Position: Almost everything
Occupation: In transition
Age: 23
Listening to: the air conditioner
(see initial JPDS release here: viewtopic.php?f=46&t=8880 )
Well folks, it's now time for the third and final release of Jurassic Park: Dark Secrets. JPDS Trails! You can find it here. See the enclosed text file for installation and loading instructions.
I'm afraid I don't have the intro synopsis handy at this time, so have a look at the readme. Technically speaking, the starting position for JPDS~trails picks up at the location you would have entered from if you completed the bridge puzzle in Streams where you find a way across the broken-PV-style bridge, over the stream in the old forest. From here, the fight will be your own.
Again, Trails (and its two companion sublevels - HRS and Forest) is an incomplete level. You will find cool puzzles which can be done, and other puzzles which couldn't be gotten to in time. As said elsewhere, the puzzles in Trails would have led you back into Streams to retrieve an egg from that level and bring it back into this one, as part of the "easter egg hunt". There's also just plum lots to see in this level, as with the others. I'm afraid not as much time could be given to fine-tuning the AI, so it won't be as amazing as Streams.
The Hunters Camp, though, has several interesting things you'll want to check out...HRS (Hillside Research Station) covers an area of buildings built into the side of the mountain which is intended to be InGen's initial Isla Sorna facility, built speedily and used until the MAJOR facility of the Embryonics Administration compound, as seen in Jurassic Park 3, could be completed, along with the Worker Village from TLW, both of which were going to be fully detailed in JP Dark Secrets..
Forest is the eastern-most stretch of JPDS's 4.1-kilometers-across terrain file, featuring several key locations amidst a foresty backdrop. Dinosaurs were plunked in at the last minute, to give it that feeling of liveliness, but have been almost entirely untweaked beyond basic scripts. But all puzzles present are fully functional and will lead to a level-end event, with plenty to see along the way. As with all my releases, folks should feel free to use ANY assets from my work, provided full obvious credit is given to me and the JPDS Team. So if you see something incomplete you'd like to "make more complete", have fun.
As for me and my life, I am moving very soon to Oregon. Like, this coming Sunday morning. I'll still be visiting sometimes but will probably not ever be an active member here again, and probably not make any more releases. Well... as soon as Tatu gets back here, he will be releasing the final JPDS~testing for me, which includes some behind-the-scenes material if I recall, and having the JPDS Conference Room opened up. One thing I'll note, I went ahead and just deleted my meshes folder from my computer without backing stuff up, since I don't anticipate re-entering the 3D modelling field. (I'm very glad to have made that "mine entrance" for Plains - a final testament to the 3D-graphic artistic level I've reached, very satisfying). So, I don't anticipate releasing a "lost models" package. Really, I made efforts to bring all models into JPDS in some form; the exception would be the unfinished EA interior, which I actually preserved in a level called "EA~test" and I DID save that, so that should eventually see release. I may also get around to releasing unused texture maps, we'll find out. Honestly people, the amount of new material in released JPDS levels should be enough to make a dozen new fan levels, so just stick with what's already ready-to-use...
I think that's all I have to say. It's been an interesting... what.. Dec. 2004.. six and a half years, being a Trespasser and working on JPDS bit-by-bit the entire time. Been full of ups and downs and quiet and drama but all vital parts of my path just the same. To think that it all started with a simple google image search that got me back into JP toys, and then through a friend there I found this site and combined my hobbies into game-design... WILD RIDE! I am now a creator of worlds. JPDS is so imprinted into my mind, I can journey through all these levels and remember all details almost exactly as they are seen ingame. Sculpting these worlds has built a comprehensive world-building mechanism into my mind which I feel will be useful in various other pursuits, I'm eternally thankful.
Will be checking in from time to time using a mobile device called the NOOKcolor, for the most part. Hopefully Tatu will be able to handle JPDS stuff when I'm gone - for now,
"Come on, son. Get us out of here."
~Draco
neither right hand nor any other part of her body are to be seen. looks like some kind of invisible mode))))