HappyHappyCarnageCarnage 1.1
 by Aaron Sommer (Karnag), creator of The Marathon Hotlist

 http://www.herringn.com/personal/aaron/marathon/hotlist.html

A pretty simple Arena variant for up to four players. Each person starts off in an alcove with one random weapon (and a pistol, of course), and then leaps down to the killing grounds below for carnage. 

When you die, you reappear in another (maybe) alcove, with a different (maybe) weapon (Marathon doesn't seem to randomize all that well. For example, they person gathering usually gets the TOZT...).

There is one major trick- a very narrow, completley dark ledge circles the arena. Agile players can land on it and snipe at the poor fools down below. Bear in mind, of course, that you only have the ammo in the weapon (did I forget to mention that?), so it shouldn't be that unbalancing.

Anyways, back to the Ammo thing.

While the players and weapons appear up in the alcoves, all the ammo is down in the killing zone. Call it a limitation on the sniping.... After you jump down, you've got all the ammo you could ever want, and even another .44, but the only way back up to the ledge is via SPNKR Express. 

A few things to remember:
You only have Two weapons at a time- the .44 and whatever was in the room you appeared in. You may be able to get a second .44 in the killing ground... but that's all. 

If you suddenly begin taking hits and can't see anyone else on the floor, they're up on the ledge. move a lot, and look for the flash when they fire. They'll run out of ammo eventually.

You are absolutley safe in the alcove. The only thing that could hurt you is another player randomly appearing in the room with you (really unlikely)... and even if he does, you've already grabbed the weapon, right?

It is just barely possible to shoot the doorway of the alcove from the floor. The downside is, you're ignoring everything else on the floor.

Still poking at the level... eventually, I'll add 4 more alcoves, and make it compatible with 8-way carnage (gonna have to duplicate weapons, oh, well...). Also up for consideration-

1) Make the central shaft a Crusher, timed just right for a mad dash through... barely.
2) A light circling the darkened ledge. If the sniper wants to stay invisible, he's gonna have to move a bit, and on a ledge _that_ narrow, he's probably gonna fall off....
3) Vaccum. Basically, you are garunteed to die eventually. Depends on the feedback- if one weapon is especially overpowering, I may do this to force circulation. I figure it's pretty unlikely, tho. 
4) Make the ledge teleporters. If you want to stay up there, you've got to keep moving. And sniping while you're moving on a very narrow ledge is a bit tricky...

Send comments, suggestions, questions, and advice to aaron_sommer@herringn.com. Of, if you really want to get to know me, hit my Homepage at http://www.herringn.com/personal/aaron/home.html, or my Marathon page at http://www.herringn.com/personal/aaron/marathon/hotlist.html. If there's a more recent version of HHCC, that's where it'll be.

permission to distribute HappyHappyCarnageCarnage granted so long as this unchanged Readme is included. 

1.1 fixes- a problem with weapon placement popped up- a person would appear in an alcove someone had already taken the weapon from. Solution: put more weapons in the alcove and tell people not to play on Total Carnage, ensuring that there is always at least one weapon in the alcove.