Title : Ancient 1.3 Filename : ancient.zip + ancient_d2 version.zip for the doom2 version. Author : Jason Free (icemann) Email Address : hockland@hotmail.com Changes since previous version : Multiplayer bugs completely eliminated, respawn now works perfectly. Changes made to several areas of the level to make them look more realistic. Lift completely removed and bugs with the ladder were fixed. Poses added to most of the corpses in the level to make them look more realistic. There should now be no bugs whatsoever in neither single player or multiplayer. This will be the absolute last update unless I add logs and emails which is very unlikely. Description : A fast paced level, unlike many of the other levels currently out there in the ss2 level world so far. This level began as a remake of an old Doom2 level I made long ago of the same name, which I have suplied with this zip so that you may see the similarities as well as vast differences between the original and this version. Background : For those that like a background to a level keep reading. For those who don't care, skip this part. 2 years have passed since the events on the Von Brawn and Tau Ceti V. After the Von Brawn and Rickenbarker returned to Earth by an unknown individual, both ships were quarantined by Trioptimum forces who swiftly entered the ships and disposed of all alien forces encountered then moved in with science teams to recover the deceased creatures. All recovered specimens were sent to Semper Fi, a small research facility built within the "Ancient" ruins of an ancient unknown civilization for analysis. Unknown to the Trioptimum research unit was that the creatures or "Many" as they like to be called were not so dead as they appeared. Rather they had entered a state of hybernation and were only waiting for the right moment to strike. Three weeks later that moment came and the creatures of the many arose from their sleep and attacked the staff of Semper Fi. Within two hours the staff of Semper Fi were all but slaughtered or assimilated into the Many, and to make matters worse, shortly after the attack began Semper Fi`s security system "Xanatos" initiated quarantine procdures activating the facilities robotic security forces, with orders to shoot anything. Be it Alien or Human. You yourself being a scientist of the facility were one of the two survivors still alive who had made a mad dash amongst the chaos for one of the armouries near the entrance to the ruins. The only other survivor being your friend from the R&D division, John Grave had made the dash with you only to be cut down by rifle shells upon entering the armoury, Your only hope of survival now is to reach one of the ships just north of the cargo bay. But that means having to go through most of the base in the progress. Oh well, you only live once. Gameplay Hint : This map was designed with an emphasis on fast paced action so be fast on your toes, and search for every little item you can find. It just may save your life later on. Additional credits to : LGS for making the legendary games System Shock and System Shock 2 Without which you wouldn`t be playing this level. I`d also like to thank MrTrip for his help with the multiplayer aspects to the level and for his help with some other things he helped me with, with this level. * Installation / Play instructions * Firstly be sure to move both earth.mis and shock2.gam to a tempory folder of some sort. I`d recommend creating a folder such as "Backup" within your ss2 folder and placing the two files mentioned there. Once you`ve done that unzip all files except ancient_d2 version.zip into your ss2 directory / folder. For the level to work correctly you will need to make slight changes to the batch files (.bat) that come with this zip to reflect the correct name of main sshock2 file. In ancient.bat there is the line: shock2.exe If this is not the correct name for your main system shock 2 exe and it is something else (eg sshock2.exe) then simply rename "shock2.exe" to whatever your main file is called. * Construction * Levels : Based off the original "Ancient" that I created in 1995 for doom2. Which got bad reviews over at www.doomworld.com due to some misunderstandings over some on-purpose tricks I used to hide secret rooms (fake walls), but could have been seen as bugs by someone who didn`t know that it was supposed to be that way. Editors used : Dromed Known Bugs : None that I know of. But the level has only been played and tested on my computer so you may have gamma differences than on my computer which you can easily fix by upping your gamma levels. Other than that there shouldn`t be any bugs to speak of in it, as I`ve personally playtested it a kazillion and one times as it has grown piece by piece. However, after posting Ancient on ttlg (through the looking glass) forums, a few people reported that the one lift in this level, occasionly would disapear completely and be therefore completely un-useable. In this update I added a ladder on the side of the elevator shaft as a fix to this problem and also to add another choice on how to reach the top for those that like something with slightly more of a challenge to it :) Multiplayer Notes : Until recently I had had no chance to test Ancient in multiplayer due to problems with the damn multiplayer patch, but after finding a "workaround", finally got to test it out. The first thing I discovered was that inorder for all players to see themselves they must come from some other level previously (something to do with game engine I think). So if you wish to play multiplayer in Ancient (which I recommend you do so as its not that bad, and im saying that to you as a player and not as the editor of the level) then you will need to rename the level to medsci1.mis rather than earth.mis so that you will go through a level first before entering this one. Respawning works perfectly in this version so you should have no problems whatsoever in playing multiplayer with this level. * Copyright / Permissions * You are most welcome to distribute Ancient, aslong as you include it with this text file and the zip file of ancient doom2 version. I didn`t go to all this work so you could just claim it as your own :p. * Last Comments by the Author * I hope you like Ancient, considering the months I put into creating it. But above all else I created this level for myself as a test of how the level would look in dromed, but somewhere along the line turned the level into something completely different that I am quite pleased with, that is in many ways superior to the original in my opinion. Any cheques of large sums of money are most welcome. Happy gaming :)