                A Luke Schneider Production
            DESCENT II: THE ENTROPY EXPERIMENT

                        !WARNINGS!

Epilepsy Warning
Persons with epilepsy should NOT play the Entropy Experiment, 
as numerous flashing lights are prone to cause some sort of 
reaction.  This warning also applies to those who get headaches 
from playing levels with flashing lights.  Take breaks often 
and use the headlights if possible.  Levels 3 and 4 are the 
worst offenders in this respect, so if you can't stand 1 and 2, 
definitely do not try 3 and 4.

SaveGame Warning
Descent II Version 1.2 has a bug which severely affects the 
playability of saved games.  The robots from the level which you 
save on will become dark once you restore the game.  This 
affects all levels (not only those in this level set) and makes 
some of the levels very difficult to defeat.  The best remedy 
to this situation is to save at the end of levels (such as 
while you are heading towards the exit).  When you advance to 
the next level, the robots will return to their normal 
brightness.  In the end, this means you should try to play 
through one level at a time without saving since saving and 
restoring often only increases the difficulty of the levels.  
And remember to save right before you exit.  

                  Background Information

The Entropy Experiment is an attempt at making the best user- 
created level series ever for Descent II.  The Vertigo Series 
by Parallax was great, but the story was weak, the levels were 
repetitious, and it wasn't free.  These levels hopefully address 
all of those issues while still having the highest quality 
possible.

                  Soundtrack Information

The custom music contained in the Entropy Experiment was 
composed by Luke Schneider using Cakewalk Apprentice.  All four 
tracks were originally written on a Sound Blaster 32 with the 
Emu 8MB GM sample set, but were converted to play well on a 
Roland SCD-15.  The MIDI tracks will only play if you disable 
CD music in Descent II AND if you have a wavetable soundcard.  
FM soundcards will hear no change in music.  

DTX 2 Beta 4 was used in the conversion from .MID files to 
.HMP files.  

                    Level Information

Here is yet more information on the levels themselves.  The 
actual goals of the missions are different from the usual "find 
the keys, destroy the reactor" so be sure to pay attention to 
the briefings or the mission sections below.  

Level 1 
 Name: Centurium
 Mission: The goal is to find and destroy all five reactors and 
  cut off their power source.  The player must shoot at least 
  four different switches in order to finally reach the reactor 
  room, and then each of the four mini-reactors has a switch 
  which must be destroyed as well.  
 Data:
  309 Cubes
  140 Walls
  149 Objects
  82 Robots

Level 2
 Name: PCF Millenium
 Mission: The player must rescue at least four of the eighteen 
  hostages, but only eight of them actually trigger anything.  
  So unless the player dissects the level or is very tenacious, 
  it's best for him to rescue all eighteen hostages and then 
  destroy the control panels in the large central room.  After 
  retrieving the red key, the player must kill the supervisor, 
  which will trigger the level to self-destruct.
 Data:
  741 Cubes
  232 Walls
  269 Objects
  148 Robots
  18 Hostages

Level 3
 Name: Warp Distortion
 Mission: The player must either fight through the level and 
  acquire the red key before destroying the reactor, or he may 
  attempt to locate at least four guided missiles.  With those 
  missiles he should destroy the control panels at the far end 
  of the level after shooting the main control panel through 
  two grates.  Having destroyed the four switches, the player 
  may take an alternate route to the reactor in order to 
  destroy it and escape through an alternate exit.  The player 
  must also acquire the key in this path as well.
 Data:
  439 Cubes
  206 Walls
  226 Objects
  103 Robots

Level 4
 Name: Dissention IV
 Mission: The player must eliminate the three mini-bosses and 
  acquire a key from each.  Then destroy the three control 
  panels near the beginning of the level.  This will allow him 
  to access the main boss room, where the player is sure to 
  face his toughest challenge yet.
 Data:
  417 Cubes
  96 Walls
  183 Objects
  82 Robots

Secret Level
 Name: XS0288 Epsilon
 Mission: The information requested does not exist.
 Data: 
  245 Cubes
  82 Walls
  108 Objects
  42 Robots

The following programs were used in the actual creation of the 
levels themselves: 
 Devil 2.1 - Level layout design (cube structure)
 Devil 2.2 - Texture placement and alignment
  - Item and robot insertion
  - Internal cube lighting adjustment
 Descent Block Builder - Various curved level sections
 Descent Mission Builder 2.3 - Mine illumination
  - Initial robot adjustments
 
Thanks to the Achim Stermplaht and Bryan Aamot.

                    Robot Information

Number of custom robots: 40 (40 modified/0 unmodified)
Programs used:
 Descent Mission Builder 2.3
 HXMEdit for Windows (Beta)
 HXMEdit for DOS

Thanks to Bryan Aamot, Mike Menefee, and John Aldrich.  

Additional enemy robot model created by Garry Knudson, John 
Aldrich and Mike Menefee.  

                       Full Credits

Producer and Creator
 Luke Schneider
  -Level Design
  -MIDI Composition
  -Custom Robot Design
  -Briefing Background Rendering
  -Briefing and Story Writing

Major Assistance from
 Matt Legowski
  -Original Concept and Design
  -Original Custom Textures
  -Creative Input
  -Beta Testing
 Mike Menefee
  -Creative Input
  -Beta Robot Editor
  -Beta Testing
 Nathan Taylor
  -Beta Testing
 Bradley Schneider
  -Beta Testing

Special Thanks to 
 John M. Aldrich
 Garry Knudson

The Program Authors
 Achim Stermplaht
 Bryan Aamot
 Mike Menefee
 John M. Aldrich
 Stefan Nilsson
 Jeff Ferguson

(full credits for programs are after the mission)

Also Thanks to
 Jeff Mendoza
 John M. Clancy
 Kevin Murphy
 Mayuko Hyuga
 Jason Gimba
 Dan Wentz
 Heiko Heiderman
 Neil and Brian
 Parallax Software

                   Author Information

Here's some background information about myself.

Name: Luke Schneider
Email: last@uci.edu
Homepage: http://www.ics.uci.edu/~lschneid/
Other Levels Created:  
 Over 50 for Descent 1 and 2, including PTMC Park, Juggernaut,
 Crazy X, Eon X, and Havoc X.

Please feel free to contact me with any comments or questions 
about the Entropy Experiment.  Once again I'd like to thank 
everyone, and I hope you enjoy playing the Entropy Experiment 
as much as I've enjoyed making it.  