High Anxiety
One of the first net-maps to support team net playing.
Pair off and destroy the others!

markt@apple.com


I've been a lurker and downloader of Marathon maps for a long time. One thing I've enoticed is that there seems to be a lack of maps designed for team play - maps that challenge you to work together, use the delete key to see where your partner is and stake out terrritory. This map is not about kills per minute. It is about cooperating to overcome the enemy. There's plenty of carnage. When you've stalked your prey the kill is that much more satisfying.

One caveat. This designed for high end systems (PPC machines with lots of RAM.) Since most of us have high end machines here at Apple I really wasn't constrained by lowest common denominator map reauirements. I was saving this and another I designed for the folks at Bungie to bundle but when I heard they wanted to downgrade the quality of the maps to make them more accessible to all I decided this should be released on the net. High-end Mac owners shouldn't be penalized.

This is designed for 2 on 2 or greater. One on one will work since there are no tricks that require two people but it is a little big for that. The basic premise and the reason that it's called High Anxiety is that at times it can get a little stressful. I am not the best player technically but I can compete since this map puts a premium on strategy of play and cooperation. Of course, skill level is also key.

This game has to be experienced rather than discussed. The basic premise is that there are two forts that are accessible by a long and slow elevator ride to a platform where you can either flip a switch and let a friend/teammate into the fort or drop in yourself. The ride up the elevator is long and slow and is one of the causes of anxiety. If someone is in the fort while you decide to take the elevator ride, it's a short spanker flight away from you and flying spleendom. It's not all about getting and holding onto forts. In order to make the tensions balance there are lots of weapons in the forts but little ammo there. You need to go to the ammo dump for that. And the forts can be attacked multiple ways and the elevators attacked and defeded multiple ways. One of the new developments in this map I haven't seen elsewhere are windows that can be opened and closed for shooting through. A tab activates it from the inside but the people outside can't walk up and tab the window open or closed and attack that way.

This game is designed to be played with specific game settings. You can try others but it changes (degrades) the game. The only boxes you should have checked when gathering are the following:

x Live Carnage
x Teams
x Disable Motion sensor

This map only works if the weapons go back to the original locations. Otherwise the whole tension set breaks down. The motion sensor is optional but also takes away from the real warfare aspect of this. There are lots of places for line of sight kills and so this preserves the intent of the map.

There are no aliens and no hidden tricks. I'm not into maps where you have to tab every wall looking for the hidden invulnerability (Pugh).

There are shotguns spread everywhere so that when you materialize you aren't running around with a pistol getting killed before you can get to the base. Of course there is no shotgun ammo so use your two shots wisely.

This map plays some of the best team 'thon around. If you have the horsepower and the players you've got to play this...

Enjoy!

Zorro

Note: This map is dedicated to Killbot, the best player of the four regulars but the one who still needs to learn the concept of a wing-man.