Beat The Reaper II by Imaginos

A Deathmatch/Teamplay level for 2 to 12 players

This is my second DM level for Quake, the first being Death by the Dozen, which can be found on Stomped, ftp.cdrom.com and other places on the web.

This level is a remake of a Doom2 DM level that I made about a year or so ago. The level has been modified slightly from its Doom2 version. This version of Beat The Reaper has been modified by me so that players wanting to use bots and patches can use them without any errors occuring. Beat The Reaper I is strictly Deathmatch ONLY.

My clan (Clan SiNtHeTiK) played the level for over 4 hours and had no problems with it and so, I'm going to put it up on the Web for all you other GibbHeads to play with.

In Doom2 parlance, this is a MaxiFrag level. With 12 players going at it, you're sure to rack up a lotta gibbs.

The level consists of a large building with another building (which I will refer to as 'the Blokhaus') sitting in a sort of moat. There are six 'secret' teleporters on the level and we'll get to them in just a minute.

All my levels contain secrets. Secret doors, secret teleporters, walk-thru walls and other effects. One thing to remember: My secrets are just that - SECRET! There are no telltale texture offsets to give them away. The thing to do is, find them and practice going thru them in single-play mode so that when you need to use one of them in DeathMatch - you can do it without getting your ass shot off.

The guns and ammo are strewn about the level - most in places close to respawn points. And, you'll find I'm not stingy with them either. There is at least one of every weapon, from the humble shotgun (which you start out with anyway) to the Lightning Gun.

OK. When you start out the level in single play, you'll be on the lower South walkway  facing North. Stroll around the walkway and look around, then pull down the console and type: map btr2 and press Enter to reload the level.

Back at the beginning: When you're on the walkway, turn right (west) and go to the corner. Turn right again and walk forward (North) 'til you pick up the rocket launcher. Turn to the right and step off the walkway into the water. Underwater, you'll see a button on the wall of the Blokhaus. Press it, turn around 180 degrees and look at the wall under the walkway. A door will open after a couple of seconds. Go thru it and you'll enter the first of six secret teleporters on the level.

You're on the roof of the Blokhaus now. Walk around and check things out. Pick up that grenade launcher and lob a few rounds thru the holes in the roof. Try the catwalks and you'll see that from up here, you can cover most of the level. You can even shoot rockets into the windows on both floors below you.

Pretty neat, huh?

See that medkit on one of the catwalks? That's your compass when you're up here. The medkit marks the North end of the level.

OK. Walk off the north end of the roof and drop into the moat. Once there, go to your right and head for the darkened corner. You'll teleport back to the roof, but to a different spot than the one you appeared at the last time. The idea is, your buddies have found their way up to the roof (thru the teleporter behind the 'button door') and you can't get to 'em.

Or so they think.

One of them is covering the teleport landing they stepped out of - just itching to blow you away when you start to materialise.

NOT!!! That's why we have secret teleporter #2 (the one in the corner)! You can sneak up behind 'em and gibb 'em all to hell!

Now, using the medkit as North again, go across the West catwalk, all the way to the wall. Turn on fullbright with the console by typing: r_fullbright 1. See the recession? That's an illusion. Still standing in front of the wall, walk forward and jump. You are now in a secret room that overlooks the rooftop.  I call this the Ambush Room. Turn fullbright off and you'll see that it's pretty dark in here. Has to be becos walk-thru walls (func_illusionary for you level makers out there) have a nasty habit of showing light behind them. You can teleport into this room and I'll tell you how in a moment. Walk thru the wall (where the recession is) and back onto the catwalk. 

By the way, you can SHOOT thru that wall as well as walk thru it so - don't be shy. You can also poke your head out and spy on your pals on the rooftop without them seeing you, becos you're in a dark spot. Be sure not to be 'powered up' (with a Quake Power) or your pals will see the light shining thru the walk-thru wall.  Any questions?

Back on the roof, reorient yourself and go to the South catwalk. When you get to the place where the roof joins the catwalk, step off the right side of it and fall in the water again. Turn right, so you're facing the wall of the Blokhaus. See the medkit lying on the bottom? It marks another walk-thru wall. Swim over to it and swim up until your head is just under the water. Head for the wall. This walk(swim)-thru wall opens into a basement room with a big teleporter in it. If you reach the SouthWest corner of the Blokhaus, you've gone too far and you'll have to work your way back to the East. The opening is very close to the SW corner of the Blokhaus.

Didja find it? Good. See the nice, big teleporter? Don't go in it yet. Lemme show you and old ploy of mine that I used quite often in DOOM(2) levels. To the left of the big teleporter, in the back corner of the room is another teleporter - one you can't see. This is my 'secret-within-a-secret' gimmick. Whoever finds the room will be so sure that there's nothing here but a teleporter, that they'll step right into it - never suspecting anything else. Heh heh heh.  Step into that corner. When you rematerialise, you'll be in the Ambush Room again. Turn to your right slightly and go forward. What do you see? Yup. The rooftop.

Now, go back and find the room you just teleported out of and step into the big teleporter.

WHOA! D00D!!! Da SHIT!!!

There are 2 rooms like this - the other, of course, has more stuff, 'cos it's MINE! Grab the goodies, and press the button to open the secret door. You're on the second floor of the Blokhaus. Get in one of the elevators and go to the first floor.

The corral in the middle of the room contains 2 slipgates. Hop in one of them and you'll teleport to one of the slipgate rooms that open onto the upper walkway. These slipgates are different, though:

One has a big light texture on its floor and ceiling and the other has a small light texture. The small one goes back to the Blokhaus. The big one will shoot you across the level to the other slipgate room.

Back in the moat: There are 2 QuakePowers in the moat; one at the NW corner and one at the SE corner. Next to them are telepads that will transport you out of the water and onto the upper walkway.

Now, I've covered all the secret teleport rooms but one. This is what my clanmates refer to as a 'POPZ' room. They call me POPZ becos I'm 45 years old and becos one of them is my son.

I have a confession to make: I can't play Quake very well. I like to design levels - but...

Therefore, I usually have at least one room on all of my levels that contains a POP (Pentagram Of Protection - heh heh heh). THEY call it cheating. I prefer to think of it as 'leveling the playing field'. Whatever you call it, it's an added bonus and is quite useful at times for 'cleaning the bats out of your belfrey';).

OK. Remember the button on the wall of the Blokhaus (underwater) that opened the secret door? Go around to the other side of the building (the East side) and you'll see some yellow armour. Using it as a guide, face the wall under the walkway (all this is underwater, you understand), swim up until your head is just under the surface, and swim thru the wall. Takes a little practice, but you'll get it.

In the room is a teleporter that will take you to the POPZ room which has (among other things) a Pentagram of Protection. The teleporter in this room will land you on the first floor of the Blokhaus. You take it from there.

Have fun, D00dz!

If you have any questions (or just wanna bitch @ me), my e-mail address is:

jacknife@rapidramp.com

Beat The Reaper by Imaginos - called Destinova - the Magna of Illusion
October 13, 1996
(my darling wife's birthday!)


Note: For those interested, the .map file can be found at:
http://www.rapidramp.com/Users/jacknife/

The filename is btrmap2.zip

This map was created with Worldcraft by Ben Morris - author of the awesome Doom Construction Kit (DCK). It uses the 'quaketex.wad' (a.k.a. quake101.wad) texture file for its textures. If you don't have it, I will gladly mail it to you  in 2 arj files. It's about 5Meg unzipped. I would put it up on my website, but my chintzy ISP only allows me 2Meg of FTP space and the two arj files equal that amount.

There are a lot of other items on this level that were not on BTR1 - that's becos in BTR1, all the players start out in 'Player Start' rooms which contain health, ammo, armour and a QuakePower. They grab this stuff and teleport to the killing zone.

BTR2 can be used with patches and bots. BTR1 can't.