hlcsg.exe -wadautodetect -wadinclude n_mausoleum.wad n_mausoleumhlbsp.exe n_mausoleumhlvis.exe -full n_mausoleumhlrad.exe -sparse -extra -dscale 1 -bounce 2 n_mausoleumopt_plns.exe n_mausoleumIn a remote region of the Tibetan plateau, nestled amongst the mountains of the Kailash Range, this ancient necropolis was discovered recently by a lone, lost climber. The only survivor of a team of six, he was found, half-drowned and delirious, on the shores of holy Lake Manasarowar, three weeks after the search had been called off. Lying in a hospital bed, he babbled about a pyramid in the clouds for quite some time before anybody wondered whether there might be something more than fantasy to his story, which only grew more coherent as he recovered his strength and wits.
There were gaps in his memory, but he managed to provide enough detail to determine the right general area to look. A team of archaeologists and anthropologists was gathered together, and on the 14th of January they set out to investigate.
They never came back.
One month after they were officially declared missing, a second team -- a military team -- was assembled. As a member of that team, you are a well-trained killing machine. However, nothing in your training, or in your experience, could prepare you for what you would find in that remote eyrie in Tibet.
The experts say the pyramid is a blend of Incan and Egyptian cultures -- strange enough at the best of times, and it certainly doesn't belong in Tibet! They could not explain its existence. Nor could they explain the strange madness which gradually twisted the minds of your men as they camped within the walls of the mausoleum, the madness which led to raised tempers, flaring rage, and finally all-out war as you and your comrades began to kill each other. Yet even death was no escape. The phoenix, the cursed phoenix, which demanded its blood sacrifice and repaid in kind, saw to that...
It was like being caught in a sick, violent game, manipulated at the whim of some giddy player, killing and being killed for someone's enjoyment...
It was a nightmare. It was a deathmatch!
This ancient temple -- weathered and eroded by the ravages of time -- is buried beneath a huge drift of the sand which has been blowing across the high walls for countless centuries. (What? "Thirty" is countless! Even if you took your socks off, you could only get to twenty, give or take...)
At least two groups of explorers -- "looters" is such a harsh word -- have been here before you. The first group dug a narrow tunnel through the sand, part-way around the wall, but were unable to penetrate the interior of the temple; the second group extended the tunnel -- obviously with access to better technology or greater manpower -- to gain access to the interior of the North gatehouse.
Late afternoon, nearly sunset.
It's DeathMatch: just kill anything with a pulse, and have fun!
In keeping with the nominal storyline -- you're part of a military team, remember -- all players spawn with a shotgun, and partial (60%) kevlar body armour.
The only weapon not included in Mausoleum is the Gauss Cannon, AKA the "Jump Gun". Quite apart from my own inability to hit a barn door with the darn thing, I didn't want to include it in this level because it made handling the outer walls problematic at best. (One thing I really dislike in levels is the invisible barrier (particularly noticeable in UT2004 Onslaught maps, for instance) which holds the player inside the map for no logical reason other than because "it's the edge of the map"! Call it a pet peeve if you will, but it meant there was no room for the Gauss Cannon in Mausoleum.)
There are no health or armour recharges in this level, as such, but if you make the appropriate sacrifices, the gods of the temple may smile upon you...
I would appreciate feedback from anybody who likes (or dislikes) this level. If you have something to say about this level, or an error to report, please contact me. Without feedback, how can I hope to improve? :-)
This level has been extensively playtested by the following people, many of whom have made comments contributing to the finished product:
Surprisingly, Mausoleum actually seems reasonably playable with only two people; any more than three or four can quickly become highly chaotic. Which is a good thing! :-)
After the initial release of this level, a number of comments came back which suggested further necessary changes:
A particularly nasty bug which occasionally caused a player to get killed by the lifts in the towers was brought to my attention. I attempted numerous fixes for this problem, all of which had some varying degree of success but never entirely eliminated the bug. I am confident that my latest attempt to solve the problem has actually done so -- but without rigorous testing it is impossible to be sure (it generally only seemed to happen when four or more people were in the level.) If you encounter this problem, I can only suggest that you let me know -- and that you get off the lift before it actually stops at the top (which is where the problem is most likely to occur...)
I added the phoenix logos (and their functionality; they are more than just pretty pictures!) I also added a couple of related enhancements to gameplay which are hinted at in the nominal storyline.
Then, I had to make the walls of the towers thicker. When viewed from a distance, certain moving objects (the lifts, the doors at the top, and sometimes even other players) could sometimes be seen right through the wall. I actually held off doing this for quite some time because I suspected it would be a fiddly task; I was not wrong! Of course, making the walls thicker changed the dynamics of sniping from the top room of the tower; the walls there had to be redesigned, and while I was at it I redesigned the ceiling too, to counter one of my own pet peeves with the level...
Finally, with everything else fixed and finished, I set about eliminating the last few "Leaf Saw Into Leaf" errors from the compile process; they didn't seem to be causing any in-game problems, but I wanted to be certain it was 100% (after having it in development for 15 months, I wanted it to be as close to perfect as I could get it!) Of course, the "Leaf Saw Into Leaf" errors are difficult to track down, so I wrote a script to make it easier; that, and six compiles later as I chased them around the level, seemed to do the trick!
This is the initial release, seven months to the day after we had our initial "Grand Opening Night". Much has changed since then -- and I also took some time out along the way to write my first novel. :-)
As initially conceived, this level was substantially larger. However, by the time I actually finished building what I wanted to build, I was pushing at numerous limits of the Half-Life engine and the compile tools. At various points in the development of the initial version of this level, I got (and resolved) each of the following errors:
Additionally, the playing area was just too large for effective play. Once again, I had gotten carried away and taken it too far.
The solution I came up with was to split the level into three. Two, Mausoleum and Crypt, would split the level into above-ground and below-ground respectively, the complex having been buried in sand and ravaged by time; the third, Temple, would be the complete, functional complex, set 3000 years ago at the height of its glory.
The original was split into three separate files on the 23rd of January, 2006.
Mausoleum is the first of these three to be released. After the split, the tunnel through the sand was completed, the stargate was "weathered", the below-ground sections were removed, and the weapon layout was substantially revised. (At this point, it is looking highly unlikely that the other two sections of this level will be released any time soon. Perhaps I'll revisit them at a later date, but for now there's not much point. Without a complete design overhaul, there's no way they can measure up to Mausoleum. Besides, I already have another couple of projects awaiting my attention...)
Why does all that sand not sound like sand?
I'm glad you asked!
As you walk through a level, the Half-Life engine generates the sound of your footsteps by comparing the name of the texture you are walking on with a list in the mod's sound/materials.txt file to determine which of ten preset sounds should be used. For standard HLDM, this is the valve/sound/materials.txt file (which, in all likelihood, will be stored inside the PAK0.PAK file, unless you have specifically extracted it.) If the texture does not appear in the sound/materials.txt file, the engine uses the default 'Concrete' footstep.
Needless to say, the sand texture I have used throughout the Mausoleum map ('E-SAND1B') is not one of the textures listed in your valve/sound/materials.txt file.
For my personal use, I have set up a 'petesdm' Mini-Mod which contains all of my deathmatch maps. The main reason I set this up was to get this map sounding the way it should. My petesdm/sound/materials.txt has had the following lines added to it:
// Textures for Mausoleum D E-SAND1B W E-WOOD02 W E-WOOD04 W E-WOODMGRID1B
Since I have in mind some additions to the 'petesdm' Mod, it does not seem worth releasing it at this stage. Of course, if I get enough requests I'll make it available. For now, though, if you want the sand in Mausoleum to sound like sand (and the wood to sound like wood) you can add the above lines to your own valve/sound/materials.txt file. (You may have to extract it from your PAK0.PAK file first. There are numerous programs around which allow you to do this; I believe I used Wally.
Thanks go to the following:
This level is copyrighted 2006 by Peter Jones.
You MAY distribute this level through any electronic network (internet, FIDO, local BBS, etc) provided you include this HTML file, and keep the ZIP archive intact.
You MAY include this level in the map rotation of a "free" internet HLDM server, but if you do so I'd really appreciate an email to let me know you're using it! You MAY NOT include it on your server if you are charging for access to play on the server!
This level MAY NOT be included with any compilation packs UNLESS you ask me first and I grant permission.
You MAY NOT make a profit from this level without direct signed permission from me.
You MAY NOT modify this level (or any of the files in this distribution) in any way, nor may you use it as a base or template for your own level.
In other words: give it to your buddies, play it as much as you like, but give credit where credit is due, and if you are going to make money from this level, I want some too!