[ck3D]

Damn, good luck then, that confirms you'll really need those tips I dropped. Feel free to let me know again if stuck, the problem in the version you're playing essentially was all the key sections were in place already, but felt disconnected in purpose which in a map with so much geography available really sucked (I do intend the player to feel overwhelmed in the end game, but not so much in that sense); whereas in the current version should be a lot easier to keep track of whatever it is that gets affected with each action and so the transitions from one region of the map to the next flow a lot better (hopefully, and again to an extent, since this is still meant to be a pretty mean map).

Something a bit reassuring to me is the current version also has less sprites and thus should be a tad less likely to crash like it happened to you, but your report still helps with better estimating the threshold. (It's also a bit prettier in some odd spots that used to feel a bit poor)

[Sanek]

ck3D, on 24 February 2023 - 11:34 AM, said:

Damn, good luck then, that confirms you'll really need those tips I dropped. Feel free to let me know again if stuck, the problem in the version you're playing essentially was all the key sections were in place already, but felt disconnected in purpose which in a map with so much geography available really sucked

Yes, please tell me more. I activated the the underwater siwtches but dunno what it does. Didn't find any teleporters there.

[ck3D]

Sorry that was unclear. Those switches unlock the one elevator I was bringing up earlier that used to not look like one and be particularly hard to even spot, getting stuck there in your version I'd say makes sense and has since been worked out the hardest out of all the former issues. You've probably seen cameras pointing to it before, it's the locked door on the northernmost tower with all the glass tunnels, top floor (you could still get inside before through a vent and grab a jetpack, but not activate the elevator), if the switch combo was correct the door should now be open and the elevator triggerable. That should take you to the yellow key eventually. Thanks for putting up with those old flaws, right now must feel annoying with the lack of articulation, hopefully most everything past the yellow key should make up for it (and the flow in those parts has been improved since too, but shouldn't be a problem anymore after my clues and the level itself only gets better, you might start understanding why it's my favorite one in the set soon, gradually).

Stats of my latest casual all kills run in that map look like this, by the way:



By the way it's really cool you mentioned Dark Side of the Moon, my old attempt at a 'space map'. It's probably even older than what you're saying too, I don't especially remember it being ridiculed but I myself found it a bit embarrassing for a while since it's just a rather pointless succession of rooms I made as a kid figuring out the editor. But where it gets interesting (I've actually thought about this before too) is when you realize Postmortem relies on the same basic ideas with a disorientating layout that in part makes no sense, and it even has a Battlelord ship fight. The difference is it has an actual structure and some ambition whereas Dark Side of the Moon probably is one of the most boring Duke 3D user maps ever made, it literally has nothing special to show and so as a release is absurd.

Ah and I'll give you all the clues you might need for this map (especially since you're playing a pretty broken version of it), but solving the next map in itself directly consists in figuring out its rules, so good luck in advance for that one, you'll be on your own!

[Sanek]

Tnx I grabbed the yellow key, finally!

Dang it I visited that elevator numerous times, tried to use a grenade on it, never though of pressing the use button.

Anything important in that underground area beneath the yellow key section? I though there's some buttons or teleports hidden but I can't find anything down there//

[ck3D]

Yes, underground should be a dead-end (near the lava pit with a Battlelord that may or not be there depending on skill level) where it looks like shrunk Duke could fit under a rock. If you turn back, on the pillar right in front of you should be a paw print/switch (it's subtle on purpose, but I might make it larger sometime). That should activate a shrinker in the room, then after slipping under the rock is the way ahead (and indeed something pretty important waiting). You'll know that section is over after you've traversed the entire underwater part, and that's when you will be teleported back to a place where the forcefields on one building should now be deactivated. The red key will be somewhere in that building, and then the red lock is past the blue lock so if you've found the blue key you've run into it.

[Sanek]

Okay, I found the redkey but somehow missed the blue key. The only thing I picked up some blue sphere in the underwater part. Should I revisit the underwater part or what?

[ck3D]

The switch to reveal the blue key is the one I was talking about that is if you keep going up the platforms (or just fly up) in the starting area (so basically if you just continue on the path after you've gotten the first jetpack - if the first one you got is the one I'm thinking of). The first security screen in the map next to the blue lock shows the whole set-up, just both the switch and its consequences are poorly marked in your version (but still the whole area should feel like it's concealing something of interest anyway). Like I was saying to save you time, you should just trigger that switch and just drop straight down into the liquid below (can just trust the green light). Besides that one last dive, you won't need to return to any other underwater part.

[Sanek]

Yes, now i see! Jut returned to to the first underwater part in the beginning.

Ok, now I hope I can finish the map on my own

[Sanek]

...

Attached thumbnail(s)

• 

[ck3D]

Cool beans. Good luck for the last one, you're on your own there (you didn't find the secret level by the way right?), but to compensate for the frustration from playing a broken version of the previous map I'll drop just one elusive hint: somewhere really close to the start is a semi secret way to a guide, if you can find it and then decipher it. But maybe it will be more simple to just focus on the action, I don't know (you might have little choice anyway), since while the mechanics of the map are crazy and designed to overwhelm you for a bit, the actual tasks to perform are pretty rudimentary.

[Sanek]

Okay, so I find enough will to play the next level and finally finished the damn thing!

So...Zarathustra is probably the biggest, craziest level I ever played for this game, and most certainly I'd never play it again hahaha.

It's just one thing after another. It's like one of the maps that I dreamed about when thinking "how would a map look live if you can use 2MB of space instead of 1MB?". And you actually did it with 1.
AFAIK you don't play much of Doom games, but this whole level had the "penultimate Doom 2 level" vibe to it.

It took me awhile to find anything, and even with author's help it took me about 80 minutes to complete! Perhaps updating the mod would be a good idea. You basically have to exlopre every available corner of the map after you pressed anything, but the biggest problem for me was finding the blue key. It would be a lot easier if the water tunnels where you drop in the start of the level would switch colors.
Like the dukebots with funny sound effects. Also the music perfecly fits the game - it's like you have a fever dream with no end in sight.

Oh, and perhaps I made my playthrough even harder that it already is - for some miraculous reason, somehow I didn't find the shrinker!


Closure/Monopoly is a very interesting level concept-wise but it's so unfair I almost considered calling it a day here. After numerous attempts I managed to finish it under 12 minutes. Not so afair after all, where you know exactly where to go, but the final wave of dukebots in the very end is completely unfair and unnecessary imo. Also the end if very trippy - I don't know whether it's good or bad lol.


Whew! I know there's a secret level I didn't find, but I'll try to return to it someday.


In concluson - Blast Radius is monumental achievement in the history of a user-map contect for Duke Nukem 3D. While it's just another set of map with some new code, it truly feels you/we broke some new limits there, like we did with Imperium, AMC TC and WGR2. And now, it's time for Blast Radius to be on the same list!


Bravo, ck3D! Thank you!

[formerlyTodd]

I'm on my own, slow journey through the awesome juggernaut that is Blast Radius.

@ck3D BR is turning out to be more challenging than upon first glance. I'm going to complete everything, then carefully re-evaluate whether adding DukePlus AI/enemies will be worth the effort (I still think it would be, but I'm only through most of level 2..).

I'm not at all bailing Thanks again for all of this.

[ck3D]

@Sanek I'm glad you could at least somewhat enjoy Zarathustra despite the issues in the version you had, thing with that map is I really wanted it to be a challenge except I realized a little late that said challenge wasn't necessarily incompatible with good flow and that in fact the pacing of the action was so frantic it downright needed good flow, so even if via small but hopefully significant things I've been focusing on enhancing just that. Lights changing colors once that one switch is triggered is a fantastic idea, I like that a lot better than the security screen I added, I might actually try and implement that instead, thanks for suggesting that! One more thing I want to do is make that one underground paw switch impossible to miss, and I think the whole yellow key quest thing already has enough hints thrown in in the level's current state but I may keep refining them. One part I'm also relieved you didn't need help on is the turret puzzle (I'm guessing the view screen helped quite a bit).

I'm actually quite familiar with, and inspired by DooM by the way, never played any of the modern installments but I grew up on DooM 1 & 2 (but mostly 1 on the SNES and so with no saving system) and then a bit later DooM 64 (I think my favorite). Haven't touched those games in forever though, the last time was 1 many years ago on a plane as it had DooM as a selectable game you could play of their little monitors (I appreciated that) on which it ran at maybe 5 FPS, I died in level 4. Also used to play Quake and then Turok and Goldeneye a fair bit but I don't think those ever really influenced my direction much; Turok did the most maybe.

That you missed the shrinker makes sense, it's right at the start of the map but on the lower levels and so the reward for exploring around all the liquid pits. But it's also pretty funny you literally never found it (could have spotted it later just jetpacking around) because it does help a shit ton in this map, allows you to insta kill the N.U.K.U.M.s for instance and can come in handy in places like the underwater section. It's also the best way to handle the last wave of N.U.K.U.M.s in Closure too, but to get to it in that map is a bit of its own absurd little adventure. I wonder how many rules to that level you eventually ended up figuring out; there's quite a lot of sometimes really stupid stuff to trigger.

Also did you run into your ego? It only gets in your way if you let it and otherwise kind of is just there.

[Sanek]

@ck3D Glad that you'll be using my suggestion in the future update, really cool!

ck3D, on 26 February 2023 - 01:57 AM, said:

One part I'm also relieved you didn't need help on is the turret puzzle (I'm guessing the view screen helped quite a bit).

I actually spent about 5 minutes running around the prison looking for clues but yeah, the view screen helped me in the end.

ck3D, on 26 February 2023 - 01:57 AM, said:

That you missed the shrinker makes sense, it's right at the start of the map but on the lower levels and so the reward for exploring around all the liquid pits. But it's also pretty funny you literally never found it (could have spotted it later just jetpacking around) because it does help a shit ton in this map, allows you to insta kill the N.U.K.U.M.s for instance and can come in handy in places like the underwater section.

Yeah, it woulda save me a lotta time lol. I found the expander though, I believe one of the monsters dropped it, so you can say that I found it by accident.

ck3D, on 26 February 2023 - 01:57 AM, said:

Closure too, but to get to it in that map is a bit of its own absurd little adventure. I wonder how many rules to that level you eventually ended up figuring out; there's quite a lot of sometimes really stupid stuff to trigger.

Tbh I don't remember much of a monopoly game (I played it like during one summer 20 years ago), in this map I just run around like crazy looking for anything to press/switch/pickup/etc.

ck3D, on 26 February 2023 - 01:57 AM, said:

Also did you run into your ego? It only gets in your way if you let it and otherwise kind of is just there.

I jumped into that section that have a lot of spheres. The picture looks familiar but I can't be sure if I ended up where you mean xD

[ck3D]

Yeah that is the same place where you ended, but in addition to all the hazards there is an extra semi dormant enemy in there (one last N.U.K.U.M.) that breaks through the engine and you can choose to defeat or ignore if you want. Choice doesn't prevent you from completing the level by doing the right thing.

[ck3D]

Updated again, new version adds some navigation clues, fixes some stuff and adjusts some other stuff, file and changeling are here: https://www.moddb.co...3d-blast-radius

There's some more stuff I'd ideally like to address but nothing drastic, mostly stability concerns in certain levels and so that might be in a while (if ever).

Also posted some more screens:

[Ninety-Six]

dear god


My "real" time was more around 260 minutes (as of the point I saw the exit button), the remaining time was spent searching for 4 lost secrets, one of which took up the bulk of that remaining time.


Also found this:



No idea if it was intentional but it gave me a laugh.

[ck3D]

If you Build it, they will come get some, ladies and gents. Your dedication is incredible! Can venture into the new now, calling it a clean slate. 1550 kills, 72 secrets found, five hours spent simultaneously exterminating an alien army and walking the Inca trail: just another day at the office for Duke Nukem, and it's not even lunch yet.

Had completely forgotten about that smiley face, but yeah I most definitely intended that, I love drawing fun stuff with bush sprites in areas where it doesn't bother gameplay. Usually just my signature though, pretty sure in Incapharnaum it's actually visible somewhere on your left right off the start (or used to be, I'm not sure anymore since I ended up retouching the terrain a little later).

[martynoff]

I'm a lurker here, and this is literally my first post, but I just felt the need to express my awe with Blast Radius. I'm an avid DN3D player and play custom maps every now and then, but Blast Radius simply blew me away. I've been following its release and the constant postpones were so disappointing. A great nod to Duke Nukem Forever, haha. I was really excited to learn that it gets released for real this time. The screenshots kept me drooling over the level design and man, it was worth the wait. I love how it naturally synergizes with LameDuke's vibe and implements all those fancy things the modern BUILD can do and expands Duke's universe with custom enemies, both old and new, without it feeling too... alien? (for the lack of a better word ) Super cool.

Right now I'm at level 10. I'm playing on Come Get Some difficulty. My experience with the gameplay was pretty smooth. The fourth level (the one in nature) at first felt _really_ overwhelming, I didn't know maps of such scale are even possible. I was almost ready to just cheat my way through but decided not to, and I'm glad I did. By random chance, I was able to find the secret level. Very unique style. So far it was the only level where I experienced some visual glitches with the sky looking messed up in some spots, but it was just a minor thing. Maps are reasonably tough to complete and the enemy count is just the right amount to be challenging. I didn't know that I will ever see the expander being used at such frequency. Hell, the enemies use it much more frequently than I ever did during my whole career as a DN3D player.

Overall, playing Blast Radius feels like being twelve again and playing good old Duke Nukem 3D, only I'm much older now and the year is 2023, and PCs are not so big anymore, and the world feels much more complicated than it was back then... but I digress. Can't wait to finish the rest of the game! Thanks for all your efforts, Mr. Ck3D.

[NNC]

ck3D, on 01 March 2023 - 11:49 AM, said:

If you Build it, they will come get some, ladies and gents. Your dedication is incredible! Can venture into the new now, calling it a clean slate. 1550 kills, 72 secrets found, five hours spent simultaneously exterminating an alien army and walking the Inca trail: just another day at the office for Duke Nukem, and it's not even lunch yet.

Had completely forgotten about that smiley face, but yeah I most definitely intended that, I love drawing fun stuff with bush sprites in areas where it doesn't bother gameplay. Usually just my signature though, pretty sure in Incapharnaum it's actually visible somewhere on your left right off the start (or used to be, I'm not sure anymore since I ended up retouching the terrain a little later).

Confess, mortal, even you can't do that!

[Ninety-Six]

Finished level 5. A very much-needed breather after the ordeal in Peru.

Starting to notice a pattern in the level progression. Every other level seems to be a massive, open-ended map where using steroids to get from Point A to Point B is commonplace. In between those levels are much smaller levels that, while still probably larger than vanilla levels in actual size, have you moving through individual spaces that are scaled to about vanilla levels. Glancing at the next level, it seems this trend will continue, which only seems logical. Smart design if intentional.

This might be my favorite level so far. Something about the atmosphere, the combination of scenario, music, and the aesthetic of the plane itself (especially the starting area with all the blues) just does it for me. It also really runs home something BR has had going for it this whole time so far. This really does feel like an adventure we're going on. Which is great, of course, but something that bothers me is I can't pin down why it feels that way. Not that it's necessary to enjoy it of course, but it would be useful information for later reference. Even among my favorite Duke maps, I can't quite think of one that feels this same way.

Spoiler

I also saw a fascinating recreation of the Duke 2 ending screen... not sure if that's significant or if it was created just because you could.

Sorry to report that the game(s) Davy and Linda are a reference to have gone completely over my head.


Also, I'm really curious. How did you create the "AIR" part of the Nukem Air logo? I'm usually pretty good at visually deconstructing vanilla assets when combined in new ways, but I just can't seem to pinpoint where else I've seen the font in this game. It's probably something obvious I'm just blanking on, but as it stands I can't think of an asset it belongs to.

[ck3D]

Lots of really cool messages and questions to address, I sincerely appreciate them; I'll reply in greater depth when I can after I've gotten some sleep which I need pretty badly right now.

For the time being, here are some news:

- Level Lore article for level 2/Embarco is up, a bit more in-depth than the previous one with tons of visuals and info: https://www.moddb.co...-level-2brl2map

- Level Lore article for level 1/Sunset was updated with some complementary detail, nothing major at all but can still be found here: https://www.moddb.co...-level-1brl1map

- updated the Release Notes to refresh info on Polymost-induced issues after getting some new reports in: https://www.moddb.co...s-release-notes

- Blast Radius v.1.0.9 fixes more minor stuff (mainly realistically invisible cosmetics and some leftover non-stayput Assault Generals I was amused to find, those must have been very old): https://www.moddb.co...3d-blast-radius would recommend updating if anyone is still using a pre-March build, it's really been a lot that's been addressed bit by bit since release day but these days things are mostly stable. If worried about save files, remember maps 6, 12 and 13 force pistol start anyway and so level select cheat shouldn't interfere with catching up to those points.

Off to catch some zzz's now, but will be back in a few!

[ck3D]

@martynoff I really appreciate your post, means quite a bit to me, especially the last comment on being twelve again was something I was hoping at least some people would feel. I'm happy to hear the LameDuke/prototype inspirations transpired, too, when an influence is spiritual but the author utilizes it as a means to achieve something original instead of as an end by summing up their work to imitation, they can only ever really be so sure how much actually ends up showing. But so far it's been a lot of people appreciating every possible aspect that I'm getting confirmed did reach and resonated with them - that's been pretty great. The DNF curse thing is something I was trying to watch, yeah; in part because I hate dragging on projects in general (it's one of the most basic creative traps possible, in fact ideally I already should have been moving onto new things by now) but also because I always knew I'd be dealing with players with trauma and the resulting trust issues, not even joking. Part of me was hoping Blast Radius may be probably not strong enough to completely appease some of those common frustrations, but at least suffice for a sedative.

The secret level is modeled after (I guess now literal) chunks of the town I grew up in, I'm glad you liked it. I'd be curious about which spots you were getting messed up skies from if you were playing in classic mode, since otherwise Polymost is unsupported in big part because it can do exactly that, but only most prominently in levels 8 and 14/secret (seems to depend on each player's install a fair bit; for instance I'm surprised you got those breakages in level 14 but not 8 which is reportedly more prone to them, but that's only a positive really). The expander - don't sleep on it, or please do if it turns out you actually don't need it to beat those alien armies but it's actually one of the most powerful weapons in the game (I always recommend trying it on the drones; almost instantly cooks them). Freezer is another weapon most players traditionally regard as gimmicky, but it's got really cool mechanics, same goes about a lot of the inventory items most everyone including beginner mappers can tend to neglect when those have the power to completely flip how the game is played (and so it was important Blast Radius should accomodate to them). Project intent was to compose with all possible dimensions of base Duke 3D and I think the end product might be in position to teach a lot of even longtime hardcore players a few new things; I've been seeing some interesting reactions where the player would assume the firepower of this or that weapon must have been boosted, or Atomic Healths nerfed when in reality they're still composing with untouched values from the game they've always played and just realizing their own strengths and weaknesses once faced with completely new codes, basically. I could go and discuss that stuff for longer, might at some later point but for now it's more interesting for me to observe how people realize how meta Blast Radius really is. I've explained some of it to a very few people but otherwise no one, even and maybe especially including people who've already technically finished the thing, I think realizes yet. The owls aren't what they seem.

@Ninety-Six: I can confirm there's a lot you're getting about the experience so far including picking up on elements which might make sense later, and that's actually really cool to hear what's essentially the confirmation that from the first time you ever expressed interest in the project, a long time ago, you've been correctly recognizing all of the aspects that I also think make it actually interesting. I won't get into details just yet, but all your questions, even the seemingly more casual ones, to me are proof that right now you're feeling exactly as I intended (... hoped) the attentive player would feel. And so for now I won't ruin anything with clear answers but I appreciate all the feedback on your impressions and can indeed confirm you're in for a wild ride.

Technical questions I can answer: the AIR sign well off the top of my head right now I actually can't for sure, it's been a while since I made those but it may have been part of the "EXTERIOR AIRLOCK" sprite just applied as a texture, panned and stretched, possibly with a palette. I'll try to remember and check again sometime, perhaps I forgot but did something more exotic.

Pacing of the whole episode isn't random and was constructed before the levels were even built (hence good control, by just doing things in order). The following might fall under light spoilers regarding the rhythm of the sequencing, but conceptually Blast Radius is composed to the following structural beat, where 100% would be the length and intensity of a typical user map:

Level 1: 75%
Level 2: 250%
Level 3: 125% (this one deliberately pulls a fake out by making the player believe they're in for 40%, 50% at first and then throws all the rest at them at once)
Level 4: 400%

Level 5: 100% (restores some order)
Level 6 & 7 are two very similar scaled and themed maps in succession, 7 technically is a bit more intricate but I'd say both count as 100%
Level 8: 200% but everything can be cheesed
Level 9: 100%

Level 10: 150%
Level 11: 0% (transition level)
Level 12: 350%
Level 13: ???%

Level 14/secret: 100%

The first three paragraph splits each correspond to what I personally consider a different chapter of the adventure, or act. I have my reasons for not technically splitting Blast Radius into three smaller bits, but if I ever changed my mind and did then I'd already have the titles for those too.

The Davys and Lindas are in for revenge after what humanity virtually did to their kinds by creating the ill-received Nintendo 64 games, Chameleon Twist:



Those characters in particular really were mistreated by the IP owners. Davy (blue in the JP versions) got color swapped to green in international releases and replaced with another dude called Jack. And in the original, pre-localization, Linda's name was 'Rinda'. I literally just learned that myself whilst researching visuals, too.

Ah and level 5 also is one of my personal favorites.

[Ninety-Six]

ck3D, on 03 March 2023 - 06:18 AM, said:

Technical questions I can answer: the AIR sign well off the top of my head right now I actually can't for sure, it's been a while since I made those but it may have been part of the "EXTERIOR AIRLOCK" sprite just applied as a texture, panned and stretched, possibly with a palette. I'll try to remember and check again sometime, perhaps I forgot but did something more exotic.

Just checked and yeah, that's definitely it. I think the reason it didn't come to my mind (and correct me if I'm wrong) is that I don't think it ever actually appears in the vanilla game, and the only "official" usage of it I can think of is in DC's Smithsonian level.

ck3D, on 03 March 2023 - 06:18 AM, said:

but if I ever changed my mind and did then I'd already have the titles for those too.

Well now I'm curious. Obviously it's too early to divulge what those names would be, but I hope you'll reveal them at some point, whether BR gets split up like that or not.

[ck3D]

No I mean it's actually cool, I can divulge those ideas since like I was saying I am rather strongly opposed to going through with actual splits. Blast Radius inherently is what it is, teaches whatever it may teach and lacks whatever it may lack in a way that is directly tied to the intended singular ride, full game format. Its basic existence relies on it to pull more strings than meets the eye in order to work, which might take a long time for people to fully realize; in the first place it's conceived and composed around the concept of being one big block. And so adding sub-episodic splits might make it more accessible and tolerable as casual entertainment but I actually do not want that so much, this is trying to be a honest interactive audiovisual Duke-themed experience for others to possibly relate to and find significance in, but I'm not interested in watering anything further down to get closer to a more palatable, arguably potentially bland, risk free and mediocre pseudo-commercial product. There is an identifiable pattern in the progression of events though and so on a purely hypothetical level, I do feel like the story could be divided and interpreted into acts despite how technically I won't go there.

First chapter my headcanon is just tempted to nickname Homeland Hecatomb. Second one I actually never settled on one particular idea but would follow the same DOS-era inspired formula just swapping the familiarity of 'homeland' with the unfamiliarity of something else then adjusting the poetry to match, several names have come to mind for that part but none I decided would be good enough to share yet. Last part probably would just be eponymous and so just Blast Radius.

Good call on that sprite being absent from the base game by the way, pretty sure you're right there. No tilenum is safe!

[Ninety-Six]

Finished level six. Probably my favorite of the urban levels so far. And like level 5, can't quite put my finger on why.

Finished the main level in around an hour, and then spent like two hours searching for one secret.

Spoiler

It was the one in the belltower. With how it was grated I never would have thought you could go up there. I found it by sheer accident while trying to blow up the pillars.

I didn't know you could make sprites blink in and out like that (for the candles).


With the previous level fresh in mind, I developed maybe a theory as to what's happening here, but I'm going to put it in spoilers in case I'm right:

Spoiler

Arriving in Pula, and witnessing the exposed seabed, it was difficult to not immediately recall the image in the last level. "Watching Detroit boil off into space." The manual for that level also mentioned that the plane specifically ran on Rigelatin tech.

Are the Duke 3D aliens using the Rigelatin warship? It never was explained what happened to the main ship, since when Duke 3D starts he makes planetfall with the much smaller skycar, presumably from somewhere within that ship.

I don't need to have it to confirm or denied, I just figured you'd be interested in what my current thoughts on the ongoing plot is, and where I suspect the "blast" in "Blast Radius" came from.

[ck3D]

I like how you're thinking, going to be very interesting hearing about how your theories develop as more and more unfolds and is unveiled throughout the rest of your progression.

There's only one sprite like that that is hard coded to flicker in and out of existence and it's the weather forecast storm cloud sprite, so the flames on the candles are that one with full bright red palette, made super tiny and flipped. Can probably identify it easily knowing this now by just looking closely again. In the context of this project I probably could have coded a brand new fire sprite frame with the desired behavior but things happened in a certain order and then yolo. These days I like using giant pitch black ones on building facades in skyboxes to simulate flickering lit windows.

Cool to hear you liked level 6. Spending two hours to realize you could fly through that grate sounds rough, do you reckon that's unfair level language and I should make things a little more obvious or did you think the idea worked for a hopefully worthwhile secret in the end? Kind of wish the set up (and map resource limits) would have allowed for one-way window tricks up there too - similarly to what level 1 has out of and around the office. That tower and the corresponding hole probably have like 6+ layers of sector over sector going on, editing that small section altogether can get super weird.

Hope you enjoy level 7, that one marks a bit of a turn in the gameplay and I actually used to hate it for the longest time during dev (it was the second map I made for this) but these days I kind of like it, it's got charm. Should be interesting to hear what people have to say about that one in general, it's also the one I've shown and spoilt the least.

[Ninety-Six]

ck3D, on 03 March 2023 - 01:07 PM, said:

I like how you're thinking, going to be very interesting hearing about how your theories develop as more and more unfolds and is unveiled throughout the rest of your progression.

There's only one sprite like that that is hard coded to flicker in and out of existence and it's the weather forecast storm cloud sprite, so the flames on the candles are that one with full bright red palette, made super tiny and flipped. Can probably identify it easily knowing this now by just looking closely again.

I was wondering what that was. I thought it was a warped sprite of Duke's hand, though I never could quite make out the fingers. Now I know why.

ck3D, on 03 March 2023 - 01:07 PM, said:

Cool to hear you liked level 6. Spending two hours to realize you could fly through that grate sounds rough, do you reckon that's unfair level language and I should make things a little more obvious

I would say, probably. Especially since, I actually reloaded my save and quickly rushed over there to look at it, because I didn't even know I had blown the grate off at first. I remembered seeing a grate but could no longer find it, and wanted to make sure I wasn't going crazy. Then I tried to blow it up to see if I did indeed destroy it, and I actually had some trouble doing so. The combat of the rest of the level (particularly the end) had ran me almost completely bone-dry, so all I had left were pipes as far as explosives were concerned. Trying to hit the grate on the ceiling above a pit with a pipebomb wasn't the easiest thing to do (Or I just got unlucky with where they landed). Frankly, I'm not even sure how or when I took it down the first time.

Destructible sprites(?) on a ceiling are always a gamble, I think. Unless they're a vent grating.

[NNC]

I always enjoyed Map7. Interesting how many testers and players hated it, I thought it's super innovative, and every box is ticked for a vintage ck3D map (probably because it's in his home country). And yeah, I knew the problems, like the danger falls, the sudden exposure of a new weapon, the original scorpion tank start in the beta, the original unseeable hand switch, etc. It's just the big picture what makes the map so good. Nuances can be fixed, but the level's class is permanent.

Also Map8, really, that one is still living with me, and will probably the level always be in my flash memory when I'm thinking about Blast Radius.

[ck3D]

Ninety-Six, on 03 March 2023 - 06:56 PM, said:

I would say, probably. Especially since, I actually reloaded my save and quickly rushed over there to look at it, because I didn't even know I had blown the grate off at first. I remembered seeing a grate but could no longer find it, and wanted to make sure I wasn't going crazy. Then I tried to blow it up to see if I did indeed destroy it, and I actually had some trouble doing so. The combat of the rest of the level (particularly the end) had ran me almost completely bone-dry, so all I had left were pipes as far as explosives were concerned. Trying to hit the grate on the ceiling above a pit with a pipebomb wasn't the easiest thing to do (Or I just got unlucky with where they landed). Frankly, I'm not even sure how or when I took it down the first time.

Destructible sprites(?) on a ceiling are always a gamble, I think. Unless they're a vent grating.

Yeah that makes perfect sense actually, I'll probably go and add a crack somewhere to the set-up or whatever prop that similarly means 'shoot explosive here' happens to fit best. I don't even remember what is up the bell tower in terms of items to be honest (might be something rather rewarding due to the particularly hidden nature of the secret; my present day logic would be something like jetpack, Atomic Health/portable medkit and full Devastator), so if I make that secret less of a gamble to find I might also readjust things there so that the reward keeps matching how challenging it really is to spot the place, like it always should. I remember my logic behind that secret originally was (and in part still is) that the room is full of Octabrains and so, rewarding the player who knows the game well enough to use the correct (explosive) weapons against them would be likely to blow the grate up by accident, which might catch their attention seeing it drop and so they would try going up there and be set up with a refill.

Level 7 I mostly stopped liking for a while myself because as one of the first levels I had made and after making so many others in succession, experimenting with different styles when that one felt more classic (to an extent level 3 and 9 also do), my perspective on it was a bit skewed; for the longest time it also had a way poorer sky texture and some various cosmetic or practical issues I only resolved late. But as soon as I did (and found the Polnareff MIDI), cleaned it up and added gameplay it became a favorite again. Now I can say I'm happy with it, it's full of references mostly the French will catch too or various jokes no one might catch at all (did anyone get the stupid set-up around Duke's exhibition space in the museum? Duke can actually create something to exhibit there). Maybe the central steroids jump is a bit of a risk gameplay wise but shouldn't matter since one can always just skip to the level exit if ever stuck anywhere anyway. One day, maybe I will release the original version with the much more hectic start. I didn't know players especially disliked that one (as in there were a trend?), all I know is Mikko never found the porn studio and managed to just kind of run into the yellow key by jetpacking around (which is fine; I don't think efficient progression really is but a plus).

Level 8 is one of my favorites to play (and so not necessarily visually, although I accept the style but mostly gameplay-wise). It reminds me of level 2 a lot just on a much wilder scope in terms of shit going down, and the Nokia 3310 Snake type of progression I think works well and hopefully was a cool way of integrating the layout of the real street into Build. Ideally I would devote an entire episode to that city to be honest (and it's the only real place in the episode I've never lived in or visited as one needs the nationality and/or governmental authorization to even get in).