UKPAK - 1st release, February 1999 ================================== The UKPAK is a set of teamplay (4on4) maps for Quake 1, made by a group of UK mappers. Installation ------------ Just copy the contents of the ukpak/maps/ dir to your quake/id1/maps/ dir. That's it. If you use a proxy, copy the .loc files in ukpak/locs/ to your proxy's dir. ukpak/guides/ contains graphic guides to all the maps from an overhead view, have a look at these to help you learn the maps faster. the ukpak/readmes/ dir contains the readmes the individual authors have made that may give additional information. The maps -------- This first release contains 8 maps: UKPAK1 by Porky UKPAK2 by Zor UKPAK3 by DaMaul UKPAK4 by Aardappel UKPAK5 by Peej UKPAK6 by Slayer UKPAK7 by Pingu UKPAK8 by Biggus please refer to the individual readme's for more information on these maps, authors homepages, and contact information. Legalese -------- These maps may be freely copied, and played on any server, in any league etc., the only thing we ask for is that if you distribute the UKPAK files you distribute them as a whole and in their original form (the ukpak.zip file). Modifying the included files needs our explicit permission. If you use these maps on a particular server or in some league we'd love to hear about it. As always, if in doubt please contact us. UKPAK goals and history ----------------------- The UKPAK idea started in october/november '98 when me & Porky were thinking about ways to do something structural about the teamplay maps situation. The set of maps being played in leagues and friendlies is very small and mostly the same old id maps. Besides Slayers maps there are very few custom maps suitable for TP (most are simply too small or badly designed). Another thing stopping people from using other custom maps is the fact that usually not everyone has them, and people usually can't be arsed downloading new maps. Our solution was a pak, this way people get a whole set of maps with 1 download, and hopefully its popularity would make sure that everyone has them. We also knew that the UKCL people were interested in new maps. The primary goal for the maps was 4on4 teamplay, and of course designs that promote good teamplay. As you'll find the the maps support a great variety of teamplay, from the low armour/weapons e1m2 style tactical maps to the fast paced armour/RL Slayer style maps and a lot in between, it's all there. Architecture wise we decide we wanted a common theme, but still allow the maps to have their own atmosphere. We chose a base texture set that I called "old industrial" that also borrows from the Q2 waste theme. Throughout the development period of the maps (november '98 to februari '99) the UKPAK team cooperated continuously. From december onwards we had a FTP site where mappers regularly uploaded the latest versions of their maps, so that they could get feedback from others. This was a great as we could help eachother early on, and make sure all maps were up to scratch, and to learn from the other maps or "steal" ideas. As we knew that a pak of custom maps could only succeed if they were all top quality, we decided to vote on which maps would be good enough to be included, and the current 8 are the result of that. Instead of just releasing the maps, we went through painstaking testing sessions, with deadlines for new maps in between. first just with all mappers involved to iron out most basic problems, then a public beta test with a special server Barrysworld set up for us to use. We had many players have 4on4 games on it and this gave us the last bit of feedback needed for final tweaking. ----- Besides the mappers who have done such an excellent job, and have put up with me whipping them into working faster without even getting paid for it, I'd like to thank Barrysworld (www.barrysworld.com) for their support (webhosting and servers), Quake Nation (www.barrysworld.com/nation) for continuous coverage on the project, the UKCL admins (especially Aerotus) for being so couragous to want to use our maps in the league, and of course all those people from the UK Quake community who've helped testing and have given us feedback. ----- Check our website regularly for new maps and paks that we may release. http://www.barrysworld.com/ukpak/ ukpak@barrysworld.com The UKPAK main organizer, Aardappel aka Wouter van Oortmerssen (wvo96r@ecs.soton.ac.uk)