[KAP]

A classic style map with some nice surprises here and there. I'm not claiming to be on the level of the elite mappers here, but I hope you enjoy this small Duke adventure.
Playtime is about 12 minutes if you know where to go.
If anyone finds something majorly wrong I'll post an updated version, but this is intended to be the final release.

Attached thumbnail(s)

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Attached File(s)

•  waterdamage-5-25-22.zip (93.47K)
  Number of downloads: 254

[ck3D]

I've played beta versions of this a few times and would strongly encourage people to check it out. Very interesting and particular style, still at the service of heavy classic vibes somehow with impressive attention to shading. I hope you make more maps, KAP, you're clearly familiar with the editor at this point and so it only gets easier from your current stage on! Congrats on release.

[gibfrag]

Great map and highly recommended. Feels like a classic map that has a similar feel to episode 3 of the original game. Tons of nonlinear design elements that really give this map a lot of fun alternative routes to take, and plenty of secrets to look out for. Great job!

[ck3D]

DNSKILL420's video:

[Quacken]

Knocked this one out in about 20 minutes. I could have done it in less time if I didn't get lost at all, but oh well. As for the map:

Water Damage isn't too shabby, all things considered. I'd say this would better fit L.A. Meltdown as opposed to Shrapnel City. Maybe it's just Taking the Death Toll talking to me, but this and Episode 1's maps feel quite boxy and confined to one setpiece, where Shrapnel City was more varied and vertical in its design. This isn't a jab at the map of course, because Water Design nails the vintage 1996 look to a tee. If someone told me this was a cut version of one of the retail maps I might have believed it for just a moment. There's definitely a greater emphasis on darkness, as well as vents. Sometimes the map goes a little too hard on the darkness though, especially while in water. There's probably a Night Vision in one of the ten secrets, but I think it should be a more obvious non-secret, just to make swimming easier. It's not a particularly difficult map either, but at least it goes out on a good note, with a Battlelord and his fleet of Tanks dropping from the bridge, and then another four Tanks try to blindside you as you try to go for the exit button. I think a cloud of Assault Troopers would have been a nice addition to the former fight. They either pepper you with laser gun shots as you try to kill the Battlelord, or if you go for them first, they distract you long enough so that the Battlelord can find a more advantageous position. As this map stands though, I think it's not only perfectly playable, but quite a fun map, and a good start to your (hopefully) returning mapping career. I'm looking forward to any of your future releases.

7/10.

[William Gee]

Took me 30 mins to pass, found 5 secrets and killed all enemies. I also had to check the youtube clip to learn to jump into the other building.
I really loved the alien slime areas, they looked super cool, and the gameplay was very enjoyable! And like I said the 3d shadows are pretty great!

[Aleks]

Finished it, took me 30 minutes, but in fact I probably spend a lot of extra time just bumping my head into walls and looking for the damn red key. While I've found the other 2 keys and the access switches almost instantly, this one took me quite a while, ended up just running across the whole map, but wouldn't think to look there. In general, this was my main issue with the map - some areas were too dark, so dark that it really obfuscated navigation to quite an annoying degree. This was also an issue in some underwater parts etc. The layout of the level in general kinda loops back on itself, which is both good and bad - there's not much to backtrack for, but then it's sometimes difficult to tell if you're into something new or just found an alternate route to something you've already found, progression wise. Add to that all these vents and rooms that lead to nowhere and it's easy to get lost. Also there's been some "filler" areas which didn't seem to serve much of a purpose or just prolonged some journey (that little corridor thing with a pig cop, some trash cans and water pools on both ends?).

Now for the good stuff - which there is more than my complaints. The design felt "classic" mostly due to the 2D layout/diagonality of it and lots of SOS stacked on one another. Also while there wasn't too much details and perhaps some decorations felt a bit overscaled or some rooms might have been empty, the shading was really georgeous in this one. While the overall darkness of some areas was my main problem, I can't help but appreciate the detailed and meticulous shadows you've made - and they're everywhere. Especially that parking lot before the place where you insert all the keycards was a highlight, with clever use of both sprites and sectors for some pitch-black, high contrast shadows on the ground. Also the diagonal shadows on the wall were neat and the fact you've used a lot of dynamic shadows like up-open door lights for all these windows. Another design bit I really loved are the alien-infested areas - as William mentioned, they look wonderful and very original, considering people are doing these for the past 26 years. The use of "plants", octabrain traps, tentacle openings, or how a lot of things moved and floated around - brilliant!

Combat-wise, I especially liked the final area with waves and waves of tanks, also the little convoy sequence before that looked well executed, placing an atomic health there was a nice incentive for the player to look there and make certain everyone spots it. Found all the 10 secrets (mostly due to taking a while looking for that red keycard...), also I think one of the secrets - inside the bank - is tagged twice, i.e. the main sector is tagged, but seems the tag also copied into one of the child sectors.

Once again, congratulations on the release, it's a really good map!

[Jimmy]

I watched Radar's playthrough on YouTube as I still don't have a PC rigged up. Very nice looking map. Reminds me of some stuff that was coming out 20 years ago or so, and that's a good thing. Happy to see people going for a more 3DR style again.

[KAP]

This is the video that Jimmy is referring to:
Water Damage - Radar Playthrough

[Merlijn]

Finished in 27 minutes, found 7 secrets. Sweet map! Some really cool little touches that add a ton of character to the map, like those moving elements in the alien sections. Great stuff. As others have mentioned the shadows are really well done, great use of sharp contrast. Although I would mostly stick to sectors rather than pal4 sprites, because the sprites do show some graphical glitches in classic mode. Since most people play in polymost it's not a big deal though, so do with it what you will.
I didn't have trouble finding the keys, in fact the map flowed quite nicely. I do agree with the others about the darkness though, some night vision goggles would have been nice.

I loved the whole ending, the setting and build-up is great and the final battle didn't disappoint. The swarm of pig tanks actually makes them more challinging than usual, since pressing the auto-destruct of one tank is more difficult while the others are shooting at you. Cover is also pretty sparse so it forces you to play smart. Pretty clever twist on this enemy.

[240-185]

Just finished the map, which provided quite a challenge with DukePlus mod and double monsters/ammo.

I attached a screenshot where a mirror effect can be seen at a certain angle.



Some gripes:
* How the hell do I escape the room with blue walls and shattered glass??? I had to reload my saved game after realizing I was stuck.
* I'm not sure why I had to make a big detour just in order to jump over some fences.

Overall, nice map.

[KAP]

240-185, on 28 May 2022 - 02:44 PM, said:

Just finished the map, which provided quite a challenge with DukePlus mod and double monsters/ammo.

I attached a screenshot where a mirror effect can be seen at a certain angle.
Screenshot_20220529_003435.png


Some gripes:
* How the hell do I escape the room with blue walls and shattered glass??? I had to reload my saved game after realizing I was stuck.
* I'm not sure why I had to make a big detour just in order to jump over some fences.

Overall, nice map.

There's a monitor you can jump or sort of "grapple" on. Maybe that doesn't work in DukePlus?

[LeoD]

Nice map, gave me a good time. It doesn't always have to be a hyper-polished behemoth. Regular well-thought mid-sized releases are just as welcome to me.

KAP, on 29 May 2022 - 05:27 AM, said:

There's a monitor you can jump or sort of "grapple" on. Maybe that doesn't work in DukePlus?

I've played with Polymer HRP/DukePlus and it worked for me. Seemed a little difficult, but not enough to check back with regular CONs.

[KAP]

LeoD, on 29 May 2022 - 08:18 AM, said:

Nice map, gave me a good time. It doesn't always have to be a hyper-polished behemoth. Regular well-thought mid-sized releases are just as welcome to me.

I've played with Polymer HRP/DukePlus and it worked for me. Seemed a little difficult, but not enough to check back with regular CONs.

Thanks man. I'm strongly resisting the urge to fix the things people have mentioned. But I have to be "done" - it can't go on forever, and I have other items to scratch off my bucket list! Like getting that degree

[240-185]

KAP, on 29 May 2022 - 05:27 AM, said:

There's a monitor you can jump or sort of "grapple" on. Maybe that doesn't work in DukePlus?

Maybe it's because I had mantling on, where Duke jumps a little bit lower than normal.

[LeoD]

240-185, on 31 May 2022 - 08:50 AM, said:

Maybe it's because I had mantling on, where Duke jumps a little bit lower than normal.

Your guess seems correct. It's a fun feature but it can turn out to be quite a bummer in certain maps, especially when you're unaware of this behaviour.
KAP, if you should ever touch this one again, please consider lowering that jump a little bit. I know that mantling can be disabled by some map property as well. No idea about the details, though.

[ck3D]

Mikko's review: https://msdn.duke4.n...waterdamage.php

[duke3d.exe]

Very nice, cool map with some surprises.Good use of shadows. I wish there were low latency monitors that didn't suck so I could enjoy the darker places on a map better but for now im stuck with a TN panel. Episode 1 style vintage look. I would improve scale wise the doors, they are too big in some instances. And I found some of the door placement odd like a spaceship door that opens in half in a supermarket, not sure about that lol.

Spoiler

Liked the duct that falls down, never seen this trick before. Bugs wise I found that there's one window that lacks a sound effect when opening and the battlelord become stuck at the road crack at the end and wouldn't shoot.

[KAP]

J Nuclear Playthrough

[Jan Satcitananda]

I agree with Mikko's point on the layout. The lack of interconnectivity makes this level hard to navigate, especially because of darkness and underwater pathways. The automap doesn't help much; I remember being stuck for a while because of the hidden cola machine switch not being triggered at first due to awkward placement (maybe it just should be made bigger to cover entire machine).

The later part had a better feel of progression with plot twists and scripted sequences. This kind of gameplay suits this map better imo. I also liked various weird stuff going on that gives this map a distinct flavor.