Curse of Orion: Next Encounter mod for Red Faction

\Description/
The Curse of Orion: The Next Encounter is a bizarre, lengthy, and difficult FPS total conversion campaign mod for the PC version of Red Faction.

\User Safety Warning/
Mod contains loud audio and flashing lights.

\Usage/
Copy TheCurseofOrion_TNE directory into the mods directory of your Red Faction installation. Select mod: TheCurseofOrion_TNE in Dash Faction Launcher to launch game with the mod.

\Plot/
This is the ultimate training phase of your Red Faction probationary period. If you survive you will prove yourself as the chosen one to liberate Mars from Ultor when the time comes. Many miners have been sent to this realm, none ever make it back.

\Recommendations/
Frame rate limit between 30-144 is recommended to reduce frame rate related bugs.
Do not use large texture mods. Textures in dds format will override vbm textures in which this mod uses plenty of.
Ingame menu video options has three blocks of different brightness next to the gamma slider. Lower gamma until the first two dark blocks are almost indistinguishable. Does not work for 16bit color depth.

\Tips/
Drones and Tankbots are the most dangerous hostile in the campaign. Their barrage of rockets are able to quickly kill the player. They generally should become a priority to destroy when in view.
Have every weapon bound to their own key near your movement keys to allow instant switching of weapons. You should be able to do this without needing to look down at your keyboard.
This mod is based on projectile combat so jumping, crouching, and side strafing is essential to avoid getting hit. Do not run toward incoming fire without some side strafing added.
The change in player hitbox from standing to crouching is seemingly instant. Learning to use ctrl for crouch is best and ducking beneath incoming projectiles should be common.
Riot stick is a very powerful weapon. It has long range, zaps through walls, does great damage per second, and is the only weapon that isn't projectile based.
Difficulty is greatly affected by how fast one tries to progress. It is possible and likely that one tries to progress faster then they can handle.
Hostiles will try to attack the player within a certain range. Move far away enough and they'll stop attacking to focus on staying within range.
Be sure to watch your back in large open environments, hostiles can flank and close in from all directions.
A few entities have a very large amount of health. It may seem as if they are invincible at times.
All structures besides terrain is destructible in most levels.
Adjust reticle size with reticle_scale command.
Higher difficulties make enemies move more.
Explosions will destroy weapon pickups.

\Issues/
*Dash Faction 1.8.0 breaks multiple effects. Use 1.7.0 or my modified build of Dash Faction for now at (Github).
*Carrying a corpse during a level load/save puts the player in holstered mode. It can initially seem like the game has been softlocked. (Mod-bug)
*Saving on jumpads will create a softlocked savegame with the player dying immediately upon loading. (?)
*Dynamic lights flicker when passing through portals. Probably an issue with Windows Nvidia drivers. (?)
*Credits sometimes won't play in the final level. Probably an issue with savegames or event scripting. (?)
*Some effects will break from high frame rates. Recommend maxfps limit range is 30-144. (RF-bug)
*Ambient sounds won't pan from left to right channel unless EAX is enabled. (DF-bug)
*Geo debris breaks object collision. Save and Load temporarily fixes this issue. (RF-bug)
*Dynamic lights don't always work correctly on detail brush terrain. (RF-bug)
*Footstep sounds only work for miners equipped with the pistol. (RF-bug)
*Swap Assault Rifle controls breaks Assault Rifle. (DF-bug)
*Some building have broken glass rendering. (RF-bug)
*Cutscenes break ambient sounds. (RF-bug)
*Occasional game crashes. (RF-bug)
*Abrupt music looping. (Mod-bug)

\Estimated stats/
Start of development = 5/17/2022
Release date = 5/13/2023
Game length = 5-8 hours
Speedrun length = 01:35:20
Hostiles = 2835
Levels = 45

\Reshade_Bloom.ini/
This file is a very small, balanced, and well optimized reshade preset for bloom in Red Faction.
Plenty of info exists online of how to use reshade presets, I don't want to explain how to use it here.

\Music Sources/
Serious Sam: The First Encounter
Serious Sam: The Second Encounter
Judge Dredd: Dredd vs Death
Red Faction: Armageddon
Red Faction: Guerrilla
Red Faction II
Daikatana
Quake II

\Music Artists/
Damjan Mravunac - Serious Sam: The First Encounter, Serious Sam: The Second Encounter
Dan Wentz - Red Faction: Guerrilla, Red Faction II
Thomas Bible - Judge Dredd: Dredd vs Death
Brian Retzell - Red Faction: Armageddon
Sascha Dikiciyan - Quake II
Will Loconto - Daikatana

\Red Faction Developers/
Lead Programmers - John Slagel, Jeff Farris
Programmers - Eric Arnold, Dave Baranec, Joel H. Hunter, Brian Keron, Michael Rubin, Tim Schroeder, Andrew Wu
Additional Programming - Michael Kulas
Animators - Tim Borrelli, Josh Nizzi, Jason Shum
Lead Artists - Frank Capezzutto III, Adam Pletcher
Artists - Nathan Camarillo, Matthew Kresge, Josh Nizzi, Geoffrey Smith, Alexis Velazquez
Additional Art - Matt Flegel, Peter Han
Recording Engineer - Walter Shaw
Composer / Sound Designer - Dan Wentz

\Changelog v1.01/
-Add missing waterfall sound to level c2a1.
-Fix tree reaching past ceiling in level c2a1.
-Reanimate vegetation texture movement.
-Brighten object mesh lighting.
-Use never flee flag for Capek entity.
-Add missing floor texture to level c2a8.

\Changelog v1.1b/
-Clarify mod plot.
-Only use english readme.
-Many minor level changes.
-Use seamless level loading.
-Start player with low ammo.
-Use slow regenerating health.
-Add shotgun secondary rapid fire.
-Add Cutter entities as a new enemy.
-Greatly increase overall difficulty.
-Disable player vehicle invulnerability.
-Improve ai path finding in multiple levels.
-Reduce geo hardness of mini-hut in level c1a4.
-Decrease size of geomod craters for multiplayer.
-Add grenades to secret weapons pickup in level c1a6.
-Add Sea Creature entities to levels c1a3, c1a4, c1b1.
-Utilize bat, fish, grabber entities in multiple levels.
-Replace secret fusion launcher with flamethrower in level c1a4.
-Expand usage of geomod in levels c1c4, c2a2, c2b4, final-fight.
-Reduce fire rate of semi automatic weapons. Holding fire shoots repeatedly.
-Add ambient rain sounds to levels c1a1, c1a2, c1a5, c1a6, c1b5, c1b6, c1c4.
-Add ignore_fire entity flag to entities mutant1, mutant2, reeper, baby reeper.
-Increase weapon damage for mutant2, mutant1, reeper, baby_reeper, 12mm handgun.
-Reduce damage taken to entities tankbot, drone, mutant1, mutant2, rock snake, big snake, capek.
-Expand weapon projectile collision radius for 12mm handgun, mutant2, mutant1, reeper, baby reeper.
-Use bizarre texturing and ambient sounds for levels c3a1, c3a2, c3a3, c3a4, c3a5, c3a6, c3a7, final-fight.

\Changelog v1.1/
-Optimize geomod in level c3a3.
-Increase blue thruster flare intensity.
-Add missing non-geo region in level c2b5.
-Fix unhidden switch in levels c1b4 and c1c2.
-Add more useful information to this readme file.
-Fix cutter entity in level c2a3 not being hostile.
-Highlight weapon pickups with animated vbm textures.
-Fix cutter entities not using waypoints in level c3a6.
-Increase intensity of reeper, spike, tankbot eye glow.
-Increase fire wait of cutter, tankbot, drone melee attack.
-Slightly increase velocity and acceleration of fighter entity.
-Add slow factor movement to entities that don't already have it.

\Changelog v1.2/
-Fix entity in level c1b3 not moving.
-Improve ai path finding in level c2a9.
-Connect unlinked nav points in level c1b6.
-Correct backwards facing door in level c2a9.
-Expand level load trigger in levels c1a7, c1a8.
-Many minor texture related visual improvements.
-Use Red Faction Guerrilla barrel explosion sound.
-Vending machine mesh lighting improvement in level c2b4.
-Correct entities in level c2b4 not using proper attack range.
-Add riot stick and fusion launcher item pickups in level c1c3.
-Add cooking utensils to cafeteria building in level c2a1, c2a9.
-Correct improperly positioned clutter light object in level c1a8.
-Reduce multiplayer rocket and fusion launcher projectile velocity.
-Optimize geomod in levels c3a1, c3a3, c3a4. No more scrolling textures.