8-11-97

Extended (long) documentation follows the following description. I'd
like it if you read it. PLEASE read the Bugs section.
==========================================================================
Name                  : Trilogy Multiplayer
Date                  : 8-11-97
Filename              : trimp.bsp
Author                : Rich Tollerton
Alias                 : Publius
E-mail address        : rtollert@tranquility.net
Homepage              : None (yet)

Synopsis              : A small yet difficult DM level for 2-6 players.
                        Teamplay is doable. deathmatch 3 HIGHLY
                        recommended. Expert Quake highly recommended, but
                        optional; see http://www.planetquake.com/expert/
                        for details on the mod as well as the design
                        philosophy behind this. This could be a decent
                        1v1 map, though some problems are evident.
                        There are several problems with the map which you
                        should be aware of, read the Bugs section (at
                        least) before playing. Please.

                        This map will be in the Expert level pak (up and
                        coming) as well as the Quake Workshop DM pak.
                        It may (possibly) be added to another pack.

Non-Obvious Credits   : Myrkul - lots and lots of advice and testing.
                        Tony Distler - Identifying improper textures.
                        Various people on #Clan_Lagitus  and the Thred
                        Editing mailing list who reviewed this.
                        Several people playing on Expert 3v3v3 for
                        playtesting (sorry, don't remember the names)
==========================================================================


* Play Information *

Single Player         : No
Cooperative           : No
Deathmatch            : Yes (7 starts)
Difficulty Settings   : No


* Construction *

Base level            : New level from scratch
Editors Used          : Stoneless 1.01
Build Time            : 4+ months (approximately)
Compile Machine       : Pentium 150, 80M RAM

Utilities Used        : Transparent QBSP 1.61, arghlite v1, rvis v1
                        MipDip v1.55/qART used for texture moving/copying
                        newwad 1.4 used for texture creation
                        Photoshop v4 used for texture modifications

Known Bugs            : See below
# of Textures         : 24
Texture WAD2 Used     : Cropped textures.wad (of all id textures), plus
                        custom modifications of id textures

qbsp -verbose Time    : 46 seconds
light -extra  Time    : 220 seconds (3 minutes 40 seconds)
rvis -level 4 Time    : 354 seconds (5 minutes 54 seconds)

Brushes               : 516
Entities              : 230
Portal Leafs          : 424
# of Portals          : 1138
Average leafs visible : 108


* real docs begin here *

Storyline
---------
  The Trilogy Battleground was hastily prepared during the Quake Wars by
the alliance of human armies, assembled under the Trilogy standard, as a
small combat practice field for a select group of incoming soldiers. It
was located in recently captured enemy territory - an small, isolated
planet, completely overrun by volcanoes, and having only one usable
slipgate. For lack of transportation and materials, alien architecture
(of a blue metal) was put to use for its construction.

  The Battleground did its job well; the armies of Earth were victorious.
After the war, the Battleground had no use to them; all known slipgates to
the planet were destroyed, although the actual Battleground remained intact
(mainly for cost reasons).

  Shortly after the detonation of the slipgates, the Battleground
underwent severe modification. It is unknown who desired it, but it is
clear that the Battleground was going to accomodate a completely different
function - hold reserves of lava taken from the planet's surface, and
ship out that lava to a nearby lava refinery when needed. The changes were
made using a greyer metal more resistant to fire than the impure blue walls
that existed before; only about half of the Battlegrounds were converted.

  The main slipgate to the facility was also sealed - with a Trilogy
logo.

  Due to the design of the magnetic pumps that propel the lava, the new
outpost (for it is no longer technically a battleground) requires little
to no manual operation. However, once in a few years pumps may get
miscalibrated or lose calibration (espescially when some lava has no
magnetic potential), or too much lava is input into the facility, or
something along those lines. When any of this happens, the lava clogs up,
overflows the pools, and anybody who is there gets one hell of a spa. Some
of the lava immediately pours back into the ground grates, but quite a bit
cools on the ground, creating mounds.

  Most of the kinks in the pumps have already been ironed out, however,
and force fields have been erected to keep the lava from overflowing.
There is some intelligence to suggest that whoever controls the
facility is organizing a military force. If that is true, then the
Battleground may be used for its original purpose, although with
a more malevolent intent.


Description
-----------
trimp (trimp) v. [Quake]  To jump off a steep slope, gaining more altitute
than a normal jump in some computer game physics models. n. 1. A mound or
slope that permits trimping. Use is deprecated, see mound, hill. 2. Any
piece of terrain that exposes and exploits computer game physics bugs. 3.
Raw gameplay. Usually added as an ingredient in most maps. Some people
prefer fried trimp, trimp batter, or popcorn trimp. Pure trimp is
difficult to manufacture and requires distilling. 5. Trilogy Multiplayer,
a deathmatch and teamplay map written for Quake by Rich Tollerton, aka
Publius.

  Trilogy Multiplayer is a smallish map, written in a combined blue/grey
metallic architectural style, although there are many things of my own
devising. It's maximum capacity is about 6-8 players (although it gets
pretty crowded at 8); any more creates total chaos.

  This map will be in the Expert Quake level pak (info at
http://www.planetquake.com/expert/), as well as the Quake Workshop DM pack
(info at http://www.quakemania.com/qworkshop/). It is built on Expert Quake
design principles, so the ideas in the Expert Level Design page (from the
Expert Quake home page) are used throughout the map.

  The map is designed with gameplay and skill in mind. The type of 'fun'
that you'll get out of this level is different from most degrees of 'fun'
that you'll get elsewhere; there are no caches or extremely powerful items,
and all items and health are scattered pretty much evenly across the map,
so that there really isn't an optimal path of the map. (Taken differently,
there is an infinite number of them.)

  I call it difficult because your score is only limited by your relative
combat skill - there are so many different combat possibilities that
players MUST use the terrain to their advantage. No two parts of the map
are similar in combat; you can't expect a strategy that works in one room
to necessarily work in another. You can be attacked from any direction; you
can defend yourself with just about anything. There are no tight corridors
or extremely wide-open spaces, so that you are never guarenteed a hit
and never degenerate into infinite-plane combat.


Features
--------
  Several new design elements are in this map that have rarely been seen
before, espescially in this usage.

  First, note the several hills and slopes on the level. This is the
primary reason why each part of the map is different - the dynamics flow
around each slope differently. (You can also quite easily jump from the
hills - a very good tactic for offense and combat. I have dubbed this
technique 'trimping'.) (AFAIK, this is brand new in usage. Myrkul's Isis
had isolated mounds, and I got the idea from him, but they did not take
advantage of trimping at all. Some maps do have isolated slopes that use
this, but not in this fashion. In dm6, you trimp to get to the RL/100H
room from the center room; no other usage is demonstrated in any id map.)

  Second, note the stairs which can be accessed from every possible
direction on the lower level. I call these omni-directional stairs. You
will no longer be troubled by running backwards through a level, fighting
your opponent, when you run into a stair rail or wall and stop moving.
(The Canal Zone uses a ramp version of this, though this is again an
independent invention. Somebody said he saw this before somewhere else...)

  Third, note the very high spawn locations. This *eliminates*
telefragging. Period. (well, except if a player is trimping or rocket
jumping to the same location as the spawn spot... but still, the odds of
telefrags are substantially reduced.) The twin teleporters also use this
spawning system. (This has been demonstrated effectively before by a few
level writers.)

  Fourth, notice the two-way wind tunnel. Yes, that's right. Come in one
way, turn around, and go through in the opposite direction. Without QuakeC.
It even works on grenades, too. (Well, mostly. See Other Info for details.)
(If somebody else figured this out already, the world would have already
known it.)


Some other things should be pointed out:

- Note that virtually every part of the map has 3 (or more)
connections to the rest of the map. I believe that this is the optimal
number of connections in a DM map.

- Note that there are very few (if any) nooks, crannies, or high
(sniper) spots that are relatively inaccessible. Simply put, you MUST keep
moving in this level; there are no chances for ambushing, and very few for
sniping.

- Notice the use of columns and struts. Now, I've already had
complaints about these, but I think that they have a legitimate use as
a small visibility barrier for architecture (visual as well as tactical).

- A compass is placed on the map, to facilitate descibing parts of the map.
I got sick and tired of saying "the doorway between the room with the SSG
and the room with the LG", or making my own jargon just for that particular
spot. So, I put in a compass, so I can just say "the doorway south of the
SSG".

- There is plenty of armor and health. Players should be able to replenish
themselves between battles; the health is placed so that [most] of it is
out of the way of most combat (i.e. against walls).


Trilogy?
--------
  Clan Trilogy was my former clan. It was begun in July 1996 by Vovin; I
was in it (as TR-Apollo) for virtually its entire lifespan. It was
discontinued because of inactivity, loss of web site, loss of server, loss
of administration, loss of some members, and more inactivity. (So no, you
can't join it. :) )

  However, one of the plans that still (theoretically) remained after
Trilogy's demise was its editing project. Vovin has turned out two maps
following an advanced storyline, which I have tried to follow. The first,
TMI (Trilogy Military Institute), earned very good reviews when it was
released last year. The second map released was Hall of Trilogy
(hotril.bsp). This is my contribution to the project.


* Other Info *

  Reapers may or may not like this map. I didn't design this map for
robots. I designed it for humans. Reapers don't play human.

  All lava is protected, either by columns or clip brushes. I think it's
simply stupid to have your butt fried just because you made a wrong step.
The consequences are too severe for such a small mistake. That's not going
to happen here.

  There is a trigger_changelevel in the map, inside a clip brush (so it is
impossible to get to). It points back to itself (trimp).

  The clip brushes (as well as the struts) covering the lava in the room
with the triangular mound have a small lip on the top. This is mainly for
jumping onto it (between the columns above) and walking off of the clip
brushes (although that does take a while), but you can walk in front of the
columns.

  Due to the implementation of the two-way wind tunnel, it is possible
for weird things to happen if you do something stupid while inside it or
aiming at it (firing a rocket inside of it, for instance, or grappling).
The implementation is actually quite clean, though, and it should be fairly
possible for the advanced player to reverse his course inside the wind
tunnel at will. (Exercise left to the reader.)

  The upside-down intermission shot is NOT a bug.

  Two doors are placed on the map in the two hallways. This is done to
solve a gameplay problem introduced in the room's fundamental design:
while in combat, that connection is the most difficult to observe, and
thus it is possible for somebody from that hallway to quietly enter the
room, where he can attack or ambush as he pleases. The doors have an
extended triggering radius and a loud sound that eliminates this problem;
anybody triggering the door will be heard.

  The teleports are added to make sure it is easy to get from one level to
the other. It is quite easy (by falling) to enter the bottom level from the
top; but the reverse requires a fairly involved trimp. Teleporting
introduces an alternate connection that requires little to no skill to use,
and does not make a quick escape from either level. The teleport
destinations are raised, but it is still possible to telefrag. Caveat
emptor.

  All of the (sourced) lights are covered with glass (read:
trigger_multiple with an insanely huge health). The reasoning is a little
erudite: because the lights are inset into the wall, if rocket fire hits
an inner corner, quite a bit of the splash is blocked by the wall itself,
essentially adding randomness to combat. (This also makes it tougher for
hooking.) So, an invisible (NOT clip) brush is placed in front, so that in
combat the wall is, for all practical purposes, perfectly flat. (Except
that the glass bleeds...)

  LoadMod (the automatic item-placement engine in Expert Quake) will place
a red armor in the northeast corner of the indoor RL room with 7+ players.
Since all of the items are balanced anyway, this should not be a problem.

  This is my first released map.


* Bugs *

  The surf counts could get a bit big, at times. It can max out in one
place. But the actual gameplay visibility (what the player actually sees)
is relatively small, so I don't think it will be that much of a problem
for net play.

  QuakeWorld v1.64 and below have modified physics that prohibit trimping.
Live with it. QuakeWorld servers v2.0 and above fix this.

  The storyline could be corny. Some parts of the storyline may conflict
with the architecture. Some parts of the storyline may not be implemented
in the architecture. In short, don't take the storyline for granted.

  In single-player mode, the name wraps around the screen with +showscores
(Tab key). Do I care? I'll leave that question to the philosophers.
(Using '\n' in the title is a neat trick, though.)

Please report all fireproof comments to me at rtollert@tranquility.net .

* Copyright / Permissions *

Organizations are allowed to distribute this map for free, provided that
it is not bundled into a compressed file with any other map and that the
rest of these permissions are observed.

No organization may distribute this map for a fee without my written
consent.

Nobody may modify this map without my written consent.

All distributors are required to keep this text file, unmodified, in their
distributions, in the same compressed file as the BSP.