Duke Plus

[DeeperThought]

DUKE PLUS is a game enhancer and mapper's utility kit for EDuke32 that I have been working on for the past month. I am now releasing version 1.0, which may be downloaded HERE.

DUKE PLUS

• Fixes bugs relating to the HRP, including (my versions of) the fixes that Hunter_Rus has incorporated into SD_Duke: correct rocket pitch, monsters not turning to face the player when dead, frozen/inactive enemies not animating, turrets spinning when hit, and Recon cars tilting correctly (and smoothly).
• Works fine with or without the HRP.
• Gameplay fixes: Pigcops and Lizard troopers have a shorter, and correct, hittable area when they duck, enemies move backwards when hit by heavy weapons instead of moving forwards, and water fountains only give up to MAXWATERFOUNTAINHEALTH as set in USER.CON
• Various optional features which may be toggled ON or OFF in the file USERPLUS.CON (similar to the way many things in the original game can be tweaked in USER.CON). These optional features include: Akimbo pistols, enhanced inventory items (for example nightvision goggles will reveal which dipswitches to set so you don't have to guess), realistic running acceleration, a new jumping system with shorter jumps but with the ability to grab onto ledges and "mantle", dodge moves and wall jumps in the style of the Unreal Tournament series, activated by double-tapping the movement keys. These optional features can be used in any combination (so, for example, you may opt for realistic running and jumping without the dodge moves).
• Cosmetic enhancements, including: footstep sounds which change depending on the type of surface you are on, shell casings which stay on the ground and roll realistically, a display for the amount of oxygen left when Duke is holding his breath underwater, and gore.
• Bot Allies: Duke bots can be placed in maps and will fight along side you. They fight well and are fairly intelligent (considering that they don't use a true pathfinding system). Bots can be used with the original episodes: if you set BOTALLIES to YES in USERPLUS.CON, they will take the place of the multiplayer starting positions in single player games.
• MOST IMPORTANTLY, DUKE PLUS includes many new map effects, such as ladders (real ladders, not cheap build tricks), rain and snow, jump pads (like in Quake III), slippery floors and more. The documentation includes instructions for creating these effects using mapster, and I have included a sample map by Geoffrey which demonstrates some of the effects.
• Finally, Duke Plus has a customizable monster system. When you place a monster in a map, you may choose what kind of attack it has (including several new ones), how tough it is, whether it teleports, what kind of item it drops, and more. Customized monsters normally will not appear in a map unless they are placed there. However, there is an option for a randomized game (see USERPLUS.CON) which will cause some monsters to spawn with random attributes.

The bot allies, custom monsters and some other features of Duke Plus are featured in a modified version of Alejandro Glavic's "Blackened" map, which is included. (I put tags on some monsters and added some special sprites here and there, but did not change the structure of the map).

Whew!

[dcxboxfreak]

Nice work DeeperThought!

[William Gee]

Congrats in your first official release of DukePlus DT! And thanks!

DukePlus is indeed very awesome, I am using it for 2 mods ATM, and it has made great improvements. DT is doing fantastic work for the community.

[Spiker]

Great Work DeeperThought! Really Awesome! But did you notice that those new shells are spinning on the ground? and that the rain drops while splashing look like body parts? Yayks

[Blade Nightflame]

Hey, DT? Would it be too much to ask if the RANDOM definition in USERPLUS (that defines random weather and monsters) could be split for randomweather and randommonsters? Some may want just new weather, others may just want new monsters, others could want both..?

[Tea Monster]

Wow! Thanks DT!

[Spiker]

And in fact some fetures like enemies moving backward when hit rather than forward etc should be applied to the original HRP.

[DeeperThought]

Originally Posted by Spiker

Great Work DeeperThought! Really Awesome! But did you notice that those new shells are spinning on the ground? and that the rain drops while splashing look like body parts? Yayks

Not on my computer! It sounds like some kind of mix-up on your end. The rain splashes, for example, use tiles 2380-2388, which are the WATERDRIPSPLASH frames straight from the original game. If those tiles are body parts for you, then something is screwed up in your directory. I have tested it both with and without the HRP and had no problems like that.

Make sure you are running DUKE PLUS using the provided .bat file, and let me know if the problems still occur.

[Spiker]

Yes, I use yor bat file. When I played the blackend map it was difficult to notice this because these drops are trasparent or something like in the first picture where you have to look very carefully to see it. But check the second one from the second map.

Is it possible that is has something to do with sd mod in my autoload directory? I also have sd.grp there beacuse without it I was unable to see frozen enemies.

[DeeperThought]

Originally Posted by Spiker

Is it possible that is has something to do with sd mod in my autoload directory?

Yes, most likely that is it.

Remember that everything in autoload gets loaded. SD_Duke is a completely different mod from Duke Plus, and in general different mods do not work together (Duke isn't like Unreal Tournament where you can have different "mutators" coexisting). You should just set up separate directories for Duke Plus and SD_Duke. The file sizes are pretty small by the standards of modern games, so this shouldn't eat too much HD space.

[Blade Nightflame]

Originally Posted by Blade Nightflame

Hey, DT? Would it be too much to ask if the RANDOM definition in USERPLUS (that defines random weather and monsters) could be split for randomweather and randommonsters? Some may want just new weather, others may just want new monsters, others could want both..?

I hate nagging my questions.

[Spiker]

Yes, after removing sd_duke mod everything looks perfect I also would like to ask if is it possible that in the next release of duke plus you will make some cool alternative attacks for at least some of weapons if not for all of them.

[DeeperThought]

Originally Posted by Blade Nightflame

Hey, DT? Would it be too much to ask if the RANDOM definition in USERPLUS (that defines random weather and monsters) could be split for randomweather and randommonsters? Some may want just new weather, others may just want new monsters, others could want both..?

Yeah, I can do that. However, I don't want people to get the impression that this is primarily a random game mod. You can achieve much better results by simply placing a sprite in the map and tagging it to determine the weather for that map (see instructions in the documentation).

@Spiker: I had originally planned for alternative firing modes for the player, but that has taken a back seat to other things, like the map effects. If and when I do add different firing modes, they will be optional. If you want to see my take on alt-firing modes for the weapons, you could check out my DNWMD mod (link in sig).

[KillerBudgie]

You never cease to amaze me! I like the new Akimbo pistol mode. (Duke playing John Woo!)

[Blade Nightflame]

Originally Posted by DeeperThought

Yeah, I can do that. However, I don't want people to get the impression that this is primarily a random game mod. You can achieve much better results by simply placing a sprite in the map and tagging it to determine the weather for that map (see instructions in the documentation).

Because I don't think I really want to face a blue colored Battlelord, an Overlord and a green Alien Queen in E1L1 due to the random enemy spawns.

[DeeperThought]

Originally Posted by Blade Nightflame

Because I don't think I really want to face a blue colored Battlelord, an Overlord and a green Alien Queen in E1L1 due to the random enemy spawns.

I just realized that you should be able to have random weather with normal monsters without me changing anything. Just set RANDOM to -1, or some other negative number. Because it is non-zero, my code will treat it as a random game and start the random weather. But because it is less than 1, there is no chance that any monsters will actually have random attributes.

[Dr. Kylstien]

With the included version of Blackened, running 640x480x32 with normal screen size, the best filtering, and the HRP, I get no lower than 11fps without DukePlus, and as low as 0fps with it. So I tried lowering the settings. Running 320x200x8 with the lowest screen size and low detail, I get no lower than 35fps without DukePlus, and as low as 5fps with it. The lowest measures for DukePlus are when the bots are fighting, but it is still slower overall. Does this cause problems for anybody else, or is my computer just that weak?

[DeeperThought]

Originally Posted by Dr. Kylstien

With the included version of Blackened, running 640x480x32 with normal screen size, the best filtering, and the HRP, I get no lower than 11fps without DukePlus, and as low as 0fps with it. So I tried lowering the settings. Running 320x200x8 with the lowest screen size and low detail, I get no lower than 35fps without DukePlus, and as low as 5fps with it. The lowest measures for DukePlus are when the bots are fighting, but it is still slower overall. Does this cause problems for anybody else, or is my computer just that weak?

Performance for me on that map with HRP and Duke Plus is not too great, but it is playable. Your fps with just the regular HRP isn't too great to begin with, so I can see how the Duke Plus stuff would push it over the edge. Try this:

blackend.rar

It is just the same map with rain taken out. The rain as it is set in that map spawns 10 rain drops per tick, which will cause problems if your computer is already struggling.

The bot code does need some optimization, which I will get to eventually.

[Dr. Kylstien]

Originally Posted by DeeperThought

Performance for me on that map with HRP and Duke Plus is not too great, but it is playable. Your fps with just the regular HRP isn't too great to begin with, so I can see how the Duke Plus stuff would push it over the edge. Try this:

Attachment 8148

It is just the same map with rain taken out. The rain as it is set in that map spawns 10 rain drops per tick, which will cause problems if your computer is already struggling.

The bot code does need some optimization, which I will get to eventually.

I have never noticed any rain in that map, but when the bots aren't slugging it out, it is faster now.

[DeeperThought]

I have changed the Blackened map in the download over to the one without rain, since it runs better and the rain wasn't very noticeable anyway in all the fog.

I have also fixed a bug which had caused the medic bots to do a very poor job at getting to the player when the player was wounded.

In addition, I am now including a small map by William Gee with the sample maps. This is an older map of his that has been somewhat retrofitted for Duke Plus, with snow, ladders, bots, slippery floors and some modified monsters here and there.

Finally, some people have had a tough time finding the first key in Blackened. It is actually in exactly the same spot that it was in Alejendro's original map, but now you have to do something to get it, as shown by these spoiler images:

Spoiler image 1

Spoiler image 2

[Spiker]

If they had played sample map first they would not have any problems with finding it. I've checked the alternative attacks of WoMD and some are really nice. But of course I'm sure that it is not the top of your skills and immagination Unfortunately I have not much time now for playing as I have to learn a lot for american literature course and grammar

[ProAsm]

Very nice mod DT - well done.
Just one item so far, maybe its just me but when I have 2 pistols, the left hand one is 8 bit (old) while the other is 32 (hrp)

[Blade Nightflame]

Hehe, pretty funny. Tried out DukePlus with EDuke32_snd7.exe by Hunter_RUS. While there were some errors partaining to the DUKEPLUS con, it worked alright in game. Although since I still had RANDOM set to 1 in Userplus, where the trooper in that flaming garbage bin was, I instead got a Battlelord which went down in one RPG shot. He died instantly with that and ended the game. XD

And yeah, I find it a bit hard to play the EDuke32 versions WITHOUT ogg support. =/

[Spiker]

I really like the new oxygen status bar. But I'm always in favor of realism and I would like to suggest that Duke should be deprived of his divine power to restore his breath just in one second and then diving again. After he leaves the water this bar should be shown until it is replenished with the same speed as when it was decreasing.

I also wonder if it is possible to combine some features of sd_duke mod and duke plus?

In my opinin in sd frozen enemies look much better. There are also no 8bit sprites but only models when it comes to remains of enemies after they are blown up

And finaly when in sd I was shooting at wall there where cool holes in it, I really liked that effect, but if they could only move with walls it would be a masterpiece.

I guess that in the future I can provide you with more interesting ideas

[lycanox]

As-long, the mod doesn't force a change of game play.
I really don't really see why not.

[DeeperThought]

Originally Posted by ProAsm

Very nice mod DT - well done.
Just one item so far, maybe its just me but when I have 2 pistols, the left hand one is 8 bit (old) while the other is 32 (hrp)

That should not be happening. My .bat file for Duke Plus forces the game to use dukeplus.def, which contains defs for the left pistol model. If you are starting it with the .bat file and this is still happening, then you must have a nonstandard file arrangement that I didn't anticipate.



@Blade Nightflame: The version I just uploaded should fix the bug that you mentioned.

[Spiker]

DeeperThought are to busy to answer my post? or maybe you consider my ideas not worth any answer as they are so ridiculous

[DeeperThought]

Originally Posted by Spiker

DeeperThought are to busy to answer my post? or maybe you consider my ideas not worth any answer as they are so ridiculous

Just because I don't reply to you right away doesn't mean I'm ignoring you...

If I got permission from the creators of SD_Duke to use the graphics and some of the code (I re-wrote some of it), it would be feasible to add the damage effects/sounds to Duke Plus as an optional feature. But I'm in no hurry to do this.

By the way, the reason why some of the enemy remains are sprites in Duke Plus is that those tiles have not yet been made into models in the HRP. You see, Duke Plus doesn't contain any art of its own, it just uses standard Duke tiles. I did have to include one 8-bit art file, but that was to get around a hardcoded problem with having the bots use the same tiles as the player.

[Spiker]

Sorry for my officiousness. And what do you think about this change with oxygen bar?

[Usurper]

While you don't currently have any art, how would you feel about including some? Since the project seems aimed at improving mappers' options, I imagine they'd like some new textures and a few replacements for the crappy animated water.

[DeeperThought]

Originally Posted by Spiker

Sorry for my officiousness. And what do you think about this change with oxygen bar?

It's not a bad idea, but my rule for Duke Plus is that anything which changes gameplay should be optional, so that would mean adding another option just for realistic oxygen recovery. I would rather wait and add a bigger option for REALISITICDAMAGE, which would have realistic oxygen recovery, bleeding wounds, headshots, etc.

[DeeperThought]

Originally Posted by Usurper

While you don't currently have any art, how would you feel about including some? Since the project seems aimed at improving mappers' options, I imagine they'd like some new textures and a few replacements for the crappy animated water.

Duke Plus is designed to work with older maps and maps with different sets of custom art, with or without the HRP. If I do add art/model tiles, they will be at very high numbers so as not to conflict with custom stuff that maps may be using in the range of tiles014, tiles015, etc. And I would like to keep the size of Duke Plus fairly small. My original intention was for it to be just a CON file that mappers could include with their maps to allow for special map effects. It is still 99% CON.

[Spiker]

I know what you mean. But I guess that everything what is not a weather effect or some flying glow-worm affects the gameplay. But so far everything what is optional in duke plus is obligatory for me!

By saying bleeding wounds do you mean that when for example player's health is below 25 he's slowly losing it till he dies and when over 85 he slowly recovers? Actually I also was thinking about something like this and I think it would be great.

[DeeperThought]

Originally Posted by Spiker

I know what you mean. But I guess that everything what is not a weather effect or some flying glow-worm affects the gameplay. But so far everything what is optional in duke plus is obligatory for me!

By saying bleeding wounds do you mean that when for example player's health is below 25 he's slowly losing it till he dies and when over 85 he slowly recovers? Actually I also was thinking about something like this and I think it would be great.

No I mean that whenever the player or a monster gets shot, they take a certain amount of damage immediately, and the rest of the damage occurs over a period of time, during which they leave a trail of blood on the ground. So anyone can bleed to death after being shot. If you shoot a pigcop once with the shotgun, you can then hide around the corner and it will continue to bleed and probably die after one shot. And of course the same would apply to the player unless he uses a health item to stop the bleeding. And the locational damage would mean that headshots do double damage, leg shots do less damage but can cripple the target so they move much slower. I have already coded all this for a different mod.

[ProAsm]

Originally Posted by DeeperThought

That should not be happening. My .bat file for Duke Plus forces the game to use dukeplus.def, which contains defs for the left pistol model. If you are starting it with the .bat file and this is still happening, then you must have a nonstandard file arrangement that I didn't anticipate.

Yeah being a developer I have a zillion files which are needed, so I created a whole new EDuke folder with all the necessary stuff there and now it works fine.
Tnx

[Usurper]

Too lazy to dig through your code at the moment. What happens in a multiplayer game when one player uses the goggles to reveal hidden platforms and such? Do the other players see them as well, or did you find a fix for that problem?

[DeeperThought]

Originally Posted by Usurper

Too lazy to dig through your code at the moment. What happens in a multiplayer game when one player uses the goggles to reveal hidden platforms and such? Do the other players see them as well, or did you find a fix for that problem?

There is no fix for that AFAIK, because the cstat of an actor can't be player relative. Multiplayer games are so rare that I've gotten used to not worrying about things like that.

[Usurper]

One addition I'd like that I've for some reason never got around to coding myself is a remake of the translucent water effect from the old eduke 2.0 demo.

In short, you could use sprites to cover the top of a pool and make it appear to be translucent water. Cons take care of the swimming behavior and visual change when the player is below the surface, and mantling gets you out at the sides.

Getting every other actor in the game to behave appropriately in the fake water zones is the annoying part.

[DeeperThought]

Originally Posted by Usurper

One addition I'd like that I've for some reason never got around to coding myself is a remake of the translucent water effect from the old eduke 2.0 demo.

In short, you could use sprites to cover the top of a pool and make it appear to be translucent water. Cons take care of the swimming behavior and visual change when the player is below the surface, and mantling gets you out at the sides.

Getting every other actor in the game to behave appropriately in the fake water zones is the annoying part.

Could you give me a link to that demo so that I have something to work from?

Heh, I know what you mean about getting all the actors to behave. For my Duke bots, I had to code every monster so that they will treat the bots as enemies. They don't just face the bots and shoot, they treat them like players (with different behavior depending on distance etc.). And I had to do tricks to get the projectiles not to autoaim at the player. For example, did you know that SHOTSPARK1 will autoaim at the player if fired by a boss? This is because bosses are so tall that if the game didn't autoaim for them, the shots would go too high. So, to make a battlelord shoot at the bots, I have it cactor into PIGCOP (to eliminate autoaim) zshoot the bullets, then cactor back into BOSS1. Believe me, compared with what I went through for the bots, the water stuff shouldn't be that bad.

[Usurper]

ftp://ftp.3drealms.com/patches/eduke20.exe

I probably have a different installer in the RTCM archives if you don't have the retail 1.5 Atomic cd (the patch doesn't work with the KillaTon Collection or some other compilations).

The effect was cool, but limited to a specific height across the entire map. The swimming movement didn't replicate the default underwater movement either (though that isn't necessarily a bad thing).