Topic: Swansong - Azure CATacombs

[Darkflamewolf]

This level was a joint venture between Sirius and I. I made the overall design structure and weapon load-out and basic texture decisions. Sirius then swooped in and custom-fitted the level to Descent 3 textures and made it look nice and pretty based upon the original texture decisions. There are two sets of hogs included in the zip file, one with the level with your standard 'set' of MP weapons with no real unfair standouts. The second hog has a brand new HAM file included inside that will only grant new weapons inside the level itself and no others. As a result, two Spreads were replaced with Helix, Three Plasmas were replaced with Phoenix, 3 Merc Missile packs were replaced with Concussion Packs, and one more Mega was added to the weapon specific version. Here is a run down of the weapon changes:
- Vulcan Cannon - Slightly slower in speed but visible shards now, uses less ammo but deals a little more damage.
- Gauss Cannon - More like a Mass Driver, it sucks up a huge chunk of ammo to shoot one shot every 2-3 seconds, but one shot is usually all you need to make the kill, aim well!
- Spreadfire Cannon - Changes to explosive energy-based missiles with some splash damage upon impact.
- Helix Cannon - Close-range flamethrower. Sucks energy like a parasite, but might be just the thing in close quarters to kill an enemy fast!
- Plasma Cannon - More like an EMD gun which homes in on all targets. The only downside? Each shots is extremely weak in power and sucks up energy.
- Phoenix Cannon - Faster, bouncier, more damage shots.
- Fusion Cannon - The Ultimate returns! Now with homing capabilities! Dodge this!
- Concussion Missiles - You can fire two at a time now.
- Flash Missiles - You can fire two at a time now.
- Homing Missiles - Less homing, but faster speed.
- Guided Missiles - Basically a guided smart, miss the target? That's fine, the homing blobs will hopefully do the job instead!
- Mercury Missiles - Upon impact, release randomly spreading concussion missiles, sort of like a Frag Missile.
- Smart Missile - Less homing qualities, but more damaging.
- Mega Missile - Like a Cyclone missile, its slow and ineffective at first, but has a nice blast radius and releases several homing missiles upon destruction.
- Earthshaker Missile - Impact Nuke, will kill anything within LOS, including you.
So your choice which version you want to try and which you'll end up liking! I fear this may be the last level I'll create for a long while. So hopefully people like it. I worked real hard on it to make sure it flows smoothly and accomodates a lot of players! Enjoy everyone!

http://www.enspiar.com/dmdb/viewMission.php?id=441

[Kaiaatzl]

Sounds like the Lost Levels weapons, with only a few differences.

[Darkflamewolf]

Yes, there is a few differences, indeed. But its mainly the same weapons from Lost Levels. However, as it stands there are some bugs right now and me and Trent Hawkins are working on fixing them prior to an update.

[Scyphi]

Interesting, looks like it's got a nice blend of a D3/D2 feel to it.

[karx-elf-erx]

This is an extraordinarily well designed and executed level! Some of the best stuff I've ever seen.

[Darkflamewolf]

Thanks for the comments guys! So far, Trent and I narrowed it down to the new Spreadfire and Plasma Cannon not doing any damage. All other weapons seem to be working fine. We've tried a lot of things and nothing is working. I've consulted Pumo and Zico and I'm awaiting word back from them. If all else fails, for the Azurewpn.hog, I might have to replace all spreads with Helix and all Plasma with Phoenix if we can't get the new spread/plasma to work properly.

EDIT:
For those who downloaded it once and like the new weapons, redownload again. All new weapons work fine now. Spread and Plasma have been fixed.

[Darkflamewolf]

I'm surprised no one has called me out yet on the original inspiration for this level. I figured someone would have recognized it! (Ryujin, Fiend, Sirius, Diedel, I know you know it, so don't answer!)

[Kaiaatzl]

Bill the Cat, right?

[Darkflamewolf]

Yes that was the original inspiration. But I could not get a direct translation into D2 obviously. So I have to be a bit interpretive on how I translated it.

[karx-elf-erx]

Honestly, I didn't have a clue.

I feel like having heard something like "Bill the Cat", but I don't really know it.

[TechPro]

Honestly, I didn't have a clue.

I feel like having heard something like "Bill the Cat", but I don't really know it.

That's OK.  "Bill the Cat" is a multi-player Descent 3 level by Rian Wilcox that has (from time to time) been very popular.  Anarchy/Hoard/Single Player (but there's not bots, so what's a single player to do?)

download "Bill the Cat" for Descent 3

Pictures and Reviews

Text file about "Bill the Cat"

Download and information is from http://d3fischlein.de/ (Descent3fischlein.de) which is where all the missions from the old PD were stored and are still available (thank you Do_Checkor).

[Kaiaatzl]

Yeah, I wouldn't think you'd know it because it's D3 .

[Darkflamewolf]

Yeah, you wouldn't know it, but it was really hard to translate something like that into a cubish realm. I had to cut corners on some of the complex detail just so it'd fit within limits. So the see-thru water with blue lights under it, I had to cut out. The piping and other various details on the exterior of the facility structure I had to minimize as best I could. I wanted to get the spirit and intent of the level, but not be bound by its design. So if you'll notice, things don't match up exactly as they do from the original. And I had to add a second energy center in a logical place where it would make sense. All in all, very hard to interpret with cubes, but I feel I did a great job.

[karx-elf-erx]

Download and information is from http://d3fischlein.de/ (Descent3fischlein.de) which is where all the missions from the old PD were stored and are still available (thank you Do_Checkor).

d3fischlein isn't owned by DO_Checkor.

Yeah, you wouldn't know it, but it was really hard to translate something like that into a cubish realm. I had to cut corners on some of the complex detail just so it'd fit within limits. So the see-thru water with blue lights under it, I had to cut out. The piping and other various details on the exterior of the facility structure I had to minimize as best I could. I wanted to get the spirit and intent of the level, but not be bound by its design. So if you'll notice, things don't match up exactly as they do from the original. And I had to add a second energy center in a logical place where it would make sense. All in all, very hard to interpret with cubes, but I feel I did a great job.

Now how sad is this?!

That happens when you are limiting yourself by not building for D2X-XL.

Why don't you give people a reason to switch to D2X-XL instead and just leave the 10 or 20 people who insist on never touching it behind?

Edit:

I have taken a look at Billy the Cat. ACAT looks muuuuuuuch better. Quite an achievement to build such a map with D2's segment engine. Since an XL version of ACAT is possible, I may even add what you had to leave out (like e.g. lit underwater areas).

[TechPro]

d3fischlein isn't owned by DO_Checkor.

True, but it was DO_Checkor who made it possible for PD to have that access to the file archive for so many years and it was DO_Checkor who kept the file archive going for the old PD.  That's why I thank DO_Checkor, and I should have included the owner of d3fischlein in that thanks for that resource, because nearly all of the missions that had been available through the old PD were hosted by d3fischlein and linked through DO_Checkor's work.