[jimbob]

Micky C, on 07 February 2021 - 12:20 PM, said:

Nice work on the milestone of finishing a map. Are you going to add shading and shadows though?

yes, its one of the next steps, including adding some secrets, and exploration options aswell. i just need to find an angle on the shading :P

[Aleks]

Merlijn, on 07 February 2021 - 04:45 AM, said:

And here I am, mostly basing the size and distances on "what feels right". :D

All kidding aside, I adopted a similar approach to ck3d by slighty exagerrating the size of locations. Back in the day, red4 was too cramped because I went for realism.
Nowadays, if something is cramped it's by deliberate design (because I want that particular part to be claustrophobic for example).

As for SG4, I did hit a bit of a writers block the past few weeks, which slowed things down. The good news is that I finally figured out what I wanted to and now the map has great momentum again.
So basically in this map you will enter the lions den, which means you'll be descending deep into the earth (after cleaning out The Kompleks).
One of the things you'll encounter on your way down is this big underground river of slime, consuming the last remnants of Emmerichville:

duke0151.png

Neither yours nor MRCK's maps ever felt oversized for me, but then again, the "rigid" dimensions I mentioned seem to be quite intuitional and I guess you both use these most of the time anyway, they're the same in original game too :P Oversizing is mostly a problem with 90's maps (and quite a big one usually), especially considering how there's often very narrow corridors contrasted with high ceilings or weird proportioned door.

Anyway - love that screenshot, Merlijn, it looks so dynamic with all the sloped geometries (especially love how you used one of the few diagonal textures for the side of that large block in the river that appears to be just overturned).

Had some fun with "traditional" clearwater (so no TROR involved), spiced a bit with the use of sloped sprites for masking the floor on the ramp.

[jimbob]

thanks to the magic of spriteflags my duck now floats instead of sinks to the bottom, for whatever reason i cant get my blood projectiles to not clip despite a noclip spriteflag. they still 'interact' with the player and enemies causing multiple issues, the most annoying of wich is the whack sound then they hit you. gets old quick when shells keep whacking you in the face. and turning into 'shells on the floor' on top of your head.

just for fun i made the expander make enemies not only grow, but also float up for a few seconds before exploding.

and i still love clearwater effects :)

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[Merlijn]

@ jimbob: really digging the new art and the overall look of the project, keep up the good work!

@ Aleks: thanks! There's going to be a lot of vertical and downward movement (really want to give the player the impression that they're descending deep into the earth) so I'll try to explore that theme as well as I can.
Your screenshot could have fooled me, I didn't see that you're using sloped sprites. Pretty sweet!

[Maarten]

@Jimbob: love the mood of your mod, it also reminds me a lot of Redneck Rampage (that's a compliment, I love the art and look of that game).
@Aleks: nice tricks, love the mood of the shot!

Merlijn's shot is a cool place too... actually I've seen it in game mwuahah ^_^ It's neat!

I also made very steady progress. Like AAP1: Woudrichem, it will contain a HUGE outdoor location, but also places like this:

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[oasiz]

Looks very nice!
FYO, try to hide those black seams, you could i.e. select those walls and run:
do gamevar i 0 0
do for i allwalls set wall[i].picnum icepicnum

And same for wall[i].shade.

First line defines gamevar i, second one changes wall picnum to icepicnum

[jimbob]

Maarten, on 09 February 2021 - 12:39 PM, said:

@Jimbob: love the mood of your mod, it also reminds me a lot of Redneck Rampage (that's a compliment, I love the art and look of that game).

well i did yank some art from that game, but im trying to replace those with my own in due time.

thanks a lot :D


im considering naming it Operation : Mallard, but there was an actual operation : mallard by the british.

your map looks really cool ( har ) :D

[edit]
added a new feature, you can give the ducks bread, and they will then walk away with a full tummy. duke says come get some aswell :P

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[ck3D]

Wow this is all looking really cool. Merlijn and Maarten's respective screens are top notch, I love the return of the crate in Aleks' and jimbob seems to be having a lot of fun working on his mod and it shows in the results, great news to see so much being done.

re: black seams, for ceilings you can also do it the cheap way and just texture the inner walls with the same texture you're using for the ceiling itself (with the same shade value and similar looking repeat values if you're cautious). In game it should all blend in unless the player inspects the structure from super close and even then, if they don't know there's a seam they most likely won't even see it.

[Maarten]

@Jimbob: thanks! Love that duck thing haha

Thanks for the tip Oasiz, but in this case I agree with ck3D :)
@ck3D: I acutally "left" the forums/mapping for 6 months..and I recall I never send you feedback on your maps while I've tested them all :o How is your episode going right now? I love how huge it was & felt like a episode.

[Aleks]

@Maarten: Thanks! And love your screen, neat geometries paired with cool layered shadows. Also that rock texture looks really cool with the blue palette. And yeah, you've been away for too long, ck3D probably made like 4 new maps for his episodes during these past 6 months :D There's a whole thread on his episode, which you should definitely check for some awesome screens!

@jimbob: That trick with feeding the ducks looks cool! Good thing Duke doesn't say "Shake it, Baby!". BTW, I'm not sure now, is your mod gonna include Duke or some WW2 soldier? IIRC the aliens were just temporary, right?

[jimbob]

Aleks, on 10 February 2021 - 03:38 AM, said:

@jimbob: That trick with feeding the ducks looks cool! Good thing Duke doesn't say "Shake it, Baby!". BTW, I'm not sure now, is your mod gonna include Duke or some WW2 soldier? IIRC the aliens were just temporary, right?

the mod will include a new character, as of yet unnamed, but maybe duke could be a nickname :P i will replace the aliens with new artwork when my friend comes over with a german uniform, and i'll redo the duke artwork too in a US uniform, i already have a lame helper bot wich just aimlessly wanders around and occasionally shoots and somewhat follows the player, but it needs a lot of work, so far all weapons have been replaced, and i plan on doing some alternatives aswell, like a luger, maybe a K98 if i can get my hands on one.
i plan to do the photoshoot sometime this month, and mapping is moving allong at a steady pace with 3 maps fully playable, one basic training map wich is rough and will probably be replaced and i'm working on a chateau map now wich will be the map before a bossfight. the first episode will be a prologue featuring somewhat historically correct levels ( historically correct as in there where US forces on those areas, like north africa, france and finally probably belgium )
the second episode will feature a fictive story where your character excelled at his job and is recruited for the OSS and goes on to do some clandestine missions like dismantle a V2 rocket facility or stop a submarine ( already have a basic submarine base mapped out in rough form ) and will uncover a sinister plot of sorts where the nazis are being well... evil :P

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[jimbob]

making a flush forest section before crossing a road and move into a large chateau :)

have some birds flying, though it still needs some ambiance sounds.

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[Mark]

Way cool, refreshingly different.

[jimbob]

and here's a scripted sequence i did, you use the radio to call a sherman tank, wich rolls up to a roadblock and shoots a projectile smashing through the barrier destroying it, so you can proceed.
im going to do radio chatter to explain it ingame later on, maybe tomorow.

[Maarten]

@Jimbob: I love where your mod is going to!! IC you're quite motivated, nioce! If anytthing; don't forget some mapping details & shadings. But I guess you're focusing on the effects and art right now :)

-------------------------------
I had quite some spare time this week (lockdown...)...I actually did use 700+ sectors, 5000+ walls since 18-1-21 ... this has to be a new record for me O_o
Here is a shot. It's save to say it's over 65% done (maybe more). Soon I'll give more information about this sequel to AAP1: Woudrichem!

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[jimbob]

thanks :) the shading in that map is work in progress, most outside areas have relatively subtle shading, and inside needs a lot more work, yes im focussing on art and effects, and some sound too, when i get bored with that i go back and add stuff to maps, fix things etc one thing i need to work on is actual objectives and a way to code them. most of the stuff is just me going 'wouldnt it be cool if' and then try to get it to work :D

i like your maps, havent gotten through that huge map yet, but its fun to play, and absolutely massive in size :eek:

[ck3D]

Yeah the motivation and apparent emulation in this thread in general is cool to see right now!

@Maarten episode has been growing, like Aleks was saying there is a thread for it (link is in sig). In the past four months I've made four maps, the last one is twice the size of Woudrichem in Mapster (I only recently checked, I was surprised myself) so I'm really looking forward to your new piece if you're saying it's bigger too! In general I feel like we've entered a bit of a new age for Duke maps, using the Mapster32 limits to further extents than we used to, or maybe getting wiser with resources (maybe the first map that felt like that to me was actually Clear The Coast); just the other day I was randomly rereading the .txt file for one of the later BobSP maps (I think the underwater one) and it had this whole paragraph that in retrospect really reads like a prediction of just that kind of stabilization, where people would finally coin the right focus to work with the new limits and make maps of quite the epic scope in comparison to the output of the time, but he was early by a decade. I hope lockdown is going alright, here our situation is quite shit too with a 6pm - 6am curfew just as days are getting longer again. It's also like minus ten Celsius, so there's little incentive to leave the house.

I like the new shot, gives me some early Roch map vibe for some reason, I think the building textures and also that screen. With a blue sky, that could look just like out of Roch 2 (one of my favorites in the series).

[Maarten]

ck3D, on 12 February 2021 - 02:09 PM, said:

Yeah the motivation and apparent emulation in this thread in general is cool to see right now!
(...)
I like the new shot, gives me some early Roch map vibe for some reason, I think the building textures and also that screen. With a blue sky, that could look just like out of Roch 2 (one of my favorites in the series).

Yeah, I guess that's the only positive thing about this covid/lockdown haha. I miss my band gigs & events and otther live stuff. But on the other hand..it's good to continue mapping some ideas which have been running in my mind for YEARS but never got/took the time to make it. Actually, I already have plans for more AAP maps (-': I just discovered your thread, very cool stuff!!
I take roch2 as a big compliment, it's one of my favourite roch maps as well. I actually played all the Roch maps recently! It's still one of my favorite series.

@Jimbob: this map is going to be even bigger ;) But the gameplay will have a bit more "straight forward" influences this time around. If your stuck in AAP1, feel free to ask help!

[ck3D]

^ That is great. I feel the same way about lockdown, such a completely different lifestyle it sort of locks you in but like you're saying, might as well put that extra indoor time to use and focus on outlets such as mapping if you're going to get stuck anyway. I feel the same way about longtime rampant ideas that now is the appropriate time to express (although to be honest, I always thought the best ideas for Duke maps always took years to mature); in a way it's sort of funny how without such a context there probably wouldn't be that much work on new maps currently, I can tell a lot of people are sort of reconciliating with their natural drive to do it and using the social slowdown to take their own style to new depths and that's great. At least something beautiful about the current times - or maybe I'm just trying to see the glass half full. Good luck with everything!

[Maarten]

WIP shots while trying to make a tractor in Duke :D
Feel free to give me suggestions!

PS still lots of inspiration....about 70% finished. about 3900 walls left to use... :P

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[ck3D]

^ That tractor is great! Looks very unique. Maybe because of the dimensions there is something slightly abstract about it but I love it, I hope you keep it as it is. Will look even cooler with shading.

For inspiration regarding vehicles, I'd recommend looking into Reginukem's maps, always thought they had such a cool style on those.

[Aleks]

Cool to see so much stuff going on in this thread!

@Maarten, great shots as always, love the tractor too! And the city shot gives me some... Shaky Grounds vibes? :P

Posting some cave exploring pictures. Not sure if the 256 limit of cyclers mentioned in infosuite is still valid, but I was quite close to it here...

[Truck Stop Santa Claus]

Got to say @jimbob I'm just going to guess you are aware of the Quake Quack meme right?

[Sanek]

@Maarten The tractor looks awesome! One of these moments like "why didn't I think of it before!". I also like the background area, it seems like it's going to be a country type of map. It also reminds me of my unfinished map.

@Aleks I'm thinking about DukePlus for some reason, there's enough space for some vehicle to drive by

[jimbob]

Truck Stop Santa Claus, on 19 February 2021 - 04:18 AM, said:

Got to say @jimbob I'm just going to guess you are aware of the Quake Quack meme right?

yes, but only very recently :D

anyway, heres some new shots.
the piano is interactable, probably going to add a few different things that can be played using the multiswitch.
sensitive imagery and all that, you know the drill.
all these shots come from the chateau map

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[Mark]

Is there a bomb attached to one of the piano keys like in the Bugs Bunny cartoon? :lol:

[jimbob]

no, but that could be made into a secret of sorts, playing the right piece of music opens a door or something ;)

ill make a note ( har )

[pmw]

Ww2 mod looks cool. I'm waiting for it, any ETA?

[jimbob]

pmw, on 27 February 2021 - 08:18 AM, said:

Ww2 mod looks cool. I'm waiting for it, any ETA?

i want to release the first episode ASAP, need to do some things before that can happen, like get those aliens turned into germans, finish the last couple of maps and think of a nice bossfight.
the corona situation is making it hard to plan a visit, since we have a curfew and whatnot.

[Loke]

Fiddling around in AMC TC and Mapster again after a long break. Skyboxes are always fun to make.

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