Marathon Infinity: Mapmaking Tricks Guide

AntMag.NET

Hey there! So you're looking to get into mapmaking for Marathon Infinity? Awesome! This guide, originally put together by Wolf Feather, is going to walk you through some really cool tricks using the Forge editor. It's designed to help you build maps that are way more interesting and challenging than the standard fare. Think of it as a deep dive into making your own levels feel alive and full of surprises.

Forge is the tool you'll use, and it came with the original game disc. If you're like I was and didn't get a manual, don't worry – this guide breaks down the tutorial films and then goes even further. We'll cover everything from making doors that act as deadly traps to constructing believable multi-level areas.

Doors as Traps (Applesauce)

Doors in Marathon Infinity can be way more than just entryways. You can actually turn them into nasty traps! The key is to mess with their speed and how long they stay open (the 'Pause' setting). You can set a door to open and close super fast, and crucially, make it deal damage without reversing when it hits something. Anyone caught in its path is in for a bad time.

There's no real limit to how big a door can be, as long as Forge and the game can handle the complexity. This means you could make an entire corridor act as a door! Imagine setting one up with a fast speed and a long pause. A player might walk under it a few times without suspicion. Then, after 300 seconds (that's five minutes!), when they're right underneath it, BAM! Crushed. Or, at the very least, they might come back to find their path suddenly blocked, forcing them to find a new route.

You can get even sneakier by using multiple corridors as doors. They can all have the same speed but different pause times. Some might even start open while others are closed. If a closed 'door' looks just like the wall, a player won't notice until it's too late. Imagine being under one of these when it slams shut!

Making it survivable (if you want to!): If you're using a long corridor as a door trap, you have a couple of options to let players survive. You can carefully tune the 'Pause' time so a player can just make it across before it closes. Or, you can add little 'safe havens' – small safe spots along the corridor where players can duck into if they hear the door starting to move. These can be as small as 1x1x1 world units.

And remember, there's no rule saying you have to let players survive! Even massive enemies like Juggernauts can be crushed by these traps.

Multiplayer Nasty Trick: For network games, try hiding a teleporter behind a door that looks like a normal wall. When a player steps on it, zap them into a tiny, inescapable room. Then, have the ceiling or floor of that room be a crushing door that activates periodically. Talk about a nasty surprise!

Creating Believable Bridges

Okay, so 'true' bridges where you can see through them from below aren't really a thing in Marathon Infinity. But you can create the illusion of a bridge and make it look like a multi-level area. It takes some careful planning with overlapping levels.

Here's the gist: You need two levels that overlap. For instance, an upper corridor that hangs down into a lower room. Before you build the upper level, you need to design the lower level's ceiling with some extra space. Let's say your lower room floor is at 0.000 units. If you want the bridge floor to be at 2.000 units, the ceiling of the lower room in that central area needs to be a bit lower – maybe 1.500 units. This prevents the game engine from getting confused.

Once that's set up, you can add your bridge polygon (like a corridor). Make sure its edges line up with the space you carved out in the lower room's ceiling. Then, just add your textures!

Visual Flair: You can get creative with textures here. Use the 'Scrolling Panels and Liquids' trick to make the sides or underside of the bridge look like lava or something else dynamic. Or, just use different colors to make the bridge stand out or blend in. You can even adjust the lighting index for the bridge to make it more or less visible.

Want a bending bridge? Just use more polygons and maybe a 'blank' polygon (empty space) at the bend points to act as a support.

Other Mapmaking Elements

This guide also touches on other elements like:

Bridges: How to create the illusion of bridges using overlapping levels.
Doors: Turning standard doors into deadly traps with custom speed and pause settings.
Elevators: Techniques for making functional elevators in your maps.
Forced Submersion: Creating areas where the player is forced underwater.
Lighthouse: Specific tricks for building lighthouse structures.
Mini-maze: Designing small, confusing maze sections.
Multi-floor Features: General tips for building complex, multi-level maps.
Off-parallel Corridors: Creating corridors that aren't perfectly straight.
One-way Street: Implementing paths that can only be traversed in one direction.
Overlapping Floors: Advanced techniques for managing multiple floor levels.
Scrolling Panels and Liquids: Making textures move and animate for dynamic effects.
Sounds: Using sound emitters to add atmosphere or cues.
Stairs: Building functional staircases.
Temporary Mapmaking Items: Using special items for map construction.
Visibility: Tricks to control what the player can see.