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Title		THE MONASTERY OF DARKNESS - 20th anniversary edition
Author		Schronzki
E-mail		schronzki@web.de
Description	User level for Duke Nukem v1.4 and later
		Started in 1996, first released in 1999, finished and released again in 2016 
Files included	modark20.map
		modark20.txt
Credits		3DRealms for DUKE3D
                           The Eduke32 team
                           Ryan Lennox for infosuite.duke4.net
                           "The Mechanic" for testing and many useful suggestions
		forums.duke4.net


** Story **

Back in the late 20th century someone had the idea to build a monastery right into the rocks similar to the temples of Petra. Before completion it was left to a group of strange cultists searching an ancient cave with a sanctuary not made by humans. They got disturbed by aliens which occupied the site to build a base and didn't care that it's a sure candidate for the World Heritage list. The secret sanctuary turned out to be a beacon to position a paradimensional portal which enabled a spaceship to get shot through and carry a new species to earth. This one is in a hidden place so watch out for signs.

** History/Description **

The original map was built in July 1996 on a 486 DX4/100 equipped with a 15" tube. In the beginning it was just a CAD experiment. Realizing the restrictions of 2.5D I soon focussed on gameplay. I stopped the development due to a struggle with Build, the original editor. Eventually, in 1999, I decided to release the map as it was. Though it wasn't finished it received some friendly reviews, i. e. on Dukeworld (offline), Come Get Some! (scent-88.com) and the Duke Nukem Repository (dnr.duke4.net). There's even a walkthrough film (youtube.com/watch?v=u6Ktxh82uJI). Some day I loaded it with Eduke's editor Mapster32 and couldn't get my hands off. I added a new area, polished most of the lighting, fixed some glitches and more. Since I didn't want to change the gameplay structure the new part with the alien spaceship is a huge extension of one of the three secrets.

** Important Compatibility Information **

- This map will NOT work with old DUKE3D for DOS. 
- This map will NOT work as intended with texture and model packs like HRP - as far as I can tell by the time of this release.
- This map is meant to be played using Eduke32 (www.eduke32.com) with the original GRP file of the DUKE3d Plutonium Pak (or Atomic Edition or Megaton). The latest EDuke32 version I used while building this is r5387 (dukeworld.duke4.net/eduke32/synthesis). 
- The recommended EDuke32 renderer is POLYMOST (OpenGL). To display dark areas with sector shading correctly and not just black I recommend to enter the console command "r_usenewshading 1". You may combine it with "r_ambientlight 1.25" for a better visibility of distant objects (can be also set via F11 -> visibility). Easier than using the console is to create a file in the Eduke32 folder named autoexec.cfg containing three lines (lines starting with // are just comments you can leave there or not):

// autoexec.cfg for Eduke32
// Set video mode (0 = classic, 3 = Polymost, 4 = Polymer)
setrendermode 3
// Visibility/fog code (0 = orig. Polymost, 1 = 07/2011, 2 = linear 12/2012, 3 = no neg. start 03/2014)
r_usenewshading 1
// Set the global map fog level (visibility correction ingame menu)
r_ambientlight 1.25

- You might also try Steam's Megaton Edition (just a few glitches with v.1.49, shading is fine). DukePlus (fissile.duke4.net/fissile_dukeplus.html) is a mod that works excellent with Monastery of Darkness. But the different gameplay increases the skill level so maybe you want to play this with standard Eduke32 or Megaton first. The recommended settings for DukePlus are the same as for standard EDuke32 (r5387 works fine here too).

If you want to try something else or another ten or twenty years have passed - good luck.

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** Play Information **
										  
Single Player:		Yes.
Cooperative 2-8 Player:	Yes but not tested.
Dukematch 2-8 Player:	Yes but not tested.
Difficulty Settings :	Yes. "Come Get Some" is thoroughly tested and recommended.
Monsters:		Let God sort 'em out.
New Graphics:		No.
New Music:		No.
New Sound FX:		No.
New CON Files:		No.
Demos Replaced:		None.

** Build Information ** 

Base:			From scratch.
Build time:		Not forever at long last. ;)
Editors used:		Mapster32.
Known bugs:		Swing doors might kill you. It's not my fault. Just be careful.


** Copyright / Permissions **

You may not do with this stuff whatever you want if you think I care. ;)