[Mister Sinister]

It's been a long time since I released a map, so here we go

I can give you a few tips:

* Don't go through that big tunnel until you find enough supplies

* If you noticed a brown "A" letter - it means that there's a hidden area nearby.

* Recommended difficulty: Come Get Some

Some screens



Have fun. I hope you'll like it.

Attached File(s)

•  GreyL.zip (89.17K)
  Number of downloads: 355

[Mikko]

That looks amazingly vanilla.

[Jblade]

Just played through it, nice work I was hurting a bit for medkits earlier but it all worked out in the end. There's one minor error I spotted though, the Liztroops in the Dukeburger are the toilet sitting ones, so they make the flushing noise when they activate - there's 2 tiles of them sitting, if you set them to the other they shouldn't make that noise.

[ck3D]

those screenshots look awesome ! going to make myself a cup of coffee and play this right now ! those screens look so 1996 (and i mean it in a good way !)

[ck3D]

finally went through this, took me 35 minutes. I died twice but it was due to lack of attention (I wasn't in good shape), otherwise the map was really well balanced, the exact way I like it as far as monster / weapon / health ratio goes. My only complaint in that department would be that there was maybe too much health at some point - as James said it was pretty scarce at the beginning of the map (which I actually liked, I love being rather low on health points and still having to endure challenging firefights, to me it makes the game more exciting), then halfway through (approximately at the supermarket section) it picked up and I was not just always on full health, but also constantly passing by 30+ medkits everywhere, which is not necessarily a bad thing seeing as there are probably worse players than me, it is just something I found it pretty funny. Then it was well balanced again until the end, where you went, on the other hand, clearly overboard in my opinion. I was expecting a really epic boss fight and all I ended up facing was three mini battlelords (maybe there is more on higher difficulty levels ?), a couple of basic monsters and a big battlelord on stayput. The player was supplied with so much that what could have been an interesting fight was really made too easy. I know it is hard to make boss fights challenging in Duke because most of them bosses are stupid as fuck. But I couldn't help but think of how much better it would have been if the battlelord had not been on stayput and could actually jump out of that window thing and chase the player in the earlier sections of the maps (where tougher enemies could have respawned too). That would have given a whole new meaning to all those supplies in the last dead-end as well. Then again, I know I have fairly specific gameplay tastes and a lot of people might have hated that instead.

Do not get me wrong either because I really loved the map. The design was real neat and reminded me of a mix between the original maps (episode 4 mostly) and the kind of user maps that were being released in the early 2000's (notably Kevin Cools' stuff, and some of Maarten van Oostrum's maps for some reason). I loved how the first theater was a tribute to E1L1 as well, I almost expected a liztroop to respawn in front of me when I stepped onto one of these rows of seats, that was neat. Loved all the secret places as well (I found 4 and missed 3). I felt some Metropolitan Mayhem influences here and there, was it just me ? Well nonetheless I would find it interesting to know what were your main influences for this map, provided that you had any of course. I got a taste of Hollywood Holocaust, Duke Burger, Shop N Bag playing this map, and it reminded me of several classic user levels as well somehow. It also had a Dogville feel in regards to how it consisted in several differently-themed locations all linked together by a couple of street sections connected together and acting like hubs with several keys to be found in each. The texturing was nice in general too, the only section I thought looked somewhat suspicious were the sewers which definitely looked way too bright and - especially - way too pristine to be credible as sewer tunnels. But it played well so I didn't mind. The one thing you might want to improve on in the future is wall shading. The lighting and shading were very good in most places but a lot of rooms lacked strong contrast and didn't really feel that three-dimensional, if you know what I mean. Some better trimming would have been nice too here and there. Then again it might just be my tastes. I spotted a few glitches (mostly sprites going through walls and a door in the Duke Burger that was buggy), but nothing that affected the gameplay.

I ran out of shotgun and chaingun ammo and had to rely on my pistol once or twice, but usually found more ammo pretty soon after that. It is the kind of map in which you have to use your weaponry wisely if you do not want to have to resort to the mighty foot, but I like this. I also chose to play the map in a very basic way and never really used the alternate weapons I found (freezer, tripmines etc) so I guess it could have been easier if I had wanted it to be. Besides all this (sorry for the poorly structured post - it is getting pretty late here) I really liked the progression (both throughout the build-up with the enemies and weapons, and the general layout). It was linear, but the good linear, and I liked how you paid attention to even the smallest details in every corner of each street with all those dumpsters and fences (the map definitely didn't feel flat to me, even though it was actually fairly horizontal) and stuff to shoot pretty much everywhere. Those streets actually looked pretty damn neat, my favorite sections being the tunnels and that one hidden rooftop. You have a fairly unique, distinguishable style too, in terms of design, sector-based construction (it is very very squarish, but it has its own flavor) and texture choices. I like that !

I would rate that map between 92 and 94, personally. I had a lot of fun playing it and enjoyed the experience throughout the entire ride.

EDIT - forgot to mention that I had to play this map without the custom user.con. What was it supposed to change exactly ? and how long did it take you to make this map ?

[Mister Sinister]

Thank you very much guys, I'm really glad you enjoyed it

Quote

the Liztroops in the Dukeburger are the toilet sitting ones, so they make the flushing noise when they activate - there's 2 tiles of them sitting, if you set them to the other they shouldn't make that noise.

Oh, I didin't know about that.

Quote

But I couldn't help but think of how much better it would have been if the battlelord had not been on stayput and could actually jump out of that window thing

I was actually thinking about that,but this could be too hard for players.

Quote

I had to play this map without the custom user.con. What was it supposed to change exactly ? and how long did it take you to make this map ?

It was supposed to change the name of the episode in the main menu, that's all
I started this map in August or July, but after making the first section (shop, cinema, tunnels) I ran out of ideas. In the middle of October I continued my work.

[ck3D]

well that's a very nice map considering the time you spent on it. good work !

[Mikko]

Cool map, took me 15 minutes, didn't die. I'll have a review up later tonight. Anyway, you should have renamed the con because now pre-existing user.cons interfere with the mod.

[Micky C]

I just played it, took me 23 minutes, found 0 secrets, played on Lets Rock and died once when I jumped into the water fountain and got squished! I DNKROZ'd back to life and tried to reproduce it but I couldn't so I wouldn't worry about that. It's probably due to the small space between the sectors in the fountain. I know there's a spot in Mikko's map in the AMC TC that I get squished every time I go there which is also a water sector.

Although there's technically nothing wrong with the map, tbh I found it a bit meh. It's probably because I was stuck with the pistol and the shotgun for half the map which made gunplay fairly dull and repetitive. A shrinker would have been fantastic. Maybe some of the better weapons were in secret areas, but it would have been nice to give the average player at least one high tier weapon early on.

Also, what's with the sewers?! It's like daylight down there! It was a constant, bright shade! It would have made a fabulous contrast with the rest of the map if it was dark and spooky, especially with the octabrains, and some flickering lights casting strong shadows. If you didn't have the map beta tested, I'd recommend you do that for your next map (as all maps should be beta tested) and the sewer lighting would have been one of the first things I'd have mentioned.

Another bug: In polymer, in the room with the switch on the desk where you unlock the meat market, if you look at that in polymer, several of the sectors don't render, most likely due to some of the sectors overlapping each other, probably best to fix that.

Other than that I liked the map and the boss fight. I always enjoy it when a boss is firing on you from above. Although now that Mikko mentions it, it would have been interesting to have it chase you through that big tunnel. At least on my difficulty, ammo/health/monster ratio was great. I also liked the layout and progression. I didn't get lost but a little bit of that was luck, and as always it's nice when walls blow up to reveal new (or old) areas. Oh, and I forgot all about the brown A thing, maybe that's why I didn't find any secrets, although I didn't notice any obvious brown As. It's definitely a great map considering the time spent on it, like ck3D said, and a worthy addition to the list of 2012 maps.

[t800]

Nice map! I just give you my two "annoying" nitpicks:
You made me look a like a fool! I have obsession with kicking trash cans in Duke (I am accustomed to it from original episodes where they contained useful items). And here I saw heaps of trash cans lying everywhere - but all empty! You should see my face after I found out!
Also is it just me or arent there too many fire hydrants on street?

[Mikko]

Here's a review: http://msdn.duke4.ne...tgreylights.php

[Mister Sinister]

Hey, thanks for your feedback.

And I finally overcame this 90-points border

[LeoD]

Nice classic style map. I think the distribution with a BAT, a sub-ZIP and that USER.CON is somewhat overdone. KExtracting STALKER.MID and renaming it to npm1.mid would be more convenient to the players.

I played it halfway using DukePlus but then had to give up and restart as normal due to "Too many sprites spawned" complaints. That's pretty surprising because the map is quite average in terms of size, detail, and enemies/battle.

Just like t800 I did a lot of useless trash can kicking ...

[Mister Sinister]

There was one trash can containing shotgun ammo near the Dukai Sushi

[Forge]

And yet another review from that "other" site:

http://www.scent-88....G/grey/grey.php

[rasmus thorup]

I wanna play this map but i gotta go I'll be back!

[underTaker]

I've just finished the map. It was really great! I found 1 secret (yeah, i'm blind... ) and it took me 15 minutes.

Layout was simple, yet really cool. Gameplay was really enjoyable, even if it was a keycard hunt a little bit, it still rocked! I liked final boss fight, when you had to kill three small ones, and then the big one.

Really cool map

[MetHy]

Took me 19mins and I found 5/7 secrets.
I liked how classic the secrets were, howeverI didn't like the "A"s near them, they kinda kill the point of secrets being secrets if you're told they're there. There are more subtle ways to hit a secret like for example a wall being shaded differently, or a funny sprite.
Overall cool design, my favourite part being the one after the tunnel, but there is nothing that hasn't been done countless times before.
However a couple of things look a bit off, like some misaligned textures or textures being too "big" and not fitting the size of the rooms, or that cramped squarish doorless elevator looking like it got teleported back from 1996. I didn't mind the sewers everybody seems to criticize though.
About the tunnel, I was told not to get there early on, that's what I did and it went fine I did find the secret devastator before getting there though which I guess helped a lot.
I enjoyed the boss fight however I think you should have made him spawn earlier for it to be more interesting : I had time to kill all the mini BLords and other enemies around him before he showed up. I liked how the viewscreens shows the area suddenly crowded with aliens when you open the path to the boss area.
A couple of nitpicks : I would have liked more small effects to make the map more lively, like explosions or for example, or when unlocking the Dukeburger, it could have opened the window at the same time instead of just unlocking it. Also, there are a few doors/elevators that are locked, where the player can't get behind, but it's hinted as if the player was meant to go there (the "managers" office in the Dukeburger" and the bar with the flickering arrows in the reception hotel). Obviously I understand that almost every map needs doors that you can't get behind, but it's kinda weird to see them hinted that way.

Pretty good classic map overall, but again, there is nothing a Duke player hasn't seen before.

[Merlijn]

Solid map, I especially liked the outdoor scenery. I like how this one started in a little back alley and took some time before introducing the main street area (most city levels drop you into the main area right away). Nice finale as well, although the stayput boss was really easy to beat. Though, like ck3d said, it's hard to make a challenging boss fight with this game.

Some things you could look at in the future: add some more wall-shading and shadows in the indoor sections to add more depth. Also, the doorless elevators looked a bit weird IMO.

[dnskill]

I'm quite late on this one but,

I enjoyed every minute of this map. I enjoyed the theater part because I would hide behind one of the stands of chairs and had a large gun battle with just one Pig Cop because he wouldn't stop shooting I love how it all played out too, I didn't even expect the ending of the map. Very well done, it's on par with the original Duke maps in terms of design. 5/5

Only things I noticed that you may want to fix in an update is that issue with the Assault Captains that someone has already mentioned, and there's some palette problems in the book store (certain parts of sprites turn green in the stair case). Also one Pig Cop is wearing a brown uniform for some reason, don't know if that was intentional or not. This map has replay value by the way.

Anyways, great job!