In this latest NEFX shell to be added to map-wise over time, you accidentally teleport into a messy, long-abandoned, and now-infested storage complex run by an AI who has gotten imaginative in isolation but who is thwarted in progress and needs someone to retrieve missing keys amidst a great mess in order to both grow unabated and help you escape. All maps in this scenario shall be Retrieval missions.
I added a new map, "NEFX - Dawned Age First Sight and Strike". You can download it and other maps either individually or together at the provided link.
[Credit to Windbreaker for the title.] "Until they've searched thoroughly, one can never be clean." In this scenario, you get to spend a bunch of time cleaning up a space of its filth balls with your trusty Yucatan Suckaman™ vacuum cleaner. But watch where you step, and be sure to empty the bag often so the vacuum cleaner doesn't explode!
Today I added the 50th map made for Marathon: Sucks, "The Fracturing of the Husked Civilization Stations". This can be downloaded individually or with other maps or the scenario itself at the provided link.
"Thresholds of Rite" is a level built for Tempus Irae in the style of a Wolfenstein 3D level -- that is to say, no variation in floor or ceiling height (save for obstacles). It has slightly modified textures and physics, along with a new NEFX music track that plays in-game (if you have music turned on).
To get the track to run, just drag the Music folder into your Tempus Irae folder along with the map and it should run. If it doesn’t for whatever reason, say so in the comments. If nothing else, you can just listen to the music separately, loop it on a media player while you play, or simply go without.
Much thanks to Windbreaker for helping me with a lot of the technical hurdles, as well as playing through the level and offering a couple of good tips in design. You are a true comrade.
Happy 50-map landmark! Here's to more.
[2023-04-01 - The following have been added over the past week:
"Classical Contraption Contemplation"
"Drive of Constant Flux Maintenance"
"Initiatory Perspectival Pathsetting"
"Jousters on the Frame Warp"
"Shared Fray-Urge Unconscious"
"At the Underground Mesmer"
"Confinement Contemplations Weaponized"
"The Untapped Bond Point Come to Life".]
You wanted it, you finally got it (and I've wanted it too): Height variation, differential shading, non-square based architecture, dynamic lighting, ambient sounds, textural variety, and random sounds. Initially this was based on the Kill Them All project in the sense of following the rule of having 100 polygons per level max, but over time it seems I could not stick to that necessarily. :3 However, I have made many of these maps from a 700-polygon template I made (you know, 700 because 7 because Marathon).
[2023-04-01 - The following have been added over the past week:
"Classical Contraption Contemplation"
"Drive of Constant Flux Maintenance"
"Initiatory Perspectival Pathsetting"
"Jousters on the Frame Warp"
"Shared Fray-Urge Unconscious"
"At the Underground Mesmer"
"Confinement Contemplations Weaponized"
"The Untapped Bond Point Come to Life"
Being able to rally however many players you want on-demand for any map you want to play on without the players saying "no" to it is a dream come true, and it's a good form of training at any rate that requires a different set of approaches and strategies to optimize your scores. It's enough to warrant competing with other humans for botmatch scores within different parameters, in addition to competing against people directly in netgames. There are of course some limits that we may overcome someday, such as not having different randomized color tables for the same weapon class, or the bots not being affected by liquid velocity. I've also done some personal modification to make bots drop their weapons upon death, since sometimes in netmaps (especially in the older netmaps) you can have an instance where there's only a little weaponry in a remote or hidden spot and you're forced to eat shit over and over because that causes bots to spawn already with that weaponry. Overall, however, this is a revolutionary invention for Marathon gaming that opens up many doors and allows an experience that even human deathmatch can't completely reach (though the same is also true in reverse). Take a look at the Lua script sometime, it's educational.
It's true.
I ha to rip off Wacky Jacks while meeting my negative review quota to make a point.
Despite what I said earlier about the gritty pixels, these are more poster-worthy.
Make things make no sense.
It's good, but nothing beats gritty cult pixels.
Keep things out of the way. Thanks!
It might be good, but do you think I'm going to admit that NOW?!
Nelson laugh
It's true.
It's probably good but I'm leaving a bad review because I have to balance things out and I'm a purist. Booooo!
That must be true because it's in the name.
It's good.
This person deigned to remaster the entire 2+ hours of an NEFX album, so I know this is good. Besides, anything that makes things ridiculously more difficult is worth making, just to be a jerk.
This map pack is so generous it gives you a kitty cat to play with and a Kleenex box for when things get so moving. Plus there's the Lh'owon Lanes for all those geriatrics out there, since they're the ones who still play Marathon (aside from me, for now).
This is Adminn_1 ov NEFX giving this the stamp of approval. It's legendary and that's why it's stickied by community luminaries.
Thank you for inspiring further thought about the potential of Marathon scripting and adding an extra layer of melancholy to the CRIST lore.
All that's left is figuring out how to script so that you can respawn mid-game like in regular netplay. I'm looking into this myself.
It'd be great if I could get a job in my field soon. Instead I have to look at this.
It'd be great to find a way to turn these into a hired private masseuse to be sent directly to Adminn_1's house for a month and release it as Marathon: Yuger.
Well, bless my giant proverbial mouth on this page, eh? When you wish upon a Marathon scenario-reviewing comments section, your dreams come true.
It'd be great to find a way to turn these into Kill Them All-style solo maps and release them as Marathon: Yuge.
I desperately hope this message finds you before you make the mistake of uploading this file. Well, not just this file but before you get sucked into Marathon at all. We can do so much better than this. Our future is bright. Marathon will ruin our lives. When you see this message, please for both of our sakes, find a different path in life, or you'll be uploading things like this.
If this message fails to get to you in time, at least it can help you prevent an even worse fate. One day you will be tempted to leave Boise. DO NOT DO THIS! This is not a mistake you will be able to recover from.
Best of luck to both of us in the future.