[RELEASE] Border Town

[underTaker]

Hello

I have released my fifth map. I posted it on Duke4: http://forums.duke4.net/topic/6671-release-border-town/
Every info is in post there.

Have fun


CGS - review/download

[ck3D]

sweet, congrats on a new release. i will play it tonight and post my thoughts when i am done ! those screens look nice and clean

[Micky C]

Is this the same one you said you'd take ages to finish? :O

I'll try to check it out on the weekend.

[Forge]

I gave it a quick look. won't really have time for a full play through until next wednesday or thursday, but i'll look for some available moments to get through it anyway. i usually do.

lots of nooks and crannies with stashes - but i still got creamed - i rushed through and failed to explore the entire street areas on the other side of the subway station before i blew a hole high up in a brick wall with a pipebomb & got through it by hopping off some signs. went in a bit under armed - only a couple more pipebombs, and the three bullet weapons. ran out of ammo quick for the number of enemies (especially the handful of newbeasts that come running up the ramp at me).

game play wise it seems pretty action packed and it appears there's plenty of supplies and a decent arsenal to handle them (since i came across several different types of ammo -rushing through was my fault since i advanced too far too fast without finding the weapons to back it up-)

aesthetically - not your best work
lots of misaligned/stretched textures, oversized/undersized objects, several cramped small rooms, lighting-shading contrasts are pretty weak, some instances of hom from the ror, some texture combos work, some don't

the layout from what i've seen seems interesting
detailing is good
variations in scenery (again from what i've seen) are interesting and transition well

i hope i find time to knock this out in one sitting - these big exploration pieces are no fun when broken into small chunks at a time (cause i always forget where i've been, and where i'm going by the time i get back to it)

[ck3D]

i think it looks good and plays rather well until the mine puzzle (i didn't mind the excessive unlinearity), but from there i find myself roaming around like a hamster in a cage, encountering progression problems i just posted about on the other forum in order to get some advice. waiting until i actually finish the map before posting my final comments. but so far i quite like the design even though a lot of areas are a little too cramped to the point where it hinders movement and makes explosions tough to avoid and the firefights are really fun

[Forge]

the map as a whole was pretty good looking - aside from some of the previous items i mentioned that could have been cleaned up - the only other things i noticed were the hole in the wall in the right hand tunnel: there's a one sided crack sprite facing in towards the room that stayed after blowing up the wall. the other is that the switches that open the gates to the two tunnels can be activated through the wall from the outside of the structure so technically the player never has to enter that control room.

the nice thing about the map is also its downfall. the openness and allowing the player to go where they want and complete sections in any order they choose. they're going to be pretty much clueless that what needs to be activated to reach the exit has been set off and as to where they need to go; until they blunder into the area where they can see the access to the changed section. 

[MSandt]

Yeah there's no apparent logical connection between the scattered buttons and the building.

[DavoX]

Well it took me 63 minutes only to find out that I haven't pressed the right nuke button I activated everything in the map but had to noclip to get out of the puzzle.

Nice map though, A bit more direction on were to go would've been awesome

[Forge]

finished and review submitted.
bottom line - looked real nice, great ambiance
underwhelmed with the cramped areas and lack of direction. i don't need to be spoon fed, but there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to progression. Too much, "i've been everywhere, now what?"

[ck3D]

i posted a lengthy comment over at duke4 in the release thread, basically i seem to feel the same way about this map as most people who have already commented, good design and interconnected layout / great fights / cramped areas that sometimes go way overboard / incoherent progression (which does not make for 'unlinearity', being free to explore around and link every room together is always a plus, but having to find and flick 189329 switches in order to trigger unlogical events one at a time does not qualify as good gameplay). the map made my head hurt but i liked the challenge and the constant flow of monsters (though it is a personal thing, i know a lot of people hate big fights)

[Sanek]

Played in it. Design is very good, it looks very solid, like in all underTaker's maps. In general, I like this map, but exactly like everyone else, I don't like the lack of direction. Probably there's too much stuff for one map . It takes me about an hour to complete it.