[Šneček]

ck3D, on 10 March 2023 - 06:45 AM, said:

Yeah, that sucks you're running into those issues, I really hope to figure out what causes them soon (and also all the inconsistencies from player to player as far as in the same renderer - that really gets me). Are you using the included EDuke32, or a more recent build/the latest?

Those are the only two maps I know are potentially problematic however and so none of the next levels after Norilsk should break (and it's still a lot of game). If you're still trying to finish Norilsk (I have no idea how frequent your crashes are), all you need to get from the blue building is the blue key, then from the red building is the red key, etc. it's a completely linear map as far as the key progression goes but also one of those where you can fly over the central element (the red lava pit) or even right to the end (your objective should be that lone switch on top of a round tower across the lava, which will reveal the exit). Rest of the levels onwards should flow as normal. Sorry for the trouble, those issues wouldn't be in if I could reproduce them, for now I'm mostly stuck with reports and figuring out the bigger picture piece by piece.

im using the included eduke32

[Šneček]

ck3D, on 10 March 2023 - 06:45 AM, said:

Yeah, that sucks you're running into those issues, I really hope to figure out what causes them soon (and also all the inconsistencies from player to player as far as in the same renderer - that really gets me). Are you using the included EDuke32, or a more recent build/the latest?

Those are the only two maps I know are potentially problematic however and so none of the next levels after Norilsk should break (and it's still a lot of game). If you're still trying to finish Norilsk (I have no idea how frequent your crashes are), all you need to get from the blue building is the blue key, then from the red building is the red key, etc. it's a completely linear map as far as the key progression goes but also one of those where you can fly over the central element (the red lava pit) or even right to the end (your objective should be that lone switch on top of a round tower across the lava, which will reveal the exit). Rest of the levels onwards should flow as normal. Sorry for the trouble, those issues wouldn't be in if I could reproduce them, for now I'm mostly stuck with reports and figuring out the bigger picture piece by piece.

it's common, I think I'll eventually be forced to skip the level and start BRL9 in the level list and help myself with DNWEAPONS, hopefully I'll be able to pick up the rest of the inventory in the level, I'd find the cards myself.

[ck3D]

Ah if you don't mind the extra challenge then every single level is designed to be tolerant of pistol start (even those where it might not look like they are), in fact that's how I always tested those maps for the longest time so skipping levels always should be viable without requiring cheats to catch up on anything. Weapon/item distribution was conceived to work both in the context of continuous play and individual map runs with nothing crucial ever risking going missing, so you don't have to worry about much there (just the acquired weaponry loss in itself until you build it back up, but in most every level that's quick). Level 9 off pistol start actually isn't the easiest but also not the meanest with the RPG and (secret) Devastator really close by as soon as you spawn, should be a fun challenge in fact (thinking about it now, it's probably my favorite way of starting that map).

Otherwise to complete level 8 with no skips in seconds you should really just try and follow the main road then fly over the central pit and flick that switch on top of the round tower, building collapses, you get inside the cave, boom, end. Takes about one minute and shouldn't involve looking at the skies (for some reason most reports I got seemed to mention that as their 'trigger'), in the case you can pull that off then you should be able to carry over into level 9 with all your weapons.

[Ninety-Six]

Secret level down.

No crashes for me, though it did make my framerate cry at a few points. I am playing a later build, though.

Spoiler

Level itself stuff:
Took me a while to figure out how the progression worked. Was surprised at how short the islands themselves were.

I definitely took them in the wrong order. After clearing out the first island, the island with the underground parking lot (I think that's what that was), and then the island with the bars and such. No problems there.

Then I went to what ended up being the last island, because my completionist senses were telling me that the island with the big tower you could see from every point on the map was the finale, but little did I know how wrong I was.

'Course this caused an issue when it came time to try and go back there. Going from the final island to the starting island, wasn't impossible but boots were a lot more scarce. Getting from the starting island to the tower island, that was much more of an issue because I couldn't find any more boots on that island. I only knew of the pair in that one secret. Maybe I picked another one up by accident by standing too close to an edge long enough to drain a pair by a single percent, but nonetheless I had to get...creative. Ran to the carpark island with the pitiful amount of boots I had left, trading about ~20% for ~70%. That was just enough to get to the tower island. After clearing it out, I used the same technique to eventually return to the final island and exit the level.

Finding all the secrets was pretty easy this time around. I had found all of them by the time I finished the final island (the first visit. Imagine my surprise at having 100% secrets with a whole island unexplored). Most of the "downtime" I had was spent either figuring out how to leave the first island, or searching for one final pair of boots that I knew I had seen somewhere so I could leave the level with the full DNSTUFF experience (All ammo for all weapons, 100% inventory (except scuba gear) all at 100%), the first time since Incapernum, I think.

I wasn't able to get true 100% kills unfortunately. The stats said I did, but I knew for a fact that there were at least three enemies on the purple lava stuck behind islands (as in, the side facing outwards towards the level boundaries) and unfortunately there wasn't anything I could really do about them.

[Šneček]

Interesting how easy the island level is for others, I think even if the game wasn't crashing at all I might still not be able to finish the level in an honest way. I might be more comfortable with green slime, it drains health slower.

[ck3D]

Ninety-Six, on 10 March 2023 - 07:49 AM, said:

Secret level down.

No crashes for me, though it did make my framerate cry at a few points. I am playing a later build, though.

Spoiler

Level itself stuff:
Took me a while to figure out how the progression worked. Was surprised at how short the islands themselves were.

I definitely took them in the wrong order. After clearing out the first island, the island with the underground parking lot (I think that's what that was), and then the island with the bars and such. No problems there.

Then I went to what ended up being the last island, because my completionist senses were telling me that the island with the big tower you could see from every point on the map was the finale, but little did I know how wrong I was.

'Course this caused an issue when it came time to try and go back there. Going from the final island to the starting island, wasn't impossible but boots were a lot more scarce. Getting from the starting island to the tower island, that was much more of an issue because I couldn't find any more boots on that island. I only knew of the pair in that one secret. Maybe I picked another one up by accident by standing too close to an edge long enough to drain a pair by a single percent, but nonetheless I had to get...creative. Ran to the carpark island with the pitiful amount of boots I had left, trading about ~20% for ~70%. That was just enough to get to the tower island. After clearing it out, I used the same technique to eventually return to the final island and exit the level.

Finding all the secrets was pretty easy this time around. I had found all of them by the time I finished the final island (the first visit. Imagine my surprise at having 100% secrets with a whole island unexplored). Most of the "downtime" I had was spent either figuring out how to leave the first island, or searching for one final pair of boots that I knew I had seen somewhere so I could leave the level with the full DNSTUFF experience (All ammo for all weapons, 100% inventory (except scuba gear) all at 100%), the first time since Incapernum, I think.

I wasn't able to get true 100% kills unfortunately. The stats said I did, but I knew for a fact that there were at least three enemies on the purple lava stuck behind islands (as in, the side facing outwards towards the level boundaries) and unfortunately there wasn't anything I could really do about them.

That is some really good and useful feedback, thank you, I hope the experience was fun/fresh and not too overwhelming to figure out. Working the progression in that one was some fun times because I had so many possible situations to have to try and think of, you just made me realize I'm not sure how 'safe' I made running to the final island first thing and then having to come back now, I remember I must have placed like an Atomic Health there but I'll double check and consider placing boots if there aren't any (or move them to a more obvious spot if there are, to me right now would make sense to provide a pair there but in retrospect maybe I forgot, or chose to 'punish' the overly eager move with just health and then yolo). I had to think of all the connections but by design the level also is pretty hardcore and I only chose to alleviate that so much, the right moves will build up the player's equipment in the correct order but the wrong ones will punish them with the inverse effect, there should be enough supplies everywhere for every scenario but the most desperate ones to be viable, but the level does fight back if you let it. The Watchtower was recommending supplying more inventory as soon as the starting island upon testing but I still thought those strict restrictions and affectation of one item per new island would be more interesting, and so the result is more akin to a giant puzzle Duke needs to solve, and the logic a bit similar to this type: https://en.wikipedia.../wiki/15_puzzle

Since you got all secrets I'm assuming you found it, but the secret chunk of land behind the church conceals a lot to help a desperate player with by the way, at least I know I hit it to get the par time route as fetching what's there enables you to skip a lot.

If the stray enemies were Tanks and/or Commanders then I think they know which ones do that, thought I had fixed them but I guess I didn't (for now at least it's cool to hear they don't break an all kills run). They do that because they spawn at a distance from Duke that is so large, I suspect there is some kind of overflow in the coordinates and so they move further and further away from the player upon spawn instead of coming closer and closer.

Also very interesting to hear you're using a recent build, so that means the (currently) included EDuke32 version might be one of the causes for the crashes on a degree I've been neglecting, I really need to look into that.

[Ninety-Six]

ck3D, on 10 March 2023 - 08:11 AM, said:

If the stray enemies were Tanks and/or Commanders then I think they know which ones do that, thought I had fixed them but I guess I didn't (for now at least it's cool to hear they don't break an all kills run). They do that because they spawn at a distance from Duke that is so large

Commanders for a sure; I managed to catch a glimpse of them from the secret ledge with the shrinker ammo on the final island. A few loose pigs that had some unfortunate landings after being shot down on their RPVs (commonly landing on an edge just to drop right off if my positioning wasn't great); they could usually be piped but there were one or two that dropped behind the final island, which is massively tall. Since I'm using classic, you can probably see why that's kind of impossible.

There probably were a few tanks as well. I remember getting surprised by half a dozen or so shooting me from the shorelines over the course of the map. Because of the purple stuff (does it even have an official name?), I couldn't really do a good survey of the map since going from island to island had to be very calculated. Even if I turned god mode on, the constant green and flashing tint would have made doing the survey unpleasant at the very least, and headache-inducing at the worst. So I just didn't. I mean, I already knew there were some survivors guaranteed, checking to make sure there were or weren't others wouldn't have changed much in the end.


I cite all this not really as a gripe against the level, but really more just some of the flaws of the underlying game being put under spotlight.

ck3D, on 10 March 2023 - 08:11 AM, said:

Also very interesting to hear you're using a recent build, so that means the (currently) included EDuke32 version might be one of the causes for the crashes on a degree I've been neglecting, I really need to look into that.

My reasoning for using a newer build comes down to what you said about why you wanted to package an older one. You said it was to prevent the sprite-flickering. Which is fair enough.

Me, being a paranoid sort however, immediately began to wonder why the sprite limit was lowered in revisions since. Some eduke changes are...strange, to be sure, but considering that sprite-crashes were already a documented and known thing, I couldn't help but think the two may have been related. I'm not stating this as a fact, mind, this was just what was going through my head.

And, given that I am no stranger to said sprite-flickering, particularly with all my recent beta adventures with other maps I've been called to test, I decided it was an acceptable loss if that was the reason for the older eduke.


Plus, it just made setup easier. There were some huge changes to the control options between revisions, namely the mouse sensitivity settings. The current revisions are a lot broader with the values you can get, and as such the .cfg file isn't exactly compatible with older versions (it would set it to a number higher than the older builds could go). Not having to reset, test, and readjust the mouse was certainly more convenient.



Again though, the crash-prevention thing is me being paranoid. It could have merit it might not, I don't know, I just thought it was better safe than sorry. For all we know Norilisk will be crash city for me, too.

[ck3D]

All great to know, thanks. Yeah I figured the RPV's in that map might be a possible problem because of that particular downside, but their route I ended up deciding was way too cool to scrap. I'm not sure if you got to appreciate that, but they actually loop through the sprite floor of that parking lot again (entering back from the top after they've been around the map and then coming out from the front again). That was another last minute thing I threw in after discussing the opportunity with Aleks and The Watchtower, for the longest time on that second island you used to meet three tanks. Actually was pretty fun too but everyone else hated them and then reminded me of how more of the maps could use the RPV's in general. Adding them to level 2 was tempting, to be honest, but there they were sacrificed for the sake of restraint, the action already being wild and packed with introductions to new enemy types as it is. Paris also used to have more tanks in lieu of RPV's (and a much more brutal start altogether where the balls-of-awesome Octas were introduced right away).

I want to look into the monster behavior in the secret level sometime though; some strays are fine, but I'm sure I can still trim part of the first island a little thinner and identify at least a couple of enemies who still inevitably start drifting upon spawning there. Again though I'm quite reassured that somehow the kill counter seems to adapt, so not a big priority, those crashes are higher on the list. I just went and tried reproducing more from the reports in both Norilsk and the secret level and (again) couldn't, so must be something really funny going on.

And yeah, you got my intent correct with the included EDuke32, it's really optional in case someone has something personal against the sprite flickering but if any of the further EDuke32 advancements is preferable then of course one should feel free to use a recent/different build. Classic is more serious of a strong recommendation however.

I just pushed one more update that really just corrects very minor stuff, one switch which had slipped into the wrong sector-over-sector layer in level 3 as well as a sector that had gotten inverted around that part (but so thinly it barely even bugged out), and some switch sprites in Norilsk that should have been one-way, like the stray monsters thing or the red key gameplay part of Croatia there is some detail left here and there I want to adjust soon but from now on and for a little while I think my main concern is going to be everything compatibility/installation.

Level lore/walkthrough/history page for level 3/Big Apple Smoke Toke/NYC also just went up and details a lot, including the environmental storytelling and Easter eggs: https://www.moddb.co...-level-3brl3map

[Ninety-Six]

ck3D, on 10 March 2023 - 08:26 PM, said:

Again though I'm quite reassured that somehow the kill counter seems to adapt,

It's not really that it "adapts," it's just always been broken. I don't know/remember the details but the game will count additional kills that never happened, so you almost always end up having more kills than there actually were in the level. When I said I had 100% secrets after clearing the final island, I also had 100% kills despite never going to the tower island.


I did have one small idea. Low priority I know still, but if you added a low-to-the-ground platform on the back side of the final island, that would probably make it possible to deal with any enemies that fall back there. Just put a jetpack down there and call it a secret maybe.

[NNC]

Yea, Map2 should have used RPVs. In the end, only Map7, 8 and 14 have them, haven't they?

[Quacken]

Hello! I finally found some time to resume playing Blast Radius, so here's my review of MAP05. I probably stated this before, but for my brief stint as a playtester I only managed to play through maps 1 through 4. So everything past Incapernaum is going to be new for me. I'm aware that the four maps I did play have probably gone through a lot of changes, but the only one I'm particularly interested in revisiting at the moment would be MAP02. Anyway, here's:

High High High

Spoiler

Phew! After your exhausting trek through the jungle, what you need is a relaxing plane ride to your next destination, right? Aw hell, the aliens are here too. High High High is a good break map after the exhausting trip through Incapernaum... and I say "break map" despite the fact this took me 30 minutes to beat. I'm particularly drawn by the visuals. The use of coloured lighting is good, even if I feel like too many Assault Generals get placed in sections with obtuse coloured lighting to make them indistinguishable from the other Troopers and Captains. I also like how these open areas that have become signature to Blast Radius like the cargo bay and the wings of the ship get blended together with more cramped sections like the seating areas. Going onto the plane's wings is definitely a pretty cool feature, but it's not nearly as impressive as Wanton Destruction's Airplane (a map I'm almost sure this map takes inspiration from). Flying to the top of the sky with the Jetpack ruins the illusion pretty quickly.

The combat is mostly what you've come to expect by now. Cannon fodder is all around in the dimly lit seats, and when this map wants to make things hot, it'll decide to throw some Mini Bosses at you. The regular variants of the three Mini Bosses get etched in favour of Sunburnt and Cold variants, and even with the full release I still hate these Sunburnt Battlelords. They make going for the blue key on the wings a pretty nasty surprise, especially if you didn't clear the other monsters like I did in my first attempt of that fight.

I only found one bug in this map - at some point in the map the kill count rolled over to 65535, and then with each kill I got it counted down from there. I ended the map with 206 kills, so that's how many monsters I think are actually in the map, give or take. I'm aware that the kill count is broken on other maps, but to my understanding I haven't actually seen anyone report a mishap on MAP05 specifically. That's a first! My framerate was very stable throughout the entire map though, no complaints there.

High High High is a solid map that plays well, and is a good segway into what will definitely be another marathon map to endure. Solid stuff!

8/10.

[ck3D]

@Ninety-Six that's a great idea, I'll definitely keep it in mind. If I never end up going through with that in an update then that should only mean that particular map in its current state is too fragile to touch like that, and honestly I suspect it might be, not only are most available resources used up in that one but also the amount of space Build seems to accept handling and every time I've tried adding wall splits anywhere near the purple lava lately (it's called PURPLELAVA in the code by the way - I think?), it's been causing a lot to act up. It's probably very doable, just might reveal itself to be trickier than expected since that whole map seems to hold together by a strand of hair to a point where it's almost funny. One thing I wish I could do for instance is expand on the boundaries of the level up north and further west just so that it doesn't look like it just stops there, but I technically can't since that's literally the limit of max'd out editorgridextent, so when the player gets there they're literally standing on the edge of the world and not just land (and moving the whole level structure around at this stage might upset a lot of other things).

@The Watchtower I agree RPV's would have been so in tone with that level, maybe I'll end up adding them in. They probably would look great but I'm a bit paranoid the map is pretty saturated with enemies and variant introductions already, plus in a level so open the player can and will want to navigate running and jumping around they might actually introduce unexpected gameplay nuisance. But you got me thinking about different ways of using that enemy in general now if I ever expand on the code aspect in particular for more maps. There actually is one moment of 'dead space' in level 2 where I could be introducing RPV's, after the player inserts the red key card, but my current logic for that is that moment should be a moment of reprieve so I'm not certain I'll do it, but I'll think about it.

@Quacken thank you for your review! Really all possible Build plane/vehicle maps were a reference for level 5 and also the blueprints of a real-life Boeing. Biggest inspiration for the outdoor segment there actually must have been a user map called Skycity2 (I would recommend playing that whole series, it's a trilogy of pretty short, interesting maps, Skycity1-3), which probably did it a bit better too or at least differently. Making a plane map in Build in particular is an interesting challenge (whereas a train map is a walk in the park) because every way to possibly recreate the object without breaking immersion contradicts every usual trick in the mapper's book. For instance here I could have built a top sector-over-sector/silent teleporter combo layer for the plane the player could have reached, but it would have looked uglier with the enemies down below looking like they're disappearing; a solution to that would have been occluding visibility between layers with sprites, but that would have clashed with the geometry of the wings and looked even worse; basically every solution poses a new problem, which is in fact fun but at the end of the day it's tempting to just settle for whatever gameplay works best. Here as a result the player needs to go around the plane which I think is pretty neat. About the kill count - someone else reported that to me on Discord recently, took a moment to realize what was happening to possibly cause this, I'm actually not sure that's custom code and more likely has to do with an enemy somehow getting stuck in the kill zone and so getting squished forever (?), seems to only exceptionally happen, for now I'm leaving that in because conceptually that's just funny but might try taking a more serious look sometime once the joke is tired.

[Quacken]

ck3D, on 12 March 2023 - 05:06 AM, said:

About the kill count - someone else reported that to me on Discord recently, took a moment to realize what was happening to possibly cause this, I'm actually not sure that's custom code and more likely has to do with an enemy somehow getting stuck in the kill zone and so getting squished forever (?), seems to only exceptionally happen, for now I'm leaving that in because conceptually that's just funny but might try taking a more serious look sometime once the joke is tired.

To elaborate - I wasn't getting kills, the actual kill count itself (as in, the amount of kills I need to get before the kill count in the bottom left turns red) was increasing. My final result before exiting the map should have been around 206/65,329.

[Quacken]

Got in the next map done today! Here's:

Koj Still Borac

Spoiler

Koj Still Borac reminds me a lot of Embarco's Most Blasted. You're dropped into the water with no weapons, carnage is up in your face, and there's eight thousand more bombs than there should be in an opener. But unlike that map I happen to actually like this opener. Without Sunburnt Battlelords around every corner there's a good amount of space you can hide behind if you need to take a break, and unlike Incapernaum I actually found the Chaingun. Your first mission will be to find a Jetpack. Getting it will open even more of a niche in the map for you to slot yourself into and to obtain crucial supplies, and your second mission is to get the secret Shrinker as it's basically mandatory. I don't think the way I did it was intentional, but I balanced a Pipe Bomb on the windowsill next to the cracked door, and when I detonated it the pipe bomb had enough blast radius to blow up the door. The Shrinker is your best friend in this map. Without it you won't have enough rockets to chew through the Mini Overlords and Battlelords in the disco caves. I appreciate that this map only has one key, but it does feel like a lot of the locations get pretty wasted. The colosseum in the middle of the map contains a pretty hectic fight, but without a key or even an important weapon as a reward it feels pretty arbitrary. The disco cave can also get pretty annoying too. The stalactites on the ground both block your hitscan and Shrinker crystals, but the Sunburnt Battlelord and his platoon of Octabrains always seems to get way luckier. At least the fight in the middle where the key is is pretty fun.

This is about the time where I realised that monster infighting is actually decently viable despite the fact you can't even get monsters to infight in this game. With all the projectiles going around in both the streets and especially in the colosseum, getting the Scorpion Tanks and Overlords to accidentally mop up the Davies, Lindas and Commanders with their projectiles is pretty productive. The only bug I really found in this map was standing in some spots tended to chug the framerate a lot, though thankfully these aren't spots that feature a lot of gameplay. It's most noticeable on the pier and when you're swimming to the shore as you start the map. Koj Still Borac is good fun, but aside from the beach-side views and the alien decor it kind of fell out of my mind after I played it.

7.5/10.

[ck3D]

That's neat, thanks for the continued feedback; here I appreciate you mentioning two things in particular: the prevalent importance of monster infighting, as this is one out of many unusual but timelessly possible ways of playing Duke 3D that Blast Radius hopes to teach to the player. One of those gameplay mechanics which always were not just there in plain sight but also efficient and fun, and potentially will make even self-proclaimed veterans of the base game reconsider the validity of that proud status when they realize they've always slept on it. Then before they know it they start incorporating those new tricks in their routine playthroughs of different projects and games and it's opened up lateral branches in the dimension of their thinking. And then the other thing being how some otherwise fun places feel wasted due to a seeming lack of purpose; I think those comments (in general) are interesting because (in a non-judgmental, neutral way) they are mostly a direct reflection of the specific user's mindset in regard to the status quo, when they start literally inventing corners that do not exist or arbitrary expectations of always the same formula. Usually that would be to make sure nothing 'breaks' but that too speaks more about the user in terms of their ability to trust, in the context of a product where every interaction does in fact contribute to the balance of the general experience. All of your points and impressions were absolutely intended (and so it's cool to hear about another hit).

I suspect you might enjoy the next map a bit more, it's cosier and supposedly a bit tighter, but it's also possible and probable to completely 'break' it; should be interesting anyway, and I hope the new enemies in that one won't upset you over the edge.

[ck3D]

Page for level 4/Incapharnaum/Incapernaum/the dreaded one is up: https://www.moddb.co...level-4brl4map1 (recent ModDB update seems to break images for now just as I'm posting this, hopefully temporarily)



@Ninety-Six I took the liberty of running your 100% completion screenshot, of course feel free to let me know if you'd want that out (for any reason). I'm on one of those runs myself right now, by the way, and so I might post my own corresponding stats in here later for shits and giggles. Attached below are stats from a rather thorough run where I scanned most of the level (with on-screen stats off and so no reference point), but was more preoccupied with taking screenshots for the walkthrough than actually going everywhere and so it's not 100%, I consciously ignored about a quarter of the level but saved prior to hitting the exit and so will go back for the rest.

Attached thumbnail(s)

• 

[Šneček]

ck3D, on 16 March 2023 - 06:39 AM, said:

Page for level 4/Incapharnaum/Incapernaum/the dreaded one is up: https://www.moddb.co...level-4brl4map1 (recent ModDB update seems to break images for now just as I'm posting this, hopefully temporarily)



@Ninety-Six I took the liberty of running your 100% completion screenshot, of course feel free to let me know if you'd want that out (for any reason). I'm on one of those runs myself right now, by the way, and so I might post my own corresponding stats in here later for shits and giggles. Attached below are stats from a rather thorough run where I scanned most of the level (with on-screen stats off and so no reference point), but was more preoccupied with taking screenshots for the playthrough than actually going everywhere and so it's not 100%, I consciously ignored about a quarter of the level but saved prior to hitting the exit and so will go back for the rest.

ha, I also have one saved that is a bit closer to 100% it took me about 4 days to finish the level.

Attached thumbnail(s)

• 

[Ninety-Six]

ck3D, on 16 March 2023 - 06:39 AM, said:

@Ninety-Six I took the liberty of running your 100% completion screenshot, of course feel free to let me know if you'd want that out (for any reason).

Yeah go nuts, I don't particularly care. If anything it's a little badge of honor.

[DNSkill]

I am starting my video play-through of this mod after having played through it earlier. So I wanted to talk about this mod before the videos start uploading.

I really like what you've done here. This mod feels like it could've been an official add-on. All of the new characters really add to the game, and don't feel tagged-on. The levels are all massive, with many ways to approach them. Tons of secrets, too. I really like the locations used in this mod, and it feels like what a "World Tour" should've actually felt like. For the record, I am not the type of player that makes it my mission to achieve 100% ratios (though I do at least try to kill everything I come across), but those that do will be in for a treat, as it is a lot of fun trying to look for all the secrets.

The combat is a major highlight to this mod, as is the case with all of your levels. Be it a more realistic style level, a more abstract-like level, or anything in between. The set pieces make the combat flow well and the AI of the aliens is put to great use with such designs.

Now, one thing I will say to anyone who has yet to play this... Have fun, and save often, take each map one at a time to truly immerse yourself in the levels. While someone out there could prove me wrong, this mod does not lend itself well to playing from start to finish in one sitting in my opinion. This is something that needs to be played over a course of time as each level is almost like an episode all on its own.

All in all, this is by far the best mod to come out in recent years for me personally. I would say a close second would be Alek's "Back in Business" that came out a while back.

Congratulations to you for seeing this through to completion. I can tell it was a long process, and this is one of those projects I imagine could've easily, easily fell into the dreaded perfectionism limbo that many of us fall into, even for stand alone user-maps () but you pushed on and in the end it was absolutely worth it.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with next!

[ck3D]

I appreciate your review and kind words and am happy to hear you enjoyed the experience so much. I've said this on Discord too but thanks for enough enthusiasm to post video playthroughs, too, this type of feedback from player to mapper/modder I think is just as important as the other way around and so I really appreciate it and intend to share that output in return. It's actually been (on a personal level) super tempting to interact with all the streamers but most of them are still barely into the first third and so I'm mostly staying away in order not to influence their reaction and discovery, but I'm taking notes and nothing is lost.

https://www.moddb.co...level-4brl4map1 so I had to go back and manually reupload and reinsert close to 200 images but the ModDB article for level 4 should be complete and stable now, including the detailed walkthrough. No idea when I'll get to tackle the next one (if ever), it's going to be a busy rest of the month here.

[Aleks]

After few weeks of my inactivity here, I've finally gone through the 6 pages of super long posts in this thread, as I was really interested in the players' comments about this mod. Glad this is getting a lot of attention too, as Blast Radius certainly deserves all the love it can get. It will still be a bit before I get to play the final and (hopefully) definitive version of the mod myself, but since I've beta-tested it and played most levels twice, I'll leave some initial impressions on the maps, as they have already been unveiled quite in detail by now anyway. I'll also address some stuff being said here.

Ninety-Six, on 11 March 2023 - 09:20 AM, said:

It's not really that it "adapts," it's just always been broken. I don't know/remember the details but the game will count additional kills that never happened, so you almost always end up having more kills than there actually were in the level. When I said I had 100% secrets after clearing the final island, I also had 100% kills despite never going to the tower island.

I think it works a bit different than that - in a map without any slimers, respawns or sharks, the kill counter would work well. With slimers, it adds additional kills for each destroyed egg, which don't add to the monster count (unless it's full), but it does add to the monster count for every hatched slimer. Sharks seem to work the same as eggs, so if you kill it, it will just add another kill (unless you're already at "all" kills). Then with respawns it seems to sometimes get confused, but I'm not sure what the exact pattern there is - but sometimes won't add all the respawned monsters to the count. So in general, you can have, in theory, all kills with some monsters still being alive and well. But you can't have more kills than monsters on the counter, obviously. It might also add "extra" kills that didn't happen for squishing the bodies of the monsters already killed.

Quacken, on 14 March 2023 - 09:45 PM, said:

The colosseum in the middle of the map contains a pretty hectic fight, but without a key or even an important weapon as a reward it feels pretty arbitrary.

I initially had the same issue with this map, had quite a long discussion about this with ck3D, but he ended up convincing me (and I think adding a jetpack at the arena which seemed like a reasonable reward).

DNSKILL5, on 17 March 2023 - 08:57 AM, said:

All in all, this is by far the best mod to come out in recent years for me personally. I would say a close second would be Alek's "Back in Business" that came out a while back.

Wow, thanks! That was quite unexpeced, but it's nice to hear you liked Back in Business. Should be a good motivation to see people still remembering it when I finally get around to making the "boss" map for it to be released with a "fixed" version of the remaining maps from the episode

And now, some short comments about the maps. I will comment on them in the order as I personally "ranked" them, though it should be remembered that it was still the beta (sometimes only an early one) that I played and perhaps this might change after I play the final release:
1) Koj stil borac - design-wise, this is definitely my favourite map from the pack. The architecture of the colosseum alone is very impressive, but what gets me more is the atmosphere of the whole level, perfectly transcending the Adriatic vibe, feeling very closely to how I remember visiting Croatia many years ago. The open-ended layout of the level with a lot of optional areas is, along with the 2nd map on my list, the best example of what I like the most about this mod - that there's a lot to explore. It's also cool that this map starts you with no weapons and is quite tight with the ammo, as checking all of its nooks and crannies feels more rewarding when you actually need what's hidden there. The combat here doesn't get too spammy/exhausting as well, there's a lot going on, but I think this map utilizes all the projectile-shooters the best, especially scorpion tanks are particularly entertaining rather than annoying here.

2) Incapharnaum (what's with the name change?) - this one feels like an adventure of its own and having spent like 10+ hours in it already, feels like home. Once again, there's a lot of optional areas/ways of playing and completing this map and, similarly to the Croatia map, the jetpack is easy to find and refill, so the exploration is just natural. There's also some of the coolest large battles, even though some of the long-distance commanders did feel annoying.

3) Nakano Nightmare - I've played this map only once at the beta stage, but loved its design and atmosphere, not only reminding of Tokyo, but of a lot of sci-fi movies/games (e.g. Blade Runner or Hengsha from Deus Ex: Human Revolution). The gameplay isn't too spammy/overwhelming, even though there are tougher monsters (including some insta-kill variants). This one also has a good layout balance between outside and inside areas, with the latter design in a particularly interesting, from the Mapster point of view, way.

4) Zarathustra - only played a beta version of it which probably got heavily changed, but despite a lot of the confusion, I enjoyed it a lot - maybe in a bit of sado-masochistic way. The design was completely out of this world, but not really in an abstract way, but rather in a "Star Trek: The Original Series" kind of alien way, to some point too colorful, but hell, it's damn aliens! Loved the bits like the Earth museum, the underwater boss fight was another of my favourite battles (also it's super impressive how this one works as a sector boss, probably the best one in Duke I've faced yet). Sure it's huge and overwhelming, but in such a fascinating way that you want more.

5) Big Apple Smoke - once again, the design really shines in this one - of course I only know New York from the movies (and, well, the Liberty City version from GTA games), but this one hits just all the right notes here. The gameplay feels just right as well, there's some epic battles (at the pier), but other than that it's not too exhausting. There's also plenty of room for extra exploring, like the sewer part, which I like a lot. Now that the sky change was mentioned, I still have to make up my mind which one I like better, the original starry one was just so original and kinda reminded me of Edvard Munch paintings.

6) Duke du Quatrain - it's a great level, mostly because of the original, "metroidvanian" style of progression/puzzles to it. It just feels so satisfying clearing the islands one by one and thinking of ways to access the next ones in a most convenient way. The design is closest to ck3D's earlier maps, but I think it's good, because it looks just lovely - even though the last island resulted in heavy sprite flickering (in a newer EDuke version).

7) Sunset Suicide - I'd say it's a perfect first level, with a lot parallels to Hollywood Holocaust - from the more obvious one like the start of the level and, well, being set around the themes of movies/Los Angeles, to details such as bombastic introduction of the pig cop or the "diagonal" parts of the layout. The design here is also top-notch, besides being great recreations of the real-life buildings, this is just some of the peak architecture in Duke.

8) High High High - most of the things about this one have already been said. I like how it's "unrealisticaly" spatial, which is a completely different approach than most Build airplane maps being cramped as shit, which makes the combat inside a lot more entertaining. I did have some problems similar to Quacken's about the enemy type not being too clear on a paletted sector, but that's about it. The trip to the wings was great and worked better than I'd expect.

9) Norilsk No-Reward - this is more "crude" and "simpler" level, which perfectly corresponds with the real-life location upon which this was based. I particularly liked the architecture in the first part of the map, the brutalist yet colorful style. Gameplay-wise, this one is more open, so the new deadly variants of the monsters work better, as it's easier to identify and dodge their projectiles. Only played this once and unfortunately back when it screwed up the sky due to polymost renderer, so probably my experience will be slightly different. The progression is a lot more linear/almost arcade-style compared to the other maps.

10) Embarco's Most Blasted - great design and openness, but the combat - especially at the beginning - feels too spammy/overwhelming. There are some very tough fights and it probably might be one of the most difficult maps in the entire episode (at least the version I've played), also there's been some progression issues which I think by now are mitigated. There's also a lot of lore that just flew over my head in this one, unfortunately - but I do appreciate the jokes that I got.

11) Light, Camera, Revolution - similar to EMB, this one mostly suffered from the confusing progression (at least the version which I played), although here it can be easily "broken" - but that is not always a good thing, as it might end up being even more confusing, e.g. entering the catacombs from the wrong way may end up in not knowing when this part has "finished". This is also one of the tougher maps and I particularly felt that some of the deadly insta-kill monsters were place a bit unfairly, but this might have gotten better by the released version. On the other hand, there's some great design - particularly in the catacombs section.

12) Postmortem - I only played an early beta of it, which felt basically like a trial and error due to some monster placement and confusing progression, also the most important sequence in this map was just broken in my version, which made the progression a lot more problematic back then. This is, however, the map which I am most curious about in terms of how it plays in the released version, so looking forward to get there!

Silent Scream and Closure are not on the list, as the first one is just a short transition map (which I really enjoyed, though!) and the second one I only played a very rough beta (and with cheat codes).

Also, TerminX just mentioned on duke4 Discord that he is going to raise the sprite rendering limit back to 4096 in mainline EDuke, so probably a lot of the errors/confusion about what version is best to use will be mitigated by then!

[NNC]

Map2 beta was incredibly tough indeed. It was a huge leap in difficulty. Map5 and Map6 are just piece of cake in comparison, but Map6 really suffered from lack of ammo if you exit the sea in the wrong place.

Map7 and Map10 had their annoying moments, but I loved them for what they are. Instadeath traps were a big no-no tough.

[Ninety-Six]

Norilisk down. Final time was 132 minutes, but the time I got to the button was 120. For once I didn't need to go back for secrets (found all of them before I got to the button), but I did run back for some resupply. I have once again finished a level DNSTUFF-style (minus the boots being at 97% for traveling back across the "river"), but it almost wasn't. I had to search real hard for shells and chaingun rounds, because this level was surprisingly stingy with them in particular. Was well-supplied for explosives though, which is good because this looks like the level where the real deal versions of the bosses start showing up. All of them besides the Queen at least once. Could definitely feel the one-man army of Duke while fighting block by block through an actual warzone. Good stuff.

Kinda surprised there's still a "normal" level left. Given the appearance of Norilisk's shattered state, the sheer amount of extremely high-tier monsters, and that song, this really felt like endgame stuff and yet



Happy to report I had zero crashes in this level. I did, however, get some very strange HOM errors when looking over the whole level, usually from a high place. I can't help but wonder if that's related, especially since I am playing in the renderer this was made for. As in, what caused a fatal crash in earlier versions may just become a visual glitch in later versions.

[Quacken]

Finally able to review the next map I got to play. Let's go!

Lights, Camera, Revolution

Spoiler

Sleek, relaxing and open-ended, Lights, Camera, Revolution is one of my favourite maps in the set. The music in this map set is generally pretty good, but I'd like to pay special attention to the MIDI for this map in particular. With how high Koj Still Borac can get your blood pumping, I like that this map's MIDI is much more relaxing and slow tempo to match the locations you visit, as well as the monsters generally not coming in large hordes. This map stands out from the other break maps solely because of this. The titular visuals are also rather striking. The middle of the map is where you'll spend a majority of your time, and I think it's a nice place to just walk around in and see the sights. I also like the look of the pharmacy, it's very nicely lit up.

The intended progression in this map is cryptic at worst, but thankfully you have lots of ways to circumvent the way forward. Getting to the red room in the art gallery by climbing up a pile of metal rafters, using Steroids to jump to a hanging light, then to a thin artpiece that juts out of the wall and then squirming through a vent seems too hyper-specific to be an accidental sequence break. Getting past the red gate is also comically easy. Just find the bus parked outside, use Build magic to get on top of it, then jump over the gate to trigger a fight. The rooftop nearby was where I got my first jetpack, and that's when the rules don't matter. With all your weapons combined, the rest of the encounters you should do before hitting the exit are relatively trivial. I don't really like the exploding electrical box on one of the rooftops though. Pressing the switch and not getting out of there in light speed results in an instant death, and I don't particularly think that's fun. Same with the sewer entrance not having something to break your fall. If you don't have a Jetpack to slowly hover down to the surface you'll die instantly upon hitting the ground. That underground area contains the Red Key, so unless there's a Jetpack I missed before the Red Key I'm not sure how you'd get to the key without dying at the entrance. Actually being underground is also a pretty big headache. The section with the purple lava, Octabrains and Commanders is really annoying as being above the lava gulps down your Protective Boots, and the supplies hanging precariously above the lava at the top without there being a spare set of Boots feels extra mean.

This map is also pretty stable, even when the middle building blows apart. The only issues I encountered were frame drops while walking around the very outskirts of the map. Thanks to its playful and open-ended scale, Lights, Camera, Revolution is a stand-out map in Blast Radius, and you won't play it the same way twice.

9/10.

[Aleks]

Quacken, on 21 March 2023 - 11:59 PM, said:

With how high Koj Still Borac can get your blood pumping, I like that this map's MIDI is much more relaxing and slow tempo to match the locations you visit, as well as the monsters generally not coming in large hordes. This map stands out from the other break maps solely because of this.

That's a pretty interesting take (unless ck3D made some major changes since the last beta I've played), but I've always interpreted these 2 maps completely on the contrary - never had much problems with Koj Stil Borac despite the weaponless start (well, at least to the point of finding a first decent gun, but it's pretty easy to just outmaneuver the enemies until then) and found the general experience there pretty relaxing with large open spaces and optional exploring of about 50% of the level, while on both of my playthroughs (pistol start and then regularly from the previous map), Lights, Camera, Revolution felt super hectic and mean (usually in a good, challenging way). But I guess this just shows how great this episode really is and how many different experiences/different ways to read the maps there are! Still very interesting to read all the different comments and I'm glad that the variety combined with style/quality consistence of Blast Radius provokes so many different reactions. Probably a much better measure of how good something is really when basically each map is someone's favourite and it's not just 1-3 maps everyone loves and talks about, then 10 more fillers.

[Ninety-Six]

Got through Nakano and a little bit of the next one. We're entering the endgame now. Once again pulled a DNSTUFF finish (minus losing 3 armor from the two fully-grown Overlords at once). This started as an accidental trend but at this point I wanna aim for it if possible. It's a cool badge of honor.

I was a little nervous going into this one. Seeing the construction screenshots all centered around this building, I was worried about the amount of SOS there would be. Levels with a lot of SOS tend to make the automap nearly useless, and to be fair there was a little bit of that here, but it wasn't any worse than the Director's Guild building so that was a relief. I still think it probably would have been better to isolate the interior for the sake of the automap. but I do respect the impressive feat doing it this way is.

I might have found a half-busted secret. The secret elevator that takes you to the green room above the two convenience stores, and the vent above the other store, they're supposed to connect but I wasn't able to open the wall separating them. I heard something move when I tried to press but nothing actually happened. I mean it's a good thing you can access the other half with a jetpack, but it does put you at a pretty bad disadvantage against the turret up there that way.


Can't say I understand what the aliens pinned to the wall of the building was supposed to signify. It's like they had been gunned into place but I couldn't figure out what the reference was, if it even was one.

[ck3D]

A bit short on time to give proper replies right now but I read and appreciate every comment, re: the aliens blasted into the wall in Nakano Nightmare, that's a One Punch Man reference where the bodies spell out 'hindrance' (but I wouldn't have expected many to catch that one):

[NNC]

Yea, the endgame feel is hovering from Norilsk onwards, and escalates in Map10 and Map11. I think many new players expect Map11 to be the end of ends.

[Ninety-Six]

"Finished" level 10. In quotes because I found the button but haven't pressed it yet. 13/21 secrets found, and this looks like a daunting task, so I took a break. This level definitely had more of that automap issue. Other than that, quite the plot twist(s). Really wonder what's gonna happen next.

[NNC]

Ilove the start of Map10. It's one of the game's most epic moments.