Bloodlines: Out of the Grave Edition (version 1.5) file

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Prologue
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He was standing on the edge of the balcony, the wind blowing through his hair. Far below, the headlights and neon signs illuminated the wet streets. Behind him was the party. It was a party for him, for his new book. There were banners hanging down the walls.

"Maximillian Dunkel's ‘The Beginning of The End’” the text said.

They even had the damn cover art finished.

"It's almost finished", he kept telling them. "A final rewrite and it's ready for print.”

They nodded and cheered. They had even sold the movie rights, dammit.

...Without reading the book.

But... there wasn't anything to read. He knew that. He hadn't written a single word. Night after night he just kept staring at the blank screen.

It was a long way down.

How long would it seem while falling?

How many thoughts would flash through his brain on the way down?

But they would end.

As soon as he hit the street, it would all end.

No more questions, no more answers, no more dreams, no more nightmares.

He started to lean over the edge. The wind seemed to be pulling him closer and closer to the abyss. Arms spread out like a crucified prophet.

"This is it," he thought, Final Jeopardy…

The answer: "The solution to all of your problems?”

The question: "What is Death!"

"You win Max," he thought as he closed his eyes…

"You really shouldn't do it", the voice said calmly.

Regaining his balance very ungracefully, Max turned around, facing the man in the black suit. As the man stepped into the light, Max Dunkel thought he recognized him. But it wasn't as if he had met before, face to face. It was more like a face from an old painting you saw long ago or in a dream.

...Yes, like something out of a long forgotten dream.

"You have great potential Maximillian", he said, "Don't waste it like that. All you need is the right tool".

The man handed him the suitcase. It was quite small, but very heavy. As he opened it, a shimmer of light seemed to come from inside. The machine inside seemed to be made of an oily black material, the symbols on it looked vaguely arabic, but not quite.

It was a typewriter, but the construction of the mechanics was alien and strange. "This will help you", the man said, "and when you've finished your work, you should contact these people. They will know what to do with it".

The man handed him a business card. "Prospero Publishing" were the only words written on it.

"...But what should I do?" the writer asked.

The man turned his back to him and replied, "Make them believe it Maximillian.

Make them dream about it.

Make it come true."

"But how can I ever repay you?"

"Oh", the man said, "I almost forgot...

Yes, there is one small thing."

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Now
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Clack. Clackclackclack. Clickety-click. Click.

“The bad man awoke in the cell he would rot in for the rest of his days. He would remain a prisoner in his own mind eternally and never see the light of day again.”

I am the bad man.

The memories flooded at once, of many years of death wishes, battles with Cramon and… an eviction, or two… was it three? … The lands of Iconoclast... some of these seemed like just some damn bloody pulp fiction, not real… now it was just him, alone, alone in the dark… oh Ophelia… Gabriel… Ishmael…

What a bloody mess. A normal man would need trauma therapy, being so fleshed out from all of these terrible, terrible things…

He had spent years brooding, waiting, nothing to do but exist and burn with anger.

Then another flash of thought...

I am Caleb, and something right now, in this moment, is… off.

Click-clack, clickety clack-clack, click.

“He began to realize who he was, a horrible, monstrous bad man who deserved to die a thousand deaths, to waste away and never come forth ever again, to end for all he'd done, pathetic worm… he needed to accept this, to accept this fate of eternal nothingness, for there was no hope in sight…”

What the… what is that voice and those clicking noises?

Where is this?

The light was nonexistent, just a crack under a shape that what was morphing into a door through the fog shrouding his eyes.

The smell of the rotting flesh was what he noticed next; how could he not? A brainless monster, like one he’d carved up a thousand times before.

Rubbing hands along the walls, torn padding meant for the insane.

Outside this cell, he hears the rattling of a key.

Clack. Clackclackclack. Clickety-click. Click.

“The bad man must not hope, must not dream, must not ever, ever be again. He must listen to this voice of truth in his mind, his heart, his vapid soul... it is his fate...”

What the hell?

He grabbed the bloodied axe from the zombie… How’d it get here? How’d he get here? Any of this?

No time to dwell.

No time to solve anything.

There is only time to react.

As the door opened, a new thing rushed in, cackling at him with a raised knife, wild fire delightfully dancing through its masked eyes… for a brief moment he could sense…

A shift in all things, as if the world was creating itself around him.

He could taste it even, through the stale, putrid air, hear it through the moanings and the cracking of this new reality…

CLICKCLACKCLICKITYCLACK

"STOP BAD MAN, YOU ARE DEAD. YOU WILL NOT EXIST. SUCCUMB TO THE MADNESS. THIS IS THE STORY OF THE END."

CLICKCLACKCLICKCLACKCLACKCLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICKCLAAAAAAACK

Something new was starting right here, right now, like a book being written… and he needed to get to the bottom of it.

In this story, he figures three things, as he raised the axe to face this insane person ripping the cell door open:

He was the bad man...

and it was the Beginning of the End...

His End.

...and it looks like there’s killin’ to do.

BloodLines : Out of the Grave Edition (Beta 1.5)

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About BloodLines
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2021
Welcome! This is a much asked for progress point release of the “Out of the Grave Edition” we’ve been working on. This version has some updates to maps, quality of life improvements that make installing and playing easier with the new modern source ports, and a couple of surprises here and there. Enjoy, and look for more SOON (™) WHEN ITS FINISHED :)

This is the 1.5 beta version of the four episodes, including 15 maps, two new enemies and loads of new art and sound, plus new midis from the alpha version of Blood. I'm hoping between Felix, myself and others who've helped along the way, we can get this finally, finally finished soon. It's just getting released on discord so people can play it.

Matt "daMann" Mann

Contributors to 1.5:
*Pagb666 for creating YouTube video playthroughs of the old releases that spurred on a desire to try and help this project... live... again

*Felix Drott for putting up with my incessant "hey what about this?" or "we're old and tired, let's try to add one more thing to our lives and update this project?" and as 20 years ago, a great person to bounce ideas off of

*Dzierzan has done a ton - editing NoOne's installer to work for Bloodlines, creating MULTIPLE voxels for included art from other games and original pieces, art files, updating the art and sequences for the current roster of new monstrosities (more to come!), sounds for the crow, animated new weapons (in upcoming releases) and just being a super help

*NoOne, Hendricks266 & Oasiz for scripts, tools, and ultimately help with the texture swapping to "pull out" Bloodlines textures into separate art files then apply them to all the maps appropriately

*NoOne for Pmapedit, Xmapedit, and general new age trickery in Blood that none of us have ever seen before as well as a motivator to keep the Blood community growing and trying new things

*Seizhak for the most-up-to-date Blood manual with great explanations and some tricks, and BME for the reference page for sounds and other great info on editing maps gathered over the last 25 years

*Tekedon, Spill, Bloatoid, Spill, MariusArmand, wangho, Dwayne Anderson, etc. and so many others for making some of the great maps of the 2000s and today, and actually talking to old people like myself, being accessible and great to bounce ideas off of, etc. and just good online Bloodite community

*Borion for voxels of trashcan (4914_BIN) and urinal (4831_URINAL)

*Annie Spratt (@anniespratt) for the image the title screen is based on

*Sprites of Axe are made by neoworm which are taken from ZDoom forum, they were further edited by Dzierzan.

Felix Drott introduction, 2003:
BloodLines was to be the most ambitious total conversion ever created for Blood. It still is, but it's far from what was intended. We have admitted that BloodLines will never be fully completed and have decided to release the TC "as is" with some retouching to make incomplete maps actually playable. I hope you'll enjoy playing it as much as we have enjoyed making it. Be aware though, that not all maps are what you would expect from a Blood level, it's not all bloody mayhem. Don't be disappointed if the TC doesn't fit your ideas about how a 3d-shooter should be, much of it is about atmosphere rather than action, you will benefit from approaching BloodLines with an open mind.

This is the beta version of the first three episodes, including 13 maps, two new enemies and loads of new art and sound.

The finished version will contain a fourth episode as well as a couple of additional levels for the 3 first episodes, hand drawn cut scenes telling an intriguing storyline and a "special features" section featuring unfinished maps, production artwork and commentary text, explaining what should have been.
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Installing & Playing BloodLines: Out of the Grave Edition BETA 1.5
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*UNRAR into your blood directory and make sure it creates a "blbeta15" directory as well as make sure the blbeta15.bat is in the root Blood directory.

*Run the blbeta15.bat in your base game Blood directory.
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To play:
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NBlood:
Start NBlood, make sure you select the “blbeta15” folder for custom game files
There is already a blood.ini in this folder, and NBlood will load the content

Raze:
Drag the Blbeta15 folder onto your Raze.exe and start the game normally

GDX:
Start GDX
Load custom
Choose the blbeta15 folder
Open the blbeta15.ini, then you’re set

DOSbox:
At this point it does not look like it will be compatible with the improved enemies and voxels, etc. If this can be worked out, will try!

Fresh Supply:
TBD.

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TC Information
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Single Player : Yes

BloodBath : No, although we believe some of the maps have BB starting points.

Difficulty Settings : Yes

Monsters : Yes

New Graphic : Yes

New Music : Yes

New Sound FX : Yes

Base : From scratch.

Build time : 5 years on and off, massive amount of years off, then since 2018

Editor used : XMAPEDIT, SEQEDIT, QAVEDIT, SurfaceEditor, BAFed, MAPEDIT, EDITART, ARTEDIT, Photoshop 5.0, Poser 3, CoolEdit Pro, Krita, Autodesk Sketchbook and others.

Art borrowed from many sources: Redneck Rampage, Shadow Warrior, Duke Nukem 3D (LameDuke included!), Powerslave/Exhumed, Blood 2, lots of fun posters and easter egg pieces (listing them may take away the surprise!), TheNight ComeIII created a great composite file of art files that we pulled some from

Known Bugs : Tons, but very few that will actually stop gameplay. Two VERY IMPORTANT WARNINGS: In the Highway to Hell level, don't jump or move around too much inside the car. The path-sector function is buggy, and you are likely to end up in places you're not supposed to be. In the Twilight Zone level, don't back away when you are being sucked towards the door (you'll know what I mean when you see it) or you may get stuck.

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Copyright / Permissions
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Authors MAY NOT use any map that is part of BloodLines TC as a base to build additional levels without EXPRESS permission from the author!

You MAY not distribute ANY SINGLE MAP that is part of the BloodLines TC.

When the BloodLines TC is completed you MAY distribute the entire zipped archive of the BloodLines Total Conversion, providing you include all files, with no modifications. You may then distribute BloodLines TC Archive in any electronic format (BBS,Diskette,CD,etc.)

You MAY NOT include this BETA version in any compilation. You MAY include the final release of the BloodLines TC Archive in a CD compilation, providing that you do not alter any accompanying files and that you send every person credited as a member of the BloodLines team a copy of the CD.

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This addon is not made by or supported by Monolith Productions, GT Interactive Software, The WizardWorks Group, Atari, and whoever else or any of their affiliates and subsidiaries.