Battle It Out In Birmingham file

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THIS EPISODE IS NEITHER MADE BY OR SUPPORTED BY 3D REALMS.

If this file looks bad just use Wordwrap :-)

BATTLE IT OUT IN BIRMINGHAM
"I`m Duke Nukem, and I`m coming to get the rest of you Alien Bastards!"

Title : Battle it out in Birmingham
Files : Brum.txt
Brumlvls.txt
Brum.con
Brum.bat
Pallisad.map
Nukedstr.map
Victoria.map
Centernr.map
Internat.map
Brindley.map
National.map

Author : Martin Bradley
E-mail : Bradleymaw@kes.bham.sch.uk (I would appreciate hearing your opinion about this episode!)

Web Page :
Misc. Author Info :
Other Levels : None, this is my first upload.

Episode Notes: Okay, I agree with David J. Vallance (Best City.map)
The Net is full of crap Duke3d levels, which look terrible and are not thought out properly. This episode is of very high quality - although not as good as the proper episodes of the game - (except perhaps "Lunar Apocalypse") All the levels feature realistic shading, sensible graphics and varying difficulty. Also, it is a city rather than space stations. Let`s face it, urban fighting is far better than more bloody space stations, especially if the urban levels are themed, as mine are.
This episode is slightly different to ones you may have previously played. Before, the layout was "kill a dozen enemies, get a key, do it again and again until you reach the exit." I got a little bored of this format so I made the levels more open. Now you can explore most of the levels unrestricted by keys and locked doors. You will no doubt find the exits very quickly, so resist the temptation to just run straight through all seven levels. Firstly this will result in probable
death because there is not as much health around as in other episodes. Secondly, this will result in little or no weapons to face the final Cyberlord in the NIA. Thirdly, what the hell is the point in downloading this episode if you only play it for five minutes? That is why the Par times at the end screen are quite long. This represents killing all or most of the monsters, and grabbing most of the extra goodies on each level.
Take time and explore all of the levels fully, and enjoy your visit to England's second city!

Strengths: -All the detail. Just look at the shops, with their computers, furniture, the Arcades etc. Not many Duke levels have this level of detail. For example, a wall made up of computers (Like the control room in the NIA) is actually made from several different walls, so each screen can be destroyed without all the wall being damaged (Try shooting one of the televisions and you`ll see what I mean).

-Loads of things to destroy! (Try not to damage everything, that`s MY town your shooting at!)
-I`ve tried to get Duke to say as much as possible.
Also, I`ve used lots of ambient sound to heighten the realism. Even the music seems correct for the style of the level!
-Lack of ammo and health. This makes for tactical play and shorter Deathmatches, instead of running around blasting with loads of ammo, full 200 health and all the items.
-The looks. Go on, admit it. The levels look pretty realistic compared to other bad user maps. There`s cool shading, sensible textures; even the buildings are not just square blocks, they have vents, slopes, different roofs. Also note that very few of them have actual ground floor windows (Except the shops of course). Real buildings are never rectangular blocks with four sides of window textures. Most of the buildings in the this episode have ledges like in the proper Duke3d episodes.
- No messing about spending half and hour retracing your steps to find that missing key or hidden switch like in many other Duke levels! I really hate doing that!!!
-Lots of secrets and messages, much like the episodes in the full game.

Weaknesses
-Okay, I`ll admit you won`t find groovy effects like subways or Earthquakes, mainly because you don`t find them in Birmingham!
-Most of the levels are too big for 2 player games.
-On slower machines the detail causes some parts to get very choppy.
-As I am British the spelling may be different if you are American e.g. "Centre" not "Center"
-The levels are not as cunningly laid out as many I have played. No puzzles to solve either. You will find all the levels straightforward and very, very fun to play, which is all that counts really!

Additional Credits To :
-3d Realms of course. And Birmingham`s town planners!
-Andy R (Morg) for helping me test the Dukematch levels.
-David J Vallance for inspiring me to build better duke levels.
-Yves Bresson (dukecity), I modifed your batch file o it would launch my episode. I have no idea how to write my own!
-Dukeworld for supporting Duke3d. I hope Duke3d never dies out!

Special thanks : My testers - Jake, "Reckless" Rick, Frew and Viet.

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* Play Information *

Episode and Level # : The whole first episode!
Single Player : Yes! (this is what it was primarily designed for)
DukeMatch 2-8 Player : Yes, but it is not well tested
Cooperative 2-8 Player : Yes, but you`ll find it a tad easy
Difficulty Settings : Not implemented
Plutonium Pak Required : No
New Art : No
New Music : No
New Sound Effects : No
New .CON Files : Yes, "Brum.con" (contains new messages)
Demos Replaced : No

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* Construction *

Base : New levels from scratch
Level Editor(s) Used : BUILD - I love it!
Art Editor(s) Used : None
Construction Time : About 3 months.
Known Bugs/Problems : Nukedstr.map contains a little niggle with one of
the buildings. All I did to remedy it was put another Sector around the problem. Doesn`t affect gameplay. Also, the alien in the ladies toilets disappears onto the ramp above if you don`t kill him straight away! This is due to the overlapping sectors.

* Where to get this MAP file *

File location : WWW.Dukeworld.com (well, this is where I uploaded it

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*Important Information*

Installation : Just copy all the files to your Duke3d directory.
(make a backup of your original user.con file just in case).
However, many versions of Duke Nukem have a different con file eg the PlutoniumPak. Since there are loads of different versions of the game I have only written a con file for the original registered version, as this is the most common. To change your user.con file first make a backup. Then open it up using notepad and scroll down until you reach the first episode. If you can, change the name of the first episode to "Battle it out in Birmingham". Then change the names and times to that of those in Brum.con - don`t forget to change the map filenames too (e.g change "E1L1.map" to "Pallisad.map"). If you want to change the messages to that of Brum.con feel free. Any problems just e-mail me.

Important Notes : Please Please Please give me some feedback on this.
It is vital I know whether a lot of people still play
Duke3d, otherwise I`ll stop making levels because
no-one will play them :-(
(Oh, and the shotgun "carts" stands for "cartridges")
If you want to beat my times then play the level as a user level, so you start with 100 health . and 48 rounds in your pistol. Play fair or don`t bother.

* Copyright / Permissions *

Do what you want: Just keep this txt file with the files when distributing
and if you use my ideas or bits of my maps in yours please give me some credit! I would appreciate you e-mailing me first saying what you are going to change, and be sure to e-mail me the modified level once done. I would really like to find out what modifications people want. Maybe it`ll give me some ideas for future levels, you never know...
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