The 2Base Conversion
On July 29th, 1997 Tapio Haaja released a small Quake One CTF level called The Place of Two Bases. During the time after this I was looking for a job and didn't have a whole lot to do. Since my internet connection was AOL (insert joke here), anytime I played on the net, being a human target was about all I was good for. I was used to playing from a T1 connection at the college I graduated from until then, and was blissfully unaware of this thing people called 'ping'. I found CTFBot, a simulated deathmatch opponent that plays Capture the Flag so I wouldn't have to play over the internet. Needless to say, I played it a lot.
Some levels are much easier to get around on than others for the bots. The levels the bots could get around in best are ones without water or certain other obstacles. In 2base there is a trench the bots would get stuck in, but did well with everything else. (Most probably my fault because they don't have this problem with more recently released waypoint sets.) I asked Tapz if he would let me have the map file (just for use on my computer) to lower the water so the bots wouldn't drown. He graciously gave me the map files and permission.
After buying Worldcraft and playing around with it I realized that basically what I was doing was recreating 2base. I asked Tapz for permission to convert the level over to Q2 and Q3 format and again he gave me permission.
The original Two base is a small level designed with 2-3 people per side in mind. It is very visually appealing, using the standard 'base' themed texture set. It is small and geometrically well built, having only seven areas with hallways connecting them. I've always wanted to have an underground house and 2Base even looks like some of the sketches I've done of what I want minus the top level. Two base is available as an individual level and also in the League of Capture's map pack as ctf3m8. I have only found it being played a couple of times on servers, now quakeworld servers in general seem to be dying off.
The Quake 2 version uses all native textures to you don't have to worry about anything but putting the map in your CTF maps directory (it does require Q2 CTF for textures). I haven't gotten a chance to playtest it much as not many people in the area do much quake 2 anymore.
Other levels that I really like : Tyrants, The Strongbox, The Dapak series, Aerowalk, Basewalk, and TonyCTF8. These levels are all two types. One vs One levels that are atriums with corridors that interconnect them (typified by Aerowalk) and those without a central atrium (Spine). The other is probably best described as an extension of the corridor level with paths crossing over between two bases to form a CTF level. I guess you could say I am a corridor man. This type of level was created as a result of the Quake One engine's limitations that have been extended in later releases.
Files
2baseq2 for Quake Two converted by Doyle Steven Youngblood 179Kb, Originally 401Kb but 7zip compresses much better.Last Modified: April 28th, 2008