What's this thing?
We play through a set of maps/mods during the month, and use this thread to discuss it as we're still all fresh with our comments/opinions/feelings about the maps.
What's the purpose?
Basically, there are 4 purposes:
Showcasing some of the older mods/maps to wider public - they definitely deserve the attention!
Getting more people to actually enjoy and appreciate the user content - because let's be honest, over the past 27 years this was really what kept Duke alive after all.
...and while we're at it - keeping Duke alive by still enjoying it, as there's no new games in the franchise on the horizon (and let's be honest, they wouldn't be as good as some of this stuff!).
Having a more structured discussion on maps than what's going in "Last map you played" thread - which is great, but it's basically a monologue most of the time.
Can I join?
Sure, as long as you find some spare time during the month to play the stuff that's on the table!
Why a month?
Because people have lives, jobs or other stuff to do (like mapping). For smaller maps, this could be shorter time - it's all up to debate in the future!
What port should I use? Are mods allowed? Where to get the maps?
It's entirely up to you how you play the game, so you can use whatever port or mod allowed - it would be cool to state in your posts what you're using too, as there might be some slight differences between the ports! As for the maps, they should be always linked within the first post.
How should I play the maps or post about them?
Again, it's up to you. You can finish them all in one go or play them one by one whenever you feel like. On Doom forums, there's a rule that you should keep the pace by not posting about a map that has a higher number than the day of the month, so e.g. on 6th you shouldn't post about map 7 etc. I think that might be a good practice if there's a large interest in this, but first let's see how active the thread is for a start - so if there's nothing going on, feel free to post about whatever map you want to.
Happy New Year everybody and welcome to the first 2024 Edition of the Map/Mod club! For this month, the maps and mods by Alex Pistol have been chosen!
For those who don't know who is Alex Pistol (better known as Aleks on the Duke4.net forums and known as Ledsbourne in other places), he is a very active member in the Duke Nukem community, who has made plenty of high quality releases.
Although he made only one user map and participated in a number of community projects back in the early to mid 2000s, Aleks miraculously returned in 2020 and brought us plenty of masterpieces, including the episodes Back in Business and The Conundrum, as well as a couple high quality user maps known as Submachine, Der Zorn Gottes and Simpler Times. The last two are very recent releases.
With the exception of AlexCity (which was mainly made for the DOS version of Duke3D Atomic v1.5), all the other maps are only designed for EDuke32 and offer some unique experiences that you don't normally see in many other user maps, ranging from the excellent design, Easter Eggs and secrets to the difficulty settings affecting more than just the amount of enemies at level start.
What are you waiting for? Download the maps and mods right here at the following links:
Notes:
1) All maps are made for the Atomic Edition.
2) AlexCity is the only DOS compatible map, while the rest are designed for EDuke32.
3) Be sure to explore the maps to find cool Easter Eggs and secrets.
4) For the newer maps, difficulty settings affect more than just the enemy placement at level start (for example the respawns are also affected), so feel free to play on a lower skill if you find a map too difficult.
5) Using a recent EDuke32 build is highly recommended to play the newer releases.
Additionally, AlexCity is included in the EDuke32 Addon Compilation. Back in Business is also included but only in the newer pre-release 4.0 version of the compilation, not the stable 3.14 release.
Have fun!
This post has been edited by FistMarine: 01 January 2024 - 08:08 AM
Thanks for starting this topic! I will pull an MRCK here: will just keep reading the posts and answer/comment on them after the month is over (unless there's something I'd feel needs an immediate clarification for some reason).
BTW, just noticed it, had no idea it's been so long - congratulations on 2 years of you carrying on the Duke Map/Dod of the Month Club as the main organizer, FistMarine!
Passed AlexCity by 14 years old Alex Pistol AKA ShrinkDuke.
I see you were always interested in interesting details even when you were 14 The map even has transparent water.
I didn't die until the ending, wasn't expecting a boss in that room... but did kill him after a few trys.
Enjoyed the map and use of details, exploding box/dynamite was a nice touch!
Thanks!
Hi! I was going to play Simpler Times and put my review in Aleks' own thread but I guess I'll do it here.
AlexCity 1: Bank Heist
Well, all Duke 3D virtuosos have to start somewhere. For Alex Pistol, it was this map he decided to name after himself. AlexCity 1 is a bit silly by today's standards, but still manages to be a decent amount of fun. Despite his age, Aleks manages to demonstrate a surprising level of both aesthetics and funky doo-dads. There's bricks taken out of the walls, beams of light that fade out and transparent water. On the technical side of things, he has two security cameras that display text and fire, and most notably, a fire particle that travels up a line and detonates a box near the bank to blow up the door. I wish it was more obvious to see where the Red Switch was on the box, though. Despite his fun little distractions and how simple the map may seem, Aleks also likes bothering you a lot in this map. Either the switch to the arcade broke or I'm just stupid, because I couldn't get the doors to open. I had to DNCLIP through them, which I am really starting to feel bad about doing. The way forward in the arcade proper is blocked by a hard to see vent, and the switch inside opens a window that actually has no indication on where it is, which takes you to the Red Key. All of this might have been bearable if it weren't for the rockets being fired at you. Midway through the map, a rocket turret in an inaccessible part of the map turns on and starts firing at you periodically, which makes it hard to concentrate and find the way to progress. Comboing with this is the MIDI, which sounds highly anxiety inducing to me with how harsh its instruments are. It almost seems intentional. The short section after Blue Key 2 wraps up with a Yellow Key that tries to kill you and a very uncomfortable Boss Battlelord fight. You can thankfully cheese this fight by climbing up on the boxes, hiding in them and firing rockets at the Battlelord's head, avoiding the splash damage in the process. Unlike Merlijn van Oostrum's first two Red maps, AlexCity 1 doesn't feel like the work of an amateur, rather the work of someone who knows more about the game than you might expect.
6.5/10.
This post has been edited by Quacken: 02 January 2024 - 03:52 AM
Either the switch to the arcade broke or I'm just stupid, because I couldn't get the doors to open. I had to DNCLIP through them, which I am really starting to feel bad about doing.
Thanks for the reviews guys, glad you could still enjoy the map - and yeah, this is exactly the point where I do have to chime in to clarify things, but there are two switches in the club you need to use to open the arcade, one of them in the obvious spot in the room with pig cop and the other obscurely hidden behind the large speaker at the scene If I ever get to re-release this map, this switch will be the first thing to go, it probably wouldn't be that bad if it was the only one, but since there's the other one as well, it can be misleading as hell to the player and something that does require a hint I believe.
I don't even look at the cameras in Aleks' modern maps, I just assume they crash the game immediately upon use.
Casino Carnage
Casino Carnage is the first map of Aleks' Back to Business mapset, and it's quite a joy to play. If you finish it in time... Casino Carnage sets you up to open your very own casino, with the catch being that you have to do everything in under 15 minutes or else Aleks softlocks you by blocking off the map's exit. Though the time limit is indeed very generous as per BTB's readme file (you can do everything in under six minutes if you know the route), I wish he would have just killed me once the 15 minutes ran out. I failed the first time while looking for the switch that turns on the neon sign, which is much harder to find than it looks. You have to stand on a broken black column outside near the flight of stairs, then make an awkward jump to the windowsill and run across to the open window. There's also a variety of graphical glitches in this map that seem like a result of my version of eDuke32 (mostly on the slopes and all of the props which I think are meant to be humans being replaced with door textures), though thankfully it's nothing that doesn't impede progression. That's all nitpicks though, because I really do like this map a lot. The funky David Bowie MIDI along with the impeccable visuals makes for an exciting opener. The first monitor at the start of the map not only looks very cool with a lot of nice details, it also serves as your to-do list. It will update as you accomplish tasks. I like that the clock in the bottom right slowly ticks forward when you complete the objectives. The casino proper has a lot of great sector art with many different gaming tables, and proudly features three different kinds of slot machines. There's even a Comic Sans sign! There's a lot of Comic Sans, actually. It strangely fits on all of the signs and mission briefings. Casino Carnage is a happy go lucky crowd pleaser that will brighten up your day.
9.5/10.
Mission Briefing (all of them)
There's a Mission Briefing map between each of the proper maps, with no monsters. I wouldn't say these are quite needed compared to something like Back to Saturn X's intermission maps (which these seem like they take some inspiration from, whether intentionally or not), as these are so far very short maps with low monster density, but they're nice to have anyway, and show off more delicious signs.
7/10.
Mutant Mayhem
...I feel like I owe Aleks some kind of apology, because I just couldn't get into this map. Mutant Mayhem is generally just a bother to play in my opinion. The start seems like it only exists to specifically annoy people like me. The maps after Casino Carnage definitely seem like they were intended to be played with the arsenal you got from the previous Mission Briefing map, since those maps all force you into blank starts and the "action maps" don't. Unfortunately, I am legally obligated to play all maps with a Pistol start. So, in this map, it's a game of "can you roll the dice for a Shotgun from a Pig Cop?". If you don't get one after the first four or so, then you might as well restart, because you'll be dead by the room in front of the Red Door. Even if you have real guns, this map is just not very fun to play for me. The emphasis on crowded hallways, low light levels, hostile explosions and seemingly every security camera being out to get me in particular in combination with a repetitive MIDI that becomes heavily grating five minutes in made this an uncomfortable 11:00 PM session. The MIDI is also an OGG, which clashes with Casino Carnage's music being a MIDI. Mutant Mayhem is certainly not bad, but I don't personally enjoy it very much.
While I kindly ask to be bailed out in Piggish Prison (getting the first key if you're wondering), here's the next map.
Freezing Fear
Firstly, I do have to appreciate the consistent alliteration in these map titles. (Though the two Mission Briefing maps could have been called something like Mission March.) Freezing Fear is definitely an upgrade over the last map. It has a much more unique setting and features some great new tech. The gimmick with this map is there are several PDAs lying about which you can interact with. These security cameras in disguise can range from being mildly humorous to providing mission critical information. One of the PDAs provides you the code to a game-breaking armory, and another one gives you the code to the Command Centre, leading to the final fight. My only issue with them is two out of three PDAs are in very dark spots. It would have been good if they were lit up like they were powered on. The only other major issue I have with this map is I spent way too long trying to find the very tiny button to beam up to the armory. Putting the button right next to where the door is and making it so small is quite a mean trick. This map has some notable fights in the latter half. The ambush at the command centre is a shot of adrenaline, and the waves of battles at the UFO is a good idea in theory but flawed in execution. If you raided the armory earlier in the map, you'll be done with the waves way too quickly and will have to wait around for the next one for a good while. Nevertheless, it's quite engaging having to hold down either the little platform you're on or to brave the ground level to fight the Battlelord. This also introduces Back to Business' first Overlord Sentry, the best monster in this game that doesn't exist often enough. Freezing Fear is a great map with good ammo balance, just enough health to keep you going (as long as you play smart), and it features ingenious uses of security cameras to expand on its worldbuilding.
@Aleks: Cheers mate! I appreciate all the comments and I'm glad we got this event running up since June 2021. Without you and everyone who participated, we wouldn't even be here.
It's also interesting to know that I've been hosting this event since two years, time flies really fast. Hopefully the Map/Mod of the Month Club keeps going strong for years! And thanks everyone for the comments so far. It's now my turn to review some stuff, especially as today is a special day, so consider this as a birthday present. Happy Birthday Aleks!
Unfortunately, I didn't get to revisit Back in Business or check out The Conundrum during these days but I hope to get them reviewed soon, as they deserve a detailed review and would have been a better birthday present instead of just two maps reviewed. But for now, I'm reviewing AlexCity and SUBMACHINE!
AlexCity 1: Bank Heist
I have played this map for first time back in 2009-2010 or so and I will always remember it for the funny music and Aleks' funny nickname ShrinkDuke. Then I replayed this map in December 2020 (Duke3D v1.5 using DOSBox 0.74-3, on CGS with all kills and secrets).
The map is pretty enjoyable to this day and even offers quite a bit of challenge, especially the beginning with the scarce resources (health is limited, while armor is given later) and the ending with the Tripmines trap and the Battlelord boss, plus a random rocket shooter that gets activated halfway in the map. I recommend saving just in case. Though the difficulty of the map can be somewhat softened with the fire hydrant found near beginning of map, when clearing the whole area of enemies and having some safe space to refill the health in desperate cases.
The tripmines activated when getting the Yellow Card can be difficult to avoid and even if you somehow survive them, you get trapped, the ceiling collapses and you get squished. If you choose to blow them up in advance, the access card becomes inaccessible and you get softlocked. You have been warned!
The Battlelord boss fight is quite cramped, so fighting him head on is suicide. All you have to do is hide behind the boxes, which makes the RPG risky to use because if Duke is caught in the splash damage when hitting the boss (the damage is also doubled as a result), he will die instantly. Hopefully you have enough ammo for the non-explosive weapons to safely kill the boss behind cover.
Other complaints include the height variation is a bit too low and the map can get a bit confusing at times with the puzzles (one switch hidden behind a speaker, which is easy to miss), as well as the two problematic parts mentioned earlier.
There are THREE secrets to find:
1) In the main street, look for an ATM Machine. Open it and jump inside to collect an Atomic Health. Be careful as the floor is electrified.
2) Inside the sewers, jump through one of the holes to collect a Shrinker.
3) When entering the club, shoot the fire extinguisher and then you can access a room with a Dancing Babe, Large Medkit and Holoduke. Fun fact: you can press on the babe to gain 10 HP if your health is less than 100!
Overall, this map was nice. It shows its age but it is still worth checking out once. I would like to see a remake of this map one day, considering it is the only DOS-compatible map from Alex Pistol and it would be nice if it could be remade while taking advantage of EDuke32's features. Maybe could even be turned into a mini episode/series, considering the map is titled AlexCity 1, just like how in past month we checked out On Him Their Lives Depend 01 and it was similarly meant to be part of a series.
Submachine
As you can tell from reading the nicely designed PDF file included in the archive, I beta tested this map back in April/May 2021 and provided a bit of feedback to Aleks. I remember playing the map on Let's Rock difficulty as per his recommendation. I don't remember many details other than just doing a casual playthrough and giving my overall impressions about the map.
This time I decided to replay it on CGS difficulty with 100% everything, using EDuke32 r9887 (latest 2021 build). I looked up Radar's video for help with finding secrets and stuff, considering the secrets offer great benefits and there is a single point of no return towards the end. And I played through the map THREE times, as you will see below.
The first thing I can say about the map is that it is a masterpiece. Plain and Simple. It's got everything right: Level design, attention to details, challenge, gameplay, puzzles, soundtrack, etc. Words cannot do the map justice, this map deserves to be played in order to be experienced to the fullest.
As a fun fact, all three ways to shrink are present in this map: mirror, shrink ray shooter, protector drone. This makes the gameplay much more interesting and in turn the battles with protectors much more epic.
The Red Card puzzle is very clever, though it can take you a couple tries to do it properly. I recommend saving to minimize the tedium, if you don't feel like redoing the puzzle from beginning. And don't forget to have the mini platform activated in advance, so at the end of puzzle, the crane drops the card on the mini platform and not into acid!
Unfortunately, I couldn't get the last kill on my initial playthrough. I got 173/175 kills at first, then found out the missing kills thanks to DNDEBUG cheat code and looking in Mapster over debug.map. This led me to discover a hidden Red Trooper in the very last room with the Cycloid, he was just invisible when I killed the Cycloid and saved to a separate slot. Then I found out the spot where he was hiding and was able to kill him just before the level ended.
However, the very last enemy turned out to be a trooper out of bounds that somehow "survived" the trip mine at the map start. Yes, I got really unlucky here, as Aleks explained to me in a PM earlier this month. What happened is that trooper apparently played dead at beginning, then he came back to life and prevented 100% completion. To make sure this doesn't happen, as per advice by Aleks: when you start the map and take the elevator to the cave, you should have two kills already. If not and you see the kill count dropping down, then restart the map because of that damn trooper playing dead.
This information determined me to replay the map, so this time I chose to do the Voxel version, despite not having the voxel pack installed, as I prefer to have my game folder clean without any mods installed. The explanation for that is that mods can sometimes create conflicts and the custom maps/mods may not work properly, which is why I don't bother installing enhancement mods or whatever. Either way, in this second playthrough, I managed to get all 175 in-game kills but still no sign of the 176th enemy showing up as the readme file mentions. I didn't find any difference with the map but sadly, the new soundtrack didn't play due to the voxel map filename, so I instead got to hear Dethtoll. Which is a shame because the new soundtrack really adds to the map's atmosphere.
The third time however, I went back to replay the original version of the map and not only I managed to get all the kills but also get the 176th enemy, not sure how that happened but it might be a rare case with an extra enemy spawned somewhere that doesn't always happen in every playthrough. And there were still a few annoyances, like one or two protector drones that could disappear inside a mirror located in the main cave (this probably happened in Voxel version of the map, had to load a slightly earlier save so I don't end up with missing kills again at end of level) or when going down the elevator towards the end (after accessing the room where you get one of the Jetpacks) and protectors don't always show up, requires you to send the elevator back up, then down and they will show up. Regardless, this playthrough wrapped up the map nicely and even managed to finish the map under an hour.
For fun, here are the results of the Submachine playthroughs based off screenshots I saved: SUBMACHINE.MAP - 70 minutes and 21 seconds, 173/175 kills (or 174/175 after the Red Trooper showed up), 9/9 secrets SUBMACHINE_VOXELS.MAP - 62 minutes and 12 seconds, 175/175 kills, 9/9 secrets SUBMACHINE.MAP - 57 minutes and 1 second, 176/176 kills, 9/9 secrets
There are NINE secrets to find, which unfortunately I'm not going to list because it is very difficult to describe them and their exact location. Just watch Radar's video instead, he has the timestamps with the secrets AND the side quests that are the solution to access one of the secrets. Oh and for the one secret that contains the password to the BONUS CONTENT zip file, just note the password needs to be written in lowercase letters in order to successfully extract the zip file. In short, the secrets are very rewarding if you find them.
Besides some parts being a bit confusing and the bugs/glitches with monsters disappearing sometimes, there is nothing really to nitpick about this map. Congratulations to Aleks for making an epic map like this and for Radar for the video with secrets guide. And once again, Happy Birthday to Aleks!
This post has been edited by FistMarine: 16 January 2024 - 10:12 AM
Thanks for your comments, guys! And thanks for the birthday wishes, FistMarine!
FistMarine, on 16 January 2024 - 10:10 AM, said:
I looked up Radar's video for help with finding secrets and stuff, considering the secrets offer great benefits and there is a single point of no return towards the end.
Just one small clarification here: there is a way of getting out of the last room in Submachine and (re)-exploring the entire map, although it can be a bit difficult to find/enable, as you have the Cycloid on your back. But I wanted to make sure to enable a "100% completion" of the maps even in cases where someone enters this room and saves their game before finding the final secrets/enemies.
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The third time however, I went back to replay the original version of the map and not only I managed to get all the kills but also get the 176th enemy, not sure how that happened but it might be a rare case with an extra enemy spawned somewhere that doesn't always happen in every playthrough.
Not sure if that's the case in Submachine as well with some respawn triggered rarely, there are no enemies that can "randomly" spawn or not (e.g. pig cop tanks that sometimes spawn a pig cop, eggs that may or may not hatch, or the Queen who might or might not spawn several protector drones). However, just in case someone wonders - besides either of these, in Piggish Prison and Simpler Times, there are a total of three respawn triggers which can only happen given some certain player decision is made and then are blocked afterwards (in Piggish Prison one is 2 pig cops and 2nd one a commander, in Simpler Times it's two pig cops as well).
This post has been edited by Aleks: 16 January 2024 - 01:57 PM
Not much activity here - perhaps because most work from Aleks is fairly recent and people already left their comments in the release threads?
Anyway, I replayed Alekscity 1 for the first time in many years. I must say it holds up very well! It has some typical early 00's tropes (think sprite ladders, clear water and '3D' fire that hurts like hell ) but Aleks managed to create a very solid map under the old limitations. The spriteworks are already pretty intricate and well designed, there are well implemented shadows everywhere. A lot of fun details too, and the fuse effect is pretty damn cool! Gameplay is your typical button and keycard hunt, you go into 1 building to flip a switch and proceed to the next. Most locations are just a few rooms deep, but again given the old limitations that's understandable. I did find the 2nd button in the disco pretty quickly, but it confused me for a bit - I assumed I unlocked a secret somewhere. Didn't take me long to figure out what it actually did though.
The last fight was a bit excessive, throwing a full sized battlelord in such a small room. But he's pretty easy to beat if you just climb the crates to the left. Overall a nice trip down memory lane!
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Unlike Merlijn van Oostrum's first two Red maps, AlexCity 1 doesn't feel like the work of an amateur, rather the work of someone who knows more about the game than you might expect.
Yeah, my first efforts are pretty weak compared to this.
I don't think I'll have enough time to replay the rest, but I already left my thoughts in the original release threads. Instead, I'll try to do a one-sentence summary for each of them. XD
Here we go:
Back in Business
00's design meets modern mapping, if this was music I would call this the transitional album between the old and the new sound.
Submachine
Similar to BiB's techbase maps, but more refined in all areas and technically extremely impressive.
The Conundrum
THAT DAMN MOUSE!
Spoiler
come on, you knew it was coming
Der Zorn Gottes
Amazing usage of true 3D space and refined the Battleduke concept for a more well rounded experience
Simpler times
This is a God damn masterpiece, drop what you're doing and play it now if you haven't already!
This post has been edited by Merlijn: 24 January 2024 - 07:46 AM
To explain my own inactivity: I got out of my original stuck point in Piggish Prison, then 25 minutes later I was stuck in a second one. I think the map might be broken for me due to errors in the textures, so today I'll take a DNCLIP and try to finish up Back in Business. I've already done a Submachine review so I don't need to do that map, so I have to do three long maps in six days.
To explain my own inactivity: I got out of my original stuck point in Piggish Prison, then 25 minutes later I was stuck in a second one. I think the map might be broken for me due to errors in the textures, so today I'll take a DNCLIP and try to finish up Back in Business. I've already done a Submachine review so I don't need to do that map, so I have to do three long maps in six days.
That's interesting, could you try DNDEBUG and send me the debug.map it produces along with eduke.log?
That's interesting, could you try DNDEBUG and send me the debug.map it produces along with eduke.log?
I would, if I was smart enough and also not tired. I just don't think it's worth the trouble mainly. Anyway, the proper map review:
-
"Please tell me this is the final map. Oh, thank God. Alien Assassination was never finished."
Piggish Prison
Piggish Prison is the (currently) final map in Back to Business. I want to preface this review by saying I liked this map way less than I should through (sometimes) no fault of Aleks'. Piggish Prison is fashionably detailed, uses lots of custom resources, has a very striking use of room over room and features some cool gimmicks at the start. I happen to like that starting area a lot. Kicking your way through the ground to make it to the toilets is good finger exercise, and using the lighter to blow up the bars is cool but setting the lighter in the right place can be a bit tedious. Crafting a Pipe Bomb to open your way outside is another great idea, but the textures were broken for me so I was actually searching for Doom door textures that were clipped halfway through the floor. I got by it by spamming the Use key everywhere. That's a running theme for me in particular, and it's what contributed to both this review taking so long, and my draining enthusiasm. I don't know why eDuke's version number decides that it just replaces textures with garbage if you haven't updated to the latest version, but to that I say: As soon as Raze lets you properly load custom maps, eDuke is going in the goddamn trash. And as soon as someone makes a replacement for Mapster, I'll make Duke 3D maps.
Once you're outside, the map opens up more. The most notable building in the courtyard is the huge Yellow Door building which you'll spend the bulk of the runtime in. It's a massive four story complex that has lots of monsters in it. It has a music track in the bar which you can't turn off and a diary from an Assault Captain which didn't work for me, but it's pretty fun running around in it. I got stuck on the second floor for quite a while until I eventually found the button to press behind the bar counter. Then I got stuck on the third floor behind the stuck cabinet and had to use one of two DNCLIPs to get past it. There's an explosive box near the cabinet which seems like it would be prime to open the way up to the other half of the third floor, but blowing it up with a Pipe Bomb doesn't do anything. At least the Protector Drone ambush beforehand is pretty fun. DNCLIP2 was used to get past the Blue Door. I assume the safe after Yellow Door 2 held the Blue Key, but it must spawn in after you input the correct code, which was probably on a broken texture. After getting Yellow Key 2, lots of monsters start to teleport into the courtyard, and not all of them I agree with. There's not a lot of health in this map, so the almost mandatory fall damage from Yellow Key 2's room into a Mini Battlelord (unless you Footstool on the Commander outside to not take fall damage) seems very mean, and the Mini Overlords near the Red Key aren't much of a challenge with all of the rockets you accumulate. I really want to like Piggish Prison, and honestly I do - it's just that the experience for me was personally diminished by broken textures and occasionally obtuse progression. I have a great amount of respect for the amount of work that was surely put into this map. In an alternate eDuke32 version, this could have been right up there with Casino Carnage.
Thanks for your comments, guys! And thanks for the birthday wishes, FistMarine!
Hope you had a great birthday, Aleks!
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Just one small clarification here: there is a way of getting out of the last room in Submachine and (re)-exploring the entire map, although it can be a bit difficult to find/enable, as you have the Cycloid on your back. But I wanted to make sure to enable a "100% completion" of the maps even in cases where someone enters this room and saves their game before finding the final secrets/enemies.
Ah. I thought that you can still backtrack just as long as you don't step in the very last room (e.g. from the second screenshot, you are allowed to backtrack, fly down the vent, then fly back up after collecting everything). As I noticed the touchplates still activate (including Cycloid appearing) even if you are flying with the Jetpack.
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Not sure if that's the case in Submachine as well with some respawn triggered rarely, there are no enemies that can "randomly" spawn or not (e.g. pig cop tanks that sometimes spawn a pig cop, eggs that may or may not hatch, or the Queen who might or might not spawn several protector drones). However, just in case someone wonders - besides either of these, in Piggish Prison and Simpler Times, there are a total of three respawn triggers which can only happen given some certain player decision is made and then are blocked afterwards (in Piggish Prison one is 2 pig cops and 2nd one a commander, in Simpler Times it's two pig cops as well).
Ah yes, I know you have told me this before but I already know about the additional spawned enemies (eggs spawning slimers, pig tanks sometimes spawning a pig cop, etc) that aren't present in this map, it's just that I was referring to that particular enemy that doesn't seem to be counted as live enemy. Not sure why this happens but in my last playthrough, as you can see on the second screenshot (BTW all three screens are taken on my last playthrough), I had 169/174 kills and you can see the shadows of the six enemies waiting in the very last room. The Cycloid hasn't spawned yet and before killing him, will show 175/175 kills, then after killing him you get the maximum of 176/176 kills as the Readme file correctly stated.
As you can see, there is one enemy that isn't counted as live enemy but it still ADDS to kills when you kill him, so in the previous playthrough this means that one enemy can be skipped and still get 100% kills, which is what confused me. I have noticed this behavior before in other user maps in very rare cases that didn't involve eggs/sharks. I really have no idea what even causes this and I know the kill count is a buggy mess (as is in pretty much every 90s FPS game honestly) but someone needs to get the full 100% completion, even if monsters can be sometimes missed in the process.
Anyway, thanks guys for keeping the topic active! And I apologize for my inactivity this month, meant to make a post much earlier but it turned out to be a very busy month and I barely managed to get through some of the month's entries (or in case of AlexCity, it was done back in December 2020, so I reviewed it based on the memories and YouTube videos). I still hope to replay Back in Business (despite having it finished a few times before) for the upcoming Duke Nukem 3D's anniversary (shareware version) and then the two user maps (saving the best for the last) and wrap up everything for this month.
For now, here's a review of THE CONUNDRUM! I played it yesterday (though finished the last two levels earlier today) on eduke32 r10166 (latest 2022 build, sorry I didn't use the included eduke32 build), on third difficulty setting. I used Radar's video for guide sometimes (only some parts) but obviously they were great help. In rest, most puzzles are pretty straightforward.
Oh and if you are wondering why the screenshots are in widescreen format, on my new PC I can't seem to change the Aspect Ratio format I want (resulting in black bars on left and right sides of the screen even at 1024x768 resolution), so I played at my monitor's resolution of 1360x768 which looks nice in-game.
The mod is very puzzle inspired and uses the kick-ass soundtrack from DUKE NUKEM II! The only difference between difficulty settings in the mod is the amount of hints given, from what I understood. And I guess those two troopers dying at the start which are present on third skill. Difficulty settings explained:
HOLD MY HAND -> Easy Difficulty. You get hints to solve the puzzles. GIVE ME A CLUE -> Medium Difficulty. You get a hint to solve the puzzles. TOO MUCH FREE TIME -> Hard Difficulty. You don't get any hints to solve the puzzles. -UNDEFINED- -> This difficulty shouldn't be selected.
THE CONUNDRUM
Intro
Short introduction map that tells you the basics of the mod and only takes 15 seconds to finish.
NO EPIC BATTLES
NO SECRETS
NO KEYCARDS
NO DECORATIONS
JUST PUZZLES
THE CONUNDRUM
Ladders and Snakes
Kills: 2/2
It goes without saying that I highly recommend save-scumming in order to make progress through this mod. So have the F6 and F9 buttons handy and use multiple saves if needed. The objective here is to be picked up by cranes and dropped at the correct points, such as picking up the Pistol, destroying some barrels and kicking the crane (works only once) before you get dropped or else you get dropped near the pillar and you get stuck. The cranes seem to also lag when carrying Duke. Afterwards, you must avoid the shrink rays while platforming. If you get shrunk, you fall down.
When arriving at the next section, do a backup save. This part is frustrating due to some things that may not work properly. You have to choose between THREE inventory items and THREE locations. You have to choose the correct one every time and do all three unique sections with the required inventory item. If you don't hit the switch at the correct time for the corresponding icon, you get softlocked.
When I tried first time, I did the Lava and Underwater section. But then the door didn't open at the underwater section (even solved it two or three separate times and even without touching any tripmines) because it only opens temporary once for a short time, so I was stuck with no way to progress and I even admit typing NOCLIP into console once in frustration to finish the level but then I quit game (I didn't save with cheat enabled anyway, so let's pretend that cheat never happened) and watched Radar's video again, then I finally found a solution without cheating which I really want to share to help others.
I did the underwater section first, then the air section, then the lava section and was able to finish the map. The only side effect is that health pickups didn't spawn at exit but on my successful try I finished with 91 HP, so it's not that big of a loss.
Here's the exact steps I followed for the switches:
1) Kick the Scuba Icon, then the Water Icon. Complete the underwater puzzle by avoiding the trip mines.
2) Kick the Jetpack Icon, then the Up Icon. Complete the flying puzzle by avoiding the lightning strikes.
3) Kick the Boots Icon, then the Purple Lava Icon. Complete the lava puzzle by avoiding the trip mines while running/crouching.
Then the exit is available. Congratulations, you have finished the first level!
Overall, this was a somewhat confusing and frustrating first level that can discourage players from continuing.
Freeze!
Kills: 2/9
As soon as I saw the title, I knew what to expect. The challenge of this level is to simply freeze yourself to avoid getting detected by the monsters. Due to Duke being considered dead while frozen, the monsters don't get activated and allow Duke to sneak up past them until he unfreezes.
Quite clever how all this was done and you don't even have to worry too much about getting stuck at 1 HP because there is no armor (so you have nothing to lose upon being frozen) and the health is given at the end to have full for the next level. There are of course some problematic areas towards the end. But for now, a quick walkthrough and impression:
You have to guide a freezer projectile to hit an explosive canister, something that reminded me of a puzzle from Russian Community Build Project, at least I'm pretty sure it was one of the CBPs that had this puzzle.
Then you get frozen and pick up a Freezethrower. You then have to freeze yourself while riding the cart to avoid getting detected by troopers or else they set up the tripmines and whole area blows up. Watching Radar's video, I didn't realize you could just freeze them and "break" the puzzles, I wish I had done that to get more kills but at same time I'm glad I did it the intended way.
Afterwards, in the boss room, freeze yourself upon the timer reaching zero and do it quickly and carefully, not too early (you get killed when you unfreeze while doors are closing) and not too late (you get killed before you freeze yourself). It is still possible to get detected by the monsters on the very last second and this may affect the next section.
Afterwards, the final puzzle with crane was damn annoying and took me about 10 or more attempts of falling down or getting killed by monsters until one time when it randomly worked, not sure what I did that worked but I had to rely on monsters not detecting me until late when they hit the crane with bullets and Duke dropped safely right on the platform or something similarly crazy that worked for me.
The problem is that freezing yourself and getting dropped by crane resulted in getting dropped into lava pit. If I don't freeze myself, I get killed instantly by the monsters. Turns out from watching the video, I had to freeze myself early and then thaw right when crane drops Duke. I guess the reason why couldn't be done properly is because if I remember from original Duke3D and messing with cheats when I was a kid, getting dropped by crane while frozen will shatter Duke even at short fall distances.
Overall, this was a cool level (no pun intended).
Length Padding
Kills: 2/8
Probably the easiest and shortest actual level in the mod. I figured out the solutions myself but took me a couple minutes to complete.
First room, just step on the blocks. Notice which ones will lower other blocks. Eventually, when all blocks are lowered, the door is opened. Puzzle reminded me of the one from third level of Shadow Warrior. Before entering the second room, notice the solution for the switches, it's gonna be helpful for the next room.
Second room, very creative puzzle but somewhat frustrating. You have to rely on troopers' aim to hit the targets and set up the sollution yourself. You also have to rely a bit on luck for damage per projectile (between 6 and 13 damage) or else you get killed quickly if you keep taking 13 dmg hits to your face.
To help the player, switches are provided that shrink down the troopers (can be done as many times you want), allowing you to concentrate on the more important parts for about 10 seconds until they return to normal. In most cases I got the solution right but one stupid trooper hit one of the targets and had to try fixing the mistake but this resulted in more time wasted and eventually getting killed. This puzzle is much trickier than you think. Eventually, when the puzzle is complete, quickly press on the switch to unlock the exit door.
Overall, this level was nice but the trooper section was a bit annoying and luck based.
Nobody Kills Our Chicks
Kills: 8/13
As you can tell from the title, you must protect the lovely ladies while only killing the captured babes in order to progress.
Starting room is simple. Turn on the rocket shooter and make sure it only kills the captured babes. Next room is confusing and had to look up the video to see what to do. Falling down into lava and pressing the switch to raise the pillars is the intended way (make sure the babes don't get killed by the commanders). Afterwards, lure the Octabrain into the tripmines but also quickly press the switch before tripmines regenerate or else you die.
The next part is again simple, spawn a trooper to kill the captured babe and spawn a slimer to eat that trooper. Pick up the Shrinker and shrink yourself by aiming at the monitor, then go through the vent. Be careful at the next section with the commanders that seems impossible at first until you realize that quickly shrinking the ladies will temporary make them invincible, so they don't get killed by the commanders' rockets. Afterwards, kill the commanders by shrinking them all while avoiding their rockets and press all the switches to unlock the exit.
Overall, I liked the idea behind this level, I found it very nice.
Plot Twist
Kills: 2/2
This is actually the easiest and shortest map in the entire mod. First room just has you correctly aligning the three sectors to be able to shoot a switch through the gap, then the next room all you have to do is to jump on the platforms. Don't bother pressing the switches on the platforms, as they seem to activate rocket shooters. And obviously, don't fall down as there is no escape. As you make it to the top, you can exit.
Overall, this map was fine. Would have made more sense if placed earlier in the episode due to the difficulty and length.
Friend or Foe?
Kills: 4/6
The last level is interesting and gives you THREE different challenges before you can access the final fight.
First Room: You have to guide the rocket through a maze and have it hit some canisters, then press the switch and kill the spawned trooper. I had to consult the video because while I knew what I had to do and what switches do, I found it impossible to get the exact timing, even with the hint on the left side of the room. The solution was to get left and middle switches turned on, then only have middle and right switches turned on while the rocket is traveling. Not fully sure but that's what worked for me. Oh and the rocket sometimes hits the wall and hurts Duke. Doesn't always happen but it's annoying when it does.
Second Room: You have to lure the Mini Battlelord to the opening and have it shoot mortars while hopefully they hit you while you are in air and the explosion breaks the door. This part took me lots of quickloads, so many that eduke32 crashed once because of Too Many Sprites Spawned. Well luckily my saves were fine and in the end I managed to do it properly. I would have done earlier if I haven't died in the process when the door blew up first time, so I had to do it again. Oh and if you are wondering, you can't kick the Mini Battlelord to death if you want to get rid of him after completing the section, I tried from both sides, he can't be hurt while he can hitscan you to death.
Third Room: You have to guide the Annoying Mickey Mouse Robot and have it blow up the tripmines for you. To do that, you have to kick the barrels and have him get picked up by the crane by pushing him on the spot. Then go back, jump on his head, go through the vent, unlock the doors and eventually he will get through with some patience, will take a few minutes, just make sure he doesn't fall into lava (this actually happened once or twice). Of course you can push him which works sometimes, other times he is stubborn and goes wherever he wants but the puzzle was nowhere near as bad as I expected, despite many people having problems with it. And after the robot dies from the tripmines, QUICKLY hit that switch before the tripmines regenerate! Also watch for the Mini Battlelord firing from across the whole room, you don't want him to kill the mouse robot.
After the three switches have been pressed, go back in the middle of the starting room and eventually you will fall through. Make sure you have enough health before falling. Afterwards, collect all the health/armor supplies through the map and prepare for the last challenge where you must figure out how to take on the Overlord and Cycloid Emperor while you have no weapons. I will leave that to the reader, it's not hard to figure this one out. Remember that only one boss needs to be defeated in order to win the level.
Once you have figured out what to do, congratulations, you have completed THE CONUNDRUM! If you noticed the episode selection screen, there is also TRY OTHER LEVEL but that's just a level select screen, it only lets you select the first five levels (no intro and finale).
Overall, The Conundrum is a very interesting and unique take on various Duke Nukem 3D puzzles. On the one hand, the design and the puzzles themselves are very creative, quite well done. The skill and level names are interesting, plus the Duke Nukem 2 soundtrack is very enjoyable to hear.
On the other hand, the gameplay can be a mixed bag sometimes, at least in SOME of the levels. Having to rely on enemy AI which is out of your control, can be very frustrating. I highly recommend save-scumming in order to be able to get some enjoyment and progress through the mod instead of having to retry sections over and over again. And please watch Radar's video to help to progress through certain sections.
I'm also not fully sure if the eduke32 build I used was at fault, it seems more or less the mod worked fine with a few parts that seemed glitchy, like the cranes lagging and not dropping Duke in the right place (the latter may have been intended to force the player to kick them to escape), doors don't open in first level if the puzzle isn't done in a certain order, tripmines "regenerating" in some places (plus hearing the tripmine click sound continuously), etc. Therefore, using the r10166 build is safe, mod is completable without using any cheats.
Either way, I'm glad to have played this mod, it was certainly an unique experience and I appreciate the content Aleks has offered us. Some puzzles were very fun but others were quite frustrating. But don't let that discourage you from playing the mod.
Bonus: Radar's Playthrough!
And now, it's time for the next month's nominations. You knew it was coming, didn't you? For February, I nominate these two commercial works: Duke Zone II and Wanton Destruction!
I don't think I need to explain what are these as most Duke fans already know but here we go: Duke Zone II (created by Simply Silly Software) is a semi-official addon for Duke Nukem 3D, while Wanton Destruction (created by Sunstorm Interactive) is an official addon (and semi-official sequel) to Shadow Warrior (1997). Felt like both of these would work well paired together. As usual, add a + to the choice. It is the only one for now.
I'm also not fully sure if the eduke32 build I used was at fault, it seems more or less the mod worked fine with a few parts that seemed glitchy, like the cranes lagging and not dropping Duke in the right place (the latter may have been intended to force the player to kick them to escape), doors don't open in first level if the puzzle isn't done in a certain order, tripmines "regenerating" in some places (plus hearing the tripmine click sound continuously), etc. Therefore, using the r10166 build is safe, mod is completable without using any cheats.
I'm glad it worked and you were able to finish it in the newer build, but yeah the problems you mentioned (tripmines constantly respawning - which they shouldn't - and probably the underwater door) are exactly what got broken in EDuke in the meantime, which is why you should play with the intended version that is included with the mod The tripmines constantly respawning might eventually lead to "too many sprites spawned" crash as well. The cranes not dropping Duke on the pillars are intended though, you have to kick them to land where you need to.
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The only difference between difficulty settings in the mod is the amount of hints given, from what I understood. And I guess those two troopers dying at the start which are present on third skill.
There are some changes in the level, like different placement of health items and even some different mechanics (for example, in level 3 there are fences between the troopers on lower skills so it's easier to control where they shoot).
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And now, it's time for the next month's nominations. You knew it was coming, didn't you? For February, I nominate these two commercial works: Duke Zone II and Wanton Destruction!
I don't think I need to explain what are these as most Duke fans already know but here we go: Duke Zone II (created by Simply Silly Software) is a semi-official addon for Duke Nukem 3D, while Wanton Destruction (created by Sunstorm Interactive) is an official addon (and semi-official sequel) to Shadow Warrior (1997). Felt like both of these would work well paired together. As usual, add a + to the choice. It is the only one for now.
Duke Zone II + Wanton Destruction +
Have a nice day everyone!
To have some choice, I'd like to also nominate 3 older TCs that somehow aren't talked much about (partially because I've just played one of them for the first time and it was surprisingly good): Murder: The EDF Conspiracy + Merc 2 + Pray Your Prayers
Links to MSDN reviews: Murder: The EDF Conspiracy Merc 2 Pray Your Prayers
This post has been edited by Aleks: 25 January 2024 - 11:44 AM
Let's do the first half of The Conundrum. I played these maps on Skill 2 instead of Skill 3 because I am not smart.
Intro
No epic battles, no keycards, no secrets, no decorations, but plenty of ways to humiliate me and my brain. This is an intro map that just explains the gist of the mapset to you.
5/10.
Ladders and Snakes
Spoiler
This is the first puzzle. The main gimmick with this map is that there a bunch of claws that will send you to random locations. Stand on the brown sides of each platform to call over the right claws, and avoid the green sides of each platform which will take you to places you don't want to be. Get softlocked? Either touch the High Voltage signs to kill yourself or walk into the tripmine conveyor belt in the middle of the map to kill yourself in style. I didn't mind this section once I figured it out. Even with the faulty claws, Iit's easy enough to look ahead, then flick your mouse up and kick the claw to force it to drop you. The aforementioned tripmine conveyor belt is carrying two barrels that act as a timer. When the barrels cross the tripmines, they blow up the platform to the next part of the map. Once you get the Pistol, you can shoot the barrels to stop the timer. The next section is a platforming gauntlet with Shrinkers that will force you down to ground level if they hit you, which causes you to fail. You can cheese this section by standing on the very edges of the platforms where the shrinkers can't touch you (though this may be intentional). You can also leap from one side of each hall to the other in one jump, which is much more time efficient. The final section features three different pathways that need an inventory item to cross. Use the Jetpack for the lightning field, use the Scuba Gear for the asinine tripmine stretch, and use the Boots for the Kool-Aid waves. It's easy to brute force the Jetpack section by ignoring the lightning, but for the other two sections you'll have to play dilligently. Make sure you're always in the centre of the water tunnels in the Scuba Gear section. The sides bend downward so you'll be too tall to make it over the lower tripmines. For the Kool-Aid waves, you'll have to run and time crouches under the tripmines to preserve your Boots until the end. This is by far the weakest section of the three. The item roulette idea is cool, but failing it will result in a softlock as you won't have the required item to make it past the section you spun. In fact, if you don't want to end up in Softlock City every minute, make sure you make a bunch of saves. You'll thank yourself later. There's also the issue of the third section being broken. I was stuck on the final path (the Boots one) with the forcefield not opening afterward. I kept reloading saves and eventually it decided to let me through. I did that section in the order of Jetpack, Scuba and then Boots by the way. Ladders and Snakes is a decent puzzle map that is a bit too over punishing with softlocks.
7/10.
Freeze!
Spoiler
Hey, did you know you can freeze yourself with the Freezethrower like you can shrink yourself with the Shrinker? I did, but I didn't know monsters can't see you if you're frozen. This map has some really neat sequences. Using a Freezethrower turret to hit an explosive barrel is a bit how you going, but after you step into the door with the Freezethrower, you get frozen down to 1 HP. While you're frozen, monsters don't suspect that the frozen statue gliding along the railway track might be a real person, so you can coast along the rails by shooting a shot on the wall and doing a well timed flick to start the train. The next section starts a timer to open a door that will kill you. You can time another freeze to make sure the monsters don't see you again, though it's pretty tight. Man, imagine an entire stealth level around this gimmick. Make sure the spotlights on the prison wall don't see you, but you can turn into a statue with the Freezethrower to give you a temporary reprieve. The final section requires you to shoot a shot as the claw is starting to come down, so you'll thaw by the time you reach the end of the claw's track. I like Freeze a lot. If this mapset was intended to show off obscure Duke 3D mechanics, this is one that has a lot of potential to build a map around.
9.5/10.
Length Padding
Spoiler
This map is very simple but very annoying. First you have to solve a floor puzzle that doesn't work with the hint you get given, and secondly you have to guide Assault Troopers into shooting targets so you can match up the pattern seen in the previous room. The first room with the floor puzzle has a hint which "tells" you the order in which you stand on the panels - only there's multiple numbers on different panels, so you'll usually just take a death by the end of it. I got really close to solving it, got to the end of the "order" on the hint, and then I took a shot in the dark to lower three panels, and it worked. The other section is easier to control, but pretty frustrating. The Troopers are in their own queues, you can shrink them to give yourself a bit of breathing room, and you can hold crouch to prevent the Troopers from firing altogether, but the Troopers can still shoot their targets when you're on the other side of the gallery, and you can't view the correct order on the other side of the room while crouching because the bars are low enough to prevent you from seeing. Length Padding isn't my favourite map in the world, but it at least has a good MIDI. All of these maps have good MIDIs, actually.
While I'm here again, I'll put in my nomination for next month, counting Aleks' suggestion as an option:
Duke Zone II + Wanton Destruction ++
Murder: The EDF Conspiracy + Merc 2 + Pray Your Prayers
Next month has my birthday in it, but I don't want that to influence the voting at all. I chose Wanton Destruction and Duke Zone II because I really want to play something that's not Duke again.
Don't let the babes die in this level, lest you be softlocked with the might of the justice system. You can kill the ones in the rotten lettuces though, those ones were asking for it. Nobody Kills Our Chicks is a rather combat-oriented level. The first section sees you time a rocket turret to kill the babes in alien captivity, while keeping the ones who aren't safe. The next room has cheerleaders on one side and two Commanders in an invisible box on the other side. You can bait their rockets first and then drop down to the bottom to raise the platforms. That will deactivate the tripmines, so bait another round of Commander missiles, walk through and kick the Octabrain to death. That's probably not the intended solution, but it's the one I found. Face tanking the tripmines on the other side of the S-bend is also probably an unintended solution. Goad the Troopers in the next room to kill the enclosed babe, turn on the switch to release the Protozoid and walk away from there to make sure the Troopers don't cause you to fail the map. The final section is five Commanders and three cheerleaders in the middle. They're one object that you can use the Shrinker on. While something's shrunken, it can't die to explosives. With them temporarily safe, shrink the other Commanders one by one. You may take a lot of melee damage, but even just handling four at once instead of five is more preferable. Press all of the switches and you're done. Nobody Kills Our Chicks is pretty annoying, but it at least has quite a bit of leeway and allows for some cheesing.
6.5/10.
Plot Twist
Spoiler
You guys like moving sectors and random turrets that force you to shoot at extremely awkward angles? This map can bite me. Line up the spinners in the first room so you can shoot a button to unlock the door to the other room, which is a big Blast Pit looking ass area with two rocket turrets. Don't try to press the switches to stop the platforms, they activate the rocket turrets. Or activate them anyway, I think they just come on automatically and you have to turn them off every two seconds. I think you can just outrun the rockets on the platforms anyhow. If you jump well enough and don't get killed by rockets often enough, you'll be at the top soon. The exit's up there. This map is less of a puzzle and more a test of my patience.
3/10.
Friend or Foe?
Spoiler
Was two agitating puzzles not good enough for you? How about four that just don't work? In the last map of The Conundrum, you need to solve three puzzles before one final challenge. The first (and least nonsensical) is the one where you have to lead a Michael Mouse over to tripmines. This isn't like an Innocent in Blood you can push around, this Michael goes where it wants to, and pushing it has very minimal effect besides denying one direction it can move in. It took a long time for me to lead the Michael over to the tripmines, and when I saw they just regenerated I DNKROZ'd past it. The second section requires you to lead a rocket through tunnels while pressing switches to turn barriers. Cool idea, but you can barely even see what you're doing, and the rocket moves way too fast for you to be able to react in time. Getting it off of the ground is also an entirely different issue. There's an X in the ceiling which you can stand at, and that will make the rocket turn the corners perfectly, but moving away from that X causes it to go completely up in the air. I ended up DNCLIPping past this one because I got too frustrated. For the final section, you have to lead a Battlelord and try to blow up a door high up with its explosives. I think it getting stuck at the door is intentional? If it is, good luck trying to catch an explosive with your mouth with your only way to get up to the door in the first place being a railing that's easy to slip off of. That's another DNCLIP in my book. Yes, I know the puzzle. No, I don't care to solve it. The final puzzle is an infighting challenge. An infighting puzzle? Do you know who I am? Actually, I think Aleks did, because he engineered this room to be as inconvenient to start an infight in as possible. The Cycloid Emperor is stuck on a throne at the back of the map and the Overlord is the only one that can roam around. Getting Cyclie Cyc to kill the Overlord is definitely the most viable option as the Overlord doesn't have enough height, but it doesn't help that the Cycloid Emperor is less accurate at long range than an Imp is. You'll be able to get one rocket on the Overlord most of the time for each of the Cycloid's volleys, two if you're lucky. It is doable though, so this ends up not being too bad with a bit of patience. Out of all of the maps in The Conundrum, this one is by far my least favourite.
It took a long time for me to lead the Michael over to the tripmines, and when I saw they just regenerated I DNKROZ'd past it.
You didn't use the intended EDuke version provided with the episode, did you? The tripbombs shouldn't regenerate, that's a bug caused by a later EDuke revision, which also happened with FistMarine - the intended version is added there for a reason!
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If it is, good luck trying to catch an explosive with your mouth with your only way to get up to the door in the first place being a railing that's easy to slip off of.
The railing is there because the whole platform is an elevator which you can use to get up there when the battlelord lands a mine on it! That's a good call though, so far nobody reported they didn't find this out before, so I thought the presentation is clear, maybe I'll add an up arrow or something if I ever get to re-release it.
Voting:
Duke Zone II + Wanton Destruction ++ Murder: The EDF Conspiracy + Merc 2 + Pray Your Prayers +
This post has been edited by Aleks: 27 January 2024 - 12:49 PM
I'm glad it worked and you were able to finish it in the newer build, but yeah the problems you mentioned (tripmines constantly respawning - which they shouldn't - and probably the underwater door) are exactly what got broken in EDuke in the meantime, which is why you should play with the intended version that is included with the mod The tripmines constantly respawning might eventually lead to "too many sprites spawned" crash as well. The cranes not dropping Duke on the pillars are intended though, you have to kick them to land where you need to.
I understand. But for using the intended build, I noticed the one supplied with the zip was from back in late August 2021. I thought why not to use a newer 2022 build? So I did that and used the last December 2022 build as I originally intended when the mod released. Some things got broken as I expected but the mod is still playable from beginning to end, which is all that matters to me. The respawning trip-mines can be dealt with save-scumming for example.
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There are some changes in the level, like different placement of health items and even some different mechanics (for example, in level 3 there are fences between the troopers on lower skills so it's easier to control where they shoot).
Ah, I didn't know there's more changes for each skill, though I noticed an extra Portable Medkit on the fourth level in Radar's video, which wasn't present on CGS skill (on part you drop into the lava pit to activate a switch). Which is interesting because usually in Duke3D and all games based on it, tagging an item will cause that item to only appear on the specified skill and above. I think even the original Duke3D has very few cases like an extra Atomic Health present on E1L5: The Abyss on CGS and DIG.
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To have some choice, I'd like to also nominate 3 older TCs that somehow aren't talked much about (partially because I've just played one of them for the first time and it was surprisingly good)
Good choices. Never played these before but I heard about them, I think they are all included in the Addon Compilation with further bug-fixes, at least in the pre-release 4.0 version of the compilation. I will also be sure to provide a working download link when they get chosen, as the MSDN reviews you linked don't have a working download link.
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You didn't use the intended EDuke version provided with the episode, did you? The tripbombs shouldn't regenerate, that's a bug caused by a later EDuke revision, which also happened with FistMarine - the intended version is added there for a reason!
Well, I'm glad I wasn't the only one to use a different build than the intended one when playing The Conundrum.
I wish the review was done earlier, as yesterday was a very special day but things ended up taking longer than expected. So yeah, it's time for the long awaited review of BACK IN BUSINESS! Happy belated birthday to Duke Nukem 3D Shareware Version 1.0!
Played on EDuke32 r9297 (latest 2020 build), CGS, 100% everything. I already played/finished the mod a few times before, so it's not a blind playthrough compared to The Conundrum and the newer releases by Aleks. Which reminds me I better hurry up and do those two releases later today, then tomorrow review them and wrap up the topic for real.
BACK IN BUSINESS
Casino Carnage
The first map is very nicely detailed and sets up the tone of the mod. There are a few things to keep in mind:
1) Duke has to complete various tasks in order to unlock the exit.
2) There is a 15-minute timelimit to complete the map. Failure to do so will result in the exit getting locked with a MISSION FAILED! message similar to the GTA Games. In fact, there are more GTA references to spot if you read the readme file that comes with the mod.
3) One of the secrets require the help of an enemy, so don't kill that enemy until after the secret is found.
There are FOUR secrets to find:
1) Inside the Casino, look where the slot machines are. Press on one of them to self-destruct and reveal a vent that leads to a freezer containing a Freezethrower and a Small Medkit.
2) Inside one of the halls, there should be a Protector Drone. Don't kill him yet, allow yourself to be shrunk and go through the tiny vent in the bathroom. When you reach the secret, wait until you return to normal size. Collect the Atomic Health and Shrinker, then use the teleporter to go back and kill the enemy.
3) When leaving the Casino, jump on a pole where an Atomic Health will spawn.
4) From the third secret, on the alley with two troopers and explosions, when jumping to the balcony, there should be a hidden secret room. Jump through the window to access the secret room containing Portable Medkit and Freezer ammo.
Overall, this map was very nice and a great introduction to the episode.
Mission Briefing
Just a short mission briefing level. Be sure to grab the supplies before exiting.
Mutant Mayhem
The second map is still good to me and has a theme inspired by the last chapter of Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project where you must activate some switches to de-mutate two enemies, which actually shrinks them and they get squished in the process.
For some reason there was very quiet music in this map. Oh and I apparently missed the Pistol yet again (I just saw its location in Mapster recently) like in past playthroughs but the map is still completable with the Shotgun and Chaingun due to the copious ammo you get for these weapons, as well as the other weapons you may have in the inventory.
I also like the concept of using the Alien Arm (disguised as a red card) to open the door requiring it. Clever bits like these are what make this mod even better and more unique, on top of the nice design and gameplay. And the fact the Mini Battlelord may not spawn if you disable the security, otherwise you have to defeat him in order to unlock the exit. In this playthrough I didn't have to deal with him if you are wondering.
There are FOUR secrets to find:
1) At the very beginning of the map, explore the grass until you find a darkened spot to fall through. You should find 2x Expander ammo inside the tunnel.
2) When reaching the fortress and clearing it from alien bastards, find the red DANGER HIGH VOLTAGE sign and press on it. It will open a hatch in the other side. Go down the hatch to collect an Atomic Health.
3) When reaching the room with the mutated Commander, go through the wires to find a small tunnel leading to Freezer + ammo.
4) In between the two rooms with the mutated monsters, go through the slimer infested vent and you should find a way that eventually leads to the secret room with two Octabrains. Inside, you can find Portable Medkit and 2x Shrinker ammo.
Overall, this was another great map with the only short-comings being the cramped combat and the invisible walls early on, making navigation a bit annoying. Also that damn pistol missed, it should have been given already in the Briefing room.
Mission Briefing
Second mission briefing level. Just grab the supplies before exiting.
Freezing Fear
Before we get to the actual map, there are some things that have to be said in advance, especially if you are a completionist:
1) One secret is only reachable halfway through the map. If you don't get that secret when you reach that room, you can't come back later, so you really want to get it as soon as possible. The other two secrets you can get whenever you want.
2) Check the devices to find out the codes to open the doors. Some of them make references to various Duke4.net members, others are just funny jokes and stuff.
3) At the end, when getting to the truck, there is an ambush which includes three spawned pig cops. You can actually kill them with pipebombs. See below for more information.
As for the map, it is excellent. Provides very engaging combat as well as wonderful design and puzzles. Unfortunately, I died once in the Red Card ambush room. Didn't realize I had a Medkit in inventory (usually when you start a level, it seems no inventory item is selected, a bug inherited from the original DOS versions of Duke3D, don't know what causes it), though kinda bullshit they were able to take me out quickly in just a few hits, despite entering the room with 100 health and half-used armor.
On my successful attempt, I barely made it out alive with 13 health. I just remembered this mod also makes the screen shake when your health is 25 or less, just like all those 90s TCs, to make the low health moments even more frustrating. Oh and finally, there is one trick at the end that Aleks taught me back then and works most of the time. Throw a bunch of Pipebombs (I had exactly 10 left when I reached the end, so I threw all of them) around the truck, detonate them during the capture cutscene and the three spawned pig cops will die, hopefully. If it doesn't work, reload and try again until it works.
There are THREE secrets to find:
1) Before taking the elevator leading to the large area with the alien spaceship, there is a pillar you can blow up. After blowing it up, jump on it to collect an Atomic Health.
2) Go through the CREW QUARTERS and press on the weird symbol near the Octabrain and Fire Extinguisher. It will temporary open a nearby door containing a Freezer and a box of Pipebombs.
3) After taking the elevator and killing a bunch of Protectors, there is a room with some enforcers inside and a computer you can check out. Stand in the bright spot and take the hidden elevator down to collect a Chaingun and 4x Small Medkit.
Overall, despite some annoying sections and that one area that becomes inaccessible later, this map was very cool.
Piggish Prison
Duke has been captured by the Pig Cops at the end of the previous level. Will he be able to escape using any methods he can think of?
I want to apologize in advance. I enjoyed this map a lot in past playthroughs but when I played this map yesterday, I had such a miserable time. Now for the good stuff, Aleks as usual gives us some very nicely detailed level with plenty of attention to detail, interesting puzzles, as well as kick-ass gameplay and music.
Unfortunately, I just kept fucking dying this time around, way more times than I should have in first place. Died about 15-20 times and most of my deaths were pretty much from all those fucking pig cops, as well as a few glitchy deaths from those moving objects in later part of the map. Yes, I realize this map features lots of pig cops and there's also some modified/stronger variants too but holy shit how much fucking damage they were dealing to Duke, I don't know if I had a lot of bad luck and kept getting hit but I was really fed up of being stuck with 30 or less hp and hearing Duke screaming in pain every time he was getting shot, as well as the screen shaking which made it painful to recover from.
To make matters worse, this isn't even a blind playthrough and I started the level with 192 health (in past playthroughs I started this level with only 100 or so). Yet I just kept dying at the halfway points through the map. It was getting on my nerves and I haven't gotten frustrated at Duke3D in a long time, not helped that I played this map after I had finished the first episode of Duke Zone II, which also brought much anger and frustration. The difficulty in this map just kept jumping around from Way Too Fucking Hard to Challenging And Fun to Piss Easy. It wasn't consistent at all and I'm not ashamed to admit I save-scummed like crazy to progress.
On a positive note, there were some really good fights in this map, especially towards the end but I feel like the health/armor/ammo supplies were incredibly scarce in some early parts of the map. I admit in past playthroughs I retreated to drink water once or twice but this time I tried to work with whatever health was available in the map (with the occasional toilet usage and drinking water) but I also had some severe ammo problems like running out completely of pistol/shotgun/chaingun ammo but thankfully still had the Freezer to help me. And the first time I got armor was from pig cops but I was also low on health that time that it didn't help much until later parts of the map when I got more health. As the armor is almost useless when you are low on health.
I would like to believe that Quacken often has to deal with bullshit like this when pistol starting every Duke3D map in existence and rating some maps lower than expected but in reality I found it surprising when his experience was more about having this map glitched (more than likely the glitches were caused by not using the intended EDuke32 build) rather than the frustrating combat, at least if I understood correctly. But in my case, I used the latest 2020 build, the same one I used to play Back in Business in past and while everything worked fine, I am just shocked at how much bad luck I had this playthrough. Piggish Prison turned from one of the best and most memorable Duke3D experiences ever to one of the worst and most miserable experiences I've ever had in my life of playing Duke3D.
Even the best parts later in the map with the various ambushes, as well as the two Mini Overlords and Mini Cycloid were drowned from the bullshit suffered earlier. Seriously, I really felt bad for Duke, the alien bastards just ruined his birthday. Anyway, after killing the Cycloid Emperor and grabbing everything, ride the Bike (I recommend saving in advance, as this section is buggy and Bike doesn't always carry Duke across the bridge) and reach the end of the level.
Apparently, Aleks had plans to continue the episode, as you can tell from the TO BE CONTINUED... message appearing at the top when level finishes. But what we got is still good enough. Oh yeah and finally managed to get all 185 kills in this playthrough! Not sure how I ended up with one enemy short in nearly every past playthrough of Piggish Prison but this time I must have killed two or three more enemies than the kill count showed! As in I could have missed 2-3 enemies and still have the game report all enemies as killed.
There is even an Easter Egg that references my former RunningDuke name I used back in 2017-2020 on the forums! The reference is located inside the room where you get the Yellow Card and jump out of the window to escape the teleporting Commander!
There are also TWO secrets to find and I'm going to link Aleks' guide from back in 2021-2022 when he helped me with locating secrets in a PM, he explained better than I could have:
Quote
-one is a room on ground floor of the building - the door does not open with a switch, but it is linked to the green glass cupboard in the bar, so if you open the cupboard, this door will open as well. There's also 1 trooper inside I think;
-the other is the laundry on the 1st floor (floor with bar) - you need to throw a pipebomb from a vent inside that room (maybe also devastator can do it), it is between the bar and crew quarters. Pipebomb will destroy a high-voltage device linked to the door, so it will not blow the door, but allow you to normally open it from the outside.
Overall, this map was nice in the past playthroughs but this time I really didn't enjoy my time with it. Sorry Aleks.
Conclusion
Back in Business is a very nice episode that Aleks brought to us. It features incredible level design, gameplay, puzzles and soundtrack. The only criticism is the occasional cramped combat and sadly what I felt the difficulty being too much in last level this time around, I remember having a much better time in past playthroughs where I rarely ran low on health, I suppose I was much luckier at that time or just relied more on the water fountains, maybe I should have done that instead of trying my luck fighting with 20 or so hp. I'm glad I have replayed it and gave it a proper closure with all kills and secrets but I wish I didn't have a frustrating time with the final level, it really soured the experience.
Which means, if Aleks plans to make an update in the future, the only things I'd like to see changed to existing maps is extending the time limit in first level (20 minutes instead of 15), adding another pistol pickup in second map, adding maybe a few small health pickups in some places in third level and toning-down the difficulty just a notch in the final level. Not sure if I'd remove any enemy honestly, I'd rather have a few more supplies added near beginning like an armor pickup, a few more regular health pickups (small/large medkit) and maybe slightly more ammo like a box of shells and bullets. This isn't a problem towards the end where I had more than enough supplies to take all the alien bastards. It's only a problem at beginning where Duke is overwhelmed by pig cops from all directions. Not even starting with extra health helped. It was absurdly difficult.
Let's hope that the two remaining maps will end up being the month's highlights.
This post has been edited by FistMarine: 30 January 2024 - 04:30 AM
This map takes place on an oil rig. Cool! But what's not cool is the only real monsters you'll fight are all Battlelords. Aleks does spice things up though, he throws two new Battlelord variants at you that are... blue and orange. And one of them tries to freeze you... these proto-Blast Radius enemies are way easier to deal with than the regular Battlelords on account of not being hitscan. Thankfully, the Sunburnt Battlelords don't fire Shrinker rounds at you, which would have quite frankly made this map miserable. I don't really like it too much anyway though. The oil rig itself is a very impressive platform, with cool technology such as the spinning crane platform and the big barrels you can break apart with explosives. The main issue I have with this map is that there's not enough health. All of the Battlelord varieties are capable of very high DPS, and most of the health is either locked behind obscure places or hidden very out of the way in places I didn't even know existed until much later. The reactor core features two Battlelords that are either able to be cheesed extremely easily or are extremely infuriating. Only having explosives means there are no safe ways to kill Battlelords by stunlocking them around corners, which might be part of the challenge, but it makes places like the reactor core and the Red Key room much more tedious. I don't really know how you're meant to get out of the Red Key room without a Jetpack from the other crane pathway, by the way. The crack in the roof you come into the room is just too high up to be reached from the bottom if you jump from the stovetop. The Red Switch is on a helicopter which moves around faster than you can Jetpack, and is also guarded by a hitscanning Battlelord who is a total pain in the ass to kill. I didn't bother with the final fight after a few attempts, I just booked it for the exit which opens up at the same time. I like the change in skybox, but more Battlelords that can snipe you from God knows where and sudden explosions on the oil rig itself made it a highly uncomfortable fight. Der Zorn Gottes is technologically impressive, but I think its combat feels like an afterthought.
Due to the month being pretty much over, I don't think I can play/review Simpler Times until later this week, so here is a quick review for Der Zorn Gottes to wrap up the topic for now.
DER ZORN GOTTES
Played using EDuke32 r10548 (latest 2023 build). CGS, 100% everything with frequent saves.
This map was initially created for Sanek's BattleDuke contest, so if you have played that mod before, you will know what to expect. As you can tell, the map features Mini Battlelords for the most part with twice as much health, some new variants to spice things up, as well as a couple Commanders and other surprises in the last parts of the map.
The map is very impressive, taking place at an oil rig. I ended up enjoying the map much more than I expected, as the design is simply wonderful. Sure, the beginning is a bit rough and having desperate moments of gathering supplies to fight the bastards but the map got really good when I figured out the progression (after wandering around for a couple minutes upon killing nearly everyone), like having to jump on those chains to get the Blue Card.
Personally, I didn't have problems with health/armor/ammo, though when I killed everyone, I think I was out completely of RPG and Devastator ammo. Luckily, you are also given a bunch of Pipebombs, the Freezethrower with plenty of ammo and even a secret Shrinker. And if you come across some supplies you don't need right now, you can always come back later to restock.
Apparently, those switches you can find in some places are the key to unlock one of the map's secrets, which requires you to find 7 hidden switches (I only found about three or four switches by myself). It's not required for progression but it helps a lot if you find them. And speaking of secrets, I managed to find two of them on my own (ammo cache and holoduke), the rest I looked up Radar's video after I finished the map and then I was able to get all 30 kills (without that super secret, you can get 27 kills).
I died about three times and the only annoying parts were the Mini Blue Battlelord on the boat (hard to hit) and what felt like some surprise freezer attack firing from a window, though all that did was just hurt me, I don't think I actually got frozen in this map. Because if you get frozen, your armor disappears and it's almost impossible to recover, just load the game instead. Therefore, I advice saving the game often because this map is nasty if it's your first time playing it.
On that note, I also liked the way the Helicopter piloted by Mini Battlelord moves around and how you need to take him out to insert the Red Card, it was very interesting how this was all done, even that Mini Battlelord was also difficult to hit unless you waited for the helicopter to stop, giving you a few seconds to fly and hit him with a few rockets. Oh and although you get about four or five Jetpacks in the whole map, I highly recommend conserving the fuel because you need a jetpack to reach the exit. So you might want to only use it mainly to reach the supplies and to fight the last ambush at the end.
And now for the two weird things I noticed:
-In the middle of the map, there's those oil barrels that can be broken and contain supplies inside, there was a spot I managed to get myself stuck and I devastator'd myself to load last save. I didn't have the Jetpack at that time and I'm pretty sure it was a softlock.
-In the middle of the map, when viewing the monitor that has a camera inside the helicopter, there was a chance that would cause Duke to fall through the floor (?) upon ending the viewscreen. Not sure if this bug is caused by the EDuke32 build used or a side effect of the camera moving with the helicopter but it was really weird, never seen something like this happen before.
Secrets:
1) Inside the vents where you can find the orange reactor room with a Mini Battlelord, look for the different side of the wall. Smash it to access a room filled with ammo (3x each) for RPG and Devastator.
2) Inside the building accessed with the Jetpack, look for one of the vents inside the bathroom where you can find a HoloDuke.
3) After using the Red Card inside the helicopter, look for the part of the building getting destroyed. Go to the roof of that building you entered earlier and you should see two Atomic Healths are now available inside the destroyed corner.
4) After activating the seven hidden switches and fighting the three spawned commanders, go where you have seen those two windows earlier. You can now open them and enter the room that contains Shrinker, Jetpack and Steroids.
Overall, this was map was pretty cool and ended up being better than I expected. The beginning is chaotic until the supplies are gathered but the rest fights are epic, especially the last part where you even get to fight a Mini Overlord in that crowd of enemies. Though I wasn't a huge fan of doubling the mini bosses' health (I think it's the same in BattleDuke mod, need to play that mod soon), I really like the new variants that spice things up and would have rather preferred if there were slightly more enemies but without the increased health, so the Mini Bosses don't feel too spongy.
It seems the choice with DZ2 and WD is winning. But I want to ask in advance if everyone is okay with both choices for February. Duke Zone II has 21 maps (7 maps per each episode) and Wanton Destruction has 12 single-player maps (6 maps per episode, secret levels included) plus 3-4 multiplayer levels. Considering there are 33 SP maps for the shortest month of the year (though at least this year's February has 29 days), it may seem a bit too much, especially the levels in Wanton Destruction can be a bit long.
I don't know if I should have only Duke Zone II chosen and then pairing Wanton Destruction with something else for another month. In fact, I will probably do that by pairing Wanton with another 1998 Build Engine Game, which also has 21 levels (14 are SP only). Technically, WD was released in September 2005 but the file contents are dated January 1998, so my point still stands.
This means I will temporary remove WD from the list and only leave Duke Zone II as the nomination for next month. I have two new nominations I'm saving for March, so I figured I'd have WD saved for that time to go with one of those nominations. I would like an answer until tomorrow, as I'm not sure what to do in this situation. Don't want to have an overwhelming month and not having enough time to play the stuff and submit the reviews. Even this month with only 15 maps was quite busy.
I'm keeping Aleks' vote for the TCs (I have also re-arranged the order of Merc 2 and Murder to look nicer) and I will keep my DZ2 vote. I will ask Quacken to vote again to clarify the results and deciding the winner for February.
Duke Zone II +
Merc 2 + Murder: The EDF Conspiracy + Pray Your Prayers +
Anyway, thanks everyone for the participation and see you on the next edition of the Duke Map/Mod of the Month Club! Have a nice day.
This post has been edited by FistMarine: 31 January 2024 - 06:32 AM
Rather than put my Simpler Times review here, I'm going to give Aleks' original post just a little more traction and post my review there. I'll do it by at least the end of the week. Here's my vote again:
Duke Zone II ++
Merc 2 + Murder: The EDF Conspiracy + Pray Your Prayers +
This post has been edited by Quacken: 31 January 2024 - 04:23 PM
Hi guys, sorry for taking forever. I have finished with Simpler Times last Friday and wrote most of the review during the weekend, so it's time to wrap up the topic for real. Also noticed a small typo in my previous review, I wrote "was" twice when giving the conclusion of DZG.
SIMPLER TIMES
Played using EDuke32 r10548 (latest 2023 build). Come Get Some, 100% everything with frequent saving on several slots.
What an amazing map! It is incredibly huge and features tons of kick-ass action, as well as plenty of details, funny jokes, etc. Even the map's story is funny as hell, which is true since it references many Duke events that have happened over the years.
The ammo can be a bit tight early on (also make sure to get the armor in the closet at the start) but after a while, Duke is well stocked to take on pretty much every alien in the map. In fact, the health and ammo supplies are the most essential to conserve (although you get plentiful anyway), as the armor pickups are so plentiful that you will come across three armor pickups before your current armor runs out, plus the used armor that can be dropped from pig cops, so armor is almost never an issue, you will probably finish the map with at least three spare armor pickups. Just don't forget to pick up some new armor when your current one gets to 20 or less.
There are also a bunch of surprises that await in this map, from the colored Mini Battlelords returning from Der Zorn Gottes, to the Expander pickup (80 ammo capacity, no longer tied to the Shrinker weapon pickup), to the water fountain healing slowly, to the babes you have now to rescue!
Yes, you can now rescue the captured babes and they turn into the dancing babes upon pressing the USE button! This is awesome! But what's more awesome is that if you save them all, you get a reward in form of a secret. Be careful to not get them killed and keep your saves handy in case something bad happens. You don't have to save the babes to progress but why wouldn't you save them? It's worth doing it and helps Duke sleep better at night.
You can track the progress of babes saved by looking up one monitor inside a building. You should regularly check if all 9 babes are alive/rescued if you care about 100% completion until you reach the building requiring the red card, that's where you get rewarded with 2x Atomic Healths spawning and the secret registering. I appreciate how Aleks has found a way to reward the player with registering secrets after doing some side quest, just like it was done in Submachine with a similar secret. And that's without mentioning all the awesome effects done.
Speaking of which, there are also 14 SECRETS to find! Unfortunately, I have a hard time to give the exact locations, so you have to watch a walkthrough video to see where the secrets are. I managed to find almost half secrets on my own and the rest I found with help of Radar's video, including the last secret that had a captured babe.
Oh and at the end of the level, you get to fight FIVE OVERLORDS! It's not as bad as it sounds because you can dodge their rockets and they become easy targets if they "fall" in the river but the problem is you might run low on ammo even if you use every weapon in your arsenal. Remember that you need to kill ALL FIVE to finish the level. Upon killing the last Overlord, the level ends, so if you still have secrets to find, I recommend leaving one boss alive and then go to explore the level. But keep in mind that Overlord can sometimes disappear if he chases you, so have your saved games handy if he suddenly disappears. The only other problems I had is that the game randomly crashed twice (EDuke32 not responding).
A warning for the secret on the roof: I spent quite a while looking for the last secret until I feared the game glitched and one secret I found earlier did not register. Then I found out that secret on the roof was the culprit but I ended up doing a bit of cheating/testing (don't worry, I didn't save with the cheat enabled, I quit game after I did the test and then started it again after looking up the video a few times to understand) by noclipping and registering the secret inside the wall, which confused me even more.
Turns out, after rewatching that part of the video, I needed to open a closet and find three eggs and one switch inside that spawns the supplies on the roof. Then you grab the supplies, the secret registers and a bunch of flying troopers are spawned in the air. This solves the mystery with the final secret registering.
The map took me over two hours to complete across two days (not two days in a row though) but it was worth to spend the time and I even managed to finish it without dying but that doesn't mean you have to complete it saveless, considering game can crash and map is very long, so anything can go wrong. And as the readme file stated, there are around 350 enemies on CGS (351 with the last Overlord I killed).
Congratulations to Aleks! This is easily one of the best and finest Duke Nukem 3D maps ever made. A masterpiece of epic proportions that must be seen to be believed. Play this map right now!
Help
Duke4.net
DNF #1
Duke 3D #1
) but Aleks managed to create a very solid map under the old limitations. The spriteworks are already pretty intricate and well designed, there are well implemented shadows everywhere. A lot of fun details too, and the fuse effect is pretty damn cool! Gameplay is your typical button and keycard hunt, you go into 1 building to flip a switch and proceed to the next. Most locations are just a few rooms deep, but again given the old limitations that's understandable. I did find the 2nd button in the disco pretty quickly, but it confused me for a bit - I assumed I unlocked a secret somewhere. Didn't take me long to figure out what it actually did though.
