[Micky C]

Ok, this has been long overdue. Looking back I should have done things differently but I've been polishing certain aspects of it off until I was satisfied with it as a first map.

I'll try to keep the description short:

-You need polymer and dukeplus 2.07 or later.
-Difficulty settings have been implemented for replay value but not fully tested.
-I've used a few large spotlights in some areas, which look good for the most part but you need a beefy computer, I'd suggest nVidia geforce 9800 GT or better.
-There's about two lines of plot in the .txt but to sum it up, kill everything, hit the self destruct to blow the place up (which we never get to actually see )
-Gameplay is linear and action orientated, with minimal puzzles, hence the name (which is also a reference to an Australian tv channel slogan)
-There are a lot of hidden areas in this map with ammo and stuff, you'll need to try to save up the heavy stuff from these places for the final boss, which is

Spoiler

a queen miniboss with x6 health

.

Have some outdated screenshots (they don't spoil quite as much :




This release is not considered final! I am open to criticism and am willing to make minor changes. But note I've been working on this thing for a while and if the suggested changes are too hard or take too long I might not bother.
edit: there's a button in the park which does a few things intended for co-op and dukematch mode (basically fishes people out of hidden areas), but I'm still not sure whether I'll make it specific to those modes or not.

I hope you have fun!

Map plus review can be found at: http://msdn.duke4.net/index.shtml. A big thanks to Mikko Sandt for writing the review

[Spiker]

My comp is crap. Can't play the map. Won't be able to make polymer maps

[Micky C]

It's not that unplayable is it? The lowest I got was 7 fps for like 2 seconds in the middle of the large area with two super powered spotlights in the middle of a huge fight in Damn I'm Good. Still, maps of this sort are going to be the future! (well, better designed maps of this sort at least )

And I've re-released it with a major update, check the red text in the OP for details.

[RazorZ]

I would like to play this, but because my computer isn´t powerful enough to play Polymer, I just simply can´t enjoy this visually blasting map.

What a pity, it just looks so good, especially the first pic looks stunning, almost as realistic as it can possibly be. Fluent shading and moody lighting.
I suggest adding more details and lighting for the second pic, though. Now it looks way too simple compared to the first pic, just bit dull.

[Micky C]

I said just above the pics that both of then are outdated so as not to spoil as much. For the first one, the pure white light has been changed to a pale blue moonlight colour, and as for the second one, that was way back when I was still using sector shading, and now there's a nice lil spotlight there instead. There is one other small room that uses a spotlight for shading, but the rest use point lights. I guess I could put up some current screenshots if people really want me to.

However, it would be nice to hear from people who HAVE played the level as well
I would like to carry out a few suggestions before I submit it to MSDN

[Micky C]

Sorry about the double post but it's been a week since I posted this up, has there really been nobody who's finished the map? Or at least tried it and has some comments on how to improve it? I'm just eager for some form of criticism.

[Stabs]

Ill give it a whirl when i get a new PSU, eduke is great at turning of my pc atm

btw could you try something that could possibly increase performance

Select the whole map with the alt key in 2d, now in 3d press '+p and make all floors and ceilings pal 29 (dark blue, works great for moonlight / night )

now change the entire vis with ;+v to 240/255 whilst looking down the longest line of sight in the map, adjust this untill the fog looks right.

use alt + ctrl + numpad+ to adjust global vis, which is basically the ambient light slider in eduke to give you an idea of what it can look like in game.

[Micky C]

I have made large parts of the map quite dark to make the lighting look better already, but if you think the pal 29 could improve it even more I'll be happy to do it for the next update when I change other things at the same time.

The performance thing is a tricky issue though. There are parts in the game where I could replace spotlights with point lights, especially in one or two of the smaller rooms, perhaps supplementing with sector shading. But none of these areas are as demanding as the large area in the first screenshot. I don't see the point in increasing the framerate by a few fps when it's already reasonable and when there's still going to be a place where it drops to the low 10s, and I don't know if I want to get rid of the spotlights in that large area either because it looks stunning.

I don't suppose having more spotlights with a lower hitag would be more efficient then less spotlights with a higher hitag?

It all comes down to it being my first map, and I didn't take polymer into account when making these large areas at first. Maps I'll make in the future will definitely take more advantage of spotlights, but I guess for now this one will just have to sit on the backburner until everyone's computers catch up to a degree.

[Forge]

I tried this with polymer, but the mouse sensitivity is cranked way up and not adjustable in the menu in the latest eduke.

The setting's also that way in polymost, but for some reason, the mouse sensitivity isn't crazy-touchy.

The map looks like a mixed dm and sp map. It doesn't work very well as a sp because there's no method to the madness, no flow, and no purpose. Causes alot of unnecessary wandering. Several of the map's areas seemed to serve no purpose at all: like the double-circled down rotating area or the library. You end up in these dead-end areas and get no reward for exploring them.

The map is buggy. By the sky car I got teleported down to the teleporter by the finish, but I was locked inside the box. The teleporter with the fake exit can be triggered by just walking on the wall over it.

I had to play in polymost, so I can't comment on lighting-shading, the detailing and texturing were fair, but there was alot of stuff that was over sized. I couldn't comprehend what your goal was with the layout, but it was a mess. It was so crazy, I don't even remember how the hell I finished it.

[Micky C]

You're definitely right about the half SP and half DM, and there are a few left remnants left of the latter. I suppose I could raise the SE 7s in some of the teleporters to waist height so they don't activate when you're over them. I discovered the bug with the fake exit, and decided to leave it in as another way of getting past the area, so I made it so the necessary doors open at the same time in case they weren't triggered when the all the enemies were killed for some reason.

And about the layout... there wasn't really anything in mind when I first started the map I just kept bolting stuff onto it. It isn't as bad as it was at one stage but the double circled room is kind of just standing out by itself, I still think it's a fun sort of puzzle though. I see this map like an action movie; don't try and think about it, don't squeeze any sense out of it, and you should enjoy it, the layout isn't completely random.

Unnecessary wandering? hmm I tried to make this as linear as possible, ignoring the size of some of the areas and a tonne of secret compartments, there isn't a single room that you don't have to go through to finish the map. Of course the 'library' you mentioned if it's what I'm thinking of is meant to be a sort of maze, and I really should add some extra ammo and health in there as rewards, I thought I already did at one point but apparently not.

Still thanks for playing my map, I hope you had it besides the negative point. I'll definitely take your suggestions into account with future mapping, especially the planning of the layout which seems to be the major problem (besides the demand for a powerful computer). Although I'm not surprised you don't remember how you finished it, the last room would have been pitch black in polymost, though nightvision would have helped somewhat.

I hope it wasn't too shabby as my first map and I hope no one would regret playing it.

[VinsaneOne]

I'm not able to run Polymer either but I might just see what happens anyway

edit: Was going great and hoped to finish the map but after I got out of the water, I couldn't see shit! My problem though, can't run Polymer. Oh well, I'm gonna need God Mode to finish this one.

[Micky C]

Yeah that's probably the only truely unplayable area without polymer, though it's not impossible if you have nightvision goggles and can find the key card slot. But that area is basically the end of the level anyway, so don't feel too left out

If people have computers that can run the polymer renderer at all, and if you haven't heard this already, TX has made some changes which should improve the framerate dramatically

Quote

I haven't committed it yet, but I made some changes to Polymer last night that net anywhere between a 25 and 45% increase in framerate across several randomly selected test scenarios. I'm seeing improvements like going from 22 -> 28 fps in clcoast.map and from 28 -> 36 fps in the main outside area of E1L1 with the Polymer HRP. My other test case was the top of E1L1 with no HRP loaded, where I went from about 570 fps to something like 830. Unless I've made some huge error and missed something blatantly obvious this will translate into better Polymer performance for literally everyone, across all maps. The performance boost will be especially evident in user maps that have a lot of sprite based architecture.

So if you want to have a go at this map in polymer, your best bet without getting a new computer would be to keep an eye on the dukeworld synthesis folder for mention of such a change in the changelog.txts for new eduke32 releases.

[Danukem]

Nothing will be mentioned about the particulars of the revisions in that folder, but I would expect the change in question to occur in r1675 (or possibly a little later)

[Micky C]

For all future references, an improved final version of the map has been uploaded and reviewed at MSDN, and the original post has been updated accordingly. To compliment the review, if you're down on something, it might be worth searching for a secret