Hunters Camp, HC. what it might have been?

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MinePass
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Hunters Camp, HC. what it might have been?

Post by MinePass »

In the Plains Research topic tatu posted a download link that contained both scripts and the walkthrough but it also included several other documents from when the game was in production. In the Area Creation How To document under appendix E there is a list of the levels
There are directories for each level of the game:
Beach, Jungle Road, Hunter Camp (coming soon), Plantation House, Industrial Jungle, Town, Plains, Pine Valley, Lab, Ascent, and Summit.
. The Walkthrough was created on 6-27-1997 and later modified on 8-15-1997, this document was created 3-31-1998. So between March 31 and October 28 another level was "coming soon". This raises a multitude of questions but the most important one is "why the change?". The walkthrough, even after being altered, places the Hunters camp east of the monorail tracks. So this wasn't like a new idea they wanted to implement but one they had already had in mind and planned out. What follows is my theory as to what this level was and why it was cut/canceled.
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Going by the walkthrough the starting point of the PH is incorrect, there's no road to follow down and the valley is cut in half by terrain (the rock jumping puzzle by the floating cement mixer), this is where I'm basing my theorized level.

walkthrough theory

The level begins with Anne on the cliff, to her left is the remains of a trail leading to the bottom.

puzzle one
However a landslide has removed a substantial section, a bridge was erected but only one section of it remains at the road level, the other is just below but simply jumping to it will result in death. the goal of this puzzle is to use a piece of rebar to pry open a crack thus separating the section connected to the legs and ground. The bridge has now become a teeter-totter (like the one in the Beach), Anne can now slide down the side and jump to the next section. The second section is at angle and Anne will begin to slide, she needs to make her way to the other support and pry the bolt connecting it to the bridge section. The resulting wait will be too bunch for the other support to manage and the section will become a sled of sorts sending the player to the bottom.

upon reaching the bottom the player notices a clearing ahead, the hunters camp.

puzzle two
This is the pit and bear trap obstacles mentioned in the walkthrough. If the payer fall into a pit they have to make stairs to get out, for the Dino sized bear traps they need to pry it off.

Once past the"welcoming mat" the player has earned the right to explore the camp. This consists of picking open locked crates and sifting through car interiors (some of the doors are locked/jammed leaving only the windows as a means of access).

puzzle three
This is more of a scavenger hunt. Poking around the largest tent reveals a map of the area with the town gates highlighted and numbered, there's also the plantation house labeled as a possible second base. The task here is to look for a surviving list that has the gate access codes, needles to say you wont find the intact code here, this is a prompt for the player to search the plantation house before going to the town.

puzzle four
If you haven't figured it out the point of this level is to instruct on how to use both your arm and wrist to complete tasks. This puzzle is like the "Final Exam" jumping puzzle from the last level. One idea for this could involve the drivable car in the secrets document. For this the player must create a clear path for the jeep to go, removing/covering traps and wedging an object to the gas pedal.

So by now your probably thinking "no wonder it was cut/canceled".But don't forget that several levels in the walkthrough were just like this, the Beach is a prime example as it only encompasses the beach and foundation area. There's no guns or dinosaurs, your solely there to get a feel for the controls till you feel ready to continue. The Jungle Road is kind of the same way but you get to explore, see dinosaurs, and complete puzzles. Now jumping ahead to the Town, for the duration of the level you are confined to the town having to search for items of use while also battling raptors and a T-rex/Albertasaur/Allosaur (there isn't a dead set combatant here). Next is the Lab, originally this began just outside the harbor gates and like the town your confined to this small area. What sets this apart is the amount of vagueness in the descriptions of puzzles (basically go down this, turn here, walk over here) and the uncertainty (there's a lot of question marks in this section). The level I drummed up fits in with these as it is primarily puzzle solving and teaches skills that will be used later, like the pit fall traps that were to be around the Mayan ruins and the giant lake in the Industrial Jungle. The E3 builds had evidence that this was still on the table, tatu just recently discovered a long pole labeled Raft Pole in AS2. You were probably meant to stick the pole to the ground and pull yourself along, which could require the use of the wrist mechanics that go unused. The strategy guide lists two instances when bending your wrist is required, scanning key cards and gun orientation. So as you can see this level was probably cut/altered for the same reasons as the others, it was primarily puzzle based, little value, or they have time to do what they intended.
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Re: Hunters Camp, HC. what it might have been?

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Interesting theories, MinePass. I think for sure though that this HC level never made it past the planning stages...might have just been an idea they had at one point. The camp itself was certainly supposed to be in PH, unless at one point you were supposed to go further east from the area of PH, which seems unlikely since everything lines up so well in the final path taken (JR-PH-IJ).

I also find it likely that PH was the only location the Hunter Camp was ever really intended to be in due to the early walkthrough noting its presence, as well as evidence of the camp being in the PCGamer PH level. Unless they intended there to be TWO Hunter Camps eventually. That would line up a bit better with the movie now that I think of it as well...the main Hunter Camp would be somewhere east of PH, then from there you would make your way west through PH until you reached the camp where the Rex attacked in the movie. This would also make sense because the PH camp is in a streambed, which seems to be the case in the movie, and the PH streambed connects with the IJ one - which looks an awful lot like the area the Rex chases the hunters through in the movie as well. And that all leads to the Town...strange how this sort of all lines up! :P I still think the HC level is a myth though, might have just been a plan that came up during mid-development and they scrapped it before it could be worked on.
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Re: Hunters Camp, HC. what it might have been?

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TheIdiot wrote:The camp itself was certainly supposed to be in PH, unless at one point you were supposed to go further east from the area of PH, which seems unlikely since everything lines up so well in the final path taken (JR-PH-IJ).
Didn't the walkthrough also mention that the hunters used the Plantation House as a base?
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Re: Hunters Camp, HC. what it might have been?

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Hilwo wrote: Didn't the walkthrough also mention that the hunters used the Plantation House as a base?
The walkthrough says they had marked it as a possible secondary base. Whether or not they actually established a base over there is unknown as the walkthrough doesn't go any further in explaing this, and the PC Gamer build is clearly unfinished. If they did choose to have a base there it would probably have been meant as a look out point for dangerous dinosaurs entering the area. Or, now that I think about it, they could have been there so when the s.s venture arrived they would begin preparations to load the dinosaurs while the main camp was packing up.

TheIdiot your post about the similarities between the levels and movie has got me thinking and your right, if you're referring to the PC Gamer build of the industrial jungle. The only issues I found is where Carter dies, the trailers being in pine valley, and where the long grass is. But what got me thinking is the hidden area behind the waterfall secret they had listed. The hunters ran down a stream bed and somewhere along it was a waterfall​ with an area behind it. Now while looking at the level the area to the right of the T-Rex and triceratops fight is odd. Could this be where the long grass would have gone and if not then what is with this spot? I know that there were several concepts that tied in with the town. Could they have know that the town was being downsized and sought to add the long grass and worker village here so as to keep to the movie?
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Re: Hunters Camp, HC. what it might have been?

Post by TheIdiot »

TheIdiot your post about the similarities between the levels and movie has got me thinking and your right, if you're referring to the PC Gamer build of the industrial jungle. The only issues I found is where Carter dies, the trailers being in pine valley, and where the long grass is.
Here's my theory on that. The area where Carter dies is obviously somewhere in the streambed - I doubt the developers would have included every detail of the movie, so we can look past his skeleton not being there. The trailers may or may not have been in PV, in fact nobody can be certain where they were supposed to have been because we've never seen reference to them anywhere. Finally, my suspicion for the long grass is that it is supposed to be in either the IJ3 valley, or the big open area west of the town in IJ2, behind the hill. The IJ3 valley makes the most sense to me though because it leads up to the town, and between the town and the valley is a ledge, which could very well be the mudslide the characters in the movie fall down after exiting the long grass.
But what got me thinking is the hidden area behind the waterfall secret they had listed. The hunters ran down a stream bed and somewhere along it was a waterfall​ with an area behind it.
I always assumed this waterfall was supposed to be the one the characters hide behind from the Rex in the movie as well.
Now while looking at the level the area to the right of the T-Rex and triceratops fight is odd. Could this be where the long grass would have gone and if not then what is with this spot? I know that there were several concepts that tied in with the town. Could they have know that the town was being downsized and sought to add the long grass and worker village here so as to keep to the movie?
That's my other guess too. Since we know the big area in the PCGamer build with the brown terrain was intended to be the lake and the swamp and the people in the movie never encounter this area, it would make sense for them to instead have taken the shortcut east toward the town around the lake. The walkthrough mentions a raft constructed by some hunters that were split off from the others, which also adds to this theory. Of course, we'll never really know. My assumption is that these specific things weren't even meant to be included in the game. They definitely wouldn't have gone with the long grass as it seems to me that they wouldn't have known how to implement it.
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Re: Hunters Camp, HC. what it might have been?

Post by Hilwo »

MinePass wrote:The walkthrough says they had marked it as a possible secondary base. Whether or not they actually established a base over there is unknown as the walkthrough doesn't go any further in explaing this, and the PC Gamer build is clearly unfinished.
Could explain the weapon(s) found in the house.
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