This homepage has the latest version of Underground, information on what will come next, and sometimes development versions of the next Underground.
I will continue to update this site at least once a day unless it's a weekend or some other day that I really don't have the time to work on it.
http://mercury.sfsu.edu/~tsamson/
-About Underground
Underground is a Marathon Map designed for 3 to 8 player network games. Believe it or not it's actually a very fun map one player too.
Instead of having me discribe everything about the map, just play it. If you have any questions about it feel free to email me.
-Underground's Development
I started out by imagining one room, then I drew that room in a MacDrawPro file and added to it each day. I have long since taken that original room out and filled it's space in with other stuff, but that room was what got me to start working on the map.
I continued to work on the map for about a month before the first map creator was released, and ever since Pfhorte 1.0d2 has been available, I've been putting my design little by little into a Marathon map file.
-Known Problems
Unlike a few of the other new maps out there, Underground will not crash, and has absolutely no bugs. But if you do happen to find one, I'd like to know. :-)
-Changes Since Underground 4/2
I put in a new bridge intersection.
I put in a window to space on the other side of that "space hallway."
In the open space that you see out of the space hallway and the light switch room I fixed the polygon so that there is no longer any 5D space. This problem would definitely not affect any network games, but I still considered it a problem that needed to be fixed.
I lowered the entrance to the secret tunnel that came out in the window room so that it is now possible to jump back into.
I changed a few textures on some walls and celings that didn't seem to fit in.
And I changed some polygons to "monster impassable" which I forgot to do in 4/2. So if you get lucky you might see a hunter roaming around in outer space.
-Changes Since Underground Final
I've deleted some parts of the map that I didn't like very much, and I put in a new room and some other stuff instead.
Other things that are new with 4/2 is a refueling terminal, a secret tunnel under the map, a secret room with invisibility (I might take this out), a transporter, and an open area in space you can look into and see some parts of the ship's exterior, and even in another window across the opening.
The map is also a real network map, and I fixed the bug that allowed the platform to be stopped and started at any time.
If there are any other things I should fix, please let me know.
-Changes Since 3/28
I made it a real network level. Have fun!
-Changes Since 3/26
I added in the Donut Room, which connects 4 of what used to be dead ends.
I put in a platform, one of which is switch controled.
I decreased the number of aliens, making it much easier and more suitable for network games.
I added in Night Vision, which should appear very infrequently. You just have to find out where it appears.
And there's probably some other stuff that I forgot about.
-Changes Since First Underground Release
This is the first version to have weapons and aliens in it. I haven't tested it enough to make sure that the aliens and weapons appear at the frequency they should, so there may be too few or way too many objects at once. So be careful with Total Carnage. :-)
I've put in some more of the map.
I've added in 7 more starting places, so that in network games you won't all start in the same place. When I put in the rest of the map I may move some of the starting places to the new rooms.
I've put in my very first switch! And it works too!
I put in a nice ledge to shoot the SSM from. This was in 3/25 but I'm mentioning it because some of you might have missed it.
And I've also played with the lighting again.
-Things to Come
Now that I'm done with Underground I've decided to take a break and relax for a while. Maybe now I can catch up on all the schoolwork I should have done in the first place.
I'm still not completely satisfied with Underground, but I haven't decided whether or not I'm going to work on it any more. I still haven't decided if I want to remove the invisibility, or add invincibility, and I'm also not satisfied with the object placement the way it is now. And there's one part of the map I'd like to change slightly, but I'm not sure if it's worth it now that Underground has already been included in the first MapPak.
If I do decide to change something in my map, I'll put the newest version on this homepage, but I won't go out and advertize the new version's existance.
-About Net Physics Model
Net Physics Model was created by petera@slip.net. He's been continuously improving it since sometime in early February, and has probably gotten it to be as good as he's going to get it.
The most important thing to mention about this physics model is that all aliens are against each other. We think that this is much more fun than having everyone against you. This makes it a lot more fun when you don't have that many players.
Read the ReadMe that came with the Physics Model for more information.
-Comments
Send all comments and questions to tsamson@sfsu.edu.
-Credits
Thanks to Bungie for Marathon, the best Mac game ever made.
Steve Israelson for Pfhorte, the best and ONLY map creator.
Dan Walkowski (walkowsk@taurus.apple.com) for MIA, the program I used to edit Underground and fix bugs.
Eric Bennett (ericb@psu.edu) for OPE, the program I used to add aliens and weapons to Underground.
Michael E. Gaines (starman@intac.com) for MME, the editor I used to make Underground a real network map.
Peter Arzhintar (petera@slip.net) for his great physics model.
Jeng Jia Hung (jjhung@crl.com) for forcing me to stay up late working on my map, and for getting me started on my homepage.
And all the IRC people in #marathon for their encouragement and for helping me fix some problems. Thanks guys!
