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Hell Hole 1.5

Hell Hole V1.5

By: Gary Simmons
the Battle Cat

I'm not going to embarrass myself or annoy you with version 1.4. It was a dog for several reasons. Most annoying was that the map was too sprite intensive meaning that sometimes monsters you were fighting would blink out of sight in mid carnage. They would still be there and still be fighting back but you could not see them. Just as vexing was the sticky polys, they would snag your shoulders and shake you snotless as you tried to run past them. A really great way to get yourself killed by a monster or a net player. However there were many good things to say about it. I had a really good handle on the map editor by this time. Mainly I was responding to the critique "Hell Hole V1.3" received in Frost's "Marathon I-Zine" review, I have fixed some things that I readily admit should have been in the original release. In order to practice properly, one needs to sharpen the "aiming up and down" skills. There are now 4 mounds that are .9 WUs high. I have also added shading to show the sun shining down at an angle onto the playing field. In addition to these recommended changes, I have made it playable as a net game as "Multiplayer Carnage" and "King of the Hill" with a sniper ledge overlooking the hill accessible via the Mosh Pit. Yet it still blows for the reasons stated so on to version 1.5:

Boy I hate whiners. OK, the number of polys have been drastically reduced thanks to Grendel's technology and tremendous personal sacrifice. You BASTARDS! It is much faster now, no more sticky polys. I have added "Kill the Man With the Ball" net play and for those of you who grew up with a "Slip & Slide" in your back yard there is now

  a water canon accessible via teleportation from the mound just under it. Just stepping onto the activated canon will land you on the hill. Running out of the canon will flatten your nose on the far wall but if you rub yourself off on a column you can run through the map at near relativistic speeds. Use this to scoop up weapons from the Mosh Pit for net play. No more Sniper Alley you sneaky little pukes, monsters are allowed everywhere except the Blood Trough. Actually this hearkens back to the original concept of this map where I thought it would be fun to blow monster guts over a low wall. Again back to the original concept, the weapons are now randomly placed except for net play. The whole idea behind the randomness of the player and alien start positions, weapons and ammo was to make it a new game every time you fired it up. Keeps you on your toes. THERE ARE NOW TWO (2) LEVELS in Hell Hole V1.5. Although either level can be played net OR solo, the first level is designed for solo play and has all the old and new goodies. The second level is designed for net play. THE DIFFERENCES IN THE NET LEVELS ARE AS FOLLOWS: Fewer monsters for those who like playing with monsters on. All weapons are in the Mosh Pit. Sprite intensive monsters have been eliminated in the net level because sometimes other players vanish from sight while escorting your filthy carcass to Valhalla in a hail of smoking lead and I'm not having any of that crap here. The Enforcer, Cyborg and half the Fighters were left out. No power up canisters to skew the Carnage Report, no invulnerability power ups for the same reason.

 

Levels in map "Bastard Child V1.0":
Hell Hole
Hell Hole

Levels in map "Hell Hole V1.5":
Hell Hole
Hell Hole Net