================================================================ Title : Station Zebo Filename : zebo.zip Author : Travis Almand Email Address : talmand@mindspring.com Description : Four level unit for Quake2 Additional Credits to : id Software www.idsoftware.com Yahn Brenier for BSP bsphq.telefragged.com Shane 'Fishman' Sherman for rust www.planetquake.com/rust/ Zero Gravity Entertainment www.zerogravity.com.au ================================================================ Level Name : Station Zebo -Storage (zebo1.bsp) -Water (zebo2.bsp) -Waste (zebo3.bsp) -Control (zebo4.bsp) Single Player : Yes Cooperative : No Deathmatch : No Difficulty Settings : Yes New Sounds : No New Graphics : No Demos Replaced : None Editor(s) used : BSP .90b Installation Unzip the the files and place them into your maps directory under the quake2 directory. Select your skill by typing in skill x (x being 0,1,2) in the console. Then type in "map zebo1" which will start the unit. You exit the unit into base1, the starting map for quake2. Story so far... (this is long by the way ;) The war on the Strogg homeworld has gone well. We have established a foothold on the outskirts of the main battleline and construction of bases have begun. These buildings are built using Strogg material and/or the old buildings themselves. Station Zebo is an example of this. We "borrowed" four buildings from the Strogg and converted them to house a fission reactor. Why use fission instead of the safer fusion reactors you ask? Simple, if need be we could destroy it and radiate the Strogg if they happen to retake the site. Well, unfortunately the enemy have retaken the site and the staff were unable to set the self-destruct sequence. But they were able to set some security protocols into place and the enemy does not have complete control of the station. Also, the self-destruct option is no longer available. Here is your mission, the Strogg have started using the reactor for their own needs. This is bad, the reactor must be taken offline at all costs. This means if necessary some marine must enter the reactor room and destroy the main node to bring the whole thing down. This in turn would radiate the room and everything in it, a blast door would shut to keep the rest of the station safe from radiation. This is the last option. Fortunately our experts think that the computer system is still online and the shut down sequence would still work. But this also means fighting your way into the heart of the station to start the sequence. Once the sequence is started the computer system will allow you access to the next point to complete the process. Once the whole system is shut down your mission will be completed and you can return. You will enter the station through the storage section which also contains the transportation system which will also allow you to leave. The storage section has access points to both the water and waste sections. These two sections have access to the control section. This means that Station Zebo makes a circle with all the sections connected with hallways. We at this time do not how the Strogg gained entry, although they do seem to have the ability to appear in the most uncomfortable locations. Here is the sequence to shut down the system. Inside the control section are two locations that turn off the main water and waste circulation systems. Then you are free to return to either the water or waste section to disable the primary and secondary backup systems. This then must be repeated for the other section. Once a section is shut down one of two electromagnetic generators can be brought online. Once both of these generators are online the reactor is taken offline. The two generators will supply enough energy to keep the station operational but not enough for any outside use. This in turn will render the station useless to the Strogg. But be warned, the reactor may be offline but it is still active and can be destroyed. Be careful of gunfire within the reactor room! This is your mission, completion is necessary for success! Known Bugs (this happens on my machine, your mileage may vary) It seems that for some reason restoring your game with the automatic save function doesn't always quite work right. Might want to make your own saves instead of relying on the auto one. If you leave one level with a door open and later return to that level the door will be not be closed all the way. It doesn't screw up the game it just looks weird, once the door opens it goes back to normal. Author's Notes This unit began as a little experiment of mine in multi-level missions. The idea was to create levels that entailed one mission that required the player to go back and forth between the different levels a number of times. It is possible to play out these levels in different ways so that each game will play a tad bit different. But the only real difference will be how many monsters you encounter as you run through the levels. But it does add a bit of replay value to the unit. I was originally going to have dm play with the levels but after a playtest on zebo1 I decided that it wasn't worth it. The way the levels are designed they make decent single player levels but suck at dm play. Maybe I'll paste all four levels into one big dm only level, we'll see. In my opinion these levels get a little boring on the lower difficulty settings because you do a lot of running around and only on hard difficulty do you fight most of the time throughout all four levels. But I had to put the difficulty settings in don't you know :) You'll notice that each level is pretty much totally different than the others. This is intentional, I wanted to try to give each level it's own feel to make it easier for the player to realize where they were without having to check the help computer. Plus the water and waste sections was another experiment to see if one could alter the mood of a level by simply retexturing and relighting to make it feel like a totally different level. I believe it worked but the machinery gives it away since I didn't design unique machinery for each level. I learned a lot from this little experiment of mine. Some things I'd do different but it turned out pretty good. Thank God for graph paper! * Legal Stuff * Well, this is easy, if you want to do something with it other than play it or distribute it (for free of course), then you have to ask. Otherwise don't do it unless you ask. If you have to think about it before doing it, then you probably should ask :) Hints These levels make a circle, so there are several different ways to go about completing the tasks necessary to complete the mission. If you have problems getting through a certain point, you might try going ALL the way around and attack it from the other side. You won't find stuff lying around quite as much in the quake2 levels. You must make decisions whether to pick up that health pack because you might need it on your way back. The same with ammo which the monsters drop for you instead of just finding them laying about. Conserve your ammo, if you only need 10 bullets to fill up then don't take a bullet box since it holds 50 bullets. There are lots of doors, use them to hide in gunfights. Sometimes you can make a monster in its own stupidity kill itself either from friendly fire or walking into the lasers (which you'll see what I mean). It's kinda funny to see them walk into the lasers in a sick sorta way. On the hard difficulty you might want to clear out the water and waste sections before you complete the sequences to make things easier when getting out.