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Unofficial Duke Nukem Forever FAQ - Version 0.2 Last updated February 19, 1999 |
Version Française |
Written and maintained by Matt Anderson
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| 1. Basic Duke Nukem Forever Information |
1.1 What is Duke Nukem Forever?
Duke Nukem Forever (or Duke 4) is the fourth game in the hit Duke Nukem series from Apogee/3D Realms. It is the follow-up to one of the most popular computer games of all time, Duke Nukem 3D. With the already huge Duke Nukem fan base, 3D Realms has been doing very little to hype the game, but Duke 4 will surely be one of the most fun and interactive games ever when it finally hits the shelves ("when it's done").
1.2 Who is developing Duke Nukem Forever?
3D Realms, a division of Apogee Software, Ltd., is developing Duke Nukem Forever.
1.3 Who are the Duke Nukem Forever team?
The following are the members of the Duke Nukem Forever development team:
1.4 Who is distributing Duke Nukem Forever?
Duke Nukem Forever is being distributed by GT Interactive.
1.5 What is the story behind Duke Nukem Forever?
Duke Nukem Forever (originally the title of a side-scrolling Duke game being developed in Australia that was scrapped) takes place in Las Vegas and surrounding areas. Duke's main foe is Dr. Proton, a 7'6" cyborg who was Duke's nemesis in the first Duke Nukem game. Dr. Proton has taken over Area 51 and nuked Las Vegas. He uses the spacecraft at Area 51 to contact aliens around the galaxy and recruit them for his army. Dr. Proton has also reanimated the Area 51 guards to do his bidding, and given them bionic enhancements. With this army, Dr. Proton plans to take over the world and kill Duke.
1.6 When will Duke Nukem Forever be released?
Duke Nukem Forever's only official release date is "when it's done." At E3 '98, when the game was using the Quake 2 engine, word was 10-12 months. The switch to the Unreal engine probably added around 2 months, and an additional 2 months were spent adding features to the Unreal engine, so my guess is late 1999.
1.7 Will the demo be out before the full version?
According to George Broussard, the Duke Nukem Forever demo will be released no more than 30 days before or after the full version's release.
1.8 What will Duke Nukem Forever's system requirements be?
Duke Nukem Forever's release is far enough away that 3D Realms doesn't yet know what it will require. A P233-266 with a Voodoo2-quality accelerator will probably be a base.
1.8.1 Will a 3D card be required to play Duke Nukem Forever?
No, but some of the game's features will be hardware-only, and toggled off in software mode.
1.8.2 What 3D cards will be supported in Duke Nukem Forever?
All Direct3D-capable cards should be supported by Duke Nukem Forever. According to George Broussard, "The ultimate goal is to try and move DNF over to D3D, so the video card hassle is minimized."
1.8.3 Which 3D card will be best for running Duke Nukem Forever?
It's hard to say which 3D card will be best for Duke Nukem Forever because there are always several promising-looking ones on the horizon. Right now Voodoo2 SLI and the RIVA TNT seem to be the leaders of the pack in Direct3D performance, which is what Duke 4 will rely on for 3D.
1.8.4 Will Duke Nukem Forever use MMX?
Yes; MMX will be used for software rendering, sound enhancements, and other miscellaneous tasks such as memory swapping.
1.8.5 Will Duke Nukem Forever support AMD's 3DNow! instruction set?
Yes.
1.8.6 Will Duke Nukem Forever support H3D?
Probably. This depends on if support is added to the Unreal engine, which is supposedly being looked into.
1.8.7 Will Duke Nukem Forever support Linux?
3D Realms currently has no plans to support Linux.
1.8.8 Will Duke Nukem Forever support Mac?
Unknown at this time.
1.9 Will Duke Nukem Forever come with a map editor?
Yes; Duke Nukem Forever will ship with an enhanced version of UnrealEd.
1.10 Does 3D Realms need beta testers?
No. As George Broussard puts it, "When DNF is closer we will assemble a new [beta testing] group and test. DO NOT email us to be a tester. We hand pick people."
1.11 Will there be add-on packs for Duke Nukem Forever?
Yes, but they will probably be done by third-party developers, as 3D Realms wants to immediately begin work on their next game when Duke 4 is released. The following was posted by George Broussard on 3D Realms' Bulletin Boards:
There will likely be several add on's for DNF. I doubt 3DR will be doing any directly because we want to immediately jump into a new game. But we will monitor and enforce the quality of the add on's for DNF, and make sure they are better than the ones done for Duke 3D.We'll know more when we get closer to the release of the game.
2.1 What weapons will be in Duke Nukem Forever?
The only known weapons that will definitely appear in Duke 4 are a pistol, shotgun, and rocket launcher. The shotgun might have a SWAT team-style flashlight mounted on it, because 3D Realms is trying to do something original with all of the weapons. There is a lot of demand for 3D Realms to bring back the shrink ray, so they will probably do something similar. The rest of the weapons will probably be original ones not seen in Duke Nukem 3D.
2.2 How many weapons will be in Duke Nukem Forever?
Around ten.
2.3 Will Duke Nukem Forever be as interactive as Duke Nukem 3D?
More so. 3D Realms has made many assurances that Duke 4 will be the most interactive game ever.
2.4 Will Duke interact with other characters?
Yes; Duke will interact with other characters such as Bombshell and Gus. There will be dialogue, and the characters' mouths should match what they are saying like in Half-Life.
2.5 What characters will be in Duke Nukem Forever?
So far we have seen two non-player characters: Bombshell and Gus. Bombshell is a woman from a 3D shooter that 3D Realms previously had in development. She will originally be under Dr. Proton's command, but somehow Duke gets her to help him. Bombshell seems to be the only woman who isn't attracted to Duke, so Duke naturally makes the assumption that she is a lesbian. Whether she actually is a lesbian, or if Duke just thinks that is currently unknown. Bombshell might be a choice as a player in multiplayer matches. Gus is an old miner that Duke meets up with in Morningwood, Arizona, a small mining town. It is unclear what exactly Gus will do for Duke besides make fun of his sunglasses.
2.6 Will Duke be able to drive vehicles?
Yes. 3D Realms is doing a lot of experimenting with this, and we'll probably see Duke riding a Harley and jet ski, driving a Hummer, and controlling a fighter jet to some extent.
Yes, although probably not with a jet pack.
2.8 Will there be a "use" key?
Yes, the "use" key is coming back. This means that you will need to press a key to open doors, unlike Quake and Unreal.
2.9 Will Duke Nukem Forever have locational damage?
Yes. Duke Nukem Forever should feature specific body damage and more damage depending where you shoot. You will probably even be able to blow off arms.
2.10 What level locations will be in Duke Nukem Forever?
Duke 4 takes place in and around Las Vegas. Known level locations are the following:
2.11 What music format will Duke Nukem Forever use?
Duke 4 will probably use contextual, interactive music, although traditional Redbook audio could still be an option. "The music in DNF will be highly mood setting and very movie-like in tone and quality," says George Broussard.
2.12 Will Duke Nukem Forever have cinematics?
Yes. Duke 4 will have lots of in-game scripted sequences as in Sin and Goldeneye.
Hell yes.
3.1 What engine is Duke Nukem Forever using?
The Unreal engine from Epic Games.
3.2 Why the Unreal engine instead of Quake 2?
According to 3D Realms it was a business decision based on where they were in the game's development. One big factor was that 3D Realms wanted to do vast outdoor areas, such as the Hoover Dam, which the Unreal engine is much better at than the Quake 2 engine. The Unreal engine also has a much better tool set which should speed up development time in the long run. Many of the features that 3D Realms was adding to the Quake 2 engine, such as procedural water, are already in the Unreal engine, which means they don't have to spend time developing and testing them. Another factor is that when Duke 4 was using the Quake 2 engine, the game was going to be hardware-only, because writing a 16-bit software renderer would have been too time-consuming. The Unreal engine, however, already has a very good software renderer, so the game will no longer be hardware-only.
3D Realms doesn't want to use the Prey engine for Duke Nukem Forever because they want Prey to be the first game released with its technology. If Duke 4 came out before Prey using its technology, it would take away sales and interest from Prey. They also want Duke 4 to be out as soon as possible.
3.4 What features does the Unreal engine have?
Here are some of the more significant features of the Unreal engine:
3.5 How much will the switch to the Unreal engine delay the game?
When the engine switch was announced, George Broussard said, "We don't feel there will be a significant development delay, but there will be a slight one as we move over to the new engine." All of the art went right over to the Unreal engine, but the maps had to be redone. The switch will probably end up delaying the game around 6-8 weeks.
3.6 What features is 3D Realms adding to the Unreal engine?
Here's a list of what 3D Realms has mentioned they are adding to the Unreal engine:
4.1 Will there be Internet play?
Yes.
4.2 Will there be network play?
Yes, although over TCP/IP only (no IPX).
4.3 Will there be direct modem play?
No. The reason for this has to do with client/server play. Quake had a client/server modem option, but it wasn't very fair for the client. With some mucking around in Windows 95/98 Dial-Up Server and Dial-Up Networking, however, it is possible to set up a direct modem connection that will work with the network option in games like Unreal. So with some tweaking, you should be able to play Duke 4 over the modem, but support won't be included in the game.
4.4 Will Duke Nukem Forever be playable on TEN?
TEN has the rights to Duke Nukem Forever as far as online gaming services go, but Duke 4 will be playable on Internet servers for free anyway, so I'm not sure if TEN will offer the service.
4.5 Will GameSpy support Duke Nukem Forever?
We can count on it.
4.6 Will there be Remote Ridicule?
Yes; you will be able to use preset sounds to verbally taunt other players as in Rise of the Triad and Duke 3D.
4.7 Will you be able to see other players' weapons?
Yes; other characters' weapons will be visible in multiplay.
4.8 Will multiplayer modes such as CTF be included with Duke Nukem Forever?
Doubtfully, because according to George Broussard, 3D Realms probably won't have time to develop such modifications: "I think a lot of those things are better suited to end users, so we can spend our time making the game interactive and fun, and well balanced."
4.9 Will there be multiplayer co-op modes?
Co-op mulitplayer modes will probably be included in Duke 4, but this is not certain.
4.10 What will the max number of players be?
Unreal supports 32(?) max players, so we can expect Duke 4 to do the same.
4.11 Will there be multiple characters to choose from?
Yes, there will be multiple characters to choose from in multiplayer games.
4.12 Will the characters have different abilities?
It is unknown if the characters' abilities will differ, but George Broussard has mentioned that "I think id's going to have their hands full trying to balance [Quake III Arena's player classes] so that there is not a clear, dominant player class that everyone plays. I think we prefer an even playing field when it comes to DeathMatch.
4.13 Will Bombshell be a choice in multiplayer matches?
Bombshell, Duke's female "sidekick," might be a choice in multiplayer matches, but this is not known for sure.
This FAQ is Copyright © 1998-1999 Matt Anderson. All rights reserved. You may make copies of this FAQ as long as it remains complete and unaltered and gives credit to the author, and does not appear in any publication, software, or on any Internet site, without expressed consent of the author. If you want to publish this FAQ, contact Matt Anderson.
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The newest version of this FAQ can always be found at Duke4.com.
5.4 Credits and acknowledgments
I would like to thank the following Web sites and people for information used in this FAQ: