The Big Dead One Map Pack for Damage Incorporated Welcome to The Big Dead One (TBDO), a freeware level pack for Damage Incorporated. TBDO includes seven maps total, the first four are single player scenarios, and the last three are designed for network games or for play in Mandatory Suicide mode (hit Command-M from the main menu to experience the thrill of Mandatory Suicide mode). The first four levels included in TBDO are also the winners of the Damage Incorporated Map Design Contest that we held a while back, which we think resulted in some mighty fine levels. The entire contents of The Big Dead One are © 1998 Paranoid Productions. Since it's freeware, you are encouraged to distribute this level pack far and wide, as long as it is not sold for profit and if this "Read It" file is included. Questions and comments about TBDO or Damage Incorporated should be addressed to paranoid@panix.com. What is this Crazy Damage Incorporated Thing? The third non-Bungie game to use the Marathon 2 engine, Damage Incorporated is published by MacSoft, and casts the player as a present- day Sergeant leading a team of up to 4 Marines in real-time, death- permeated, 3D warfare. Combining first person combat with real-time strategy, the game is almost certainly different from anything else you've seen. For more info check out the MacSoft web page at http://www.wizworks.com/macsoft or the Damage Incorporated page at http://www.cs.uchicago.edu/~bcy1/damage or contact MacSoft at 800-229-2714 or 612-559-5301. How to Use These Levels Simply copy "The Big Dead One" map file into the same folder as your Damage Incorporated application on your hard drive. Then, when you run Damage Incorporated, goto the Preferences, switch to the Environment panel, and look for the pop-up menu labeled "Map" in the Game Files section. Click on that, select "The Big Dead One" and you're all ready to go; return to the Main Menu and click "New." You can also use the "Goto Level" cheat from the Main Menu to switch to a specific level you'd like to play. Hold down the Command and Option keys from the main menu when you click "New" and you'll be able to select which level you play. WARNING: Some of these levels (particularly "Espresso") were designed for use with Damage Incorporated getting more than it's base memory allocation. You may need to crank up the amount of memory allocated to Damage Incorporated for these maps to work (from the Finder, use "Get Info" in the File menu to see how much memory you have allocated to the game). If you don't have enough RAM to allocate Damage Incorporated some more, go buy some; it's cheap, and it'll make your life oh-so-much better. How To Make Your Own Levels The levels entered in the contest were created using tools such as Orion (the freeware D.I. map editor) and MaraDamage (a Marathon to D.I. level converter). You can get these, the Damage Incorporated version 1.2 updater (including spiffy, newly-created Cheat Codes), plus other groovy stuff at the pseudo-official Damage Incorporated web site: http://www.cs.uchicago.edu/~bcy1/damage. Come on, everyone loves making levels, right guys? The Levels 1. "Espresso" by Frank "Elk" Rooke (kfrooke@pacbell.net) This level was the Grand Prize winner of the Map Design Contest. "Wow" is pretty much the best description this epic level, which includes as many cool design tricks as all the original Damage Incorporated levels combined. An interior designer for an architectural firm in San Francisco, Elk used Forge (the Marathon Infinity map editor) to create the base map architecture, then converted it into a Damage map using MaraDamage (the Marathon to Damage map converter), and finished it off in Orion. Elk says his map took two and a half weeks to create, and on map designing said: "If you're married don't do it! If you're not, my only advice is: if you don't have fun playing your own map, no one else will either." We at Paranoid Productions wonder if his career didn't give him an unfair advantage in creating this elaborate, complex map. Espresso was adapted from a Marathon Infinity map Mr. Rooke did called "Marathon 1984", which you may want to hunt down for an interesting contrast to this final incarnation. The following is the mission briefing that accompanies the level: "MISSION CODE NAME: ESPRESSO DEPARTMENT: DAMAGE INCORPORATED BACKGROUND: Operating outside of Trieste, Italy is an underground waste management facility, which some inside resources believe is also functioning as a weapon manufacturing plant. Distribution of these weapons can't be anything but illegal and, as of late, numerous unmarked firearms have started to appear in the States. It now poses a potential threat to out country. Yesterday, Damage Inc. sent in a special recon team consisting of four marines to confirm the doings of this facility. Approximately two hours after entering the complex, we received an encoded messaged via their Powerbook satellite link, stating that two of the marines are dead and that capture is imminent. We must assume the two marines are still alive but have been taken prisoner. MISSION: Your mission is to infiltrate the plant, locate the two marines and get out. Team alpha managed to gain access through an abandoned tunnel near the main elevator shaft. This will be your drop off and extraction zone. Do note that we have multiple indications that leaders of the Minute Militia group are currently in the country looking to buy weapons. Be cautious, you may stumble into a deal going down. Also, we still have no map of the facility so you will be treading into unknown territory and your overhead satellite map link will be mostly useless. We do know however, that the complex is rather large. Once inside the complex you may be able to contact the two marines via your ComLink. Remember the surviving marines may be weak so keep close tabs on them. We want three survivors coming out of there. NOW MOVE OUT MARINE!" 2. "Rise of the Phoenix" by Rainer Wehner (rwehner@pointup.de) One of the Runners Up in the Map Design Contest, coming all the way from Deutschland. A graphic designer in Nuremberg, Germany, Wehner created his map entirely in Orion. Of the freeware editor, Wehner said: "The bugs and limitations of the [editor] were hard to stand at times, but it's possible to make winning maps with it." The map took him a harried week of design work, Wehner having only bought Damage one week prior to the contest deadline. As for level design advice, Wehner's best bit of wisdom was to "get a girlfriend who will help you!" This map features a large and diverse number of locales to maneuver through, and a very good use of rising and lowering water. You'll also find an amusing "Making of" article penned by Wehner included with this map pack. The following is the level's mission briefing: "It seems that the White Paladins aren't completely destroyed. We have received a secret message from an informant that a man with the pseudonym 'Phoenix' wants to lead the Paladins out of the ashes of their defeat. This man is totally unknown to us; we don't know who he is or where he came from. He wasn't a member of the old Grendel staff, that's for sure. He appeared suddenly, bringing the remains of the Paladins in line. Now the organization is growing again. We heard some rumors of a new religious dimension in the movement, about an underground temple and godlike worship of the Phoenix. This sounds very dangerous to us. Again attacks on minorities are reported. It's about time to get rid of this danger. We have discovered their new base. You will go in at night and make a raid on them. Use the inflow of a water reservoir as an entrance. According to our spy, you will have to conquer the big watch tower of the base to reach the upper section. There is an emergency switch in the sewers, that will give you access to the tower lift. Pay attention to some heavy cannons we discovered on a satellite photo of the installation. Once you're in, you are on your own. Get the Phoenix at all costs. After fulfilling your mission go to the extraction zone. We will pick you up there. Good luck, you will need it." 3. "Damaged Search" by Elias Sevaptsidis (sevaptsidis@utoronto.ca) A Runner Up in the Map Design Contest, this offers a pleasant variety of darkly-lit caves, realistically modeled housing, and secret locations, while using the popular (in the contest, at least) "separated teammate" motif. A biomedical research technologist at the University of Toronto, Sevaptsidis used a Forge/MaraDamage/Orion combination to get his map created in a about 30 total hours of work. For budding map designers, Sevaptsidis emphasized that "persistence pays!" He was particularly effusive in his praise for Damage Inc., and he stated the following message for Apple's current CEO: "I [had] concluded that things must be so bad at Apple, they could only get better! So I did the radical maneuver of marching straight to the University of Toronto computer shop and ordered a Power Mac 7300/180. Incidentally, I bought my new computer AFTER I saw what Damage Inc. had to offer. Steve Jobs, are you listening?" As for the mission briefing on this one, headquarters has provided you with little data for this encounter, so you're mostly on your own. Intelligence does know that you'll need to liberate the civilians, exterminate hostile forces, locate the fourth member of your team, and retrieve assorted items (blueprints, robotank plans, and a manila folder) to complete your work at this location. 4. "Rescue Mission" by Robert Tochterman (gwtochterman@top.monad.net) The final Runner Up in the Map Design Contest, this level was clever enough to place itself within the continuity of the original Damage Incorporated levels, as you'll note in the mission briefing below. A student who lives in Keene, New Hampshire, Robert Tochterman created his entry in an amazing short seven hours of work, using only Orion to get the job done. A quiet and reserved map designer, Tochterman emphasized the importance of using lighting effects well in a map, and pointed out (wisely, we might add) that "Damage Inc. is a good game for map making!" A warning about this map: if you play it on the Vietnam difficulty level, Terminus will be quickly killed at the beginning of the level, and since he's a specialist, you'll have to start the mission over again. Try playing the level on lower difficulty levels. The level's mission briefing is as follows: "Part 1 - Rescue Terminus and bring him to the Heli pad. Part 2 - Gather all information papers. Part 3 - Terminate with extreme hate all hostiles! We need a computer hacker for the next operation, Sicilian Sweep; we have to get the hacker Ian B. Hackenslacker (handle is Terminus). He is currently being held in a terrorist compound in Venice. We have a Damage Inc. member already inside, but he says he's gonna need some help getting Terminus out. Your going to help him. Get Terminus to the Chopper Pad. Also find any/all documents you can find that could help us. Lastly, kill all hostiles on sight. Beware, they are holding some civilians, we don't want you killing any that might have broken out! Have fun...entry is at 10:45 PM." 5. "Big Money Got No Soul" by Richard Rouse The first of the three network maps included with TBDO, watch out for the innocent-though-bothersome hostages in this office-like setting. Really pretty big, "Big Money" might be best for network games of 3 or more players. 6. "Raze the Stray" by Richard Rouse and Doug Zartman Another new network map. Covering quite a large area, "Raze" features lots of trenches and the like, coupled with nifty ramparts, creating a unique battlefield. 7. "Children of Mental Awareness" by Richard Rouse and Jonas Eneroth A nice, small, network map. It's brutally hard as a Mandatory Suicide playfield: good luck! Dedication The Big Dead One is named after The Big Red One, a fine 1980 film about squad-level warfare during World War II, which was a big influence on the design of Damage Incorporated. (Don't let the fact that Mark Hammil is in the cast scare you away; he's got a relatively small part which he thankfully underplays.) It was written and directed by the brilliant Samuel Fuller, who died last year at the ripe old age of 85. You're well advised to check out other jems of his film career such as The Steel Helmet, Pickup on Southstreet, or Forty Guns. As always, they're best viewed on the big screen.