[Telee]

ck3D, on 06 April 2026 - 08:58 AM, said:

Ha, I was just sharing the news about your project in a different thread ('mappers you wished came back'), I was saying I'm particularly interested in how the mapping looks very Robert Travis indeed (with some TROR I think I'm seeing?), but closer to how he made DC maps rather than Beach, based around big scale landmarks (for the most part) and with rather expansive layouts, whereas Beach maps always felt closer to the base game maps (so a bit smaller in scope) but more focused. In that sense it does successfully look sequel-ish. Looking forward to this, even just the concept is neat, I am assuming there is no estimate release date/progress status estimation possible yet, or are you keeping it a mystery? Best of luck with it either way.

Thanks for the kind words! It's definitely highly inspired by Travis since I'm trying to make this feel like a proper sequel and I loved his work, a bit of a blend between his style and my own I guess? I could see how some of the pics would remind you of DC. The maps are quite large, but hopefully not in a repetitive or confusing sense. In fact a large amount of my time has gone into refactoring some of my earliest work on it to avoid that. I want levels that flow nicely, loop to avoid backtracking, etc. which you just learn as you get better. They will all certainly be much larger than the classic Beach maps, just because I had so many ideas for each level's concept, and the extended limits let me go all-out.

I'm trying to have a nice blend of large, open areas for that "wow" factor and for landmarks that the player can remember for navigating the level, while also keeping combat mostly contained to tighter spaces and corners. And yes indeed, that is TROR you're seeing for 3 of those screenshots Both the inside and outside of the JP Visitor Center make extensive use of it, which took me FOREVER to complete. But it was also a massive learning experience along the way. As far as release date goes, I'm not really sure, but I'm definitely keeping my nose to the grindstone to avoid letting it drag out for too long. Not trying to keep it a mystery, I just genuinely don't know, especially as our cold Chicago winter is ending and I'll probably slow down progress over the summer with IRL stuff.

If it helps, levels 1, 2, 3, and 7 are like 95% complete and just need polishing up and gameplay added. Levels 4 and and 5 are probably 50% complete, with a lot completed, but requiring a lot of polishing/shading work. The hub area of level 4 in particular is stumping me and still needs a lot of work. Level 6 is like 70% complete and level 8, maybe like 20-30%, a lot still needed. But since it's the final boss level, I'd like to keep it on the smaller side, similar in scale to The Alien Remains, so I'm hoping I get through it a lot faster than some of the others, where I've gone up to the wall limit.

ck3D, on 06 April 2026 - 08:58 AM, said:

Yeah pretty much. One could say this is the 'surface level' of the map but there will be more to it. (Most) every level I've made for the project thus far (this is 8th out of 9, maybe 10) is a bit of a crossover between (at least) two of the original D3D levels, this one is going to be a mix of Lunatic Fringe with something else. This room from the screenshot will look very different eventually.

Oh right, this is the project that's inspired by an un-made 5th 3DR episode. Totally forgot! Very cool concept. The other levels look very alien in a really cool way. Large outdoor natural spaces are difficult for me to pull off the way you have without looking barren.

At some point, I have a lot of catching up to do with the maps that the community has been pushing out as of late, including Blast Radius.

unedukecated, on 06 April 2026 - 10:15 AM, said:

@ Telee: also custom textures and stuff? Looks great, want to play it!

Thank you! Yep, there's a lot of new custom textures to help with the theme, and the Enforcer gets to join this time, too.

[Telee]

Took some screens of the remaining 3 levels. This should do for now to avoid spoiling too much.





I brainstormed an exciting idea for a 9th level, but as we all know, a proper Duke level takes a ton of work. Maybe in the future I'll build it for an extended version after the other 8 levels are done and released.

[ck3D]

Thanks for the info, clearly excited for your project, all the more so that it is obvious in both the intent/commentary and the results/screenshots you are following a precise direction. The new enemies sound like they will add a lot as well. Ski track looks great, I already saw one comment about the plane on here and so would guess you probably got 10x the amount on Discord, but it indeed is cool to see TROR vehicles in general, this one reminds me of the one from ILoveFoxes' SkyCity 2 except with modern EDuke possibilities. Pretty funny how in the recent years, several episodes have had plane maps (Blast Radius, High Treason's New Invasion) but each of them done differently, were I to TROR up the Blast Radius plane now without heavy (but possible) modifications to the map structure it would literally flip inside out (but dimension-warping plane level would be sick). Am never retrofitting any TROR into any of BR though, it has to stand for classic SoS. Now TROR is the current exercise.

Sounds like you are just around the same stage as I am with your maps, eight of them mostly done but in my case includes most gameplay/FX etc... so once the current ones also are out of the way all it will take to tie everything together will be a couple of detail passes/testing sessions then should be good. There are alien elements to some of the maps, but not all, depending on what Duke does and where he is the corruption creeps in and out and is more or less prominent all around, but it is correct that there is some general abstraction on the same level as there are relatable elements I would say. More caves and nature than I expected to make but also cities and bases, so one could say cyberpunk in the original sense (tech meets organic; always was very Duke). This episode so far actually feels strange with themes, it can be sensed that the maps follow a story but the progression from one to the next isn't so disjointed like you (and I) would expect from a user map series, it has been catching me off guard a bit (but I like it). In reality I'm just having fun experimenting with layout concepts, dynamic ideas and then dressing them up.

For instance current level 8 has been morphing into Lunatic Ball:

[unedukecated]

The "Wheel of Crime" is it ck3d?

I am *slowly* coming to an end, gameplay is done now except for placing a lot more enemies and items and balancing them. But the "how to" to progress/finish the map is done now. Almost 6000 sprites placed now, can be very consuming but thanks to the copy/paste option you don't have to build every stool from zero, just copy/paste/edit a bit for variety. Still need a lot more time though, but so far it really is fun to play.

Oh and I found out disabling Polymer dynamic shadows increases performance a lot in my map, it's not perfect but better. I also don't see a difference if they are turned on but maybe that's just because of my settings: if turned on I have the lowest settings enabled. Is there any difference with Polymer dynamic shadows on/off anyway? I really can't tell...

[Mark]

The shadows are produced only from the SE 50 spotlights so if you have few, they are small, or none, it won't make a lot of difference on or off.

[jimbob]

unedukecated, on 06 April 2026 - 10:15 AM, said:

@ jimbob: yeah, lookin' good! This is some TC or something with new textures/cons?

hey, this is work on the second episode of Operation Mallard, a ww2 themed TC with new enemies, textures, music etc. episode 1 is already available on moddb https://www.moddb.co...eration-mallard

those screenshots looke really awesome @telee

[unedukecated]

Mark, on 09 April 2026 - 11:53 AM, said:

The shadows are produced only from the SE 50 spotlights so if you have few, they are small, or none, it won't make a lot of difference on or off.

Thanks for the info. After playing around with Polymer dynamic shadow settings and turning them on/off to compare I still can't see any difference with SE 50 spotlights. Haven't tried changing transparency/priority of the S 50 and maybe some other setting but whatever. Even played around with SE 49 point light again with the same result. Anyhow it's good to know so I'll advise to turn those shadows off in the maps readme for much better performance.

[Mark]

Someone here coded a hack for one of my projects that turns off lights not near or out of view of the player and turns them on again when closer. You would occasionally see a light come back on as you approached it but some players said it made a difference between being able to play at all or not. So it was a useful compromise for them.

Have you verified that your SE 50 lights are casting shadows? Turning the dynamic shadows feature on and off should be very noticable.