[RELEASE] Meatball Sub Makin'

[ck3D]

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=99HCHVUZ link for normal people
http://www.mediafire.com/?xvlyh22k0gz link for chronic 'I-hate-that-megaupload-shit'-posting people

new map, 3DR-styled city, built in 5 days, released as a form of teaser for a little episode I'm working on with some other mappers (6 maps completed so far, including 3 by me)

more details in the txt file

I recommend to play this with DukePlus' ENHANCED AI on (not mandatory, but it makes things a lot more fun)

screens from the map on the way...

***

Edit by Puritan:

Map and a few screenies uploaded here at DNR.

[Sanek]

New map from you - cool!This promises to be a good map

[ck3D]

Thanks I hope you'll like it,

here are some screenshots

[Sanek]

Completed for 21mins.I found all the secrets.Not a very difficult level(except the final).I really liked the design,besause I love basic design

[ck3D]

^ thanks

and bump. Is this all the feedback this is getting ?

[Dan G]

I would like to include this map with my Attrition mod, which I'm planning to release on April 8.  I know it's part of an episode, but it works perfectly in my mod as a random mission.  Are you going to release an updated version before then with those minor fixes you talked about at AMC?

[Forge]

I haven't had a chance to play it, much less anything else, but it's on the top of my todo list when I get some free time.

[Nancsi]

It seems the pharody map you made a year ago changed your mapping style a lot (since it turned out to be your best so far, although there are some I liked from your older stuff, like Overtime or AC2). Looking forward to this, although haven't played Duke for months.

[Puritan]

^ thanks

and bump. Is this all the feedback this is getting ?

Releasing vanilla maps might give you more feedback?
DP and other mods maybe cause decreased amount of players.

***
BTW MRCK: Want me to upload it? Or do you prefer to wait until this episode is finished?

[ck3D]

I would like to include this map with my Attrition mod, which I'm planning to release on April 8.  I know it's part of an episode, but it works perfectly in my mod as a random mission.  Are you going to release an updated version before then with those minor fixes you talked about at AMC?

You can include it if you want, for the updated version though I'm afraid it will have to wait until the release of the episode since I can't really be bothered making the fixes right now and would rather wait until all the maps are done, to polish them all at once. Maybe you should wait for the whole episode to be released depending on whether ot not it will be done by April 8th, which is a possibility because 6 maps of the pack are already done and every map in the episode is supposed to take no more than one day to build - a task I failed at for this one since it took 5 - therefore it shouldn't be released in too long.

Puritan : you can definitely upload it as a normal map despite the little flaws I have left to fix for the final release, I meant this release as a form of public teaser, so the more people play it the better.
And I don't know about the amount of players, I've just noticed that recently people were getting less and less excited over new map releases, even Forge's map didn't get a lot of attention compared to what it would have got a few years back, which is a shame. I'm afraid that in the long run this will deter a lot of mappers from mapping since there won't be anyone left to appreciate their work, but w/e it's just a game

[Gambini]

True but it´s not ¨DP and other mods¨ fault.

I´m also worried about taking so many breaks with my upcoming map. I know the best results were achieved leaving the map resting months, until a great idea came to my mind. And not the opposite thing kinda opening mapster and trying to do whatever to finish the map. That´s terrible towards the final result. Now i have parts that are great blended with parts that should have never be done. But again, if i leave this map getting mature for another year there wont be any player for that moment.

[ck3D]

To be honest I think that if this site was updated more often and people in general were more dedicated to writing reviews for it and posting them up, it would probably make the community stronger because 1) mappers wouldn't start to feel as useless as they currently do now and 2) it would draw more players and potential mappers into it, which is still possible seeing as some did join the community over the past year (some of them even being as old as the game itself), the sight of an ACTIVE community is just more likely to be appealing, than a site whose news feed gets updated once every three months.

Because let's face it, AMC is dead as a site (it's just a forum now with people talking about anything but Duke mapping). Mikko is doing a great job with MSDN, but I think DN-R is the center of attention because it's easier to find on search engines, and more user friendly (it has forums new members regularly join, no Fileplanet system that might deter casual players from bothering to download stuff etc.). Provided that it's not even too late already we'd just need a lot of updates here to attract more people again, and make the community grow again instead of just witnessing it die. That's also why I've been giving in so many speed-mapping projects lately

Some people like Puritan are still as active as they can (most of us are adults now and have busy lives) but it could be a good idea to make more / new available people able to submit things to this site and update it regularly with reviews (and I do mean reviews not just links - look at how many maps are up on this site with a score of 0/100 and still pending a proper review). Because besides the forum section, it's not too active anymore which is a shame because a lot of quality projects are still in the works. Now the question is, who would be available for that (I know I'm not, or just barely), and who can speak English properly enough to do a decent job at it

[Dan G]

DN-R is the center of attention because it's easier to find on search engines, and more user friendly (it has forums new members regularly join, no Fileplanet system that might deter casual players from bothering to download stuff etc.)

Duke4.net is the most popular Duke site, because everyone from 3DR migrated over there when 3DR faltered.  In the last few months, DNR has supplanted AMC as the veteran mapper forum, but not many regular players (i.e. people who just like to play the game) find their way here.  Without regular players seeing the new releases, there won't be much feedback.

It seems that most of the new players who find their way to the community are attracted by stuff that is more modern (like the HRP and DukePlus).  This is true of some new mappers as well (like DanM).  Once players arrive on the scene, then hopefully they will also enjoy normal map releases.  But this isn't always the case.  If you look at feedback for map releases on Duke4.net, the results aren't much better than they have been here.

The fact is, for a variety of reasons, players have been drifting away and not enough new ones have been showing up.  The only way to revive Duke is to reverse that trend, but it's an uphill battle.

[Forge]

I made the same complaint about the site being updated on numerous occasions. TBH Puritan is the only admin that updates the site on any kind of consistent basis, and even that's sketchy because of work and his musical hobby that takes up his free time. You hardly ever see Fernando here and the last time he updated the site was Aug 2009, before that it was Apr 2009. Numan has lost interest in the game and in the site but he still randomly updates the site once or twice in a six month period. When was the last time anybody saw Kim here?
I'm not trying to be down on the crew running this site, they have things going on in their lives that don't allow time for site administration. What they need here is someone who has plenty of free time and a willingness to update the site on some kind of regular basis.

I think most people that visit this site just hit the front page to see if there's something new released, download it and keep on going. Look at Suburban Hive's download count, over 150, but did it get that much feedback under its thread? There's really nothing on the front page about it. Look at Demolition Plant's download count. Again, plenty of downloads with minimal feedback in relation to that number. A small little blurb on the front page about it. There should be something on the front page to draw the passer by into the forum. Maybe change the link in the news article to go to the forum instead of the download page and make the first post of the forum the review and download link.

AMC isn't what it used to be, it's Sang's blog page with barely any talk about Duke. Duke4 has plenty of activity but it's of two camps: either it's the casual chatter talking about anything but Duke and the "DNF what ifs" crowd, or the hard core mod makers/eduke/HRP/ coders that only want to talk about their specialty. No time for single or dukematch maps unless it's a 30 map episode where everything down to Duke's socks has been modified.

[Dan G]

You make some good points, and it got me thinking:  in addition to the front page being updated regularly, front page articles about releases should have a comment button that goes straight to the thread for the new release.  That might increase feedback a lot.