MUSIC: Found.umx
Found.umx will get a sound refinement and no big changes; the action songsection will get a full blown techno remix, with the last portion of the song being changed to fit the first one and to fit more as a battle song.
Now what's changed very much here (and also seen from Nagomi as well) is the texture pack used for Foundry and Toxic. It's not Mine.utx (it's not a fucking mine) but it's a mixture of SGTech.utx and richrig.utx (at least a lighter, less rusty version of the latter that fits with SGTech.utx). You may recall G59's Toxic conversion which underwent the same change with these texture packs; Foundry will undergo this switch as well, and both maps' architecture style will adapt to the texture edits with specific brush changes, alongside important key modifications that will fix all the layout issues that plagued these maps (which will be mentioned below).
Overall the industrial complex will look much more cleaner but that doesn't mean SGTech/Richrig are going to use the exact same textures - they might be modified or have new additions if it's necessary, if the theme redux requires. Any message will be also modified and they'll be read from electric panels only, no more throughout signs. The tidbit to know here is that the Skaarj built the place without the help of the Nali, unlike Rrajigar Mine (this was instead true in the original Unreal).
Foundry's enemies revolve in Brutes (and just Brutes), Skaarj Troopers/Infantries/Gunners/Officers and Skaarj Warriors/Assassins; don't expect Pupae. Item placement will follow again modern standards - no more shit hidden in every crook and corner. You'll find the first Rifle Ammo Box or two.
The first area has the right hand side door being locked until reaching a certain point in the game, while the left hand side door leads still to the electric generator chamber which turns on the elevator and the light system that's shut down in the early areas (map begins darker due to light sources being turned off). The elevator itself has now its own activation panel, below and above, near the lift pillars.
The upper floor is extended; do you remember that outside Foundry, above the entrance, you would see a part of the building with some windows that is never seen from inside? (the entrance is now different in this game but that upper section has been kept as part of it) Well, it's addressed here.
Now, the big U-shaped room got a complete makeover. Think of ONP's Prisoner map, where you're travelling through a bottomless cave over a moving platform. Take that concept and paste it here.
The whole area is now a massive metal cave (always of a similar layout shape), with lava at the bottom and with all the Tarydium treatment plants that can be seen here (falling down still kills you, anyway). A hi-tech visual showcase.
You cannot travel by foot this time but only through one of the platforms present here; hop on the thing, use the action command to activate the platform control panel and hold it -> now you can move around horizontally throughout the area. Stop holding the button to stop the platform and to go back shooting things around. Other platforms will show up, even moving vertically, and will have Skaarj Troopers/Infantries/Gunners that you have to fight. Note that it is possible to destroy these platforms with eightballs/flaks - and the Skaarj Gunners, armed with the Flak Cannon too, will try to do this for yours too, so you gotta position yourself and fight the Skaarj at the same time. There's one broken platform along the way you can jump on that has a Shield Belt.
Rather busy looking area overall, soundscape of the machinery also contributing.
The conveyor belt area begins with a locked door which leads exactly to the other side of the wall - where the large windows are, in other words. The conveyor belt section is also heavily redesigned (it's an expansion of the previous machinery cave) and the conveyor belt pathway is never discontinued, therefore more dangerous at first glance. However, you'll be dealing with different types of hazard rather than just crushers: there's a slower but larger variant of crushers, crushing pillars, flamethrowers, freezing vapor and outside of the conveyor belt itself there's just magma. Overall much less forgiving but at the end three will be a Brute who will annoy the fuck out of you and needs to be taken out asap (imagine a rocket blowing you right into something hazardous, resulting in your death).
From the window part, you can unlock the new shortcut door mentioned above. The outdoor part outside the windows is changed - it's basically now a whole part of the structure (with massive and working chimneys) all over a desert/jungle chain mountain. The sky however is getting less "Mars-y" and more "Earth-y" but we're surely past midday, full-blown afternoon now.
In the command room of the redesigned machinery cave, you can't do really anything except stopping some of the machines and the conveyor belts too (not that it matters much since you have a shortcut now) - so kill the Skaarj Assassin hidden here. Now the passage to the floor below is done throughout staircases instead of falling into a hole. Another note is that Foundry's area design will lead to massive layout changes that will impact the whole map (inevitable but better on the long run).
Below, there will be a Brute coming from the door on the left hand side - no more bursting down a wall. Here there's another pathway that leads to another closed door - it'll be a shortcut to the last section of Foundry (the area with the multiple floors), counting also as the only "legitimate/realistic" way to enter it.
This area isn't drastically changed but there's now a (locked, currently) pathway to the next area that you have to access through the pipe passage; the Skaarj Warrior above will just focus on you and there's no dynamite anymore (and the bridge will remain intact). The optional area will be accessible from both pathways this time around and the one with the hole has now an elevator. This area won't be actually optional: the panels found inside will control the temperature of the pipes that you will soon access; the pipes are super hot and of course you gotta turn this shit down BUT you have to do this after you increase the pressure to break an opening to the pipe itself, otherwise the pressure increase won't break anything. This area will also have an extension which leads to an open window where junk gets thrown down in the mountains; you can thrown your own self and die, too. You can see from there also those chimneys you spotted beforehand.
The successive area acts as a storage one, and the music will stop. The door shortcut which leads to the previous section must be activated in the chamber on the upper floor. Also, no more bars closing down gateway doors - they are just proper closed doors now. The successive area is instead accessed through a hole on the second floor, revealing a passage with another hole where you can fall in to get into the next room and unlock the shortcut door consequently.
This area will remain for just maintenance purposes, despite visual upgrades. This is where Skaarj Troopers will become more prevalent in the level.
If you didn't find the secret in Morose, you will find the first proper GES BioRifle there (same location as in RTNP/UBeta).
The chamber with lava is connected to the massive machinery area (here it looks like a cave) but now this time the entire pipe line appears to crumble when you run into it, not just a part of it. And by running, you GOTTA RUN because below there's a big magma pit and if you fall you won't survive. Every now and then a wake-up scripted event that's new and unexpected like this one is great to spice things up.
You access the last section, where you can unlock the pathway to the area with the broken pipe / pressure lever (clearly where that ambushing Brute came from). Music also starts again.
Few Brutes here and the Super Health chamber has been replaced with a new set of areas that's closer to the machinery pit - you can give a better look at the whole thing now but watch out at the Skaarj Officer (the action songsection will play here).
For the multiple floor area, nothing much changes; the water pool cannot be accessed and there's another locked door. This one leads to another set of water maintenance corridor that interconnects this multi-floor area, the entrance and the exit of Foundry (the entrance was the other door locked in the very first area of the level).
Water pipes will contain few regular Slith, who will patrol around instead of staying in one place.
The last elevator is redesigned to look like one of those typical large storage lifts, square-shaped instead of round-shaped. The entrance door won't be closed (and there's no more the secret coop chamber, just a regular panel to call the elevator) but the ride itself will be slower. While descending, Skaarj Assassins will continuously ambush you (the music will turn off, though).
You can now access Bounds of Foundry, which you can leave any time in order to return to Foundry and the locations before. Once you do that, Found99.umx will play in Foundry always but be careful that randomly appearing Skaarj Assassins will be now a thing.
Bounds of Foundry
MUSIC: Boundary.umx
Boundary.umx's ambient theme will now loop correctly instead of going to the action songsection. The horns will sound stronger, much more bassy. The action songsection will have more bass and lots more horn action - it'll have almost a tech-dance feel to it, very hypnotic.
If you played my Toxic conversion for G59, this will be easier to imagine as every change that's related to area connection will be applied here - Toxic is guilty of the very same unrealistic layout issues that plagued Foundry, such as areas being accessible only by swimming in slime tanks, the very strict linear approach without shortcuts, and more.
Regular Slith will be very relevant in this level, always hiding in the underground parts of the map or swimming in the slime tanks. One thing about the slime itself it's that it isn't that harmful at all: running on slime deals zero damage, swimming in slime deals 1 HP for every 5 seconds. There's however a secondary effect (this is Tarydium waste after all, who knows what are its chemical properties) which happens when the player is in direct contact with the slime - the player vision will assume a dark green tone will be slightly distorted. It's not dangerous anyway, plus the Toxin Shield will cancel both harmful effects of the slime when it is active (you can set this item to automatically activate when you are hit/exposed by anything slime, like how the SCUBA Gear turns automatically on when you go underwater and viceversa).
The Slith won't still be able to spit acid under the slime but compared to regular water, they'll swim faster here.
Toxic will follow Foundry's item style placement, with a focus on the GES BioRifle that is good against just about anyone except Slith. Enemy-wise it's almost the same as in the original Unreal version, with none of the spawning bullshit and with more Skaarj Troopers/Infantries/Gunners added into the mix. Pupae are once again missing, there are a bit more Slith and overall the drastic change of some of the new areas will raise the possibility of more enemy encounters.
Electronic panels replacing signs will also follow suit here. While you'll get to know this is just a central where all the Tarydium waste from Foundry ends up into, you'll become aware of the two Mercenary clans being located right after this map, including the mention of an absolutely massive Mercenary starship and a reminder of the plans of the ALFA62's Mercs that were in search of another fallen ship of theirs.
Music will be used like how it was in the RTNP version, with the action songsection heard three times throughout the level.
After the very first, enlarged first area, you'll access the outdoor area which is going to look jungle-ish like how it did in UBeta's Toxic (here: desert and palms); the sky is the Na Pali standard but relatively foggier than usual, likely due to the polluted location you're in.
There are small slime waterfalls around coming from open pipes but this time around you can drop below as the slime is 1 foot level over the ground (there are grates); radioactive barrels around won't harm, either. You can climb back to the bridge thanks to a ladder, and the bridge itself is fully static (no drawbridge whatsoever); lastly, the door to the successive corridor won't close down anymore.
For the record, if you played G59, don't expect the super secret slime passage to appear this time around; however, expect pretty much anything that has been done for the Toxic secret area and the access to corridors around the tower, and an elevator to go on top of the two towers (all in the first area). The corridor and room with the big explosive barrel found in G59 will be instead not added here.
As for the whole section with the slime tanks, there will be now a door in the second room which leads to the next area (the corridor crossroad), though the door can only be unlocked from the other side.
The slime tank event will work similar to the UBeta version: you use the control commands on the top floor to open the emergency panels next to each tank, then you operate these panels (you set the pressure to the highest possible on both) and run away - the tanks will blow up. When this happens, the action songsection of Boundary.umx comes up as two Skaarj Officers will teleport in to attack you. They'll be stay around forever and if you unlock the shortcut door they'll still chase you, so you better kill both enemies before proceeding.
The next area (the one with the corridors) will be based on the expanded UBeta one that had multiple corridors and a second floor; this crossroad has four directions:
- One way leads to the unlockable door to the previous section of the map.
- One way leads you to the upper floor of this crossroad (enemies, messages, items).
- One way leads to the area with those sewer holes with Slith; here it will be redesigned like in G59 - the sewer below is extremely spacious and now to access it there are two dedicated elevator areas. Mind you that this area won't lead anywhere (like how it was in the UBeta), so it's still for optional content like described in point 2.
- The last remaining way leads to the area below the landing pad.
Like in G59, the area below the landing pad is now enclosed and heavily illuminated by neon lights. There's a new dedicated elevator to go below the bridge (floor below has grates where you can see some massive sewer system), while the original Pupae pathway that would let you go back on the bridge in the original Unreal version has been replaced with a big elevator which leads to the landing pad - locked of course at the moment.
The room with the open windows has the music stopping now for a good reason. Every now and then, a randomized amount of Skaarj Assassins will attack you one by one. You'll never know how many of them will attack and in what frequency; sometimes you think everything is done for, then another one appears.
You can rocket jump outside the windows, revealing the exterior part of the complex which is just mountains, palms and slime waterfalls coming from the sewers seen in the previous area. There's nothing anyway aside falling to your death.
The crane panel activation area is re-designed like in G59: no slime, you go below, use an elevator to go on the upper floor, press button, go back. Skaarj Assassins will annoy you until you operate the crane, whose event will appear a bit more spectacular - no explosions but the crane will crash so hard at high speed that it will break the shutter apart. From there, action music commences and you'll fight some Skaarj Infantries; the action music won't stop until you enter deep down the slime sewer below the tank, in the successive area. Watch out at the Slith. Music will resume after the swimming ride.
Again, like in G59, the elevator to the landing pad won't have that underground explosive room; you can crawl your way into some of the vent conduits here: only one of them has an accessible destination and it's some outdoor piece of land with some palms and fruits. That's about it.
From the landing pad you can activate the elevator to go in the area below; the Skaarj Fighter shuttle is still broken and from the command outpost here you'll read the Mercenary-related stuff mentioned above in the Toxic description.
The area before the last set of corridors to the boss arena has no upper floor - as you enter, the door to the exit immediately opens, revealing a Skaarj Officer.
The path to the boss area is one way for now, and you'll only be able to go back once you defeated the boss itself. You still hear the Titan sounds.
The arena itself has been made massively larger - similar to the one of G59 but not as big (and not with the same design type) but there's also a shutter which leads somewhere outside the structure - you're in a storage area after all.
If you try to go to the exit, somebody behind it (a Mercenary?) closes it down, and shortly afterwards TWO Titans burst out from the shutter door, together with the action songsection. Time to test your GES against these big guys, or the Peacemakers too (you'll get one or two in the course of Foundry and Toxic). The shutter door leading outside has been broken in a way that you can't pass through.
Once they are dead, the exit door somehow gets unlocked (your "friendly" Skaarj from the Vortex Rikers did this - a dead, ripped apart Mercenary along the way implies this) and you can go reach the exit elevator.
Similar to Foundry, when you return to Toxic the Boundary.umx ambient theme will always play but there will be randomly appearing Skaarj Assassins throughout the whole location.