Naferia's Reign: Invasion of the Dark Mistress [Large-Scale Modification, WIP]

[Lord Misfit]

http://naferia.duke4.net/
Current Version is: 5.21.09262011 (released on 09/26/11)


Hello, and welcome to the main topic for "Naferia's Reign: Invasion of the Dark Mistress", a recently developed modification for Duke Nukem 3D which incorporates a large number of features.

I would put the features list up for the topic, but it's way too long to fit in the topic, so you'll have to go to the link to check on it's stats. :\

Updated on 5/16/09:

Modification Synopsis
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"1 year after the initial alien invasion in Duke Nukem 3D and the death of the newborn Alien Queen in the Atomic Edition, the murderous aliens still persist despite Duke's efforts to destroy them, but after their recent invasion of Washington D.C. is ruined and the President of the United State is saved by Duke Nukem himself(the events of "Duke it out in D.C."), their true leader finally shows her real colors, in a cataclysmic show of hands that will rock the foundation of Duke Nukem's entire life and principles. Even the great alien ass-kicker himself soon finds he is outmatched on his own, and will against his pride need all the help he can get to defeat this Alien Super-Queen before not only Earth, but all life in the universe are left prey to her evil natures!

So Duke, Are You Ready to Fend off the Invasion of Naferia, the Dark Mistress?"


Modification Taglines
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* "No hero or villain, no matter how cool, powerful, talented, skilled or charismatic can do everything all by themselves. Even they eventually hit their limits, whether it be the limit of their patience or the limit of their skill, power and/or talent..."
* "Teamwork might feel like a drawback, but it's also the only way for even HIM to survive THIS war..."
* "He who is corrupt and She who is almighty have joined forces against you. It's only fair you have friends of your own..."
* "She Awaits You... But do you think she's all that's waiting for you??"


Description from EDuke32 Wiki's Modification Page:
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What will come to be an alternate-universe Duke Nukem story revolving around a pivotal point in the history of Duke Nukem and the Aliens he has faced since the original Duke Nukem 3D. Duke is no longer working alone in his quest, as his enemies ramp up their power and allegiances substantially, as well as their intelligence to a point. Play as up to 15 different characters, with the ability to use multiple characters in the same party, unlike in Hexen[and more like a real RPG]. Monsters are more interactive and to a point more intelligent, able to grab items like health and armor, get damaged by slime and other hazards, and even pick up powerups to make them deadlier in combat. Find money laying around or get it out of your characters' ATM accounts, and use it to buy new items from shops or other NPCs. Voice Acting is also present.


What to Expect in this MOD [In the Future]
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* Over 150 to 200 levels are planned to encompass the game's entire storyline, all of it will play out as a single unified 'episode', much like Doom 2/Hexen/Strife.
* A colorful cast of both playable and non-playable characters in Duke's world which will play their own roles in your quest for planetary/universal peace.
* Be warned: This mod is not a typical Duke Nukem style game as Duke has 'matured' over time and might be not 100% like the one you're used to. While he is still more or less a lot like his old badass one-liner cracking self, players will learn new facets about him(as well as his allies and enemies alike). This is an alternate universe however, so it's not technically part of the official Dukeverse, but it will give some interesting possible insights to a slightly more 'down to earth' Duke.
* A truckload of different possible endings will occur depending on the circumstances at the end of the game.
* A Fire Emblem-style support system for allowing playable characters to reveal more about themselves and create allyships for extra bonuses to their stats and overall playability.

Major Features
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* There are several RPG elements tied into the game. Instead of health in % form, you have HP/Hit Points, and Armor Points instead of %-based Armor. There are also stats for damage, defense, movement speed, and you can also gain levels via experience points.
* In addition to playing as Duke Nukem, you can play as up to 14 other characters[although they are still under construction due to lack of resources] by using a special set of menus to choose them. This works more like a real RPG game where you can have all of the characters in a single group at once, and not like in Hexen where you choose a single character to play as for the entire game. Each character has special abilities outside of their [future] weapons that can given them advantages or disadvantages in certain situations.
* Monsters are improved and have better overall intelligence and interactivity with the environment around them. Monsters can now seek out items and run over to them to use for their own benefits or to rob the player/characters of their chance to use them. The items they can grab include health items, armor items, powerups, stat-bonus items and even some inventory items like the Portable Medikit, Protective Boots and Scuba Gear. Monsters can also now be affected by hazardous terrain like slime and lava, and they can also drown underwater. They also have their own stats and level-up systems.
* ATM Machines can be used, with multiple accounts and PIN#s for each character and various other non-playable characters. You can withdraw, deposit, or wire money[send from one account to another] with ATMs.
* The ability to find money and shop for items from various NPC characters in the game.
* Various bugs from classic Duke3D fixed [i.e. 'Monsters staying Shrunken after getting hit', 'Teleporting Assault Captain Damage', etc]
* BOSS2/BOSS3/BOSS4 have fully working miniboss versions much like BOSS1 does.
* All species of monsters have special variations that use specific palettes in Mapster/Build and all have their own unique abilities. Boss monsters have a 'Super' variant called 'ESS-Rank' if their palettes are set to 24, for example.
* Over time, the overall storyline of the game will reveal itself. [Yes, there is a big storyline planned for this mod, even if it is considered an 'Alternate Universe' or 'Sidestory' modification].
* New hazardous terrains and other interactive locations will make themselves painfully known to you and your enemies over time.
* Revised HUD system and many display changes for the main game. There will also be an 'old-skool mode' for a specific part of the completed-game. I will not however spoil it publicly to anyone here. ;P
* At least four special types of powerups, including a Mario-style invulnerability powerup which can also be used as dangerously by enemies or even NPC characters! The possibility for at least another two types of powerups[i.e. Vampire/Drain-style] is present in future releases.
* Items can be flagged with unique properties in Mapster for mappers [i.e. Booby-Trapped, invisible w/o NV Goggles, 4x benefit, etc].
* Keypads, Handscanners and other unique security switches for improved levels. Keyscanners require a keycode # while Handscanners can only be by specific characters to limit various access points.
* Four new keycard colors: Brown, Bloody, Grey and Green.
* Enemies, NPCs and even the player can be set to have lifebars appear over their heads to give people a better idea of their status.
* And other surprises...
* Inventory System With Nearly 60 different items you can store away for later use RPG style. Items that can be stored away include normal DN3D health powerups, Armor items and even Atomic Health.
* Equipment System with 9(currently) different accessories that can be equipped to each character to give different effects, like elemental protection or boosting the amount of EXP or RANK you receive, to name a couple.
* Most of the "Support System" is ready: a Fire-Emblem style character-support system which allows in-game interactions between characters to help improve their abilities in battle/etc through bonding and character development . (still need to have the actual conversations and a way to activate them added, but the actual benefits are programmed in right now >.>)
* Drivable Vehicles: includes three varients of the Pigcop's Riot Tank(green, blue and red camo), which can be found empty and then occupied by the player as mobile weapons with extra armor. More vehicles are planned in the future as well.

Character Summaries:
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Duke Nukem: A veteran of the Gulf War, former CIA agent, and currently a member of the EDF who is considered by many in the world and in the EDF to be the "Ultimate Alien Ass Kicker"!

Jack Walker: A 13 year old, fresh young face to combat, but quick at learning the ropes. His outlook to alien combat is a fresh breath of air compared to the tried and true methods by Duke and most EDF agents.

Bubsy Bobcat: An anthromorphic bobcat with wit, attitude, movie deals, tour-guide experience, and a sizable ego to boot. However he also has real experience combatting aliens and history-tampering vandels.

Ami Mizuno: The Sailor Senshi of Water and Ice. She is the strategist of the Sailor Senshi, and although she is not the most combat-heavy of them, she can hold her own against many enemies with surprising fortitude.

Higa Hakaisha: A man known only as the "Shadow Warrior" to most, he seeks the final vengence against a former employer who turned back on his promises and tried to rule the world through corruption and monopoly.

ESSence Margalan: The youngest son of a Triocladiar war hero of the Rigelatin conflicts. He seeks the truth about his father's final battles and his fate, and the true nature of both his older brother and queen.

Ted Maldoras: A young demolition expert by official trade, but a powerful and skilled crime-fighting vigilante off the record working with a group of others to protect his home of Santa Monica from threats, human or NOT human.

Lisa Bates: The rich young daughter of a fashion artist and a scientist, she inherits both her parents traits in spades, but also holds immense talent at fighting and leadership in her hands, leading a vast group of young crime-fighters.

Cybanis Morgandos: The son of the first Cycloidian to die at Duke Nukem's hands, he has trained himself to face the Ultimate Alien Ass Kicker in combat one day, but must get to the bottom of a conspiracy by his own race to smear his name first.

Christina Mitchell: A young and very energetic girl with immense physical strength and agility who likes to torment Triocladiar attempting to invade Los Angeles. She has a bigger record of 'crimes' on her plate in the LARD than Duke himself!

Paula Polestar: A teenage psychic-user with prior experience fighting aliens herself. She feels she must do her part in saving the world yet again, even if others think it too dangerous for her to intervene.

Lori Stephens: A shy, but extremely determined young lady with an unbreakable spirit, a firm belief in justice, and a very big stick! A great tragedy caused by the Triocladiar has forced her to show that even nice people can be deadly.

Minako Aino: The de-facto leader of the Sailor Senshi, she is likely the most combat-experienced of all of them, and while she is generally nice and perky to her friends, she can be a deadly threat to her enemies to not be messed with!

"The Mysterious Lady": This mysterious lady's intentions are unknown, but she can only be trouble, judging by that smirk of overwhelming confidence she has on her face.

Maken Shinkara: A young and very techno-savy woman who hides a dark share of secrets and losses, and a lot of grudges and dangerous ideas in her mind.


Although I haven't submitted this directly to DNR yet, I wanted to make sure it was known about over here.

Alright, and hopefully, this will get off without a hitch and new viewers will notice the mod.

There are some maps included in this: "!NR.MAP", a map which shows off a lot of the features and changes, and a couple of the new monster types, but not too big of a map, and then there's "warp.map" which is a Quake-style Difficulty and Episode-selection map. There's also "warp_spe.map", which adds the ability to select a specific level in a specific episode to start at. Then there's "warp_zoo.map" which adds character changing, a cheat sector, and an area of teleporters to all the different and new monsters types.

NOTE: I forgot to mention, but this game is WIP, so there will be times it seems easy or too hard depending on choices you make right now. These versions are for getting used to things and to get feedback for features and things like for example the ATM code above. Don't download this and assume it's a complete game yet.

WARNING: This mod is NOT intended for multiplayer purposes. There are currently too many things that would cause sync problems and not to mention even without them there'd be a lot of balance issues to work out for DM in a mod like this.


EDIT: February 2, 2009 - Added Character Mini-Summaries.

[The Commander]

Does this work with the HRP?

[dopefish7590]

It might work, but it is not supported as of yet.

[The Commander]

It might work, but it is not supported as of yet.

Ok, I downloaded it and tried it on the first 2 levels on Damn Im Good, Where is the difficulty in this? Its to easy? One shotgun blast to everything kills and blows up there body? whats going on here.

And the pitches set for the "mortal combat!" sounds ect are way out of order and random.

[DavoX]

It might work, but it is not supported as of yet.

Ok, I downloaded it and tried it on the first 2 levels on Damn Im Good, Where is the difficulty in this? Its to easy? One shotgun blast to everything kills and blows up there body? whats going on here.

And the pitches set for the "mortal combat!" sounds ect are way out of order and random.

I gotta admit that sometimes at AMC, your posts ending with a "?" could make at least a little bit of sense, but this time, in this post, it was completely unnecesary and definitely doesn't make any sense at all.

[dopefish7590]

It might work, but it is not supported as of yet.

Ok, I downloaded it and tried it on the first 2 levels on Damn Im Good, Where is the difficulty in this? Its to easy? One shotgun blast to everything kills and blows up there body? whats going on here.

And the pitches set for the "mortal combat!" sounds ect are way out of order and random.

Use the warp.map for a quake style selection area... There is MUCH higher difficulty levels then "Damn I'm good"

Also please keep In mind, this is still a WIP and Lord Misfit is going through many items of his code to make there be better balance.

[Lord Misfit]

"setvar MONSTERSEXPLODE 0" in console will make monsters not explode the moment they fall over dead. I have it set to 1 by default because I don't have the greatest computer in the world so having them blow up automatically tends to clear up room for the game to run on larger and more detailed maps like WGCity and etc.

And it's also because of this reason there's currently no real focus on its' own HRP. Yes, I have made a FEW[very FEW] pictures for a future HRP for this, but there may be at best about 40 pictures[and most are graphics for the money pickups right now]. Until I somehow get a better system[which at this rate won't be happening for a good while], don't expect much focus on an HRP. Besides I'm sorry, but HRP is not the end all requirement for Duke3D guys. I don't mind it, but it doesn't make or break the original game to me, and it shouldn't make or break a mod unless it's necessary to see various things that would otherwise show as black squares, like in some versions of DukePlus.

And yes, you can run it in 32-bit, but since it lacks it's own personal HRP, some things for the customized areas in !NR.MAP and later maps in this mod will look out of place.

[The Commander]

I gotta admit that sometimes at AMC, your posts ending with a "?" could make at least a little bit of sense, but this time, in this post, it was completely unnecesary and definitely doesn't make any sense at all.

Ummm WTF DavoX, "Where is the difficulty in this? Its to easy?"
That is a question. If your failing to see that go back to school!

[dopefish7590]

Its to easy?

That, my friend, is not a question. But get back on topic please.

[The Commander]

Its to easy?

That, my friend, is not a question. But get back on topic please.

Well actully it is a question. If there is a question mark on the end it means, Its to easy, ? = Should it be. That way I dont have to type "Should it be" Now this is not a damn spelling bee compation so get over it. Im going to keep doing it and it aint going to change.

Thanks for the Info Lord Misfit.

[Lord Misfit]

Bleh I forgot to mention: the Pistol, Shotgun, Chaingun and RPG are changed for the WIP versions. The Shotgun pellets are set to be a lot stronger, and the RPG is like a Mega-Shotgun blaster right now, while the Chaingun is like a rapid-fire RPG. The pistol is also a little stronger. This will not be part of the final version though. That's another reason it might seem easy in some places or on lower skill levels.

EDIT: Oh and the expander also shoots more waves than usual right now too. I don't think the Devastator, Pipebombs, Shrinker, or the Freezethrower is changed. The kick is based completely on your attack stat[no 10+(formula) damage], and if you're using Steroids/Quad Damage or not.

[The Commander]

Yes, The chaingun must be the strongest weapon in this. I hope you change the pitches to, for them sounds I mentioned earler.

[DavoX]

 That way I dont have to type "Should it be"

I've never heard or read of such a thing. About the correcting, Gambini takes it in a good way and he even encouraged me to do so, because he wants to get better, why can't you do the same?

[Lord Misfit]

I'll probably regulate the pitches on those sounds, but there will still be some randomness to them. And trust me, the RPG-Shotgun is the strongest weapon. At least that's the impression I and many other testers have gotten. >_>

[The Commander]

 That way I dont have to type "Should it be"

I've never heard or read of such a thing. About the correcting, Gambini takes it in a good way and he even encouraged me to do so, because he wants to get better, why can't you do the same?

Because I dont want to, and you cant make me. You make mistakes in your posts so  dont start some flame war.

@: LM
I found that having 200+ Chaingun Mini rockects quite effect in taking out alot of stuff.