Duke Map/Mod of the Month Club - August 2025

Duke Map/Mod of the Month Club - August 2025 "KaiseR's Singular Releases (9 Levels)"

quakis

#1 Posted 02 August 2025 - 09:14 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

August 2025 Event
Defaulting to the first voting option, KaiseR's works take the spotlight for this month. Probably better known for their KaiseR Land trilogy, they later released several older works that originate from 2002 which I've never played before. These could very well be a bunch of shorter experiences compared to their main series, but if so we can chalk this month up to be more chill while everyone can still enjoy their summer and perhaps catch up on previous events they still wish to comment on. There was mention of a release only titled "Episode 5" in the text files for the older levels, but I didn't see any download for it in the obvious sources. Please let me know if I've missed anything else, but sadly I might not be able to add them to the main post later.

Releases:

KaiseR Land 01 - 2005
Download: MSDN / Scent88

KaiseR Land 02 - 2005
Download: MSDN / Scent88

KaiseR Land 03: Time to get Medievil - 2006
Download: MSDN / Scent88

Psyche - 2002 (Released 2005)
Download: Scent88

Lost Island - 2002 (Released 2005)
Download: Scent88

Strange World - 2002 (Released 2005)
Download: Scent88

The Devils House - 2002 (Released 2005)
Download: Scent88

Asylum K - 2002 (Released 2005)
Download: Scent88

The Dome - 2002 (Released 2005)
Download: Scent88

NNC

#2 Posted 02 August 2025 - 11:06 PM

It seems there is a big gap in quality between Kaiser Land 1-3 and the older works. I definitely try the trilogy, the sky looks interesting.

You may add (for fun) Kaiser's Doom levels as reviewables. He created maps for Legacy of Rust, they might be a point of interest for some. He also made some levels for other games like Unreal, Serious Sam or Quake.

This post has been edited by NNC: 02 August 2025 - 11:13 PM

NNC

#3 Posted 03 August 2025 - 02:05 AM

Played Kaiser Land already with the skyboxes, and not a big fan of it. There are way too many monsters at every corner, usually they are too big for the corridor they are in, which means the level is not only very dark (had to increase brightness/saturation/visibility levels), but also cramped. The ending with the two battlelords was terrible, I simply switched God mode on to beat them. The layout was made up of rather simple corridors and darkness was there to hide this. The skyboxes looked nice, but way out of place for this game. Honestly, I expected something much better from the various reviews, and especially considering Kaiser's Legacy of Rust maps (particularly E1M4 and E1M5) were really good.

I may try the other two later, but I lowered the bar a lot.

This post has been edited by NNC: 03 August 2025 - 02:07 AM

Merlijn

#4 Posted 03 August 2025 - 03:11 AM

Those skyboxes remind me a lot of the Imperium episode - I guess Kaiser still had them and tweaked them a little bit.

On that note, Kaiser also made the boss map in Imperium and a section of the 4th map - it's quite noticable because his style really sticks out.
As for Kaiser land, I only remember playing the 3rd one and liking it quite a bit.

quakis

#5 Posted 03 August 2025 - 03:57 AM

NNC, on 02 August 2025 - 11:06 PM, said:

You may add (for fun) Kaiser's Doom levels as reviewables. He created maps for Legacy of Rust, they might be a point of interest for some. He also made some levels for other games like Unreal, Serious Sam or Quake.

I'm certian these are two separate authors both using the name Kaiser, especially since one stylises their name with an uppercase R and the other often uses their full name but no mention of any Duke releases. Though feel free to prove me otherwise, it wouldn't be the first time author identities and their releases have caught me off guard.

NNC

#6 Posted 03 August 2025 - 07:37 AM

quakis, on 03 August 2025 - 03:57 AM, said:

Now, you surprised me. I thought Kaiser's real name is Samuel Villareal. Do you think the author of these maps is someone else?

This post has been edited by NNC: 03 August 2025 - 07:38 AM

Doom64hunter

#7 Posted 07 August 2025 - 11:45 AM

NNC, on 03 August 2025 - 07:37 AM, said:

Now, you surprised me. I thought Kaiser's real name is Samuel Villareal. Do you think the author of these maps is someone else?

Yes it's someone else.

KaiseR is French, svkaiser is American. (Also Kaiser is just German for emperor)

NNC

#8 Posted 17 August 2025 - 09:47 AM

It's sad to see all these Map of the Month threads ended up with no reviews in the last year or so. They used to be interesting with lots of Quacken, FistMarine, Alex etc. reviews.

dnskill

Honored Donor

#9 Posted 18 August 2025 - 03:13 PM

NNC, on 17 August 2025 - 09:47 AM, said:

It's sad to see all these Map of the Month threads ended up with no reviews in the last year or so. They used to be interesting with lots of Quacken, FistMarine, Alex etc. reviews.

Sadly, I think it's just due to time. People had a bit more free time when this all started, and gradually things went back to "normal" and priorities shifted. My suggestion is to change the format slightly. Instead of month by month, perhaps do a seasonal thing. That gives everyone four (Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring) 3-month windows of opportunity a year to pitch in and discuss the topic at hand vs only 30 days, 12 months a year. This would also make things slightly easier on the host. I also think it would be better to have more open-ended discussions perhaps focused on theme or year of creation vs covering a specific person(s) contributions at this point. At least, I think such changes would result in more activity, as well as trying to bridge between the forum and discord.

This post has been edited by dnskill: 18 August 2025 - 03:20 PM

NNC

#10 Posted 19 August 2025 - 11:57 AM

dnskill, on 18 August 2025 - 03:13 PM, said:

I don't like the idea of the 3 month discussion. That is just the declaration of the decline. 1 month to 1 season to 1 year to 1 decade to pull the plug.

I think the main issue might be threads don't have the actual subject in the title, and instead are focusing on the month itself. It MIGHT spark more interest if these threads are collected in a separate sub with all their subjects in the titles instead of this Month Club thing. Then some might even revisit older threads later on.

But then, the forum is clearly dying. Discord is still active at least.

This post has been edited by NNC: 19 August 2025 - 11:57 AM

quakis

#11 Posted 26 August 2025 - 07:21 AM

Time is the usual suspect, motivation to write, possible lack of interest in the current month spotlight and people not using forums as often could be other factors. I can't exactly complain myself having not commented much despite hosting these and if I am playing games, right now I've been revisiting older Thief fan missions. Haven't done much writing for my own site either, got a bit caught off track and need to pick up the pieces again.

As we're nearing the end of August and time to vote for the next event, I'm uncertain as to what we should do going forward long term. I don't mind continuing to host these, but maybe spotlighting something folk here have an interest in playing and talking about might be preferable rather than defaulting to something from my own picks. Those threads will always be there to post in later regardless.

NNC, on 19 August 2025 - 11:57 AM, said:

I think the main issue might be threads don't have the actual subject in the title, and instead are focusing on the month itself.

It might help to spotlight the current event more in the title, I was keeping consistent with the previous titles but may consider something for future events, nothing is set in stone just yet.

Maybe something short form like this and full name in description:
Title: KaiseR's Singleplayer Levels - DMOTM August 2025

or if character limit allows I can just add the actual event as a prefix;
Title: KaiseR's Singleplayer Levels - Duke Map/Mod of the Month Club August 2025

Feedback for how future events are run and suggestions what to spotlight for September are much appreciated.