Menu

Show posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

Show posts Menu

Messages - Wingman

#1
Duke 3D Modifications / Re: [Release] Island Base
30 January 2014, 23:52:29
Thanks!  ;)
#2
Duke 3D Modifications / Re: [Release] Island Base
25 January 2014, 17:11:51
I think I have fixed the floor-bug now. I've tested the map again in polymer and 8-bit mode several times, and it works (except for some of the sector bugs with swing doors, but that's not an gameplay issue).

Because the mapping is time cunsuming and I won't have much spare time this year, this will be the final release version for this community. Maybe it's not a perfect map (about nine years of building with breaks - reminds me of DNF *g*), but I had fun with it. Hope some of you will have some fun with it, too. ;)
#3
Duke 3D Modifications / Re: [WIP] Island Base
04 January 2014, 16:16:29
Quote from: Micky C on  31 December 2013, 11:37:06
Also, what kind of glitches are you afraid of if you add more detail?

Glitches like fatal sector bugs, which require extended rebuilds. There a two or three of them (at both bathroom doors and the left officers room). I already had to rebuild an entire sector after changing from BUILD to HRP / Mapster, because behind one door, you only saw the skybox until you entered the door. I encountered the same problem in some very old maps of the late 90s, that I played lately. Maybe it has something to do with some differences in BUILD and Mapster (if there are any)?
#4
Duke 3D Modifications / Re: [RELEASE] Island Base
31 December 2013, 11:26:06
Here is an updated version of Islandbase. But it is not supposed to be the final release yet, because I want to do try some more shading, and I don't have much time at the moment. I also thought about bringing more detail into some places (take a look at the second security office near the reactor section), but I'm afraid the map could glitch up too much. There is already a weird bug that occures sometimes when you're in the third security office (behind the central command doors): Duke starts "sliding", as if he walks on ice, and it won't stop anymore (but it happened only in polymost / polymer-mode so far). That can be really annoying. I didn't find a solution for that, but it may have to do with an nearby sector that goes underneath (the airshaft). I added more polymer lightning in some places, too (ike in the caves), and revised the enemy placement.
#5
Duke 3D Modifications / Re: [RELEASE] Island Base
28 December 2013, 04:23:45
At the moment, I'm reworking the enemy placements, improving some architecture details and trying to add more shading in certain places (especially the big outdoor areas). I am also trying to reduce the framerate issues in polymer mode with different textures in some places (one of the bathroom-textures is very reflective and seems to need a lot of GPU-time, like the bathroom in the original E1L1 map).

As I said, I tested the map with a friend (not a "Duker" before that), and he gave me about the same feedback as I got here. So I'll try to fix all of these issues. Of course it will not become another "It lives" (or similar masterpiece), but I hope the enjoyment outweights the flaws in the final version ;D. It will take some more days, and I will post it here again, when It's done.

Quote from: Micky C on  24 December 2013, 12:03:31The map had a good sense of progression and variety; cave, high tech, alien, outdoor so it felt nice and full which is good. Because I was playing with polymer there were framerate issues at times. For example around that big alien spaceship in the lake, I died many times because there was so much going on that it dragged the framerate down.

Thanks. On my machine (it's quite fast), I have framerate issues in the first two bathrooms (as long as the mirrors are intact) and the central command. But I experienced worse in some of the original maps (like DukeBurger, again near the bathrooms). Maybe that gets better with further developement of the polymer-mode in future releases.

QuoteNote that turrets are framerate killers; they shoot lots of laser sprites, and those sprites all generate polymer lights, so all that plus the TWO battlelords (I was playing on the easiest setting, might want to tone that down a bit) and the dozens of other enemies, including troopers which also shoot that resource intensive laser sprite really resulted in a lot of unfair deaths. So yeah I'd restrict one of those battlelords and the turrets to a higher up skill level.

I placed most of the turrents years ago, before polymer came out. But I removed some of them lately.

QuoteAlso found the boss battle at the end pretty difficult, there wasn't a lot of room to move or much cover to hide behind IIRC.

That's because I wanted to fit all the ships internals (lower and upper deck) in the shape that you see on the outside. So yeah, it is unusual tight for a boss battle. I added two doors rescently to get more cover. There is also a hidden switch where you can deactivate the forcefield and get the boss into his oversized teleporter. With some luck, you can lure him to the ship's outside. But that was just some sort of experiment to test if bosses can be teleported (yes, they can).

QuoteThe only problems from a technical point of view were some slightly stretched textures in the elevators, and in the WC in the mess hall, when the swing door was closed, it caused the normal map on the floor to go all funky and the sector didn't receive polymer light (not sure but it might be due to possible overlapping sectors, but if you can't fix it it's not a big deal since most non-mappers wouldn't notice).

I will check the elevator textures. For the sector-problem I didn't find any solution yet (it happens in the first two bathrooms and the left officers quarter). Maybe some experienced mapper has an idea.

QuoteUnlike Forge I did enjoy the gameplay. Sometimes it just feels nice to wander around a bit, and I never got too lost (the automap was invaluable in the cave), and there was more than enough ammo.

Like I said, it seems to be always an opinion kind of thing. There are some usermaps out there that are simply excellent masterpieces in terms of details, features, architecture and balance. I think I would never have the patience or creativity for something like that. But they are not always as enjoyable to me in terms of gameplay and excitement as some of the more simplistic classics. But even in that case, I enjoy the eyecandy.

I remember the first usermaps back in 1996 (you could buy lots of CD-ROMs with hundrets of usermaps, even the game itself was banned shortly after release in Germany because of it's violence), and 95% of them were really bad in terms of texturing and especially scaling. For example, most of these maps had 15 feet strippers, 10 feet toilet bowls, 5 feet light switches and other things like that. The BUILD-usermapping has come a long way thought the years ;)... I still own two or three of these CD-ROMs. Maybe I take a look and find some long lost classics which are not on the internet anymore (but as I said, 95% aren't interesting anymore by todays standards).

QuoteAs for the shading, like I said put more lights in the cave. And even though the map uses polymer lighting, you should always use a bit of manual shading as well. Different areas should have different overall shades (especially indoor vs outdoor), and adjacent walls as well as ceilings should have a few shades' difference between them as this helps give the map more depth.

We'll see what I can improve there.

QuoteStill, an enjoyable map, I'd give it perhaps an 85 out of 100. I really look forward to your next map  :)

Thx, thats really generous.  8)
#6
Duke 3D Modifications / Re: [RELEASE] Island Base
24 December 2013, 10:52:10
Quote from: Forge on  24 December 2013, 06:18:13
not really a huge fan of maze maps; and this one is loaded with them. cave mazes, underwater mazes, vent mazes
what makes them especially bad is the one shade fits all for every wall, ceiling, and floor while in those mazes

I can do some different shading near the skylights in the caves, but I wasn't aware that so many players still use the 8-bit mode without polymer lightning. After playing the game for about 15 years in classic mode, the HRP / Polymer and DukePlus felt really fresh to me. ;)

Quotei didn't use dukeplus so some health placement was off and too far apart
on the other hand the ammo stashes were usually too close together

That's because I find it more exiting when you are low at health instead of ammo. Maps where you spend half the time using the mighty foot (even if you're precise with every single shot) because they lack ammo are annoying in my opinion. But that's an opinion kind of thing of course.

Quotedidn't find the shriker, but found an expander in a supply room. too bad you can't pick it up

It worked in the HRP / DukePlus-modes. But I changed it to a shrinker now.

EDIT: There is already a shrinker in the sewage system (near the blue keycard), but it's somewhat hidden because it's floating in the water.

Quotepicop tanks and fat commanders in small hallways are annoying

Another opinion kind of thing. I find pig tank encounters and fat commanders in hallways intense, because you really have to take cover and do some stategy. At high range in outdoor areas, they're almost like any other enemy.

As I already said, the map wasn't intended for classic mode anymore. But I'll fix some of the shading-issues with that.

I'm away for several days now, and I like to wish you a very christmas, happy holydays or whatever you like to call it!  :)
#7
Duke 3D Modifications / Re: [RELEASE] Island Base
24 December 2013, 00:22:30
Quote from: Micky C on  23 December 2013, 14:59:46
Before you get Forge to upload it, let me do a playthrough for any final missed problems...

Thx for the help 8) . I attached the latest version.
#8
Duke 3D Modifications / Re: [RELEASE] Island Base
23 December 2013, 13:07:10
I think the final (re)release for you will be after the christmas days. Until then I will do some more testing for bugs (also together with a friend), but in terms of changes it is finished by now.

Changes:

- Better texture alligment
- Some more details, mostly in outdoor areas
- Three more secret rooms
- Workaround for the underwater skybox-problem
- Minor changes in item and enemy-placement
- New easter egg somewhere near the beach (requires noclip)  ;)
#9
Duke 3D Modifications / Re: [RELEASE] Island Base
22 December 2013, 00:58:11
Yes, exactly. I'll try something different then. But that explains why older usermaps have wrong skymaps in some locations now.  ;)
#10
Duke 3D Modifications / Re: [RELEASE] Island Base
22 December 2013, 00:15:38
There will be an updated version. I'm working right now on some texture alligments and a skybox-problem in the underwater passage with the sharks. The skybox won't change anymore when I go to parallax, regardless of the used texture. In classic mode, I had the used underwater texture (simply a parallax of the water texture). But now you only see the surface skybox with ocean and sky. Anyone know that problem?

I also tried it in a empty map, and the water-skybox works in HRP.



[attachment deleted by admin]
#11
Duke 3D Modifications / Re: [RELEASE] Island Base
21 December 2013, 11:31:18
Thanks, that works well! It will be a lot of work, but I think redo the outdoor-textures soon.
#12
Duke 3D Modifications / Re: [RELEASE] Island Base
20 December 2013, 22:37:29
Thank you for your feedback!  ;)

Quote from: methy on  20 December 2013, 21:33:18There is good stuff in the map, and it's definitely a good first map, however there are many small issues. Lack of shading and wall shading, oversized empty areas, minimalistic texturing and architecture in some areas... It was also a bit hard to know where to go at times but I never got 'lost' for long.
Gameplay felt a little weird too. At first I was over 100hp with 100 armor before seeing a single enemy, then I ran out of ammo, then suddenly back to 200hp 100 armor, a medipack and TONS of ammo... I know I didn't play with dukeplus but I don't think this would change much and it is more a matter of item placement.

The funny thing about this map is that I worked on it since 2005 (then with the original BUILD and without eduke32-port) with big breaks in between. In the beginning, it was just the cave system intended for dukematch only to play with some friends over LAN (not even to be released in the web). Then the base followed, but was supposed to end in the central command room. After that (again, years later) I felt I could continue it a little bit more with an outdoor area. Finally, I added the alien ship. Up to this point, the map is from 2008 and the only new location after the rescent polymer-update is the (somewhat hidden) beach area. So yes, there is definitly a visible learning curve in this map. ;D

I made three dukematch-only maps before (in 1998 and 1999), but nothing special by todays duke-standards (you can see some screenshots here below Island Base).

QuoteMy biggest complain were the enemies when you use the teleporter to get into the ship. You use that teleporter, you're pretty sure to die considering the ammount of (tough) enemies waiting for you on the other side; and it's 99% likely that the player WILL use it because the other way in, from underwater, is not very visible as I missed it even though I spent a few mins completely clearing the underwater area.

Thats the whole joke. The teleporter is a death trap, unless you teleporting rockets or pipebombs over, to clear the area. Or you take the "messy" way below the surface. The entrance might be a little hard to locate, because I removed the fixed 8-bit shading to support the polymer-lightning ambience. This might also explain why the map now lacks shading in 8-bit mode.

QuoteI think the map isn't bad, but that you should spend one more day polishing it, polishing item and enemy placement, fixing the misaligned textures, making architecture and shading a little more interesting on the edges, etc

Maybe there will be another update. But there are many textures to be alligned, at least in the cave-areas (or did I miss some auto-feature in Mapster for texture aligment? *g*).

QuoteHope you make more, there is definitely potential, as like I said, the map feels SOMEWHAT fresh and original in its theme and how it goes through different locations in a progressive logical way.

Thanks. If there is time I think I will do another one.
#13
Duke 3D Modifications / [Release] Island Base
20 December 2013, 14:03:15
Hello Dukers!

I like to introduce my map "Island Base". It was already released in 2008, but has undergone some major updates in the past few weeks (especially polymer-effects, but also some new rooms and features). The map is quite huge and has many places to explore and a whole army of enemies to fight (about 500).

DukePlus recommended.

=================================================================================================
Description / "Storyline":

Several months after Duke Nukem defeated the alien invasion force, one surviving troop carrier ran out of power and had to emergency land on earth in search for a new power source.

The aliens choosed an small rocky island somewhere in the pacific. That island contains a top secret EDF-base which is used for research in antimatter-based energy technologies. Just the perfect place to get new energy for the stranded invaders.

The base was highly secured, but the small EDF-crew were absolutely outnumbered by the hundreds of alien invaders. They were overrun within minutes and the security staff were mutated into pigcop-forces.  With the power source secured, the aliens decided to use many of the water reservoirs on the island as hatchery to grow a new invasion force on earth.

As the EDF-headquarters recieved a garbled emergency call from the island base, Duke Nukem got his equipment and his dukecopter. After landing on a hidden corner of the island, Duke has to search the nearby cave systems for an entrance into the bases basement, were it sewage system is located...

Good Luck! ;)

=================================================================================================

Download Link (or see attachement) and Screenshots:

CGS  -Download

















Enjoy!  ;D