============================================================================================
Title                 :The Evil Thing
Author                :Nathan Ruck.
Filename              :where.zip
Email Address         :foolish_mortal@hotmail.com
Description           :load of shit
Previous levels       :None released.

============================================================================================
*Play Information*

Single Player         :Yes.
Deathmatch            :No.
Cooperative           :No.
Difficulty Settings   :Yes, obviously.
New textures          :Yes, but no good ones.
New sounds            :No.
New models            :Yes, I made the grunts green just to prove that I could.
Running the level     :If you are running the newer version of Half-Life, with the custom game feature, then just unzip it into your Half-Life directory, start up Half-Life, select custom game, activate The Evil Thing, and start a new game normally.
                      :If not, then download the newer version from http://www.fileplanet.com/ .  You might be able to run it anyhow, I'm not sure, but you might as well really.  You get Team Fortress with it and everything.


*Construction*

Base                  :New level from scratching bollocks.
Prefabs               :None, apart a few of the ones included with Worldcraft.
Editor used           :Worldcraft 2.1.
Build time            :Many months, but it's ok, I don't have a life anyway.
Compile machine       :P266 with 48Mb RAM.
Other information     :I wore a hat while I was making this.

============================================================================================

*Known bugs and Problems*
There are a few minor bugs left which I can't be bothered to fix.

1. In the truck at the beginning, when you are just about to go down the slope you can get stuck or die horribly for no apparent reason.  Just move a round a bit as you ride along and it should be Ok.  Also, when it changes to the next level you can get stuck in the walls of the truck, but just noclip out.

2. The lights in one of the sewer levels can be flicked on and off, but in the next one those same lights are always on.

3. There are some bugs on the rollercoaster at the end: sometimes the walls overlap the vehicle slightly, so sometimes they bump into you, killing you or stopping the vehicle.  Just stand in the middle of the vehicle and you should be alright.  You have no idea how tedious it is trying to fix this shit.

4. My computer is too shit to use hardware mode.  I have tested it a bit on someone else's, but there might still be some hardware mode related bugs left.  If you don't like them, play in software mode.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Story*

You are William Nicholas Alexander Raskolnikov Myshkin Freeman (yes, "Bill Freeman" is really Russian, bet you never knew that) the hardened Communist and pot-head (see Theme Song). You have infiltrated a secret base of the evil capitalist pigs who are trying to take over the world. Your cover job as a research scientist at the Coke-a-cola/McDonalds/USAF joint research centre has given you access to the devastating new technologies being developed to enslave the world.

You have done your best to halt their progress through the world. How could you know that people would actually pay money for pathetic slivers of "meat product" in tiny plastic rolls? Or that people would buy a "diet" version of a drink even though you took out the only decent part of the drink to make it?

To atone for your failures you have decided to steal the latest prototype plane being developed at the research centre. Although the poor design quality and build standards (the "Made in the USA" sticker is particularly frightening), make you concerned over whether it can actually fly at all, you decide that you must take the chance.

Determined to save the world, you jump on the truck to take you into the centre....


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Theme Song* (feel free to sing this as you play)

- to be sung kinda to the tune of "The Edge of Darkness" by Iron Maiden which you should buy right now - it's on the X-Factor album at the very reasonable price of 12.99 from all good music retailers.

For a week I have been waiting, but still I'm only in Preston. The walls move in a little closer, I feel the slums call me on. Every minute I get weaker, while in moss-side they grow strong. What I wanted was a spliff, and for my sins they gave me one. They brought it up just like room service, 'cos everyone gets to be stoned. And then that spliff was all over I'd want another one.
"We know Freeman, that you've smoked this stuff before. We got a problem, and you are stoned, I'm sure. The dealers gone rogue and his 8ths are unsound. You'll take a SUM up the Arndale, track him down."
There's a conflict in very pot-heads heart, and the temptation is to smoke it all too far. In this state, things get so confused, but skinning up can never be refused.
He's acting like a God, an insane lunatic. You mission - skin up with extreme quantities of skunk. Your mind is fucked and your progress may be slow. Here is the skunk and it's all you need to smoke.
Here I am the spliff in my hand and now I understand why the dope must be smoked.
Now I stone alone in darkness, with the dog-end in my hand. Where was the joint, the spliff, now lie the fragments of my mind.

I've looked into the heart of a stoner, where the pot-head journey ends. When you've faced the heart of a stoner even your mind begins to bend.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Hints*
Please do not read this, ever.

1. To get the HEV suit - It's in the locker room, in the locker marked 'Freeman'.

2. To fly the plane - Climb into the cockpit, and duck when the glass comes down.

3. To open the door in that level with the crashed plane - Go to the crashed plane and press the button on the joystick to fire the missile to kill the guard (It's an ultra-smart missile, specially developed by the USAF for precisely this purpose).  Go into the guard's hut, where there is a lever that operates the big door.

4. To get past the marines in the following level - You can't take on all those marines (I hope), so wait until an APC comes, jump on top it, and hide inside it until you get past the bit with the helicopter.  Then get out and keep walking along the road until you see a small door in the wall.  Go in there, switch the light on, grab the crowbar, and smash through the manhole in the floor.

5. The sewer bit - There are three ways out of the sewer, not counting the one you came in by.  One leads to a warehouse full of marines - you will have trouble getting past these with just a crowbar and an mp5, so don't go there yet.  The second leads to a corridor with a room leading off it saying 'Weapons storage'.  There are weapons in here, but the door is locked and you don't know the code.  However, if you look above the combination lock panel you will see a wire leading from it, up the corridor and outside the window at the end.  Unfortunately there are marines in the way, but you don't need to take them on as they are absorbed in their own fascinating conversation.  Go back down into the sewer, and walk all the way to the end, till you get outside.  Climb up the ladders until you come to the top.  You can see the wire, and a section of it has come loose and lost its insulation, allowing you to cut it with your crowbar, thus putting the lock out of action.  Go back down to the sewer and up to the weapons storage room, and you can push the door open now.

6. You have to actually fight them now.

7. The big warehouse - When you get into that huge room with the crane and crates in it, get on board the crane and press use, it operates like a train.  Drive it into the door at the end to smash it open.

8. The fusebox - At the end of the second big warehouse room is a small room with a fusebox marked 'Security Override' in it.  Pressing this will allow you to get through some doors that were previously locked.

9. The Self-destruct - Go back to the first big warehouse, and climb up the ladder onto the bridge, where a door is now opened to let some marines in.  Go back through there, and make your way to the pyramid, where you can now get into the control room.  Press the Self-destruct button in there.

10.  The Escape hatch - Make your way back to the room with the monitors and computers; you can now get into the escape hatch.  Get into the train and drive to freedom before the whole place blows up with you in it.  (I admit this part is a little unrealistic.  Just a little.).

11.  The End - Go into the prefab building, blow away the vent in one of the rooms, and use the desk or filing cabinet to climb through it into the adjoining room.

============================================================================================

*Thanks*

All the internet types with a Half-Life editing web page, for all those tutorials, particularly Rust ( http://www.gamedesign.net ) and the ERC ( http://www.halflife.gamedesign.net ).
Tony Newton, on the Gamedesign.net Hl Editing list, who helped me with a scripted sequences problem once although he probably doesn't remember.
Juddhunter at the 3D Map Realm Testing Zone ( http://www.3dmr.gamedesign.net/testing/ ), who was fairly helpful in trying to fix some bugs I had, although he does take a long time to reply to e-mails (busy guy).  <ADVERTISMENT>If you have a set of single player levels for Half-Life, why not get them tested on the 3DMR Testing Zone?  The 3DMR Testing Zone - Formulated and controlled by Laboratoire Garniere.</ADVERTISMENT>
Shandy for writing the excellent Story and Theme Song and fatuous comments and pentagram-related stuff.
Ed for testing and stuff.
The nice people who made Worldcraft, whoever they are.
The makers of Resident Evil 2, for giving the world the truly beautiful phrase "All Personnel Proceed to the Bottom Platform."  I cry every time I hear it.
Valve, for making Half-Life.
id for making Quake 2 and stuff.
Ada Lovelace for inventing programmnig languages.
Charles Babbage for inventing computers.
God (if he exists) for creating the Universe.
Yahveh (if he exists) for creating the Universe.
Allah (if he exists) for creating the Universe.  (It pays to hedge your bets).
Satan (if he exists) for being a cool dude man.


*Permissions*
 
Nibble.

============================================================================================

Thank you very much for playing my level.  Please write me an abusive email or something.