[DavoX]

Nancsi, on 25 November 2013 - 02:58 AM, said:

Did anybody manage to beat the motorcycle level under 3 minutes? My personal best in 3:02, while the video someone made a few days ago had an almost flawless 3:00 but over it.

I've managed to get 2:53 by going straight to the elevator button and activating it without leaving the bike, dunno how I did that!

[Micky C]

MetHy, on 26 November 2013 - 12:21 PM, said:

Duke is a pussy running off on his bike instead of klling the aliens, that's not what I call Duke Nukem.

Ah, but Duke's not just some "let's shoot everything" muscle man idiot. He has some smarts about him and was making a strategic withdrawl; he knew (there's a viewscreen message in the rocket) that the fastest and most surefire way to defeat the alien invasion was to get to the Duke Dome and kill the Cycloid Emperor, causing all the remaining forces to fall into disarray without leadership. And that's exactly what he did.

[MusicallyInspired]

I will say that I wish it didn't take half your life when you hit an enemy on the bike. That should be encouraged not discouraged. Only thing better about the DNF truck.

[DavoX]

I would've also loved if the bike killed enemies (it does) without hurting you so much.

[Loke]

Or a dual machine gun attachment.

http://www.youtube.c...Ne5GV8t5GE#t=69

Fuck YEAH!

[Forge]

MetHy, on 26 November 2013 - 12:21 PM, said:

2nd level was horrible. On the 2nd or 3rd roof (the one where during the jump 2 tramway cars cross at the same time), if you brake while on the roof, you're fucked and can't do the jump. Miss it once, and you're fucked and have ot restart the whole level. After around 10 tries where I couldn't reach the next roof because of the lack of possible speed

i had a different experience than you for some reason. i needed to slam on the brakes on that roof because i was about to run into something and then miss the ramp. i circled back to the very beginning of the roof, built up speed, and made the jump easily between the tram cars.
i actually found the next roof more difficult after having to stop. that roof is shorter so the angle needed to take to get up on the next walkway was quite acute and it was extremely difficult to keep from slamming hard into the wall after completing the leap.

MetHy, on 26 November 2013 - 12:21 PM, said:

Plus at first before starting the bike I decided to kill all the enemies. Well, what was I thinking? Actually playing at killing the enemies? Sorry, that level won't let you do that, I ran out of ammo at the START of the map.

I killed all the enemies in the beginning. I still had plenty shotty and pistol ammo, but was out of everything else. 'course it helps when you trick the commanders into blowing up some of the baddies for you. after i explored that initial area and realized there were no supplies, i figured out what i was supposed to do.

MusicallyInspired, on 26 November 2013 - 12:44 PM, said:

I had killed pretty much everything and was confused about where to go next (forgot about the opened gate, which led to the pathway that crumbles when driving on it and then you have to enter the cave on the left).

there was a view screen next to the button that opened the gate

DavoX, on 26 November 2013 - 01:17 PM, said:

I've managed to get 2:53 by going straight to the elevator button and activating it without leaving the bike, dunno how I did that!

if you're willing to take damage you can drive through the glass wall of the elevator right after you hit the switch. that should shave some time.

[Gambini]

Just finished playing it. Last time I tried it, most of it was on a pretty unfinished state. The first level has some gameplay annoyances that even knowing it kept me bothering. I was low on ammo most of the time and the waves of monsters were unnecesarily unfair and numerous. I´d describe the gameplay on this level as a survival. Also, even when I think I pointed this to Micky, it is very difficult to know where to go and what to do on many instances, buttons that do nothing (like that keypad at the edf base), buttons you don´t know what they do (in the colorful control room), openings that offer backtracking without a clear goal of why you have to go back there... I think there´s lot of improvement to do on future maps about how to guide the player to his goal. In the other hand, I really liked the UFO reference in that viewscreen (didn´t even know it was possible to trigger an event on activating a viewscreen) and the canyon parts were very moody with their massive view. Found an interesting bug, apparently we never thought about those flying drones being close to water, in that peaceful reseirvoir there was one, supposedly flying, that would spit bubbles and was invulnerable, and it would shot you even if you was underwater. The second map is a blast, like having casual sex inside a dressing room while the chick´s 7 feet husband is waiting outside. I died many times, all in different instances, and cursed the day we didn´t add an autosave function. Most of ifs path is very natural and you find yourself quiclky finding your way out like if it were a road, while you´re actually jumping from roofs to bridges and such. Only a few parts were quite difficult to figure out, and at that speed... crash!! It took me 3.30 minutes but I had to do some backtracking to gain speed in that playthrough, so I´d probably could have done it a bit faster. The third map is the one I was more familiar with, yet it´s a tribute to design and also very intense, got me impressed like the first time. I think though, that the layout wasn´t on par with the design, I wandered a lot because all those interconnections. The final battle was epic, with the terrain going crazy and those warmup wildpigs waves, but! there wasnt enough ammo and.. it was me or the cycloid projectiles were more powerful?

All in all, it´s a great pack. It shows that Davox has made very positive changes on his pass through the gaming industry and Micky keeps learning too -My advice would be to focus on how the player sees a map, it´s not enough that you can beat your own map, noone can be objective about his own design, you have to look at your layouts with the eyes of a kid, light and color get the attention, eye level gets the attention first, use them with discretion, like if the player were a donkey and those were the carrot. Sometimes obvious is better than indiscernible, and check your horizontal scales-. The music keeps you up all the time, like if you were plugged to a 220v cord and the shotgun.. well.. it´s not bad but Duke all of a sudden has gloves when using it and the muzzleflash is horrible.

I would not say I´d blend this pack with the mod as an official episode, but that has nothing to do with its quality. It´s more related to my distorted vision of where the mod should go if it keeps being updated. Yet this is a different approach with a much more challenging (and probably entertaining too) gameplay and a much bolder design and, of course, very enjoyable. If I ever am on the righ mood again, wouldn´t mind to add a few custom tiles to trim it a bit more, so the century this mod is updated, the DLC gets updated too.

Bloodshot, on 23 November 2013 - 11:21 AM, said:

It feels good to see my DNF rpg sprite and FC3 shotgun conversion used in such a good mod

Sorry for breaking your hearth but we didn´t use your RPG sprite, I cropped it from a DNF screenshot and then added some very subtle touches on it.

[Micky C]

I still think my map is relatively fair. There aren't any switches or whatever that do anything outside the current room without having a viewscreen or sign next to it. If I had to add any more hints then I would literally be holding the player's hand through everything and it might dampen the sense of exploration and discovery. On the other hand, I've played some very highly regarded maps by skilled authors where I had no fucking clue where to go, having explored everywhere several times and probably ended up quitting out of frustration. I feel that my map has a good balance. Everyone's subject to their own opinion and preference.

Considering that there was only one person commenting that was really stuck (and I have a very strong impression he didn't bother exploring the building properly if he was actually out of ammo at that particular point), and that everyone else seemed fine and even a few found the moderately well hidden and long-winded super secret, I'm satisfied with the map's progression. You're just a bit rusty

Btw, for the viewscreen I simply had a touchplate in front of it and assumed that people would use the screen immediately after stepping up to it, which appears to have been correct

[DavoX]

Thanks for your review Gambini. It's nice to know from the author of the Original Mod and I'm glad you mentioned the terrain on the stadium, you're the first one to do so. It involved a mixup of effects and techniques to get it right, it wasn't only an earthquake effect , also I'm glad no one had glitches with the TROR in the stadium, all in all Micky and I were able to implement it quite well with no side effects.

About Micky's map, I've had lots of maps from other people that are far bigger and harder to find where to go next than his. I find it a fair map all in all regarding exploration and finding where to go next. Previous iterations were worse, so you're all lucky

EDIT: Micky beat me to it

Well you're right , no one quits Duke , ever. I hope I get the itch to map again as I love this game

[MetHy]

I thought of something else yesterday night which, isn't really a problem, but a little shame anyway. In map 3 I wish you wouldn't get teleported to another area for the ending, I wish you could see the field and the whole area from the inside somehow and that it was directly linked to it. On one hand you got to see the unreachable entrance/parking, would have been nice to see the heart of the place too as well and eventually get to it.

Now that would most likely mean having to get rid to the "elevator going up the middle of the stadium field" reference but that's less important than awe-inspiring level layout to me.

[DavoX]

Yes it would've been nice indeed But given the amount of TROR the actual stadium has, it woul'be been a glitchy nightmare.

[Rhaisher]

If I want to play this DLC without the shotgun replacement (it just does not convince me...), what files should I not unzip into the "DNF2013" folder?

[Forge]

DNFDLC.zip

[NNC]

MetHy, on 26 November 2013 - 12:21 PM, said:

Finally got around to beat this.

2nd level was horrible. On the 2nd or 3rd roof (the one where during the jump 2 tramway cars cross at the same time), if you brake while on the roof, you're fucked and can't do the jump. Miss it once, and you're fucked and have ot restart the whole level. After around 10 tries where I couldn't reach the next roof because of the lack of possible speed (and some in which I even ended up INSIDE the tramway cars), I said "fuck this shit" and decided to use DNCLIP for the rest of the level.
That map looks really cool in terms of scenario but gameplay is awful, too unforgiving. Plus at first before starting the bike I decided to kill all the enemies. Well, what was I thinking? Actually playing at killing the enemies? Sorry, that level won't let you do that, I ran out of ammo at the START of the map. In that level you have to pussy out and just run away. Duke is a pussy running off on his bike instead of klling the aliens, that's not what I call Duke Nukem. It just felt lame to have to run away from all those commanders. I did kill the liztroops by foot though and hoped, dear god HOPED, that they dropped ammo. Too bad they don't drop health because I would have hoped for that too, which the map doesn't offer either.

3rd map was great. Great fighting, great level design. Level layout and progression was basic Duke Nukem usermap stuff but I won't complain because the architecture, detailing, texturing as well as sprite work, shading and gameplay, kicked ass.

Overall : a mod that kicks ass on the 3rd map. 1st map is good but feels rushed. 2nd map looks good but it's all pointless when the only gameplay you have is running off and trying to make jumps that are impossible to make if you brake a little or miss once.

Oh, cry me a river. This level is clearly for the speedruns, not for kills, make it as close to 3:00 as possible, and you will feel alright.

I think the problematic roof is not the one with the trams, but the balcony after it. It has edges that are too high, and with low speed you can stuck easily. Apart from that there are no such problems in the level. I think the biggest issue come from the shortcomings of the motorbike programming. Losing HP is very inconsistent. Sometimes you are not losing any despite having a high speed accident, then you crash to a civilian and die even from 150 HP. That's awful, but it's a programming error, not the level's fault.

[MetHy]

Well in this case make it clear you shouldn't be supposed to shoot enemies even at the start. And, if all that matters from the enemies is avoiding them and their projectiles and avoiding them while riding the bike, then if it was me I wouldn't have put enemies at all but instead some sort of alien machinery that shoots rockets and lasers and grenades while putting some more stuff to avoid on the roads. It feels stupid to avoid every alien especially since it's not made clear at the start.

[Mikko]

MetHy, on 26 November 2013 - 12:21 PM, said:

Finally got around to beat this.

2nd level was horrible. On the 2nd or 3rd roof (the one where during the jump 2 tramway cars cross at the same time), if you brake while on the roof, you're fucked and can't do the jump. Miss it once, and you're fucked and have ot restart the whole level. After around 10 tries where I couldn't reach the next roof because of the lack of possible speed (and some in which I even ended up INSIDE the tramway cars), I said "fuck this shit" and decided to use DNCLIP for the rest of the level.
That map looks really cool in terms of scenario but gameplay is awful, too unforgiving. Plus at first before starting the bike I decided to kill all the enemies. Well, what was I thinking? Actually playing at killing the enemies? Sorry, that level won't let you do that, I ran out of ammo at the START of the map. In that level you have to pussy out and just run away. Duke is a pussy running off on his bike instead of klling the aliens, that's not what I call Duke Nukem. It just felt lame to have to run away from all those commanders. I did kill the liztroops by foot though and hoped, dear god HOPED, that they dropped ammo. Too bad they don't drop health because I would have hoped for that too, which the map doesn't offer either.

It'd have been a major mistake if DavoX had provided the player with enough ammo to kill all the enemies. That map is all about the bike and momentum, not about stopping every 10 seconds to shoot aliens.

Edit:

MetHy, on 28 November 2013 - 12:56 PM, said:

Well in this case make it clear you shouldn't be supposed to shoot enemies even at the start.

I always thought it was pretty damn clear: you step out of the bathroom and the bike is right in front of you and there are a billion aliens to your left with no items in sight. Couldn't have been clearer.

[MusicallyInspired]

Yeah, I attempted to kill the first 5 fat commanders or so and then gave up and just got the heck out of there.

[Micky C]

Nevertheless a small part of me wishes that it would also be possible to get off your bike and kill all the enemies, at least in the first half of the map. The rooftops and things make very good settings for firefights, however it's probably more trouble than it's worth.

[DavoX]

I was going to make it so that you had to stop at some points to activate a ramp or something but then lazyness kicked in (maybe in a new map? ahh.... should I or not?)

[Micky C]

DavoX, on 28 November 2013 - 05:09 PM, said:

(maybe in a new map? ahh.... should I or not?)

No. Don't make a new map

[NNC]

I noticed there are some Octabrains at the start of the map. They look inappropriate there IMHO.

[DavoX]

I can't think of a reason why

[Mikko]

DavoX, on 29 November 2013 - 04:40 AM, said:

I can't think of a reason why

Octabrains don't appear in such environments in the original Duke3D.

[NNC]

Mikko_Sandt, on 29 November 2013 - 05:36 AM, said:

Octabrains don't appear in such environments in the original Duke3D.

And they have no purpose because the map is filled with troopers and commanders only. I had no problem with the octas in Las Vegas Holocaust for example, they actually felt appropriate there.

I felt the EDF soldiers and the T-800 robots in the first level looked out of place as well. They just don't look good mixed with aliens.

[MusicallyInspired]

I would have loved to be able to stop temporarily to activate a ramp. Maybe with a couple.mini firefights and a small building with a bit of a keycard puzzle. Like the sections in HL2 that break up yhe driving. That would have made the level nice and long, but not too long.

[DavoX]

Mikko_Sandt, on 29 November 2013 - 05:36 AM, said:

Octabrains don't appear in such environments in the original Duke3D.

Meh, never paid attention to that, I've played so many levels with octabrains anywhere that I never thought of this

[MetHy]

Yes quite a bit of enemy placement felt very random. Not just the enemy choices, but also the placement. That's what I meant in my first post.

However that could very well be said of the majority of usermaps.

[Oook]

I couldn't stop playing until the end and I forgot how many times I died with the bike, but it was AWESOME; really über-badass. Thank you.
Please, bring more if you can.

[NY00123]

I can say that the DLC is completed by me, as of 3 days ago. Kudos to all contributors!

Found 3 secrets in the first map (yeah, including that secret which Micky C has referred to without giving much details), 0 in the second (doh) and 0 in the third (although I've found 1 later, after completing the DLC).

Regarding the first map, it's easy to get tricked by that jetpack, at least initially.

Moving to the second one, I'd say it's a good candidate for speed-running. (Or should that be speed-driving/racing?)
One can wonder where does the string "3:30" (from the level name) come from...

As for the third map, there were a few times that Duke seemed to get stuck in a mirror sector (due to "warping"). Well, what's strange is that I've *wanted* to get into that mirror sector later, after spotting some kind of, let's say, a message...

Anyway, thanks!

[DavoX]

NY00123, on 06 December 2013 - 12:39 PM, said:

I can say that the DLC is completed by me, as of 3 days ago. Kudos to all contributors!

Found 3 secrets in the first map (yeah, including that secret which Micky C has referred to without giving much details), 0 in the second (doh) and 0 in the third (although I've found 1 later, after completing the DLC).

Regarding the first map, it's easy to get tricked by that jetpack, at least initially.

Moving to the second one, I'd say it's a good candidate for speed-running. (Or should that be speed-driving/racing?)
One can wonder where does the string "3:30" (from the level name) come from...

As for the third map, there were a few times that Duke seemed to get stuck in a mirror sector (due to "warping"). Well, what's strange is that I've *wanted* to get into that mirror sector later, after spotting some kind of, let's say, a message...

Anyway, thanks!

Heh

Thanks for playing man!! remember to vote for us on the moddb.com