넬컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴커� 납� I O M I N E S 납� 냅컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴켸� DESCENT ][ MISSION CREATED BY S P I N E R (aka Robert Walker) Comments, praises, flames: spiner@gldstone.com This mission was created with Descent Mission Builder II and is designed for anarchy, team anarchy, capture-the-flag, hoard, and team hoard play. This mission will NOT work with cooperative play, as there are NO startup positions for coop players. I designed the mission to provide a gradual buildup of weaponry; there aren't really any hefty weapons in the first level, then as you progress you start getting better weapons. I did this since, although I do enjoy a good nukefest, any loser can waste his opponent with an earthshaker. So the first couple of levels will be more of a test in dogfighting, skill, accuracy, and creativity. I DID, however, include smart missiles and mines in level 1, since they encourage creative mayhem. :) Of course, I have by no means neglected those of us who love to grind our enemies into copious radioactive particles. By level four there should be a fair amount of heavy weaponry to make you nuke-meisters happy (including me). A couple of hints: on each level, there is a Greek letter sign (� for level alpha, � for level beta, etc.) When you find one, look around carefully. Somewhere near there is a nice little secret... Explore the levels in single-player mode and use your automap a lot; it can show you a few interesting things... Let's just say I'm quite a fan of illusionary walls... If you'd rather just know all the secrets without finding them yourself, you can read about them further on in this document. Here is some information about each level. Each level description has three sections, an info section (just basic info about the level), a contents section (lists the contents of the mine), and a secrets section (tells you all about the nifty little secrets and tricks; don't read 'em if you don't want spoilers). 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � � � 납ALPHA LEVEL납 � � � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� 컴� INFO 쳐� Originally, the four startup rooms with the center columns were cone-shaped, but since this screwed up autoleveling and my little brother complained to no end about it, I changed them to your typical "donut" rooms. Two of the four rooms contain the flag goals. There's a neat little window in the underwater cavern that's too small to fly through, but plenty big for lobbing some missles! ;-) I've even put some in there for you to play with. Oh, and don't worry about the force fields... they go down by themselves. :) 컴� CONTENTS 쳐� Primary weapons: 8 lasers 1 vulcan cannon 1 quad laser 1 spreadfire cannon Secondary weapons: 4 concussion missles 4 homing missiles 4 smart mines 1 smart missile Other stuff: 3 shield boosts/1 shield boost & 2 flags 2 vulcan ammo 1 shield converter 1 afterburner 컴� SECRETS 쳐� In the room just before the reactor and just after the Greek letter sign, there's a mean, nasty, vicious little trap. That floating light marks the trap's switch. It's behind plexiglass; to get to it, go directly under the ceiling light and strafe down into the secret tunnel. Follow it out and you will end up on the other side of the plexiglass. Face the entrance and wait. When some poor fool comes in and moves directly under the ceiling light, fly backwards and run over the switch. A force field will appear around your soon-to-be-thorked enemy. He'll bounce around in there until he dies. When he does, run over the switch again to shut off the force field. Then go back through the secret tunnel to get his goodies! If you get trapped in the force field, strafe downward. You'll enter the secret tunnel (although you'll have taken quite a pounding). If you don't want to go through that area and risk getting trapped in the force field, you can go around by going to the water entrance area where the spreadfire cannon is located. As you enter it, there's an illusionary wall to your left, which leads to a tunnel that drops you off right near the reactor. In the floating lava cube room, the ceiling right above the lava cube has an illusionary wall hiding a secret area where you can take pot shots at people who enter the room. There's even a vulcan cannon and 2 ammo powerups for that purpose. A neat little trick here is to grab the smart mines in front of the recharge station but leave the smart missile floating there for bait. ;) Plant a smart mine in the recharge station, hugging the lower inside wall of the entrance, then back up into the potshot area. Train your vulcan cannon on the mine and wait. When someone goes for the smart missile, wait until he gets inside, then shoot the mine and watch him die. 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴커 � � � 납BETA LEVEL납 � � � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴켸 컴� INFO 쳐� I'm particularly proud of the observation tower in the dogfighting room on this level. (Man, was that a lot of work!) You can get into it through an underground tunnel that connects to either side of the room. The tunnel will let you go through the tower's steel column to the door that leads into the observation room. That door will lock on the outside when you go through, so that no one can come in; while you're watching the nice battles from the observation tower, you are completely safe. (well, ALMOST completely safe...) As you leave the observation tower, the door is unlocked for the next spectator to come in and enjoy the view. I'm also very proud of the fountain room, although it didn't take half as long as the observation tower. I didn't think it would turn out as well as it did, so I was pleasantly surprised at now nice it looked. 컴� CONTENTS 쳐� Primary weapons: 1 plasma cannon Secondary weapons: 1 smart missile 1 mega missile 4 homing missiles 4 guided missiles Other stuff: 2 energy boosts 3 shield boosts/1 shield boost & 2 flags 1 ammo rack 컴� SECRETS 쳐� I said the tower was almost completely safe; here's why I said "almost". If some whimpy little snot refuses to leave the safety of the observation tower, there's a way you can get 'im. Go blow the reactor. Once you've blown it, a secret door will open on the wall that was to your right when you first entered the room, revealing a control panel. Blow that panel, quick! A force field will appear to block the wimp's escape, forcing him to be blown up with the mine! Another nasty little trick involves the energy center, which branches off of the fountain room: | /-------\ | /--/ |--+ +--| \--\ | | | | | 4 | | /-- |---| |---|--\ | | | \---------/ | | | | | | | \----------------/ | | 1-> | 2 | <-3 | \----------------------/ Whenever someone enters the energy center at point (1), a grate appears behind him/her, blocking the way back and forcing them to come out the other side of the tunnel (4). As the player passes through the energy center (2), the light turns off at the tunnel's exit (4). Upon leaving the energy center, another grating blocks his way back into it (3), and the first grate (1) disappears. Just before arriving at the tunnel exit (4), the light there turns on again. (It's a lot less complicated than it sounds... just try it.) Now for the way to exploit this little system. If you're flying along and you see the light off at the tunnel exit (4), center your crosshairs on that tunnel. When the light turns on, that means that someone is about to come out, so fire your missiles! By the way, behind the falling water of the fountain are some nice little goodies, specifically, a smart missile and a plasma cannon. The Greek letter sign is an illusionary wall, hiding a mega missile. If you're the type that likes to hunt around for weapons instead of immediately getting into a dogfight, there's a way around the main dogfighting room (the observation tower room). If you start from the tunnel opposite the fountain room entrance, strafe down as you go through the tunnel leading to the tower room. You'll end up inside a long bypass tunnel. For the other starting hub (the one that enters the tower room on the same side as the fountain room entrance), the bypass is directly to your right when you have the sign that says "THE END IS NEAR" against your back. 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � � � 납GAMMA LEVEL납 � � � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� 컴� INFO 쳐� The levels I create tend to be symmetrical in design and weapon placement. I don't think anyone should be at a disadvantage just because they were spawned in a spot with few weapons. However, I made an exception in this case, and I was pleased with the results. Since a large percentage of the level is covered in lava, I've put in more shield boosts than normal to compensate. I did my best to have a lot of interconnectivity between the rooms, since I generally dislike having many rooms with only one way to get in. 컴� CONTENTS 쳐� Primary weapons: Secondary weapons: Other stuff: 컴� SECRETS 쳐� The Greek letter sign is located in the light ring tunnel that's behind a door in the lava drainage room (the one with the lavafall column in the middle). The sign is an illusionary wall leading to an underground lava chamber holding a fusion cannon... except that it's on the other side of that darn grating. How do you get it? If you examine the walls on the other side, you'll see a switch. Blow it out, then go back out the way you came. Go around the cycling light tunnel to the door and open it. You'll see that the floor is now opened into a tunnel that leads to the other side of that grating. After getting it and going back out, the floor will close behind you. Be sure that nobody else comes in and and then leaves before you. The floor will rematerialize and you'll be stuck down there... not good! Make sure to slide all the way up to the ceiling in the lava river room (the one with the "sidewalks" on each side of the lava). There's a phoenix cannon up there. There's a small room with a bunch of force fields with goodies behind them. Examine the walls behind the force fields carefully, and you will notice that one of them is angled at 45 degrees. Shoot the wall with the phoenix cannon (you DID get it up on the lava shelf, didn't you?). The shots will bounce around the corner and hit a switch, deactivating the force fields. You may have to make several attempts; make sure you hit the wall squarely so the shots will bounce 90 degrees. Also try not to hit the force field and fry yourself... that's generally not good for one's health... ;) Don't miss the mega; it's located in the energy center above the lava tank. There's a horizontal rectangular column in the energy center; go around it to find the mega. The reactor is visible in the rotating plasma room, but it's behind plexiglass... so how do you get at it? Position yourself directly in front of the reactor, with your back to it. Slide up to the ceiling and fire. The answer will present itself... 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � � � 납DELTA LEVEL납 � � � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� 컴� INFO 쳐� I had originally wanted to have the players inside a spaceship for this level. I even had made these cool windows with a parallaxing starfield outside them. However, in testing it out after having made a small portion of the ship, I discovered that powerups rematerialized on the other side of the windows, where you couldn't get at them. So I trashed that idea and made the current level. I probably will make that spaceship for a single-player level, so I won't have that powerup respawn problem. I made this level a lot darker than the others... it should make for lots of skulking mayhem... ;) And by now, there should be a fairly hefty weapons loadout. 컴� CONTENTS 쳐� Primary weapons: Secondary weapons: Other stuff: 컴� SECRETS 쳐� There are two earthshaker missiles in this level. One you can get to by going to the curved water tunnel, going underwater, and moving until you are squarely facing the Greek delta sign. Then slide up. The other one is at the bottom of the long reactor shaft. (a small homage to the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" warp core) There are two ways to get the omega cannon: the first is easy but requires the unsuspecting help onf another player. The second is tricky but can be done alone. The omega cannon is located at the end of a very long, wide, dark tunnel. It's behind a locked door that opens when you enter from the other end. Even with the afterburner, you don't have enough time to get to it. The first way that you can get it is just sit by the locked door and wait. When someone else comes in, they'll trigger the door, and you can waltz right in and get it. The second way is to shoot the entrance door open and fly through WITHOUT THE AFTERBURNER. Count out three seconds after passing through the door, then fire off an earthshaker missile. (You can do it with a smart missile, too, but the timing will probably be different). Now afterburn toward the door. The earthshaker will slip in the door just as it closes, detonate on the back wall, and reopen the door for you. To get the invulnerability powerup, get the nearby guided missiles, then face the grating and fire a guided missile through it. Guide the missile through the long circular tunnel until it hits the locked door from the other side, thus opening for you. Go through the opened door and around the tunnel to get the invulnerability powerup. The grating in front of you will disappear, so you don't have to waste those 30 precious seconds of power on going all the way back. NOTE: You may want to slide your ship up or sideways while guiding the missile in order to avoid taking blast radius from it. Of course, if someone finds you while you're busy steering the thing, the blast radius is the least of your problems... A fiendish way to end the mission: after the reactor's been blown, head to the exit, and you'll see a control panel inside the exit tunnel. Blow it out, and you'll lock the exit away from everyone else!