[slacker1]

ck3D, on 03 February 2022 - 12:18 PM, said:

Was 420'ing through it earlier and lost it at the part where one of the drones increasingly pressured you then hit you, and as if you were now taking it personal you proceeded to headbutt through like 6 of them. I have no idea how you even survived that, but cool stuff. Thanks for recording this.

I know I've definitely done that as well when ammo is scarce and my health is okay just to get them to go away.

[Danukem]

I've been looking through recent vanilla map releases to check out ones I had overlooked and was reminded of this map. I had tried it for a few minutes when it was first released and quit when I didn't think I was able to find the intended route. After our discussion about the more recent Koodbool, I gave it another try and was pleasantly surprised. I decided to embrace the weird jumping mechanics and found the map to be very enjoyable and creative. I loved the use of "random" mechanical and car textures throughout, and the boss reveal at the end was epic.

I enjoyed the nonstandard weapon distribution, too. This was also the case for Koodbool. I tend not to comment much on that sort of thing because admittedly I use my Alien Armageddon mod to play the maps -- then I can better justify the time spent since I am also bug testing my own mod. Doing so did spoil things a bit since the tripbombs have a proximity bomb option in AA, which makes them way easier to use. However, the enemies are generally harder, so it balances out.

One thing this map reminded me of is that there aren't enough maps that encourage dynamic use of cover (this one being an exception). What I mean is, in most maps it seems like the player is encouraged to just move in and out of a doorway, or peek down a corridor and back again, which is very simplistic. Then there are maps where you often have no good cover options, either because it is too cramped, or on the other extreme too open. In this map we have scenes were there are junked cars you can move around, which provide cover in a different way but allow both the player and the enemies more dynamic movement. I think this is more enjoyable in a mod where the AI is smarter, too.

[ck3D]

Thank you for the feedback and kind words - very happy you liked it so much. I'm still happy about that one, it's simple but the layout and progression design is pretty cool to navigate (that's my preferred approach to Build level design, vs. e.g.. Koodbool which was a lot more linear and had disconnected areas - works every once in a while for 'arena' type of levels like that one, but I'd still rather entangle sector spiderwebs).

I very much agree with your point in dynamic cover, my logic is one of Build's strengths is the ability to manipulate sectors on the fly and so (at least I) might as well go for possibilities and direction choices that support that strength, resulting in scenarii even more modern engines would struggle to pull off, or if anything just absolutely cliché Build madness. The engine is amazing for that and of course sector over sector which allows non-Euclidian spaces, so to me before even being a level editor Build is a great tool to tackle and refine the art of drawing dimensions within dimensions. The potential is way less static than it may look (especially to newcomers), all kinds of movement and terrain evolution are possible, and at the top of that the physics of Duke 3D are extreme, so in my opinion the best Build levels are those who maximize on those points of focus (when that's not at the expense of other aspects, like style - the line is thin to walk). I see so many vehicles in Duke maps I wish could move (even poorly), or missed opportunities for slope-shifting earthquakes and things as simple as floor/ceiling rise/fall when the structure for them a lot of the time actually is built right there (or cyclers are another cool feature that's often slept on, too).

I don't know if you noticed in Salvage that you could push the shelf around, in the commander's office, so that it would rotate 90 degrees and alter your cover. Red Light Rumble also did stuff like that, Turnpike you could push crates around, and more shelves. Of course it's not always the case but when the occasion does present itself to make decorum functional in a way that enhances direct gameplay (vs. not) I like trying not to sleep on it. (And then whenever I do see a missed opportunity of my own in old maps of mine later on, I kind of feel like kicking myself in the ass)

People like seeing movement in general, it's reassuring, movement is life.