methy

Once you start making maps for Duke, it tends to catch up to you. For instance an old mapper, and one of the most remembered, just resurfaced the other day with a new map. One of the reason why DN3D has always had less maps than Doom is because it's harder to get into. Not only that, but making a DN3D map takes a lot more time than making a Doom map: for instance, instead of shading per sector, you shade per surface which takes 4 times as much time, and you have to be precise as fuck. Another reason is that the community tends to be a little more competitive than Doom's, and these days it's like most everyone is working on a super big project like an episode or a mod. Then there is also the Bombshell prequel game in the works which uses quite a few people from the DN3D community, so they obviously don't really have time to make maps or mods, but that's a good thing. As far as I'm concerned I need a break from DN3D mapping. I burnt myself out with DN3D when working on the Duke Hard episode, then burnt myself out with Build as a whole after making a Shadow Warrior map and contributing to the Powerslave documentation and mapping project. These days I'm more interested in romhacking NES MegaMan games but I know DN3D will probably catch up to me at some point. Holy shit! Maarten Pixten! I love your maps, I even uploaded them all on Megaton's Workshop. I had no idea you were active in the Doom community (or still active at all anywhere really), do you have a list of maps or mods you've made for it? I'd definitely be interested in trying them out. I hope you reconsider making a map for DN3D, after Alejandro coming back it'd definitely boost up the spirits if you re-appeared as well. Since your last map, Mapster32 has appeared and added tons of small features which make mapping faster and more convenient compared to the original Build.

It means that you picked up the eye required to the open the door to the BFG room. It's in the same placement as keys in the hud.

Obviously the Hell Guardians look out of place so let's get that out of the way since we had an entire thread for it. Overall I really like the redesign all Doom1/2/3 enemies. Summoners are decent but they're no Archevil. Hell Razers fit well with the rest and their attacks add a little something to an arena. Possessed Soldiers, I'm not sure they fit well with the rest. I guess it makes sense since they're no Demons in the pure sense but still. Especially the ones with the shield don't look like something you'd find in a Doom game. I'm not too fond of the idea of making Cyberdemon, Cybermancubus and Revenants be enhanced by humans or pure human creations. I think they did that so that storywise it makes sense, so that you can have "cyber" demons which "cyber" side don't look out of place in Hell; but as a result it still doesn't fit because, while it works with the Cyberdemon since you have an entire level area and tons of text based around it, it's hard make it believeable with Cyber Mancubus and Revenants. I mean did they really create HUNDREDS of those in the Lazarus Labs, but they all got away and somehow they all come back for you? I think the most stupid is the Revenant. The idea of them being created in the Lazarus Labs by linking rocket launchers to human brains while the human is still alive, only to kill them through hellish waves so they come back as demons.... What were they thinking?! The idea of Possessed engineers, human being mixed with explosives during the initial wave, is farfetched as well.

Hayden having fun in his office.

The problem is that it's not just a few misaligned textures. The entire thing is bad, obviously rushed with no effort put into it. Even without trying to nitpick, I don't know how a Doom fan can "just" enjoy these levels when you step in the level and the first thing you notice is how the scale is completely off and there is no shading. Then you start playing and you witness more issues every new step. The fact that there are "13 secret levels" isn't a plus when they're so bad. Their decision didn't have to be "do we fix the classic levels OR do we fix the real game ?" because they couldr have only 2 or 3 classic levels that's actually well done instead of 13 shitty ones. They bring the quality of the game down. The worst thing is that they are supposed to be a reference to the original games but now it looks more like an insult as it shows how little they care. I mean, they went through the trouble of creating an entire sub menu for them, to hide levers in every level, then they saw E1M1 with a level scale twice as small, no shading, wrong effects, etc and someone deciding that yes, it's good, yes we'll keep it and yes we'll include it.

Doesn't work on NIVIDIA's 2GB video cards on Windows 7. Oh well...

The classic levels are absolutely terrible. - The scale is always off. One time the map is too small, one other time it's too big. - No shading, no lighting, barely any effect and even the existing effects like elevators act nothing like in the original game. - Music doesn't loop properly. Missing sounds. - Like you said poor balance, and poor enemy placement as well. - Some glitches too, one time I did a glory kill on stairs and I ended up falling through the level. - Arbitrary choices like invisible walls here but not there; and non accurate secrets. Out of all the modern FPS that includes "classic style" levels, not a single of them got them right, but the Doom ones are probably the worst. They shouldn't have bothered with it if it's to put so little effort into it. I thought you guys would be the most bothered by it.

You know what small detail I love above all? In UAC, the first level, after the first Gore Nest you get into an elevator. The intro video rolls in with kickass soundtrack, then we get back to the elevator with the music still playing and Doomguy reloads his shotgun just as the music stops and the elevator doors open, telling the player he can take control of the game again and kick some more ass. That perfectly timed shotgun reloading sound is exhilarating and I can never get tired of it. The only thing missing is something to shoot just as we take control of Doomguy.

It's the only one I remember having seen with that shield.

Could this be a reference to.. something?

Yeah, they felt very out of place. I thought the fight itself was nothing special either, especially the first Guard with the shield felt like it was balanced in a "middle ground" sort of way, so that it's beatable with or with no upgrades, which as a result makes him work well in neither case. Honestly, while they did a good job at making the old enemies look badass, I thought that any new enemy design was weak.

Share the tips & tricks you found in the game, be it gameplay tips you think are uncommon, glitches, slippery level design, etc Everyone probably knows about the Syphon exploit, but maybe some of you have a few things to share which you think aren't that obvious. - with the Rocket Launcher Lock-On Targeting, if you release the lock on while tapping the fire key, with the right timing, you'll be firing 3 normal rockets in a row. - In Lazarus Facility, you can hide here and safely shoot every enemy in the arena. Pinkys won't even move. - In Lazarus Facility still, before teleporting into the last arena, you can shoot many enemies through the grid floor here. It can give a HUGE advantage. All the next ones are for the final level : - Surely you can picture the 3 last big arenas of the level. Even if you're not supposed to, with the right jumps, you can backtrack from the 2nd arena to the first one; and from the 3rd one to the 2nd one as well. This can help for supplies (BFG ammo, armor, etc) - I'm standing in the first secret place holding a 200 hp+armor refill item, you can actually very easily go back there by jumping on the rocks near the wall to the area. Therefore, you can trigger the fight, and come back here to shoot every demon safely from a distance. Only Imps will try to shoot at you. You can also therefore come back get the 200 hp+armor refill item once this arena fight has ended, and use it for the next arena, which is harder. -Smaller one but, in the last arena, Pinkys tend to get stuck there. -Finally, once you're done with the last arena fight, from this point in the screenshot near the last objective (the last energy source to destroy), you can jump on the walls on the left, with the yellow last source, and from there jump to backtrack into the corridor that brought into the arena in the first place. In this corridor, there is a secret place with BFG ammo and another 200 hp+armor refill item; in other words, this makes sure that you start the Spider Mastermind bossfight with 200HP, 200armor and another BFG shot.

For shooting demons through the grid floor in the last arena, try to find them by listening to where their iddle sounds come from. Sometimes you only see a tiny bit of them from a certain angle, but shoot them once (I used fully charged pistol shots) and most of the times they'll move to a place where it will be easier to shoot them. You can kill most of the Possessed Soldiers and Hell Razers of the arena that way. The fight felt incredibly empty after that :D

Ah yes, in the last screenshot I posted in my first post, you can also backtrack there by jumping on rocks using double jump and Gauss Cannon (first use the rocks on the right of the path, not the ones below it). In other words, you can backtrack to the previous corridor that way before the fight has ended (the place I showed in the screenshot is only accessible after the fight), which theoretically makes it possible to kill every enemy in the arena from a safe distance like in the 3rd screenshot I showed. However I didn't mention it because jumping back that way using double jump and gauss cannon is particularly hard, unless you know exactly where to jump. Plus if you don't have infinite ammo you're likely to waste all your ammo trying. However there are 2 main waves in that fight, so in theory, if you leave the very last enemy of the first main wave alive on purpose, that should leave you more time to perform that hard jump and deal with the 2nd wave of enemies from the previous corridor.

I only used most of those tricks in my no upgrade Nightmare run honestly, not even in UN. But whatever.

Your save gets deleted if you quit during a level. You need to choose "save&quit" at the end of a level. This is probably to avoid people cheating by quitting and restarting the level when they're about to die. Although once I got a crash during the middle of a UN level and my save was still there, so there is probably a failsafe for that.

So is that for multiplayer only or for SP too?

Honestly I thought about it but I didn't use it, I beat UN legit. I'm actually not even SURE it works, as I've never tried it, but I see no reason why it wouldn't work. If someone could confirm it works that would be nice btw.

Beat it the other day. Honestly the first half of the game is the most difficult. If you know what you're doing, the end game is a piece of cake once you get certain stuff. Honestly after dying against a surprise face-to-face Cacodemon in "Argent Facility (Destroyed)" on my previous run, I was so pissed I felt like cheating, so what I did was, everytime I'd beat a level, use "Save&Exit", and then make a backup of that save. Because I am pretty sure that if you die and lose your save, you can copy back the previous save onto it (just make sure to disable Steam cloud). I haven't tried it, because I actually didn't die on that playthrough, but I am sure it works. It's cheating though, but (if it works) I guess you can give it a try if you want to go for a "semi Ultra-Nightmare" where you start from the beginning of the level rather than from the beginning of the game.

I've beat UN difficulty and thought I was done with the game but this actually inspired me to try a no-upgrade Nightmare run. It's actually quite fun as it forces me to use very different tactics and to manage ammo carefully, but I wouldn't be quite ready to do it in UN yet as I've reached Argent Tower and died 3 times already. Although in Argent Facility ammo wasn't a problem, between the supplies of Chainsaw gas and the ammo boxes, you should always be near max. Plus, I think that if you enter and exit a Rune challenge world, it resets the ammo boxes. Thanks for the idea though!

Honestly the frag grenade can be very useful against a group of enemies, and sometimes I even use it to weaken Mancubus. But the Syphon? My god that thing is so broken. On my UN run, once I got Syphon the game got a LOT easier, that thing makes you invicible, especially if used with the Increased Weapon Power Rune and it drains Armor as well. Not to mention that you can keep grinding health and armor against even a mere Possessed until you're at max.

I feel that the only good thing about the lock-on is the possible exploit. If you release the lock-on just as it's complete and shoot, with the right timing, you'll be firing 3 normal rockets. It's a glitch though , so I don't think it really counts, but once you get the hang of it it can be really useful.

I think the two most powerful mods are the Gauss Cannon with Siege and Rocket Launcher with Remote Detonation. Once fully upgraded, Remote Detonation is amazing. It deals more damage than a regular rocket and the explosion radius is HUGE. The lock-on targeting may seem better at first, but don't forget we're talking about 3 weaker rockets with much smaller radius. It takes more time to shoot AND it's weaker, I feel it's completely useless especially considering that an upgraded Remote Detonation will have a radius so high, even if your aiming isn't perfect you'll hit something anyway (so lock-on targeting isn't that big of a deal). A fully charged shot with the Siege Mode of the Gauss Canon is the most powerful regular weapon in the game (outside of BFG of course). On the highest difficulties you can take down a Baron in no time with a normal shot followed by a charged one, even if you're not aiming for the head; and it can take down most other enemies in one hit (I think only Mancubus require several hits). In 3rd Position comes the Stun Charge of the Plasma Rifle. It's a life saver and in tough situations, can give you the time you need to perfectly aim (your charged Gauss Canon shot, for instance). Honestly on my Ultra-Nightmare run, past some point, all I used were those three, with an occasional explosive shot of the shotgun. I barely used the burst charge of the shotgun, however it's not as useless as everyone makes it out to be because it can stun enemies, and therefore make Hell Knights and Pinkies stop during their charge stance. It can be an alternative to the Plasma Stun in some situations, and it deals damage, too. SSG I barely used at all in my 40+ hours of play. I feel it's a waste of time, by the time you get it, it's weak, and by the time you upgrade it, it feels completely useless, and it's dangerous to use since you need to be at close range, and in this game, I usually want to circle-run in the direction opposite to enemies rather than in their direction.

Sorry for the crappy image quality, playing with a GTX660. A truely possessed Possessed, flying around in seizure mode. Artifact IDDQD Parts of the environment disappearing from a standing on a place where you're not supposed to stand Holes in the world. Last level is like a swiss cheese with its invisible walls surrounding the playing area. You can backtrack to earlier places you're not supposed to, but also reach super high areas.

Megaton brought back some popularity to the game, and the workshop to usermaps. Only about 4 new mappers came out of Megaton though. The problem with Megaton though is that its workshop doesn't support mods, and that plenty of mods/maps are EDuke32-only and don't work with it. Also due to some technical things it CAN be a pain to make your already existing map work and look PROPERLY in Megaton. Also, very few Steam users care enough to look at what's beyond Megaton and the workshop ; so it doesn't actually make the active community much bigger. The level editor that comes with Megaton is very dated ; and, the way it is setup in the Megaton folder, doesn't even work as is. So in conclusion it brought some new mappers but not many. It however did bring tons of new (or old) players. 2 of my maps got downloaded 5000 times on the workshop. For the zombie game, you mean Zombie Crisis. A good little zombie game, kind of wolf3D-style. But there are other Duke mods that became more popular than that, whether they are DN3D related or EDuke32 standalone games; like the DNF 2013 mod (over 26k downloads on moddb) or Slender Woods (38k downloads on moddb). I'm very positive we do have more maps/mods released than Quake, but a less than Doom. Not sure about other games, I'm thinking Half Life could be somewhere up there... As for Shadow Warrior, one guy still makes maps for it and singlehandely is the SW community. However, there are things that will happen for SW in a near future makes me think SW mapping might pick up a little bit, but it doesn't help that SW mapping is really hard and not user friendly at all, with little to help you with it. The Blood community is bigger but it's still only a handful of mappers. I'd say maybe 5 active mappers.