RazorZ presents: New episode in the works called "Rendezvous"

[Henri K]

That´s because I forgot to change it to Eduke32.  I renamed Eduke32.exe to DUKE3D.exe, because I have some old TCs and I would like to play them with Eduke32 (Fusion TC for example do not support Eduke32 by default for example). However, if it does matter, you can always change it to eduke32 if you wish to, though.  I´ll fix it later on after I´ve finished my second level in the Rendezvous episode. 

[Zykov Eddy]

Played your map. I think i like it. I like the way you did the shading. Very good oldschool map  .

[Henri K]

Thanks, Eddy.  Yeah, it´s old school map. Can´t wait when it´s rewieved on Duke Nukem Repository and MSDN. 

[Henri K]

Hi again, pals (I suppose)!   This topic could actually be renamed, because I´m actually starting to informate the progress of my whole episode here (somebody could help me out how to change the name of the topic).
Oh well, that actually is not the main thing, I think you guys want to see some screenies!  

My second map is under constructions right now.   It´s not meant to be as long as the first level of the episode,
but the design gets even more interesting and there is now some total spritework to see. Go ahead and see.  
Say, what you think about it - something constructive.  

PS: If you have an idea for the name of the map, please feel free to tell it. I would like to hear something that could fit into the map, where theme is industrial/rock/height based.

[ck3D]

Really really liking the last two shots. Nice spritework on the first one too, I have to say the plain blue sky texture isn't really my kind of thing though, but I take it that the surroundings are just not done yet.

I just downloaded your map and will play it tonight, comments will follow.

[Numan]

If you want to change the title of this thread you can easily do it yourself or I can do it for you.
(Ofcourse then I have to know what new title you want to use)

If you want to manage  it yourself just change the title in the new post you make;
The "Subject" field that is above every post.

All the posts after the change will have the new title...

[Henri K]

Really really liking the last two shots. Nice spritework on the first one too, I have to say the plain blue sky texture isn't really my kind of thing though, but I take it that the surroundings are just not done yet.

I just downloaded your map and will play it tonight, comments will follow.

Thanks, MRCK.  I agree with you that the last two shots are probably more interesting because of strong shading.
Will increase the amount of detail in the first screenie as soon as I can.

If you want to change the title of this thread you can easily do it yourself or I can do it for you.
(Ofcourse then I have to know what new title you want to use)

If you want to manage  it yourself just change the title in the new post you make;
The "Subject" field that is above every post.

All the posts after the change will have the new title...

OK, Numan. Now I got it. Thank you so much. 

[MetHy]

I played your map.

Overall it's a very good. The level design is just GREAT : everything looks genuine (the fact that everything is connected in each area probably plays an important role on that) and there is a real sense of progression through the map because of all its different areas. The map isn't overdetailed, but it never looks as if it lacked details : perhaps we could say that there is the perfect ammount of details to have a map which is at the same time good looking and long ? There was 34 mins on the counter when I completed the map (but that doesn't count the deaths).

I have a few complains though, a few things which ruined the experience a bit for me :
- I tried to make the map work for 20mins before MRCK told me that there was an error in the .bat. I think this should be corrected right now, most people who have downloaded the map probably couldn't get it to work. (besides, what do the new .con files change anyway? I didn't notice anything)
- In a couple of rooms there were laser traps. Those pissed off, first I looked around the room before entering, then I entered and got killed. There was no way I could have seen them in the first place. Then I loaded my save, went there even more carefully but still got killed a second time because the retarded pigcops went through them. I think that was very unfair.
- I was playing in Come Get Some, and there was a serious lack of ammo and health a the end of the map (from the sewers and on) so I had to save/load a lot. I even had to do some serious backtracking to press the switches "1" and "2" because for some reasons Duke couldn't reach them manually and I was out of ammo.
- At the very end, when going down the vent, it makes you loose health, and since like I said I was out of health it killed me. That was VERY ridiculous considering that I was just in front of the nuke button.

But I like said, an overall very good map with GREAT level design. Not to mention that the theme of the map, in the first areas, felt fresh.
 Hopefully your next map will be at least as good.

[Mikko_Sandt]

- In a couple of rooms there were laser traps. Those pissed off, first I looked around the room before entering, then I entered and got killed. There was no way I could have seen them in the first place. Then I loaded my save, went there even more carefully but still got killed a second time because the retarded pigcops went through them. I think that was very unfair.

Those rooms almost made me throw my mom's laptop out the window.

[ck3D]

I've been playing this on and off since yesterday evening (can't really commit to it since I'm quite busy with other things at the same time). I guess I'm about halfway through the map, even though I haven't came across those rooms you're talking about yet. So far I really really like the design (especially in some areas, with the exception of some misaligned textures), especially the shading. I spotted a few areas that could have been heaps better if ambient sounds had been used, keep that in mind for your next map (waterfall sounds, etc.). Also I'm not a big fan of that type of gameplay where every single area is randomly filled with too many monsters, I like my firefights more subtle / better thought-out or at least in bigger areas if it's going to be a bloodbath, but it's just my personal taste. I'm going to finish this now, and see if I have more comments to add. But you're onto something, and for a first release it's quite brillant, so I encourage you to make more

[ck3D]

I might be retarded but, where the hell is the blue key ? I've made it all the way around, through the alien cave thing, the rocky area with the little river thing then back, looking everywhere and even finding secret places, but no blue key in sight.

EDIT : never mind...... found it

[ck3D]

Alright, completed it soon after my previous post. Turned out that the map was longer than I thought it would be, awesome. Not much else to add to what I've said already, my comments still stand, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised design-wise when I got to the sewer sections (especially some of the rooms there, my fav being the one with the little offices / lockers / computer thingys). I had the same problem as MetHy as I was low on health towards the end the last vent killed Duke and I had to DNKROZ to get to the nukebutton, the tripmines weren't a problem for me at all though, I saw them coming and still had a bunch of pipebombs - although, I really didn't like the 'surprise' explosion in that one corridor after one of the blue elevators. I was low on ammo and health the whole time but it's a good thing, I like challenging gameplays and it forced me to resort to weapons I rarely ever bother using when I don't have to (ie. pipebombs). A good map, looking forwards to your next release, even though once again I thought the amout of baddies was overwhelming at times.

[Henri K]

Wow, I´m impressed that there were so many posts on the way here to this topic.  
Especially MRCK wrote a lot of comments and horrible amount of text, without forgetting the good and the bad things. OK, I don´t wanna list everything what was actually quite bad in the map, but I could take the overall  
conclusion about these posts made here in a while.

THE BAD  
- annoying explosions and surprises at times, no chance to survive from them  
- too unlinear gameplay or even too complex at times  
- difficulty very, very tight, almost impossible because of lack of ammo  

Alright, when I tested the map, I didn´t meet any of those problems,   but it might be because of my knowledge what I put into the map. However, even my friends (see beta-testers in the text file of the map) were be able to complete it quite easily, even on "Come Get Some" difficulty setting. But oh well, I will keep your comments in my mind (that´s why I actually did this topic  ) when creating my next level, that is probably called as "Tranquil Death".

[Merlijn]

I finished the map and liked it a lot. Played it on 'let's rock' and didn't experience ammo or health problems (I was low on them several times, but it was perfectly playable). The beginning was a little confusing sometimes because of all the caves, which were indeed quite 'mazey'. I never got truely lost but maybe some more reference points could have been added. I liked how the areas were all connected to each other though. The firefights were mostly fun, although some parts were pretty crowded with aliens. The battlelord managed to surprise me.
My favorite part was definately the whole sewage factility. It was very well designed and I liked how I kept descending to the lowest parts of the base. The room MRCK mentioned was also my favorite, looked very good without being flashy. It didn't feel too linear either, with plenty of areas waiting to be explored. 

The tripmines didn't kill me, but this might be because of how I play levels - I never rush into rooms, I usually retreat back to familiar territory when a room contains several aliens. In this case I threw in a pipebomb to kill the pigcops, which also took out most of the tripmines.
I do agree that the last fall down the vent was unfair though. At least give the player enough health to survive the fall.

BTW I discovered a shortcut to the ending: in one of the rooms there's a hidden teleporter, which takes you straight to the nukebutton. I discovered it completely by accident so you might want to hide it a little bit better.

[Henri K]

Hey, somebody actually found that teleporter! It was meant for speedruns in the level, and I though that nobody managed to find it, but oh yeah, it´s great that even someone found it. Thank you for comment, Merlijin.

Oh, and more screens, from the the fourth level of the episode, LABORATORY LANCER.