[Quacken]

New CBP! And we're starting a new series too, thank goodness...

One Hour CBP

If you thought Duke is Ten was hastily thrown together, wait until you see this map. One Hour CBP (1HRCBP for convenience) is to my understanding a conglomerate of sections that were all constructed in an hour. That being said, this map actually looks surprisingly solid given the time constraint. Some sections obviously look better than others, but the subway line and the cabin bar are genuinely pretty cosy looking. For just 55 monsters and 5 minutes of gameplay, the combat also isn't a total pushover. There's some decent uses of ambushing Enforcers, and enough ammo is given to not make churning through the hitscanners with the Pistol a slog. Even the Battlelord isn't something you can just bully with the Shrinker or RPG. The wide-open battleground and low cover means there's not a good spot to get the Battlelord stuck on something, meaning you have to face tank its gunfire and return with the Devastator. I like 1HRCBP. I think it's a much tighter map both thematically and combat-wise and some of the earlier main line CBPs, which in retrospect leaves a pretty bad mark on those maps.

7/10.

[Quacken]

Still here. Next map.

One Hour CBP 2

1HRCBP2 (Damn these titles are starting to be mouthfuls) is quite a bit more involved. At double the length and nearly three times the monster count, it aims to be a much more challenging map with lots more to do. I do appreciate the challenge, but in my opinion it comes at the cost of its aesthetics. I just don't think this map looks as memorable or interesting. The barren city streets and drab lighting remind me a lot of Duke it Out in DC, and quite a few sections feel noticeably lacking in detail compared to the first 1HRCBP. Especially the skybox, which is literally just one solid colour. While I still like 1HRCBP2 for its added challenge, the more immersive subway line, bar and gloomy city streets of 1HRCBP1 make me prefer that map more.

6.5/10.

[Merlijn]

Here's thoughts after replaying through CBP 4 to 7. I won't give 4 and 5 a rating since I was closely involved with those.

CBP 4

Still follows the same concept as the previous 2 entries. The player traverses a string of sections made by different authors, with not much thought being put in the overall layout or the general theme., But it does manage to flow a lot better, especially compared to CBP 3. While there's still a variety of themes and locations, most transitions feel smoother and more natural. A good example would be the docks from Aleks flowing into James' underwater base. It also helps that the number of teleports is reduced to 1. As I mentioned before I even tried to tie everything together with a lenghty backstory (which no-one bothered to read ). Only the opening alien section feels out of place. Gameplay can be challenging at times, the beginning is quite rough and the final fight throws a ton of battlelords your way. What's more annoying is that pig cops are spawned behind your back on multiple occasions, resulting in some cheap deaths.

As for highlights, I think each author did a solid job here. William made an impressive final area, the docks and the base sections look good and Maartens sewer section also feels very well designed. As for my own part, I still like it even though it basically repeats Red 3 on a smaller scale. It's obviously not as effective since it's only a small section. I like the hotel with the boarded up windows the most. The graveyard was based on the cover of Master of Puppets btw, that's how much I knew of the world back then

Overall I still like this one

CBP 5
I already said this is one of my favorites, and that impression didn't change. The theme is just right up my alley, 'snowy city' and 'horror' is a golden combo. What's more, the theme is well utilized throughout the map. Each mapper really gave it their best shot, resulting in a much more coherent map. I love the bloody streets from Mblackwell, the funeral directors from James (quite unique DN3D location) and the nightclub with 'tell the world' written in blood on one of the walls. Just tons of memorable visuals. Gameplay isn't lacking either, the beginning is pretty though but it gets easier once you get hold of the shotgun. LMy own section (the industrial site + the junk yard) is easily my favorite of the CBP sections I made over the years. I think even Maartens alien X64-2 style works quite well in the grand scheme of things. Only thing I don't like is the ambush with the 2 atomic healths, even if you know what happens you'll loose health here. So it's best to ignore those atomic healths completely, temping as they may be.

I would say this is still the highlight of the original series. But then again I'm biased AF

CBP 6

Uhm yeah.. I read the reviews in this thread before playing and thought "it can't be THAT bad, can it?" Unfortunately, it can be. This map isn't fun to play at all. The opening sections look good, ck3d and Mikko are always reliable. I remember wondering what everyone was complaining about. But then the complete lack of health pick ups becomes noticable, there's should at least have been some in the forest area. Then we get to the volcano and honestly the eruption effect is quite a spectacle to behold. I was pretty impressed with the whole thing. But then, as everyone who played this knows, the volcano just doesn't shut up! You'll hear its explosions for the entire duration of the map. After a while it WILL give you a headache.

What makes matters worse is that the next 2 parts are a chore to get through. The underground bunker is dark and cramped to the point of being extremely annoying, and it's virtually impossible to NOT get shot by pig cops here. Which wouldn't be such a problem if there was some health lying around. To make matters worse, the keycard is hidden in a corner that's easy to miss. If you do, you're fumbling around in the dark with the sound of volcanic explosions continually echoing in your ear. Fun. The next section may be even more annoying, and at this point I simply gave up and started using cheat codes (after being squashed by a sector that looked like a teleporter). Sorry!

It's a shame, because the final areas of the map are well done and the final area from Aleks at least ends the map on a positive note. But yeah, this map desperately needed some revisions and polish to make it more playable. The middle section and the health starvation just brings the whole thing down

Rating: 5/10

CBP 7
This CBP once again goes for 1 single theme (hi-tech base) and pulls it off quite well. In this case I don't agree with the lackluster review from Quaken, I think this is a pretty solid map. Although there are moments that seem to build up to a spooky section, without paying them off. For instance, there's one memorable extended elevator ride which builds atmosphere and tension, but it just leads to the next section of the base. One of the problems of having so many cooks in the kitchen, I imagine. The final area made by Davox was really good though, great way to end the map. This is one of the better entries.

Rating: 8/10

[TheDragonLiner]

Okay, so as I said long ago, I played the DukePlus CBP map. I used DP 2.40 with its included EDuke32. I played once with HRP and once without because it made my PC kneel X_X I even got a crash from lack of memory. And with dnskill5 applied.
BTW, sorry if it doesn't feel qualitative, I've been playing NAM and Redneck Rampage Route 66 with GDX meanwhile so I'm having an overdose of Build FPS ^^


For starters, a pirate like setting with a nice ship. Off for a good start, despite being frozen in place for a few seconds while there are already enemies shooting at you, and turrets shooting Purple Projectiles from a billion miles away. Anyway, while I'm not a fan of the music on the long-run, it sure works quite well in this setting. Setting which is subliminated by HRP, even though that smoke effect is kneeling my PC X_X
The Ship part is good, though having the word AUCTION written on every single sail makes it a bit weird :/ The puzzle with the Ship and then the Mine is what I think makes me regret we don't have more mods/maps using DukePlus, it feels like a lot of opportunities have been missed.

Aircraft was obviously a pleaser for me, as a decent Ace Combat player, and a used-to-be-good Deadly Skies 3 player. I'd say the sections of this level are more reminiscent of Deadly Skies with its narrower sections. Good thing you can fly at an unrealistic 42kph if you lightly tap the button.
Dark Dimension bit is a good change of pace and ambiance, and giving more powerfull weapons helps I guess, though it's a bit too brief IMO. Judging by the style, I supposed this is either Merlijn or Marteen's work. The transition to loosing the weapons kinda feels frustrating as you were just given a decent amount of ammo, with not enough to use it on.

Anyway, getting ambushed at the exit of the cave is a memorable bit IMO, since it's quite hectic. Unless you know it's coming and you parked the Plane just next to the rocks that is ... And this is where my plane gets the most dammage due to the BattleLord.

Now, I remember in my very first playthrough countless years ago, I got a bit lost here, but at least there's only 2 areas you can access so ... The Tunnel bit with the Plane is what is most reminiscent of Deadly Skies IMO, though there's something like that in some AC games too. Good thing the Tutorial Level for the Plane prepares you for that kind of stuff. When I played with HRP, I remember I had had a hard time locating the Crack you have to shoot in order to proceed.

I find it a bit ridiculous that, now you have to make a vertical climb and then park the Plane in order to reach the next part. Would have prefered a smoother transition, or a smoother way to enter. That section with the caves is another place that is sublimated by HRP. Looks like the other Oostrum bro's work.

Then the Final Area. I like how you can either use the Plane to cheese everything, or rely on your own weapons for a tougher challenge. And the waves of Troopers can be quite a surprise if you don't see them coming from afar. Boss is negligible IMO. A full Minigun displaces everybody in one go :/


Conclusion :

While it's far from being my favorite DP level, but it sure stands out with its more original settings and how the Plane is used. I realliy like the idea of using the Plane to fly from point to point, and having to proceed by foot in order to open the path for it, as you can't really without it. And the artistic direction sure gets impressive with HRP, and I can't imagine with Polymer on top of it. The parts that stood out the most to me are the Ship and its surroundings, the Dark Dimension bit and the Caves before the end. And the ambush at the exit of the cave after Dark Dimension part was what stuck in my memory for the longest time.

[Quacken]

These reviews are gonna be split into two parts. I played everything in the map order up to Suburban Hive 1. I'm gonna go with my review on this map first, because (spoiler alert) it's a way better than all of the other maps I played since I took a break, combined. Without further ado:

Suburban Hive

Sigh... in my time experiencing both Duke and Doom mapping, this is one of those maps that really makes me appreciate the intrinsic simplicities, but also the distinct and striking complications that comes with the medium. Suburban Hive is just... I can't even begin to describe the sheer commendability of this map. In the past CBPs, I recognised most of the mappers' creditations based on what I've played and heard about them in the current year, or alternatively, I learned about them from the other comments on this thread. Merlijn with Shaky Grounds. William Gee with his Abyss levelset. Or even James Stanfield's obsession with underwater bases and blue lighting. Although I'm definitely extremely new with Duke mapping, as I played this map I realised that this was the turning point. From humble, rushed and barely connected beginnings to a 20 minute long adventurous epic, that only comes about when you put a group of extreme talent in a room together, and just give them the time they need to make something as best they could.

And you bet your ass it paid off. Suburban Hive is by far the most visually cohesive, immersive and engaging map I've played out of the CBPs I've played, and as a standalone map, it's second only to Shaky Grounds' best. Not a single section remotely resembles a miss. Considering Sanek's thoughts on this map, I'm inclined to believe he was responsible for the section in pitch darkness. Although truthfully, this section can get a little overbearing sometimes, it's not too bad to navigate with the Jetpack and if you hold down W, and standing into a bright open space finally hits you like a right hook to the jaw. It felt genuinely refreshing to finally be in a bright area for once, and not in a bad way. Health can also get fairly dicey throughout. The fight in the strip club is quite harrowing, as I ended up missing the Shotgun placed off to the side. The lack of an RPG (or more accurately me not finding one) also draws out fights against Protector Drones, giving you more time for other monsters to ambush you. The Shrinker secret does however help you even the odds against the Commanders and Battlelords, and the ending Alien Queen isn't too bad with a Devastator and plenty of missiles in hand. And tying everything together is a frankly incredible MIDI. It's relaxing and easy-going, while also having a build up and a main beat to really calm your nerves. This is what CBP9's MIDI should have been.

Suburban Hive stands as a shining example of what the power of teamwork gets you when everyone gets the time and respect they deserve. I really can't give it a higher praise if I tried, this map simply just has it all: It's an atmospheric adventure map with a fantastic MIDI to soften your emotions down, it doesn't overstay its welcome at a respectable 20 to 25 minutes, and its pacing and general combat loop are also great, even if the map goes a little light on Battlelords.

10/10!

[Aleks]

Just wondering, Quacken, but have you considered starting a review page/blog of your own for Duke 3D/old FPS games levels? I really like your writing style and the points you make are usually quite sensible, you also seem to have quite much time for playing all these maps, so probably it would be good to get a larger audience for it.

[Quacken]

Aleks, on 23 July 2022 - 04:53 AM, said:

Just wondering, Quacken, but have you considered starting a review page/blog of your own for Duke 3D/old FPS games levels? I really like your writing style and the points you make are usually quite sensible, you also seem to have quite much time for playing all these maps, so probably it would be good to get a larger audience for it.

Definitely not something I've thought about! That would be quite nice, but frankly I'm not even sure on where to start, both with getting the website running and getting traffic for it. I've got no experience in web design or anything like that, so I think it's a bit of a pipe dream right now. Maybe that'll be a task for the end of the year when I've got nothing else to do. Though if I'm any good at keeping promises to myself, that's also the time I'd like to look into Mapster again, so... I dunno. Probably not right now or in the near future. The fact that most of these maps are really short does help with my posting schedule, I can knock out one map a night at like 10 PM and write something up.

[Forge]

Quacken, on 23 July 2022 - 05:02 AM, said:

Definitely not something I've thought about! That would be quite nice, but frankly I'm not even sure on where to start, both with getting the website running and getting traffic for it. I've got no experience in web design or anything like that, so I think it's a bit of a pipe dream right now. Maybe that'll be a task for the end of the year when I've got nothing else to do. Though if I'm any good at keeping promises to myself, that's also the time I'd like to look into Mapster again, so... I dunno. Probably not right now or in the near future. The fact that most of these maps are really short does help with my posting schedule, I can knock out one map a night at like 10 PM and write something up.

If you don't want the hassle of maintaining a website, and you don't care what happens with your review after you've submitted it (e.g. you can't directly edit it, remove it, re-review an updated map, etc) then you can submit your reviews to Frode at CGS.
His entire review base is basically from user submissions, as he personally won't write anything on maps released within the last 20 years or so.

[Aleks]

Played the two 1-hour CBP maps for the first time, they were quite short, so not much to write about really.

1-Hour Build Time CBP


This one was really short! My favourite part was the beginning with fairly intricate design for a 1 hour job and the "Venice" kind of part towards the end, which managed to pull out something original - it's too bad the final part was just left with barely drawn structure and mostly random textures/no details or gameplay, since the other parts managed quite well to pull something playable.


1-Hour Build Time CBP2


Twice the size of its predecessor, this one played better and felt more "finished", also due to the keycards felt more connected. I liked Merlijn's (?) part with the rooftops where you had to collect the jetpack then one of the keycards, but my favourite part was towards the end (I think it was by Fox due to the resemblance to Sky City) with the large mirror and "mirroring" tiles on the walls made with parallaxed sky, it's a simple trick but works well and it's even better with the inclusion of an actual mirror nearby. The gameplay also felt more wholesome, with some larger battles particularly in van Oostrums' parts. I'm also quite sure which part was made by Taivo due to the presence of palettes and, well, dogs. Also ck3D's part was quite easy to tell (where I struggled a bit finding a hidden crack, which was invisible in my version of EDuke/Polymost, but it's probably not on the map itself), this time could also pinpoint it to quite exact time in his mapping evolution too. Besides that one bit, the progression was pretty straightforward and I enjoyed this map more. I also really liked the cosy "1996" look of some of the parts, I know this is due to the time restriction, but felt so... genuine

[FistMarine]

Sorry for the lack of replies this month! Hope I can get the rest reviews by the end of the month. Just finished two more CBPs today (using EDuke32 r5498) and I will write about them, as well as the two short CBPs, which I finished 10 days ago (Duke3D Atomic 1.5 in DOSBox). Thanks everyone for keeping the topic alive.

1-Hour Build Time CBP

A relatively short map that won't take you more than 20 minutes to finish. There isn't much to tell and I won't repeat what others said. Just be sure to grab the armor pickup at beginning, it will greatly help!

The other things to note are that there is an octabrain that instantly died upon seeing me (around the area where there is no point of backtracking upon dropping) and the ending part seemed a bit disappointing with how much space there was and nothing to be found in those particular areas until reaching the nuke button. I suppose the mappers ran out of time. Ah well.

The only unofficial secret I can think is near beginning (after the subway section), behind the blue billboard (with the woman winking) you can find shotgun shells, as well as one small and large medkit. Otherwise, there are no secrets to find.

The map was fairly decent overall. What about the next one?

1-Hour Build Time CBP 2

This map is longer (taking me twice as much time to complete as the previous map) and harder as well. There were a few parts where I was getting low on health (mostly at the beginning) but thankfully the medkit saves the day. Just make sure at the beginning, to blow up a crack underwater to reveal a hidden portable medkit.

At the part with the buildings, you actually have to drop down and eventually grab a jetpack to fly back up with the card you collected. You can strafe jump and reach the other building earlier if you want. It might help you to dispatch some monsters easier.

The only secret is found near the end in the blue room, before the invisible octabrains (where you unlock the exit). Blow up the crack to reveal Shrinker + Expander ammo.

As I mentioned, in the following room, there are a couple invisible octabrains. Use your NVG (which you get in the blue room, along with an armor pickup) to see them. Press the switch to unlock the exit and fight two more Mini Battlelords spawned on the streets.

When you get to the nuke button, keep in mind that it is hard to push it. Keep trying from different angles and then you will eventually finish the map!

Overall, this was a pretty good map.

2-Hour CBP

Unlike the previous two maps, this one was made with the two hour limit in mind. The end result is a relatively decent map that seems to suffer from oversizing and other flaws. The first thing that comes in mind is there seems to be an optional area (with the many captured babes near trees and a couple octabrains and troopers) that can be easily missed/skipped, when you collect the red card and activate some switches that disable the forcefield leading to the teleporter. Clearing this area will warp you directly to the place where you need to insert the red card. If you don't go this path, you can simply backtrack by yourself all the way to the red card switch.

Another thing is mostly related to the fact you can't get all kills. In the last orange area (designed by William Gee), there will be some commanders and troopers that will fall into the pit. There is no jetpack to help you reach them, so you will end up with 10 missing kills. I only noticed them after I finished the map and then loaded the save, activated God Mode just to give myself a jetpack and fall down and search for them. After using NVG, I managed to spot them. The commanders seem to be the culprit in many maps that spawn them at high heights, they always seem to descend and get stuck down there, without any way to kill them anymore. This was a problem in a few Duke Hard maps, as well as another map that I will talk about later. This doesn't affect the map playability, just prevents you from achieving all the kills.

Other weird things I've noticed were a small medkit that isn't reachable (an invisible wall prevents me from reaching it) and one time in the save/load menu, the save screenshot somehow shows my stats and the weapon selected as well. I never had this happen before but I found this interesting, as I managed to make a screenshot of my save menu. And in regards to the save preview screenshot, I always wished the Build engine games also showed the weapon and HUD as well, like ROTT does. Sure, SW shows the weapon but Duke3D doesn't and I believe Blood doesn't have screenshots shown in the save menu due to a bug (the source ports probably fixed this).

Anyway, this map ends with a fight against the Cycloid Emperor. You are given more than enough supplies to fight him. You can also find a few health/armor/ammo supplies placed inside the fire, so be sure to collect them as well, as the fire does very little damage and you won't lose too much health, as you will mostly have above 100 by the time you get to this point.

There are no secrets to find in this map. Overall, the map was decent.

1.5-Hour CBP

This is an interesting CBP where each participant had one hour and half to build up their own map. The result was a pack of 10 maps (and one rejected/bonus map that will also be reviewed) of varying quality. I will just talk a bit about each as they are mostly short and easy. None of the maps have any secrets to find!

Battle Block
by Mike Norvak
A small city map where the aliens invaded the streets. You are given more than enough resources (3 armor pickups in fact, though you only need one) to get rid of the mini battlelords and other nasties. The map can be completed in just a couple minutes. Design is decent and the solution for switch puzzle is to shoot first and third switch.

Cat and Mouse
by Loke
This is an interesting concept map. You are in a maze (with red fog) hunted by an Overlord. You have to avoid him as you have no weapons and must press two switches to unlock a room that gives you atomic health, armor, steroids and the RPG with many rockets to help you to kill the Overlord. The map is relatively simple and the Overlord can be easily avoided for the most part. After 30-40 or so rockets, the Overlord will be defeated.

L1_hi
by Supertanker
A very short map space themed map. The only enemies you face are troopers and octabrains. I got lucky I did the map without even taking a single hit, though health isn't a problem anyway.

Micky's Mini Mine
by Michael "Micky C" Crisp
This map requires Polymer. If you play in Polymost, you will get glitched graphics. I had to switch to Polymer to properly play the map (luckily the saved games aren't affected). There is an armor and a portable medkit to find, so don't miss them. I didn't see them at beginning and instead of the armor pickup, I got two used armors from pig cops standing on those platforms. There is a glitched octabrain underwater that seems to act like a ghost and make my shots go through it. I eventually managed to kill it with the RPG. Once you are done clearing the area, you need to blow up two cracks in two different places (first one with a pipebomb, second one with the RPG). The Mini Battlelord guards the exit.

Micky's Quicky
by Michael "Micky C" Crisp
This map thankfully doesn't require Polymer. You have to kill a bunch of spawning enemies while collecting the Shrinker that will be the key to finish this map. To blow up the crack, you need to have a Commander blow up the crack for you. If you kill them (and also the sentry drones and pig cop tanks that can help you blow up the crack) without blowing up the crack, you will get stuck. After blowing up the crack, you will access an indestructible mirror. You know what to do at this point.

Red Room
by Mike Norvak
A very short puzzle themed map. The only enemies you get to kill are four troopers. You have to collect 3 cards in order to exit. To collect two of them, just break vents. To reach the last one, you must insert the other two cards to make the card reachable to you.

Rooftops
by Arwu
This is quite a challenging map compared to the others. You get to fight groups of enemies (mostly troopers) and jump from one rooftop to another. The fight with the pig cops and enforcers seemed the trickiest as you need the Devastator to get rid of them quickly without taking too much damage. The other challenges shouldn't pose much of a threat. The penultimate part (with the mini battlelord) requires you to wait for an elevator (after activating the switch) before dropping down to kill the last groups of troopers.

Space Station 12939
by Paul "High Treason" Monteray
Another short space themed map. The only enemies you face are troopers and enforcers. I got lucky I did the map without even taking a single hit, though there's a couple large medkits that will help you if you will get hurt. In the end, you blow up the reactor with RPG and unlock the exit.

Speedcity
by Mikko Sandt
A short city themed map inspired by the original E1L1. The map is fairly easy to complete, though look out for the mini battlelord guarding the exit. I didn't get the hidden RPG (behind the starting point) and I killed him with the shotgun. Killing the stripper in the club will spawn an Octabrain.

Speedmap
by The Mighty Bison
A short hi-tech themed map. Your enemies are the troopers and the enforcers. There are a few ambushes involving enforcers. Don't forget to first go to the room with the submarine, grab the blue card and the chaingun. I did the mistake of going the other path first (though I killed those troopers by shooting from the window) and ended up suffering a bit in terms of health, though thankfully finished the last enforcer with 25 HP left. Then he dropped the chaingun and when I went back to grab the blue card, I saw there was already a chaingun given. Oh well. At least I had no deaths up to this point.

2 Hours My Balls
by Luciano "Gambini" Gallo
This map was submitted for the 1.5 Hour CBP but since the map took more than 2 hours to make, it was rejected and released separately. This map might be the best of the bunch, a space themed map. It is not very difficult, although I managed to die once because I fell down in lava at the beginning when I tried to make a jump, only to hit an invisible wall and fall down. I was supposed to take the safe path to reach those barrels that are holding the blue card. Oh well.

After killing the first 15 or so troopers, you reach the last part where you are given a shit ton of stuff (3 armors, 3 portable medkits, 3 atomic healths, RPG and Devastator with a lot of ammo) to kill groups of troopers, sentry drones, octabrains and commanders, as well as the Overlord himself. The boss doesn't attack at all, he seems to mostly walk around his room. So the real danger comes from the commanders and sentry drones. There also seems to be a problem with drones and commanders getting stuck and becoming inactive. You won't be able to reach them anymore, so getting all kills was tricky as one commander became unreachable, so I had to replay the map from beginning.

Conclusion: 1.5 Hour CBP is a nice set of short maps (some that feel like experimental maps) and are worth checking out, only for curiosity at the least.

Since today is 25th, I will leave the nominations for the next month:

Mikko Sandt's Maps + Duke Tournament + MSSP Episode + The Brave New World
Shadow Warrior + Wanton Destruction
The Lost Duke Episodes
Trilogy Packs (Aqua + JMW + Jungle Tour + KaiseR Land + Lorch + Munasta + Skycity)
WGRealms + WGSpace Episode

Notes:
-Shadow Warrior is nominated the second time (was first nominated last year), this time paired with one of its expansions, WD, which is considered the sequel to original SW.
-The Lost Duke Episodes is another notable older TC (much like LR&WB) that I'm sure people will enjoy, if only for the excellent soundtrack and interesting level design.
-WGRealms and WGSpace Episode are two classics from mid/late 2000s by William Gee and while there is a lot more stuff released these days by William Gee (such as WGR2 and a couple recent maps/episodes, all of which are better suited for another month), I feel like these two episodes are enough for a single month.

I will try to play and review the remaining CBPs by the end of the month. I will upload the screenshots in a zip file, as before, since there's about 10 screens taken for each CBP reviewed. Have a nice day.

[Quacken]

Alright, I think I've got time to do the other side of the maps I played during my break. Here goes:

2 Hour CBP

2HRCBP is pretty mediocre. The watery ravine, forest and the ending cinematic provide some unique and interesting locations, but they all have their own quirks that just don't really make them that fun to fight in. There's not much to do in the ravine. The only things of note are some already dwindled supplies stranded on rocks, and an extremely out of the way Shotgun that you will need to pick up so you don't get hacked away in the forest. The closed forest is very open, which means often times Pig Cops and Enforcers will be able to peddle you with long range hitscan. Speaking of hitscan, the hit detection of hitscan in this area is quite wonky. Bullets that come out of your own guns sometimes faceplant into invisible barriers that don't have collision for Duke, losing you both ammo and likely health. I can't really explain this.

The base you go down a lift for plays pretty okay, even if it's generic. The vent opening you have to crawl through is surprisingly infuriating to get into. It's a really tight squeeze, to the point where I eventually just noclipped into the vent and continued... only to accidentally fall out of the opening again. The final setpiece sure looks ominous, but the walkways and bottomless pits are indistinguishably dark, leading me to fall to my death once. Plus the three rooms of supplies are blatantly copy-pasted. I understand there was a time limit for each of this map's sections, but if you're going to copy paste, it probably shouldn't be this blatant.

Lastly is the new MIDI. It's fine I suppose. Probably the best part of the map. It honestly sounds a little goofy in some places, and I'm not sure if I like or dislike it more because of that.

4.5/10.

1.5 Hour CBP (all of the maps)

I'm not going to do a review for all of these maps, because the total time it took for me to beat all of these maps combined was less than it took me to beat Hotel Hell. I guess I'm not surprised, but it does mean I have absolutely nothing to say about any of these. They're okay novelties, I suppose. Meh. At least in hindsight, it made Suburban Hive a lot more desirable to play.

Collective grade: 4/10.

[Forge]

You all are aware that cbp 8 doesn't require all those installation steps anymore, right?

At the time of creation it used some simple tror which wasn't supported in classic or polymost.
iirc, those modes now support tror.
there are no polymer lights in the map, it used the polymer mode because that was the only mode that supported tror, the setup steps were simply there so the map didn't lag like crazy - which most computers 10 years ago, except the newest rigs at the time, couldn't handle. Probably also not the case any more.

Play it in classic and it should work and look fine. Probably works fine in polymost too.
If your rig is old, then stick to classic.

[Merlijn]

I can confirm: CBP 8 works just fine in classic mode.

Perhaps the TROR used to be more glitchy, it was stll a pretty new feature when the map came out (although I remember being able to play it in classic mode even back then)
The usage of TROR is pretty modest compared to some modern releases, so you should be able to run it like any user map now.

I've replayed the 1 hour CBP's, really it's mostly an interesting look at these authors (including me) trying to tackle the speedmapping challenge. I agree with Quacken that the first one starts off pretty strong, especially the subway station looks pretty nice. The 'Venice' part is quite cool as well, I think Maarten made that. Too bad it ends with unfinished locations, with he last mapper (I think it's William?) running out of time. But I'm glad the map kept to its own rules and got released as it was. The 2nd one is a bit better overall, with most mappers getting a better grasp of their time management. Although I was never happy with my part, which is the part with the rooftops where you have to find the jetpack. IDK, I don't think I managed to sell the location, it feels like a big, rather empty square to me. The plain blue sky doesn't help either, which works well enough in Roch but not here. At least the gameplay turned out pretty ok. Some funny quirks in this one, like the giant stripper on top of the van. The final indoor area is really good, easily the highlight of the map.

[Quacken]

I've got some time to quickly go through two maps I played in my afternoon today. Here we go:

Crimson Moon

Crimson Moon is sure something. Firstly, for a map that claims to be a sequel to Suburban Hive, I really don't see the correlation. They're completely different both gameplay and aesthetics-wise. Anyway. Crimson Moon is quite ambitious. There's the high definition OGG that blares disturbing ambience, radio chatter, shrieks and other ghoulish sounds, which is quite overbearing, the map is almost always blanketed by darkness or bright red light, and it's unexpectedly treacherous, with many damaging floors set to the highest level of danger, and the many Battlelords, some of which are used quite effectively as dressing for the horror aspects of the map. Overall though, I think most of this is more distracting and obnoxious than actually scary. The music quickly gets on my nerves whenever you're not moving forward, and it gave me a headache while I was trying to find one of the keys. Some of the texture work is also a little sloppy, and the changes it accidentally makes to the colour palette are also a little unfortunate. I'd like the low detail swamp water after you exit the building more if it also didn't turn Duke's jeans into a piss yellow colour, for instance.

That being said, I think Crimson Moon has a lot going for it. For sections that don't quite make it texturing wise, there's many more that do. The alien bases are quite neat and handsome, and some of the setpieces are also quite impressive, like making your way through the forest until the second base is in eyeshot, and the descent upon a pitch dark cavern that only has its path illuminated. The combat is also generally a lot more difficult. The monsters have better eyesight in the darkness than you do, and the brief return of the Prospectre Drones gave me a small jump. The Cycloid Emperor also humiliated me quite a few times. The Battlelords that come in on the sides aren't as easy to stomp with the Shrinker as you'd think, and I didn't realise how difficult it is to simply just circle strafe the Cycloid Emperor out. His erratic and sometimes random missile patterns sometimes means you'll run right into one of his fire and take a huge amount of damage, usually outright dying in the process. While Crimson Moon is definitely not without its shortcomings, it's certainly an excellently made map, and its good qualities definitely put it on the higher end of this group of maps thus far.

9/10.

Beach CBP

Two fun maps in a row? I'm being spoiled! Beach CBP is really long, but it more than makes up for it with its tight visuals, excellent use of faux shading, fun and bombastic combat, and its great amount of humor. First thing to praise are the visuals. They're rock solid! The smaller group of mappers for this project go for a wide variety of different aesthetics, but blend them all really well. Industrial factory, beachside apartments, a dirty concrete area that looks like a harbor, the buildings on the boardwalk and the actual beach itself are stellar. For the beach being such an open space, it runs surprisingly well too (even if it doesn't play incredibly due to the long range hitscanners). It's occasionally not entirely clear on where to go, though. To get past your first trip to a beach, you have to break a window and shoot a huge button from an office building. You get a hint for this from a camera, but it's still not entirely obvious on what to do here. The two apartments are fairly tricky to navigate as well. I was stuck on how to progress here for quite a long time. The humor in this map is also quite good. My favourite gag is probably the Avatar poster, and the truck with reflective windows and a brutally honest message.

The combat is also really fun and explosive. Huge groups of monsters pile in after you're done with the apartments, and there are tons of Pipe Bombs around, which lets you blow up whole platoons of Assault Troopers and hives of Protozoids. It's hard to make that not enjoyable. I made the final fight against the Boss Battlelord harder than it needed to be. I wanted to ensure I got 100% kills, but killing the Boss ends the map. So, I had to dance around the Battlelord while trying to kill the flying monsters that tried to close the gap on me. I ended with 515 out of 517 kills, which is what I presume is the absolute max you can take the kill count on eDuke. Beach CBP is a slam dunk! It's really long, but for what it's worth, I immensely enjoyed all 35 minutes I spent on this map.

9/10.

[LakiSoft]

Mikko Sandt's Maps + Duke Tournament + MSSP Episode + The Brave New World
Shadow Warrior + Wanton Destruction
The Lost Duke Episodes +
Trilogy Packs (Aqua + JMW + Jungle Tour + KaiseR Land + Lorch + Munasta + Skycity)
WGRealms + WGSpace Episode

I vote for Lost Episodes, it has been while since last time i played. I would vote for Shadow Warrior as well, but i can't make two choices at same time.

[Quacken]

Mikko Sandt's Maps + Duke Tournament + MSSP Episode + The Brave New World
Shadow Warrior + Wanton Destruction
The Lost Duke Episodes +
Trilogy Packs (Aqua + JMW + Jungle Tour + KaiseR Land + Lorch + Munasta + Skycity)
WGRealms + WGSpace Episode

Cast my vote for The Lost Duke Episodes also. Shadow Warrior might be my favourite Build game, but I have about 50 hours clocked in on Classic Redux, and I'm not feeling like playing more of it right now. Maybe later though if it comes up again and I'm not enticed by the other options.

[Aleks]

So, last night I started playing 20 Sectors Challenge CBP, thinking it would be another fast one to check. Finished it just now, though I only had like 10-15 minutes more of playthrough left it, which wasn't so much considering the whole thing took me around 1 hour (gotta say I did spent quite some time exploring and, well, ogling and eye-fucking all the Build porn in this one). Surprisingly, no one has mentioned it in this thread yet, but it's straight up my favourite of all the CBP's so far.

I would expect this concept to really turn into a mess, but seems the form (and perhaps also the 7 year development time) only benefitted the overall vibe and consistency of the map. From the sheer amount of quite advanced Build tricks (the tank and the way in which Duke has to load and operate its cannon is one of the most impressive things I've seen yet!), I would guess Lezing took every other turn to refine the design, as both the type of puzzles and all these tricks really reminded me of The Last Pissed Time. Now my take on this might be pretty ignorant of course, as I'm fairly unfamiliar with the work of some other mappers involved who probably also contributed a lot. The other thing that makes this one stand out is the white "fog" that covers everything outside, which gives the snowy theme of these parts a very distinct feeling and also works very well with the central mission of finding 4 runes and placing them around a wonderfully crafted magical artifact (?). There's plenty of cool ideas implemented here, even if some might feel a bit gimmicky, they're sure fun and impressive as hell. The giant "mutant" blob that is kept in one of the underground labs (which can actually eat you, together with a little setpiece of travelling through its intestines!), the ship, the ice crystals, the "mirror" wall where you have to climb to insert the red key with very creative shapes of the tunnels, the sci-fi movie set taken straight out of the 50s... Brilliant. The map seems to be also slightly "non-linear" as you can probably collect the runes in any order, however I seemed to have followed quite a beaten path that seemed like it would be taken in about 90% of cases, maybe with 1 small alteration where the 2 parallel routes become really apparent. Most of the puzzles are clear and easy to read, even if there's been a few moments where it seemed that there's either too many possible paths or I was stuck. Combat is entertaining enough, but not overwhelming or unfair to keep the attention of the cool design, which is the definite highlight of this level. The final battle can get unexpectedly challenging if you let the boss follow you into the room rather than tackling him on his own ground.

Great, great level!

[LakiSoft]

I have decided to give it a try while still the July month is in running. I played Eduke32 Addon Compilation version of CBP Series and beaten first CBP maps so far. Here is some screens:



For what i played so far, i liked CBP 2 the most, mainly because of its colorful and plentyness of details, yet so random and good.
CBP3 wasn't bad either, but not my cup of tea. The first one (museum) was nice star though.

[Aleks]

Played JFCBP2 yesterday and it was another pleasant surprise. Once again, this was a very consistent map in terms of the theme, layout and design style/detailing, with very solid and straightforward combat and progression throughout. James' part at the beginning was probably my favourite one - as he mentioned in the text file, it indeed manages to capture the feeling of the original Lunar Apocalypse quite flawlessly, perhaps better than any other map I've played so far. This part seems to have kind of set the tone for the rest of the map, with texturing/palettes that are present in the whole map, but also very nicely playing on the strength of the original game with strong contrast shadows, often with diagonal lines breaking the blockiness of the overall composition. And the windows - they're a must in any space map, so it's great the authors here didn't hesitate to use them everywhere to connect the otherwise constricted layout via picturesque moon landscapes. Also, the outside part with the broken bridge was quite memorable. Finding all of the secrets didn't require much effort, as once again they were rather akin to the style AHB used - vending machines, computer screens or vents. Mikko's part even directly paid a tribute to Lunar Reactor with some of the rooms. Combat didn't feel overwhelming, it was spicy enough to keep the wide corridors of the space station busy. My only nitpicks would be some of the texture choices that "aged not too well" and the generic boss area - the map could probably do without it and just ending on a regular nukebutton instead. Oh, and the new music was great, fit the theme of the map and pacing of the action perfectly without boring the player.

[Quacken]

Duke time! After this map, I have exactly two maps I believe I can play: CBP8, and 20 Sectors. I'll definitely do the former tomorrow, and as for 20 Sectors, I think I'll just sit it out. Whenever I play a cryptic puzzle map in Duke 3D now, my brain goes into a deep sleep, and I have to do something more immediately fun to wake it up again. Anyway:

Duke Mansion

Duke Mansion is pretty fun. I do like the setting a lot. The Resident Evil 1 foyer, dreary cellars and the creepy dining room make for quite an interesting and unique setting. It's also quite challenging. There's not an incredible amount of health lying around, and there's many hitscanners and Protector Drones that like to come at you from the darkness. I think the map suffers in a few places, though. The hallways look quite boring and feel copy-pasted, and there's a whole lot of doors that simply just don't open. There's nothing that differentiates the doors that can be opened compared to ones that refuse to budge. The Chess puzzle is obtuse, cryptic and a pain in the ass, especially because someone decided to shove five tiny buttons on the Chess pieces that you're forced to shoot with the Pistol if you want any kind of precision. I'm not even ashamed to say I noclipped through the door to the courtyard so I wouldn't pull my hair out, where I was promptly met with a fist full of hitscan. Guess that's my punishment for cheating... good thing that the fight in the courtyard is probably the best part of this map. It's fast-paced and always requires you to be moving so the Octabrains and Assault Troopers don't puncture you, and without any kind of explosive you're not going to be doing this fight quickly. I overall like Duke Mansion. It's pretty fun, but some sections really required a lot more revisions, had each mapper been given more time.

7/10.

[Aleks]

Quacken, on 30 July 2022 - 03:34 AM, said:

Duke time! After this map, I have exactly two maps I believe I can play: CBP8, and 20 Sectors. I'll definitely do the former tomorrow, and as for 20 Sectors, I think I'll just sit it out. Whenever I play a cryptic puzzle map in Duke 3D now, my brain goes into a deep sleep, and I have to do something more immediately fun to wake it up again.

Wouldn't call 20 Sectors "cryptic puzzle map" really, the "puzzles" there are mostly stuff that is plainly explained on what you have to do and the map's visuals/effects make it surely an engaging one.

Anyway, played the 1.5-Hour CBP maps. Not much to comment in detail about them really. The best ones were "Cat and Mouse" (mostly for the idea, even if it felt a bit underdeveloped), "Red Room" (a nice breather and "Speedcity" (small, but actually pulled of quite well and still bearing Mikko's style), maybe also "Micky's Quickie" which felt genuinely like a decent DM map with a few monsters scattered around and a puzzle thrown for the ending (would be quite counterintuitive without the hint in the text file tho).

[LakiSoft]

I have finished the rest of levels in CBP (Eduke32 compilation version)

For some odd reason Addon Compilation version didn't included CBP9 map, but it was still great experience overall.

CBP4 had an interesting and creative layout.
CBP5 had some way too much dark-themed stuff for my taste, but overall level was okay experience.
CBP6 was interesting experience, nicely detailed too, but with some confusing parts though.
CBP7 had nice style.
CBP8 was bit confusing, but really very well done. Details and TROR usage were amazing. Albeit a bit glitchy during my playthought, but still an incredible experience.

Screenshots:

[LakiSoft]

As an already recommended bonus by @FistMarine, i also have played Duke is Ten, mostly for nostalgia purposes. With first level and WG10 being my most favorite, this little anniversary compilation map pack is indeed one of greatest most memorable stuff ever made for Duke Nukem 3D.

Some Screenshots:

[Quacken]

As this is the final map I'll (probably) play for June, it seems quite fitting to end with another 35 minute epic. Let's get this done:

CBP8: Metropolitan Starlight

Metropolitan Starlight is very good. Finely detailed and an intricate and refined challenge throughout, it is probably second only to Suburban Hive in terms of its overall quality. The futuristic city look this map aims for reminds me a lot of Ion Fury, but the simpler shadows and lighting give it quite a pleasant vintage look that makes it able to stand on its own. On the topic of atmosphere, my main criticism with the map is the music. Even at 40%, the usual setting I have for music, it felt too loud and distracting. Still though, it's loud, upbeat and perfectly sets the type of mood that the map clearly wants to set, which makes it a good fit. The detailing on this map is also top notch. I think my favourite-looking section is probably the areas surrounding the police station. It's a little uncomfortable to fight in the building because it's quite spacious, but I really like the walkers stationed outside, and the one that bores a hole in a wall.

This map also happens to be quite challenging. Health and ammo for both your workhorse and power weapons is fairly common but it's not as abundant as you'd like it to be in the places that count, such as the underground parking lot with Sentry Drones, Assault Commanders, Enforcers and a Battlelord, and the final rush to the central tower with four more Battlelords, a Pig Cop Tank, four Commanders and a dozen Troopers standing in your way. The rest of the map is choked with hitscan in all manner of spacious and tight spaces. The worst kind of spacious, too - not far enough for you to snipe them with the Pistol without sustaining damage, but not close enough where the Shotgun or the Chaingun does lots of damage.

Metropolitan Starlight is another knockout. I didn't intend for it to be last map I played, but it's a great way to close out some interesting bunches of maps.

9.5/10.

Closing Thoughts

The Community Build Projects (and Duke is Ten) are quite a mixed bag, but most of these maps, and this marathon as a whole, end up coming off as completely forgettable. For every step forward, it feels like two steps are taken back in quality. It's evident to me that quite a few of these maps were rushed. There's certainly good ideas here, but the underlying problem is that a lot of these mappers were simply not given enough time to do their jobs, or they weren't experienced enough to fully realise their visions. I guess that came with the gimmick of map sets such as Duke is Ten or the Mini Map Set. Perhaps the appeal of these maps are past my time or understanding, but apart from CBPs 4, 5, 8 and 9, Suburban Hive, Crimson Moon, Beach CBP and JFCBP2, I really don't see a point in coming back to any of these maps besides nostalgia for the time period they were released in, and/or if you happened to contribute to these maps. That being said, this doesn't take away from the importance these maps undoubtedly had in getting the foot in the door for many mappers, not just the ones I know of today, and it's for that reason I wholeheartedly respect the CBPs. I wouldn't mind one bit if another one of these community projects were started, perhaps on a larger scale such as what Duke Hard was.

[Forge]

Quacken, on 31 July 2022 - 01:04 AM, said:

Closing Thoughts

The Community Build Projects (and Duke is Ten) are quite a mixed bag, but most of these maps, and this marathon as a whole, end up coming off as completely forgettable. For every step forward, it feels like two steps are taken back in quality. It's evident to me that quite a few of these maps were rushed. There's certainly good ideas here, but the underlying problem is that a lot of these mappers were simply not given enough time to do their jobs, or they weren't experienced enough to fully realise their visions. I guess that came with the gimmick of map sets such as Duke is Ten or the Mini Map Set. Perhaps the appeal of these maps are past my time or understanding, but apart from CBPs 4, 5, 8 and 9, Suburban Hive, Crimson Moon, Beach CBP and JFCBP2, I really don't see a point in coming back to any of these maps besides nostalgia for the time period they were released in, and/or if you happened to contribute to these maps. That being said, this doesn't take away from the importance these maps undoubtedly had in getting the foot in the door for many mappers, not just the ones I know of today, and it's for that reason I wholeheartedly respect the CBPs. I wouldn't mind one bit if another one of these community projects were started, perhaps on a larger scale such as what Duke Hard was.

I can't speak for the early years - I didn't participate until suburban hive.
The one's I did participate in I can talk about.

There was a pre-determined theme - which helped with the ambiance.
The map was passed from one mapper to the next after each section was completed - even if they had a vision of what they intended to make, they then had the previous sections of the map to look at and could successfully tie it in without breaking the flow - instead of some stitched together franky monster.
We had a few members act as team leads and devs. After the map was 'complete', people like myself, mickyc, ck3d, williamG, etc. went back through the maps and cleaned them up.
Even though the mappers added game-play to their own sections - we had beta-testers and team leads that went back and rebalanced the map without trying to break what the mapper desired. Not perfect because of some choices, but it did provide a better balance than random jumble.

Several of those 1 hour, 1.5 hour, etc. Maps didn't really have a theme other than - make a puzzle, use this number of sectors, etc. Then it was basically slapped together and shipped. They were just fun little projects for mappers.

Duke Hard pulled it off because the mappers were given a template and theme that restricted them & no real time limit; they could spend as much time as they wanted and could develop each level separately. Then MetHy went back, did very minor cleaned up to the maps, game play, put them in a specific order, and made each floor it's own level, so balance was fresh each map. (I wasn't even supposed to be part of that project, but got recruited because somebody backed out).

tl;dr -my opinion that later cbp maps (outside of the those little quicky 'hour' restriction releases for fun) had more post-mapping development.
But none of that could have happened without the earlier ones pioneering the path. Faster and more widely available internet probably also helped.

Opinion Part 2: The mind of an idiot
I was asked to participate in Suburban Hive. Then I was given the task as the last mapper to do the final bit. Great. I'm still pretty much a rookie mapper. I followed the lead of the previous mapper - who made a cave full of slimer eggs. I thought - well, where did all those eggs come from? - tada! - queen fight. Got the usual criticisms for ending a map in a boss fight & not a very good boss choice either. Nobody said much about the atmosphere or balance - so I'm okay with the haters hate target.

I was then recruited to continue with Crimson Moon, and I had to make my section after Mikko. Tough act to follow. Mikko goes with crashed alien spaceship in the middle of the city. 'Kay. Well alien spaceship is boring and been done hundreds of times. Imma gonna punch an exit into the side of it where all the aliens can get out and lead it back outside into a forested park with a bunch of drones. Now I'm a clown for not logically following the spaceship ambiance and making an illogical jump from one environment to another. A small and unmemorable section, but most of the players don't mention anything about the transition - so i'm okay with the haters hate target.

and that's how cbp's work.

[Quacken]

Forge, on 31 July 2022 - 07:56 AM, said:

I was asked to participate in Suburban Hive. Then I was given the task as the last mapper to do the final bit. Great. I'm still pretty much a rookie mapper. I followed the lead of the previous mapper - who made a cave full of slimer eggs. I thought - well, where did all those eggs come from? - tada! - queen fight. Got the usual criticisms for ending a map in a boss fight & not a very good boss choice either. Nobody said much about the atmosphere or balance - so I'm okay with the haters hate target.

Hey, it's a more unique choice for a boss than the Battlelord, Overlord and Cycloid. The latter two can be easily cheesed with the Devastator, and the Battlelord is honestly just not much fun to fight without a specially designed arena for it. The Alien Queen's psychic attack and spamming of Protector Drones makes going for a true 100% kills rating impossible, but it's a good enough attack to make doing a one and done with the Devastator impossible.

[Aleks]

Played Metropolitan Starlight and it was another very good map in last month's roster, up there along my favourite CBPs. I played with Polymost, which resulted in some glitches around the central spire, but Polymer looked much more bugged with the entire waterfall being obscured by a random parallaxed wall for some reason, not to mention the terrible framerate.

Anyway, the map played really well with the futuristic city vibe, perhaps one of the better ones trying to work with that exotic theme. Obviously, the central hub area with the large spire, dome and all the curved roads enclosed by weirdly shaped skyscrapers was the most memorable and impressive part. I also liked Duke's appartment at the beginning, the stripclub alone looked a bit too gimmicky/sloppy, but then everything from the elevator with neat outside views through the automatic drinks servings along the staircase to the Quagmire-ish love nest (reading the text file afterwards I smiled seeing it was really the inspiration, so good job as the place was definitely sold as intended!) worked great. Also liked Mister Sinister's (I think) part with the river banks and the police station with EDF bots, really top-notch spritework design. The middle part of the map was somehow less memorable (or at least made the theme less obvious), from the sewers onwards to the paletted hi-tech place with enforcers and troopers which was my least favourite part due to looking very much like a generic space/hi-tech map and being quite heavy on the eyes with all the contrasting colours. The problem with the sewers was that the transition (especially out) was a bit forced and not smooth like between the other parts, also this being a hi-tech city, I'd expect the sewers to be made of some different material than, well, the usual green bricks. The metro part felt too short as well, I liked the button hunt before that though, then Merlijn's bar was pretty cool (it's not the Calculated logo that gave him up as the author of that part, but the drumset). The ending sequence was pretty kickass, it's nice to actually see what happens when you punch that auto-destruct button for once!

I will probably tackle Suburban Hive, Crimson Moon, Beach CBP and Russian CBPs, maybe also Duke's Mansion in August. Won't have that much time to play and I'm not that keen to try Lost Duke's Episodes, but I guess I could finish what I've started here. Ended up playing 7 maps, Duke is Ten and 1.5-Hour CBP this month, which is still more than I'd expect - a fruitful one!

[FistMarine]

Thanks everyone for your comments for this month! Sadly, I didn't manage to play everything this month, still having at least 5-6 maps to do, though they were already covered by other people. For now I will cover Jonof CBPs, Russian CBPs, Suburban Hive 1 & 2 and CBP8. I will try to not repeat what others said. I used JFDuke3D (2005) to play the Jonof CBPs (obviously) and EDuke32 r5498 to play the rest.

Also related to what Laki said above, the Addon Compilation version doesn't include newer CBPs because the addon was last updated in 2016, before CBP9 existed and I don't feel like asking NightFright again about adding the rest CBPs as he will most likely say no to them.

Note: To install and run the Russian CBPs, you need to rename the existing zip file to something else, so that the zipped zip file can get extracted, otherwise it will tell you that a file with same name exists. For RCBP2, I used the version from Dukeworld and that one was renamed to RCBP2DATA, so I only had to do this for the first one.

Anyway, time to wrap up this previous month:

Jonof Community Build Project

Not bad. I enjoyed my time with this map. The design was pretty good and the fights were challenging without being unfair. The health and ammo supplies were also given in good amounts, although there were only two armor pickups officially present in the map with one given near beginning and another given near end. I got lucky I got THREE used armors dropped by pig cops (mostly at the areas after I dropped down the vent) but even then, the armor starting wearing by the time I reached the sewer part of the level towards the end.
There are two secrets to find. At the beginning, between those pipes, you can find an atomic health in a secret room that also contains...a holy shit.
Then later on, after using the red card, you will find a secret closet, containing a pig cop and two boxes of shells.
The enemies that are spawning in this map often appear in groups and usually the same type (example groups of troopers), so you can use either chaingun or RPG to get rid of them quickly.
I died once at the part I used the blue card underwater and some explosions activated right behind me. I was unlucky to be caught in explosion because of my decision to go back since my scuba gear was running out at this point and I also wanted to backtrack to collect some more ammo/health before going forward. After loading the save, I decided to go back to grab the stuff before using the card and then immediately surface to the next part while avoiding the explosions. You can't fully avoid the damage from the explosion, which is why you are given an atomic health at this point.
After that, you will probably struggle with the lack of oxygen as you might take a bit of drowning damage, before arriving in a bathroom where you can use the toilet and drink water to recover the health you lost from drowning (heh).

Speaking of which, it is actually possible to backtrack through the whole map. There are a few points that might seem you can't return later but fortunately, you can return to previous areas after clearing certain parts of the level. For example, the part you drop into vent early on (which can be glitchy at times and warp you outside of map as it happened back when I first played the map, though right now the map worked fine, probably because I used JFDuke3D) may look like there is no point of backtracking but after clearing the next couple of areas and eventually grabbing a card, you will access a teleporter that sends you right in the place you dropped down the vent.

As for the ending parts, you've got a bunch of aliens to kill and also the OVERLORD boss! The only thing I found annoying was that some enemies can be easily missed while you focus your attention on the boss but because you destroyed a bunch of slimer eggs and even sharks earlier on, the kill counter gets confused and says you killed all the enemies. In the end I killed 220 enemies (including the Overlord), I am very sure I killed them all.
Oh and yes, the sharks in the aquarium just before the last part, can be killed because the windows aren't blocking your shots, so you can get a couple extra kills if you want.

Overall, I enjoyed this one. Hope the next map will be just as good or even better.

Jonof Community Build Project 2

I will say that I enjoyed this map a bit more. There were more secret areas and the balance was even better. You are actually given a water fountain right at beginning, so health shouldn't be a problem at all (medkits are plentiful). You will also find 3 secrets early on in just first couple of rooms, though I will list them later, as there's 8 secrets to find.
Armor pickups are plentiful this time around, at least 5 of them, more than you will ever need. This is probably because this map lacks pig cops, so the mappers compensated this with placing more armor pickups in the map.

As for the actual map, just like with the previous one, it is possible to backtrack through whole map, it took me about 52 minutes to finish and it also ends with an OVERLORD boss fight. It is much easier than the previous map's boss, as all you have to do is to stay in the main room and kill him with the Devastator. If you saved your ammo, you should have enough to take him down. You don't need to enter his lair at all (which contains some health and devastator ammo). Just stand in the main control room and use the Devastator to kill the Overlord. Simple as that.

There are 8 secrets to find:
#1 is found right in starting room. Press on the COLA machine to reveal a nearby RPG (on top of Snack machine).
#2 is found upstairs, go through the computer panels to find pipebombs.
#3 is found in the room you get the first red card. Open up the map to find an atomic health.
#4 is found in the room you collect a lot of goodies (portable medkit, steroids, armor, atomic health). Press on the second static monitor to reveal a nearby compartment containing two ammo packs for Freezethrower.
#5 is found in the room accessed by jumping over the monolith, you will teleport to a small room containing Freezethrower + ammo
#6 is found in the room you press two switches to then procceed by dropping down. Before dropping down, press on the monitors (either left or right side) and you access a small vent containing large medkit and armor.
#7 is found after dropping down that thing, behind the door you need to unlock. After unlocking it, take out sentry drones and look for a vent to break, it leads to a room containing Shrinker, health, an Octabrain and some eggs.
#8 is found right in the next room, jump on the second terminal to lower and reveal a Freezethrower.

Overall, I also enjoyed my time with this one. I consider the JFCBPs to be worthy in checking them out. I recall they were also included in Attrition mod as well (at least the first one, which I remember playing back then), so I have some fond memories with them.

Russian Community Build Project

An interesting CBP made by Russian mappers. The design may not be that amazing (the early underwater part is one notable annoying part, as it is easy to run out of oxygen if you don't find the scuba gear behind a door) but it makes up for that with some really unique ideas and some custom stuff implemented as well. New features include falling snowflakes, a new camera enemy (based off the DEMO CAMERA feature from original game, I think), a protective suit (based off unused SPACE SUIT from the original game) that allows access to the hazarduous room, some new egg variants (which were also used in Zykov Eddy's The Dream series, so it's most likely by him) and so on.

There is also an interesting puzzle involving a freeze ray shooter that has to hit a barrel to blow up a crack. This is what I remembered from back in 2010 or so when I played the map. As for the rest of the map, I think it's okay but nothing special. Gameplay isn't very difficult with only a few difficult parts and I died once for opening that toxic room before grabbing the suit (technically I survived with 7 or so health but decided to commit suicide and load the save). I think it is possible to backtrack through the whole map except for the final room you get teleported to (with the protector drone and nuke button).

There are no secrets to find and it is impossible to get all the kills as it seems those new egg variants don't contribute towards kills (same issue that prevents you from getting all the kills in certain versions of The Dream map, also created by Zykov Eddy). The map is worth checking out for the new features alone, even if the level design may not be as good as expected.

Russian Community Build Project 2

Unfortunately, I ran into a game breaking bug at start. I could never progress past the dark sector that I started the level on. I imagine I had to get transported to another area during the "cutscene" but nothing happened even after I waited for two minutes. Most likely an unfortunate bug caused by that particular EDuke32 build I used. I didn't want to use an old-ass build from 2009, so I went in Mapster and "fixed" the map myself by searching for the teleport tag and placed the player at the destination. Then the rest of the map worked fine.

As for the actual map, it is an improvement over the previous CBP, the design is far better and there's a couple new cool features as well, such as a controllable rocket upon firing the turret, barrels that you can carry and place wherever you want, some new enemies, etc.
The rocket turret is another thing I fondly remember from playing this map back in 2010 or so. There are two points (one early and one about 2/3 in the map) where you can find a rocket turret and fire a rocket that you can actually control. It allows you to kill the enemies without exposing yourself. And the best of all, there is no limit in how much you can use that turret. It does less damage than a RPG rocket but it can still take down monsters, as long as you can hit them.

The map ends against a fight with a mini battlelord and a modified green mini cycloid that shoots lasers at you. Once taking them down and an extra modified protector drone, aboard the helicopter and the map is complete!

Secrets:

#1 and #2 can be found after dropping down the vent from the roof. In the bar, you can find both secrets near each other. First secret (atomic health + chaingun ammo) requires blowing up the crack (two pipebombs can be found nearby, though I missed them and blew up the crack the hard way with that rocket turret) and the second secret (chaingun) is behind the poster you can go through.
#3 is an atomic health you can find on ledge after you use the rocket turret you blow up the crack to advance further.
#4 is found after the part designed by DNV. Jump over that door and access a box of pipebombs.
#5 is found in a vent in the sewers in a room with two tubes, you must jump to reach it, it contains a Freezethrower.

Unofficial secret: Before the part designed by DNV, going through vents, you can access an alley that has a few enemies (turrets and pig cops), as well as two atomic health.

Overall, the map was alright, felt a lot like a DukePlus map at times but once again the new interesting features alone make the map worth checking out.

Suburban Hive

Wow, just wow! This map was quite epic. I really liked the theme for this level, from the first half dealing with a frozen city to the second part that takes place in an alien infested hive. There are a lot of slimer eggs that using the chaingun to kill groups of them is incredibly satisfying, even if the chaingun fires slightly slower in this particular EDuke32 build that I use (it was a bug that was fixed sometime in 2016, I remember I was the one who reported it), the ammo is plentiful that allows you to have some fun with it. The map is well balanced, health and armor supplies are plentiful that you should not ever struggle!

Then there is the epic boss fight against the ALIEN QUEEN! I actually died once right at the end but that was my bad of blowing myself up with the RPG, even if I was using it while flying and looking down at the aliens, it looks like I might have fired the RPG a bit too close to an alien's head. My bad.
I don't understand why there were complaints about the boss. You are given enough supplies to get rid of the queen and the spawned protectors. In fact, I only remember struggling with this part in the Attrition mod (back in 2010-2011 when I played DukePlus and Attrition a LOT) because chances are the monsters were much more powerful. But in original Duke3D, the enemies are predictable and easy to get rid of when you are stocked with plenty of stuff.

Secret: A hidden shrinker is found in the frozen city area, turn left and go through the window to find it.

Overall, this map was epic. Now for the sequel...

Suburban Hive II: Crimson Moon

Another epic map! I have a hard time deciding if I liked this or the previous one. I am more familiar with the first one but I'm sure I must have also played the second one at least once or twice in my life. There is plenty of stuff to like at this map. The balance is pretty good, although at the part with the Devastator behind forcefield, I was starting to run low on ammo on my weapons until I found more ammo that saved the day.

There is the boss fight at the end that's also epic. At first, it is easy, as you can kill the Cycloid quickly with the devastator. But then you realize there are supposed to come monsters behind 4 walls. These open up after a while, so only if you wait at least a minute, you will get to kill all the aliens. While I haven't died prior to defeating the boss, I died 5 times after I loaded my save just to get all the kills. You are under constant pressure from the spawned aliens and the randomness from the Cycloid's rockets will decide whether you will get hit or not, even when you are strafing and jumping at the same time. While prior to that fight I was fully stocked, after managing to survive and take everyone down with the Cycloid being the last, I only had 51 health left, no armor and no medkit. It was a pretty challenging battle if you are going for 100% kills, so I recommend saving and using a few save slots just in case anything goes wrong.

Two secrets to find:
-At the very beginning, go through the purple lava to find a place containing shotgun ammo, boots and portable medkit
-At the halfway point before dropping down the yellow water (point of no return), go through the waterfall on one side of the rooms and you will find a hidden atomic health and shotgun ammo.

Overall, another epic map! I wonder if one day there will be a Suburban Hive 3?

Community Build Project 8: Metropolitan Starlight

First, I will say that much like most entries above, I used EDuke32 r5498 which is my choice for all EDuke32 maps/mods made until the end of 2015. At that time, this map required Polymer to work properly. Playing it for Polymost works until the part you must jump out of that building into water. You will notice some glitchy textures when you look over that window. Switching to Polymer will fix this problem at the cost of making the game lag at times, though the map is still playable from beginning to end with no issues other than the framerate taking a hit (as Aleks already pointed out).

Forge said that newer EDuke32 builds now support TROR in both Software and Polymost renderers, so I guess this is a feature added somewhat recently, not exactly sure which year but in any case I will know for now on. I only wanted to use this 2015 build because it is my preferred build for anything released until 2015.

As for the actual map, it is probably the best one so far. There are plenty of challenging fights and plenty of places to explore. There are a couple of secrets to find, which are listed below. A note for completionists is that while you can backtrack to most of the map and you are also given 3 jetpacks in total, there are a few points of no return, at least affecting about 2-3 different areas you visit, so you might want to get the secrets in order here. I missed at least one secret but thankfully I was still able to backtrack and get that secret I missed.

Secrets:

#1 can be found in the large area (that is also the same area containing the exit tower). Find a hidden switch (climb on those platforms and press the switch) to access a nearby hatch leading to a Shrinker.
#2 and #3 can be found in the large water area (near beginning). Go to the right side of the area and eventually you come across a lift you can ride. The first secret (two atomic healths and devastator ammo) can be gotten by jumping on the ledge (jump on the switch button to reach it), the second secret is reached by grabbing the portable medkit, press on the button to lower the bars, make a jump to collect the goodies (armor, two large medkits, RPG + ammo).
#4 can be found in the blue club. Blow up the bathroom door to access RPG ammo.
#5 can be found before entering the room containing the reactor. When you are going through vents, you will come across a large red switch on the wall. Shoot it to reveal a cache containing Atomic health, Shrinker + ammo and two tripmines.
#6 can be found near end where you collect the blue card near the dead DoomGuy. Blow up those plants and access a hidden atomic health.
#7 and 8 can be found in same room. Go to the kitchen, climb on the chairs, smash the vents, jump inside to find more goodies (health, armor, RPG ammo).

Overall, a fitting finale for this month and funnily enough, everyone finished with CBP8. Shame that I didn't get to play 20 Lines CBP and CBP9, I'm sure those would have been something. I might play them at a later time, though now I will move on to the next entry, I guess.

Closing Thoughts: While CBPs have been mostly a mixed bag, I had a lot of fun revisiting them. In fact, I believe all the stuff I reviewed so far has been already played before, whether it was 2010 or 2012 or when some of these maps released, it was about time to revisit them for a potential last time. If I ever revisit them later, it will be through NightFright's addon compilation. I will upload the screens in a zip file to not clutter the topic. Unfortunately the suburban.zip file is too large to be uploaded, so I will add it into the next post, possibly if I ever get around playing CBP9 and Duke Mansion.

Until then, see you on the August 2022 topic!

[Aleks]

Quote

Unfortunately, I ran into a game breaking bug at start. I could never progress past the dark sector that I started the level on. I imagine I had to get transported to another area during the "cutscene" but nothing happened even after I waited for two minutes. Most likely an unfortunate bug caused by that particular EDuke32 build I used. I didn't want to use an old-ass build from 2009, so I went in Mapster and "fixed" the map myself by searching for the teleport tag and placed the player at the destination. Then the rest of the map worked fine.

This might be a stupid advice, but have you tried pressing "use" like the instruction tells you?

Anyway, I've played the 2 Russian Community Build Projects. Both were more of a mixed bags, but there's some cool ideas that make these maps worth your while.

Russian Community Build Project


This map is off to quite a clumsy start. The new con features feel more annoying than fresh, especially the camera enemies that can drain a lot of your HP before you even realise you're supposed to shoot it. Then there's Lezing's part which kinda saves the whole map, with awesome puzzle (that required me to change from Polymost to Classic to be able to see the freeze ray projectile through the glass), I gotta admit I love Lezing's style of detailing and effects, and the puzzles he makes are usually original and worth your while. There's some parts where this map kinda stretches it and combat feels kinda unbalanced/dickish at times. All in all, probably it's only memorable for this one part. The new music fit well.

Russian Community Build Project II


This one started with a nicely detailed, but terribly dark roof and falling down into the vent shaft (which I have spent like 5 minutes looking for, despite the roof part is basically just one large rectangle), then seeing the next part being similarly dark, I wasn't expecting a good time and had to buff my gamma settings to be able to spot literally anything there. Luckily, the map got brighter at the outside part, which then introduced (in a bit cryptic way that took a bit to figure out) a neat little mechanic of a cannon that shoots rockets you are able to control, similar to that thing available in Postal 2. This was executed really well - the rockets travelled at a speed to make controlling them quite challenging, but still possible - and their damage wasn't too high, but enough to bring down a Battlelord in a couple of shots. Clearing that first area outside the fence with this cannon, then also using it to solve the "puzzle" was the funniest part and once again, something that makes this one worth playing. Eddy's part that comes next is also more though-of than his one in the previous RCBP, introducing barrel puzzles and an NPC that gives you a keycard (BTW, what's with these Duke's randomly walking around the map? Not sure if they were supposed to be bots that help or just random NPCs, but they didn't do much other than getting in the way in my playthrough). Once again, the new monsters/items were mostly annoying due to the sounds they made, but still not as annoying as the new "farting" shotgun sound. Sewer part was probably the best design-wise, although the cramped corridors and enemy placement still made it quite annoying. M210's and Gorshkov's parts were kinda mediocre with randomish design that stood out from the rest of the map, and not in a good way. The the finish with docks and helicopter escape was fine, even if the docks part had quite some visual glitches and one of the most dickish commander's placements ever right at the end of a pitch-black ventilation shaft. The music was very nice here, more chill, although at about 50 minutes, it wore out on me a bit. Overall, I liked this map better than the first one.

[Merlijn]

Quacken, on 31 July 2022 - 01:04 AM, said:

Closing Thoughts

The Community Build Projects (and Duke is Ten) are quite a mixed bag, but most of these maps, and this marathon as a whole, end up coming off as completely forgettable. For every step forward, it feels like two steps are taken back in quality. It's evident to me that quite a few of these maps were rushed. There's certainly good ideas here, but the underlying problem is that a lot of these mappers were simply not given enough time to do their jobs, or they weren't experienced enough to fully realise their visions. I guess that came with the gimmick of map sets such as Duke is Ten or the Mini Map Set. Perhaps the appeal of these maps are past my time or understanding, but apart from CBPs 4, 5, 8 and 9, Suburban Hive, Crimson Moon, Beach CBP and JFCBP2, I really don't see a point in coming back to any of these maps besides nostalgia for the time period they were released in, and/or if you happened to contribute to these maps. That being said, this doesn't take away from the importance these maps undoubtedly had in getting the foot in the door for many mappers, not just the ones I know of today, and it's for that reason I wholeheartedly respect the CBPs. I wouldn't mind one bit if another one of these community projects were started, perhaps on a larger scale such as what Duke Hard was.

That's still quite a few maps that you find worth revisiting, I think! As for the mixed quality, that's bound to happen when there's so many cooks in the kitchen. And to paraphrase an earlier quote of you: the CBP's had to walk before they could run. The first ones were made by a bunch of clueless teenagers (including me) with nothing but that first BJshrine as a template. That one was made by a group of elite authors we were all looking up to, so their way of stitching random parts together into a Frankenstein map had to be the correct one, right? It took a while to grow out of that mindset and create something resembling a real map. Same happened again with the speedmapping CBP's, the first ones were more or less test runs with the Suburban Hives being the maps where it all came together.

Anyway, I also replayed both Suburban hives and I agree with the consensus here. They held up very well and I just love the blend of urban environments and completely surreal alien elements. The first one has a very oppressive final act, almost becoming a horror map. The 2nd map almost feels like you traversed into some insane parallel universe. There's something so surreal and unsettling about it, and I love it.

This was a fun trip down memory lane and I appreciate the perspective from someone like Quacken, who played them all for the very first time.