Defensive Measures addon - Quake 2

Quake II: Defensive Measures v1.1 -- 11-4-2017
Starting map: defens.bsp
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"--Please report to the briefing room."
You're lurched out of your musings by the sound of Sergeant Sparks over the ship's intercom. Being on the special-operations reserve team, you weren't part of the first drop. Your involvement so far in the Earth-force assault on Stroggos has been somewhat benign, involving ship-side support and gathering intelligence from relatively safe areas on the surface. But even so, the catastrophe that befell the squads that never even got the chance to engage in their mission is still fresh on your mind. You wouldn't even consider refusing a mission no matter its possible outcome, but trepidation lingers nonetheless.
"Yes, sir," you respond as you hustle into the briefing room.
"OK, good. Listen up," Sgt. Sparks turns from the communications console at his desk and faces you. "We've been running hi-res surface scans in the big-gun area and according to that along with intel from the surface teams in the logistical sector, there's bad news. As you know the security laser grid was just taken out a few hours ago. Problem is, there were a lot of laser towers that appeared to be offline or already dead but we're getting power signatures from them. They didn't go completely dead like the others. And we just got wind of some major power signatures not far from the big-gun reactor, centered around two buildings, apparently a complex of some sort -- right in the middle of these towers. If those towers are a backup grid like we think they are, we got a serious problem. There's no way we can drop teams for reconnaissance in the big-gun area with something like this in the way, not after what happened during the first drop. Big-gun is next on the agenda which means we need to take this thing out as soon as possible."
Before you can think over this, Sgt. Sparks continues.
"We have a mission and you're one of the lucky ones. The complex is possibly the control center or power distribution center for this secondary grid. I know it's a risk but there's no other teams anywhere near this area and we need this dealt with now. What we'll be doing is dropping a small team of you just outside the far end of the complex, in some canyons that should be good for cover. We want this to be as covert as possible, for obvious reasons."
"What if this thing wakes up on us--"
Sgt. Sparks interrupts: "J.C. and the techs have been down in the hangar cooking up some improvements to the drop-pod shielding since the, uhh, first drop. What we've come up with is a sort of active electromagnetic-canceling field -- stealth, if you will. It also acts as a kind of EMP that projects an in-phase field in the direction of an incoming energy-weapon and tries to repel it or drown it out. Basically an on-demand forcefield of sorts."
"And I get to test-drive it."
Sgt. Sparks nods. "And right away too. We want to get this started right away, before this thing DOES decide to wake up. If it does it's gonna be ten times harder to take it out. I called on you because I know you've had training in covert ops, and if anyone can make this happen it's you. But I do need to know," Sgt. Sparks looks directly at you, "are you up to this?"
"Yes, sir, I am. That's why I'm here."
"Thought so," he smiles. "Get suited up and report to hangar deck in one hour."
You turn to leave.
"And good luck, soldier."

You arrive at the hangar deck to the sight of techs stowing data discs and other gear in the drop pods being prepared. You wonder yet again at how an element of technology as alien as the Strogg could be so incredibly similar to Earth technology. The truth was that these Strogg discs were so similar to Earth CDs that making them was a trivial matter. In the short time the Earth forces had been here, malicious programming had been repeatedly used to successfully corrupt computer operations in the logistical sector. Obviously you would be attempting the same thing.
"Everyone get ready to board," Sergeant Torres says, walking up. You board your drop-pod, the cover is closed and you wait for launch. You've already been on the surface twice, but this is your first drop-pod landing.
Sgt. Sparks comes on the radio: "You've been briefed on what's at stake here. To recap, you're to infiltrate the complex, link up however possible so you can send and receive intel, eliminate resistance as necesssary, and take whatever defensive measures are necessary in shutting this thing down and securing the facility. And, meet up with the teams at the reactor site ... in one piece. Godspeed."
"Launch in 10 seconds," Sgt. Torres says.

After a burst of intense acceleration, you begin to descend, slowly at first, then more rapidly as though on a cosmic roller coaster. Weightlessness turns to turbulence as the rapidly thickening atmosphere takes its effects.
"Heads up, marines! The laser grid just activated -- get ready to dodge!"
"Oh, great. You guys better have got this new shield right," you mutter.
"Incoming, six o'clock. Pull hard left!" You pull left, faintly hearing a laser fizz by off to the right, out of range of the viewscreen. You check the altimeter: almost to ground level but still too high to fall and land in one piece.
"Incoming--!"
Ssszz-ffow! The unmistakeable sound of a laser blast screams as the pod is slammed to one side. So much for the repulsor-shield idea--either that or this was a helluva hit. The readout reports damage to thrusters and attitude control as you struggle to maintain course.
"Crap--one more hit like this and it's over--"
Sszzz-POW!
Showers of sparks -- spinning -- smell of burnt circuit boards -- a roar -- vertigo -- then blackness...

You come to, lying face-down on the ground. Despite the crash-landing and having been ejected from the pod, you seem to be uninjured. It looks like you can still carry out the mission. Your focus falters, still dazed from the crash. At once you're jolted back to your senses by the angry sizzle of a nearby laser bolt scorching the ground, followed by a muffled explosion.
"The laser grid ... at least I got down here alive."
Then silence -- nothing but the wind. You look around, trying to clear your vision, trying to make out your surroundings and get some sort of fix on your position.
The pod is nowhere to be seen.
"The disc..."
Alarm turns to relief when you see the disc and a weapon nearby. At least I can try and pull this off, you think, assuming I ended up near the planned drop zone. You check your field computer, which fortunately you had in your pack to begin with, to see if any updates were able to be transmitted. Nothing. There must be some sort of communications link failure. No matter, you think. The ground-based com link should work through the Strogg communication network which was hacked into just after the first drop. Just a matter of finding out what's going on, you think as you gather your things and prepare to set off down the ravine.
Toward what, you're not sure.

HLR Productions presents:
*** DEFENSIVE MEASURES ***

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> How to Install and Play <
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1. Extract defens.zip and place the contents in \quake2\baseq2\maps\
2. Start Quake2, go to the console and enter:
skill n
(replace "n" with 0, 1, 2, or 3 for Easy, Medium, Hard or Nightmare), then:
map defens
to start.

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> Unit Information <
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Title: Defensive Measures
Author: HLR Productions aka HighLeveller and some other names
Homepage: [None at present]
Permanent email: hlrsierra@yahoo.com (I seldom check this though)
Archive filename: defens.zip
Files: defens.txt
defens.bsp
defens2.bsp
defens3.bsp

Game: Quake 2
Single-player: That's what it's all about
Cooperative: 4 starts, but untested
Deathmatch: Supported in defens and defens2
defens.bsp (16+ players) (defens and defens2 are a series)
defens2.bsp (16+ players)

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> Play Notes <
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This version (1.1) just has a few minor changes: a corrected misspelling; a fix to keep enemies from getting stuck in one place in the second level; a few minor cosmetic modifications. And a fresh upload to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Quake II. :)

There's nothing important (no secrets, etc) in the elevator shafts. If you do get into one, go to the contrasting-colored square on the floor and you'll be teleported out.

For best results, turn off gl_clear if it's on (type "gl_clear 0" at the console) and you're using OpenGL. It won't break anything but there's a special effect used that won't look good if the gl_clear color is anything other than black or dark gray (it's normally hot pink). Originally the effect caused a bit of a Max Headroom look by means of "hall of mirrors" through a transparent surface, but on modern computers with their much higher rendering framerates it won't be noticeable.

If you use "noclip" and look around outside the playable areas, you'll see a bunch of closed-off stairways and a couple other closed-off rooms in the first map. These are open in deathmatch mode. (To run in DM mode, type "deathmatch 1" before starting the map.)

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> Construction <
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Basis: None -- all original
Inspirations/ideas: Confidence Lost (lighting), Chemical Plant (transparent
floor), city2[id] (multi-part doors), The Powersphere
Quest (lighting), On Sacred Ground (textures), Waiting To
Die (decorations), reactor2[id] (reactors), Magic Lamber
Forever (find this on your own:-) )
Skill levels: Implemented (more health in Easy, more enemies in Hard)
Q2 textures used: Mainly e2u3 reactor, some e2u3 sewer, some e3u3, some e2u2
New textures/images: No
New sounds: No
New/replaced code: No
Editor: QERadiant 1.47 (and text editor for minor entity tweaking)
Compile tools: [GDD]QBSP3 by Geoffrey DeWan
Enhanced QVIS3 by Steven Boswell
Arghrad 2.01

Map: defens.bsp defens2.bsp defens3.bsp
Brushes (world/total): 4472 / 4836 4419 / 4927 2090 / 2366
Enemies (easy): 57 68 25
Enemies (medium): 57 68 25
Enemies (hard): 78 92 31

Compilation statistics: Not really relevant on modern computers

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> Permissions, trademark acknowledgement and usage terms <
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Defensive Measures: Copyright © 2001 HLR Productions

Not-for-profit distribution is allowed and encouraged. Like always, those (non-commercial) level authors who want to use portions or ideas from this unit as a basis for other levels may do so provided you extend this same provision in your resultant work. (Some credit would be appreciated too, naturally.) If I can find a suitable public license such as a GNU or Creative Commons license, and there's interest, I might be able to post .MAP source for this and others. I'm one of the last people to copyright-monger; I just don't want companies to freeload off of it for profit (although highly unlikely due to the game's age) because that would be ripping off not only me, but you the player too. I give it to you for free -> you give it to others for free, you know how it goes.

The end user assumes any responsibility and liability arising out of the use and suitability of this; it's provided as is. It's impractical to the point of being impossible for me to be; you know how this goes too. Quake II and related marks and indicia belong to id Software (www.idsoftware.com).