For Variety/Nostalgia/Slugfest Apply Within

The definitive (so far) Carnage conversion!

What is this?

This package contains a collection of 6 new meshes for "Myth II:Soulblighter". These meshes are (hopefully) accurate reproductions of the original "Myth:The Fallen Lords" map For Carnage Apply Within.

How do I install it?

Very carefully. No, seriously, simply put the file named "Variety" into the "plugins" folder of your Myth II folder. Simple, right? To use, simply select one of the new games that show up when creating a multiplayer game. You don’t have to select a plugin from the "Plugins" button.

Why another Carnage conversion?

When I started this project (12/28/98), there were no other conversions that I knew of. I truly loved the old Carnage map in Myth:TFL, and I missed playing it. So I set about creating a reproduction of it. What I thought would be really exciting was a 4 team version upon which one could play King Of The Hill and Stampede!. Then El Bastard annoounced his version to the world, and I quickly followed suit, with the caveat that I would not release 5 team versions. I figured El Bastard would include faithful reproductions of the original, and I didn’t want to waste people’s download time.

Upon reviewing El Bastard’s version, I realized that the original Carnage hadn’t been reproduced yet, so I decided to reinstitute my 5 team "nostalgic" maps, in addition to my 4 team "variety" maps.

Why should I download yours?

If you enjoyed the original For Carnage Apply Within map in "M:TFL", and you miss playing the classic, this is your map. I have made every effort to accurately reproduce the original map. Everything from flag and ball placement to the ~390 grass scenery objects. Are there discrepancies? Sure. These are the ones I know about:

• Improper scenery sizes — There’s no way to set the scenery size, so pine trees and bushes will not be exactly the same size as they were in the original.

• Slightly out of place scenery — Though I tried to be as accurate (read: anal) as possible about scenery placement, I’m human, and I placed through observation, not calculation.

• Some missing/replaced scenery — There’s approximately 742 pine trees, 392 grasses, and 178 bushes in the original Carnage. At last count, I think I have 743 pine trees, 390 grasses and 176 bushes. Close, and hopefully you won’t notice.

• Terrain height — I never found a truly accurate way to correlate the original heights with Loathing heights. It feels right to me and my playtesters, so hopefully it’ll feel right to you.

• Those darned pregame pictures - Notice that the pregame screens do not display until you have actually played on the map once in a session. Why? I dunno… but every other plugin does the same thing. Methinks it's a Bungie thing.

• Media — read below.

• Myrmidons — I did transfer the original Myrmidons from "M:TFL". Hopefully they’ll act the way they would have in the original, but you never know. Special thanks to the creators of El Bastard’s conversion (Malory?), who inadvertently helped me with some bits of the "mons" tag 8-).

What are the meshes like?

There are 6 meshes to choose from. They are described below:

• For Nostalgia Apply Within — The original classic. 5 teams of retched goodness. The standard game types and units you love.

• For Nostalgia Apply Within (Dark) — The Dark version of the classic. Included for completeness. Has the ever loveable Myrmidon. Also a modified spider that doesn't try to attack everything within a 40 mile radius.

• For Variety Apply Within — The 4 team version of the map. Has the same units as the original Light version, but with no center team. Supports all game types, including King Of The Hill (great!), Assassin (Choke the Chicken, actually), Stampede! (sooooey!), Capture the Flag, and everything else.

• For Variety Apply Within (Dark) — The 4 team Dark version. Supports all the same game types, except now Assassin uses a controllable Baron, and the Stampede! units are everyone’s favorite (yay) fleeing peasants. Uses the same spider as the Nostalgia map.

• For Slugfest Apply Within — The original slugfest. It escapes me who originally came up with the "M:TFL" mesh (Johnny Polite?), but my compliments anyway 8-). Same units you know and love, same game types you know and love. I did not get the rain working for Heroic and Legendary, as I'm not quite that talented in writing map actions.

• "Four" Slugfest Apply Within — The 4 team version of slugfest, with all game types (except Stampede!) supported. I highly recommend King Of The Hill on this map… whattablast!

Okay, so what is up with the media?

I’ve asked all around about this one, and nobody can tell me a workaround. The crux of the matter is, I believe the media in Myth II does not have all of the functionality it had in Myth:TFL. In the original, a unit could begin entering the water (in other words, start disappearing below the surface) before that unit reached the part that reflects. In Myth II, the only place a unit will begin to "break the surface" is where the reflection map says there’s media. Let me show you an example of what I mean from Myth:TFL:

Notice our little friendly thrall is partially submerged, even though he hasn’t reached the line of reflection yet. This won’t happen in Myth II. Or, if it can happen, I haven’t found the way to make it happen. Try it yourself 8-).

So what? Well, for areas of media that do not slope too much, this is not a big problem. You won’t get any ripples, but at least it doesn’t look too terrible. However, on a media area that slopes precipitously (like the pool in the southwestern corner of Carnage shown above), it becomes extremely ugly. In a perfect world, the unit would begin to descend very soon after reaching the blue area of the texture map. That’s generally the way it works in M:TFL.

In summary, I believe there’s some extra information provided in the Myth:TFL maps that say "this is media, but it doesn’t reflect". That way you don’t have grass reflecting, but you still get the units to go "underwater". Unless someone can prove to me otherwise, of course. Myth II does not have this feature that I have seen.

My own preference for fixing this is having a bit of extra reflecting texture. So, yes, the grass will reflect a bit. I prefer this over having units standing chest deep in media while still being entirely visible. If someone shows me how to fix this to my liking, I’ll release a revision or patch.

Anything else?

I’d like to thank Bungie for another wonderful product (although I’m getting irritated that the engine appears far less capable of handling lots of sprites on screen… even on the Carnage level duking it out with 1 other person, I got massive slowdowns… Myth:TFL could handle 5 team FFAs on Carnage with nary a struggle… no, it’s not "lag", I’m talking about local ethernet play here). I’d like to thank my playtesters for helping me find any glitches. I’d like to thank my wife for a lot of patience whilst I did this conversion. Again, thanks to El Bastard and Malory for the "tips" on the "mons" tag.

You can use and distribute this map however you feel. I imagine Bungie will still have quite a bit of say about that, since it is their map really. I just hope everyone enjoys it, and I hope to see it playing on b.net soon. I know I’ll be there playing it.

Send any comments/glitches/whatever to this address. Don't forget to look in the level hints section for more wonderful information.

Enjoy,

Brian "PowerSlave.exec" Dupuis