The Cassandra Project 1st Episode

****** [!] The Cassandra Project: Episode 1 www.deusex-machina.com/cassandra-project/ cassandrafeedback@hotmail.com ****** The Cassandra Project is an episodic single-player add-on for Ion Storm's game, Deus Ex. It includes the opening segment of the game. As you approach its close you will be reminded to save the game. *** Content Warning *** The Cassandra Project contains adult themes and dialogue which make it inappropriate for the young. Through its dialogue and certain scenes, it would result in the equivalent of an eighteen certificate BBFC rating. ****** System Requirements ****** 1) Deus Ex must be installed on your computer. Clearly. 2) Deus Ex must be patched to the latest Multiplayer version available. You can locate links to patches from Eidos' site at www.deusex.com/patch.htm. We repeat in case you weren't paying attention the first time - LATEST MULTIPLAYER VERSION. The single-player one is just not on. Really. We mean it. 3) You must be playing on a PC, and not, for example, an abacus or similar devices. It's not been tested for the Mac version of Deus Ex, and the installation function in this release does not operate with it. A future manual installation will be made available for those who wish to experiment with the possibility of getting it working. ***** Installation: ***** To install The Cassandra Project, double-click on CassandraPart1Setup.exe and follow the prompts. An Uninstall option will appear under "The Cassandra Project" in you Start Menu programs. Once installed, to launch the Cassandra Project, double-click on the Cassandra Project icon. Don't try and be clever and make it work another way - something will just go hilariously wrong. Upon launching, you should probably be able to figure it out yourself. Playing the game isn't a bad idea, though listening to the music while disco dancing is also acceptable. ***** Installation extra: ***** * The installation program will copy a setting called "CdPath" from your DeusEx.ini file to a Cassandra file called Cassandra.ini. If that value in your DeusEX.ini files is set to the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive, you will still need the game CD in your drive when you play Cassandra. If you've done a full install of Deus Ex, and want to be able to play it without the CD in the drive, you can do the following: For Deus Ex itself, pull up the DeusEx.ini file that's in your DeusExSystem folder and remove the drive letter after "CdPath=". For Cassandra, do the same thing, but in the Cassandra.ini file. * To play the original game instead of Cassandra, simply launch it with your normal Deus Ex icon. None of the original game files are overwritten or altered during installation. Thank Steve Tack for this cleverness. ***** Primary Game notes ***** 1) The Cassandra Project, while bearing more than a few stylistic similarities to Deus Ex, is not set in the world of the original game. 2) We suggest that you are familiar with Deus Ex before attempting to play The Cassandra Project. No effort has been made to introduce the player to the essentials of Deus Ex - just the alterations we've made to the system. 3) Once you approach the end of this segment of the game, you will be reminded to save your game. Do so, and then continue. If and when the next section is released, re-load this save game and continue from where you've left off. 4) Press enter to skip the cut-scenes. ***** The Story so Far ***** You are Charlotte Williams, a lower-middle-class English woman turned international Mercenary. With thirty inching ever closer, she becomes disillusioned with her work and is approached by one Nicholas Beckett. He offers her a new job: field agent for a mysterious organisation known as "The Cassandra Project". She accepts. After all, what has she to lose? Over the next few months, her body is modified with technology beyond her experience or knowledge, boosting her considerable natural abilities to posthuman levels. Today, she leaves her London apartment for the last time, and travels to Birmingham for her first day at her new work. Problem: She doesn't actually know where the base is. Her orders are to meet up with a man called "Johnny Casino" in a bar called "Secrets and Regrets", who will give her the location of the HQ. She is, to say the least, more than a little anxious. Further background information on the world and its characters can be found at www.deusex-machina.com/cassandra-project/ That's all for now. Everything else is explained in game. Relax. ***** Hints and Tips ***** 1) This section of the game contains a frankly ludicrous amount of dialogue. However, like Deus Ex, it's possible to play through the game without paying any attention to it, and merely going on the orders your character receives. In this way, players with no interest in social niceties can buzz through the section with the minimum of fuss. We apologise in advance for the more action orientated players, as the initial segment of the game is heavily weighted towards adventure. We hope the Danger Room proves an adequate distraction. 2) For those who seek interaction, be sure to repeatedly speak to characters and consider returning later once gaining more information. Options open in the conversation tree as certain facts come to light. 3) Despite all the technological fanciness, the Cassandra Project is very much like a business. If you come across a major problem with people you meet, it's worth going to talk to your boss about it. 4) The Cassandra Project is, on average, deadlier than the standard of Deus Ex. Weapons hit harder, both for you and your opponents. For those who plan to engage in stand-up fights, we suggest you choose to equip yourself with the subdermal protection augmentation from Dr. Spake. 5) Augmentation's use of power is drastically lower than Deus Ex. We encourage you to activate and experiment with them. 6) There's only limited options to re-equip in the field. What you take from the base is what you'll be using throughout the entire mission. 7) Take the lockpicks, electronic tools and medkits. Honestly - carrying three more sorts of grenades isn't worth the loss. 8) Fill up your inventory with stuff. Yes, you may want to pick up a couple of items in the field, but it's always possible to drop things. 9) Yes, it's possible to break Cassandra if you try really hard. Well done. ***** Specific Modifications to Deus Ex ***** As noted above, most of these are detailed in game. However, for those who want things to print out, these are ones which will actively effect how you play... ELECTRONIC BYPASS: The electronic bypass system has been completely altered. Tools are no longer disposable, but re-useable. Upon activation, a sequence of numbers will be displayed to you. You have to enter the sequence to break the lock. The length of the string of numbers is proportional to the difficulty of the system, and the speed which they appear is inversely proportional to your skill level (i.e. Higher skill=slower progression of numbers). There is no penalty for repeated goes, but the sequence will be randomly generated each time. LOCKPICKING: The lockpicking system has been completely altered. Lockpicks are no longer disposable, but re-useable. Each lock in game has a number of tumblers and a difficulty level. The time to open a tumbler is increased by its difficulty level, but reduced by your skill in lockpicking. The game does not tell you when a lock is impossible for your character to pick. EVIDENCE POINTS: This acts in a similar way to Gold in Thief: The Dark Project and its sequels. In each mission, there are things you can discover that give you evidence points. The higher the evidence points at the end of the mission, the better you've done and the more information you'll get presented with in the debriefing about what was *really* going on. Since this episode takes place prior to the first mission, there's no evidence points secreted about the level. AIMING: The weapon system has been modified considerably, to allow a greater degree of motion in combat. Rather than describing them here, we recommend you progress through the danger room and play around on the firing range in-game. WEAPONS: You will, on average, carry fewer weapons than the average Deus Ex Character. Also, the heavy weaponry boundary has been moved drastically down - don't expect to be carrying around the usual load of GEP Guns and what not. What we've attempted to do is reduce the general arsenal, and increase each weapon's utility. Each weapon has multiple ammo types available to it, leading to be useable in multiple niches. Equally, the amount of ammo of each type available is limited to different degrees - for the Sniper rifle, for example, you can only carry very limited amounts of Depleted Uranium Ammo. For Grenades, the maximum number of each type of grenade differs, according to its speciality and power. For a single slot in your inventory, you have to weigh up a choice between many of the standard grenades, fewer of a specialised sort of a single extremely powerful one. Note that all weapons can be examined in the HUD to give further details. AUGMENTATIONS: The Apollo Modifications, as they're known to Charlotte Williams, are considerably more powerful than those in Deus Ex. Her primary augmentations include generally enhanced musculature, giving her the equivalent of a speed and both strength modifications from Deus Ex (Note that rather than activating separately, both the increased melee damage and increase lifting capacity activate on the same button). During this first episode she will also be given the option to activate a secondary modification, which are equivalent to the sub-dermal protection, enhanced vision or environmental protection augs. All of the modifications use up energy at a much lower rate than in Deus Ex. Your Hyperadrenaline level (what replaces the bioelectric gauge) can be replenished by bio-patches, which are available at the start of the mission. SKILLS: Swimming has been dropped, with players swimming at a set rate. Equally, environment protection has been dropped. A stealth skill has been added, which acts in a similar way to the silent running modification in the original Deus Ex. DRAWER CONTENTS: Many of the drawers in the base have their contents detailed. By right-clicking inside you can get a little text elaboration. Some other decorations also gain similar comments upon right-clicking. VOICE-OVER: Major character's first exchanges are fully voiced. After that it's pure text. There's nothing wrong with your sound-cards. (Note: Unless there actually is, when it's nothing to do with us). ***** Design Notes ***** First thing's on your mind - what next? It's a big chunk of mod and they aren't even at the mission yet. What are they playing at? It's like this. The original plan for the mod was a tightly episodic game. In each episode, a conspiracy would be introduced, investigated and uncovered. The idea was to give closure tightly within a couple of hours. And we cheerfully fucked it up. Due to inexperience - isn't it always? - we tried to cram far too much material into the first episode's arc. This left us in something of a pickle. After much debate, we came to a decision. We'd split what was the initial episode into four segments, and release the separately. Adding a Danger-Room to the initial portion to give the action fans *some* release, we polished up what you now have on your hard-drive to what we considered good enough for public consumption. With some public evidence that we haven't actually been smoking cigarettes and downing red wines for the last two years, the team is now undergoing something of a re-jig. This means that several positions for mappers have opened up. If you're interested in helping bring the final part of the rest of the first mission into existence, please contact always_black@hotmail.com with links to examples of your work. Much of the design work, and considerable architecture, has been completed for this, so it's hardly starting from scratch. Full credits are included in the mod. Thanks to everyone for giving us support, and a big two fingers to those who thought this was just some situationalist gag. It's not *just* a situationalist gag. It's lots of other things too. On a personal note, thanks to everyone who was involved with the Narcissus Entity in the years since we started. It's been a pleasure, of sorts. All feedback appreciated either at our forum (http://www.ttlg.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=89) or by e-mail (cassandrafeedback@hotmail.com). All is well. We are not like the others. ***** Legal Information ***** This level was not made and is not supported by Ion Storm and Eidos Interactive. The Narcissus Entity grant Ion Storm and/or Eidos Interactive the perpetual, royalty free right to use, modify, license and distribute the level in any way they choose. The Narcissus Entity require this readme to be included in any other distribution of this mod. The Narcissus Entity assert the ownership of all characters - with the exception of Johnny Casino, whose ownership remains the property of his creator - presented in the Cassandra Project and forbid any use without written permission. ***** Copyright: 2003 Narcissus Entity ***** [!]