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	Thoughts
	Posted By: ydnar	Date: 11/8/01 3:53 p.m.
	In Response To: Volunteers: Ne Cede Malis (Mark Levin) A keen synopsis/analysis of Ne Cede Malis. Flattering, too. :) Ne Cede was the last map designed for Infinity. This is as it should be; sort of a rule of thumb. After everything else is mostly done, and the team is sufficiently experienced with the tools and infused with the mood of the game, the first level should be built. But enough philosophizing about infusing dreck. Coincidentally, Ne Cede was also the last map I ever made to ship with a game. If anyone cares (and there seems to be at least a few people, as evident by this thread), I'll toss out some random thoughts about the level: The name, Ne Cede Malis, as well documented by 819's cadre, means "never give into evil." Sort of foreshadows the mangled plot we foisted upon everybody. :) Its similarity to Arrival is well known, that was intentional. It was meant to evoke a feeling of deja vu, along with (god I hate this quote) "fear in a bottle." The hidden hexed, stuffed map was a nod to Marathon's hidden icon in the terminal (as well as Hamish, obviously). The bottle of napalm lying around was intentional, another M1 ripoff. The delayed elevator into the air ducts with the jumping puzzle to the secret terminal was from Dark Forces. I owe a debt of gratitude to the Marathon mod "Noah's Ark" (Aliens). It had beautiful pacing, great map design, and wonderful use of sounds in combination with the motion sensor to sufficiently put you on edge before the aliens dropped out of the ceiling ducts. In hindsight, the level was way too hard. If I had to do it over again I would have made the terminals' directives a little less cryptic and modified the critical path to be slightly more obvious. The lower sewage tanks were not the best idea; swimming and navigating in 3 dimentions while fighting enemies underwater when your guns didn't work was not too smart. Then again, if you had the patience/skills to muddle your way through it the rest of the game should have been fairly easy. The map suffered from designer's hubris. I wanted to work in every trick I'd learned into the level, make it some sort of virtuoso introduction to the last game of a trilogy. The flickering lights, the angled hallways, the level stuffed into terminal text, the 2 stop moving switch elevator hack... One last amusing thing--the final room, the brightly lit slate Star Wars thing, was originally the center of an unreleased M1 deathmatch map called the "coolest thing ever" by two friends who played it for 8 hours straight while on acid. It was originally very dark, with treacherous lava pits and narrow tunnels/walkways lacing the central core. Incidentally, everyone else at the time who played it (including myself) hated the thing. Biblical candy machines... y

Shaderlab

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Replies:

	Volunteers: Ne Cede Malis	Mark Levin	11/7/01 9:21 a.m.
	Re: Volunteers: Ne Cede Malis	Hamish Sinclair	11/7/01 9:43 a.m.
	Re: Volunteers: Ne Cede Malis	Martin Antell	11/7/01 10:11 a.m.
	Re: Volunteers: Ne Cede Malis	Martin Antell	11/8/01 8:44 a.m.
	Re: Volunteers: Ne Cede Malis	Rincewind MoG	11/7/01 1:11 p.m.
	Re: Volunteers: Ne Cede Malis	AJS	11/7/01 8:07 p.m.
	Thoughts	ydnar	11/8/01 3:53 p.m.
	ydnar! *NM*	Speaker-To-Animals	11/11/01 4:34 a.m.
	Re: Thoughts (ydnar is so cool)	Person 1	11/13/01 8:37 p.m.
	Re: Volunteers: Ne Cede Malis	Grasshopper	11/9/01 4:49 a.m.
	Re: Volunteers: Ne Cede Malis	Speaker-To-Animals	11/12/01 6:07 p.m.

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