[ck3D]

Wassup players and a happy new year to all. On this very special day, I hereby present it to you: Koodbool, absolutely the best Duke 3D map of 2023 so far. Tons of shoot shoot, many a bang bang, the Duke Nukem II intro cutscene skyline and many more surprises I won't spoil, but you absolutely should feel free to - in this very thread - once you've come across them - please. My screenshots show none of the cooler stuff.

Difficulty settings, Dukematch and Coop supported. 11 secret places to find, breaks the old limits (ever so gently), classic/software mode recommended.

I meant this to be a Christmas map except I started it on the 24th, which didn't help achieve such a goal. However, after just about a week of work (including two 30-hour mapping sprees), you now get to play Koodbool.

Typing those few lines took half an hour because my Macbook is dying. Maybe you'll even run into it.

'nough said. Enjoy Koodbool!

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Attached File(s)

•  KOODBOOL.rar (119.36K)
  Number of downloads: 210

[Dr.Panico]

Damn, what a ride! Took me 51 minutes to beat, all enemies down, but missing 4 secrets.

You're like the Bob Ross of Duke3D user mapping. You can create amazing and intricate maps in a very short period of time. Most mappers would probably take a month or more to make a map like this.

The map was very fun and intense, with some truly amazing vistas. It was fun shooting off enemies from a long distance, even when Autoaim and Build shenanigans kept getting in my way. It's a nice way to kick-off 2023.



Still hyped for Blast Radius!!!

[Merlijn]

What better way to start the new year than a new ck3d speedmap?

It's pretty amazing that you can create such a solid and large map in such a short time! I think this one is easily on par with your last speedmap.
These maps really feel like they take place in their own little universe, which is really cool. Also appreciated all the jokes and readable computer screens.

Gameplay-wise it took me a while to get my footing, I didn't find the conventional weapons straight away so I was mostly using pipe-bombs and the pistol in the beginning. Taking out commanders with pipe-bombs is pretty tricky but doable haha. Once I got my hands on most of the weapons the map became a lot easier but still not a walk in the park at all. You need to keep moving due to all the snipers on top of the buildings outside of the gameplay area, otherwise you'll loose health fast. To be honest I sometimes found those sniping lizzies and commanders a bit annoying, but I get why they're there. It puts extra pressure on the player to keep moving and to prioritze targets. And there's plenty of health to find for the observant player.

I did find the slippery ice a bit annoying, cool idea but I would have decreased the speed a bit. I got hurled into the slime multiple times.

Layout never felt confusing, as there's plenty of viewscreens and hints to help the player out. I especially liked the jump from the building into the pools (and the way it was hinted at was funny).
There are also 2 really cool set pieces in the map, which I won't spoil here since the map is just out. But they do add that little bit of extra spectacle.

Found 10 out of 11 secrets.
Overall I had a lot of fun, can't wait for Blast Radius!

[formerlyTodd]

Still not finished (using DP) but holy cow! This was done in a week!!

Thank You @ck3D, this is a superb New Year's treat.

[Quacken]

Alright! I played this map as soon as I saw this. I was excited to get into another CK3D speedmap, and...

Koodbool

While Koodbool is certainly extremely well made and it commands a ton of respect, this is by far my least favourite out of your speedmaps. Let's start with the good stuff first though. As always, Koodbool hits it out of the park visually. There are great uses of colour and texturing, and the security cameras both provide useful hints towards navigation and some humor. The pacing is also pretty decent too. I also like the setpieces in this map. The crane being revealed with a pillar of light is certainly strange, it's definitely very impressive on a technical level. The pacing is also pretty good It's pretty simple to walk through the parking lot, up the elevator and activate a panel to reveal the crane thanks to the hint you get from a security camera, and key switches are big and easy to find, with distinguished landmarks to help you keep track of where they are. Finally, while the music isn't my favourite from these speedmaps, it's still fast paced and electrifying when you're fighting monsters.

And now the bad stuff - but mostly the combat. Monster window dressing in this map is stretched so far that it turns from being a fun way to keep moving to being a pain in the ass. A lot of fights get spoiled because you're constantly taking little bits of chip damage that you have no way of avoiding without resorting to extremely safe strategies. The fight that unleashes a cloud of Octabrains would have been fun if there weren't extremely fast Trooper pellets donking you for 7 damage each time, Commander rockets coming from the left and a Battlelord vomiting grenades from the middle. Since nothing forces you out where you're vulnerable, the best strategy here is to just camp the middle and endlessly wait for Octabrains to show up four at a time until you've blown them all up with your own rockets. And with each key you pick up there's another wave of these guys who've found their favourite hiding spot. The fight with three Battlelords on the structure formed near the ice field is another slog. Never mind the fact that the ice itself is horrendously unstable and filled with random conveyor belts that do nothing except you get killed, there's literally an Assault Trooper per building in the background, and they will do the majority of the damage to you instead of the three big guys with Chainguns. Not even when you get the Jetpack does taking out the bleachers become any easier, as you get blocked by an invisible wall before you can get any close. Very uncharacteristic for this mapping style. Taking the car through the moon tunnel to smash into the back of an Overlord is definitely another cool setpiece, but having to backtrack through the tunnel just to blow up Commanders and Turrets in the dark isn't fun at all, even when you put Steroids on the sides to make reaching the exit again easier.

I still think Koodbool is a good map, but the combat in this map can drag quite a bit, and it borders on being genuinely unfun for me due to the window dressing, lack of health and ammo for the Shotgun and Chaingun, and the plethora of hitscanners.

8/10.

[Danukem]

Is jumping down to that pool area the intended way to proceed? It's what I ended up doing. It requires either a strafe jump, or using steroids (which are plentiful).

I was stuck prior to that because I saw the blue keycard and realized I neeed to get the metal doors open to reach it. But I couldn't find the button. I had already been to the roof area pictured, and opted not to jump across at that time because it didn't seem like what I was supposed to do. I think only Duke veterans would see that as a possible jump and I generally avoid those kinds of moves because they often lead to sequence breaking.

EDIT: I now realize there was a ramp up to that area of broken concrete that was the intended way to reach it. I had just missed the ramp for some reason, lol.
EDIT2: Actually no the ramp only helps you get down without damage once you are up there. It doesn't reach quite high enough to get you up there in the first place. So my question stands.

[Quacken]

Danukem, on 01 January 2023 - 05:38 PM, said:

Is jumping down to that pool area the intended way to proceed? It's what I ended up doing. It requires either a strafe jump, or using steroids (which are plentiful).

I was stuck prior to that because I saw the blue keycard and realized I neeed to get the metal doors open to reach it. But I couldn't find the button. I had already been to the roof area pictured, and opted not to jump across at that time because it didn't seem like what I was supposed to do. I think only

Jumping to the pool area definitely seems like the intended way to proceed. Though you're right in the fact that it looks like a sequence break. The rubble helping you to drop down from that area could have been lifted up more to provide a less suspicious way of accessing the switch. I jumped that gap too also thinking it was a sequence break, but I did it usually because CK3D's speedmaps often seem like they're built for you to take shortcuts through them.

[Danukem]

I have finished the map and it was very good. I especially enjoyed the first half (chronologically -- as in I more enjoyed the first half of the time I spent playing it). The sense of openness in the streets was well balanced with the ability to get to cover and reach indoor areas. My favorite part was exploring the building right near the player start position. The use of verticality in ck3d's maps is excellent, both in terms of what it adds to the visuals and the gameplay. I wish that more mappers took notes on that.

On the minus side, I feel that some of the quirkiness took away somewhat from the quality of the experience. For example, I agree with Merlijn that the high-speed conveyers were annoying, and honestly I don't see the point of them. The long jump across buildings also didn't seem right to me -- mainly because it highlights how ridiculous Duke 3D can be, rather than try to hide the ridiculousness, which is what I generally prefer unless it's explicitly an avant-garde or intentionally weird map. A lot of the enemy spawns were questionable, but it wasn't a big problem. But there were many times when enemies would spawn very far away and I would hunt them down, either because I figured I would have to eventually or because I didn't want them taking potshots at me. The end of the level is a good example of this, I went back and killed everything in the tunnel and then realized I could have just saved time and ended the level.

All in all, still a very good map and I enjoyed it a lot.

[ck3D]

Thank you for all the comments - I appreciate every single one of them.

Yeah that steroids jump is intended - the sign Dan's screenshots cuts actually is the main hint (alongside the 'local barista beats long jump world record' news flash on one of the screens; you get the steroids en masse at the Sec Torrefactor). My intention there was to have the player stop for a second thinking 'and now what?', look down for a possible path and see not just the two pools but also the huge ass flashing 'YOLO' sign. Some players i.e.. Merlijn seem to pick up on that just fine (that actually was the greatest thing to read last thing before going to sleep last night), so I think I'm fine with the execution there for what it is. I want to teach players to think out of the box in certain situational scenarios where they have to make choices and take risks, it's thrilling to actually be uncertain and step into the possible foreign. Of course with user maps in general you never know what's 'intended' or not, but mine usually have that under control (and players like Quacken who play several of my levels seem to learn and appreciate that about them, developing that sense of trust). There's also a part of me who thinks that if the player is unaware of mechanics the base game has always featured for close to 30 years, most of them covered in the manual or most everywhere online, then by definition that's on the player, when especially inventory item use is rich of possibilities that exist - I'm trying to not sum up Duke 3D just to the guns but also consider all the possibilities at play, including the game's extreme physics and quirky/broken mechanics. Duke Nukem isn't just a badass because he can kill shit, he's also a badass because he can take the plunge off buildings and safely land into a small puddle like the 'living' action hero trope that he is. From third person view, I usually imagine the character would even throw in a stylistic pirouette just like he would in the original platformers. One of my favorite aspect of the original Duke Nukem character is how in spite of the looks and attitude, he's in fact an artist who ignores that aspect of himself (unless he's canonically writing a best seller book). Dude couldn't just survive a nuclear explosion, he would dance fucking ballet amidst - and he most likely would have caused and scripted it all.

Re: 'ice physics' - their speed actually can't be helped and is forced to be set to max since that is the only way floor textures on conveyor belts won't scroll (relative alignment doesn't come into play there). I think their speed itself is actually fine and fittingly zipping, but maybe it's the patches of ice sector themselves that are a bit obscene; they clearly aren't very refined. They're all marked, though, accordingly to the new government measures where after 69 people dead they finally unlocked budget for 'safety measures' in the form of the blue and yellow cones, as explained at the entrance of the ice rink. That effect needed to be gross and intrusive anyway, it's a gimmick - I can be a bit of a troll or buffoon - the whole idea is for the structure of the arena itself to encourage Doom type of play where you gather monsters at the center in a group, before launching your onslaught - but at the same time throw that off completely with the zippers and having to keep an extra eye out for the cones and your general spatial awareness (instead of just looking at the monsters trying to achieve a task you've already performed thousands of times). Completely safe ground under the form of the solid goo comes at the cost of having to endure closer combat.

There's a lot about this map in particular that's really explained or made easier if the player actually pays close attention to the bits of detail - absolutely every element in the map is either useful, or a reference. The more patient, observant or thoughtful players will be duly rewarded with less frustration, that is until they equally slip into the slime pit.

Bit of a spoiler (I really don't care to be honest) but the central effect of the map and thing the bogus goo turns into is supposed to evoke a Christmas tree (so an alien one I would suppose), also explaining all the decorations/items/card falling into place.

Another thing I try teach players to use differently is weapons too in fact. A lot of the encounters in this map are encounters are that specifically designed to throw you off in terms of which guns you'd normally use against which enemy; for instance trying to use the shrinker against the big group of Commanders (normally the best gun against the individual foe) won't work, as you'll get blasted trying to reach and stomp the ones you've shrunk by the ones you haven't yet. But then that means the freezer becomes the best gun, since now you can strafe around the group, blast it with freeze ray, and the Commanders you don't reach will blast the ones you do into smithereens. So it's a lot of Commanders but also not enemy spam as long as you're provided with an easy option out. The expander straight up erases drones, too, and the RPG is better for (actually) long distance kills and sniping than the pistol. Everyone has their own limitations on their grasp of the possibilities of the game (just yesterday I saw an experienced Duker streaming who didn't know you could break Duke Burger Jolly Meals for Atomic Healths), and whilst traditional patterns exist and should be considered the only way forward anyway is to embrace and explore all the rest. Codes exist so that we can play with them all we like.

I actually really want to hear about the references in there that people will or won't get. Everything around the 3DR Denmark studios is interactive from the whiteboard (gotta use the marker - repeatedly) to the computers (hence using Mapster to literally build your path forward, since Duke is that badass he'll hack the meta) but there are also tons of references to movies, or cute little detail here and there, or the sequence where Duke rolls up and smokes a spliff before heading back to the four Battlelords 'high'. So as the author I'm in the dark when it comes to what people do recognize or don't - I'm not even sure which set pieces Merlijn liked, for instance, but obviously I'm curious.

Now there's one map bug I've noticed in a video where some enemy projectiles can traverse glass one way through certain angles, but your own projectiles can't, I didn't realize that was possible there until I saw it. It's probably a simple, dumb blocked maskwall thing, so I might drop an update fixing that a bit later, because this kind of unfair situation I can't have (the map in its current state still is very playable, though; those angles are exceptional and unlikely, and that's probably all I'll be fixing on this one).

The sum of the speed maps, I think at the end of the day I'll end up regrouping an episode called Dada Nukem. Now, working on this really has fueled me to finalize Blast Radius as soon as possible this month. But now I get to say that if I'm too slow at working on my episode, it's only because I'm basically working on a second episode (even myself I just realized that).

Thank you for playing!

[Dr.Panico]

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I actually really want to hear about the references in there that people will or won't get. Everything around the 3DR Denmark studios is interactive from the whiteboard to the computers (hence using Mapster to literally build your path forward, since Duke is that badass he'll hack the meta)

Holy smokes, I didn't know you could interact with the whiteboard! Actually, there's a fair share of details I've missed in my first playthrough (and even in my second, where I just activated DNMONSTERS and explored the map for hidden details). Very clever indeed. You seem to be really fond of hiding little goodies in the background; something I've been noticing since Happy Hangover at least.

I think I got all the references (that I've found so far). The only one that's a little confusing...

Spoiler

...is the Duke Nukem Schrodinger one.

[ck3D]

Thanks a whole lot, ah that one is one of my favorites and proudest ones. Duke Nukem 5chrödinger is the new Duke Nukem 5 secret game 3DR has been working on, and it's based on Schrödinger's cat: https://en.wikipedia...ödinger%27s_cat

The idea is that everything may be inside the box, and there might not even be a game in there at all. It's just the most absolute logical extension possible to 4Ever and as such their best possible concept.

Idea behind the whiteboard joke is someone gets grounded for criticizing Scott Miller's Twitter direction (until they mess even that up).

I also wonder who turned around at the end of the map and realized what their vehicle actually had been the whole time.

[Merlijn]

I think what helped me to understand 'I'm supposed to jump here' was the fact that there were 2 pools instead of 1. Sounds a bit silly, but 1 pool could still have been an oversight but having 2 clear options plus tons of steroids lying around made me connect the dots (and that's without counting the other hints in the environment). There's also a somewhat similar jump in the first Shaky Grounds, although that one doesn't require steroids, so that helped as well.

As for the 2 set pieces, I meant the forming of the christmas tree and the train ride at the end. I always like it when an event completely changes the scenery, just makes the game more dynamic. I suspected something would happen to the alien goo and was happy to be proven right haha. The final ride was just a cool way to finish the map. BTW I'm not a completionist so I didn't bother to go back and kill everything. So things like that are less annoying to me than others.

Your remarks about weapon usage are very insightful, regarding the cloud of commanders I did quickly realize the shrinker was no good but I ended up mostly using the RPG. Make sure they were grouped together to get maximum damage per shot. I only knew the expander is useful against sentry drones because you mentioned it once, it's not the first weapon that comes to mind when dealing with them. It is a very effective tool against them, but bear in mind that it's not common knowledge (or maybe it is and I just happened to never take notice.. who knows ).

[ck3D]

Ah I'm stoked you liked the last vehicle ride, I'm quite happy about that one too as (to me) it feels like a particularly Duke Nukem moment, and I was a bit skeptical about it when I first implemented it too and it was still static but with the action I think it works. In itself it's a very loose reference and 'Duke Nukem 3D reimagining' of this movie sequence, I even imagined highlighting that a bit more but doing so would have taken away from other references I already have to the same movie in a Blast Radius level that I like:



(By the way, did anyone else ever also observe how similar the Duke 3D assault trooper and enforcer's facial designs are to the generic goons' in that 1993 movie?)

If this had been Blast Radius and so included new sounds, though, I would have had the Satriani song playing; even considered it as the map's midi at some point. I actually had another .mid I liked a bit better for this map in mind the whole time I spent working on it, but as a level it turned into something too long and so I needed this longer and more varied one to really function on a loop. And so I also took the opportunity to make the vehicle another reference to something else.

Christmas tree was the map's original central effect that started and dictated everything. Map came out barely a week late and somehow the reference already seems dated and Christmas isn't on anyone's mind anymore, it's already back to business, I think that's funny to observe. (And mine also isn't a very good Christmas tree, ha)

[Danukem]

ck3D, on 02 January 2023 - 03:27 AM, said:

Thank you for all the comments - I appreciate every single one of them.

Yeah that steroids jump is intended - the sign Dan's screenshots cuts actually is the main hint (alongside the 'local barista beats long jump world record' news flash on one of the screens; you get the steroids en masse at the Sec Torrefactor). My intention there was to have the player stop for a second thinking 'and now what?', look down for a possible path and see not just the two pools but also the huge ass flashing 'YOLO' sign. Some players i.e.. Merlijn seem to pick up on that just fine (that actually was the greatest thing to read last thing before going to sleep last night), so I think I'm fine with the execution there for what it is.

Yeah it seems obvious in retrospect. In my defense, in most maps signs are pretty random and players haven't been educated to read them. Also, I'm not going to read signs when I'm being shot at, and after all the enemies are dead I've been in the area for a while and I just don't think of it (that's on me, though).

[Aleks]

Played it and enjoyed it more than I would expect, after Red Light Rumble it's definitely my 2nd favourite out of these 4 ck3D speed maps! I've already talked a lot about this map with ck3D after playing and during the development, but here are my more general comments anyway:

• Surprisingly, the ice didn't bother me that much, but then again I didn't really go to the frozen lake that much after realising it can be risky. It was also funny seeing monsters being pushed around like crazy. After Aymeric told me how crazy the speed is, I was expecting this to play a lot worse than that;
• What did bother me where the monsters shooting from an extremely large distance, although it did made the tunnel fight way more interesting (I jumped off of the bobsleigh as soon as I passed the forcefields to have the rockets coming just from one way - unfortunately, I didn't notice the overlord sequence at the end because of it). This was mostly troopers and occassional pig cops though, but especially at the beginning it felt quite like a chore. But this is basically my only complaint about the combat;
• Didn't have any problems here with finding all the 11 secrets without going to extra lengths looking for them, even some of them I marked by accident and then wondered what happened; however, this kind of hints at the problems I've had with the confusing progression here, even after hearing about some of the stuff earlier;
• In particular, it took me a while to figure out you need to "use" the Mapster to build a crane, even though ck3D actually told me about this earlier - I opened a secret from x0r's computer and thought that was the intended way, especially since it also spawned a lot of monsters both ahead of me and on the way back. Also I completely forgot about the "hash stash" apartment, despite seeing the screens - I just jumped onto the alien structure from the crane losing like 20 HP and got my jetpack there. Had absolutely no problems figuring out the pool jump though, was super clear for me, despite stuff like that one crack on the yellow core pillar;
• Had absolutely no problems with a lot of the fights mentioned here - the first octabrain wave is easy to avoid by just not opening the window first and killing off the commanders/battlelord first, the battlelords on the alien structure can be easily killed from distance before they "awake" since they are respawned and so active all the time (I just launched 5-6 rockets at each one of them and hid somewhere, they were dead before they even knew what hit them) and the large commander fight was quite naturally dealt with here by just going right from the door and into the narrow alley where they would line up for easy RPG kills. The turrets at the entrance to the blue key building were quite crazy since they just spam you before you realise where they are, so that's another thing I didn't particularly like that much;
• Loved the jokes and the references - at least the ones I found. Cool effect with the writing on the whiteboard, even the sound for it was perfect, great touch! Also, even if I didn't catch this progression in the correct order, I appreciate how by "getting high" you actually get jetpack and are able to fly. Almost as cheesy as seeing yourshelf in the mirror
• Also nice touch with the small traffic at the end, liked it a lot more than the cars that drive around the main player area (even if they do lead to some funny situations). And the Citizen Kane secret was also very cute, nice detail on the painting there!

ck3D, on 02 January 2023 - 11:03 AM, said:

(By the way, did anyone else ever also observe how similar the Duke 3D assault trooper and enforcer's facial designs are to the generic goons' in that 1993 movie?)

Hmmm to be honest watching any sci-fi flick with aliens from the 80s or 90s I realise "hey it looks like an enemy from Duke 3D".

Quote

Christmas tree was the map's original central effect that started and dictated everything. Map came out barely a week late and somehow the reference already seems dated and Christmas isn't on anyone's mind anymore, it's already back to business, I think that's funny to observe. (And mine also isn't a very good Christmas tree, ha)

Maybe it's just a green alien Christmas Poop?

[DNSkill]

Great work, ck3d! I really enjoyed the open design of this one and the enemy placement was really well done. I was surprised not to see any enforcers but I can’t complain. I didn’t find the layout to be confusing either. I think this map fits well with the previous few maps you’ve released, as if they all take place within the same general area of the world, neo LA. I really like the use of sniper positions and the ending sequence was awesome as well. I also loved the Easter eggs!

[ck3D]

Thanks heaps for the video and fantastic gameplay DNSKILL, you got yourself in some wild situations and always pulled through, even developed your own strats around the navigation of the map which I loved seeing recognized and utilized like that, some cool stuff I hadn't realized could happen too occasionally such as that Pigcop coming down with you in the first elevator. That one last rocket shot from behind coming your way and only so slightly faster than the bobsleigh was a good ten seconds of uh oh. You really did the level justice, nice one completing it on DIG semi blind, really can't be easy. Cheers!

[ck3D]

MSDN review: https://msdn.duke4.net/hotkoodbool.php thank you Mikko!