TheDragonLiner, on 26 August 2021 - 08:04 AM, said:
About the Fifth Episode, yeah, there are TWO ways to do this, and I got something to say about it later. Either you find a secret in E1L3, very close to the beginning, in which case you'll access E5L2 but you won't be able to finish it, and will be sent back to E1L3. OR you access it by finding the Cube in Ep4's "Rain Forest Fire" level, in which case you'll play the whole 5th episode.
The thing I wanted to say, and which confirms the CON Coding thing you mentioned, is the fact that, in previous versions of NightFright's compilation, he had made Episode 5 available from the menu. HOWEVER, playing it that way would have had you eventually play E5L2 in the E1's way ! and thus you would go back to E1L3 regardless !! Because the circumstances in which you reach that level make it so that the map doesn't have the same areas accessible right off the bat, and thus not the same outcome.
Before I go mad in puzzlement, DO you think it's possible, for you to find out, where the VOC file involving the Time Machine is located ?
If you want I can go look and tell you what's the file's name ^^
EDIT : It's called TIMETRV.VOC. Do you think it's possible to locate it in Mapster ? That would help a lot and potentially verify your theory !
The time machine is likely the following object in oblvn502.map (Area51b), i.e. the exit of the map.
Dragonliner is correct that there are different outcomes depending on whether you play the Cube map from the main menu or from E4.
If you access Area51b from E1L7 ("The Dry Forest") then inside that map you get basically the same options as if you had started the Cube map over the main menu and beaten that. In other words, the exit you will be forced to take will be through the portal shown above, and will take you back to E1L7.
The difference however lies in a hardcoded Duke3D behavior, and is directly tied to the strange order in which the maps are placed.
Basically, if you start from episode 1, the map progression is as follows:
- E1L1 -> E1L2 (normal exit)
- E1L2 -> E1L7 (secret exit switch)
- E1L7 -> E1L3 (return from secret exit)
- E1L3 -> E1L4 (normal exit switch)
- E1L3 -> E1L11 (secret exit switch)
- E1L11 -> E1L4 (return from secret exit)
- E1L4 -> E1L8 (secret exit switch)
- E1L8 -> E1L5 (return from secret exit)
- E1L5 -> E1L9 (secret exit switch)
- E1L9 -> E1L6 (return from secret exit)
- E1L6 -> E1L10 (secret exit switch)
- E1L10 -> end of game
Note that Duke3D is hardcoded to always return to the next map after the previous after a secret exit, i.e. if you access a secret level from E1L3, then the next map after the secret level will
always be E1L4 (after hitting the nuke button).
The only exception to this is when the `startlevel` command is used -- which is what happens when the player steps into the time machine. This is the reason why, if you start from Episode 1, the level order will not be altered even if you enter E5L2 and return.
However, if we start the game from E5L1 (the cube), we get the following map order: (bold is the major difference)
- E5L1 -> E5L2 (normal exit)
- E5L2 -> E1L7 (instant map change through CON)
- E1L7 -> E1L3 (secret exit switch)
- E1L3 -> E1L8 (return from secret exit)
- E1L8 -> E1L5 (secret exit switch)
- E1L5 -> E1L9 (return from secret exit)
- E1L9 -> E1L6 (secret exit switch)
- E1L6 -> E1L10 (return from secret exit)
- E1L10 -> end of game
The exit from E1L3 will now go directly to E1L8. Zaxtor noticed this (or he did it on purpose) and when this transition occurs, the game will print the message:
"Something went horribly wrong - instead of heading into the rain forest, you end up in this base..."
accompanied by a purple flash. Now, after destroying the reactor, you will notice that the exit door is now additionally guarded by a forcefield, which needs to be deactivated by taking the alternate path.
As such, the hidden areas in "Military Station" aren't actually an alternate route -- instead it increases the difficulty of the level, and increases the time needed to complete it.
After exiting E1L8 on this route, at the start E1L5 the player will immediately be teleported to the cliffside area. Instead of fighting the Doombase, you are now forced to go through an enormous tunnel jampacked with almost 700 monsters, several tiny UFOs, with very little health available.
To make matters worse, halfway through the tunnel you are greeted by four full-size Battlelords, which not only deal a ton of damage, but also end the episode when killed. This is clearly a bug in the map -- Zaxtor probably didn't test it very thoroughly.
@Nightfright, if you want to fix this, assign a non-zero palette (e.g. pal 20) to the respawn sprites with lotag 2630 (BOSS1) in this area of the map. There should be at least 4 of them.
The path will eventually take you to a boss fight, and after that you'll end up at a mirror with a wall blocking your path. To destroy the wall, you need to shoot a half-transparent switch to the left of it. Then, shoot yourself with the shrinker to make yourself temporarily invulnerable, otherwise you won't survive the onslaught around the corner.
The map then ends normally. From what I can tell, the maps that follow this have no further differences.
To summarize, @Nightfright, I suggest reintroducing the Episode 5 option in the main menu for Oblivion TC, the one that drops the player in the Cube level. Zaxtor actually intended for this to be possible, and altered the map progression in Episode 1 should this option be used.
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@Nightfright, I also found a bug to add to the list: Area51b (E5L2) currently cannot be completed by taking the cube path from Episode 4. In short, the OOZ and OOZ2 sprites cannot be used as ropes/ladders, preventing map progression.
This is because of the following eduke32 issue:
https://voidpoint.io...32/-/issues/105
Zaxtor uses these sprites as ropes, and they are required to access a switch puzzle towards the end of E5L2. This renders the rest of Episode 5 inaccessible currently.