[ck3D]

Thanks Merlijn, I'm having a lot of fun doing this remake indeed, getting kinda close to completion too already.

Lore of the whole episode is a bit heavy both in terms of events and tone, yeah. Can't share much about it that the screens don't already show or imply without spoiling the direction of the whole adventure before it's even out, but you're onto something for real. Situation actually isn't too dissimilar to the general havoc in Shaky Grounds, come to think of it.

[Aleks]

ck3D, on 12 March 2022 - 05:19 PM, said:

Situation actually isn't too dissimilar to the general havoc in Shaky Grounds, come to think of it.

Spoiler

The sub-title for this episode will be Boiling Lavas, another entry in line with Shaky Grounds and Gusty Winds

[ck3D]

Some plaza growth, been going a bit crafty with it and a lot of the buildings are spritework so you can both walk traverse the tunnels at ground level and walk on the roof once you've accessed the heights (e.g.. screen 1 vs. screen 6). General area is also a stand-out focal point in the level now. It's the last segment of the map and I'm halfway done designing it, so this level too is just about ready to be a wrap, maybe in a couple of sessions.

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[Aleks]

Love this last batch of screens, definitely my favourite ones from this map so far. Seems like your mapping style really shines when you're taking direct inspiration from real-life locations. The architecture is simply brilliant, the spritework roofs could almost fool me and are very impressive. The round building might be the coolest one here and the shading on it looks very natural with the way you graded it. Lots of awesome creative texture applications here (these bollards made with bar stools are cute as hell, but totally sell the idea!), I can only imagine you've had tons of fun designing all that stuff - at least I'm pretty sure I would

Looking forward for you to start adding monsters and polishing the older maps, so I can start properly testing them

[NNC]

I hope gameplay will be as good as these screens. Maps look sprawling and I hope it won't hinder the actual progression. This means keycards shouldn't be too far away from their doors and bactracking won't be an issue. Fingers crossed.

[ck3D]

We'll get to see soon enough, I just structurally completed map 13 and am now ready to tackle the general second pass on every individual level I think. Some are going to need a bit more work than others where I got more or less lazy before calling it 'done for now' but none of them are lacking anything but monsters, sounds, some minor cosmetic detail and perhaps a few effects here and there (... I think there's one map from a couple of years back where I straight up didn't make the doors operable yet). Everything was built with gameplay in mind first and foremost though, a lot of those levels really rely on simple spaces and structures, just ample/in abundance and in disguise, so I'm not going to have to improvise much and not breaking a sweat, just gotta lay it down, see what works and what maybe doesn't.

Every once in a while I go through the entire episode in sequence and even without 95% of the monsters, everything seems to flow pretty well (all the keys and key slots were always in there) which I hope is a good sign. The only potentially confusing moments are the few moments in the later, more complex maps that are meant to be that much more confusing. I'm aware of how much of a trap author intent can be, too. Episode will have a shit ton to explore but the mandatory progression I want to be very straight to the point (falling in line with my hopes that some people might start speed running this).

There's that scrapped A.W.O.L. level (and potential second secret map) I want to retouch and experiment with too; I'll do that during the upcoming pass, maybe as a last minute thing. A couple of monster variants I really want to code in as well. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the new Pigcops, Jay's been overworked with A.W.O.L. and so I hope our schedules can match eventually.

[Dynamo128]

The fact they flow together well despite being non-linear is indeed an excellent sign. There are many examples of such design being done properly in Duke Nukem 3D usermaps, and even if it's not duke, one of my favorite examples is the Lost Civilization mod for doom 2, which has some breathtakingly non-linear maps that flow perfectly. I look forward to see how Blast Radius will compare to the others, but I'm sure it'll be up there with the very best.

[Ninety-Six]

Dynamo128, on 21 March 2022 - 09:46 AM, said:

The fact they flow together well despite being non-linear is indeed an excellent sign. There are many examples of such design being done properly in Duke Nukem 3D usermaps

The vanilla game was a master class in that, as well. 'Specially with that jetpack.

Spoiler

Slightly off-topic but can anyone vouch for Lost Civilization? I'm interested in playing it as long as it doesn't fall victim to the typical bullshit of a cacoward-winner.

[ck3D]

I very much appreciate the trust (and patience from y'all who have been following the progress on this since the beginning), honestly I'm not worried about the flow and general coherence one bit, I never built anything at random for this project and so things like gameplay, pacing and flow actually are and always were a major focus. I'm repeating myself right now but this should definitely play a lot better than my typical user map releases (the maps themselves and the episode as a whole) - I'm not saying I'm not likely to fuck up at all, but I trust that I'm stronger of having analyzed 1000+ more video playthroughs of random maps since the time of Poison Heart and so hopefully I have a better overall understanding of the typical player's reactions to this or that stimulus or scenario and can make that work in the project's favor (not to miss mentioning all the constructive feedback I ever got from the community as a whole).

The maps flowing well from one to the next isn't much of a surprise to be honest, they were always planned and conceived to be played in succession. A few times the connection in between some of the levels is a bit of a stretch lore-wise, but in a way that I think is pretty meta, we'll see how that's received eventually.

I'm having a crazy busy week but since my former post I've added 95% of its gameplay to the first map in the episode, been testing and adjusting it with care and absolutely each and every of my plans for it atmosphere- and gameplay-wise has been working out just fine, so I'm enthusiastic about working ahead on the rest. We're talking one of the smallest maps though, let's see if I can apply my concepts to the more sprawling ones with just as satisfying success (but since I similarly built those with practicability in mind first and foremost, the large scaler should be but a bonus). I've also reworked some new aesthetics into that first map, including one window 'effect' in particular that I think works quite well there and only opens even more paths up. 15+ secret places.

Tempted to share images of said map with enemies and whatnot but since we're so close to the final product now, I'm calling it quits on posting screenshots in abundance for a bit. I can't wait to work on the video trailer now really, and I guess I'll be tackling the manual soon too. I'll also be looking up some Lost Civilization videos when I can find the time, thanks for the recommendation!

[ck3D]

Progress report: after a week all tangled up in dat Real Life Stuff, I spent the last day and a half mostly fucking off and got a lot done:

- coded all the new enemy variants/pal swaps I think I wanted, so maybe an additional dozen including one Battlelord I'm particularly stoked on due to how it functions, also generally cleaned up a ton,

- level 1 is fully traversable and polished with sounds and tried and true gameplay in all difficulty settings, just needs multiplayer starts (note to self...) and more work around a thankfully increasingly rare glitch where the player can warp into supposed non-player space in one area (recent Mapsters probably kill that altogether though), still takes me roughly thirty minutes exploring everything and finding all secrets;

- level 2 is roughly traversable with sounds, bug fixes and maybe 30% of the gameplay in, but still needs its fair share of adjustments, additions and general touch-ups. Intended progression is implemented basically as far as finding the first key. So far all going exactly according to plan with that one.

[Ninety-Six]

hype train rapidly accelerating

[ck3D]

Ninety-Six, on 28 March 2022 - 03:16 PM, said:

hype train rapidly accelerating

I'm getting hyped too, the past few days pretty much have been the confirmation that things will play exactly how I always intended them.

75/80% of the gameplay of the second level is in now. It's a pretty big one and so adjusting things takes a bit. Still shouldn't require any longer than a day or two to complete and polish. For now monsters stop around the second key grab yet still doing everything possible around the map at this stage takes about an hour. You most likely won't have to, though. Again 15+ secrets.

First level has its multiplayer starts and is basically done minus a couple of tags and effectors and walls to move. Speedran it for the '3D Realms' time' and so far registered a 00:57 but now I can think of an even better route.

Also started working on the manual (contents, not design).

[ck3D]

- Gameplay in level 2 is now 100% implemented in all difficulty settings, I've been adjusting things a lot and think the current version is pretty much definitive. I'm really stoked on how compatible with it the new enemy variants turned out to be, everything plays exactly how I was imagining (and hoping) it would during the raw design stage. It may be one of the biggest ones, first playthrough testing everything around the map took 77 minutes, every subsequent playthrough took about an hour. From pistol start, shortest route with no key skips takes about eight minutes, full speedrun mode can get as low as under three minutes (I've been having a lot of fun working on runs to be able to score interesting par and '3D Realms' times). The E1L2 type of non-linearity, just ten times bigger kind of shtick I wanted I feel like successfully operates. Total secret place count is 23.

- Level 1 was bug fixed so that all the aforementioned recent clipping issues should be sorted out, moving a few walls and adding silent teleporters helped a ton, now it's even more rare that the player warps to the unintended layer of the map and whenever they do it's for just a frame before they're automatically teleported back to the right spot, so the illusion is pretty flawless. I can most likely optimize those fixes even better if the issue ever turns out to persist, but for now the current version feels really stable (didn't clip again once since the fixes). Secret place count is 16. Managed to set a new '3D Realms' time of 00:48. Current par time going straight to the keys is around 2:40.

- Worked on some more code and now the modified enemy variants drop random amounts of the matching new ammo when dying (so the RPG Pigcops now leave rockets behind, the mortar ones pipebombs, etc. instead of shotguns), simple but had to be done.

- About to keep working on contents for the manual, and also start adding gameplay to the third level.

Thanks for putting up for the lack of screenshots. Project has reached a stage so close to final, everything I'll be showing from now on I want to be something good.

[Ninety-Six]

No need to apologize. Pretty sure most people reading this thread understand things take time and the desire to keep your hand close to your chest.

ck3D, on 31 March 2022 - 06:58 PM, said:

(I've been having a lot of fun working on runs to be able to score interesting par and '3D Realms' times).

I'm curious. What's your logic for both? That is, how do you determine what times should be par and which ones 3DR time?

[ck3D]

Funny you would ask because it actually took me some time to come up with a logic there, I always knew I wanted to consider the speedrun aspect in general and so the preset level times in particular but until I think today I wasn't sure exactly how to proceed there. But I think I've established a formula that satisfies me which is, playing each map on Come Get Some, from pistol start, no cheats; going full speedrun mode (just no clipping exploit) to score the "3D Realms' time", and then for the par time (which is a bit more abstract by definition and was harder to conceptualize) I do the same except going for every necessary key, no skips. Like I was saying earlier I want an episode that's as open in terms of progression as the original game was, which means it's occasionally possible if not downright encouraged to bypass whole segments of level and keys provided that the player has found the right equipment. So "3D Realms' time" is easy, I made the fucking levels and know where all the secret items and routes are, I just barge through the shit. Par time I force myself to follow the most basic patterns of the 'intended' sequencing a little more (but still barge through the shit). For par times I'm really trying to embrace and follow the classic logic of 'tantalizing low', for "3D Realms'" I just go for raw low.

That's actually a dimension of the project I'm particularly stoked on, when I say that so far it's all really turning out to play how I always envisioned it, I mean that under all possible aspects, including my hopeful concern for variety in the audience and approach and the independence I want the player to retain to spend either hours, minutes or days in it. The second level is actually a pretty good example there I think, I can complete it in under three minutes, but I wouldn't be surprised if it took three hours for an exploration-inclined first-timer to thoroughly scan and trigger everything, while the least patient will probably find their own way to get over it with more reasonably quick still so all the room in between the extremes really is free space.

[Aleks]

ck3D, on 31 March 2022 - 08:58 PM, said:

Funny you would ask because it actually took me some time to come up with a logic there, I always knew I wanted to consider the speedrun aspect in general and so the preset level times in particular but until I think today I wasn't sure exactly how to proceed there. But I think I've established a formula that satisfies me which is, playing each map on Come Get Some, from pistol start, no cheats; going full speedrun mode (just no clipping exploit) to score the "3D Realms' time", and then for the par time (which is a bit more abstract by definition and was harder to conceptualize) I do the same except going for every necessary key, no skips. Like I was saying earlier I want an episode that's as open in terms of progression as the original game was, which means it's occasionally possible if not downright encouraged to bypass whole segments of level and keys provided that the player has found the right equipment. So "3D Realms' time" is easy, I made the fucking levels and know where all the secret items and routes are, I just barge through the shit. Par time I force myself to follow the most basic patterns of the 'intended' sequencing a little more (but still barge through the shit). For par times I'm really trying to embrace and follow the classic logic of 'tantalizing low', for "3D Realms'" I just go for raw low.

For BiB and The Conundrum I've put 3DR times as my best times on Piece of Cake and as par times I used what beta-testers could push approximately.

[ck3D]

Progress is taking off like crazy, I'm having so much fun right now.

Today:

- implemented 45% of the gameplay in level 3,

- got a video from Aleks' first playthrough of level 1, he volunteered to beta test the first levels as early as possible and is doing a great job, video form is especially helpful in that getting to directly watch someone interpret the map on the spot is very rich in hints to possible issues and secret place ideas (just watching him enter some rooms I kept getting inspired for new ones). Clipping issues indeed seem gone unless one insists on spending time flying around the level and bopping into the wrong walls, which makes sense because the silent teleporters are at ground level, and also kind of sucks, but at least is viable and can be resolved by just landing, I'll see how much further I can look into that (I'll probably just duplicate the effectors several times at various heights, it's not that many sectors being problematic). I think today he's doing level 2,

- coded in two new monster variants including my new favorite, the Assault Taxi Driver,

- worked on the manual some more, added more script to the levels page and started the new monsters page.

[Ninety-Six]

ck3D, on 02 April 2022 - 12:21 AM, said:

- coded in two new monster variants including my new favorite, the Assault Taxi Driver,

come again

[ck3D]

It's this guy. He's an asshole:



From the manual:

Quote

ASSAULT TAXI DRIVER

Those yellow troopers only ever enlisted due to having developed a certain remote fascination for Martin Scorsese’s films and, therefore, the personal aspiration to get an especially firm grip on their planet of origin. They are convinced and comforted in their role by genuine, sincere passion and their interpretation of Earthlings is one that is twisted and dramatic - better believe these guys don’t mess around, and will blow shit up. But their delusion also doubles up as their weakness: their identity crisis will never allow them anywhere far away from their taxis. Better wash that trash off the sidewalk before it cleans up your blood. Drops pipebombs when killed.

And so I guess we're showing gameplay:

[Ninety-Six]

Absolutely magical.

[ck3D]

- Level 3 gameplay is fully in, my test playthroughs of full traversal have taken me over one hour on average which is surprising because the map isn't that big, but it's pretty exotic and introduces a bunch of new monsters and so I guess time sort of flies when in there. 21 secrets but I may or may not cut a few of them depending on if I realize they're a bit of a stretch. My biggest concern in this one is once again clipping issues, in the first level at least I had some control over what was going on since I had consciously introduced the cause of what was happening and could easily resolve things but here I think the whole structure of the map is at fault, it's the first one I built for this pack three years ago and I was a lot less aware of the importance of z-values than I am now, as a result a few floors partially overlap in 3D space which means too fast movement or being ran into by a subway sector can bop you from overground to below ground and vice versa. It only seems to happen in two different spots, but it's pretty frequent and I think I can only minimize things to a degree, to the point where I've considered scrapping the level before but upon replaying, when it doesn't break it's too fun to ditch. If I can't fix that, I'll probably just include a mention in the manual/.txt somewhere for the player to save often. And if anything, potential speedrunners might love it.

- Cleaned up some code fixing some monster behavior (one nerfed, one buffed), getting ready to fix a few things in the previous two levels, then I'll be going on with level 4 onwards (maybe a break would be welcome sometime too, I actually want to spend some time off to better think of specific monsters for level 4 in particular).

Random level 3 action screenshots from testing sessions, some aesthetics to clean up here and there maybe, of course they stand out now:

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[Ninety-Six]

Damn, that last screenshot.


I'm already liking the new enemy variants. It really seems to be scratching the same itch LR&WB did with its monster variety, but without some of that painful level design.

[ck3D]

Thanks, I'm really just trying to make the game more playable and think a lot of frustration can actually be felt from the standard Duke 3D roster of hitscan enemies, here to populate the bigger scale maps my counterpoint is to come up with mostly projectile-based variants and so the scenery can rapidly turn into bullet hell if one just runs completely blind through a level, but not in a way that ever feels cheap or spammy (a lot of those projectiles are actually really fun to try and avoid using the terrain). Bigger map also allows for some really cool possibilities of moments and patterns when it comes to spawn point options just using the existing basic enemy AI, in fact working on level 2 I found myself quite surprised at how well the monsters tend to behave. But it makes sense in the way that said AI is so rough one could describe it as blocky, which is a perfect match for open environments with less detail and so a more blocky look too.

To this day, though, I haven't played LR&WB. RunningDuke/FistMarine recently sent me this page too: http://misfittechstu...onsters-new.htm which is pretty inspiring as well, always funny seeing the quirky ways fans have always been repurposing every enemy. I think there's quite some exploration yet to be made just in complementary primary and secondary attacks paired up with each monster's specific AI, at least here I'm sort of trying something like that all the while keeping the changes simple, clear and coherent. I really just always liked the thought of modding the basic enemies, to be honest, hence the modified mortar and RPG Pigcops as far back as in the original Anarchy City maps. That code I remember part learning from, part stealing from a different user map back in 1996 that had them, they worked really well in that map and so I thought the concept was too sick to sleep on.

So for now besides the clipping issues in level 3 that may persist but I will try my best to reduce, everything is going according to plan. Just started adding gameplay and sounds to level 4 (one of the biggest if not the biggest of the pack, so that's actually some work), and about to dive back into level 3 to 'finalize' it with the multiplayer starts (which are some of my favorite things to place, but I always seem to almost forget). Got some more progress on the manual too.

[MC84]

You know I've been keeping an eye on the progress of this episode for some time, and while I found some of the designs interesting and bold it didn't really pull me in until I saw these latest few rounds of screenshots with the HUD/weapons/enemies present. Suddenly it's come to life for me. I know Watchtower has been 'holding your feet to the fire' re: gameplay and I too hope that above all these maps are FUN to play (ie no wandering around for 15min trying to figure out where to go next) I very rarely play vanilla duke3d maps these days but I am looking forward to playing through this episode.

[ck3D]

I appreciate that as well as your patience. Yeah, honestly and maybe obviously, right now is the moment this project has really become alive to me as well, which is pretty gratifying after three years spent just being Mapster's assiduous slave. Everything most tedious about the core level design is done and out of the way and so now I get to tackle the really fun parts. Posting screenshots in abundance while I was still crafting the levels was only hardcore Build fan niche behavior really, now action shots are better actual teasing, and there are some dimensions left I still haven't shown. It's not so much about anyone holding my feet to the fire as it is about my humble effort to come up with a product that hopefully will resonate with actual, original fans of the game and genre who can relate to both a similar way to how I do. I'll probably fuck up here and there, but generally try and watch what I'm doing here, also in respect to the personal time sink.

I'm the first ten minutes worth of gameplay into level 4 which once again seems to play up to my expectations so far, but that's only maybe 5% of the map, this one may be the largest of them all (it's the nature map) and also the most open so fine-tuning everything from item placement to spawn points might take a bit, but also is pretty fascinating (plus the potential for secret places is crazy in that one).

Also coded in six variants on the Organtic (turning it into a slow flying enemy type with semi-broken behavior I actually want to experiment with more, because it's pretty interesting), and worked on the sound aspect of the game adding a selection of about 80 Duke quotes (from the Duke Nukem Vocal Collection, which had 1500+) that I had to fix the levels on individually, as well as a few new ambient sounds that I already implemented in all first four maps, where I think they in fact really work. No replacements, only bonus additions as I want the action in this project to keep feeling classic first and foremost which means not veering into TC territory.

[Ninety-Six]

It's still wild to me that it's been 3 whole years already.

ck3D, on 08 April 2022 - 09:36 AM, said:

Also coded in six variants on the Organtic

I know this is actor name lingo, but I don't know what enemy it relates to.

[Aleks]

Ninety-Six, on 08 April 2022 - 03:34 PM, said:

I know this is actor name lingo, but I don't know what enemy it relates to.

It's this thing: https://dukenukem.fa.../Organic_Turret
Sometimes used as a decoration in the maps as it's just static frames really. It was coded as an actual enemy in The Gates TC.

[Ninety-Six]

Aleks, on 09 April 2022 - 12:11 AM, said:

It's this thing: https://dukenukem.fa.../Organic_Turret
Sometimes used as a decoration in the maps as it's just static frames really. It was coded as an actual enemy in The Gates TC.

I had no idea this thing was supposed to be a turret. I've usually seen it used as a flying enemy.

Neat.

[ck3D]

@Aleks that's good to know, I need to look up more about how other people have used that enemy before. I feel like I'm deviating from its original principle of being a purely stationary turret that's attached to a ceiling with mine's current behavior, it basically functions like Super Mario's Boo Buddy enemy where as long as you're in the perimeter they remain idle (just shooting at you) so are tempting to ignore, but if you do and make progress then a big flock of them builds up by creeping up on you, the adventurous aspect of the level actually works really well with that. Sprite size is a bit of an issue though as their hitbox on the usual 40x40 scale is sketchy (auto aim doesn't like it and even using mouse aiming it's hard to hit them in the right spot until you get really close), but in that map the player has plenty of explosives to spend on them. Also I need to figure out how to offset their projectiles, because I can code them to get more and more height which looks cool, but then as soon as they're flying too high over the player then they start getting hit by their own shit. Current workaround is to have them just hover, I need to refine a lot about them and it's a cool way for me to get more familiar with .con code.

@Ninety-Six yeah, apparently it's meant to be a plant that's attached to alien ceilings and opens up to shoot once you get close. For now mine does that too, except hovering in the air and then following you if you let it live. Nice to know I'm not the only one who ever thought the sprite might also work as a flying type threat.

[ck3D]

Re: three year concern, out of curiosity I just checked and the oldest back-up I can find of the first map I made for this (coincidentally level 3 which is just about to undergo testing by Aleks) is dated December 1st, 2019. Although it's back-up number 39 and I'm pretty sure I actually had started the map sometime prior to that date, maybe around September or so if not as far back as June (I remember it wasn't that long after I released Poison Heart that I threw together the first couple of rooms real quick).

Here is some hud-and-enemies from a level 4 testing session, now playable up to the blue key, I'm pretty stoked, gameplay I had always planned turns out to really work there too.

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