----------------------
 Long-winded Preamble  (added October 4, 2002)
----------------------

This section is pointless so skip it.

Well, as you can see below, this text file is actually dated the 20th of August, 2001, which means more than a year has elapsed since this text file was last touched. And I seem to remember that more than a year was elapsed since this map pack was finished and the text file was last touched. So this map pack is being released more than two years after it was actually finished.

WHY!!??? Well, the foremost reason is that I had some difficulty getting it uploaded to fileplanet. You see, they said they wanted a link to somewhere else on the Internet where the file could be copied from... Hey baby, if I HAD anywhere else to upload the freakin' file I wouldn't be BOTHERING you, EH!? (These days they let you upload right from your hard drive.) They refused to respond to my e-mails or help forms and I basically grew so weary with the whole thing that I forgot about it for a year. After a year I tried again; same result. By this time I DID have my own webspace, but it forbade outside linking to files so it was useless anyway. Now it's been two years and I'm willing to try again. I have to say, the new upload system is a long-overdue improvement.

Now, this map pack is stupidly dark and claustrophobic. Just read the walk-thru just so you don't have to bumble around all day in a tiny tunnel with only that useless flashlight. The second map was based on my house--everybody needs to produce a MYHOUSE map at some point, that's just how it is. The third map is an insanely huge and complex sewer maze. I was trying to make an enormous, fully-explorable environment in the tradition of Theif: The Dark Project. Tragically, this map is by far the most hideous offender in terms of being dark and claustrophobic, which kind of kills the charm.

Anyway, even if the map pack sucks, please visit my website:
       http://www.crosswinds.net/~mortsleam
Incidentally, there isn't anything to do with Half-Life on my website at the time I'm typing this, but there used to be, and there might be again in the future. Yes, I use the name "Sejuay" on my website instead of "Gibmaker", so don't think you're in the wrong place.

I thought I told you to skip this section anyway.

And if you use OpenGL, please turn it off.  This map pack was not built with the various features of OpenGL in mind; the way it makes the water all wobbly, and the way it cuts off rendering after a certain distance.

08/20/01

==================
 BOREALITY PART 1
==================

by Gibmaker
ejh2o@yahoo.com
http://www.crosswinds.net/~mortsleam

----------------
 Part 1 - Story
----------------

In a last-ditch attempt to escape Black Mesa with their lives, a militia of scientists, among them Gordon Freeman from Sector C, swarmed a small airstrip and hi-jacked the helicopters there, intending to fly them to the nearest major city and safety.

There were many casualties but the plan seemed to be successful - the survivors got the aircraft up and it did not appear that they were being pursued...  Things looked optimistic.

But then... there was strange interference in the air.  Radio signals were garbled.  The instruments were measuring high levels of atomic activity.  Suddenly, a giant warp rift opened around them and the whole fleet disappeared into it...

Gordon Freeman came to drifting down on a parachute towards a dark feild of snow.  His suit was registering extreme cold but the sheild was holding.  He hit the ground awkwardly and threw the parachute off of himself.

There was a small cabin in front of him, buried under snow up to the second floor balcony.  He crawled in through the balcony doors and...  heard the unmistakable squeaking of headcrabs nearby.

There's snow everywhere, he thought.  So this can't be Black Mesa.  So why are there monsters here?  Where am I?  ...  And how do I get back?

----------------
 Part 2 - Specs
----------------

Map pack name:	Boreality Part 1
Filename:       boreality.zip
Author:		Eric Hopkins (aka Gibmaker)
Size unzipped:  ~22.5 MB
Editors Used:  	Worldcraft 3.3
		Wally
		Zoner's Half-Life tools
		misc wav and bmp editors
Build Time:	I don't know.
Compile Time:	I don't know! Who freakin' cares!?
Single Player?  Yes.
Multiplayer?    No.
New Sounds?     Yes.
New Textures?   Yes.
New Models?     Yes.

Prefabs:

That smashed up helicopter in the intro map used to be a prefab by JediCow5 before it got smashed up.

The rest of the prefabs are all in the house area.  They all came from Prefab Lab.
  Toilet:  Lord Dakushna
  Washer/Dryer:  Brian Wheeler
  Pc, Keyboard:  Revolver

Acknowledgements:
  3d Cafe, for some of the textures
  Gearbox (Opposing Forces), for some more of the textures
  Neil Manke (They Hunger), for even more of the textures
  Nick "Crinity" Coombe, for the 'arctic night' sky map
  Rory Squires, for his sensual voice acting and playtesting
  Brian Hopkins, for sparing us his voice and also for playtesting
  Sean MacFarlance, for nothing, since he doesn't exist.  I made him up.
  Valve, for some reason I can't remember.
  Pyxaron for his file server.

Giving credit to people is fun.

----------------------
 Part 3 - Description
----------------------

Boreality is a single-player map pack for Half-Life.  (I hope you had that figured out.)  This pack, however, is only Boreality part 1, consisting of the first two chapters and eight maps of play.  The full completed pack would probably be about seven chapters and twenty maps.

Since this is just the first leg of what would have been a much longer map pack, the weapons and enemies available to you stay pretty primitive up the end...  You only ever see the crowbar, 357 and shotgun, and never fight anything more threatening than a slave monster.

Although the enemies are easy and relatively few, ammo is really tight, so don't be afraid to go back to the crowbar to take care of those headcrabs.  (Crowbarring headcrabs is easy, just strafe a lot.)  Or you can bitch and whine when you run out of ammo.  Well, you suck.

Also, the snow-covered boreal theme isn't explored very much (you spend most of the early chapters in the sewers), but it will be if I ever get around to making more of this.  Which I won't.

And a note about weapons - some people get annoyed if a pack is built so that you can 'miss' weapons.  Fuck you.  It shouldn't be up to me to throw weapons at you from every direction.  You want them, eh, jackass?  WELL GO AND FIND THEM!!

There's one 'bonus' map with this pack - the old two tanks puzzle which I redid from scratch.  Once you get to the end of the pack you'll be confronted by gman, who confides in you most of the things explained in Part 6 of this readme.  You'll be given the option of playing the bonus map or ending the game there - just follow his instructions to make your choice.

Or, if you select 'Hazard Course' from the main menu instead of 'New Game', you'll be taken straight to the bonus map.  I could have changed the btns_main.bmp file to reflect this, but I didn't see the sense in slapping you with another 737KB bitmap just for this one thing.

-----------------------------
 Part 4 - Setup Instructions
-----------------------------

Create a "/boreality" subdirectory off of your Half-Life Directory.  Unload the entire zip file into this directory.

Valve
  |
  +- Half-Life
  |    |
  |    +- Valve
  |    +- Hunger     * you should have this directory all ready since They Hunger is good.
  |    +- Boreality  * create this directory
  |    |    |
  |    |    +- pak0.pak
  |    |    +- reclaim.wad
  |    |    +- liblist.dat     (contents of BOREALITY.ZIP)
  |    |    +- readme.txt
  |    |    +- walkthru.txt
  |    |    |       

Now, you can:

1) start Half-Life as usual, go to 'Custom Game', choose 'Boreality' from the list and click 'Activate', then go to 'New Game' as usual, or

2) run Half-Life with the parameter '-game boreality', then start a New Game as usual, or, if you're really ambitious,

3) run Half-Life with the parameters '-game boreality +map boreintr', bypassing the main menu entirely.

---------------------
 Part 5 - Known Bugs
---------------------

Just some scattered flat overloads in the house area and the channel area below the bluw offices... that's the only thing I can think of.  Yes, I know we all hate that, but I'm totally exhausted with this map pack and I'm not interested in fixing it.

And if you normally use OpenGL for your video rendering, please don't use it for this map pack, otherwise it gets very ugly in some places.  This pack was not built to work nicely with OpenGL.

Also, sometimes the bar screen will appear to through the health kit into the furnace even if you got the health kit...  Bizarre eh?

-------------------------------
 Part 6 - Snivelling Apologies
-------------------------------

Chances are the rest of this pack will never get finished.  Well, sorry.

Even so, I kept the cool intro sequence in and all the story elements (like the garbled radio message in the basement of the house), even though they'll never come to anything.  Enjoy them or I'll hurt you later.

----------------
 Part 7 - Hints
----------------

There's a walkthru provided with this map pack, called WALKTHRU.TXT.  Feel free to read it if you get in a bind, but I didn't put hours into correcting the grammar, I'll warn you...  And also, the walkthru is just wrong in some places, since I wrote it and then I made some changes to the maps, well SHUT UP!!!!!

Random hints:

- If you make it to the sewers with still nothing but your crowbar, you missed getting the 357.  That's because you're a moron.

- In almost every room in the house there are light switches on the wall just inside the door.  Find them and use them, they can make it much easier for you.

- In the extensive first map of MELLIFLUOUS REFUSE, there are three shotguns. Y'all ought to find one before you leave...  But you'll never find any of them since you suck, and besides, there's one right at the beginning of the second map in that chapter.

- That elevator after the two-tanks puzzle obviously can't handle much weight...

- It's possible to not take any damage when the huge metal pipe (very last map in this pack) breaks.  Try to land in the water.  But you won't manage this stunt since you suck.

- The scientist in the TOXIC TENTACLES map won't attract the tentacles' attention with his walking or gabbing.  That's because he sucks.  So put up with it.

- If the scientist in TOXIC TENTACLES ever becomes 'paralysed with fright' (that is, he says "Okay, I'll follow you," but then he stays rooted to the spot) just throw a grenade any which-way.  That'll wake him up.

Here's my e-mail and website again, to fuse it firmly into your memory:
ejh2o@yahoo.com
http://www.crosswinds.net/~mortsleam

Adieu.