Section 13 v9.0 [28/4/94]
- Jaron Ghani <jaz@ghani.demon.co.uk>

Hurrah! More stuff. Whee.

I gave up on Nyeh Kultourni (let alone spelling it correctly) when the truly scrumptious Pfhorte 1.0d13 came out and let me cut and paste and cut again. So ther running order is now: 

0 - Loading Chamber  #3 * 
1 - Processing
2 - Fusion Plant
3 - MedLab
4 - Hydroponics
5 - Hangar #19
6 - Coolant Recycling
7 - Yet More Coolant
8 - Lifesystems

*  (reinstated after I realised that the version in v7.0 was completely chewed and I had to dig out an old copy to replace it. It's still got a crap name) 

Bold means nooooooooo . (new, that is. Not, 'no'.)

Here are notes on each, in order of their creation.

 Notes on Loading Chamber #3 [written ~24/3/95]

Well, this is my first proper attempt at map creation using Phforte 1.0d3-4, Mia 0.8, and MME 1.0d6. Thanks to all you guys working on these projects, striving as ever for the Holy Grail of Marathon editing - easy polygon creation! Good luck. And, obviously, thanks to Bungie, Cool Company Extraordinaire. Woohoo.

This map took shape over a Friday night and Saturday morning. Excited by the prospect of CREATING MY OWN MAPS (sad I know), I chose to stay at home and crash my computer rather than go out and get drunk with my friends. Obviously.

It doesnt really have a theme, or a plot, or any real, planned strategic features. I just started with one room, crashed a few times, got it stable, created another, linked them, and repeated. I discovered quite a lot about a) the editors and their quirks, b) Fun and Safe side texture creation, c) and the effects of sleep deprivation on Marathon perception.

Hey, what's going on with that wall? Woo...everythings gone all bright and close-up! Trippy. AHHH! Out of my face, Phfor-scum-creature!

You get the idea.

Anyway, here it is, some of it doesnt make sense, some of it might crash (but probably not), some of it is probably very inefficient, but it was fun making and bombing around. I put in some aliens, some Bobs/Bettys/Barneys, and some weapons that are determined just to pop up while you're looking and not where you put them. Ah well.

I dont have the facilities to play big funky netgames, but this map might conceivably be enjoyable under such conditions (ie, 20 PowerMac 8110s and Ethernet up to the eyebrows - smug gits). But even if you dont play net, write to me and tell me it sucks. Or whatever constructive criticism springs to mind.


 Notes on Processing [written ~28/3/95]

Well, this level was begun on a Sunday morning at around 6:30am, when my friends and I returned from an all-night Alien triple at the local independent cinema (Tyneside, for those interested). Having turfed my suddenly bloodthirsty friends from the LC630, I set about sketching this level while in the after-effects of around 7 hours of adrenal stimulation. It was then finished on the following Monday, when I awoke at the goodly hour of 1:00pm and crawled, bleary-eyed, to the computer and to the new version of Phforte (1.0d5), and tidied up on Tuesday (today).

You should have seen the stuff I took out...REAL vacuum testing chambers, big funky platforms you can squish people with, ooh, loads of lovely stuff. Most of it made it in some form or another. I spent a lot of time (and crashes) developing my small but perfectly formed scenery skills, as in the lockers and stuff in Never Burn Money . Check out the (broken) Holo VR Unit to the far east of the map...Dig that static.


-Notes on Fusion Plant [written 1/4/95no, really]

I started off this level using Phforte 1.0d5, worked through d6, and finished it off with d7, Mia! 0.9 and MME 1.0d6a. Using the interior texture set meant no windows, but lots of funky glowing lava! I also went overboard on the ridiculously fast elevators, in trying to create a more violent and unfriendly level. It also feels more vertical in a way, with tall rooms and big height differences. I also figured out offsets a bit more, and used Phfortes default creation palette a lot.

Something Ive noticed about my style of map building: I tend to run out of platforms (limited to 32) before I cover very much ground. As a result, my maps tend to be much more small and densely built compared with, say, Underground or kill! kill! kill! (both very well constructed and impressive netmaps, available from amug.org's /pub/marathon directory). I guess I just like moving parts! I'm going to try spreading out a bit more. Eventually.

-Notes on Medlab and Hangar #19 [written 8/4/94]

MedLab was my attempt to put more wide open spaces into my maps, without running rapidly out of platforms. I succeeded to a certain extent, but I'd just like to say my locker-type things in the Lab #2 room to the right of the map are pretty cool still. Anyway. I also experimented with vacuum, high speed proximity sensing doors, and spiral staircases. Let me know what you think!

Hangar #19 is the map I have been trying to make for the past three weeks. Check out the bridges (ok, I cheated, but you have to, really), the building in the middle, uh, the other stuff in it. This is the first time I've run out of polygons (of which the limit is, I think , around 254) due to my over-zealous placement of staircases. I also fell foul of several nefarious attempts to convince me that there was a wall somewhere where there wasn't. It's a long story.

For both these new levels, I used Phforte 1.0d6, Mia 0.9, and MME 1.0d6a. I do have Phforte d7 and 8, but there seem to be some subtle things wrong (different?) with them and their handling of level creation and side texture type retention respectively. Even though the interface has been much improved (thanks Steve) I stuck with d6 for safety.

-Notes on Hydroponics and Recycling [written 16/4/94]

Please, don't hesitate to email me if you think my naming scheme is getting boring. Anyway, these two maps were done with a combination of Pfhortes 1.0d6, d10, and d11. And maybe d9, but that version gave me the willies (BTW, thanks for d11 Steve if you happen to be reading this. And next time, I'll check whether my computer is a PowerMac before downloading the PPC version - DOH!) So.

Hydroponics has a certain amount of Hangar #19 in its makeup, methinks...my favourite texture set is still this one (you'd never guess, would you? Having done all but two maps using it) and I was determined to put a bridge in, somewhere. Statutory big squishy elevators abound (with almost as many as in Fusion Plant), there's a pretty cool set of underground tunnels, a rather nice locker or two, and TOO MANY static panels (hint folks: don't try putting static on the floor OR the ceiling: Marathon don't like it one bit). Other than that, it's just a level. With a pretty crap name.

Recycling is probably called Coolant Recycling, but what with it reading as Recycling in Pfhorte d6, Coolant Recycling in d11 (I think), and <blank> in NK, I have no idea what it looks like while you're playing it. Ah well. It's still a crap name.

Anyway, I think this is the neatest level I've done, in terms of '90' neat (courtesy of Phforte's grid thang) and not in terms of 'really amazingly cool' neat. Still, if you think otherwise, pay me. ANYWAY. I think it's pretty neat the second way too actually...I spent at least 15 minutes bombing around slaughtering troopers and squishing things with other things. So, basically it's got a lot of cool stuff, some more cool than others...A big, fast, squishing pump thing (a la Shake Before Using) that you can actually get at, a big pool of lava with a few surprises, a large helping of squishy elevator thangs (with switches and without), um, overuse of Pfhorte's staircase function (I ran out of polygons again...bleah) and some other things that seemed cool at the time but may not seem quite that good in the cold light of day. Anyway, enjoy.
 
-Notes on Yet More Coolant and Lifesystems [written 28/4/94]

During the making of these two, I finally realised the error of my ways. The initially cool ability to add labels describing various parts of the map had meant I could, in all seriousness, call a pillar with a vaguely computery texture on it AI Subsector #DF-334 Activation Unit. Or some such nonsense.

Predictably, the attraction of this faded after a while when I could no longer think of new labels (Access tunnel T22424, etc, tends to get boring.) So I will instead litter my maps from now on with warnings, guides, and pointless comments. Look out for the first one in Lifesystems! There's a VERY nasty surprise in it, one which I might use again in other maps, so watch out.

Yet More Coolant was created while on forced holiday recovering from THAT injury. I decided to spurn the grid function in a quest for artistic freedom (a move quickly disregarded for the next map, when I realised this one ended up looking like..well, like a potato). I had an idea involving trenches, tunnels, and people running around on top. Difficult to explain. Anyway, this concept of immense subtlety was soon lost in the general enthusiasm and rush to bung in loads of stuff. Make of it what you will, I was feeling slightly (more?) unhinged while I was creating it.

Lifesystems started with another cool idea, long dark tunnels with regular lit patches that you could run along fast just to get that effect. Like in Defend THIS! Anyway, it grew, and I ended up with more stuff than tunnels (as in always the case). Never mind, I like Lifesystems a lot, but beware in netplay the intricacy might get you after a bit. Also the teleporter out into space (whoops!  I didn't mean to tell you that). Enjoy (maybe). Oooh! This was going to be the first ever crash-free map, but it did go through a bit of a phase when I was playing with the multipart choppy-airlock thing. Before that though, it behaved wonderfully, a tribute to Pfhorte d13's stability.

- Announcement to anyone who's still reading this

Fools! No, what I mean is, I think I'm beginning to repeat myself and start to get a little bored of aimless creation (opinions to jaz@ghani.demon.co.uk, as always). So, I'm getting involved with other projects and altering other aspectsof gameplay. Watch this space!

Thanks and acknowledgements

 Steve Israelson <steve_israelson@mindlink.net>, Dan Walkowski <walkowsk@taurus.apple.com>, and last but definitely not least Michael (Starman) Gaines <starman@intac.com> for serving Pfhor-heads everywhere above and beyond the call of duty with their incredible editors which are all now capable of polygon creation! Well done chaps! They all manage to use different methods so everyone can find their level, and while compatibility is still an issue <choke> it certainly makes life interesting using all three (=. Pfhorte 1.0d13, Mia 1.0b17 and MME 1.0d7 all available from amug.org either in /incoming or /pub/marathon/edit. Go get 'em! Special thanks to Steve for leading the field in a relaxed-but-fiendishly-rapid-development sort of way and giving us a a way of almost completely ignoring side texture setting. Woohoo...

 Tristan (Tris) Horn <thorn@sensemedia.net> for administrating amug.orgs /pub/marathon directories on a 2400 slip line (I think) and the Complete Marathon Collection Thingi at http://home.amug.org/~marathon/ and for his continuing resemblance to Eddie Furlong. Also his two faces on the #irc marathon page of Marathon Central (=. And also for being a jolly good chap and letting me put a page for distributing the Marathon Collaborative Map Project on amug (http://amug.org/~marathon/collab/), one of the things I'm helping to start up.

 Eric Bennett <ericb@psu.edu> for Object Placement Editor (latest version v1.3 available from amug), putting an acceptable face on 20 green hunters bearing down on you as you start a map (=. I used his program to stabilise the aliens and items in the maps.

 James (Green) Nabeel (Lantern) Hakim <jnh@umich.edu> for being needlessly nice to me in his documentation(= and for his stunning home page where you can find his map, Land of the Lantern! Also good luck to him in his exams.

 Claude Errera <errera@ese.ogi.edu> for http://www.ese.ogi.edu/errera.html and  http://amug.org/maps/, two incarnations of the best map collection on the net. The MultiMapPak v2 is available from there, and in it you can find three of the latest additions to Section 13 from v7.0, kindly included by Claude and Steve Wood. Thanks dudes!

Everyone else who responded to my uploads to amug: Steve Fenton, Curt Krone, Aiden Dysart, Hiram C Wilson, and someone called Cyberlurx@aol.com. Good one! And, of course, all on #marathon: Tris (again), Tribble (come back!), RabidJoe (contact me!), Wackadoo (I want to hear from you too), Sbas, SuperSpy, eMulder/jazg (don't ask), TomP, Polarwolf, DayTrip, Chappy, Slurpee, and everyone else wrestling with Too-Many-Polygons-On-Screen, Blank-Side-Texture, Floating-Line, and the other demons of map editing that befall us all. You're all wonderful, luvvies, thank you. I couldn't have done it without you! Mwah, mwah, exit stage left beaming.

Write to me if you want, I don't care anymore (=. I think I'm delirious...or maybe it's just this file is getting too big to cope with. 

Jaron (jazg) Ghani <jaz@ghani.demon.co.uk>

ANNOUNCEMENT:
Watch out for the Son of Collaborative Map coming to http://amug.org/~marathon/collab/ very soon! Keep the faith, keep splatting things.
