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------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Unofficial Rise of the Triad FAQ v2.00 THHLI Rise of the Triad: TTHIITLII Pre-Release version 2.00 (c) 1994 Apogee Software, Ltd. THHII TTLHI THLI I TOLII Written: October 12, 1994 THOII IH) TTLLI by: Rylan Hilman THH) IHT TLLII at: rhilman@oasis.rain.com "Rise of the Triad: THII IHTH) TTLTI Weapons so powerful, THHI TLLILI ITLII "Rise of the Triad is they blow you out of TLTI IHLLLL) TTTTI gonna be great!!!" the game!" TLHII ILTLLL)L) TLLI THTI IIIII)I IILII - Rylan Hilman, - Joe Siegler, ILLI TI II TLLI Author of Apogee TLLI ILLLLI ITLLLTI ITHII this FAQ. :) ITLI IILTLLL)LI ITLTTTLILI ITTI ILLI TLLLLTLLLT)) I))TTLTTTTTTI IITII IILII ITTLL))II )ILTTT IITII ITLI II IITI ILILLLLLLLLLLLLLLTLHLTTTLTLTTLLLLTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTII ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +==========+ |Disclaimer| +==========+ This is the (F)requently (A)sked (Q)uestions file for Rise of the Triad, the upcoming 3D action game by Apogee Software. So if you read any of this, and something bad happens to you that's related to this FAQ, I didn't do it(except if I really DID do it, then I'll tell you personally). If anybody is offended, go talk with Apogee. Remember, as of now, Apogee Software is only partly involved in making this FAQ. So, to finish up, if it's a question about the FAQ, ask me. If it's a question about R.o.t.T. that is not answered in this FAQ, send e-mail(Internet) to joe.siegler@swcbbs.com (Joe Siegler, Apogee Software). +==============+ |Trademark info| +==============+ Some trademarks in the following piece of work are: Rise of the Triad, Apogee, Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM, id, Gravis UltraSound, Advanced Gravis, SoundBlaster, Creative Labs, Pro Audio Spectrum, WaveBlaster, AdLib, Soundman, Maui, Roland, Disney Sound Source, Disney, IBM, MS-DOS, Microsoft, Commander Keen, Hank Leukart, The "Official" DOOM FAQ, Dark Forces, and Blake Stone. These trademarks I will NOT take any credit for, and they belong to the people who have made these products/companies possible. If I missed any, they are also hypothetically acknowledged (to borrow a term from Hank :). +==============+ |Copyright Info| +==============+ This article is Copyright 1994 by Rylan Hilman. All rights reserved. You are granted the following rights: I. To make copies of this work in original form, so long as (a) the copies are exact and complete; (b) the copies include the copyright notice and these paragraphs in their entirety; (c) the copies give obvious credit to the author, Rylan Hilman; (d) the copies are in electronic form, except for one(1) allowed paper- based copy for personal reference. II. To distribute this work, or copies made under the provisions above, so long as (a) this is the original work and not a derivative form; (b) you do not charge a fee for copying or for distribution; (c) you ensure that the distributed form includes the copyright notice, this paragraph, the disclaimer of warranty in their entirety and credit to the author; (d) the distributed form is not in an electronic magazine or within computer software (prior explicit permission may be obtained from Rylan Hilman); (e) the distributed form is the NEWEST version of the article to the best of the knowledge of the distributor; (f) the distributed form is electronic. (g) you are an inhabitant of Earth or a natural satellite of Earth. You may not distribute this work by any non-electronic media, including but not limited to books, newsletters, magazines, manuals, catalogs, and speech. You may not distribute this work in electronic magazines or within computer software without prior explicit permission. These rights are temporary and revocable upon written, oral, or other notice by Rylan Hilman. This copyright notice shall be governed by the laws of the state of Oregon. If you would like additional rights beyond those granted above, write to the author at "rhilman@oasis.rain.com" on the Internet. +=================+ |Table of Contents| +=================+ KEY: {Ch??} is a chapter number, usually at the beginning of a chapter {??-??} is {Chapter number-section number} {??-??-??} is {Chapter number-section number-minisection number} A ~ preceding a chapter-section number means that it has changed from v1.9 of the FAQ You should be able to figure the rest out(you intelligent person you :) ~{0-9} - Version info. {Ch1} - Introduction to this FAQ. ~{1-1} - A message from the author ~{1-2} - What IS Rise of the Triad? ~{1-3} - What makes it different from DOOM? ~{1-4} - Who makes RotT? ~{1-5} - When is it coming out? ~{1-6} - How much is it? {1-7} - How can you order it? {1-8} - Where will it be? ~{1-9} - What is the current progress report? {Ch2} - Features of RotT {2-1} - Game Story ~{2-2} - Features ~{2-3} - Slide Shows ~ {2-3-1} - The first Slide Show ~ {2-3-2} - The second Slide Show {2-4} - General Questions {2-4-1} - What weapons will you have? {2-4-2} - Will there be multiple stories? {2-4-3} - What enemies will there be? {2-4-4} - What do the hazards do? {2-4-5} - What is in the shareware version? ~ {2-4-6} - What are Comm-Bat Zones? ~ {2-4-7} - How do God and Dog modes work? ~ {2-4-8) - What will the different versions be? {2-4-9} - Will your player bob up and down as in Doom? {2-4-10} - Will you see different weapons on the remote modem player? {2-4-11} - Will there be any stairs in the levels? {2-4-12} - How will they fill us a CD for the enhanced version? {2-4-13} - Can you shoot holes in walls? {2-4-14} - Will there be bonuses? ~{2-5} - A review by Hank Leukart ~{2-6} - A review from Interactive Entertainment {Ch3} - Conclusion ~{3-1} - Author's note ~{3-2} - Contributions {3-2-1} - Contributors /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ -- *(0-9)* - Version info. 1.0 - First version, finished 9 August 1994. 1.5 - Big revision, finished 13 August 1994. Had Joe Siegler revise it, add lots more info, I had to go through and work it out. 1.6 - Third(not second) public release, finished 15 August 1994. Got my first contributor, additional info from Apogee. 1.65 - Small revision, finished 18 August 1994. Not much to say.... 1.7 - First of four series. Will be releasing updates every two weeks. Finished 25 August 1994. 1.8 - Second of four series. Released 9 September 1994. 1.9 - Third of four series. Released 23 September 1994. 1.99 - A filler for version 2.0 until the second Triad screen shots are finished. Released 11 October 1994. 2.0 - Fourth of four series. Released 12 October 1994. Describes second set of Triad screen shots. -- - Chapter 1 +========================+ |Introduction to this FAQ| +========================+ -- *{1-1}* - A message from the author WOW! October 12th, 1994 has been quite a day. First, One Must Fall 2094 has been released, and it is quite fun. :) Second, the next RotT screen show has been released, showing some.......interesting pictures. :) And third, the final Pre-Release version of the Rise of the Triad FAQ is sent out! The Comm-Bat in Triad will be intense. To quote Chriss Lombardi of Computer Gaming World (concerning Triad's Comm-bat): "DeathMatch will never be the same again." Many new things have been added/proposed for soon, like: - 11 players, but, if things go well, possibilities(and this is an EXTREME possibility)for up to TWENTY! - Team play, so up to five teams(if not ten) can play against each other - A special game variation: Capture the Flag! - Hundreds of different ways to play! - (if on Excessive violence) You will be able to see your hands, ribs, and feet fly out in front of you as you explode into a bunch of chunks! - MORE, MORE, MORE! Oh, BTW, if you didn't know, this will be my last RotT FAQ until after the public can get it. It's only about a month away..... ON WITH THE FAQ! -- *{1-2}* - What IS Rise of the Triad? Rise of the Triad is the next 3D action game being made by Apogee. If you are unfamiliar with the 3D action genre, it is totally different from any other game type out there: Instead of some other popular computer games, where you see your character on the screen and see a portion of the screen centered around him/her, in RotT, you see through the eyes of your character! Your weapon is at the bottom of the screen, and what your character sees, you see. You can turn around and look behind you, or look up and down (up to 25 degrees either way) Pushing forward makes your character go forward, pushing back makes him/her go backwards. With mastery, your character can drive around to exactly where you want him/her to go. You can choose from the 5(possibly 6) preset characters to play out the levels in single-player mode, or go up to 11 (possibly twenty) player netRotT where you are all out to destroy each other, the other team(s), or the Triad guys themselves! Rise of the Triad was originally going to be a Wolf3D sequel, and was going to use the same engine with minimal improvements. But then iD and Apogee went their separate ways, and Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold turned into the sequel. Then RotT engine was completely rewritten, and this game is the result. -- *{1-3}* - What makes it different from DOOM? Like in Wolf3D or Blake Stone, RotT has 90-degree walls(Doom can go any direction). But, as I always say(or will say from now on), you can't judge a game by it's angles. :) Anyway, there WILL be multiple stories on your levels(yay!) so it will be quite fun hunting your opponent(s) on a multi-story battle level. Your levels can go up to 16 stories, and you NEED the room in an 11-player game! Other things are hazards. In DOOM, hazards consisted of crushing ceilings or ooze pits that drained health. In RotT, there are 15 types of hazards, including: SpinBlades, FireChutes, FireJets, PitTraps, and LavaWalls. Also, in RotT, instead of using iD's method of digitizing clay models, Apogee decided to film live characters for all of their positions (Even better, they are all Apogee employees!(except that one was at Apogee during digitizing but has since left)) The result makes it look far better than Blake Stone's or Wolf's characters, which are drawn. Your enemies will also have better intelligence! For example: The Strike Team officers, once they get hit, will roll two doors-lengths to one side, so you will have to re-aim. The big end-of-level bosses will not just walk at you and fire, either. There are certain ways to defeat them. -- *{1-4}* - Who makes RotT? Rise of the Triad is being made by Apogee Software, who distributed some of iD's games, including the Commander Keen series, and Wolfensteim 3D. Although Apogee has distributed iD games in the past, many of it's programs are made by it's own employees. Doom is the first iD game distributed by iD. Recently, a group of Apogee employees have created their own mini-company: 3D Realms. Their first games will be the next generation of 3D Doom-like games coming out next year at Quake-level engines. 3D Realms will NOT be making Triad, Triad is an Apogee release. -- *{1-5}* - When is it coming out? Apogee is going to release RotT in Early-Mid November. Doom II should be out by the time you read this, and Dark Forces is aiming for November. Note: This will be a simulteanous shareware and retail release. This will be the first game that will come out in shareware and that will be on the shelves at the same time. The retail versions are undecided as of now, but there will probably be a version that is similar to the registered version(in fact, it might be the same thing..), and a CD version with the super-enhanced version on it. (This info is from Tom Hall, Apogee's Creative Director Note: Long note, huh? :) -- *{1-6}* - How much is it? The price for the registered version will be $29.95 plus $5 shipping and handling (if they don't change their shipping policies between now and then). There will be add-ons, like a Random Comm-bat Zone (tm) generator, a way to get your own player graphics for use in the modem game, and so on. And, no, Apogee will not accept pre-orders. They used to in the past, but they have discontinued since then. The earliest you can order is when it hits the open markets (i.e. at Software Creations BBS, their home BBS, or at your local software store, whichever comes first) The enhanced versions were going to be $49.95, but (apparently to be cool :) the disk-based enhanced version(with extra goodies) will be $39.95), and the CD version will probably be the same thing, but maybe not.... I do not know the prices for the retail versions, but they should be similar to the prices for the mail-order versions. -- {1-7} - How can you order it? As I said above, you can order it when it's out, and not before. But, for those of you who want to be ready to grab it as soon as it comes out, here is the order info: Ordering and support: * 1-800-APOGEE1 to order 24 hours a day. - Note: The old number, 1-800-GAME-123, still works, but this is the new number... * 214-278-5655 for technical support on any game. (8AM-6PM CST M-F) * 214-278-4670 to FAX your order(ORDER.FRM) or inquiry. * Fill out ORDER.FRM and mail it to Apogee at: Apogee Software P.O. Box 496389 Garland, TX 75049 Or you can buy the retail version at your local software store. -- {1-8} - Where will it be? This is from TRIAD.DOC, in the slide show preview file. And this is where you can find any Apogee game, not just RotT: WHERE TO FIND APOGEE'S GAMES ONLINE =================================== 1. APOGEE'S HOME BBS: THE SOFTWARE CREATIONS BBS Software Creations BBS was recently voted North America's most popular BBS by the readers of Boardwatch Magazine. It was also featured on the TV show Prime-Time Live in December 1993. Apogee's releases are available here before they're available anywhere else in the world! To download any Apogee game, call one of the three numbers listed below. Then, look in the free Apogee file section, #1. Type "F 1" to see a listing of the files. These are free downloads, and you do not need a membership. (508) 365-2359 -- 2400 baud Over 100 lines (508) 368-7036 -- 9600-14.4K v.32bis available, and (508) 365-4035 -- 28.8k v.fast class (v.fc) growing fast! 2. America Online - Use the keyword "apogee" to go to our forum. 3. CompuServe - Type "go apogee" (at any ! prompt) to find Apogee's games. 4. Internet - Apogee's titles can be access via anonymous FTP at our official ftp site. The site is "ftp.uml.edu", and the directory they can be found in is (case important) "msdos/Games/Apogee". 5. Fidonet Filebone - If you are a Fidonet SysOp, you can now get Apogee's games on the Fido filebone. Talk to your local filebone hub about the four Apogee areas (see FILEBONE.NA for more information). -- *{1-9}* - What is the current progress report? Network play is going pretty well. Still waiting on modem code. All the options they've tested are fun and really change the way the level feels. They have added Team Play, so up to five(right now, it could be 10 if they increase the number of net players from 11 to 20, or a more modest increase to 12 players) teams can play against each other in any of the games. One of the nine games will be a version of Capture the Flag. They were testing with 9-player network play the other day(this is how they waste their time! :) It was remarkably crazy! With excessive violence on, sometimes you see your own hands, ribcage, and feet flying out in front of you as you explode into a bunch of meat chunks. And the view from the other side is obviously spectacular, too. -- - Chapter 2 +================+ |Features of RotT| +================+ {2-1} - Game story You are a member of the HUNT, the top secret High-risk United Nations Taskforce, sent on extremely covert operations to possible trouble spots outside the three-mile boundary waters of member countries. You are on a routine reconnaissance mission on San Nicolas Island, located in the Pacific twenty miles west of Los Angeles. Your team is investigating possible cult activity in an old monastery, when suddenly troops pour out of nowhere! In the distance your boat explodes. Just before your radio goes all static, you hear desperate newsmen describing the systematic destruction of Los Angeles. An escaped prisoner informs you that a pyrotechnics expert and a rich studio head have joined forces with the Oscurido cult. Their plan: kill millions of innocent people for the glory of their master, El Oscuro. Having no other escape route, the HUNT heads into the monastery, taking the only course of action left: stop the Oscuridos or die trying. P.S. The person who wrote this story ("You are a member of the HUNT...") is Tom Hall, the same guy who wrote the stories for WOLF 3D and I think DOOM. -- *{2-2}* - Features Now we get to the fun stuff. :) I will add my own commentary, and this is also from the slide show preview file TRIAD.DOC (I know, I know, if you don't have it, I'll point you to it soon). Anything with an: o (text here) is from the TRIAD.DOC which I got this info from. Anything with an: - (text here) is my commentary. As of this version, I have included the features from ROTT.DOC because they have added many cool features that we didn't know about before! ROTT.DOC comes with the 1ROTPX2.ZIP slide show. FEATURES ======== o Ability to fly with the Mercury Mode powerup. Fly above your enemies and blast them! - This should be fun... o Four cool bosses with intelligence, reactions, devious abilities, and up to four stages! - All the bosses will be bulletproof, so pistol, dual pistol, and machine gun will have no effect on them(which is fair, these weapons have unlimited ammo), and the flamewall will not hurt them, but the explosions(firebombs, missiles) will damage them. o Over thirty levels of death, mayhem, chaos, terror, and so on -- Extra, specially designed levels for modem/network play. - There are 32 levels, and what will be in the shareware episode is only 8 normal levels(which are not in the registered version), and possibly 3 Comm-Bat Zones. o Ten unique, real digitized actors - Including many interesting enemies, like the low guard(not much of a threat) up to the final boss(A THREAT! A THREAT!) o Thirteen wicked weapons, including: - Dual pistols: One isn't good enough for our hero. - Bazooka: Your basic missle weapon. - Heat seeking missles: Kill guys around corners OR in mid-air, and watch the pieces fly! - Flamewall: Sends out a deadly wall of fire to toast everything in it's path - Firebomb: When it hits something, massive explosions blaze in 4 directions - Drunk Missles: Shoot FIVE drunk missles at once. Better duck! - Lots more to discover! - I wonder if the Firebomb can out-blast the BFG9000...... o Three words: really cool explosions (15+ digitized) - And, believe me, there are MANY explosions in this game! o A rockin' soundtrack on all the major cards--featuring DigitalDrums(tm) (where available) Supports the following soundcards: Gravis UltraSound, All SoundBlasters, Pro Audio Spectrum, WaveBlaster, AdLib, SoundMan, Maui, Roland, Disney SoundSource, and many more. - Nearly every sound card will be supported, and the AWE 32 will have native support, as well as everything above on the list. Additional sound devices supported are the Tandy Sound Source, General MIDI, Sound Canvas, and of course, the lovely PC speaker! o Tons of secret areas, difficult puzzles, and mysterious bonuses - Like the normal 3D action genre.... o Color translucency for glass objects. - Won't this be fun? :) o Far-out features: - Parallaxing sky. (Vertical as well as horizontal) - Look up and down. - Fog lighting effects. - Thunder, lightning, and rain! - Lights that illuminate walls. Blow em' up and it gets darker. - EVERYTHING in the environment can be destroyed! Break vases, glass, blow lights off the ceiling, and release your tension. - Mark the walls with bullet holes (Yes! Too fun). - Huge leves of up to 1 MILLION SQUARE FEET EACH to discover! - All the boring stuff lie: light diminishing, light sourcing, and save games - This good enough for ya'? :) o Violence level adjustment, from low to excessive, with parental password You might want to use this for the kids because the enemies explode in pieces of bloody meat, heads, eyes, hands, feet, ribcages and other organs in the excessive mode. You'll definately need body bags for this game. - The violence adjustment is as follows: Low: no blood Some: blood splashes off shot people A lot: blood splashes off shot people (including you), gory deaths Excessive: blood, limbs, and organs fly out of "gibbed" (splattered) people and other special disgusting effects, like crazy body parts flying everywhere! o Helpless enemies. There are some cases where you simply wound an enemy. The will drop to their knees and try to surrender or lay there twitching, trying to get away. It's up to you to decide their fate. :) o Great "super" save games that: - Record your level number for you so you don't have to bother typing it. - Keeps a snapshot of where you were in the game, so you can see it. - Oh, and save all that other game stuff too. :) - This takes save games where no save game has gone before! o Multi-player abilities. - 11 player IPX network. - 2 players via modem. - 2 players vie serial cable. - NINE Comm-Bat(tm) games, with thirty options to customize it any way. Games like Capture the Flag, Hunter, Tag, and Eluder. - Team or individual network play. - You CANNOT imagine how intense multi-player mode is with more than 4 players. Try 8 or more. It's insane. o Choose from five characters--of different genders and races! Players even have different attributes like accuracy, height, damage inflicted. - The five characters are: 1) Thi Barrett -> White female with red hair 2) Lorelei Ni -> Oriental female with black hair 3) Taradino Cassatt -> White male with blonde hair 4) Doug Wendt -> Black male with dark brown hair 5) Ian Paul Freeley -> Greco-Spaniard male with very messy hair. :) And you can customize a character to use against your modem opponents, plus a possible 6th player. The uniforms on these players can change colors to match your netplayer. o Find gas masks and armor like bulletproof and fireproof vests. - Protect yourself against your crazed, trigger-happy Comm-Bat opponents! :) o Brain-numbing Powerups like God Mode and the rare "Dog Mode" - God mode is where you get big, and in dog mode, you turn into a dog, you're invulnerable, and you bite guards. :) It's quite hysterical! Another feature of Dog mode is the BarkBlast. There will be a Mercury Mode, in which you can go really fast, and fly a bit(well, one might describe it as very powerful flatulence :) o Fifteen incredible environment hazards like: Spinblades, firechutes, gun bunkerrs, moving walls, firejets, rolling boulders, pits and more... - PLUS, you can fall OFF a level and into the valley floor. Ouch! o Hilarious jump pads add a new dimension to gameplay. Fly through the air to reach new areas, collect bonuses or run away! You can jump up to higher parts of the level and blast your enemies from above, especially in multi- player mode. - Pads look like a round, gray-brown platform on the floor. When they "fire", the hydraulics that launch you into the air are exposed. Normal ones throw you into the air when you walk over them. Automatic ones fire every few seconds, which can cause tension in Comm-bat mode. One-time ones fire once, then break. These might access bonus areas--never anything vital. They actually trampoline you up, more pneumatics than hydraulics, but hydraulics provide the lift power. Your computer-controlled foes can use these too.... o Auto-tracking for shooting down at enemy from platforms and up at them as they fly off jump pads - In Doom, the targeting is automatic, and your weapon will track in on the target. With RotT, the whole screen perception will move so that you know you're targeting someone at a different angle. o Twenty buddy-blasting Battle levels (in addition to the 32 normal levels) - WOW! They're releasing their own Deathmatch levels! There will be a few battle levels in the shareware(possibly three), many in the registered(around 10), and LOTS in the super-enhanced version(around 30-40, with the ability to randomly make your own :). The numbers as still shaky as to what will be in which. The person who did most of the Comm-Bat levels has played many an hour of modem and network Doom, so he's quite versed in the genre. BTW, they won't be called DeathMatch levels. Comm-Bat is a term that Apogee has trademarked, and they'll be using it in any of our games that support modem play. Levels are called Comm-Bat Zones. o Editor to be available so you can make your own battle levels - The editor might be a bit later than the RotT release. This is still up in the air. The price should be around $10-15 in US dollars, but might be lowered.. o Random level generator so there are always new battle levels to play - This isn't like RanDoom for Doom, in which it just randomly shifts around items, the RotT randomizer will create (randomly) ENTIRE LEVELS FROM SCRATCH! (Wow!) You enter in a few things, such as a random number seed, size of level, etc., and it chooses and auto-decorates pre-made rooms, randomly chosing places to spawn, placement of random items and so on. It also chooses Comm-bat Zone darkness, the height (up to 16 stories tall!). It creates some really fun environments. If they have time, they will make it less blocky and more freeform. This makes hundreds of interesting zones, though, up to 99 in a set. there are hundreds of rooms to choose from, and it is easy to add more. You can choose the amount of mazeyness and the rough size of the level. It can make pretty big levels, which would be more appropriate for network play. It looks like they will support eleven players, and possibly(POSSIBLY) allow any number, although lag time would get slow. o Over TEN Megs of eye-poppin' graphics! - That's a lot of graphics.... o Over FOUR Megs of ear-poppin' sounds! - There may be a more reasonable 1.5-2 Megs in the normal version, and LOTS in the super enhanced version. But there's a LOT of stuff in this game, and if it moves, it makes noise. o The entire game is OVER 20 MEGS unzipped. The largest shareware game ever! - This game in it's full incarnation will be quite large. We have no idea what the size of the shareware episode will be at this time, but a 3 Meg .ZIP file download is not out of the question. :) COOL STUFF TO DO ================ o FALL OFF the edge of a level! - AAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!! :) You can fall off walkways to the valley floor. Ouch. o TOWER OVER little guards in God Mode! - What guards? *splat* Oh, those ones.... o SNEAK INTO secret rooms in Dog Mode! - Guard1: Hey, where's that mutt going? Guard2: Let him go, he's not going to do anything... You: GRRRRRROOOOOWWWWWLLLL!!!! *snap* *snap* *chomp* *chomp* (BARKBLAST!!) Guards 1 & 2: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! Dog mode is VERY fun. Not only that, when you're in Dog mode, you're also invincible. You can bite and use the BarkBlast weapon(a sonic-wave type blast that blows out windows and stuff) o BLOW UP almost EVERYTHING in the environment--including shattering windows! - Blast a door through! BOOM! OH NO! There's your modem opponent! RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY! AAAH! He's got a FLAMEWALL!!! *WHHHHOOOOOSSSSHHHH* ow...Oh YEAH?! Take this! (missile launch) "aiiiiieeeee!!!!" I thought so! (sorry, getting carried away there. :) o PICK UP a 7-10 split of guards with the sadistic Split Missile! - The split missile now turns into two heat-seekers, making it a very deadly weapon. o ROCKET into the air off a jump pad, spin and shoot a heat-seeking missile at your buddy, who promptly juices in mid-air! Fun! - Yup! Fun! o WASTE countless hours of your precious time while you could be doing something constructive! - There will be a significant drop in production this Fall: RotT, Doom 2, Dark Forces.... -- *{2-3}* - Slide shows Well, I've referenced it throughout the FAQ. The slide show is available wherever you can find Apogee games (see above). It is called 1ROTPIX.ZIP. When you run it, you will get a "slide show" of 17 screen shots from the game. The second screen show is at the same place you can find the first, and it is called 1ROTPX2.ZIP. The descriptions for that are at the bottom. - *{2-3-1}* - The first Slide Show Here are the descriptions for the first slide show: (BTW: You can use the left and right arrow keys to go backwards and forwards in the pictures, and all other keys except escape will go to the picture you are currently at) Picture #1: This looks like an example of the "fog" condition. You have what appears to be a rocket launcher, but in RotT, they use missles (all sorts of them(and 6 different launchers)). The guard is digitized off a real actor (Steve Quarrela, one of Apogee's Tech Support people). Yes, all the walls ARE 90 degrees to each other, but, you can't judge a game by it's angles (although it IS nice with non-regular angles). It looks like a maze out there! And, you notice that we can rack-up scores just like in Wolf 3D! Picture #2: OUCH! That's gotta hurt! Sorry, Mr Quarrella! :) You notice something? You have two guns! Sounds kinda nice. "Two-Gun Hilman" Seeya on the Internet. :) May I draw your attention to the spinning blade on the ceiling in the upper left corner of the picture? (everybody says: "Yes, you may.") Thank you. :) The infinity symbol at the bottom of the screen means infinite ammo for the pistol, dual pistol, and machine gun. Picture #3: Looks like the Wolf3D rifle. See those SpinBlades? I wonder what that would look like with violence level low? Sorry, Mr Quarrella! :) (he's one of the low guards in the game, so he appears a lot). See the lights on the ceiling? They're shootable objects! It seems that when you zoom-up the screen full-size, the bottom status bar disappears such that you can still see the info but not block the picture too much! Picture #4: The spears come up out of holes in the floor, and they are constantly rotating while they're moving up and down. Anyway, you see the 3-story buildings in background. You CAN go up there. Picture #5: Super Save Games! There's more to these save games than just taking a snapshot. The snapshot save game idea has been used before, but not like RotT's SSG idea. Joe won't tell me what this means yet, but it also remembers what level you're on for you (so you don't have to type that in the description.) If you look carefully, you will notice that there is a strange background sky for E4A6(BTW, and "A", if you didn't know, means areas, like M or L in DOOM means Mission or Level(i.e. E2M9, or E1L1). There are MANY skies in this game. The "Mark #"(# = insert number here) probably refers to Mark Dochtermann, lead programmer. Picture #6: Monks. If they get too close to you, they start to "suck the life out of you". Other monks shoot fireballs..... Looks like the health bar at the bottom left changes color as it gets lower. Picture #7: Dead Monks. The blockage around you is a gas mask, needed at times(important times! :). You can survive some rooms only with a gas mask. Picture #8: No, this isn't God mode, this is looks at guys from a ledge. You're on a platform, looking down and shooting. This is an example of what I said before of the picture changing perspective when you are shooting down. In Doom, the guy would just die. RotT shows it happening by tilting the perspective towards what's happening instead of just letting it happen w/o you actually seeing it. Picture #9: There are two different actors here. There are the two examples of the low guard here. The leftmost and the rightmost ones are Steve Quarrella again, and the middle two are Marianna Vayntrub, the financee of Mark Dochtermann, the lead programmer of Rott. And 4-story buildings back there! Picture #10: You must want that key baaaad. You blow out three windows and kill a guard to get a little key sitting on a little pedestal. That's what happens when you play with firebombs. :) Picture #11: You just shot a missile. Those things on the ceiling will crush you if you get stuck under them. Picture #12: Night.....the FINAL battle. These are the battles of......me! My five-minute mission, to blow away my opponent, and....stuff. :) Nope, this is not the final level, but imagine hunting down your opponent in a nighttime level. :) Picture #13: FIREBOMB!!!! It looks like it could cause some damage. :) The person in the shot is George Broussard, the Exec VP of Apogee. He's quite a bugger to kill. He not only has a machine gun that he shoots, but he also throws hand grenades at you!! (AAAAAHHH!!!) Picture #14: Alone in a corridor. Suddenly you hear footsteps. A guard comes patrolling down the hall. You whip out your pistol and...... The neat thing about the light sourcing here is that as the actor progresses through the lights, they get lighter and darker depending on whether they're under a light or not. The lighting is not sector based like Doom. Picture #15: Wow. What a view. Looks like a bowl of mush on the floor. It's one of the food items you can find around the game. It's health. Picture #16: A knife!!! Looks better than the one in Wolf. The guard in front of you is Marianna again (she was the two middle ones in #9). The knife is not a weapon like it was in Wolf3D. There is another actor (not seen in any slides) that will throw nets at you. If you get hit, you're trapped. You either need to use the knife to get out, or if you don't have the knife, you have to wiggle out of the ropes. If there are other actors around, then it can be really bad news. :) (The knife will come up autmatically if you get hit by a new, so you don't have to fumble to find the "1" key. :) Picture #17: Rylan "Two-Gun" Hilman vs. Hank "The DOOMER" Leukart over IHHD!! You notice that the picture in the upper-left hand corner is the same as the face on the remote player. Right now all five modem characters are wearing the same black uniform, so if you're playing on network, you might have to get close to make sure you're not shooting a friend! Apogee is deciding whether to personalize each one. The user will be able to do it themselves, as Apogee is making it as easy as possible to change graphics, but if they get a large outcry as to each character being anonymous, they might change it for a future version. Picture #1: You ever get that creepy Deja Vu feeling? Picture #2: Ditto By now, the person hits Esc to end this, and gets the ending screen: +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | Coming October 1994 by Apogee Software | | | | | | RISE OF THE TRIAD - (c) 1994 Apogee Software | | | | FOR ONLY $34.95 YOU WILL GET THE FOLLOWING: | | | | o 32 huge levels, each four times o Violence level adjustment | | the size of Wolfenstein levels! o Over 20 MEGS uncompressed! | | o Parallaxing sky, look up/dn, o Modem play + 20 different | | fog, light diminishing/sourcing "Battle levels" + level editor | | o 8 channel sound effects o Random level generator, also! | | o Supports the GUS, PAS 16, Adlib o Digitized characters | | Sound Blaster, Roland, and more o Nine wicked weapons | | o Jump pads to fly in the air! o The largest shareware to date! | | | | Requires: 80386+, soundcard highly recommended, VGA graphics card. | | | | Available: October, 1994. Call (800) GAME-123, 24 hours a day! | | | | Read the file "TRIAD.DOC" for more details about this game! | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ (BTW, some of this info has changed) Of course.....this FAQ has the info plus more. :) 32 levels 4x wolfenstein size....The Wolf3D (and Blake) map grids were 64x64. That will probably look familiar if you ever tried to edit Wolf3D maps, and did it wrong. One of the Wolf3D crash errors was "Map not 64*64". Anyway, the Rott map grid is 128x128. That means the base map can be 4 times as large as the largest Wolf3D map was. Some maps in RotT are quite gigantic and can take forever to get through! :) - *{2-3-1}* - The second Slide Show We will now commence with the second slide show. If you forgot, it is 1ROTPX2.ZIP at everywhere you get Apogee games. Picture #1: The Triad symbol with the words "Prepare yourself for the most violent game you've ever seen". Remember, the violence can be adjusted from they just fall down to they just explode all over the nice level...be glad you can't smell it! :) Picture #2: A dramatic logo! Just what we need to make this game known to the world! :) Picture #3: A cool launcher, with missles galore! Look at that big level out there! Those are drunk missles, but I just can't envision 5 missles flying out of that thing. In sequence, yeah, but at once? :) Picture #4: It seems they've upgraded the gas mask from the last time we saw it. At least now we can tell for SURE what we're wearing. The guard looks nice and realistic. And he also looks like a sea captain for some reason.... Is that me or is it just the green tint? Picture #5: INTENSE ACTION!!! It appears that we're going to have fun here! I can't wait for the Virtual Gaming tournaments! I just hope they open one near Portland, Oregon so I can make it.... Picture #6: Chunky goo, glowing fat dudes, and some kind of staff weapon... ....I like it! Look at the backgroup texture-mapped graphics! Picture #7: Hmmmm, how should I describe this picture.....I know! BOOOM! :) There really are some creative textures in this game, like the leopard-skin look-alike pillars... Picture #8: This is fun! We can "shoot" mustaches onto these faces! Your bullet holes make marks where they hit a wall, so if you get lost in a maze, just blast the wall a few times in a strange pattern to serve as a landmark. You should also be able to see the effects of a machine-gun fight..... Picture #9: There are pieces of a chopped-up guard on that spinblade, and it seems that these guards are frying one of their own! Picture #10: Chop-a-lot! Just remember, this is on excessive mode. There is no setting above excessive.... Picture #11: Very creative door! Too bad we aren't seeing this thing in action, because it would be fun to see how this thing opens.... Picture #12: I'm just wondering why this gas mask doesn't have a greenish tint....maybe the green tint IS the gas, and right now you're wearing the mask in a place without gas.....anyway, is that a flying eye? is it flaming? or is it both? Picture #13: Wow! Comm-Bat at night! Why is everybody ganging up on one person? Anyway, I feel a 10 player team tournament would be extremely interesting. :) Picture #14: Rise of the Triad......the FINAL word in mayhem. And you thought the guys at Id were sick! :) Anyway, I count a couple flying heads, an arm, a complete person discorporating, and a (relatively) whole person. Hopefully, you'll be able to navigate yourself through those things without getting hurt. (you hope....) :) Picture #15: Same as #1, except with the words, "Coming 4th Quarth 1994. You're gonna get bloody."(only if you set a high violence level) (BTW, the second screen show shows more accurately what the final game will look like.) -- {2-4} - General Questions The following is answers to some general questions the public might have. - {2-4-1} - What weapons will you have? There are lots of weapons: pistol, dual pistol, MP40 machine gun, bazooka, heatseeker, firebomb, flamewall (hilariously powerful), drunk missile, split missile, and two very powerful magic weapons. Another weapon is the ExcaliBat which can be used to hit grenades back at their originators and smack enemies against walls. :) Heat seeking missiles can get confused and head for the guy/gal who fired them, and they can veer off towards ANY heat source. They can get stuck going in circles forever(until they blow up)! The Split missile now splits into two HeatSeekers, making it a VERY dangerous weapon. The weapons can do all sorts of stuff. They can.... ....perforate the enemy. ....burn them to a crisp. ....explode them all over. ....pulp them into goo. ....discorporate them. ....blow them across the room. - {2-4-2} - Will there be multiple stories? Yes. You can go up on platforms that are either 8 feet off the ground or up to 120 feet off the ground! There will be up to 16 story buildings. You will be able to be physically above another player, so you can wait on a ledge until the guy you are battling against runs out of the tunnel you're standing over, aim down, and plaster him (or her). It will be the closest you can get to that in a fast action game until our computers are fast enough to do true 6-D action. BTW, if you master the level editor(if you get it) you will be able to create most buildings with multiple stories(as log as you don't have any non- 90-degree walls). This also means you can create a room with a secret door into a tunnel under the passageway you were just under. If you understood what I meant, sounds like fun! :) - {2-4-3} - What enemies will there be? They don't want to reveal EVERYTHING, but there will be six types of human guards, two types of undead monks(fireball-throwing, and "suck the life out of you" types), 5 types of machines(two moving, two stationary, and one's a big boss), 4 big bosses. The boss guys will be bulletproof and will not be affected by fireballs, so you have to gather explosive firepower to defeat them; your unlimited ammo weapons will not work. The humans have pistols, machine guns, chain guns, grenades, and many react to what you do. Some, when shot, will roll out of the way, so you have to re-aim. Bosses aren't just walk-walk-shoot. You have to figure out how to defeat them. The first one is quite tricky. These are the five robot types: Robot guard: fire hovering mines at you Ballistikraft: unleashes a barrage of missles and hovermines Two types of gun emplacements, one that fires in one direction, one that fires four ways(only bullets, but Tom Hall might add little fireballs or missles.....) NME (the Nasty Metallic Enforcer boss): just lots of stuff. He's really deadly. Sort of like R2D2 on steroids, just not as friendly. :) The models were made by Gregor Punchatz, who did the DOOM models. - {2-4-4} - What do the hazards do? The hazards are, well, hazardous. Some are constantly dangerous--you bump into them, they hurt you, like spinblades, lava walls, and so on. Some are periodic, so you have to run through when they are off or out of the way, like crushing cylinders, firejets, or spinblade stabbers. Some are moving so you have to watch out, like moving lavawalls, boulders, and so on. There's just a lot of stuff to burn, slice, or crush you. - {2-4-5} - What is in the shareware version? Eight original levels. All but two of the weapons. (So you'll need the registered to play Random Comm-bat Zones, because they might have these two weapons!) Cool music. Actors: Low Guards, High Guards, Over Patrols, Strike Team officers, Patrol Robots, and--gulp--Triad Enforcers. About half the walls. Three Comm-bat Zones. It is called "The HUNT Begins", and it covers the HUNT's first run-in with the Triad organization. The commercial version is called "DarkWar". - *{2-4-6}* - What are Comm-Bat Zones? Comm-Bat Zones are levels optimized for multi-player play. Like the Deathmatch levels in Doom. Apogee has trademarked the term Comm-Bat, because they HAD to name their multi player levels SOMETHING. There are nine different games you can play in Comm-bat. There are also over 30 different settings in nine categories that you can control to change the way the game behaves. There are over 100 different total variations you can play with different settings. Comm-Bat is, according to everybody who has played it, FUN!!! The guys at Apogee played a 9-player game a while ago. It was remarkably crazy! The sound effects are quite hilarions. You really know when someone has God mode on--their vioce booms from across the level! To quote Chris Lombardi of CGW(about Triad's Comm-Bat): "Deathmatch will never be the same again." You'll be able to play Comm-bat alone as well, just to practice in the level. You must hunt down entities called Eluders. - *{2-4-7}* - How do God and Dog modes work? You get the powerup, and: in God Mode, you tower above the actors, looking down at them. You hold out your hand, godfire shoots out straight at them, and they...discorporate. plus, in multi-player mode, your voice booms out over the level! in Dog mode, you turn into a dog, can't be hurt, bite people, run under low walls, and your bark is worse than your bite. Your BarkBlast shatters windows and is helpful. Plus there will be two nauseating "powerdowns", like Shrooms, which make you dizzy and makes it hard to dodge grenades..... - *{2-4-8}* - What will the different versions be? Everything is not solid on these, but right now: shareware: eight levels, three(?) Comm-bat Zones, some sounds, some songs, can get it for free. registered: over thirty levels, ten Comm-bat Zones, lots of sounds (1.5-2 Meg), lots of songs, cost $29.95 + $5 S+H (US dollars) super-enhanced: over thirty levels, ten Comm-bat Zones, a fifty Comm-bat Zones pack, tons of sounds, a random Comm-bat Zone generator, will be $39.95 + $5 S+H (US Dollars) for disk for sure. Will be distributed on CD as well, but the price for it is uncertain. There will probably be two retail versions: a regular registered disk-based type thing, and the super-enhanced version. To get the super-enhanced from Apogee, you simply order the super-enhanced version. It's like buying the Wolf Pack instead of just three episodes. I'm sure there will be some way to upgrade. - {2-4-9} - Will your player bob up and down as in Doom? Yes, and this can be toggled on and off. - {2-4-10} - Will you see different weapons on the remote modem player? Normally, they walk around with a weapon in one hand. This is how they look if they have a pistol, two pistols, or a machine gun. If they have a missile weapon, you can see they have a missile weapon in the other hand as they walk around, and they fire it with that hand. They don't have graphics for each _type_ of weapon, but at least you can tell if they are armed with more than bullets! - {2-4-11} - Will there be any stairs in the levels? The following quote is from Tom Hall, Creative Director: "Our engine isn't the DOOM Engine. It's a bizarre hybrid. The jump pads provide the vertical motion. There are metal walkways you can launch up to, or go under. This won't be possible, if implemented solidly, in DOOM style or 6-D games until our computers are a lot faster. We allow it so Comm-bat can have a new dimension. You can stand on a walkway directly over your opponent, jump down, spin around and shoot them. You can enter the same entrance--but one of you on the ground, and one in the air--and wind up in different places. It should make Comm-bat games that much more crazy." - {2-4-12} - How will they fill up a CD for the enhanced version? Well, they're not going to fill it up. Just because regular CDs can hold 80 minutes worth of music doesn't mean artists have to make 80 minutes worth of music. But they'll include lots of graphic files that will help editing, digitizations of some of our development stuff--just lots of stuff to look around at for a little peek inside game development. - {2-4-13} - Can you shoot holes in walls? Yes, and the holes made by your weapon appear _where_you_shot_it_ (not just a graphic replacement)! - {2-4-14} - Will there be bonuses? Yes, there are twelve bonuses you can discover, and if you get all of them, you get the coveted, elusive "Bonus Bonus"! These are like Duke Nukem bonuses, but more and cooler. Plus there are hidden items that no one but cheaters and the lucky will find.... :) -- *{2-5}* - A review by Hank Leukart The following is a review by a beta tester of Rise of the Triad, Hank Leukart(more famously known for his "Official" DOOM FAQ v5.8). Please keep in mind that Hank is using a beta version over a month before release and stuff may be added between then and now. BTW, he mentions that there is no network play, there is. At least 11 players on an IPX network, probably 12, and possibly 20. And he says there is no Cyberman support, there is, and they will be supporting the upcoming SpaceBall, which really helps for aiming up and down. "I know what most people are thinking. `Is Rise of the Triad (herein known as ROTT) better than DOOM?' That question is very difficult to answer. ROTT is a different game than DOOM, and it is hard to compare the two. ROTT is a great game, but how good is it from a player's point of view? No doubt about it, the game is a heck of a lot of fun. From the difficulty level names ("I have pet names for my grenades.") to the gameplay itself, you could easily play this game for hours and not get bored. Here's the good stuff: Unlike DOOM, you can only hold two weapons at a time: one "bullet" weapon and one "missile" weapon. Each bullet weapon has an unlimited amount of ammo, but "missile" weapons do not. After picking up one bullet weapon, you can still pick up another however, but then you will simply drop the weapon you had previously onto the ground. The Pistol itself is pretty boring. Once you get the Dual Pistol however, you are really rockin'. You can fire shots as quickly as the machine gun in Wolfenstein 3-D, and holding TWO guns in front of you looks really cool. The only other "bullet" gun in ROTT is the MP40 Machine Gun, and it is great for mowing down a lot of enemies in a row. I prefer DOOM's Chain Gun over the MP40 though. The missile weapons include a Bazooka, Firebomb, Heatseeker, Split Missiles, and a few others. Split Missiles are a great idea: you fire the launcher and it shoots a missile to your left and your right but not in front of you. It is great for those long hallways where the enemies are hiding in the side walls. The Excalibat is another one of my favorites. I've always wanted to pound people's heads in with a baseball bat! :) You have got to love the power ups in this game. Apogee did something very creative with these: there are good and bad powerups. For instance, god mode makes you ten feet tall and allows you to fire incredibly powerful "energy" called Godfire. However, "Shrooms" make you dizzy and move you around in random directions, making it very difficult to dodge incoming grenades. Of course, you can't forget Dog Mode, which turns you into a dog, makes you two feet tall, and allows you to bite enemies. You can also use this to sneak into small spaces. There are even three types of armor: bullet proof, asbestos, and gas masks. Bullet proof armor protects you from bullet weapons (obviously), asbestos protects you from flying fireballs, and the gas mask will protect you if one of your "buddies" releases poison gas into the room you are in. ROTT's environment is very interactive. Using PGUP and PGDN, you can look at the ceiling and floor and shoot enemies that are higher up than you. You cannot, however, use the mouse to control this movement, and ROTT does not support the Cyberman. You can fire your shots into ANY object (including flowers and lights on the ceiling) and they will explode. (YES!) Another one of my favorites is glass windows. If you see a window, shoot it! It will shatter like you have never seen! In ROTT there are often hidden places on the floor you can step on to open secret doors. ROTT's doors open many diffent ways, including splitting diagonally and sliding open. Some other exciting things include spinblades (you have got to love it when an enemy walks into this and he or she explodes into a hundred pieces), firejets, crushing cylinders, lava walls, spear stabbers, trampolines, and crates of TNT. The automap is much different than in any other games I have seen. Instead of having lines to display where rooms begin and end, tiled graphics display where you are. For example, if you are near a door on a map, you will see a picture of a door. By popular demand, the game allows you to play five different characters, two of which are women. The graphics on the "hand" holding the gun change as well as your voice. (not in real life, in the game, silly!) For those of you who love graphic violence, I think ROTT will be the game for you. Enemies are always releasing blood everywhere and exploding. If you have the game's "Violence Mode" set to "EXCESSIVE," you are going to see some serious action. (MUHAHAHAHA!) For concerned parents and graphic violence lobbyists, the "Violence Mode" can be password protected. I hear rumors that the final release will include some very graphic enemy chopping. Wait and see! And now for the bad stuff: First, ALL of ROTT's walls are at 90 degrees to each other. This causes a little less variety and in how the game looks and map design. The look up and down feature is not used as well as it could be, since enemies are rarely above you and there is really no point in shooting the lights! The idea that you are only able to hold two weapons at one time takes time to get used to. I am not sure if this really adds to the game or if it is just an unnessecary limit. All the actors in ROTT are digitized, real life people. The enemies are not quite human though. They all die pretty much the same way when you shoot them with a bullet weapon. Additionally, the actors do not seem quite 3-D when they are shot to the ground. They seem to transform into a 2-D piece of cardboard when they fall. However, it is great to seem them ripped apart by a spinblade or blown up by a fireball. :) On my 386/40, the game simply plays too slowly. Although the texture-mapping seems to be as fast as DOOM's, to play very well on a 386 you simply need more than 4mb of RAM. On my 486/33 with 16mb of RAM, however, the game plays perfectly. I have not been able to test the serial code (modem play) at this time, so I am not sure how well it will play. ROTT does include thirty (yes, I said 30) Comm-Bat (tm) specific levels to play over the modem. I have looked over them and can say they look quite fun. Overall, I find ROTT to be an enjoyable game, but I have trouble saying that it is better than DOOM. No doubt, it is different. Hank Leukart" *{2-6}* - A review from Interactive Entertainment This is a review I clipped from Interactive Entertainment about Rise of the Triad. Interactive Entertainment is a CD-ROM game magazine, which is less than $10 each. I would recommend getting it monthly if you have a CD-ROM drive(the November or December issue should come with Rise of the Triad shareware). It is available at local software stores hopefully near you. They got a few details wrong(the date they got was October, it is now slated for November; they don't mention network play; etc...), but they added a few things I haven't seen before(playing dead, richocheting bullets, etc...): "Apogee is the all-powerful emperor of shareware games; that's pretty much common knowledge. Starting with Kingdom of Kroz--a game that offered 16 colors even on a CGA system and ASCII graphics that didn't look like ASCII graphics--Scott Miller and his associates have single-handedly given shareware a good name, constantly releasing high-quality products that make the majority of other shareware offerings look like rancid sacks of platypus snot in comparison. Now, it's time to do it all over again. Once more Apogee has decimated their own standards, coming up with another first-rate game that is soon to have all of us saying, "That is shareware? Holy jeez!" Scheduled for release in October, Rise of the Triad is sure to have every Doom freak in the world lining up just to drool all over it." (Author's note: Now scheduled for release in Early November) "Rise of the Triad is a first-person shooter much like Doom, System Shock, and every other game that's being released this year. You play an agent of HUNT--the High-risk United Nations Taskforce. You are assigned to investigate cult activity in an old monastery on San Nicolas Island, 20 miles off the coast of southern California. Suddenly vicious troops attack, your boat is sunk, and your radio's final transmission chronicles the destruction of Los Angeles. It seems the Oscurido cult has a couple powerful new friends, a pyrotechnics expert and a millionaire to be specific. They will annihilate millions in the name of El Oscuro if somebody doesn't stop them. And guess who just happened to be in the right place at the right time again? Something has to be done, but what? That's right: kill, kill, kill! Grease up that CTRL key, it's time to go a-slaughterin' once again." "The folks at Apogee have sure been busy since the release of their last first-person shooter, Blake Stone. Blake ran off the Wolfenstein engine, and while it was still a great game, technology-wise it felt a little dated to me. No one taking even the merest of peeks at Rise of the Triad will confuse it with the Wolfie engine. The programmers really didn't pull any punches in the bells and whistles department. Ten real-life actors have been digitized to provide you with realistic-looking people to waste; the hand holding your gun is also digitized. ROTT also takes light sourcing to new levels. You can actually shoot light fixtures and see the illumination of the room drop accordingly! Even atmospheric effects like fog have been added." "As great as ROTT's visuals are, they are matched by the sound effects. Guards screaming "There he is!" and "Shoot him!" have never sounded clearer, and their anguished death cries are ample reward for a quick trigger finger. (Continued survival makes a nice perk, too.) Flame jets spurt from the ground with a gaseous whoosh, and bullets whine as they ricochet off metal surfaces. The real sonic stars are the weapons. Your pistol barks its deadly retort, and the uzi is the most realistic sounding weapon I've ever heard in a computer game. If you just bought a shiny new Sound Blaster and you want to show your non sound card owning friend what a chump he is, this is the game to do it with." "One of the things people liked most about Doom was its modem play, so naturally Rise of the Triad will feature it as well. Apart from the 32 regular levels, ROTT will feature 20 levels specifically designed for head-to-head games. It will also include a battle level editor. If you're too lazy to create your own levels, you can make use of the random level generator to create new levels for you and a buddy to stalk each other in. Oh no, I can feel my phone bill increasing tenfold already!" (Author's note: They forgot to mention network play for (certainly) 11 or (POSSIBLY, MAYBE, A LONG SHOT) 20 players) "I have played Rise of the Triad, and it is good. How good? REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEALLY good! Honestly, I can't think of any reason why every Doom nut in the country won't flock to this game when it's released this fall. It's beautiful, fast (on the Pentiums we play with at the office it seems to run slightly faster than Doom), and challenging. Have I mentioned challenging yet? This is not an easy game. Guards are very good at hiding in shadows, and frequently they nailed me two or three times before I could even figure out where I was being shot from. Some of them are even sneaky, and will play dead only to jump up and start shooting at point blank range! However, I digress. Rise of the Triad is a truly awesome game in the making, 20 megabytes of totally unbelievable shareware. I predict another major telecommunication traffic jam in October. First, everyone will tie up phone lines trying to download this monster, then they'll discover the modem play and never hang up! (Wise gamers will, of course, just pick up their copy of IE, which will feature the distributable version of Rise of the Triad once it is available.) When October comes around, buy a few months' worth of groceries, tell your boss you're going on an extended vacation (quit if necessary), and lock the door. You don't need any unnecessary distractions when you're firebombing evil monks!" -- - Chapter 3 +==========+ |Conclusion| +==========+ -- *{3-1}* - Author's note Well, that brings us to the end of the last Triad FAQ for a while. Don't worry, be happy! "I will return!" And after I actually play the game, and other people send in contributions, this FAQ will inflate to something the size of Hank Leukart's current Doom FAQ! :) -- *{3-2}* - Contributions If you have any questions or anything to suggest, here is a small chart on what to send where: The message content | Address to send to ----------------------------------------------------+------------------------ Compliments about the FAQ | rhilman@oasis.rain.com Questions about Rise of the Triad not in this FAQ | joe.siegler@swcbbs.com Information you would like in the FAQ | rhilman@oasis.rain.com Questions to Bill Clinton | president@whitehouse.gov Ordering information | joe.siegler@swcbbs.com Anything else | rhilman@oasis.rain.com Any contributor to this FAQ will recieve it, free of charge, in their e-mailboxes, usually before it's release to everybody else. - {3-2-1} - Contributors (BTW, I'm not counting myself and Apogee employees) Jason Maxwell Evans(jmevans@valhalla.cs.wright.edu) - My first non-Apogee, non-me contributor. He sent up some general information, which I widely scattered(in the appropriate places, at least. :). Hank Leukart(ap641@cleveland.freenet.edu) - An Apogee beta tester, who was able to give me some nice info. He is also the author of the "Official" DOOM FAQ v5.8. This FAQ..........is finished! (silence)