[NNC]

Hi fellow Dukers. Some days ago I decided to open a thread that lists all the bugs that have been left in the original Duke Nukem 3D maps and had affects the actual gameplay. Some of them, as shown below, are really blatant errors, even typos appear in the taggings of some sprites. A couple of years ago I already made a list about the unused respawns, but those are just some of the many bugs left in the game. Amazing how these weren't seen during the beta testing.

What I didn't check:
- Errors listed in mapster32. I'm not sure how to show these honestly, there might be some interesting stuff there, but AFAIK most of these are referring sector overlapping and such non important /non gameplay related issues. Every input about these is welcome though.
- Graphical glitches like misaligned textures. I bet even a lifetime wouldn't be long enough to spot all of these, hence I'm not interested. Also the thread is restricted to gameplay related bugs/issues.
- Any bugs from the commercial addons or other addons. Only the 5 original episodes. Maybe later, although ATM I'm not much interested...

And the goal is?
Well, to have a comprehensive list of gameplay bugs, which might be fixed later on by the big G, although I won't hold my breath for that. Actually these bugs can be considered as an "inner beta", which are still in the maps, but left unreleased.

The list is not complete. I will check the maps later on about the unchecked things, but also help is more than welcome.

So what bugs should be listed here:

1. Enemies, weapons and other active sprites that are in the build of the map, but don't appear due to something. (Random scan so far, feel free to improve my very short list)
2. Unused or leftover respawn sprites... this had been discussed in Duke4 earlier, and are one of the most interesting part of this thread. (Full scan)
3. Unused or leftover touchplates... not that important as you don't know what their intention were, unlike the Rs (Random scan so far)
4. Musicandsfx issues... very important part, and lots of mistakes from the devs. Some are fixable with mapping, others only with con coding (Full scan about the ambient/random ambient sounds, nothing so far about the door sounds)
5. Locator issues... related to Reconcars only, I don't know anything that relates to two-way trains or other trains (full scan)
6. Unused or unlinked security cameras... another bug that's quite frequent in some maps. (full scan)
7. Leftover sectors, sprites... a bit different to the other paragraphs here, but belongs to this thread since affects the gameplay (more or less full about the sectors, although sprites weren't checked)

Other paragraphs that might be related:
- Unused/broken sector effectors (not sure if this can happen, AFAIK the game gives an error message if it finds an untagged S)
- Unused/broken sector tags (it will be extremely difficult to do I guess)
...

1. Enemy/weapon/active sprite issues
-Dark Side: Two protozoid slimers in the blue key area have channel lotag, don't appear in the game.
-LA Rumble: The map's only SP chaingun cannon (found where you meet the first enforcer) has channel lotag, doesn't appear in the game.

2. Unused/leftover respawn sprites
-Red Light District: The infamous Reconcar R, that is properly tagged, but coding doesn't allow Reconcars to respawn. It results that you can't finish the game with 100% kills.
-Red Light District: 1 untagged Pigcop R in the exploding ceiling area. It should used the same tag as the other 3 Pigcop Rs.
-Red Light District: 1 untagged Liztroop R which should spawn when you shoot one butty dancer. The dancer however incorrectly use the same hitag as the other butty dancer, which means if you shoot her first, the spawned Liztroop will appear on the other side of the room.
-Death Row: 1 Liztroopshoot R at the entrance of the church. Should have possibly been triggered before you enter the church.
-Toxic Dump: 1 Litroop R in the red key room. It should have possibly been triggered when you open the door in the other shrinker room.
-Toxic Dump: 1 untagged R, which would have been an Octabrain in the big waterfall/crusher area.
-Warp Factor: 2 Sentry Drone Rs next to the blue key door. The should have been triggered with the blue key access, even the numbers are close. It would have been pretty mean though.
-Warp Factor: 2 more Sentry Drone Rs, which should have been triggered in the secret Star Trek room along with the other aliens. They are next to the Enforcer Rs close to the place with the Commander/Battlelord fight.
-Occupied Territory: 1 Octabrain R next to the other one which was triggered by babe kill. Since these maps only spawn one octabrain, I think there must have been another cocooned babe around here, maybe a sitting one in the middle (this is a speculation though).
-Overlord: 1 Octabrain R without channel tag. Based on it's direction, it's logical that it should have been when you deactivate the forcefield (with channel nr 35).
-Bank Roll: 1 Pigcopstayput R which should have been triggered with the Commander as they have rather similar tag numbers and the same direction.
-Bank Roll: My favourite one. 3 Pigcop and 2 Enforcer Rs in the big room with the red key door. The must have been triggered when you got the red key after that turbine area. When you blow the crack to go back, some of these enemies will be blown away as well.
-LA Rumble: Another good one. 1 Commander R that should have been triggered when you jump onto the small platform with the two atomic health. It would have been pretty mean, as at this point you are already fighting with other airborne enemies, like drones.
-LA Rumble: 2 Liztroop Rs in the red key room with the other red liztroops. Possibly they could have been triggered before you enter the room by opening the wall.
-Rabid Transit: 1 Octabrain R that is found among others in the secret "telltale" area. Like in E1L2, one babe is not properly hitagged, so it doesn't appear.
-Hotel Hell: 1 Enforcer and 1 Pigcop Rs that are facing to the hotel's main entrance. They should have possibly been triggered along with the other Enforcers in the Battlelord room, but are pretty pointless overall.
-Hotel Hell: 1 Enforcer R in the place with the cans. It faces to the outside area, so it might have been triggered there, although a bit pointless one.
-Hotel Hell: 2 Pigcop Rs in the starting area facing to different directions. The most sensible place to trigger them should have been the final part with the vent or the room with the nukebutton.
-Babe Land: 2 Liztroop Rs in the pirate HQ part (or whatever area, with the buggy Reconcars). They should have been triggered... well, somewhere in the sewers.
-Red Ruckus: 2 Enforcer Rs in the big Overlord area with the buggy control sounds. They should have possibly been triggered when you open up the Overlord chamber to prepare you for the big action.
-Prima Arena: Various Rs of Liztroops and Enforcers with 3 different lotags in the main Colosseum area. They are actually linked to touchplates, but they are in a sector which is not reachable (see: leftover sectors).

3. Unused/leftover touchplates
-The Abyss: 7 unused touchplates are scattered throughout the first half of the level ranging between lotag 5001 to 5017.

4. Sound issues
-Death Row: 3 M(wind) sprites are used in the big outside area with turrets, but without proper range, so they can't be heard at all.
-Toxic Dump: 2 M(grind) sprites are used to add sound for the water turbines (one underwater and one secret area), but neither work as lotag 170's bitfield number is not set to be used as ambient sounds. You need to modify user.con, or the lotag to something else, like 179.
-Launch Facility: 1 M(grind) sprite is used as the above ones near the start for the sewer turbine.
-Shop-n-Bag: 1 M(short circuit) is used for one dysfunctional door near the start. Again, lotag 21 (short circuit) is not set to be used as an ambient sound.
-Shop-n-Bag: 1 M(grind) sprite is used as the ones for E14 and E1L6.
-Area 51: The most blatant typo of the game. At the start, an M sprite should use lotag 231 (random ambience), but had the number 321 instead. Randy, Randy, you had one job.
-Derelict: 1 M(horn sound) sprite is used as a semi door sound in the platform outside the ship, where a Newbeast is triggered. It doesn't work because another M(wind) in the same sector blocks it. Relocate the wind a couple inches down, and the horn is heard when you enter the platform.
-High Times: 1 M(waterfall) sprite is not heard during the "stoned" period with the 720 degree room, due to the sound is used in a lotagged room with one time sound. Just in Derelict, moving it a few inches away, and the waterfall is heard properly, although I'm not sure if it fits the map's atmosphere at that point.
-Red Ruckus: 4 M(reactor sounds) sprites are used in the final room with the rocket launchers and the Overlord, but without proper range, so they can't be heard properly.

5. Locator issues
-Babe Land: Most reconcars in the map don't use hitag to follow the closest locator, and the Reconcars around the area of the pirate HQ will be buggy and fly to the ship instead.
-Golden Carnage: Coding bug. The map use a two way train and some Reconcar locators as well, but the two train locators have higher picnum, which means Reconcars go buggy and follow an awkward route. The first two of the Reconcar locators need to replaced to make this thing work properly.

6. Unused/unlinked security cameras
-Toxic Dump: 1 unlinked security camera in the secret water turbine area. 1 other security camera that uses red palette like the sector around it (near the big waterfall area with the giant crusher), which means it's only allowed in multiplayer. It was very possibly just a mistake, not intentional.
-Warp Factor: 8(!) security cameras that were unlinked to the level. One could possibly linked to the monitor which shows the forcefield as the exploding drones could be seen there, the others are possibly planned to be linked to the westernmost wing room to show the respawned enemy hordes.
-Rabid Transit: 2 unlinked security cameras that show the two stations of the map. The monitor can be placed anywhere, the most sensible area is the secret one with the babes.

7. Leftover sectors and items:
-Faces of Death: The nukebutton is aligned in the same way as the last wall in the last battlelord area and registers in that sector too... fixed in World Tour.
-Movie Set: A small, normally unreachable sector with an armor, a large medkit and a holoduke, along with some XXX magazines... belongs to nowhere, but armor and holoduke isn't available in the level.
-Prima Arena: Many sectors cut from the final version, and it's even declared by the author. Sectors include elevators, exploded caves with pigcops, octabrains and slimers. The map's uncut version is available by Methy on Steam.
-Prima Arena: A simple square sector that includes touchplates which can trigger some unused respawns to the level. Fits to nowhere.

[Danukem]

The vast majority of these can be fixed using CON code -- some already have been in bugfix mods. I think I will go through your list and add some more fixes in my Essential Duke mod, which has become my bugfix and lightweight mod of choice.

It seems very unlikely that any fixes of that kind would ever become an official part of EDuke32.

[CryptKiller]

Holy crap, would never guess there's so much of this.

[NNC]

 Trooper Dan, on 03 September 2017 - 04:22 PM, said:

The vast majority of these can be fixed using CON code -- some already have been in bugfix mods. I think I will go through your list and add some more fixes in my Essential Duke mod, which has become my bugfix and lightweight mod of choice.

It seems very unlikely that any fixes of that kind would ever become an official part of EDuke32.

I don't know. Maybe some sound issues (ie. tag 21 and 170 can be ambient sounds) and the locator collision in Golden Carnage... but when a security cam or respawn sprite is not tagged properly, it needs a maphack more than a con coding.

[Danukem]

 Nancsi, on 04 September 2017 - 08:00 AM, said:

I don't know. Maybe some sound issues (ie. tag 21 and 170 can be ambient sounds) and the locator collision in Golden Carnage... but when a security cam or respawn sprite is not tagged properly, it needs a maphack more than a con coding.

Anything that can be done with maphacks can be done with CON code, all I need is the sprite ID # of a sprite and I can change it at map load. If you edit your earlier post to add sprite numbers, that would save me some time. I can also add generic checks, such as changing lotag to 0 on monsters and items if the lotag is > 4.

[Hendricks266]

Hardcoding maphack adjustments in CON using sprite IDs and ep/level number is extremely brittle and an example of what is called an anti-pattern. Use the usermaphacks feature (which can be seen in the HRP defs thanks to LeoD's excellent work).

[Danukem]

 Hendricks266, on 04 September 2017 - 12:26 PM, said:

Hardcoding maphack adjustments in CON using sprite IDs and ep/level number is extremely brittle and an example of what is called an anti-pattern. Use the usermaphacks feature (which can be seen in the HRP defs thanks to LeoD's excellent work).

I understand that it's brittle -- if the IDs were to change for some reason, then the code would fail. That's one reason I'm going to start with "commonsense" hacks that aren't keyed to specific ID numbers. Moreover, breakage of ID specific code would almost certainly mean that my map hack code would simply not kick in, which isn't so bad. For safety I would be checking for other conditions in addition to ID, so it's very unlikely that the code would be triggered by a different sprite.

For this particular mod, I have a rule for myself that it can only include a single CON file named EDUKE.CON that loads automatically. Having an additional DEF file doesn't sound so bad, except that it would break compatibility with the HRP and anything that uses def files, wouldn't it? That is, unless the new def code could somehow to appended without interfering with whatever other def code is being used.

[Hendricks266]

 Trooper Dan, on 04 September 2017 - 12:46 PM, said:

For this particular mod, I have a rule for myself that it can only include a single CON file named EDUKE.CON that loads automatically. Having an additional DEF file doesn't sound so bad, except that it would break compatibility with the HRP and anything that uses def files, wouldn't it? That is, unless the new def code could somehow to appended without interfering with whatever other def code is being used.

Correct on both counts: naming the file duke3d.def would not require any extra effort on the part of the user, but it would also interfere with other defs used. (Even if the defs could be appended, the maphacks would actually conflict too currently.)

We're long overdue for some proper support for combining multiple content mods. It was one of the ideas I initially brought with me to the project, though I never embarked on it due to lack of experience at the time. Proper support for Shadow Warrior, Ken-Build, and more will require refactoring the startup windows to a point where I could begin prototyping a user-friendly mutator solution in earnest.

[Danukem]

So how do the usermaphacks work that makes them less brittle? I could make my CON hack based on coordinates instead of sprite ID if that's better.

[Hendricks266]

Usermaphacks will only activate if a map matches a checksum, versus causing havoc if a different (or modified) map is loaded for a given VOLUME and LEVEL.

[Danukem]

Nansci, check out the update I just posted for Essential Duke: https://forums.duke4...l-duke-release/

Some of the issues you listed are fixed. A few had already been fixed earlier.

[FistMarine]

Interesting list of bugs, Nancsi. It's nice to know a lot of trivia about the game.

Anyway I have read some time ago on Supreme Topic of Miscellaneous Knowledge that the maps E1L1, E1L2, E1L8 and E3L11 were slightly changed between 1.3D and 1.5. Does anyone know what were the changes between versions? I'm interested if there's a significant change in any of these maps between 1.3D and 1.5. I know that 20th Anniversary World Tour makes minor changes in original 4 episodes as well but I have no idea what is changed in those 4 maps between 1.3D and 1.5.

EDIT: It says right there on first post of the thread: https://forums.duke4...eous-knowledge/

Quote

Between the v1.3D and v1.5 versions of Duke, the only maps altered were E1L1, E1L2, E1L8, and E3L11.

[oasiz]

Good stuff !
Definitely worth a community patch or maybe a fork of essential without any extra game play elements.

[NNC]

 Trooper Dan, on 04 September 2017 - 11:06 AM, said:

Anything that can be done with maphacks can be done with CON code, all I need is the sprite ID # of a sprite and I can change it at map load. If you edit your earlier post to add sprite numbers, that would save me some time. I can also add generic checks, such as changing lotag to 0 on monsters and items if the lotag is > 4.

Cool. I check them at the weekend...

[NNC]

Additional bug (or more like a nitpick):

The "teleporter" elevator is coded to have sounds 71 and 73 (traditional elevator move and stop) and these sectors don't need M sprites like the other elevators. This seems to be acknowledged in later episodes, although Levelord sometimes still used unnecessary M sprites with 71 and 73 in his maps.

However in episode 2, and particularly in Fusion Station, alternative sounds are used (272 and 286) for these teleporter elevators. If you have played this level you know that most elevators here are fast (1024 gpspeed) and used these alien elevator sounds which is quite cool. The elevators however that are teleporting you to a different part of the map (early on to the transformator area or whatever) are just regular ones. These have all the "alien" sounds, although no gpspeed.

I'm not sure if it can be fixed somehow. The map needs a modification to have gpspeed, but is it possible to hack this teleporting elevator effector?

On a side note, Spacport also used alternative sounds for it's teleporter elevator, but they are poolball sounds and are possibly fake which means Allen Blum did know it has no effect.

[Hendricks266]

 Nancsi, on 06 October 2017 - 02:29 PM, said:

I'm not sure if it can be fixed somehow. The map needs a modification to have gpspeed, but is it possible to hack this teleporting elevator effector?

All gpspeed really does is set the sector's .extra.

 Nancsi, on 06 October 2017 - 02:29 PM, said:

On a side note, Spacport also used alternative sounds for it's teleporter elevator, but they are poolball sounds and are possibly fake which means Allen Blum did know it has no effect.

It's likely that those sound IDs were once something different at an earlier point of Spaceport's development, such as when it was a moonbase, and because they don't take effect they were never noticed.

[NNC]

Checked GPSPEED on Fusion Station elevators (put a sprite in both) and it actually works. Unfortunately the musicandsfx is fixed.