Unreal Design v0.91
This is a brief, but detailed description of the fundamental content of Unreal.  

Unreal World

Images, Mainmap1.jpg to Mainmap3.jpg contain layouts of the Unreal world, Shareware and Registered.

It requires the following texture sets:

Swamp Castle  		(large texture set) + modified textures for Skaarj Dwellings
Mines            		(large texture set)
Sky City  		(large texture set)
Human spacecraft  	(small-med texture set)
Crypt 			(large texture set)

Ruins  			(medium texture set)
Caverns 		(Small texture set)
Alien spacecraft 	(large texture set) - recently crashed - alien, but not too weird
Decayed/Mercenary/Alien spacecraft/ decayed ship - worn, alien, decayed, dark, sinister.-		(medium set)
Skaarj spacecraft	(large texture set)
Terrain - (medium texture set includes outdoor sections of castles, mines, city, grass, rock, etc)

The Shareware version of the game will require the Ruins, Mine, Castle and Human ship texture sets.  The shareware version consists of everything contained within MainMap1.

The complete game will consist of  31 levels.  

Note:  Each level is reset completely when the player reentered it.  Only the MAINMAPS can be changed permanently within a single game.  Thus, all artifacts MUST be found within the mainmaps.

Note:  Pickups and most inventory items are not mentioned below as they will be added to levels as needed by individual level design.  Individual level design consists of all traps, tricks, pickups, etc, needed to complete 1 individual level of the game.

There are 3 mainmaps in Unreal.  These are the 3 outdoor maps which allow access to all levels within unreal.  Each of the maps will be outdoors and there will be two rotating moons in the skys. (sphere meshs with a cool moon texture skin)  The mainmaps will be generally larger and more complicated that the individual levels.  This will result in a lower framerate, but since there will be little or no fighting action taking place here, it should be fine.  There should be a VERY minimum of creatures within the main map.
The game will take place during the nighttime so the terrain will be illuminated by the moons and a number of man/alien made light sources.  Storm cloud shadows will move across the land and the occasional lighting strike will occur. birds will fly overhead and an occasional group of fireflys will be seen in the distance.  Other, more mysterious moving lights will occasionally be seen bobbing in the distance.

Once an area has been completed (an area is two or more levels that have been seamless attached to give the appearance of 1 larger level.  An area has 1 entrance from a mainmap and 1 exit) and all artifacts have been removed, the entrance to the level seals shut.  The reason for this is so the player is not entirely confused as to where they have to go to find artifacts they previously missed.)

Main Map 1 - Figure 1 (Refer to image Mainmap1.jpg)
Shareware Episode
This is the main outdoor map for the shareware episode of Unreal.  It contains the texture sets for the Castle, Mines, Player's ship, Ruins, Caverns and outdoor textures.
This area is an island surrounded by steep cliffs and water.
1 - Players ship
2 - Mine
3 - Ruins
4 - Nali Castle
5 - Spire of Nali castle (location of Altar of Souls).  From the top of the spire, the player can make a jump to a rock on the island.  There is a faint path from there to the shareware bridge.  Once the player has made it to the spire from the main castle, a moving brush is moved to make the jump from the terrain to the spire possible.
6 - This is the bridge which leads to the registered version of the game.  It has collapsed if the player is playing the shareware version of the game.  There is a sign at the bridge which says, ' Call 1-800-Unreal1 to order Unreal and pass beyond the bridge'.  There is also an Artifact under the bridge.  The player must perform a few trick jumps to retrieve it.  Failing any of the jumps, the player falls to her death on the rocks below.
7 - Portal to Unreal2.  There is a sign here saying.  UNREAL2 - 1998.  This portal may be entirely meaningless in the future, but it could be used as a long range teleport device, teleporting the player to a device in the control room of the Skaarj  Ship (which, by the end of Unreal1 is located on the Skaarj Homeworld).  Thus there can be a logical and instantanious path of travel between Unreal1 and Unreal2.
8 - This is the entrance to a path down the cliff, leading to a narrow ledge.  The entrance is well hidden in this very hilly area.
9 - Entrance to Small cavern containing an artifact.  This cavern is very small and does not even compose an entire level.
10 - Small cavern blocked off leading to Unreal level pack 1.  There is a sign saying something like 'Abyss of ????, Unreal addon call 1-800-Unreal1 for more information or see www.epicgames.com'.
11 - Small area of Ruins and mountains seen from the other side of the bridge.  Must be REALLY cool to entice player to purchace registered version. of game.
12 - These are roads leading from area to area.  Only some of the roads are well used by the Skaarj in transporting Tarydium.

Level 1 - Player's Ship - Fig 1-1 (after completion of LVL1, LVLs 2,3,4 and 8(registered level) are accessible)
The ship is a simple and small level.  
The player will exit her cell and discover they are now in a medical room.  In order to exit the med room they must pickup the bonesaw.  We can do this by having a small medical locker that the player opens. In it is the bonesaw and a lever to unlock the door.  In order to flip the lever, the player must pickup the bonesaw. (There is probably a much more interesting puzzle that will acheive the same effect)
The player will immediately discover the automag and later in the level, find the quadshot. 
The player finds an easily findable automag within the ship.  The player can also find a more consealed flame thrower within the ship.
The ship has landed with a roll of 80 degrees.

Puzzle - There is a button on the ship which activates a 3-d holo screen (translucent solids rising from a holo table).  This image shows a 3d image of the ship with translucent passages running through it.  It shows a flashing red patch with the word 'EXIT' beside it.  This red patch is the escape hatch release button.  Since the ship has rolled 80 degrees, the player cannot reach this button so it must be shot using the automag. (NOTE: we need to be able to tag certain pickups as respawning.)  The button is very inconspicuous so the player needs to holo-projection to locate it.

Upon exiting the ship, the player hears some crunching sounds, looks behind the ship and sees a Skaarj Warlord chewing on a body of one of the ships ex-passengers.  The Skaarj sees the player and flys quickly away, laughing.
0 Artifacts found here.

Level 2 - Mine 1 - Fig 1-2
The mine entrance is located near the player's ship, just beside the road leading to the Castle.

In the mine the player will find Mantas, Kraken and a Skaarj.
They will also find the Stinger and a well hidden eightball gun.

1 Artifact is found as the player exits the mine.

Level 3 - Ruins 1 - Fig 1-3
The ruins consist of a decayed and shattered stone monoliths, temples and buildings. (mayan temple type look)
The entrance to the underground structures is barred by broken rock.  The rock can be moved by a weapon such as the Eightball gun or the stunner (found in the Castle, or Mine).
Walking about the outside ruins are Brutes and behemoths.  Inside the Ruins are Mantas and Kraken.

Transformation stations for the Skaarj Hawk can be found here. (needs to be situated so the player cannot leave the ruins in fly form)

Deep within the Ruins the player will also find a Chameleon.  It can be used to get past the Kraal Lord at the castle entrance.

1 Artifact is found near the exit of the underground ruins

Level 3a (fig 1-3a) - Small ruins chamber uncovered by path of destruction of player's ship.
This appears a merely a flat slab of rock in the same texture as the Ruins.  Somewhere within Level 3, a lever or button is pressed  which seems to do nothing.  It does in fact open a portal in the slab.  Within is a single simple room containing 1 artifact.

Levels 4-7 - Castle

The drawbrige of the Castle is partially raised, requiring an accurate jump to make it across.

At the far end of the bridge off to the side in an alcove is a Kraal elite. As the player nears, the kraal sees the player, pulls a lever and the platform tilts or a moving brush hits the player, knocking her off the bridge to her death. (This Kraal just sits there and will not move. If the player gets really lucky, they can get past the Kraal, but the trick to this is to retrieve the Invisibility from the ruins and sneak past.  Then retrieve the Stunner just past the bridge of the castle and use it to blast the Kraal off the bridge. (since the Kraal is in an alcove, he is difficult to hit until the player gets into the castle.)

2 Artifacts are found within the castle (for a total of 6 Artifacts)  Each artifact is found withing the 'shell' of the castle.  One at the back bottom of the castle on a balcony at the outside of the castle, showing a great view of the water and side of the castle.  Another is found at the top of the castle on  a parapet which is, again, part of the shell of the castle.

4 entrances to the four levels within the castle can be seen from the foyer of the castle.  This foyer is a small level itself and is connected to the main castle levels by small areas of level overlap and teleports.  The entrances to 3 of the levels are blocked (lava, chasm, etc).  Only by completing the first will the next become accessable.  When all artifacts have been retrieved and the player enters the spire, the castle becomes sealed off.  It will seal off by raising the drawbridge and shutting the passage to the spire (The spire will be accessible in the future by jumping to it from the terrain.)

This castle contains Skaarj, Brutes, Behemoths, Mantas, Sharks, Kraken, Kraal and 1 Kraal elite.
The player will find an eightball gun and two stunners and a flame thrower within these levels.

Transformation stations for the Titan and Hawk found here.  The Hawk transformation stations must be situated as to not allow the player access to the outside of the castle.

The boss for the shareware version of the game is the Skaarj Stone Titan.  It is an indestructible creature very similar to the Skaarj Titan.  It follows the player about and can only be destroyed by the player leading it to a high ledge and the player using a stunner to push it off the ledge where it falls and shatters on the floor below.
After destroying the Skaarj Stone Titan (Boss of the shareware episode), a passage leading to the castle spire opens.  In the center of the spire is the Altar of Souls.  At the top of the spire, which is open to the sky, the player can make a jump to a rock on the main island and from there it is a short walk along a path to the shareware bridge.

The Artifacts are taken to the Nali Altar of Souls in the spire of the Nali Castle. Using 5 artifacts at the Altar of souls opens a passage to a secret area.  This area leads to a desecrated Nali Altar.  It is now a Skaarj living area.  Blood and gore all about.  Tarydium crates, trophy skulls and skins.  A refuse pit is nearby containing guts and bones of skinned and decapitated creatures.  Also in this room is a Skaarj currently in the process of skinning a Nali.
If the player does not have all the Artifacts for this altar a message appears on the screen saying X of 5 artifacts. 
Once you open the passage to the Altar, it is easily accessibly from that main map. (The jump to the spire is makeable from the terrain by some sort of moving brush that moved when the player enters the spire)

Level 8 - Ruins past shareware bridge
These ruins must be navigated to proceed to the next area.   These ruins have tunnels through the mountains leading to mainmap2.  In the shareware version of the game, these are not accessible, but the player can see them from across the bridge.  Thus, they must be visually enticing from the outside so the player will purchase the registered version of the game.

1 Artifact here hidden in the ruins, outdoors.

In the ruins, the player will find only Kraall elite.

The player will also find an impaler in these ruins.

Main Map2 - Figure 2 (Refer to mainmap2.jpg)
This is a valley floor with high moutains all around.  The two most impressive features of this vally are the immense floating SkyCity and the massive hull of a huge alien spacecraft.  

1 - The player enters the map here, the exit from the ruins in the mountains.  The player is now on a path which slopes down from the mountains.
2 - This is a huge alien ship which has crashed into this valley.  There is a large scar in the mountains, showing the path of destruction this ship caused in it's crash to the planet.  It is apparent that the ship crashed into and mostly on top of a small temple.  There is no apparent entrance to the temple, but there is an open entry into the alien ship. 
3 - This is the huge floating sky city.  The actual city rests upon a large platform of rock and is inaccesable to any creature that cannot fly.  The player enters by changing into a skaarj hawk and flying up to the sky city.
4 - These roads and paths lead between the temple, ruins and pyramid.
5 - This is the Crypt/pyramid. 
6 - There is a small cavern high in the mountains which contains an artifact.  The player can only access the cavern by flying to it.
7 - This is a deep underground tunnel which leads from the Map2 Crypts to the Map3 Crypts.
8 - This is a small area of ruins in the mountains.  It can be reached by foot, but it is difficult. It cannot be reached by flight due to it being so high within the mountains.  The ruins contain 1 artifact.
9 - This is a decayed spacecraft.  A relic, centuries old.
10 - This is the 2nd Altar - The Altar of Chaos - Requires 10 artifacts to activate the altar.
If all Artifacts are returned to the Altar, a passage is opened near the altar.  Somewhere within this passage is a Nali ritual chamber.  This chamber is open to the sky.  It contains unique textures and any special extras we can put in.  The room features a Nali nailed to a cross.  As the player enters the room, she sees the Skaarj Warlord (the one she saw at the beginning of the game at the ship) hammering the last nail into the Nali.  The Skaarj hears the player and turns, snarls and flys from the room.  (NOTE: Only one Skaarj Warlord exists in Unreal.)

Alien Spacecraft
Levels 9-11
The maintenance robots of this ancient crashed ship are the only thing which still functions within this craft.  In their attempt to repair the ship, they have search and retrieve any technology they could.  This includes 3 of the Artifacts needed for the Altar of Chaos.  The artifacts are scattered about the ship used in ways that are obviously intended to repair the ship. The outside view of the ship, shows the ship crashed into and lying mostly on top of a small temple.  The temple is accessible from within the ship.  In the Temple is a station which transforms the player into a Skaarj Hawk.  This allows access to the Sky City.

The player will find quadshot (this will be the first time they find it), flamethrower and Impaler.
The player will encounter both robot types, the turret and the sentry droid.

SkyCity 
Levels 12 - 14
The player can access the SkyCity only by transforming into a hawk in the Alien Ship.
The player can also access the SkyCity by finding the Hawk Transformation station in a tower in the Submerged City.
The SkyCity is seen from the ground as a beautiful castle atop a huge floating rock platform.

Contains 4 Artifacts

Crypt Pyramid 
Levels 17 - 18
These are the Nali Crypts.  This is the first half of the Crypt Area.  After the second level, the player takes a water submerged tunnel leading to the second half of the crypts.  That half is used much more by the Skaarj.  This half is is used less and is much cleaner and less worn and less tarydium is found here.  Much of the Pyramid is flooded, so there are many areas under water.  These crypts were also built into and around a volcanic mountain which has unfortunatly become active in recent century.  Thus the player will find lava areas.  One special feature of this area will be the volcanic core of the mountain.  This is an uprising of rock and lava deep within the crypts.  The volcanic activity has also resulted in a number of stream vents and lava tubes deep underground, many of them now submerged in water.

Puzzles in this area can involve blasting out thin walls resulting in lava pouring into or from certain areas.  

If time allows, we can create meshes of bubbling, flowing lava coming out of vents and passages.

All Types of transformation stations can be found here.  

The player will find All types of Skaarj in the Crypts.  
The player will find the Razorjack for the first time here.  From this area onward, the player will be able to find any type of weapon.

2 artifacts found here

Decayed Spacecraft 
Levels 15 -16
This is a ship of some long dead alien race.  This ship has been here for centuries and shows it with moss and mold covered walls, plenty of rot and rust.  This alien ship design is very diverse and very 'alien' and has a number of bizarre and interesting areas. 

This ship is inhabited my many of the indigenous lifeforms of the planet.  There are also a number of Skaarj here investigating the technology.
No new weapons found here, but anything the player has found before can be found here.

1 Artifact at the exit of the Ship.

Mountain Ruins 
Levels 19
This area is a simple level located high up in the mountains.  The player must walk and jump along a difficult path to reach this area.  It is inaccessible by flight due to it being so high in the mountains.
The level is not overy complex or large and the entrance should be fairly small.  The exit is higher up on the mountain and requires a careful slide down the side of the mountain to the path that the player walked up on. If the player is not too careful on the slide, they will miss the path and take a very damaging fall to the rocks below.  2 Artifacts are found just outside of the exit.  These artifacts can be seen when the player is standing at the entrance to the ruins.  Once the two artifacts are retrieved, the entrance to the ruins seals shut.

Main Map3 - Figure 3 (Refer to mainmap3.jpg)
This area is composed of an island contain the main Skaarj ship.  The island is surrounded by cliffs leading down to a rocky shore.  The player enters the map in the east at the exit of the crypt area.  There should be 4 artifacts hidden within the terrain of the main island.
1 - Underground passage from map 2 crypt section.
2 - 2nd half of crypt area.  The exit to the crypts is located on this small island which has great cliffs surrounding it.  There is a bridge leading from the small island to the main Skaarj island.  The bridge is originally up, and is lowered by a lever somewhere in the area.  This area of the crypts is heavily used by the Skaarj and their redecorating influence is seen here.
3 - Two large spires on the mainland side of the bridge.   ( an artifact in each)
4 - Two mines
5 - A large decayed ship, similar to the one in Main Map 2.
6 - Skaarj converted fortress.  (Castle textures)
7 - Skaarj Ship - There an altar within the Skaarj ship which works similar to the Nali Altars.  It will only open if ALL Altars have been activated and the player possesses all the remaining artifacts.
8 - Altar of Life - This altar requires 15 artifacts.  To open the passage below the altar, the player must have activated the two previous altars and must possess 15 artifacts.

Second half of Crypts
Levels 20 - 21  
Fig 3-1 shows the submerged entryway from the Map 2 crypts to these crypts.
This is the second half of the crypt levels (Fig 3-2).  These crypts contain more indications of Skaarj inhabitants than the previous crypts.  In the lower bowels of these crypts, there is water areas, but for the most part these levels are dry with areas of lava.

1 Artifacts can be found just outside the exit of these crypts.  2 can be found on a platform outside the crypts.  The platform is accessible only from inside the crypt.  When the player retreives these 3 artifacts,  this half of the crypts are sealed.

Once the player reaches the exit to the surface of these crypts, a trigger activates a moving brush to reveal a passage that allows the player easy access to MainMap2. (So the player can replay areas that they have not retreived all artifacts from.)

Skaarj Mines
Levels 22 - 23  Fig 3-4, 3-4a
These are the mines the Skaarj created when they first crashed onto the planet.  They have been totally mined out, thus the reason for the Skaarj to move to other areas to mine.  There should be more machinary in these mines and they should appear more worn and aged.

3 Artifacts can be found in the mine shells. These are only retrievable by completing the mine level.  After they are retrieved, the mines are sealed.

Decayed Ship
Levels 24 - 25
This ship is similar to the decayed ship on Map 2.

3 Artifacts can be found in the shell of the ship.  Again, after the artifacts are found, the ship is sealed off.

Skaarj Fortress
Level 26
This level contains only Skaarj and the Skaarj Warlord.
This is an old Nali fortress which uses the same texture set at the castle.  It has been 'renovated' by the Skaarj and is used as living quarters for a number of the Skaarj.  The Skaarj who live here are outcasts from the main contingent of Skaarj.  The leader of the group here is the Skaarj Warlord that the player has met several times already in the game.

In the chamber of the warlord (part of the shell) are 3 Artifacts.  There is also 2 others hidden in the same place deep within the fortress. (Again in a location that is part of the shell).  Once all are found and the player leaved, the fortress is sealed.

Skaarj Mother Ship
Levels 27 - 31
There are no artifacts found in the Skaarj Ship and the ship cannot be sealed off as all other levels can be.

There needs to be a room that contains a huge amount of processed Tarydium.  This being the stuff that they need to power their ship and get off the planet.

Special areas within the ship are:
1) Final Tarydium processing and loading into ship's reactor core.
2) Skaarj Mother's brood.  Area containing skaarj larva growth cells.  Really slimey and organic looking area.  There should be a number of Skaarj pupae flopping about here.

The final confrontation is with the Skaarj Mother.  After destroying her, the player has access to the control room of the Skaarj ship.  There is also a door leading to a huge storeroom which contains what is obviously a huge Nali Altar, taken for some reason by the Skaarj and placed here.  The Skaarj have desecrated all Nali altars except for this one.  It remains sealed until the player has activated all other altars and possesses the remaining Nali artifacts.

Inside the Altar is ....?

If the player activates the controls within the control room, there is a great rumbline and roar of engines.  A translucent display screen materializes in front of the player showing an outside view of the ship.  it shows the ship lifting off and leaving the planet.  The video must somehow portray the ship heading back for the home planet of the Skaarj, giving the player that shit is really going to hit the fan when she lands there. 
A perfect setup for Unreal2

Weapons

(1) Close combat weapon 
Damage:  20
Fire 1 	:  Slicing action 
Fire 2	:  Stabbing action
Ammo	:  None
Description: Hand holding a Bonesaw.  The bonesaw will be upgraded later in the game by finding a Skaarj Blade which will do twice as much damage.  

(2) AutoMag 
Damage: 5 
Fire 1 	: Weapon shoots 1 shot approximately every half second
Fire 2 	: Weapon shoots 2 shots every half second, but has less accuracy.
Ammo	: Clips
Description: The automag is a clip based human made automatic handgun.

(3) Stinger 
Damage: 10
Fire 1	: The rapid fire produces 3 projectiles per second.
Fire 2	: This shot shoots a spread of 3 projectiles approximately every .8 seconds
Ammo	: Tarydium
Description:  This is a Skaarj mine weapon.  Shooting a creature with these projectiles will make them glows.  A creature pumped with tarydiums can be detonated by another weapon's fire, a close up attack or by falling.

(4) Flame Thrower: 
Damage: 20 units of damage per second while in fire.  Non-burning gel hurts creature at a rate of 1 damage per second per blob of gel for a maximum of 10 seconds.  If the creature falls or walks into water, all fire and gel is nullified.
Fire 1	: Fire button 1 will shoot a stream of fire approximately 40 feet from the player.
Fire 2	: Fire button 2 will shoot blobs of unlit napalm gel at a rate of 4 per second.
Ammo	: Napalm Gel pack
Description:  This is a mercenary weapon which uses ammo at a rate of 4 units per second.  The unlit Napalm Gel will ignite if within 32 units of a hot material such a flame, lava, explosion, etc.  Unlit Gel will also ignite upon impact with anything organic.  This is so we don't have creatures running around with napalm gel blobs stuck to them.
The flamethrower and all fire naturally do to work under water.  If a player or creature jumps/falls into water while it has burning gel on them, we will play a nice "sssssss" sound effect of something burning being quenched by water.
While a creature/player is being burnt by gel (we will not show this visually except for perhaps smoke trails) we can play a cool burning flesh sound effect.

(5) Eight Ball Gun 
Damage: Depends on closeness to explosion
Fire 1	: Fire button 1 will launch an eightball as a grenade.  Holding down the button will load another eightball at a rate of 1 per second up to a max of 6.  Releasing the button will lob all loaded balls out infront of the player.
Fire 2	: Fire button2 will launch an eightball as a rocket.  Holding down the button will load another eightball at a rate of 1 per second up to a max of 6.  Releasing the button will launch all balls as rockets.  If there is creature in the sights of the player each time a eightball is loaded, it will lock onto that creature like a heat seeking missle.  If the target moves out of view, all locks are lost.
Ammo	:  Eightballs
Description:  This is a Skaarj hunting weapon which can cause great damage.  The eightballs unfortunatly have poor durning radius, so they have difficulty going around corners.  Each time a eightball is loaded and locked, the weapon unfortunately emits a loud beep.  This beep has been known to warn creatures that they are being targeted.
If 6 eightballs have been loaded for 2 seconds, they autofire.

(6) Stunner 
Damage: Depends on charge.  1-20  
Fire 1	: Holding down button 1 will chage the weapon and releasing it will launch a charge of energy out from the weapon.  This charge acts as a repulsor and will push the creature away with great force.
Fire 2	: This works similar to fire button 1, but reverses the charge of the weapon to make it act as an attractor. It will pull creatures toward the player.
Ammo	: Tarydium
Description:  Not a heavily damaging weapon itself, but can be used knock creatures of platforms or mash them against a wall for much greater damage.
The direction that the target is thrown in depends on the angle of the Stunner and the velocity of the player. The power level of the weapon will be visually shown by an energy buildup at the tip of the weapon.  If the energy is left at maximum buildup for 2 seconds, it autofires.
This weapon is a Skaarj design.  

(7) Impaler
Damage: energy blast = 20     Energy beam = 10 damage per second per creature
Fire 1	: Fire button 1 shoots out a blast of energy.  Laser type beam.
Fire 2	: Fire button 2 shoots out a seeking beam of energy
Ammo	: Tarydium
Description:  This weapon is a Skaarj energy spear, powered by tarydium.
When Fire button 2 is pressed, a continuous beam is shot out which homes in on any enemies nearby.  The beam arcs out along a splined path travelling through enemies, seeking the next enemy.  The beam has a specific radius of curvature.  This beam has two benefits over the Fire button 1 energy blast: 
1) it can hit more than 1 enemy
2) it does not require aiming
3) the beam is continuously hurting the creatures as long at it is hitting them.
The downside is that the beam must be constantly heald on the creature to do lots of damage.
Fire button 1 uses 1 ammo and fires at a rate of 3 blasts per second.  Fire button 2 uses 4 ammo per second.
Impaler will not work under water.

(8) QuadShot (to be replaced by something cooler)
Damage: Depends on distance
Fire 1	: Shoots a single shot.
Fire 2	: Unloads all barrels, but requires a longer loading time.
Ammo	: Sheels
Description: A human made quad barreled shotgun.

(9) Razorjack 
Damage:  30
Fire 1	: Fire button 1 shoots a massive alien blade that seeks sound
Fire 2	: Fire button 2 works the same as 1, but weapon is tilted 90 degrees.
Ammo	: Razorjack Blade
Description: This Skaarj weapon shoots blades which has yaw turning radius 4X better than the pitch turning radius.  The longer the player holds down the fire button, the faster the spin of the blade and the faster the blade shoots.  This weapon is sound seeking and seeks the nearest, loudest sound.  We will have to tweak and adjust the weighting of how much the blade seeks the nearness of the sound over the loudness of the sound.

Pickups    Found in Units of           Unit if weapon found
Heath 		15				-
Health 		40				-
Clip - 		15				40
Shells - 	10				25
Tarydium -	15				40
Blades  - 	5				10
Napalm - 	25				50
EightBalls - 	20				40
Armor

Inventory items
Inventory items used by pressing the enter key.  Scroll through the various items by pressing the '[' and ']' keys.

Light Flares/Dark Flares - 'd' & 'f' keys to shoot these (unlimited numbers of these?)  These can fire out at a rate of 1 every second.  There is no pickup for these.  The player always has them.

Flashlight - Lasts several minutes - the beam just dims and dies out after a while. - mesh is a simple flashlight - mesh is not displayed on screen after it is picked up.

Asbestos-boots - Allows player to walk across Lava / Plasma / any harmful surface - lasts 2 minutes - sound of footsteps change to loud thunks to indicate player has boots. (if we don't end up using sounds for footsteps, we can use something else to indicate player has boots)

AntiGrav boots - Allows the player to Really jump.  - lasts 3 minutes - bouncyness of player is much exagerated to show that you have the boots - has same mesh as asbestos boot, just drawn more techy.

Chameleon's heart - invisiblilty - see chameleon in monster section for details - when moving a slight area of darkness is around the player - when invisibility starts to run out, this darkening will flash on and off and then eventually stay off when invisibility completely disapates.  When the player stops moving, they gradually become completly black and create a large area of shadow around them.  Lasts for 2 minutes.

Caffine?/Stimpack/? - Allows for increased endurance and strength.  Player can Jump slightly higher and Run slightly faster.  The player also wont get tired when running while this lasts.  It lasts for 60 seconds.

Powerup (Red Tarydium shard) - colors weapon red - these affect weapon and armor - weapon does 2X more damage and armor multiplied by 2 times while power remains. Powerups last for 30 seconds

Motion Detector - Simple device that will not go away after a period of time.  It shows a simple set of dots on it's display which indicate moving creatures within it's range. The actual display is shown as a texture on the 3d device.  It works similar to the motion detectors from Aliens.

Skaarj artifacts - See 'Levels' below - we can do a series of meshes for these - simple 20-50 polygons  These are not part of the inventory system.  There is an icon and number on the status bar which indicates the current number of artifacts being held.

MISC Unreal Stuff
Healing fountains - Stand in them to heal - simply polygons tagged as healing - healing works at a rate of 2 points per second.  Should be used sparingly in single player game levels if at all.  Will work very nicely in deathmatch levels.

Becoming another creature
There will be transmutation platforms.  These are Skaarj built devices which, at an atomic level, break down matter and reassembles it in different forms. Each of the 4 different platforms are rough, sinister and Skaarj like in construction, each with a different style and function.  Stepping onto a platform will transform you to the creature symbolized on the platform.  Stepping onto the platform again will revert you back to your original form.  Very simple and straight forward.

Monsters

(The following creatures are finished)
Brute (BIgman 1) -  This 9 foot tall beast is slow, tough to kill and is very dangerous with its dual arm mounted lasers.

Behemoth (Bigman 2) - Guns - bigger and badder than ArchAngel ~ 12 feet tall - Weapon shoots visible beams.

Manta - The manta are fast and hard to hit.  They must get close to the player to attack with it's spiked tail.  They are approximately 5 feet long.

Skaarj Hunter -  Claws, distance energy attack - Fast and intelligent - Deadly opponant - Dodges - If it gets close enough its claws are extremely damaging. ~8 feet tall 

Skaarj Lord -  Claws, distance energy attack - ground energy attack (shoot energy into ground which travels toward player, extremely damaging), Lord will not try to get close to player. ~12 feet tall 

Kraken (tentacle)- Spike attack  - attacks anything near enough to hit - Moves slowly - tough to kill - easier to kill with flame weapons. - ~10 feet long (finished)

Devilfish - Bite - low intelligence - just swims around and unintelligently attacks if someone is nearby. - ~6 feet long - if possible, grabs and drags players to bottom.

Kraal: These warriors are the Skaarj hunting assistants.  They are a less intelligent, yet highly skilled hunting race that has been dominated by the Skaarj. It's weapon is an energy staff and is best at distance.  It's weapon works similar to an stunner.  It's energy blasts the player backward.  The closer the player gets, the more powerful the blast backward.  The Kraal are approximately seven feet tall.

Kraal Elite:  These are a more rare and skilled version of the Kraal.  They blend in with darkness well using an advanced camouflage technique and use that ability when hunting.  They are shorter than the normal Kraal, but much faster and their staves launch energy bolts.  

Gassius (Gasbag) - This creature attacks by spitting out balls of flame.  It is easily kill by fire by exploding in a huge ball of flame.  It's tough skin makes it very hard to kill using any non-explosive or non-flame weapons.  This guy is approximately 4 feet in diameter and floats about the crypts and skycity at a fairly slow pace.

(The following are finished and were previously discarded, but could be used as decoration in various parts of the game)
Pupae (done)- Skaarj pupae - very little animation - used in brood room near the mother Skaarj.  They are non-intelligent and just flop about.  They explode really nicely and perhaps migrate towards warm bodies.
Humanoid male (done) - dearmored and skinned Mercenary corpse for Skaarj skinning room.(need skin)

(the following are not finished)
Alien Squid/Octopus - Long tentacle whip attack - drags players to bottom of water.  The squid is optional if time does not permit

Mercenary - Flame Thrower - powerfull flame thrower - torches anything that moves - has no fear - intelligent - ~6 feet tall - Human type male - He should have very sleek, but roughed up armor.  Maybe a face mask with tubing.  - More interested in attacking enemy than attacking player, but attacks player if no-one else about.

Droid/Cyborg - Laser - ~4 feet tall - cool, sleek, battered, organic looking robots.  This robot floats and is quick. Two-four aticulated arms.  One with Laser, one with welding torch for close attacks

Robot/Cyborg - Pulse Laser - ~6 feet tall - sleek, battered, organic walking robot. Drill arm?

Turret - A small bulbous laser turret.  It does not move and is mounted to a wall or ceiling.  It rotates towards and shoots at anything the moves.

Sentry Droid - A small spherical Droid with duel laser turrets.  Similar to the Turret, except that it slowly bobs down hallways.

Playable Creatures - player will face these as opponants as well as be able to change into them
 
 Fang - Skaarj Hawk - The Skaarj Hawk looks similar to a regular hawk (sort of a combination of a hawk, dragon and Skaarj), but with alien features and can breath clouds of acid.  Instead of a beak, it has a dragon type mouth with huge fangs. (Thus the name) This creature can also be scripted to pick the player up and take them to specific areas.

 Titan -   Skaarj Titan - This huge 30 foot tall creature is similar to a Rancor and it attacks with it's fist.

 Razorfly - Skaarj RazorFly - This tiny alien fly is able to fly into very small places.  It attacks by using a stinger on it's tail which it shoots as a projectile. The stinger does liggle damage, but can be fired very rapidly.

 Aquatic - Skaarj Frog/Eel - attack? - tougue

Bosses - bosses will generally have fewer frames of animation, but many more polygons 
(Cools boss scenarios?)

Mother Skaarj  - end of game - need to work on what this creature does and what it is. 

Stone Titan - boss for shareware in castle.  An indestructible version of the Skaarj Titan.  Killed by lava or by falling and shattering on the ground.

Skaarj Warlord - There is only 1 Skaarj Warlord within the game.  The player encounters this guy at the player's ship, at the Nali on the cross, and as the boss of the Skaarj Fortress.  His weapon is Swamer Missles which he shoots out in an almost constant stream, 3 at a time.  He is 16 feet tall and flies.  He will only be fought within a very large room, so the AI does not have to be too complicated for him.  He should be very agile though and can dodge most missle weapons.

Misc Creatures

Alien Rats - really tiny cannon fodder - really dumb, dont attack, just there to shoot at and add atmosphere. (~30 polygons)

Birds - These very low polygon count (~10 polygons) creatures will merely be used for atmosphere in the outdoor areas.  They can be shot down but will never attack.  They can use the basic manta AI.

Nali Cows - These are very dumb creatures of roughly 250 polygons.  They merely roam around grazing.  They are easy to kill and will not attack, they are there just for atmosphere.  Later in the game, the player will see Gored and chewed cow bodies that the Skaarj have partially eaten.  If we are running short on time, the cows are optional.

Fire Flys - When player gets too near these 8 flys they cling and circle the player. When not attached to a player or monster, they slowly fly about with no intelligence. Very small.  Don't do damage.  Used in places where being brightly lit sucks for player.  They can have their mesh origin at the origin of the player and Dave can animate them flying around the player (origin) so Mark does not have to program AI (other than dumbly flying about and attaching to the player or a creature).  Flys die only when player is killed, or player jumps into water.  After 5 minutes the Flys will move away from the player on their own.

Chameleon - Low poly 'shadow' creature ~150-250.  Shoot it, it dies and it's heart becomes a Pickup (heart is a blacklight heartshaped blob).  Get the Pickup and you become 'shadowed'.  If you stop moving, you will fade into a dark shadow (player mesh is absolute black), as you move again, you will gradually lose the shadow, but not entirely.

Nali - several skins - Harmless people. - If you go through the game without killing any you get a special animation - when these guys see you in the game, they face you, kneel and bow and perhaps chant in an alien tongue.  If we have the time, they can possibly point out secret passages or do other beneficial stuff for the player.  If we are running short on time, the Nali are optional.  We can imply that the Skaarj have killed of all the Nali.

Player Characteristics
If time allows, the player will be male/female selectable. 
A jump should raise the character just over 48 units off the ground
the Skid distance when touching the ground after a jump at full running speed should be less than 16 units.
Player is 60 units tall
At max running speed the player can jump slightly over 196 units horizontally in the air.
At walking speed the player can jump slightly over 128 units horizontally in the air.
The player can sustain a full run for 15 seconds, after which the player will gasp with shortness of breath and slow down to a walk.  The player will gradually gain back the ability to run at:  1 second of running for every 3 seconds of walking and 1 second of running for every 2 seconds of standing still.  The player can start to run without having gained all 15 seconds of running time back.
When in flying mode, the player can only fly to a certain height (perhaps explained by thinning air) within the main map.  This will prevent the player from flying over the mountains.

MISC INFO
Jumping creatures - we need to be able to tag polygons which are 'Jump Starts' and polygons that are 'Jump Ends'  to that creatures can semi-intelligently jump from place to place.
Script movement - Sequence of invisible actors that a creature will move to (in order) under various circumstances.  i.e. Creatures who patrol areas.  Creatures who retreat to their lairs if heavily damaged.

Levels
The levels need to be interconnected by small overlapping areas.  e.g.  in level 'a', the player falls down a chute,  an identicle chute exists in level 'b'.  There is a teleporter partway down the chute in level 'a' that teleport the player to the exact same position in the chute in level 'b'.  This example is the simplist and most seamless way to connect two levels within one castle, mine, crypt, etc.  

We will need some sort of Checkpoint marker to indicate the spot where the player will appear after they die.  The checkpoint marker will be placed at the Player start icon.  The marker should be something as simple as a pylon or perhaps just a small silver sphere.

Levels should one or more simple action puzzles that the player must solve to complete a level.  This could be as simple as finding the lever that drains the acid pool so that the player can make it too the chute to enter the next level. These puzzles can also be more complex with a number of possible ways to exit the level.

Levels need to also contain more complex puzzles which reveal or allow the player access to special areas that contain Nali Artifacts.  These puzzles should use moving brushes quite a bit since they are one of the most powerful and unique features of the editor.

The number of Nali Artifacts the player has is shown on the status bar.  

Scheduling

Creatures/Weapons order of creation

Shark animations - bite attack - swim
(14 hours, completable by 9/10) Dave
Minotaur Animations - long range attack with staff - close attack with staff - run - jump - non-agressive movements i.e. looking around
(24 hours, completable by 9/18) Dave

FireFlys - 6 polygon flies
(1/2 hour to model, animation techniques, if neccessary, to be discussed) Dave
Skaarj Hawk - ~300 polygon Hawk.  A slightly alien version of a normal hawk - animations: fly, breath flame, claw attack, land, take off, perching and looking around, death.
(8 hours to model, 24 hours to animate, completable by 9/27) Dave
Invisibility creature - humanoid shape - fairly low poly count - player will only see sillouette of this creature - animation: running, hiding, walking, death. (not much animation needed)
(6 hours to model, 20 hours to animate, completable by 10/4) Dave
Flame Thrower - Tubes - Simple Barrel, with coiled tube coming out of side, curving up and back to the side - has a continuously display pilot light flickering at end of barrel.   - fairly low polycount - need several special flame animations which are individual meshes, not connected to flame thrower mesh - Animation: Fire with small recoil, Fire with larger recoil (for shooting blob of napalm)
(8-10 hours to model, 32 hours to animate, completable by 10/16) Dave
Napalm gel blob - very few polygons for a blob of napalm
(1-4 hours to model) Dave
Napalm Gel Pack Pickup - simple box maybe?
(1-2 hours to model) Dave
Skaarj Titan - huge 30 foot tall rancor type creature - ~400-500 polygon creature - hunched and with long arms so its hands are close to the ground for attacking (sorta like a gorilla), attacks with fists - has big talons. animation: walking, smashing with fist, smashing with both fists,  death, non-agressive animation
(8-12 hours to model, 24 hours to animate, completable by 10/25) Dave

@@@@@

Robot 1 - low poly ~150 - several articulated arms - arm mounted laser - arm mounted torch - rounded, possibly organic shape
(8 hours to model) Dave
Robot 2 - med poly ~250 - walking - top mounted duel laser cannons 
(8-12 hours to model) Dave
Mercenary 
(8-12 hours to model) Dave
Mother Skaarj
(12-24 hours to model) Dave
Nali
(75% completed model) Dave
Skaarj Warlord -
(8-12 hours to model) Dave
Nali Cows
Birds