[duke3d.exe]

https://msdn.duke4.net/hotduke234.php

I was playing this map and im stuck at the begining. How do you get past the abandoned building? im not sure why the author made a place that is completely pitch dark. I can't see anything and there's no way out.

Edit: I was able to get past by putting the gamma at the maximun and somehow jumped in the wall where the boxes where there is an invisible air duct in the pitch darkness. Damn, that was annoying.

Edit 2: im stuck again, I cant get the blue card.

[Ninety-Six]

Finished Chimera and Hidden Zone.


So, thoughts. As usual, I liked the new enemies, even if the yellow xenomorph things were death on two legs. Atmosphere was still weird and had the same problem Water Bases did with it just not feeling like Duke most of the time. Though it definitely got a lot closer. Again, not necessarily a bad thing depending on the context, but it was definitely distracting.

Frozen is a terrible level. ...Yep. Not much more to say about it than that, though. Cramped, dark, and labryinthine. That's really all that needs to be said. ...Well, that and hiding Overlords and Cycloids out past the visibility fog. thats nice

Great music, though!


Favorite level is probably The Mother Base. In fact that's probably my favorite level of this entire set. Yes, a lot of that is the difficulty. Please, try to contain your surprise that 96 likes it hard.

For real though. Well-constructed, encounters are mostly fair but definitely tough, it's a real marathon and I can't think of another level that is able to create a sense of place like this out of an alien ship. Even the vanilla levels kinda struggled with this (I also like how I said previously we couldn't expect much from a single modder regarding texturing, and yet here's an entire level full of brand new alien textures that don't show up anywhere else). Exactly half the secrets are nonsense though, being unmarked. The other half is marked though so ???


I was actually really surprised there was more game after that level. Yes, only one, and yes it's an incomplete episode, but man talk about abrupt. Not just an abrupt ending with sort of an anticlimax of a level (but, again, unfinished episode), but even the transition to it is pretty rough. You go from the depths of the alien ship out in the swamps to just...the city. The sewers albeit but still.

Honestly, even though I like that last level, it could have been cut out and I would have thought this a complete package. Sure, no boss, but everything about The Mother Base really seemed to be hyping you up for the end. The music was very dramatic, it's probably the hardest level of the whole trilogy, you are up against all of the opposition you could imagine, and hell the very setting itself is very suited for a finale: the alien mothership. Maybe the city level could have just been integrated earlier or something, I dunno.


Side-note, I am firmly convinced that two secrets in Natural Carnage are unobtainable, as I can't find them even with the show map cheat. To top it off, there are two areas that aren't marked as secrets even though you have to find them the same way you find others.



And lastly, the Hidden Zone. It was kind of a shock to the system to be back playing vanilla Duke again, more or less. Had to get used to not having default 125 health, though thankfully the level wasn't that hard so it wasn't a big problem or anything. I am definitely rather disappointed that it doesn't include any of the Chimera enemies or even the other LRWB enemies for that matter. Just stock. It's not bad or anything, but I was hoping to go out on a bang after the city level. A shame Chimera will never be finished and we'll never fight the boss that I'm presuming was the titular chimera.

[NNC]

I think the turning point was Launch Base, as it was a significant improvement on both level design and gameplay. What's quite visible here is the consistent use of E4 textures (while I'm not always the biggest fan of them, they make this dark episode much more interesting and colourful for some reason), also the way the ammo balance and secrets are handled. Levels are also notably shorter from this level on too, they are not horrible episode-length levels anymore (I'm looking at Khaki Space), but something that fit to the size of the original maps. When I played the secret level much later via cheat code, I immediately knew it is placed at the end of the episode between two "good" levels. Fair play to Old LA on Ice (the map before Launch Base), it's a pretty interesting map as well, as it gives a nice chilling atmosphere with the well guarded prison and the frozen areas, but it's still a part of the old levels just how it was constructed (those nonsense unmarked secrets with ammo pools, extreme length, no colourful use of E4 assets). My favourite map in episode 1 is Alien Detraining, it was just a brilliant build up to the cycloid boss fight. I also think the final level was great too, and it was a nice touch to create neighbouring areas next to the stadium, with shops, cinemas too. It was the first of many similar attempts (ie. DavoX's map in Duke Forever TC DLC, or the level in Ion Fury), and it was probably the best of all. It's kinda interesting you reach the stadium with the cycloid spoiler at the start of level 10, then spend exactly two full levels before actually entering the boss arena at the end of level 11.

As for E2, I didn't mind the mini Queens in Crystal Mine, at least they didn't produce newbeasts, and I already had the RPG at this point. I think the idea of an almost fully underwater level was pretty awesome, it also gets better every time you replay the map. Heck, I didn't play it in like 10 years, but I still remember how it looks, and where should I go for the most effective gameplay!! The two Atlantis levels felt like fillers to me though. They weren't bad, they just didn't add any relevant content to the episode and felt like more of the same. The last 4 levels were the true highlight to me, they made me a fan of this whole thing. The enemy placement was huge: they dropped everything except newbeasts, sentry drones, slimers and turrets (and later the water octabrains, which was jaw-droppingly awesome). This created an interesting desolation feel to this last 4 maps, with the climax getting closer. The boss... no words, that was scary. I love Back to LA, it's one of my favourite levels even with its "broken" path you mentioned. The combination of the water octabrains and sentry drones in that dark, storm ridden city was pretty awesome back then.

As for your "Duke feeling" comments, I actually felt the exact opposite (and Mikko agrees with me): The last segment of Last Reaction and the entire Water Bases episode felt like a commercial add-on to the base game, and were great fits to the original campaign. Some stuff didn't belong there, but generally they felt like Allen Blum levels on steroids. The Alien Remaining comparison was spot on though.

As for Chimera, I'm not a fan. GWB wanted something big, but the final result was just a big disappointment. Level 1, other than that stupid drone area was forgettable and boring. Frozen, as you said, was awful. Labyrintine and ugly at the same time. The next levels are nice, but the coherence and progression is completely lost at this point (canyon then mothership then city???). Sometimes I wish these maps were created as single user maps, they would have given a bigger punch that way. That yellow xenomorph was terrible. Aesthetically it didn't fit to the Duke3D style, unlike previous additions (which were modifications and LameDuke based sprites).

[Ninety-Six]

The Watchtower, on 24 June 2021 - 01:24 PM, said:

It was the first of many similar attempts (ie. DavoX's map in Duke Forever TC DLC, or the level in Ion Fury), and it was probably the best of all. It's kinda interesting you reach the stadium with the cycloid spoiler at the start of level 10, then spend exactly two full levels before actually entering the boss arena at the end of level 11.

The story text file kinda says you'll be fighting the Emperor again, so it's not much of a spoiler.

Also DavoX's Stadium level is probably my favorite Duke 3D map of all time, official or otherwise.

The Watchtower, on 24 June 2021 - 01:24 PM, said:

As for E2, I didn't mind the mini Queens in Crystal Mine, at least they didn't produce newbeasts, and I already had the RPG at this point.

My problem with them wasn't them in of themselves, it was that you had to fight them without an RPG unless you found one of the secrets on that very level. I went for 100% secrets in every level and Crystal Mines was where you first got the RPG, secret or not.

The Watchtower, on 24 June 2021 - 01:24 PM, said:

in that dark, storm ridden city was pretty awesome back then.

To be honest, I don't think it used the concept of a post-war L.A. as well as it could have. You only really see it for just that opening part of the level. After that you're in flooded parking lots and a ruined EDF base before spending the rest of the level in the sewers. I'm actually a super big fan of the whole "bad future" concept, and I actually wish we spent more time picking through the ruins of the city. Hell, you could make an entire episode based on that concept, especially since the vanilla game had most of the city intact despite the alien invasion going on.

The Watchtower, on 24 June 2021 - 01:24 PM, said:

As for your "Duke feeling" comments, I actually felt the exact opposite (and Mikko agrees with me): The last segment of Last Reaction and the entire Water Bases episode felt like a commercial add-on to the base game, and were great fits to the original campaign.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. While the quality of the level design itself I could see being sold, the attitude just wasn't there. It's really hard to put to words, but I guess the closest way to put it is that it lacked some of the inherent ridiculousness of the base game and the series as a whole?

Like, don't get me wrong. One of DN3D's greatest strengths is how it maintains a dark oppressive atmosphere despite the machismo ridiculousness of the scenario, and the easter eggs and movie references and one-liners. It manages to hold all that together by painting that stuff as "laughing through gritted teeth." That's even the way JSJ delivered those one-liners.

It's one of the main reasons I love Lunar Apocalypse as much as I do. It's sort of the grounding for the rest of the game. It acts as a contrast, a "seriousness anchor," if you will, to the rest of the game. To illustrate that despite some of the cheesiness, there are still stakes. It has the least amount of uplifting moments and plays the alien invasion thing pretty straight, the most famous probably being Incubator. I know you and I have total opposite opinions on E2 (well, me and almost everyone else), but nonetheless.

And then if we bring in the expansions, a lot of them are more like The Birth in terms of tone. The Birth itself was a lot brighter in comparison to the original 3 episodes, and had more references and jokes. Then we have Life's a Beach, which was just "let's save bikini babes at the beach and stuff", and DC which was "Duke has to save the President", and even Nuclear Winter which had you fighting a brainwashed Santa Claus. Hell, even Plug And Pray had a similar attitude to the way it was constructed. Every level was one big reference to something.

Now of course the original three never reach those levels of silly, but there were still plenty of moments. Big firefight in a stripclub with the girls still dancing, breaking out of the electric chair and killing everything in the prison, the bodies of Doomguy, Indiana Jones and Luke Skywalker, the bridge of the TNG Enterprise, and so on. But they were also all delicately balanced with the dark and grim atmosphere that created a concoction that was uniquely Duke 3D (something I don't think literally any other game in the world has come close to matching).

LRWBC doesn't seem to fit in with the either the original three or the goofier expansions, tonally speaking. I think WB was supposed to be the E2 of the set and be the grimmest of them, but since there's not much to contrast it against I don't think it works as well as E2 did (the lack of stakes other than "escape the planet" doesn't help). Again they weren't bad levels (mostly), and there were plenty of cool setpieces like boarding the prison sub after seeing it the whole level.

It's just none of it felt like Duke to me. Honestly it felt a lot closer in tone to the id-made Doom levels to me, just with the added benefit of actually having a sense of place to where you were. The closest the atmosphere got to feeling like Duke was right near the end of Chimera, starting with The Mother Base.

The Watchtower, on 24 June 2021 - 01:24 PM, said:

The next levels are nice, but the coherence and progression is completely lost at this point (canyon then mothership then city???).

Actually, minus the abrupt city transition, I found that the progression mostly made sense. You start out exploring some remote facility in a rocky area, fall into a frozen cavern (a bit weird but not any weirder than, say, an entire flooded district of L.A. that somehow only affects a few blocks), then you explore the facility's innards a bit for two levels, reaching an upper level where you can see the mountainous exterior. The base explodes and you escape into that mountainous exterior, which turns out to be a canyon. That makes enough sense. It's all rocky earth, continuing the motif from the very start. Then you climb to the top of the canyon and reach some wetlands/swampy area with a very redneck rampage-esque house. You take an airboat further into the swamp and you find the mothership sitting among the cattails.

It's only the change to the city where it's a bit weird. The best we get is a window near the exit button showing a river of slime falling into the abyss.

The Watchtower, on 24 June 2021 - 01:24 PM, said:

That yellow xenomorph was terrible. Aesthetically it didn't fit to the Duke3D style, unlike previous additions (which were modifications and LameDuke based sprites).

I mean, I'll agree on that part but I at least liked how it functioned. I can live with questionable visuals and sometimes even welcome it for a change of pace. I kinda find weird, out of place things like that cute.

[slacker1]

duke3d.exe, on 22 June 2021 - 08:44 AM, said:

https://msdn.duke4.net/hotduke234.php

I was playing this map and im stuck at the begining. How do you get past the abandoned building? im not sure why the author made a place that is completely pitch dark. I can't see anything and there's no way out.

Edit: I was able to get past by putting the gamma at the maximun and somehow jumped in the wall where the boxes where there is an invisible air duct in the pitch darkness. Damn, that was annoying.

Edit 2: im stuck again, I cant get the blue card.

It's been a while since I played this map and I remember getting stuck a bunch. The abandon house part with zero visibility took a bit to figure out for me too.

Here's how to get the blue key. There's a hint written on one of the walls about keeping the water barrel safe.

Spoiler

Right after you cross the bridge and it collapses, you head to the right path where the road forks.

Kill all the enemies in the area, then go to the one building to the far right of the entrance (one story ranch looking building). There's a view screen and a button there. Hit that and a bunch of troopers will spawn and the barrel will start to go on its merry way down the river.

For an RPG and extra pipe bombs, you can climb on top of the water trough and then jump on the shed in front of it. From there you can strafe jump to the mountain-y looking area where the river originates from.

After the barrel gets to the next stopping point, the small shed closest to the river's end will open. There's another view screen and button there. Pressing that does the same as the first. More enemies spawn and the barrel continues to the next stopping point.

The final door opens is the garage with the big wooden doors. There's a bulldozer inside with the view screen and button. Hitting that makes a bunch of stuff spawn (troopers, enforcers, octabrains).

Finally the barrel will make it to in front of the wind turbine at the end of the river. You have to jump on top of the barrel and then strafe jump onto the little ledge on the side of the wind turbine. In there is the blue keycard. It also spawns a mini boss.

If the barrel explodes at any point, you'll have to load you last save or start the level over as there will be no way to get up to the blue key.

Hope that helps!

[Ninety-Six]

Played that "Big City" map that was uncovered not too long ago (kind of going through a backlog of user maps and stuff now). It's...definitely a map. Texturing is alright but there are some noticeable errors. Also a badly tagged sector floor that warps you to the ceiling.

Gameplay is...a thing that exists. Keys are used in the most direct fashion I think I've ever seen. Once you get that first card (of 4, I'll add), you're already near the end of the map, minus some extra backtracking (without repopulation, to boot). Seriously, every next key is right behind the door the previous key unlocks. I don't think I've ever seen that before.

Also battlelord placement is extremely cheap. There's four of them, and only one of them I'd remotely consider a fair fight. Special shoutout to the secret teleporter in the arcade that is almost certainly instant death. I don't even feel bad about cheesing the fights with the shrinker (I always try to fight fair under normal circumstances). That's some grade-A bullshit right there.

[geomancien]

Hello to all fans of the tall blonde bodybuilder ass kicker, in my last video i added a fourth mod for Duke Nukem (mirror mod), which makes the levels really very complicated, but so fun, come see it and tell me what you think:
Thank you for your support

https://youtu.be/mLkDDzKsLa0

[Ninety-Six]

Inspired by some of the experiences I had while testing Alien Armageddon, I decided to go through Arzca's stuff (or at least the maps of his listed on MSDN's Hot section), in vanilla this time.

He doesn't seem to have that many maps and yet there is still a clear distinction between the old stuff and the new stuff. ARSP1 is probably his weakest overall, but the gameplay is at least balanced. That's the important part.

Funnily enough it's also probably his easiest. He seems to enjoy the difficult stuff, kinda like Mister Sinister. But while MS tends towards remixing gameplay ideas and shuffling stuff around to find new ways to be difficult, Arzca prefers the more simple approach of just putting monsters down in tough spots.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. It just kinda depends on how it's done. And Arzca seems to do it both good and not as good. Understandably, the not as good monster arrangements are earlier on. Dead Meat comes to mind, where every secret is basically essential or survival appears legitimately impossible. There's also Dark Side: Moonbase Mayhem where a lot of the "not-so-good" parts come in the form of extremely tight spaces where dodging or taking cover is virtually impossible, and just really mean explosions. Explosions you have to be hit by to figure out where they are, and even then the spaces are so narrow that not taking damage is just a matter of luck.


Though, funny thing, I kept insisting on playing DSMM saveless anyway. I really don't know why? By all accounts I should (and did) find it quite unfair which is when I break out the saves. But for whatever reason, I kept wanting to try again from the beginning. Reminds me of my experience with Bio-Menace in that way. Should hate it, but for some reason I just don't.

I think that was also the start of Arzca's fascination with creating remixed versions of vanilla levels (or vanilla themes, in the case of DSMM or X3 Studios), which is what his second half of levels were. X3, Bank Roll 2000, and Restaurant Conspiracy.

Those all certainly look nicer, and are a lot more fair in comparison to his early stuff (though X3 could have used some tweaking since some foreknowledge feels required to avoid taking a crapton of damage at certain moments. Not guaranteed death unless you were already low, but it will leave you literally bleeding for the next fight). BR2 is a really fun remix of the original Bank Roll, just with some E4 monsters and extra areas to sell the location better. Honestly it really kinda makes me wish for an entire campaign of levels that kind of modernize and remix the original concepts with a bump in difficulty.

Also explosions. Lots of explosions. Not as much as RestCons, though. RC felt the most like vanilla for that reason, to me. In the vanilla game, 3DR wanted to show off their fancy scripting systems as much as possible, so when stuff exploded, it exploded. RC followed in the steps of that, with some really elaborate sequences that you could just feel the impacts of. Great stuff. That alone would make it a favorite, but the combat was at its best here, too. A really frantic but fair opening fight, that then goes into smaller but still tough fights in smaller spaces. It combined well with the strong overall theme of corporate warfare. About the only criticism I have of the map is the one part where you set off a computer system that melts down around you. But you are kinda warned in advance. I think the warning could have been a little clearer about what exactly "bad stuff" meant, but still the effort was made and I do respect that.


Least favorite map overall is probably Dead Meat. It's not as well balanced as it probably should be.

[NNC]

Ninety-Six, on 24 June 2021 - 08:24 PM, said:

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. While the quality of the level design itself I could see being sold, the attitude just wasn't there. It's really hard to put to words, but I guess the closest way to put it is that it lacked some of the inherent ridiculousness of the base game and the series as a whole?

Like, don't get me wrong. One of DN3D's greatest strengths is how it maintains a dark oppressive atmosphere despite the machismo ridiculousness of the scenario, and the easter eggs and movie references and one-liners. It manages to hold all that together by painting that stuff as "laughing through gritted teeth." That's even the way JSJ delivered those one-liners.

It's one of the main reasons I love Lunar Apocalypse as much as I do. It's sort of the grounding for the rest of the game. It acts as a contrast, a "seriousness anchor," if you will, to the rest of the game. To illustrate that despite some of the cheesiness, there are still stakes. It has the least amount of uplifting moments and plays the alien invasion thing pretty straight, the most famous probably being Incubator. I know you and I have total opposite opinions on E2 (well, me and almost everyone else), but nonetheless.

And then if we bring in the expansions, a lot of them are more like The Birth in terms of tone. The Birth itself was a lot brighter in comparison to the original 3 episodes, and had more references and jokes. Then we have Life's a Beach, which was just "let's save bikini babes at the beach and stuff", and DC which was "Duke has to save the President", and even Nuclear Winter which had you fighting a brainwashed Santa Claus. Hell, even Plug And Pray had a similar attitude to the way it was constructed. Every level was one big reference to something.

Now of course the original three never reach those levels of silly, but there were still plenty of moments. Big firefight in a stripclub with the girls still dancing, breaking out of the electric chair and killing everything in the prison, the bodies of Doomguy, Indiana Jones and Luke Skywalker, the bridge of the TNG Enterprise, and so on. But they were also all delicately balanced with the dark and grim atmosphere that created a concoction that was uniquely Duke 3D (something I don't think literally any other game in the world has come close to matching).

LRWBC doesn't seem to fit in with the either the original three or the goofier expansions, tonally speaking. I think WB was supposed to be the E2 of the set and be the grimmest of them, but since there's not much to contrast it against I don't think it works as well as E2 did (the lack of stakes other than "escape the planet" doesn't help). Again they weren't bad levels (mostly), and there were plenty of cool setpieces like boarding the prison sub after seeing it the whole level.

It's just none of it felt like Duke to me. Honestly it felt a lot closer in tone to the id-made Doom levels to me, just with the added benefit of actually having a sense of place to where you were. The closest the atmosphere got to feeling like Duke was right near the end of Chimera, starting with The Mother Base.

What I found weird is that the goofy Birth textures and sharp colours (also used in custom art) helped this mapset to be better. In the original Allen Blum maps, colours were used very conservatively, grey was dominant, except for some important rooms (very hard to find secrets or endings), which used sharp red or blue colours, and that helped the game's oppressive atmosphere a lot. The Birth's textures made the game a lot less serious, quite frankly I tend to agree with MetHy's old sentiment now that Duke 3D lost the edge of being a serious competitor to Doom with the release of Birth.

However, LRWB clearly became better with the frequent use of Birth textures and the extra colours used in the new custom art (particularly the ones used in WB: new rock, new water, new parallaxed ocean). Since George is a prone to create extremely dark areas (and mazes) with oversized doors and rooms, his early levels felt very frustrating compared to the original game to the level when it's not necessarily fun anymore. However when he started using sharp colours and Birth textures, his maps started to feel more like a professional work, simply because it added an unique, but stable look which relied on the mix of oppressive darkness and funky colours.

Maybe the episode wouldn't have made through Broussard's filters (no such thing where 125 health is a necessity, or having reused rooms in multiple levels would have made the cut), but as a spinoff thing it could have worked well, and I dare to say it would have worked as a commercial add-on too. Maybe if Bernard crunched his two episodes into one (start with an improved New LA, and remove some of the samey levels from WB), it could have been approved by 3DRealms. I think very few episodes of Duke 3D reached this state of compliment, at least in my opinion.

[Aleks]

Quote

What I found weird is that the goofy Birth textures and sharp colours (also used in custom art) helped this mapset to be better. In the original Allen Blum maps, colours were used very conservatively, grey was dominant, except for some important rooms (very hard to find secrets or endings), which used sharp red or blue colours, and that helped the game's oppressive atmosphere a lot. The Birth's textures made the game a lot less serious, quite frankly I tend to agree with MetHy's old sentiment now that Duke 3D lost the edge of being a serious competitor to Doom with the release of Birth.

That's a funny observation, quite completely different to how I've always seen the game. Besides Babe Land and maybe Duke Burger, I always felt The Birth to have more bleak/serious tone than original episodes due to feeling more "realistic" and having a more constructed plot (heavily Alien series inspired). Not sure if it's really a "Blum" thing with the greys, it's just generally how Duke's art and palette works that grey's are dominant - but when I think of Hollywood Holocaust or Red Light District, the first areas that come to mind are the red cinema room and flashing blue/red strip club.

[Ninety-Six]

Re-played Alpha City for the first time in a couple years.


I am pretty sure this is my Roch. This is the map I love mostly for the visuals alone, while the gameplay is mostly average (in fact it could be argued as a bit worse than Roch as sometimes the direction isn't clear and there are a few really dumb instakill places).

I remember the first time I came across it, I thought it was a Polymer map. I went to the CGS listing to look at the screenshots, since I knew I could never play a Polymer map.

Imagine my surprise when I learned it was a vanilla map released way before Polymer was a thing. The lighting was just that good. I've said before that I usually don't care for the fanciness of Build porn (or scenery porn in general), and am more or less in these games for the combat. That's still true. For like 98% of all cases.

The remaining 2% is fancy lighting. It's my weakness. I swear I'm part moth. I'm that one guy you'd sometimes see in the light fixture department of your local furniture store just...staring at the chandeliers and stuff. Usually won't buy anything. Just there to kind of exist in all the light. And if he does buy something, it's usually one of the novelty light bulbs, like colored, or flame, or disco if they're feeling particularly adventurous.

But I digress. The point is the lighting in this map is just stunning. How every light has varying layers of brightness the closer or further you are from the source. How neon lights are used to bathe streets in dim light like you would expect it to in real life. Accurate shadowwork, up to and including using translucent versions of objects to create the expected shadow. The author even did creative shadow work in the lit windows. It's not a new thing in concept, neither the shadows of objects within nor having some windows lit up while others aren't. But I can't say I've ever seen someone create actual blinds, including the pullstring. I'm sure someone has but of all the maps I've played, I don't recall ever seeing one anywhere else.

Speaking of color, it's used to such great effect here. Keeping light levels low really let the few light sources pop out, especially the neon colors. The sky was also a perfect choice, being a very dark blue hue of the lava texture. Not the first time a colored take on that sky has been used, but I've never really seen it with this shade before. To create the atmosphere of a cloudy late evening, at the very end of blue twilight before the sky gives way to black. Combined with the dim neon and the few well-lit stores, it really painted just this wonderful atmosphere of an empty city at night. I spent about 50 minutes on this map, with only 10 minutes being spent making actual progress, and 20 minutes just ogling the light.


The remaining 20 minutes was spent running around not having any idea where the hell the Blue key door was. This is the map's achilles heel. There's an attempt to direct the player through viewscreens next to switches and keys you pick up. The problem is that sometimes you're not entirely sure how to get there in the first place, or even where that place is because the camera is set in just such a way to obscure important context clues. Case in point: the damn blue key area. The camera is set in the very back of the room, at the head of a T-intersection so your field of view is already limited. Add to that that the distance from the camera to the only windows is quite long, as well as that the camera is constantly moving, it's very hard to get a bead on the street outside to figure out where that room is.

And on top of all of that, you have to make a pretty obscure jump to get to that room. The only help you get is that a pig cop draws your attention to the room when he snipes at you the first time you arrive at the road. The room is on the second story, and there are no obvious crates or anything that screams "climb me!" Your natural instinct is probably to assume that you go up there later. After all, there's a very conspicuous garage door right next to it that Duke curiously doesn't make sex noises at when you press on it. Hm.

But no, what you're actually supposed to do is jump onto the camera pole below the window, and then through the window. That's the kind of thing you expect out of a secret, not main progression. Especially since, again, the camera view is too badly placed to figure out that it's pointing you towards that room in the first place. Of all the other possible places you have access to by that point in the map, making such an obscure leap to a place you would assume was a secret or for later would not be at the top of your priority list.

That's not the only bit of obscure progression, but it's definitely the most egregious.

The map also has a few dick moves where you go exploring and then die immediately. To be fair, they do have "Danger" signs next to them, but this is Duke 3D. ...Hell, this is video games. If a place is labelled as dangerous, there's a 99% chance you have to go there. The second half of the map also has you taking cover from an alien ship that is constantly firing rockets at you. On the one hand, it's a really cool setpiece. An alien ship demolishes several buildings before pulling into view and then demolishes the one you're standing in (the author straight up warns you in the map itself to save right before this point, so I can't be too mad about some of the cheap explosion kills from it). Then, unlike the ship from E2L1, it actually remains stationary and keeps its shots aimed at you. It's really cool! ...At first. Then it becomes annoying. Then it becomes a really noisy nuisance you can hear from every corner of the map even as it's stuck at that one street. Also, kind of a shame there's no point in the level where you can blow up the ship. It's like the Apache or Hunter Chopper from Half-Life or its sequel. It harasses you from the sky for a whole chapter until you finally destroy it and feel some major catharsis. In fact the level ends on a bit of an anti-climax overall, really. No big finale. Just some pigs in a small bank.


Despite my complaints, I still liked the map. It's definitely style over substance, but we all have our vices I guess. Mine just happens to be the same kind that amuses flying insects and small children.

[Aleks]

I've also played Alpha City recently and can agree about how strong these visuals are - the map is truely unique in how it approaches the city at night theme, kinda doesn't feel like a Duke map really, but it works damn good. With all the palettes, the outside part reminded me of Hengsha in "Deus Ex: Human Revolution", which is pretty outstanding. I wonder if the guy's designing IF have seen it and took some - even subconcious - inspiration

Also loved the alien ship sequence, it was pulled really well. Some parts were kind of mediocre, like the entire subway really. As for progression, I immediately climbed into the blue key door, but was surprised it's not a secret actually and even though for a moment you enter it from somewhere else - until I found the blue key card, that is. But some switches were kinda random and it was probably as easy to find secrets as it was to find the regular progression. Agree about the anticlimatic ending part as well.

BTW, did you notice this thing (it's an unmarked "secret")? Cracked me up:

[Ninety-Six]

Yep, I found it. Had a good chuckle over it, too. Halcyon days, indeed.

It's even funnier in hindsight since the next batch of maps I started immediately after was underTaker's series, replaying them before I finally play Blink. The first two maps kinda rip into the DNF team through grim easter eggs a'la Doomguy and co.

Playing them back-to-back with Alpha City is some hilarious whiplash.

[ck3D]

Yeah Alphacity also left a big mark on me at the time, I remember it was posted on AMC by Stef (damn it's been so long!) who had teased it on the forums as the best map he had ever played/reviewed, and so of course while it did blow some minds (including mine), as a consequence the reception was a bit more divided once the map was actually published. It's worth noting that there is also a Betacity (actually the map Stef shared that one time) where some stuff was fixed/changed around, but I never really looked into or kept track of what exactly. By the same author Markus Schopf, Red Rock is also really good, I wish the dude released more maps really, he has quite the original vision of Duke 3D.

Either way what blew me away in that map was the lighting too but also the scale, I think due to how most people (including me) were micromanaging the stuff in their own city levels at the time due to the contemporarily very strong Roch influence. So there was a popular emphasis on finely crafted rooms and tiny detail, but not so much on scale, depth and sense of place, a trend Alphacity really contrasted with (in fresh ways, too) and so it was cool to remember Duke 3D could also be repurposed in that general direction.

[Ninety-Six]

ck3D, on 29 June 2021 - 05:53 AM, said:

It's worth noting that there is also a Betacity (actually the map Stef shared that one time) where some stuff was fixed/changed around,

I remember you mentioned that before, and I actually went looking for it. I wasn't able to track it down, though.

[ck3D]

^ You appear to be right, I just Google searched it real quick and it seems like the file must have gone down along with AMC as a website, shame. I would send it to you if I still had it myself, but that was several computers ago and I never bothered making a back-up of that map file in particular and so I also lost it. You could probably get it from Markus himself if you email him. But again, I only found out about Alphacity years after I was first introduced to that level via Betacity originally and do not remember any particular difference in between both once I checked them out separately (although there must have been, but it wasn't a remarkably strong update, at least in the design). Must have been very minor changes, or only gameplay-related perhaps. Or I think he may have added or tweaked escalators somewhere and that was it? Unless I'm mixing that up with something else. Heck if I can remember, really.

[Arzca]

Ninety-Six, on 27 June 2021 - 07:19 AM, said:

Inspired by some of the experiences I had while testing Alien Armageddon, I decided to go through Arzca's stuff (or at least the maps of his listed on MSDN's Hot section), in vanilla this time.

He doesn't seem to have that many maps and yet there is still a clear distinction between the old stuff and the new stuff. ARSP1 is probably his weakest overall, but the gameplay is at least balanced. That's the important part.

Funnily enough it's also probably his easiest. He seems to enjoy the difficult stuff, kinda like Mister Sinister. But while MS tends towards remixing gameplay ideas and shuffling stuff around to find new ways to be difficult, Arzca prefers the more simple approach of just putting monsters down in tough spots.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. It just kinda depends on how it's done. And Arzca seems to do it both good and not as good. Understandably, the not as good monster arrangements are earlier on. Dead Meat comes to mind, where every secret is basically essential or survival appears legitimately impossible. There's also Dark Side: Moonbase Mayhem where a lot of the "not-so-good" parts come in the form of extremely tight spaces where dodging or taking cover is virtually impossible, and just really mean explosions. Explosions you have to be hit by to figure out where they are, and even then the spaces are so narrow that not taking damage is just a matter of luck.


Though, funny thing, I kept insisting on playing DSMM saveless anyway. I really don't know why? By all accounts I should (and did) find it quite unfair which is when I break out the saves. But for whatever reason, I kept wanting to try again from the beginning. Reminds me of my experience with Bio-Menace in that way. Should hate it, but for some reason I just don't.

I think that was also the start of Arzca's fascination with creating remixed versions of vanilla levels (or vanilla themes, in the case of DSMM or X3 Studios), which is what his second half of levels were. X3, Bank Roll 2000, and Restaurant Conspiracy.

Those all certainly look nicer, and are a lot more fair in comparison to his early stuff (though X3 could have used some tweaking since some foreknowledge feels required to avoid taking a crapton of damage at certain moments. Not guaranteed death unless you were already low, but it will leave you literally bleeding for the next fight). BR2 is a really fun remix of the original Bank Roll, just with some E4 monsters and extra areas to sell the location better. Honestly it really kinda makes me wish for an entire campaign of levels that kind of modernize and remix the original concepts with a bump in difficulty.

Also explosions. Lots of explosions. Not as much as RestCons, though. RC felt the most like vanilla for that reason, to me. In the vanilla game, 3DR wanted to show off their fancy scripting systems as much as possible, so when stuff exploded, it exploded. RC followed in the steps of that, with some really elaborate sequences that you could just feel the impacts of. Great stuff. That alone would make it a favorite, but the combat was at its best here, too. A really frantic but fair opening fight, that then goes into smaller but still tough fights in smaller spaces. It combined well with the strong overall theme of corporate warfare. About the only criticism I have of the map is the one part where you set off a computer system that melts down around you. But you are kinda warned in advance. I think the warning could have been a little clearer about what exactly "bad stuff" meant, but still the effort was made and I do respect that.


Least favorite map overall is probably Dead Meat. It's not as well balanced as it probably should be.

Lol, didn't expect anyone to play DSMM. Since someone has played my older work, I might as well share something from those days (from what I remember):

I was quite quilty of ignoring feedback those days, and just wanted to do things "my way", which wasn't always the smartest thing to do. Another thing I remember from DSMM was that I was using a ridiculous grid setting (build.exe), and the level was just awfully scaled, not to mention the cheap encounters that were present quite often in case of my 2000-2004 maps. I also recall getting "tired" of Duke 3d mapping at the time, and almost every time I started working on a level, I would soon get fed up with it and more or less "abandon" the level, and started cutting corners in the design department, which eventually led to half-baked levels like DSMM, where I basically didn't even put any effort into the level once I got bored of building it. These older levels (even X3 Studios and Restaurant Conspiracy) weren't thought out too extensively.

I guess BR2000 is the only level where I've "nailed it" imo, even it based on a 3DR level. It is the most consistent one of my maps anyway.

Still, thanks for sharing your experiece, man

[Ninety-Six]

Arzca, on 30 June 2021 - 10:25 AM, said:

I guess BR2000 is the only level where I've "nailed it" imo, even it based on a 3DR level. It is the most consistent one of my maps anyway.

Still, thanks for sharing your experiece, man

No problem. I actually didn't realize you were still around despite you posting not super infrequently. Guess I just never linked the Arzca of the forums to the Arzca of the maps.

Weird how the human brain is sometimes.


Anyway, BR2 is probably my second favorite of your stuff. I liked the extra areas and it overall had really good flow. At some points better flow than the original. Also a hell of a lot more destructive scenes.

RestCon is probably my top favorite of yours, though. Even more explodey and the combat was just a little bit spicier than BR2, but in the good way. Either way they're both really good maps.

ARSP1 also has a fair bit of a charm to it despite living up to its own name. I'm not quite sure what it is. There's just something about it that makes me look past some of the more obvious amateur mistakes.

[geomancien]

hello everyone, the last video from my youtube channel and out, come have a look. thanks for your support
https://youtu.be/BZWJRtALc9o

[geomancien]

https://youtu.be/OSj57U6tU58
Hello everyone I came to share the latest video on my channel about the fantastic Duke Nukem fashion, I invite you to come take a look and let me know what you think about it, I thank all those who support me again, and I hope to see many of you friends, thank you all.

[geomancien]

Hello everyone, my last video is available on my channel, this is the secret level, let me know what you think and again thank you for supporting me.
https://youtu.be/y2IGu__R8Yk

[Ninety-Six]

I spent the past couple of weeks going through most of the suggestions in my Convincing Maps with Stock Textures topic, playing some of the ones I hadn't known about or replaying some of the ones I hadn't touched in a while. I have a few things to say about some of them:

JABA - I remember when this was unearthed and I put it on my to-play list. Going through the thread made a good excuse to do that. I'm actually glad this was found because it was absolutely fascinating to see a build by someone from Japan. The ways it was different yet similar to constructions from the west. Of course a lot of that can probably be explained by its choice of venue as well as its author, but still. The results are distinct. Visually it surprisingly holds up for such an old map. Not perfectly, but among the others at the time, it certainly stands out. Gameplay-wise was nothing to write home about, either good or bad. Perfectly average (except a buggy pool that instakills you).

Hamilton Pool - I have no idea how he managed to make the basement of a public pool look like the basement of a public pool but he did it. Could almost smell the must. Extra kudos granted for the storytelling-by-scenery bits going on there, between the secrets and the ultimate discovery.

Freedom - It almost feels like this wanted to have new enemy sprites, given the backstory and the fact that you pretty much exclusively fight aliens with guns (minus some incidental slimers and the extremely bizarre respawning protector drone from the fountain). Visually it did indeed sell the image of a cartel-conquered resort. The battlelord at the end was an absolute dick move though, since the RPG spawns in an area you already were in with no indication of such, and he can enter the vents somehow.



Then came time for the whole medieval category. Things certainly... went places. After going through some of them, I landed on Dark Gate by Aaron Barber, a map I have actually played before but decided to do it again because I remember liking it. On close examination of the .txt file though, I learned that it was in fact a sequel to a different map,

Hexhouse - A very bizarre map, this was. A massive secluded cabin with the scaling for occupants set to giant people, the redwood forest trees represented by the wooden planks texture, nails and all, a random Quake icon in the water, a perpetually frozen Cycloid Emperor... I didn't dislike it by any means but it was very strange.

Dark Gate - the much better sequel with a really unique theme. Going to Hell, then to Heaven, and then it's a trap and you're in Hell again. As far as I could tell this "story" was never continued so I decided to be cute and continue it myself.

Enter South of Heaven by sT1LL_WAnTeD. A map I had played quite a few years ago through the Megaton Edition's workshop, but never completed. The first cavern section was far too frustratingly obtuse, and to top it off, for some reason the map file was corrupted as loading it up started to kill the framerate for Megaton. The effect lasted even after exiting the map.

I gave it another go and actually managed to find all the switches this time. But that wouldn't be enough this time. Not after learning about the secret "difficulty" mode, "Welcome to Hell." I mean, reading about a secret difficulty only available by finding a secret room in the map itself? I had to see it for myself.

The result was every pigcop, octabrain, and commander I'd ever killed in the past 20 years swarming the massive lava cavern. And it was a riot. That's the kind of frantic knuckle-white action I love. Plenty of ammo to make it through. Just don't die. Too bad the opening section is so frustrating, though.

Unfortunately, South of Heaven ended on a cliffhanger too, so even my attempt to create one fell flat. Oh well.


And then from there, I did something I never planned on doing again. Separate from my thread, I had been reminded of the existence of a certain...TC? Partial conversion? Whatever.

N.I.B. Extreme - A couple of years ago I tried playing through this. I got stuck halfway into episode 2 and it broke me. After playing through the crap until that point, I had had enough.

This time however, I was determined to push through, no matter how obnoxious it got. Why? I really don't know. A sense of obligation perhaps. Unfinished business. I'd been playing a lot of Duke maps and mods lately that I either never finished or had been on my to-do list for years now. NIB was just one of those, and I guess that was enough motivation to keep going.

And yeah. It was pretty miserable a lot of the time. Thing is I actually respect a lot of what the mod is trying to do. Sure the enemy sprites don't fit 100%, but I kinda find that charming in its own way.

I had also completely forgotten about the mutilated nude corpses of women. In my defense, that's because they're only in the first level of the first episode, and then literally never seen again. Sort of a drive-by guro fetish, I guess. Whatever.


One thing I like is the theming and the attempts to wrap up the otherwise out-of-place medieval/gothic maps into a neat little package. Unfortunately the vast majority of map choices sucked. Sucked real bad. A very common problem, especially in episodes 1 and 2 for whatever reason, is an extremely awful idea of what you're supposed to do next. A lot of wandering around trying to figure out what the switch you unlocked did, or what the point of the room you just unlocked even was. The map that specifically broke me the first time, Holy Ground, had that real bad. An expansive stone cathedral, to scale, and for some reason the mapper decided to put switches essential to progression in extremely high places that you would never think to look, as well as hiding the red card in an unmarked secret because of course it did.

And yet, despite the map quality there was an obvious and clear attempt by the creator to organize these separate, unrelated maps into something resembling continuity. Obviously nowhere near as seamless as the vanilla game, but there was still a recognizable attempt to link the levels together. Like, episode 3 for instance. It starts with Red 3 (the only truly good map of the set), which if anyone would recall, ends with Duke sitting on the docks awaiting the boat that was supposed to take him to Red 4. In NIB however, the next level is a castle in the middle of the ocean, and you start on the shore. Simple transition.

Later on, you appear to shut down some weird dimensional tower thing, after which you clear out a church and go to Hell again. The remaining levels of the set take place in Hell, and almost sort of have a dramatic flair to them, probably helped by the music choice (which was actually pretty good I'll admit. Most of the time, anyway).

Speaking of Hell, I kinda want to give some credit to one of the Hell levels in episode 2 (also called South of Heaven, funnily enough). As far as depictions of Hell in games go, it's one of the helliest. It's got the works: pools of blood, fire everywhere, gruesome images and depictions of mangled corpses, perversions of churches and holy symbols, the works. Sure, it's a bit juvenile, but to be perfectly fair, it is Hell. That kind of thing is exactly what I would expect.


But overall, I would still say that sticking to my guns and seeing NIB through to the end was a net negative. It's not really worth it. But I can at least say I did it now, and lay that particular grudge match to rest.

I will say that NIB made me really wish that Duke Spookem project didn't fall through. Because I actually like the concept behind NIB, I just wish the map selection was less awful. I'll even keep the weird new sprites because like I said, I find them charming.

[Aleks]

Ninety-Six, on 20 July 2021 - 05:05 PM, said:

Enter South of Heaven by sT1LL_WAnTeD. A map I had played quite a few years ago through the Megaton Edition's workshop, but never completed. The first cavern section was far too frustratingly obtuse, and to top it off, for some reason the map file was corrupted as loading it up started to kill the framerate for Megaton. The effect lasted even after exiting the map.

I gave it another go and actually managed to find all the switches this time. But that wouldn't be enough this time. Not after learning about the secret "difficulty" mode, "Welcome to Hell." I mean, reading about a secret difficulty only available by finding a secret room in the map itself? I had to see it for myself.

The result was every pigcop, octabrain, and commander I'd ever killed in the past 20 years swarming the massive lava cavern. And it was a riot. That's the kind of frantic knuckle-white action I love. Plenty of ammo to make it through. Just don't die. Too bad the opening section is so frustrating, though.

South of Heaven was by far one of the most cryptic/obscure maps I've ever played, to the point of checking in Mapster for one of the switches (in the hanging coffin room) as it was plainly dickish placement. Large caves with rocky geometry and all red, tiny-patterned textures, then small switches - also red - is simply not a good idea whatsoever. As for the "Welcome to Hell" difficulty, the later part of the level with commanders, octabrains and all the vertical climbing was quite interesting IIRC, but mauling through hordes of pig cops with basically infinite ammo RPG I found quite tedious. Especially considering most of the pig cops would get blocked inside some pits before it was their turn in the cannon fodder line...

Quote

Unfortunately, South of Heaven ended on a cliffhanger too, so even my attempt to create one fell flat. Oh well.

I'd recommend Phantazm for the proper closure of your journey through the afterlife. No, not the bizarre Zaxtor map, but an old one all the way from 1996: http://dukeworld.duk...ps/phantazm.zip

It might not be directly heaven or hell, but the ending certainly does the job!

Anyway, I've finally played 2121 AD by Bob Masters, for the first time - and it was a truely great map, probably my favourite by him, despite my great fondness of Asylum and Bizarre. So many cool, original ideas, especially the moving sidewalks, jetpacking people in the sky and tube-elevators. Also visiting the cinema and seeing part of a movie was a brilliant concept! And of course, really cool, futuristic architecture.

[Ninety-Six]

Aleks, on 21 July 2021 - 01:28 AM, said:

South of Heaven was by far one of the most cryptic/obscure maps I've ever played, to the point of checking in Mapster for one of the switches (in the hanging coffin room) as it was plainly dickish placement. Large caves with rocky geometry and all red, tiny-patterned textures, then small switches - also red - is simply not a good idea whatsoever. As for the "Welcome to Hell" difficulty, the later part of the level with commanders, octabrains and all the vertical climbing was quite interesting IIRC, but mauling through hordes of pig cops with basically infinite ammo RPG I found quite tedious. Especially considering most of the pig cops would get blocked inside some pits before it was their turn in the cannon fodder line...

I can understand it being tedious. It could take a while, to be sure.

I think something that helped me through it was playing mostly saveless (I saved at the point the difficulty started so that I would never have to do that obnoxious cave section again, and especially the area with the forced damage steam blasts). This meant that, while a lot of the pigs involved standing there and holding the fire button, the threat of going back to the start if I made a single misstep in the narrow and cramped caves and launched a rocket at a wall was enough to keep me from getting bored.

Of course I understand I'm the weirdo for playing saveless.


Besides, it was cathartic. Not just for the level itself but also because pigs have repeatedly proven themselves to be one of the most consistently dangerous enemies in all my years of Duking. A lot of my deaths could be attributed to them, either directly or indirectly, so being able to make pork chop sandwiches out of 'em was some good stress relief.

Aleks, on 21 July 2021 - 01:28 AM, said:

I'd recommend Phantazm for the proper closure of your journey through the afterlife. No, not the bizarre Zaxtor map, but an old one all the way from 1996: http://dukeworld.duk...ps/phantazm.zip

It might not be directly heaven or hell, but the ending certainly does the job!

Thanks for the rec. I'll go check it out.

Aleks, on 21 July 2021 - 01:28 AM, said:

Anyway, I've finally played 2121 AD by Bob Masters, for the first time - and it was a truely great map, probably my favourite by him, despite my great fondness of Asylum and Bizarre. So many cool, original ideas, especially the moving sidewalks, jetpacking people in the sky and tube-elevators. Also visiting the cinema and seeing part of a movie was a brilliant concept! And of course, really cool, futuristic architecture.

Out of curiosity, did you play it through eduke or dosbox/RedNukem? I found that map doesn't really work in eduke, for whatever reason. Most notably the briefing message at the start is completely gone in eduke.

---

Anyway, I just finished Stowaway. I could swear there was a release thread on here somewhere but I can't find it, so this thread will have to do.

First thing is the visuals are top-notch. It's probably the best looking train station level I've seen, and that's kinda surprising as I thought I'd already seen some pretty good looking train stations, but this one beats them. The detailing is to-notch all across aboard, and sells the locations extremely well. The train station itself, the post office, even the ambulance. It all looks really good, and despite using some Roch-like application of decals, it still looked kinda vanilla in spite of that. Special shout-out to the "spraypaint" by the "Graffiti." That opening train ride as it pulled into the station was really excellent. So excellent I actually engaged noclip for the sole sake of getting a better look at the scenery. There wasn't too much to see but I still wanted to get a better look.

Actually that train ride and the actual train platform + first entrance gave me major Half-Life 2 vibes. I mean yeah, it's a train station, and train stations can only look so dissimilar. Still, I never got that same vibe from the other train stations, so that's probably worth something. Not that reminding me of HL2 is a bad thing.


I'm actually of two minds about the gameplay. On the one hand, the combat was properly spicy at times and gave me a good run for my money, without being unfair. On the other... traversing the level seemed to be a bit of a problem at times. The actual play area is deceptively small, with invisible walls and fake doors everywhere. Even in places where it doesn't seem to make all that much sense for there to be an invisible wall. It really kinda shot exploration in the foot, and this is coming from someone who usually doesn't mind invisible walls and fake doors.

It kinda hurt this time too, because there were a lot of areas I really wanted to check out but it turned out it was just pure setdressing, nothing more. I guess you can take that as both a compliment and a critique, because I really wanted to explore more of what I was seeing, but was routinely disappointed by my inability to.

[Aleks]

Ninety-Six, on 03 August 2021 - 10:54 AM, said:

Out of curiosity, did you play it through eduke or dosbox/RedNukem? I found that map doesn't really work in eduke, for whatever reason. Most notably the briefing message at the start is completely gone in eduke.

I played in EDuke and it worked fine, I used an older version before the extensive clipping changes took place (r7395). Just checked and indeed it seems there was something missing at the beginning, which probably would be a briefing message - but I also checked in Rednukem and couldn't get this message to work either, so that might be on the map/altered con files I believe. Wouldn't go through the hassle of playing in DOSBox.

EDIT: Just checked in Mapster and seems that the messages are written using the transparent-purple on black background, which is quite a clever abuse of a "bug" that would render the invisible pink colour in the game when looking through a semi-transparent sprite at it. This might even be something to report to Rednukem creators, as it's a slight diverting from vanilla behaviour (doesn't even work with Classic renderer).

Quote

It kinda hurt this time too, because there were a lot of areas I really wanted to check out but it turned out it was just pure setdressing, nothing more. I guess you can take that as both a compliment and a critique, because I really wanted to explore more of what I was seeing, but was routinely disappointed by my inability to.

Shit, I feel you won't like my next map...

[ck3D]

Again not something I've played yet, but just last night I was skimming through this video of a Russian mod:



Design is very 1996 in parts but picks up with every map it seems but most importantly, even if design quality doesn't necessarily follow through always, there are some cool ideas here and there and the last city map looks quite stunning with the scale and new .art - author rather obviously found their groove on that one. Impression I got was funny 'LameDuke version of Ion Fury' kind of vibes.

[Arzca]

Time for some Dukematch posts again. This time, me and a friend of mine were playing 1v1. We were playing via LAN (eduke32 oldmp). It took some time and trial and error to set up and most sessions were short lived, including a few matches we didn't even manage to finish because of "Timed out" or simply because the game crashed.

These sessions were a few days ago or so, and sadly I didn't take any screenshots or video, but I'll try to provide some when we'll fight again - if the game doesn't crash that is... Anyways, we were playing the "usual" maps, E2L6, E3L2 and E3L4. We did play E1L2 once as well.

E2L6 Tiberius Station: There were a lot of mind games going on around here. Both of us were armed and well prepared and we had hard time killing each other. I somehow managed to get squished between the "block" bridge while making a jump to escape my friends RPG missiles. He also got squished inside the ducts while straferunning around . We had some pretty tough Pipebomb duels around the open area near where the Shotgun is. It isually ended up either of us managing to escape in the nick of time while being low on health or low on ammo. Perhaps the enjoyable fights were the so-called "ducts sieges" that we tend to do, when the other player is hiding inside the ducts, and you're erratically spamming rockets & Pipebombs into any duct holes in hopes of getting a kill or even a hit. Sadly, this session ended in "Timed out", but we had 2-3 kills each before the bitter end.

E3L2 Bank Roll: Pipebomb spamming intensifies. We had some pretty spectacular Pipebomb tosses here and there, including a direct mid-air kill I got when my friend tried to escape from the Blue key area via the window. He also got me with direct hit from around the corner by making a predicted toss. . Some RPG action took place as well, neither of us really had any success with RPG. Shotgun and Pistol were also quite useful from a distance, which indirectly led to some kills for both of us. Freezethrower was also a good "harassing" weapon, forcing the other player to move around a bit. And just like the previous game, this one ended up crashing.

E3L4 L.A Rumble: This was pretty intense at the beginning, lots of Shotgun and Pipebomb action early on. As the match moved on, Jetpack, RPG and the two Atomic Health near the big screen became essential. There was a lot of vertical action, and if you died while the other player had a Jetpack and plenty of ammo & health, it was more than likely for you to die multiple times in a row, particularly if you were to start from the open street area. In fact, this happened to me and my friend got me twice with his RPG. Fortunately, this match ended properly (not from my point of view, but it had a conclusion still), my friend won 10-5. Still, a good game.

E1L2 Red Light District: We went out of our way, and chose to play a match here. This is not one of our "usual" maps, but it is a pretty good and spacious map, and we ended up having a decent game here. Most of the big fights took place in the streets, but there was also a high chance to get killed if either us had a Shotgun, which is probably the best weapon aside from Pistol when it comes to large and open areas. We had RPG duels in the street too, and Pipebombs were useful too, particularly to stall the other player when being chased. The best fights we had were inside the bar / pool table area. Both of us usually brought in some big guns, like RPG and Pipebombs. The book store area was suitable for Pipebomb spamming and mindgames, but both of us usually quickly moved away from there as the chance of hurting yourself with explosives in such spaces is pretty high. Jetpack wasn't utilized during this game as much as it was in case of E3L4, not even on the open streets. It was largely used to escape to safety via the sewer area manhole after an intense indoor fight behind Yellow door area. Fortunately, I won the last game by 10-8. I was able to capitalize on most of my opportunities, otherwise, it was a pretty even game that could have gone either way.

I'll try to provide some footage (screenshots or video) from our future LAN sessions if possible.

[geomancien]

Come see episode 10 of Duke Nukem and these mods from hell:
https://youtu.be/wjHwtgWbDzo

[geomancien]

hi, hardest level VOD I've played so far, absolutely devilish difficulty.
https://youtu.be/JZUN3F4hDYA

[Arzca]

Hostile Terrain by Peter Williams: https://msdn.duke4.n...otpjhostile.php

A random user map post follows:

Hostile Terrain is a pretty slaughter-ish map (over 400 enemies) by Duke 3d standards. The theme is desert / hi-tech like, and there's a plenty of space to move around. Obviosuly you'll need to fill that massive space with at least something, right? This map does it with monsters, which is a departure from the standard monster counts you'd normally see when playing a user map. Fortunately, they give you a plenty of ammo to counter your foes, and that's exactly what you're going to need when dealing with the final fight. You have to deal with 2 waves of monsters, that can be triggered at any time by pressing a switch. You can do it one wave at the time, or both waves at the same time (just press both switches). I did the whole thing at once, because who wouldn't like to run around and toss Pipebombs at your enemies in hopes of hearing some juicy sounds or one-liners from Duke. I also laid some Trip Bomb traps to slow down the incoming onslaught, and managed to kill / hurt some monsters by doing so.

The final fight was actually well executed, because it is easy to mess up these "slaughter fights" in Duke 3d, mostly because Duke can jump and make short work of enemies in most cases, but the arena was well crafted, and as it tends to be with these slaughter-things, you need to prioritize the enemies and make sure that you take out the Assault Troopers first, because they occupy a lot of space. Luckily, you can find a Shrinker + tons of ammo for the Expander, so they went boom (not the Doom source port). After that, I focused on dealing with Pig Cop hordes, which were quite dangerous. They like sniping you, and as we know, some Pig Cops love at retaliating once shot, so I kept a close eye on my Health the whole time. Now that I think of it, I forgot to mention a handful Sentry Drones that spawned with the rest of the enemies, but they weren't really that bad because there is a plenty of space to move, and most of them were damaged and destroyed eventually by my Pipebombs or other enemies before they could get to me. I did catch a Sentry Drone or two in my face, but on the other hand, some other enemies were also hurt in the process. Most of the enemies were: Assault Troopers, Commanders, Pig Cops, Enforcers, Octabrains (minority) and Sentry Drones (minority). Too bad they didn't give me an RPG, but then again, you've got a ton of ammo and other explosives at your disposal which should be more than enough to take down the massive crowd that you'll face.

All in all, a nice departure from the usual. I did like the shadows and shading, although the map didn't really feel "alive" because I don't recall hearing any ambient sounds or anything, but perhaps for such a gameplay-centric map, things like ambience might not be really a priority. Also, it was a bit empty at times, but as I said, this map can throw in the gameplay-card and be pretty fun despite feeling a bit too quiet or empty at times.