[William Gee]

This is a RE Release of my old level AlienX, I made this before any WG named levels so its pretty old, back in early 2000- 2002 maybe.
Anyways I made a number of improvements cause I thought it was worth updating and "Re Releasing."

Smallish SP COOP DM compatible.
Thanks.

Attached File(s)

•  WGAlienX.zip (64.13K)
  Number of downloads: 204

[Merlijn]

I only vaguely remember the original, it's been so long. I think the outdoor scenery is new, is that correct?

Anyway, cool but very hectic map. I love all the references to Fusion Station (a severely underrated map). It's clearly an older map of yours but there's some pretty nice scenery and details in there.
I thought a few enemy encounters were annoying, especially the swarm of sentry drones in the main area. I ended up mostly skipping them because they ate too much ammo.

Thanks for the re-release!

[NNC]

The one thing that I heavily remember about this is the chaingun was offered at the end of the map. Or was it another WG?

[William Gee]

Yeah good point I think that was the case. It might still be, there are 2 chainguns but I cant remember where I placed the second one.
Thanks Mrline. Yeah all outside areas are new, and are secret areas you can get too.
I made the mistake of testing in on the AA Attrition cause that's were I was working on the map.

[NightFright]

Is that the first secret map in your old "WGSpace" episode? If so, do you want me to integrate this new version into the release included with the addon compilation?

[William Gee]

It is the secret level in WGSpace, but you dont need to add it to anything. One day I might update the whole of the WGSpace episode since that's my oldest project.

[NightFright]

Outstanding! WGSpace is still one of the best standalone space episodes out there. I'll never understand why people out there prefer city levels. I always thought they are full of atmosphere.

[NNC]

NightFright, on 29 April 2021 - 09:59 PM, said:

Outstanding! WGSpace is still one of the best standalone space episodes out there. I'll never understand why people out there prefer city levels. I always thought they are full of atmosphere.

I honestly think space and techbase levels age better than the city levels in general. Pushing the engine to its limits and showing some cool effects will always look good, no matter how advanced the technology becomes, but "muh realism" and "muh pixel babes" can get old pretty quickly as they often rely on interaction and special texture instead of complexity, and those will not look good after many similar games are released. There was a thread a few weeks ago, when we talked about Red Light District, the iconic city of cities, and how badly it was messed up in the game development.

[Aleks]

The Watchtower, on 29 April 2021 - 10:43 PM, said:

I honestly think space and techbase levels age better than the city levels in general. Pushing the engine to its limits and showing some cool effects will always look good, no matter how advanced the technology becomes, but "muh realism" and "muh pixel babes" can get old pretty quickly as they often rely on interaction and special texture instead of complexity, and those will not look good after many similar games are released. There was a thread a few weeks ago, when we talked about Red Light District, the iconic city of cities, and how badly it was messed up in the game development.

I'd say space theme is generally underexplored in user maps. Of course there are great levels, WG Space being probably the best out there, but also even older maps like Boba Fett, GJ Hoyer, Beam Me Up Scotty. Wouldn't agree about "techbase" though, as they tend to go into a very generic manner most of the time.

That doesn't change the fact that city is the theme where Duke really shines, having the most variable texture set really and it's what made large part of the game's success also - relatable locations instead of space/military/surreal. Also city levels tend to be less linear and more open most of the time (again, top E2 levels like Dark Side and Lunar Reactor are far from what I'd call linear - talking about user maps here mostly).

And that's a personal opinion, but I've never really considered Red Light District to be that iconic city, I've always pictured E3 levels more as first thing to come to my mind when thinking about Duke 3D city levels - Bank Roll and LA Rumble mostly I think (although Freeway and Fahrenheit also, but to a bit lesser extent).

Sorry to derail the thread a bit, Will!

[William Gee]

Building a city map doesn't really excite me, its more of a chore. One day I will make a new vanilla space level, I doubt I will make another vanilla city level.
As for reworking WGSpace, I'm not sure if I should stick with the old limits to keep MP, or to forget MP and even make it work with AA.

[NightFright]

I am actually replaying WGSpace right now. Still a lot of fun. Maps also aged in a good way, flow is still there, you don't get stuck even if you don't remember anything from previous playthroughs (or play it for the first time), which is important.

I think the only other two good space episodes I remember besides this one right now are Zykov Eddy's "Moonbase Accident" and Fernando's "Orbital Oblivion" in FM4X. It's definitely among the best of its kind, so if you want to push it to the next level, I can only strongly encourage it.

We need more space maps, so keep them coming.

[ck3D]

MSDN review: https://msdn.duke4.net/hotwgsp1.php

Edit - shit, wrong thread and can't delete posts on here. Either way you'll see it, ha. And now I just saw you already posted that link yourself in the right thread. It's definitely too early for me to even attempt posting.

Big fan of the creative abstract and open design in the WGSpace maps.

[Merlijn]

Agreed on the WG space episode, would love to see an updated version!
I always thought that Lunar Apocalypse is an underrated episode, more maps in that vein are very much welcome.

I can see why vanilla cities don't exite you anymore, there's only so much that can be done with the base texture set (unless you're a texture wizard like ck3d ).
I'll probably move on to a different theme after the SG series too.