[Danukem]

https://www.moddb.co...-armageddon-500


Download for version 5.00 is up

[MrFlibble]

What are the new features/additions in this version? And what does the two-part release mean?

[Danukem]

MrFlibble, on 03 August 2024 - 02:21 AM, said:

What are the new features/additions in this version? And what does the two-part release mean?

This episode is about ending the occupation of Earth that was started in the New Invasion episode (1st release of AA from 2018). You can think of it as the 4th episode in that storyline, although this one is certainly the most story intensive, with more cutscenes and dialog and such.

Part 1 has the first 8 maps of the episode (not counting the Cathedral home base map or the 2 secret levels)

Part 2 will also have the last 10 maps of the episode

In terms of content, there's a lot more than the episode though. The biggest thing is the 2 new playable characters, bringing total up to 5. Plus some new types of enemies and other stuff.

[MrFlibble]

Sounds like a major update!

Which brings me to the point: you probably have been thinking of making the new episodes into a stand-alone game like Demon Throne or The AMC Squad?

Do you think it would be worth the effort, especially if you took care to replace all original Duke3D stuff (and assets from other proprietary games) with custom equivalents?

[jkas789]

Looking good mate! Thanks for the hard work. I will be definitely be trying this out this weekend.

[Danukem]

jkas789, on 06 August 2024 - 07:24 PM, said:

Looking good mate! Thanks for the hard work. I will be definitely be trying this out this weekend.

Just updated the file to version 5.03 and we don't plan any more public updates until November, you waited the right amount of time.

[VGames]

Looks good as usual. Keep up the good work.

[MrFlibble]

I've played the first few missions of the new episode (version 5.04) on Come Get Some. I've not played DN3D in a while, but I found the Infestation level that introduces the new characters a bit confusing.

Deanova's part starts you off with no weapons but wristblades, and immediately follows by a hard-hitting close-range enemy. It is my understanding that this is to teach the player to use cloaking, but somehow it did not help me much, although there's an atomic health to recover somewhat.

The lower parts of the ship that are infested with polymorphs suggest that you need to use the stealthy approach as well, somewhat compounded by the fact that cloaking runs out very fast. I was also not sure if the player is supposed to sneak behind the polymorphs and take them out one by one, or just get past them into the armoury. I tried to ambush polymorphs, but I'd eventually get to a point where another one would spot me and rapid-fire its slime projectiles (or whatever that stuff is) doing high damage, so in the end it was simpler to just run past them anyway, with only a minor portion of actually being stealthy.

When I got to the armoury it was not clear if I was supposed to use the weapons to clean up the polymorphs or go back up. I wasted a few shotgun rounds on them (the fourth slot weapon is useless because polymorphs have rapid fire projectiles, while the player's weapon has to power-up before firing), not realising that I'd need them later for the boss fight. Again, the game either gave me no hint, or it was in the form of a text box that disappeared too fast to read the whole text. I've not found if it is possible to look up some sort of mission objectives checkbox during a level.

Also in the armoury, there's a voxel weapon that looks like it belongs to Dea's loadout, but I was not able to pick it up, only the shotgun and the rapid-fire-but-slowly-firing-up gun.

I liked the idea of Deanova being able to use her wristblades to climb walls, but I had a bit of trouble getting back up because I could not clearly see the platform at the top while in the climbing mode. But maybe it's just me being dumb.

The boss fight was okay (although I thought the 3D worm looked kinda goofy), but as I mentioned above I almost ran out of ammo because I had wasted some rounds on the polymorphs.

The Mando part. Again, perhaps I shouldn't have played late in the evening after a day of working at the computer, but here I started by missing the switch that opens the barracks door (which in turn looks like a wall, and there is no sign, although the game does have one or maybe two different textures that say BARRACKS), so I did not know at first where to get the ammo. I also did not immediately figure out Mando's double-jumps, i. e. that you have to hold the jump button in mid-air to jet-propel upwards. This is explained in a hint text box, but somehow I first thought that you tap the jump button after jumping, not hold it. My bad I guess. Otherwise, this section was kind of much easier than the Deanova part, the flamethrower did the job against Octabrains and other enemies. The boss octo wasn't much of a threat because you can easily take cover from its attacks.

Level 2, Homecoming, feels pretty straighforward. I have to be honest, I'm not a huge fan of many mockup doors that lead nowhere. At least in Ion Fury there's this "trying to open a door but it's locked" sound effect attached to those. Also there are light switches that are not interactive. Otherwise, there were a few graphical glitches in this level:



Also I'm not sure if error or not, but some buildings seem to be decorated with a solid black texture:


The boss battle here somewhat reminded me of the WarMech boss in Ion Fury, but I easily took cover as Bombshell from the hail of fire and took it out with incinerator rockets.

I played the mission where you rescue Graves. It felt much easier than the Homecoming level, with mostly fewer and lower-tier enemies and a lot of empty parts you just have to walk through, perhaps with a couple occasional pickups. Maybe I was supposed to drive a bike through them. The boss battle at the end is again an arena, like in the previous level, but much harder because there are two tough and hard-hitting bosses. Perhaps I should've rushed to get the blue key and trigger the bosses before the tank ran out of steam, but how was I supposed to know that on the first try?

[Danukem]

Thanks for the comments!

There's no one right answer as to how to deal with the polymorphs. You can run past them, you can try killing them all if you really want to. You can run past them and then go back and kill them. You can use stealth on some of them and take advantage of the big damage boost when coming out of stealth. If you do decide to use the weapons from the armory and go back and kill them but use up your ammo, it shouldn't be a problem in the worm fight because you can kill the worm using just your claws, plus destroying the little eggs in that fight sometimes spawns ammo.

I kind of agree about how climbing back up the shaft using claws can be tricky since it is narrow and hard to see the opening. There are several strats that work though and don't forget the wall kick dismount helps a lot.

I have tagged elandy in discord (the level designer on homecoming) so he can check the screenshots in case those are newly reported glitches.

With Mando, I'm a little perplexed that you complained about not knowing where the barracks is since I anticipated that and I specifically coded in and tested a message if you go the wrong way (the only other way you can go).

The miniboss fight at the end of Grave Danger is typically pretty easy because you have a ton of ammo and plenty of places for cover. Tank is definitely not needed. The one issue I have had (only happened to me once) is that when you trigger the minibosses, sometimes they can go down into your area and corner you. This actually happened to me on my streamed YT playthrough but it was still doable.

Here's the timestamped video of that for reference (just though it was funny)
https://youtu.be/8uAxGyeMH1w?t=3608

[MrFlibble]

Danukem, on 25 August 2024 - 10:14 AM, said:

With Mando, I'm a little perplexed that you complained about not knowing where the barracks is since I anticipated that and I specifically coded in and tested a message if you go the wrong way (the only other way you can go).

If you mean the message I got when I reached the ice block below, right after when Mando says he needs his flamethrower, it was not very helpful because it did not indicate where exactly the barracks are. It's very easy to miss the door opening switch, and the door itself looks like a wall, or at least not very different from many other wall textures in the sci-fi/tech set.

I think it gets even more confusing because when you first visit the same area as Deanova, both the chute and the barracks are not accessible and hence I did not even think there was something there. I only opened the chute because the switch that does that was the first thing that I saw when I left the starting area. It was very clear that this wasn't the way to the barracks but I did not see any other path. I mean, I reloaded the save back to the start of Mando's part right there because I though I missed a message or something, and only then I discovered the second switch.

It certainly would be easier if the barracks door was not closed in the first place.

Danukem, on 25 August 2024 - 10:14 AM, said:

The miniboss fight at the end of Grave Danger is typically pretty easy because you have a ton of ammo and plenty of places for cover. Tank is definitely not needed. The one issue I have had (only happened to me once) is that when you trigger the minibosses, sometimes they can go down into your area and corner you. This actually happened to me on my streamed YT playthrough but it was still doable.

Yes, that happened to me too. I think that maybe I made the mistake by picking Wes for this mission, perhaps if it was Duke or Shelly I'd have a larger starting arsenal? At any rate, I had around five tries, not counting the one where the Swinelord found its way into the subway entrance, all of which would end getting crushed either by grenades or the close-range attack. I only got a chance when the Battlelord got stuck in near a destroyed tank, so I could pick the other boss first.

[Danukem]

MrFlibble, on 26 August 2024 - 07:05 AM, said:

If you mean the message I got when I reached the ice block below, right after when Mando says he needs his flamethrower, it was not very helpful because it did not indicate where exactly the barracks are. It's very easy to miss the door opening switch, and the door itself looks like a wall, or at least not very different from many other wall textures in the sci-fi/tech set.

That's interesting. I know of one other person who had this trouble, so I guess that is a thing. Having the door open seems a bit much but there may be a compromise. Maybe either having a different switch that is somehow more visible and/or a different door texture that really stands out.

MrFlibble, on 26 August 2024 - 07:05 AM, said:

Yes, that happened to me too. I think that maybe I made the mistake by picking Wes for this mission, perhaps if it was Duke or Shelly I'd have a larger starting arsenal?

Nah Wes is a great choice there and no one has a starting arsenal at that point. Anyway you got past it and the next level so clearly it wasn't insurmountable.

[MrFlibble]

 Danukem, on 26 August 2024 - 08:27 AM, said:

Anyway you got past it and the next level so clearly it wasn't insurmountable.

Sure. I'm just pointing out that I had the impression that the difficulty was fluctuating a bit.

Also, in the levels I've covered so far, there seems to be a certain preponderance of rather large and open areas, which I feel is not something that Duke Nukem 3D style gameplay is particularly suited for. On the one hand, there are enemies that cannot see the player, while the player can snipe them with the rail gun; these sleeping enemies are also completely inactive, which looks odd with the flying ones that appear frozen in mid-air. On the other hand, once the enemies are activated, they crowd against the player & sidekick all at once, resulting in a very hectic, chaotic fight. And the AI seems to not take obstacles into account, so both the sidekick and the enemies will often fire into each other without effect because of some solid prop standing between them. Sometimes, the alien snipers will also be unable to shoot the player (and vice versa) because of the solid railing on the balconies where they are standing, if the player is below on the ground.

Generally -- please forgive me for being critical here -- I felt that Homecoming was generally made of very same-ish looking areas, namely wide and straight streets and narrow straight corridors in buildings. The level felt a bit on the boring side because of this lack of variety, coupled with alien ambushes that seemed to come out of nowhere, especially near the church. While the enemies could blend in with the scenery and attack from afar, I did not feel that the level provided for good cover for the player if the intention was to create more of an urban combat feel where you're sniped from all sides (think The Terminator: Future Shock for an example). I keep thinking that maybe I got spoiled by Ion Fury level design and probably have too high expectations. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate all the effort in building those levels -- but very certainly the very first level in the original Alien Armageddon episode, which is also quite large and not always logical, felt more interesting while still keeping the large city vibes, yet without much repetition and with what seems like more intricate enemy placement.

[Danukem]

Eh, one of the reasons I like Homecoming is because it's a nice contrast to the very different tutorial levels with the new characters that immediately precede it. The tutorial is over, now you get to go back to basics with the classic characters, but still get introduced to some new things like the brutality kills, the collectibles, and a new boss. But to each his own.

[Danukem]

Full new version download, should be available when timer gets to zero (assuming it is authed on Mod DB by then):

https://www.moddb.co...-armageddon-550

[Dr.Panico]

So far, so good. But I'm stuck in Remote Storage Facility. I can't for the life of me find the Yellow Card. I've found the other ones fine. Maybe I missed amidst the chaos (this map is rather crowded after all)?

[Paul B]

Updated my out of date version of v2.15 to v5.51 @ https://www.dukemaps...lien-armaggedon

[Danukem]

Dr.Panico, on 03 November 2024 - 12:49 PM, said:

So far, so good. But I'm stuck in Remote Storage Facility. I can't for the life of me find the Yellow Card. I've found the other ones fine. Maybe I missed amidst the chaos (this map is rather crowded after all)?

You have to find your way to an office on one of the upper floors (but below the roof). In that office there is a button that triggers a boss to spawn on the roof -- the button has a view camera next to it so you can see where the boss is spawning and the boss makes global sounds so it will be super obvious that it has spawned. You have to go up to the roof (take a ramp if you don't have a character with the requisite innate movement ability) and kill the boss.

[Dr.Panico]

Thanks.

Man, some of the levels are quite ambicious and impressive, but also hard as nails. Boss battle at the end of Remote Storage was brutal.

Spoiler

Loved the dark turn at the halfway point. I guess we're on a roll on post-apocalyptic Duke maps these last few years.

Now I'm stuck again, this time on Rock Bottom. Are there clues for that 6-button puzzle anywhere?

[Mark]

If there isn't, that mapper should have his Build license revoked.

[ck3D]

Dr.Panico, on 04 November 2024 - 03:13 PM, said:

Thanks.

Man, some of the levels are quite ambicious and impressive, but also hard as nails. Boss battle at the end of Remote Storage was brutal.

Spoiler

Loved the dark turn at the halfway point. I guess we're on a roll on post-apocalyptic Duke maps these last few years.

Now I'm stuck again, this time on Rock Bottom. Are there clues for that 6-button puzzle anywhere?

If it's the one I'm thinking about, the light coronas they emit are colored different, there also is the correct pattern that's visible inside the room somewhere, and the NVG's also will give the code away.

If somehow none of that helps, it's the

Spoiler

rightmost three switches

.

[ck3D]

Great review of the mod in its current state here by Gaming Pastime.