[DannyFromNewOrleans]

Hallöchen,

here's my new little wintery map with lots of Christmas decorations and one snowman with a hat. The folder contains both the original version and the nighttime version of the map (sky texture is the only difference between them).

Attached thumbnail(s)

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Attached File(s)

•  Promise.zip (449.98K)
  Number of downloads: 358

[Aleks]

 DannyFromNewOrleans, on 23 August 2021 - 10:23 PM, said:

Hallöchen,

here's my new little wintery map with lots of Christmas decorations and one snowman with a hat. The folder contains both the original version and the nighttime version of the map (sky texture is the only difference between them).

The screens look really cool, especially the sector-based Christmas trees and the sharp contrast shadows. Gotta play this one (along with your other maps, which I haven't tried so far, just checked on MSDN and seems you've released quite a few by now).

[William Gee]

The detail and shading and feel of this level is wonderful, really loving everything so far.
Im stuck though at the room with a big pile of boxes amour and night vision.

[Sanek]

Releasing a christmas-themed map during summertime is a strange move, but congrats on the new map anyway!
I always like your maps DannyFromNewOrleans, I'll definitely check this one too!

[DannyFromNewOrleans]

 William Gee, on 24 August 2021 - 02:44 AM, said:

The detail and shading and feel of this level is wonderful, really loving everything so far.
Im stuck though at the room with a big pile of boxes amour and night vision.

The weapon shop? There's a vent you can use to progress.

[William Gee]

Yeah the weapons shop, but it wasn't the vent I couldn't find, I did find what I needed to though and now I'm progressing. Thanks.

[Nukem1994x]

Can't wait to play this one this afternoon! All your previous maps have been amazing!
I noticed that the titles of your maps are the titles of the soundtracks of Silent Hill 2. That's cool!

[DannyFromNewOrleans]

 Sanek, on 24 August 2021 - 02:55 AM, said:

Releasing a christmas-themed map during summertime is a strange move, but congrats on the new map anyway!
I always like your maps DannyFromNewOrleans, I'll definitely check this one too!

Many thanks. This map helped me through a painfully hot and humid summer.

[DannyFromNewOrleans]

 Nukem1994x, on 24 August 2021 - 03:12 PM, said:

Can't wait to play this one this afternoon! All your previous maps have been amazing!
I noticed that the titles of your maps are the titles of the soundtracks of Silent Hill 2. That's cool!

Vielen Dank! This map also contains a bigger reference to the first Silent Hill - game. With my next map, I shall enter the soundtrack of SH3.

[Merlijn]

Great map, quite long and expansive too! The Christmas theme was utilized to great effect here, with the decorations in every building and the sector based Christmas trees.
The buildings all looked clean and had some very good shadow work and texturing. This might be your best map yet!
A couple of pretty tough fights, especially the battlelords gave me some trouble because the RPG ammo was pretty scarce.
Then again I only managed to find 2 secrets so that might have something to do with it.

The idea to get 3 presents and bring them back to the tree was quite nice and well executed.
Except for one crucial thing:

Spoiler

after adding the presents to the tree (read: inserting all 3 keycards) I assumed it would open the door upstairs. But this didn't happen, and as a result I got stuck.
Now did I miss a step or did something in the map go wrong?

Overall a great experience, keep up the good work

[Mister Sinister]

Played the map, enjoyed it. CGS, 45 minutes, 3 secrets found.
I assume you were boiling alive as well this summer thus you made a winter map. I remember doing the same, but the map was never finished.

Pretty much you get what you would expect from a DannyNewOrlean map. Very well done clean texturing, tightly trimmed rooms, good atmosphere, the map is decorated with precision and taste. A few cramped areas though not nearly as much as some of your earlier maps. In terms of visual design it's a top notch release for sure.
Ah, and great execution of winter/Christmas theme must be noted as well, especially those Christmas trees.

In terms of gameplay it's also very enjoyable, although I have a few nitpicks.
First I want to mention how good you are with hiding secrets, which is certainly not a bad thing, but sometimes they are way too hidden. I found like 3, missed both the devastator and shrinker. After checking the map in mapster I found out some of the secrets didn't really have any clues. Keep an eye on that.

Missing secret weapons was not a problem though. Balancing is actually very good, since I never had any trouble in terms of difficulty, scarcity of RPG ammo was never a problem for me, since it's balanced to cover exactly the amount of battlelords you'll encounter during the map.
In fact I'd say this is a rather typical map gameplay wise and it's the biggest drawback for me. Combat lacks spice. I didn't lose a single HP until chaingunners started appearing, and even after that it's the usual pistol-shotgun-chaingun-rpg progression without any really challenging moments and the map is fairly horizontal.
This type of maps, you know, it's done to death now, though I get that making a difficult experimental level was not your goal. That's a matter of taste.

Navigation and layout is good, it's a very clean and readable map, though a few things did throw me off a little.
The amount of decorative doors is a bit too high for my taste, but what really bugged me was the police station where inaccessible doors came with a text message saying "the lock is jammed". I get the reference, but it's a bit disorientating.
One thing I'm also not a big fan of is how you separated two main gameplay areas with what essentially are two small tunnels without many backtracking routes. Could've used a bit more interconnections.
Progression between map objectives is very well done. I like the way the map sets them in the beginning and outlines the places of interest and then you explore and figure out how to get to them. Although I think it could be improved with a few in between tasks, since the pacing sags a bit when you go from one place to the other, especially since the map is very open ended (at least it felt like it).

So, another great release, another worthy addition to Duke user map catalogue. Despite outlining some of the stuff I personally don't like, there's really not much to actually bitch about.
It's a great map, play it, enjoy it. I did.

[jkas789]

Will try this map as soon as I can this weekend

[DannyFromNewOrleans]

 Merlijn, on 25 August 2021 - 10:21 AM, said:

Great map, quite long and expansive too! The Christmas theme was utilized to great effect here, with the decorations in every building and the sector based Christmas trees.
The buildings all looked clean and had some very good shadow work and texturing. This might be your best map yet!
A couple of pretty tough fights, especially the battlelords gave me some trouble because the RPG ammo was pretty scarce.
Then again I only managed to find 2 secrets so that might have something to do with it.

The idea to get 3 presents and bring them back to the tree was quite nice and well executed.
Except for one crucial thing:

Spoiler

after adding the presents to the tree (read: inserting all 3 keycards) I assumed it would open the door upstairs. But this didn't happen, and as a result I got stuck.
Now did I miss a step or did something in the map go wrong?

Overall a great experience, keep up the good work

Many thanks; I tried to avoid giving lots of RPG in order to make the Battlelords more scary. And the door should definitely open after putting all three presents under the tree, so that was some kind of bug; I hope the door sectors aren't too narrow.

[DannyFromNewOrleans]

 Mister Sinister, on 25 August 2021 - 04:11 PM, said:

Played the map, enjoyed it. CGS, 45 minutes, 3 secrets found.
I assume you were boiling alive as well this summer thus you made a winter map. I remember doing the same, but the map was never finished.

Pretty much you get what you would expect from a DannyNewOrlean map. Very well done clean texturing, tightly trimmed rooms, good atmosphere, the map is decorated with precision and taste. A few cramped areas though not nearly as much as some of your earlier maps. In terms of visual design it's a top notch release for sure.
Ah, and great execution of winter/Christmas theme must be noted as well, especially those Christmas trees.

In terms of gameplay it's also very enjoyable, although I have a few nitpicks.
First I want to mention how good you are with hiding secrets, which is certainly not a bad thing, but sometimes they are way too hidden. I found like 3, missed both the devastator and shrinker. After checking the map in mapster I found out some of the secrets didn't really have any clues. Keep an eye on that.

Missing secret weapons was not a problem though. Balancing is actually very good, since I never had any trouble in terms of difficulty, scarcity of RPG ammo was never a problem for me, since it's balanced to cover exactly the amount of battlelords you'll encounter during the map.
In fact I'd say this is a rather typical map gameplay wise and it's the biggest drawback for me. Combat lacks spice. I didn't lose a single HP until chaingunners started appearing, and even after that it's the usual pistol-shotgun-chaingun-rpg progression without any really challenging moments and the map is fairly horizontal.
This type of maps, you know, it's done to death now, though I get that making a difficult experimental level was not your goal. That's a matter of taste.

Navigation and layout is good, it's a very clean and readable map, though a few things did throw me off a little.
The amount of decorative doors is a bit too high for my taste, but what really bugged me was the police station where inaccessible doors came with a text message saying "the lock is jammed". I get the reference, but it's a bit disorientating.
One thing I'm also not a big fan of is how you separated two main gameplay areas with what essentially are two small tunnels without many backtracking routes. Could've used a bit more interconnections.
Progression between map objectives is very well done. I like the way the map sets them in the beginning and outlines the places of interest and then you explore and figure out how to get to them. Although I think it could be improved with a few in between tasks, since the pacing sags a bit when you go from one place to the other, especially since the map is very open ended (at least it felt like it).

So, another great release, another worthy addition to Duke user map catalogue. Despite outlining some of the stuff I personally don't like, there's really not much to actually bitch about.
It's a great map, play it, enjoy it. I did.

You honestly listed all the things I listed too in my mind: after releasing the map I started wondering about the hallways with so many fake doors. I also never figured out a proper difficulty balance for the beginning; I tried to create some colour by using certain enemy types in certain locations, but this made the first half very easy. Those two connecting sections between the larger streets ended up being kind of pointless, since the hotel's neighbourhood became much smaller than I had planned originally (because of the wall limit). I think my "less serious" attitude towards building this map can be seen here and there.

[Aleks]

 DannyFromNewOrleans, on 26 August 2021 - 06:20 AM, said:

Many thanks; I tried to avoid giving lots of RPG in order to make the Battlelords more scary. And the door should definitely open after putting all three presents under the tree, so that was some kind of bug; I hope the door sectors aren't too narrow.

This is purely a blind guess without playing the map or looking at it in Mapster, but if you've made 3 up open (ST20) doors right next to eachother (sharing a red line), each opened with one of the keycards (through an activator/masterswitch), then the order in which the player uses the keycards does matter and might make all the door inopenable in the long run. The door ceiling will go up to the next sector's ceiling, but if the player starts with the keycard from the "middle" sector, the door won't move as both other sectors it connects to have the ceiling at the same level (i.e. the floor level), so the player is essentially screwed.

Once again, I might miss the point here by a mile, so just disregard this comment as pointless babbling if it's done differently

[ck3D]

 Aleks, on 26 August 2021 - 08:08 AM, said:

This is purely a blind guess without playing the map or looking at it in Mapster, but if you've made 3 up open (ST20) doors right next to eachother (sharing a red line), each opened with one of the keycards (through an activator/masterswitch), then the order in which the player uses the keycards does matter and might make all the door inopenable in the long run. The door ceiling will go up to the next sector's ceiling, but if the player starts with the keycard from the "middle" sector, the door won't move as both other sectors it connects to have the ceiling at the same level (i.e. the floor level), so the player is essentially screwed.

Once again, I might miss the point here by a mile, so just disregard this comment as pointless babbling if it's done differently

The easiest workaround there obviously being to replace the ST20 tags by the ceiling rise effect in all three sectors, setting the SE's height value to the ceiling's. That way you wouldn't have to touch the construction, and if you directly edit the values for the SE heights then you don't even have to touch the inside of the sectors in 3D mode - should be a really quick edit.

[Aleks]

 ck3D, on 26 August 2021 - 10:25 AM, said:

The easiest workaround there obviously being to replace the ST20 tags by the ceiling rise effect in all three sectors, setting the SE's height value to the ceiling's. That way you wouldn't have to touch the construction, and if you directly edit the values for the SE heights then you don't even have to touch the inside of the sectors in 3D mode - should be a really quick edit.

SE32 for ceiling rise/fall tend to act up a bit though, it seems for some reason the sector doesn't go all the way up to SE height, but a few units below, so the SE should be place a tiny bit above (I think about 1/2 page ups per 16 page ups door height?) for it to match perfectly. No idea why this happens though, but felt like adding this as well. But OK, we're going off topic a bit!

[ck3D]

 Aleks, on 26 August 2021 - 11:53 AM, said:

SE32 for ceiling rise/fall tend to act up a bit though, it seems for some reason the sector doesn't go all the way up to SE height, but a few units below, so the SE should be place a tiny bit above (I think about 1/2 page ups per 16 page ups door height?) for it to match perfectly. No idea why this happens though, but felt like adding this as well. But OK, we're going off topic a bit!

Hence my recommendation for directly inputting the values, if you input the exact same value as the ceiling's Z value in 2D mode then there is no problem, that's why 3D mode is actually less reliable there - it just sticks the top of the sprite to the ceiling, offsetting everything, instead of its bottom (with the top clipping through).

[Merlijn]

 Aleks, on 26 August 2021 - 08:08 AM, said:

This is purely a blind guess without playing the map or looking at it in Mapster, but if you've made 3 up open (ST20) doors right next to eachother (sharing a red line), each opened with one of the keycards (through an activator/masterswitch), then the order in which the player uses the keycards does matter and might make all the door inopenable in the long run. The door ceiling will go up to the next sector's ceiling, but if the player starts with the keycard from the "middle" sector, the door won't move as both other sectors it connects to have the ceiling at the same level (i.e. the floor level), so the player is essentially screwed.

Once again, I might miss the point here by a mile, so just disregard this comment as pointless babbling if it's done differently

You're actually spot on, that's the issue. If the player uses the red keycard first, the middle door will not open due to the reasons you cited. It only happens when the red card is used first.
There's an even easier work around* by adding a tiny sector to one of the sides. Here's a quick example (extra sector is on the top). I tested it and that solves the issue:




*well it depends on your definition of 'easier' of course.

[Seb Luca]

An impressive level! There are so many different environments, great attention to detail and the concept of access cards converted into Christmas gifts is a fun and original idea

Warning: small problem with the door that overlaps another sector, in this room ^^

Spoiler

I got lost a bit, I walked in circles not knowing where to go, sometimes confused and not knowing which doors can be opened or not.

Despite these defaults, I salute the immensity of the work and the coherent overall vision. Well done

[DannyFromNewOrleans]

 Seb Luca, on 27 August 2021 - 09:09 AM, said:

An impressive level! There are so many different environments, great attention to detail and the concept of access cards converted into Christmas gifts is a fun and original idea

Warning: small problem with the door that overlaps another sector, in this room ^^

Spoiler

duke0000.png
duke0001.png

I got lost a bit, I walked in circles not knowing where to go, sometimes confused and not knowing which doors can be opened or not.

Despite these defaults, I salute the immensity of the work and the coherent overall vision. Well done

Thanks lots! I checked that room, and it worked without problems; the door is sufficiently far away from the other sectors. I'm not sure what caused those visual glitches...

[DannyFromNewOrleans]

 Merlijn, on 27 August 2021 - 06:31 AM, said:

You're actually spot on, that's the issue. If the player uses the red keycard first, the middle door will not open due to the reasons you cited. It only happens when the red card is used first.
There's an even easier work around* by adding a tiny sector to one of the sides. Here's a quick example (extra sector is on the top). I tested it and that solves the issue:

capt0023.png


*well it depends on your definition of 'easier' of course.

Danke, a new tiny sector trick added to my inventory.

[Seb Luca]

 DannyFromNewOrleans, on 27 August 2021 - 09:02 PM, said:

Thanks lots! I checked that room, and it worked without problems; the door is sufficiently far away from the other sectors. I'm not sure what caused those visual glitches...

This happens if you load the game while the door is recorded as open in the save file.

[Aleks]

Played the map and enjoyed it quite a lot! Decided to write a review for CGS instead of a regular comment. The map took me about 50 minutes looking for all the secrets and exploring, but it's a fun one at that! Below is the review copied from CGS:
Promise isa new entry from DannyFromNewOrleans, who has published quite a few maps duringthe past 3 years. Despite being published in August, the map has a strongChristmas theme, which provides for a nice relief from the hot weather (atleast according to the Author himself). The map also comes in 2 variants – day andnight, although the only actual difference is changing the sky texture, evenleaving the shading values the same. Regular or “day” version uses a niceorange sunset sky, while the night one uses a starry sky, albeit the one thatis kind of stretched (making the same mistake I did nearly 2 decades ago inAlex City). It is interesting to see how the mood of the level changes betweenthese 2 versions, in my case I played the sunset/daily one.

The map isquite large and will provide a lengthy quest to finishing. There is a somehowopen gameplay, as you are required to bring 3 gifts for your girlfriend (who isapparently Lara Croft) from various locations around the town. These can becollected at any order (although it is important to notice that due to a bug,the red “gift” – or keycard – has to be input under the Christmas tree as thelast one). The map is filled to the brim with monsters (about 230 on Come GetSome), but the combat doesn’t get unfair at all – in fact, it presents us withsome quite nice and clever encounters, especially with some Battlelords pinningyou down in a couple of buildings.

The layoutof the map is very clearly divided into 2 large street parts (and a 3rd,smaller part, closely connected to one of them), which are connected mostlythrough 2 routes that lead across different buildings. This works good inenclosing quite large gameplay area, but might also make it a bit difficult fornavigating. We are required to visit bookstore, supermarket and gun store,although there is many more amenities which are more or less typical for a Dukemap. The notable thing about the map is the fact that a lot of these otherlocations can be completely avoided, as some provide alternate routes or arejust there for extra supplies or secrets.

Danny isknown for a classic and clean design, which this map is a very fine example of.There’s a lot of neat, contrast shadows (with a particular fondness ofshowcasing a light coming through semi-closed swinging doors), mostly these oflarger scale while omitting some lesser details (which is what the originalgame also did). The map could maybe use some more wallshading for improveddepth. The use of textures is quite careful – there’s your usual city stuffwith some more originality and variance, everything seems to be aligned very diligently.Using different textures for snow on the roads and pavements is a particularlyclever move. Also all the Christmas decorations, spread around the level, arequite original – from Christmas trees and lightbulbs to a cool little snowman –and greatly increase the mood.

There is atotal of 9 secrets in the map, some of which are quite well hidden or difficultto access at all, with one particularly unfair that basically requires checkinghow to access it in Mapster. Nevertheless, the openness of the map feels veryinviting for exploring around and looking for these secrets. The level isgenerally a very fun and entertaining experience, without much to complainabout.

[DannyFromNewOrleans]

 Aleks, on 16 September 2021 - 10:22 AM, said:

Played the map and enjoyed it quite a lot! Decided to write a review for CGS instead of a regular comment. The map took me about 50 minutes looking for all the secrets and exploring, but it's a fun one at that! Below is the review copied from CGS:
Promise isa new entry from DannyFromNewOrleans, who has published quite a few maps duringthe past 3 years. Despite being published in August, the map has a strongChristmas theme, which provides for a nice relief from the hot weather (atleast according to the Author himself). The map also comes in 2 variants – day andnight, although the only actual difference is changing the sky texture, evenleaving the shading values the same. Regular or “day” version uses a niceorange sunset sky, while the night one uses a starry sky, albeit the one thatis kind of stretched (making the same mistake I did nearly 2 decades ago inAlex City). It is interesting to see how the mood of the level changes betweenthese 2 versions, in my case I played the sunset/daily one.

Thamks for review! I had to go check the starry sky, and I completely forgot about the non-stretched version. At least the rubbery stars look somehow nostalgic.

[Danukem]

EDIT: There is a bug with the map

The final door will not open if you insert the keycards in this order: Red, Yellow, Blue

It does open if you use blue yellow red or yellow red blue

I don't know if this was true when the map was released, but it may have been: When I played just now I didn't find the blue keycard until last, which is not typical

[Aleks]

 Danukem, on 06 December 2021 - 12:14 AM, said:

EDIT: There is a bug with the map

The final door will not open if you insert the keycards in this order: Red, Yellow, Blue

It does open if you use blue yellow red or yellow red blue

I don't know if this was true when the map was released, but it may have been: When I played just now I didn't find the blue keycard until last, which is not typical

Yeah, Merlijn and I have already figured out the bug and what's causing it earlier in this thread.

[Danukem]

 Aleks, on 06 December 2021 - 01:54 AM, said:

Yeah, Merlijn and I have already figured out the bug and what's causing it earlier in this thread.

Oh, I see that now. Is there an edited version where it's fixed? This is one of the many maps that I redistribute with my randomizer, so I would love to have a version that doesn't softlock.

[Merlijn]

The version on my HD fixes the issue with an extra tiny sector, as expained in this topic. However I don't think Danny ever officially released a fixed version.
And I'm not sure if I'm allowed to share an edited version of his work. It's probably best to PM him or wait until he chimes in here.

[Forge]

you told him 4 months ago; he responded positively to your fix, but never released a fixed version.
Not sure if he's going to revisit this map or not.