[Merlijn]

The Shaky Grounds episode is finished and released!

You can head to ModDB to download it: https://www.moddb.co...s/shaky-grounds

Trailer:

[Maisth]

had to sign only to congratulate you, this is an amazing map set and i hope anyone who hasn't played it yet does, nice job.

[Mike Norvak]

Congrats!

[Phredreeke]

I've uploaded a fix to the ERP to allow it to play this episode with correctly colored skies

https://www.moddb.co...mpatibility-fix

Here's a screen of how it looks (third level)

[Dr.Panico]

It was really worth the wait. The 4th level has some truly impressive alien structures; stuff that wouldn't be out of place in a AMC TC level. As for the Froyd Eenakee battle, I was wondering how it would play out; since there was a lot of build-up through the episode. It had to be something special. Needless to say, it was a pleasant surprise.

The one thing I would do different - and that's not a criticism, just personal preference - is to have the final battle happen amidst the ruins of Emerichville. Maybe we could revisit the 3rd level's final area or, even better, take place where the first level once stood; delivering a poetic, bittersweet bookend to the series. But the ending we got was amazing enough anyway.

Oh, by the way,

Spoiler

What's Froyd Eenakee's real name? In my playthrough I called him Joe, but I don't know if his real name could be found somewhere in the last levels.

[Ninety-Six]

Dr.Panico, on 13 November 2021 - 04:38 AM, said:

Oh, by the way,

Spoiler

What's Froyd Eenakee's real name? In my playthrough I called him Joe, but I don't know if his real name could be found somewhere in the last levels.

Spoiler

Pretty sure that was the name on the screen in the white void throne room in the final level.

[Dr.Panico]

Ninety-Six, on 13 November 2021 - 08:41 AM, said:

Spoiler

Pretty sure that was the name on the screen in the white void throne room in the final level.

Wow. How the hell did I miss that?

Thanks.

[Merlijn]

Ninety-Six, on 13 November 2021 - 08:41 AM, said:

Spoiler

Pretty sure that was the name on the screen in the white void throne room in the final level.

Spoiler

actually that may also not be his name, could also be one of his underlings. We may never know his true name..

Thanks for your feedback Dr.Panico, glad you liked the final stretch of the episode! I do like your alternative scenario for a boss fight, that idea honestly didn't even occur to me.

[Ninety-Six]

Spoiler

I wonder why he keeps his name a secret...

[Aleks]

Merlijn, on 13 November 2021 - 01:26 PM, said:

Spoiler

actually that may also not be his name, could also be one of his underlings. We may never know his true name..

Thanks for your feedback Dr.Panico, glad you liked the final stretch of the episode! I do like your alternative scenario for a boss fight, that idea honestly didn't even occur to me.

Spoiler

Yeah, I was quite positive that Tsum D'Bhi was one of the enforcers who seem to serve as Froyd's bodyguards. I mean, why would Froyd even bother killing a random trooper himself, then sacrificing it before his own throne? I do like the etymology behind Froyd Eenakee's name... As for his real name - maybe he keeps it a secret because it's simply "Junior"?

Naming issues aside, I really recommend Shaky Grounds to anyone who hasn't played the complete thing yet. It's probably one of the best things to ever have been made for Duke 3D. The whole episode is really consistent and plays like a one enormous map, but then also each level has some very memorable and distinguished things on their own, also the quality is so consistent it's very difficult to choose the best one or favourite part.

Still gotta play the finished and final version probably during the coming week myself, despite already playing a few times during the testing phase - it's well worth it!

[Maarten]

Nice to see this one is released!
Go play this episode people!

I had a lot of fun seeing how this episode got build up (I've been testing & seeing the maps a lot after all..guess that's a nice thing when you're brothers )
Anyway I'm going to download this final pack and will play it on CGS (been testing a lot on LR) and will take the challenges which are written down in the txt file - like finding all the shrinkers and secets

[Ninety-Six]

Aleks, on 14 November 2021 - 04:50 AM, said:

Spoiler

I do like the etymology behind Froyd Eenakee's name...

Spoiler

What is the etymology?

[Merlijn]

Haha, I love the fact that there's a discussion about Froyd Eenakee! Truth be told, in the first map I didn't even put that much thought in him but once the story evolved he became an actual character and writing his speeches was a lot fun.
And yeah, there's a bit more to his name, but I won't spoil the beans just yet.

[Ninety-Six]

Merlijn, on 14 November 2021 - 01:29 PM, said:

And yeah, there's a bit more to his name, but I won't spoil the beans just yet.

You already have plans?

[Merlijn]

^
hmm no, I didn't mean it like that. This episode and its story have ended with the final map. I only mean that the name isn't completely random.
Once more people have played the whole episode, I'll probably post a list of all easter eggs and trivia, including some hidding meanings.

For now I will only say this: have you seen/read Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets?

In other news, Radar already posted a video of him playing the whole episode in 1 go (using AMC TC):


Spoilers, obviously!

[ToiletDuck64]

I played through it over the past few days (just trying to finish, not trying to 100% the maps or whatever) and I was mentally blown the fuck away even more severely than before.

I think the maps (and maybe the sound assets?) in the episode/package have been updated from the previously uploaded individual maps.
Also, what build(s) is/are everyone using to play this? I used r3888 (which is ancient) and there was some very rare and very minor graphical glitching but otherwise everything worked.

[Merlijn]

Thanks ToiletDuck64! To answer your question, yes the first 3 maps have been updated compared to their original release.
The changes are mostly pretty small but do improve the overall experience, for example I did decrease the speed of the falling ceiling in map 1 since a lot of people complained about that.
Also made some buttons and pathways easier to spot, improved some of the texturing here and there etc.

Sounds and music are exactly the same though.

In other news, MSDN review is in: https://msdn.duke4.n...hakygrounds.php

[Phredreeke]

ToiletDuck64, on 18 November 2021 - 03:11 PM, said:

Also, what build(s) is/are everyone using to play this? I used r3888 (which is ancient) and there was some very rare and very minor graphical glitching but otherwise everything worked.

I used the build in the ERP (which was compiled in March) and I didn't find any issues although I didn't play through the whole mod. I'm happy to see sprites aligned in a way that makes voxels face in a logical direction.

[Šneček]

Making an episode of all the individual maps is a great idea and I'm happy. I've been looking at these maps for a long time on youtube, but I've never downloaded one, because the fact that the map has a few more sequels discourages me from downloading them due to my laziness to download them individually. It wasn't until the release of this episode that finally made me download it, and now I'm in the second level, and I find this all as beautiful as the recent 2 maps of Another Attack series.

[ck3D]

Pizza Cake/November Blue also dropped a video of his playthrough, here:



I can't believe I haven't found a day to spend on this yet - sorry I couldn't get back to you in time for the play testing, my schedule has been wild but I'm definitely looking forward. I'm even actively avoiding looking at those videos, to spare myself spoilers! Congrats on release.

[Jim]

Hello, does this require a recent eduke32? Will an old 2018 eduke32 work?

[Danukem]

So does the completed episode contain one new map and the others are the same? I have played the other maps pretty recently and was wondering if I could just play the final map by itself, or would that not be the best experience?

[Merlijn]

Jim, on 20 November 2021 - 10:08 AM, said:

Hello, does this require a recent eduke32? Will an old 2018 eduke32 work?

It only uses the enhanced limits so it should work just fine on your old Eduke.
I have tested this episode in a recent build and in a build from 2018 and both ran the episode without any trouble.

@ck3D: that's a great gameplay video, thanks for linking it! For those who don't want to be spoiled: it shows all the secrets (except for the 2 super secret ones).
Speaking of which, these are the challenges from the txt. file, for those who didn't read it:

Quote

1. Each map has a secret containing a hidden shrinker. Try to find them all.
2. One map has a secret shortcut, but it may take more than 1 playthrough to take advantage of it
2. There are 2 unmarked super secrets, you'll recognize them because they both contain a message from the author.

Oh and no worries ck3D, I know you're very busy at the moment

Quote

So does the completed episode contain one new map and the others are the same? I have played the other maps pretty recently and was wondering if I could just play the final map by itself, or would that not be the best experience?

It contains 2 new maps, 1 regular and 1 boss map. The others are largely the same. They received a couple of minor fixes and changes, but nothing that would drastically change the experience.
So yes, you can start from map 4 if you recently played the previous 3. Each map is playable from a pistol start.

[Rorschach]

I have just finished all 5 maps - though the secrets have largely eluded me so far - and I have to say, this is one of the finest sets of Duke Maps I've had the pleasure of playing.

The scale, the detail and the sheer playability are all top drawer.

Kudos and thank you very much.

[ck3D]

I was just looking at the gameplay video for the first two maps during lunch and noticed something that had eluded me before in between Apocollapse and Tragedy, and that's the coherence of the Cool Center. I hadn't even really noticed it before how Tragedy actually takes place inside the Cool Center where Apocollapse ends, but mostly features the exteriors of. Whereas in Tragedy, you're inside and everything from the texturing to the sprite windows perfectly match (or at least, really feel reminiscent of) the exteriors seen in the previous level. That only caught my attention because the architecture of the entire building (both outside and inside, actually) are very similar to a real-life building in my hometown that I'm very familiar with (in fact I actually recreated it epochs ago in Anarchy City 3, albeit not very well), so I couldn't shake the comparison after that and then picked up on the consistency from one level to the next. So now I'm curious if that part of Tragedy ever used to be in Apocollapse, before you decided to split it into two maps; or if everything was designed separately, and you were just really careful about that detail when designing the interiors. Maybe both are just rather accurate representations of the same real life location, both inside and outside which would also make sense. Haven't gotten around to comparing in the editor or anything like that (yet).

I also lol'd at 'drunk Shakespeare' (and it's not even the best joke in the whole episode that's otherwise full of good puns). And the 2.5D printer really is some timeless genius.

[Merlijn]

The Cool center, both interior and exterior, is based on a real location. So there's your answer. Same goes for The Kompleks by the way.

Entering the Cool center was always part of the plan, in fact originally the first map would have ended in there. But I ran out of walls so instead the last big fight of Apocollapse is in front of the Cool center.
In hindsight that was a good thing because that allowed me to really flesh out the indoor part of the center, giving it multiple floors and whatnot.

And yeah I'm a bit of a pun addict.

@Rorschach: thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

[Maarten]

Just finished the thing on CGS. It was harder, but I expected even more enemies for a moment haha It was in good balance tho! Had 50 pipebombs last few maps.

I found everything except: 1 secret in map2, one (shrinker?) secret in map 3, and also didn't find the second super secret.

My favourite secret, maybe also because it took me ages to find (no spoilers): the room with stolen supermarket food

It's a great episode which totally deserves these 97 MSDN points! My favourite things would be the boss viewscreens, the BIG map 1 city, the last half of map3 and finally the uniqe texturing of the alien maps

[Aleks]

Just finished my review for CGS, after completing the final version of the whole episode.

Quote

“A film should start with an earthquake, and then the stress should continuously increase” – this quote by Alfred Hitchcock seems to have been taken quite literally by Merlijn while working on the “Shaky Grounds” episode.

The mod totals 5 large levels, 3 of which have been already released during the past 5 years and now only slightly adjusted for the episode, while the 2 last ones are brand new. Nevertheless, I would definitely recommend to play the whole thing at once, whether as an episode or map-by-map, to have the proper, full experience.

The premise is simple, like taken straight from some catastrophic Sci-Fi movie – yet quite original in a Duke map due to the scale it requires to pull out: there is a large series of earthquakes trembling down a town in the Netherlands and soon it unveils that the aliens are behind it. Before long, we indulge into a full-blown story of tragedy, personal revenge and Duke being once again the humanity’s only hope. The story is surprisingly cohesive and full of reasonable plot twists, even having a shot at elaborating a bit on our protagonist’s character – as well as that of his nemesis. It is told by some of the best visual storytelling entangled within the level design, with occasional help of viewscreen messages. Despite the bleak tone and seriousness of the story, Merlijn finds a way to also include some dark humor typical for a classic Duke game into it, along with some genuinely funny Easter eggs and references to other maps. These things never get in the first plan to distract from the main plot or gameplay, but are a welcome addition for the careful observers.

The first level, “Apocollapse”, starts with an impressive earthquake scene, immediately throwing the player into the action with an elaborate escape sequence. When we finally emerge into town, there is a scenery of death and destruction – and the first thing to do is climbing a collapsed, inclined building to even get out of the hole we landed in! Later we are free to explore a large part of city (that even has a map shown on an informational screen), including a residential district, a precipice freshly created by an earthquake and a mall, which is the central and longest part of the map.

In the 2nd level, “Tales of Tragedy”, we enter the Cool Center, which is a large concert venue/theater which links two districts of town. After fighting his way through it and passing through a very unorthodox office building, Duke will find himself in the town square full of restaurants and cafes as the story slowly unveils the details about our enemy and their motives. It’s worth pointing out that “Happy Hipster” includes some of the coolest jokes in a Duke map, even subtly breaking the fourth wall. Towards the end, the level ventures into more Sci-Fi, alien structures, which are seamlessly and naturally connected to the devastated city.

The third level, “Epicenter”, takes us into seemingly less destroyed part of the town, despite the level’s name. However, this sense of serenity can be deceptive – after we clear the more usual locations around town, such as a record store, bar, drug store or cheese market, it’s easy to lose one’s alertness, hence increasing the effect of the sudden blow that’s about to happen. The later part of the level is a wild ride that contains the scenes of destruction done on a truly epic scale, perhaps defying the physics and challenging the gravity, but certainly leaving a stellar impression. The level ends on a depressing note in one of the most atmospheric sceneries done in a Build game, which takes full advantage of its specific aesthetics, emphasized by strong contrast shadows.

After that, we enter the mysterious Kompleks, which serves as an alien HQ, in “Deeper Underground”. Turns out the building is a concert venue with some of the best design seen in a Duke map. It also leads underground to where the source of all evil lies – after travelling through slime rivers and giant underground lakes, the level climaxes in an epic battle fought in enormous underground cavern, infested with all kinds of aliens and their ominous machinery.

The “Final Rumble” takes us down even deeper towards the center of the Earth – there is no trace of human habitat anymore, just monumental alien structures and barren rocks. The level pays tribute to the more classic style of level design, making a lot of use of verticality and moving sectors, while still maintaining a distinct visual style provided by careful use of textures and palettes.

Each level picks off at the moment the previous one finished, making for smooth and logical transitions. The style throughout is very consistent, both in terms of gameplay and design, almost as if it could be one, enormous map, if it only wasn’t for the Build limits. However, each map also has something very distinguished and memorable, whether it’s the tall buildings collapsing on your very own eyes in the first level, the sequence in a tipped over office building which we travel sideways in the second one, the dramatic destruction scenes in an unmatched scale in the third map, the enormous underground caverns and lakes in the penultimate level or perhaps the most original twist on using a boss in a Duke 3D map ever in the final. It is also the case where the whole episode is much more than just the sum of its parts, that is the separate maps. The immersion, both in the sense of location and the story, is much deeper when playing through the whole episode. In the end, it would also be very difficult for me to pick my favorite level or part of this episode, due to how many outstanding scenes there are.

The design is top-notch consistently throughout the whole episode. From the very beginning, we will see jaw-dropping visuals done at a very large scale, yet full of little details and concluding into realistic environments. Original and innovative use of textures and palettes has always been a strength in both van Oostrum brothers’ maps, here probably reaching its peaks. The shadows are realistic and used for extra advantage of emphasizing on the levels visuals – especially the 4th level shines here, using a lot of layered shadows, strong contrasts and on top of that, small, detailed shadows that help to sell the locations even more. There’s also some very clever use of sprites and textures for things rarely seen in Duke maps – examples of these are bakery in “Apocollapse”, cheese market in “Epicenter”, drums in “Deeper Underground” and other various musical instruments seen throughout the episode.

However, the aspect that truly stands out the most is the episode’s conceptual grandness – the 2D layouts of each map are carefully planned to make the best use of space and resources, there is plenty of verticality and platforming that keeps the player engaged, the large scale sceneries look magnificent and the whole episode maintains a strong feeling of a true 3D environment. Despite the non-Euclidean and “2.5D” nature of Build engine, here the player has a solid sense of location, which helps both the navigation and immersion. Crossing through the tipped over building in “Tales of Tragedy” is perhaps the most pronounced example of that, but the multi-layered, full of sector-over-sector layout of the Kompleks is just as good in this aspect. One of the reasons for that might be the fact that many locations were based on real life buildings or places – the Kompleks, Doeniezo Mall, Cool Center and town square in “Epicenter” being the finest examples of that. Merlijn has not only managed to translate and interpret these locations into Build’s specific language and form, but also enriched them with a twist of destruction and alien infestation.

The gameplay/combat is very entertaining throughout the episode – despite the trickery of the scenery, Merlijn has somehow got the dimwitted enemy AI to cooperate, which is especially praiseworthy in case of long-range, vertical encounters with commanders and other flying enemies. The ammo/enemy balance is mostly designed with pistol starting each level in mind, so playing through the whole episode, you should have more than enough guns not to worry about them. However, the battles will still prevent the player from just overusing the shotgun/chaingun combo – even your standard pistol will come in handy quite often. Each level has some larger fights that will provide a challenge to the players, using carefully chosen combinations of enemies to keep it interesting, while also having calmer or more usual parts serving as breathers. The pacing of such long maps is very significant, not to exhaust/bore the player, and Merlijn does that just right by constantly changing dynamics and allowing the player the satisfaction of clearing an area before throwing more monsters at them. Even the choice of monsters regarding story/progression is flawless, with e.g. pig cops stopping to appear as soon as we descend deeper under the city.

From the technical point of view, there’s a lot of effects put to a large scale that need perfect synchronization to work properly, such as earthquakes, explosions and rising/dropping floors. Merlijn also isn’t afraid to play with dynamic light effects, both in the form of flashing or cycling lights and the long forgotten craft of light switches, one of the gimmicks of the original game. However, the most innovative effect must be how the boss battle plays out, adding a lot of extra challenge and being very original at the same time.

All the levels (especially the first 4) are very open and inviting for extra exploration besides just moving towards the path to goal. There isn’t much backtracking involved, yet there’s a lot of room for free roaming or looking for alternate paths (especially the 2nd map shines here). There is plenty of secret places scattered around, most of which aren’t just small compartments, but actual rooms or even parts of buildings, often with some Easter eggs to be found inside. There are also 2 unmarked “super secrets” to be found throughout the episode for extra fame and glory. Moreover, the shrinker, which can be one of the most powerful weapons, can be only found in the secret places, making it somehow unique throughout the episode.

Last aspect worth mentioning is the new music in “Shaky Grounds”, which was composed by Merlijn himself. From the ominous remix of “Sneaky Snake” in the first map, through upbeat, yet stirring into your brain with dissonance track in “Tales of Tragedy”, majestic and bleak piano-driven song in “Epicenter” and progressive, rhythmic track in “Deeper Underground” that seems to sync with your descent, all the way to the vigorous industrial metal song in the finale, the soundtrack fits well with each level. But it’s not just a very good video game music, but simply neat songs in general that will keep playing in your head long after you have finished playing.

Conclusion: I am positive this is just the best thing I have played for Duke during my 20+ year adventure with this game. Merlijn just managed to make a consistent, extremely entertaining episode, with immersive story, strong atmosphere, masterful design and epic scale, balancing out the pace and tone and topping it off with complimenting music. Nitpicking on anything here to denounce even a point from the perfect score wouldn’t give this pack justice.

Rating: 100/100

[Merlijn]

Thanks for your reviews Maarten and Aleks! @Aleks: really like how you dig deep into the feel of the episode as a whole, not just the individual maps

Quote

My favourite secret, maybe also because it took me ages to find (no spoilers): the room with stolen supermarket food

Oh really? I thought it would be super easy, barely an inconvenience.

Quote

Had 50 pipebombs last few maps

Yeah I am a bit too enthousiastic about giving the player pipebombs (especially if you find all the secrets). I already toned them down but it's still very much possible to get them to 50 haha

[Aleks]

Merlijn, on 01 December 2021 - 12:00 PM, said:

Yeah I am a bit too enthousiastic about giving the player pipebombs (especially if you find all the secrets). I already toned them down but it's still very much possible to get them to 50 haha

Ah yeah, after replaying the finished episode, I had the feeling you reduced the number of pipebombs throughout a bit compared to the beta, since I usually kept having above 40, but not full from the 3rd map. Wasn't sure if it was due to me being more trigger-happy about using them though