MortaL and CTF_MortaL
by Squonkamatic
I have never started an article with a blank title before, but as this is being
written I have not yet chosen a map to "review". Real world
concerns like Nazi student loan collectors, the joys of needing extra
cash for the Holidays and seemingly trivial human concerns like sleep
have deprived me of my usual gaming regime as of late ...
But it's nice to know when you have been missed, and everyone's favorite
SiN fanatic D34thm0ng3r [ I think that is supposed to be "Deathmonger"
in 133t speak] dropped an item in the week before last's mailbag asking
"Why haven't your written one of your articles since reviewing
that stupid movie I couldn't find at Blockbuster? OK you did that
CTF one, but nobody's playing CTF anymore. Review something normal
this time. - D34thm0ng3r".
Gee thanks, Bro, and Happy Holidays. But since we are a full service
level review operation, I will now insert my SiN 2002 Library CD [hmm
time to update this thing] that has every map, skin, mod and related
file I have ever found on it, and will select one to review. Hmmm
... something "normal" ... sin maps/dm levels ... looking
for a cool sounding title ... hmm ... No not that ... nahh, already
did this one ... maybe I could review Jump! again just to see if anyone
is paying attention ... nah ... nope, already done one by him ...
I wonder if anyone is aware I have basically filled a paragraph of
print space here with nothing ... AHA!
MortaL
by Turbo. Nice, small arena level. Heh; there's even a CTF version
-- that outta piss Deathmonger off. Gotta check 3DDownloads.com's
Ritual Files to make sure they have the maps ... Yep, this takes work,
folks ... OK, they got em. Off to install the suckers ... Both maps
come as nice .exe archives: Mac users can inflate them easily with
Alladin Expander. Good looking file folder structure ... just drop
the files in each folder into your respective folders, or read the
info text in the "maps" folders for directions ... MortaL
is for DM or Rocket Arena, MortaL_CTF for Capture the Flag [now I
remember this one], with a minimum of two players required. I guess
some people do need that pointed out to them. Well I'll just load
them up here and take a look, even though I have nary even a Bot ...
hope they are "normal" enough ...
Wow,
lookin' phat. I guess these must have been inspired by Mortal Kombat
or something, what with the title and all. Nice cartoonish textures
with primary colors and a big, gorgeous custom sky environment. I
do remember playing these now -- way back when we used to bang away
every night at a SiN fest or three on Scott Kevill's GameRanger
online Mac gaming service ... played this with BOO!, one of my "buddylisted"
people, who just happens to be a young lady studying art somewhere.
[I buddylist all of the girls -- gotta be smooth with the ladies,
even online.] I remember really liking the map's custom jobs on the
textures and all but being annoyed by how out in the open one was,
and she basically kicked my ass around for about 20 minutes until
I decided I'd had enough and chatted that I needed to go buy some
milk or something. Wussed out, never played it again, though I did
include the levels in the map packs posted at my
SiN site.
MortaL
really is about the look of the map, and on that plane of consideration
is a complete success. As far as level design goes it is more evocative
of Quake III at it's least imaginative than SiN, but that's OK. And
since Quake III itself has a kind of "Mortal Kombat on Acid"
look to it that makes sense. It's a very straightforward exercise
in building an arena with architecture that looks quite clever, given
the elaborate, almost over the top texturing. Arena maps are somewhat
easy to build once you get the hang of them, so I would imagine that
the majority of the SIX HOURS Turbo spent slapping this together went
into scaling the textures properly to fit his polygon surfaces [By
the way, how do you people make your maps so quickly? Am I just missing
something? They take me weeks ...]. The torches are a nice touch,
and I remember BOO! remarking that the map made her think of Conan
the Barbarian.
What the map makes me think is that I wish I had a SiN Bot for the
Macinstosh so I could describe what it is like to play the map from
a fresh perspective. Maybe I should start an auction on eBay looking
for a programmer to port the Redemption game DLL's into a gamelib
for Macintosh, and take the lowest bidding offer to do the work and
pay for it out of my own meagre savings. The Hell if I'm going to
be the one to do it -- I couldn't program the scale at a supermarket
deli if my life depended on it. Any one of you Brainiacs out there
want to volunteer? What's Deathmonger up to ... I bet he knows some
C++.
Why
don't we call that my entry for the usual Gripes Department, because
there really isn't anything else about the map to whine about, except
that there isn't enough of it, maybe. I'd like to see more of this
world that Turbo created, so take that as a compliment. The CTF version
is nice but kind of perfunctory ... and now that my memory is jogged
it was that version that the delightful BOO! owned me to such dishonor
in, cos she was always the little CTF nut. I let her win two ten cap
games before pulling the plug. You see, the problem was that I played
more or less keyboard only back then, and being out in the open in
a map like MortaL shuffling around that is suicide ... Oh I could
stop dead in my tracks and use the mouse to snipe, but I had no chance
in Hell unless there was a Grenade Launcher handy so I could toss
fragmentation charges all over the place and hope for a sucker kill.
A nice spread of buckshot too ... keyboard only players can fake their
way through any game that has a Shotgun or Grenade Launcher in them
and the host remembers to turn off the goddamn Predator Disc.
Where was I ... yes, the CTF map. I think this was the level that
inspired me to go ahead and start "hacking" certain levels
to add CTF "support" to them ... meaning that I'd copy and
paste in the entity code for the two flags and a couple of heliguns
and fiddle with the coordinate and angle axis until they looked OK.
Some of them worked ... Turbo pretty much did the same thing with
his level and you can play one on one CTF in this arena well enough,
but one wonders what the point is. As a DM/Rocket Arena level it is
quite engaging -- adding the element of teamplay within the unchanged
arena structure just gives you more to worry about, though the Tech
Powerups are always cool.
I
think the only real weakness to the map is it's dependence upon custom
texturing and environment files to make it a unique vision. All well
and fine, but the end result is 3 megabytes of files one has to download
if joining a session in-game, which is why you don't see a lot of
public servers running maps with custom texturing, let alone custom
maps. People are usually good for about 90 to maybe 180 seconds of
ingame download time -- even on my 560kps cable modem, MortaL would
be a patience strainer. Pretty, but one wants to get in the game before
the fraglimit is hit, and arena levels are intended to hit limits
very, very quickly. I used to host custom map games over GameRanger
regularly [Quake2 was always the big hit], and folks would usually
be understanding about downloading a map ... but custom files on top
of that is a different matter: You really need the compressed archive
beforehand and have it all installed from the get-go.
And
that brings me back to the Bot issue -- Bots were made with maps like
MortaL in mind. They don't have to download Jack, there is nowhere
for them to get lost, no triggered doors for them to get stuck behind,
no bodies of water for them to drown in just because there is some
ammo on the bottom [that always makes me sad], and they will play
any map, no matter how silly, without issuing one complaint, until
the power source to your computer is interrupted. If you are looking
for a SiN map to rock against with your Redemption Bot, MortaL is
a level that I would definitely recommend.
Just make sure to keep your computer plugged into the wall at all
times. Very important.
SQ012203
Download Mortal + Mortal_CTF from Ritualistic's
stash of SiN files at 3DDownloads.com
by clicking
here.
Visit Squonk's SiN website for downloads of map and skin packs,
and other goodies, at http://www.squonkamatic.net/sin.
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