100 brush competition result pak - Jan 2001 ================================================================ Authors : Many, read below. Organized by Aardappel (Wouter van Oortmerssen) Email Address : aardappel@planetquake.com Web Page : http://www.planetquake.com/aardappel Description : Results of the 100 brush competition (Q1SP). All 14 included maps are made with 100 brushes or less. ================================================================ * Play Information * Single Player : Yes Cooperative : if you are lucky Deathmatch : doubtful Difficulty Settings : no New Sounds : no New Graphics : all custom textures New Music : no Demos Supplied : no ================================================================ INSTALLATION: Unarchive the zip file to a subdirectory of your Quake dir called "100brush". Start your favourite variety of quake with as extra commandline parameter "-game 100brush". In game starting a new game will drop you into the 100 brush start map, where you can change skill settings, and play any of the 14 maps in any order. Have fun! Note: the included progs.dat does just one thing: make sure you start without any extra items in each map. You can play without this mod (just delete it) but that means you will have to type "map start" manually to get rid of extra items, or play a map that gives you runes first. ================================================================ This is the result of the 100 brush competition, a competition held in december 2000 and coordinated by Aardappel, mainly on the mapping message board qmap.org. The rules for the competition were, summarized: Make a Q1SP map with at most 100 brushes, using only custom textures. I have judged the entries myself, looking mainly at the use of the 100 brushes, the resulting architecture and atmosphere, and of course gameplay. I have written short summaries of my opinion of each map below. Congratulations to Gilt for winning first prize, which is rewarded by a $100 book on architecture. ============================================================================== ranking: 1 name: Ouverture author: Gilt [see ouver.txt] stats: 100 brushes, 218 entities, 645k bsp, 89k map file brushes: The only complaint one could have is that it is an easy trick to put everything in a sky box, but the result is impressive. Just about every brush in this map has a non-standard shape, and every brush is used to the max, many used in multiple places during gameplay. This author is one of the few to have fully grasped the intention of this competition. gameplay: Using a great variety of gameplay elements, this map is a lot of fun to play. Difficulty levels are spot on, just keeping you on your toes on easy, and a great battle on hard. Teleporting monsters and moving objects used well. overal: The sort of map I hoped for when starting this competition, and worthy of the 1st prize! ranking: 2 name: Valley of Kingss author: Iikka "Fingers" Keranen [see ik100b.txt] stats: 100 brushes, 196 entities, 557k bsp, 74k map file brushes: Another map which really maxes out the available brushes as the contest intended, with interesting brush shapes to feast your eyes on just about everywhere (my favourite being the 3 brush cartoony bridge!). Like the other top entries, this one should be openened in a map editor to be fully appreciated. Given that this is not a box map, size is quite impressive. Did I mention the completely new texture set? gameplay: Gameplay is solid, and very well balanced on all skill levels (if anything, a touch on the easy side). Nice use of monster triggers and ambushes. overal: This map would have come first, but Iikka generously requested to have someone else win should his entry be the best. ranking: 3 name: Stamppot author: Zippie [see zippie.txt] stats: 100 brushes, 124 entities, 937k bsp, 74k map file brushes: Zippie interpreted my call for "interesting brushes" somewhat differently than most authors, and constructed a map out of twisted and skewed brush shapes that has a fairytale like quality. Coupled with the Alice textures, this has map probably has the best atmosphere of all maps out there. Highly original brushwork, and the authors first (released) map to boot! Shame the map is very small, otherwise impressive. gameplay: Good fun, though doesn't feel very balanced. A bit too easy on easy. Use of rotatable teleport destination "bug" original, and disorienting at first (especially in this kind of map!). overal: Originality and atmosphere made this map rank as high as it does. ranking: 4 name: Sector 98 author: Jose "JAJ" Arcediano [see jaj100br.txt] stats: 98 brushes, 306 entities, 958k bsp, 98k map file brushes: Looks a bit bland at first, but keep looking around and this map contains more interesting brush shapes than obvious at first sight (the rooms are rather square). Most impressive however is the size of this map, the author really made every brush count and gets a high rating because of that. gameplay: The difference between the skill levels is not all that big but adequate. Gameplay is typical base style with packs of grunts and enforcers, and is good fun. Has a touch of non- linearity too. overal: Though this map doesn't really stand out, it impressed me in the way it fullfills the objectives of the contest. ranking: 5 name: Minimal Devastation author: DaMaul [see dam100.txt] stats: 100 brushes, 169 entities, 721k bsp, 77k map file brushes: Just one room, but what a room it is! large and menacing, this map has good atmosphere, and gives the impression of being detailed. The author uses a fair few brushes with interesting shapes, and uses combined textures on them to make the most of his 100 brushes. gameplay: Using a lot of monster triggers, teleports and moving brushes throughout, gameplay is hectic and inventive. Great use of the E1 end monster too. overal: This is a top quality effort, and could have won first price if it hadn't blatantly broken one of the rules: use of custom textures only. The map is full of id textures and textures which are an unmodified combination of id textures, so to be fair to the other entries, I had to mark this map down for it. ranking: 6 name: 100 Hours till Dawn author: Rich "XeNoN" Thorne [see xnq1001.txt] stats: 99 brushes, 235 entities, 5625k bsp, 76k map file brushes: Both interesting architecture and varying areas are packed into this map. It looks good and has a decent size, and makes smart use of brushes. gameplay: Gameplay is good fun, with fighting monsters from different directions at times. Easy is spot on, hard is quite a challenge. overal: An overall good map with atmosphere as its strong point. ranking: 7 name: Scragbait's Drop In Center author: Scragbait [see dropin.txt] stats: 100 brushes, 316 entities, 657k bsp, 87k map file brushes: This map contains a fair few interesting brushes, but somehow this doesn't translate to the look of the map which still looks square and devoid of detail. It contains some good ideas: reuse of areas from different sides, and moving brushes to transform areas without needing a new room. gameplay: nice and hectic, fighting lots of monsters at once. With all the moving floors and walls has a very doom-y feel about it. Spot on difficulty levels. overal: Many very good ideas in this map let down slightly by its looks. ranking: 8 name: Abject Abscess author: Paul J. Brosche (Palldjon) [see abab.txt] stats: 100 brushes, 280 entities, 515k bsp, 75k map file brushes: The author stretches his 100 brushes mainly by skipping detail. the map is above average size and neatly textured, but boring. makes good use of brushes as moving objects, especially at the end where the start area is transformed by removing the middle walls. gameplay: difficulty levels are decent, though hard is quite a challenge (monster infighting can help a lot here, as the map doesn't supply a lot of fire power). overal: enjoyable to play and decent size but very basic brush usage. ranking: 9 name: Fat 100 author: Robert "Fat Controller" Cruickshank [see fat100.txt] stats: 98 brushes, 99 entities, 567k bsp, 57k map file brushes: This is the first map of a number of maps which seems to have taken the contest limitation of 100 brushes as "make a standard map but smaller and no detail". Brushes in this map are not maximised in any way. gameplay: Mainly fighting grunts and enforcers, with a single surprise fight thrown in. Difficulty is decent, though not that balanced. overal: Clearly doesn't comply with the objectives of the contest, and the result is a small map which is not very special. ranking: 10 name: Periwinkle Paranoia author: Noel Lacaillade aka Edgecrusher [see edge1a.txt] stats: 99 brushes, 249 entities, 437k bsp, 72k map file brushes: Yet another interpretation of the contest: to retain the normal size of a map and only use 100 brushes, the author uses enormous out of scale box rooms of the kind I haven't seen in an SP map since '96. This is clearly the ugliest map in the contest, despite the ikblue textures used. On the plus side, this is definitely the largest map in the contest. gameplay: Using the largest number of monsters in the contest in very large packs (especially on normal and hard), the gameplay of this map is different from the others and very doom like. Easy doesn't do it justice, most fun can be had on hard where the amount of monsters far outnumbers the ammo, so most monsters have to be killed by infighting, which is a lot of fun thanks to the large scale which makes it easy to run around them and organize confrontations. I managed to kill all, but 3 monsters still remained as missing? overal: This map would have rated last given the architecture, if only playing it on hard wouldn't have been as much fun. ranking: 11 name: Diez Equis author: Fern [see fern100a.txt] stats: 100 brushes, 111 entities, 677k bsp, 60k map file brushes: My evaluation of this map is similar to #9, but worse yet because it is smaller and clearly "wastes" some brushes. gameplay: Playing this map is good fun while it lasts, with many monsters teleporting in. difficulty levels are decent. It has a bug in that if you don't exit the level immediately after killing the shambler, you won't be able to exit it at all. overal: Again, doesn't get the point of the contest. Very small map. ranking: 12 name: Medieval Minimalism author: Grahf, aka Owen Greenwood [see grahf100.txt] stats: 93 brushes, 182 entities, 449k bsp, 70k map file brushes: Some well used brushes, and the atmosphere is pretty good. Overal, similar to #9: brushes aren't used to the max resulting in a small map. gameplay: Well thought out difficulty settings, but slightly too easy on the whole. Let down a lot by an appearent lack of testing, as this map can't be finished on easy (the vores which aren't present cause an error in quake) and other bugs (two monsters which seem to be stuck in eachother). I suggest you play it on hard. overal: A decent map, which could have ranked higher if it weren't for the bugs. ranking: 13 name: Cliffside Carnage author: Killazontherun [see klz100b.txt] stats: 73 brushes, 72 entities, 444k bsp, 44k map file brushes: I couldn't help but quite like the idea of this map when I first played it, it is quite original. It is still quite short however and the ending seems incoherent. This is the map with the least brushes. gameplay: Good fun on easy and normal, but consistantly a tad too difficult. Finishing with 100% kills on hard would be quite a feat. overal: Not a bad map, but doesn't offer much beyond the idea. Would have been rated higher if balanced better. ranking: 14 name: Shadows author: Killazontherun [see klz100b2.txt] stats: 98 brushes, 114 entities, 445k bsp, 61k map file brushes: A quite small linear construction, with no noteworthy brushwork. On the plus side does contain 3 seperately styled areas. gameplay: Oh dear. I wonder wether this was playtested at all. On easy it is certainly possible, but quite hard. On hard, I wonder if it is possible at all to finish with 100% kills, and I certainly would like to see a demo of it. Think 3 shamblers to start with using ssg/ng, then 3 fiends with little space to move and no health, then another barrage of ogres and hellknights for your axing pleasure. At the end another shambler of course, and a RL to take him down with. May the force be with you. overal: uninteresting map with meaningless gameplay. A worthy last spot. The start map, "100 Brush Brutality" was made by Paul J. Brosche (Palldjon), the author of "Abject Abscess". It contains far more than 100 brushes [see start.txt]. Thanks Paul! ============================================================================== * Copyright / Permissions * You now the drill: don't tamper with the archive or anything in it. Cheers. Distribution in any way is ok. Hey, you could even ask me :) Wouter van Oortmerssen (aka Aardappel)