# "Anomalous Sunshine of an Alternate Timeline" / Alkaline (Quake mod)
Map entry for Alkaline (Quake) jam "Liminal Spaces" Alk 1.2.2b
There's a small instruction and detail / spoilery below, you can read it to get context or go blindly... this is a bit of a story/lore map with 2 phases : Suspense/Puzzle and action.

### Author info

Map name : Anomalous Sunshine of an Alternate Timeline.

Author : Chuma.

### How to play it? and General instructions/context/technical details

It should be playable in the jam, drop it in your Alkaline directory as i've used sounds from Alkaline pak1. This map was playtested in Ironwail.

As an author petition:
- Please play with the music from the map.
- If you are a speedrunner, enjoy the experience of the map first, then speedrun (if you'd like if not no worries as long as you have fun)

This map is intended to be a "lore condensed" mystery map and also an action map, so i'm going to summarize the context:

Ranger has ended up in a place called "The Connector", that's intended to be a world that connect other worlds and universes(multiverses), This dimension was overtaken by the Strogg forces, but it's been so long (a lot of unspecified years have passed) that they haven't seen any other humanoid creature... Ranger is being helped by someone to escape this place so here comes the basic context : Get the 4 circuit boards to fix the Dimensional jumper... you will be presented with 4 paths (should you go for one path, you have to finish it, and you can't return):

The map is divided in 2 phases:
1. Exploration/Puzzle with 4 different paths.
2. Action (since them Stroggs obviously won't let you go easily).

During the first phase of the map DO NOT attack or fight the enemies, there's no reward for it (if you are a speedrunner you may use them for timesave purposes i understand and can't stop this, but it's not any worth, since they will be killtargeted after the path, and there's no health, only armor shards.

### Behind the scenes / Production of the map (includes spoiler)

Here in this link is the list of the secrets and how to find them! the best scare of the map is basically within a secret area, yeah sorry for that (?):

https://github.com/ChumaSuey/lim_chuma/wiki/Secrets

I'm proud of how much work i've put into this map but well, let's get rolling:

For a while i had the idea of using The Mysterious Song on the internet, just a small scare sequence of the map playing within a radio, trapping the player and sliding it down into a fight... i always had this sequence in mind, in my notebook of sketches this map was called "The sun will never shine" and it was thought for a possible Progs dump speedmapping. When the Liminal jam was proposed i knew i could workout this concept within the level... altho the idea of using the mysterious song as a sound effect was discarded since it wouldn't sound right.

About the mysterious song on the internet "version" for this map : The sequence has always been envisioned in my head so i asked my friend Phoenyx (close friend from the Doom community who also composes and have audio production knowledge) to mix The mysterious song remastered version by aufr33 and Rave Ghetto Blaster, Ghetto version starting guitar riff can be heard in the first 2 seconds and then the remastered song by aufr33 can be heard until it's finished and loops (special thanks to aufr33 and Rave Ghetto Blaster for their respective remastered versions).

This is the first map i've managed to use references for my levels, so the map started to get made based on the previous short concept + the idea of going through different non-linear non-returnable areas that are backrooms, merging up both concepts into one : A first phase of backroom exploration, and a second phase of a "mall" fight (if i could call the second phase area as a mall).

The areas are path 1 to 4 counter-clockwise (this was completely unintentional but well... it works)

In this map altho story or lore densed with Trigger_textstories, they are completely optional, only what the player needs to know are the basic instructions get the 4 circuit boards and then fight.

The references :
Path 1 - Yellow void room comes from the Backroom area that has different squared voids or black holes.
Path 2 - Pool room comes from Counter strike Pool day but from a picture that uses liminal textures for it (i saw that version before somewhere but i can't remember).
Path 3 - "Urban room/hotel" comes from The liminal hotel that exists in real life, the last time i tried to find that picture, someone went there and said that "liminal space" can't be accessed by the public
Path 4 - "Bathroom / Train bathroom" comes from some bathroom and train station pictures, i was making a Train station in my mind, but it ended up looking like a bathroom so... no idea it's abstract.

Phase 2 the fight for the exit : The reference was the mall (the idea i wanted to make that comes from the mysterious song being played on a mall video), a liminal mall... in my mind it is, altho it looks very much abstract.

I added a jumppad that should work to get your weapons back if you failed to miss them when falling to Phase 2, altho i made the clips and spaces narrow so this hardly happens.

Map also has 2 target_autosaves (Alkaline saves) for preventing incidents of complex level finishing or level restart.

2 ideas that were scrapped from the map are:

- In the final fight section all the enemies you encountered through will be the ones you will fight for, i had the idea that if you kill in the phase 1 any of these enemies they will not spawn in the final fight section / area, while this was possible and it required a killtarget to the enemies that would appear later, it'd had no purpose since the enemies in phase 1 in normal circumstances are unkillable, if so i'd have to redesign the first phase of the map, something i decided not to do.

- In Path 4 you could may have gotten softlocked by ignoring the Circuit board, my plan was to make a some sort of joke where if the player didn't grab the Circuit board, they'll get one back in the Core room with the message "Lol almost softlocked" (i took note of it in my notebook and it was possible in design-scripting logic), while fun, i feel the map is serious enough for not having these "jokes", at least not in this map.

So finishing up, talking about the inclusion of Urantia, i've been willing to remake my first map in a big mod with the mapping knowledge i have now, i decided to include that segment as a some sort of scare, the meaning could be that somehow Urantia's planet where she was defeated crossed paths within the teleporters and her ghost was trying to Haunt Ranger, i almost included some segments state enabling and disabling player dead bodies but since i used that feature "twice" i think that was enough of it.

This map was fun to make, Alkaline is a powerful mod, and a special thanks to bmFbr for helping me always, and all of you friends for the feedback, thank you so much, hope you enjoyed my liminal map entry!

### Special Credits section:
- bmFbr (Quake mapping/coding wizardry).
- CommonCold (Quake mapping/coding wizardry/playtesting/feedback and also for hosting this jam).
- Paril (Quake mapping/coding wizardry).
- Phoenyx (Audio production).
- Makkon (Textures).
- riktoi (Quake mapping/coding wizardry and playtesting).
- Mopey Bloke (playtesting and feedback).
- Forte (playtesting and feedback).
- Yuyi and Alunadrern (playtesting and FOG/Sky values).
- 66pt99 (playtesting and feedback).
- Em3raldtiger (playtesting and feedback).
- Admer (correction in the lore notes).
- Lobotomy-Lobster (playtesting and feedback).
- DEvSEb (playtesting and feedback). 

Music tracks used:
- "Departure" - Repulsive.
- "1908" (1908 Vol I / Vol 1) - Repulsive.
- "The most mysterious song on the internet" - The most mysterious band (i hope i can get to change this metadata/info when they find the song's author).

In technicality it's an unknown song by an unknown author, i hope it gets found. (?-? / Like the wind - ? / Blind the wind - ? and i can go on).
respective thanks to aufr33 and Rave Ghetto Blaster for their remastered versions of "The most mysterious song on the internet".

Repulsive tracks are copyright free.

The Most Mysterious song on the internet is a weird case but it's author hasn't been found, i'm willing to talk with the authors of the song (if they are found) if any change is needed but i'd prefer this song be kept within the map content, as it's basically a tribute to this long time internet mystery, i hope we find out who did it... I ask to the authors of the song if found, leave the quake content creators play my map with the song as it's been envisioned since the beginning :).


# Special Thanks.

- Yuyi
- Alunadrern
- ohEkate
- Boris SdK
- Em3raldTig3r
- CommonCold
- Makkon
- riktoi
- Alphaent
- RecycledOJ
- Admer
- Kirotael
- Miss_slaughter
- AlexUnder
- PyroGXPilot
- Mikolah.
- riktoi.
- Damaec
- Dany
- Nepta
- Admer
- Em3raldTig3r
- Quake Mapping community (Slipseer and Quaddicted)
- USDQC
- Nyx and Dez communities.
- Meowgi's community (Pacifist Paradise)
- Quake speedrunning community
- New Blood Interactive
- Nightdive studios.
- David's Shack discord
- Bully squad
