[Bruno]

Hi !

Here is BRUNOHH2.map - This is the sequel to BRUNOHH1.map.

Reminder : BRUNOHH map serie is a Hollywood Holocaust "remake" project with a lot of freedom taken in design, much more challenging gameplay and lots of secret can be find in this map and an alternative secret path to the end using the "duck hunt" secret. But be careful, wanting to be too curious, some secrets will make many enemies appear !

Story : Duke Nukem Ship-car was destroyed by Aliens. He managed to eject himself before the explosion and he landed on a roof. After battling Emperor Cycloid's hordes on the seedy streets of Hollywood, Duke Nukem receives a message from General Graves who manages to contact him on his SOS device. Duke Nukem must make his way through the cinema to find the women kidnapped by the aliens.
According to the information available to General Graves, these babes could be localised in the basement of the building, access to which is possible through the maintenance sector. The old access corridor to the basement is however secured by a magnetic card which can be found anywhere in the cinema. The problem is that access to the maintenance sector is blocked.
Indeed, the aliens have managed to reach the office of the security guards who remotely control the access to the various sectors, the lights and the ventilation ducts.
General Graves also tells Duke Nukem that the alien threat is growing more terrible.
The EDF teams did not survive the massive attack. The IMF Special Agents and Area 51 Special Forces were also wiped out despite the protective magnetic field being deployed. If Duke Nukem manages to reach the old basement access corridor, he can then move on to the next level.
But it won't be so simple, between the traps and aliens in increasing numbers...
Next level "when it's done"

Enjoy !

Notes : Don't play this map using add-on, user modifications, kick-ass add-non or HRP/polymer. Just play it using EDUKE32 and classical Duke 3d Atomic Edition. Nothing else

Attached thumbnail(s)

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Attached File(s)

•  BRUNOHH2.zip (290.39K)
  Number of downloads: 175

[Graphics]

Love the screen shots. You've put a lot of work into this and it shows. Keep up the good work.

[formerlyTodd]

Can't upvote so saying thanks here instead

I know you have said no add-ons, but would DukePlus work, when strictly used only for the enhanced enemy AI?

[Bruno]

I didn't test this map with duke plus. But I think that the map is already really difficult on come get some skill (considering playing with the fact of finding special secret-trap places in addition to the "normal" enemy amount). You can try and give me a feedback with dukeplus? :-D

[formerlyTodd]

Bruno, on 17 December 2022 - 12:22 PM, said:

You can try and give me a feedback with dukeplus? :-D

Glad to! Thanks again (I love tough Duke maps)!

[formerlyTodd]

So this is turning out to be a really fun map, DukePlus or otherwise. No serious compatibility issues (I didn't really expect any).

The level of spritework is really awesome. Going to take my time, have fun, and try to find all the secrets.

Thanks again, I'm sure this wasn't a quick map to make, at around 1.2Mb of map data

(Btw the beginning was really cool with the messaging & battlelord right off the bat)

[Bruno]

Thank you mate for the feedback. I work on this map since the beginning of the year. So yeah, it tooks a long long long time to create, to test, to correct things here and here, to test again and again and to have something very fun for others (I hope!), as cool as I felt by making and playing this map. I began making this map before the release of Brunohh Street part classical render.

The only issue, in my opinion, if you use dukeplus, is the balance between monsters as they will have AI enhancement, ammo, health pack (regarding my own feelings, it could be too much easy for others players).
So, have fun! And explore, try find switches, read carefully viewscreens in the office, etc... Enjoy!

[Rorschach]

Merry freaking Christmas to me! Thanks for this - I really enjoyed HH1, so have downloaded this instantly... really looking forward to playing later.😎

[Bruno]

Thank you dude. Hope you enjoy this one too. But, be careful, it's not the same game play. Little corridors, shooting enemy through holes in walls to cover, narrow and dark areas that need night vision,.... Hope you enjoy this "interior" map

[formerlyTodd]

+1, it's all that. Those wall holes are cool, and in DP it's a real challenge getting things like a double shotty through 'em. Save your night vision where you're able, to solve at least one multi-button puzzle. It looks like there's a secret within a secret within a secret. Great stuff.

[Bruno]

Thank you for your feedback. Yep, the multiswitchs clue could be find with a viewscreen ;-) Not necessary to use night vision for this secretplace (inside there is a mega secret place). But yes, you need to save nightvision for the wc room battle and the next part.

[formerlyTodd]

Quick question: are there more than two ducks?

Btw the cinema is epic (as well as the rooms right before, hahaha).

[Dr.Panico]

Vagan, on 18 December 2022 - 02:48 PM, said:

Quick question: are there more than two ducks?

There are 8.

[formerlyTodd]

Can't upvote so just saying thanks.

[formerlyTodd]

Just fyi to anyone interested, it looks like there might be a few DP (unconfirmed, though!) related issues that affect gameplay. Just a couple of switches that don't seem to operate anything (for example, I couldn't get to the 3 switches behind the corridor mirror) and a small number of too many sprites spawned crashes.

So unless there's an easy solution, I would suggest that Bruno's advice be followed I've seen the same kind of things pop up with other maps, every once in awhile. I would imagine it might be something pertaining to the older version of eduke32 packaged with DP. Just my .0002 tho.

This map was really a lot of fun.

[DNSKILL5]

Great work, Bruno. Though I have not yet played the first entry to this series, I went ahead and played through this one anyhow. Amazingly detailed level with a lot of beautiful sprite work, tons of aliens to kill, plenty of weapons to find, and while you have to actively search for ammo, it seems there's just enough to complete this level fairly. At times, the enemies that spawn in can get a bit "spammy", making the challenge more about luck than actual skill, but that isn't much of an issue. Some of the sprite work hinders Duke's movement in some areas which I believe Aleks mentioned on the Duke4 Discord. I was not able to find all the secrets, but that is usually how it goes for me in most maps to begin with.





With that said, this was a fun map with a lot of challenge and well laid out floor plan. I especially enjoyed the force field, as it helped protect me a few times!

[Bruno]

Vagan, on 18 December 2022 - 08:52 PM, said:

Just fyi to anyone interested, it looks like there might be a few DP (unconfirmed, though!) related issues that affect gameplay. Just a couple of switches that don't seem to operate anything (for example, I couldn't get to the 3 switches behind the corridor mirror) and a small number of too many sprites spawned crashes.

So unless there's an easy solution, I would suggest that Bruno's advice be followed I've seen the same kind of things pop up with other maps, every once in awhile. I would imagine it might be something pertaining to the older version of eduke32 packaged with DP. Just my .0002 tho.

This map was really a lot of fun.

If you want to open the corridor mirror, you have to find the dipswitch (little clue : think about your Duke Burger order. But, to be able to shoot this switch you need to play some arcade. And then, there is a clue in a secret place inside the wc room to help you choose wisely...

Thank you for this feedback. I didn't test this map with Dukeplus. And the concept is to let people play this map the easy way without thinking about setting up Dukeplus, HRP, Kick-ass, Legacy or user modifications. I thought playing eduke32 and Duke3d.grp in classical render would be the most easy way.

And thank you for this cool video ! I will take time after my working day to check your playthrough. But, you played it the right way, especially in the Forcefield room ! Just waiting Fat Commander to make the job haha !

[Aleks]

Finished it with all secrets/kills/...ducks, it's a great map with a lot of "extra" stuff to do, which I really appreciate. I probably liked the previous "street" part a bit more due to being more open, but not that much. The design is top notch, especially in the main room - although as I've mentioned on Discord, it did cause some problems with sprites flickering, which was particularly problematic when it happened with the enemies, and I did have 2 game crashes. But then I was playing in polymost, so might be part of the problem (although I can't imagine classic renderer properly displaying all these layered spriteworks which include a lot of transluscent elements either).

The gameplay was lots of fun - I liked how you just throw a Battlelord right off the bat at the player, the first challenge was figuring how to get rid of him and "unlock" this main room before I noticed the conveniently placed RPG. Finding the way through the darkness was quite a challenge too, luckily there's been just enough NVG to manage this part and turning on the electricity worked like a charm (besides a few unevenly lit ceilings, but that's not a big deal). The shadows and spriteworks are really wonderful in this map, great job here! I initially found 8/12 secrets and 4/8 ducks when reaching the nukebutton, but then I took my time to explore more and find the remaining ones (which also triggered a couple of additional large fights. Seems all the clues made sense, took me a bit to find the monitor with the 10 button combination clue, but that's mostly due to how dark that room is, also had quite a few problems with finding the jetpack and nearly got stuck in one of the duck secret places inside the vents. The most difficult part was finding the 3 last ducks, which all turned out to be very close to each other. Nice touch with all the easter eggs and jokes, they really make this map alive.

Overall, great job, definitely recommend this one to everyone!

Rating: 94/100

[formerlyTodd]

Thanks, Bruno! Found the button that opens the mirror. When I pressed "ORDER HERE" below that button, it was reacting with a click, but nothing was opening. I didn't think to look above that, after finding/using the arcade. Well hidden!

The only comment I could make is that the mirrors were breakable, and the corridor one had already broken due to combat (so finding the mirror mentioned in the WC clue was harder, haha).

2 questions: so I gave up & cheated to get the jetpack, to get up to one of the ducks. Where the heck is that hidden? And is the door in the vent system, that leads to the Duke Fool'em secret, openable somewhere? (edit: maybe I didn't have all my ducks lined up?)

Jumping over/around all that spritework was a lot of fun!

[Bruno]

Vagan, on 19 December 2022 - 05:00 AM, said:

2 questions: so I gave up & cheated to get the jetpack, to get up to one of the ducks. Where the heck is that hidden? And is the door in the vent system, that leads to the Duke Fool'em secret, openable somewhere?

Glad you enjoy it ! The jetpack can be find in the dark office room (the one you can access with the blue keycard). You've 3 wardrobes/cabinets next the desk and lights switchs. The jetpack is in the wardrobes/cabinet next to the lights switchs. Just open it and find the jetpack.

This door (the one that leads to the Duke Fool'em secret path, something like a shortcut to the end of the level) is openable by using the 8 red dipswitchs from the duck hunt (all must be activated, and you will hear the dipswitch unlock sound). If it doesn't open, maybe you miss one dipswitch (be carefull : ducks are just decorative sprites that hide the red dipswitch. You must activate all red dispswitchs to open the door). One of these dipswitchs can be find in the "Die Hard - Kill'em all" secret area (the one that can be reached only by using the big multi-switch code).

After a few playtest, I can tell you that everything works well. Just explore ! :-)

[formerlyTodd]

Everything I missed is on me Thanks! I have a couple of things peculiar to my system (slow cpu, and the brightness level is low) so sometimes the frame rate is slow, and it was a little harder eg finding the jet pack. Anyways, outstanding work. I wanted to find everything, like when I'm playing a Billy Boy map.

[Bruno]

Aleks, on 19 December 2022 - 03:31 AM, said:

Overall, great job, definitely recommend this one to everyone!
Rating: 94/100

Thank you Aleks for this review ! Always appreciate ! It helps me to keep motivation to create other maps for the rest of the series. I should find time for this. I would like to try to make, in a single map, the small basement of the cinema (to find the babes mentioned by General Graves in the SOS message at the beginning of this map), coupled with the beginning of Red Light District, for example, or maybe a totally made up part before red light district. I don't know for the moment. I often build what comes in my mind at the moment, without planning things. Everything will depend on the limits of the editor and my free time.

[quakis]

Played both levels last night on CGS, some quick summary of thoughts for now:

BRUNOHH1.map

• Love the sense of scale, seemed like a huge city and quite intimidating at first glance.
  
• Rooftop exploration was fun, yet dangerous. Troopers are a nightmare at long ranges.
  
• Neat Doom secret, well executed little scenario up there.
  
• Tons of little niches, alleys and hidden trinkets tucked away down at street level. No doubt missed a bunch.
  
• Multiple approaches to the blue key are nice, kept the open nature of exploration intact.

BRUNOHH2.map

• One core location, with a ton of exploration opportunities. Most of the major locations you visit fit within the cinema theme, as if these places would exist as they are.
  
• Reminded me back when playing DUKE64 and exploring all the changes and additions made to the original maps such as Freeway, convinced there's still more sights to see and I just haven't found them yet. HH2 felt very much the same, an alternative and expanded version of the original that has many layers and there's still plenty to peel away.
  
• Starting scenario is a nice touch, would have been nice though if the solution to a Battlelord wasn't provided near him. Perhaps forcing players to explore elsewhere for equipment to deal with him, leaving the foyer off limits until then - unless they like taking the risk.

Some personal critique common between maps:

• Enemy composition and numbers seemed a little overtuned for my tastes, was less of a challenge for me in either map and mostly a grind, like a meatwall blocking progress. This usage of enemies in Duke3D just isn't my personal preference though, so if it's something you enjoy making then keep at it.
  
• Spritework clutter. As nice as most of it was to look at, its presense interferes with gameplay too much for my liking. Clean movement is often hindered, hopping about to higher elevations or getting stuck in the details. Also provides a playground for flying Troopers to clip through sprite floors and push Duke around. There's so much of it in HH2's foyer that many sprites flicker in and out of existance, including enemies. Just several smaller nuisances that do add up over time really and makes for less enjoyment during play. Tons of work has clearly put into the visual aspect, but for the more bombastic gameplay style as presented here I think keeping the clutter kept to the sidelines leaving the main action take place in cleaner spaces might help a little - HH1 does this better with the wide streets. This style of design might suit slower, muted combat nicely though.

On a final note, I still enjoyed playing through both maps, a lot of work was put into them and that shows. The spammy combat design doesn't quite suit my tastes for Duke3D's gameplay, but has enjoyable exploration detours that more than make up for that. I'll be looking forward to what else you'll release in future.

[Bruno]

First, thank you very much for this complete feedback Always appreciate to know more about players positive or negative feelings

quakis, on 20 December 2022 - 08:29 AM, said:

[Enemy composition and numbers seemed a little overtuned for my tastes, was less of a challenge for me in either map and mostly a grind, like a meatwall blocking progress

Yep, as I already told months ago, BRUNOHH1, years after my 2013 map, started by making a Doom Plutonia kind of gameplay map in E1L1, you know, lots of monsters. But I change my aim a little. Then I thought it would be cool to set a level up the "grind" feeling, in BRUNOHH2, that you can have at some part in BRUNOHH1. But, don't worry, what I've got in mind for BRUNOHH3 is more exploration/ambiant map, with more effect (If I managed to do that...) and, above all, less enemy.
The Battelord scenario could be very cool. If I understand what you've being telling about this scenario, I should create a main room with a battelord, without exploding weapon to forced the player to find in some rooms around the RPG to kill the mini boss (as a little mission to complete). Is that what you said? 'cause, if so, it's a very cool idea.

The extreme spritework was a way to try making things I wouldn't be able to do in my mind. As a challenge that I take up to myself. Agree with you, when I playtest BRUNOHH2, I feel sometimes overcrowded by all these sprites. And then, I thought I won't be erasing all that work I made during months... Take it like a challenge to a non-professional level-design amateur, more than a level with a perfect gameplay.

But I keep in mind all these advices for the next map. "Less is more". :-)

THANK YOU ! (all your reviews are very instructive by the way)

[Aleks]

Bruno, on 20 December 2022 - 10:41 AM, said:

The Battelord scenario could be very cool. If I understand what you've being telling about this scenario, I should create a main room with a battelord, without exploding weapon to forced the player to find in some rooms around the RPG to kill the mini boss (as a little mission to complete). Is that what you said? 'cause, if so, it's a very cool idea.

To be perfectly honest, I didn't notice the RPG at first while playing the map, so I did make a run to the elevators at first and carefully cleared the upper levels before I took on the Battlelord after noticing the RPG is indeed there (perhaps even through the glass floor). So I did kind of play it like Quakis suggested

Quote

The extreme spritework was a way to try making things I wouldn't be able to do in my mind. As a challenge that I take up to myself. Agree with you, when I playtest BRUNOHH2, I feel sometimes overcrowded by all these sprites. And then, I thought I won't be erasing all that work I made during months... Take it like a challenge to a non-professional level-design amateur, more than a level with a perfect gameplay.

A good idea to "loosen the space" a bit with extensive spritework is to just arbitrarily unblock some of it, especially the tiny bits or hanging stuff like lamps etc. I usually unblock most of my spriteworks by now if I don't want the player to autoclimb on it, so in tiny corridors etc., even sometimes basic stuff like sprite chairs might be better left unblocked so that it doesn't stop the hitscan bullets.

[Bruno]

Aleks, on 20 December 2022 - 11:44 AM, said:

To be perfectly honest, I didn't notice the RPG at first while playing the map, so I did make a run to the elevators at first and carefully cleared the upper levels before I took on the Battlelord after noticing the RPG is indeed there (perhaps even through the glass floor). So I did kind of play it like Quakis suggested

Ah yes, in a way, that's a good thing ! I thought the two first weapons (ripper and RPG) were placed in a easy way for the player. I imagine players battle circle around the Battlelord (beginning by ripper to shoot troopers adn then RPG to shoot Battelord and Pigcops masses) using crates to cover. Second case I imagine while mapping, was the fact that payer would find the shrinker (placed before wc room) by running quickly in the hallway. I didn't imagine the case of going upper levels by using elevators without killing battlelord ! That's a very good way of "speedrun" playing (or playing the hard-way) ! Interesting to read your way of fighting the battelord in the map !:-)

Aleks, on 20 December 2022 - 11:44 AM, said:

A good idea to "loosen the space" a bit with extensive spritework is to just arbitrarily unblock some of it, especially the tiny bits or hanging stuff like lamps etc. I usually unblock most of my spriteworks by now if I don't want the player to autoclimb on it, so in tiny corridors etc., even sometimes basic stuff like sprite chairs might be better left unblocked so that it doesn't stop the hitscan bullets.

I take this advice for the next map ! If I have time to put maps in a mini episode, I will correct all this (another RPG upperlevels for your case for exemple, unblocked some spriteworks, change "invisible walls" in something else in BRUNOHH1, .....)

[quakis]

Bruno, on 20 December 2022 - 10:41 AM, said:

Yep, as I already told months ago, BRUNOHH1, years after my 2013 map, started by making a Doom Plutonia kind of gameplay map in E1L1, you know, lots of monsters. But I change my aim a little. Then I thought it would be cool to set a level up the "grind" feeling, in BRUNOHH2, that you can have at some part in BRUNOHH1.

See I do enjoy Plutonia, or any tough custom wad like Miasma, Going Down or Ancient Aliens. Doom has an incredibly versatile enemy roster and I just find combat way more enjoyable in that game and what the community does with it. Duke3D is an entirely different flavour from Doom, one I think works well with bite sized skirmishes and incidental scenarios, so I don't lean favourably toward the horde/swarm style combat and think the gameplay works best by focusing on it's own strengths. But, again, this is all just personal preference, we all enjoy playing our games in different ways.

Bruno, on 20 December 2022 - 10:41 AM, said:

The Battelord scenario could be very cool. If I understand what you've being telling about this scenario, I should create a main room with a Battelord, without exploding weapon to forced the player to find in some rooms around the RPG to kill the mini boss (as a little mission to complete). Is that what you said? 'cause, if so, it's a very cool idea.

That's correct. Create a problem for the player, but place the solution elsewhere. There's many ways you can approach this, but can be boiled down to:

• Force players to locate the solution in another area
  
• Force the player to create their own solution

One common problem I've seen in user maps with Battlelords is their threat is often diminished because the answer is typically an RPG with ammo sitting nearby. There's no tactics. No clever use of the environment. Just pick up the weapon, fire away and win. Battlelords aren't quite as flexible compared to, say, the Cyberdemon from Doom which always remains a threat based on their versatility. Battlelords can be trivialised, so it's nice when mappers can conjure up scenarios to keep them interesting.

For the record regarding my own Battlelord usage; I definitely failed executing a good Battlelord fight at the end of FLAMWRCK. It's a poor arena as he gets stuck easily, should have spent more time fleshing out this finale. His presence was mostly a holdover from an earlier iteration when this "backyard" was visited earlier during progression. On the other hand my use of Battlelords in Done & Dusted was purely intended as a narrative detail than an actual fight, it just looked neat having two of them sat on the destroyed bridge leaving players a choice to fight or simply leave since the mission's already over.

Bruno, on 20 December 2022 - 10:41 AM, said:

The extreme spritework was a way to try making things I wouldn't be able to do in my mind. As a challenge that I take up to myself. Agree with you, when I playtest BRUNOHH2, I feel sometimes overcrowded by all these sprites. And then, I thought I won't be erasing all that work I made during months... Take it like a challenge to a non-professional level-design amateur, more than a level with a perfect gameplay.

I understand that sentiment, it's never a good feeling to waste work. These days I just accept removing what isn't working in my own levels if it means a better result, I enjoy this process regardless and keep many backups of older iterations to reuse elsewhere later. Alek's advice for spritework is a good alternative though.

Another suggestion would be to consider eventually trying out TROR. Classic and Polymost renderers have their own rules, but works really well in the latter. It could do wonders for constructing places like the cinema foyer to ease the creation of floors, keep enemies more grounded, have a tidier 2D view, and avoid some pitfalls with tons of visible spritework which you then limit to places between TROR layers such as staircases. TROR usage does have a learning curve that takes time getting used to its quirks for how powerful it can be and probably best utilised at a smaller scale. Honestly though, having been using TROR for several years now, it's a major pain in the arse even at the best of times. Fortunately I know my way around most of its annoyances and TROR simply isn't for everyone, so don't ever feel obligated to use it.

Should it be of interest, I recreated a simplified foyer similar to the one from HH2 showing off some rough TROR usage just to showcase how it could potentially be used in the same situations and some of the benefits while working with layers. Screenshots under the spoiler to avoid cluttering up this post. While the below screenshots work with simple geometry, just be aware that more design complexity for these TROR layers can cause other visual problems based around sector shapes and viewing angles. There's a fair amount of planning-ahead to keep in mind.

Spoiler

• [3D: Ground Floor looking up, enemies still respond to the player despite being in different layers]
  
• [3D: Same screenshot except with layers turned off]
  
• [3D: Middle Floor Staircase]
  
• [2D: Same place in 2D view, notice the lack of floor sprites because we're using a translucent TROR floor]
  
• [3D: Top Floor Staircase]
  
• [2D: Same place in 2D view, again notice the lack of floor sprites and previous floor's spritework cluttering up our workspace]

In the end, just keep making what you want and enjoy the process. If we stuck to strict "standards", neat niche releases such as Sanek's BattleDuke might never exist. Keep it up, looking out for BRUNOHH3!

[Bruno]

quakis, on 20 December 2022 - 07:15 PM, said:

Doom has an incredibly versatile enemy roster and I just find combat way more enjoyable

I agree with you. I love more DN3D game as a whole. And even if DN3D is the game I enjoy the most since its release in 1996!97, there is a real huge variety of DOOM 2 kind of enemy that makes the gameplay in Doom very satisfying. It's something that lacks a lot in DN3D even if these aliens are very well designed et coded.

quakis, on 20 December 2022 - 07:15 PM, said:

That's correct. Create a problem for the player, but place the solution elsewhere. There's many ways you can approach this

I will try something in BRUNOHH3, considering starting with pistol each map, or even without weapon in that new map. For exemple, Duke would not have weapons at the start because these exploded during the huge fat explosion in the last tunnel in BRUNOHH2, just an idea of story to begin, I don't know. Also for exemple, not so much enemy, and more like a Half life way of fighting mini-boss without our own weapon (tentacles, Gargantua in HL or the huge worm in Opposing force). I read somewhere that the Cycloïd need a LOT-TAG 3 to follow a specific path. Or Battelord could stayput with a tile 2631. These tricks could be use for a HL tactical way of fighting instead of firing rockets with RPG as I did in BRUNOHH2 (Plutonia, Serious sam hard-way of fighting, ...). You mentioned very good ideas with your use of the battle lord ! I think about forcing the player to activate gaz in a room, and then electricity in another room, to great fat seenines explosion to kill battelords and so, to clear the way to the end. Could be a good gameplay for duke, as Gearbox did for Opposing Force.

quakis, on 20 December 2022 - 07:15 PM, said:

Another suggestion would be to consider eventually trying out TROR.

I really need to learn the TROR mapping. I never used this way of mapping. I was learning build editor in 1997. In 2011/2012, starting learning dukeplus things. But I never try TROR. With BrunoHH3,I think it could be a pretext to learn more of Mapster. I know that TROR is hard to use... But, as I see with your screenshos, it seems so easy and, in a way, very logical. But, I don't that it's easy as it seems!

Thank you very much for these screenshots and all these clear explanation. It's complete, with very good advices, and very useful for my next map. You rule dude ! Thank you for the time you spent to tell me all these advices

[Merlijn]

I also played this map, and mostly agree with what Aleks and Quakis are saying. The map is extremely impressive, but I also experienced sprites flickering and disappearing (I played in classic mode) which hindered the gameplay at times. I also think some areas are a bit too 'busy' for my taste, a bit more spatious design would have allowed the location to breathe a bit more I think (this mostly goes for the central lobby). Now it's occasionally very overwhelming. I wonder if this was based on a real location? I do dig the multi-levelled layout though! The gameplay progress is also well done, with more paths opening up as you go along .

I also liked the way you used light and darkness, making the player think of when to to use the night vision and then later being able to turn on the lights. You don't see that very often and I thought it was neat.
Also the jokes are perfect DN3D stuff, Randy's e-mail in particular haha. In terms of combat I thought the wave after the blue keycard was a bit annoying to deal with, but I mostly liked everything else. The fight in the cinema was the best one IMO.

In conclusion: good job and good luck with part 3!

[Bruno]

Merlijn, on 22 December 2022 - 08:50 AM, said:

I also experienced sprites flickering and disappearing (I played in classic mode) which hindered the gameplay at times.

Don't understand why everybody is experiencing this issue. I tested this map in classic render, using eduke32 2.0.0devel r5811 (64-bit), and I never got this problem (just some glass - in some corner from upperlevel in the main hallway - 'cause these flat sprites are placed one other another). Or maybe it's due the hardware perf ? Or another eduke32 version ? I don't know.....

Merlijn, on 22 December 2022 - 08:50 AM, said:

I also think some areas are a bit too 'busy' for my taste, a bit more spatious design would have allowed the location to breathe a bit more I think (this mostly goes for the central lobby). Now it's occasionally very overwhelming. I wonder if this was based on a real location? I do dig the multi-levelled layout though! The gameplay progress is also well done, with more paths opening up as you go along.

My aim was to make a place that looks the most real it could be in each area, with something that feels alive and not boring to play. But well, I agree with all of you, in terms of gameplay, it causes some problems. That's why a true level-designer would delete things as they did at the time for Duke 3D to let players keeping a good framrate. But, that wasn't the aim here. For BRUNOHH3, I will be more simple (as it will take place in basements / cellars, bizarre dark places, ... the map will not be overwhelming and I keep a simple level-design, I will mostly work on lights and effects, in order to try to progress a little more)

Merlijn, on 22 December 2022 - 08:50 AM, said:

I also liked the way you used light and darkness, making the player think of when to to use the night vision and then later being able to turn on the lights. You don't see that very often and I thought it was neat.

I wanted to enlarge this dark part (the part where player need nightvision google) but I was limited (wall limits). So I keep this idea for the next map I'm working on. NVG and lights will be something very important. I hope it will render properly.

Merlijn, on 22 December 2022 - 08:50 AM, said:

Also the jokes are perfect DN3D stuff, Randy's e-mail in particular haha.

The porn studio with the viewscreen wes the joke that gaves me the larger amount of work haha

Merlijn, on 22 December 2022 - 08:50 AM, said:

In terms of combat I thought the wave after the blue keycard was a bit annoying to deal with, but I mostly liked everything else.

The way you need to fight is exactly how DNSKILL5 played this part in its youtube playthrough. Keep cover in the little room and shoot beyond the wall holes and trying to keep cover whereas you are in a messy room. That was the way I was thinking about. No need to be Serious Sam in every area ! haha Sometimes you need to keep covering as you can haha

Thank you so much for these words. It will help me for the next map ! I keep all these advices for sure !
And merry christmas everybody !