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	Re: Tempus Irae Volunteers - Polygonium Opus
	Posted By: Mark Levin	Date: 11/29/03 8:44 a.m.
	In Response To: Tempus Irae Volunteers - Polygonium Opus (Steve Levinson) : I really hate to bash another level after I just got done bashing Wiping Away : the Dirt and Glue, but Polygonium Opus has some unfortunate shortcomings : that can really spoil it for the serious Marathoner. Don't get me wrong - : this is a great level in terms of gameplay and it has a very nice, : challenging layout with some great eye candy, but there are significant : inconsistencies and at least one major bug. Other than that, it's a great : level! I see this level almost as a break, both for the player and the mapmaker, from the relatively static environments of Earth to a map free to include the dynamic elements that make a map fun to play and design and that, as the spoiler for Never Satisfied points out, are lacking in most of TI's other maps. Dynamic lights, much freer use of platforms, doors that can be tabbed open, health chargers, the high-tech texture set, and so on. I also don't see this level as really having so many flaws; of the ones you mentioned, the vacuum problem is an engine limitation and there's not really much you could do about it (the liquid trick does rather change the gameplay). The idea that the S'pht have flags and the Pfhor have families is not really contradicted by anything else in the canonical universe (besides the imfamous "Pfhor mating ritual" letter :P), and I don't find them that objectionable. The bugs with the Hunter encounter are less excusable, especially given that TI was once rereleased with various other problems fixed. The mapmaking is, in general, much more polygon-heavy than the Earth environments. There are complex shadow effects, split polygons, and tiny detailing all over the place. : Why would the Pfhor have had any interest in keeping these revered : members of the S'Pht on their ship. I'd been wondering about that myself, when I encountered the terminal that discusses the "secret" entrance to the bridge. How could the Pfhor not have known what was built aboard their ship? The terminals on this level and the previous repository definitely merit further investigation. On Normal, the Elders are much tougher relative to the Pfhor, and 2 of them survived. One of them died instantly when I entered his room; not sure what happened there. One is simply absent, you use his cell to access the overhead maintenance paths. This doesn't exactly match the 4 elders the terminals requests that you save, though. : Perhaps I just don't like : things that deviate from the tone originally set by Bungie. As above, I don't think this really deviates from the tone. We've already seen individual Pfhor personified in Marathon Infinity terminals. : OK, now that I've thoroughly trashed this level, let me talk about what's : right about it. The layout is very nice and enjoyable to play. The monster : level is challenging without being overwhelming. To me, however, the : really nice thing about Polygonium is that it is our first introduction to : the new TI ship textures. Not the limited set that we already discussed in : Ain't My Bitch, but a full, rich set with a great deal of attention to : detail. This is one of my favorite texture sets in all of the Marathon : universe, and it was nice to see them incorporated into Ben Potter's Fell : as well. Most people think about the textures of TI strictly in terms of : the Earth textures, but the Nardo Team did a nice job with the space : textures as well, even though there was no real need to. TI is truly a : groundbreaking scenario. My favorite part of this level was the large "control room" where you must dodge around banks of computers while monsters shoot at you from a high ledge. You can't stop moving to get a clear shot without having grenades shot back down at you, and I was too low on health to allow that to happen. One other minor problem with this level is the use of the gray Fighters and Hunters and light blue Troopers in large quantities. In MI, these were established as the "super" versions of the normal monsters, but here they're not much better than the standard colors. Other scenarios (notably Rubicon) have developed custom color pallettes for the monsters, why not here? They were already planning to heavily alter the shapes file anyway.

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Replies:

	Tempus Irae Volunteers - Polygonium Opus	Steve Levinson	11/28/03 11:35 a.m.
	Re: Tempus Irae Volunteers - Polygonium Opus	Gholsbane	11/28/03 12:25 p.m.
	Re: Tempus Irae Volunteers - Polygonium Opus	Keith Palmer	11/28/03 4:03 p.m.
	Re: Tempus Irae Volunteers - Polygonium Opus	Mark Levin	11/29/03 8:44 a.m.
	Re: Tempus Irae Volunteers - Polygonium Opus	Steve Levinson	11/29/03 7:32 p.m.

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