[Narcissus]

Hey all,

I'm a Duke fan from way back (for whatever reason, I bought zero hour for the 64 for like five bucks and had a blast with it). I'm finally giving Duke 3d a go for the first time and I've had an absolute blast with it.

Now for why I posted here - is there any sort of list/post/website that recommends the very best Duke mods? I've found a few old duke websites, like the rtcm one. But most of these just have a BILLION mods and levels. Is there some topic or awards given out for the very best ones worth playing?

I'm especially looking for humorous levels with tons of new textures. Duke Caribbean was pretty much the greatest thing ever - though Duke it out in DC is a very close second.

What levels would you guys recommend? Apologies if you get someone like me posting this message every week, but I did a quick look over and couldn't find what I was looking for.

Also, are Blood/Redneck Rampage/and Shadow Warrior worth buying too?

[Micky C]

Hello and welcome back!
IMO Duke is the best out of the build games, most (but not all) agree. I haven't tried blood much yet, but I've tried Shadow Warrior, and it just feels like it tried too much to be like Duke, and it would have done better if it tried to stand on its own feet more. The levels have too much emphasis on finding keycards as well, causing the level design to suffer and as a result leading to some frustrating moments when you don't know where to go. My advice is to check out the shareware versions of those games (which are free and legal) and if you like them, purchase the full versions.

Now for the TC's.
This site has some of the bigger, newer ones: http://wiki.eduke32....2_Modifications

Arguably the biggest and best TCs of recent years are the AMC TC, and WGRealms 2.
Some other recent big mods/TCs include Imagination World v2, and War of Attrition (which is the only mod, the rest are TCs)

Looking at the list, the Sonic the Hedgehog 3D TC fun, and is a bit different. I haven't played any of the others so I can't comment on them, but anything on that list good stuff, hopefully you'll find some mods which suit your personal taste.

[Forge]

Recent:
The Imperium


older selections:
Platoon
Starship Troopers


older selections where made for the vanilla game and may require a little manipulation to get them to work properly with eduke32, unless somebody made a quick fix patch (find supergoofy posts)

[MetHy]

WGRealms 2 and AMC TC are what you're looking for.

Also yes, Blood, Redneck Rampage, Shadow Warrior, as well as their official add-ons, are all worth it. (Redneck Rampage a bit less)

[zykov eddy]

I would recommend Fusion, The Gate and Grins of Divinity. Great classic mods

[Jimmy]

Play Blood and Shadow Warrior for sure. Redneck Rampage is pretty good too, but it can get a little repetitive.

Some of my favorite mods are Starship Troopers, Grins of Divinity, Last Reaction & Water Bases, God of War, Age of Evil, Alien VS Predator, and Imagination World.

[Kathy]

I played ages ago mod called Zero Hour. Was quite good. But, it seems, it's not really well liked.

[LAW]

Captain Awesome, on 18 June 2012 - 11:00 AM, said:

Play Blood and Shadow Warrior for sure. Redneck Rampage is pretty good too, but it can get a little repetitive.Some of my favorite mods are Starship Troopers, Grins of Divinity, Last Reaction & Water Bases, God of War, Age of Evil, Alien VS Predator, and Imagination World.

Auuuuu, my ego is back After those years I see what I did wrong in my mod. But what is released, cannot be corrected.

[Narcissus]

Thanks for all the recommendations! I managed to get the HRP working through Duke3dw and all three of the official add ons through eduke32.

So I tried to download the Zero Hour mod from ModDB and was quite shocked to see that the file was a mess of .wav, levels, executable bat files, etc.

I can manage to load up a .grp pretty easily without any problems, but how in the world do I manage to get zero hour and other more complicated TCs working with either duke3dw or eduke32?

Also, I don't know if eduke32 is working properly for me or not. I'm on windows 7 and the start up window for it has a "custom game directory:" but it looks like its cut off or something. There is nothing listed there, nor is there a blank space where its supposed to be, like in the photo of eduke32 on the wiki for addons.

[Forge]

Try this version of Zero Hour:

http://www.mediafire...0g7n79l0m7jloz2

it should be setup for duke3dw. or you can edit the bat file and change any instance of duke3d.exe or duke3dw.exe to eduke32.exe

[zykov eddy]

As far as I know, to play the mods properly, you need:

1.Duke3d.grp, a data file from the original game
2.EDuke32.exe
3.Mod data file, GoD.grp for example
4.A .bat file to run the mod. Open it up with notepad and make sure it looks something like that:

echo off
Eduke32.exe /xgodTC.con /ggodtc.grp

/g.grp - insert the name of the data file here

/x.con - insert the name of the main CON file here, probably has the same name as data file

Most mods have a completed .bat file, the only thing you need to do is to rewrite Duke32.exe to EDuke32.exe

[Jimmy]

LAW, on 20 June 2012 - 09:07 AM, said:

Auuuuu, my ego is back After those years I see what I did wrong in my mod. But what is released, cannot be corrected.

I had to throw it in there because I coded the Smartgun (I think that was the one) for ya.

[Narcissus]

There isn't a grp file in the download. Apparently I'm not the only one who has issues with it

http://forums.duke4....-zero-hour-mod/

[zykov eddy]

Forge's version has a grp and .bat

[Narcissus]

zykov eddy, on 20 June 2012 - 03:28 PM, said:

Forge's version has a grp and .bat

Forge? I did some quick googling and forum searching but don't know what you're referencing. I thought it might be sourceforge, but no luck.

[Micky C]

He's a forum member that posted a link earlier today... look up a bit...

[Narcissus]

Oh lord, didn't even see that post! Sorry guys, running on low sleep today

[Come On And Slam]

AMC TC is a mod that you have to get. No "I can get it later" or "this sounds more fun", you HAVE TO GET that mod.

[Mikko]

Of the more modern stuff I'd take a look at:
Imagination World 2
AMC TC
Imperium
WGRealms 2

If you wanna go for older, try these:
LR&WB
The Gate
SST TC

[zykov eddy]

Even if SST TC is pretty old, it still looks like it was made nowadays.

[Jblade]

zykov eddy, on 21 June 2012 - 12:32 PM, said:

Even if SST TC is pretty old, it still looks like it was made nowadays.

Not sure I agree, some of the levels still are really good but other ones (mainly Episode 1) are pretty average-looking when it comes to build quality.

[Jimmy]

It could have benefited from moar SalaciusCrumb maps.

[Fox]

I still find LR&WB (which actual name is "Duke Nukem 3D Aquatic") episode "Water Bases" amusing. It almost made me believe this was an official release when I first played.

[Radar]

AMC TC and WG Realms 2. Starship Troopers as well for a good classic one.

[Danukem]

I still think that Attrition is the most fun of my mods. In fact, I'm thinking about doing an update, to get myself back into modding.

[OpenMaw]

For a nice (albeit small) list of TC's with nice reviews to go with each one, you can check out MSDN

There's also gamers.org which features the standard FTP database of Duke3D TC's you can find. Which ones are good? Well that's part of the fun of exploring these archives.

Plus the hundreds and hundreds of user generated maps that are not actually full blown TC's.

As other's have said some of the best are are:
WG Realms
Grins of Divinity
Starship Troopers TC
Platoon TC
AMC TC
Attrition
Imperium
The Gate

One of my favorites back in the day was Pray Your Prayers

If you're a Trek Fan there's of course Borg Nukem, which is pretty awesome.

If you want something a little different there's DukeVR which is inspired by Metal Gear Solid VR Missions. It's a pretty fun puzzle based TC/Mod.

[Narcissus]

Awesome suggestions guys, though I'm still working my way through the original Duke levels! Got quite a list of levels... but my progress has been waylaid a bit.

is there any cheat/addition that highlights where the keys are on the map? I'm stuck on a one level user map (the infamous Penthouse level, a friend recommended it I swear!) and can't for the life of me find the damn blue key. My OCD gaming style is having a conniption fit


And I've heard amazing things about the AMC TC - though I want to blow through the original Duke, Blood, and Shadow Warrior before tackling it!

[Hendricks266]

I would recommend The LostDuke Episodes. The levels are not the most detailed but they are all creative and original.

Narcissus, on 20 June 2012 - 10:26 AM, said:

I managed to get the HRP working through Duke3dw

No. I don't see why you would use Duke3dw over EDuke32. In any case, Duke3dw doesn't actually support the HRP completely. All the new def commands that were added in EDuke32 and that the HRP uses were "added" to Duke3dw but they don't do anything just so they don't generate errors or warnings.

[Narcissus]

Hendricks266, on 22 July 2012 - 06:40 AM, said:

I would recommend The LostDuke Episodes. The levels are not the most detailed but they are all creative and original.


No. I don't see why you would use Duke3dw over EDuke32. In any case, Duke3dw doesn't actually support the HRP completely. All the new def commands that were added in EDuke32 and that the HRP uses were "added" to Duke3dw but they don't do anything just so they don't generate errors or warnings.

Awesome, I'll add the lost episodes to the list of mods to play!

And I would use eduke32, but I can't figure out how to get the start up menu to display properly. As I mentioned earlier... "I'm on windows 7 and the start up window for it has a "custom game directory:" but it looks like its cut off or something. There is nothing listed there, nor is there a blank space where its supposed to be, like in the photo of eduke32 on the wiki for addons."

Without that window I can't choose any mods etc. Hence why i've been using 3dw to dick around with a few different mods, just to see if they work.

[Mikko]

That "custom game directory" has nothing to do with what you're trying to do. Read post #11.