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Of Pigs and Men [RL]  ""The best laid schemes of pigs and men / Go oft to Hell""

User is offline   Sebastian 

#1

Posted Image

So here it is.

My first usermap, entitled Of Pigs and Men. It's a 20 minute map with custom sounds, midi-track, art and a palette even. These things are however not a requirement to play this map but they're highly recommended on your first playthrough in order to get the experience I intend for you to have - I'm looking at YOU - Mr. Reviewer! What is required is Polymer and War of Attrition, which is available for download at Fissile Materials if you haven't got it already.

So check it out and tell me what you think. It's a very open-ended map with lots of different ways for you to approach it.

Note: The readme file actually has some useful info in it so check it out before you jump in.

Download link: http://dl.dropbox.co...fpigsandmen.rar (Temporary link until the reviews get up!)
Readme:

================================================================================
=============================================
										  * I M P O R T A N T	 N O T I C E *
					THIS LEVEL IS NEITHER MADE BY NOR SUPPORTED BY 3D REALMS.
================================================================================
=============================================

							** NOTE **

		For tips on how to improve performance - see attached images performance_1.jpg & performance_2.jpg
					(These settings appears to work best for me)




Title				   : Of Pigs and Men
Date Finished		   : February 18th, 2011
Filename				: PIGSMEN.map
Author				  : Sebastian Fritzon
Misc. Author Info	   : Been building and modding Duke since 1996. Been an active community member since ~1999.
			  Currently a freelance photographer/film-maker/broadcaster and employee of GameStop Sweden.

Released maps by me	: I've made tons of maps since the "days" but none have ever to met my satisfaction since I too often
			  aim to high with my ambitions. I did release a demo for Aliens TC (available for download at MSDN)
			  but it's in no shape or form representative of my current skills as a game designer.
			  This is my first released user map, per se.

Important Information   : This level requires Polymer and War of Attrition in order to be enjoyed to its fullest. You will
			  most likely experience a shit ton of sprite bugs if you don't turn off the HRP so for your own sake -
			  don't use 'em. Especially if you aim to review this!
			  Also see below:

Install Content		: I've included a midi track, new enemy artwork, game palette and sound effects in a seperate folder
			  called /pigsmen. Copy the entirity of its content into your game folder for the intended experience.

Additional Credits to   : Dan Gaskill and the brilliant designers of Borderlands for inspiring this map in the first place.
			  As always, kudos goes out to the masterminds behind Eduke32/Polymer. Cheers!

================================================================================
=============================================

* Play Information *

Single Player		   : Yes
Cooperative 2-8 Player	: Yes, up to eight players. Haven't tried it myself though.
DukeMatch 2-8 Player	: -
Difficulty Settings	 : -
New Sounds			  : Yes
New Music			   : Yes
New Graphics			: Yes
New/changed CONs		: -
Demos Replaced		  : -
================================================================================
=============================================

* Construction *

Base					: New level from scratch
Build Time			  : About six days excluding a four month break from modding entirely.
Editor(s) used		  : Mapster32, Garageband, Dukeres, Photoshop, Paintshop Pro 6 & 9, BSUITE, TRANSPAL and Goldwave.
Known Bugs / Problems   : Polymer lights sometimes have a tendancy for glitching out but there's not much I can do about that.
			  If you experience performance issues, try closing down background applications and/or tweaking your
			  Polymer settings. For addtional support, go to: http://forums.duke4.net/index.php?showforum=27


* Copyright / Permissions *

Don't fiddle with the map without written consent from myself or my agent.


* Where to get this MAP file *

I would assume eventually:

Duke4.net : http://www.duke4.net
MSDN	  : http://msdn.duke4.net
DN-R	  : http://www.dukerepository.com


* Downloads *

War of Attrition		: http://fissile.duke4.net/index.html
Latest Polymer snapshot : http://dukeworld.duke4.net/eduke32/synthesis/

================================================================================
=============================================

1

#2

Can't play it... 0/5 stars

This post has been edited by Jhect: 22 February 2011 - 02:13 PM

-2

User is offline   Mikko 

  • Honored Donor

#3

Cool map, took me 25 minutes!

Two Attrition related questions:
-Any way to take a screenshot without all the Attrition hud stuff visible (without having to exit the mod)?
-I spotted tons of SE sprites spawning randomly, mostly when you hit or kill enemies, when they spawn or fire something etc. They disappeared as quickly as they came.
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User is offline   Sebastian 

#4

View PostMikko_Sandt, on Feb 22 2011, 03:44 PM, said:

Cool map, took me 25 minutes!

Thanks!


View PostMikko_Sandt, on Feb 22 2011, 03:44 PM, said:

-I spotted tons of SE sprites spawning randomly, mostly when you hit or kill enemies, when they spawn or fire something etc. They disappeared as quickly as they came.

That sounds terribly strange. Do you have the latest version of everything?
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User is offline   Mikko 

  • Honored Donor

#5

Yeah, I downloaded the latest Attrition just prior to installing the map. The directory is not clean though so it could be just a problem on my end. Anyways, it's not really a problem.
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User is offline   Danukem 

  • Duke Plus Developer

#6

I have never known anything that looked like an SE sprite to appear at any time in any version of the Attrition mod, so I suspect some sort of installation mishap. For example, if there's a tile that's supposed to be blank, but some custom art is making it non-blank.

I'll try this map when I get a little time.

EDIT: I'm starting the map. So far no problems with SE looking sprites spawning. I'm using the optional content as well (tiles006.art, sounds, and PALETTE.DAT and TABLES.DAT). Let me say for the record that including the altered palette was a bad idea. The altered palette from Lezing's CLUT pack is an integral part of the Attrition mod, and to use the one included with the map you have to move other palette files to a safe place and then remember to move them back after playing the map. That's just asking for trouble. Also, while the altered palette for the pigs map may achieve certain effects for you, it's not very good overall. The way the hud weapons all turn bluish green looks very much like the under water palette.

Ok I will get back to the map now.

This post has been edited by DeeperThought: 22 February 2011 - 04:53 PM

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User is offline   Jimmy 

  • Let's go Brandon!

#7

Ah piss. Looks like I'll have to borrow my sister's laptop in a few days to play this. (Current PC can't run Polymer.)
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#8

Is your sister a pro gamer or something?
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User is offline   Jimmy 

  • Let's go Brandon!

#9

Nope, she just bought a new Sony VAIO laptop, she blew like a $2000 wad. It can play Polymer and GZDoom on high settings pretty well.
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User is offline   Sebastian 

#10

View PostDeeperThought, on Feb 22 2011, 04:18 PM, said:

Let me say for the record that including the altered palette was a bad idea. The altered palette from Lezing's CLUT pack is an integral part of the Attrition mod, and to use the one included with the map you have to move other palette files to a safe place and then remember to move them back after playing the map.

I don't know how your directory looks but nothing got replaced when I copied the optional conent into a fresh directory with Attrition installed. All the enemies and everything else looks as they should on my computer..
edit: Oh right, yours are in the /attrition subdir? I still don't understand why it would look messed up. I played a ton of different maps after mine with your mod and nothing out of the ordinary popped up. But then again, for a standalone release and for its review I'm sure people will delete the palette right after they finished my map anyway. I don't really expect you to bundle it and any of the other optional content with Attrition or anything.
Btw, the midi is (I think) called Subway! and it's actually a track from Duke already.

View PostDeeperThought, on Feb 22 2011, 04:18 PM, said:

Also, while the altered palette for the pigs map may achieve certain effects for you, it's not very good overall. The way the hud weapons all turn bluish green looks very much like the under water palette.

Like I told you in the PM, the map takes place at the crack of dawn hence the blue hue. There's no reason why the HUD weapons would not be affected.
It's called color correction and is something you see all the time in movies which is I wanted to emulate here. Thank God it's optional, huh? ;)
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User is offline   Danukem 

  • Duke Plus Developer

#11

View PostSebastian, on Feb 22 2011, 05:21 PM, said:

I don't know how your directory looks but nothing got replaced when I copied the optional conent into a fresh directory with Attrition installed. All the enemies and everything else looks as they should on my computer..


alright yeah, if you put the files in the base directory then you don't have to touch anything in the attrition directory, that's true. But I didn't want to mess with my base directory. Anyway, it worked great, I didn't experience any glitches and the palette does look very good with your particular map. Unfortunately, there is no way to include the optional stuff with the mod without replacing that stuff in every map; I wish that hot swapping .art files etc. were possible, but it's not. I loved the pigheaded troopers and the sounds for them btw.

As for the map: It's awesome! The gameplay is even better than I remember from the earlier version I tested some months ago, and the complex is very impressive looking. It flowed well, there was enough health and ammo but you had to hunt for it. No unfair situations but a few challenging ones. On the way out of the base, I forgot that I had the jetpack, and that actually made it more fun, because I went all the way back to the high wall on foot, and I made sure to kill every enemy. Makes me think that it might be a little better if there was a keycard activated elevator that got the player back up the wall instead of the jetpack. But anyway, great map, I hope everyone tries it. I did not use Polymer this time, because I wanted a clean experience without performance concerns, but I will try it with Polymer next time.

This post has been edited by DeeperThought: 22 February 2011 - 05:37 PM

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User is offline   Danukem 

  • Duke Plus Developer

#12

Here is a video walkthrough of the level:

Part 1

Part 2

Don't watch if you don't want the map spoiled! It doesn't need a walkthrough, since it isn't a puzzle map, but I think the video turned out nicely. It has two parts for a total of 16 minutes. I played it on Damn I'm Good, but that wasn't a factor since in Attrition monsters don't respawn and the extra difficulty doesn't really kick in until your score gets higher.

This post has been edited by DeeperThought: 23 February 2011 - 12:51 AM

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User is offline   Sebastian 

#13

It's a little uncomfortable seeing this since I really spent alot of time with the polymer lighting in that level which might not give people a very good impression of the map - but at least I'm glad you're digging it!
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User is offline   Mikko 

  • Honored Donor

#14

I was thinking of the same thing...
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User is offline   Sebastian 

#15

Well, after watching the video(s) I guess it's not that big of a deal, I mean at least it confirms that it's playable without polymer lights but still, there are some lighting stuff in there that I really think you should see!

Admittedly, I enjoyed the shit out of watching you play. There were so many things that you and I did differently which always makes it even more fun for me to watch. Thumbs up!
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User is offline   Danukem 

  • Duke Plus Developer

#16

View PostSebastian, on Feb 23 2011, 07:57 AM, said:

Well, after watching the video(s) I guess it's not that big of a deal, I mean at least it confirms that it's playable without polymer lights but still, there are some lighting stuff in there that I really think you should see!

Admittedly, I enjoyed the shit out of watching you play. There were so many things that you and I did differently which always makes it even more fun for me to watch. Thumbs up!


I have seen the level in Polymer, but the problem is that the extra stress of recording a movie pushes the frame rate down to the point where the movie would have sucked. I would have had to go very slow to avoid laggy situations and even then a nuke or an intense firefight would probably have gotten me lag killed. The polymer lighting is excellent, but the level still has a pretty good atmosphere without it.
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#17

I think the level looks pretty sweet sebastian.
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User is offline   Mikko 

  • Honored Donor

#18

Review is up!

Anyways, here's a shot of the SEs.

Attached thumbnail(s)

  • Attached Image: ses.jpg

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#19

You used cheats?
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User is offline   Mikko 

  • Honored Donor

#20

To take that shot.
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User is offline   Danukem 

  • Duke Plus Developer

#21

View PostMikko_Sandt, on Feb 23 2011, 09:46 AM, said:

Review is up!

Anyways, here's a shot of the SEs.


The SEs aren't the only problem there. Why does the smoke look like the old 8-bit Duke smoke and not the smoke that comes with Attrition? Perhaps you have hires disabled or you install is fucked up and the defs are not loading. You did notice that the smoke was different in the movies I posted, right?
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User is offline   Mikko 

  • Honored Donor

#22

I turned hires stuff off, as instructed in the txt.
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User is offline   Danukem 

  • Duke Plus Developer

#23

View PostMikko_Sandt, on Feb 23 2011, 10:15 AM, said:

I turned hires stuff off, as instructed in the txt.


What the text should have said is to not use the HRP. Not using the HRP is very different from disabling hires. And I find it ironic that anyone would complain about me running the map in a way not intended when the txt and stuff included with the map leads the player to play my mod in a way not intended and makes it look a lot worse.


And by the way, Attrition uses the tilefromtexture def command to maintain software renderer compatibility. Here is what the smoke looks like in software mode:

Posted Image

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Notice that it still doesn't look like the old Duke smoke. I wonder if disabling hires also disables tilefromtexture? That would mess up a lot of stuff, and could explain the SE sprites.

This post has been edited by DeeperThought: 23 February 2011 - 10:58 AM

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User is offline   Mikko 

  • Honored Donor

#24

Well I don't really see what the problem is, except for the tiny visual glitch. The 8-bit smoke buffs look consistent with the used settings anyway.

This post has been edited by Mikko_Sandt: 23 February 2011 - 12:33 PM

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User is offline   Danukem 

  • Duke Plus Developer

#25

View PostMikko_Sandt, on Feb 23 2011, 12:33 PM, said:

Well I don't really see what the problem is, except for the tiny visual glitch. The 8-bit smoke buffs look consistent with the used settings anyway.



The problem is that there are lots of different visual effects in Attrition that work via def file, not just the smoke and whatever is causing the SE sprites. Those two are only the most obvious ones from your one screen shot.
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User is offline   Gambini 

#26

I gave it a try but felt lazy to install attrition. I think it´s pretty obvious you didn´t have in mind nor tested it in vanilla duke, as my attemp and your txt confirms.

I could appreciate the design though. And all i can say is that -in my eyes- you have made use of polymer lights like nobody has done before. The way you blended that soft turquoise palette with design and well done lights is great. Liked the massive WG-like arquitecture, the fitting music and the pigtroops too. But contrarily, the layout felt too much of a free will, lacking of any kind of hint or guide, for my tastes. I gave up after -unable to find any key or way to keep advancing- typed dnshowmap and noticed there was almost no more places to go.

This post has been edited by Gambini: 23 February 2011 - 06:01 PM

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#27

I'm rather impressed, the use of Polymer lights in this map was brilliant and did not seem to harm the frame-rate as much as one would expect, a lot of time must have gone into implementing these and it certainly seems to have paid off. The map has a unique look and feel to it, especially with it's openess and texture set, and I like the use of spawn points for enemies, which keeps things going all the time when I walk back down the same corridor. There is some room for improvement with spritework, but not a lot. Unfortunately my game crashed not long before what I assume was the end of the map (I had found the yellow key and headed back outside) though this is likely my computer's fault as it seems to be doing this a lot in it's old age. I'll probably play it again later and finish it, but I enjoyed what I played so far, the map looks and feels good, it's not entirely to my taste, but it's a good bit of work nontheless.
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User is offline   Sebastian 

#28

Thanks, High Treason! Hope you'll be able to finish the map.

View PostDeeperThought, on Feb 23 2011, 10:37 AM, said:

What the text should have said is to not use the HRP.

D'oh! That's my bad and you're completely right. I often times mix up these terminologies. I've updated the original .rar, hope it's not a hassle for you Mikko to update the link on MSDN. (Great review too!)
( http://dl.dropbox.co...fpigsandmen.rar )

View PostGambini, on Feb 23 2011, 06:01 PM, said:

I gave it a try but felt lazy to install attrition. I think it´s pretty obvious you didn´t have in mind nor tested it in vanilla duke, as my attemp and your txt confirms.

Correct! But by all means, feel free to try it anyway. I doubt you'd have as much use of nightvision goggles and a HoloDuke as you'd do with a nuke, invisibility cloak and a helper bot. :P

View PostGambini, on Feb 23 2011, 06:01 PM, said:

...lacking of any kind of hint or guide, for my tastes. I gave up after -unable to find any key or way to keep advancing- typed dnshowmap and noticed there was almost no more places to go.

Hmm, this confuses me as I'm not sure how you could get stuck unless you just ran through all the rooms without paying much attention to what was in them. The yellow keycard is inside the facility but it's locked behind a door.
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User is offline   Gambini 

#29

I found that door, but i couldn´t open it. I blowed up two reactors, a few walls and hit a couple of switchs. The problem is that I was out of ammo most of the time, and had to rush the outside area because i could not stand the monsters attack. Being fair, there´s no hint of what one has to do before entering the base. Usually, when you want the player to stay in one part of the map, put something preventing him to reach the next area (at least, that´s what my "linear gameplay book" says :P ).

By the way, i saw part of the playthrough that Deepertough made, and noticed that the map plays a lot better using the mod. i´ll try it again eventually.
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User is offline   Mikko 

  • Honored Donor

#30

There are three reactors inside the facility, none of them hidden so there should be no trouble finding them.
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