The Marathon World Needs
Better Scenarios!
by The Editor
Most people will agree, there just aren't very many creative or even worthwhile scenarios out there today. While it's difficult to get to the level of commercial software, it's within reach to at least get close. Alot of maps these days are just a bunch of carnage net-levels, and the scenarios only provide a couple of new maps to play.
However, examples like "Operation: Tantalus" from M1 and "Siege of Nor'korh" of M2 do have interesting stuff. O:T changed the interface a bit, added new graphics and sounds and gave the feeling that alot of effort was put into it just so you, the player, could be sitting there and enjoying it. "Siege of Nor'korh", while not as innovative as O:T, gave you lots of levels with many twists and turns and puzzles that could take hours to figure out. It included plots that were more than original, they were well thought out and about as good as Marathon 1's plot, which has to be the best of all. Only a few scenarios are as nicely laid out and fun as these and a change to this type would be definitely welcome! Right now there are a few people developing scenarios like these and better. I am in the process of working on modifying Marathon Infinity to match Marathon 1 because: (1) SO MANY people have been asking for it, and (2) the original rumor that this could be occurring soon by someone else really hasn't cranked out to be anything real.
Getting back to it, the fact remains that there are many challenges ahead of anyone who wants to produce scenarios that do more than the usual new levels and/or nice stories. First of all, intricate levels are just plain difficult and time consuming to make, and secondly, one needs a very active imagination to develop a plot that satisfies the most discriminating tastes. No doubt people will be discouraged by this, but the huge number of people actually discouraged is shocking! It's always understandable if you just can't do graphics, or if perhaps you have no idea how to change the interface, or even if you just can't figure the tools out. However, alot of people are aces with graphics and coding, so why not make some creative scenarios? Who knows, if it's a decent scenario, maybe you can get BUNGIE to license the Marathon 2 engine to YOU so that you can sell it as a Game and make scads of money off of it!$!$!... Not to mention the notoriety?
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Better Scenarios!
by The Editor
Most people will agree, there just aren't very many creative or even worthwhile scenarios out there today. While it's difficult to get to the level of commercial software, it's within reach to at least get close. Alot of maps these days are just a bunch of carnage net-levels, and the scenarios only provide a couple of new maps to play.
However, examples like "Operation: Tantalus" from M1 and "Siege of Nor'korh" of M2 do have interesting stuff. O:T changed the interface a bit, added new graphics and sounds and gave the feeling that alot of effort was put into it just so you, the player, could be sitting there and enjoying it. "Siege of Nor'korh", while not as innovative as O:T, gave you lots of levels with many twists and turns and puzzles that could take hours to figure out. It included plots that were more than original, they were well thought out and about as good as Marathon 1's plot, which has to be the best of all. Only a few scenarios are as nicely laid out and fun as these and a change to this type would be definitely welcome! Right now there are a few people developing scenarios like these and better. I am in the process of working on modifying Marathon Infinity to match Marathon 1 because: (1) SO MANY people have been asking for it, and (2) the original rumor that this could be occurring soon by someone else really hasn't cranked out to be anything real.
Getting back to it, the fact remains that there are many challenges ahead of anyone who wants to produce scenarios that do more than the usual new levels and/or nice stories. First of all, intricate levels are just plain difficult and time consuming to make, and secondly, one needs a very active imagination to develop a plot that satisfies the most discriminating tastes. No doubt people will be discouraged by this, but the huge number of people actually discouraged is shocking! It's always understandable if you just can't do graphics, or if perhaps you have no idea how to change the interface, or even if you just can't figure the tools out. However, alot of people are aces with graphics and coding, so why not make some creative scenarios? Who knows, if it's a decent scenario, maybe you can get BUNGIE to license the Marathon 2 engine to YOU so that you can sell it as a Game and make scads of money off of it!$!$!... Not to mention the notoriety?
Back to The Table Of Contents