...
Martinus managed to recreate and bring a very significant part of a tremendous-size map from a classic third-person MMORPG to an incredible arena first-person shooter with the support of offline and bots, and even made a proper AAS file, adapted the entire gameplay, visuals, scale and geometry. In addition, as kind mappers usually do, that was made for free for people to enjoy. These are some even more reasons why I think that this is some absolutely brilliant work.
P. S. I appreciate the Quake logo on the top of the little Stella too 😅
Edited 12.32 days after the original posting.
Edited 51 seconds after the original posting.
with any settings my Q3 crashed. And I read the README.
Martinus please! Give us maps we can PLAY…
I really really really hope the upcoming OpenArena will bring better engine limits.
Edited 1.07 minutes after the original posting.
