Ryleh 4 : Thing on the Doorstep Readme

Title | : Thing on the Doorstep
File Name | : Ryleh 4.fsm
Version | : 1.4 - 12/01/98
Designer | : Michael Diedrich (Zarathud)
Email Address | : diedrich@megsinet.net
Homepage | : www.megsinet.net/~diedrich/
| : descent.gamestats.com/
Other levels by author | : Ryleh 1 (Ryleh Rising)
| : Ryleh 2 (The Hounds of Tindalos)
| : Ryleh 3 (Lurker at the Threshold)
Additional credits to | : Volition, Inc. for Descent: Freespace
| : Interplay Productions, for some excellent recent releases

* Mission Description *

Alpha and the GTC Nodens make a desparate jump into subspace to evade a strike force waiting on the other side of the Great Abyss asteroid field in Ryleh 3. Now, Alpha must defend the GTC Nodens as it attempts to escape and warn Ryleh Station of the Thing on the Doorstep.

* Mission Ratings *

This mission has not yet been rated. Handle with care, and review it on Xanadu's Mission Archive.

* Play Information *

Single Player | : yes
Multi Player | : no
Training Only | : no
Difficulty Settings | : yes
Campaign | : yes
New grapics | : no
New sounds | : yes
Known Bugs | :

* Installation *

Unzip the zip file into the proper drive. The mission should automatically be transferred to the mission folder, and any sounds to the appropriate voice folder.

* Author's Comments *

This mission is still under development. If you have ANY problems, please tell me about them so I can try to fix them. No promises, but I'll do my best. Tell me about any inaccuracies (weapons out too soon, etc.), imbalances (too hard or too easy?), performance issues (tested on a P200MMX with 64MB RAM and Diamond Monster 3D), or outright errors. Your feedback is important to me.

This mission flows as a red alert from Ryleh 3. It provides a straight-up, vanilla timed dogfight for survival. The only trick is that you're banged up from the prior mission. The storyline of Ryleh 3 and 4 unfolds at the end as a reward, with the prior mission tying into a nice, complex debriefing.

I suspect a few elite pilots will be able to win themselves the other half of a medal by eliminating all of their foes, so I challenge them to try to win it. If you *do* succeed somehow, e-mail me a screenshot of the winning debriefing in Ryleh 4. And let me remind everyone that you can't cheat and continue in the campaign....

You must visit the Descent Chronicles site at http://descent.gamestats.com/, which contains the FRED FAQ at http://descent.gamestats.com/freespace/fred/index.shtml, Xanadu's Mission Archive at http://descent.gamestats.com/xanadu/, and the FreeSpace Review at http://descent.gamestats.com/review/.

* Strategy Tips *

Make sure a friend survives the jump out of Ryleh 3, and do a better job protecting the capital ship in Ryleh 3.

Special Thanks to:

Everyone who provided feedback on the earlier missions, especially Pastel. Thanks also go out to my wife Bkwyrm, my old friend Jason Lazar, H.P. Lovecraft for the inspiration of Cthulhu and the other Elder Gods, Volition Inc. for creating such an incredible game, the Freespace Developer's League and Peter Drake for getting me started on FRED design. And, finally, I thank YOU for playing this mission.

* Legal Stuff *

You may distribute this mission for free, as long as you include this text file and give the author credit. If you want to distribute this mission on a CD or in a Collection you MUST contact the author first and obtain approval. Any distribution of this mission shall act as an acknowledgement of the author's moral rights granted under applicable laws.

You may edit this mission, but cannot redistribute the edited mission without the permission of the author.

Certain rights to this mission are retained by Volition, Inc. and Interplay Productions. Use of this mission by any third party must conform to the copyrights and license terms of its creation.

* New Sound Files Supported *

> voices/special/

> r4_close.wav

> r4_die.wav

> r4_eyes.wav

> r4_laffr.wav

> r4_made.wav

> r4_safe.wav

> r4_tricky.wav

> r4_Wooo.wav

> r4_yeah.wav

* Prior Sound Files Supported *

(All released with Ryleh 2.fsm)

> r

* Release Notes *

v 1.0 Not Released

xAttempted to create Ryleh 3 and Ryleh 4 as one mission

xAdjusted length of chase sequence

xFixed tons of bugs with Red Alert missions

xDiscovered ships ghosting issue, reduced asteroid field to compensate

xCreated false sound effect of warping out just before Red Alert triggered

v 1.4 Release 12/01/98

Buy the retail version of Descent: Freespace and Silent Threat. This game is awesome.

Now stop reading and start flying!