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Celestial Mechanics Q3A

A map for Quake III Arena by Eraser. Published 4 March 2020.
Download from: Dropbox

"Celestial Mechanics" was originally released in June 2001 as a map for Quake III Team Arena (under the name erta1). Now, almost 19 years later, the map is converted for use with Quake III Arena.
This Q3A version of Celestial Mechanics is largely the same as its Q3TA counterpart. It has been retextured so it no longer depends on Q3TA textures and the Q3TA-specific items (Doubler, Ammo Regen, Guard, Nailgun, Kamikaze) have been replaced with Q3A items.

The map plays largely the same as the Team Arena version (although obviously the One Flag CTF, Harvester and Overload gametypes are absent). The inclusion of a medkit and personal teleporter instead of the Team Arena powerups gives a nice twist to the strategic options available but don't have a huge influence on the general flow of play. The central area no longer features a kamikaze powerup and now alternates between spawning a Quad Damage, Haste or Regeneration.

Looks-wise the map closely resembles the original. Geometrically, it's pretty much identical. The TA version made use of many TA specific textures, which have been replaced with vanilla Quake 3 textures. The reds and blues are a bit more saturated and pronounced but other than that, it's a pretty close match. The biggest most obvious change has been the replacement of the Vortex Portal-style teleporters with what looks like 80's holo grid wormhole openings that hyperspace you (if that's a verb anyway) to another location. The map also includes an updated in-game cinematic.

The filename of this map is ermap2, despite the fact that ermap3 and ermap4 already exist. The erta1 map was the second map ever released by the author, but this was before he decided to adopt the ermapX naming convention. The most logical name for this Q3A conversion of the map would therefore be ermap2.