After seven long months, lots of technical problems and all manner of other mishaps, Nitroglycerin is here.
Nitroglycerin picks up where Quantum Physics left off. Duke exits the EDF Base by riding an elevator back to street level. In the North of the once popular holiday destination of Seaside city the industrial zone is dark and mostly disused. The EDF have learned that the alien invasion stems from a ship that was crash landed near the old city hall, these aliens weren't meant to invade, they were merely a scouting party, but when they crashed they deployed troops to find parts to repair their ship. The problem is that if the scouting party fix that ship, there are bound to be other aliens waiting to hear from them and if they hear Duke Nukem is around, they will probably all descend on the planet and cause a war.
Where you come in, Duke, is that you must get to that ship and stop the aliens taking off. EDF want to raid it for technology and search it for evidence of the location of the alien home planet, there is a small issue however, namely that the EDF, Police and Army barricaded the city to slow the aliens down - you need to blow that barricade to get to the old city hall - the problem with this is that they also removed all high explosives from the city... As you hear the aliens trying to blast their ship out of the dirt and start it's engines in the distance you know you must find the ingredients to make simple dynamite, blow the barricade to pieces and face whatever is on the other side, take too long and there is no telling what will happen.
Download; https://www.mediafire.com/?yiylakzob221r6x (https://www.mediafire.com/?yiylakzob221r6x)CGS - Download / review (http://www.scent-88.com/reviews/N/nitro/nitro.php)
Interesting random notes;
- This was developed on three different computers due to hardware problems!
- The map was designed for Polymer with lights disabled but any renderer should work.
- This is the first map I have made that is larger than 1MB.
- Most items can be gotten in any order, you need to press use to pick them up.
- Contrary to the above, the clock item wouldn't work with a switch for unknown reasons.
- The map has more than one ending, if you take longer than 30 minutes you get the bad ending.
- DNUNLOCK will break the map completely, don't use it!
- Seriously - the monitors in the chemical refinery are NOT joking!
Have fun.
Thanks to Methy for beta testing.
Really good map, the mission stuff works really well and the unlinearility too (this time I played in a different order than with the beta version), and even the music makes me feel like I'm on a tense mission.
The final version of the map is a lot better than the beta, too. The only thing that does not 'work' is that, when I picked up the nitroglycerin the screen said I still needed a timer while I already had it :P but that's a minor grip anyway.
The visuals are excellent too, it feels like an "advanced classic" style. I especially loved the indoor of the lab, it really felt like an old factory and it almost looked like you used custom textures.
Really good job.
I have yet to see the bad ending, I'm leaving the map playing while I'm doing the dishes to do that :P
Edit : Wow the bad ending was really cool!
Just played it, really good stuff! It was definitely a very innovative map and the objectives plus the music gave the map more purpose than the average Duke map. Kinda curious what the bad ending is though, next time I'll leave the game running or something. The detail was pretty fantastic as well as the shading, hope you're gonna keep at mapping because this was fantastic.
pretty fun.
good lighting-shading contrasts
nice feel with good detailing
the combat was consistent and fun
it was nice that you could pretty much go whichever way you wanted, collect the stuff in any order, and view screens helped you keep track of what the player did/didn't have & where the stuff could be found
some of the doorways were a bit cramped getting into and out of the buildings. - especially when the door was swinging towards the player (and the doors had a real fast close speed on them which made it worse)
for the amount of enemies at the end section, i think the supply stashes there were quite a bit over the top.
some of the puzzle pieces didn't want to be picked up very easily.
i finished it in under thirty mins, when back to a previous save, backed myself into a corner, went and ate lunch, came back - the only real difference i could tell was all the baddies at the end were already spawned instead of having to deal with them in waves & there were a few more enemies on the city side of the bar -sentry drones & whatnot. It really didn't make the final fight any harder cause fat commanders were killing aliens from one side while i was shooting up the other. - i had already blown down the wall in that save, does that make a difference?
I'm glad that this is being enjoyed so far, it was by far the most challenging to make up to now.
@Methy; That screen, I did consider removing the line about the timer or changing it, but I decided that it wasn't important and that it was probably worth reminding players that hadn't been to the office yet.
@James; Disney probably wouldn't like me using that music, given that they now own the game it is from, then again they recently closed the studio that made it, so they can swivel on it. I always say I'm going to retire as I approach the end of a map, nobody ever retires from Build... I don't know if my hardware will be up for another round any time soon though, I was down to a machine capable of running 8-Bit mode only at very poor frame rates for the last few revisions of the map and I find it difficult to work in that rendering mode because of how sprites and vertical look behave, also I use polymer lights in dark areas when editing - there's a slim chance I forgot to erase a curved section of road that isn't used, if this happened there should be a random SE49 there.
@Forge; Those doorways are something I wasn't happy with, the problem is that the streets were right on the limit for sprite drawing and it was impossible to counter this without things disappearing aside from severely compromising detail and layout. It's an unfortunate trade-off as far as I am concerned. At the end there used to be a cycloid emperor and more enemies, after methy's test I replaced him with a lot of tanks and drones... This proved even more difficult. I figured the eventual challenge came from being shot at and not the supplies, given that you cannot shoot enemies from inside the fenced off area but it may be slightly off-balance. I had trouble with the switches for pieces, sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, Bob Averill had similar problems with BobSP4 as far as I remember and I keep meaning to test an older EDuke build. The barricade that you blow doubles as the off toggle for the timer and randomizer, once that is blown the timer is frozen wherever it was and the alternate ending cannot be had.
@nobody in particular;
I'm surprised that nobody has complained about the corridor of death, I actually thought that would annoy people, I'm guessing nobody set it off? That mechanism went through four different designs, quite problematic early on.
The bad ending was deliberately set a long ways off, initially it was intended that Duke would be locked in a cell at the police station and unable to complete the level, aliens would laugh on the other side of the bars, whilst the new ending does give another nuke button I am still happy with the limit as I'd bet people who play less often may take longer though at this point I have a feeling that the bad ending may become the more "canon" one at a later time.
the death corridor killed me a couple times, but that's cause i broke the rules about running and firing.
i don't know what all the "triggers" were to set off the explosions
1st time i ran in and fired the RPG - boom, i'm dead
2nd time i walked in and fired the chaingun - boom i'm dead
3rd time i walked in, went pretty much up to the faces of the aliens and blasted them with a shotgun, caught a little splash damage, but not too much harm done
as far as time goes; i think a person would have to be pretty bad at the game or get themselves lost somehow not to make it in 30 minutes. I was puttering around, taking my time, killing everything, getting just the right angle for screen shots, and I still made it with plenty of room to spare.
as for the end, there's so much explosive ammo there the player can sit behind that fence and kill pretty much everything with splash damage - or at least burn 'em enough to make it fairly easy to finish off. I'll have to play it again and check the alternate ending to see if the balance is better.
I thought the tons of ammo for the ending was cool. You're said that there isn't much explosive ammo throughout the map, AND it's true; and finally you reach the ending and you can blast everything with the devastator and the RPG. I thought it was very satisfying and a good idea, when you limit somebody to something he's used to, it feels satisfying when he finally gets it back. The only thing that was a bit too much at the end was the ammount of atomic health and medipack, but again, I took that as a satisfying ending climax where you're almost invicible and can blast everything for 1 min after palying it the hard way all the way through, thought it was cool which is why I didn't mention it after the betatest. Also I don't think it's harder than it used to be with the Cycloid, the Cycloid was just impossible ESPECIALLY with the sentry drones in corners, there was no way to survive.
As for the alternative ending, I think the time limit is fine. I'm sure some players won't make it. Also the fact that there are two endings is just extraoadinary, it's a great idea rarely ever done before. Well, I remember some maps have 2 endings like Roch Island but it's just "press nukebutton or go fight the boss in the same streets as you've seen at the stat", nothing as well executed as you did. The only 'problem' with your endings is that, the bad ending is actually COOLER to experience than the good one, it would have made more sense to have the cooler ending as the good one to reward players. Also, I have no idea how you pulled out the timer thing... and I also thought to myself the bad ending would probably end up the canon one :P
You should make a thread about your map on Duke4 as well as post it in Megaton. I'm sure it plays fine in Megaton's 32 bit, I played the map in 8 bit and there was some slight sprite clipping but nothing important at all, and those sprite clipping won't even appear in megaton. This map deserves the attention it merits !
SO, are you making a floor for the 'Duke Hard' CBP episode ? :P that would be lovely.
I'm really pressed for time atm
Review by MetHy and Forge
Really good and fun map. The objective of the map is to go find bomb parts and blow up a barrier to get at the alien's scout ship before it can make repairs and take off. You have a time limit. The mission stuff works really well and the unlinearility of the level too; it was nice that you could pretty much go whichever way you wanted, collect the items in any order, and view screens helped you keep track of what you do/don't have & where the things could be found. The visuals are excellent too, it feels like an "advanced classic" style, especially the indoor of the lab, it really felt like an old factory and it almost looked like custom textures were used. Strong lighting-shading contrasts really give the map some depth and enhance the experience of moving from one location to another. Instead of the usual perpetual gloom that pervades the entire level, some areas are fairly well lit, another area may be kind of shadowy, while in even another it's almost like walking down dark street at night with every other lamp burnt out. The only major issues with the map are the doorways transitioning from the street to the building interior; there's not much room, and they slam shut real fast. I personally never got squished, but it is pretty cramped in some of those foyers, and it can get annoying when you open a door, there are a few baddies standing there barring your way, then the door slams in your face before you can both kill the obstacle and get through the opening. You may also get a silly message about needing a timer you already have; just depends on the order you go about things, and you can ignore it since view screens in other buildings will show that it has been successfully collected.
As mentioned there is a time limit. Destroy the barrier early and you get an "easier" ending. Come in late and you're in for a more difficult alternate ending with a rerouted exit. There is a cargo ship amount of supplies at the back end of this level; if you want the "challenge" acquire it sparingly as you need it, if you have an itchy trigger finger after being limited on explosive weapons for most of the map then dive in an blast away at those alien scum.
Overall this level is fun and intense; think of walking out of the sunlight into a dark room, or vise-versa, you're blinking trying to get your vision to focus, you have aliens with nasty dispositions coming at you, an intense music track is playing, you know you're being timed; that's what makes this map great.
96
@ MetHy, i paraphrased you alot so proof read it, make edits and change the score if you want - (but i'll fight with you if you try to score it below 95)
i also attached an additional screenshot to my previous post
There are only two things I'd change, first the constitency in this phrase :
Quoteit was nice that you could pretty much go whichever way you wanted, collect the items in any order, and view screens helped you keep track of what the player did/didn't have & where the things could be found.
first you use "you" and then "the player", i think it should be "you" both times or "the player" both times.
Also, concerning the ending, seems like you missed that it's not only the monsters that change. If you get the bad ending (=explode the barrier after 30mins), not only all the monsters are there at once indeed, but you get to see another portion of the map, a different ending, you don't press the same nuke button.
changed.
should be ready to bunge to the server.
there's been dual reviews, but i don't recall any collaboration reviews
As for the corridor when you're carrying explosives, I forgot to talk about that. What happened to me is that I decided to shoot anyway. A big explosion occured which put me really low on hp but which didn't kill me, after that I avoided to shoot any more :P thought it was just right, I guess it can kill too so I probably got lucky.
One of the monitors leaves a clue as to how to survive the corridor, grayed out text speaks of things that "slow to a crawl" - if you crawl with run mode off you should be fine, also vector weapons will not set the explosives off provided you're a good enough shot to hit the octabrains, a stray bullet to the left will set it off though. Shooting the drone, is a bad idea as that will trigger an explosion.
Anyway, thanks for the review guys.
As for this small maps CBP, I will take a look at the template, I just can't promise anything as my 32-Bit capable Atom is having problems. I might have another 460 for the workstation eBayed by the end of today however. I'm not sure what I'd build yet, maybe a multi-purpose floor such as one with a parking lot (would have a non-functioning elevator so that the cars could get up there - if it were working), some kind of store and maybe a computer mainframe, though I was toying with the idea of having an alien infested floor as I want to get more acquainted with that texture set and relevant palette combinations.
Well we are already having a parking lot planned for the secret level so I don't think that's a good idea. There is not any alien texture infested as of yet though so that sounds good!
It doesn't have to be highly detailed, just fun and try to make good use with the available place for your layout.
OR you could make the secret map indeed, I was initially going to make it after I make my map. What is planned for it is to have it mostly be parking lot with spaces so that every mapper can put/make his car in it. It should be divided into at least two parking lot parts (like seperate with a fence you get to open), and it should also end in a room where you power up the elevator generator and the exit is in the elevator. The map should start in ventilation ducts and will be set on ground level -1.
The problem with that is that, not every player will get to play the secret map which is why I initially wanted to make it as a bonus and not ask anyone to do it to avoid jealousy.
Edit : we should discuss this on the CBP thread on duke4
Quote from: High Treason on 10 February 2014, 02:00:42
I'm surprised that nobody has complained about the corridor of death, I actually thought that would annoy people, I'm guessing nobody set it off? That mechanism went through four different designs, quite problematic early on.
Walked through it with guns blazing, suddenly there was a huge explosion that brought the game to 1 fps or so, but I survived with tons of health so I didn't give it a second thought.
Played this today (right after Riverside & Quantum) and slammed into a brick wall. I've found all the items and got passed the exploding corridor in the factory. The text tells me to use a "machine" to assemble the bomb, but nothing happens and I've been wandering around unsure what to do or if it has bugged out. It claims I still need a "timer" which I already found. Played using Eduke synthesis build 4814.
Can't test right now. The timer message is a red herring, I forgot to make it disappear and eventually decided that the player would probably ignore it.
If it let you out of the room at the end of the air vent you must have pressed use on the correct machine in that room. From there you head to the bar¹ where the exit downstairs leads to a barricade with a yellow target on it and you have to press use on that target. I would advise heading back into the door rather quickly after that though because the barricade is going to go away... That's assuming everything is working the way it's supposed to, I hope it isn't broken in newer builds because it took ages to build some of those machines and I don't fancy the prospect of having to troubleshoot them this long after making them.
¹Small piece of trivial information; That bar looks rather rude if you view it on the automap. This wasn't intentional but I never saw any good reason to change it.
Went to the bar and see no target at the barricade below, something might have broke. :(
Just to clarify to help pinpoint what might be going wrong; after getting passed the exploding corridor I'm inside a vent. Exiting the vent I see a screen telling me to use the machine behind me, which I assume is the white-tower since it's the only thing which opens the door. Enemies spawn. Just beyond the door to my left is another machine which, to me, looks like it should have spat out the 'bomb' but I see nothing there - nor does 'using' it produce any results. Barricade still has nothing to trigger.
Do you remember which version of Eduke you tested this on originally? I can try replaying it from scratch in that one.
The review was done back in February, so I'm assuming whatever build came out at that time.
http://www.scent-88.com/reviews/N/nitro/nitro.php
this has been an unhelpful public service announcement
(http://rainiernew.wpengine.com/yurts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/01/The_more_you_know_banner.jpg)
I think it still worked in r4517. Not sure how many builds I tried it with beyond that.
One possibility that occurred to me is that the target (a yellow ring) has disappeared because the commander's missiles might have destroyed it. All I can suggest otherwise is to press the use button on each face of the barricade, the switch that sets everything off should be located towards the right hand side. It should emit an audible beeping as it counts down to the explosion if it works.
Quote from: High Treason on 18 December 2014, 05:34:12should be located towards the right hand side. It should emit an audible beeping as it counts down to the explosion if it works.
Okay, that worked! Tempted to check out the 'bad ending' I've been reading about.