[map] The Cruel Dozen

[bonifarz]

The Cruel Dozen is a map for time-trial enthusiasts who are looking for a tough challenge. It consists of twelve rooms, most of which involve one single impulse-combo-jump.

cruelDozen.0.3.zip

Difficult trial map (includes a demo recording, 2:35)

(607.84 KiB) Downloaded 376 times

Warning:

Casual time-trial players may suffer from head-bang-on-keyboard syndrome. Consider to practice advanced moves before playing this map.

No, this is not a joke.

Considering the variety of required movement techniques and the precise timing needed for some challenges, this is technically the hardest map I have seen so far. With technically I refer to the fact that there are no pushers, triggers, visual distractions or passages without checkpoints that may feel random or unfair. If you get stuck, have a look at the demo.

NOTE: This map is a remix and expansion of HardCore, which was originally created by [RM]Temka and later remade, polished up and enlarged by TristamK. I would like to put TristamK as the first author here, given that he agrees with the changes and additions i made. I am open to suggestions for another map title. For details, see the file cruelDozen.txt.

[Ulukai]

I like the style of this map and must complement the nice teleporter effects :-)
I'm having some difficulties to get over some obstacles but I'm having fun trying. I'm going to pick this up later when I have more time but it's really nice. I might need to take a look at the nice wiki page you wrote up before going into that map again...

[bonifarz]

Yeah, TristamK was very creative with the shader params on the portals. I was surprised you can achieve such nice effects at all
The texture set is also his choice, i only changed the lighting by introducing the skybox windows.
Also, I had the impression that people had fun with this map in multiplayer despite of the cruel difficulty. It seems watching others in spec mode and running together is still a good way to face such challenges. This works much better with the SVN trunk since we can spectate without losing checkpoints (ticket 610). Thanks again for that very quick and useful update, Quin.

[Ulukai]

Haha, same here: no idea that this effect could be done. The guy is really good.
1 suggestion I have is to make the walls with death material look a bit more deadlier. Maybe a pulsing red glow in the concrete textures there might help.

[bonifarz]

Radiant, who has shown some incredible runner skills on this map, made a good point: The eleventh section is way too easy compared to the tenth or ninth.
With this update, I tried my best to make the spin-jump challenge a tough one. The room can be passed in two ways for sure, but both require some very precise timing.
I put the attachment down here for two reasons:

• The replay (dmo file) does not work with this
• Maybe it is too difficult now

EDIT: Right, the start points were still set for testing only. Compromise: If and only if you pick the expert mutator, you start in room 11.

[radiant]

Update: The new room works quite well for expressing the power of wall kicks. Somehow it looks more cramped now, but doable.

Here's a demo for the new version. Failed attempts abound for about the first quarter of the timer.

[bonifarz]

Very nice dmo, radiant. =)

I just made an update with some adjustments to rooms 10 and 11. Kicks are a bit more difficult now. I tried to supply a demo, but did not have the patience to make a really good one.

Since only start checkpoints start the timer in svn, i added some teleports that allow you to access all other rooms from room zero: Just launch at the ceiling for testing or practice.

[radiant]

Here, you can have this demo. Only two unintentional deaths this time, and those deaths and other glaring errors amount to losses of about 1.9, 2.0, and 7.7 seconds, in case you're trying to find out how low you can expect a "perfect" run to clock in at.