THE ATTRITION MOD

In this mod of Duke Nukem 3D, all 12 of Duke’s weapons gain experience points and upgrade as he uses them. Duke’s max health, armor, and some of his inventory items can also be upgraded. As you progress through the game, you will encounter more powerful monsters to match your increased firepower. Based on the popular Duke Plus mod, War of Attrition incorporates many of the same features (including advanced monster AI, bot allies, mirrored levels, damage effects, and more). Attrition comes with a large number of high quality fan made levels that have been organized into several episodes. In some episodes, missions are selected at random, and you must complete 12 missions to finish the game. Addictive with lots of replay value, Attrition showcases some of the best levels ever made for Duke 3D, adding new gameplay but keeping the essence of the original game intact.

INSTALL

Extract the contents of attrition.rar to a folder that contains an Atomic Edition copy of DUKE3D.GRP. Use attrition.bat to start a game without the HRP. If you have the HRP installed in the autoload folder, then using attrition_HRP.bat will start a game with the HRP.

SELECT AN EPISODE

Episodes 1 through 3 consist of randomly selected levels. There are about 120 total, 13 of each will be randomly selected. After completing 13 missions, the final boss level will complete the episode. There is a different final boss level for each random episode, but all the other missions from the random episodes come from the same pool. Duke’s weapons and ammo are taken away after each mission (these are user maps and were intended to be played that way). Episode 4 (High Score Challenge) is similar to the random missions episodes except that it keeps going until the player dies (there is no final mission). At that point, if you got a high score it will be saved. You can reload your saved game from before you died and attempt to replace your score with a higher one (multiple scores from the same game are not allowed).

Episode 5 consists of the first half of the original 3DR levels, and Episode 6 consists of the other half.

SPECIAL KEYS

For this mod, you need to assign a key or button for ALTFIRE and ATTRITION MENU. You should also assign a key for QUICK PIPEBOME. Use the keyboard and mouse setup menus in EDuke32 to do this.

ATTRITION MENU

The menu can be accessed once a game is started, and has three selections:

RESTART MISSION --restarts the current level. You will have all the upgrades you had when the level began

ABORT MISSION – will end the current mission and start a new randomly selected one. Can be used up to 3 times per game; available in a random missions episode or the high score challenge.

UPGRADES –shows the upgrades you have acquired

HIGH SCORES –shows high scores you have achieved in the High Score Challenge.

AUTOSAVE ON/OFF – when on, this feature will periodically save the game for you in slot 10

MIRRORING RANDOM/NO – when on random, 50% of the levels will be mirrored, on NO none are. Mirroring can cause glitches.

GAMEPLAY FEATURES

These are some important gameplay features that differ from vanilla Duke 3D. I assume you are already familiar with the unmodified game.

KARATE KICKS – Press forward +quick kick to perform a sliding side kick. Press back+quick kick to perform a spinning hook kick (if the mighty boot weapon is selected, you can perform these kicks by pressing fire). Once you have the combinations upgrade for kicks, you can hold down the quick kick key and Duke will continue to kick an enemy in a combination until the enemy is dead or Duke’s kick energy is depleted.

ALTFIRE MODES -- Some weapons get alt-fire modes as upgrades, others start with them. Here’s a complete list:

WEAPON	ALTFIRE
LASER PISTOL	CHARGED SHOT (level 1+)
PISTOL	RELOAD
SHOTGUN	FLAK BURST (level 2+)
CHAINGUN	INCENDIARY GLOBS (level 1+)
BATTLELORD MINIGUN	GRENADES
ROCKET LAUNCHER	MEGAROCKET (level 6+)
PIPEBOMBS	TOGGLE TIMER/TRIGGER MODE
DEVASTATOR	TOGGLE ROCKETS/SHOTGUN MODE (LEVEL 1+)
LASER TRIPBOMBS	PLACE ON MONSTERS (works with fire also)
FREEZER	ICE SHARDS (level 2+)

Weapons not listed do not have alt-fire modes.

ALIEN BLASTERS – These are dropped by lizard trooper captains (pal 21 liztroops). If you have a blaster, it is weapon 1 (same slot as mighty boot). You can still kick while holding a blaster by using the quick kick key. The only way to replenish the limited battery supply is by picking up more blasters. The blaster can be upgraded like any other weapon.

DEATH RAGE – You get one of these per mission. When getting hit by a shot that reduces his life to 0, Duke goes into a rage during which he does not take damage and he deals 150% damage to enemies. The rage lasts about 8 seconds. Once your death rage is used, you do not get another one until the next mission (restarting the mission DOES reset it). You lose 5000 points each time a death rage is used.

THE HOLODUKE BOT – Using the HoloDuke item spawns a helpful Dukebot. HoloDuke energy will deplete as long as the bot is deployed. It will deplete faster when the bot takes damage. Getting upgrades for this item improves the bot’s weaponry and his ability to take damage.

NUKES – Nuke energy is sometimes dropped by slain enemies (it looks like flashing, floating atomic health). You can hold up to 3 of them at a time. Using a nuke makes Duke throw it, after which it will start to expand, and then detonate a few seconds later. It will damage enemies within about half a city block. Nukes do not destroy cracks in walls (necessary to prevent unwanted level progression). Nukes will become even more powerful when your score reaches 50000, 100000, 200000, etc.

STEROIDS – Using steroids in Attrition causes the game to slow down and the player’s running speed to increase. In addition, upgrading this item has the following effects while it is in use: reduces the damage the player takes, makes him regenerate health, and increases the damage he causes to enemies.

GOGGLES – The nightvision goggles will reveal which switches you need to flip in switch puzzles. They also have the power to make the player invisible to enemies. This ability is very limited to begin with, but can be upgraded. Invisibility works better when crouching, and it is disrupted by running and even more disrupted if you fire weapons. But with enough upgrades, you can remain invisible even when running and firing weapons. If an enemy cannot see you, a ‘?” appears over its head and it will not attack you. Instead, it will wander towards the last spot at which it saw you.

FREEZING SYSTEM – In an unmodded game of Duke 3D, the freezethrower will freeze enemies only if it has done enough damage to kill them. In Attrition, enemies will freeze whenever they are hit by the freezethrower, and the amount of time they remain frozen depends on how much strength they have left. Even enemies that cannot be frozen in regular Duke 3D, such as the sentry drones and tanks, can be frozen in Attrition.

SKILL LEVELS – In Attrition, selecting one of the easier skill levels (“PIECE OF CAKE” and “LET’S ROCK”) will reduce the amount of damage received by the player, and also reduce the amount of points that enemies are worth. “Come Get Some” is considered the standard skill level: enemies will do full damage. On“Damn I’m Good”, unlike in vanilla Duke, enemies will NOT respawn; however, the diffuclty of enemies will progress at 2X the normal rate.

REGENERATION – If the player’s health drops below 10% of his max health, it will regenerate at a rate of 1 per second and a cost of 100 score per health point.

INVENTORY UPGRADES – If you see a flashing inventory item, it is an inventory upgrade. These permanently increase the effectiveness of your inventory items, as well as giving you a small amount of the item being upgraded. Flashing armor increases your max armor by 5 points. A flashing medkit increases your medical skill, which means that med packs will have increased healing power. Flashing goggles increase the cloaking power of the goggles. A flashing med pack increases your max health by 1 point. Flashing steroids upgrade the effectiveness of steroids (see above). The backpack is the one upgrade that does not flash; it will either increase your maximum ammo capacity on all weapons, or contain ammo for one weapon.

UPGRADEABLE WEAPONS – Some of Duke’s weapons start “nerfed”, but all of them can eventually become extremely powerful. The experience bar (located under the ammo counter in the lower right corner of the screen) shows the current weapon’s level and how much progress you have made towards the next level. As a rule of thumb, you gain experience for a weapon if monsters are damaged or killed while you are holding it. There are some exceptions: if a frozen enemy is shattered, you will gain experience for the freezer even if you aren’t holding it. Likewise, if a shrunken enemy is stomped you get experience for the shrinker. Using regular kicks or karate kicks on enemies will level up the mighty boot weapon (unless the kick shattered a frozen enemy). Finally, tripbomb explosions will level up the tripbomb, regardless of what you are holding. When a weapon upgrades to the next level, a message will display with a brief description of what has been changed or added to the weapon. You can always review your upgrades in the UPGRADES menu.

Here is a complete list of enhancements that weapons may acquire when upgrading:

+ DAMAGE ( all weapons )

+ RATE OF FIRE ( pistol, rocket launcher, chaingun )

ALTFIRE MODE ( shotgun, chaingun, rocket launcher, devastator, freezer )

Adds a new altfire mode to the weapon. They are –

shotgun -> flak burst

chaingun -> incendiary pods

rocket launcher -> megarockets (cost 3 ammo each)

devastator -> auto shotgun

freezer -> ice shards

Note: the ALTFIRE key causes pistol to reload (no upgrade needed)

Also: ALTFIRE on pipebombs makes them switch between timer mode and trigger mode.

BLEEDING WOUNDS ( pistol, shotgun, chaingun )

Causes a wound to appear in the exact spot where the projectile hit the enemy. The wound will bleed for several seconds, causing additional damage as it does.

ACID WOUNDS ( chaingun )

Like bleeding wounds, but they cause more damage and they affect ALL enemies, including mechanical ones.

STUNS (karate kicks, pistol, shotgun, rocket launcher)

Enemies become paralyzed for a brief time when hit by the weapoin. The amount of time depends on the weapon.

TIGHTER SPREAD ( shotgun, chaingun )

More accurate bullets/tighter spread.

+ PROJECTILES ( shotgun, devastator altfire, freezer altfire )

The weapon shoots an additional projectile when firing.

PIERCING ( chaingun bullets, pistol bullets, devastator rockets, freezer altfire )

The weapon’s projectiles can pierce an enemy and hit another enemy or object

+ RUNNING SPEED ( rocket launcher, devastator )

The player can move at normal speed when holding the weapon.

+ SHOT SPEED ( rocket launcher )

Projectiles fired by the weapon move more rapidly.

BURNS ENEMIES ( chaingun altfire, rocket launcher, pipebomb, devastator )

Spawns fires on impact which burn enemies

+ EXPLOSIONS ( rocket launcher, pipebomb, tripbomb )

Spawns additional explosions and increases the area of affect.

+ BOMBLETS ( pipebomb, tripbomb )

Spawns small rolling bombs which detonate on contact.

BOMBLETS SEEK ( pipebomb, tripbomb )

Bomblets will seek out and move towards nearby enemies.

AKIMBO ABILITY ( pistol )

Allows the player to wield two pistols at once. Note that you have to find a second pistol first!

+ DISTANCE ( karate kicks )

Increased kick range.

COMBINATIONS ( karate kicks )

Continue to hold down the quick kick key after kicking an enemy and Duke will keep kicking the enemy in a combination until the enemy is dead or Duke’s kick energy is depleted

+ KICK ENERGY ( karate kicks )

Increased kick stamina.

KNOCKBACK ( shotgun )

Knocks enemies backwards. Note that some weapons can do this without an upgrade.

+ SHRINK POWER ( shrinker )

Allows the shrinker to affect stronger enemies.

+ SHRINK TIME ( shrinker )

Increases the time that enemies are shrunk.

+ SHRINK RADIUS ( shrinker )

Increases the area of affect of the shrinker impact.

VORTEX OF DOOM ( shrinker )

Makes a small singularity appear where the shrinker shot impacts, sucking in nearby enemies and crushing them.

ROCKETS SEEK ( devastator )

Will seek out enemies.

BLINDING FLASH ( pipebomb, tripbomb )

Spawns blinding flashes of light that stun nearby enemies.

+ FREEZE SPARKS ( freezer )

Additional short range freezeblast sparks fire off in random directions when a primary freeze blast impacts

SHOOTS BEAM ( alien blaster, freezer )

Makes the weapon fire a beam instead of a projectile.

CHARGED ALTFIRE ( alien blaster )

Hold down the altfire button to charge a shot, release to fire.

POWBALL ALTFIRE ( alien blaster )

The charged shot becomes a powball, a highly explosive ball of energy. The powball will detonate when it hits something, OR when you shoot it with a blaster beam.

+ CLONING POWER ( expander )

The first of these upgrades gives the expander the cloning power, which makes a duplicate of the expanded enemy spawn in its place. The duplicate will fight on your side. Additional upgrades make the duplicates more powerful than the originals.

+ EXTRA CLONE ( expander )

Two duplicates of the expanded enemy are spawned instead of one.

WEAPON MASTERY UPGRADES – Each time you upgrades a weapon, it adds one point to your total weapon mastery. When your weapon mastery reaches certain levels, you get additional bonuses:

TOTAL WEAPON LEVELS WEAPON MASTERY BONUS

12 fast weapon switching

24 increased nuke power

36 1% life leech

48 ultimate nuke power

60 2% life leech

OTHER FEATURES

AUTOMATIC WEATHER AND GRASS – Attrition decides whether rain or snow is appropriate for a level, and if so the weather is generated. Likewise, blades of grass are spawned where appropriate. The system is not perfect: you may see grass spawned on a green metallic vehicle, for example.

MAP MIRORRING – When starting a level , there is a 50% chance that it will be an x-flipped (mirrored) version. This feature works fairly well but is known to cause some glitches, such as some swing doors opening in the wrong direction.

LOTS OF STUFF FROM DUKEPLUS – Damage decals, footstep sounds, etc.

GAME TIPS

· Try to level up a large variety of weapons when given the opportunity, instead of focusing on just a few. This will help you acquire the weapon mastery upgrades more quickly. It will also pay off if you are playing a random missions episode and all you have is a weapon you don’t normally use much, such as the freezethrower.

· If monsters are killed by a nuke or by each other, then the weapon you are holding will get the XP. Use this to your advantage. You can easily level up tripbombs, for example, just by holding them while detonating a nuke. The QUICK PIPEBOMB key is tailor made for this tactic. Once pipebombs are leveled up they become a poor man’s nuke, and you can lob them while holding a different weapon.

· Those evil, red or purple Duke clones are extremely fast and deadly. Usually it is not a good idea to try to stand and fight with them. Use cheap tactics! Backtrack around a corner and then fire your weapon along your path and he will probably walk right into the trap. Also, use weapons that have the stun mod to stop him from moving long enough for you to hit him again.

· The altfire shots of the chaingun bounce off walls and light enemies on fire, making it a great way to stall or soften up groups of advancing enemies while staying out of their line of fire.

· As soon as you are able to use the expander, get it leveled up so it has the cloning power. It levels up quickly and is a good investment. The clone allies are more powerful than the originals and can make some nearly impossible fights fairly easy.

· Do not depend on the auto save feature. Sometimes it will go a long time without saving the game. Also, it always saves to the same slot, so if you start a new game, the new game’s autosave will overwrite the autosave from your previous game. So, make a regular save before starting a new game, if you plan on coming back to that game later.

· Use the goggles to avoid detection in difficult situations. They work best when crouching. It is easy to forget about this item, but it’s an important part of your inventory and once upgraded a few times it can make the difference between life and death.

· When playing random missions, the player’s weapons and ammo are taken away at the beginning of each level. This can make the beginning of a mission very difficult, so plan ahead. Try to save some HoloDuke energy and/or a nuke from the previous mission so that you will have something powerful to kill enemies with until you can pick up more weapons. It’s also a good idea to upgrade karate kicks to at least level 2 early in the game; they can be very effective, especially during Death Rage.

CHANGELOG

1.15 10-15-10

· Added 7 new maps to the random missions (CrimsonMoon, Duke 6_8, Asylum K, Cavern, Sunshine Complex, Drafted, LA-XXX)

· Added new and more difficult monster variations that appear late in the game

· Difficulty now adjusts somewhat depending on the monster/item ratio of the current map (easier maps have harder spawns, harder maps easier spawns)

· Improved explosions (thanks DanM).

· Liztroops sometimes have a jetpack malfunction when they die.

· Included an autoexec.cfg with some optimized renderer settings. This file can be edited or deleted.

· Fixed crash on load in Helltown.map

· Optimzed jibs to prevent slowdowns and “too many sprites spawned”.

· Changed rocket smoke.

· Fixed dead mech blocking bug.

· Fixed bug involving a liztroop too skinny to see or hit

· Evil Dukes can no longer spawn near each other

· Nerfed regeneration from steroids at high levels, boosted it at low levels

· Some optimizations for Polymer

· Megarockets cost 2 ammo instead of 3.

· Mirroring is now optional.

· Includes the latest eduke33.exe

1.13 9-09-10

· Added “HIGH SCORE CHALLENGE” episode, which is now the only way to get high scores; it will not end until you die.

· Added “ABORT MISSION” option to the Attrition Menu. It allows you to skip up to 3 missions per game.

· Allied monsters will destroy nearby slimers so they don’t get eaten by them.

· Reduced damage of the Mech enemy’s heavy rockets.

· Included a couple of sounds for the Mech enemy that got left out in the last update.

1.12 9-05-10

· Added a new enemy, a powerful robot which sometimes appears late in the game.

· Bug fixes for several maps (QMC_Pur.map, ballroom.map, LADuke2K.map) thanks to DanM.

· Fixed a bug which could interfere with random level loading.

· Improved spawn points for the chaingun altfire projectiles, so they look like they are coming out of the gun instead of Duke’s chest.

· Changed Damn I’m Good: monsters don’t respawn, but their difficulty progresses at 2X the normal rate.

· Changed the way burning damage is calculated. This should result in fewer cheap player deaths.

· Extra damage mods on weapons will work more reliably now.

· Some Enforcers who shoot bullets now have a higher firing rate.

· Battlelords who use a non-hitscan projectile will sometimes still use bullets.

· Increased ammo amounts for Devastator, and reduced the amount of XP needed for some of its weapon levels.

· Adjusted the Invisi-Goggles to make them more useful when upgraded.

1.11 8-22-10

· Replaced Unaided.map because I discovered it cannot be completed when map mirroring is on (replacement is RED3.map)

· Rocket scorch decals now fade and disappear after a while.

· The alien queen had too much health; it is now reduced to a reasonable level.

· Includes updated version of NsA.map (minor changes).

· Includes new and improved EDuke32.exe

· Updated documentation

1.10 8-08-10

· Added Lezing’s CLUT pack , for more and better monster colors

· Added over 20 more levels for the random missions episodes; there are now 120 different “missions”

· Each random missions episode now concludes in a different map with a final boss ending

· Autosave is now optional (turn it off in the Attrition menu). The menu looks a bit better, too.

· Replaced the useless shrapnel upgrade on the chaingun with the very useful acid wounds upgrade.

· Fixed a bug with the chaingun which could result in it firing faster than intended after its ROF upgrade.

· The player’s Devastator rockets start tracking enemies at level 3 now, and don’t start fires until level 5

· Improved nukes: they don’t reach as far, but they are more effective

· Displays number of missions completed and number remaining in overhead map view

· Nerfed enemy devastator rockets, because they usually resulted in near instant death

· Improved the medkit and armor upgrades

· Cloned allied monsters are better at following the player, once the expander reaches level 4

· Mirrors are now unbreakable (got tired of being stuck on mirror puzzles because a mirror was broken by an explosion)

· Other minor bug fixes and adjustments

· Comes with new and improved version of EDuke32

1.04 6-27-10

· Attrition now works with the software renderer, so those using non Open-GL devices can play!

· The random mission episodes have been overhauled. Lots of new levels have been added, and now ALL 90 levels are pooled and may come up regardless of which random episode is selected. The levels you have played are kept track of so the same levels should not come up again until you have played almost all of them.

· The HUD now has better support for widescreen

· Death Rage lasts longer and increases the player’s damage more.

· Cage’s laser pistol art now has a pickup sprite.

· Includes new and improved EDuke32.

· Added new ability to tripbombs: place them directly on monsters!

· Items and monster bodies now float in shallow water (fixes bug in original game)

· Slimers now worth points

· Fixed bug where prematurely detonated pipebombs fail to spawn bomblets

· Fixed bug where explosion sounds did not get quieter with distance

· Other minor tweaks and bug fixes

1.03 6-4-10

· Includes new and improved version of EDuke32. This means you should delete all your cfg files before upgrading to the new version.

· Removed “Suburbia” from the first random missions episode, and replaced it with an epic new map by RazorZ named “Mincer City”

· goggles have cloaking ability (see documentation)

· evil dukes can drop the expander instead of expander ammo

· sentry drone explosions have more power in proportion to drone's hit points

· fixed bug with allied monster AI which could cause them to back away too far from player

· added improved life leech as a final weapon mastery upgrade (need 60 total weapon levels)

· improved the nuke power upgrades

· added protection against crashes caused by spawning too many sprites

· fat liztroops regain the correct size after cloaking

· fixed a bug in which chaingun gets passed over by next/previous weapon if the most recently used chaingun ran out of ammo

· increased size and clipdist of miniboss cycloid so that rockets won't pass through him

· fixed bug which caused evil Dukes to cause more damage than they were supposed to and could also make them kill the player and bypass his death rage

· improved boss battle at end of random episodes

· added jump/stomp ability to some Cycloids

· steroids can now regenerate up to the player's current max health amount, instead of 100

· new system for limiting the total strength of player's allied cloned monsters

· fixed bug where killing allied monsters gave points (the player already gets points for cloning monsters)

· fixed bug where pistols would deplete clips more rapidly after acquiring the piercing upgrade

· There is no longer any cap on how many times you can upgrade the HoloDuke bot, and the bot’s damage increases with upgrades

· for polymer: big lasers, megarockets and minigun grenades now emit light

· added hyper speed monster mod (some monsters are extra fast)

· Duke's hand on batlelord minigun is gloveless (thanks to Cage)

· New laser pistol hud art (again thanks to Cage!)

· difficulty progression is now based on score progression instead of level number

· other minor tweaks

1.02 4-27-10

· fixed atomichealth so it can add up to 2X max normal health, as intended.

· fixed a bug related to piercing bullets; this should fix the bug which causes the player to get squished sometimes

· protector drones (newbeasts) can now be shrunk by the player if the shrinker is level 6 or higher

· reduced chance of nukes dropping, and added small chance of monsters dropping boots

· fixed autosave bug

· weapons do extra damage at higher levels, instead of leech; leech is now a global weapon mastery upgrade

· added piercing upgrade to pistol to replace the extra damage upgrade at level 4

· added shrapnel upgrade to chaingun to replace the extra damage upgrade at level 3

· weapon switching has been "nerfed" at game start. It is no longer possible to switch weapons while a weapon is firing, and you cannot interrupt a weapon switch to switch again. However, fast weapon switching is now an upgrade, and it is even faster than default EDuke32 switching.

· adjusted point values for monsters to prevent player from leveling up too fast

· increased XP needed for some levels of tripbombs and expander because they were leveling up way too easily

· delayed introduction of some monster types to ease difficulty in early levels

· fixed a bug where cloned monsters could get squished at the moment of cloning

· fixed bug with the chaingun ammo display in the strip on the bottom of the screen

· changed some code with the fat commander's cannonball projectile in order to avoid an eduke32 crash

· removed battlelord variant that fires incendiary bullets and replaced it with one that fires ice shards (cuz there were too many monsters firing those incendiary bullets)

· added new pic for menu background (there are two versions; one for widescreen and one for regular)

· added HRP font to replace the big red font seen in the HUD and some other places; I generally like the graphics without the HRP but that font was an exception

1.01 4-17-10

· Changed 'RELOAD&ALTFIRE' to 'ALTFIRE' which should fix a keybinding problem for some users.

· Split the original levels into 2 episodes, because there were just too many levels in one episode. This allowed me to add back a few levels that had been cut out.

· reduced damage from evil Dukes by 25%

· prevented big bosses from having the flag that makes them retreat (no walking backwards)

· added enforcer variant which fires devastator

· improved autosave

· various tweaks to difficulty progression

· reduced upgraded shrinker blast radius by about 20%

· First aid kits and health packs can now be partially picked up (remaining amount in smaller leftover kit/pack). This means you no longer have to worry about “wasting” health.

· Karate kicks do increased damage with every level up

THANKS

To all those who have Attrition possible through development of EDuke32, contributions to DukePLus, making user maps distributed with this mod, playtesting, etc. One of these days I’ll get around to adding proper credits to this thing…

© 2010 Dan Gaskill (a.k.a. “DeeperThought”)