This, to me, is one of the weirdest levels in design. You are so far above the surface of the moon, almost like you're not in the colony at all (one of the reasons I chose the "flowers in heaven" soundtrack).
Without a doubt, the hardest thing to make in this level was the door that must be closed, then reopened. Why? Because there are TWO switches that activate the same door, yet they are designed to look like the SAME switch. The first switch is an ordinary panel that closes the door (after hitting it run real quickly to the window and watch the room below fill with darkness; on your return do the same but watch the light flood in). Then the player has access to the Shaki/Osindir terminal using an #unfinished text (terminal writers will understand). When you read that terminal, it changes the switch from switchA to switchB (which still look the same). SwitchB is set on "repair" making it necessary to activate to get the ending terminal. This may not sound too hard to pull off, but marathon is VERY picky with overlapping objects that can be tabbed and can get confused. It IS possible to activate both switches during your first visit, even though switchB is concealed. It was a bit frustrating and a lot of fun to make this trick run smoothly enough that the average player would not think twice about "game engine capabilities."
I'm glad you two like the monster placement and action. In previous versions i had juggernaughts in some of those bays, but decided against it in the release version. Good idea?
Ok, well I have to go now.
-matt
