                            Azure Dreams 2.0

                    By Jon Irons (jonirons@gmail.com)


                              INTRODUCTION

So, I know what you're thinking: "These maps are terrible!" I won't
disagree.  Many of them really are horrid. But, at the same time, I
thought you might want to see my very first netmaps. These twelve maps
range from God-awful to tastefully amature. You'll find a handful that
you might not mind playing, and then you'll get several that will find
their way into your nightmares. Still, I think there's a place for these
old beasts other than my moldy personal archives.

I began Azure Dreams in early 2006, which was a golden time of mapping
and netgaming. Red Spectrum was in stasis (I like to think I inspired
Ryoko to get moving on subsequent versions of his monstrously popular
pack); W'rkncacnter was doing some wonderful things both in mapping and
in Lua scripting, giving us the fantastic CTF script. Even though the
Pfhorums had just recovered from a recent crash and database erasure,
things were looking up. So I stumbled onto the mapping scene with three
oddball network levels and things took off from there.  By April, I was
ready to lay Azure Dreams down to rest, only to cook up Underworld, my
definitive level set, a month later. In Azure Dreams you can see some of
the tenets of my later work: low poly counts, disregard for general
opinion, fear of the more popular weapons, and other crazy stuff that
stood the netgamers on their heads just enough to give me cautiously
good ratings. Ammo and weapon counts were dangerously low, and I was
still having trouble grasping the room-over-room mechanics of Marathon
mapping. So don't expect anything fancy. In fact, don't expect anything
and we'll be much better off.

Version 2.0 appeared for a short while on my Marathon site as a
versionless release of the map, indicating that it was permanently
frozen. This is essentially that version, and even a certain bug in the
second level remains unfixed. It's a crappy level, anyway.


                            LEVEL MANIFEST

EMFH = Every Man For Himself
KOTH = King of the Hill
KTMWTB = Kill the Man with the Ball
* = This level is actually not bad.

Level 1: Treble Clef* (EMFH). 2-6 players. As my very first network
level, I think old Treble Clef is pretty damn good. Two years of net
experience lent an edge to my maps.  Clef definitely has flaws, but they
kind of serve to make the map more fun. It's an ugly thing, using only a
handful of sewage textures, and the wide-open zone is a bad place to be
in smaller games where people will notice you all alone.  You'll still
have fun as games get larger. As a side note, you may notice that I
remade this level for Underworld as Bigmouth (Rebel Clef). Now you know
what I was smoking (this map).

Level 2: Incandescent (EMFH, KOTH). 4-5 players. I took all the magic of
Treble Clef, distilled it into a steamy liqueur, and then drank that
liqueur until I puked out this mess. Incandescent is really an awful
level; I'd rate it as the pack's second-worst. That said, it's a sort of
neo-Waldo arena. There's an elevator here that will never become
un-stuck. Sorry.

Level 3: Melt* (EMFH). 2-4 players. Out of every level I've ever made,
Melt is probably the most interesting. I drew it carefully on some
notebook paper, noting the heights of all its regions, and then plopped
it onto Forge in one sitting. No one could have guessed that such an
oddly "perfect" map would emerge. The key to this baby is air time. Just
about every place is reachable from every other place, and you can run
circles around an opponent if you know the level well enough. I thought
it would be suitable for large games, and four players can have fun
here, but the real fun is in the duel. Two players who know the tricks
on this map will be able to enjoy themselves for hours. I promise. NOW
ENJOY THIS LEVEL BEFORE I KILL YOU.

Level 4: Original Dub* (EMFH). 4-8 players. When I got done with the
first three levels, I released the first version of the pack. Then I sat
back and wondered what I should do next. While I was wondering, I
thought I should at least make something, so I slapped together my first
big map in the form of Original Dub.  The level seems to have a cult
following; Ryoko has said that it is the best in the pack. I'm not sure
I believe that, but I won't gainsay such a nice opinion.  I thought it
was perfect for eight players, but then I realized that it had too
little ammunition to play well with a large group. At some point, I
pumped up the item placement in all levels of the pack, so let's hope
Dub got some loving at that time. I remade Original Dub as Sappy's Curry
(Unoriginal Dub) in Underworld.

Level 5: Why Not A Nautilus mk.III (EMFH) 2-4 players. So this was the
first map that gave me trouble. I completed two other versions of this
level, weapons, sounds, and all, before I got it "right." For such a
disgusting level to behold, it can be quite fun. It was a novel concept
that has no place in serious net games, so unbunch your panties and play
a few goofy games on this map some day.

Level 6: Re-Run* (EMFH, KOTH) 2-5 players. The first version of this map
had only SPNKRs and WSTEs. I was trying to appease BenUrban, who would
point out the flaws in my levels by running around with both shotguns
firing and criticizing me if he ever ran out of ammunition. I later came
to take these suggestions with a grain of salt, but only after I learned
that I wasn't totally wrong in avoiding the ridiculous power weapons in
certain levels. When I replaced the big guns with some weaker stuff
(assault rifle, SMG, and alien weapon; these would form the basis of
more than a few weak-gun maps by both Ryoko and me), the level started
to get fun. I was trying to forget Incandescent, so I made this a hill
level, and quite a fun one, too. The action is quick and bloody; the
hill serves mainly as a way to concentrate all the killing on a few
select polygons. Give it a try; it's not like you paid for this file,
anyway.

Level 7: The Test (EMFH) 2-4 players. At some point, I began to
appreciate some of the better entries into the Simplici7y contest: a
contest whose basis was maps made of seven or fewer polygons. The Test
was my first try at such a level. I thought it was good at the time. I
was wrong. The only really cool thing here is a glitch in Aleph One: if
you shoot at a guy running on the highest ledges of the level, you'll
notice that your shots will detonate somewhere in the raised polygon
(usually in mid-air before they hit your target). A stupid glitch for a
stupid map.

Level 8: Fox and Hound* (EMFH) 2-5 players. The 7-polygon madness
continued in Fox and Hound, but this time I got lucky and made something
that turned out fun.  The fusion pistol is pretty sweet here, especially
when some guy is running around with invincibility. Fusion dueling here
is an art form. Also, some computers (mainly just the one W'rkncacnter
uses to play Marathon) run really slowly on this map. No one will ever
know why.

Level 9: The Shaft (KTMWTB) 0 players. Really. This map is the worst
thing I've ever made. The only game I played here was hilariously bad,
with people running in circles, the ball bouncing 30 feet in the air,
and a really unbalanced final score. Play it only to laugh at it. Or to
cry.

Level 10: Whisper (EMFH, KOTH) 2-5 players. Whisper looks kind of cool,
but I soon realized it's very unbalanced. As a KOTH level, it's a dream
come true. If you hate playing good games. I guess team KOTH might have
some merit here, but the only real reason to see this map is because it
looks better than most of the others in Azure Dreams. This is another
glitchy map: if you stand close to the entrance of the hollowed-out
circle under the highest ledge, you might find that projectiles fired
from certain directions don't damage you.  My pal fired a rocket at me
once and it blew up on my face. I was still standing, so I killed him
with shotguns while he stood there swearing. It was on the first
exhibition of this level that a Japanese player proclaimed, "Irons is
god!"

Level 11: Roses Have Thorns* (EMFH) 4-8 players. Now this is what I'm
talking about. A large map that looks good and play decently? Finally!
It's far from perfect, and it would never fit into Underworld, but
there's still plenty of glory to be had on this level.

Level 12: Whisper (EMFH) 4-8 players. Whisper? More like whimper.
