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Great level mods?

User is offline   SnapShot 

#1

Hey guys, recently I finished The 5 episodes of Duke3D 20th Anniversary World Tour and really enjoyed the journey it took me through, enough that it made me want to play more of it, so I've been wondering what are some of the best or must-play level mods available for this game? what are some of the best places to find more custom content for the game? Thanks in advance.
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#2

*Addon Compilation (however WG Realms 2 is one of the mods that will get updated relatively soon)
*Dukeworld - Practically the archive of almost every user map and TC from 90's to post 2000's. Most of TC are in their better and bug corrected version inside the Addon Compilation anyway.
*AMC TC (at choise you can play the prequel "Imagination World" with EXE update to obtain specific files at 4th episode end that you can use in AMC. Even the total conversions "Oblivion, "The Invasion of Trequonia" and "The Brave New World" are part of the lore (also WGR2 is implied). Stay tuned for future progress about episode four and five)
*Dukeplus
*War Of Attrition
*Alien Armageddon+Space Gladiators and Patch
*Duke Forces - Star Wars based mod
*Duke Nukem Eternity
*Duke Nukem Forever 2013 and DLC
*Imperium
*Hollywood Holocaust Rethinked
*Naferia's Reign: Invasion Of The Dark Mistress (quite strange)
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#3

Mikko Sandt's hot maps page is a good place to check for high quality Duke levels, both vanilla and for eduke32: https://msdn.duke4.net/hot.php

You can sort by score by clicking on "score" in the table.

This post has been edited by Doom64hunter: 27 June 2020 - 07:18 AM

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User is offline   Radar 

  • King of SOVL

#4

Basically you're asking everyone for their favorites list. Here's mine.

Favorite maps, organized by author:

Alejandro Glavic
  • Another Timeless Night
  • ADG 06

Loke
  • Desert Storm
  • Apprehension Arizona
  • Baptized in Lunar Dust

Gambini
  • Rush Back
  • Blown Fuses (requires Duke Plus)
  • It Lives

MRCK
(basically any map from this author works, but a lot of them are concept based. These are my favorite standard gameplay maps)
  • Filler
  • Happy Hangover
  • DNF Bottles to the Ground
  • Anorak City
  • Poison Heart

Oostrum Brothers
  • Planet X64-2
  • ABBA
  • Spacetronic
  • TUP
  • Clear the Coast
  • Red series (make sure you use updated Red 1 and Red 2)
  • Shaky Grounds series

Pascal Rouaud
  • Roch series

Quakis
  • Flaming Shipwreck

SalaciusCrumb
  • VOA

Supertanker
  • Area 27
  • Cherenkov Station (FOS Station is a decent prequel too)

Taivo Maripuu
  • City Full of Alien Scum
  • Dogville 2012

William Gee
  • WGCity

Maps with multiple authors:
  • AMC Pleaser
  • Discarded Stronghold
  • Done & Dusted
  • CPB 8
  • Operation Get Back Bike
  • Galbadia



Favorite mods/episodes:

  • AMC TC <-- best mod ever
  • WGRealms 2 (wait for 2020 version)
  • WGSpace
  • Imperium (needs a modern update though, I'd hold this one off)
  • Metropolitan Mayhem
  • Duke Nukem Forever 2013 + DLC
  • Duke Hard
  • Alien Armageddon


This post has been edited by R A D A Я: 27 June 2020 - 11:50 AM

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User is offline   blizzart 

#5

Fusion TC / Fusion Redux
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User is offline   Ninety-Six 

#6

I'll repost something I said back in 2018:

View PostNinety-Six, on 04 May 2018 - 04:57 PM, said:

I've always been partial to Metropolitan Mayhem as a level pack. Short but sweet levels with a strong 3DR-esque theme. Duke Hard is also really good, and a bit more varied than MM if that's of any interest to you.

DNF2013 is a really good mod as well, but be sure to play it with the "Community DLC" attached. In my opinion, the "DLC" contains two of the best levels I've seen in either a fan or official capacity.

WGRealms 2 is basically a brand new game as opposed to a mod. If I remember right, I think it's even standalone. Its predecessor, the original WGRealms, is also worth playing. The music won't work right out of the box though, at least not with eDuke32 (unless it's in that massive addon compilation. I don't have it myself so I don't know).

You should also look up the "Knee-Deep" mod for WGR2. It's...kind of hard to explain. It's a "level pack" that is based on Doom's Knee-Deep in the Dead. But don't let that fool you; it's anything but easy. It remixes the levels more than enough to keep them fresh, and throws you straight into the fray against some of WGR2's tougher monsters. Though I never found it to have any significant balance problems. It's just a pack that expects you to have played the original WGR2 already.

"The Gate" is a good vintage mod. It's from 1997, I think? But the levels are still decent. Not all of them have aged well, but I would at least recommend this for the soundtrack alone. A lot of the music was composed by the same person who did Carribbean's soundtrack.

Zykov eddy's "The Dream" trilogy is a good ride if you like horror. Speaking of Eddy, I also enjoyed his Moonbase Accident episode. He's also done a lot of indie projects with the engine that are worth looking up.

Another one I enjoy is "Haunted Nukem." It's basically "What if Blood except Duke" but you can't really go wrong with Blood.


It's never really talked about much, and I'll admit it might not be anything ultra special, but for some reason I've always really loved the oft-forgotten Lost Highway level pack.



If something more official is your cup of tea, check out Fox's Duke 64 and Total Meltdown mods, which are faithful recreations of their respective ports of Duke 3D, including the PSX exclusive episode Plug N Pray.


For gameplay mods, my personal favorite remains Nuclear Showdown. It adds some new weapons, features a few balance tweaks, and a long custom episode of some modified user maps. It's also compatible with a lot of vanilla user maps.

On the topic of user maps, one can't talk about good Duke maps without bringing up the legendary Roch and Red series. Roch Island and Clear the Coast are also worthy spiritual successors. The ADG series is also really good, and even got a new entry recently.

If you want something more recent, you can't go wrong with Gambini's "It Lives." It's pure black magic for what it accomplishes without any external files or coding. You should also check out the "Shaky Grounds" series, comprised of two entries so far: Apocollapse, and Tragedy.

"Operation Get Bike Back" is a pretty good map, as well. There's also the ABBA trilogy, comprised of Toxicity, Alien Planet X64-2, and Another Big Base Attacked.


I should point out I'm running a dinosaur of a machine, and these all run fine on mine (using the 8-bit classic renderer, except in cases like Duke 64.)


View PostNinety-Six, on 04 May 2018 - 06:22 PM, said:

Since I'm making a new post, let's make it worth it:

I will confirm that Starship Troopers is pretty damn good. It's an older one and I still think it holds up for the most part. And the kicker is I've never seen the film or read the books. I know pretty much nothing about the franchise and I had no issues playing it. Pretty sure I missed out on the greater story, but the smaller story of "crash on planet get rescued go to more places and shoot things" is pretty easy to grasp.

AvP is a pretty good TC. Though heed that warning about playing this game in the dark. That's not just for atmosphere. This game is dark. It's also really hard. Not for everyone, but I enjoyed it. It also has a sequel but I haven't played it yet.

DukeVR is a really short mod, but if you like puzzles you'll probably enjoy this one.


As for some updates:

The Unknown Planet and Spacetronic, both by the same author of the ABBA trilogy, are also really great additions in that same style.

War of Attrition is a fun randomizer mod if that's your thing

Duke forces is a fun Star Wars themed gameplay mod/level pack/Total conversion/some weird combination of all three, but it is hard. Take that as a warning.

On the topic of hard, "Fatal Atomic" is really good if you like hardcore swarm combat like in Serious Sam. Stuffing a bunch of enemies into vanilla levels should be a terrible idea but somehow this works without being stupid. Actual thought seemed to be put into what enemies go where. Definitely not for everyone though. Worth a try if you love the combat in these old FPSes like I do and want a solid challenge.

On a less brutal note, another level pack I came across recently was the "Taking Boise" episode. It kinda dropped from nowhere like Fatal Atomic, but is legitimately some of the best Duke level design in recent memory. There are a few of the "my hometown" map packs but this is probably one of the best, featuring varied level design in terms of gameplay and themes (even featuring a silent hill-esque level that was really well done), the enemy/ammo balance seemed just right, and even had a custom ending animation. Good stuff.

Everyone has mentioned the AMC TC and I would be remiss if I neglected mentioning it. I also enjoy its prequel, Imagination World (specifically v2.) It's a bunch of shorter bite-sized levels that I just find really charming.

There was also the recent Bioshock level that you can probably still find on the front page in the level editing section (really anything from there is probably worth your time).

The "Forever Plus" series (it lacks a proper name I think) by underTaker, consisting of "Forever and One More Day," "The Day After Forever," "Desert Base," "Brainwash Facility," "Border Town," and the recently released "Blink of an Eye" that ends the series are all top-notch.

Then there's Poison Heart, the Community Build Projects (I'd say starting with CBP 5 and up), Suburban Hive, Blood Moon...

Really at this point I'm just listing everything. As others have said, this page, this site, and as I mentioned earlier, this board right on this forum are a great place to go to get started.

There's a whole world of duke maps out there to play, and if I may indulge in my bias for a bit, I think you'll find the average quality of duke maps to be slightly higher than the maps made for other games in this vein.

This post has been edited by Ninety-Six: 27 June 2020 - 11:39 PM

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User is offline   NNC 

#7

View PostFantinaikos, on 27 June 2020 - 05:53 AM, said:

*Addon Compilation (however WG Realms 2 is one of the mods that will get updated relatively soon)
*Dukeworld - Practically the archive of almost every user map and TC from 90's to post 2000's. Most of TC are in their better and bug corrected version inside the Addon Compilation anyway.
*AMC TC (at choise you can play the prequel "Imagination World" with EXE update to obtain specific files at 4th episode end that you can use in AMC. Even the total conversions "Oblivion, "The Invasion of Trequonia" and "The Brave New World" are part of the lore (also WGR2 is implied). Stay tuned for future progress about episode four and five)
*Dukeplus
*War Of Attrition
*Alien Armageddon+Space Gladiators and Patch
*Duke Forces - Star Wars based mod
*Duke Nukem Eternity
*Duke Nukem Forever 2013 and DLC
*Imperium
*Hollywood Holocaust Rethinked
*Naferia's Reign: Invasion Of The Dark Mistress (quite strange)


Hollywood Holocaust "rethinked" should bury in hell. Awful bastardization.

I recommend Last Reaction and Water Bases episode 2 instead. Also recommend Daikarin, ADG episode, Lost Highway as classic style mods that stay faithful to the original game.
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User is offline   Merlijn 

#8

Quote

[*]Imperium (needs a modern update though, I'd hold this one off)



IIRC the Imperium download includes its own version of Eduke, so it should run fine if you stick with that version.
In any case, I'm not sure if Dan has time to update it as he's busy enough with WGR2 and Alien Armageddon.
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#9

View PostThe Watchtower, on 27 June 2020 - 11:39 PM, said:

Hollywood Holocaust "rethinked" should bury in hell. Awful bastardization.


Real Douchey i mean Classy, Watchtower.
Not cool.

This post has been edited by Defiant Ron: 28 June 2020 - 12:55 AM

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User is offline   Radar 

  • King of SOVL

#10

View PostMerlijn, on 28 June 2020 - 12:53 AM, said:

IIRC the Imperium download includes its own version of Eduke, so it should run fine if you stick with that version.
In any case, I'm not sure if Dan has time to update it as he's busy enough with WGR2 and Alien Armageddon.


Imperium is tied to Duke Plus which is heavily outdated by today's standards. It suffers from typical 2010-era fails like combining MD3 weapons and random highres textures with nearly 100% 8-bit assets.

I just checked the included version of EDuke32, and it doesn't have proper widescreen scaling or 32-bit palette emulation. Polymost was an unusable ugly renderer for years and I can't believe anyone modded with it in its original state.

I personally think the best option for Imperium would be to convert it to a modern mod like Alien Armageddon or maybe even AMC TC, since it is canon to that mod's story. That would entirely be the responsibility of the mappers though.
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User is offline   NNC 

#11

It's kinda interesting how a 2010 gameplay mod (and many levels of the era) is outdated now, while the original vanilla game isn't.
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#12

Duke Plus has been updated by TD himself very recently, so unless the Eduke32 version or the map construction is REALLY tied to an old version, put Imperium contents in the new version and play with .def lines a little should do the trick. AA/WGR2/AMC Imperium is an interesting concept though.

Calling Duke Plus "outdated by today's standards" have not much sense, in first place Duke Plus is principally intended as a plausible base game options extension, than a mod full of new content and gameplay. If anything, it was used as the basis for usermaps targeted to that (and not failing at all at it) like the included user maps, you could even play almost as if it were not there if you deactivate the plus features. A correct comparison to refer about obsolecence would be more "Duke Nukem: Weapon Mass Of Destruction" to "War Of Attrition". Also, polymer and widescreens are not much solid arguments, widescreens in particular are almost step back because of their format.
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User is offline   Danukem 

  • Duke Plus Developer

#13

IIRC the main reason Imperium was a separate release from Duke Plus is that we wanted the episode to appear on the menu. There was also one additional .art file. It wouldn't be difficult to combine it with the recent DP update, but there could be a few broken things here and there so it shouldn't be released in an updated form until it has been tested and played through to the end of the episode.
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User is offline   Phredreeke 

#14

I thought DukePlus was kinda superseded by Alien Armageddon?
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User is offline   Jim 

#15

I played through the entirely of Imperium (including HRP) the included exe with no problems. All that is needed is the updated def file from the imperium thread for the crouching dukebot.
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User is offline   Radar 

  • King of SOVL

#16

View PostPhredreeke, on 28 June 2020 - 03:00 PM, said:

I thought DukePlus was kinda superseded by Alien Armageddon?


I thought so. I always saw Dan's latest "game enhancement" mod as superseding the previous one. Basically it went WMD > Duke Plus > Attrition > Alien Armageddon.
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User is offline   Danukem 

  • Duke Plus Developer

#17

View PostPhredreeke, on 28 June 2020 - 03:00 PM, said:

I thought DukePlus was kinda superseded by Alien Armageddon?


I lot of very good levels were made for Duke Plus, and it's still the only way to play those levels. When you add together the ones included with Duke Plus, add imperium and Duke Nukem Eternity, it's something like 40 levels. If the project is not maintained, then all the hard work put into those levels is lost because no one can play them.

EDIT: Eventually it should all be put into one package; the main problem with that is the Eternity absolutely requires polymer which is unplayable nowadays

This post has been edited by Trooper Dan: 28 June 2020 - 05:51 PM

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User is offline   Ninety-Six 

#18

View PostTrooper Dan, on 28 June 2020 - 05:32 PM, said:

I lot of very good levels were made for Duke Plus, and it's still the only way to play those levels. When you add together the ones included with Duke Plus, add imperium and Duke Nukem Eternity, it's something like 40 levels. If the project is not maintained, then all the hard work put into those levels is lost because no one can play them.

EDIT: Eventually it should all be put into one package; the main problem with that is the Eternity absolutely requires polymer which is unplayable nowadays


As someone who was never able to run polymer even when it wasn't broken, I'm curious: what's broken about it?
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User is offline   Merlijn 

#19

View PostJim, on 28 June 2020 - 03:00 PM, said:

I played through the entirely of Imperium (including HRP) the included exe with no problems. All that is needed is the updated def file from the imperium thread for the crouching dukebot.


That's good to hear! :)

Quote

It wouldn't be difficult to combine it with the recent DP update,
but there could be a few broken things here and there so it shouldn't be released in an updated form until it has been tested and played through to the end of the episode.


If there's anything that needs to be fixed mapping-wise just let me know. I'd be happy to do it, IMO the mod still holds up.

This post has been edited by Merlijn: 30 June 2020 - 07:44 AM

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User is offline   Jim 

#20

Is a sprite version of the super trooper possible? The shadow warrior ninja's can climb.
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User is offline   Danukem 

  • Duke Plus Developer

#21

View PostJim, on 30 June 2020 - 05:19 PM, said:

Is a sprite version of the super trooper possible? The shadow warrior ninja's can climb.


Any model can be replaced with sprites if you really want to, but that model has a lot of animations and no one wants to do it.
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#22

View PostTrooper Dan, on 30 June 2020 - 07:35 PM, said:

Any model can be replaced with sprites if you really want to, but that model has a lot of animations and no one wants to do it.


Sorry,

What happened with Polymer? I havnt played around with this stuff for a long time.
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User is offline   Jimmy 

  • Let's go Brandon!

#23

Basically the lead developer of Polymer abandoned it and nobody else really has the know-how to pick up development again. It's best for it to be replaced by a new engine at this point.
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User is offline   NightFright 

  • The Truth is in here

#24

I had been a Polymer fan for a while, but after the sky rendering was fixed and further speed improvements were made, Polymost is now my default renderer. I only still use Polymer for maps that require it or to get visual effects like with the normal maps or enhanced lighting e.g. in World Tour maps. Which I rarely touch.
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