Helium
Author: Sirius
Date: 15/9/03

Helium is my level for the last Descent 2 Revival, the 40th, to be held on 20
September 2003. I wanted to have two in for that day, but that proved all but
impossible considering I am still at school until the weekend the Revival takes
place, giving me little time beforehand to design and create a level, and I
cannot build a second one in time for the Revival Pack's release. So I had to
choose between two level concepts. One would feature snippets from my biggest
level design successes over the years; if you remember the Mirage Palace from
an old SNES game 'Seiken Densetsu 3' you might have some idea what I'm talking
about. :) Similar idea. So it would be a flashback to the past, while featuring
a (hopefully) stunning piece of architecture in the middle to look forward to
the future.

Naturally, this would be quite appropriate, but I had other goals for the final
Revival. I wanted to create a level that played just the way everyone there
liked it; fast, furious, high-powered and giving everyone a fair shot at raking
in the kills. The other design included this. In the end, because it would be
faster to build and possibly give the players more to remember, I decided to go
with that concept, and the result is Helium.

Helium is modelled off the boss room of Mercury Core - the seventh level of the
Descent 1 single-player campaign. You know, that horrible one where you fight
the boss robot with the smart missiles that kills you way too fast, and just
won't seem to die, in a cylindrical room? (He isn't that bad for me any more,
but that's another story.) Well, Helium is a stylised version of that. It's
flatter, and has an odd slant and more sophisticated architecture, but down
to the circular layout and the tunnels criss-crossing the core in the middle,
not to mention the lava everywhere, the similarities are evident. You might be
relieved to know the boss robot isn't one of them. :)

The level has become larger than Mercury Core - as although I wanted the level
to play fast, it really is not enough for eight players. I made it flatter as
it makes aiming easier and hence speeds up gameplay a little. For interest's
sake, as well as providing the player with a sense of place, I made each part
of the level more distinctive, instead of just like a doughnut with a few
tunnels here and there. While I was at it, I pulled a few tricky stunts with
cubes to try to push the cube engine to its limit. Thankfully, the level still
weighs in at just over 330 cubes so it shouldn't slow you down as a result, but
just look a lot prettier. :) I also copied Descent 2's Dogfight level 1 lava
tunnel trick just for good measure. By the end of all this, it seems to have
turned out quite well (to me at least); it is actually one of the few times I
could say I've topped the original game in level design. :)

The weapon balance was also designed for fast playing. I threw in plenty of
weapons, including Helix, Phoenix and Gauss cannons, to make it easy enough for
any pilot to get a few stray kills. There are a few homing missiles in there to
make things a little more interesting, and even a cloak around. I did refrain
on the smart mines, mega missiles, invulnerability powerups and omega cannons
though as they usually do not make the game any more fun for anyone. (Well,
granted, the occasional smart mine kill can be kind of amusing, but usually the
game turns into a mining frenzy, which almost no-one wants to play.) Of course,
there was no question about including afterburners. I threw in eight there, so
there is no chance there will ever be a shortage.

All those Helix and Phoenix cannons drain your energy quite fast. In past I've
exploited this by putting in one energy centre in an exposed place, but this
time the objective was to make it easier for people instead of having a mad
rush for the centres. So I threw them in pretty much everywhere - there are
four stations throughout a relatively small level, and you can get to one from
pretty much anywhere in about five seconds. Because I didn't make the whole
level a recharge station you'll still have to watch your back, but I'm sure you
can manage that. :)

I mainly used Descent 1 textures in this level, both because I was trying to
capture a little bit of that Descent 1 feeling and because I wanted to prove
that there were decent original Descent textures out there (or at least that
they could be used in an interesting way). Of course, many of the grate and
lava textures do not obey this theme, but where original Descent textures were
available for these they weren't very good (honestly, would you have static
lava in a tilted level?).

All in all, I hope you like the level, and I hope you have fun playing in it.
For something as momentous as the last Descent 2 Revival the least I could do
is make a really good level to send it out with a bang, so I -really- want this
level to succeed. :)
And, although the other level I had planned will not be featured, hopefully the
mood it was to convey will be present. We have come a long way now - Descent 2
was released more than seven years ago, and has gone through its early heyday,
many great projects to push the engine to its limit, some of the best multi-
player action ever seen in a game, including some amazingly skilled pilots, and
over the last two years, the Descent 2 Revivals to bring it back and celebrate
this game once more. Now that they are coming to a close, the game - and not
just Descent 2, but the Descent series and genre as a whole - is looking at
what appears to be a dark age, if not its death. But there are a few promising
developments around even now, some of which may yet stir renewed interest in
the Descent series - as a classic game if nothing else - and maybe get the
series going again. Barring that, there are always similar games ahead -
although most such similar projects have recently fallen over - and it is only
a matter of time before someone comes up with a similar concept.
But for now, enjoy the last Descent 2 Revival, make it worth it, and hope that,
in the future, we may see more to become of the legend that is Descent.

Sirius out.