[MacoMan]

Looking for a list of definitive recommendations. Want to avoid all the crap out there. So what are your 5 favorite episode mods/TCs, and (briefly) why?? Right now I'm playing Infestation in Time & really enjoying it's uniqueness & sensory overload of detail, which makes it feel like a freaky multi-player acid test. Me likey.

[Mikko]

Last Reaction & Waterbases (don't let the difficulty of the first few levels fool you, this is the best TC out there)
The Gate (has some bad levels but overall it's amazing)
Starship Troopers
Pray Your Prayers 2000
Fusion

WGR2
Platoon
The Final Confrontation

and my own Brave New World.

[Jan Satcitananda]

Water Bases - an interesting classic-styled episode;
WGRealms - a great and atmospheric episode;
Oblivion 3D - a long and quite original TC;
Starship Troopers - some cool coding there, as well as decent levels.

Beside IIT, there's an older but still interesting episode from Eddy Zykov called Moonbase Accident.

[Forge]

TCs

LR & WB
Starship Troopers
Platoon
WGRealms1
WGRealms2

I don't recommend these, but for some horrible reason they're burned into my psyche and I like them (or parts of them)
Zero Hour
25th Century
Canadian Carnage


Mod

Dukeplus

[Danukem]

Daikarin is a top notch episode. Well worth a few hours of your time.

[Sebastian]

Agreed, Daikarin is on the top of the list for me. Followed closely by, if not tied with, Platoon, an important piece of Duke history.

Obviously, Starship Troopers has to be on the list. I'd like to replay Mikko's episode since I only played it once back when it came out - not even sure if I finished it! I remember being the setting being really nice though.
WG Realms too, I still haven't finished the second one so I can't say for sure about that one. I can't remember Zero Hour and the Pray your Prayers ones. It's been much too long.

I'd like to give LAW a shout out for his AvP mod as well. Might not be the best technical achievement in terms of design as most of everything was either very crude looking or ripped from other more polished mods - his own maps still look pretty good and the whole package still amounts to a pretty amazing feat.

So for me, it's Daikarin, Platoon, Starship Troopers, WG Realms, Brave New World/AVP TC.

Honorable mention: MERC 2, Borg Nukem and Zombie Crisis.

[MacoMan]

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to attempt The Gate again despite being annoyed by graphics bugs in that 1st level which hopefully aren't present in other levels, but I heard it has almost game killing bugs under eDuke32 which requires the use of No Clipping console commands to escape certain areas. Fact or fiction? I have to admit, i love the idea of TOTAL total conversions, like Mystique: Ages In Time, Acropolis or Alien TCs which seem completely alien, pardon the expression, to the basic Duke3D universe. Are there any other highly unusual TCs that are worth playing that don't deal with the same rather boring pig cops & baddies yelling, "SUCK IT DOWN!" It gets kinda tedious after 100 levels. So what are your favorite custom content mods?

[Danukem]

MacoMan, on Mar 11 2010, 10:16 AM, said:

Are there any other highly unusual TCs that are worth playing that don't deal with the same rather boring pig cops & baddies yelling, "SUCK IT DOWN!" It gets kinda tedious after 100 levels. So what are your favorite custom content mods?

Let me take this opportunity to put in a good word for WGR2, the TC that William Gee, Cage and I made and released in late 2009. It has all new weapons, all new enemies (many with ripped art but new code), and lots of other cool stuff.

[Lunick]

DeeperThought, on Mar 12 2010, 05:23 AM, said:

Let me take this opportunity to put in a good word for WGR2, the TC that William Gee, Cage and I made and released in late 2009. It has all new weapons, all new enemies (many with ripped art but new code), and lots of other cool stuff.

You did rip alot of stuff like some Music from Age of Empires lol but its still cool

[Danukem]

Lunick, on Mar 11 2010, 08:23 PM, said:

You did rip alot of stuff like some Music from Age of Empires lol but its still cool

Yes, but when we rip stuff, we put it to good use. The ripped monsters are coded from scratch and have some interesting new behaviors, for example.

[Lunick]

DeeperThought, on Mar 12 2010, 03:30 PM, said:

Yes, but when we rip stuff, we put it to good use. The ripped monsters are coded from scratch and have some interesting new behaviors, for example.

I didnt say it was bad, I like the music because it fits in

[NNC]

Last Reaction and Water Bases

The first 6 levels are crap, but from "Old LA on Ice" the TC hit its stride, and the 2nd episode "Water Bases" is simply the best thing ever made for this game. I think Water Bases, and maybe the last 5 levels of Last Reaction should be compiled into a single episode, and could be added to the 5th episode of Duke 3D. It's simpy spot on in every aspect. The sheer frustration came from the "drone" levels (after Alienation) and the steadily built up epic bossfight is very hard to match quality for this game.

Duke Caribbean

It's an official pack, and I have to admit, I wasn't a big fan of it at first. I think they were rushing with the testing, and some obvious errors were left in the final release. However, it has some kickass leveldesign, atmosphere, and grew on me fast. Lost Lagoon is one of my favourite Indiana Jones styled maps ever, Alien Remains... well, I had a discussion about it with Wieder, and made a "standard" version of it couple of months ago. One of the best levels IMHO, and so Wavemistress. No wonder, Wieder got the job from 3DR.

JJ Duke Nukem 3D

I still don't understand my fascination towards this TC, but I can't help liking it. Episode 3 is the only thing to look for (and maybe the 4th city level in episode 2), and because of the real urban feel which is only matched by the first two levels of Duke 3D. The unnamed secret level is one of the best things since slice bread.

Pray Your Prayers 2000

I have some faded memories about it, but I still remember the disintegrator thing and some kickass levels like the russian snow base.

WGRealms

I haven't played 2 yet, but I loved the 1st one. Willy clearly has some talent for great architectures. 2 might be better because the 1st one has only one con: monsters don't fit to that surrounding...

Daikarin

I love the first two levels... they are very well designed ones in 3DR style, and the bosslevel is also cool. The other 3 levels are well designed, but they have very repetitive gameplay with only 2 types of monsters (Liztroop and Lizman).