The Descent Network Team proudly presents:
Last Updated: 03/31/99
PYROCIDE - "The only thing faster than the gameplay... is your heartbeat!!" - 12 fantastic anarchy levels with the right mix of 2D and 3D structures, made by one cool guy named "Delirium" that made him into the Descent Network Team. Additionally this mission provides a 4-song-soundtrack by Heiko Herrmann...
Introduction - Read what's Pyrocide: The Series all about...
The Levels - Some screenshots and informations about the awesome levels
How to Score - Special rules how to score in Capture-the-Flag and Team-Hoard modes
The Pyrocide Team - Who brought you this great level-set?
Acknowledgements & Thanks - Some detailed information about the contributors
The Soundtrack - Some infos about the soundtrack by Heiko Herrmann.
The Download - Enough talked, now to some action...
| Introduction |
The Pyrocide Series has a history that goes all the way back to about Mid-November. After the October release of my anarchy level "Delirium" I began to start making levels in a whole new way. While I'm pretty proud of that level, I found that there was a whole new dimension in level editing to be explored. I'm not sure what singular event changed my methods of making levels,but probably it was just experience. Although I've been making levels since the end '96 (Devil2.1h) I didn't release any because they weren't finished and I figured that there were enough levels on the net with problems (no reactors,bad lighting, texturing, etc...) but I felt that I needed to have a complete understanding of everything that involves level editing before I start to surface as a level designer. So now I'm confident that I've accomplished this and feel that I'm ready to release my first big project.
The Pyrocide Series consists of 12 all-new levels. Each level
has eight starts and supports anarchy, team anarchy, flag, team flag, and hoard modes of
play.You could play single player but it would just be to explore. In the series, like EON
X, there are some levels that require you to play team flag since the flag goals are only
accessible by triggers and close if you try to score yourself. However, there are tricks
to bypass some of the triggers with careful flying, but you'll have to figure those out
yourself like I did. There are also
some custom textures in the first nine or so levels and a couple blinking lights so you'll
need v1.2. Also these levels are very symmetrical so in some levels I've color coded to
let you know which goal you are headed for. Also Heiko Herrmann has made some music tracks
for it and the one I heard was simply fantastic, and also Nathan Padgett has put together
a incredible picture for the briefing screen.
| The Levels |
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Dk This level is an ideal level to start off with. It is relatively small so I wouldn't necessarily play it with 8 players, but I do think that it would be great to play with 4 players. The central room is large and a great placeto dogfight with no huge weapons and lots of room to maneuver. This level andthe next 8 or so all have custom textures and blinking lights. DK does notrequire team scoring in flag and hoard modes. |
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Nephesh Nephesh is the first level I made when I decided to make a series even though the series I had planned was only 6 levels at first. But anyway I made this with more of a vertical structure then I had ever made before. This level is also mainly a good dogfight level with no huge weapons like megas, shakers, or smart mines (shakers and smart mines don't occur at all in this series). Although Nephesh has forcefields guarding the goals they can be bypassed if you know where to deactivate them and know where not to reactivate them. |
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Pyrocide Ah yes, my favorite level of this series and the theme of it as well. When Iset the first 20 cubes I knew that this was going to be something very special. This, in my opinion, has some of the very best architecture in the series and some of the best framerate, too. It has a pretty balanced weapon selection and is yet another dogfight level (I like 'em). Various people have commented about this level that it looks the like a Luke Schneider level which you can imagine is a *VERY* big complement to me. |
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Lavaland Filling it's role as the "lava" level in this series, Lavaland marks the spot where the levels become steadily larger, optimized for 4+ players. The flag goals are blocked so you must have more then a 1:1 flag game, (unless you know the trick). This level has some cool lavafalls and stuff behind them if you'll risk a few shield. This is also one of my favorite levels because of the architecture. |
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Revulsion In this level, I used the corridor generator to make some pretty groovy halls that kind of resemble so of the stadium and elemental insanity levels. This was really the first time that I have got the DMB2 generator to work and I liked the results. The "basement" of this level is good for sniping and dog-fighting, but also has a mega in there, for you mega fans but it's hidden. |
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Bedlam After some last minute changes, this level was finally completed. This is also one of my favorite levels and is nicely designed in my opinion. The room up top is a supreme place to have a dogfight and there are cool halls down below to lose you opponent with smart flying. The goals in this level were very strange in flag mode so that I changed them and now they are fixed. But this level does not need two players to score even though they are guarded by forcefields. |
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Whitesand The texture from SPONGEmop's "christmas level" is used as the basis for this level. It's just the wall's texture in DK in gray-scale, but has a nice effect as it really looks like sand (imagine that) :). About the sturcture of White Sand, it is a relatively large level that has an interesting feel when you fly around in it. To me, it almost feels like a "desert palace" of sorts where you can go inside what appear to be huge columns. |
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Morella I wasn't really considering adding this level at first because of the framerate, but I thought that it was too cool to leave out so with a little remodeling I improved the frametime dramatically by removing a hallway that ran through the middle of the room that you see there. I also enjoyed playing around with different texture schemes and finally came up with this one. This level requires that you have at least two players to score. |
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Recoil This was my second endeavor to use the corridor generator, but this time I'm not using a plain rectangle, but something a little neater. It's really cool to look at in automap so don't spend to much time there in multiplayer :). It also has some other cool halls that look pretty exotic. |
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Hydrosphere This was not at all what the original "Hydrosphere" looked like, but the first level I planned to fill the "water role" was not very good at all. So I just thought of a cool hallway and just ran with the idea and it formed into this massive level that is now the new "Hyrdosphere". In this level the goals are blocked so you need at least two players on each team to score. |
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Antipathy Another of my early developments in the Pyrocide Series, but I've just recently finished it. This is one of the most aired out levels and has PLENTY of room to fly around in, but there are also smaller halls, too. The level also requires you to have two players on each team in flag modes to score, but really I think that 4:4 flag would be the most exciting to play. |
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Breakneck This level is ideal for snipers with the sharp eye. There are many grates and such to pick off your opponents with Gauss and Vulcan, but it's not just for snipers, there is a larger central room for dogfighting, but may get a little hairy if you have a low-end computer (P120 is about the lowest before it gets too rough). But the architecture is a very strong point and a few sacrificed frames per second is well worth the view! |
| How to Score |
These levels are very much like Luke Schneider's EON X in the fact that in some of the levels you need two players to score. How to score is actually rather simple. First, when your teammate has the flag, one other member of the team also has to go to the flag station to deactivate the forcefield so the one with the flag can get into the station, without a second player it would be impossible to score. Basically when you hear that your teammate has picked up the flag, you should probably head for the goal just in case no one else does or you probably won't win. I put these "2-player-score" in because it really heightens the experience of team work rather than in anarchy, and really team flag isn't even true team flag because you don't even need teammates to play. With forcefields guarding the goals, it is necessary to correspond with your team and opens a whole new aspect to stategize.
| The Pyrocide Team |
I wouldn't be very considerate if I didn't recognize those who have help SO much with this project. It's hard to say that this is even mine because of so many others of have contributed much of there time and effort. The immediate Pyrocide Series Team is...
Except Razor Blade and Dan Wentz all of those are members of the fantastic Descent Network Team, that has its home at http://www.descent2.com/dnet and did so many cool things like Descent Manager, the biggest and most complete Descent homepage in the world, much efforts in the D1Source and Miner plus in the newsgroups, and help in big level series like Phobos Encounter, Entropy 2 and the upcoming Mandrill.
| Acknowledgements & Thanks |
Thanks go out to these guys for there tremendous help and efforts to make this thing the very best that it can be:
Heiko Herrmann alias HH-Software
Images from the Descent Network Team
Of course Heiko provided the space, but other aspects of this project like the music was
written and mixed by Heiko, and from what I've heard, the music is absolutely excellent.
He also did some extensive playtesting with Alex and gave many suggestions. And also
perhaps the biggest contribution is the Descent Manager...
I don't think that putting in the weapons and managing the mission would have been as easy
without it :).
Alexander Streule alias Assassin from
the Descent Network Team
What else can I say about this guy, but that he has really pushed me to make the very most
out of the series. He gave me some suggestions that helped me put out a much better piece
of work. And it looks a lot better now, I just can't imagine why he doesn't make many
levels? :) And also he did very extensive testing. But biggest thanks to both of my fellow
DNet'rs for there huge contributions to this project.
Nathan Padgett alias Thin Man from the
Descent Network Team
I've always admired this guy's work in rendering so I thought that he would be an ideal
dude for a briefing background and I must say that render he did! Taking a picture
straight from the level, he rendered an incredible picture that really reflects what I
wanted this series to be. Lotsa of excitement!! If you are interested in 3D modelling, you
might want to check out his page at the Descent
Network web-site where he offers nearly all Descent 1 and 2 robots and weapons for
download in several 3D formats.
Razor Blade
Razor, a fellow DDLer, was really the only one who too interest in beta testing
the series (from all the ones who said they'd betatest, but never responded after that).
But anyway he suggested a lot of things that helped the series avoid some problems like
weapons respawning in the exit and so on... If you don't know the name Razor Blade yet,
maybe Chasm or Phobos
Encounter ring a bell :)?
Dan Wentz alias Ebola from Volition
Inc./Parallax Software
Dan Wentz of Parallax/Volition was so kind to convert the soundtrack to the HMI format
Descent 2 uses, after DTX2 has made only very unstable files, that crashed the game
unreproducable sometimes when switching to the automap, sometimes at the loop point etc.
Without Dan Pyrocide would be *VERY* unstable. He took quite much time to even improve the
sound by implementing chrous, reverb and pan events. You are one cool guy, Ebola :)))...
Sandra Skarke alias Kruemel from the
Descent Network Team / Oil Tank
For lending HH her keyboard for the Song 4 and making fantastic music together in the Oil
Tank Project. She also helped beta-testing - both the soundtrack and the mission...
Thanks also to
| The Soundtrack |
Pyrocide features a 4-songs-soundtrack and was fully written by Heiko Herrmann alias HH-Software Images. It is a mix of songs written in eight years under the code name "Oil Tank".
To hear the soundtrack you need a FM sound card or (recommended:) a wave-table soundcard that is supported by Descent. Then make sure that the CD red-book music is turned off in the D2 options menu.
The music was composed under a 2 MB wavetable set by Terratec on a Terratec EWS64XL, a very professional PC sound card. I did not use the built-in synthesizer of the EWS64XL by intention, but rather optimized it on the cheaper (but also fantastic) 2 MB wavetable, because I think most of you don't have such a professional card as the EWS64XL and so optimizing for the cheaper cards will result in a better sound in most of you guys' and girls' computers :). It won't sound exactly the same as it sounded on my system, as long as you don't have the same wavetable, but I think it should sound on nearly every wavetable soundcard cool. It evens sounds cool on FM soundcard, however of course I HIGHLY recommend you to buy a wavetable, how about one by TerraTec?
Heiko has written down some notes about the tracks:
Song 1, coming up in level 01, 05 and
09 CAVE EXPLORER (06:19)
Written in 1995 by Heiko Herrmann (Dedicated to Sandra "Kruemel"
Skarke)
I worked with Sandra on a 60min-cassette called "WonderWorld" in late 1994 and
released it at christmas to a couple of friends. This song was done later where we worked
on a sequel to that artwork, which however never was finished. I wrote the song directly
after a very romantic afternoon with her, visiting some very interesting caves in Germany.
I will never forget this great day I had with her :)... (BTW, did you know that both
(DNet)Neelix and Kevin Bentley who is of D1Source and DDR fame also do cave exploring as
their hobbies?). We presented the song to our friends at Sandra's birthday party in March
'95.
The song was made on an Amiga, the melody voices where played on a keyboard. For Pyrocide
I remixed it in MIDI-format, because I definitely think that this is one of my best pieces
ever...
Song 2, coming up in level 02, 06 and
10 THE FORTH SONG (03:26)
Written in 1990 by Heiko Herrmann
This was one of the first pieces I ever wrote, my 4th to be exact. It was composed on the
good old C64 when I was 14 with a horrible editor, was re-done in 1993 on a better one
(but still C64), then Sandra remixed it again in 1995 on the Amiga, and I now come to a
final version on the PC, where I finally have enough voices to give this simple song a
real sound with many voices. Especially the "Orchester Hits" in the background
now make the most of the new sound feeling if you directly compare it to the earlier
versions. Oh well, this song is now 8 years old, and still I love its simplicity :)...
Song 3, coming up in level 03, 07, 11
and on the webpage PYROCIDE (04:21)
Written in 1998 by Heiko Herrmann
The only new song I actually wrote for Pyrocide (the others are "only" remakes
of old ones from me). You might wonder why I use the theme song as third song and not as
first. Easy: Level 3 is the real "Pyrocide" level, the one after which this
mission was titled. It is perhaps also the best level in anarchy modes; even though it
looks large we even had MUCH fun in a 3-players-game! So there really was the need of a
fast and action-based song and so I came up with this one. It was written and fully mixed
in a record time of only 1 1/2 hours(!) and the result is IMHO fantastic. Definitely one
of my favorites of my own songs now :)... This song also has proved me, that I didn't got
rusty in composing music, although I had a composer pause of about three years now...
Note: This song even sounds great on a FM card :)...
Song 4, coming up in level 04, 08 and
12 PIG EARS
(04:10)
Written in 1995 by Heiko Herrmann
This one was very complex to create on the PC. I composed this one on Sandra's keyboard,
and programmed it there. Now to bring it into PC we let all the sections and voices play
once and recorded it with the MIDI editor. Unfortunately the result was very bad:
Thousands of MIDI events were assigned wrong and the rhythm also wasn't right. So I had to
redo nearly every note with an event editor, and had to remove most of the ProgChange
events. A very boring work, but the result was worth it. Now it doesn't sound exactly like
the original in Sandra's keyboard, but it sounds good and satisfying in this version also.
The original wasn't perfect neither, so it isn't so important, that the sound is now a bit
different ;-)... Of course this song was also from the great first year with my girlfriend
Sandra, I did this song a few weeks after CAVE EXPLORER, shortly after I learned how to
program her keybord. The sound of the in-the-keyboard-programmed-songs are quite different
to the ones I did with the Amiga editor, as it livens up my music :)...
The song name has nothing to do with the PIG-files of Descent, but of Sandra's
funny description of the @-symbol ("Schweinsoehrle")...
I hope you have as much fun hearing the soundtrack as I had composing it. As it is the result of nine years, the songs themselves are quite different to each other and so there should be something for everybody.
I don't think of pausing composing again at all, I even want
to continue and that's why I now am working on my next project, the soundtrack to the
Mandrill single-player-set by Razor Blade (who already did those great Chasm and Phobos
Encounter series). That soundtrack will again sound a lot different than this one, as I
try to reproduce the feelings of the story, the mission that is laying on you, and so
enlarge this feeling. So if you didn't really like this soundtrack, maybe you will love
the Mandrill one... At least three songs and
one outro will be done by me.
Now have fun with the music :),
Heiko Herrmann alias HH-Software Images from the Descent Network Team
| The Download |
Descent 2 V1.2 is required for proper play of Pyrocide. If you have V1.0 or V1.1 please update to V1.2 first. If you only own Descent 2 Destination Quartzon or the Descent 2 Interactive Demo, simply forget it: these versions are not compatible to Pyrocide - The Series!
When starting the PYRO-S.EXE, a prompt will ask you for the path to the MISSIONS subdirectory of Descent 2 Commercial V1.2. Enter that path and press RETURN. To play Pyrocide in anarchy mode simply use the MULTIPLAYER menu in Descent 2 and choose "Pyrocide: The Series" as mission. To look at Pyrocide in single-player mode (for testing and looking reasons) use the NEW GAME menu in Descent 2. However note that there are not any robots...
Notes for Macintosh users: Pyrocide plays fine on Descent 2 V1.2 for Macintosh. However you need the Mac unRAR utility to extract the PC EXE file. Get it here.
Download Pyrocide -
The Series V1.0 - 03/13/98 (547 kB)
Contains 12 anarchy levels including the 4-song-soundtrack in HMP, HMQ and
MID format.
Download Pyrocide
- The Soundtrack V1.0 - 03/13/98 (46 kB)
The Soundtrack only in MIDI format, written by Heiko Herrmann, for
non-commercial use. Contains a bonus track (Remix of the Cave Explorer by Dan Wentz)
WebHits
counts accesses on the Descent Network website since
02/08/97.
Pyrocide - The Series - A Descent 2 Anarchy Level Series / Level creation, design and idea: Jason Jouret / Music composing, production and mix: Heiko Herrmann / Music final mix and production, HMP/HMQ conversion: Dan Wentz / Briefing graphics: Nathan Padgett / Beta-Testing: Alexander Streule, Heiko Herrmann, Razor Blade, Paul Wright, Christian Scheibel, Sandra Skarke / Custom textures: Jason Jouret, SPONGEmop / Special effects: Jason Jouret / Web-site: ALEXANDER STREULE, HEIKO HERRMANN / Packaging and installation script: HEIKO HERRMANN
Legal informations about the series: This set of files including all contents is COPYRIGHT 1998 BY DESCENT NETWORK TEAM - You are not allowed to use ANY part of it in your own mission, without our written permission. You are allowed to distribute this fileset as long as you keep the fileset intact and complete, and do not charge anything for it. You are also forced to give away the original distribution set "PYRO-S.EXE". You may disassemble the HOG file, but only for personal use.
Legal informations about the music: The soundtrack is WRITTEN 1990-1998 BY HH-SOFTWARE IMAGES and COPYRIGHT 1990-1998 BY OIL TANK PRODUCTIONS - You may not use any song outside this mission neither in original form nor in altered/remixed form without the written permission from Heiko Herrmann. An exception is the Pyrocide theme song, which may be used on a web-page offering or presenting Pyrocide: The Series.
Disclaimer: The whole mission is provided "AS-IS" and we do not provide guarantee of any kind.