======================================================================
       		  Blood: The Lost Episode Read Me 
======================================================================

CONTENTS

1. About

2. What was done

3. How to Play

4. The story

5. Levels

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

=====
About
=====

Turns out theres a whole episode worth of content in the leaked Blood Alpha build.
I did not create these maps but, I have put a great deal of work into them.
I believe the author of most of these maps (if not all) is James Wilson III. I have
come to this conclusion because most of the original map titles in this episode had 
a J infront of them. Mr. Wilson was the main level designer for Blood and the Plasma 
Pak. It is likely he created most the maps in the alpha since five of the levels in 
the plasma pak are straight from the alpha: Aqueducts, Forbidden Rituals,
Forgotten Catacombs, The Dungeon, and Beauty and the Beast. Not suprisingly, there 
are a few levels in Blood which are from the alpha as well i.e. Fire and Brimstone.
Since those alpha levels were good enough for the final product and they were all 
most likely made by the same person(s) they are all definately worth playing.


==============
What was done
==============	

The maps chosen to be in this episode were fairly close to completion, some more
than others (see level details for each map). They all did however, have a complete
lack of sound, little to no navigational direction, and a few misc. level issues.

PUtting the sounds into each of these levels is what took the longest and I was quite
suprised at how much work it was- every door and switch needed a sound. Ambiance and
Caleb speak is very important for atmosphere and finding what worked where was a pain.

When I say navigational direction I mean there were many paths leading all over the
map. Dont get me wrong having many paths to explore and different ways of getting 
somewhere is charecteristic of an old school 90's shooter and I did try to maintain
that in these levels. What I mean is there were some maps which could be "completed"
without finding the key to a door even though you are clearly supposed to find the 
key before progressing. 

Level fixes as in many elevators didnt work properly, many textures needed replacing,
and destructible object effects were not implemented. ALso every map with a water 
section was not linked to its respective water section. 


============
How to Play
============

Now I dont claim to be a build expert or dos magician so I really dont know what to 
tell you if the following does not work...

step 1) save a backup of the blood.ini File in YOUR blood folder to some other folder. 
The reason for this is if you decide to play a "Farewell to Arms" again with the 
original music and title. You can just delete the new ini file and return the old one.
   
step 2) copy the blood.ini file from the lostepisode folder into your blood folder.

step 3) copy all the map files into your blood folder.

step 4) play the game, this episode will replace the "Farewell to Arms" episode.


==========
The Story
==========

Caleb hears rumors of a high priest's plans to use a rift in time to resurrect 
Tchernobog and his top lieutenints, Cheogh, Shial and Cerberus. Caleb will
have to travel through many long forgotten locations in order to once again defeat 
Tchernobog, his minions and more importantly, spill some blood. 

To reach the ancient realm of Skullmoon Crossing where the rift exists Caleb will 
first have to locate the forgotten fortress. A massive barracks used to train and 
house many of the cultists in the cabal. 

Within the fortress lies the house of the damned, an old mansion containing many 
rare and ancient texts of dark knowledge. 

There is a teleport in the mansion which leads to the cabalists compound. A cavernous
site which serves an an entry point into one of the cabals most important facilities.

The Water Treatment plant is used to experiment on and breed the cabals
most horrendous abominations, Gill Beasts and pods. The contaminated water is then 
sent through a Giant boiler to be reused in black rituals. 

You have to have blind faith to find the enterance to the secret temple somewhere 
in the plant. In the old days the temple was only inhabited by Fanatics of the cabal 
but these rules have changed since Caleb has obliterated so many members of the cabal. 

Caleb will have to go through the boiler to find the church of Tchernobog as the
water is then sent directly to skullmoon crossing. He must be carefull of the 
extremely hot and hazardous water being boiled here. 

The church of Tchernobog is the only way to enter skullmoon crossing. It is filled 
with secrets and is home to many of the cabals elite. 

Skullmoon crossing a very old and mysterious realm. By the time Caleb arrives in this
location the high priests plans may already have gone into effect. It is possible 
Caleb will have to battle the resurected deities all at once.... 


=======
Levels
=======

There are 8 Levels total in the lost episode including the secret level. The
following section contains a break down of each level before (alpha phase) and after
my involvement. 

My involvement is relative to the amount of time I spent polishing each map. Again I
am not claiming to have made or mastermined these maps however I did put a good 
amount of work into finishing them. 

notes - this is not a complete changelog it is simply the most obvious and memorable
changes I have made to each map. All maps required sound implementation, Navigation
tweaking and various issue fixing. 

I am writting this in hindsight.  
	
	List
Level 1: The Forgotten Fortress
Level 2: House of the Damned 
Level 3: Cabalist Compound 
Level 4: Water Treatment
Level 5: Boiling Point
Level 6: Church of Tchernobog
Level 7: Skullmoon Crossing
Level 8: Blind faith (secret level)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Level 1: The Forgotten Fortress

Alpha Name: Jfort

My involvement: Moderate (this was the first one I worked on)

Notes: 

The underwater section of this level was not functional at all. Once I set it up I
realized there was a ridiculous jumping section that was very annoying to do. So I
connected the two platforms linking the cave to the latrines in the fort. Cave used
to be inaccessible being blocked by a silly gigantic spider web, there were no 
weapons which could be used to blow a hole into the fort's bathroom. 

enemy placement was a bit light so I added more cultists, zombies, gargoyles.

most of the destructible trees were added by me, they give the level a better look.

All the elevators did not work properly and most killed you on use. 

Some enterances to secret areas did not work properly. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Level 2: House of the Damned

Alpha Name: Map02N

My involvement: High

Notes:

Other than textures and guard rails there was little decorations and atmosphere.I 
added all paintings with the exception of the beast painting above the fire key
(wink wink). The decorations that were there (items between the two libraries) had 
no destruction effx.

There was originally only one key, a skull key below the beast painting. 
there was no drawer couch or plant vases in this room. There was no tinted glass
seperating the level ending from the beast painting and the map entry point. Many 
portions of this map could be skipped entirely and there was little direction. 

There was orginally more teleporters the map however I could not get them to work so
they are now either closed off or have been turned into secret areas holding items.

The Elevator in the library did not work properly and was a real bitch to fix. Of 
course this was my frist time fixing elevators in these maps... originally it only
moved by use of wall switches, however only the bottom one worked and once it in was
in the up position the bottom switch would not bring it back down. There was a secret
enterence into the later parts of the map through the candle with the two hell hands.
I had no idea how to get it to work....the entire sector has been closed off. 

 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Level 3: Cabalist Compound 

Alpha Name: Jmaus

My involvement: minimal

Notes:

The underwater sections were non existent except for the middle room with the cool
shading technique. It felt like the author was planning to have all water enterences
linked. I linked them however it makes beating the map very easy and allows
for entire sections to be skipped so I made the underwater section very dark and I
filled it with gill beasts, you are a true champion if you clear it out....

There was originally only one key, the skull key at the beginning of the level. 
Further more there was no gate behind the glass so you could immediately grab the key
and effectively skip huge portions of the level. 

I did minimal enemy placement here, however I changed alot of the enemy types. Many
of the bigger sectors had fanatics behind little windows... They have sniper aim and
your tommy gun isnt too accurate. Most long ranged fanatics were changed to ackolyte.

Weapon placement was light and most of the items were useless. I added weapons and
items accordingly to fix this. 

The elevators and doors in this level were similar to the library elevator previously
mentioned. 

the "secret" door to the end of the level would immediately close after opening....


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++  

Level 4: Water Treatment

Alpha Name: Jsewer

My involvement: high

Notes:

This is a very cool level, but like level 2 it lacked atmosphere. I think I got a 
good sense of where the author was going with this though. Originally there were only
two computeresq machines in the level. The one by the ghost and the one at the top of
the stairs before it. I added a couple of the pipes but the ones in the open air 
sections were already there. The second under water section of the map was completely
bare. I retextured it added all the decorations and big pipes. I also added a secret
enterence to the secret level. 

There was originally only 1 or two keys. The room with the fire pod was completely
bare with the exception of the cultists and fanatics. like most of the alpha levels
it was possible to skip entire sections of this map due to lack of keys 

There was already good enemy placement but I beefed it up and changed some enemies 
around. 

all the steam sprites were added by me. 


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 

Level 5: Boiling Point

Alpha Name: GMSERVAG

My involvement: Moderate

Notes: 

The boiling water and steam were added by me. At first I did this with laziness in 
mind, I did not want to make huge underwater sections for this....however now I think 
this might have been what was intended for the map. Some of the water area's i.e. 
the one below level end make no sense. Theres is so much going on above the water and
no tunnels or such leading anywhere. Theres a constant reoccuring theme of broken 
suspension bridges in this map too, as if you really doesnt want to fall.

There is a secret room which has a rotating door and is filled with rats. Behind that
room there is a huge room with a pit to lava in the middle. There is a switch to a 
zmotion draw bridge and stairs on either side. on the other side of the bridge and up
the stairs is a room filled with gargoyles and three switches. This room made 
absolutely no sense to me and the switches did nothing so I sealed it off. 
I never deleted all the gargoyles so..... 
they are trapped there for all eternity, meaning you will never get 100% kills here.

This map originally had two keys but all the doors were linked to only one key and 
they were two keys of the same type... 

I did minimal enemy placements here, with the exception of the exit room and the room
with all the dogs in it. One of the dogs has the end level key.
There was a huge amount of texture replacement in this map.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Level 6: Church of Tchernobog

Alpha Name: blood1

My involvement: minimal 

Notes:

I was originally planning not to put this map in the lost episode and instead use
Gmkinken. My reasoning was this is the first alpha map, everyone who has downloaded 
the alpha has played it.Also I remember from playing the alpha that the map was small 
and made no sense. Boy was I wrong... before I get into that lets talk about Gmkinken.

Gmkinken looked cool and unique however there were major technical issues with the
build engine on a certain section of this map. There was what looked to be a cool 
door puzzle in the corner of the map however all the weird looking cross doors would 
tare a hole in the build universe causing time and space to repeat itself.
(it was a technical issue I doubt Kevin Silverman would even be able to fix) 

anyway first alpha map made no sense and was small. Well it turns out the map is 
actually kinda big... theres a secret door right before the exit which hides what 
looks like a church which is under construction, a whole "backyard" complete with a
crypt graveyard and secret lake. If you were like me you did not notice this when you
played the first level of the alpha. However if you did know about this, dont care, 
or played the first level alot you can skip it entirely. There is a secret button on
top of a gatewall with the first key. You can jump through the glass from this point
to the end of the level. 

Texture replacement was minimal here along with enemy placement. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Level 7: Skullmoon Crossing

Alpha name: GMBABRTH

my involvement: minimal

Notes: 

First off you should take a look at this map in the map edit. The entire map is a 
giant skull with a moon on its forehead with a long passageway into a cross with a
moon in the center....see what I did there with the title ;)

Texture replacement was minimal, there was however a bit of navigational work 
to be done here. 

The biggest things I did were creating the atmosphere for the boss fights. the room
where you fight the final 3 had dirty water and no blood oozing down the wall it also
contained a bunch of fire spitting statue faces.
Other than that there were no very big changes worth mentioning. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Level 8: Blind faith (secret level)

Alpha name: VAB002

my involvement: minimal

Notes: 

Originally all the human members of the cabal in this map were fanatics hence the tid
bit of story I put in earlier. This made the map ridiculously hard to play and it was
not fun at all.

There was not too much to do for this map. Other than changing around enemy types 
putting in sounds, and minor navigational work. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

If you have read this far thank you, you are awesome. I did all this for you... and 
myself, I am a huge blood fan and play this game every so often over the 12 years I 
have owned it. But seriously thank you for reading this and I really hope you enjoy
playing these Alpha levels as if they were just another blood expansion pack.

Sincerely, 
Maz
         