Duke Map/Mod of the Month Club - June 2025

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Duke Map/Mod of the Month Club - June 2025 "High Treason's Singular Releases (9 Levels)"

quakis

#1 Posted 01 June 2025 - 06:22 AM

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 29 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.

Previous 2025 Editions

Spoiler

Previous 2024 Editions

Spoiler

Previous 2023 Editions

Spoiler

Previous 2022 Editions

Spoiler

Previous 2021 Editions

Spoiler

June 2025 Event
We'll be taking a look at High Treason's levels prior to their latest episode release New Invasion, which we can consider spotlighting during a future event. Go check it out when you get a chance in the meantime! The focus for this month will primarily be their nine singular releases and as an optional bonus, contributions made to community projects listed below. I recommend checking the included text files for any important compatibility notes. With updates made to Eduke32, it's inevitable some intentional behaviour might be broken in newer builds and worth playing these with an older recommended synthesis if anything seem off.

Releases:

Preston Road - 2010
Requires: DukePlus & Polymer
Download: Duke4 Thread

EDF Computer Base - 2011
Download: Scent88

The Space Mission - 2012
Download: MSDN / Scent88

Riverside Town - 2012
Download: MSDN / Scent88

Quantum Physics - 2013
Download: MSDN / Scent88

Nitroglycerin - 2014
Download: MSDN / Scent88

Alien Abductee - 2019
Download: MSDN / Scent88

Dimension Shift - 2019
Download: MSDN / Scent88

Skool Tour - 2023
Download: MSDN

Contributions:

Newcomers Build Project
Download: MSDN

1.5 Hour CBP
Download: MSDN / Scent88

CBP 8: Metropolitan Starlight
Download: MSDN / Scent88

Duke Hard: Poormann's Library
Download: Moddb

This post has been edited by quakis: 01 June 2025 - 06:31 AM

Quacken

#2 Posted 07 June 2025 - 12:14 AM

I'm sorry for not participating last month. University decided it would make my life very difficult.

EDF Computer Base

Since I refuse to acknowledge that DukePlus is real, EDF Computer Base is the oldest map on the docket. This is probably one of the friendliest maps I know of and it's actually a very pleasant change. Got jumped and lost most of your health to the dumb triple Enforcer trap on your way to the Red Key? Here's three Atomic Healths in a corner so you can get right back into things. Went down to 7 health when the reactor core started overloading? Did you facerocket yourself because you accidentally fell down the pit in the core room? There's four piles of Large Medkits in this room and they all heal you back to full instantly. Fighting Battlelords in open areas with no cover is stupid, right? Not if you have 200 extra health you have to make a run for. I should say High Treason overdoes the pleasantries but there's no doubt it cuts down on backtracking and it makes the map much more fun to play, encouraging the player to keep moving forward rather than limping all over the place. There's no secrets but you are flush with shells, bullets and even rockets for pretty much the entire runtime. It's good you never have to backtrack, because the one thing I have to take points off of are the visuals. While the main rooms with objects in them look fine, the hallways are very samey-looking, have some weird collision, aren't lit particularly well and are overall quite easy to get lost in. Despite that, EDF Computer Base is an above average map with nearly everything it needs to succeed. Let's hope High Treason keeps up the good work!

8.5/10.

quakis

#3 Posted 07 June 2025 - 07:26 AM

Quacken, on 07 June 2025 - 12:14 AM, said:

I'm sorry for not participating last month. University decided it would make my life very difficult.

That's fine, I'm aware a lot of us who want to jump in are busy with other things, thanks for jumping onboard this month.

With that in mind I have been considering extending these to bi-monthly events for extra breathing room. I'll see how this event fairs.

This post has been edited by quakis: 07 June 2025 - 07:26 AM

High Treason

#4 Posted 10 June 2025 - 04:42 AM

I tried to do May's one, but had limited time and 3/4 of the maps I picked randomly from the list were totally crap, so I gave up and did something else which took me past the end of the month.
Speaking of totally crap levels, I'll save anyone having to bother with PRE, EDF or Space:

This level author clearly sucks. PRE requires a mod that isn't available, EDF clearly shows inexperience with the tools and Space is generally just boring. I won't likely play the others, but probably will do a very brisk sort of commentary on a few things in them. CBP8 has a fun little thing you can do in it. What's curious in hindsight is just how much my move to Duke was one step forward and about ten steps back for a good while. It's weird how so much of the levels from before Riverside look completely awful like they were somebody's first shot at using the editor but then at other times, there are peculiar anomalies that suggest the guy building it had used Build before and at least enough to have a rough idea of how some of it ticked.

For those unfamiliar, I believe this was the last thing I'd made in Blood before moving to Duke3D mapping in the late 2000s:

And this is what I mean. You can see hints of this DNA, but in many ways what appears in my first public Duke maps almost looks older at times due to the lack of confidence and familiarity with the game's logic. It took me a long time to adapt.

Also seriously, fuck this forum software and its "key expired" bullshit already. That had to be less than 30 seconds it gave me, given I type these out in Notepad first.

Edit: Before I forget, the piece of Bary Gray music I mentioned in the video.

This post has been edited by High Treason: 10 June 2025 - 04:50 AM

Quacken

#5 Posted 18 June 2025 - 05:16 AM

I would have liked to play High Treason's Blood maps.

EDF Space Base

The first of two maps in a space-themed set by High Treason, EDF Space Base is the more generic of the two yet still manages to be a better experience. This map's gimmick is that there's an entire second half of the map you'll get killed trying to explore unless you put on a Space Suit first, which is way too dark and I accidentally ran into it. There's no puzzles you have to do with this nor does the Space Suit degrade over time like the Boots do so really it's just a third key. The outside of the space ship is coated in a hall of mirrors. If this wasn't intentional and it had something to do with the way I arranged my files (I just extracted the zip file into Megaton Edition's Gameroot folder), then I beat the map already so I don't care if I did something wrong anymore. And if this was intentional then it's just really stupid. EDF Space Base is short, not too difficult or confusing and has a nice custom song, which makes it a perfectly decent map.

7/10.

Lunar Prison

After a promising atmospheric start, Lunar Prison devolves into a total mess once you get out of prison and arm yourself with the Chaingun. I'm not complaining about Sonic Adventure 2 music, but this map is a blob of switches that don't do anything and door textures that also don't open, and so that guitar and synth will get on your nerves very quickly. Not to mention this map is sparsely populated, dark and filled with copy-paste rooms. The hallway of switches which all oscillate the same moving platform back and forth is especially awful. The moon gravity is kind of interesting but aside from the platforming you have to do to make it back to your escape pod as well as getting to the one secret, not too much is done with it. Gibbing Enforcers in the final fight and watching their gibs fly up to the ceiling looks really funny though. Lunar Prison required me to check out and step away from Duke 3D for the rest of the night.

2/10.

Quacken

#6 Posted 22 June 2025 - 03:14 AM

I gotta get more Doom MIDIs. I'm running out of songs to replace Taking the Death Toll with.

Riverside Town

Riverside Town is a short but great map with a lot of effort put into it. The starting Riverside Motel has a lot of room over room and is easy to get out of and find the Blue Key, even if there are a lot of doors everywhere that don't open. 55 monsters doesn't seem like a lot but it feels weirdly enough for a map of this size. Like in Computer Base you are flush with ammo and health which ensures help isn't far away. The reactor room is probably the trickiest section of the map and that's mainly because of the monsters which teleport in once you shoot all of the switches. I think the sequence broke for me. I found the switch meant to start the explosion and turned it on prematurely. When I found the fourth switch, turning the switch off and on again (which is meant to give power to the gate control switch) didn't work and I had softlocked myself. I think, anyway. I ended up DNCLIPping through the gate and thankfully I didn't need to backtrack. The telephone puzzle is easy to brute force and thankfully only one of the combinations is required to finish the map. The Devastator at the end of the riverbank is nice but the RPG right next to it is more than good enough to kill the Battlelord. Riverside Town is a model effort!

9/10.

quakis

#7 Posted 25 June 2025 - 10:12 AM

As we're nearing the end of the month, I've definitely been leaning on the idea to extend this event into July as well. My attention has been elsewhere but still wanted to play through the Riverside sequence of levels at the very least once I get a chance. If anyone opposes the idea let me know and throw a nomination my way;

Extend this month +
KaiseR's levels, 9 singular releases
Trilogy Spotlight - A batch of three-level series like Aqua, Skycity, Boxes & Doors, etc (Inspired by NNC & FistMarine suggestions)
Other suggestions?

NNC

#8 Posted 28 June 2025 - 04:50 AM

quakis, on 25 June 2025 - 10:12 AM, said:

Extend this month +
KaiseR's levels, 9 singular releases
Trilogy Spotlight - A batch of three-level series like Aqua, Skycity, Boxes & Doors, etc (Inspired by NNC & FistMarine suggestions)
Other suggestions?

Extend for sure. I think it's better to explore the monthly set properly before going to the next one. I want to play Averill/Beyman maps for example or FactoryX.

Quacken

#9 Posted 01 July 2025 - 04:50 AM

Extend this month +++
KaiseR's levels, 9 singular releases
Trilogy Spotlight - A batch of three-level series like Aqua, Skycity, Boxes & Doors, etc (Inspired by NNC & FistMarine suggestions)

Quantum Physics

Quantum Physics is High Treason's most ambitious map yet. It's got puzzles and smoke and mirrors script sequences, and often times it's easy to choke and suffocate. The first half of the map reiterates on Riverside Town as you explore a rather nice-looking underwater base. After some disorientating "train" rides you make it back onto the streets. It's a little bit of a drag since you're forced to hack through everything with entry-level weapons, but it picks up in the second half. This map's gimmick is there's a timer in the IMF building that starts counting when you begin the map, and depending on how long you take to get to the sewer it changes the order of the events in the second base. At least that's what the guide says. Firstly, I'm shocked you can even do something like this in the Build Engine. I've never seen anything like this pseudo-randomness before and it's making me think of ideas for a Duke 3D roguelike. Sadly, since the "randomness" is time-based and there's no way to tell what time ranges trigger which paths (at least from what I can see), there isn't really a good way to keep loading a save and replay the other paths to see what you missed out on. The initial second base teleport also broke for me. I think the room you stand in with the pop-up Octabrain is meant to cause everything to flood, but instead it magneted me to the ceiling and wouldn't let me go for about a minute. I had to DNCLIP through the door behind me and pop back in to get back to where I'm pretty sure it was meant to teleport me. Quantum Physics is a great proof of concept for a map that could use the same idea in a much larger capacity.

8.5/10.

Aleks

#10 Posted 02 July 2025 - 12:25 PM

Quote

Quantum Physics is High Treason's most ambitious map yet.

quakis

#11 Posted 02 July 2025 - 03:53 PM

Aleks, on 02 July 2025 - 12:25 PM, said:

Quote

Quantum Physics is High Treason's most ambitious map yet.

Yeah, honestly. Anyone enjoying these nominated maps, I do highly recommend you eventually check out New Invasion, lots of good stuff in there all restricted to what was possible in classic DOS Duke. I'd love to see another episode.