[Micky C]

The drop is only about 40 seconds, and most of the time you can see where you need to go from a distance, well, at least half the time.

The map is still only an experiment, so suggested improvements are welcome, not that I'd make another version of this (although I might have a segment similar to this in a normal map), but I don't think there can be that much else done to improve it in terms of gameplay. It's a fine balance where you don't want it to be too repetitive, and you certainly don't want it to be too easy, because if everyone gets through it the first time there's really not much point to it.

[MetHy]

Unfair : Dying because you don't have enough time to be in the right spot because it's not viewable early enough; and then having to memorize everything to predict where to go BEFORE you see it
Fair : Having JUST enough time to go where you're expected to when you see the next trap (which also means that some players will die)

In other words :
"LOOK OUT! YOU NEED TO GO IN THE NORTH-EAST CORNER FAST"
or
"FUCK YOU! You're already dead. I hope you can memorize this for the next time you try the map."

[Inspector Lagomorf]

Micky C, on 19 March 2012 - 11:34 PM, said:

It's a fine balance where you don't want it to be too repetitive, and you certainly don't want it to be too easy, because if everyone gets through it the first time there's really not much point to it.

I think it's perfectly legitimate to kill the player a few times - not just in this map, but in any map. Death is cheap in Duke Nukem 3D, after all. It's only a minor inconvenience between just hitting space or reloading a saved game.

We've all become so afraid of dying in games, like it's a majorly humiliating experience if it ever happens.

[LeoD]

Achenar, on 20 March 2012 - 07:59 AM, said:

I think it's perfectly legitimate to kill the player a few times - not just in this map, but in any map. Death is cheap in Duke Nukem 3D, after all. It's only a minor inconvenience between just hitting space or reloading a saved game.

Yup. I die frequently. I prefer a good fight over too much hiding in order to survive. And if it was a good ambush or battle scene it's worth the replay. I'm not a good player anyway so I save often. But haven't been patient enough to retry FreeFall more then a dozen times or so.

[MetHy]

It's not about whether you die or not.

It's about how you get killed.

[Danukem]

Micky C, on 19 March 2012 - 11:18 PM, said:

Btw what was the framerate like when you played it?

The framerate was smooth, for the most part (I didn't look at the numbers). I did experience slowdowns a few times when a lot of tripbombs were blowing up (explosions make lights), and I had one extended slowdown right after a player reset, but then it corrected itself.

MetHy, on 19 March 2012 - 11:30 PM, said:

I didn't finish the map because I didn't feel like memorizing every single second of the map like the mapper expects me to.

Yeah, levels where you have to do everything perfectly should only be used as bonus levels in really awesome games. If the regular levels are like that, then people won't play.

[Danukem]

The idea of the player being forced to constantly move forward, like on a rocket or something like that, has a lot of gameplay potential. It has been used in plenty of games before, but not in Duke 3D that I can recall. If someone wants to make a minimod with that gameplay theme (not just falling though, I would prefer other types of movement and acceleration) I am up for coding it.

[Mikko]

I always hated stuff like that, especially back in the days when games didn't have a save function. Seemed unfair. The third last level of Ecco the Dolphin drove me nuts.

[Danukem]

Mikko_Sandt, on 20 March 2012 - 11:27 AM, said:

I always hated stuff like that, especially back in the days when games didn't have a save function. Seemed unfair. The third last level of Ecco the Dolphin drove me nuts.

It might not be bad if simply surviving is easy, but the real goal is to get as many points as possible. Imagine a flying shooter on rails where you have to avoid obstacles while destroying targets.

[Gambini]

Have been searching in this forum for almost an hour....

Does anybody remember where the DNF ala 1997 conversation went? I´m really down to read it again. We´ve been discussing about how would´ve looked DNF if it were done with what was available back then. Please!

[Gambini]

Is this content over already?

I just came back with my map... It just happened to take a little longer than two hours

Well, it actually took 6 hours plus 10 minutes of today adding a "finale" that it was missing. Enjoy!!

Attached File(s)

•  2hoursmyballs.rar (20.8K)
  Number of downloads: 250

[Micky C]

I played it, it's pretty good for a small map. It has one or two interesting gameplay mechanics. Took me 7 minutes 45 seconds, and I think I killed about 70 enemies and left 13(?). Found 0 out of 0 secrets.

Those one sided blocked walls over the lava at the start were cheap and frustrating because it totally looks like you can make the jump, even without strafejumping. It's not too bad since it's near the start (you probably knew this) but it's still a bit cheap, you could have made it wider.
Also, there were tonnes of enemies at the end, and ultimately it became a bit of a grind. Especially since (unless I missed something big) you run out of hitscan weapons for the sentry drones pretty early on, and they have an annoying ability to dodge rockets. Maybe if there were more hitscan enemies at the end, or better still if there were a lot less sentry drones, it could have been a much more fun "blow up everything that moves" section.

Definitely worth a play through though.

Edit: I'm the first to finish it
Although I have a mysterious urge to copy some of the architecture/spritework.

Spoiler

lol jks it's pretty standard detailing compared to mainstream maps

[Gambini]

I´m glad you played it The Big Cheese! You know the level hasnt even been betatested (yeah one time where i had to remove the bigorbit sky, but that wasnt even checked to see if it worked). So i wasnt sure anyobdy would finish it. I remember the first time entering the train station I was short of ammo so decided to fill the monorail´s pit with stuff.