Some thoughts and suggestions Thread - Duke Forces mod for Duke Nukem 3D

I would like to write some thoughts about this great mod and throw some suggestions.

First of all, I'd love to speak about weapons:

1. Lightsaber - the funniest and the most entertaining weapon in the mod. For me it's very solid and no changes need to be made. Although, I'd add an idle animation, I mean there should be a nice glowing animation.

2. DL-44 pistol blaster - totally fine. But I kind of don't like the sprites of it. It doesn't match the quality of other weapons.

3. E-11 blaster - Nothing to say, it's another weapon which is in my opinion totally fine. But I do have a question. Why didn't you use sprites from Dark Forces? If you did, why was it changed? I kinda prefer Dark Forces sprites.

4. Repeater - basically buffed E-11 blaster, since it shoots faster and more accurately.

5. Mortar gun - I really like this launcher. But I have a complaint. Bouncing projectile's speed is ridicolus. I had several situations which the projectile could bouncing and come back to me. The speed after bouncing needs to be slowed down.

6. Thermal detonator - A simple grenade. It's fine.

7. Concussion rifle - Now I don't know what really think about this weapon. Its primary attack is very powerful and it can just replace mortar or assault cannon. I mean I would understand its power if it was a rare weapon, but since it can be collected from Bossks, it basically breaks the balance.

8. Assault cannon - This is the weapon I love using. You can be one man army using this weapon. But for sake of balance, I'd reduce the ammo capacity from 100 to 50. It's way too much to have 100 since this weapon can deal easily with every enemy you see, even Dark Troopers. I mean the power is fine, just by reducing ammo it should become more balanced.

9. Multi-barreled weapon - Fine to use, but nothing really special about it.

9. Proximity mines - Just like Duke's mines. They're fine and cool to use.

10. Crossbow - Another weapon which I don't know what to think about. It's like I don't really know why I should use it. Firepower and rate of fire are weak. Sure, its projectile can bounce of walls, but still it's not enough to encourge to me to use this weapon.

Secondly, I'd love to write some words about enemies.

Basic troops like Stormtroppers are fine, no changes are needed.

Now I don't like that Pig Cops are replaced by Bossks. They carry powerful Concussion rifle which can kill you easily if you're not taking care about them. I don't mind Grans which are totally fine. I also noticed that in files there's Gamorrean Guard too. Why isn't he in the mod? I'd do it this way: Pigcops should be replaced by Grans, Gamorrean Guards (cause they're pigs too... kind of) and Bossks, but Bossks should be spawned very seldom if it's possible (I know nothing about Duke's mod tools).

But I don't know if you wanna keep Duke's enemies. In my opinion they should be removed from the game. For example Fat Commanders could be easily replaced by Phase 2 Darktrooper since they can fly too. Protector Drones could be replaced by Phase 1 Darktrooper. I dunno, I am just giving ideas.

And isn't Probe Droid lacking some frames? Original Droid had more frames.

Like I wrote above, I noticed there are more enemies in files which I see, they were drawn for this mod, yes? Are they going to be used in the future?

Some good suggestions, especially in regards to weapons.

Enemies: Yes, more will be added. I don't know of any other probe frames -- I would use them if I had them. Keep in mind that the ultimate goal is to make a story mode where enemies are placed by a level designer. For that mode there won't be pigcops being replaced by bossk etc. I will revise the conversion mode to make some balance changes, though.

I meant this about Probe:

If I am not wrong, right now this enemy is using one frame when it moves, doesn't it?

Edited by: Dzierzan

Yeah, I will have to add those in, thanks.

***These notes are based on beta version 1.1***

- DL-44 pistol must be more difficult to be found. I mean in place of Duke's pistol, Bryar pistol should appear more often than DL-44
- New Phase 1 Darktroopers are cool. I think they're totally fine.
- Do you have any plans to use Kell Dragon and Phase 2 Darktroopers? Kell Dragon could be something good to use in custom maps. As for
Phase 2 Darktroopers, I'd use to them to place Fat Commanders. Unless you've got other plans for them.
- There's still Boba Fett. He could be one of bosses. But his problem is that he's got really poor number of frames, so I dunno. Someone would have to draw additional frames or just better scrap this idea (I don't really like 2nd boss, hence this idea).
- Going to menu by pressing ESC button still triggers vanilla Duke Nukem 3D sounds, they should be replaced with Duke Forces onces.
- New weapon menu is interesting, but I'd make it disapper a litte bit faster. Plus its design is a litte bit too nooby. Or is it still WIP?

-The DL-44 pistol is not dropped by any enemies, so you get it only if the regular pistol sprite is in the map. Since in regular Duke 3D, the player starts with the only pistol, a lot of maps don't have it as a pick up at all. So, I think it's frequency is probably fine overall, even though it will be easily available in some levels.

-The same link I sent you has been updated with yet another version. The only real difference is that some enemies, such as the phase 1 darktroopers, will track the player much better now and not wander off randomly.

-I''m not going to say no, because I have already added some enemies that I did not think I would (the phase 1 darktrooper for example). But I plan to have a long break from releasing anything once I have level designers working on story mode, so I can save up a lot of surprises for a big release later.

-I can still modify the weapon switching overlay, but I don't know what is wrong with it. I am not a graphic designer, so yeah it looks a bit nooby. I can easily adjust the fade times of the weapon name on the bottom and the sidebar of the player's weapons. I can also replace the red squares in the background with something different, I just don't know what. Without those there it is hard to see the weapons.

I see you've got the point about the pistol.

Sure, I'd love to see mappers making a nice story mode for this mod. That might be very interesting and they could use the full potential of this mod. As for now, current vanilla Duke maps don't really represent the true Star Wars feel, at least it's my opinion. Still fun to play though.

About that weapon menu, I thought about something similar to current HUD, but that would require some artist to draw that for you.

I've got an idea. Dark Forces game has got the gas mask sprite. Couldn't you use it to replace Duke's scuba gear?

And for weapon HUD, I made a quick prototype in Photoshop how it could look Imgur.com.

Wow, thanks for that. I may end up using it or something similar eventually. As for the gas mask, I'm going to wait until there is a need for it. In story mode, maybe we'll have actual gas to use it with.

Well, you like it? I can try to make looking better, because as I wrote, it's a quick prototype.

Anyways, here's PNG file of a little bit improved HUD Speedyshare.com. If you find a better HUD than mine, it's OK, I am not a good artist ^^.

It looks good, I just don't know if I want to have a frame around all the weapons like that. Also, I want to get this update out and then shift my focus to story mode and not release anything for a long time.