Title:        Rings 2.00
Author:       Jon Barnhart (aka Kilroy)
              Dave Bielawa
Email:        jon@inmind.com
Other:        Conversion and rework of my first Descent 1 level.

Description:  Three rings set at right angles, set around a large fuel
              sphere. Due to its nature, there are no robots, since
              adding them would guarantee the player getting swarmed the
              first time he did anything.  The main goal of this level
              is to support 4-8 players on an office LAN.  It has also
              been shown to run well on Kali. (At least as well as
              anything runs on Kali.) Team games and flag are definately
              supported.

Gameplay:     When the level starts, there are missle-ainous items
              strewn in the rings with all available primary weapons
              stacked in the center.  Note that whoever flies into the
              center to get all the weapons will get stuck briefly and
              give everyone a free shot at them.  It is best just to
              brush the edge and get a few items instead of all of them.
              This gradually disperses during normal gameplay until it's
              gone.

              All D2 items exist on the level except for the omega
              cannon, which was causing the game to lock up.  To get the
              more powerful items you must shoot a switch in the reactor
              room.  This will unlock a door and allow you to get an
              item.  To pace the game, every item you get will allow you
              to shoot one more switch in the reactor room.  Once an
              item is available, all occurrences of that item are
              available (e.g. when the helix room is open, all helix
              cannons are in that room for everyone to get.)

              Getting into the reactor room requires afterburners.  You
              must go to the "top" end of the water pipe (Where the
              water is coming from) and afterburn to the door, which
              will open when you enter the pipe.  Avoiding the items in
              the middle of the level would be a good idea while doing
              this.

Kali setup:   For larger games (5+ players), the following parameters
              seems to work best for 28.8 modems.  5 packets/sec (Yes,
              5.) with short packets engaged.  More than 5-6 packets/sec
              can cause severe packet loss which raises havock with the
              game play. For smaller games, more packets, or non-short
              packets should work fine. For players with faster
              connects, or with better ISPs can try higher settings, but
              for most this seems to be the best compromise among lag,
              packet loss, and playability.

              (The main reason for the few packets/sec is when several
              people start firing weapons, the number of packets
              increases dramatically and will cause loss and/or lag.
              Thus that missle you fire may very well may never
              be seen by your target, or by the time your target
              gets the fire weapon packet, it's moved too far to be hit.)

              Another solution to the loss/lag problem is to turn off
              the rapid firing weapons in the game setup. The Omega,
              Vulcan, Phoenix, Helix, and Plasma all send lots of
              packets and can create trouble. This is true of any D2
              Kali game, really.

Level Info:

Single Player: You must be kidding
Coop: You're still kidding, right?
Anarchy: YES!
Team Anarchy: YES!
Flag:YES!

Editor: Devil 2.1f
Time: 35-40 hours (This version only)

This level MAY be used as a base for other levels, so long as credit is
given for the parts used.  Note that I customized Devil slightly in
order to do the lighting so don't expect the "mine lighting" command to
reproduce the lights as they appear in this level.

