================================================================
		     Runner's Delight Episode
		 -The official QdQ Mission Pack-

                  <http://PlanetQuake.com/RDE/>
================================================================
                      Information text file
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Table of Contents
-----------------

 1.1  What is Runner's Delight?
 1.2  Why RDE?
 1.3  A different start level
 1.4  Coop and Mad-Coop
 1.5  Normal single-player
 1.6  Finally...

 2.1  About speed-running: tips for beginners
 2.2  What the hell is it all about?  
 2.3  The start level, a tutorial

 3.1  Credits
 
=============================================================

1.1 
What is Runner's Delight?
-------------------------
Runner's Delight is a Quake 1 add-on pack with six new levels, which
were designed specifically for speedrunning, but that are also
suitable for normal single-player and deathmatch.

The levels are medium to large and can be played on Easy, Hard and on 
Nightmare skill.

If you've never seen/done a speedrun yourself, don't miss chapter 2:
About Speedrunning: tips for beginners.

1.2
Why RDE?
--------
When I first saw Quake done Quick I was amazed by the great number of
possible shortcuts. I clearly remember the feeling of being devasted 
by the first grenadejump I ever saw, the e1m3 jump. From that day on, 
my excitement never ceased. 

Since then a lot of new tricks were introduced to speedrunning. Apart 
from just jumping to higher ledges by rocketjumping or using grenades 
people started lavaball-jumping, ogre-grenade jumping, shambler-light-
ning-riding; in short, using the damage inflicted to the player, in 
whatever form, as a velocity boost. Another group of 'tricks' was the use
of bugs in the engine such as bunny-hopping, wallhugging and zigzagging. 

Of all these tricks the rocketjump gained most popularity, as it is 
fairly easy, useful in DM too, and very simple if bound to a single key. 
All id Software levels were designed before the introduction of the 
rocketjump, and therefore the id team undertook no actions prevent it. 
Custom level designers on the contary, did. When I started keeping track
of speed-runs of custom levels at a website called NederSPEED, I felt
that user-made maps would eventually be a key feature to speed-running
(and they have), but also noticed that maps were becoming 'slicker'.
Custom-map-designers took their precautions to keep the player from
completing their level fast by skipping parts by just rocketjumping to
a key and exiting. There are exceptions of course, but a large part of
the custom levels can only be completed by running the normal route.
This is why I decided to start the RDE-project. I wanted to create
custom levels that CAN be done quick.

I am quite aware of the fact that much if not all of the thrill that a 
rocket-, grenade- or whatever jump/boost is just that you refuse to take 
a route that a level designer wants you to take. For me, it is useless 
to consider this, as any route I could ever design I would do so from a 
runners perspective. I did try to make the maps interesting apart from 
a few grenadejumps. Every level features a normal route (be a nice kid 
and press all buttons) and a run-route. In the first level, these two 
will not differ much, but in the later levels, tricks become increasingly 
difficult as well as numerous. It should be hard to optimize a run, 
especially when running 100%'s. Runs are meant to be hard when one tries 
to use all shortcuts in a demo, but easy if one only takes a few, so one 
has to make time-sacrifices. But who knows what is possible... 

1.3
A different start level 
-----------------------
RDE has a start level that differs from the one that came with Quake. 
First, there are only two possible skill levels you can play, Easy 
and Nightmare, as mentioned above (note: you can also select skill 2,
but only from the console). Second, and this is the 'strange'-part: 
after you've finished a level you will always return to the startlevel. 
At first this may seem a bit useless, but the cool thing is that you
can select which level you want to do first in case you're making a
run through the whole episode. Because the first level doesn't contain
a grenade-launcher, you can just step into a later level that HAS one,
collect the GL, and then do the first level later using it! 

1.4
Coop and Mad-Coop
----------------- 
Even though the people that actually play coop and madcoop are a 
really small minority of the Quake-playing public, I still spent 
a lot of time thinking about coop routes and mad coop. If you ever 
did MC, you know it is an experience that rocks the hell out of DM -
if you love speed-running, that is. I remember playing >5 coop one 
night on Muad's server in which everybody was constantly telefragging 
each other; truly annoying. I placed 8 coop starts (which is the
maximum for NetQuake) in each level, and kept the monster count on
easy low, and the number of secrets relatively high, so high ping
people have a job too. I also tried to avoid lots of heavy-lag
monsters like deathknights and scrags on easy skill. 

Levels rdstart, rd1m1, and rd1m2 have room for 16 coop starts, since
I didn't know that the max # of players was only 8 when I built them
(even though you can set the number of maxplayers to 16 with -listen 16,
the cvar 'maxplayers' will always be 8)

1.5
Normal single-player
--------------------
If you're not doing a run through all of the levels, but are just 
playing regular single player mode, it is STRONGLY advised to use 
the normal order of the levels, i.e. rd1m1, rd1m2, rd1m3 etc.

If you find excessive amounts of health in places, you can be sure it is
because there is a possible trick nearby. This kinda screws up the single 
player; I tried to avoid this as much as possible, but if you wind up 
having too much health in single player you know why. Won't happen on 
nightmare skill though ;)

If you want to play on 'hard' skill, just type 'skill 2' at the console
as soon as you've passed the vore or the ogre in the start map. If you
do it before the ogre or the vore the skill will be set back to 0 or 3.

1.6
Finally...
----------
Finally, here's a nice hint all of you will overlook since you don't
read text files this far anyway: RDE has a SupaDupa secret, the Hall
of the Testers. See if you can find it, it's very well hidden!


2.1
About speed-running: tips for beginners
---------------------------------------
I'm crap at running myself, let's make that clear first. :)

Here's some info to get you started.

Those of you that have never watched a speedrun, head right over to 
Speed Demos Archive <http://PlanetQuake.com/SDA>, to see what the hell I'm
talking about here. You should also read the speed-running FAQ at SDA:
<http://PlanetQuake.com/SDA/misc/faq.shtm>

2.2
What the hell is it all about?
------------------------------
A speed-run is a recording of someone exiting a level as fast as they
are able to. There are two major categories: with and without 100% kills.
The ones that are just plain and simple 'get to the exit' recordings
are referred to as "runs", while killing everyone and finding all
secrets means you're doing a "100%" demo. 

2.3
The start level: a tutorial
---------------------------
(Make sure you've read section 1.3 prior to this bit.)

All levels in RDE can be completed without any hard tricks. Not all
sections are necessarily easy, but no out-of-the-ordinary tricks are
required to finish them. There are lots of possibilities for them though,
and the start level is no exception.

I initially wanted a normal start level, but to give the player 
unfamiliar with the concept of speed-running some idea how cool it 
is, and also to provide some action for the runners themselves, I 
simply had to build the Ogre and the Vore at the start.

The idea is the following: in order to select your skill level
(Easy or Nightmare), you have to get past one of the two 
monsters. There are basically two ways to do this.

The first one is obvious: kill a monster, and access to the teleporter
is granted. Killing the ogre isn't that hard, that's why it's in the
easy hall, and killing the Vore is slightly harder, so it's presence
in the nightmare is obvious too :)

But, a much more interesting way to get past them is to make them 
cooperate with you. How the hell can this be done? Well, take the Ogre
for example. You see the slope in front of the lava? If you stand there 
dodging his grenades, you'll notice that the grenades don't bounce off
of it, but they stay there before they explode a few seconds later.
Now, when you type 'impulse 209' at the console, you'll see that there
is now an 'Ogre-grenade-counter', which represents the time still left
before the Ogre's grenade will explode. If you make sure you jump JUST
before it explodes while you're running over it, the explosion will give 
you enough velocity to jump to the other side in one try. It's 
amazing, but its true. One final tip: tricks like this become easier
at HIGH framerates. Or rather, they become much harder if you have less
than, say, 30 frames per second. So, always turn down all detail when
trying to do a speed-run (i.e. run in a low resolution, like 320x200, 
unless you have a really wicked computer and/or videocard. 

(Obviously, getting past the vore works in a way similar to 
this, but you can probably figure that out yourselves :)

One last note about the start level: For a 100% episode run of RDE,
the official rule will be that you need to kill the ogre and vore
and find the secret in the start map ONLY ONCE, even though you pass
through it several times.


3.1
Credits
----------
Runner's Delight was designed, built and produced by: 

    - Jesse van Dijk <Jesse@PlanetQuake.com>

The Quake-C was written / assembled by:

    - Nolan Pflug <Radix@PlanetQuake.com>
    - Stefan Schwoon <schwoon@informatik.uni-hildesheim.de>

I also wish to give many thanks to the the following people,
for without their help RDE would not have been what is is now.

Nolan Pfug, who answered tons of questions about QBSP and map editing in 
general, and supplied the latest versions of UQBSP, and of course the
progs.dat. 

Ilkka Kurkela, who sent me tons and tons of demos on particular areas of maps
that enabled me to fine tune a lot of the tricks; who spent many months in 
#rde, discussing loads of rde-related stuff, and a lot of pointless other
things too. =) Rocking start demos, also!
<http://PlanetQuake.com/SDA/Mineral/>

Jeff M. Garstecki, who made the brilliant texture set I used for rd1m4.
<http://deconstruct.terrafusion.com/>

The beta-testing team: Ilkka Kurkela, Will Marsh, Nolan Pflug, 
Mr Shambler, Carl Tholin, Evan Wagner and Rikkert Wiggerink.
You guys gave me some really great feedback which I found more
than useful.
 
Chris Longden for the cool scripts he made for the RDE progress page,
and general help with site maintenance at PQ.

Mr. Shambler for tips and blatant site p1mping. Keep up the quality reviews!
<http://PlanetQuake.com/TEAMShambler/>

Will Marsh for a great weekend in London, and some mad rd1m3 DM. =)

Stefan Schwoon, who helped me out with some serious problems more than once.

Anthony Bailey, for some really good advice and help on several technical 
issues.

Gunnar André Mo for uploading the big zip file. ;)

Sylvia Minnaard for continuing support during the whole project. 

Kwok-Ming Dun for help with my broken hardware, my new T1 (heh), 
route tips, etc.

Coen van der Poll for solving all the problems I had with my computer 
and Windows, and for some really nifty routes and other ideas. 

Big Eye for the tunes whose names I used for rd1m1 and rd1m4.
Defcon 1 rocks =)

The people that helped me out with technical problems of all kinds I 
encountered while building RDE: Marcus Dromowicz, Joerg, Lewis Jardine, 
John Payson, Andrew Smith. 

All speed-runners from Speed Demos Archive, and all its visitors that
sent me feedback on Runner's Delight over the last year. Thanks! 
<http://PlanetQuake.com/SDA/>

The QdQ team for basically everything they do.
<http://PlanetQuake.com/QdQ/> 

The Roman Architecture Gallery for some pics I used to get an idea
of what rd1m3 should be looking like. 
<http://www.cbu.edu/~ggorla/Roman/Gallery.html>.

Kyle Johnson and John Schuch for entertaining me with 'PyroPimps' 
during my many sleepless nights of levelediting =)
<http://www.pyropimps.com/>

Ben Morris for a great level editor.

Of course, id, Rogue and Ritual for too much to mention.

And last but not least PlanetQuake and the GameSpy network for hosting
and providing some of the best sites on the net.

--

Jesse van Dijk, 1999. 

Enjoy the Runner's Delight Episode!
Please send your feedback to Jesse@PlanetQuake.com. Thanks!

<http://PlanetQuake.com/RDE/>
