[Dukebot]

Finally is here, my map ready to see the light!

This is a very big outdoors map containing various locations such as some temples, caves, volcano, cementery, colisseum... The map focuses on two concepts: exploration and intense action. There are no puzzles or thinking, just find the keys and make it to the end while exploring the different locations of the map.

Some screenshoots:














Download Here

[ck3D]

Yes! Very happy to see this out! Congrats on the release.

I beta-tested this map a few months back and had a blast doing so already in the state it was at the time. It's very much like a mini-adventure and feels really fresh to play, especially as you progress into it and unlock new areas (all of which are packed with surprises).

I have very fond memories of the firefights and the general progression - I'm sure this version is even better now. A lot of effort has been put in for an exciting experience and a rather long play, definitely worth checking out.

[jkas789]

Very fun map. The amount of enemies in Come Get Some difficulty is insane but I'm a sucker for that type of pain.

Just a thing I noticed, but the map made my PC chug like crazy. I had to change the resolution to 1280x720 and remove the voxel mod to be able to finish the mod.

Still very fun map. Congrats mate.

[Radar]

This map caught me by surprise. Maarten's map was huge but I expected it coming from a veteran mapper like him. But not here. I'm 40 minutes in and I don't think I'm even half-way done yet. If this isn't your first map, I'm not aware of your previous works. Otherwise, outstanding debut map.

[Dukebot]

ck3D, on 10 August 2020 - 07:39 AM, said:

Yes! Very happy to see this out! Congrats on the release.

I beta-tested this map a few months back and had a blast doing so already in the state it was at the time. It's very much like a mini-adventure and feels really fresh to play, especially as you progress into it and unlock new areas (all of which are packed with surprises).

I have very fond memories of the firefights and the general progression - I'm sure this version is even better now. A lot of effort has been put in for an exciting experience and a rather long play, definitely worth checking out.

Thanks for your words! Yes the map has some improvements since you tested it, but the basic layout and the concept it's the same. I fixed bugs, improved some areas and changed a little bit the gameplay changing some enemies in some parts of the map. Also added some small effects in some areas.

jkas789, on 11 August 2020 - 12:47 AM, said:

Very fun map. The amount of enemies in Come Get Some difficulty is insane but I'm a sucker for that type of pain.

Just a thing I noticed, but the map made my PC chug like crazy. I had to change the resolution to 1280x720 and remove the voxel mod to be able to finish the mod.

Still very fun map. Congrats mate.

Glad you liked the map. THe problem with framerate it's because in some areas the engine is drawing lots of sprites at the same time, in some machines this can cause a huge drop in framerate.

R A D A Я, on 11 August 2020 - 07:41 PM, said:

This map caught me by surprise. Maarten's map was huge but I expected it coming from a veteran mapper like him. But not here. I'm 40 minutes in and I don't think I'm even half-way done yet. If this isn't your first map, I'm not aware of your previous works. Otherwise, outstanding debut map.

I have other maps that I did long time ago but they were noobish ugly maps. This is my first "serious" map. Hope you like it when you make it to the end!

[Sanek]

Finished it!
It took me 42 minutes, found 2 secrets.
I must say that I'm mighty impressed by this map. I played big maps before and made a couple of biggies myself, but I never saw the map that's as big yet looked so good! It reminds of the old Jungle Tour series for reason, and the old temple maps that Bob Travis used to make. It took a while to find the first keycard, but from that point on I knew exactly where to go. The map's kinda hard as far as monster count is concerned but nothing that's impossible to beat. The prison section is kinda pushing it though. Also, where is a devastator? I saw ammo for it but never found the gun itself. Maybe I didn't search good enough but unless it's in some area like a graveyard and you're supposed to find it in some random spot, I think it should be more obvious. Oh, and that's unfortunate that this Overlord in the end is not stayput - he would drop in the water if he goes out of the arena. But anyway - this map is a blast, I enjoyed it!

[Gambini]

Nice to see you´re still around! Those outdoor areas look very good!

[Ninety-Six]

Now this is the kind of intense action I love. As soon as the level started, I was under fire for about 15 minutes straight. Only until almost 300 enemies were dead did I finally have a chance to catch my breath (I played on CGS, naturally). And it's not like the difficulty really let up after that. I'm pretty sure about 60-70% of the time my finger was firmly holding down the fire button. This was a tough map.

But it was an earned toughness. The kind of brutal-but-fair sort of difficulty I tend to never shut up about around here. The sort of challenge that can be overcome with good split-second decision making, good aim, and knowing when to fall back (granted this map is so open that there aren't many obvious retreat spots, so I had to get creative about where I took shelter. That itself can be fun if the map is designed well, and good news: it was!). In other words, everything I love about the combat in these games, and Duke in particular when it comes to movement. Jumping around and straferunning trying to avoid getting shot, even using the steroids for once, taking advantage of the extra speed as an emergency exit strategy.

The gauntlet battle for the yellow key was another highlight. Not as intense as the opening battle since if you took your time most of the aliens wouldn't wake up. Still, taking on that many enemies in a row is always notable.

Visually, I admit I was too busy having a knuckle-white grip on the mouse to take them in too much. But from what I could see during the downtime, it was a surprisingly not-dull take on the open field/temple thing. I particularly liked the dead, dried shrubbery which for some reason I don't think I've seen all that often. Favorite area in terms of visuals would probably be the water temple and its intense blue palette.


Final time was around 84 minutes, but with the last 10-15 spent finding two lost enemies: a trooper stuck in teleport (always hate when that happens) and a sentry drone that somehow got itself stuck in the water temple entry cavern. I don't hold either instance against the map, though; that's just some Duke 3D jank at play.

Final kill count was 723/723 (thanks to Darkus' kill counter fix), and I managed to find all 4 secrets by just running around during the big open battles.


Overall, I had a great time with this map. I look forward to more in the future (especially if it keeps up with the same amount of spicy gunplay this one had).

[ck3D]

Ninety-Six, on 12 August 2020 - 10:25 PM, said:

But it was an earned toughness. The kind of brutal-but-fair sort of difficulty I tend to never shut up about around here. The sort of challenge that can be overcome with good split-second decision making, good aim, and knowing when to fall back (granted this map is so open that there aren't many obvious retreat spots, so I had to get creative about where I took shelter. That itself can be fun if the map is designed well, and good news: it was!). In other words, everything I love about the combat in these games, and Duke in particular when it comes to movement. Jumping around and straferunning trying to avoid getting shot, even using the steroids for once, taking advantage of the extra speed as an emergency exit strategy.

The gauntlet battle for the yellow key was another highlight. Not as intense as the opening battle since if you took your time most of the aliens wouldn't wake up. Still, taking on that many enemies in a row is always notable.

This is very well put, one aspect that made the combat in this map feel particularly unique for me was how the overwhelming alien presence combined with the diversity of the terrain led me to improvise a lot of the action and even come up with strategies every now and then as far as how to approach taking over certain 'lands' of the 'world'. When I first loaded the map I thought all the vegetation and detail might get in the way of the firefights but if anything they ended up being a very welcome help as the hit detection isn't faulty and I ended up integrating those elements into my play style when overwhelmed, by learning how to use them to my advantage and block enemy shots and rockets.

My personal favorite section of the level was:

Spoiler

The last big section full of enemies that one gets to enter in the last third of the map to get to the final keycard, the one that then unlocks the boss room. I don't know if health/boots/ammo have been added since the beta version of the level I played but in my case when I entered that section, I only had one pair of boots and literally 3 HP. Needless to say, I died a lot for what probably made for the next 45 mins or so, sometimes just due to the slime too, but the terrain and its options for cover just worked with the frenetic action so well, I enjoyed the challenge of conquering that section all the way through. Finally wiping out the last few enemies and reaching that keycard felt incredibly rewarding. Also I thought it was really fucking cool how that area was divided into higher and higher zones all visible from distance and yet the enemies wouldn't activate without being reasonably in sight - gave the whole scene a lot of depth, literally!

[Ninety-Six]

ck3D, on 13 August 2020 - 12:39 AM, said:

When I first loaded the map I thought all the vegetation and detail might get in the way of the firefights but if anything they ended up being a very welcome help as the hit detection isn't faulty and I ended up integrating those elements into my play style when overwhelmed, by learning how to use them to my advantage and block enemy shots and rockets.

I had a similar first impression but yeah. Some of those ended up being improvised cover for me, too. Some of the sunken parts of the terrain also ended up saving my hide against some battlelords, being used as a makeshift trench so long as I remained crouching and just close enough to be out of sight without stepping onto a higher and more visible plane.

It's great stuff. I haven't had my abilities pushed this far in a Duke map for quite some time. It was refreshing to be so mentally taxed again. It reminded me a lot of Serious Sam, actually, and I'm not talking about the enemy count. I'm talking about how you had to make several dozen decisions per second, planning and executing multiple steps at a time and being forced to think up to half a minute ahead. Now granted, in Sam it's way more about enemy prioritization, weapon switching, and changing strategies based on the introduction of new enemies into the battle. In Duke, whie there's a part of that, there's a bit more focus on dipping in and out of cover, and escaping bad situations to lure the enemies into fighting you on your terms. Nonetheless, the principle is ultimately the same. You're still needing to make very fast calculations based on what's happening and what you think needs to be done to survive, the outcome of which is literally life and death.

And this map excellently pushed those qualities of Duke combat to the forefront. I'm gushing a bit but this is quite literally the reason I love these old-style FPSes, and I've been itching for a tough fight for a good while.

Spoiler

Also yes, there were a fair number of boots in the gauntlet fight. I think that's the best way to handle damaging terrain. Make it not necessarily instantly detrimental to go out there if you need to move out, but encourages limiting your time on it.

[Dukebot]

Sanek, on 12 August 2020 - 08:40 AM, said:

Finished it!
It took me 42 minutes, found 2 secrets.
I must say that I'm mighty impressed by this map. I played big maps before and made a couple of biggies myself, but I never saw the map that's as big yet looked so good! It reminds of the old Jungle Tour series for reason, and the old temple maps that Bob Travis used to make. It took a while to find the first keycard, but from that point on I knew exactly where to go. The map's kinda hard as far as monster count is concerned but nothing that's impossible to beat. The prison section is kinda pushing it though. Also, where is a devastator? I saw ammo for it but never found the gun itself. Maybe I didn't search good enough but unless it's in some area like a graveyard and you're supposed to find it in some random spot, I think it should be more obvious. Oh, and that's unfortunate that this Overlord in the end is not stayput - he would drop in the water if he goes out of the arena. But anyway - this map is a blast, I enjoyed it!

Thanks for playing it, glad you liked! The devastator is in fact at the cementery. I only put 1 of each powerfull weapons to make sure that the player gets a good reward for exploration. Congratulations if you could end the map without it, in all my testing I always beated the map with the use of the devastator, as it's a very powerfull weapon that makes things easier in a lot of areas.

As for the Overlord, it's possible to make it to stay put? I know it's possible for minibosses like the battlelord, but didn't know you can make big bosses to stay put, maybe it could improve the final battle?

Gambini, on 12 August 2020 - 09:04 AM, said:

Nice to see you´re still around! Those outdoor areas look very good!

Thanks for your words! Glad to see that you're still around =).

Ninety-Six, on 12 August 2020 - 10:25 PM, said:

Now this is the kind of intense action I love. As soon as the level started, I was under fire for about 15 minutes straight. Only until almost 300 enemies were dead did I finally have a chance to catch my breath (I played on CGS, naturally). And it's not like the difficulty really let up after that. I'm pretty sure about 60-70% of the time my finger was firmly holding down the fire button. This was a tough map.

But it was an earned toughness. The kind of brutal-but-fair sort of difficulty I tend to never shut up about around here. The sort of challenge that can be overcome with good split-second decision making, good aim, and knowing when to fall back (granted this map is so open that there aren't many obvious retreat spots, so I had to get creative about where I took shelter. That itself can be fun if the map is designed well, and good news: it was!). In other words, everything I love about the combat in these games, and Duke in particular when it comes to movement. Jumping around and straferunning trying to avoid getting shot, even using the steroids for once, taking advantage of the extra speed as an emergency exit strategy.

The gauntlet battle for the yellow key was another highlight. Not as intense as the opening battle since if you took your time most of the aliens wouldn't wake up. Still, taking on that many enemies in a row is always notable.

Visually, I admit I was too busy having a knuckle-white grip on the mouse to take them in too much. But from what I could see during the downtime, it was a surprisingly not-dull take on the open field/temple thing. I particularly liked the dead, dried shrubbery which for some reason I don't think I've seen all that often. Favorite area in terms of visuals would probably be the water temple and its intense blue palette.


Final time was around 84 minutes, but with the last 10-15 spent finding two lost enemies: a trooper stuck in teleport (always hate when that happens) and a sentry drone that somehow got itself stuck in the water temple entry cavern. I don't hold either instance against the map, though; that's just some Duke 3D jank at play.

Final kill count was 723/723 (thanks to Darkus' kill counter fix), and I managed to find all 4 secrets by just running around during the big open battles.


Overall, I had a great time with this map. I look forward to more in the future (especially if it keeps up with the same amount of spicy gunplay this one had).

Thanks for the words and glad you enjoyed the map. I am also a fan of intense action and Serious Same gameplay, so I implemented it on this map as well as I could do.

What do you mean with "gauntlet" battle? Don't know what part of the map are you refering to.

[Ninety-Six]

Dukebot, on 13 August 2020 - 02:18 AM, said:

What do you mean with "gauntlet" battle? Don't know what part of the map are you refering to.

Yellow key/slime valley area place. Basically a straight shot to the key, but a massive gauntlet of aliens to get through between you and it.

[Paul B]

Ninety-Six, on 13 August 2020 - 02:34 AM, said:

Yellow key/slime valley area place. Basically a straight shot to the key, but a massive gauntlet of aliens to get through between you and it.

Yea I had a chance to play this map. The AI placement and design of the level was fantastic. This map defines what Duke Nukem is all about. I also loved taking out all the aliens from the cliffs before getting the yellow keycard. Sneaky entrance to get into the yellow key card area but the elevated attack from the cliffs was great fun. This allowed me to proceed through the cave i blew up from the backdoor to grab the yellow keycard and unleashing the battle around the colosseum. The only thing I wasn't sure about was there appeared to be a second blue keycard & red key card door which didn't serve any purpose? Overall though it was a killer map!

Took me 60 minutes, killed 660 enemies and found 3 of the 4 secrets.

Oh perfect music for the map too!

[Ninety-Six]

Paul B, on 13 August 2020 - 08:29 AM, said:

The only thing I wasn't sure about was there appeared to be a second blue keycard & red key card door which didn't serve any purpose? Overall though it was a killer map!

Spoiler

Seems like you accidentally did some sequence-breaking (or maybe it was intentional?) When you get the first blue key, you can choose to enter either the fire or water temple. Behind each is a red key. You use the red key on the first door to the caves. In the caves is a second blue key with which you can open the other temple you didn't earlier. Behind that is the second red key which unlocks the main entrance into the yellow key gauntlet, back in the cave.

[Paul B]

Ninety-Six, on 13 August 2020 - 08:36 AM, said:

Spoiler

Seems like you accidentally did some sequence-breaking (or maybe it was intentional?) When you get the first blue key, you can choose to enter either the fire or water temple. Behind each is a red key. You use the red key on the first door to the caves. In the caves is a second blue key with which you can open the other temple you didn't earlier. Behind that is the second red key which unlocks the main entrance into the yellow key gauntlet, back in the cave.

That's really odd, the first keycard I came across was a blue keycard in a pit. I used that card to open the Prison. I think this is where I got a Red Keycard but there was definitely no obtainable second red keycard in the Indiana Jones temple area. Maybe the version of Eduke I'm using is causing a problem not showing a second keycard of the same color R9208. Anyway, over by the blue keycard pit in the far corner it lets you up onto the cliffs without hacking so I thought it was intentional.

[Ninety-Six]

Paul B, on 13 August 2020 - 08:43 AM, said:

used that red keycard to open the Indiana Jones temple area. But left there without a red key card.

If you mean the caves, there should be a blue keycard in there. Did you find that one?

[Paul B]

Ninety-Six, on 13 August 2020 - 08:49 AM, said:

If you mean the caves, there should be a blue keycard in there. Did you find that one?

Ahhh, Okay no i never actually saw the route to the blue key in the caves. Sorry, now that makes sense. Leave it to me to break something! Where's Forge when we need him? lol

[Ninety-Six]

Did you find an area (still in the caves) with a bunch of rock platforms over a lava lake?

[Dukebot]

Paul B, on 13 August 2020 - 08:29 AM, said:

Yea I had a chance to play this map. The AI placement and design of the level was fantastic. This map defines what Duke Nukem is all about. I also loved taking out all the aliens from the cliffs before getting the yellow keycard. Sneaky entrance to get into the yellow key card area but the elevated attack from the cliffs was great fun. This allowed me to proceed through the cave i blew up from the backdoor to grab the yellow keycard and unleashing the battle around the colosseum. The only thing I wasn't sure about was there appeared to be a second blue keycard & red key card door which didn't serve any purpose? Overall though it was a killer map!

Took me 60 minutes, killed 660 enemies and found 3 of the 4 secrets.

Oh perfect music for the map too!

Thanks for playing the map, glad you enjoyed it!

It seems that you skipped a part of the map, I thought it was not possible. After getting the first red keycard how did you manage to get into the yellow keycard area? I'm interestted in case I need to fix something!

[Ninety-Six]

It sounds like he somehow blew up the wall leading back from the yellow key area from the other side.

[Paul B]

Dukebot, on 13 August 2020 - 11:20 AM, said:

Thanks for playing the map, glad you enjoyed it!

It seems that you skipped a part of the map, I thought it was not possible. After getting the first red keycard how did you manage to get into the yellow keycard area? I'm interestted in case I need to fix something!

By the blue keycard, where you descend into an open pit in that far corner of the map it lets you jump up onto the cliffs without hacking, I thought it was intentional during my first play through. Anyway, it allows you to bypass the second red key door by going into the back area where the yellow keycard is located. After you blow up the wall from the back you can go back around and enter that area without needing a keycard.

[ck3D]

Paul B I'm curious, is the area accessible via the cliffs that you mentioned the one that can be seen on the tenth and eleventh screenshots Dukebot included in the OP? If yes then I could also access it during the beta testing phase and reported it (along with a funny story, so I'll copy paste that part of the email I sent):

"I don't know if intended or not, but I could make it up there (which is coherent) and then drop down to the area with the cave inside the wall way prior I ever had to obtain a key. My progression of the level was pretty complex since I did a lot of exploring so I can't track down if this actually breaks something in the gameplay, but it's a possibility. Funny story is I entered that cave way early on (a long time before I even realized there was an entrance via the mines, or even that there were mines), I was running pretty low on health and for some reason all I could see inside the room from the outside was the Portable Medkit. So I did some gymnastics to get up there via that cliff and hopefully run into what I thought would be a secret area with goodies/zone, and as I ran towards the Medkit I suddenly saw the dozens of red eyes activating in the dark, in the end I couldn't even touch the Medkit. I wasn't equipped to deal with those monsters just yet so eventually I left that zone aside before I actually accidentally found my way back into it via the keys."

No idea one could blow up one of those walls from the other side though. So maybe you're talking about a different area?

[Dukebot]

ck3D, on 13 August 2020 - 11:06 PM, said:

Paul B I'm curious, is the area accessible via the cliffs that you mentioned the one that can be seen on the tenth and eleventh screenshots Dukebot included in the OP? If yes then I could also access it during the beta testing phase and reported it (along with a funny story, so I'll copy paste that part of the email I sent):

"I don't know if intended or not, but I could make it up there (which is coherent) and then drop down to the area with the cave inside the wall way prior I ever had to obtain a key. My progression of the level was pretty complex since I did a lot of exploring so I can't track down if this actually breaks something in the gameplay, but it's a possibility. Funny story is I entered that cave way early on (a long time before I even realized there was an entrance via the mines, or even that there were mines), I was running pretty low on health and for some reason all I could see inside the room from the outside was the Portable Medkit. So I did some gymnastics to get up there via that cliff and hopefully run into what I thought would be a secret area with goodies/zone, and as I ran towards the Medkit I suddenly saw the dozens of red eyes activating in the dark, in the end I couldn't even touch the Medkit. I wasn't equipped to deal with those monsters just yet so eventually I left that zone aside before I actually accidentally found my way back into it via the keys."

No idea one could blow up one of those walls from the other side though. So maybe you're talking about a different area?

I think he is talking about the same area. That area it's not accessible walking because there are invisible walls, But nothing stops you from throwing a pipe bomb from the other side, since invisible walls don't block the pipe bomb. Maybe this is what's happened. This is interesting because I never thought about that.

EDIT: I could not throw a pipe bomb from there but you can trigger the monsters of the other side, so maybe some commander or battlelord breaks the crack when shooting at the player from the other side? It's only a possibility but must be something like this.

[Paul B]

Dukebot, on 14 August 2020 - 05:40 AM, said:

I think he is talking about the same area. That area it's not accessible walking because there are invisible walls, But nothing stops you from throwing a pipe bomb from the other side, since invisible walls don't block the pipe bomb. Maybe this is what's happened. This is interesting because I never thought about that.

EDIT: I could not throw a pipe bomb from there but you can trigger the monsters of the other side, so maybe some commander or battlelord breaks the crack when shooting at the player from the other side? It's only a possibility but must be something like this.

Here is an attached screenshot with the location of the unblocked wall. See map coordinates for exact location. It lets you go all around the back area of the Yellow keycard area on the cliffs.

Attached thumbnail(s)

• 

[ck3D]

Just a heads up, Puritan is hosting Lost World on scent-88 and I just pieced together this review for it: http://www.scent-88....lostw/lostw.php

And Mikko's review is up on MSDN too. He really doesn't like slaughterfest type of maps, but still tried to be fair: https://msdn.duke4.n...otlostworld.php

[Dukebot]

Paul B, on 14 August 2020 - 05:53 AM, said:

Here is an attached screenshot with the location of the unblocked wall. See map coordinates for exact location. It lets you go all around the back area of the Yellow keycard area on the cliffs.

I see, thanks for telling me! But from there there is no way you can block the crack or anything, as the other walls are blocked so you are trapped on that wall area. But maybe you can trigger the enemies on the other side and maybe some enemy rocket could break it.

ck3D, on 16 August 2020 - 04:37 AM, said:

Just a heads up, Puritan is hosting Lost World on scent-88 and I just pieced together this review for it: http://www.scent-88....lostw/lostw.php

And Mikko's review is up on MSDN too. He really doesn't like slaughterfest type of maps, but still tried to be fair: https://msdn.duke4.n...otlostworld.php

Thanks for telling this, glad to see those reviews =).

[Paul B]

Dukebot, on 16 August 2020 - 08:16 AM, said:

I see, thanks for telling me! But from there there is no way you can block the crack or anything, as the other walls are blocked so you are trapped on that wall area. But maybe you can trigger the enemies on the other side and maybe some enemy rocket could break it.




Thanks for telling this, glad to see those reviews =).

Actually, I just shot the crack on the wall and it opened up with a RPG rocket. I've done this multiple times already to bypass the keycards.

[Dukebot]

Paul B, on 16 August 2020 - 11:10 AM, said:

Actually, I just shot the crack on the wall and it opened up with a RPG rocket. I've done this multiple times already to bypass the keycards.

Oh I see, so the crack is visible from there... now it makes sense. Unintentional shortcut of the map hehehe. Thanks for discovering it!

[Kylie]

I was looking forward to this map since I beta tested it earlier this year and I didn't realise that you had released it until a few days ago when I saw this thread. I had been watching your original 'Under Construction' thread! Anyway, we played through this map in co-op last night and we enjoyed it even more than when we beta tested it. The improvements, while subtle, give a greater sense of immersion. This is an excellent map and we will definitely be playing through it again sometime soon. Congratulations on the release!

[Dukebot]

Kylie, on 18 October 2020 - 02:22 AM, said:

I was looking forward to this map since I beta tested it earlier this year and I didn't realise that you had released it until a few days ago when I saw this thread. I had been watching your original 'Under Construction' thread! Anyway, we played through this map in co-op last night and we enjoyed it even more than when we beta tested it. The improvements, while subtle, give a greater sense of immersion. This is an excellent map and we will definitely be playing through it again sometime soon. Congratulations on the release!

Thanks for your words! Glad you enjoyed the final version!