[ck3D]

 Merlijn, on 26 March 2023 - 10:57 AM, said:

I just managed a speedrun under 3 minutes from a pistol start:
duke0003.png

Spoiler

could probably be even faster if I did a better job of grabbing steroids

Challenge accepted (CGS, pistol start):



This was second try using a different route from the one I had used for the par times that I knew would be faster but also less fun, and I wanted fun par times. My first attempt actually is the 'previous best time' displayed on the same screen (convenient). I suspect I took the same route you did which off the top of my head has to be one of the fastest possible, but surely there are more wicked ways to exploit the map with how all the steroids (in the center) and jetpacks (around the edges) are positioned, and the way to the exit being just one massive diagonal.

Not downplaying your effort at all by the way, someone getting sub 3 so quickly really surprised me!

I also realized/learned something cool: using the steroids and the jetpack at the same time actually can kind of work, usually that combo sucks because steroids stop boosting Duke's speed as soon as, and for as long the jetpack is turned on. But spamming the J key (like you normally would to save up on jetpack in situations where the item is more dire) with the right timing, you can actually use the momentum from the active steroids in bursts and alternate between both 'modes' really fast, the steroids seem to help you conserve your height (since when the jetpack is turned off Duke's fall covers more horizontal ground thanks to steroids speed, feels like extra momentum) and indirectly also your jetpack since then you start needing less fuel to traverse spaces.

[Ninety-Six]

 ck3D, on 31 March 2023 - 03:49 PM, said:

I also realized/learned something cool: using the steroids and the jetpack at the same time actually can kind of work, usually that combo sucks because steroids stop boosting Duke's speed as soon as, and for as long the jetpack is turned on. But spamming the J key (like you normally would to save up on jetpack in situations where the item is more dire) with the right timing, you can actually use the momentum from the active steroids in bursts and alternate between most 'modes' really fast, the steroids seem to help you conserve your height (since when the jetpack is turned off Duke's fall covers more horizontal ground thanks to steroids speed, feels like extra momentum) and indirectly also your jetpack since then you start needing less fuel to traverse spaces.

*takes furious notes*

[ck3D]

It's a bit hard to describe exactly what I mean but it's rather natural to do in open settings and so I wouldn't be surprised at all if speedrunners already did it, but it feels a bit like air swimming, where the jetpack pulses would be the arm crawling for reach and the steroids the propelling legs. Both 'modes' can sort of be paced like apnea (with subtle dives) to try and optimize Duke's horizontal speed thanks to both falling speed and steroids boost, and also the efficiency of both items with every % one can possibly salvage like that.

[Merlijn]

 ck3D, on 31 March 2023 - 03:49 PM, said:

Challenge accepted (CGS, pistol start):

duke1798.png

This was second try using a different route from the one I had used for the par times that I knew would be faster but also less fun, and I wanted fun par times. My first attempt actually is the 'previous best time' displayed on the same screen (convenient). I suspect I took the same route you did which off the top of my head has to be one of the fastest possible, but surely there are more wicked ways to exploit the map with how all the steroids (in the center) and jetpacks (around the edges) are positioned, and the way to the exit being just one massive diagonal.

Not downplaying your effort at all by the way, someone getting sub 3 so quickly really surprised me!

I also realized/learned something cool: using the steroids and the jetpack at the same time actually can kind of work, usually that combo sucks because steroids stop boosting Duke's speed as soon as, and for as long the jetpack is turned on. But spamming the J key (like you normally would to save up on jetpack in situations where the item is more dire) with the right timing, you can actually use the momentum from the active steroids in bursts and alternate between both 'modes' really fast, the steroids seem to help you conserve your height (since when the jetpack is turned off Duke's fall covers more horizontal ground thanks to steroids speed, feels like extra momentum) and indirectly also your jetpack since then you start needing less fuel to traverse spaces.

Very nice! I neglected to grab steriods for the last part of the run, so I already left a lot of room for improvement

As for my route:

Spoiler

You probably already suspected it, but I did a straight, steroid-fueled run to the train with the blue keycard. This spot conveniently has protective boots and there's a jetpack up in the mountains. Having aquired these items, it's basically a straight line towards the exit from there. As I already mentioned, I neglected to get some extra boost from steroids but still managed to get below 3 minutes!

[ck3D]

 Merlijn, on 01 April 2023 - 05:29 AM, said:

As for my route:

Spoiler

You probably already suspected it, but I did a straight, steroid-fueled run to the train with the blue keycard. This spot conveniently has protective boots and there's a jetpack up in the mountains. Having aquired these items, it's basically a straight line towards the exit from there. As I already mentioned, I neglected to get some extra boost from steroids but still managed to get below 3 minutes!

Yeah that's what I was imagining you were doing and I also did just with extra steps (it sounds like, and almost literally) to get to the protective boots. What I did was steroid spam my way to the jetpack you mentioned (going over the first cliff with the three troopers next to the first non-secret RPG and city view, and then through the jungle-like pit with the three Overlords), then once the jetpack acquired, try and cut corners in every possible way (that came to mind in the moment) as straight as possible to the exit. Flying over the purple lava river with no boots will ruin Duke's HP but there's one spot around the rainforest area where it's doable and then salvageable by the means of Atomic Healths and leaves you just enough jetpack fuel to reach the end. Honestly I think the rainforest actually works well as simultaneously an obstacle and puzzle for speedrunning if the player is trying to cross it like that, the low trees keep getting in your ideal line at all the wrong and yet so right angles, I'm kind of tempted to try and see if it's possible to get sub 2 minutes soon by optimizing that part and also my steroids rush which was decent on my run but also imperfect (there is a whole segment I think I could have managed better if Duke had actually grabbed the steroids I aimed for but missed while already steroid-running due to being on a steep slope, and I chose not to turn back for them but surely that was an eventual time loss).

[ck3D]

Level Lore page for stage 6 "Koj Stil Borac"/Croatia is up, check it out here: https://www.moddb.co...-level-6brl6map



While I was at it I also updated Blast Radius again with realistically nearly unnoticeable cosmetic fixes around that map, as well as the readme.txt and ModDB 'release notes' article with the important note that the included old EDuke32 build has become obsolete now that MAXSPRITESONSCREEN has been raised back to 4096 in the most recent EDuke32 update. Temporarily I'm still providing the old version while I try and find the time to conduct some personal, direct testing with the new one, but it's very likely it'll be gone from the archive download soon now, and I'll have to make a new version of some pages of the manual whilst at it.

[ck3D]

Seriouscacodemon on Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/seriouscacodemon just traversed all of Blast Radius in two blind sittings, I'm very impressed. I chimed in in chat to assist a bit but really only so much.

Here's their first seven-hour long stream of levels 1-5: https://www.twitch.t...deos/1786574979

And the second 10+ hour long stream of levels 6 to ending including the secret one: https://www.twitch.t...deos/1787535939

[Merlijn]

Progress slowed down a bit, but I did finish map 7 and found the way to the secret level this time. It's really not that hard to find at all, I can't believe I didn't find it during the beta testing

[ck3D]

Thanks for the update on your progress Merlijn, no sweat at all regarding pace, Blast Radius clearly is (to me) best enjoyed naturally, or it will throw the player's aggressive hunger back at them.

Map 7 you say, hmm! Speaking of: https://www.moddb.co...-level-7brl7map



Really might be the richest level in the set along with some others like Zarathustra, probably made for the deepest article yet.

I also updated the episode again with some small time fixes to minor issues throughout map 1-7 I had caught in people's streams (nothing remarkable) and mostly to get rid of the old EDuke32 build from 2017 which originally was included, since the sprite cap was raised again in the most recent EDuke32 build and for everyone I saw stream using it looked perfect. If for some reason this turns out to break anything, please feel free to report. Thanks!

[Merlijn]

The entire story about those catacombs underneath Paris is really fascinating to me, also an interesting parallel between your map and the Paris map from WT that they both include a large underground section.
Although I doubt Levelord knew about the catacombs.

[ck3D]

Yeah the whole thing is fascinating in and of itself, I recommend looking up more videos on the YouTube account that hosts the documentary I embedded in the article (Gaspard Duval), it's a goldmine with many different documentaries shot over the decades, it's great.

I'm glad to hear it piqued your curiosity as one of my motivations behind Blast Radius was to show more of the world to the average video game player that they wouldn't necessarily be subjected to otherwise, but exists for them to discover provided that they're given a pointer. Most every reference or joke around each and every level usually is rooted in actual local lore or cultural/societal/historical heritage, the idea is looking up each and every one of them (well, for the most part) may drive the curious user into just as many rabbit holes. People are exposed to and learn a lot without even realizing it and that can only open personal perspectives and expand minds. Heard similiar feedback from a lot of players, and so I'm very content it's working.

[ck3D]

New update (hopefully) finally fixes the potentially crash-inducing problematic sky rendering (as well as a few overlooked minor cosmetics) in levels 8 and 14/secret. Those should be completely stable now, or better at least (as far as I'm concerned I no longer get the rare glitches). Mostly untested in-game for the time being to please feel free to comment if something else broke!

https://www.moddb.co...d-blast-radius/

Thank you Serious_Cacodemon since it's rewatching your stream of map 8 which suddenly made it click to me what the root issues may have been all this time.

Edit - testing on my side reveals a few glitches left in level 8 the player can still trigger by flying around the edges of the map from certain angles (those were already there) but the most annoying ones from the gameplay area/rooftops seem gone, and level 14 seems clean too but I haven't tested that one nearly as much yet.

[ck3D]

Page for level 8 Norilsk No-Reward is up: https://www.moddb.co...-level-8brl8map



Maybe this part is cool (pun intended, it's in fact not that cool like that), I think I've mentioned it before, but am not sure how many actually realized:

[...] the entire concept for Duke's traversal of this Siberian cityscape was directly inspired by the game "Snake" and most particularly its inception on the Nokia 3310. The idea is that the player shall be contained within the edges of a rectangular map with only 90-degree navigational options and so angular possible turns until they would collect the next colored keycard, then get to expand ahead and into the next line of the level. Successfully reaching all the few available 'goals' would mean coverage of the entire available terrain by the means of successive perpendicular maneuvers and conquests only, culminating with an exit all the way up north out of the map/screen, and the player possibly having just spent two hours playing "Snake" without ever realizing it.

[NNC]

This level is amazing. How did you manage to capture the pure essence of living in Stalin's Soviet Union, that's beyond imagination.

[ck3D]

Thank you, I'm so glad you like that level in particular so much, I agree it's a rather special one (still one of my favorites to play), took the shortest time to make (maybe a week not counting time off, otherwise took three) and then later some of the longest time to populate. As the one real-life locale I'm personally not familiar with and had to solely rely on remote research for in the episode, it was a bit scary in its own right, I really wanted to avoid falling into easy recuperation but it also quickly became evident how just doing the theme justice would require an entire episode of its own.

For the vibe I think it's an oppressive mix of omnipresent saturation (every texture is either rugged with subtle 'worn' graphical detail or vividly colorful, which in theory suggests it's supposed to and should look 'good' or proper but in reality is a lot of selfish busy noise pollution), symmetry/asymmetry of towering structures (with a lot of Duke's action around the map consisting in defacing the symmetry as he progresses), suggestive architecture (in fact the idea for the color-coded progression from building to building spontaneously came the very first time I saw a photo of what the main street looked like) and also the constantly forced 90 degree turns subconsciously make the player's mind a bit numb, it's an open environment and yet they never are guided around anything but straight corners which eventually feels wrong all the while difficult to pinpoint, that plus no indoor locations but the exceptional toxic place probably help convey 'sterile' in different subconscious ways that stack up.

[NNC]

 ck3D, on 28 April 2023 - 01:06 AM, said:

Thank you, I'm so glad you like that level in particular so much, I agree it's a rather special one (still one of my favorites to play), took the shortest time to make (maybe a week not counting time off, otherwise took three) and then later some of the longest time to populate. As the one real-life locale I'm personally not familiar with and had to solely rely on remote research for in the episode, it was a bit scary in its own right, I really wanted to avoid falling into easy recuperation but it also quickly became evident how just doing the theme justice would require an entire episode of its own.

For the vibe I think it's an oppressive mix of omnipresent saturation (every texture is either rugged with subtle 'worn' graphical detail or vividly colorful, which in theory suggests it's supposed to and should look 'good' or proper but in reality is a lot of selfish busy noise pollution), symmetry/asymmetry of towering structures (with a lot of Duke's action around the map consisting in defacing the symmetry as he progresses), suggestive architecture (in fact the idea for the color-coded progression from building to building spontaneously came the very first time I saw a photo of what the main street looked like) and also the constantly forced 90 degree turns subconsciously make the player's mind a bit numb, it's an open environment and yet they never are guided around anything but straight corners which eventually feels wrong all the while difficult to pinpoint, that plus no indoor locations but the exceptional toxic place probably help convey 'sterile' in different subconscious ways that stack up.

As a man born in a socialist country, I guess this one is more connected to me. Have you ever heard the word "phalanstere"? It's a french word created by Charles Fourier and it represents the very """ideal""" world of utopy, merging every culture into one. Hungary's Imre Madach reimagined this place in his birlliant drama/play "Tragedy of Man", and created a dreary dystopian version of it with no diversity, culture, humanity. If there is a french translation, I strongly recommend you to read it. Map8 is a recreation of this phalanster, at least the way I imagine living in it.

BTW. as much as I like this map, emphasis is still on that I like a lot of others as well. I still think the transition from Tokyo to Map10 crazy alien base was another epic thing here. It also showed us how much they dropped the ball with World Tour. This episode couldn't have worked as a commercial release for several reason (difficulty, length, and the sprawling nature of the maps), but conceptually this should have been the blueprint for a world scope episode.

[ck3D]

I really appreciate you sharing about that concept and work. I had heard the term before, usually applied to concrete large-scaled housing projects with varied to little consideration for the social aspect (otherwise it's a rather uncommon word to use in daily French, but practically isn't rare to encounter in that form), and had read about, but never directly read Tragedy of Man, this is a welcome and unexpected refresher that I surely should. In retrospect a lot about Blast Radius general theming, progression and orchestration was inspired by two other classic stories, one being Dante's Divine Comedy and another one being Attar of Nishapur's The Conference of the Birds: https://en.wikipedia...ce_of_the_Birds (with the player loosely being subjected to the Seven Valleys) although it probably takes beating the game and then pondering what just happened for a bit before one can start drawing those parallels.

[NNC]

 ck3D, on 28 April 2023 - 08:56 AM, said:

I really appreciate you sharing about that concept and work. I had heard the term before, usually applied to concrete large-scaled housing projects with varied to little consideration for the social aspect (otherwise it's a rather uncommon word to use in daily French, but practically isn't rare to encounter in that form), and had read about, but never directly read Tragedy of Man, this is a welcome and unexpected refresher that I surely should. In retrospect a lot about Blast Radius general theming, progression and orchestration was inspired by two other classic stories, one being Dante's Divine Comedy and another one being Attar of Nishapur's The Conference of the Birds: https://en.wikipedia...ce_of_the_Birds (with the player loosely being subjected to the Seven Valleys) although it probably takes beating the game and then pondering what just happened for a bit before one can start drawing those parallels.

I've never heard about The Conference of the Birds before, but the synopsis is really interesting, thanks for the tip.

[ck3D]

My pleasure, if ever in search for the book I'd recommend looking into the version illustrated by Peter Sís, one of my favorite illustrators.

[ck3D]

DNSKILL5's save/deathless Damn I'm Good traversal of level 2 is le wowzers:

[Aleks]

 The Watchtower, on 28 April 2023 - 07:36 AM, said:

BTW. as much as I like this map, emphasis is still on that I like a lot of others as well. I still think the transition from Tokyo to Map10 crazy alien base was another epic thing here. It also showed us how much they dropped the ball with World Tour. This episode couldn't have worked as a commercial release for several reason (difficulty, length, and the sprawling nature of the maps), but conceptually this should have been the blueprint for a world scope episode.

I'd challenge the statement of "BR not possibly working as a commercial release". It would need some ironing, sure (particularly regarding the final map and possibly maps 10 and 12 as well), but other than that, it's not too confusing. If stuff like Redneck Rampage and even some Shadow Warrior levels were released commercially back in the day, which both had obscure and cryptic progression or bullshit unfair fights, then I can't see BR being too far our in this aspect. The fact that there's a lot of alternate routes in most of the maps certainly is a strong advantage of BR in favour of my argument here. Also we should consider that most people who would play/buy "retro FPS" games are old-timers who were brought on these games, who are often up for a challenge, novelty and long hours of gameplay - on the contrary to AAA games, where the player often has to be literally guided by his hand. Of course I'm not talking about licensing issues with Build and EDuke here.

Anyway, to chime in about the potential inspiration/interpretation of Blast Radius, and I think 3 months from its release are a fair moment to undertake this topic, is a general and universal tragedy. Fundamentally, it all really amounts to putting Duke in such context, where anything he does turns out to be a bad choice, ultimately leading to the destruction of Earth and possible wipe out of humanity. In particularly, this reminds me a lot of "The Black Freighter" in-universe comic from the "Watchmen" movie. In a broader context, the "journey" of Walter White from "Breaking Bad" as well.

[ck3D]

I'm abstaining from in-depth commentary and explicit answers for a bit still, and the following does in fact qualify as end game spoilers (so scroll away right now if you're trying to avoid those), but I just want to say Duke does technically save (some of) humanity in the ending. Even in that questionable reality, he can free the imprisoned humans on Zarathustra, and even if he doesn't press those switches the prison door still opens later after he defeats the ship (revealing a room of distant, barely discernable female and male human silhouettes), and then the same ship with the humans on it can be seen in Closure, successfully (?) escaping. So there is that ray of hope in there (albeit Hellstar Remina ending levels of it), was very important for me to have in regardless of how, maybe especially if cryptic. For a bit I had the humans visibly enter the ship in level 12 but promptly gave up on the idea after struggling against the incompatibilities in my wonky conveyor belt and timed door set-ups at the time (and then invested the regained resources elsewhere).

Duke's actions throughout the entire game probably appear even worse the moment one understands the position and nature of the aliens. Maybe the most explicit giveaway (in map text hints aside) is one particular piece inside that one last museum.

Ah and the Level Lore pages have a DNSKILL5's Corner now, I'll be sharing those DIG playthroughs of every map. For now levels 1 and 2 are up.

[Seb Luca]

What a gigantic and dynamic level! Well done and played

[ck3D]

Merci! DNSKILL5's DIG Big Apple Smoke Tokin' is now up:

[ck3D]

While I'm finalizing the article about level 9/Tokyo, a new update is up, featuring some minor technical and cosmetic tweaks to levels 9 (mostly around its secret places; in particular, fixes issues Ninety-Six caught a while back in that department IIRC) and 13 (to avoid too strong of an immersion breakage during a scripted sequence if the player uses cheats to get to fly around). Can grab it here: https://www.moddb.co...3d-blast-radius

[ck3D]

Level 9/Nakano Nightmare/Tokyo article is now up: https://www.moddb.co...-level-9brl9map



As we're just about to start entering end game territory I'm probably going to be taking a short break from that series (originally had zero planning to it but so far spontaneously ended up being one article every other week). Need to focus on work these days anyway but I will still be updating the project (I just did again just to fix one misaligned texture, please pardon me) and posting different stuff, we'll see.

Special thanks to the ModDB staff for so many features, and to DukeNukemGold for the very first Ko-Fi tip.

[ck3D]

Here's a YouTube playlist of every music track featured in Blast Radius, in their original form by their respective artists, and all arranged according to level order. For the vibes:

https://youtube.com/...6nwP_-eYP9WZbMZ

[ck3D]

The entire enemy roster is now up on ModDB (end game spoilers are marked) : https://www.moddb.co...e-alien-roaster

[NNC]

Copium, lol.

[Merlijn]

Damn, it's been too long since I finally got back into Blast Radius. Anyway I've finished the secret level!

Lights, camera, revolution

This map takes us to Paris, and it's here that we get to the next step on the escalation ladder. We're introduced to new enemy variants, including the assault assaulter: a grey liztroop with a devastating attack. And that's not the only dangerous bastard out there. From here on out you better keep moving because you'll be dealing with enemies spewing extremely deadly projectiles! This means a fundamental shift in gameplay, which pretty much started from map 2 but kicks into full gear here. Every enemy now has several variants, ranging from your basic grunt to super deadly assholes. So this drastically changes the approach to combat, as you'll have to constantly adapt, switch weapons and quickly determine which targets should be prioritized. I personally really enjoy this but it is more taxing than the original game so I can only enjoy it in small doses.

Now onto the map itself: I'm glad some issues from the beta version have been smoothed out, the background scenery also looks better now. The build interpretation of the Eiffel tower is just cute. I like the vertical nature of the street area and the way it encloses the museum. Like all maps in BR, the scale is pretty damn huge and conquering all ground will take some time. The museum is definitely a highlight in the episode, it really makes for a fun and creative use of sprites and textures to create all types of artwork. A lot of the French jokes fly over my head but you can tell this was made by someone who actually lives in France. It's interesting to compare this one to the Paris map in World Tour, because there are some parallels. Both don't feature the most famous landmarks, except for the eiffel tower in the background. And both have a large underground section with alien structures. CK3D already talked about his inspiration from the real life Paris catacombs, and it's endlessly fascinating to me. Also that just begs for a solid horror movie, but I digress.

Overall it's another worthy map in the episode, and the European architecture is nicely represented to make it look distinct from the American levels. For some reason I didn't find the secret map during beta testing, in hindsight its location seems so obvious!

Duke du Quatrain

The secret map takes us to a smaller French city, or at least what's left of it. The apocalyptic nature of the invasion becomes more clear with each level, as we only find little chunks of what used to be a city floating in a sea of deadly superlava. So this is the first time I played this level, but it immediately joins the ranks as one of my favorites. The main idea here is hop from island to island, which means you have to quickly cross the lava before your boots or health run out. Taking damage is pretty much unavoidable as you need to cross great distances. But this only underscores the sense of danger and hopelessness.

I really enjoy the design here, the suburban areas forming a stark contrast with the endless sea of purple lava. I recognize some of these locations from ck3d's early Anarchy City series, I assume it's based on the same real life areas in his neighbourhood. But they've been given the BR treatment, which basically means that the scale has been really expanded. Still, ck3d finds time to add tiny details (like the slide and the swing in one of the gardens) that add a ton of character to the world. What baffles me the most is how he got away with the size of this map. It's maybe not as big as map 4, but here there's nothing blocking your view. From certain angles you will see the entire map, which pushes the engine to its limits and may actually cause the game to crash. Saving often is recommended.

Progression felt natural, with each island giving you more tools to reach the next one. Overall I really enjoyed his one, and seeing a new interpretation of those old AC locations added a sense of nostalgia as well.

Next up is the Norisk map!