[Maarten]

Hello community!

My new map 'Another Attack (part 1): Woudrichem War' has been released today (on my Birthday to be exact!)

Works best on CLASSIC MODE.

DOWNLOAD HERE:
 AAP1Woudrichem.zip (5.99MB)
Number of downloads: 863

Preview/music (NOTE: the first screen has a filter!):


I hope you enjoy it! Like most of my maps, the gameplay isn't completly traditional
Maarten van Oostrum

[Nukem1994x]

Awesome! Will have fun playing this!

[Maarten]

 Nukem1994x, on 15 July 2020 - 03:27 AM, said:

Awesome! Will have fun playing this!

Have fun!

Meanwhile, I got a review (98/100 ) from MSDN (& download link): https://msdn.duke4.n...twoudrichem.php

[Ninety-Six]

That was a fast MSDN pickup.

Anyway this looks super great. Unfortunately I can't play it until I get a computer where I can safely set up eDuke, but as soon as I'm able this is gonna be right near the top of the list.

[Sanek]

 Ninety-Six, on 15 July 2020 - 02:00 PM, said:

That was a fast MSDN pickup.

Anyway this looks super great. Unfortunately I can't play it until I get a computer where I can safely set up eDuke, but as soon as I'm able this is gonna be right near the top of the list.

No shit, he was one of the beta-testers xD.

Anyway, congragulations on the map's release, Maarten! I'm going to play the map tonight, it looks like a big one!

[Ninety-Six]

 Sanek, on 15 July 2020 - 02:34 PM, said:

No shit, he was one of the beta-testers xD.

...yep, that would do it alright.

[Sanek]

Just played the map. It took me 40 solid minutes to complete and I must say...this map rocks!

Perhaps it's the best map that I played since Poison Heart. I like the open layout, design that just screams "Europe" and the usual Oostrum's flair. The music track is spot on. When i started playing I thought that it's the easy map as far as enemy count is concerned, but it turned to be quite the challenge actually in the latter parts of the level - nothing that's really hard, but I spent some time looking for health packs while trying to avoid the enemies. Perhaps it's just luck, but I didn't spent much time looking for entryways into the buildings. My favorite one is the supermarket. The battle at the clock's top is suposed to be the map's highlight, but I think it would be much cooler if there were the earthquakes all over the place...but it's good as it is.

Anyway, it's a great map with a huge replay value due to it's nonlinear gameplay.

[Forge]

been playing for prob about 20 minutes.
looks great & i like the ammo-weapon-enemy placement ratio

but it's me. I'm getting into places and background scenery I shouldn't, onto rooftops I shouldn't. I've collected the blue and red keys so far, but used none. I found three gates with yellow locks, but haven't found a yellow key yet & still managed to find myself on the other side of the gates without opening them.
i don't know if that's by design or not, but I'm enjoying myself none the less, even though I kinda seem to be wandering around aimlessly and taking in the scenery.

This is the first single-release map I've played outside of beta-testing for TC's in quite some time, so i'm going to be a little prone to test things and see what I can & can't get away with.

edit: found the yellow key inside the town & then further exploring rewarded me with the discovery of the second one outside the town. I was wondering if there was more than one.

edit2: pretty epic. found 3 secrets

[Maarten]

@Ninety-Six: Take your time

@Sanek: thanks! I`m aware the map isn't too hard (save for a few bigger fights). However, you might like `come get some` setting too Glad to hear about the Europe atmosphere!

@Forge: Do you remember how you got inside the city without using the yellow keycard (which ur getting @ boat) & background scenery? I'm aware you can shortcut some parts with "jumping" on the enemies, but I decided to let it be, since the "normal" way should be clear enough (didn't hear about this either @ beta phase).
AFAIK there's nothing too serious though?
Thanks for your comments!

[Forge]

Spoiler

found some stuff, shared with the author, then deleted

[Merlijn]

Even modern AAA games like Doom Eternal are full of exploits and shortcuts for speed runners, so I wouldn't feel too bad about it.
But if you prefer to fix it that's your choise of course.

Anyway, congrats on the release!
I saw this thing develop from its humble beginnings and the final result is really impressive! It really pushes the engine to its utter limits haha.
You got remarkably close to the actual town of Woudrichem (even though it's not a 1:1 recreation).

The climax has to be my favorite part, but exploring the city is really fun as well.

[Forge]

it's fine the way it is. nothing i found was that huge of a game-breaker. getting into the background scenery does nothing, skipping one little section to get into town doesn't really make the map faster or easier. If anything I had to go without the extra weapons and ammo so I handicapped myself more than advanced my progress.


visually impressive and well balanced.
the balancing act was what impressed me the most; that's not an easy thing to accomplish with an open non-linear map.

[Maarten]

Nah, judging from your screens I'm fine with it. Besides, the real way should be pretty clear. If people decide to try shortcuts, it's -like as you pointed out- making the gameplay harder since everything builds up (weapons, enemies etc).

Thanks for the comments!!
7 months construction time as well. I guess I haven't mapped this quick since... 2003? (Toxicity, OGBB) Haha

[Mark]

Forge reminds me of one of TeaMonster's kids who bug tested HHR. He lives for doing stuff like that. Knowing he was looking to exploit map geo in every way possible I tried my best to find and fix them first. Didn't matter. He found many more. And I think it was Forge who found another one after it was released. IIRC it was being able to get in the yogurt shop.

Keep doing what you do Forge.

[Maarten]

Haha it's all okay with me. The original DN3D (especially when having the jetpack) has LOTS of shortcuts.
This reminds me when Roch 6 got released: I somehow got to the nukebutton in..5 minutes? It really only happened the first time I played it haha!

I'm glad you guys enjoyed the map, that's the most important thing anyway

[HellFire]

Just played the map, took me 50minutes. Definitelly some well spent time. Found only 3 secrets (out of 5). I did try to find the other 2, but i gave up kinda quickly.
Very nice map. I haven't been playing duke that much recently, but when i saw a release made by you, i just had to play it.
The only problem i have with it is that the frame rate can be very low in some isntances, but i know this is not really your fault.

[Maarten]

Yeah some secrets are sneaky haha. I even forgot a very small one I added like 5 months ago haha.

Quote

haven't been playing duke that much recently, but when i saw a release made by you, i just had to play it.

I take that as a big compliment!

Thanks!

[William Gee]

Finished playing this again.. lots of nice improvements! very original and fun level with fitting music, love the roof top jumping large areas and non linear game play!
I cant remember the last duke map I played...

[Maarten]

Haha, I've to admit I haven't played Duke at all last years, save for replaying Clear Water by Billy Boy & testing my brothers maps.

Thanks for your comments and your helpful beta report, William!
Your big maps are inspiration as well, I realize haha

[slacker1]

Great map! Took me about 50 minutes as well. The rooftop "parkour"-like game play aspect was a nice change of pace.

The devastator definitely saved my ass against those octobrains.

[Ninety-Six]

What convenient timing. A few days after this comes out, I get back a setup I can use. And true to my word, this was the first thing I played.

Right off the bat, the map's visuals are very strong. It's a very believable European city built entirely with the assets in Atomic. A particular touch I liked was the simple geometry and textures in the background that acted like a little skybox. I always appreciate attempts to make a map feel like there is more to a location than what you can play.

About the only thing I thought the visuals fell short on was the very flat lighting. Though, given that this map is pushing the limits to the absolute extremes, I realize that having some shadows in the streets may have been physically impossible. The cloudy sky creates a justified excuse, at least. So really it's just more of a nitpick than anything.

Gameplay-wise, I liked how you had to "circle" the city before entering it. It was a good way to hype up the city proper and to establish the borders. I will admit that once I got in I was a bit overwhelmed with the complete freedom given. Over time I managed to navigate around with little trouble, but I did still get lost once in a while. Granted that was because I wanted to explore the entire city, and unfortunately sometimes it's not always easy to tell where you've been. Three whole aliens managed to escape me by the end, no doubt huddled in an alley I didn't realize I hadn't explored.

Did find all the secrets though. In fact I'm kind of surprised at how many locations weren't actually secrets; there are a lot of tucked-away areas to find that had goodies in them.

That little gripe aside, it really was a pleasure to explore the city. I especially liked how most of the city was traversed by jumping across rooftops. I'm a weirdo who likes first-person platforming (and proud of it), and I've always enjoyed how Duke moves in the air. Any excuse to parkour across a cityscape is one I'm always happy to take. It just never gets old for me.

The combat was just spicy enough to keep me entertained. I enjoyed being under fire from the start and then having to clear out the city. Though I think maybe it could have been a little spicier. I found all five official secrets pretty fast so I was loaded for bear. And when the city was cleared out and it was just time to grab the keycards, despite the respawns I do think the challenge went down a bit. I played on Come Get Some and while I did die a few times, I kinda missed the frantic stress of the beginning of the level. I never felt short on ammo either outside of the city outskirts section.

The battle on the belltower was a good return to form though. That was just as spicy as a finale should be.


All in all, I greatly enjoyed my time with this level. Any map by either of the Oostrum brothers is always a treat to play, and I hope the tease in the text file isn't just that. I would love to see more of this city Duke-ified.


Also, I just have to ask. Are there actually cannons on the real Woudrichem's walls? If so that is metal as hell.

[ck3D]

lol, you're asking if the cannons are canon, that's some meta shit!

After playtesting the map (maybe even before that) I spent a bit of time looking up the actual city online to spot the resemblances and differences. I did indeed spot at least one cannon:

[Merlijn]

Haha yes, Woudrichem used to be a fortified city because of its strategic position next to the river (centuries ago).
So the cannons are kept there as part of the city's history. I think there are at least 4 of them.

[Sangman]

Took me around 45 minutes, cool map! I liked exploring all the nooks and crannies yet the viewscreens provided enough hints on where to go that I didn't really get lost.


It wasn't really playable in classic mode for me due to low framerate though, had to use Polymost

[duke3d.exe]

Cool map so far but im stuck after entering the Arcade building, i've reached the room with the creepy TV. What do I do?

[ck3D]

 duke3d.exe, on 27 January 2021 - 07:52 PM, said:

Cool map so far but im stuck after entering the Arcade building, i've reached the room with the creepy TV. What do I do?

I would need to replay this map to be sure but I only remember getting semi-seriously stuck in one specific section myself - I'm not sure it's the same as yours, as I can't remember whether or not it had an arcade and TV, but it was the dark, cramped bar thing with the aquarium; if that's where you are stuck too, then there's a switch somewhere in that room that may be especially hard to spot because of the darkness on some renderers, and also (IMO) should have been made a bit more obvious. Otherwise I don't remember getting stumped or confused anywhere to the point of halting progression myself, despite normally being prone to that a fair bit; some of the indoor locations are ridiculously cramped, but there's always some kind of rather obvious way out, from what I can recall. If you're still stuck by tonight, I might (or might not) be able to take a proper look at the map again and help, although I suspect other members will have provided help by then.

[Merlijn]

 duke3d.exe, on 27 January 2021 - 07:52 PM, said:

Cool map so far but im stuck after entering the Arcade building, i've reached the room with the creepy TV. What do I do?

If it's the room I think it is: there's a vent you can crawl through behind the couch. It's a bit hidden so maybe you didn't see it.
This will take you back outside.

[duke3d.exe]

 Merlijn, on 28 January 2021 - 07:13 AM, said:

If it's the room I think it is: there's a vent you can crawl through behind the couch. It's a bit hidden so maybe you didn't see it.
This will take you back outside.

Cant see anything.


Is this room. There's no way out that I can see.

[Merlijn]

You first need to go to the upper floor, there's a button in the bathroom that de-activates the force field that blocks the kitchen.
Although, judging from your screenshot you may have done that already.

Then in the kitchen there's a hole in the wall that will lead you to the next room (which happens to be the room I mentioned in my previous post ).

[duke3d.exe]

 Merlijn, on 29 January 2021 - 06:47 AM, said:

You first need to go to the upper floor, there's a button in the bathroom that de-activates the force field that blocks the kitchen.
Although, judging from your screenshot you may have done that already.

Then in the kitchen there's a hole in the wall that will lead you to the next room (which happens to be the room I mentioned in my previous post ).

Yeah, the creepy room with the TV. There's no way out that I can see.