[Merlijn]

***BRRRRRMMMRRR!!!***

Duke woke up from his slumber. The hotel room looked dark.
The sky outside still tried to go for as many shades of grey as possible, but at least it stopped raining.
What just happened? It felt like the entire room was shaking.. An earthquake?
As far as Duke knew, there were no major fault lines in Europe. Must have been his imagination.

Suddenly, the room started to violently shake again. But this time, it didn't stop...




Well, here it is! A massive city map, hit by a massive quake.
Made with classic mode in mind. Skill settings are present, I'd recommend "let's rock" for the first playthrough.

MSDN review

 Shaky grounds pt1.zip (4.98MB)
Number of downloads: 1776

[Danukem]

Downloading now. Will play after work tonight.

[neoacix]

Screenshots looks fantastic, wish I had more time to play.
Will give it a shot sometime. ;-)

[PsychoGoatee]

Groovy! Can't wait to dig into this, definitely sometime this weekend, and I shall post!

[Sanek]

Amazing map.
I've played it before, because I was one of the testers, but this map was good for a second play too, because I've noticed some details I didn't noticed before.My favorite parts was probably the beginning of the map, the main street and the underground parking lot. I also like alien caves, wished they were bigger. The work on scripted events was amazing (except the falling ceiling, which was too fast imo), and I like that there are a lot of design choises that we didin't saw before, but at the same time it's still recognizably "Merlijn". There are lots of jokes too. It's also a little bit strange that we get two disaster maps lately - ck3d released one last year, and now we have another one. Merlijn said that this map is very big (it really is), but when I finished it, I just thought - "and that's all?". Maybe I'm over-excited about this map, but I like it very much and I'm seriously think that it's the map of the year. I'm glad that the last thing I did for community was testing this map.

[Merlijn]

Thanks for your thoughts, Sanek! Glad you liked it. And thanks for testing the map of course.

Quote

It's also a little bit strange that we get two disaster maps lately - ck3d released one last year, and now we have another one.

It's not a complete coincidence - although I already had some loose ideas about a map centered around this theme, Ck3d's map really inspired me to go ahead and do it (I even gave his map a nod in the txt-file).

Quote

Merlijn said that this map is very big (it really is), but when I finished it, I just thought - "and that's all?".

I'll take that as a positive haha. All I can say is: no it's not all. I called this thing pt.1 for a very good reason.
To the others: can't wait to hear your thoughts!

[Ezepov]

Epic map!
I played yesterday Red1: Poisoned lands for the first time and it was very cool. Today - Shaky Grounds. I like the atmosphere of these maps. But the ceiling falls too fast

Spoiler

PS Jump in the pool was amazing.

[Lunick]

The start of this map is pretty epic but not as epic as how huge the map feels.

[Danukem]

Just finished this map and it is an instant classic! Emerging from the basement of the fallen building into the broken city scape is one of the best experiences I have had in a user map in years. The only significant issue I had was right at the start:

Spoiler

When you leave the starting room there is a second room that doesn't squish down all the way. I waited in that area for too long and got stuck there. There was an explosive which was supposed to kill me but I still had a few health left and had to restart the map. Also, when you get to the basement, the location of the button is not quite obvious enough imo given the time pressure. I died there twice because I didn't activate the button in time. I would prefer if there had been more visual cues leading to it.

This is a great map and I eagerly await the sequel.

[MetHy]

Damn, my computer's HDD has started dying the very day you posted this so I won't be able to play it for a while. Looks great though.
I hear there is a part with a falling ceiling crushing the player and I did that in a an unfinished/unreleased map in an entire corridor of a half destroyed hotel, and I felt it was hard to balance the speed of the falling ceiling.

I take it this goes over the original wall limit right? EDuke32 only or does it work in Megaton?

[Merlijn]

Damn, that's too bad to hear Methy
To answer your question: yes, it goes over the original wall limit. It nearly hits the new one, actually.
So I think that makes it Eduke32 only.

And yeah, the speed of the falling ceiling is really hard to balance out. The scenario you describe is very similar to the one in my map.
I personally think it isn't too unfair, there's only 1 way to go and you don't have to run a perfect line to survive.
But if more people have trouble with this part of the map, I might tweak it a bit to make it easier.

@ Trooper Dan: thanks for your feedback! About your issue:

Spoiler

That's strange, I tested the part you mentioned and each time the explosions killed me.
Must be 1 very specific spot where the explosion don't kill you.. If I release a tweaked version, I'll add more explosions

@ Ezepov: cool, always nice to hear my older work is still getting discovered by new people. And yeah that jump is one of my favorite parts.

[Polunka]

Have downloded it, will play later. Judging by all the feedback and knowing what Merlijn has brought to the Duke3D mapping scenery, I guess it's gonna be an enjoyable ride

[Micky C]

It's terrible, don't play it

Spoiler

If you don't want to have a good time

[Polunka]

Micky C, on 10 September 2016 - 12:55 AM, said:

It's terrible, don't play it

Spoiler

If you don't want to have a good time

[Daedolon]

Beat it. Got lost twice and died a bunch of times. It's a great level, but I personally would've liked the enemy encounters spread a bit more instead of having fewer but larger battles (which got me killed because I wasn't expecting them). Besides that I think the atmosphere and level design were top notch. Don't know what else to say.

If you want to see where I got lost and died the most, I recorded it (albeit forgot to use proper quality), you can watch the playthrough here.

[Jolteon]

Awesome level! Can't wait for part 2!

Spoiler

Also Boomer will live!

[Mike Norvak]

Trooper Dan, on 09 September 2016 - 09:13 PM, said:

Just finished this map and it is an instant classic! Emerging from the basement of the fallen building into the broken city scape is one of the best experiences I have had in a user map in years.

This!

I really loved the inmersion and atmosphere of the map, althought I would have liked timed respawns instead of just throwing big battles in front of the player, just nitpicking.

Thanks for this amazing release!

Gonna replay it later in search for new secret areas...

[Danukem]

Merlijn, did you make the music track yourself? It fits perfectly and is very atmospheric.

[Micky C]

Trooper Dan, on 10 September 2016 - 04:14 PM, said:

Merlijn, did you make the music track yourself? It fits perfectly and is very atmospheric.

According to the included text file, they did. It has a slight Imperium vibe to it which I like. Actually, it kind of reminds me a lot of Robocreeping, the music to the Fusion Station level.

As I mentioned at the amc webforums, the map shares some similarities to the End of the World part 1. So ck3d if you're reading this, join forces with Merjiln for an episode. You know you wanted to continue the theme

[CruX]

just got done with it. Started it last night but only got about a quarter of the way through, took me about an hour and a half all told. 204 enemies killed, 3 secrets found.

What I didn't like: The escape sequence at the beginning

What I did like: Literally every single thing that came after the escape sequence

For anyone else that maps for Duke, this is going to be a hell of an act to follow, whether you think about mapping competitively or not (I generally don't, but..)

Spoiler

Probably gonna be the best user map we see this year, certainly my favorite, both for 2016 and probably of all time. Not even trying to kiss ass, I've honestly just never seen anything quite like this in DN3D. Like, I've never seen a large, sprawling urban map designed this well and I've damn sure never seen a disaster-oriented map get the sort of execution and attention to detail that this one has. Doing either of those things on their own is great but both at the same time? Yeah, color me impressed. Almost everything about it floored me, from the toppled building you have to use to get back to ground level, to the skylight in the mall to the wrecked apartment that comes before the last part of the map, it's all so well put together and so finely detailed it's kinda hard to wrap my mind around it. That'd be enough on it's own, but it flows nicely and the firefights compliment it exceedingly well; enemies are placed really intuitively in a way that offers just enough to be challenging without it feeling unfair, like those two stayput battle-lords that spawn when you deactivate the force-field in the sushi restaurant.

The only complaint I really have boils down to personal taste, but the sequence in the beginning was more frustrating to me than suspenseful. Like I said, personal taste. I get that it was to start things off with a bang, but I really don't like running blindly through an enclosed area with no idea where I'm supposed to be going or what I'm supposed to be doing. I died about eight times total, and five of those were in the first minute of playing it. If it'd been anyone else, I might've just ragequit, but I kept telling myself "it's an Oostrum map, just keep trying, it'll be worth it" and boy was it ever. Name recognition definitely saved it in my case.

Funny note to end it on, I accidentally cheated my way through part of the last fight. I wasn't expecting all of those octabrains and fat commanders to ambush you right before the last two battlelords become visible, so even though I managed to come of it alive, I'd lost too much health to stand toe-to-toe with the moving battlelord, and he more or less pushed me back to back to the large canyon that separates the first part of the map from the last. I was at about 25 hp and in desperate attempt to put some distance between me and him, I side-straffed and jumped across the canyon, back to the first chunk of the map. Now, I'm kinda familiar with the AI in DN3D so I don't know why it surprised me so much when the big dumbass followed me over the edge, but it did and I got a good laugh out of it. Got curious after I finished the map and spawned a jetpack so I could check out the bottom of the canyon. The screencap is of Mr. Darwin Award himself, idled out

[PsychoGoatee]

By the way, does this map use true room over room?

[Micky C]

CruX, on 10 September 2016 - 04:43 PM, said:

For anyone else that maps for Duke, this is going to be a hell of an act to follow, whether you think about mapping competitively or not (I generally don't, but..)

That's part of the reason I map for TC's these days (the other part is I'm too spoiled for texture choice and effects to go back to vanilla ). I've got two maps in there that are fairly ambitious. They might not be to everyone's taste as they're not standard maps, but they should leave an impression.

The other thing is that you should be glad that he has the collapsing bit only at the start, so you don't waste much time or progress if you die. Davox's Buenos Aires Explosive Remake has unfair explosions all over the map.

I might as well post my impression from the amc forums.

Quote

Holy sssshhhhiiiiiiieeeeeeettttt what a great map. Easily one of the best maps of all time. The start was so encapsulating that I didn't realize all the ceilings were collapsing on me lol.

The sheer sense of destruction you see when you get outside are unparalleled in any map I've played. The way some of the buildings were broken or collapsed had my jaw dropped a few times, and I heard myself say "no way!" a few times as well. Pretty remarkable considering how long the game has been around. The progression was quite good, as always. Maybe a bit too much ammo but I think I may have played on POC instead of LR.

Edit:

PsychoGoatee, on 10 September 2016 - 04:51 PM, said:

By the way, does this map use true room over room?

No it does not. Why do you ask?

[PsychoGoatee]

Micky C, on 10 September 2016 - 04:56 PM, said:

No it does not. Why do you ask?

Thanks, well that would mean you don't get the TROR glitches in Polymost, which is cool. Though I respect it being intended for classic, I just may try it on Polymost too, since that's my fav feel for gameplay.

[Danukem]

PsychoGoatee, on 10 September 2016 - 05:21 PM, said:

Thanks, well that would mean you don't get the TROR glitches in Polymost, which is cool. Though I respect it being intended for classic, I just may try it on Polymost too, since that's my fav feel for gameplay.

I played it in polymost and there weren't any issues.

[PsychoGoatee]

Just played it, incredible map! One of the best ever, possibly the best ever if we have to pick one. I love the way the gameplay flows, the open exploring beginning romp is fun, and I liked how there was always one clear place to go after looking all around. The combat was great, fun and still tense. I especially liked how the map progressed into a kind of action packed more direct romp later on. The little touches like the humor are great, the music track is awesome, I had enough health and ammo, the detail and attractiveness of the map and how fun it is to traverse is "showing off" levels of incredible. Masterful stuff, thanks for making it!

[Danukem]

PsychoGoatee, on 10 September 2016 - 10:18 PM, said:

I liked how there was always one clear place to go after looking all around.

I'm not sure whether I agree with this or not, depending on what you mean by "looking all around". For a big, open map, I found the progression to be tolerably clear. But still, I had a few issues. I liked the custom map screens very much, but I would have liked to see the keycard slots marked on them and a few other named locations (e.g. Dukai Sushi). In other words, the custom map screens were a great concept, but they could have been even better if they were designed around the gameplay.

[Polunka]

Just finished it. A really good apocalyptic map (btw, the apocalypse/mass disaster theme is one of my most favorite when it comes to FPSs) ! As has already been mentioned, the music track is very atmospheric, hope we'll get something similar in the second installment. What I liked most about the map was the exploration aspect (I enjoyed scouring a little bit here and there, tho I found only 3 secrets outta 5); I also spent much time on simple sightseeing (the main reason why it took me almost 50 (!) mins to finish the level). Liked the starting sequence (especially that spectacular scene of the city getting destroyed). Some parts reminded me of Red 5 a little (those underground parts designed in some kinda a high-tech style like the inner base in Red 5). Liked the final battle with waves of monsters. Liked the joke about Daisy Nukem (so goddamn actual regarding the current situation in the entertainment industry).

Gameplay was perfectly fine, all the encounters weren't much of a problem since I always had the proper arsenal to fight the bad guys off.

Looking 4ward to the next level!

P.S.: I think this map should be considered equal to It Lives in terms of greatness (idk why I think so, maybe just cause it felt kinda like Gambini's masterpiece).

P.P.S.: Too lazy to make a bigger post, sorry about that.

[Mike Norvak]

Polunka, on 11 September 2016 - 05:30 AM, said:

P.S.: I think this map should be considered equal to It Lives in terms of greatness (idk why I think so, maybe just cause it felt kinda like Gambini's masterpiece).

It somewhat reminds me the feeling of Another Timeless Night for some reason but on a greater scale...

[Merlijn]

Woah, I'm frankly a bit overwhelmed by the reactions! Glad to see this map being so well received.

To respond to a few points:

Spoiler

-the soundtrack is indeed a custom one. It's recorded by me and my brother. It's rather lo-fi and a very late addition to the map, but I'm glad we did it.

-because the main area is so big, I tried to keep the progression straight forward here. So only 1 button unlock the sushi place and 1 blue keycard to unlock the shopping mall.
I think the biggest challenge is to find the button, since you have to cross the chasm to reach it (I watched Deadelons video and he got lost there).

- The viewscreen of the city map is mostly there to hint at the next level tbh. The location of the epicentre is mentioned in the first viewscreen, the map shows you in which direction you need to travel.

-I see the opening has a bit of a mixed response. I decided to keep it like that because of the reason Micky C mentioned - it's the very beginning of the map so loss of progress is minimal if you die.
And on the plus side it raises the sense of danger and urgency. It's also understandable if you personally didn't like this approach though.

[Daedolon]

Yeah I was originally looking over the chasm and thinking "oh, maybe a route there is unlocked later", like you'd circle the whole map through a building and end up there. So I wasn't focusing if there actually was a way there right away (although I could see that middle column you jump on, it felt like it was too far away, I guess I just didn't notice the ledge).