-- The Apocalyptic Factor --
Created by Darkhorse and Sirius

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         Table of Contents
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Contents!
This will contain the following gems. Well, you can decide on that
last bit. :)
1) Background Storyline.
2) The Requirements.
3) Features!
4) Explanation of Patcher Program
5) Credits
6) Special Thanks
7) Contact
8) Tools
9) Legal. Whatever that means.
There's nothing legal about it really. - Darkhorse
You know, it strikes me that half of this will be irrelevant. But
anyway. - Sirius

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       1. Background Storyline
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Okay, so the background.
Well, basically you are a mercenary that PTMC wants to do a little
work for them. Sound familiar? Well, there is a slight difference -
this time they want you to do reconnaissance on a rival company,
ESNR, who has made threats to them recently. They are not sure what
it is - but someone said they had access to a 'weapon' that could
destroy PTMC.
Now, PTMC being PTMC, of course they want to take this weapon out of
service - after all, it may sound far-fetched, but just imagine the
consequences if it's true. :)
This weapon is the Apocalyptic Factor. The problem is, PTMC doesn't
know where it is, what it is or even who made it. It's all up to you
to find out.
And they pay you loads of money to shut up, too. Unfortunately the
money won't be available for use in real life.
Note that the storyline has been described as "way too indepth",
"RPG-like" and "wtf omg lol" by various existant and non-existant
players.
Guess it's Requirements time now.

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            2. Requirements
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Well, Descent 2 will help. I'm sure you knew that. Preferably version
1.2. After all there are a number of new textures and robots in the
mission - 1.1 won't handle those.

And around 4 MB of disk space is recommended. So don't try to install
it on your calculator.

Unless it's a really good calculator.

Your computer should probably be at least 100 MHz, however, as
geometry does get more complex than in standard D2. But all in all,
the requirements are nothing major and you should probably be ashamed
if you can't meet them. :) Just kidding. Some people like their 386s.

But they should stay in their servers. - Darkhorse

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            3. Features
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Features.
15 Crazy Sexy Huge Levels.
Mostly huge anyway.
About 10 are near or over 800 cubes.
With good geometry of course, it's not just a cube farm.

There aren't many new robots. But all of the bosses are new - and
kinda cool. :)
There also aren't many new graphics. That's how we kept the file size
down.

Indeed, unlike Obsidian, there is no custom cockpit.
But there is a KICK-ASSLY huge briefing. Provided that word really
exists.
In fact, there is over 100 kilobytes of pure text in that thing man.
That's more than some novels.

Also, see if you can find my 0wnage Depots. I've strategically placed
them in all of my levels. Exactly which levels are mine... well,
you'll have to wait for the credits. So, be on the lookout..
everywhere. - Darkhorse

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            4. AFPATCH.EXE
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The patcher program - AFPATCH.EXE - is not actually necessary to run
Apocalyptic Factor. All it does is speed up a clip in Descent 2 to a
decent speed to be used for a powerup in level 12. It has the side-
effect of making hostages wave their arms faster - but you might
agree that they were too slow before anyway, in which case feel free
to leave it installed.

(After all, if you've been trapped with robots for long enough, you'd
be waving your arms pretty fast too, wouldn't you? - Darkhorse)

If you will take my word for it, no, that program is not a virus. If
you're paranoid and that doesn't work, don't run it. The powerup will
look kind of weird, but you can still finish the game.

Yeah, yeah. Trust me to write a PURELY aesthetic patch. - Sirius
Hey, trust me to make you need it. - Darkhorse

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             5. Credits
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Credits!
Much Level Design: Darkhorse.
Much Level Design: Sirius.
Much Robot and Boss Design: Sirius.
Assistance on Ideas for Much Robot and Boss Design: Darkhorse.
Custom Grafix: Darkhorse.
Storyline Concept: Dark Wolf. (She would have done more, but lacked
	the time. Ah well.)
Too Much Writing: Sirius.
Looking Over the Writer's Shoulder and Throwing In Random
	Occasionally Useful Ideas: Darkhorse.

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          6. Special Thanks
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Special Thanks section...
Dark Wolf, for coming up with the concept in the first place, even if
we kinda zoomed away on the idea, creating so many levels so fast
that it failed to be a three-way joint project anymore.
It was still a neat idea, and it kept us from blowing up letterboxes
for about a year.

In fact, I have to admit that without Dark Wolf, the project would
never have been finished. But then, it would never have been started,
would it? I'm so perceptive! :D

Hmm.

Kerafyrm, for showing interest in the project. I think that's the
pushing role.
Zidane formed the other half of the set's fan club. That was... the
shoving role? If I didn't get them mixed around. Obviously they're
arbitrary, but hey. :)

Kerafyrm and Zidane just told us to keep going, really.
It will, at least, give them something new to play through in Descent
2. Though Zidane, as of this writing, may already have completed it.

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             7. Contact
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Now for the contact info..

Well, if you want to contact me, probably the best way is ICQ. My UIN
is 28764031. I can't remember whether or not I allow messages from
those off my contact list - if I don't, just ask to add me, and say
it's about Apocalyptic Factor.
I also appear occasionally around PlanetDescent and the Descent BB.
Right now, I can use shadow_hoof@yahoo.com for e-mail messages, but I
may not always have it active. I believe the ICQ one will stay there
for a while though. - Darkhorse

Okay, if you want to ICQ me - fastest, but doesn't get much through
at a time - you can try 28874658. For e-mail, which I usually check
often, try altron@softhome.net - and you can find me on most Descent
BBs also. (Except PD, for now.) - Sirius

Contacting the other guys... well, they won't fix your bugs or solve
your problems, sorry.

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           8. Programs Used
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What DID we use?
Not a lot.
Descent Mission Builder v2.6 obviously.

I used Polytron a lot. I don't remember the exact version, but it is
the latest. For the more complex bots, a combination of Truespace 2,
Garry Knudson's COB2PM, POLVIEW, and in some instances the DOS
HAXMEDIT. (When I needed that touch of raw data power.) I also needed
HAXMEDIT32 to put everything together. - Sirius

I used Adobe Photoshop for most of the graphics, though for that one
animation in Level 13, I used Bryce 4. - Darkhorse

I used Notepad and - when it ran out of memory - Wordpad to write the
storyline, and TXT2TXB to encode it. - Sirius

And of course, there was DTX2. Always useful for inserting custom
graphics. - Darkhorse

I think that's about it for tools.

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              9. Legal
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Next up is the legal stuff...
Okay, well how do I put this.

If you copy this stuff without our permission, we won't actually sue
your ass off.

However, try to tell us if you're copying something, whatever it is,
because we'd really like to know where it ends up.

Copying the mission over to another game is actually encouraged.
Copying some parts of it to another D1 or D2 mission is a bit lame,
but I won't die of it.

Of course, if you like something, it's absolutely okay to emulate
it - you should just avoid entire robots or rooms without
modifications. Copy ideas, not structures.

If we find out that someone has been copying stuff over and claiming
it as their own, people WILL know.

...and I think that's about all for this top quality, rush job of a
.txt that was actually quite an afterthought.
Have fun.