


SECOND LEVEL - 


Notes:

	No deathmatch capability.
	No diff. settings (yet).
	Less linear than its predecessor; but still many enemies and setups with "cross-fire" situations that the 
		player will be presented with...

The talk/walk-through of the 2nd of two levels...
	

(Broken up by areas):

Area 1, the "vat" room:
	This area was fun; but somewhat disappointing due to Quake's inability to deal with large spaces and cylindrical
	objects.  Also, vertex manipulation for seamless pipe-bends caused problems; and didn't always end up the same 
        in the BSP as when edited in WC - Unsure if this is a WC bug or not.  I planned on more separated "rooms" through 
        the use	of "walls" of pipes, but this ended up not working (once again BSP / VIS problems w/cylinders).  My favorite 
        parts of this level are right here.  The first
	couple of fights with soldiers can often turn into cross-fire situations if you rush in too quickly.  The second 
	(and my personal pride) is the "exploding" vat.  There are "no-smoking" -type signs around it; and when fired into,
	it explodes for a few seconds, leaving water and some destroyed gratings.  The trick is that it is ALL RANDOM.  Its a
	truly realistic physical environment (which even the enemies sometimes set off).  The slime has a certain explosive
	setting; but the explosions occur randomly across its surface.  And the grates/bars actually have a structural 
	integrity setting (tweaking the health key to work on objects its not supposed to).  They only get removed if an
	explosion around them (or gunfire on them) exceeds this set amount.  Every time you play the level, this event will
	happen differently.  Also, can you find the 2 places where secret items (3 secret items in all) are hidden? I didn't
	make them "secret" in the eyes of the Quake engine as I didn't want the "you've found a secret area" thing to disrupt
	the gameplay.  

Area 2, the "Exit" door:
	This was a fun little red-herring to get the player in another cross-fire situation.  Some
	enemies from the stockroom area will spot and fire on the player from behind.  A little bit of a dirty trick,
	but the player should know that exits aren't that easy to find *grin*  The security check-point you'd expect to 
	find in a facility that handles dangerous chemicals.  

Area 3, The hallways & offices:
	A homage to my old place of work (actually done before I left); as we were in the midst
	of all switching to cubicles.  Also, I figured ANY place HAS to have administrative areas.
	Do you recognize the artwork "logo" from a big company during the Commodore 64 days?
	Gun turrets and other security devices not being available, I chose guard dogs for some areas.
	The "light-combination" lock was a toughie.  It actually doesn't quite work correctly.  As long as you
	hit AT LEAST the required number of lights per switch, the door will open.  I was devising a way to have you
	light the lights and hit an "open" switch to check if the combination was correct; but it got too complex and I quit
	at around 30 entities.  I hoped that people will get the hint from the gold-key and check that locked office first.

Area 4, the control rig:
	The control rig (where the gantry control - GC and Door control - DC are located).  A small room, this was seriously
	easy; however the sparking GC was a little touch that took some work.


Area 5, the stockroom and exterior:
	This was another easy area to do - the box positioning wasn't tough; I wanted areas tough to get in and out of,
	but nothing to stick the player in place.  As a secondary bonus, these "tight-spots" allowed enemy placement for ambush and sniping
	positions; and they couldn't jump out or become out of position.	The gantry itself was a kick to do; I enjoy making small, detailed
	objects and areas a lot; though texture choices took a bit.  The semi-trailer outside was also a challenge; but actually not that
	hard.  I wish I had time to make it more complete; and reflective textures (for rear view mirrors) / more modern tex's might've been better.
	Watch for the guard dogs on patrol!

All in all, I'm more pleased with this level than the last one; mainly because my designs weren't as compromised.  Still, I wish the 
	engine supported more polys (isn't that always the wish?) so I could've done some ceiling-work (ventilation, grates, etc).  Also, the
	fact that Quake lacks many realistic modern textures was a slight problem.  However, I'm satisfied that these two levels combined 
	represent a good example of all of my basic level editing skills.  Enhanced engine features and AI could allow me to do more; but for
	now these levels will have to stand on their own. :)  Hope you enjoy them!

Factoids:

		Approx. time to complete this half (discounting compile times):  150 hours
		Approx. brush count:  1000
		Approx. face count: 5000
		Approx. entity count: 320
		Approx. time spent creating things: 100 hours
		Approx. time spent fixing bugs and re-working things: 50 hours
		Date began project: 10/26/97 (approx. 30 hours already put into project)
		
		