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	Message: : Prologue: Fourth Earth (or “CAUTION: Fan fic-y parts ahead”) : : : (A bit early than Wenesday when I would have posted but I then felt I'd had a : long enough break) : Welcome back to Tour of Duty. This is Lion O Cyborg of the Pathways into : Darkness Tour. You’re probably wondering where we teleported to, waaaay : back at the end of the Aye Mak Sicur tour entry before I joined the story : page, and after being rescued by an unknown being at the end of Null Space : AKA the Vidmaster’s Challenge. This is Marathon Eternal X. Specifically : version 1.2 of Eternal X Omega. I have a “screenshot LP” of Eternal X : Omega 1.1 on Steam and will borrow some terminal pics from it for this one : unless there is a difference in the terminal in question here. Otherwise, : the only 1.1 screenshots will be for comparison only. I write this for the : Windows version of Eternal X 1.2 for easiness sake as I don’t have : Microsoft Office on my Mac, nor bootcamp for booting it in Windows. Using : Steam for screenshots also makes linking to them easier than having to : sign into my log first like I had to do with PID, though some pictures may : still need that. Liacrow recently made me aware that some terminals : actually change more than just images in 1.2, but I don't know what those : changes are. : I will also be using Liacrow’s rain map as it’s cool when 2.5D engines have : that sort of thing and she’s done great work on Marathon 1 Redux. There’s : also a little script I recently got from Simplici7y that I adore simply : for existing, but I don’t intend to abuse that. Even when using its : equivalent in Marathon’s DOS/early Windows counterpart I avoid using it to : cheat past sections of levels and only for handling polygonal situations : that already exist and/or are intended to be used. : I won’t be providing maps via perl scripts sadly as I have no idea how to use : them and the documentation (the readme file) is too vague about how to run : them. (maps2xml & mapsxml2images) : I try running perl and select the script to run while its command prompt is : active, nothing happens and there’s no feedback. I try setting perl to run : in a normal command line window and do the same, nothing happens and : there’s no feedback. I try typing in options I find while peeking at the : script in notepad++ into the prompt after selecting the script like : “print”, nothing happens and there’s no feedback. : I have no idea where it saves the xml files. I do not know if it pulls them : from the game while it’s running, nor if I have to split the map file : outside the game and point to each level map file somehow in the command : line. It’s a mess. Googling a solution yielded nothing, just a Lua manual, : something called “librecat”, a simplici7y downloads page link and a gene : map perl script. Instead, the least I can do is provide snipshots of the : maps in Weland. : I’m very sorry everyone. I tried. :( : : : : : : : : : : : : : This world was over ever since I was reborn. Endless wastelands with skies : that never clear. The people are exhausted and there’s no hope to be : found. : Why did this happen? Nobody I asked knew the answer. It’s just… S’bhuth. : Durandal told me before we parted that he went mad from the effects of the : W’rkncacnter I helped reseal in Lh’owon’s sun, possibly Rampancy. I’m not : even sure of that, as he seemed to be the most stable, spiritually and : technologically enlightened of the S’pht, whose species those terms go : hand in hand. He knew almost as much about the W’rkncacnter species as the : Jjaro war hero, Yrro himself. Even elder gods like them or even my own, : Solaris should not have been able to crack him. : He corrupted his S’pht and betrayed us, forcing humanity to exterminate the : S’pht Kr to prevent his rampant mind from taking them over. The remaining : 10 clans were wiped out by the Pfhor. : The Pfhor! They burned our worlds to magma, destroying everything. They : recover no matter how many times we defeat them. Even with their latest : setback, we are on our last legs. The next time we meet in battle, we will : either be wiped out or enslaved. Or worse; some of my dreams recently seem : to be memories of past lives or, more likely, the lives of my ancestors. : Deep caverns underneath a jungle, an insane doctor collaborating with the : antichrist, manifesting as a black billygoat of the woods, a whole town : fed to a threshing machine and their pulped remains used to create an : artificial sun, whose heat powers said antichrist’s way into our world. : And the worst has to be space burning itself, black shadowy demons : flickering in and out of existence, blood and gibs everywhere and a : woman’s voice laughing over it all: a nostalgic, calming voice I still : think of as soothing, now laughing in malice while hieroglyphs and kana : echo in my mind: : Hononosaiyaku: SEKHMET : I fear that if the Pfhor return, this fire will come to pass. Something to : do with a second W’rkncacnter (PID fans know exactly which one), but it is : not the so called “Hononosaiyaku”, whoever or whatever that may be. I know : it isn’t the literal Sekhmet, she’s long gone from the Third layer of : spacetime, hiding in the Duat with the rest of the gods, watching over the : composed souls of our dead. Sometimes wandering the dream realm or : visiting Solaris in whichever experiment he tackles next, being god of : time and the sciences and all. But I digress. : : : : : : : However, there is a solution. Just as a flower comes from a seed or an : animal comes from an egg cell, everything must have an origin. There is : one responsible for this destruction as well. If the present is destroyed, : you can just change the past. I have done so back at Lh’owon. : : : : : : : : : : I believe the Battleroid Hathor to have been created from someone I knew : named KAP, (the initials of which I may never reveal. Or have I already?) : but what with my fragmented memory the way it is, I may never remember who : KAP was before becoming a Battleroid like me. : : : : : : : : : : : : : In order to change this history, Hathor tells me you need to eliminate the : cause of the W’rkncacnter’s birth, which she blatantly hints is the pfhor. : I have every reason to believe her as the Pfhor did exactly that at : Lh’owon, and it was only my meddling with the timeline that stopped them. : Who’s to say Earth still doesn’t contain one of those things? If the Pfhor : return, I think it will be released. But the rest of mankind doesn’t know : that. I don’t think Hathor even knows about the nightmare flames, but I am : positive they will follow the W’rk. : They are not the god of fire Iblis -Solaris’s courage & strength : personified by his own insanity- despite sharing a title. Both of them : told me that himself, after I took a mysterious red pill I was told by a : medic on K’lia would help with my nightmares. Despite allowing my god to : speak to my mind from the Duat, it did little if not nothing to stem the : bad dreams. : : : : : : : It helps I have Persian ancestry, as some of my more pleasant and lucid : dreams involved viewing the memories of my Iranian paternal grandfather’s : own ancestor and by extension my own. : I like how new images have been added to the abridged version of this very : log. K’lia looks a lot cleaner too, from the Pattern Buffers to the softly : glowing lights, new glass in the windows and even the machinery in the : door frames. : I can hear them calling for me now. I guess Hathor is ready for departure. : She’s been delaying the start of the mission for nearly a month now, much : to the chagrin of the leaders round here, and she refuses to tell anyone : why. But she’s in control of K’lia’s systems and there’s little that they : can do, so they begrudgingly tolerate her insistence on departing at this : exact time. Still, gives me time to write this essay of a log at least. It : seems that nobody else has noticed she just has a flair for dramatic : timing. : We are leaving at 8:20 AM, on the 25th July 2905. 111 years ago, 92 light : years away from here, the first Pfhor assault on the Marathon began. : And history has never been the same. : Chapter 0 Act 2: Destiny : In the small room and hallway on K’lia where I start, this is The Far Side of : Nowhere. I always loved Eternal’s HUD, custom full and the Classic based : one in the original Eternal X (1.0). The motion tracker especially as it : is designed like a clock, with a compass built in with the Eternal logo. : This clock actually ticks in Eternal X Omega (1.1) with the custom HUD and : it also ticks here in 1.2: in both versions, the Eternal glpyh spins in : lieu of actual hands. It seems to be a “5D compass”: it shows compass : directions for space and the clock ticks the time I am in. Worthy of note : is that the clock speeds up the faster I am moving. I have no analogue for : what this means in the world itself. : Descending the lift, and looking at the lovely new glass in the windows, I : admire the view of Fourth Earth from the main courtyard on K’lia. : : : : The green jelly pillar looks brighter. That’s the new lightmaps that are part : of 1.2. This map sets the scene for gorgeous architecture to come. Eternal : is my first 2.5D shooter mod of any game (Black Mesa is my first 3D one, : minus Yogbox and T3c/TPC Parkour for Minecraft) so I judge other mods in : 2.5D engines by the standard Eternal set for me. : Only Brutal Doom Extermination Day, Tempus Irae, Marathon 1 Redux (though : that was just an Alpha) and arguably Rubicon reach Eternal’s level, not : necessarily in that order. No offence to other map makers as these are the : only mods I’ve played, and while EVIL is great, the writing in that mod is : a bit Saturday morning at times, as the Rampancy boys point out: : https://youtu.be/GbP20iTdt6Y?list=PLIof4Cp3-camW66k0Z1vHD6NEn4-eT_RD&t=1064 : I also point out that the pillar used to be metallic grey in the original : Eternal X but it’s green as of X Omega 1.1, presumably due to the textures : being updated to include harmless green coolant jelly for K’lia. (the : texture in 1.0 was shared by the garbage pool on the map before Dread Not) : Taking a glass elevator to the west, I admire the new window panes and check : out the mipmapping on the walls of the lift shaft. Or is it bumpmapping? I : don’t actually know the difference though they seem to achieve the same : thing: the former loads a secondary texture when you get close to show off : more detail. So on wood you can see the grain, on paintings you can see : the canvas texture. My brother is the one who told me that's what : mipmapping did when I asked him, but does bumpmapping work a similar way? : : : : : : : Does that look like Lego to you? The wall itself, not the texture’s quality. : I love the level of detail that went into this texture, and said texture : detail is visible elsewhere too. Anyway, a switch up top opens the door to : the upper courtyard and there’s some fusion batteries. : I explore some more, marvelling at the new shadows in a room with Thoth’s : logo on the pillars, examining more mipmaps and finding the Fusion Rifle. : : : : : : : Why do we have a plasma rifle that gives us charged shots when we already : have the Fusion Pistol? There’s a very good reason for that: : : : I recommend watching my Steam friend, Shudaki’s Marathon Trilogy LP on his : channel, Halved Studios. He mentions at one point and then later as a : running gag how much he wants duel Zeus Class Fusion pistols, though he : admits it would be way overpowered. This semi-joke cameos in his Black : Mesa shareware and Bioshock Infinite LPs too. : I am happy to say he got his wish. They had to sacrifice the charged shots in : order to allow duel wielding due to the way Marathon’s weapons system : works, but that’s what the Fusion rifle is for. : Just before this room with the fusion pistols, I like the observation deck : overlooking the courtyard. It makes me think of a similar one in Duke : Nukem 3D, possibly the level Warp Factor. The lift leading up here has : also been subtly updated to feel less claustrophobic too, namely : translucent trusses and light panals. : : : : Hathor has some final words for me before we activate the Electric Sheep : device, as I used to call it in 2012: “I will send you to a time where the : W’rkncacnter Trigger is alive.” So… the Pfhor at the Marathon then? Maybe : she’s just quoting God: namely a now discarded instance of my god’s : personified subconscious. : This has been my longest post yet and the next one is even longer, as I cover : up to the end of the failure plank. I’m sorry for the length everyone. I : will pick this up again by posting Chapter 1 very soon after this one as : I’ve wasted enough time with my glorified manual. After the break is : Chapter 1: Memory. I will be posting hopefully both parts of that on : 24.4.19 as I'm going to bed soon. Don’t miss it!
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