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Re: U1 Trivia Thread ONE YEAR BUMP

Posted: 12 Mar 2016, 17:18
by UB_
Soledad (Soledad.unr)
  • Soledad is Spanish for "solitude".
  • Taking removed maps in consideration, Soledad was the first playable map made by CliffyB since Dig/Dug. Otherwise, players had to wait until the second half of RTNP for another CliffyB level (Foundry and Toxic).
  • Soledad has its own music track, soledad.umx. It has an action songsection which is used in the map itself.
  • Soledad was one of the three major crypt-themed maps removed from the game late in development; it was the most popular one of all the Unreal removals (if not really the only one that most people knew), with its name and screenshots being known/visible by most of the Unreal community. Note that the Crypt texture package only ended up being available in UT, never in U1/RTNP/UGOLD.
  • Compared to most cut maps in the 1998 beta aside Morose, Soledad appeared to be mostly finished. It also had a translator message: the infamous "Spawning Pools of Droth" one. Nobody knows who Droth is.
  • Soledad, at least in the Unreal 1998 beta, was entirely optional. However it contained valuable items and the Rifle and Minigun (in the beta, both weapons first appeared there). Soledad was also the first map filled of Krall and Pupae everywhere, though in the case of Krall that was going to change once the Sky Island section was finished.
    Soledad can be completed multiple times as it was always accessible from FHub4; obviously this wasn't going to happen if the section was fully developed and most probably Soledad's completion was required to access Morose.
  • Soledad, aside being known for its intense gameplay, had a quite high amount of secret areas, possibly the highest in any Unreal retail map. Few of them were very hard to access.
  • The purple water in Soledad is just water, even if it uses the tar texture. The water color might be related to the Pupae nests that leave out a purple substance.
  • The crucified Nali, if gibbed, triggered Special Event actors that cast a loud Call6 (wolf) sound. Also, if the Skaarj would run to the crucifix, he would set it on fire.
  • Soledad is known for having death traps: the giant ground blades and the crushing spike ceiling. The latter was insanely infuriating as the player needed to eliminate the Krall on the left hand side before said Krall could activate the trap (which is an instant game over if you're inside the spike room).
  • The Crypt2 texture with the big demon face (C_FLR11) is assumed to be the face of the cut Gargoyle creature (its model's face has horns and has a quite mean open mouth).
  • Sarcophagus' textures show Unreal creatures: a Skaarj Warrior, a Warlord (?), a Slith and a completely unknown creature resembling a mixture of a Pupae and Queen.
  • Very early versions of Soledad had some differences. One of them being the presence of a guillotine device (just the tool to lock the victim) in the area with the bridge which leads to the final part of the level (crucified Nali, spike trap and the end). There was also an area with a text that was completely removed. Pics are below. CliffyB was known to change the layout of these crypt maps very frequently, as seen with Morose's development.
  • The last area of Soledad had several interesting facts around it:
    • It was supposed to contain an Artifact where the DP PowerUp was placed.
    • There was apparently going to be a Queen encounter here, as one of the tags here has the event name "queef" (QueenFight). This was likely thought of when the Queen still had the planned early "turtle" design which would fit the size of the room. The bottom floor was probably going to be different too. The Queen would be likely then escape into one of the holes present there.
      It was rumored that Epic was planning for a side-campaign that would take place in this long cut section of Unreal, where you would play as a male character.
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Acerak Nali Fire God (Acerak.unr)
  • Acerak was a cut Myscha map and was the fire counterpart to Chizra. The map has never been leaked but it went very far into development and was shown in some trailers; it had lava and lots of traps - generally not a relaxing place.
  • This map is very much implied to be accessed from the unfinished temple in FHub4, as what's shown of Acerak in the trailers can easily correspond to the architecture of the entrance brushes.
  • That said, Acerak was probably required to be completed in order to access Morose.
  • The Acerak name was inspired by Acererak from Dungeon and Dragons, according to Myscha.
  • Acerak is the Nali Fire god.
  • The lava room with the Eightball from Ceremony was probably directly ported from Acerak; it was done very close to the game release and it was completely out of place in Ceremony/Chizra (lava, and the fact there was a second Eightball in Chizra, which basically killed the whole point of the Chizra map itself).
  • It's unknown which would have been Acerak's music track.
  • Fire Slith were probably enemies in this map.
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Tonatiuh Proving Grounds (Tonatiuh.unr)
  • Within Na Pali, it's unknown what Tonatiuh would have been referred to. In real life, Tonatiuh is the actual name of the Aztec Sun god - the only mythological god name to be used in Unreal. In Ancient.utx, it's represented in the texture "az-3" in a very similar way as its Aztec myth version.
  • From the title, the place was probably a location where ancient Nali warriors trained their fighting skills.
  • Tonatiuh is another removed Myscha map that has never been leaked. There's no info on what it could have been, if not being a secret map. It's generally assumed to come after Acerak as a "boss map" as the title suggests, plus Tonatiuh being related to sun and therefore with fire.
  • If it would have come after Acerak, you would return to FHub4 after completing Tonatiuh.
  • New3.umx (Secret Area) or Magnus are suspected to be the music tracks for Tonatiuh. Both were known to be used at one point in development.

Re: U1 Trivia Thread ONE YEAR BUMP

Posted: 13 Mar 2016, 12:47
by integration

Re: U1 Trivia Thread ONE YEAR BUMP

Posted: 13 Mar 2016, 14:59
by UB_
It is. Really good song.

Some stuff before Morose:
  • Added to TerraniuxUnderground/Terraniux the trivia that both maps were a single one before the 1998 beta. Also added the thing that this whole version of Terraniux had this infamous trailer room, separated from the rest of the map though. Probably some early idea about Mercs trapping Skaarj that ended up being rejected and eventually removed.
  • Added to the ISV Kran stuff the fact that the entire ship was going to be a single map (it was like this before the 1998 beta).
  • Added to Gateway to Na Pali all the info from its 1997 unfinished beta - Krall balcony as the starting point, Squid in the river.

Also, most likely, Acerak was going to have the Fire Slith.
Leo pointed me out that given the inspirations from games like Metroid (and its alien queen), the mysterious creature depicted on one of the Crypt sarcophagus textures was probably an early design for the Queen.

Re: U1 Trivia Thread ONE YEAR BUMP

Posted: 13 Mar 2016, 20:54
by UB_
Morose Temple of Jrath (Morose.unr)
  • Morose is a word that stands for sadness and unhappiness. Moros (the map's earlier name) stands for doom instead.
  • Morose was the last location of FHub4 and it was the only way to access FHub5. While in the Unreal 1998 beta you could directly play Morose, it was most probably necessary having completed Soledad and Acerak beforehand.
  • Morose was one of the three major Crypt maps that never made it to the final game. Like Soledad, this one was made by CliffyB and it was overall quite finished.
  • In the Unreal 1998 beta, this is the first map where the Skaarj Berserker appears.
  • After the Nali Prophet's sacrifice to overturn the first Skaarj invasion, all traces of the Skaarj, their bodies, their technology, etc... were entombed in special crypts, specially sealed against the return prophesied by the Prophet. These crypts would become outposts for the Skaarj during the upcoming final conflict for control of Gryphon.
  • Morose's author credit was "Grand Master Ice Shaft", an alias of CliffyB.
  • Morose, in its 1998 beta iteration, used SETI.umx, including its action songsection for a Skaarj Berserker battle that ended up unused in the released game.
    SETI, which stands for the Egyptian god Set and was used in a very old 1996 beta map of the same name, was then used in Ceremony after Morose was scrapped for the final version of Unreal.
    Although, Morose's early name, Moros, could mean that the song Cyrene.umx aka "Moros (Dark Presence)" was also made for this map.
  • Before approaching the area with the Jrath room, you cross a narrow bridge; while on there, you see on the left and on the right two demon faces. Shooting them once causes an earthquake.
  • This was the only Unreal retail map where it was mentioned that the Skaarj had a god, named Jrath. Jrath (as J'Rath) had a huge role in the unreleased Unreal PSX - he wasn't a Skaarj but in reality an AI created by a highly advanced and extinct race named Dranoel (mentioned in the novels) who was able to possess anybody; the black alien was supposedly his real form. He possibly influenced Skaarj's evolution.
  • Jrath was only added in later iterations of Morose. Before his addition, his room, instead of an altar, had a sarcophagus with a Skaarj inside that opened once you pressed two large buttons on the sides.
  • In an earlier version of Morose, one of the rooms nearby Jrath's altar had a large wooden chest made of brushes. It contained a pair of Jumpboots.
  • Like Soledad, Morose had its own death traps: spiked pits (only in earlier versions) and large swinging axes.
  • In an earlier version of Morose, instead of swinging axes there were FREAKING crushing hammers.
  • In earlier versions, Morose had more lava pools (they were eventually replaced with water).
  • The area with the Gasbags after the corridor with the swinging axes had a pit which led to the floor below in an earlier version of Morose. This pit is blocked by railing on each side.
  • Chizra's invisible bridge secret area was very likely inspired from Morose's own: later in the level, Morose had an area where you had to walk over invisible thin bridges.
  • The aforementioned area of Morose with the invisible bridge saw revamps. The earliest one known had proper large wooden bridges, no Amplifier secret and there was no lava pit - instead there was a bottom floor accessible throughout a circular portal. On this floor there were Skaarj Warriors, buttons/levers to open access to the next area and lastly, long pits all over the place with bloody spikes at the bottom of them. Falling in them is of course instant death throughout a KillInstigator Special Event.
    Later in development, Cliff apparently added a spiral staircase to connect bottom and top floor on the left hand side as you enter this large area to then remove it; this is implied by the pathnodes that haven't been deleted. They remained outside the playable world.











Re: U1 Trivia Thread ONE YEAR BUMP

Posted: 13 Mar 2016, 21:23
by Sat42
Awesome read :tup:
There's something very Quake-like about these Crypt-themed maps. I'll get to experience them in a finished form with RTNP:UE, I guess!

Re: U1 Trivia Thread ONE YEAR BUMP

Posted: 13 Mar 2016, 23:08
by UB_
The thing with RTNP:UE is that it is actually quite popular. Saw it mentioned in a lot of beta-related Unreal vids on YouTube.

Re: U1 Trivia Thread ONE YEAR BUMP

Posted: 14 Mar 2016, 16:58
by UB_
Added to Dark Arena and Harobed the fact that the original shareware ending was the Terraniux pool bridge. No movers in the pool so no way to cross it legit.

FHub5 (FHub5.unr)
  • FHub5 was a cut Unreal map made by Juan Pancho Eekels; it was eventually used and revamped for RTNP as "Nagomi Passage" (the only RTNP map that's visited twice in two different levels).
  • Like FHub4, FHub5 used the desert theme in a similar way. It seemed overall a bit more developed.
  • FHub5 had three access points: Aztec, Nexus and Foundry. Similar to FHub4, the true exit (in this case Foundry) was already accessible from the get-go, something that was eventually going to be changed with Aztec and Nexus required to be completed first. Aztec and Nexus could be completed multiple times.
  • In the FHub5 only underwater tunnel, there was a fan that instakilled you if you get close. This was caused by Trigger + Special Event actors, so destroying the fan would NOT cancel the instakill effect in its radius.
  • Geographically speaking, FHub5's Aztec entrance point made more sense with its exit location. In RTNP, Aztec ends up MILES AWAY from Nagomi instead (if anything, it goes straight below Spire Valley).
  • There were two one-way bird flight events in this map.
  • FHub5's music track was Newmca4.umx - the original name of Fifth.umx, song of The Trench in the final game. "Fifth" is a reference to the 5 in FHub5's map title. Only the ambient songsection was used.
  • The crypt architecture in FHub5 was left completely untouched in Nagomi.

Re: U1 Trivia Thread ONE YEAR BUMP

Posted: 15 Mar 2016, 04:11
by Mister_Prophet
These updates are always a delight to read. One of the best threads on USP, ever.

I have a question. I know I've played a heavily modified version of Soledad years ago. Is there a download out there for the original level, by chance?

Re: U1 Trivia Thread ONE YEAR BUMP

Posted: 15 Mar 2016, 13:21
by UB_
Mister_Prophet wrote:These updates are always a delight to read. One of the best threads on USP, ever.

I have a question. I know I've played a heavily modified version of Soledad years ago. Is there a download out there for the original level, by chance?


Thanks!
Here's a Soledad closer to the original one http://www.mediafire.com/download/hv9j7 ... oledad.unr

Re: U1 Trivia Thread

Posted: 15 Mar 2016, 16:59
by UB_
Aztec (Aztec.unr)
  • Aztec was a cut Unreal map made by Shane Caudle. It was eventually used and re-arranged for RTNP, as "Velora Temple" by Nivlek. Compared to the original version, Velora Temple lacked several areas, various details, scripted events, battles, a boss fight (double boss fight on Easy and Unreal difficulty!), its original music track, the whole intro terrain and the unique access point from FHub5 (the Nexus entrance was used instead in Nagomi). Among beta maps, Aztec is generally considered to be strictly superior to its finalized/retail version but this is Legend what we're talking about.
  • In the Unreal 1998 beta, Aztec was fully optional and could be replayed multiple times. This was eventually going to change with it and Nexus being required to play before Foundry, if the cut section was fully developed.
  • Aztec never had anything to do with Velora. Velora was a name given to another location until Legend decided to re-use the name in RTNP. Up to you which story source you'd want to follow.
  • Aztec used its own music track, suspense.umx (Velora Temple used UTemple.umx, Vandora's track). Suspense, Brandon's song scrapped from the release version of Unreal, is an ambient-only track and was the second song that was ever made for the game. However, in development it got used literally so much to the point of pissing off CliffyB. It was also used for Bluff Eversmoking at first and MCA got inspired by it to make the current Bluff theme, sampling some of the synths from Suspense (made by Brandon himself).
  • NOTE Regarding the music track - a custom one for various Unreal maps is also named Suspense and it has nothing to do with Brandon's own work.
  • As noted in FHub5's trivia, the entrance from the hub map made much more sense geographically speaking for Aztec, as Aztec's own exit would be much closer to FHub5's one (similar case with Rrajigar in FHub1).
  • Aztec was a night time map at first, as seen in a leaked version of the map and in some old screenshots showing the entrance to the location. It also had a Giant Manta hiding in the lake as well. The lake itself had also another water texture.
  • Next to the lake at the entrance of the temple there was a weird, small piece of walk-able land. Considering the river section before the lake valley was made later (the night time version of Aztec still didn't have it), it was probably planned that Aztec was accessed from there, as an Underflow location possibly since FHub5 wasn't apparently a thing yet. This meant you had to actually cross the lake, something you would never do in the fully playable Aztec.
  • Aztec's entrance lake and river had lily pads (as textured sheets with Small Wavy property ON). It was the only Unreal retail map that incorporated them.
  • Aztec was the only known Unreal map to have a Chameleon (located in the room where you walk on wooden planks to cross the pool below, with Krall on the other side). Chameleons (harmless creatures) were hard to catch and could become translucent to become less visible. The original plan with them was that if you were able to kill one, you'd get its heart which had invisibility powers. This was never implemented and the Chameleon was scrapped from the final game, plus the Invisibility item was already created since long.
  • Before Spinners were a thing, there were Pupae instead in Aztec.
  • Aztec was the first map (and known last one) since Chizra to have the Arrow projectiles, once again being shot from walls as an obstacle. This was removed in Velora Temple alongside its area. This doesn't count the trap in the room with the face-shaped door/pass - its arrows are movers that crush you instantly, not simple projectiles.
  • In an earlier version of Aztec, the drawbridge with the chopping saw trap (before the area with the face-shaped passage mentioned above) had its lever on the bottom floor - literally right there where the drawbridge was.
  • Within one of the areas that were removed from the Velora Temple counterpart, Aztec had a boss fight against a Stone Titan and a Giant Gasbag, all in the same large room. The StoneTitan appeared in all difficulties but the Giant Gasbag only appeared in Easy (uhhhh) and Unreal ones. Of course, they weren't teamed and it was possible that they would get angry at each other.
    This was the only known boss duo implemented in an Unreal retail map and also marked the last appearance of the Giant Gasbag due to Nali Castle having a Stone Titan instead back in the day, something that got changed once Aztec was scrapped from the final game.
  • The final area of Aztec had another removed trap in the middle of it: a very fast rotating pair of insta-kill blades. Due to its position, it was very easy to avoid.

Re: U1 Trivia Thread

Posted: 16 Mar 2016, 20:45
by UB_
Fixed some stuff on Aztec.

Nexus (Nexus.unr)
  • Nexus was one of the three major Crypt maps that never made it to the final game. Unlike Soledad and Morose, Nexus was made by Inoxx and... wasn't nearly as finished, in its Unreal 1998 beta form. No messages, no major scripted events outside of enemy spawns and breaking walls, harmless lava floors and also no music. It had however a boss battle and overall the theme felt more "demonic" compared to CliffyB's Crypt maps.
  • As said, Nexus's music track was not known. Cut songs Cyrene.umx or Newmca12.umx could've been used for it later in development.
  • Nexus was the only known location made by Inoxx for Unreal that wasn't hi-tech themed.
  • Just like the rest of Inoxx's maps, Nexus contained a "x" letter in its filename (and map title too). It's unknown what was the meaning of Nexus in the case of this map.
  • At one point in development, Nexus was separated in two maps due to its size being too much for old rigs: the regular Nexus and Nexus End which contained the boss battle.
  • As of the Unreal 1998 beta version, all of Nexus' lava pools (floors more like) were completely harmless except one (which still did 10 damage per second anyway). For most of them, you had to fly away otherwise you'd get stuck there forever. Overall, if they weren't harmless, falling in most of these lava pits was a guaranteed game over.
  • Ironically, Nexus is the map which introduced the Asbestos Suit, the unused lava counterpart to the Toxin Suit in the released version of Unreal (until RTNP Foundry). The thing is that even if you were immune to lava, you still couldn't get out of their pits without cheating. This was likely an oversight that was going to be fixed, or the Asbestos Suit was only able to protect you from "walk-able" lava pools while the pits were going to harm you no matter what (through different DamageType or scripted events).
  • Walk-able lava pools were going to damage you throughout Triggers + Special Event damage. Some of the Triggers were placed but none of them were attached to Special Event actors (as far as in the 1998 beta version).
  • In RTNP, Nexus' entrance was used for Velora Temple (Aztec) instead, with the structure being pushed into the mountain.
  • In the Unreal 1998 beta, Nexus, alongside Aztec, was fully optional and could be played multiple times. This was going to be eventually adjusted with both maps being required to be completed in order to access Foundry.
  • Similar to Soledad, Nexus' water pools used the tar texture; this might be due to the Pupae nests in the location.
  • Nexus was known for its non-linearity among indoor maps; in the Unreal 1998 beta, you could skip all the exploration and go straight to the exit (you still had to find it, though). Remember that the map was unfinished.


Nexus End (NexusEnd.unr)
  • This was Nexus' final area with the boss battle until it got separated in its own level due to performance issues.
  • Look at the screenshot to see how Nexus End was attached to Nexus when they were a single map: after the door there was another corridor like the previous area's one, then there was a mini-corridor which had a left turn and then Nexus End itself.
    And yeah, the exit position of Nexus didn't match FHub5's one at all. Remember that FHub5 might have been apparently made later than Nexus (and Aztec too).
  • Nexus End didn't make use of music tracks.
  • When Nexus was a single map, its end bosses were simply two Skaarj Lords. When Nexus End became its own map, the Skaarj Lords were replaced with two buffed Skaarj Berserkers with Lord and Scout skins. The Skaarj Berserker bosses did not attack each other because they were under the same TeamTag (suckers) - this was the method to stop Skaarj Berserkers attacking whoever they saw; this still works in the released version of Unreal but the Skaarj Berserker example in Nexus End wasn't ever done in finalized retail and custom maps (as far as I know in the latter case).
  • In the Unreal 1998 beta, Nexus End contained the first battle against Skaarj Warriors that were used as bosses, and is the only retail Unreal map ever made to have a Skaarj boss duo.

Re: U1 Trivia Thread

Posted: 17 Mar 2016, 17:18
by UB_
Foundry Tarydium Plant (Foundry.unr)
  • Foundry Tarydium Plant was a cut Unreal map made by CliffyB. It appeared in RTNP instead with some minor changes made by Nivlek (no name change, same looks, same entrance, same exit). Screenshots and trailers showing Foundry were generally common.
  • Foundry's music track has always been the same, of course, though it ONLY got added later in development; it was also originally called foundry1.umx, to eventually get renamed into Found99.umx. The "action" songsection was never used in-game but was commonly heard in Unreal trailers; this songsection was at first an own music track named Unreal2.umx (which is the trailer version).
  • The Unreal 1998 beta contained an older version of Foundry named Found98. It's covered down below in this trivia list.
  • Foundry's initial concept was another Skaarj mine with machinery stuff. It was always planned to be a late-game map.
    In this location, Tarydium crystals were processed to remove their impurities (that were all sent into the next map, Toxic). The factory was supposed to be in poor shape, with Skaarj not bothering fixing stuff and leaving all the work to the Nali (whose numbers in Foundry were diminishing day by day).
    Map documentation mentioned, other than hazards for the player, explorable exterior areas. The finalized version ended up having one but it couldn't even be accessed.
  • Tarydium in the map is never seen. Apparently it was all already processed.
  • Realistically, Foundry's build would make it impossible for Skaarj to access different areas without making it through hazardous sections. The "It has been 0 days since our last accident." certainly implied so but then Skaarj do have teleportation technology.
  • In the U-turn shaped, large area near the beginning of the map, there were some gray squares in the wall on the bottom floor. These were caused by lamp brushes on the other side of the wall, intersecting within it.
  • As seen in the Unreal 1998 beta, the U-turn shaped area mentioned above had two Cannons that would shoot you if you were in their range, with extremely strong cannon bolt projectiles (though you could destroy them from afar). The projectiles themselves were left in the released version of Unreal as they were but the Cannons had their AI completely broken; they would only fire at the player if it had ZERO health (some UnrealScript changes broke their code and Epic didn't bother to fix it). Cannons had their enhanced versions too named HugeCannons - basically bigger versions of them.
    Beta Foundry was the only known retail map to ever have Cannons, though two cut Mercenary maps made by Myscha (ALFA62 and HAL) were apparently going to have them too.
  • Foundry was infamous for its bug of having invisible breakable decorations containing items in some areas. These were indeed chests without an applied mesh (the mesh was supposed to be the WOODEN BOX one); they were not visible in the Editor either, unless the Search Actor function was used. This bug occurred in RTNP and in some Beta conversions. In the Unreal 1998 beta itself this bug was not present.
    Note that the exact same thing is applied to Toxic.
  • As seen in the Editor, there were three nonsolid rock brushes outside of the visible courtyard; apparently, the exterior area was supposed to be extended beyond the walls with the rocks placed there.
  • From the same courtyard above: it was planned that flames were to get out from the four chimneys as you'd approach the window (alongside an "explosion" sound), just for eye-candy. The event was implemented... except the flame movers were not set to move up. Not fixed in RTNP Foundry either.
  • Foundry contained an Asbestos Suit. In the finalized version of the game, it was the only map to have it between the original Unreal and RTNP. However it was completely useless there as the only standard lava pool you'd encounter various areas afterwards did no Burned damage.
    HOWEVER in the Unreal 1998 beta version, the Asbestos Suit was a must-get for survival - turned out that the pipe section in Foundry was in reality harmful (49 damage per second, Burned damage) due to the extremely high temperature. At the end of the section there was a walk-able lava pool which did no Burned damage, albeit very minimal (10 damage per second). Overall, it was impossible to proceed without an Asbestos Suit and if you lost it due to damage you couldn't do anything else but die in the tunnel.
    In RTNP Foundry, you still get registered damage from the harmful ZoneInfo (which is why the screen seemed to regularly stutter, if you ever noticed) but the damage was zero, same with the walk-able lava at the end of the pipe.
  • In the Unreal 1998 beta, Behemoths made their first appearances in Foundry.
  • In one of the storage areas found later in the map (the one with the small chamber with the destructible door, precisely), there were windows on the roof. These were removed in RTNP Foundry but not their light sources.
  • Regarding this storage area, you would access it through a hole in a pipe. In RTNP Foundry, an explosion occurred when you approached it, revealing the exit. In the original version instead, you were the one to cause the explosion - you just had to shoot something like a rocket on the wall. You could get killed by the explosion though.
  • Always in the same area, the door which led to the successive one had to be opened by pressing floor buttons behind all the four pillars; in RTNP Foundry the door was opened by just being approached.
  • The next area after the aforementioned one, where you had to climb through the floors, had each elevator activated by a big red switch. These switches were removed in the RTNP Foundry and you just had to walk on the elevators to activate them.
  • Regarding the earlier version of Foundry named Found98:
    • It was vastly unfinished. It was also set in night time, similar to early versions of Aztec and Toxic.
    • There were no brush-type crates, just wooden boxes.
    • There were Gasbags.
    • The bottom floor of the U-turn shaped area had lava (of the walk-able type). If you fell in, you had to run as fast as possible to the elevator before you were toast.
    • Always in the same area, there were no Cannons but instead there was a Behemoth shooting you from the control outpost, behind the windows.
    • No Asbestos Suit. The pipe section had no deadly Burned damage though, so the suit was pointless (as pointless as it ended up with in RTNP Foundry).
    • The area after the pipe section had a Behemoth coming out from the space inside the slope brush. This time however, there was a mover covering said space and the Behemoth had to blow it up to get out (what the fuck he is doing inside there, anyway).
    • In the room with the GES BioRifle, you recall another empty, cubic space inside. In this version, it was closed down with a wall mover, which would only open if you'd get the GES items. There was nothing inside however (undeveloped ambush, most probably).
    • The area having the room with the destructible door contained a really large wooden box. Inside it there was a Cow of all things.
    • This version of the map couldn't be run in the Unreal 1998 beta without various workarounds. It was built under an early version of the game in late 1997.

Re: U1 Trivia Thread

Posted: 17 Mar 2016, 22:52
by Sat42
Interesting to learn about how all this developed, as usual. Now I'm particularly looking forward to Bounds of Foundary, and hopefully for some detailed info on ALFA62 and HAL :)

EDIT: I just checked the first page of the thread again and realised that more info on lost maps is perhaps mere wishful thinking :P

Re: U1 Trivia Thread

Posted: 17 Mar 2016, 23:04
by UB_
I had to fix something about the Cannon, the AI still shoots you actually... when your HP is 0.

Re: U1 Trivia Thread

Posted: 18 Mar 2016, 19:56
by UB_
Bounds of Foundry (Toxic.unr)
  • Toxic (original name) was a cut Unreal map made by CliffyB. It appeared in RTNP instead with some changes made by Nivlek regarding gameplay and geometry details: various rooms removed, scripted events modified or simplified down and a different boss battle. The map was also given a proper title - Bounds of Foundry.
  • In respect to earlier versions of Aztec and Foundry, Toxic was also originally set in night time.
  • Toxic's original music track was Blossom.umx, aka the original name of Neve.umx but with its songsections being fully separated.
  • The invisible chest bug from RTNP Foundry also occurred in RTNP Toxic and not in the original beta versions.
  • From the notes, Toxic was inspired by Quake's industrial maps and was intended to be similar to Axis Chemicals from the original Batman.
  • As strange as it sounded, the Foundry/Toxic compound was originally made and operated by the Nali, in order to have purified Tarydium as a power source. This would justify the weird layout of both maps, as Nali could teleport through areas without dealing with hazards.
    Full notes: Realizing the value of Tarydium as a power source, the Nali needed to remove impurities from the crystal in order to make it as potent and powerful as possible. After the impurities were removed (see FOUNDRY) the byproduct was broken down into a fairly harmless substance. (the always environmentally conscious Nali) The waste is funneled into the plant via piping. It first passes through a filtering process that requires several floors for the waste to pass through. (gravity pulls it.) After the waste is filtered, it is heated to extreme temperatures. Finally, it is siphoned out through the plant into an enormous dammed area where it is drained into the planet’s Sea of Solstice.
    Eventually Skaarj took control of the factory and never bothered doing maintenance, causing the "Toxic" part of the location to be polluted.
  • Toxic was planned to have more interactive machinery and a huge slime waterfall. Generally the map was going to be in a poorer status, with collapsing parts, broken devices and more slime around.
  • As the whole compound was built on a mountain, Toxic had originally mountain brushes in the first area instead of plain walls.
  • The Jumpboots secret area at the beginning of the level was originally opened by killing a lone BIRD in the outdoor area. This might have been a reference to the Birds in Jazz Jackrabbit, who most of the time had to do with secret areas.
    Or if the "gottapiss" event tag is anything to trust, Cliff just did something random.
  • In RTNP Toxic, the first outdoor area did eventually become inaccessible (a trigger placed in the next area locks it down with a door). This was done because the first area had a slime pool and falling in it with a Toxin Suit meant you were stuck there forever without cheating. In the original version there was no door so it was possible to screw up (probably an oversight which got fixed later).
  • In RTNP Toxic, two slime zones only dealt 5 damage per second (the pumps one and the Slith tank one) compared to the original version which had only one less harmful slime pool (the Slith tank one).
    The other pools dealt the usual 40 damage per second, meaning you had to be careful to not lose your Toxin Suits.
  • In the original Toxic, the way to access the third area was slightly more complicated. In the RTNP version, all you had to do was activating the two pump wheels and you could then freely swim in the slime pool to proceed in the next section.
    In earlier versions instead you had to activate both pump wheels first but the tanks did not explode, just a maintenance panel on the floor next to each tank opened instead. You then had to shoot these panels to blow up the tanks; however, if only one was destroyed, you couldn't proceed in the slime pool because a floodgate blocked you until the second tank was destroyed as well. This was explained in one of the translator messages - "In the event of both primary pumps sustaining significant damage, the floodgates to Sector 2B will open." - which got edited in the RTNP version to correspond to the changes made to the scripted event.
    One last thing was that in RTNP Toxic you could still see the space for the floodgate door mover in its "open" keyframe.
  • The third area was different in the original Toxic - it had a set of circular corridors accessing three places: the second floor of this area, the room with the four sewer holes which became the core third area in RTNP Toxic and the bottom floor of the landing pad area. The latter had to be unlocked with a lever found on the second floor of the corridor area (all guarded by Brutes, above and below). This group of corridors accessing several locations was possibly based on an idea of having a rotating giant room where the player had to figure out how to proceed, according to the map notes.
  • The deal with accessing the crane panel room was originally more annoying. There were no side doors and the wheel opened the underwater bars instead, so you had to swim in the slime two times - one to access the crane panel room and another to get out of it.
  • The big slime tank had two related levers in the original Toxic: the known one which opened its doors and a second one next to the control panel on the floor below. This lever opened another door inside the slime tank and also triggered the pressure clock mover which ended up being unused in RTNP Toxic.
  • The area with the cylinder elevator shaft had a bunch of things being removed in RTNP Toxic:
    • The U-shaped corridor which led to the elevator lever had two removed secret rooms on both sides; one contained an Invisibility (the fake wall was simply opened by bumping on it), the other contained a Nali (his "weirdo scientist" mini chamber was opened by the elevator lever).
    • This Nali was supposed to open a secret area in the elevator shaft area (be careful at the spawning Skaarj Warrior). Said secret area containing a Health Pack and two Sludge ammo was in reality never removed in RTNP Toxic but couldn't be accessed either outside of cheating.
    • The hazardous elevator shaft. Not so dangerous in RTNP Toxic because the explosion happened the instant the lever was triggered; in the original Toxic instead, the explosion only triggered if you fired a projectile in it (there's a Skaarj inside as well), and that would kill you.
  • In the original Toxic, the landing pad wasn't optional. The little outpost in there was a "Forcefield Control Center", where you had to turn off a set of forcefields to access the penultimate area of the map.
  • The Skaarj shuttle in the landing pad was a mover but it never got any keyframe or attached events. The RTNP Toxic's ending intermission mentioned it was broken.
  • The boss battle. Originally, Toxic had somehow a freaking Titan which proven extremely hard to beat in such a small area (the two little pillars were literally the only things to protect you) unless the old insta-kill Amplifier+DP combo was used. One of the panels in the map also mentioned the Titan in the translator message.
    In RTNP Toxic, the message was completely removed and the Titan was replaced with a buffed Skaarj Lord. The hilarious oversight was that the Titan sound events occurring when you approached the boss arena were never removed (beforehand, it was assumed that the sounds were caused by the Titans in Watcher of the Skies... which could still justify their existence in RTNP Toxic).
    Interestingly, the map notes mentioned a player vs Skaarj duel before the exit. So why the Titan in the first place?
  • You were certainly not gaining altitude while proceeding through the original Toxic.