[asbestos]

Hello! This is the formal release of a map I previously shared in an earlier state in the "What are you working on?" thread. From the included text file:

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Bacon Grease is a rather typical city map with particular attention payed to a grimy mood and a strong sense of place. You'll make your way through the streets of a besieged city, encountering a mix of commercial, residential, industrial, shopping, and transit locations.

Some background - the map was actually started in 1999 as part of a TC called Final Sundown. After the TC was cancelled I began repurposing it and my other Final Sundown maps for an episode replacement called Departed. I lost interest in the project and never finished it.

Fast forward 23 years to 2022. While working on my visual design portfolio I wanted to collect some of my formative work, going as far back as my days of making Duke Nukem 3D maps. I decided I would get the ones closest to completion into a releasable state. So here we have one of them, after a few months of acclimating myself to modern expectations and tools. Due to the time gap the environment design stems from a mix of the perspective of a naive small town American teenager, to my modern experience of living in Berlin, Germany.

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It's been a surprisingly enjoyable experience getting back into mapping (I might even call it obsessive). I hope the map is a fun play. If there's feedback on things that might improve it, please let me know. Thanks!

Attached thumbnail(s)

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Attached File(s)

•  bacon-grease.zip (142.71K)
  Number of downloads: 314

[juvenite]

This was a very nice map. Played with December Man's Cosmetic mod, my default go-to mod for newer releases.
Got all kills, missed 2 secrets though. Took me 37-ish min to finish (I take my time exploring the map and getting lost a lot ). I could tell there was gonna be a mini-Battlelord in the end with all that Devastator ammo lying around.
I appreciate the detailing and lighting quite a lot on it, there was some great destroyed areas on it.



Just wish there'd be a bit more difference in shade in darker areas on the sewer, it felt slightly flat.

Other than that, the mood and setting were well-established. The end was a bit tough, almost died. All in all, it was pretty nice to play!

Spoiler

this was also a cool secret. I liked it. Too bad i only found it when I already finished the map lmao

EDIT:
you're welcome

[Quacken]

Finished this map up in about 21 minutes, with 2 secrets collected and all kills gotten.

Bacon Grease

Handsomely detailed, sharply lit and a fair challenge, Bacon Grease is all around a very solid map. It's easy to get too cocky with your ammo like I did with the RPG and Shrinker and hold it for non-existent big threats, but if you can keep at least three Shrinker crystals in your stash, you can use the rest of your very large supply of rockets and Shrinker crystals to coast through the squads of fodder monsters this map likes to chuck at you, allowing you to preserve your bullets and shells for close quarters. I think this map could have probably thrown at least a few more Commanders, just to encourage you to use the RPG and Shrinker more, but otherwise, the combat is fun and satisfying, pitting you up against hitscanners in a variety of different locations and light levels. The map is also quite fun to navigate. I like that if there's a door that's not broken down or marked with yellow tape, you can always go through it, even if it's only for something as simple as two small health kits. It helps to tie the map together and prevent players from wondering how they can get past doors that mysteriously can't be opened, and it also encourages exploration.

Bacon Grease is simple, but decisively fun, with a good length and some excellent visuals. I'd be looking forward to playing the rest of your unreleased maps if they're as good as this one.

8/10.

[asbestos]

Thanks juvenite, glad you enjoyed it! The sewer was originally about 2 steps darker but I brightened it just a pinch, which is probably why it looks a bit flat.

juvenite, on 25 August 2022 - 02:54 PM, said:

Spoiler

duke0003.png

this was also a cool secret. I liked it. Too bad i only found it when I already finished the map lmao

Spoiler

Thanks! I liked that one too. I was going for something a bit Doom-like with that one.

[asbestos]

Quacken, on 25 August 2022 - 07:06 PM, said:

Finished this map up in about 21 minutes, with 2 secrets collected and all kills gotten.

Bacon Grease

Handsomely detailed, sharply lit and a fair challenge, Bacon Grease is all around a very solid map. It's easy to get too cocky with your ammo like I did with the RPG and Shrinker and hold it for non-existent big threats, but if you can keep at least three Shrinker crystals in your stash, you can use the rest of your very large supply of rockets and Shrinker crystals to coast through the squads of fodder monsters this map likes to chuck at you, allowing you to preserve your bullets and shells for close quarters. I think this map could have probably thrown at least a few more Commanders, just to encourage you to use the RPG and Shrinker more, but otherwise, the combat is fun and satisfying, pitting you up against hitscanners in a variety of different locations and light levels. The map is also quite fun to navigate. I like that if there's a door that's not broken down or marked with yellow tape, you can always go through it, even if it's only for something as simple as two small health kits. It helps to tie the map together and prevent players from wondering how they can get past doors that mysteriously can't be opened, and it also encourages exploration.

Bacon Grease is simple, but decisively fun, with a good length and some excellent visuals. I'd be looking forward to playing the rest of your unreleased maps if they're as good as this one.

8/10.

Thanks for the nice review! I wonder how it would have played if you had found a few more secrets. I did find it challenging to judge the weapon and enemy balance since I know where everything is. I agree an extra commander or two could help. I'm also glad you could appreciate the door treatment. I was definitely aware that inoperable doors are frustrating, so I'm glad the visual communication was able to set the correct expectations.

[Quacken]

asbestos, on 26 August 2022 - 07:46 AM, said:

Thanks for the nice review! I wonder how it would have played if you had found a few more secrets. I did find it challenging to judge the weapon and enemy balance since I know where everything is. I agree an extra commander or two could help. I'm also glad you could appreciate the door treatment. I was definitely aware that inoperable doors are frustrating, so I'm glad the visual communication was able to set the correct expectations.

One more minor thing that I forgot to mention in the original review: In the hallway of the first apartment you visit, the doors that you open get in the way of you moving through the hallway efficiently, since any opened door blocks the entire hallway. It doesn't really matter that much in the long run since it's such a small area, but still. If there's one thing I like more than being able to open every door I see, it's being able to keep those doors open so I can look inside of them when I'm backtracking.

[dnskill]

I liked this map a lot, and can definitely feel the 1999 vibe to it. It has really well plotted enemy placements, as well as items and weapon variety. I missed 2 secrets, but was still able to get out alive. The level design is well done with tons of routes to take, which I imagine would make this map work quite well in Dukematch. I also liked that the doors that were used as decoration had police barrier tape and/or "out of order" signs, as it made it easy to distinguish where you could and couldn't go.

One suggestion I'd like to make is in future maps to add more Duke talk and background noise. The map is quite quiet in areas that feel they could've benefited with some background noise and Duke banter. This would've immersed me a bit more, but this is only a nitpick and did not make me think any less of the level design.

I had a lot of fun playing through it, and recommend it to anyone looking for a map that feels on the same level of quality as the 3DR's style level design of the base game.

[Radar]

My playthrough. Also included timestamps of all the secrets in the description if anyone is curious. 4k should process soon.

[ck3D]

Congrats on release, map looks really neat! Can't wait to see what else you've got up your sleeve.

DNSKILL's Damn I'm Good playthrough video:

[Sanek]

Played this map today, took me 25 mins, found only 3 out of 7 secrets.


The nickname "asbestos" sounds extremely familiar, so even before I rememebered other maps he made I had a feeling the map's going to be good.

So overall I liked this map, it looks like a mix of classic, professional 3DR design style yet it looks like a quality user map that came out in like the year 1999 (I meant it as a compliment). It's not too hard, yet I had a good amount of fun while playing it. The secrets is a bitch to find though, since I found only 3 of them (I also checked every window with fire on it after that first one with secret, found nothing yet hurt myself in the process lol).

What I didn't like about the map is a strange absence of ambient sound of the city (no wind) and boxes everywhere. But it's just minor nitpicks of mine that don't mean anything really, I still think that it's a fine map.


P.S. Mikko Sandt just posted a review on his MSDN site:
https://msdn.duke4.n...bacongrease.php

[Merlijn]

Very good map, I had a lot of fun playing it!

Design is clean and has that 'classic 3DR' style, yet you also added a lot of cool little details that give the map its own personality. I especially like cute stuff like having a hedge in front of one of the buildings, the small flights of stairs in front of each house etc. The small court yard (before the subway station) was one of my favorite locations, love the height variation. Also the amount of destruction was nice to see, really felt like a city under attack. The high number of crates did feel a bit out of place, but that's really the only nitpick.

I also thought the enemy placement was really good. Even when the enemy count isn't super hight it felt like they were added in ways that made them most effective. It made me think twice about which target I should prioritize a couple of times. Health dipped under 30 a few times, but there was always some health to pick up (played on CGS). I died once

Spoiler

lost a lot of health due to one of the tripmine traps and then a couple of sentry drones swooped in to finish the job.

So for me it was a perfectly balanced challenge, good job!

I found 4 secrets in my first playthrough, then managed to find 2 more when I went to back to search for them. Which means I'm still missing one (if I remember correctly).

[asbestos]

Quacken, on 26 August 2022 - 01:50 PM, said:

the doors that you open get in the way of you moving through the hallway efficiently, since any opened door blocks the entire hallway.

Thanks, I also saw this mentioned elsewhere. I found it difficult to maintain a "realistic" sense of scale while also including swing doors in hallways. Leaving a bit more room to move freely around them when open would help for sure.

DNSKILL, on 26 August 2022 - 04:26 PM, said:

One suggestion I'd like to make is in future maps to add more Duke talk and background noise. The map is quite quiet in areas that feel they could've benefited with some background noise and Duke banter.

Thanks, I also saw this criticism in my old maps from the 90s. Noted! Glad you enjoyed it overall. I also really enjoyed watching your playthrough that ck3d shared.

Radar, on 26 August 2022 - 05:08 PM, said:

My playthrough. Also included timestamps of all the secrets in the description if anyone is curious. 4k should process soon.

Thanks for this! It's really interesting to see how other people go through it. Nice trick around 11:25 using the pipe bomb in the aquarium to take out the enemies outside of it, I didn't expect that.

Sanek, on 28 August 2022 - 12:29 PM, said:

The secrets is a bitch to find though, since I found only 3 of them (I also checked every window with fire on it after that first one with secret, found nothing yet hurt myself in the process lol).

What I didn't like about the map is a strange absence of ambient sound of the city (no wind) and boxes everywhere. But it's just minor nitpicks of mine that don't mean anything really, I still think that it's a fine map.

P.S. Mikko Sandt just posted a review on his MSDN site:
https://msdn.duke4.n...bacongrease.php

All good comments, thanks! It's hard to tell with secrets, I thought I always left a hint about them but I couldn't really know how obvious they were. And thanks for the heads up about the MSDN review, I was hoping it might end up there! 92/100, not bad, I'm happy with that.

Merlijn, on 29 August 2022 - 08:46 AM, said:

I also thought the enemy placement was really good. Even when the enemy count isn't super hight it felt like they were added in ways that made them most effective. It made me think twice about which target I should prioritize a couple of times. Health dipped under 30 a few times, but there was always some health to pick up (played on CGS). I died once

Spoiler

lost a lot of health due to one of the tripmine traps and then a couple of sentry drones swooped in to finish the job.

So for me it was a perfectly balanced challenge, good job!

Thanks! I wasn't sure if some of the laser/drone placements were too cruel, but it sounds like you managed. Glad you enjoyed it overall!

One thing I noticed in the play through videos is that the very last enemies at the exit trigger some nearby trip mines (causing them to blow themselves up), which wasn't intentional. They're meant to put just a little bit of friction on someone if they try to skip the final battle and head straight to the exit. I'll have to make a minor fix and re-upload.

Thanks for the feedback everyone, very much appreciated!

[Merlijn]

asbestos, on 29 August 2022 - 11:25 AM, said:

Thanks! I wasn't sure if some of the laser/drone placements were too cruel, but it sounds like you managed. Glad you enjoyed it overall!

To be fair it was mostly bad luck haha. I was throwing a pipebomb to blow up the tripmines but then a pig cop decided to walk through them at the same time. So the pipebomb got blown up in my face. XD

[juvenite]

Merlijn, on 30 August 2022 - 04:08 AM, said:

To be fair it was mostly bad luck haha. I was throwing a pipebomb to blow up the tripmines but then a pig cop decided to walk through them at the same time. So the pipebomb got blown up in my face. XD

gotta love when monsters kamikazi into tripmines when you're one ft away from them

[lllllllllllllll]

Spoiler

only complaint about map is the placement of a keycard behind a destructable manhole

Spoiler

I especially liked the secret behind the windowed trip bomb and laughed when breaking the glass made it detonate on me

[asbestos]

lllllllllllllll, on 30 August 2022 - 01:31 PM, said:

Spoiler

only complaint about map is the placement of a keycard behind a destructable manhole

That makes sense, because it requires destroying the manhole to get it, which may not be possible if you don't have explosives. The first manhole you find is left open, so I could switch those around actually.

lllllllllllllll, on 30 August 2022 - 01:31 PM, said:

Spoiler

I especially liked the secret behind the windowed trip bomb and laughed when breaking the glass made it detonate on me

That's funny, glad it made you laugh instead of pissing you off for being unfair.

[Aleks]

Finally got to play it and enjoyed it a lot. I don't think there's any issues serious enough to consider a re-release/another version really, unless you're planning it as part of a mod or something. The progression was very clear from start to finish, and both the addition of all these extra rooms with just a few extra items inside them or the layout looping on itself every now and then made it interesting enough not to lose focus due to the linearity. The level indeed felt very 3D-Realms-ish, with mostly clean design. I'd probably normally complain about low visibility/darkness, but here I know it was a choice and one that worked really well - added a lot to the atmosphere and was nicely combined with the strong shadows. I didn't really notice the lack of ambient sounds to be honest (played with "Going After the Fat Commander" playing, which was a good choice for the level theme, probably "Gotham" would work as well), the boxes felt a bit generic and I guess the cars would be more natural. There's also been few texture choices that I didn't like (e.g. the completely uniform gray tile on the floor in one corridor) and some rooms lacked wall shading variety on adjacent walls, but that's really only things to nitpick from me. The architecture was definitely the highlight, as Merlijn mentioned, you managed to pull some nice originality/personality, yet still "imitating" the original levels styles. The hedges were definitely a nice touch, also I particularly liked the details on the ceilings at the subway station (near the pillars) and that multi-level staircase with the fountain. Found 6/7 secrets, then got the final one while backtracking from the finish (and it was the one arguably closest to the finish too, maybe besides the TROR one), I liked that there was some variety in them, but without something impossible to find. Combat didn't feel too challenging or overwhelming, but just enough to keep the player on their toes, especially with how the enforcers were used. As someone mentioned before, I also enjoyed how this map opened up bit by bit, becoming much larger than it would seem initially, yet not feeling artificially constrained/claustrophobic.

Great job and once again, congratulations on the release!

[asbestos]

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts Aleks!

[max_nukem]

Just finished this map.
It was a 30 minutes of gameplay pleasure.
Map design and detalization in a very high level.
A lot of interesting places and good ideas.
Thanks!

[Danukem]

I finally played this yesterday, and I can confirm that it's an excellent map! My only quibble is that I ended up going back and forth through the sewer several times to reach the different sides of the map, but that may have been me being dumb for not finding another route. Anyway, great map!