[underTaker]

Hi all!

That's been a long time since I done anything in Duke! I started this map few years ago, and because of complete lack of time due to my job and my own project I couldn't get myself to work on it.

But hey! I finally did it! It's continuation to my previous map - Border Town.

As usual - theme of the map is set in the city. This time it's set at evening/night, so you'll probably need to use nightvision goggles - they're scattered around the level.

It's supposed to be big, long, hard and dark. In order to find your way - make use of security view screens (there's plenty of them), conserve your ammo, use night vision (you'll need it).
There are (as I like to believe) some unusual puzzles, so in some places you'll probably wonder a little on what to do, but once again - view screens should clarify everything.

The map is fine for singleplayer, coop and dukematch (though - didn't test the last two).

If there are any problems with the map - I'd appreciate if you'd let me know - I testes it billion times, but I usually tend to leave a little oopsie here and there.

Anyways - have fun!

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Attached File(s)

•  blink.zip (250.82K)
  Number of downloads: 467

[ck3D]

 underTaker, on 30 June 2019 - 06:46 AM, said:

It's supposed to be big, long, hard and dark.

Porn has taught me that doesn't mean shit though, if the whole experience is over after a Blink of an Eye.

Stoked to see a new release from you, will try and find the time to play later, then come back for comments and less obvious jokes.

[Ninety-Six]

Oh hey, neat. I remember I played the whole "series" about a year ago. This will be interesting.

[underTaker]

@ck3D I had that going

I hope the map will keep up with the rest

[Ninety-Six]

so

I start the map

and it ends instantly with the e1 cutscene

[Danukem]

 Ninety-Six, on 01 July 2019 - 06:21 PM, said:

so

I start the map

and it ends instantly with the e1 cutscene

The map was over in the Blink of an Eye?

[Ninety-Six]

 Trooper Dan, on 01 July 2019 - 06:29 PM, said:

The map was over in the Blink of an Eye?

[Danukem]

It works fine for me using r7750, there might be something screwy in your game folder, Ninety-six.

[Ninety-Six]

Looks like the source of the conflict was the CON fixes that I always play with.

Darn.

[underTaker]

*Plot twist* - that's why it's named like that

But on a serious note -

Spoiler

it might be related to the way the boss is spawned on the map.

. I got no idea how to debug CONs and stuff so I can't be much of a help here.

[LeoD]

 underTaker, on 30 June 2019 - 06:46 AM, said:

Blink of an Eye

Wow, that was a long wait. I've always liked your stuff, and Brainwash is among my all-time favourites. Looking forward to playing this. (Sorry MRCK, I still haven't checked out Poison Heart.)

 Ninety-Six, on 01 July 2019 - 07:15 PM, said:

Looks like the source of the conflict was the CON fixes that I always play with.

GAME.CON by Darkus, I assume. Issue confirmed.

 underTaker, on 02 July 2019 - 04:58 AM, said:

I got no idea how to debug CONs and stuff so I can't be much of a help here.

It shouldn't be your task to deal with that.

[Ninety-Six]

 underTaker, on 02 July 2019 - 04:58 AM, said:

I got no idea how to debug CONs and stuff so I can't be much of a help here.

It's not your fault, man.

 LeoD, on 02 July 2019 - 07:34 AM, said:

GAME.CON by Darkus, I assume. Issue confirmed.

Correct.

Spoiler

I've always wondered if it was possible for those fixes to be included into eDuke32 by default, but then have them subject to a compatibility menu a'la ZDoom where certain parts of them can be enabled and disabled just for situations like this. I don't know if that's even remotely possible or if I'm just talking out of my ass, but

I'll make do. I just really liked that kill counter fix. (That and fixing the Respawn thing).

[Polunka]

 Ninety-Six, on 01 July 2019 - 07:15 PM, said:

Looks like the source of the conflict was the CON fixes that I always play with.

Darn.

Huh, I also got fucked over by custom CONs, the difference in that I use DT's Essential Duke to play custom maps.

Spoiler

After destroying the reactor above the Overlord the game crashed on me with the "too many things spawned" error (because Essential Duke utilizes a multiple-particle effect for the transporter star thing while spawning actors). It seems too many enemies spawn in upon releasing the Overlord so the engine can't handle the overwhelming quantity of teleportation particles emerging. I hate it when that happens and always try avoiding such occurences though now I didn't think there would be such numerous spawn occasions at any point in the level. I had to play the ultimate battle by restarting the game without the mod and cheating through the whole level.

Oh, yeah, and the map itself is really nice. Kudos for setting such a gloomy and depressing atmosphere (I played with FLOGHORN.mid to add to that). And the series is finally concluded (or is it?) after what seems so many years.

[underTaker]

Spoiler

Hmm, the reactor only should spawn the boss and few explosions nearby, perhaps explosions are triggering Newbeasts laying around, darn, this map likes to cause problems, huh?

Thank you for nice words! The series is concluded, yeah, but I planned on starting another one, I was even thinking about some stuff in Caribbean mod maybe - I've always been tempted by it

[Polunka]

 underTaker, on 03 July 2019 - 12:48 AM, said:

The series is concluded, yeah, but I planned on starting another one, I was even thinking about some stuff in Caribbean mod maybe - I've always been tempted by it

That's always appreciated. In this case, I'm looking forward to what else you might offer regarding Duke maps!

[Perro Seco]

 underTaker, on 03 July 2019 - 12:48 AM, said:

The series is concluded

Which maps are part of it? I would like to play the whole series.

[underTaker]

Those would be:

• Forever and One More Day
  
• Day After Forever
  
• Desert Complex
  
• Brainwash Facility
  
• Border Town

Numbered chronologically

[Perro Seco]

 underTaker, on 07 July 2019 - 10:05 AM, said:

Forever and One More Day

I played that map and it was great. I just downloaded the rest to play the entire series.

[underTaker]

I'm happy to hear that, I hope you like the rest too
Hope fully, I'll have some more time to play with mapping - new job got me some more free time

[Paul B]

 underTaker, on 07 July 2019 - 10:05 AM, said:

Those would be:

• Forever and One More Day
  
• Day After Forever
  
• Desert Complex
  
• Brainwash Facility
  
• Border Town

Numbered chronologically

Thanks for the list. I can't believe I forgot to add Desert complex to my site. As soon as I have some available time to play this map and Desert Complex i'll upload them. I enjoy your work.

[NightFright]

Question: If this is a continuation of "Border Town", would it be legitimate to add it to the "Savior of Alien Era" pack in the addon compilation as a new last part of the episode? (I guess previous posts already confirmed it, just want to be sure.)
And boy, this last map in the series is really HUGE. I am already playing like 90min and I am still not done with it.

[underTaker]

You're right! Done, thanks for reminding me of those

[Paul B]

Hmm, well i've played this map for hours. Yet to finish it. I'm encountering a lot of problems. I somehow skipped an early on Blue keycard which I ended up going back for later on in the map. I cheated in a swampy tunnel area not realizing it at the time, where I bounced on top of a New Beast to get me further into the map then you probably should be and now i've done everything and i've lost the objective.

There are a ton of visual glitches some areas where the floor doesn't have any tile but a paralax ceiling, tons of sprite glitches and lots of clipping issues. The map layout is very interconnected and overly complex. Not sure im able to complete this map. =S

Okay some of the visual glitches have been addressed by playing in Polymost. Originally started in Polymer and that doesn't work well.

[Paul B]

Okay, I've finally finished the map. This was a pretty tough and I think what threw me for a loop was the changing teleporter. Took me a while to figure that I could teleport myself to different areas duh! My biggest complaint was that it was so big and complicated I found myself getting lost often and there wasn't a clear objective. After playing it and looking back it all makes more sense now. Definitely not for the faint of heart. There were some areas that could benefit from being touched up such as: door scaling, texture alignments, blockable walls but it's not easy to do when the map is as complicated and big as this one. This felt like an entire episode in one level.

There was one glass window by the Innocent sign outside that is not breakable should it be? There were a few other minor hiccups but no show stoppers other than the players imagination. There was also a S.E glitch in the water by the airlock switch. Duke seems to float above water rather interesting and never seen that before. It's right on the Teleport sector for when you land in that area from above.

I loved the creativity of the secrets and the placement of items and respawns which assisted me greatly but it truly was a maze of switch flipping. Took me forever to figure out how to free the beast too. Found 8 of the 12 secrets spent about 4 maybe 5 hours of gameplay as I needed breaks to check up on the little rug rat. Killed just about 1000 baddies! That has to be a record for me in a single map. I can't imaging how long it must have taken to make this map. Incredible! I will upload soon to my site.

Uploaded: https://www.dukemaps.net/?p=13929

[pacman]

How the hell do I get out of the "beer" factory? im trapped there.

[Ninety-Six]

Quite late, I know, but since my computer died right about when Darkus fixed his CON to stop this level from ending immediately, I wasn't able to spin this one up.


I want to mention that I replayed the entire series (as an episode this time) before playing this, and since this does a foot-start it didn't affect anything.

This is definitely the hardest map of the set, which is surprising after rediscovering how difficult Border Town was. But it is the finale, which makes sense. I will say though that it was often too dark at times to see what I was doing, which led to some issues in both fighting and navigating.

In fact navigation was tough in general. This map is an absolute sprawler, with a lot of that ground utilizing a lot of SOS stuff. And while all of that is very neat, it should be noted that it does come at a cost. With how large and windy the level could be, being able to rely on the automap becomes important. Unfortunately, when there's so much SOS, it becomes extremely difficult to read not just where you want to go, but how you actually get there.

The sheer size also came with exhaustion, and by the end of it, coupled with the difficulty in reading the automap, I was just done. I still had some secrets and like one missing enemy yet to kill, and I went for 100% for all the others, but I just wanted to be done (plus there were several points of no return at the end anyway). Oh, that reminds me. Speaking of that final area, I got stuck for quite a while because I didn't know there was an upper area. The ceiling was completely visible so I thought that it was just a ceiling and not a silent teleport. That should have been higher (and conversely lower) to hide the ceiling/floor textures to make the transition more seamless and also indicative of its true nature.


Despite my complaints though, I still enjoyed the map. However, I would suggest if you ever make another map/series to aim for what Border Town achieved size-wise as a maximum. Too much larger and exhaustion would start to set in, at least in my case.


In regards to the overall series, I would say my favorite is still Border Town, though every map has something to offer.