Duke4.net Forums: [RELEASE] Winterfall - Duke4.net Forums

Thanks for the review! Glad that you enjoyed the map!
Yes, people often mention the boats thing. The whole trip takes you about 3 mins 30-50 seconds. You also must realise what to do in the first place. I guess people spent more time than they should because of it.

CGS, 4 out of 5 secrets, about 40 minutes. Thanks for making a map intended for classic mode, shows you got taste.

The level had a real sense of a cold industrial area. Music was appropriate. Some buildings / constructs looked very solid (made me think of Mikko Sandt's snow levels at times), but there were a lot of bad texture and sprite choices, too. Indoors most objects were built too big (always test in view mode), and the outside areas could REALLY have used some diagonal roads, buildings and cars. Speaking of cars, there were some really nice ones, although some of them had a sloppy paint job (misaligned textures, I mean). I think your design / detailing has a lot of potential, just that sometimes the texture and palette choices didn't work, or the regular texture colors didn't quite match. The horizon was really cool with the white sky and silhouettes of industrial structures (there were some flickering issues during the boat ride, though). Shadows were mostly well done, although some objects outside lacked them. Also, usually when a shadow of a building goes the exact same line as the wall, it looks kinda silly - choosing the outdoors light source to be diagonal in relation to the grid is a good idea.

Maneuvering the big area while collecting items was a joy - so many platforms and roofs to jump on, with lots of variety in weapons. The enemies didn't really stand a chance against all that arsenal, though, and there was definitely way, waaay too much health. Pig cops and enforcers in less open areas were fun, especially because the nature of the map encourages a lot of shots to be done while jumping, but there were a bit too many troopers on rooftops - many times I was just collecting the goodies and I'd get hit by a stray bullet from one of them, then switch to pistol slightly annoyed. Out of the Battlelords, I think the one in the storage area was the best.

I usually get stuck in big open area city maps, but your tips were really good here. However, it's very easy to miss boat ride to the shipwreck, especially after learning that the cold water kills (which I liked, but there was some inconsistency with that, for some of the water areas were safe). I think I did the post office the wrong way - I simply jumped in thru the windows. After finding out I could pass thru them, I tried all other windows in the map, but the rest were all set to blocking. So, I don't think the post office ones were left like that on purpose, especially since there was a red sector door between them that I never opened? Anyway, the map was never too cramped, even corridors had the appropriate space (something I should learn).

Good flow, nice ideas and while design wasn't exactly consistent, it showed a lot of promise.

Thank you for a detailed and honest review, Steambull!

In order to access the post office, you need to read the message from James on your PC first, there is a clue.
I guess you already found everything out. Huh, I actually never thought whether people will be bothered to check the viewscreen or not.

RedxPlatinum recored his walkthrough of the map, it took him about 35 miutes.


I guess he played the map blind, but I guess that's how people play the map for the first time - just wondering around. He missed a big ambush when he entered the second island btw.

And I love that edit when he cut like 5 minutes while searching for shrinker

Things are a bit too tall (doors, devices, ...), but great map

I can't really play the game anymore these days but I just wanted to encourage Sanek as I was watching the entirety of that playthrough video the other day and thought the map looked amazing. Sanek your style keeps getting more refined and personal with every map and I'm loving the new little gameplay ideas and features the and eye candy you're now putting in. That section with the boat is a genuinely smart concept that it looks like you implemented really well, looks beautiful, functional and fun.

I'm really just posting because I know you've had your share of struggles finding your place in the community a few years back when you were younger, and wanted you to know I'm glad you didn't give up, you bit the bullet and kept at it through the up-and-downs and now for the past few years you've been making some of my favorite conceptual maps. You've developed your own knack for design but your consistently strong point I think is atmosphere; many of your recent, more refined releases share the same gloomy feel to it which pinpoints the impression that originally got me into the game as a kid in the first place. If I ever found Duke time again I would probably play this map first thing.

Also wanted you to know I still kind of feel bad to this day about my seemingly lazy contribution to LORCH 3. I want you to know I remember I really wanted to put in a lot more work to really help more substantially with that project of yours but unfortunately I was already getting pretty busy at the time; how little I did really had nothing to do with willpower. Just saying because it's important to me that you realize I was actually taking you seriously back in the day already and I was always frustrated I couldn't do more on your map to demonstrate that. I'll stop now though because this is starting to resemble some dude on a one-night stand trying to justify an instance of whiskey dick.

I hope you make more maps and I get to play them!

Played it, took 65 minutes (!). Nothing to add to the first impressions the video playthrough had left me with, except how big the city was was really, really enjoyable (I've always wanted to make maps like this, see Bummed Out ACX), nothing in the design ever bugged me and if anything I thought this had the flavor of the very first Roch map (obviously in a different style and with cleaner design; must be the navigation through square city blocks where one has to explore every nook and cranny of every building), with a winter touch to boot that actually made for a real breath of fresh air; you created a little coherent universe with that extensive use of the blue palette and the general humor (I especially liked the E1L1 poster followed by the corresponding secret place).



Died a few times by mistake, then again I'm rusty. Health was overkill even on Let's Rock (I laughed in disbelief when I entered the doctor's office), but occasionally I did enjoy having to backtrack to grab some leftover packs I had missed, intense firefights in a big open environment call some randomness so you have to have that, I thought you implemented the item / monster ratio and placement really well. I never found the chaingun though (which would have come in handy a few times) and not once did an Enforcer randomly drop one, only packs of ammo, so I had to rely on the Expander and Pipebombs more than I'm used to and had a lot of fun doing just that too. This may be one of my favorite maps.

PS.: took a while to find the 'pool' too. I was looking around for a building that I would have unlocked that would be a swimming pool, before I remembered the fountain.

ck3D, on 28 December 2018 - 05:58 AM, said:

It's all in the past now. Although I must say that more contribution would certainly help, or I should more patient when it comes to community projects. I remember I was desperately trying to release the map before I went to summer vacation.

ck3D, on 28 December 2018 - 05:58 AM, said:

I always knew this, ever since DNR days.

ck3D, on 28 December 2018 - 05:58 AM, said:

There's lots of health since liztroopers can get you from another part of the map.

ck3D, on 28 December 2018 - 05:58 AM, said:

I guess I genuinely forgot to put one, but the freezethrower should make up for that.

ck3D, on 28 December 2018 - 05:58 AM, said:

Thank you. It's hard to measure your own work, but Winterfall is probably the only map of mine that I'm genuinely proud of, and now I'm sure it's not just a coincidence.

Sorry for little bump here.

Some unexpected interest in this map rised lately (well, it was 3 months ago) on Youtube .

First, Devon had winter/xmas-themed Stream where this map is featured (he started it at sbout 05:53:10 into the video). He had some good comments there, and I like how he noticed some small details (he does it with all maps afaik) here and there. Unfortunately, I wasn't there during the majority of his playthrough, but I popped up by the tail end of the map and had some comments of my own.

Then another youtuber, who goes by the name of "Arcterezion" had a stream two months ago where Winterfall is featured too (starts at 02:30:00 mark). Apparently he was kinda drunk while streaming, which added fun to his playing process...or vice versa, i dunno.

Still, it makes you smile when some random people decide to stream your map or record a separate video about it. Have no idea why it happened almost simultaneously (a month or so apart lol), but I think it's mostly because of the winter theme, time of year and just being a relatively old map that kinda settled down in your game folder's.

In retrospect, i'd say the map turned out okay, but I wish I had done more with it and changed a couple of things here and there. I have a list:

1. I wanted to make the second island on the other side of the map, sort of a companion location to the ship part. I thought of it as a sort of the abandoned house with empty rooms and some spooky-esque vibes. Scrapped the idea due to flickering issues due to the sheer size of the visible area. Wish I'd made it anyway, but I found a reason to opt out.

2. Warehouse should be way bigger...instead it's sort of a loose remake of a small warehouse from Long Beach map from Chronic episode.

3.The tenant's names (and the agents' names) was obvious references to the community members. It must make no sense to people who just play the maps and don't pay the attention to authors, but I thought it's kinda funny back then.

4. The Thing theme...was added at the very last moment, after I finished the map and just thought that the music fits. I still think it fits, the only problem is that this map takes you at least 20 to 30 minutes to complete, and you have this one-note, very repetitive theme playing in the background.

But anyway, I appreciate when people play my maps on video - which doesn't happen very often, hence this whole post. And while it's only my opinion, I think Winterfall turned out to be the map of mine that really stood the test of time, which is pretty cool!

Sanek, on 17 March 2024 - 05:31 AM, said:

I don't think this is a bad thing in anyway, the in-community jokes were always a thing in Duke user maps even before the community established at all, there are 1996 maps which have these cute little things like "this is my apartment and this is Mike's apartment who's my best friend" which is kind of a testament to the times long gone. People who play your maps are bound to miss out on some stuff, whether it's secrets, easter eggs or small details, so something making no sense to some of the player shouldn't matter to you - look at it the other way, it's always a joy seeing someone actually did get one of the very particular jokes/takes you've put there!