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2w.zip -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Two Worlds" Scripting and Brainwork: Starkiller Level Concept and Architecture: Mike "schplurg" Massei www.GameEdit.com other releases by us, separately and together: Abandoned Earthshaker & Earthshaker Pro Mad Science! Higher Thinking Solar Ignite 3 Ships 1001 Ways To Die Sector Z 10-6-2003 (This text file was designed w/o word wrap, by Starkiller.) A Word from schplurg: Folks, I began building this level almost 4 years ago to this day in 1999. Now, in late 2003, thanks in large part to the unrelenting insistance of Starkiller that this level be someday completed, I am pleased to present to you a labor of love and hate, "Two Worlds". I began building this monster after completing my first Descent 3 release, "Abandoned". I was inspired in large part by the level layouts in the MOD for Half-Life, "Counterstrike". I liked the idea of having two bases that were more than just flag rooms. I liked the incorporation of defense turrets, and the ability to recharge and rearm back at the base. I also thought the realistic look of the maps was cool. The one thing I did not like, however, was the symmetrical design of the maps. I wanted the two sides to be different. I think I accomplished that here. While building Two Worlds, I also wrote tutorials for D3Edit as I discovered its secrets myself. This level was a learning experience and was very near completion about 2 - 3 years ago...then along came Starkiller and his new love for level scripting. He hated my "warp tubes" and wanted to make real teleporters. After weeks of his pleading and insults ;) I grudgingly let him go for it - well actually he went behind my back and hi-jacked the level and sent it back to me with some sort of warp contraption. Of course there were bugs (it's the nature of D3, not Starkiller) and I hated it at first. Hey, I hate change! And then new ideas came up, and then more ideas, and more, and... Then I let on that I was wishing I could incorporate base defenses of some sort. Famous last words :) Finally, 2 years or so later, after several arguements, failed ideas, and long periods of "it'll never be done", here it is! All of the architecture, except for the warp areas, is mine. After that, Starkiller took over and programmed in the warp areas, base defense systems, powerup respawn tricks, and other stuff I can't think of at the moment. The desire to get this thing finished is ALL Starkiller. I have not touched this level in at least a year. If it wasn't for him, this level would never have been released, which is why he gets top billing for design in this readme (plus the fact that he wrote it that way. Punk). Starkiller is the one person in this world whom I have never personally met that I can absolutely call my friend. Thanks buddy, you are awesome! - Mike "schplurg" Massei "After spending 5 years top on the minds of every player who's explored this site, I will finally send Two Worlds to the dust bin. Not by abandoning it, of course, but by finishing and releasing it. And PXO will thus ignore it as it has all the others..." --SK ************************************************************ The story. The year: 2137 The time barrier has been broken. Scientists and explorers can travel to the past, and glimpse into the future - a very uncertain future. Two years from now, the entire human race will be all but extinguished by an unknown assailant. This invading force has technology to match ours, which is unsettling because it was believed that we had the most advanced technology and weapons in the known universe. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that these marauders were actually human beings themselves, although somewhat primitive in appearance and dress. They appeared to belong to a people who, throughout history, have been known to possess only the most primitive of skills, and who were thought to now be extinct. Nevertheless, there they were, using advanced weapons to systematically annihilate the human race. It was unknown at the time where they acquired the technology to produce the vessels they flew. The last anybody ever heard of these people, they were few in numbers and living in underground caverns and palaces. For hundreds of years they were referred to as the "Ancients". They lived primitively - no electricity or computers, certainly no spacecraft or advanced weaponry. They lived in stone forts, much like the people of Earth's medieval era. Great stone castles and underground labyrinths lit with torches and gas lanterns. These Ancients were all but forgotten and left to live their own way. It was common belief that they had all died off in the mid 1800's. But there was no mistake - the Ancients were here, and they were anything but primitive. Then a group of scientists and strategists devised a clever plan. Since traveling backward in time had recently been made possible, it was theorized that a fleet of attack ships could be sent back a few hundred years and destroy the Ancients before they could ever develop their advanced technology. That way the future war could never take place. It was decided that the Ancients should be completely eradicated - not one was to be left alive. The future of Earth depended on this. Soon several "time-tunnels" were created which could send inanimate - as well as living - objects back in time. A force was put together to begin a series of attacks which would rid Earth of the few remaining Ancients forever. One question that had not yet been answered: "Where did the Ancients get the technology?". This was unsettling. Was there an unknown race that was somehow helping the Ancients? This question still begged to be answered as the first pilots entered the time tunnel to begin the attack. The answer would be made painfully clear soon enough... The year: 1850 The Ancient's knew nothing of the rest of the world until a strange flying vessel materialized near the surrounding rock walls and began terrorizing them. Soon more vessels appeared and the slaughter began. The Ancients suffered beneath the merciless guns of these deadly ships. Their primitive weapons were totally ineffective against the metal beasts. Their stone structures were turned into sand by the pounding guns and explosive blasts. Then, after many days of bombardment, a lone ship was seen crashing to the rocks. The pilot was found dead, but the craft was still in remarkably good shape. The Ancients took the vessel back to their fortress, piece by piece, and studied it. The technology was more astounding than anything they could have possibly imagined, but yet, somehow amazingly simple. The Ancients quickly mastered the new nano-technology and began designing and building their own machines in secret underground caverns. With nano-technology, the construction was virtually automated and the Ancients quickly developed a stockpile of craft and weapons. When they discovered the existence of the "time tunnels", they declared war on the invaders and quickly amassed an offensive force. The first scouts to pass through the time warp could still be heard on the communications equipment - could be heard dying. When the offensive force arrived they were in such awe at the world in which they had entered that they barely had time to see the enemy advancing upon them. The year: Unknown Commander Strickland "This is a war that spans time - battles being fought across two different eras almost 300 years apart from each other. They are also being fought simultaneously... communications are possible across time...comrades can be heard fighting and dying centuries away... The realization that the Ancients actually learned the technology from us is a heavy burden to bear. When we saw the future - the ancients destroying our forces and threatening our very existence - we assumed they had learned it from another intelligence. Had we not seen the future, we never would have attacked the Ancients, and they never would have acquired the technology in the first place. So how is it that the Ancients we saw in the future possessed the nano-technology? Was it fate that we would attack them eventually, unwittingly giving them the very technology that we feared they already had? We have dabbled into something that could tear the very fabric of the universe apart, not to mention my sanity. Trying to comprehend this will haunt me to my grave." CHOOSE YOUR SIDE! IF that plot didn't make you want to rush off and go play it IMMEDIATLY... I may have some interesting history and tips for you. Manual Powerups Roughly half of the powerups in the level are controlled by the level--server ops cannot ban them, or adjust their respawn times. Note, this is only on half of the powerups. The rest the servers may adjust as they see fit. The respawntime for these "manual" powerups is 15 seconds. Why are there level controlled powerups?? Well, to keep servers from banning some weapons... :) More importantly (and the real reason) is to keep certain powerups on certain sides of the level. You will never find an Omega on the Ancients side. Ever. Nor will you find a Napalm gun on Blue side. Ever. Complete listing of these level controlled powerups is as follows: Ancient's side Blue side ============== =========== Napalm Microwave Napalm fuel EMD Gun Plasma Cannon Omega Cannon Fusion Cannon 4 packs of Guided 4 Packs of Homing Smart Missiles Impact Mortars Cyclone Napalm Rockets Chaff packs Proxy mines Gunboys Yes, that's correct. Countermeasures are forced upon this level, and server ops can't do a thing about it. Don't panic yet! The respawn of these items is different than normal powerups, and they do not appear as... reliably as normal powerups. You can go quite a while and an Omega/Proxy/whatever will not appear. Conversly, you can have a powerup that seems to always be there... But, this only applies to the "manual" powerups. You can tell the differnce between a "manual" spawn point and a normal powerups spew by listening or watching the powerup appear. Normal powerups, well, you all know what they look and sound like when they spawn. But manual powerups do not make a noise, and slowly fade in. Any weapons not listed above are server controlled, and can be found on both sides of the level. There are no Megas or BlackSharks in this level, nor any more countermeasures beond what's mentioned above. Base Guardians Much hype, and much effort, was expended in these little automations. Blue side has George, a suped up swatter. The Ancients, Bob, a horribly agressive flame Sh--err, ras. :) Both can be temporarily disabled if you shoot them up enough. But that can sometimes be used against you... George was the first, placed in at a whim when I suddenly realized how to do team identification. (To a bot that is.) He initially used a rather slow, entirly stock-D.A.L.L.A.S script set to control targeting. He had a slow response time, and wasn't particuarly dangerous. First, I upgraded George himself, making him turn faster. That helped much, but not enough. I eventually developed custom script code to speed up the targeting process (with many bugs squashed along the way!), and finally modified his weapons to be Cyclone, (Mortars were fun, but caused too much damage to friendly forces!) and fire from all three launch tubes. Then, at the very LAST moment (me and schplurg were flying through, doing last checks for release...) we find that the Cyclone homes on friendly targets. D'oh! Back to frags... Nearly forgot... Origionally, he sat right over the flag, but later we moved him to the corner to make his target view easier. If you're clever, you can flare/shoot and George will tell you (by shooting in their direction) if any baddies are comming your way--his sensor range is a bit farther than those outer walls. Bob... Bob wasn't origionally Bob. He was known first as... "twitchy"... A horribly misguided attempt at a custom object based off of the demon-head in the Ancients spawn room. Ohh what a mess. He just sat there and his jaw twitched. Once I substituted that for the little flame ras, he became the real base guardian. His AI was always done second. George took the lead in development, and what worked (and often what didn't) would trickle down to Bob. Flame Ras's have almost always inspired me with fear--one of very few bots that do that. But, to further that feeling, I increased his stats as well, mainly the firing rate. Boy does that napalm hurt... The clever can lead, or gently push, him around the level, enabling him to guard other parts of your base (or not guard the flag!). He will not fly back to the flag room, but if he dies, he will respawn just under the flag. It should be noted that your homing weapons will not track either of these guardians--regardless of your team. Also, while the bots will not target or intentionally shoot their team members, should their shots hit you, they will cause damage. Remember that when planning your strategies. The Level Itself Not too much to say here, other than most of the geometry is done by schplurg. I did the warp boxes and their rooms. A more subtle difference in the bases, is that the lava will not hurt the Ancients. Go ahead, fly into it! Nothing. Try that while Blue... and oohhh it burns! Warp Gates The level was origionally linked through funny colored wind tunnels. But with my joining the project, teleporters replaced those. :) There are some archaic reminders of that history though... And can be seen in the tubes that still exist. Most of these gates are the teleporter-boxes. The switch in the door controls which warp point you will exit from, the little moniter displaying a simple picture of it. Once you've selected a satisfactory destination, enter the glowing ringy thingy to be teleported. Note, if the warp settings are changed before you de-materialize, you will feel their effects, and the warp cannot be aborted once started. You do not have to flip the switch to enter, if it's already where you want to go (or don't care about your destination). On Blue, there is a warp tube. It's controls are located in the little control console near the edge of the water. Energy Centers Each side has only one energy center. It is small, and right in the fray! Blue's is located inside the arch near the warp tube. the Ancients' is above the blue-ringed alter in one of the tubes leading up to their main lava chamber. Energy managment is very important here. Choose your weapons and tactice carefully. There is plenty of energy should you not waste it all on afterburner and EMD... Spawn rooms Simple stuff really. Blue's has powerups in theirs though. Fly through the translucent red forcefield when you are ready to exit. In the case of the Ancients' fancy spawn room (which is completly closed off from the rest of the level) you must enter the small warp rings above the blue alter in the lava to exit. You exit point will be determined randomly. Misc There's quakes and a rock you can push around in the Ancients side. Why... For effect I guess. I'm sure someone will find a good use for them though... I guess that's everything. I know this text file is wordy, but this level has been at the back of my mind for 5 years. With it finally done... The feeling is so strange... Thanks goes to the RIP and D3k clans for testing. Skyalmian for harrasing me to work on it--and providing help on a rather unusual portal bug. --Starkiller