================================================================ Title : "The Artifact" for DOOM II ARTIFACT.WAD Version 1.0 Author : Paul Schmitz Email Address : 71776,337 Description : You've been to hell and back, now it's MILLER time! Unfortunately the officer you pounded earlier is now your new CO. Guess who gets the next S**T detail? While boarding the drop ship, you find out some strange goings-on are happening at a UAC facility in the Andes mountains. It appears that what recently happened on Mars is happening here. People rising from the dead, demons and monsters gnawing the living. Not good! You are to meet some undercover operatives at the facility who will lead you to a secret base nearby (Something about having to climb a waterfall and navigate some sewers). You hear a rumor about the discovery of an alien artifact that supposedly started this whole mess. You also hear a story about a UAC backed raid by a company of storm troopers that failed miserably. The one lone survivor kept babbling about "blowing up a mountain", though not the way they intended. The drop ship doors open, and you hit the ground running. Great! An entire company of veteran spacers gets wiped out, and they send you in alone with a pistol, just because you did it before. Fortunately, a reception party is waiting for you. Unfortunately, THIS reception party is not the undercover operatives you were to meet! AMBUSH! Additional Credits to : id Software for making THE BEST GAMES IN THE COSMOS: DOOM and DOOM II. Raphael Quinet, Brendon Wyber, Anthony Burden, and Simon Oke, contributors/ developers of the BEST Doom editor, DETH 1.2a GCC. Jens Hykkelbjerg for RMB, an excellent Reject Map editor. And a very special THANK YOU to Jack V and the rest of the folks at Sensor Based Systems for DeePBSP. Rebuild nodes for a 400K PWAD in 42 seconds? You guys are truely GODS for large PWAD-builders like me!!! NOTE: Anyone who uses DeepBSP and hasn't paid these guys their 20 bucks are A-Holes of the first order. Sorry for the strength of this statement, but these guys deserve every buck and I paid the $20 gladly. Anyone who builds LARGE PWADs and used BSP 1.2 KNOWS what I'm talking about (OK, I'm off my soap box). I would also like to credit Leo Martin Lim for the excellent discovery for invisible platforms which he used in PWAD called "Dooms day of UAC" (UAC_DEAD.WAD). Last, but certainly not least, I wish to thank my lovely wife Lynn, who allowed me to pursue my DOOMing pleasure. And, of course, Jonathan and Matthew (my two boys and future DOOM hall of famers), who I stupidly ignored for two weeks while learning to build Doom WADs. I hope (but doubt) that it was worth it. ================================================================ * Play Information * MAP# : MAP01 Doom Version : Requires DOOM II 1.666 or greater Single Player : Yes Cooperative 2-4 Player : Yes (haven't played in Coop mode) Deathmatch 2-4 Player : No (Way too Big!!!) Difficulty Settings : Yes (All) New Sounds : No New Graphics : No Demos Replaced : None * Construction * Base : New three level episode from scratch using MAPS 01-03 (only 01 available for now). Build Time : Don't ask! (amongst earning a living, loving my wife and playing with my boys, I squeezed in as much time as I could working on this PWAD. I figure a good 1000 hours worth of work). Editor(s) used : DETH 1.2a GCC version, DeePBSP 3.1a, RMB * Copyright / Permissions * Authors MAY use this level as a base to build additional levels, just give me credit in your TXT file! You MAY distribute this WAD, provided you include this file , with no modifications. You may distribute this file in any electronic format (BBS, Diskette, CD, etc) as long as you include this file intact. * Where to get this WAD * BBS numbers: CompuServe, GO ACTION, DOOM II Levels (Lib 21, called DM2ART.ZIP, search using ARTIFACT as search parameter TO PLAY: ============================================ To play this WAD, put the WAD file in your DOOM2 directory. At the command prompt type: doom2 -file artifact.wad -skill 4 -warp 1. It starts at MAP 01. ============================================ * Author's Notes * This PWAD requires DOOM II version 1.666 or greater. I originally intended this PWAD to be one huge level, until I discovered that I could no longer save games because of the limit placed on the size of the save game file. Even though the original level is now broken into three parts, I tried to keep the look and feel of one big level. Let me know if I succeeded. This PWAD was developed on a 486/DX2/66MHz with 16MB RAM and a VIPER accelerator card with 2MB of VRAM (and I pushed its performance to the max when I designed this PWAD). Those of you that may be computer- impaired (i.e., slow 486) will probably not enjoy this PWAD. My only suggestion to you (besides buying a better computer) is to shrink the screen size until performance is adequate, or view the PWAD with the -nomonsters switch. Many complaints about tough beginning (in UV mode). But HEY! Walking into an ambush is not supposed to be easy! My advice? If you make it passed the ambush with 40 points or more of health, you should have no problem with the rest of the level! For those of lesser skills, keep an "eye" out for the "Eye in Symbol" thing. These denote secret passages to healing areas where you can recharge. But be forewarned, the "trade-off" for using these healings might not be worth it in the long-run. Side note: Even if you don't use the healing areas, the intra-level teleportation may come in handy later in the game. Please do not use a Reject editor on this PWAD. I have already used RMB and have included the reject file is used called ARTIFACT.REJ. This file sets up special effects throughout the level. If you do use a reject editor, there is a good chance you may drasitically effect the playability of this PWAD.