I agree with Locutus_MP. It is a map with shortcomings. Unmentioned is the elevator which has a negative impact on the flow and the bots. In Golconda by Bal you see how things are better layed out. Sort of the same verticallity but better use of jumppads and tele's.
Edited 16.05 minutes after the original posting.

Good atmosphere here! I often found myself falling down to the lowest level but other than that, this is a good map and it flows well.

The map looks nice.

Wow, six years on !! When this map first came out we were like ... woahl !! And this map was only Bal's first outing. Both simple and stunning at the same time. I can remember some good games on this map over the years.

Demos recorded on third-party maps are a rarity, so you may want to know that a demo recorded on this map was posted at XSReality www.xsreality.com/ a couple of days ago.

(The demo is recorded under PR1.17, so it will be broken by later point releases, alas!)

Go to the demos page, and under Search select Quake3 as the game and bal3dm1 as the map. Leave All gametypes and All events selected. Download and enjoy!

This map has some nice, detailed architecture, and on my system is lit just fine (i really don't see the problem). However, i can't really call it anything more than a mediocre map because of the lack of flow, the aforementioned clipping problems, and some just plain bizarre design decisions on the part of the author.

To start off, the level is very nicely done as far as architecture and detail is concerned. From there, though, it really loses its appeal. The flow doesn't work at all. The numerous teleporters do try to restore some of the missing flow, but i think that's a cheap workaround. Too many teleporters makes it impossible for a chase to take place in the level and make the learning curve for new players entering the level all that much steeper. The clipping problems could easily have been avoided by using the clip brush (so far as i can tell, this level doesn't use ANY clip brushes) on all of the rocks. Even with the rocks around the haste clipped off, the player can reach the haste by falling from the roof. And if you REALLY want the player to use the rocks, you should have added another wall or more rocks to make it so they couldn't see the bottom box of the sky. It just looks like crap, and it's the responsibility of the map designer to make it impossible for that crap look to show through. The questionable design decisions: 1) Advertisements. i've never liked them. Having a flashing Q3A sign is one thing. Advertising a website within a level is just kind of cheap and detracts from the atmosphere. How can you feel like your running around in some exotic locale when there's a blaring screen advertising where you can download other levels like it online? To me that's just cheesy. 2) The teleporters. This would be better if you had one or two teleporters. By themselves, there's really nothing wrong with the style used. But because of the sheer number of the teleporters, it would have been better if players could see where they were going beforehand. Also, to newbie players, the don't look anything at all like teleporters. More like strange-looking windows that look out to nothing. 3) The water (???). Why did you use a plain water texture for a liquid that hurts you? You should have used slime or lava, or at the very least the water-looking texture with electricity flashing across the surface. When you combine the fact that the liquid looks like harmless water with the spot in the map where there's a large pool of it at a dead end, you get alot of pissed off people who get hurt because they think that there's an underwater tunnel or something there, and then find out that not only is it a useless dead end, but it kills you! In my opinion, it just doesn't work.

Overall, i'd say the map is a nice attempt, but fails gameplaywise in various areas. A few more tweaks and the map would work a hell of alot better. i give it a 5.

Really nice and open. The clip brush is the only problem.

Vary cool map but whats up with some of these custom maps that insist on being run on unpure servers? Is there any way to run them on pure servers?

Wonderful looking map and not a common look. I found its team play not so good but in ffa I enjoyed it. A little problem that it seems to have is that bots doesn't seem to take the blue sphere but well nothing sure. Could have gave it a 10 but because of the possible problem mentionned above and the weakness in team, I gave it 9.

I was a bit slow in getting this one but I finally did. It's a ton of fun, with all those tiers and the MH on top of the building. And no, it's not as dark as the screenshot indicates; in fact I find this map very well lit! My only bugger is the tightness of the coridors. You can't go strafe-jumping all over the place without hitting a wall or a corner. A strong 8 in my book.

I have a lot of fun playing it with bots. Layout reminds me some classic custom Q1DMs and outer rocks break standart wall perimeter style. Gibbing is fast and furious. Didn't notice any repeatability in gameplay. Nice map for my tiny HD.

Pretty cool, except for the fact that I can get to places and see the bottom of the skybox.

If attention was paid to inhibiting the player's movements (just as important as connectivity/architecture/texturing), this would get an 8, but I've gotta mark it down for the skybox thing and being a bit too dark...

I think you have to play it for a while to figure out how to strategicvally use the teleporters. It's nice. I tell you, try this level with the CLock Bot Mod and you'll be having an awesome time. AGain, gameplay is the true test...this has it.

i was shocked, it got so many good comments, but when i played it i was thinking to myself, "thats it?" to me it felt too small and i found myself going over the same path way too many times, i like a map to have variety, but this one just didnt cut it for me, sorry bal!

(5)

oops, just noticed that Bal had already advised!!

Message to 007MIKE - I had the same problem with the map not running (happened with SENN's minefields as well)- and I turned 'Pure sever' to 'off' and it worked (wierd).

off topic a bit, but my comp. crashed (lost my mainboard) and I lost all my links. What's the link to Peej and Fribbs page of map reviews, etc.? Anyone know/?

tHANKS!

Well Ball if you don't now it must be my computer i'll check it again. still thanks for looking at the problem.

Re: the clipping comments. The main problem I saw was the one you referred to (by the Haste); I probably would have taken the time to build a bit of a secondary wall there (but then I'm a nitpicky bastard :-). The other parts were mentioned by Octovus below: (i.e. you can walk along the rocks in most places and see the HOM below.)

Thanks Bal! It worked (sorry Tigger-oN yours didnt..but hey my pc vid problems have been fixed) Excellent MaP!! I did not find a good place to camp. Campers will die in this map and fast! The bots played well as the kicked my ass in the first half of the map. I do like the sky and did not see any HOM effects until i biffed it in the red armor room and fell into the blue sludge.(lava,whatever it was) I give it a 9. it needs touch ups and less power ups (4 grenade packs on the roof..come on) Other than those nit picks..besides there is no shortage of eye candy. Eye candy + fast game play = Bal's new rock ass death match.It is defanatly worth the d load baby!

Sir Frags A Lot, ugh, sorry man, dunno whats could be going wrong =( dont really see how my map could make ur pc crash... what system u running on??

-Benoit "Bal" Stordeur
bal.spawnpoint.org/

Bal I liked your level at least the 5 seconds I saw it than it hangs tried your sv_pure 0 guess what didn't work any more bright ideas could be my computer but the other custom made levels did work so???????

Architecture, layout, lighting and design all very well done here. Item placement is just about right.

I'd have to say that the only thing I don't like about this map is the way you can look down at the sky below that dark block (what is that supposed to be?) beyond and below where the haste spawns. Regardless of this flaw- I still give it a 9.

This is one of the very best for Q3 so far. I found no problems with it. The lighting was spot on, I didn't really notice any HOM's by the sky. The layout was very well, and the level looked superb. If I had to find something I didn't like about it, perhaps that the red-armor room is a dead-end and the main area could have looked even better. But otherwise this is top stuff.

I especially like in the main area how you can be being chased and then duck down a level into the teleport and it turns the fight completely around as you end up behind them.

Great map really, just as Tig said "don't go looking for small errors like me". The odd texture was slightly misaligned but the one problem (which actually imo hurt gameplay) was that you could walk all along all the green rock sections. I only assume that this was intentional in the haste area, but you could walk all along the rock on the upper level (with the gl and the mh) and in the rock area near the rl/ya. But still great atmosphere, in that there was one but it didn't "overpower" anything else, and good bot play though the elevators did sometimes confuse them. =( Nice job and keep 'em coming!

Happy Fraggin! Octovus

(8 outa 10)

Thanks for the feedback.

About the various issues...

First, for those of u who cant run the damn thing, try typing sv_pure 0 in the console before, i really dont understand why the map would need it, but ive seen it not work on some pcs cause of it (and work fine on other machines, strange...)

About the brightness, looks find on my pc =) sorry

About the clipping, i know seeing the bottom of the skybox is ugly, but ur supposed to be climbing on those rocks in the haste area, didnt want to have to build a secondary rock wall around it. Other then that i dont see where the rock clipping problems are... could u guys be more precise? =)

btw, thanks to tigger-on for the great review site!

-Benoit "Bal" Stordeur
bal.spawnpoint.org/

OO7MIKE - yep.. works fine on my win2k box, and a winNT4 box. You may also want to try /r_ingorehwgamma 1 (or 0, can't remeber) to improve the brightness problem on win2k

also this ain't a hardware help site :]

Yeah, it's a good map but the clipping kinda gets me too. I hate seeing the bottom of the skybox from certain angles. It reminds me alot of Frib's Biohazard in terms of the levels with halls inbetween them. Overall, very nice =)

Scampie: working with Tigger has advantages.. I beat him with a wet sock until he looked at this map. Must've liked it and it skipped the queue.

This map is pretty good.

I thought the overall design on this map was gorgeous and unique, and the gameplay was quite good as well, but like Tig (or perhaps more so), I was put off by the lack of clipping on the rocks. It really ruins the sense of immersiveness when you see a HOMing skybox at every turn :-P

This seems like it would be pretty easy to fix--c'mon, Bal, how 'bout a properly clipped version? Pretty please?

Some maps NOT many just wont run. I know a level wont work if no snapshot comes up while loading. That and i cant even adjust the brightness in the game. I have 2 settings..dark and even darker. Wow that sums it up! It seems no one but me has this problem. None of the options on my geforce improve it any. Reinstalling does nothing. So Erlandr have any ideas?

I'm running win 2000, and it seemed to run perfectly. What kind of problems did you have?

I = If (i feel like a cave man now!)

I anyone with win 2000 got this to work speak now!

why is it that this map was able to skip being in the map queue? wierd...

but a good map none the less. one of my faves

I would like to give this map a score (i really would) but i was simply kicked back to my q3 main menu!! OOOOh the mystery of what could have happened in win 2000.(yes i do have the latest patch)

The brightness was ok for me as well. Beautiful map with great gameplay. Way to go Bal!

Hi Vondur!

"U r0x0rz!" lol

This map r0x0rz!

/me waiting for triangular lights :)

Nice map with solid gameplay. I didn't find it to dark either. Maybe they should up their gamma a little...

What's all the complaining about being too darK? Seriously? I didn't find it too dark at all. I usually keep my monitor at: Contrast 100; brightness 50-69...just depending.

Anyway, I didn't think it was too dark...just turn up the brightness, eh? (u do that for the Threewave maps too, no?). Anyway, this map has great atmosphere, great verticle playability, and the always nifty custom-looking tele's that I appreciate. I thought it was a solid effort and alot of fun vs. DOOM.

Perhaps a bit more use of curves and a quad powerup might have been fun, but that is just me. Adios!

this map is greatly above average.i too believe its a bit

dark.