[RELEASE] Nightshade Army

[Merlijn]

Great map! There were a lot of surprises along the way and some great unreachable scenery. The crane in the beginning looked great, as did the spaceship and the surrounding buildings at the final location. One of the things I liked most about your building style was the eye for detail: stuff like the microscope, the plane passing by and the party on the roof really added life and atmosphere to the map. 

Some indoor locations were too cramped though, be sure to make them a bit wider next time. The last battle also could have been better (I liked the little cutscene though!). I've played the map with dukeplus btw, didn't find it too difficult at all. Goodie/baddie ratio was fine.

For a next map: I would recommend you to exploit your strong points even more: add a lot of cutscenes and atmospheric stuff, and cool background stuff to give the maps more depth. You're good at that.  A citymap like this would be even more epic if you can create a believable war ambience (cutscenes and sounds to give the player the illusion that the aliens are invading the city).

[MetHy]

It's a good map but to me the main problem is that the end dragged on and it felt like it was 2 maps instead of one.

We've already a bit argued in this forum in the past of how some people think that "the longer, the better" while I disagree with that and I think this map is a good example of it. Just when the flow of the map was getting more intense and I thought the map was going to end as that and be a solid 30minutes map, I discovered the last area of the map and suddenly it felt like I stepped in  a 2nd map where everything started from scratch again. The flow began slower and I had to go button/key hunt again to trigger the final boss (which was rather boring since you could just keep shooting from behind the wall). Plus the design of the last part wasn't near as good as the rest of the map.

In my opinion the whole last part should have DIRECTLY been the boss battle alone, without having to go into the building with the party and the sushi restaurant. The flow would have been perfect like this, instead it really felt like you just wanted to add stuff to that area "for the sake of it" just because you had a bunch of sectors left to use. Plus, if the end was direclty the end boss, it would have made a WAY better gameplay than just having to stand behind the wall to shoot at the boss. I mean, the place seemed perfect for an epic boss battle: he was in the middle, we could gone around him shooting and hiding while picking up items, etc. Instead, none of that actually happened.

It was a very good and solid map until that last area though.

edit: btw, I obviously played the map in the real Duke and not with some kind of mod

[MikeNorvak]

It's a good map but to me the main problem is that the end dragged on and it felt like it was 2 maps instead of one.

We've already a bit argued in this forum in the past of how some people think that "the longer, the better" while I disagree with that and I think this map is a good example of it. Just when the flow of the map was getting more intense and I thought the map was going to end as that and be a solid 30minutes map, I discovered the last area of the map and suddenly it felt like I stepped in  a 2nd map where everything started from scratch again. The flow began slower and I had to go button/key hunt again to trigger the final boss (which was rather boring since you could just keep shooting from behind the wall). Plus the design of the last part wasn't near as good as the rest of the map.

In my opinion the whole last part should have DIRECTLY been the boss battle alone, without having to go into the building with the party and the sushi restaurant. The flow would have been perfect like this, instead it really felt like you just wanted to add stuff to that area "for the sake of it" just because you had a bunch of sectors left to use. Plus, if the end was direclty the end boss, it would have made a WAY better gameplay than just having to stand behind the wall to shoot at the boss. I mean, the place seemed perfect for an epic boss battle: he was in the middle, we could gone around him shooting and hiding while picking up items, etc. Instead, none of that actually happened.

It was a very good and solid map until that last area though.

edit: btw, I obviously played the map in the real Duke and not with some kind of mod

For some strange reason, i had not read your post, even after three months of releasing it.

If i started a new map i gonna correct all these flaws and shortcomings, since i made my unfinished map sunstroke before i began Nightshade Army, maybe it will hav similar flaws, of course if i finish the map someday ;P

[MikeNorvak]

Well, two downloads per day is not a bad goal...