Thanks for downloading this map, and thanks for reading this file. Hope you like the level.
Although I've played every Marathon since the original, this level marks my debut as a mapmaker. This is about the fourth map I've started since acquiring Forge, and the first map I have ever released. I'm releasing it now to get some general feedback. Comments from players and map designers on the construction, playability, storyline, and so forth will be greatly appreciated.
The map uses over 1000 polys, but I know it's hardly "Aye Mak Sicur." I was learning Forge as I went along and I think I only really started learning to be efficient about two thirds of the way through the map design. In future maps I should be able to do more with less.
This level will ultimately be part of a larger solo scenario (some hints about that scenario are already in the terminals on this level). Right now, I'm expecting "The King is Dead" to be the fourth of six total levels in the scenario. Depending on the reaction I get to this level, I might release another of the levels individually in advance of the full scenario. I'm maintaining a web site with a brief description of the scenario and a few pictures at http://www.mnsinc.com/tarmstro/infinity.html. Stop by if you like, although it's still pretty rudimentary. (I'll try to post some pictures from "Uptown" when I've got things looking the way I want them; basically that is a city level and I'm trying to duplicate the architecture of some well-known buildings in Washington, D.C., where I live.)
I intentionally did not embed a physics model in this map, so you can play it using whatever model you like. This was one of the best aspects of M2 and I'm sorry to see it go in most Infinity maps; if the mapmaker embedded a physics model in the map you, the player, cannot override it. I wish more mapmakers would leave the choice of physics model up to the player. (Having said that, I will definitely have to embed a model in at least one of my final scenario levels because some of the Bobs and some of the aliens are switching sides.)
Acknowledgements and Thanks
---------------------------
This is plainly a map created by a beginner and I don't mean to imply otherwise by naming several veteran mapmakers whose work has influenced me; I know I'm not operating in their league but wanted to acknowledge the inspiration nevertheless.
A lot of what are now common features in Marathon maps were invented by RANDALL "FRIGIDMAN" SHAW, and his levels (especially Nor'Korh; I hadn't yet played Evil while I was working on this map) were influential to me. My biggest Nor'Korh ripoff isn't in this map; it's coming up in the scenario level I'm currently calling "Uptown Cyborg Wilding," but there are still a few things in this map for which I can't take credit. I also figured out how to make the chapter screen work by looking at Nor'Korh.
I played JAMES HASTINGS-TREW's Megiddo Game about halfway through designing this level and was amazed. The room with the two "lava spigots" is something of a ripoff of the big room in Megiddo that fills slowly with sewage. I liked the idea but wanted to use it to toast some Troopers, so that's what I did.
MIKE TRINDER's Gemini Station stuck with me long after I was done playing it and was a source of creative inspiration, as was GRAG's original DMMC Scenario Preview. Right now my "Uptown" map features rather direct ripoffs from (let's call them "tributes to") each of these great maps, but it'll be at least a few more weeks before you get to see that.
Thanks to STEVE CAMPBELL, operator of the Marathon HyperArchive Midwest, for advice on screen caps for the terminals. The terminal guide by T. BELTON was essential, too; I made the terminals with BBEdit. Might try Hex for subsequent levels.
