/vr/ - Retro Games

EP 3=5 > 1=4 > aids > 2

>>5276175
I know what Episode 2 was trying to accomplish and i accept it, but if i had to choose between all the other episodes which were most of the times consistently good, E2 would reach the bottom, sadly. Also the rest of your ranking is debatable, Episode 1 should be above but it's not up to me to decide a personal ranking. The least i can do is ask you why you drafted it that way.

If you had to pick one and only one among all Build games, what would be your favorite protagonist? Enemy? Boss? Weapon? Level? Soundtrack?

Decisions, decisions...

If you had to pick one and only one among all Build games, what would be your favorite protagonist? Enemy? Boss? Weapon? Item? Level? Soundtrack? Single track?

Decisions, decisions...

>>5276187
I just think 3 and 5 are better really. 1s still great.

5 is fucking fantastic for the amount of detail crammed into each level. It's wonderous what no hardware limitations can achieve. And it's depressing to think what Duke Nukem 3D could have been had they not had to cut and cut and cut levels back to hit 20fps on mid range cards of the time.

Hollywood Holocaust is downtown LA remember, with the Hollywood walk of fame. There's meant to be palm trees and loads of clothing and jewelry stores you could go into and they even had a bridge. But it had to be cut back and cut back.

>>5276209
That's a shame... On a side note though, it's beautiful how a game's content can be cut so much and still look and play damn good, without turn up one's nose. I played a 2008 game lately and i thought something was weird... Turns out lot of things had to be cut; if we want to do a comparison, a game much older and limited in resources which got similar measures still doesn't look out of place of an AAA modern game. Maybe it's only circumstantial but i just thought about that.

>>5276202
>Protagonist
Douk Nouk
>Enemy
MARANAX PALLEX
>Boss
Pic related nigger used to make me shit my pants when i was younger but now i have a soft spot for him
>Weapon
Voodoo Doll from Blood
>Item
Douk's jetpack
>Level
Earlier questions were hard bullshits but this one is borderline impossible. idk, the latest one which impressed me and i totally forgot how beautiful it was is Market Melee from Life's a Beach, but to be fair it's also the one i have the most fresh in my mind. The things you have to do in order to reach the secret level were fucking ridiculous though.
>Soundtrack
Redneck Rampage, perhaps the only thing that game does consistently well.
>Single track
Grabbag

>>5276202
>Douk
>Pig Cop
>Overlord (love his visual design, FPS bosses almost all suck though)
>Shrinker
>Reflective Shots
>Caribbean Catastrophe
>Douk
>Aliens, Say Your Prayers or Desert Maze

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0DPAVv_y3A
HUUH WHO WANTS SOME? WHO'S NEXT?

>>5276175
1>2>3>4>5

>>5276202
>Protagonist
Caleb, because he's a fucking evil zombie gunslinger.
>Enemy
The Cultist, for being such a glass cannon that can be used almost anywhere.
>Boss
Most Build games had shitty bosses, tbf.
>Weapon
Blood's double-barrel. More satisfying than any other Build shotgun, and a great workhorse weapon.
>Item
The jetpack. Makes exploration more interesting and open-ended, provided the level doesn't have invisible walls everywhere.
>Level
That's tough. Red Light District, Hotel Hell, Dark Carnival, The Haunting, so many classics to choose from.
>Soundtrack
Blood, it builds and complements the game's atmosphere perfectly. Redneck Rampage had a great soundtrack, but the vocals are too distracting when actually playing the game, and feel more noticeably repetitive than instrumental scores.
>Single track
Too hard to decide.

I have played almost every Build game, all my favorites are from Duke and Blood because they're just hands-down the best.

We all know how he does this :^)

I was wondering, did you guys play any of the recent maps made for douk or do you just bitch about the original episodes all the time?

>>5276371
>Most Build games had shitty bosses
That's rude i liked all the bosses from Blood and Duke
>Redneck Rampage soundtrack is distracting
Interesting... I think that's very personal, for example if i'm working i can't listen to songs where there are vocals, but if i'm playing then give 'em to me no problem. That's why i don't mind RR's soundtrack which is actually spot-on for the kind of game it wants to be. The fact that there are "only" 9 tracks looping over and over could be strenuous if you play this game a lot, though... But seriously, nobody in their right mind would play that game more than once, so maybe it's a nonexistent problem.

>>5276430
He can crouch, swim AND kick on the same time. For that alone he's the best main character ever made for a videogame.

>>5276445
My problem with Duke's bosses is that the first two are just braindead "circlestrafe and fire to win", and then the queen is on the opposite end of the spectrum, constantly spamming enemies that get in the way of your explosives and occasionally firing an unavoidable attack.

Ophelia?
NooOOOoo!

>>5276473
SHWOOO YOUSUEWWF
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4bhh4OnQU4

>>5276173
the Sonic 3D mod is one of the best Sonic games out there

>>5276484
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krPH0cWIP5U

>>5276517
Pretty ass-centric.

>>5276517
>I'm going in

The "Kick Ass Duke" mod is pretty fucking cool. The dude obviously put a ton of work into it. New enemies. And a female AI partner and even a gun that turns enemies into babes.

>>5276202
1. Douk with Caleb second
2. Coolie from Shadow Warrior
3. Battlelord's chaingun would rip all of the rest in seconds
4. Voodoo doll from Blood
5. Jetpack easily
6. Dark Side/Freeway/Derelict (Douk), Bath House (SW), Overlooked Hotel (Blood)
7. everything from Lee Jackson's Calibrations, but especially Bullet Dam

TIME TO LIMBO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo6LJ3EheA4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juPYX_Luzo4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GJuIieS7Mc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjZ6jQ7ssYU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h17Jh4uMfcU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlrgRC7R_u4

>>5276665
>2. Coolie from Shadow Warrior
I'm genuinely confused.

>>5276697
Name one game that wouldn't benefit from a Caribbean expansion.

I play Duke 3D on switch via homebrew but it had problems. Its an older version of eduke32 and the expansions and user maps didn't work but I copied some random config files and setting files and fucked about with it and now the expansins and user maps are working! :3

Have you guys got any recommended user maps?

>>5276742
havent played many but the Shaky Grounds duo is awesome

>Ken Silverman made an engine superior to Doom when he was 18 years old
I really envy that high Ashkenazi IQ

>>5276760
Let's not get sidetracked here...

What's the best Build game?

>>5276824
Duke

>>5276202
>Protag
Caleb. Stephan Weyte's work puts him just a bit above Douk.
>Enemy
Cultist. Very fragile but not to be underestimated because even one of them can rip you a new one if you are not careful.
>Boss
Alien dominatrix from Redneck Rampage. >>5276371 is right though, bosses are not the strong side of Build games.
>Weapon
Tommygun. Feels great.
>Item
Jetpack from DN3D.
>Soundtrack
That goes for Bernstein's work on Blood. Redneck Rampage's selection is close second.
>Single track
I'm sure that Megadeth's cover of Duke Nukem theme counts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46MALEk-7cE

>>5276284
FUCK YEAR

>>5276720
Monkey Island
Seriously though, literally none. It's a great concept but i think that as Sunstorm Interactive proposed it, no one else will. It's an unbeatable masterpiece, they nailed every single aspect.

>>5276824
Duke = Blood
>>5276850
Nice choice for the "Single Track". I've just remembered about erock's cover on that one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAXBWJyyMI0

>>5276484
>>5276473
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSgLQzjfj00
AY, SHE-BITCH! LET'S GO!

>>5276517
>Take that, you dirty girl!

>>5276860
Did you ever press the use button uninterruptedly in front of a closed door?
LOCKED
LOCKED
LOCKLOC
LOLOLOCKED
LOCKED
LOCKED
LOCK
LOCKE
LOC
LOLOL
LOCKED
LOCKED
LOCKED
LOCKED
LO
LO
LOC
LOCKED

>>5276850
Forgot the map - that'll be Phantom Express. It's impressive how many you can do with such limiting concept of a map.

>>5276868
I did.

>>5276856
Great one too.

>>5276202
-Caleb
-Tesla Cultist
-Stone Gargoyle
-Dynamite
-Super Armor
-E3M1
-Infuscomus

Enjoyed Duke back then but Blood was the more interesting entry,

>>5276886
>Infuscomus
Nice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svzMK33PMUk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zr9m92HRB4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGZgQBppVxk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qpg6iVqNWs

>tfw your fellow cultists left you alone at the church with the human sacrifice still warm

>>5276984
That gif needs a fire edit.

>>5276202
>Protagonist
Lo Wang
>Enemy
Pig Cop Tank
>Boss
Alien Queen
>Weapon
Wang's sword
>Item
steroids
>Level
Death Row

>>5276984
>Infuscomus 8-Bit
>GXSCC midiswap
I hate this shit

Having played all of Robert Travis' Duke maps, I still think that Anselm (his second ever published map) is by far the most interesting one conceptually, with Moonbase Beta One (his first ever published map) being a fairly distant second.

Both appear to be utterly and thoroughly braindead and inept. Both are actually more than they seem to be, and for both there actually is a genuinely novel idea the whole level (with its whole pretense of being braindead) is built around. Both can also be completed without the player not even having a clue about there being some kind of underside. But Anselm's beauty is connected to the fact that it is a much more evil map, than Beta One, in that it lays a beautiful and extremely nasty trap for a specific kind of player, that has already played Beta One, that has NOT discovered its "peculiarity", and that just happens to consider himself smarter than the mapper (which he is not considering former BetaOne-related failure such a player isn't even aware of as of that moment) - a trap that more or less turns the level into pretty much utterly uncompleteable.

>>5278251
de gustibus

>>5276612
You're talking about Alien Armageddon, surely?

>>5276430
Greatest video game bug of all time. I remember not being able to breath from laughing so hard.

>>5278421
>implying it's not intentional

>>5278421
>>5278562
>>5276430
I remember some magazine back in the day that claimed that it was possible to get 3 mighty boots on the screen at the same time. Shrinker+boot itself+melee attack IIRC.

What's with Duke's highest difficulty? Constantly respawning enemies with no ammo to dispatch them. Is it supposed to be fair?

>>5278616
It's all about gibbing the corpses using explosives and shrinker/freezer. In Shadow Warrior and Redneck Rampage this motif subsequently became a small part of normal difficulties.

>>5278616
Dispose of enemy corpses.

>>5278649
>>5278676
With the few rockets you start off with? Perhaps if one can memorize all secrets and areas that need to be cleared for good, it's doable, but I have only played through the game once, and I barely remember the map layouts.

>>5278692
For each new episode DIG gets easier. In EP2 you get the freezethrower, the shrinkay, more enemies that explode, that even slimers.
in ep4 you get the expander
in ep5 you get the flamethrower which is just ridiculous since a single shot gets rids of bodies.

>>5278261
Sounds interesting. I'll give "Anslem" a try.
I have no idea what hidden details you're insinuating on though.

>>5278692
>>5278893
Can't you also use the Steroids to kick enemies to pieces?

>>5276438
Late reply although I still play some new maps from times to times, the ones that seem interesting on paper, I don't follow every single release like I used to.
In the recent years I've come to the conclusion that there is nothing better than the original game(s) and most of the Duke3D community seem to miss the points which make those games good.
If they take pleasure in other points and it's fine by them, then it's fine by me.
Meanwhile, most of the times I'd rather just replay the original games and get lessons from them.

So yeah, I do play some of the new maps, but I'd rather bitch about the original episodes.

>>5279245
Not to my knowledge

>>5279224
First do Beta One.
Hint, although not connected to this map's "peculiarity"- using your map in a very particular way (in conjunction with savescumming, so that not to add sectors to the map you aren't ready to explore immediately right now) makes it way easier to determine, where you have already been, and where you haven't been yet. This technique very much helps at Smithsonian as well.

>>5278261
I always got the impression that Travis might not have been a good Duke player overall. In Duke it out in DC, it took 3 maps to visit the first Fat Commander, and you even got security warning about him.

I'm pretty sure Travis never ever touched the strafe button, based on his enemy placement. He also never played with mouselook (not a problem, but you never feel the same in the original levels).

He was very unimaginative with his enemy placements. Also with shadings and surprises with map design. His maps look big and formidable at first, but they all end up being just colourless, bland window shopping levels at the end. In other word, his maps were sheep in wolf's clothing.

>>5279875
And forgot to say that Betaone is shit. It's a hot mess with ugly texture choices everywhere, weird and annoying layout with no clear path, lack of shading and so on. The only good thing was the aquarium, but that had been remade in Smithsonian. That level was easily Travis' peak, had all the good from his previous work, yet, still felt like a dog that barks loudly, but at the end, there was no bite.

>tfw he didn't pay

>>5276824
Douk
Nouk
Em

>>5279882
Did you find the burnt out part of the level then? And, also, have you ever reached the end of Anselm without cheating?

>>5280006
Yep, I've found the caves with the red key and beat the level. It was ok at best with no escalation in gameplay and an abrupt ending.

>>5279875
I don't remember DC maps all that well, but here are pure "Travis" moments fromhis Caribbean maps.

map01: the room barricaded with the sofa and the way you access it
map03: the almost-insurmountable-height-wall in the water slides part of the level
map05: the ceiling trap

>>5280034
Did you actually get to the bottom of HOW you access the cave system? What do the entrances look like BEFORE you "open" them?

>>5280041
Weird, how he ended up with a different mapping style in Caribbean. DC was like the refined version of his previous work (ie Anslem, Aztec, Betaone and Betatwo), while Caribbean seems like something by an other person. Especially the first map. There is very little Travis in that level.

>>5280058
Don't remember, I played the map like 15 years ago for the last time.

I remember it having pigcops and enforcers for most part was wrong. These kind of maps look better with enemies like Commanders, Octabrains or Protector Drones.

In fact, Duke wasn't made for these kind of maps. Sure, it had The Abyss as a canyon, but it had sewers and an alien mothership, not a medieval hellish castle. Anslem is a very typical map that should have been a Doom map with Cacodemons and Hell Knights hovering around.

>>5280067
While I agree that DC wads "remake"-y to an extent (with Smithsonian being the "remakiest" of all of them), I found his Caribbean maps to be pretty much a continuation of his amateur usermapping style, at least, "in spirit".

>>5280084
It just might be interesting to fire up this map once again one day, and to take a really close look at the specifics of how exactly you enter the cave system. There is something very unusual (and telling) to be found there. Just sayin'.

I started playing Duke 3D for the first time the other day. The first episode was great but the second one is fucking dogshit so far because of these little fuckers. How do I even get rid of them? In the 3rd level there's sooooo many of them.

>>5280152
They are only bad in Incubator/Warp Factor. They won't be that numerous in later levels. Lunar Reactor and Dark Side are as good as episode 1 btw.

>>5280094
Lost Lagoon was a great level though, that is something I can expect even in a 3DRealms tailored episode.

>>5280163
I didn't say I didn't like his Caribbean maps. In fact, I prefer them to his DC maps because of Caribbean maps' generally significantly higher emphasis on conceptual novelty.

>>5280163
Also, of DC maps I remember taking a mental note about subway and submarine levels specifically ( as being _not_ _quite_ what I expected them to be based on previously played Travis' levels).

>>5280152
WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-

Any of you tried Aqua series by Ben Roffelsen? They were gud.

>>5276173
Okay so... I just discovered something in Doombuilder. If I create a sector adjacent to a room, I can insert e.g. a picture on a wall as a midtexture, by making the floor and ceiling level at the correct heights, and putting normal wall texture as Upper and Lower.

However, it turns out that it still works even if I delete the extra sector - I just get a linedef that has inexplicable Lower, Middle and Upper textures. I can't adjust the floor/ceiling heights anymore, but I can still change the textures if I want.

Is this trick safe to use? I don't want to break anything.

>>5280152
Second this. I'm playing at "Damn i'm good" difficulty for the first time and these are probably the worst enemies i've ever encountered in a BUILD game, now more than ever. What do i do?

>>5280248
Bait them to a door, close it on them while staying on the other side, detobate them by running back and forth along the door with them on the other side. Splash damage doesn't reach through walls so that way you can detonate them safely.
Also, they can dodge projectiles, so when straight up fighting them, only use bullets.

>>5280253
That's a very clever way to deal with those fuckers, thanks a lot. Sorry for the ignorance, but what's the difference between projectiles and bullets? I often use the shotgun against them because pig cops drop that kind of ammo a lot, it's that ok? For the level i'm in i pretty much have only "basic weapons" anyway (i want to spare the little ammo i have for freezethrower, shrinker/expander, devastator etc.)

>>5280315
He meant you should use hitscan weapons ( ie: pistol, shotgun, etc ) and not weapons that use projectiles with travel time ( ie: RPG, Devastator, etc ), because those little shits will try and dodge them.

I wrote about Wavemistress here >>5247396, but a new thing that came into my mind in its regard is that I think that Wavemistress (map04 from Caribbean by Charlie Wiederhold) is, at its core, a genuine attempt to pass for a Travis' map, to absolutely perfectly imitate the gist of his mapping style. A kind of a forgery, I mean.

THAT SURE FUCKING REMINDS ME.

A Travis' map taking place on a giant shit would sure be pretty cool, if only to see the difference between the real deal and the alleged imitation.

Sadly though he doesn't appear to have made one.
His levels from Cryptic Passage are these ones:
https://blood-wiki.org/index.php/CP04:_Lost_Monastery
https://blood-wiki.org/index.php/CPSL:_Boggy_Creek
https://blood-wiki.org/index.php/CP07:_Mountain_Pass

For Wanton Destruction his only level seems to be this one:
https://shadowwarrior.fandom.com/wiki/Level_2:_Monastery

AND WHAT DO YOU KNOW, SUCKIN' GRITS HAS SIGNATURES ON SOME OF ITS LEVELS

According to those, he made these three levels:
CARNIVAL.MAP - presumably, Level 02 - Carnival of Terror.
HOOVRDAM.MAP - presumably, Level 13 - Hoover Dam
and ALIEN.MAP - I have no idea as to which level that is, judging from their full titles.

Hoover Dam, though, eh? Could be interesting to compare to Mikko Sandt's version at the very least.

>>5280628
>A kind of a forgery, I mean.
Also, come to think of it, on a sidenote, I think this
https://archived.moe/vr/thread/5022707/#q5060745
fuckface was Wiederhold after all (despite flat-out denying it from both ends - with a cute '"mistype'", no less).

Somehow in a thread where Wiederhold announces his arrival I encounter a pretentious fuck that starts boasting his industry experience, all the while insulting me in a clearly excessive manner, which actually makes sense considering my earlier remarks on one of his levels - and I never encounter said fuck in any of the subsequent threads? Yeah, right, absolutely not connected in any way.

>>5280628
>on a giant shiP
:/
one fix
>>5280658
>considering my earlier remarks on one of allegedly his levels
two fix

Also, Travis co-authored this:
https://blood-wiki.org/index.php/CP03:_Gothic_Library
although Shawn Swift's quote from here
https://blood-wiki.org/index.php/Development_of_Blood#Cryptic_Passage
basically states, among other information, from what I understand, that the core of the level was his.
So that's three fix, I guess.

>>5280628
>genuine attempt to pass for a Travis' map, to absolutely perfectly imitate the gist of his mapping style. A kind of a forgery, I mean.

That's a big accusation to make considering Travis was lead level designer at Sunstorm and also one of the founders.
This means that even if he didn't make the map in Build, he probably decided the map was going to exist, and has had a huge influence on each map, to the point he might even have drawn it on graph paper to begin with.

>SUCKIN' GRITS HAS SIGNATURES ON SOME OF ITS LEVELS

I wouldn't assume that means these levels were solely is. If you check the credits Suckin' Grits has quite an impressive list of level designers, IIRC almost as much as there are levels.

>>5280658
To be frank I call you out on this too and it was either stupid or ignorant to assume that starting point meant anything. Also you were quite persistent in a view which seems incorrect to others, the person who responded to you might have lost his patience, but I still wouldn't come to the "Wieder's an asshole" conclusion you're trying to draw based on that.
I'd say there is also a small chance that's not Wieder.

>>5280692
If I am not mistaken, the same thread also has the conclusion to this dispute. The sub in the beta of Toxic Dump has its interior modeled and water in it starts to rise if you enter it (via cheating), however there is no way to enter it from outside as far as I know, meaning that the only way to see that is to start the level from there as you do in the release version. Moreover, there is a secret triggered from the outside of the sub, in the insides of the sub (unreachable from the outside fairly until having been opened from the inside). As far as I am concerned, that is convincing enough an indication that yes, starting from beta's starting point (in which case you don't get to visit sub's interior) was most probably some sort of a mistake indeed.

>>5280692
As for Travis, his being a co-founder didn't seem to influence DC's secret level - made by Charlie Wiederhold - a whole lot (barring the "time travel to the past" parts of the level remixed from Travis' AZTEC usermap). It's a very straightforward run'n'gun'n'jump level, quite challenging and big - and completely unlike anything Travis did up until that point. It's not spacious, it's not flat, it's boxy, quite vertical from what I remember and very combat-heavy.

As for Suckin' Grits credits - good point. There are 4 more different signatures in the mapfiles, which leaves 5 mappers at least to be without signatures. Some of them could indeed have co-authored some of the levels explicitly signed by Travis.
On another hand, he is specifically mentioned as a senior level designer in credits, according to mobygames, so that having three maps fair and square could be a thing as well.

>>5280248
They don't respawn in DIG, while they can blow up monster corpses along with them. You are a fucking loser if you can't handle them.

DIG is only bad in episode 1 where the only alternative to hitscan weapons are explosives

>>5280658
Wieder deserves credit for the Caribbean boss level, which was like the second coming of Lunar Reactor. Too bad it used those motherfucker poorly drawn dinghy pigcops.

>>5280658
Oh man, I remember this virginal fuckface, who knows better what we do, than ourselves.

>>5280726
And that secret map had beaten Warp Factor in the number of sentry drone contest.

>>5280152
Some quick pointers:
>you will always hear their WOOOOP when sighting in on you, they may do this repeatedly
>you will constantly hear the humm of their engine when they're nearby (as they're active, that is)
>if you have stereo sound, you should be able to at least passably judge their distance and angle to you due to their sounds
>combine this with RUNNING! and STRAFING!, and making sure to not turn your back on them if you can, keeping them in sight as much as you can, even if that means RUNNING! backwards
>if you can, don't use the RPG, Devastator or Freezegun on them, because they tend to dart side to side to avoid midair projectiles
>the Shrinker is obviously a no-go
>hitscan weapons work far better, in my opinion the Shotgun works the best, because it'll only take a few shells, and also it groups pretty respectably even at a distance (like a good shotgun should)
>so running backwards/circlestrafing them, while pounding shells on them, should work, even if they're in groups
Once you build these neural pathways in your head, you should eventually be able to do this even when other enemies are engaging you, and I say this as someone who isn't actually particularly skilled at Duke Nukem 3D.

>>5280152
Try to get behind a corner or a short wall or anything. The explosion won't hit you past walls.

One of the best ways to get rid of them is to find a doorway, lure them towards you and close the door in front of them. Spamming the door so it just barely opens helps more, though you should also remember to angle yourself in a way there's not a direct line of sight from you to the explosion when it finally happens.

>>5280152
>>5281043
>>5281084
What the hell guys, just stun them with hitscan weapons. chaingun is best.

>>5276173
Blood but on the ECS(Enhanced Chipset) Amgias like the 1200 and CD32. Hey, they eventually did it with DOOM 1 and 2.

>>5281116
>CD32

>>5281120
Hi there, oh AVGN fanatic.

>>5281120
CD32 has its flaws, sure, but its definitely better than the FM Towns Marty, PC-FX, Super A'can, Neo Geo CD, Jaguar, and Sega 32X.

>>5281149
How do you expect a game like Blood to run on the CD32 when it's brought to its knees by a game like fucking Gloom?
The CD32 is just a shit compromise version of a proper Amiga home computer.
But then, even in the context of a proper Amiga computer, it took quite a bit of technical wizardry to give it a port of Doom, so even then you wonder just how well Blood could run.

>>5281201
Arguably fair.

>>5281216
Gloom has framerate issues, no doubt. Just make the settings at least so that the gibs from dead enemies disappear after several seconds. There, not so much lag.

>>5281235
>I want to play a crude and crippled version of Blood
Might as well port it to the Playstation instead.

>>5281094
But that's wasting ammo, using doors is free.

>>5280628
>Boggy Creek
>(SW) Monastery
Love those levels.

>>5281335
Monastery's a masterpiece with some great C key use (round shapes), and also it's got Travis' style for secret places to its finest.
It's the Doom formula "you see an outdoor unreachable place, it's a secret" except tenfolds and has a particular way of doing it, that you can very often see in Cryptic Passage and Suckin' Grits too.

>>5280321
Ah, hitscan vs projectiles, in that sense. Now it's clear. Yeah, i knew that those little shits dodged the latter very easily especially if you're a little far from them.
>>5280727
I already knew that but you should calm down, autism kid.

>>5281254
How about the Saturn like they did with Quake and Powerslave/Exhumed?

>>5281293
*SQUISH!*
Hehehe, what a mess

I remember that mini-bosses were still a threat, a bunch of years ago. But not so after i found out that the OP weapons such as the freezethrower or the shrinker works very fine with them if compared to their boss counterpart. I still remember The Wavemistress level where at some point there are two battlelords (they didn't give them any tropical re-style, sadly) and to my surprise they shrank when i shot them. I felt like i was playing the game wrong until then.
On a side note, DN3D's multiplayer is fucking broken among the other things for the aforementioned weapons. They could've increased the amount of ammo you need in order to freeze/shrink but instead it works just like in single-player. But to be fair i think they still had some work to do with the multi, then Jewbox came in. Oh well, who cares. Duke is single-player anyway, give me usermaps and the yearly vanilla replay and i'm fine.

>>5281857
The Shrinker will always be one of my favorite FPS weapons. I remember being really happy when the Plutonium Pak came out and saw the Expander, thought that was the coolest shit ever. I wonder what other effects they could add with different colored crystals?

>>5281924
>Emaciator (yellow)
>fires a continuous beam that causes the enemy to become thinner
>they disintegrate upon death

Hank Crankem's a pretty fun game, yeah

>>5281924
Don't get me wrong, i love all Duke weapons indistinctly and to some degree you have to be strategic even with the most powerful one (first of all things, ammo management), but to me it was a bit of a disappointment watching two battlelords mini-bosses getting shrunk and trampled. Loved to squish those fuckers, but then i regretted it, thinking "that's it? Wow, i sort of want to go back in time and juggle with them with a RPG or a devastator instead".

>>5281985
I like to use the Devastator against groups of octabrains and slimers/eggs. It's really satisfying for me. It also helps that octabrains are especially weak to the Devastator.

>>5281996
That's the best thing to do, especially because octabrains are often spawned very near to eggs

>>5281984
excuse me his name is Doug Nuggem

>>5282146
You mean Dank Shankem, right?

>>5276202
>Caleb
>Cultist
>That underwater alien in Duke E4 was kind of neat (even though I overall don't like E4). The beast boss fight in E5 Blood was good, too.
>Dynamite
>Duke Night Vision
>Spare Parts
>This whole fucking underrated masterpiece https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L928CmhAPQY

>>5282181
>Open for businesssssss
>DAKKADAKKADAKKA

>>5282167
Doom Nuguy

>>5282181
Best Blood soundfont?

>>5282207
the one in that video. it plays default on gog version when you switch to midi soundtrack by editing the conf file. also plays default on bloodgdx when you switch to midi there.

>>5282206
Doug Huggem

>>5276202
>I'm sorry Duke, but it will be Caleb
>Too many to chose from. Zombie Axe, Pig Cop, Octabrain... In the end i'll just go with Cultists because they're just very well thought out for pretty much every aspect
>Duke Caribbean's Cycloid Emperor
>Voodoo Doll
>Item: Jetpack - Pickup: Guns Akimbo
>Too many to choose from. Probably something from Life's a Beach because i love the tropical vibes and their overall structure.
>Redneck Rampage
>The Wavemistress

>>5276984
this one is bretty gud. combines three of the versions into one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCiyfItsVR0

>>5282221
Banging on a trash can

>>5282314
lewd

I'M GETTING DRUNK
WITH OR WITHOUT YOU

What's the worst Duke level and why is it DC Smithsonian?

>>5282871

How do I disable vsync on Duke 3D 20th Anniversary Edition? I have an okay PC but every now and then the frame rate drops hard. I play on a 144Hz monitor so it's super annoying when it tanks to 50fps suddenly. This was especially bad in The Abyss.

I'm not sure if this is a problem with the game or my PC since I'm running Ryzen, which desn't have the best single core performance, but this is a fucking '96 game.

>>5282871
When it comes to that level, it seems you either love it, or you hate it, and there's no middleground. Nobody is ever "Smithsonian was alright." or "Could have been worse.", you were either miserable or you had a wonderful time.

>>5282919
I had a terrible time, but I liked it in a weird masochistic way.

>>5276824
blood

>>5282912
I seriously hope you pirated that game.

>>5282912
>30th anniversary edition
That's your fucking problem, from what I understand it's full of so much bloat to the point where it's an unoptimized mess

>>5283062
Is it based on some existing port or was it a new development?

>>5283073
A new development, all the other sourceports have much lower system requirements and recommendations (unless you want polymer)

>>5283085
Does it have some advanced features(renderer) or what else do you mean with bloat?

>>5283051
Nah, it was only like $4 the other day.

>>5283062
Oh, well then. I guess I'll just chug through this mess then play Blood.

>>5283159
Just get eduke32 and play it without problems. Don't suffer through terrible port just because you paid money for it.

If you were charged with renaming Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior into single word titles (ie Doom, Quake, Blood, Unreal, etc), what would you name them?

>>5283159
lol, 4$ is a lot, they should pay you instead to play that shit and i'm not even joking

>>5283181
Steroids for the former and Samurai for the latter. Or maybe just America and China.

>>5283127
I'm pretty sure there's something bloating it the fuck up if the system requirements are higher than Crysis

>>5283165
>>5283227
I managed to get vsync off and it's fine now. I'm getting steady 600+ FPS.

>>5283246
You still got robbed though. And you won't experience this beautiful pic related.

>>5283254
Anybody who frequents a Build thread already has Caribbean in one form or another. You don't like Gearbox, we get it.

>>5283256
You misspelled Jewbox. Seriously now, World Tour deserves to be pirated, it's not me hating them, it's how things should be. But now it's too late, you gave your money to Bitchford and the least you can do is to play the new episode which has a lot of lows and highs, a Duke Nukem who's more like Homer Simpson regarding comedy and a fucking checkpoint system (i seriously hope they got rid of that shit). After you finish with it do yourself a favor and install EDuke32. Sorry for being so blunt and apparently presumptuous about it, but i really don't like what they did to Doug Nignog.

>>5283256
You misspelled Jewbox. Seriously now, World Tour deserves to be pirated, it's not me hating them, it's how things should be. But now it's too late, you gave your money to Bitchford and the least you can do is to play the new episode which has a lot of highs and lows and a Duke Nukem who's more like Homer Simpson regarding comedy. Overall this version has a very poor settings menu and among the other debatable and/or awful things, a fucking checkpoint system (i seriously hope they got rid of that shit). After you finish with it do yourself a favor and install EDuke32. Sorry for being so blunt and apparently presumptuous about it, but i really don't like what they did to Doug Nignog.

>>5283283
The only good thing Duke has gotten since the early 2000s deserves to be pirated? Brand new, quality content from the original devs isn't worth a few bucks to you? Go fuck yourself, this shit doesn't happen everyday and retards like you ensure it'll never happen again.

You know what to do when the time comes.

>>5283296
Calm down, autism kiddo.
>Brand new
It's only an episode, which isn't consistently good but not bad either, to be fair.
>Quality content
Like above. Also you should define "quality" because this version right here lacks some serious stuff and adds some debatable features.
>Original devs
*Original mappers.
Although to be fair there's also the original composer and Duke's voice actor, but those two didn't shine either if compared to their original stuff.
>Worth a few bucks
Maybe. Maybe not. That was just my opinion, you're free to do anything you want; the thing i'm especially opposed with is giving even a single cent to Randy and Jewbox, but those are not my money so again, it's your decision.
>this shit doesn't happen everyday
It does though. Even more than you would expect. In a form or another, there's a sudden revival of plenty of old games in the last period and you can't deny it, along with the retro etiquette for brand new videogames. But again, to be fair this is still better than what other games have gone through, with remasters, remakes, reboots and other shit like that. World Tour could've been a lot worse, i'll give you that much.
>retards like you ensure it'll never happen again
And that's not a problem, at least personally i think so. It's way better to let die something instead of trying and cash in some more money from it, trying to ride the wave, so to speak. Again, this isn't entirely the case for World Tour because shit could've been worse, but at the end of the day these kind of games are always renewed, fixed and polished by the community itself and not by a major, all of this stuff for free.. But now i'm digressing, the end line is...
>this shit doesn't happen everyday
It will, don't worry. There a lot of easy money beneath this shit, something that the brain-dead corpses wearing the once noble names of old software houses won't resist that easily.

>>5283389
What's happening here

>>5282912
I haven't experienced performance issue, but fucking hell I can't believe they didn't make it possible to disable autoaim. If only eduke32 had full compatability with AWO.

>>5282919
In the DC expansion the level design has essential progress making parts hidden like secrets.

To get the yellow key card in Smithsonian you have to sneak around vents. To get out of the white house you HAVE to fall into a pit to get a jetpack. A pit it seems at first you have to avoid falling into because there's platforms to hop across.

Most of that expansion is like this. Really annoying.

>>5281924
I love the Shrinker and Microwave Expander.
Shame the Expander is only ever used in The Birth and there's so little ammo for it.

>>5283296
>retards like you ensure it'll never happen again.
No, kiddo. The current political climate and the mentality of pseudo-progressive devs takes care of that. Sit your ass down.

>>5283389
Was that bug in the original or did one of the ports introduce that?

>>5283516
>but fucking hell I can't believe they didn't make it possible to disable autoaim.

On the PC version that got patched in 1 week after release, with other main issues. Sounds like you're a dirty pirate.

>>5283283
>deserves to be pirated

there is always an excuse to make you pirate stuff isn't there ?
"bitchford" is not a valid excuse to pirate the game. You're only using the hate train against him to give yourself an excuse to pirate the game. You read stories related to him, never wondered what his versions of the stories could be, or perhaps even never checked how the stories ended.
and even then, if you actually knew every single dev and publisher, there will always be someone in the team you don't like or you think did something shitty or shady. The only difference is you don't know, and this is also valid for all your beloved 90's games.
Maybe you should never bought DN3D in the first place because according to one e-mail ken silverman is an asshole, or because 3drealms dropped monolith and lobotomy mid-contract. Imagine the bucks you could have saved in the 90's. By this logic you should pirate 99% of everything, movies and musics too, but maybe that's what you're trying to do.

This is definitely not an excuse for jumping on someone who spent 5 or even 20 bucks on a new episode by some of the most iconics devs of a game he loves.

>>5283940
Randy, if you read the whole conversation you would've spared both your and my time altogether.

>>5283974
Big of you to assume Randy is particularly literate.

>>5283974
my point is, go be a pirate, that's fine
But jumping on someone for buying the game on sale? Fuck off, he's not the one in fault, you are. But you're not being a knight in shiny armor "defending the fate of old FPS games", you're being an asshole trying to justify his faults by any means, including transfering the fault.

>>5283283
Switch between the vanilla engine and the new one with one button press is cool as fuck though. I was constantly flapping it to see the difference in textures and shit. That was awesome.

>>5283898
Agreed.

>7 shots to kill a single pig cop/enforcer
>12 shots to kill Octobrain

Definitely sucks. Both the shrinker and expander should be tweaked. Shrinker should maybe take a few hits. The game is easy mode when you pick one of those up. It definitely sucks you have to shoot and enemy a few times before using expander to get the most out of it

I prefer some Duke 64 weapons to the originals. I know there's a pc total conversion of 64 but is it possible to replace just a few weapons in the normal version? I'd take the dual Uzi's over the ripper every day. And the bouncy grenades are cool as fuck. The 64 pistol sprite also looks better.

>>5283843
Oh, these are mild. This mapper LOVES to suddenly catch people off-guard with his little inventions. On a plus side, they sure are quite inventive.

>>5283415
>>5283929
I found it in an OLD archive of /vr/ threads. It probably hasn't been seen on 4chan in YEARS.

According to the original poster (namefagging as "Ark" in a thread titled "Blood Zombie Head Tower"), here's what's happening:

>I found a funny in Cryptic Passage. One of the secrets requires pressing a certain spot on the wall, and also spawns a zombie. But, it spawns a zombie each time you press the wall.

>You can do fun stuff like setting dozens of them all on fire at once, or setting off 10 remote detonators under them and zombie parts rain on you for 30 seconds.

>But a fun one is the Tesla cannon alt fire. You fire it at them twice in quick succession and it decapitates a large number of them in the same spot. Boom. Zombie head tower.

>There is something similar in E1M3. When you enter the super secret, it spawns a couple of cultists and innocents. Every time. Can get crowded.

>[Ignore the ammo amounts, I hex edited the exe to let me carry unlimited ammo.]

>>5284004
Like, his levels are ultimately built around these "... eh? wait what?" moments even though that absolutely doesn't SEEM to be the case on a surface level. All the plain-looking run-and-gunning parts are there not in the least to cover up those tricks and to lull the player into "yeah, yeah, whatever" mode.

Fuck, sorry.
>>5284078 is an answer to >>5283843.

>>5283997
The Expander was the opposite of the Shrinker in more than it's effect on enemies. For instance, it's hitscan as opposed to a projectile. But most importantly it was good against low health enemies whereas the Shrinker is good against high health enemies. The best use for it is against Assault Troopers/Captains as just killing one can cause the explosion to kill multiple enemies around it.

Any good guide on getting the Steam version of Blood working with modern controls? I know how to use setup.exe but there's so many damn actions to bind. Basically, I need a guide on what key to bind with what action.

Playing with the original controls is aids.

>>5284604
This. Though one could whittle an enemy down a bit with a few shotgun shells and then zap him with microwaves.
I like the idea of using it on the Alien Protector Drones, because they're immune to the Shrinker and they're just bastards and deserve the most gruesome death, but it seldom works great because they're just so fast, I seem to miss a lot of shots here and you don't get very many

>>5284604
>>5284629
That said, I think upping its ammo limit to 100 would be fair. 50 Expander ammo is certainly not equal to 50 Shrinker shots.

>>5283987
Still didn't read the whole conversation, i see.

>>5284624
Go to the Steam folder of the game and just put BloodGDX files on there and you're good to go. You can also use the BloodGDX executable and mimic it as the original dosbox file, so Steam will count your play hours too if you're into that sort of thing. Overall it's just a neat sourceport that's accurate, has kid-friendly mod support, compatible with way more resolutions, has a lot of settings etc.

>>5283940
>according to one e-mail ken silverman is an asshole
what are you talking about? pics or it didn't happen

My only complaint with Blood would be the Jump Boots. Those breaks the levels a significant amount of times, user-created and vanilla alike. I often found myself using them and being catapulted on a side of the map that either shouldn't be visitable yet or even worse, near the end of the level itself. Trust me, this stuff happens way more you can think of. At that point i just jump back where i was before, pretending i didn't see anything and forcing myself to clear the level as intended... Still, that doesn't change the fact that something like that as a whole is very, very debatable.

>>5284871
https://tcrf.net/Proto:Blood/Alpha_Demo#GEORGE.TXT

>>5284973
I actually remember this e-mail, that website is great for this kind of stuff

>>5284971
Jump boots are fucking amazing, but obviously, like Duke's jetpack, if you bring it over from previous levels it can break everything.

While that's also part of the fun, at the same time you can't really blame a level which doesn't have a jetpack/boot to be broken with it.

Play pistol/pitchfork start and only use it within a level, then they become awesome. I love them in Blood e1m5 for instance.

I only found it a couple of months ago that you could turn them on/off at will. I used to always go as fast as possible whenever I activated them to make the most of it. Turning them on/off surely helps a LOT in e1m5.

>>5284995
Don't misunderstand me, it's a great item but just like Duke's jetpack, it is undeniably flawed regarding this kind of stuff. They could've simply made it available only for the level you're in or like you said in the spoiler, make it one time use only (although this way it's too much limiting, to be fair); this way you wouldn't break that level or the ones later on. I do play pitchfork start, but that doesn't change the fact that setting my own rules because developers didn't think too much about it, it's not the right way to play any game. I do that, but it shouldn't be like that. It's like you're giving me a cheat device as a pickup and telling me to use it whenever i want, like i want. There are sections where you legitimately use it for secrets or even to progress in the game, but those are very limited compared to the times you can use it to break a map.

>>5285049
> I do play pitchfork start, but that doesn't change the fact that setting my own rules because developers didn't think too much about it, it's not the right way to play any game.

Pitchfork start is part of the game's rules. You die -> you start the level over from scratch

if you were good enough to bring supplies over from the previous maps? Good for you, reward for skill, have fun.
You brought a jetpack or boots? Have fun. Even if it can sequence break the level or even literaly break it, it's not a problem, you're having fun in a rewarding way.

That's just the design mentality of the time. It's not that they didn't think about it, because thinking that noone in the dev team or testers ever made it to Fusion Station with a Jetpack at hand is fooling yourself, they knew the consequences but didn't care because fun prevails.

>>5276202
>Protagonist
Duke
>Enemy
Cultist
>Boss
Hot take, none of the bosses are that amazing. If I were forced to say one, I'd pick one from Shadow Warrior, Snake/Sumo/Zilla. They aren't really super tough, but they're aggressive and interesting enough. Runner up would be the spider from Blood, but because the spawning is cool.
>Weapon
All of my favorites are from Shadow Warrior or Blood. I'd say the grenade launcher from SW, just because it's so good.
>item
Jetpack is really fucking cool, but you could argue it breaks the game. Same with the jumping boots. If I were to be a boring fuck, I'd say the the gas grenade and smoke bomb from SW, because they can be used offensively really effectively. Also the heat seaker/nuke is really cool, if we count that, even though the nuke is so strong it's practically pointless outside of custom levels.
>Level
Too difficult for there ever to be a real answer.
>Soundtrack
Shadow Warrior, just because that's how I am
>Single track
Going After the Fat Commander from Duke is one I always remember.

>>5285145
>Shadow Warrior, just because that's how I am
A weeb? But seriously, SW had some great tracks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6SdJc4p9Dc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKWNch_i3mA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO4TZ8YDjWo

>>5285123
This explanation feels way too much sketchy.
>Pitchfork start is part of the game's rules. You die -> you start the level over from scratch
I agree with that, although my point wasn't this one when i talked about setting my own rules, rather i was talking about going back to the place where i was before using the jump boots "incorrectly".
>You brought a jetpack or boots? Have fun. Even if it can sequence break the level or even literaly break it, it's not a problem, you're having fun in a rewarding way.
Different points of view. Personally i think that cheesing the level design and cutting my way through the map is neither rewarding nor fun.
>That's just the design mentality of the time.
Debatable
>they knew the consequences but didn't care because fun prevails.
That's just you saying it, not the developers themselves.

>>5285172
This is the most pure kino track in FPS history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXRnZtdIRYE

>>5285172
Not even the best one in Shadow Warrior. Personally the real ambient "kino" track is this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svzMK33PMUk (the MIDI version is fine too).

>>5285207
Not even the best one in Shadow Warrior. Personally the real ambient "kino" track is this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svzMK33PMUk (the MIDI version is fine too).

>>5285231
Why do you call this ambient, when it has a very clear driving melody? The track from e1m1 is most ambient, because of the droning vocals is main focus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiysYPVkVv8

>>5285238
>it has a very clear driving melody
Not all the time, though; that's why is so special. It also compares very well to what the other anon posted because both have some hint of melody.
>The track from e1m1 is most ambient
That one is probably the most fitting of that title, i agree.

>>5283296
Fuck off Randy

>>5283296
He said the right thing. "Fans" destroyed the future of the release.

What is the frame rate cap of build

>>5282871
I like Smithsonian because it was a great throwback to Robert Travis' earlier maps like Anslem or Betaone/two but with more polish.

>>5283254
This pic and level looks terrible anon, grow some standards.

Any Duke user map recommendations?

>>5283296
Logic time.
You should donate money to every good map and mod maker in the community. Brand new, quality content from dedicated people. Go fuck yourself if you don't give them anything.

So, uh, not to step on anyone's toes, but, well, WGrealms, the first one. I am royally confused on what the point of the whole thing was. The first two maps seem to be essentially bobsp-s in a different set of decorations. The third map suddenly plays like a glorified populated deathmatch map, along with the style of landscape design from WGspace3. The fourth map has an, ahem, imperfet recreation of Michiel van den Bos' Foregone Destruction (UT'99 soundtrack) playing along a pretty much typical WGspace level, only smaller and differently textured. And, finally, the final map is, idunno, whatever.

Also, are some of the textures taken from Hexen and Quake? They sure seem to occasionally.

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS WILLIAM??? #irony #hashtag

Like, ok, if I were to choose that one map, that isn't a repetition of what I have previously seen of WG, then it's map2 (with map1 being an introduction to it). However, thing is, it's bloody derivative in my opinion (although it DOES ultimately play better in my opinion than any of bobsp-s, it mainly picks up steam towards its end), and moreover, bobsp-s are (in my opinion) attempts to make Half-Life semblance of DN3D anyway (meaning, they are derivative in a wider context). And as to what the rest of the episode has to do with the first two maps, I have no idea whatsoever, but for the most part it's pretty braindead anbd occasionally random run-n-gunning.

I really like WG's WG-old1 and AlienX at the very least (and I am really intrigued on WGspace3, which was his first SP map with natural terrain, and which I have managed to get myself stuck on), but his later stuff kind of starts to get on my nerves. It seems, the further along, the more conventional and timesinky his maps get.

THIS IS MY CURRENT PERSONAL OPINION, NO MORE, NO LESS. TASTES DIFFER.

>>5286394
>Half-Life semblance OUT of DN3D
Fairly important fix.

Time to abort your whole freakin' species.

>>5286394
Just played and completed WGCity.

I don't really know how to put it into words. This level, the likes of this level, are the exact reason why I am doing this, playing Duke, playing Quake, playing Doom, at all, the exact thing I am looking forward to while doing this. It has minor flaws, but it is still a remarkable achievement in its own right and in context of level-design as such, and the single goddamn best, most sensible and most genuinely playable map I have yet seen of this mapper by a really large margin. I am awestruck, that's the word I was looking for. If, by any chance, its mapper is reading this, then he hws my earnest, sincere gratitude as that of a human being to a human being.

The main part of the level is comprised of everything theoretically possible to reach in non-cheating ways before you pass through the first red door. The focus of this part of the level is set on jumping puzzles. Each successful jump you do changes how you imagine which jumps are possible, doable in the context of this level. In other words, while playing, the way you imagine and interprete THE VERY SAME LOCALES tangibly morphs, since you start to see possibilities and pathways where you previously saw something else. This drives home the point that the primary reason tge way you imagine the city changes is not because the city ITSELF changes (although it very much does), but because it is YOU who are changed by the experience of interacting with this virtual destroyed city. In yet other words it drives home the point that this level - as any other level, to an extent - affects you and changes you in some way or another through the very process of your playing it and trying to access the contents it is comprised of, translated to you via your computer screen. At least, that is what I personally gained off of it.

>>5287135
Also, the achiement I spole of is not in that this level is effective at changing the player, but in that it DEMONSTRATES IN EXPLICIT MANNER that it does indeed change the player through the process of playing it - and successfully makes it a point.

>>5285792
Did you even play this addon? Every level is consistent, this one included. Also it was just a random pic found on the web, i didn't want to imply anything with that, it's just how you start the first level and the very first feelings you can grasp, something like "this shit will be good".

We reached a point where i masticate sweetened chewing products and engage in combat with my foot at your gluteus maximus. However, it seems my reserves of such chewing products has gone dry.

>if you try to play the regular Duke levels with the Nuclear Winter expansion selected they just send Dukes dressed as Santa to fucking kill you

Why? I just wanna play Duke with comfy winter Christmas enemies

>>5288170
Because Nuclear Winter is a piece of shit?

>>5288187
But you get to kill feminists! And E1M1!

>>5288187
Not the one you replied to, but i actually like to play it on Christmas days, it's just very mediocre and often stigmatized here on /vr/ for plenty of good reasons, so it's fair to say that is probably the worst of the most famous ones but definitely not the worst Duke addon. The award goes to pic related.

>>5288242
Well, something with a design goal would generally be better than shovelware, just by default.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW3XSqBkz20
How did they manage to dodge a potential McDonald's complaint?

>>5288242
Are ALL of those levels at dukeworld, or does it have some, not covered by either "classic" or "unsorted" folders?

>>5287135
Wow, psycho anon enjoys a map? That's something unexpected.

>>5288436
wait, people actually finish reading his bullshit?

>>5284971
I always thought it was really cool how you can jump onto the cliff outside the window in E2M4, even though there's literally nothing there. I wish there was a super secret

Anyone here happens to be in the possession of the first version of MRCK's "Siebenopolis" DN3D usermap? Everywhere I look I see updated version only.

>>5288242
Nice. My old ass Duke and SW maps are on some of these.

>>5288496
>"Siebenpolis"
Fix. Sorry.

>>5288496
Also, does anyone here by any chance happen to have (and to be willing to share) the MRCK's/ck3D's pack from this thread
http://www.scent-88.com/forum/index.php/topic,174.0.html
or at least that one "unfinished high tech map, 2005"?

>>5288728
I had that map, but not anymore, it's been a long time man. What you see in those screenshots is literally all there was to the map.

>>5288906
Oh.
Thanks for the info though.

>>5276173
If I want to play Blood which is the best way to do so?

Is RedneckGDX playable as of right now? Also does it have support for Suckin' Grits on Route 66?

>>5288979
Seemed to work just fine back when I tried it in September. Route 66 does work as well, you just need to make sure you all the files have the proper names.

>>5288979
You could use rednukem instead of GDX too. Played both games and the add-on and it worked perfectly.

>>5288959
BloodGDX.

So I just fired up Redneck for the first time in, well, several years (I didn't pistolstart back then as well, played continuously) and gave each level a very short spin, just the beginning, no saves, until I could make sort of a "first impression" on what it plays like from pistolstart, and to guess which of the three mappers that worked on the game did which particular level. All three have previously done Doom levels which I have played, and all three had vastly different styles exhibited there, so, my guesses are based on my experiences of playing those Doom levels.

I have come to some really weird results. The mapper the Doom levels of which I found the most conceptually interesting among the three, Mal Blackwell, didn't seem to design any of the levels that I have remembered fondly from my initial continuous playthough. Rather, well, you'll see.

Anyway, my guesses (again, they are based on initial impressions only) are:
Alex Mayberry (lead level-designer): E1L1 (Taylor Town), E1L5 (DairyAir Farms), E2L1 (Downtown Hickston WHAT THE FUCK), E2L5 (Mortuary WHAT THE FUCK 2; also this level seems to be downright unplayable from pistolstart, at least in its beginning), ENDGAME. Designs in haphazard "I don't know what I am doing" and, at the same time, show-offy manner. His levels are more free-roam-y than those of others.
Kvernmo: E1L2 (Lumberland), E1L4 (Drive In), E2L2 (Nut House), E2L4 (Ruins), E2L6 (Mansion). Designs in clean, very orderly, sligtly excessively spacious, slightly low detail, somehow thoroughly subtly unpleasant manner.
Blackwell, you can probably guess: E1L3 (Junk Yard), E1L6 (Sewer), E1L7 (Smelting Plant), E2L3 (J.Clucks, although I am not sure about this one), E2L6 (Uranium Mines). Neat, linear, "I couldn't have possibly foreseen this" as the main gimmick.

>>5289230
>although I am not sure about this one
Rather, I am not sure about anything, but this one in particular I have more doubts about than about the others.
And there naturally could be collaborations on levels too. I just assume a single author everywhere simply for my own convenience.

Also, thing is, Mayberry of Doom times was effectively a shitmapper. A total inept myhouse-worthy slaptogether. However, Downtown Hickston and Mortuary were my two most beloved experiences from the game, and Downtown Hickston you have to play from the pistolstart, as it is the initial level of the second episode. So, I definitely had an intended experience with it. The possibility of what I remember of it from those years ago, to have been designed by the same person who designed shadow.wad, right now, just doesn't compute with me. That's all I currently have to say in regards to this.

>>5289230
So according to you the lead level designer made all the worst maps in the entire game?

Honestly I find this unlikely. Most likely due to his position he was the one teaching most of the Build tricks, so maps like Uranium Mines for instance would be my guess.

Besides there is a difference between making your own usermap on your past time, and working on a commercial game. On the commercial game, you may not decide what level you're going to build, its theme or general layout, and plenty of ideas might be thrown in by other people; so trying to guess who made which pro map based on their user-maps doesn't seem like a good idea for me.

Why does the Shadow warrior classic redux port stutter like crazy?
I've tried messing with my graphics card settings to fix it, forcing v-sync/triple buffer on and off, it just feels bad, and some of the sounds effects sounds fucked.
Is there a better source port out now or should i just get used to it?

Anyone ever be really conservative with their powerful weapon ammo and then end up finishing the level without using them? I gotta learn to start using my shit when I get it

>>5289369
You can just open doomworld/idgames, search for maps made by Alex Mayberry and probably be like "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS DOGSHIT".

Occupied Territory is a pile of fucking garbage. Half of the Lunar maps should've been revised.

Oh shit, Randy Pitchford might be in big trouble.

>>5290134
Why
>>5290415
Why

>>5290415
>Randy Pitchford may have stolen 12 millions dollars
Why am i not surprised in the slightest?

>>5290426
Randy Bobandy has a thing for cheese pizza.

>>5289732
You know what I'll give it a try when I have time.
I'm still not convinced your thought process is bulletproof though because these must be several years apart and commercial and usermaps are very different things.

>E2L5 (Mortuary
>this level seems to be downright unplayable from pistolstart, at least in its beginning

I did it on Psychobilly several times, but I have to admit it is the hardest one, and every time I attempt it it takes me several tries. it's the start that's the worst, some protips:
>attrack the alien hulk guard to the starting area, behind the trees
You can't get rid of his body so at least if he respawns he won't be on your ass that way. It IS possible to get rid of his body but only by sheer luck: if one his mines didn't explode and you use the explosion to get rid of his corpse. If that happens, you're in luck because the gun is a godsend

>if you're lucky the fat guy will drop a shotgun

>use the entrance gates as cover
>attract the dogs ONE by ONE
>for the 2 sherrifs, take cover behind the gate and shoot when they reload

>for the 2 Vixens behind the building, just run. Since we're aiming for 100% (theorically though, since the kill count is broked in this game it's never 100% stats), come back for them later on in the map

Once you're in the mansion everything is smoother. You'll still want to make sure you get all the secret places.

>>5289230
It's highly possible that E1L1 and E2L1 were made by the same person, who happened to be the lead designer. Good analysis, although this game is dogshit, so don't worth the time.

Try to do the same with RRRA. At least it had some decent maps.

>>5290432
>tfw you will never build maps as good / steal as much money as Randy

:(

>>5290134
I'll make sure to redirect your comment to 1996.

Penthouse Paradise and Duke Xtreme were official and therefore canon

>>5290415

>>5290441
>if one his mines didn't explode and you use the explosion to get rid of his corpse
Niiiiiiiiice. The thought didn't even appear to me.
I am not doing that though. It isn't worth my time anyway, I am currently only interested in Blackwell out of those three, and he is the whole reason I attempted this analysis anyway.

If you, by any chance, decide to do all three, you can learn more or less everything you need to know about Kvernmo from his Plasmaplant (requires g/zdoom), although his Cabal episode and his Master Levels would be more "canon" as they were made immediately prior to his RR work.
And for Blackwell, make sure that if you play Eden, you play it prior to Redrum, as it works only as an introduction to that level, not as an epilogue.
>>5290592
I have independent reference point in terms of prior userlevels for one of RRRA leveldesigners, and I even like his stuff to an extent, but the other one is a complete mystery to me. I think that if I start to just lump together everything that doesn't seem "like enough" the first guy onto the second guy, THAT is when my guesswork might go very wrong.

Anyway, I have replayed Junk Yard, Sewer and J.Clucks yesterday, and yes, I still think they were made entirely by Blackwell, all right. It really seems to me like this guy was basically this game's own Allen Blum despite obviously having way less influence over the overall shape of the game. J.Clucks is the most straightforward of those and was probably made first, Junk Yard is considerably more sophisticated, although it has some missteps (in terms of how you access what) that seem to be not quite intentional, and Sewer. Well, actually Sewer is absolutely doable. It is quite brutal, it requires unwavering attention and genuine effort to understand it, to make a mental map of it, to constantly question your preconceptions about it. But if you do treat it seriously, it actually starts to make sense. Turning the music off and treating the visual theme simply as a glorified wallpaper, and the level, as a spatial structure, purely on its own terms, helps tremendously as well (although you still need to pay attention to how things look due to that one wall poster). If you use dynamite as intended on those square water pits and if you earnestly look for secrets, you will be absolutely swimming in ammo, so that it stops to even register (all three of those maps are very liberally balanced in terms of supplies, and it is obvious that their point is very different from making sure you don't miss). The sketchiest part is, obviously, that one shootable button near the end, but the thing is, you do get a hint about it, as you access one of the secrets in a similar way, and the hint about THAT room is that after getting out of water you can't see the ceiling right away in what seems to be a clearly pointless room.

Still, there seems to be something missing when going from Junk Yard to Sewer, you have to take too many guesses in your thought process. There was probably some other level made in between of those two levels. I guess, I'll see.

>>5291198
>you still need to pay attention to how things look due to that one wall poster
Actually, you have to pay attention to how things look first and foremost because in this level, in order not to get confused, you absolutely have to go by the landmarks, to make mental notes about whatever things stick out in your current environments, and to dance from those current landmarks of yours. The poster is a good candidate for such a landmark, that makes it likely for you to read it and remember what's written on it.

>>5291213
And the square maze with going up and down the ladders is what teaches you to make landmarks by means of reading things, and it goes on for longer than it probably should, to make sure you do it.

On a sidenote, my current guess is that Uranium Mines were made prior to Smelting Plant.

>>5291198
>>5291213
>>5291231
Last two remarks for the time being.
First. The only reason I have found Sewer doable and even sensible to an extent this time around is because I have previously completed the game once, and was aware both about peculiarities of this level, and of those levels that follow it in the game's campaign (but could actually be made before it).

Second, here:
>On a sidenote, my current guess is that Uranium Mines were made prior to Smelting Plant.
my "guess" is based purely on what I remember of those levels from my first playthrough. I haven't yet gotten to actually replaying them.

>>5276173
Has anyone tried the Alien Armageddon mod yet? Is it any good?

>>5291257
It's pretty impressive what new shit the guy added. Fucking guns that turn aliens into babes. AI partner you can switch between on the fly etc

>>5291250
Actually, no, Uranium Mines is probably the last one in the sequence (as I should've guessed from the beginning). Now the only question is whether Smelting Plant fits before or after Sewer concept-wise.

>>5291417
>>5291250
Again I think your process is flawed. In a commercial game it can be likely that several maps are worked on at the same time, even if made by the same mapper. For instance, themes and layouts are thought of on paper. Mapper makes the basic layouts for all maps. Then starts detailing all his maps, etc

>>5291145
Now he's a kiddie diddler too?! Feels bad man...

>>5291463
I'll reply after replaying the last map, but I currently think that these maps are best thought of as an single author's episode (akin to Plug'n'Pray) and after Uranium Mines I have a pretty good idea as to what kind of point such an episode is trying to communicate. But, again, I will elaborate on them only after replaying Smelting Plant and, among other, checking as to whether my assumptions pan out.

In short, I assume that the maps comprise a sequence because the repertoire of actions demanded of player in order to access all the of their content, expands from map to map, and the trick introduced in "arguably earlier in sequence" maps are then reused in "arguably later in sequence" maps along with new tricks, not seen "arguably earlier in sequence".

That the order of the levels got horrendously jumbled, I think, ultimately, is the consequence of wise and unquestionably qualified decisions of the Lead Level Designer though.

>>5291463
And, by the way, look at Shadow Warrior's campaign design. Stephen Cole has level 2 and levels 6-10. The levels Eric Reuter participated in creation are 14-17. Meaning, that barring splicing one level onto the shareware episode, they let at least two level-designers to put their stuff in the game in the continuous, uninterrupted manner. I didn't recheck as to whether those sequences have some sort of progression in them in terms of ideas (I didn't find Eric Reuter's Doom levels interesting enough to really care about his levels in particular, but I do plan to get around to reassessing Cole's part of the game), but they just as well sure could.

>>5291497
>That the order of the levels got horrendously jumbled, I think, ultimately, is the consequence of wise and unquestionably qualified decisions of the Lead Level Designer though.

>>5291198
Sewer and Junk Yard are some of the worst maps in the entire game. How is that related to Allen Blum's class act, I don't know.

>>5291502
Stephen Cole was a hack. His levels, with the exception of his shareware level, were all terrible.

>>5291551
No they're not. Junkyard is everything a classic Build map is about. The only "issue" is figuring out the elevator to go into the sewers.

I also genuinely like Sewers, despite its flaws. I understand it can be a confusing map, but that is mostly due to the freedom given and the unlinearility, as you can literaly only visit less than half of the map, and you can go around it from both sides at the start.
The hidden switch at the end is pure bullshit though; and I wish we fought something other than the Turd Minions, Turd Minions which are also way too hard to shoot when they're walking on water sectors, but that's the coders fault as much as the mapper's.

>>5291561
Junkyard has that horrible junk texture for the whole map. That alone makes that map shit.

Sewers had an annoying layout and for many, the end of the game.

How can you compare these to the likes Lunar Reactor, Derelict etc?

>>5291576
That's a personal opinion, not criticism. /discarded

Sewers on the other hand, while built with lots of detail, is very annoying.

EDuke32 newbie here. I didn't find anything useful for this problem on Google (but maybe it's just me not researching the right keywords), so, i just thought about asking here; hopefully it won't be an issue... Anyhow, this is my very first time playing usermaps that use different textures and other stuff like that, things that aren't natively functional with other Duke versions if not with a sourceport like this. My only problem so far is that whenever i play a map from a mod, pic related happens. What am i doing wrong? I bet it's something way more stupid than i think, but i still didn't manage to overcome this problem anyway. Thanks in advance.

>>5291592
Your opinion is also personal, so should be discarded as well.

>>5291870
But your "opinion" is trash m8 :^)

>>5291557
>Killing Fields
>Hara-Kiri Harbor
>Zilla's Villa
>Monastery
>Raider of the Lost Wang
>bad

>>5291869
Anyone?

>>5291869
You are tying to play a map from a mod which uses new textures in vanilla Duke.
Those are stored in .art files in the mod directory, but unless you check the contents of those and map in Mapster32, you'll not know which .art files contatins the textures you're looking for. You may also run into another issue - Alien Armageddon is stuffed with new code up the ass, if the map uses it, you may get stuck.

>>5291145
>>5291493
Now, I'm not saying that someone would have to smear Randy, because he's a chronic embezzler and scumfuck, but the CP allegations seem kind of spurious at best.
The girl in question referred to herself as "barely 18".

>>5291497
Okay. Here is my take on the whole thing.
The correct, in my opinion, order, concept-wise, is:
E2L3 (J.Clucks) -> E1L3 (Junk Yard) -> E1L7 (Smelting Plant) -> E1L6 (Sewer) -> E2L6 (Uranium Mines)

Smelting Plant intoduces going up chains as a mandatory exercise; the concept that when in deadlock, looking up might be a thing - again, as a mandatory exercise; the whole theme that item placement might be a hint-hint-nudge-nudge. The only conceptually new thing Sewer does is direct communication with the player. This is a critical point in the context of the "episode", and I elaborated on how it does it right here: >>5291213>>5291231.

Now, to the things in general. The general mapping style of the author is precise, unpredictable and cryptic. Author has a habit of laying traps for the player, that are meant to "get" player in a variety of ways, and author has a habit of providing hints about things to come in a manner that is very likely to be misunderstood. Player is meant to employ savescumming in order to question how, in principle, he could get out of the yet another trap unscathed. In other words, the entire set of levels is heavily skewed towards being puzzly/brainfucky, with ammo almost never being a problem if you keep your eyes open.

Breakdown as to the some of the main themes the levels revolve around:
E2L3 - "You keep missing enemies..." (chicken confuse auto-aim)
E1L3 - "... as well as secrets" (there are 11 secrets total in a small-to-medium level)
E1L7 - "You do understand that items are sometimes laid out in a specific manner that just might give you an idea as to how to progress, and that also concerns general layout as well, don't you?"
E1L6 - "I AM ACTUALLY TALKING TO YOU. YES, THROUGH LAYOUTS AND ITEM PLACEMENTS AS WELL, THEY ARE GESTURES. I mean to express something through what I do, that something can be understood, and that something can be MISunderstood."
E2M6 - "And, boy, do I have a difficulty to just shut my fucking trap."
(cont)

>>5292527
Now to E2M6 / Uranium Mines specifically. The level goes on, and on, and on, and on, one trap after another, after another, after another, after another, after another. And the point of it doing so is TO TIRE THE PLAYER OUT OF SAVESCUMMING. What that means is that you cannot allow yourself the luxury of time to question whether you have understood Every Single Fucking Thing You Have Ever Heard absolutely precisely, down to all the specifics. Inevitably, sooner or later, you just HAVE to just decide that whatever you understood of this particular whateverthefuckthatwas has to be good enough, to say "fuck it" and to just MOVE THE FUCK ON. That having been said, it is undeniably in your own damn interest to always make a genuine effort, you current best shot to catch the gist, the essence, the IDEA of whatever is being currently communicated to you, even if specifics ultimately will remain fuzzy for you, because understanding the idea, even if vaguely, gives you some basis for subsequent settling down on specifics if a higher degree of mutual understanding in conversation is desirable or necessary, and not having even an idea will just keep you completely oblivious to whatever your partner in conversation had in mind, and that ultimately will just lead to you getting progressively more out of touch. That having been said, there is a point where countless elaborations on any given topic just stop being worth it and when the specifics you initially misunderstood or that were initially omitted, end up being pure junk the mentioning of which will just waste both yours and your partner's time, that could be spent otherwise. And if that ends up being the case, then maybe MOVING THE FUCK ON (exemplified in particular by absolutely enemy-less backtracking from the bottom of the shaft back to the beginning) just might be a thing to do. Also, by the way, whatever you think of author's levels, you just might be overthinking it as well.

how is nblood compared to bloodgdx?

>>5292725
NBlood is still in a primordial state compared to BGDX but it still has potential anyway, especially regarding multiplayer. But right now i am drunk as an ostrich so idon't know if i am that good explaining all that, just know that as now you're good with bgdxaaaah i want to die just download gdx at least now aaaaa im getting drunk with or without you

>>5292725
its pretty good, feels just like vanilla

>>5282881
>>5282871
Just played Smithsonian for the first time. Fantastic level. And the funny thing is I actually get stuck / lost quite frequently in Duke Nukem levels, particularly in the Caribbean expansion. But I had almost no trouble navigating Smithsonian. They did a great job making such a massive level not be confusing.

>only ever played duke
>said I didn't like build engine games
>just beat blood and now playing SW

These games are fucking great, why the hell does anyone even care about duke?

>>5293879
Because it's the most versatile one gameplay-wise, and thus serves as a best base for userlevels.

>>5291869
Just drag the grp file you want to play onto eduke32 and launch it, then pick the correct episode.
Someone correct me if there's a better way. More complex mods usually comes with their own launcher

>>5293879
Because Duke was more groundbreaking at the time, since it's the oldest/original one.

>>5293905
Not really.

>>5294224
Blood restricts your options through introduction of different damage types, also a lot of weapon modes are just reskins of AND THEN THE THINGS START BURNING.
In Shadow Warrior, like a third to half of the weaponry is straight up unusable, and if you are playing from keyboard, you HAVE to always run, since otherwise you'll be unable to shoot and hit the enemy first, since your character won't turn quick enough.

>>5292527
>>5289230
I was told none of the RR/RA maps had signatures so it wasn't possible to know which level designer made which map that way, but I had to check for myself in the editor anyway.

What immediatelly struck me was that the difference between the flat maps and the non flat ones is even more obvious when looking in the editor. Pic related, Uranium Mines

Also, the fact that Mal Blackwell co-wrote the .txt files that explains how to Build maps for the game (along with the Lead Level Designer), and also looking at this guy's resume and carrier after RR, is enough to convince me he's talented and at least some of the best maps in the game are his.

>>5294245
>like a third to half of the weaponry is straight up unusable
Not him but what? the only ones I can think of as being 'useless' are the shurikens and sticky bombs.

>>5294535
Actually, you are right. I meant those two primarily, and off the top of my head I can't remember anything else. So, it appears, I have exaggerated. Sorry for that.

>>5293879
Personally i couldn't get into the first half of SW before the urban stuff

>>5294535
>>5294595
Shuriken are actually good desperation weapons at short to melee range, especially in WangBang, far more useful than sword/fists.

Sticky bombs have some use in singleplayer when you know where certain enemies spawn in. They are absolutely hilarious in WangBang, when players panic and run around with several stickies on them.

>>5293879
Because Duke Nukem 3D is a fun game, and Duke Nukem is charming, in a manner of speaking.

>>5294630
WangBang is some of the must fun Deathmatch I've had in any FPS ever, and I've played a shit ton of DM FPS like Duke3D, Q3A, UT, etc etc

It's unbelievably good

>>5293879
same here man. Tried playing Duke, just couldn't get into it. Picked up Blood and have had a fucking blast playing it so far. Don't know why people recommend Duke so much, Blood is an infinitely better game

>>5294795
Because Duke has better levels, a better difficulty curve, and less bullshit enemies.

>>5292312
Yeah, i was already suspicious about something similar but i didn't know what i was doing wrong. I selected the custom game directory from the drop-down menu at the beginning, then in-game i selected them like if it was BloodGDX (from usermaps and then clicking on the maps): that shit on the picture i posted before happened. Luckily though, i just saw this comment right here >>5294008 (thank you man!) and i did just that, i took the "grpfiles.cache" file and opened it with EDuke32. The thing works flawlessly, at least apparently. I say so because you also said that there can be some potential issues. Do you mind to clarify a little? Not the technicalities, but the problems i may or may not find out. How do i prevent them? Is it something that can occur on any level? (For example, i played the first level of AA and it was fine, but can happen that what you said at last has a chance to happen later on? The point is i don't want to play it and get stuck towards the end for some shit like that). Sorry for the storm of questions, kind anon(s).

>>5294278
Also, holy shit, when credits say it all:

Redneck Rampage:
>Lead Level Designer: Alex Mayberry
>Level designer: [...], Mal Blackwell

Kingpin: Life Of Crimes
>Lead Level Designer: Mal Blackwell
>Level designer: [...], Alex Mayberry

Granted Mayberry also worked on the scenario for Kingpin but it still looks to me Mayberry's job was given to Blackwell because he was so good.

Looking at the credits for Rides Again's level designers is also an enlightment, and those credits singlehandely give the middle finger to anyone who ever said or thought Rides Again was subpar or "not even an expansion pack".

>>5295357
Not the one you replied to, but iirc they also worked on Quake II The Reckoning and Return to Castle Wolfenstein. I could be wrong though, but what i'm certain of is that their software house did.

>>5295362
They both worked on The Reckoning yes, and Blackwell did some work on RotW but apparently not much and it's got nothing to do with Mayberry or Xatrix.

Honestly the resumes of level designers who worked on RR and RR:RA are fascinating to me.
Now I actually got a reason to get another copy of Q3A for PS2, I got one but it doesn't work, apparently it's got some new levels by BLackwell.

>>5278607
Well? The hell are we waiting for? I'm going to try it

Hello, I'm hoping someone can help me here. I'm playing through Duke Nukem 3D on eDuke32 with DukePlus installed, and while I like a lot of the new features, I don't really like the new guns. I couldn't find an option in the menu to disable them, is there anything I can do?

>>5295394
There should be options for that in the duke plus menu under "weapons".

>>5295394
>>5295414
I like playing with one or two dukebots tagging along, reminds me of co-op play with my retarded m8s.

>>5295414
Well I disabled everything in the Weapons menu but the 3D weapons still drop

>>5276175
>>5276209
as someone that hasn't played Duke since like 1999, can you guys tell me a little bit about Episode 5? I understand it was released much later, I am very surprised to hear that it ranks as highly as it does for you guys, usually when developers come back to a project they somehow fuck everything up.

Also what is the proper way to play Duke 3d today if I were to download it?

>>5295421
I have no idea then for now...

Rank the Blood episodes

>>5292067
These maps are bad, sorry.

>>5294795
Oh brother, a samefag is having his shitty narrative.

>>5295434
Alright that anon here, I just tried the 20th Anniversary edition, holy fuck it feels so floaty and terrible, and where are all the settings? Was the sound always this bad? I've been playing BloodGDX lately and it sounds so much better and has many more settings.

How do I turn off v-sync and make this not feel god awful

>>5295456
also what the fuck is with the FOV? I cannot play this at all. Have people fixed this mess?

>>5295442
Too hard to do because it's such a consistently good game all the way through... I don't even have fresh in my mind the maps anyway.

>>5295339
Well the truth is that I find it pretty confusing myself, it seems to change a lot from mod to mod, just always check the readme beforehand and make sure you got it right I suppose.
very simple map files you can just load within eduke and play as they are, but something like ADG episode wont play the correct music tracks if I don't drag the GRP and CON files into eduke and play it that way, of course you could create your own bat file that does that for you if you want to be fancy...
Modern, more recent mods like Alien Armageddon comes with its own exe that they want you to use, so there's no confusion there

>>5295456
>>5295486
Either you're playing a console version, or you've pirated it, because most of the issues you're talking about, if not all, got patched in 1 week after release.

I was thinking that maybe I should try to do the same thing with Blum's levels from episode 2 as I did with seemingly Blackwell's levels from Redneck Rampage, and to see whether that will lead me anywhere.

The questions I hope to answer are these:
1) Dark Side is the obvious peak of episode 2. What, if any, is its actual core idea in the context of all the Blum's levels preceding it in the ep2?
2) Occupied Territory is easily the oddest Blum's map in the episode. Its very presence or, at the very least, its placement in the episode, between Fusion Station and Tiberius Station, doesn't make any sense whatsoever. What is its status? Is it a part of the main sequence of the ep2 levels after all? A belated epilogue to Toxic Dump? A fourth-wall breaking level akin to Alien Rendezvous (P'n'P) or Sewer (RR), that is meant to play out immediately before the resolution? Where does it belong and does it belong at all?
3) Is there any relation, concept-wise, between Blum's levels from ep2, Red Light District and Launch Facility on one side, and Freeway and Going Postal on the other side? Do those city levels comprise a completely separate strand of levels concept-wise, or do they provide an introduction and an epilogue to the space levels?
4) What is the true chronological order Blum's maps from ep2 were conceived in and essentially sketched out in? Spaceport seems to me by no means the most primitive or even the most readable map out of ep2 maps, and, if I were to guess based on my fairly recent experience replaying Blum's maps from pistolstart, I would assume, it was created at the very least after Tiberius Station and Fusion Station.
5) Judging from recent audio commentaries from World Tour, Blum had heavy input in Warp Factor. What is the extent of his influence over the final state of that map, and what is its status in the context of ep2, meaning, does it belong to the main, peaking with Dark Side, sequence of ep2 levels, and if it does, then where would that be?

>>5296634
Oh yeah, and, apparently, I absolutely forgot, that Overlord is actually Blum's level as well.

>>5296554
Yeah I'm pirating it, lol.

>>5296634
Since you're clearly starving for more information about the making of the levels, here are some I gathered during the years:

Spaceport, Tiberius Station, Lunar Reactor and Dark Side were the maps with oldest builds, and most polished concepts. They date back to LameDuke/95 Beta in their design. Dark Side was the oldest map, it appeared in the 95 beta in almost finished form.

Overlord also dates back to LameDuke, but it was just some random areas putting into a level for a boss corridor. Blum never thought much about boss levels, they were just there to show us the boss.

Warp Factor is also pretty old, and indeed it was started by Blum. It's complex layout is something you can't see in Levelord's maps often. The yellow key placement with the shuttle is quite similar to the yellow key placement of Dark Side.

Spaceport originally was intended for episode 1 start level. Even the Duke car was there in some builds. It was meant to be a transition between Duke II story and Duke3D story. They scrapped it because many players knew shit about Duke Nukem II, and a space level wasn't that great idea for a start anyway. There they put it for a logical startmap for episode 2.

Occupied Territory is interesting. It was also meant to be added to episode 1, but as a boss map for the Battlelord. That's why the main hallways were so big. This went to almost last minute, as there were magazine scans with standard E1 levels + OT with the boss. They scrapped this idea as well, and the map ended in the middle of episode 2 with added areas. It - unlike Spaceport - was a terrible decision. The map doesn't make sense in the middle, it should have been the boss level for episode 2.

Incubator, Spin Cycle and Lunatic Fringe are all those Sandy Petersen tier whatever maps by Levelord that were made very late, probably even later when the episode 1 was released.

The development of Duke3D was very hectic, as you see above.

>>5297315
The only level I have little to no information is Fusion Station. I guess it was a pretty late addition as well, but the map looks polished enough, so I don't know.

>>5297315
Hectic yes, I'm amazed how much of the art that ended up in the final version was already done by the time the earliest playable prototypes were done. Like most of the base tiles got carried through 2 years of development.

>>5297315
Thanks. I mean it, that was really informative and helpful.

Here are my two cents. I have just been walking back and forth through Tiberius Station, and I can, disregarding any possible "themes", say these two things:
1) This level doesn't ever require you to run. From what I remember from my previous Fusion Station playthrough, that map DOES require you to run on specific occasions. This one doesn't. The timers for armory and supplies in the beginning, for example, as set just so you can barely get there in time WHILE WALKING (you actually get through the already closing door). The secret requiring jetpack also gives you plenty of time to get there with a walking speed. There is ONE exception to this, the "radioactive materials" room with the devastator, but that IS solved with the usage of steroids, and those steroids are found in the secret that is right next to said "radioactive materials" room.
2) The level's geometry is optimized like a race track. It can be, by and large, glided through (provided there are a couple of tough spots), on walking speed, without any usage of strafes whatsoever, without any hitches and without apparent slamming into walls. Although that does require activating doors at just the right times, so there wouldn't be a hitch as you crouch under them. Moreover, the secret with illusionary wall opposite of the fountain can be most easily discovered if backpedaling out of the fountain, while simultaneously turning (although it doesn't work EVERY time, the entrance isn't wide enough).

>>5297434
Moreover, the exit from the-secret-you-required-jetpack-for is situated right next to the-secret-that-contained-said-jetpack (naturally, the only one in the level).

>>5297487
Actually, it does contain all 7 items. As well as situations they could be used in (activating holoduke after steroid-ing into the room with devastator?). It could actually initially be some sort of tutorial level in regards to items usage.

>>5297535
>activating holoduke after steroid-ing into the room with devastator?
>holoduke
Which is contained in the same room that has the switch opening the timed "radioactive materials" door to the room with said devastator.

>>5297487
>(naturally, the only one in the level)
Last remark, I hope. That's actually not true. When in the very beginning of the level, in armory, you pick up night vision googles, that also, for some reason, gives you jetpack. Could be a mapping mistake, I guess.

>>5296690
Based anon. Don't give Bitchford and Jewbox not even a single cent for that mess. Just play the new episode and then uninstall that piece of shit

>>5296215
What level are you playing?

>>5298902
ADG episode

You guys weren't fucking kidding about blood being hard.

I'm trying to pitchfork start the SECOND level and am considering suicide.

Is the game supposed to be played with carrying all weapons into the next level? There's no shame in that right? Typically in these games I carry my weapons over to the next level but if I die I tend to start from scratch again as a penalty.

>>5296634
There are zero similarities between Toxic Dump and Occupied Territory. Not in their aesthetics, layout, playstyle. The closest map to Toxic Dump is Flood Zone or maybe Derelict.

>>5299318
The first episode is the hardest to Pitchfork start. e1m2 is hard, but e1m5 is very hard.
Anyway it's not impossible, but it's hard, and you have take cover and trick cultists, prioritize targets, sometimes don't hesitate not to kill something only to come back later with more supplies.
The others eps are much easier to pitchfork start, although a few maps do require you to know at least some of the secrets.

I think it's pretty obvious that the first episode, while pistol start is supported, is more intended for carrying weapons. Examples: the start of e1m2 has flares but no flaregun; and there are at least 3 Super Secrets which are located at the very end of maps.

>Typically in these games I carry my weapons over to the next level but if I die I tend to start from scratch again as a penalty.

That's the way to go

>>5299416
Secrets are necessary (not optional) for having resources to complete mandatory fights, when pistolstarting.

>>5299471
I find that is the case only when playing on harder difficulties, which is fair.

>>5299474
No it's not, a "secret" is called a "secret" for a reason.
Actually, after completing Plug'n'Pray, when suddenly getting dangerously low on ammo, I just start savescumming ammo out of the nearest chaingunner or a pigcop. That is assuming I have the chaingun. If I don't, then the first thing I do is I savescum chaingun out of the nearest chaingunner. Point in case, right now, red1 and red2 (the original versions).

>>5299549
>No it's not, a "secret" is called a "secret" for a reason.

Different game have different mentality. Random example is Blood's e2m5, if you do pitchfork start, the game expects you to find the shotgun in the secret place at the start to kill the ghost.

In Blood it was considered fair that some secrets (not all) are to be known by the players who attempts to play the game on the harder difficulties, and that's only fair because someone who plays on Hard is likely to already know some of the secrets, and so is someone who insists on playing each map pitchfork start.

I know that if you ask on Doom general thread they'll tell you "secrets shouldn't be required", but playing an unkown usermap for the most time which you are also unlikely to ever replay twice is a completely different thing.

That doesn't mean that this mentality applies to every FPS game, to their original maps, on every game mode and on every difficulty setting.

>>5299559
I'll leave discussing Blood to those who actually like playing Blood.

>>5299471
Then you haven't played maps like Against thee wickedly or Abandoned mines, if you think these are bad.

Derelict is also quite bad for pistolstarting.

>>5299571

>>5299620
I have, and I don't consider Romero infallible. That's for one. Second, Derelict, from what I remember of it, was tight, but fair.

>>5299675
>I don't consider Romero infallible
Thank you for that. I see people jerk him off like his maps are the cream of Doom's crop, some even insisting only KDITD is the only good episode.

He's a good mapper, and I like the guy (as immature as he can be), and he's made some GREAT levels for Doom (and Quake), but he never carried an entire game of that sort by himself.

>>5300227
I think Russell Meakim (No Rest for the Living Map 1, 3, 4 and 9 + Redemption of the Slain) clearly surpassed Romero as the best leveldesigner of Doom. Romero's highlights were in UD anyway, no surprise Sigil will be an UD episode as well. He didn't implement Doom II aesthetics well, even Living End (his best map in D2) gets boring after a while, and looks dull compared to the deviliously clever E4M6 for example.

Meakim however was a class act. His maps clearly felt like artistic glories with engineer perfect layouts, clever way of interconnection use (not the boring backtracking/monster closet shit most mappers do), great sense of place.

There were some genuine usermappers as well, like the guy who did Jade Earth, or the guy who did Foursite, but I can't think of anyone yet, who managed to outdo Romero or Meakim. Casalis deserve some credit to make Doom something entirely different though.

But back to Build and Duke, at this moment I can't think of anyone who surpassed Allen Blum's skills for this game. He had something in the bag that was more than just having the honor of being hired by 3DRealms. His episode 5 maps, particularly Mirage Barrage and Golden Carnage clearly showed he was something else.

I can't wait to see Deadolon in particular how he evolve in Ion Maiden. I rate Disrupted Service (the subway level) as the best non-Blum Build map ever. That thing was so fun and pleasant to look at!

>>5300227
This >>5300314 was not me >>5299675, just so there is no misunderstanding.

Just finished Episode 2 of Blood, I loved this episode I think just as much as the first. Final two levels were pretty weak though, but the rest were fantastic, the big mansion one was so good. I love the atmosphere.
Seems to becoming a bit of a theme here, the final 2 levels are the weakest of their respective episodes, at least for Episode 1 and 2, we'll see if the same happens in 3.

After yesterday's observations on Tiberius Station, I decided to look around Fusion Station next, and, among other things, to see whether it was playable without strafes and while running as little as possible. While playing this way, a very strange setup emerged in this level, that was previously entirely "lost in translation".

I remembered that this level had specific occasions where you had to be moving fact. To be precise, there are three such occasions in total. They are, in chronological order:
1) The secret in the room-with-three-things-spinning-in-the-water.
2) The mandatory timed door in a red-colored room with devastator.
3) The mandatory jump onto the ledge with the jetpack near the end of the level.

The second instance of GOTTAMOVEFAST contains a pack of steroids near the switch that opens the timed door. Indicating, that, yes, you are not supposed to run in this level, you are supposed to walk, and you are supposed to use steroids when you have to walk fast. I have already had one bottle of steroids in my inventory, I have collected it near the beginning of the level, and haven't gotten the secret from 1) by that time yet. Anyway, red-lighted room with the timed door, one pack of steroids in my inventory, one pack of steroids in the room itself.

What happens if you take steroids, activate the switch, and walk through the door? Then you are on the other side of the door, no steroids. What happens if you take steroids, quickly snatch another bottle of steroids off the floor an~ Fuck, the new bottle cancels out the one that was already having its effect, you start moving slow, you might've just as well not taken steroids. Can you walk through the door without taking steroids? Apparently you are too slow, it closes on you. What if you position and orient yourself with your back to the door, your face to the switch, then, moving towards the door along a straight line, you hit the switch at the last possible moment (cont)

(cont-d)
- can you then make it through the door at the last possible moment? Close, bbbbut. Wait a second, I actually managed to do it, and only, what, 10 tries? Woohoo, I am at the other side of the door, and I have steroids, I have successfully cheated the level, good to be me.
Then, a couple of minutes later, the ledge with the jetpack. See, problem is, you absolutely HAVE to either run, or use steroids in order to reach it. Otherwise, you don't reach even remotely close to have any possible chance to worming your way there. Provided you don't run, you HAVE to be under steroids, to make that mandatory jump.
The rooms between 2) and 3) do NOT seem to contain any steroid bottles. Therefore, you HAVE to exit the room from 2) with steroids intact. Therefore, you have to complete 2) WITHOUT the usage of steroids, regardless of whether you have managed to save that other bottle, from the beginning of the level, that was meant for 1).

So, let me get this straight. Assuming, at some point, Duke didn't have the ability to run or something, and this level was meant to be completed by walking and using steroids. You have a room with a timed door and a switch. You put a bottle of steroids right next to the switch. The player uses it, the player has essentially got himself into dead man walking scenario. The only way for the player NOT to get oneself into the dead man walking scenario, is for the player to stage and successfully execute a plan that is trickier to successfully pull through than half of this level's secrets, put together.

Okay.

>>5276173
Chocolate build WHEN?

>>5300348
I like E2L1, E2L4 and E2L5, but the rest of the episode felt mediocre.

>>5300445
I loved the setting, the snow and the hedges, I don't know it's comfy. the houses you explore and shit.

How do you feel about Episode 3?

>>5300469
This is where playtime is over because you can't cheap-out hellhounds with crouching.

>>5300494
You can tank them crouched-with-pitchfork though.
Hell, you can even do cerberus (or whatever that thing is called) that way.
-another-anon

>>5300469
The second air raid level had a nice atmosphere. Other than that, it was mmmkay at best. The best episode is the 1st one, like in all relevant Build games.

>>5300564
Welcome to Ken's Labyrinth

>>5300564
I had a boxed copy of this when I was a kid. Shame.

>>5300589
They actually sold boxed copies? I thought it was mail order only like so many titles in the shareware age.

Blood is trash

>Dude hitscan lol
>dude 60% of your health instantly whittled away around every corner/door by enemies placed directly waiting for you lol
>Dude just learn the placement of every single enemy to have fun lol
>Dude just crouch lol even though this barely works 10% of the time
>Dude trial and error is good gameplay!

>>5300597
Yeah I remember somehow getting a copy in Australia even though i`m pretty sure it was a US release.

>>5300601
>zoomer babbies can not into games

>>5300615
Not necessarily a cover that makes me want to buy the game if it was 1993.

Do Duke players like / use the freezethrower often? I only beat the game recently and ended up using it extremely infrequently. It just didn't feel very useful or satisfying, kind of a gimmick. And it doesn't help that it's on the fucking 0 key.

>>5300601

>>5300629
Duke and Shadow warrior are infinitely better. They don't have trial and error gameplay and broken hitscan enemy's.

Look at dukes enforcers. They are hitscan based but don't take 60% of your health in a second

>>5300638
When nothing else has ammo, yes.
It also freezes players incredibly fast in DukeMatch, but that point is moot now.

>>5300650
Don't cry now. :^)

>>5300638
They initially planed it as a laser chainsaw(whatever that does, melee?) and then a flamethrower. Should have made it some sort of switchable weapon like the Shrinker/Expander.

May be worth nothing, but one of the expansion packs turned it into a "Statue Maker", absolutely useless.

>>5300671
>Should have made it some sort of switchable weapon like the Shrinker/Expander
Well they did, like 20 years later.

>>5300650
>hitscans ;_;

>>5300638
It's highly relevant on Damn I'm Good, since it lets you make meaningful use of your hitscan weapons and still prevent enemies from respawning.

>>5300650
Blood is less trial and error than Duke or Shadow Warrior since it almost never spawns enemies out of nowhere and the hitscanners can't shoot back if you're shooting them. Prefire when you go around corners or open doors and cultists can't do shit to you. The real bullshit are hellhounds with their absurd damage range and reused boss monsters that aren't any weaker than when they were episode bosses.

>>5300638
I find it works decently on Alien Protector Drones, since those motherfuckers move fast and erratic, and since the freezer rays deflect and bounce around, you can saturate an area with cold and eventually they'll get it.

Then I take out the pistol tell him 'Hasta la vista.'

>>5276824
I might be in the minority here but my rankings are
Shadow Warrior > Redneck Rampage > Duke Nukem
I've yet to play Nam, WW2 GI, Blood, etc.

>>5300908
>Redneck Rampage > Duke Nukem
this man is certifiably insane

>>5300912
When I say that I'm referring more to Rides Again. If talking about just the main game I'd rate them to be about the same, maybe putting Duke a little above it.

>>5300908
>>5300967
>damage sponges
>the aiming system is awfully fucked up
>sometimes you get stuck for very stupid reasons
I mean, me too i loved RR despite all that bullshit but damn, saying that it's better than Duke himself and even going as much as to put Chinese Duke above all of them literally confirms your autism in the true sense of the term.
PS: I loved Shadow Warrior
PPS: I'm not him >>5300912
PPPS: I'll now stop talking like a faggot

>>5301068
>damage sponges
Damage dealt is related to your distance to the enemy. Yeah no shit there's "bullet sponges" when you're trying to shoot something with a fucking shotgun half way across the map.
>the aiming system is awfully fucked up
It's a classic Doom style shooting system where you aim in the direction of the enemy but don't need to move the cursor vertically to get better accuracy. There's nothing fucked up about it.
>sometimes you get stuck for very stupid reasons
This has never happened to me.

So how would you guys do the real Duke 3D sequel?

>>5301174
It's 18 years too late for that.

>>5300601
play on a lower difficulty

>Dude i'll feel emasculated playing on a lower difficulty
>Dude why cant it just be like doom so I can just play everything on UV without having to worry

fuck off

>reading old duke4 forum thread from shortly before World Tour was released
>everyone is saying the screenshots of the new levels look like absolute shit
>one guy literally says Levellord and Blum would be ashamed if they saw them

>>5301165
I do use the right weapons where i'm at the right position, though. The problem is, i can't always fight at distance, at least not at maximum difficulty. Even worse if the aiming system is flawed, making all of that even more useless: if i shoot in front of me, the projectile should go, well, right in front of me; but if there is a single millimeter of difference, i fucking notice it. Maybe i'm spoiled by the likes of Duke and Blood, though, which totally nailed that aspect (and other things too). Regarding the "getting stuck" factor, i simply don't believe you. I talk about those instances where you will think "fuck, that's what i needed to do?", and this game has plenty of these moments. Besides all that, it's a great game, hands down. It's just that there are other Build games that have the precedence, just like there are other Build games that should be forgotten: RR is in between.

should I use redneckgdx or rednukem?

>>5301174
Probably have released it no later than 2001.

>>5301202
Well, to play the devils avocado, they COULD be ashamed of those levels.
Not that they should, not for all of them anyway, some of those levels are good.

>>5301165
I do use the right weapons in the right position, though. The problem is, i can't always fight at a distance while taking cover, and viceversa, if i am near the enemies, i can't still take cover because either the map doesn't work that way or they'll just shoot me first. I'm talking about maximum difficulty here, perhaps on easy those things are viable; still, in all cases, it's even worse if the aiming system is flawed: if i shoot in front of me, the projectile should go, well, right in front of me; but if there is a single millimeter of difference, i fucking notice it. Maybe i'm spoiled by the likes of Duke and Blood, though, which totally nailed that aspect (and other things too). Regarding the "getting stuck" factor, i simply don't believe you. I talk about those instances where you will think "fuck, that's what i needed to do?", and this game has plenty of these moments. Besides all that, it's a great game, hands down. It's just that there are other Build games that have the precedence, just like there are other Build games that should be forgotten: RR is in between.

For RR, you HAVE to learn the pistol. It is actually a really viable weapon, but the correct way of using it is darting in and out of cover with it (while NOT being crouched), taking potshots. 3 hits for the old guy, 5 hits for the big guy, what, 8? 10? for the dog (you obviously run from that one). And you are literally swimming in ammo.

For shotgun, make a point of always just JAMMING your shooting button (if you just tap it, you'll just fire one barrel, you need to keep it pressed down for half a second for the second barrel to follow). There is also an interesting tactic of running toward the enemy until it visibly starts its firing sequence of frames, then going into running crouch (think of it as sliding), while discharging both barrels, before said enemy manages to fire. That's actually quite fun too.

I don't know for sure, but dynamite in crossbow mode doesn't seem to be able to cross the water threshold, in order to target something that is underwater from above ground, you seem to have to use the ordinary dynamite.
Against vixens, crouching behind the door and using ripsaw in its melee mode from behind the corner is sometimes effective, although good luck if she randomly shifts behind your back.

Actually, yeah, both aliens so far present difficulties for me in regards to finding viable tactics for disposing of them. But as for the ordinary mooks, they are all very beatable using the tools you are provided. When played the way I describe (emphasizing on pistol and as such) it is a much slower game than Blood or, naturally, Shadow Warrior, but played that way, it does very much flow, in a pretty satisfying way, it does by no means play randomly or trashy. Certain way less randomly than Blood. And certainly less trashy, than OH BOY ITS ANOTHER PHANTASM. BAIT. DOUBLEBARREL. BAIT. DOUBLE BARREL. BAIT. DOUBLEBARREL. BAIT. DOUBLEBARREL. BAIT. DOUBLEBARREL. OH BOY ITS YET ANOTHER PHANTASM. - or, say, pitchforking stone gargoyles chouched in the corner.

>>5301428
Also, chicken (and maybe pigs, not sure about that one) between you and the enemy do confuse auto-aim. And that is even occasionally intentionally used in RR's maps. So, that's something to keep in mind as well.

>>5297562
Disregard this remark. While checking minor things out, after initially completing the level, I employed godmode to get where I wanted to faster. Apparently, godmode also gives you a jetpack, I didn't know that.

So the armory in the beginning of Tiberius Station, naturally, only contains googles, no jetpack. And the only jetpack in the level is in the aforementioned secret accessed from the room with the sludge and the red keycard.

>>5301587
>Apparently, godmode also gives you a jetpack, I didn't know that.
At least, in the version of eduke I'm using. I am not sure that is standard behavior for the game, but, oh well, doesn't really matter, as long as I am aware of this peculiarity.

>>5300413
>when
3 years ago

https://github.com/fabiensanglard/chocolate_duke3D

>>5300758
>Ammo is scarce as fuck
>Just shoot before every corner

How do you preshoot a shotgun?

>>5300601
Just play the game on an easier difficulty if you're having such a hard time that you can't enjoy it?
I'm playing through it for the first time now and I'm loving it.

BLOOD > DOOM

I'm saying it. In 2018 Blood is a better game. Blood has so much more than just shooting. Now it's not really fair given that the game released as late as it did, but doom is flat and lifeless comparatively. Blood has so much detail crammed into it, so much personality and fun. Sure, the level design isn't as good and if that is the only thing you're going by then Doom wins but as an experience I find Blood much more engaging.

>>5302006
> Sure, the level design isn't as good

Seriously the only Doom episode that's great is the first one. 2nd ep is shit in a bar. 3rd EP is better overall but it has highs and downs, 4th EP is also very uneven

I find Blood's level design much more evenly good throughout in comparison

Is Shadow Warrior Classic Redux a good way to play the game or nah?

Besides Death Wish, are there any must play mods for BLOOD?

>>5302072
I'm a sucker for the original renderer, and Redux is OpenGL only. that's why I still play the game in DOSbox.

Otherwise Redux has true 16:9, a FOV slider...

however it has a glitch with mines which make them invisible when voxels are on.

>>5301651
You don't use the shotgun any more than you have to against anything that isn't a melee enemy. Use the tommy gun and dynamite against cultists.

>>5302090
>when voxels are on
>ever playing with voxels

>>5302062
>the only Doom episode that's great is the first one
Nah.