[Aleks]

Jim, on 21 December 2020 - 11:41 PM, said:

How new must the eduke32 be to play this? edit: sorry didn't read the readme

Seems r8930 (possibly a bit later release as well, but this in particular is something I can confirm) works best, as newer versions seem to have a particular sector-over-sector glitch, which sometimes makes you see other floors in a stack for a glimpse. It's definitely not a showstopper and may even not be really noticable, I just noticed it for the first time few days ago.

[Merlijn]

I've replayed the episode, great stuff! Pretty much all the gripes I had have been fixed, which makes me happy.
Overall, the map really reminds me of the mid 2000's era of mapping, with its intricate spriteworks, mission-based story telling and various trickery to create puzzles.
That type of map is pretty rare these days, so it actually felt pretty refreshing.

I don't think anyone mentioned the sloped sprites yet, but this must be the first major release that uses them? Some of the constructions are so intricate that they could have been 3D models.
Gameplay is challenging, I played on let's rock but ran low on health and ammo several times. I managed to pull through without dying, so I'd say it never gets hard to the point of being unfair.
Only issue I had gameplay-wise is some of the rooms in Piggish Prison. The more cramped nature combined with the detailled sprite-based objects made them harder to navigate.
Especially the guard towers leave you very little room to move around. It's not a deal breaker though.

Another thing that needs to be mentioned is the shading, because it's great all the way through. The main room of the Casino comes to mind, but every level does a great job with it.
And while Piggish Prison has some cramped areas, the design is just astounding. So many details and fun little jokes and nods to find. You said somewhere that you wanted to make the place look
lived in by pig cops with bad taste, and that comes through rather nicely! I only just now discovered that the bar is actually functional btw, really cool.


Had one issue at the end:

Spoiler

The bike at the end of Piggish prison drove off without me on it! Luckily I had a nearby savegame. Build can be janky with moving sectors so I don't blame you.
Also not your fault, but that Cycloid Emperor has stormtrooper aim. He only ended up killing his own liztroopsXD

[Aleks]

Thanks, Merlijn! Great and detailed feedback, and cool to hear you've found out about the bar interactions!

Spoiler

Yeah, the bike was a mess earlier on, you'd just fall off like 50% of times from it's earlier iteration. It's touchplate activated and the sector floor itself is a long way below you on the water level, also it's tiny size doesn't help. What I did to make it work better (a ton better in fact) was building around it with invisible flat sprites, so now Duke shouldn't accidentally step over the bike when boarding it from the right, which seems a more natural way with the bike's position. Still quite satisfied with the effect in the end.

[Aleks]

MSDN review is up - thanks, Mikko! You can find it here:

https://msdn.duke4.n...kinbusiness.php

[Aleks]

Dropped a little article on ModDB with inspirational real-life photos I've used when making Back in Business (well, mostly Piggish Prison) with a comparison between real-life object and its in-game counterpart: https://www.moddb.co...-in-game-design

[NNC]

I realised you are ShrinkDuke from the old AMC forums. Good to see you back. (Nancsi)

[Aleks]

The Watchtower, on 25 December 2020 - 09:56 AM, said:

I realised you are ShrinkDuke from the old AMC forums. Good to see you back. (Nancsi)

Yeah, thanks, man! I knew about you being Nancsi and remember you back from AMC days, you had a large pixelated grumpy (?) emoticon as your avatar IIRC

BTW, I'd be really curious on your opinion of this episode if you ever decide to give it a go. It's probably totally not the style you prefer, as it's as far from classic Duke as possible despite not using much new assets, but still it would make for some interesting discussion I think. There's even watchtowers in the 4th map (which - quite ironically - are perhaps the most cramped rooms in the whole game...).

[NNC]

Aleks, on 25 December 2020 - 11:29 AM, said:

Yeah, thanks, man! I knew about you being Nancsi and remember you back from AMC days, you had a large pixelated grumpy (?) emoticon as your avatar IIRC

BTW, I'd be really curious on your opinion of this episode if you ever decide to give it a go. It's probably totally not the style you prefer, as it's as far from classic Duke as possible despite not using much new assets, but still it would make for some interesting discussion I think. There's even watchtowers in the 4th map (which - quite ironically - are perhaps the most cramped rooms in the whole game...).

Hi. I started playing it yesterday, but I didn't find the red key in the first map, and there was a darkish maze in the second (started it with dnscotty), where I struggled, so I didn't finish it so far. I actually like the 3D spritework, it looked really cool, and so did the new art, but my movement was seriously blocked in those cramped rooms, and sometimes I even auto-jumped on 3D button and such, and didn't exactly like that. Also the movement block often let me in dangerous situations like in the sewer area for example. I'm also not exactly sure why did you choose the cheering sound for ambient sound? Since that was the part of the map where I was lost completely, I had to hear it so many times.... The second map's dark outside was really good (funny, how Duke can run faster than his own car), and I like the concept as well, but what was that black maze? I didn't see anything.

[ck3D]

^ Are you playing in classic mode? Might be the reason why those vents appear as a pitch black maze. I could only beta test this map in classic and that's how they would look to me, especially my first time around I'd get lost in them, abuse the automap and the whole experience with the crate thing was so frustrating. Then I remembered the map was made with Polymost in mind and blamed it on that, and it turns out that that area does indeed look clearer in Polymost from what I saw later (it's dark but not blind). I had a similar problem with Preto Murara's subway map in Downtown Journey trying to find a crucial keycard (in the original version, pre-fixes), although I don't think that episode was ever meant with Polymost in mind, some renderers just seem to make certain tones brighter than others.

[Aleks]

The Watchtower, on 26 December 2020 - 12:06 AM, said:

Hi. I started playing it yesterday, but I didn't find the red key in the first map, and there was a darkish maze in the second (started it with dnscotty), where I struggled, so I didn't finish it so far. I actually like the 3D spritework, it looked really cool, and so did the new art, but my movement was seriously blocked in those cramped rooms, and sometimes I even auto-jumped on 3D button and such, and didn't exactly like that. Also the movement block often let me in dangerous situations like in the sewer area for example. I'm also not exactly sure why did you choose the cheering sound for ambient sound? Since that was the part of the map where I was lost completely, I had to hear it so many times.... The second map's dark outside was really good (funny, how Duke can run faster than his own car), and I like the concept as well, but what was that black maze? I didn't see anything.

Ah, thanks for the comments. That maze in the vents really leads only to a secret, but also after watching someone's video from the map yesterday, I had a thought I kinda went too far with lowering the visibility in the vents. As for the 3D buttons, yeah they can be problematic - I unblocked a lot of lesser spriteworks to make the movement less restricted, but switches are hardcoded to be blocked. In retrospect, I should have just made some of them with single, wall-ornamented sprites I guess - especially in these more cramped rooms where there's really a high chance of climbing up on them. I guess when I finish the last map for the mod, I'll also change these little things in the other maps.

As for the red keycard in the casino map,

Spoiler

it's inside one of the floating boxes found in the sewers - you can swim into it from underneath.

I think I did something very similar to that in my CBP 4 part, so back in 2004 it sounded like a cool idea, but in retrospect I see a lot of people find it quite difficult to find.

The cheering sound was one of the last minute additions (as well as the whole crowd in fact), but I think it fits the map's concept.

[NNC]

Oh, I remember being in that clearwater area, it looked like dead end, I should have looked more carefully.....

[ck3D]

Loved the placement of that key by the way. I found it instantly and was actually kind of hoping for such a trick when I first entered that room as the settings looked perfect for it. The 'visual storytelling' worked on me. It was pulled off well in my opinion, and also in a way that actually made some kind of practical use of the clearwater effect (the same basic puzzle could have been achieved without clearwater I know, but here I thought it lent itself well to it).

[Aleks]

In case someone else would get stuck in Casino Carnage (or just doesn't want to play it at all), here's a video walkthrough with all secrets: https://www.moddb.co...business/videos

[Mister Sinister]

Alright, it's time I put my thoughts on this episode out here.

In general my experience mirrors that of Mikko's I think. So I'm gonna give my praise to the overall design right away - this is some of the most impressive stuff I'd seen done with Duke in the long run, especially in Piggish Prison. Walking around the central building, admiring all the little things, small seemingly insignificant details, the way everything is connected together without a hiccup, the absoulte beast of the ROR effect, the sheer amount of the impressive effects you managed to pull in this map alone is a damn fine achivement. It must've been hell to make this. I didn't experience a single visual glitch in the building, didn't clip through floors, everything is just so damn neatly organized and flows together perfectly. I was going like "daaaamn" for the majority of the Piggish Prison. Not to say the other maps are lacking in the visual department, all of the maps are very lively and detailed and impressive, but Piggish Prison takes the cake easily in terms of pure visual design.
My favourite little effect was microwaving a burger. This amused the hell out of me.

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk gameplay.
It seems like a lot of people are a little overwhelmed by the obscurity factor of some of the puzzles and item placement in your maps, but I must say I was never lost once during my playthrough. Not a single time I missed a keycard or a key object, not a single time I didn't understand my objectives or rules applied to them. Probably helps that I've played maps like that which utilize viewscreens and "alternative goals" in which you have to use a non-usable thing or read a note or else. I must admit that the keycard placement in Casino Carnage and Monster Mayhem are offputting for players, but for me it wasn't a problem. I found those at the spot, just thought to myself "Huh, that's kinda dickish, but whatever". Again, it helps that I'm used to stuff like that. Triggers for some items can be a little unresponsive, but it's a minor thing. Overall, I really enjoyed the puzzle elements, different objectives the maps present in them, it gave the maps some sense of life. Cool stuf, but I wish you could apply stuff like that on a broader scale.

With that being said, my main gripes with the episode were all concerning the way combat is designed. The first thing which made me raise my eyebrows was the inclusion of the screen shake when your health gets low. Nobody mentioned it, but it really got on my nerves a few times, especially because it resets your aim. I play with both mouselook and autoaim (mostly to abuse pistol), and there were many times when I was aiming at something above me and taking fire reset my aim and screwed me over. I simply see it as a redundant inclusion: Duke already gives a sound cue when he's low on health, you as a player already tense when you're low on health, why shake the screen?
The next big pet peeve of mine is cramped space which there is a lot of. Your maps remind me a lot of mid 00s maps with highly detailed enviroment and really tight spaces. I see Duke mainly as a game about movement, and when there's not enough space to maneuvre the game is just less fun to play. It's not like it's no fun at all, but it is less fun when player is confined in a 1024*3072 corridor with a hitscanner up your face and spritework getting in the way. This issue is present in all 4 of the maps, sometimes less annoying, sometimes more annoying, sometimes absolutely exhilaratingly insane. I'd say it comes down to personal preference, but I can't really say this is my thing.
The worst offender is Piggish Prison. Damn, man. There is some truly evil stuff in there in that building. And this is where we'll talk enemy placement, because damn, man, not only the spritework gets in the way, not only there's little room to dodge all the PigCops and Enforcers, but there's some really evil enemy placement. I distinctly remember opening a door and getting a rocket in my face from a PigCop at least two times (and there's no denying this is a dick move!), there are generally too many pigcops for its own good, and the outdoor area turned out to be very evil. I had the same experience as Mikko in this map: after grabbing the yellow keycard I got locked in a room with 23 HP, a Commander spawning in my face, fall damage reducing my HP to 11, very little ammo and Battlelords and PigTanks roaming outside. At this point I didn't even realize that the map respawned new weapons and ammunition since there's no obvious indication of this and I thought I was fucked for good. Damn that was really evil. And just in general throughout the episode there were a lot of times when I was put against an enemy with very little space to move. This is not my type of thing, really. I don't think it really creates a fair challenge.

I would say Piggish Prison would have really benefited from reducing enemies and ammo count. Make the player face 1 or 2 foes at a time with precision, making every bullet count, focus on the puzzles and then escalate the action, slowly crank it to eleven.
The best map in terms of combat was Freezing Fear. The enemies in the cramped spaces were spread out evenly, the balance was really good, the final showdown was really cool (even though I had to wait 10-20 seconds between each wave), good stuff! I also really enjoyed looking for clues and passwords, that stuff was also really cool actually. The most generic one is Monster Mayhem. Very cramped, kinda forgettable in terms of gameplay. The mutant sequence was great, though!

Overall, despite some shortcomings in the combat department, I enjoyed the map pack. It is truly a labor of great care and love for the game, a very distinct passion project and it shows. I think your style would really benefit from focusing more on the puzzle elements and opening the maps more. (Although I always saw the cramped design as a consequence of focusing on realistic spritework and detailing. It's almost like one doesn't go without another.) Congrats on releasing this after all these years!

P.S.
The string of projects lately got me thinking a little. Stuff like BiB episode, Shaky Grounds, Chillin', Downtown Journey, Fallout Freeze, MRCK new episode - all seem to be grouned in the hyper realistic style, lots of detail, impressive looks, spritework so complicated it melts your eyes, but I really wish for more stripped down and pure stuff. Like, I wonder what a stripped down, purely design oriented map would come out of MRCK vision, Ostrum vision or your vision, Aleks, with only the neccessary elements present, just pure gameplay flow and absolutely nothing else. Makes you wonder. I hope I get to see this.

[Aleks]

Thanks a lot for the super-detailed feedback/review, Mister Sinister! Really appreciate it, noted the comments on combat especially!

Making the 4 layer sector-over-sector in Piggish Prison took a lot of planning, but I really enjoyed it, so it's very satisfying to see appreciation for it specifically

Mister Sinister, on 04 January 2021 - 08:53 PM, said:

The string of projects lately got me thinking a little. Stuff like BiB episode, Shaky Grounds, Chillin', Downtown Journey, Fallout Freeze, MRCK new episode - all seem to be grouned in the hyper realistic style, lots of detail, impressive looks, spritework so complicated it melts your eyes, but I really wish for more stripped down and pure stuff. Like, I wonder what a stripped down, purely design oriented map would come out of MRCK vision, Ostrum vision or your vision, Aleks, with only the neccessary elements present, just pure gameplay flow and absolutely nothing else. Makes you wonder. I hope I get to see this.

I think Shaky Grounds series, Maarten's last Woudrichem map and MRCK's Blast Radius are pretty much what you're asking for really (of course while maintaining excellent design), I also have a plan to make something that would concentrate more on the huge scale of the map rather than lots of details - but not just yet And glad you enjoyed the puzzles, because that's probably one aspect I will pursue further in all my maps really.

[Ninety-Six]

Mister Sinister, on 04 January 2021 - 08:53 PM, said:

The string of projects lately got me thinking a little. Stuff like BiB episode, Shaky Grounds, Chillin', Downtown Journey, Fallout Freeze, MRCK new episode - all seem to be grouned in the hyper realistic style, lots of detail, impressive looks, spritework so complicated it melts your eyes, but I really wish for more stripped down and pure stuff. Like, I wonder what a stripped down, purely design oriented map would come out of MRCK vision, Ostrum vision or your vision, Aleks, with only the neccessary elements present, just pure gameplay flow and absolutely nothing else. Makes you wonder. I hope I get to see this.

I bring it up a lot, but Metropolitan Mayhem might be sort of what you're looking for. It's not 1:1 3DR style but it is pretty straightfoward gameplay with 3DR-like setdressing that's only just enough to sell the location. It's a personal favorite of mine specifically because the gameplay flow is top-notch. The maps are short but you're always moving forward and making progress.

[Mister Sinister]

Yeah, I like Metropolitan Mayhem, but I am hungry for new content, more abstract and purely gameplay focused maps. There's a lot of stuff that can be done with Duke if one puts mind to it.

[Ninety-Six]

I'm with you on that one. I'm not necessarily tired of the Roch-like detailed maps (especially if there's a story behind it, like in Shaky Grounds where the extra detail helps sell the events happening, or otherwise use it to tell small stories of their own right (like MRCK loves to do), but more with a gameplay focus I'm totally down for.

This is starting to get off-topic so I'll put the rest in spoilers.

Spoiler

That's one of the reasons I am looking forward to Blast Radius. He promised a gameplay style much closer to vanilla despite the expanded and more detailed maps.

I can also recommend Lost World if you haven't played that one yet. Seems to be right in line with the sort of stuff you make. It intertwines detail that functions as cover excellently.

And if you like complete insanity, there's also an older map called Demolition which has a bunch of new cons that basically add explosions everywhere and like 80% of the map is destructible.

[Merlijn]

I get where you guys are coming from, but there's only a handful of mappers who make vanilla maps and they're mostly interested in persuing their own vision.
2020 was a pretty good year for user maps, all things considered.

For what it's worth, I have ideas floating in my head that are completely centered around gameplay concepts rather than design. Not sure if they'll ever see the light of day, but one never knows.

And to steer back to topic:

Quote

Making the 4 layer sector-over-sector in Piggish Prison took a lot of planning, but I really enjoyed it, so it's very satisfying to see appreciation for it specifically

It was so well done that we're forgetting to mention it, but yeah that was really impressive!
BTW I turned off run mode indoors, which made those parts a lot more enjoyable. I wonder if that was the intended way to play that particular part?

[Aleks]

Merlijn, on 08 January 2021 - 12:35 PM, said:

It was so well done that we're forgetting to mention it, but yeah that was really impressive!

Thanks! Maybe I should have left just a liiiiittle tiny angle/perspective that would show a minor HOM glitch, just to make people notice it

Quote

BTW I turned off run mode indoors, which made those parts a lot more enjoyable. I wonder if that was the intended way to play that particular part?

Never thought of it this way really, but yeah it might be helpful. I remember reading someone (Ninety-Six IIRC) not long ago saying they play without run mode by default. After the first beta-testing, I unblocked a lot of lesser spriteworks that would get in the players way (actually inspired by your feedback too), for example lamps in the bar area, leaving just the larger bits that would be suitable for cover, but there's still some stuff like switches that can't be unblocked (and again in retrospect, I kinda regret not making regular flat wall-ornamented switched in the watchtowers, as they do feel kinda cramped).

In general, I'd recommend going slowly and carefully inside the large building, as I've tried to position pretty much every enemy in such a way that they'd be as aggressive and dangerous as possible and not just an ammo-sponge for Duke to kill while they roam around or get stuck into something. This also resulted in some evil spawns

Spoiler

like the commander ready to shoot you right in the face upon opening the window

but there's really very few enemies that I'd actually consider removing in retrospect.

[ck3D]

The only enemy in the entire episode I had real gripes with was that one Pigcop on the bunk bed that would get stuck in the ceiling and hide behind every possible sprite in his way, other than that I'll reiterate but I think you did a great job with the enemy placement and spawns for what the episode is, I always found the fights enjoyable and if anything sometimes the occasional chaos resulted in some fun stuff. For instance, in Piggish Prison I opened a door to find myself face-to-face with a RPG-wielding Pigcop, only to duck and dodge its rocket by a hair's breadth not just once but twice in the same play through, with the rocket causing side damage as I keep on fighting the Pigcop, both times felt epic. Or my favorite was in Freezing Fear during one of the waves where I was pitted against a dozen Enforcers, I threw a rocket at the whole pack and literally every single one of them jumped it all in sync together, I almost shat my pants there, so cool. Maybe CGS is significantly harder than Let's Rock but that's just how things should be and not much to complain about.

Also I had completely forgotten you could even disable Run Mode in any other way than by accident, in general I'd say if an area is designed in such a cramped way it could encourage a player to do that then said area is just built wrong and should be redone (something crucial I've learned from my own old mistakes); I think for optimal results, and except for specific sections one explicitly wants to be claustrophobia-inducing, most everything for Duke 3D should be built according to the scale of Run Mode on in mind, especially the existence of (the fucking ridiculous) Steroids in the game should allow the balance to lean that way I believe. Especially when you're working on an otherwise big scale level, you don't want to ruin the conceptual grandness with unnecessarily tiny indoor locations that have no real reason not to be the right scale. Here it's barely a hindrance, but I've seen that flaw ruin a lot about some other maps with potential before.

[Mister Sinister]

I don't think that difficulty is a problem, it's just there's some stuff in Piggish Prison I find to be unfair or fall into the "begginners trap" category, stuff like aforementioned pigcops, many respawns in outdoor area and etc. I'm all in for difficult levels (especially because after all these the base game is just too damn easy) and this is the spectrum I operate within myself. The new map I'm cooking at the moment (which is damn near completion, but that final 6-8 hour of work stretch got me stuck for a while now) will be particulary evil and unforgiving, though what I'm trying to do is giving player time to react in each combat situation. That said, get ready to get your ass handed to you.
Of course, I am no stranger to bullshit traps and enemy placement, HEALTH being the most recent example of this since there are a few really nasty traps I believe now to be completely unneccessary. In the next HEALTH update I will nerf them down a notch.

[ck3D]

Yes I got your point originally and it's a valid one, I guess I was mostly referring to general remarks I've read regarding difficulty in the combat and item supply departments. What's basically sprite clutter (actors or not) and generally unpractical design will always be a bothersome mistake worth pointing out, here I just didn't think the gameplay was that mean (on the other hand, on my first playthrough I had way more problems with grasping the mission objectives and in-universe logic, and had to have Aleks directly guide me through much of the progression on Messenger). For instance in the prison map, every time I was lacking specific ammo or health points I was always certain I should be able to find it if I looked around, and would always manage to every time I did, so the whole adventure felt safe enough because I came to trust the item respawns, and expect the mean ambushes behind doors. But I guess the balance is only that fair on Let's Rock and on Come Get Some the player is supposed to be a bit overwhelmed.

Also I'm probably a bit desensitized to the final product as I originally played the beta version which was riddled with way more instances of practical issues (Aleks actually fixed dozens of those in the span of two weeks after our reports, IIRC), for instance the start of Mutant Mayhem used to be a disaster as Pigcops and Enforcers were inside the hallways and could shoot you through the sprite roofs every time you jumped in the air while outside. So with that perspective, the final version to me feels cleaned up, and I'm getting the idea that having to conclude a map set he started 17 years ago also sort of restricted Aleks in the end (and so he took it out on the design of the prison map), as in it was this outdated vision that he had to put out including maps that were built way back when. Many aspects of this episode you can tell are rooted in 2000's experimentation from back when people were trying hard to implement elements from modern shooters into Duke 3D (the Doom 3 PDA's kind of sell that), but now that it's out of the way and he can focus on new things (well, after he's also finalized his old high-tech map which he is doing now), I can kinda tell Aleks won't stay at that level and will eventually get a lot looser.

There's something to be said about the process of going back and finishing/fixing maps from over a dozen years ago, too. I think it's pretty cool because I would never do it.

[slacker1]

Finally got around to finishing this episode. I had a lot of fun playing it. Piggish Prison really had me on my toes for a good chunk of the map. I managed to jump out the window with the commander with 11 health. Somehow, I managed to run through the now respawned yard and get back inside the building to the bathroom.

I abused the crap out of that toilet water. I don't think I would have made it to the end without constantly doubling back for more sips! (That's a sentence I didn't ever plan on writing in my life. Haha )

[ck3D]

slacker1, on 28 January 2021 - 08:28 AM, said:

I managed to jump out the window with the commander with 11 health.

Man, I can't remember whether or not I've already posted about that but the first time I played Freezing Fear during the beta testing stage, I had completely missed the RPG in that box in the previous briefing level and thus had to handle the waves of enemies almost empty-handed (I think Aleks added RPG's in the map Freezing Fear itself later, after I reported my fuck-up). Actually that led to some really crazy sequences, and eventually after the last wave spawned I found myself stuck on the top of that one roof, with the necessity of going back down to reach the newly opened path, but encircled by a shit ton of enemies and minibosses at the bottom and on less than 10 health - so just dropping down would kill me. It was already pretty cool having to use my brain there to work out the solution of dropping down onto the head of a certain enemy to minimize the impact and then run for my life; so I made it to that suspended glass hallway thing, and as I reach the end of it I realize I still need to drop down to the ground below, when I still couldn't afford to take a hit (again, I think Aleks added the health packs there later). So again I had to think, and ended up juggling with that window nearby to make it back into the building for a smooth descent. To be honest I really liked those uncommon situations, with the corresponding intentional design, there's probably something interesting to do in that department, say, in an experimental user map.

Oh, and only after I did finally exit the building again and made it back to the starting (and final) area, I realized Enforcers from the wave had been following me this whole time and seconds prior to me reaching the truck, they caught up for one last exchange of bullets, which felt incredibly cinematic (although not as much as when the whole pack jumped my rocket that one time I was mentioning earlier).

[Aleks]

slacker1, on 28 January 2021 - 08:28 AM, said:

Finally got around to finishing this episode. I had a lot of fun playing it. Piggish Prison really had me on my toes for a good chunk of the map. I managed to jump out the window with the commander with 11 health. Somehow, I managed to run through the now respawned yard and get back inside the building to the bathroom.

I abused the crap out of that toilet water. I don't think I would have made it to the end without constantly doubling back for more sips! (That's a sentence I didn't ever plan on writing in my life. Haha )

Glad you enjoyed it, man and thanks for the comment! Cool to hear that some people still enjoy the combat when it's on the difficult side And nice to read such stories, yeah for me it's always also super-satisfying when I manage to barely survive a crazy fight with low HP (though I admit it's usually my fault for doing something stupid and getting into that situation in the first place).

[Aleks]

Seems someone has put videos on YouTube of his whole playthrough of Back in Business, which can be found here:

• Casino Carnage: https://www.youtube....h?v=UTJzRbSR7Go
• Mutant Mayhem: https://www.youtube....h?v=TKnsaMj6W8E
• Freezing Fear: https://www.youtube....h?v=JSFaCbQh-14
• Piggish Prison: https://www.youtube....cBmyLLn8E (it seems he forgot about having Freezer with full ammo at one point and kicked Battlelord to death, which was quite amusing )

He's also showcasing a lot of random cool stuff I've put in the episode, which I appreciate a lot. Also he's using some of the multiplayer quotes here and there, which turns out pretty funny (especially when looking at my "signature" through viewscreen and saying "it hurts to be you")

[Mark]

I watched only the first few minutes of the first video. Impressive stuff.

[duke3d.exe]

Im on level 1, cool map so far, but i've encountered some potential bugs:

Spoiler

-This weird texture showed up there at some point for some reason, haven't seen it on the gameplay video so im wondering if its an error
-The door where the naked girl is at the shower wouldn't open, it opens on the video gameplay, also I tried to sneak in on the shower from above and i got glitched out into the hallway
-On the bank I became squished on the left side of the vaults, also there are some clipping sprites above

But overall cool map. I had to look up how to open up the lights tho.

[Mister Sinister]

The first mission has 15 minutes time limit. I assume this screen means that you've spend more time than allocated.