[Ninety-Six]

 Aleks, on 26 January 2022 - 01:34 AM, said:

BTW, wasn't the N64 change of that part made because of the port limitations?

Wouldn't doubt it. Doesn't change the part where it still resembles a bank more. That said,

 Aleks, on 26 January 2022 - 01:34 AM, said:

Plus it was a nice showcase of Build engine and one of the more creative puzzle in the game.

This is a valid point as well. Whenever DN3D had the chance to flex the engine's power, it took it without hesitation.

Though, I think a marriage between context and oneupsmanship would have been more ideal. I'm reminded of the gear room from Death Row. I'll grant there is still some level of abstraction there, but no more than the rest of the game, as it seems to be a power room for the electric chair. Doesn't make all the sense but there's enough context there for it to not stand out too much.

Meanwhile the gear room in Bank Roll is accessed near the vault for some reason, and doesn't seem to have a contextual point to its existence.

Maybe it's just part of the security system to protect the vault switch (which is supported by it being protected by most complex switch combination in the game (provided you don't figure out you can literally skip the entire second switchboard)). But to be honest, I still think the N64 version paints that picture clearer as it has you move through turrets and tripmines all stacked on top of each other in a way that looks like a heist movie.


Perhaps a mod should cut this discussion into its own thread in DN General. I enjoy breaking down and discussing/debating the level design and theming of the vanilla game quite a bit, but it admittedly doesn't have much to do with this map.

[brullov]

 Aleks, on 25 January 2022 - 03:39 AM, said:

BTW, Brullov, are you going to re-release it with some of the bugs mentioned here fixed or this one is here to stay?

Those mentioned bugs don't break the gameplay and it seems people like to find a way to go beyond the level borders and explore the "outside" area. I might fix it sometime, but I'm not gonna do it now.

[Aleks]

Finally played the level and must say I enjoyed it a lot. I did get a few framerate drops here and there, but nothing too drastic and I would honestly expect more with that amount of sprites and all the TROR stuff

It's really cool how you pulled this reboot, the layout is easily recognizable in general, but the design is a lot more modern and well, makes sense and isn't just random rooms scattered around the rocket launch site. I do appreciate how you took the artistic freedom to change these things which didn't make much sense like the Doomish green brick sewer room. The design is just brilliant, lots of tiny spriteworks, clever use of TROR (really dig some of the pipes you could climb on, almost regretted you didn't hide the broken secret there instead), all the layered trimwork on the walls - very creative use of textures and combinations, which is top-notch. It's too bad there was some HOM when looking through the window in the blue access switch room, but I understand there's nothing you could do about it. Also all the writings in Cyrillic where a nice touch, good idea with these. The outside played OK for me, also the glitches didn't get in the way and I enjoyed the conceptual grandness of that area, but with all the tiny details. It was also impressive spotting all of those, the map took me about 25 minutes, probably most of that spent just wandering and staring at things.

As for the gameplay, after all the comments I expected it to be more "just there", but I found it OK, especially the respawn on the outside. I think it's a step-up from Fallout Freeze really. And the music - the track fits very well with the level, so again good job here!

[brullov]

 Aleks, on 31 January 2022 - 01:36 PM, said:

Finally played the level and must say I enjoyed it a lot. I did get a few framerate drops here and there, but nothing too drastic and I would honestly expect more with that amount of sprites and all the TROR stuff

It's really cool how you pulled this reboot, the layout is easily recognizable in general, but the design is a lot more modern and well, makes sense and isn't just random rooms scattered around the rocket launch site. I do appreciate how you took the artistic freedom to change these things which didn't make much sense like the Doomish green brick sewer room. The design is just brilliant, lots of tiny spriteworks, clever use of TROR (really dig some of the pipes you could climb on, almost regretted you didn't hide the broken secret there instead), all the layered trimwork on the walls - very creative use of textures and combinations, which is top-notch. It's too bad there was some HOM when looking through the window in the blue access switch room, but I understand there's nothing you could do about it. Also all the writings in Cyrillic where a nice touch, good idea with these. The outside played OK for me, also the glitches didn't get in the way and I enjoyed the conceptual grandness of that area, but with all the tiny details. It was also impressive spotting all of those, the map took me about 25 minutes, probably most of that spent just wandering and staring at things.

As for the gameplay, after all the comments I expected it to be more "just there", but I found it OK, especially the respawn on the outside. I think it's a step-up from Fallout Freeze really. And the music - the track fits very well with the level, so again good job here!

Thank you, you are the first man who mentioned the pipes I did, glad you like them as much as I do!

[NY00123]

I completed this map, and it was a good way to experience something different, yet familiar.

There were already enough comments in this thread, so I guess that I can add the switches that you have to make usable by pressing on the power switch. Another interesting tidbit to add is the orientations of the areas, relatively to each other. Generally speaking, they tend to match the original, but the experience might still differ in an unexpected manner.

In the very beginning of the original map, you need to turn off a forcefield. If you originally missed it, you might not notice that the way to the forcefield from the initial room includes a 90-degrees turn. It's more noticeable when you check E1L6 as present in the leaked "v0.99" prototype. In the remake of E1L6, there's no curve at all - you need to manually make the left turn. With the additional details added on the way, this does give the path a different feeling.

Regarding the easter egg known as the unreachable pipebomb secret, for future play-throughs of other players, it might be wise, at the least, to remove the "secret" tags from the sectors. Alternatively, a few sprites might be added to form a ladder, I guess.

Since TROR glitches look like a known problem even while mapping, I guess that if you eventually do get to try working on another build engine map in the future, then giving up TROR might be an option, as difficult of a sacrifice as it can admittedly be; Alternatively, it can be restricted to relatively small areas, or alternatively to an optional feature at some point - but with a fallback to not use it at all in case it isn't working out.

Either way, others can surely give this map a try. Just assume for now that there are really only 2 accessible secret areas out of 4 (unless you don't mind spending enough time with an assault trooper/captain).

[duke3d.exe]

I played this the other day, really nice. There's a bug at the end of tho, you could jump out of the map where I found for some reason 2 drones in the middle of nowhere, not sure if someone reported it.