Rubicon Rumble Pack
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September 2014
0.9 8122020
One year, approximately
3 full size, 2 small (intro and credits)
New play modes, monsters, sounds, models, code, devkit
The modding community in Quake is very self-reflective. When someone makes something good people usually want to make something with that. I'd always been a fan of metlslime / John Fitzgibbon's Rubicon - the grimy metal texture set and level design were very well made and spoke to me on some subliminal level about the base environment possibilities in Quake beyond the infinite brown of the original id1 base textures.
So, I used them in my Warp Spasm project to build a huge industrial juggernaut, one of five levels.
A few years later, Rubicon2 came out - a masterpiece of gameplay made by metlslime and czg.
Not all of id1 base is brown - there is some red and yellow in there!
Rubicon2
This took the original concept and expanded it into a full mod. metlslime (John Fitzgibbons) and the equally legendary czg teamed up and put together a series of extremely well designed levels and custom enemies that were a joy to play through - you can find it here courtesy of Spirit over at Quaddicted.
It was three levels of perfectly balanced and considered fun. Nothing went on too long or was buggy. They even released the source code, leading to a number of modifications and adaptions.
One of these was RRP.
What is RRP?
I looked at Rubicon2 and loved it. Such a conceptually clean yet aesthetically grimy concept, that'd I'd experimented with earlier in a very limited way in Warp Spasm. This was the first time I'd seen anyone bother to modify the original in game menu as well, which was nicely done and added a lot to the experience. I decided to revisit the world of Rubicon, this time applying my improved skill to extend the codebase with some gameplay features I'd had in mind for a while but no project to put them in.
Design Goals
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Expand on and pay homage to the original Rubicon2
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Provide replacement gameplay features to make base battles interesting without requiring traditionally medieval or demonic themes
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Present novel base gameplay not usually seen within Quake
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Go BIG; turn all the dials up to 11 without it becoming tedious to play
I stole the idea of including modified help files from the original - this was just fun to make and a nice throwback to the id1 manual of the original game.
The Team
Not long after starting, I got talking with a few other developers who decided to pitch in and help out.
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MFX
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Level: Ceci n'est pas une pipe
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Level: Rubicon Rumble (Start)
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Level: Credits (Secret)
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Textures
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Named the project!
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Hrimfaxi
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Level: A Locust in August
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EricW
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Extended BSP2 Quakespasm engine features plus advanced texture and brush handling
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Playtesting
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OTP
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Playtesting
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Myself (ijed)
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Level: Telefragged
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Game code ('telefrag' mode, enemies, traps, etc)
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UI modifications
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Textures
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New map objects
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New power ups / items / objects
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Enemy designs and assets (models, sounds, skins)
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Custom Gamer Live Feed
Daz played through the entire pack on his CustomGamer channel. Here is the two part video of his exploits!
Monster Mechanics
There was already a solid enemy lineup, but the original codebase had a few requirements when it came to going for more varied gameplay - you'd have to use medieval or demonic monsters. I wanted to add new equivalents for these enemies with a base setting - monsters that felt at home in the industrial environment improving the immersion. As well as this, there were some experiments I wanted to make with enemy AI and attack patterns; things like leaping, ambushing, spawning and so on.
So I set about adding more enemies to the roster and modifying existing ones to fit the design goals I had in mind for each. Below I discuss these new and modified monsters.
Dog
One of the most frequent enemies in Telefragged. They're heavily modified, not only using the new mesh by CapnBubs but also various tweaks to make them more interesting to fight.
First off, they're smaller, not using the huge hitbox of the big monsters. This makes them harder to hit, can swarm the player more easily, have to get closer to hurt the player and they are less likely to take damage from scatter weapons, exploding grenades and the like. To balance this, I reduced their health, which has the added effect of making them much easier to gib with, say, a double shotgun blast.
My only regret with the dog implementation was not including a sleep state for the stealth sections. This would have been the dog lying prone, unable to 'see' but responding to touch or nearby gunfire. It would growl in its sleep occasionally and sometimes do the leg jerking running in a dream that dogs do. I'm honestly not sure why I didn't include this :(
Rotfish
This humble critter is one of the most overlooked in the game. I made them smaller and faster, both changes making them more of a danger. I use them a lot in Telefragged to make pools of water dangerous as a less dangerous alternative to pools of slime as environmental hazards.
The mechanical change here is that groups can attack the player with more ease. The fish remained very buggy however; it still gets stuck if the top of its collider hits the top of a water volume, which is a legacy id1 issue.
Ideally I'd have liked a flocking style behaviour, where one fish is a nuisance but easily dealt with, but a shoal can quickly shred a player if they're not careful.
Piranhas, basically.
Ogres
Here I made a simple but important addition of allowing them to be flagged as either jumping or not. This allowed the level designer to set up ambushes where some of the ogres would get in the player's face while others would stay up on ledges dropping their grenades.
As a purely cosmetic feature, I also changed their skin to have semi-random futuristic armour on, rather than the usual medieval texture.
Berserker
A base replacement for the fiend enemy.
Carrying two chainsaws and without a ranged attack, but able to shove the player around when hitting them and perform short range leaps while closing.
The idea was to put the player in a panic, especially when used near environmental hazards where they could easily be shoved into slime / lasers / whatever. They were great when used in close quarter ambush - smashing the player back and forth and able to soak up the pain.
With hindsight I should have modified all of their vocal sound effects (hence the Bain style mask) so the player would know what had just seen them wasn't a regular Ogre. A simple mechanise effect would have been easy and effective.
Shoggoth
These were based on the original Spawn monster mesh and code, but very heavily modified.
The original enemy is one of the most placeholder implementations that shipped with the original game, and roundly hated by players as a result. I always liked the original idea though, so made my own version.
I wanted this to be a very versatile enemy that would make the player think about their options rather than react in a panic, like the original.
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Less bouncy
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They now pause between each jump, this was a change of a single line of code
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Reading the original code, it looks like a last minute change that had bad knock on effects not considered at the time... I suspect this because I've been guilty of similar changes myself
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Less health
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The original was a tank, I brought the health down to make it more volatile
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Less damage
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The amount of damage caused previously obligated the player to make it their primary target, regardless of what else was around
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I preferred the player to have time to think about when/where to kill it
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These modifications were all added so that I could do much more fun stuff:
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Shoggoth boxes
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This goes along with the player choosing 'when' to kill one of these - normally there'd be a few nearby boxes that would break open, releasing a new monster, if you killed another shoggoth next to it
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Bigger shoggai
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There were three sizes, each progressively bigger than the previous and splitting into two of the next smaller size when killed
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The largest size would produce 14 enemies total after all the splits were made
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Only the smallest versions had the most damaging explosion when killed, which resulting in plenty of mayhem as the player wore them down
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Ranged attacks
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The bigger ones weren't as fast as the smaller, but were able to spit clusters of 'eyeballs' at the player instead - this is a H.P. Lovecraft reference to the Shoggoth producing lots of eyes
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The big Shoggai weren't as scary as they could have been - the eyeballs should have had some small explosive potential to make them more terrifying and high priority targets
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This enemy turned out a bit buggy in game, liable to drop out of the world and cause incorrect monster kill counts. There were plenty of other features I'd have fixed as well, but overall players seemed to enjoy how they turned out.
Floyd
One of the new enemies from Rubicon 2. I made a small addition to their animation - having them sit on the floor like a bin while 'asleep'.
I was extremely tempted to make various changes to these guys, but decided to respect their original implementation. One the change I had in mind for their sleep mode could have been very valuable to play. I was going to make them completely inert and invincible while asleep, until triggered. Possibly add a 'deep sleep' state and keep their original sleep mode as 'standby'. Also make them wake up fully charged, unleashing a barrage of laser blasts when first triggered.
In the end I left them mostly as-is. In various arena fights a keen eyed player can make things easier on themselves by waking up a Floyd ahead of its designated time and kill them off piecemeal.
Hunter / HUN7ER
A Shambler / big n scary class monster for the industrial base setting. The idea was a walking turret that would plod towards the player and shred them if they got caught in the open. Up close, they would punch their victim, causing a heavy knockback effect.
Additionally, I made it so that using the lightning gun or explosions could break off one of their arms, limiting their damage potential. This was an effort to stop players from hoarding ammunition for those weapons. It didn't work so well though - ideally I should have added a damage resistance instead (like the Shamber has) to either shells or nails, or both. Possibly having some nails simply bounce off the armour would have been fun.
Their plasma blasts are explosive, but very mildly so. This wasn't so much for increasing the damage, but rather to make them able to destroy breakables that were flagged as 'explosive only'. The mechanic is to allow the player plenty of cover, but the Hunter can destroy it. This way each area set up this way becomes a timed battle - can the player destroy the hunter before they run out of cover? This type of dynamic play space is also much more interesting to play within than the typically static ones Quake offers.
When I made the mod, the toolchain for getting a 3D mesh into Quake was absolute torture; something I'd learned working on ReMakeQuake. This mesh I stole from Malice and repainted. Now, thanks to Khreathor's Blender Plugin I'd just model and animate the enemy from scratch.
Another notable feature of these was that I placed lots of them in boxes. Not particularly exciting, but the player soon picked up on the fact that the boxes they'd been walking past the whole time were full of these brutes, waiting to be unleashed. This could have been improved by having the boxes break over a few seconds and not instantly disintegrate into debris.
I gave them a heavy stomp sound effect while walking. This idea was stolen from the Doom Cyberdemon. Essentially, the player always knows when one is near and only has themselves to blame if caught out.
Finally, I made them explode on death. This was an idea taken from metlslime's Floyd, but I noticed that they rarely damaged the player. I made the Hunter jerk and explode multiple times before finally blowing themselves to bits, making it much easier for an incautious player to take revenge damage.
New Features
Mapobjects
Mostly decorative, although the larger pieces of machinery had collision and their own sets of ambient sounds. The meshes I cobbled together from various sources, some were from Preach's website and others from the more archaic idgames2. I made some minor corrections, repainted to match the palette of the mod and created audio in Goldwave. Finally I implemented them to the codebase and Trenchbroom editor files.
All this was to expand on an area usually quite bland in Quake, especially bases - there was never much visual clutter. While stark open areas clearly define where the player and monsters can move (or not) is part of what makes the visual language of the game so strong, sometimes (usually away from combat areas) you want some junk lying about for the player to look at while exploring.
Ward of Rebirth
An unusual power up for Quake in that it does not activate until the player's health goes into the red, or they were telefragged (see below). Then it would heal the player up to their starting maximum health over time.
So, essentially an automatic medkit.
My reason to include this was that the standard protective item in Quake, the Pentagram of Invulnerability, actually removed play from the game. Turning off damage for the player meant no reason to play well. The ward would get you out of a tight spot, but never save you if you'd done something really dumb or got caught in some deadly crusher trap or lava.
If you play the mod, you'll notice that I do use the Pentagram in my map. I do this however in a location where the combat is completely unfair on the player. Essentially, they have a 30 second timer to kill enough enemies that they will survive mopping up the rest of them once the power up wears off.
Telefragging and Player Progression
The name of my own map contribution and the core of its gameplay. The progression of the player character during a map in Quake is very predictable. The core loop is fighting and exploring. The player character upgrades as they find weapons. Once the player has all the best weapons they typically fight a bunch of monsters and go through the exit. I wanted to experiment with this - what if the player started off even weaker than normal, and became even stronger by the end? I wanted an epic progression with the player feeling like a walking engine of destruction by the time the credits rolled. This would be heightened, and to some point required, by making the map extremely large.
Initially I thought of simply taking weapons off the player, but it felt a bit weak. This was Quake, RRP - it should be brutal and terrifying. The lower I brought the player, the more powerfully they would feel their ascension as they progressed through the level. Telefragging is a well known gaming trope, originally popularised by Quake itself, so seemed a good way to go.
So, I disabled the player's weapons, ability to jump, lowered their viewpoint so the character was crawling. Then capped their health at 10 and also disabled the ability to collect any items or weapons. Originally there was also a dizzy screen effect and a constant spawning of blood and pain sounds, but those effects got annoying during testing so I turned them off.
I made the monsters less likely to see a telefragged player to improve the stealth aspect and kept the player's speed at its normal (stupidly fast) pace. One of the defining aspects of Quake, especially when compared against later FPS games, is how fast it is. Nerfing the player speed made the whole game feel turgid and the player actions less important - an error made in Quake2 I feel.
How would the player get healed? I wanted it at a specific point of the map in order to control the player's building ego. A medbay seemed the correct choice and fit the theme. Just step inside and BAM you're healed... although still weaponless. Now you have to backtrack over all that you've navigated but with brand new abilities, like being able to jump and shoot!
As the player reached the end of the level, I used lots of Quad runs: time limited gameplay where the player must complete mounting challenges without misstep. Towards the final parts of the map they send the reactor into meltdown and must quad run their way out as the laser barriers go haywire and the level disintegrates around them.
All this was to follow the original idea of the player character's progression. They start without legs or weapons and end up in a near permanent Quad Power Up state until they literally destroy the level itself.
Lore
Players of my other mods and games have become used to the amount of lore behind everything. It makes it a lot easier for me to visualise the game world if it feels like a real place, hence lore. I call it lore and not story because story is exposition - many designers force the player to read every tidbit and watch every unskippable cutscene to not miss anything of their lovingly crafted blah blah blah. Some of this is getting the bang for your buck. When developing, you don't waste time on optional features - you want to make certain that everything has an impact on the player.
However, I've got a different take on things. If you make the story optional and worth reading, then players will scour your game from top to bottom to make sure they get every piece of lore they can. I included Doom3 style 'touch to read' email messages on consoles but never required the player to read them. Instead they were placed at strategic points in levels after big fights to give the player some short flavour text and a break from the battle.
Some supplied minor hints to gameplay features, but most were just background information about the level they were in and why things were happening the way they were.
While implementing these, I pretty much assumed nobody would read them all or care about the lore. After launch, I was surprised by how much it all seemed to resonate with players. Play through videos and demos seemed to always take the time to check out each blinking email and even read aloud the end of level texts to their viewers.
Many areas within the map were also built with this lore in mind - hidden temples make no sense within an industrial base... unless you've read the lore, which hints at the whys and wherefores.
Atmosphere
Although most Quake levels have atmosphere, I made a special effort to include more in RRP. Hrimfaxi and MFX were very happy to have the various new features on hand, things like ambient sounds, the aforementioned mapobjects, drips, steam, particle effects and so on. Sound was a major part of this. Some I salvaged from older projects, others from freesound with heavy modification in Goldwave.
In telefragged itself I added several gothic / tech secrets hinting at darker events and included ravaged player corpses all of the place. This coupled with a toxic greyish green fog, machines clicking and ambient base sounds provided a evocative and grim backdrop against which to construct the gameplay.
Breakables / Destructibles
These were implemented in Rubicon 2 and I added a few tweaks and expanded slightly. One of the more interesting tweaks was limiting their destruction to explosions only. I used this in conjunction with Hunters to provide the players with cover that the Hunter would gradually wear away and destroy as they attacked. Hrimfaxi also made great use of breakables - the environment in A Locust in August had destructible scenery scattered everywhere.
Devkit
Since Rubicon 2 came with documentation, code and map sources I felt obliged to include the same in RRP. I also included a few pieces of documentation to help anyone who wanted to use the pack or just see how it was built.
Level Design
As usual, I experimented with many play concepts and play design methodologies in this pack. Below I discuss the level design for my level, telefragged.
I wanted to experiment with making one of the atypically huge levels I tend to make in Quake, but without the tedium many players feel when trawling through the same slightly different play setups again and again, while at the same time not alienating the fans of that "attrition hard core gameplay" as my Quake map style has been described.
It's a huge level, requiring over an hour of playtime to get through it's approximately 900 monsters. It features a new game mode 'telefragged' and lots of secrets.
Generic Quake Gameplay Loop
This is my interpretation of a game loop for a generic Quake level. This doesn't describe all the possibilities, but is enough to encapsulate most Quake (and probably many other FPS) levels.
Yellow
This is part of the critical path; it must be passed in order to complete the level. Some levels may not have typical key/door combinations or not make weapon collection part of the critical path.
Green
Exploration; the player moves into new areas. They may have to avoid traps, solve puzzles and can stumble over a secret area. This part of play is often overlooked, especially by new developers, since a trap might be just a pit with lava that you can simply walk past and a puzzle no more than pressing two buttons to open a door. Or fiendishly complex scripted sequences.
Regardless, this is a time for the player to relax and not get player fatigue from constant fighting.
Red
The heart of Quake's gameplay: combat. Many mods ignore or severely limit the exploration section in its favour. How complex this is depends on the developer. It's possible to simply build a level (nice looking or not) and then plonk enemies wherever you see fit.
However, I believe in order to attain the best possible player experience, careful balance between the different types of play, and a lot of care and foresight is needed.
My approach in making such a large level was not to simply add more content types (although I also did that) but to subdivide it into into four distinct acts:
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Act One: Infiltration
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Act Two: Attrition
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Act Three: Revenge
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Act Four: Annihilation
Each act contained elements that the others did not, and/or lacked elements the others had. Subdividing the play like this added more barriers to what I could (or should) do in each act, but adding barriers to your creativity is the surest way to stimulate it, or so I've found.
This isn't analogous of the Hero's Journey but served to help me compartmentalise the massive level into distinct sections that I could then design for in terms of what emotions I wanted the player to experience during each. Some are also much longer than others and contain pivotal moments of their own. Note that in physical space, most of these sections overlap - I discuss this more in the recursive progression section below.
Act One: Infiltration
This is the first step on the player's journey through the level and therefore has their character at the weakest point of their progression. To increase the impact of this, I rip off the player's legs and disable most of their abilities in such a way as to leave them radically reduced autonomy. They are helplessly thrown through the slipgate to their fate.
The act itself revolves around the player being clever and stealthing through the base. This allows them to get a look at the areas and monsters they will be confronting later and teaches them that charging around the place mindlessly won't help much - a lesson that will come in very useful in act two once the combat begins.
The Telefrag
The player spawns into the level and is immediately crippled by the telefrag trap. In the first room they have a simple multiple button puzzle which also teaches them about the console lore messages, their inability to jump, modified view angle and sets the tone for the first act. The shotgun spins tauntingly but cannot be collected. Without challenging the players skills beyond the very basics of a FPS game, the initial room teaches them two important lessons about what's to come: the environment is extremely hostile, but still governed by rules.
Once the player gets out of the first room I keep the learning going. Right now many players will be asking themselves if the game is broken, or grumbling about how they hate stealth games. The player needs to be distracted by novelty and drawn forwards into the level during these early moments. The monsters are all conveniently facing or walking off in the wrong direction. The stairs and lights are automated, although they don't need to be. Yawning chasms into the abyss keep the tension present without posing much threat. The player reaches a large amphitheatre and are presented with a winking face-like console wanting to be fed a circuit board.
Causeway Atrium
There are monsters all around - most players can't resist the leap of faith temptation and learn that they're completely powerless if noticed by one. This is not the Quake they know. They are weak.
They learn that they can climb ladders despite their physical predicament and that they can still trick enemies into killing themselves on environmental hazards.
After some missteps, the player will find the new key item; the fromitz board and plug it into the console, raising the causeway. The reason for this, and not just having a static bridge, is to give the player agency. They're not completely helpless, and do have limited interaction with their environment.
Most of what is happening with the play here is foreshadowing future events. The player sees grand vistas, patrolling enemies and interesting machinery and has all the time in the world to stop and look, and wonder when or if they'll get to play within it. I do this to stoke the player's imagination, and frustrate them about their current predicament - it's a call to adventure.
Sabotage
Now begins the first involved gameplay segment. The player finds an open atrium with a large reactor in the centre - this is the most eye catching feature of the area and also the current objective. The stairs lock down behind them, removing the ability to backtrack - whatever they need to do, it happens here. In terms of the overall objective for the level, the player is here to destroy the base. Eventually they'll do this by overloading the primary reactor. This is a small prequel to that event.
A nearby Grunt is watching over the reactor below and the player has already learned to avoid monsters at all costs, no matter how weak. For now, the only way forward is a nearby air vent just out of the Grunt's arc of sight leading into the wall.
After the vent, the most powerful enemy in the mod is introduced - the Hunter. Since the player can't fight it, they must instead use their brain to solve a retrospectively simple puzzle, pressing buttons and finding another fromitz board to drive the hunter along the rail to its death while it blasts away chunks of wall trying to kill them.
A cryptic message informs them that they've deactivated the reactor failsafe. The only way to go is back. I could have better designed this; messages that rely on the player noticing previous features aren't that conducive to play. A more physical indicator would have worked much better - an alarm coming from the reactor room for example. The reactor itself should have been in distress once the player returned to the amphitheatre as well as having a better destruction sequence.
Another big failing, especially in the initial release, was that nobody realised that the large pipe broken open by the explosion was the way forward. I redesigned the flow of play various times. The initial idea was for the player to investigate the ruins of the reactor, since that's the most obvious thing to do after it explodes. I mangled the whole area various times trying to achieve a natural flow to the play here.
With hindsight, I should have broken the floor where the reactor sat and beneath it, the pipe - changing the objective focus confused players.
Intruder!
This is a relatively short but tense segment where the threat level rises before the player finally recovers from the telefrag.
Throwing themselves down pipe broken by the reactor, they splash down into water and are challenged to ride crushing platforms, swim and avoid Rotfish to advance. I'm forcing the player into a more proactive play style here. A falling lump of masonry gives players a fright, but isn't just a comedy addition to play - it gets them thinking vertically. They look up at where they are going, and down at a crusher trap they'll come to much later on.
Clambering up out the pipe, avoiding the monsters intent on their computer consoles, they are (probably) noticed by patrolling Enforcers from the gallery above. They must rush to the end of the walkway - trying not to get shot or blown to bits by explosive crates in the process.
As the approach, another vent breaks open, telegraphing the way forward. The most common choice here is for players to enter then and then crash down onto a gurney and find themselves in a medbay.
Alternatively, a secret area is available for players who are very quick and ignore the obvious vent. It's very unlikely a player will find this secret however, given the pressure they are under. This isn't a big deal since they will have another chance later on. If they do find the secret then they get slightly earlier access to the Double Shotgun and healed without using the medbay - although they still end up there.
Act Two: Attrition
Empowerment
After healing themselves, the player takes the axe. Getting the weakest weapon in the game is a rush of adrenaline, with an immediate dog ambush to use it on.
Returning to the reactor room the player gets a shotgun and starts blasting the grunts. Although the combat here seems relatively straight forward, there are multiple trigger conditions that introduce new enemies as the fight continues - it's very subtle, but the battle here is made to make the player feel powerful and not overwhelm them.
An earlier feature at the start of the level was an inaccessible shootable button. Now that the player has a ranged weapon, they can use another shootable button above the nearby doorway to exit the reactor area.
Inquisitive players are rewarded with a nearby Quad Damage power up which gives them an additional impulse into the next segment.
Steam Room
A multi tiered room awaits, with a series of numbered doors and corresponding switches to unlock them. Steam vents are a feature here, which can be toggled off to allow passage, or on to kill monsters that lumber through.
The player gets a double shotgun if they don't have one already, and meets the berserker enemy. There's also a pool full of fish and a lurking Dreadnaught enemy - if the player is ignited, the pool serves to extinguish the flames.
The button and door sequence draws the player to the bottom of the room and then back up to the top, where ambushing ogres wait to rain grenades down on their head. This isn't a complex area, but there are a variety of ways to approach it and a couple of secrets to find.
Basement
The player advances and is introduced to the shoggoth box mechanic. This variant of the explosive box is scattered around, usually in the fire lines the player will use or next to regular explosive boxes. Breaking one unleashes a Shoggoth monster.
Again, some stairs collapse with the same design intent as before - it would be easy at this point for the player to get confused and backtrack, so I eliminate that possibility and give the player a scare.
The basement is full of Shoggoth boxes, a lift and a circuit board needed to activate it. Also a couple of Ogres. The Ogre grenades and Shoggoth explosions keep the fight going by breaking open more boxes. Eventually the dust settles and the lift access is revealed.
Shoggoth Factory
Riding the lift up triggers a ambush by a dog pack leaping from the upper tiers of the causeway atrium - it's easy for the player to get boxed in, but the real danger is getting stuck in the middle of ring of dogs and torn to bits. Right afterwards, the entrance to the Shoggoth factory opens, unleashing a couple of Berserkers and some Enforcers as backup. Note that this fight is perfectly doable without taking the nearby Nailgun, but becomes much easier with it. This rewards the player for keeping a cool head despite the ambush, or just being lucky and running in the right direction.
Once the player is able to take a breath, they recognise the area as being the lowest tier of the causeway atrium they passed through early on when still legless. There are various other features here that will prove important later on - the silver key door, primary reactor access blocked by yellow lasers and a couple of large crates, last seen when the Hunter enemy was introduced.
Down a short dark corridor with various shadowy alcoves lies the bottom level of the Shoggoth factory. Destroying or disabling this is the player's mission objective, although they have to piece this together for themselves by reading the messages on computer consoles. Either way, they have to unlock the glass box in the centre of the factory which contains the silver key.
This is done by pressing a series of buttons in the production areas around the outside of the factory. Each time the release one of the four locks, a horde battle begins with Shoggai being the principal antagonists.
The center of the factory functions as an arena for these battles, with the constant movement of the platforms posing a minor damage hazard but also allowing the spawned Shoggai time to 'reload' between shooting attacks and dodge incoming player projectiles. The production areas are small pieces of gameplay, each different and meant to keep the player on their toes. Since the center ambushes are repetitive, just bigger each time, the player gets into a rhythm of how to beat each wave of Shoggai - although an unlucky cluster of spat eyes can still get the player in a dangerous situation.
There are Floyd's tucked away in the shadows that activate towards the end of this segment, but a canny player is able to activate them with gunfire before the final battle. Alternatively, a monster or stray shot by the player might hit one of the Floyds and trigger their attacks early.
A final thing to note about the factory area is that it has a reasonably high density and value of secrets compared to others. The constant combat can cause fatigue, and players tend to go secret hunting to take a break from constant fighting. For this reason, the secrets.
Silver and Blue
With the silver key in hand, the player prepares for a short journey back to the causeway atrium to pass the silver key door.
However, the shadowy corridor they passed earlier reveals another ambush, getting even darker in the process. A Hunter smashes through an inert door to unleash volleys of plasmafire.
The lights turning off here serves two purposes - firstly, its atmospheric and builds tension. Secondly, it makes the fullbright yellow plasma bolts of the hunter easier to see.
After defeating the hunter and its entourage, most players will check out its alcove to find the frustratingly locked door at the top. This is left to annoy the player on purpose so they remember it for later on.
The atrium appears to remain the same. An eagle eyed player might notice that they are following a blue line across the floor where previously its arrows pointed in the opposite direction. Opening the silver door releases a couple of Floyds, forcing the player to back up into a cluster of Centurion enemies drifting down from the upper atrium levels - this is the first battle with these flying nailgunners, although the player did see one early on during an early stealth section.
The Floyds work well here since they're not particularly dangerous, but quite good at denying movement space. The Centurions are dangerous and highly mobile, so the player has to pick their targets and focus fire in order to survive this ambush.
Alternatively they can just retreat into the Shoggoth factory, although the monsters will inevitably follow.
A short corridor, above the previous basement segment, leads to the blue laser control. The functionality of the lasers is finally revealed, as is the blue lines and arrows on the floor. The far end of the room has a large blue laser 'wall' blocking advancement to clarify what the objective is. The laser control itself shows two laser pillars, one of which toggles on and the other off when the button is pressed. The player can only do this once (the button does not reset) and the phrase 'toggle' rather than 'deactivate' is specified.
Regardless, many players were confused why some lasers that were previously off were on after the control(s) were activated. It's a moot point since in every case only the correct way forward was permitted, nevertheless I could have made the toggle effect more obvious in this particular room to clarify for later.
Combat here features a number of Shoggai and their boxes. The larger ones are used in close quarters, one backspawning and following the player into the room. Having to face these monsters up close and personal forces the player to be more cautious - causing one to explode right next to you is still a very bad idea.
Blaster Trap and steam room return
The corridor immediately after the blue laser control features a trap that will become a common feature of the level. The blasters will quickly kill a player who remains stood on the hazard markings and the Ogre spamming grenades from above makes figuring out what to do even trickier. This is the only trap of this kind that requires the nearby shootable button to be hit in order to progress. None of the ones that follow require this, but each has a button which will deactivate the trap and generally make the player's life a lot easier. The button itself is in the direction the trap is firing from, variously obviously placed and requiring the player to peek out and hit it. I try and make certain that this stays fixed in the player's mind: blaster traps can be deactivated. Those that remember this will be rewarded later on.
After a two-part elevator back ambush (where a Berserker sometimes gets stuck trying to climb out of the shaft) the player climbs the stairs and passes through the steam room they navigated earlier.
The steam room is merely a transit point - blue lasers that blocked a particular passageway are now deactivated. To make sure that the players take this route, I use a technique called 'follow the enemy road'. Players will always go towards enemies, so I cause a boxed Hunter to activate at the far end of the passageway along with some cannon fodder dogs - which will probably be mowed down by the hunter.
The battle with the hunter itself takes place at long range, requiring greater precision from the player. It also quite easy to duck out of cover only to receive a barrage of boiling plasma - I'm trying to get the player to fight each enemy in a different way each time they are used.
This is the second time I use the Hunter/box combination, counting the puzzle sequence where the player dumps the Hunter in the lava to destroy it. I could have saved this second introduction for later and made it more exciting - in the final version the box breaks open so far away that most players won't realised what happened. Entering the area that the Hunter came from, the player finds a sleeping Floyd, locked elevator with nearby circuit board console and some stairs down.
This room is unremarkable. Most players will rush through, but those that take a minute to explore might be rewarded with access to one of the more interesting secrets in the map.
Grinder Room
Down the stairs lies the grinder room. Players might realise this is what they saw from above earlier when the chunk of masonry dropped into the grinder. I tried to highlight this by causing a dog to drop into the grinder as the player approaches, but I think this only worked for producing a chuckle rather than any poignant connection.
The required Fromitz board sits in plain sight, but players will be surprised to find on their return that the stairs have partially locked down. They will also notice an under the stair secret containing a Mega Health pickup.
The player has to fight their way into another room which actually loops back to where they recently grabbed the Fromitz board from, to find themselves presented with three buttons. One opens the door, another returns the stairs to their original position and the third grants a time limited access to the Mega Health. The time limited button is the only one that can be pressed more than once - very few players will understand this at first try so better to allow them some room for experimentation.
Once the buttons are pressed, a larger Shoggoth back spawns behind them, forcing them back out into the grinder room. I spawn a couple of Ogres up the stairs, using the elevation to make their grenades more dangerous.
The player fights their way up to activate the circuit board console, and the elevator. Some Dreadnaught enemies come riding down the elevator and the sleeping Floyd wakes, if the player didn't already destroy it. If the player is ignited by the Dreadnoughts, the water pool in the nearby steam room will be useful.
The Great Outdoors
The lift deposits the player in a small room with the now common sight of monsters staring blankly at computer consoles. To avoid taking damage here, the best option is to attack the Grunt not next to the explode box first. It's a minor thing, but can be important for a player low on health. Again, I'm rewarding a player who looks and thinks before shooting.
Outside is a large open area. Most of the enemies in the mod are featured here, including a Hunter tramping back and forth, Centurions roaming the skies Rotfish in the water, Ogres on ledges and a Berserker waiting to charge into the fray. The large pump and rock spire just outside the door are placed to create loops and confuse the player as to exactly where the enemies could be coming from - especially the Berserker.
The combat here is unpredictable because of the broad monster mix - minor changes in the player's approach result in large changes, meaning the player has to think on their feet, especially when the Ogres turn up to present their usual bouncing grenade area denial attacks.
Pressing the button across the water walkway unleashes a horde of dogs and grants access back into the base itself.
A final note about this area is the lone Enforcer sniping from the highest rooftop. He can be killed by shooting the explosion box placed there (releasing a boxed Shoggoth) but his real purpose is to get the player looking up - something the Centurions and Ogres also help with. I'm trying to hint to the player the three part jumping / climbing secret in this space which gets progressively tricker to achieve and gives progressively better rewards for each section navigated. Some of these rewards are more enemies to fight, but the Quad the player is holding requires something to use it on and a player who completes all the secrets here should be savvy enough to not fall prey to a Hunter or quad gib themselves with a rocket.
Gallery Return
Fighting their way back into the complex, the player should recognise the gallery where they had to escape the Enforcers to reach the Medbay during the first act.
The way forward is guarded by a Floyd and a Berserker through a blaster trapped corridor marked EXIT. Curiosity or the Berserker might send the player down to the lower gallery where they will find a number of alternative routes to explore. This does have the potential for the player to get lost since there is a shortcut leading back to the small generator room, a secret leading to the medbay (which they might already have accessed) and access to the Nyarchon secret via another shootable switch.
Proceeding down the EXIT corridor, the blaster trap activates as they near the end. There is a shootable switch to deactivate this trap, but it is defective and explodes when shot, leaving the trap active. I needed the trap to keep the player outside here, but didn't want to break what I'd already taught the player about the blaster trap / shootable switch combination. I could have just locked a door behind the player, but the trap is more fun.
The Dark Train
I had lots of problems with the scripted battle sequence in this area, amongst other technical issues. What I wanted to convey here is that the player character has the choice of leaving the complex at this point - they've completed their mission and survived. They could just get gone. If I'd had more time I would have fixed this area to properly communicate this. The original idea was a helijet would crash into the train, disabling it.
Not everything can be done however. Still, this remains the end of the second act. From this point on, the player character has become vindictive, and is here to continue their (already complete) mission with extreme, unnecessary prejudice.
Act Three: Revenge
Thematically, I want the player to feel like they're at a more aggressive and proactive standpoint than before. The monsters they meet are less 'ready and waiting' and more taken by surprise. The player has most of the weapons and has seen most of the complex by now - they will be entering new areas, but usually ones they've either already seen or accessed somehow. The player / player character knows the rules of the level now, the layout of the areas and the behaviour of the monsters that inhabit it. They decide to use this knowledge to indulge in cathartic violence. The player character also has another goal, unknown to the player but revealed in act four.
In general, the player is challenged during this chapter to navigate the complex in new ways, taking less obvious routes and trying to figure out each new egress rather than having it clearly presented.
Cool Air
Breaking back into the complex via another vent, the player finds themselves in the air conditioning room. It's noisy and there are enemies above ready to run down the stairs or leap off the catwalk - as well as a flamer Dreanaught and a helpful pool of water nearby... containing a Rotfish, but also a secret.
Similar to the Doug Rattmann dens in Portal, I wanted the player to enter areas of the base that are off limits, functional and not meant to be seen, hence the air conditioning room. Even though the enemies do ambush the player here, I tried to make it feel more opportunistic rather than planned.
Up the stairs, the player unlocks both doors using a button - ambiguous floor marking point in two directions one leading back to the now familiar gallery and another to a brand new area. The new area has monsters so there wasn't a problem with anyone getting lost here. This is the third time on the critical path the player sees the nearby vent leading to the ward of resurrection secret.
Floating Crate Puzzle
The original idea for this area was very different. The pool was supposed to be mostly drained for maintenance when the player arrives. In order to cross, they would flood it, causing various explosions, flooding, haywire computer systems and mechanical burnouts. I spent a couple of weeks trying to implement moving water, from old ReMakeQuake / extrasR4 code.
Quake water physics and function is dependent on the engine C rather than the QC scripting language. For this reason, moving water implementations completely replace the original water code and make a scripting equivalent that behaves the same way... but can move. I wasn't a good enough coder at the time to achieve this and the curious design layout of this particular area is one such result of that.
Approaching the pool, a box drops down from above and begins to float. To cross, the player must make a confusing leap of logic and destroy a nondescript girder holding down a crate in the water in a Half Life 2 style physics puzzle. To make things even more confusing I don't lock the player into this area to avoid the temptation to pointlessly backtrack to the very interconnected gallery area and left the appendix area with a broken button in it as a monster closet behind the player.
Eventually the player figures out how to get through this and hops across the floating crates. A throwback to older era custom level levels corridor awaits, with a cluster of monsters spamming shots through barred windows.
Laboratory and Testing
The player has found themselves back in the testing areas. A large Shoggoth is trapped in a tube and can be released to allow the player access to the Quad also contained there. Players who wish to backtrack to where they first met the hunter will receive a small reward, along with a fight.
Advancing, the player soon finds themselves above the small reactor area from act one. A shortcut lift activates for those that want to go secret hunting, of which there are a few to find here and below, and there may be some stragglers left over from earlier fights to mop up as well.
The player is off the beaten path here, free to wander, although the danger of them getting lost should be low - the shortcut lift to get back up is visible from most of the room in its elevated position.
The next testing area is a mashup between a Vondur style spinning nail trap and a Rubicon 2 aiming blaster trap. This room is intended to scare the player into making mistakes - the weak enemies that get blasted by the trap add to this feeling of mayhem. If they keep a cool head, the room is actually pretty easy to solve while receiving little to no damage since the trap is predictable.
Trainyard
Again the player finds themselves outside the complex, but in an area they saw from a distance. Monsters are tucked away in various shadowy corners. The train itself is a source of ambushes and sniping enemies can nip away at the player's health by shooting from the other side of it. However, the player has lots of choice how to proceed - a Quad sits in plain sight to be taken at the player's leisure. Enemies will awaken and attack the player from different directions but this is a very nonlinear battle - the monsters aren't prepared for the incursion.
Despite this, it's not an easy area. The ladders on both the train and the platform restrict the players movement and although the monsters are slow to react, a few of the ambushes here can take the player by surprise if they're not careful.
A door on the other side of the train opens on approach, unleashing a cannon fodder horde and granting access to the complex again.
Factory Surplus
The player finds themselves in the large atrium from act one again, this time on a previously untraversed walkway with a red laser barrier and a Super Nailgun behind it. Advancing, they fight their way into a small room. Another automated staircase awaits, although it at first looks like a floor. The player remains trapped under it; this is a challenge to use their knowledge of the level figure out how to proceed.
This isn't a real puzzle since the route back is closely managed using follow the enemy road. This section is a device to keep the player on the back foot and not allow them to become complacent - I'm making them uncertain, forcing them to complete this loop and be unsure.
Dropping down they find themselves back in the factory, a wandering Floyd showing them the way to go. Finally they find the use of the locked door from the earlier Hunter ambush; I drop some Shoggai here to make sure they go up back to the trainyard and not wander back into the atrium (although I don't prevent that either).
Up top, yet more leading enemies bring the player back to the automated staircase, now in its correct position.
Ironclad
Up the stairs is an interesting secret where I flip the player expectation. Those that stop and shoot rather than try and rush forward will get rewarded with red armour. This is a fun secret because a player who fails to access it instantly understands why they failed - the shootable button couldn't be more obvious, why didn't they shoot it?!
A transition area with a Shoggoth and close quarter Hunter battle leads to yet another large atrium filled with multi level walkways. The hunter here is hampered by the door and quite easy to take down because of it - I'm tricking the player to become complacent with this enemy here. Their next appearance, near the Gold Key, is much more challenging.
Ogres spam grenades and weaker sniping enemies keep the player on their toes. At the far end of the atrium lies yet another Portal reference; a companion block on top of a large access hatch. The player can access the top of the atrium and probably will while killing the Ogres, only to find both red laser barriers blocking their way forward and a prominent sign advising of the yellow laser control.
On the second level is a deactivated yellow laser barrier leading to the next segment.
Memory Lane
Another blaster trap corridor awaits, this one fairly easy to avoid and with a button to deactivate it at the end - I was surprised when watching the play videos how many ignored the button here. A Berserker slams into the players face as they pass the corridor; they need to keep their wits about them.
Blue lasers block one corridor as the realisation dawns on the player that they've been here before, just moving in the opposite direction and without any weapons, legs, or knowledge or what the level is about.
A few fodder enemies spawn here, involving the detour back to the level entry and (now useless) shotgun weapon pickup. I keep things relatively calm here and allow the player to mentally take stock of where they are. Things begin to warm up gradually with tougher monster types and placement as the player reaches a room seen previously from above containing a large boiler.
Enemies attack from within alcoves and divide the players attention. There are several Shoggoth boxes here that are easily broken by stray gunfire.
Seeing Red
Back to the causeway atrium on the second level, this time from the opposite side. A small labyrinth with various routes and diverse monster mix awaits, along with a secret for the observant. These are a series of scrappy battles leading up to red red laser control.
A large arena above the void is up next. The player is primed for a big fight - they have plenty of time to observe before collecting the Pentagram of Protection and deactivating the red lasers.
Taking the Pentagram triggers an arena battle which is intended to be an unfair fight. Firstly, they are at a height disadvantage - the centre of the arena they occupy is below all the monsters. There is very little cover and the omnipresent void pit around the edge means they have to dance between the incoming attacks or allow the Pentagram powerup to protect them. The one advantage of remaining in the arena centre are the ammunition respawners. These are placed here and not in one of the offshoots to limit the players ability to camp.
For monster usage, there are three almost groupings in the arena battle, each group with hordes of weaker monsters blanketing the area with firepower, then followed up by a Hunter as the cannon fodder are dealt with. Each group activates simultaneously with collection of the Pentagram, but proceeds independently as its members are killed off. The ideal play technique here is to focus on a specific group and wipe it out before the Pentagram wears off. This will allow the player a safe space to take cover in the offshoot from the arena which held the monsters.
The three offshoots each contain a button - activating all three reactivates the stairs to exit the arena / red laser control area. As the buttons are pressed, a few more lurking enemies will awaken, including a sleepy Floyd to keep the player tense despite the larger fight being concluded.
The grey abyss below the player has been seen before, in the small reactor room, and will become a more important feature in the fourth act. Particularly suicidal players may discover a secret here by exploring it.
A couple of Berserkers guard the return back through the labyrinth - these can easily panic the player and knock them into the void below the arena. The far side of the labyrinth reveals that a Hunter that will happily smash the labyrinth walls with its plasma blasts to try and gun the player down.
Communications Mainframe
The causeway drops, granting direct access to the corridor passed earlier in transit from the train yard that was blocked by red lasers. Beyond is a compact area with multiple weaker enemies. Two buttons are hidden away down cramped side corridors and Centurions will rise up from the automated stairs behind.
The cramped spaces stop the player from clearing the groups of weak monsters with explosives as would normally be the case.
Into the mainframe, Ogres drop grenades on the players head and some lateral thinking is needed to get back to the lift passed earlier once this section is complete. Access to the highest floor of the causeway atrium is granted via a lift. This lift is pretty nasty since on the way down it drops a Berserker right in front of the player and the way up a Dreadnaught - although there should be plenty of health kits up top for the player to put out the flames if ignited.
Causeway Atrium Return
Resistance drops off at this point. As mentioned, there are plenty of resources scattered around that the player could not collect during act one as well as a health respawner and a secret to find. The player can explore, notice the Gold Key door, read the computer messages and take stock of the Hunter boxes and large EXIT door blocked by yellow lasers. A lone Floyd, now active, guards the Gold Key itself.
After taking the key, the Hunters become active, but do not break out of their boxes until the player gets close. It's quite easy for the player to panic and die here since the Hunters are still a dangerous enemy, and this is the perfect distance for them to cause major damage. The Shoggoth boxes scattered around can easily cause problems as well.
Beyond the Gold Key door the player accesses the top level of the factory. A small horde of weak enemies tries to stop them, a (largely ineffectual) Berserker hiding in their midst. Again, this is a straightforward battle after the Hunter box ambush - nothing too taxing and the player chooses when to instigate it by passing the Gold Key door.
Immediately after this, the next battle takes place in an enclosed space, mixing mid tier Dreadnaughts and Centurions - neither enemy it to be taken lightly and especially not when working in tandem. The Centurions block the retreat and the Dreanaughts charge into the player's face trying to set them on fire.
Yellow Laser Control
We're coming to the end of the act - the last barrier to overcome are the yellow lasers. With them toggled, nothing else remains to stop the player.
Beyond the upper tier of the long atrium passed earlier the access to yellow laser control is now available. The blaster trap here is easily avoided as long as the player keeps their cool. A few cannon fodder enemies try to prevent this however.
Within the laser control itself the player gets the first non-secret rocket launcher, can deactivate the blaster trap and preemptively trigger the sleeping Floyd guards - who trigger when the lasers are toggled if not.
To the Core
Certain critical yellow lasers were deactivated, but other troublesome ones activated. This irritated a lot of players who understood the laser controls to 'deactivate' rather than 'toggle' as stated.
Back into the long walkway room, they are effectively locked in, the most direct route back being through the large access hatch where the companion block was previously resting. It's a tricky drop since the glass floor below it is now smashed and no longer there. Another option is to drop down the inside of the Shoggoth factory - and maybe find a secret there. Both these routes are counterintuitive - the player always advances and climbs, rarely retreats or drops down in order to access the next area. I'm forcing the player to overcome this mindset here and trust their knowledge of what they've learned in the level so far.
The missing companion block also hints at a secret here - did it fall down through the glass floor that it broke when the access hatch opened? If the player makes the connection and investigates the hole they will find that, sadly, the only friend remaining to the companion block is a mutilated ranger.
Enemy resistance on the way back to the bottom floor of the causeway atrium is relatively light, a few mid tier monsters scattered amongst the cannon fodder, leading the player to the now unblocked primary reactor access. That is, until the final goodbye from act three - two Hunter boxes inert for the duration of the level break open to reveal their inhabitants, followed by a small Dog horde and back up Ogre from the reactor access itself.
Act Four: Annihilation
The final act. The player must use all their previous knowledge of the level layout to destroy the entire complex and escape. Here we learn the player characters real motivation - they want to destroy everything and escape through the slipgate, not just shut down the Shoggoth factory and ride away on a train. In my mind, the player character is the same psychotic killer Sarcen from Warp Spasm although where in the chronology of that character RRP takes place I'm not sure.
Belly of the Beast
The player receives a stern warning via centerprint before taking the lift down to the primary reactor. I was tempted to use 'Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here' but decided that was a bit too esoteric for Quake. The lift travels down into the bowels of the earth, revealing a wide subterranean walkway over the abyss below. Mid to high level enemies roam the walkway, the occasional Berserker providing the additional threat of knocking the player into the void.
The final guardian of the reactor is a Hunter, backed up by several Centurions who rise up silently behind the player as used in various ambushes. A final button and shoot puzzle unlocks and destroys the reactor coupling, triggering the final sequence for the level.
The Escape
The player has five minutes to leave - actually quite a long time. Nevertheless, a lot happens in this five minutes. The player doesn't really have the time to take it all in; they just have to rush through and survive as everything disintegrates around them.
The walkway is the first real hazard; the shaking can easily drop the player into the void, as can falling lumps or rock or the Berserker that came late to the party. Traveling back up the lift shaft, beams of electricity and lasers can easily fry the player.
The causeway has collapsed, machines are malfunctioning and walkways crashing down into the void they covered. Random enemies rush to and fro and various Shoggai try to get in the players way; I want the player to feel like the level knows they've killed it and is doing everything it can to gets its revenge before it is destroyed.
Back through blue laser control and then the steam room; a frantic rush trying to avoid minor hazards slowly stripping your health away. Enemies are sometimes killed by those same hazards and malfunctions. Broken floorways can either kill or drop the player down, wasting them valuable time.
The small reactor room features a cut away in the stairs that can easily reward the player with a Quad if they fall through it.
Ascencion
The final Floyd in the game blocks the exit in the causeway atrium, but he's fallen over and can't get up.
The player must kill a Berserker and can spend a few precious seconds stocking up within the rooms it guarded before dropping into the final arena battle.
This arena is directly above the red laser control, although I doubt if most players realise this - I could have added more windows. The battle is relatively simple - grab the Quad and sprint up the circular walkway. A few minor enemies and the final Hunters try to stop you from reaching the slipgate, but then you dive through and it's level complete.
Completing the level for an average player who isn't speed running takes well over an hour and meets the design goal I started with of being a continually engaging yet huge level to play. It's a large investment to get through and one that leaves most players exhausted afterwards.
Veni vidi vici
Even deadly slipgate trickery cannot
stop you; the minions of
Nyarlathotep have been obliterated
with extreme prejudice and the future
holds ever more opportunity
for brazen slaughter.
And now, onwards -
through the nether.
Ever,
the desolate one.
Conclusion
The 'make a really big map' idea was a double edged sword. It worked, but the project could have been much better and even bigger if I'd planned more and subdivided it into a full episode. A number of things didn't make it in because the behemoth of Telefragged took most of my time. On the other hand, it proved extremely popular and remains in the top three 'greatest of all time' in user votes at Quaddicted and in fact is #1 currently - even beating Arcane Dimensions and Honey - which is humbling considering how involved and well made those projects are.
I took advantage of the single huge level to have the player re-explore areas from various directions and get the full value of each area as constructed. This looping recursive exploration design would not have fit well with multiple smaller levels. The pros and cons of a huge level are equally valid, although many players found the scale too exhausting.
There were two boss encounters planned as well as various other features, like randomisation of entity placement. I ran out of time for the extra enemies and huge maps weren't compatible with the randomiser code I had on hand back then. The bosses were to be Preach's Helijet and the unused Boss2 from ReMakeQuake, repurposed as the Nyarchon.
We'll see if I can continue Sarcen's blood splattered adventures in the future. His latest adventure is partially constructed, following many of the things I learned working on RRP and with a greater technical ability. For the curious, it is called Fate. Quake modding can only ever be a hobby though, so it remains to be seen if Fate will see a release.
For now, big thanks to EricW, Hrimfaxi and MFX for helping make RRP what it is and props to all those who fought their way through its winding industrial corridors and hordes of demented monsters.
