Red Planet - a single player campaign for Unreal2 - readme 


author: Rolf Baumann 
e-mail: flachlayer@gmx.net

1.What is this?
2.Installation:
3.starting and playing this campaign (for the first time):
4. compatibility, known issues and performance:
5. FAQ
6. Stuff used
7. Walkthrough and storyline

readme 

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1. What is this?
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A user-made single player campaign for Unreal2, you will need an installed full retail version of Unreal 2 to play this thing. 


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2. Installation:
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manually unzip the files as follows: 
*.ogg to .../unreal2/music
*.utx to .../unreal2/textures
*.un2 to .../unreal2/maps

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3. starting and playing this campaign (for the first time):
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First, go to your .../unreal2/maps directory and right-click the file "RM00_intro.un2" choose "open with..." and browse to the file .../unreal2/system/unreal2.exe. Make sure the "always open with" box is checked, so these map files will now always be opened with the Unreal2 game. From now on, you should be able to play every Unreal2 map by simply double-clicking it. 

If everything goes well, you should then be able to watch a short intro (itīs a just an original Unreal2 cutscene which I adapted to my needs, so I receive no credit for that one) and this will automatically take you to the first of 5 playable maps I have made for you.

Make sure to save your progress often!!! The next time you want to play, just start Unreal2 as you always would, and load a saved game. One more possibility is to start a normal game, open the console, and type for example

open RM06_ransack

and hit return which will load and start the map with that name

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4. compatibility, known issues and performance:
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Please, always keep in mind that this is the work of one man only. I donīt know everything about unreal2 editing yet, I only had one beta tester one time (I am kind of cut off from the rest of the world for the time being, I only have a 56k-modem) and this is the best I could do in three months developement time. In contrast to making big announcements and publishing a screenshot every few month, I decided to work with what I have and what I know and to actually release something playable soon.

I developed it with the german, patched version of Unreal2, but it seems to work with other language versions as well and you will get a better framerate with the unpatched Version (!!!), so if you are going to make a fresh installation of Unreal 2, try to play without patch first. 

Since these maps are supposed to take place on the moon Phobos and Planet Mars, I have decided to play with light colors a little so you may want to adjust the contrast, brightness and gamma settings in the options menu as well as on you monitor for the best visual experience.

Unreal 2 offers you many options to influence performance/framerate in the options menu, you can turn off shadows (highly recommended), adjust details, resolution, color depth and what not. I build this on a Athlon XP 2100, GeForce TI 4200, 512 Ram, W2k Sp4 and I always DID keep an eye on the framerate. To watch your framerate, open the console and type "stat fps". Should one of the maps not work on your machine for whatever reason, try to start the next one with the above mentioned methods. Should you get stuck in collison hulls, open the console, type "bemymonkey" to enable cheats and then "ghost" to disable collision. Typing "walk" will enable collision and gravity again.

Do not panic if you experience "lags" sometimes, you may be in an area where your PC loads the upcoming enemys, etc. (not everything is in there right at the start of the map) and depending on your systemīs speed (hard drive speed included), this may slow you down for a split second.


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5. FAQ
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Q: Why are there no cutscenes after every playable map like in Unreal2?
A: I had no time to really look into the tools yet, I just adjusted one standard cutscene.

Q: Why isnīt the briefing and storyline told by a sexy female voice?
A: Because I donīt have one. I know reading is boring to some of you.

Q: Why are there no detailed indoor levels like in Unreal2?
A: I wanted to make something different. I like large landscapes and they use a lot of performance. So there were not too many ressources left for indoor-action.

Q: When will the campaign be continued?
A: After I have taken a break

Q: How long did you work on this?
A: three and a half month

Q: How many people were working on this?
A: me, myself and I = exactly one ;-)

Q: Why didnīt you do this last year and enter the MSU contest?
A: I was busy graduating from university last year. I had no time for a serious long-term project.


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6. Stuff used:
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UnrealED, the editor that shipped with the game, the tutorials at udn.epicgames.com, Music from Unreal-Return to NaPali (an add-on for the first unreal), textures from ut2003, ut and Unreal2XMP. The UT2003 Editor to make a terrain-map, because that does not work in Unreal2īs ED (it was***censored*********** to figure that out).



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7. Walkthrough and storyline
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I hope you do not find it too hard to make sense of what I did, but let me give you the storyline and a quick walkthrough:

Mars has declared its independence, the solar system is at the brick of war! At least, thatīs the official version. Fact is the Izanagi-corporation who controls 80% of all mining and trading on Mars is looking at this planet as their private property and they donīt want to pay all the tolls and fees. Rather, they want to raise tolls and fees, so they have started a rebellion. A big scale war would result in horrible losses both in human lives and economy. So a couple of elite soldiers will be in charge of infiltration, sabotage and all these nice things that should bring the mighty men on Mars down on their knees. First off, you - an elite sniper - are dropped on Phobos, a moon of Mars to shut down the radar station and take an automatic shuttle to get to mars unnoticed. 

RM02_moonwalk:
You are on Phobos, a moon close to Mars, where a big radar-station is like the eyes and ears for the Izanagi Corporation. So first we have to disable this one to make our enemy blind to what is going on in space. Just walk straight on and shoot everyone coming your way, but save some sniper bullets, there will be situations where you will need them. You will find a small antenna with a powerup and continue to your right where you can see a small building already. Go in there and on the right hand side of the generator room, you will find a switch that turns off the power for the transmitter station. Now they canīt send SOS anymore. Go out again and make a right uphill, you can now see the radar dish. It is guarded by 2 snipers, but you were as clever as saving a bullet for each of them. There is a small control room behind the radar dish with a switch to turn it off, and now you walk over or around that hill to the transmitter station where you can see the shuttle ready for take off. The entrance is on the far side of the building, walk through the room to your right, walk over the platform into the shuttle which will lift off automatically (donīt move too much or youīll fall down! just turn your head around to enjoy the scenery) Iīll replace this with a cutscene once I have looked into those tools.

RM03_landing:
Once again, do not move too much but let the shuttle land. Enjoy the scenery for a bit and turn around to face the rockets coming right at you. Walk straight on and shoot your way through the opposition. You will pass under a rock, face 2 snipers and 2 shotgunners and continue to your left. Basically, your job is to disable 3 big ion cannons which are part of the planetary defense system. To do so, you must find the access codes first. You have to do this one by one: find access codes No.1, disable that gun. This will open the door to a building that has a computer with the codes for gun No.2. Turning that one off... well, I guess you got the idea. Note that it always pays off to explore the levels, since ammo, powerups and weapons are not always placed right before your feet. 

RM04_intrusion:
Now it is time to find the entrance to the headquarters of the enemy, to get further information about their plans. Itīs a rather long walk first which will take you to two guard towers and an opening door behind them. Go down into the controll room (yes Iīll have to work on the light) and find the switch, now go back to the surface to walk through the door on the other side into the mountain which is now open. Fight your way through the big blue hall and go where it says "caution, high pressure" this will shoot you up into the air and into a place I call "yellowstone" ;-) find your way through the canyons while you get a message to take out 2 stationary rocket launchers. The best way to survive here is once more the way of the sniper: watch the area around you carefully, then youīll see the enemy before he sees you and if you have enough bullets for the sniper gun - bang - down they go! After sabotaging both rocket launchers, you will eventually find the small entrance to the HQ.


The next level is not done yet! It takes place in the headquarters where you find the true reason behind this "independence" of mars: The izanagi corporation has discovered ruins of an ancient civilization on mars! And they want this to remain secret. But while examining some kind of gate/portal/teleporter they activated it and guess who came marching through: the Skaarj. They are the very last folks we need in our solar system, they spread all over the area, destroying all nearby facilities.


RM06_ransack:
Just walk on through the masses of Skaarj to get closer to those ancient ruins. Remember to check every corner for pickups the poor Izanagi defenders have left behind, since you canīt scavenge anything from killed Skaarj. And donīt fall down the steep cliffs, you will easily break your neck...

RM07_ambush:
After that climbing up the hill, you are on a bridge, and since you took out the cannons and the rocket launchers, we can send in troops to secure the area around the ruins. The first team will secure the bridge, you walk on to the outpost where a second team will be inserted. The outpost is held by Izanagi soldiers, but they still refuse to cooperate with us, despite getting their ass kicked by the Skaarj. I wonder how old ruins can be worth all this. Anyway, just walk on to those ruins and see for yourself.



Hope you enjoy playing this, e-mail your feedback to flachlayer@gmx.net


thanks to smoerble - www.levelrating.com for making and hosting my webpage www.levelrating.com/redplanet
thanks to Dado - my one and only beta-tester
thanks to the great folks that made Unreal 2



Copyright / Permissions
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The levels are copyright (c) 2004 Rolf Baumann
 
Authors may NOT use these levels as a base to build additional levels.

You are NOT allowed to commercially exploit this level, i.e. put it on a CD
or any other medium that is sold for money without my explicit
permission!

You MAY distribute this .zip for free through any electronic network (internet,
FIDO, local BBS etc.), provided you include this file and leave the archive
intact.

----------------------
Unreal 2 (c) 2002 Epic Games, Inc.  All Rights Reserved. Unreal 2 and the Unreal 2 logo are registered
trademarks of Epic Games, Inc. All other trademarks and trade names are
properties of their respective owners.

