The Gateway Experiments, or Doesn't The Military Ever Learn? Manual v0.2 by Ethan Watson aka GooberMan =============================================================================== Contents =============================================================================== 1. Introduction 1.1 About 1.2 Requirements 1.3 Installing and running 1.4 Important binds 2. Background information 2.1 The mod's universe 2.2 The characters 2.2.1 Russell Cartwright 2.2.2 Elaine Skyler 2.2.3 Aaron Boon 3. Inside the game 3.1 Game modes 3.2 Walking around 3.3 The speech system 3.3.1 Initiating conversation 3.3.2 Choosing responses 3.3.3 The radio 3.4 Elevators 3.5 Autosave 4. Behind the scenes 4.1 The concept 4.2 Space Station Omega 4.2.1 The map 4.2.2 The scripts 4.2.3 The story 4.2.4 The characters 4.3 Still to come 5. Credits 5.1 Author credits 5.2 Community helpers 5.2.1 Maonth / Shaviro 5.2.2 Lu-Wang 5.2.3 Enjay 5.3 Testers 5.4 Editors used 5.5 Additional thanks 6. SPOILER ALERT!!! 6.1 Walkthrough 7. Permissions 7.1 Permissions obtained 7.2 Permissions for authors 7.3 Distribution 8. Final Word 9. Links =============================================================================== 1. Introduction =============================================================================== 1.1 About +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The Gateway Experiments is a modification for the Doom source port, ZDoom. It isn't your average modification though. For the first time in a ZDoom modification (to my knowledge), a scripted interactive speech system has been incorporated in to the mod. This has allowed for an unparalleled story-telling approach (well, at least for the ZDoom engine). Combined with over a year of scripting experience (the previous best example being Doom - The Arcade Game) and ever-improving mapping skills, I hope to deliver the best single-player ZDoom experience you will ever play. 1.2 Requirements +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Doom 2 - Hell on Earth ZDoom v1.23b30 (available from http://zdoom.notgod.com/ftp) A computer to run all that Anything less will result in Weird Shit(TM) happening. 1.3 Installing and running +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Install Doom 2 in to any directory. Extract ZDoom to the directory you installed Doom 2 to. Copy GE1-SSO.WAD and GATEWAY.CFG to the Doom 2 directory, then go to Start Menu/Run and type in "\zdoom.exe gateway.cfg", exchanging for the directory you installed Doom 2 and ZDoom to. 1.4 Important binds +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ VERY IMPORTANT! IF YOU DO NOT FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THIS SECTION, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO COMPLETE THE GATEWAY EXPERIMENTS! The Gateway Experiments adds some keys to the configure keys menu. These keys, found under the "Gateway Experiments Interface Options" section, are called "Cycle Choices" and "Activate Choices." By default, these keys should be bound to G and H respectively, but if this is not the case, you will need to set these binds yourself. =============================================================================== 2. Background information =============================================================================== 2.1 The mod's universe +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This mod is set in the rewritten Doom universe portrayed in Doom - The Arcade Game. It is set 10 years after the events of Doom - The Arcade Game. Doom - The Arcade Game only follows Russell's experiences through the universe at the time though. The Doom Chronicles explores the experiences of some of the characters you will encounter (currently there is only a demo of Aaron Boon's experiences available, Elaine Skyler will appear in Chapter 5). 2.2 The characters +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2.2.1 Russell Cartwright ----------------------------- A poll was held in the Fan Fiction forum (hosted at Doomworld) in regards to what the marine you played in Doom and Doom 2 should be called. The name we came up with was Russell Cartwright. After Russell defeated the Icon of Sin and got back to Earth, he stayed in the Marines for a year to help rebuild Earth. He made sure he got stationed with one of his combat buddies during the invasion, Elaine Skyler. During this time, a romantic relationship started between Russell and Elaine. After a year of cleaning up, Russell acquired a transport and left the Marines. He went in to business with Elaine and set up a transport company. Alot of people had decided upon arriving back at Earth and seeing that all they had built up was destroyed that becoming a colonist on Mars was a good idea, so Russell had alot of customers to transport. The government has tried on several occasions to get Russell back in to the marines but on each occasion he has turned them down. 2.2.2 Elaine Skyler ----------------------------- Elaine was involved in quite a few missions with Russell when the invasion of Earth happened. She was involved in attacking the starport once Russell had deactivated the shield surrounding it, and was drawn in to a series of events once off Earth that put her through a very similar experience to the one Russell was experiencing at the time. She is the only one who can claim to truly understand what Russell went though in defeating the demon horde. After the invasion, she was stationed with Russell on Earth for a year and became involved in a romantic relationship with him. She was the main reason Russell decided to acquire a transport ship and go in to business. She doesn't miss the Marines, but feels that if duty should call once again she should don the combat greens and kick some ass. 2.2.3 Aaron Boon ----------------------------- Aaron Boon was a Lieutenant at the time of the invasion. He was on Earth when it started, but a few hours later he found himself on Phobos thanks to an Earth extension to the original Gateway Experiments. He managed to find out some rather important information during his whole ordeal (which will be discussed at the end of Doom Chronicles Chapter 4 and touched on during The Gateway Experiments), and along with the only other survivor of the Phobos incident he cleaned the base out of the leftover Demons from Russell's assault. Once a rescue party collected the two, Aaron got promoted to Admiral (Marines and commanders were getting rather scarce and his experience on Phobos made him prime Admiral material in the military's eyes). He has stayed with the Marines ever since, and worked closely with Russell during his year on Earth. He is currently stationed on Space Station Omega. =============================================================================== 3. Inside the game =============================================================================== 3.1 Game modes +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The Gateway Experiments is a single player only experience. 3.2 Walking around +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The only difference between The Gateway Experiments and normal Doom in terms of walking around is that The Gateway Experiments goes all-out in the scripting department in an attempt to create a living, breathing world. 3.3 The speech system +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ One of the scripting featues of this mod is the interactive speech system. This speech system can be broken up in to several categories 3.3.1 Initiating conversation ----------------------------- Walking up to a character and pressing the key you have assigned to "Use" (the default is the space bar) will initiate a conversation with that character if the character wishes to speak to you. Sometimes it might only be one line, other times you might get in to full-blown conversations. At times, however, you won't have to initiate conversation, as a character will initiate conversation with you, or you will initiate conversation upon seeing that character. 3.3.2 Choosing responses ----------------------------- Occasionally a conversation menu will pop up in the upper left hand corner of the screen. The currently selected option is highlighted in white text. Pressing the key you have assigned to Cycle Choices (G by default) will select the next option down. Pressing again once the option is at the bottom choice will result in the topmost choice being highlighted. Once you have highlighted the choice you are happy with, press the key you assigned Activate Choices to (H by default). 3.3.3 The radio ----------------------------- After you have picked up a radio, you can activate it by pressing the Cycle Choices key. The menu works exactly like the conversation menu, except for the addition of an "exit menu" command, which does exactly what it says. You can only use the radio if you aren't talking to anyone else at the same time and if you don't have the elevator menu active. 3.4 Elevators +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ There are two types of elevators in The Gateway Experiments. The simplest elevator lets you choose up or down only. The other type of elevator lets you choose what floor or deck you wish to travel to via a menu similar to the conversation and radio menus. Scroll through the floor choices by either pressing the Cycle Choices button or by pressing "Use" repeatedly on the button inside the elevator. Once your floor is highlighted, press Activate Choice. 3.5 Autosave +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The Gateway Experiments will automatically save your game when you reach key points. This could mean that you don't have to save your game manually at all, but I wouldn't recommend it. It's always handy to keep a separate save game on hand at all times in case you've got 1% health and a room full of soldiers in your current save game. =============================================================================== 4. Behind the scenes =============================================================================== 4.1 The concept +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ After completing the STARBOX demo wad (which can now be found on the ZDoom ftp), I started thinking about how I could expand it in to a full WAD. A docking sequence like that was too good to waste on just 1 simple demo WAD. Before long, I came up with a story for the WAD, but as is usual that wasn't enough. I decided to experiment with scripting some more to create a Doom mod that you could interact with like no other ZDoom mod before has. But even that wasn't enough. I've got a story. I've got characters. I've got interaction. Now let's treat it like a TV show and have it as a part of an ongoing series. The first episode, Space Station Omega, sets up the rest of the series, and hopefully I've made quite an interesting series for you to play around in. 4.2 Space Station Omega +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 4.2.1 The map ----------------------------- As I've mentioned before, I based this map on the STARBOX demo. I decided to go for a unique look to the space station in regards to the Doom community, but it isn't really all that unique. The weekend I started work on the space station just happened to be the weekend I decided to watch Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country again. I decided that a cross between the Klingon ship and the Starship Enterprise would be a good look for some space station corridors. By initial reactions from the testers, the look is a good one that is very unique to every other Doom mod out there. 4.2.2 The scripts ----------------------------- I've been saying ever since I became an active member of the Doom community that ACS scripting is more powerful than most people realise. I started to touch on this power in The Doom Chronicles by providing the ability to have an additional WAD which you could load on top of the main wad to provide full speech for the mod. The way I have it set up currently makes the script look like a mess, but now that functions are incorporated in to ACS I can easilly rewrite it to make it a nice, clear, and concise script. Doom - The Arcade Game began to expand my grasp of the power. With just a few scripts, I dramatically altered the way that Doom is played. While it has been said that it is too hard, it still shows the untouched power of ACS. One of my more prouder moments of the first map - Phobos Hangar - was the interactive computer. It was an idea I had in my head since The Doom Chronicles, and seeing it in action was pretty cool. It is limited, but I can't think off the top of my head anything like it for ZDoom. Once I released Doom - The Arcade Game release 1, I decided that I had to try and top the scripting work I had done in it. I had been throwing aroud the idea in my head of getting an interactive speech system up and running using scripts only. Two days later I had a fully functional and working scripting model which has pretty much remained unchanged (apart from adding more speech paths) since I first wrote it. 4.2.3 The story ----------------------------- I've been setting myself up a nice Doom universe in which to play around in with every release. Every story-based map or mod that I release all occurs within the rewritten Doom universe that I have devised for Doom - The Arcade Game. Originally, The Doom Chronicles was going to fill the gaps in the original Doom storylines that id gave us, but once I decided to include Aaron Boon in this map I decided that it would be better to just have it flesh out the rewritten Doom universe some more. The story is really rather cliche for the Doom community. 10 years after the invasion and the military still doesn't know that the Gateways are a bad thing. I have tried to make fun of this fact in the form of the title for the series. But unlike a few mods in the Doom community, I am not using a demon infestation as the result of continued experimentation as the sole plot line. It is a vital point of the plot for the series, I won't deny that, but the scripts I have in place allow me to really do some cool shit in regards to the story. Get to the end of Space Station Omega and you will get some sort of an idea as to what I mean. 4.2.4 The characters ----------------------------- Not much thought at all in to the characters here, as I am using familiar characters from Doom - The Arcade Game and The Doom Chronicles. The series will be played from Russell's perspective, as this is the person Doomers would most identify with. Not only that, most of the action happens from his point of view. I am trying to put a lot of character development in to the story, but how well that turns out will only be seen once the entire series is completed. 4.3 Still to come +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The rest of the series will follow Russell's experiences throughout the events that occured as a result of the Gateway Experiments. Demons won't be the only opponents that you face, new and interesting characters will be introduced, and I can only see the maps getting better and more interactive from here. I hope you've enjoyed this small behind the scenes look, and more importantly I hope that you thoroughly enjoy playing The Gateway Experiments. =============================================================================== 5. Credits =============================================================================== 5.1 Author credits +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The Gateway Experiments was conceived, mapped and scripted by Ethan Watson, also known as GooberMan to the Doom community. But I couldn't have done it without some help from some community members, and as a result they have their own section 5.2 Community helpers +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ These people made The Gateway Experiments in it's current incarnation possible in the following ways: 5.2.1 Maonth / Shaviro ----------------------------- Maonth was very helpful in the mapping department. When it comes to detailing my maps, I'm not good at it but I'm not bad either. Thanks to Maonth's advice on both detailing and the general atmosphere, I have managed to make the most detailed map I have ever made. Big thanks for that :) 5.2.2 Lu-Wang ----------------------------- Lu-Wang playtested an early version of the first map, and his feedback inspired me to write this manual you are now reading. 5.2.3 Enjay ----------------------------- Enjay has been an endorser of my mods ever since I released Doom - The Arcade Game to the masses. After sending him an early version of the first map, he gave me some detailed feedback. Not only that, he provided me with the information I missed about config files and gave me advice that fixed up my DECALDEF.LMP. Towards the end, he tracked down a polyobject that was causing the map to not work in ZDoom 2.0. All in all, very helpful :) 5.3 Testers +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ These people played an earlier version of Space Station Omega: deathwarrior Enjay Faint Liam The Bard Lu-Wang Maonth / Shaviro Jayextee Nuno Correia Tarin Probably missed 1 or 2 others These people received the map, but to my knowledge didn't play it: Lut Julian And these people played a near-comple version: Enjay Biff Bites Kurt Kesler 5.4 Editors used +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ * The map was done in ZETH 4.05, ZETH 4.11, and at times WadAuthor v1.30 * The map was compiled in ZenNode 0.98a during development, but for the release ZDoom builds the nodes every time the map is run * All scripts were written in EDIT.COM * All lumps were written in NOTEPAD.EXE * All additional graphics were done in Paint Shop Pro 5 * And everything was compiled in to one big WAD using DEUTex 4.4.0 5.5 Additional thanks +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ id software for creating Doom, and John Carmack for being a good person and releasing the Doom source code 4 years later. TeamTNT for Boom. Randy Heit for his constant work on ZDoom. I can't wait for DoomScript :) Kurt Kesler for showing the world transparent polyobjects. Why don't you ZDoom mappers use them more? Anyone else I may have missed. =============================================================================== 6. SPOILER ALERT!!! =============================================================================== 6.1 Walkthrough +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Stuck? Don't know where to go or what to do? This walkthrough will cover Space Station Omega only. This isn't the only path you can take through the map though, so go out there and experiment :) Once you get control of Russell, exit the cockpit and take the elevator down to the lower deck of your ship. Directly opposite the bottom deck elevator door is the communications store. Go in and pick up a radio. Use the radio to contact Elaine. Go through either one of the doors beside the elevator and follow it through to were the marines are standing. Contact Elaine to get her to open the airlock doors (if you get a response saying that the docking sequence hasn't finished, try again in a few seconds). Contact Elaine again to get her to open the station's airlock doors. Speak to the marines, and select the "I have a bet to win" option. Walk back to the cockpit. Upon entering the cockpit you will be teleported to a Star Trek-ish teleporter room. Follow the white marine's instructions and meet up with your old friend Aaron Boon. Choose either conversation choice just after he speaks to you, and then choose the "Might as well" choice when he asks you if you want to watch the teleporter in action. Use the screen on the wall. After you ask for a gun, a panel in the side wall will open revealing a shotgun. Take the lift up to Deck 0 and kill the trooper. A few seconds later a swarm of enemies will teleport in. Kill them and Boon will teleport in and explain some stuff to you. Go down to Deck 4. You will be knocked out by an explosion and wake up half an hour later. The rest? Work it out for yourself :) =============================================================================== 7. Permissions =============================================================================== 7.1 Permissions obtained +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ There are currently no permissions obtained as all work in The Gateway Experiments is original work by Ethan Watson aka GooberMan (the only exception being the color translations for the marines taken from Randy Heit's example WAD). 7.2 Permissions for authors +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Authors have permission to use any part of The Gateway Experiments in their own maps or mods on the condition that I get credit for what you are using, or you will be scorned upon by everyone you horrible person. *ahem* On with it then... 7.3 Distribution +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The Gateway Experiments can be distributed in any form you like (be it floppy, CD, internet, etc) as long as the original ZIP you downloaded remains in tact. Don't add your own shit to it, and don't take stuff out. =============================================================================== 8. Final Word =============================================================================== Your call could not be connected. Please check your number and dial again. Party on dude. =============================================================================== 9. Links =============================================================================== id software - http://www.idsoftware.com Team TNT - http://www.teamtnt.com ZDoom - http://zdoom.notgod.com Paint Shop Pro - http://www.jasc.com The Doom Chronicles - http://www.geocities.com/gooberman_and_friends/ doom_chronicles Doom - The Arcade Game - http://www.doomworld.com/doomarcade RTC-3057 - http://www.nautrup.com/3057 Enjay's Place Of Doom - http://www.btinternet.com/~Enjay001