DUKE PLUS

A GAME ENHANCER AND CUSTOMIZER FOR THE EDUKE32 PORT OF DUKE NUKEM 3D

by Dan Gaskill (a.k.a. “DeeperThought”) 

TO INSTALL AND PLAY:

1. Extract the contents of DUKEPLUS.RAR into a folder that contains the file “DUKE3D.GRP”
2. Double-click on the included dukeplus.bat
3. OR, if you don't use the .bat:  Launch the included EDuke32.exe.  DO NOT click the Start button yet.  Select the Game tab and then select DukePlus from the gamedir menu.  Now click Start.  The next time you launch EDuke32, Duke Plus will already be selected.
4. To use the HRP with Duke Plus: Place “duke3d_hrp.zip” into a folder named “autoload” in your Eduke32 folder.
5. In the EDuke32 main menu, select OPTIONS->KEYBOARD SETUP and assign keys for "RELOAD ALTFIRE" and "DUKEPLUS MENU".

TO CUSTOMIZE DUKE PLUS:  There is an in-game menu accessed by the DUKEPLUS MENU key.  Options set in the menu will remain set the next time you start a game (they are saved in duke3d.cfg).  There are some some additional options that can only be accessed in the file “USERPLUS.CON” inside the DukePlus folder.

TO AVOID PROBLEMS:  If you have an autoload folder, make sure that it only contains the HRP files (duke3d_hrp.zip and hrp_update.zip).  Any other files in autoload will likely cause problems.  Also, none of the files for Duke Plus (except for dukeplus.bat) should be located outside of the DukePlus folder.  This includes USERPLUS.CON, DUKEPLUS.CON, LIGHTS.CON, dukeplus.def, and the DUKEPLUS_RESOURCES folder.

DUKE PLUS VERSION 1.90 FEATURES

Game Fixes

• ducking pigcop has correct hittable area, pigcops will duck incoming projectiles
• ducking liztroop has correct hittable area
• water fountains only give up to MAXWATERFOUNTAINHEALTH
• enemies move backwards when hit by explosives, instead of forward
• sitting liztroops can be killed without waiting for them to stand up
• battlelord resumes normal behavior after being shrunk
  

HRP Fixes

• Monsters do not turn to face the player when dead
• Rockets have correct pitch
• Frozen and inactive monsters do not animate
• Turrets spin randomly when damaged
• RECON planes have correct roll (and roll smoothly)
• Jibs placed in maps as decorations will not spin (their model animation is disabled)

Visual Effects

• shell casings use models, roll realistically and stay on the ground for a while (and they are spawned by monsters)
• exploded monsters leave jibs on the ground, which can be destroyed; jibs may burn if the monster was hit by a rocket
• improved blood pools, water splashes, smoke and teleporter effects
  
• Ricochet and other hit sounds depending on the type of surface that has been shot
• Damage decals (bullet holes and rocket marks) on walls depending on the type of surface that has been shot (optional)
• Glowing exhaust on rockets (optional)
• Bits of debris from damaged surfaces and rocket explosions (optional)
• Improved system for displaying game messages
  
• Rain and snow with adjustable properties.
• Many other effects which can be added to maps
  

*Optional features can be toggled on or off using the in-game menu

Player Abilities

* Ability is optional.  Most optional abilities can be toggled using the in-game menu, and some can be turned on by editing USERPLUS.CON

Duke Plus Map Effects

In Duke Plus, it is possible to make working ladders, tranparent water, multistop elevators, and many other new map effects.  See the guide for complete descriptions of the effects and how to include them in your map:

DUKE PLUS MAP EFFECTS GUIDE

The Duke Plus In-Game Menu

When you start a game using Duke Plus for the first time, you will see a message at the top of the screen telling you to bring up the menu, using the menu key (which you may assign in the Eduke32 main menu under OPTIONS -> KEYBOARD SETUP).  The menu is divided into five sub-menus:  WEAPONS, ABILITIES, MONSTERS, and EFFECTS, and WEATHER..  The weapons and abilities options have already been described above in the WEAPON OPTIONS and PLAYER ABILITIES sections.  The monster options are as follows:

SHOW MONSTER LIFE BARS --  The length of a bar over a monster's head indicates the amount of remaining life it has left.  Damaging a monster causes the bar to flash.  Note that this feature applies to Duke bots as well.

RANDOM ATTRIBUTES --  Randomized monsters can spawn with various attributes that normal monsters don't have.  They may have more health, use different attacks, drop different items, teleport, use different tactics, or be immune to certain weapons.  The number you set here is the probability that the monster will have each of the possible random traits.  Generally speaking, the higher the number, the more challenging the game will be.  See the MONSTER FLAGS table below for a list of the different attributes.

DAMAGE INFLICTED -- This is the percent of normal damage that the monsters inflict on enemies. 100 by default.

DAMAGE RECEIVED -- This is the percent of normal damage that the monsters receive from the player.  100 by default.

MONSTER IN-FIGHTING -- Set to YES if you want monsters to fight each other after friendly fire incidents (like in Doom).

BOT ASSISTANCE -- Set to YES if you want the multiplayer start positions in the map (if any exist) to be taken by Dukebot helpers in a singleplayer game.

DOUBLE MONSTERS & EXTRA AMMO -- Does what it says.

The effects menu options are as follows:

DAMAGE EFFECTS -- Set to YES for special decals and other effects caused by weapons

MIRRORED MAPS -- Causes all levels to become flipped on the X plane.  Good for adding replay value to familiar maps.  Known bug:  some swing doors will open in the wrong direction.

DOUBLE-SIZED MAPS -- Maps are scaled up 2X.  The player is given extra jumping height (hold down the jump key for extra height) so that the larger maps are still passable.  Use in conjunction with the double monsters option (in the monsters menu) for added challenge.  Known bugs:  Some sprites are already so large that they cannot be doubled in size; this could make some maps impossible (e.g. if the affected sprites were part of a sprite bridge).  Some map effects which depend on timing and distances may be spoiled.

ITEM QUOTE STYLE -- Choose from 3 styles for item pick up messages.  In addition to the classic style (large messages across the top), you can choose Duke Plus style (quotes flash, and item quotes can be displayed in combination with another quote, such as a secret area message), or Dukematch style (small messages on the side of the screen)

NEW SOUNDS -- Replaces some sounds from the original game with new ones.

HI RES BLOOD -- Replaces the 8-bit blood pools with hi-res 32-bit color ones

WATER SPLASHES -- Adds new water splashing effects

PIGCOP JIBS -- Adds modelled jibs for pigcop body parts.

SMOKE AND TRANSTAR -- Replaces smoke puffs and transporterstar effects with higher quality versions

WEATHER TYPE -- Can be set to rain or snow. 

WEATHER COLOR -- 0 = standard, 1 = blue, 2 = red, 4 = black, 6 = green with inverted brightness, 7 = yellow, 8 = green, 13 = gray.  Most of the other colors do nothing, but feel free to experiment...

WEATHER TRANSPARENCY -- 0%, 33%, or 66%

WEATHER SEVERITY -- The number of weather sprites that are spawned every tic.

RADIUS -- The maximum distance from the player that weather sprites will spawn.

HUD Display

• When Duke is holding his breath underwater, a bar appears near the top of the screen showing how much oxygen he has left.
• The number of rounds left in the clip of your current weapon is displayed in the lower left corner.  This includes the pistol and the optional replacements for the shotgun and chaingun.
• If any Dukebot allies are active, the number remaining is displayed in the upper right corner.
• If you are using the monster capsules optional replacement for trip bombs, the HUD shows your capsule strength and the monster (if any) held in your currently selected capsule.
  

Map Display

• Access card readers you have visited are displayed in the map view (but only in the detailed map view that shows textures)

Bot Allies

•  If BOT ASSISTANCE is set to YES in the monsters sub-menu, then when you start a single player game, a group of friendly Duke bots will fight alongside you. These Duke bots take the place of the player sprites with a lotag of 1, ( the multiplayer starting positions). Therefore, this option only works on maps that have multiplayer starting positions.
• All Duke bots start with pistols, and can have additional weapons. Some are medics (green pants) who can heal themselves, the player, and other bots on contact. Bots do not pick up items. They do have a limited supply of ammo, but it replenishes over time. Medics use up ammo when healing.
• You can order a Duke bot to patrol a certain area. Aim at the Duke bot and press the open key (spacebar by default) to select it. Then point to where you want it to patrol and press the open key again to set a patrol point. To cancel a patrol, press the left and right strafe keys simultaneously while the Duke bot is selected.  This option has been disabled as of DP 1.8, though it is still possible to make a bot patrol using mapster.
• You can tag sectors as bot retirement zones, meaning that if the player enters those sectors all his bots willl teleport out of the map.  This is necessary if you want to make sure that the player is alone by a certain point in the level.  To do this, simply give the desired sector(s) a hitag of 666.
  
• Bots have the ability to follow paths made of "waypoints", similar to locator paths for RECON.  
WAYPOINT BASICS:

ADVANCED USES OF WAYPOINTS:

If YVEL is set on a WAYPOINT sprite, then the first bot who reaches that WAYPOINT will activate any ACTIVATOR, ACTIVATORLOCKED, MASTERSWITCH, RESPAWN, SPAWNER, FUSE or SE that is triggered by that tag.  This can be used to make a bot open a locked door, etc.

If ZVEL is set on a WAYPOINT, then a bot who reaches it will stop and wait there.  He will not move from that spot (except to fight monsters) unless the WAYPOINT has been activated by a switch, SPAWNER or DPTOUCHPLATE that has a YVEL equal to the ZVEL of the WAYPOINT.  This is useful, for example, if you want a bot to wait patiently at a door until the player unlocks it, and then continue on his path.

If 1024 is added to the EXTRA of a bot (and is used in combination with 256), then the bot will be in lead player mode.  When in leading mode and on a path, the bot will automatically stop to wait for the player if the player is not close to him.  To disable this feature only on certain WAYPOINTs, add 2 to the EXTRA of those WAYPOINTs.  This is useful if, for example, you want the bot to start on his path when he is still far away from the player, but then you want him to lead the player when he reaches a certain area.

In addition to the BOT ASSISTANCE option, bots can be placed directly in a map. Place a BOTALLY (tile 1431) in the map and give it a lotag of 1. Then determine its attributes by setting its EXTRA ('M on the sprite in mapster to set EXTRA). As with monsters (see below), this acts as a bitfield:

Add together the bits that you want to get the desired effects. For example, a BOTALLY with an EXTRA set to 26 (16 + 8 + 2 ) will be a medic with double strength and a shotgun.

Monsters

• All the bosses now function like BOSS1 -- use a spritepal other than 0 to make them "minibosses" which will have about 1000 hit points and will not end the game. (Note that the miniboss version of BOSS4 will spawn baby aliens, not full-sized ones, and has a new attack to replace electrocution)  Known issue:  There are a few old maps that used a non zero pal BOSS4 to end the game; these levels will not end in DP.
• All monster bodies, including both those of slain monsters and those in the map at start, can be shot or blown up. 
• Duke Plus Recon Cars. The RECONDP actor (tile 1966) can be used as an alternative to the hardcoded RECON. Like the RECON one, RECONDP will use LOCATORS to fly along a path (it can use the exact same locator trails as the RECON). Unlike the hardcoded one, it can function in maps or areas of maps that do not have LOCATORS, and you do not have set hitag on the RECONDP sprites to make them work. Instead of using the normal RECON attack, the RECONDP uses a variety of weapons as specified by the monster flags (and of course it can drop items and do all of the other special Duke Plus things). By default, it uses a machine gun and mortars. It also has the ability to ram enemies, squishing them.
• Monsters can drop anything. Set the XVEL of the monster to the tile number that you want it to spawn when it dies. You can also set XVEL on a RESPAWN sprite to make the monster it spawns drop whatever you want.  In addition to setting drops on specific monsters by editing maps, you can edit USERPLUS.CON to set monsters of certain types to drop certain items by default.

  Keycards are a special case:

  Set XVEL to 60 and the monster will drop a pal 0 ACCESSCARD.

  For a pal 21 ACCESSCARD, use an XVEL of 62

  For a pal 23 ACCESSCARD, use an XVEL of 63

• Customizable monsters. To customize a monster in a map, set the EXTRA field on the monster or the RESPAWN sprite that spawns it. The value acts as a bitfield (like cstat). Just add up all the numbers of the features you want, and then set the EXTRA to that sum.  You can also set monsters of certain types to have certain values by default.  These can be edited in USERPLUS.CON

  MONSTER FLAGS

*If bits 2 and 4 are both set, then the monster will have x6 normal hit points.

**Increasing attack power will have different effects depending on the monster. On a Sentry Drone, for example, this bit will cause its explosion to do double damage. On other monsters, it will cause the monster to fire two shots instead of one. In some monsters, the monster will fire one shot for double the normal damage. Sharks with increased attack power will become killer sharks and will behave differently from normal sharks.

***The monster will sometimes try to teleport behind its target if the target is facing it.  This is more likely to happen in open spaces. If the monster cannot find a good spot to teleport to, it will not teleport.

****On NEWBEAST, this flag will cause it to use only is claws to attack.  On LIZTROOP, this flag will make it a suicide bomber:  it will rarely shoot, and will detonate itself when close to an enemy.  On ROTATEGUN, this flags will make it shoot at double the normal rate.  On PIGCOP, it will give the pig a double-barreled shotgun.

*****The monster will try to back away from the player if the player is in sight, but it will keep shooting.

******This can be used as a substitute for STAYPUT type monsters – the monster can still walk around but will not walk off ledges. DO NOT PLACE MONSTERS WITH THIS FLAG ON SPRITE BRIDGES. Also, it does not work on DRONE, OCTABRAIN or COMMANDER.

Examples: Press 'M on a PIGCOP sprite in mapster and set the EXTRA of a PIGCOP to 10 (2+8), and it will have double hit points and double attack power. A LIZTROOP with an EXTRA of 196 (4+64+128) will have x4 hit points, shoot railgun shots, and be able to teleport.

Table of monster attack variations

 
New projectile descriptions:

THANKS TO

“TerminX” and the rest of the EDuke32 team, for creating and supporting EDuke32

"Plagman" for writing the core of the map mirroring and scaling code

“Hellbound”, for creating the blood and bullet impact decals, as well as the models for the debris and the shotgun muzzle flash

“Kaiser”, for creating the flare model and skin.

“Usurper”, for the animated up and down switches and the snow flake graphic

James Stanfield, for much of the footstep sound code and the camera control code

“Hunter_Rus”, for some of the HRP fixes and for improving EDuke32

“Tea Monster”, for the cola can model and skins, and for the rocket impact scorch mark decal

“Edisleado”, “HellSpike”, and “Pete”, for creating the model and skins for the Duke Nukem Cruizer shotgun

“Short_Fuse” and “Creeping_Jesus” for creating the model and skins for the MP5A4 SMG

“DavoX” for importing both the Cruizer and MP5 into md3 format and recreating the animations for them

"Gambini" for his maps utilizing Duke Plus, and for all his ideas on how to improve Duke Plus

Changelog

1.90  11-1-08

1.87  10-15-08

1.86  9-29-08

1.85   9-26-08

1.83   9-01-08

1.82   8-29-08

1.81   8-25-08

1.80b   8-22-08

1.80   8-21-08

1.75   7-12-08

1.73   6-29-08

1.71   6-24-08

1.7   6-21-08

1.6   4-17-08

-Breakable glass sprites.

1.5   2-25-08

1.4   1-22-08