-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Title : Pyramide De Kulkulcan Author : RocketBoy E-mail : tomw@earthlink.net Web Page : http://www.earthlink.net/~tomw Author Greets & Thanks: 3DRealms. The Mayans. The web sites devoted to Mayan history that I used for research on this map whose URLs are shown below. The people at TEN (http://www.ten.net) where I have had a blast multiplayer dukematching via the internet for free during the beta period these past few months, and to all my friends and foes on TEN. The Setting : The ruins of Chichen Itza in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Featured is the Pyramid and Temple of Kulkulcan, also known as "El Castillo" (The Castle). This was the most important of the seven major Mayan pyramids found at Chichen Itza. Also featured on the map is El Caracol "The Snail" which is a building that the Mayans built and used as an astronomical observatory, specifically to observe the planet Venus. The name of this building comes from the spiral staircase inside of it. The mayan's believed that Venus was the celestial manifestation of one of their most important Gods, Kulkulcan-Quetzalcoatl. This God is the patron God of Chichen Itza, believed to be the God of wind and rain. The God is often shown as a feathered serpent and it was important to the Mayan's because they relied on the rain to make their crops grow. The Mayans were heavily into human sacrifice, bloodletting and all manner of rituals to appease their God so that he would look down favorably upon them and nurture their crops with rain. The most dramatic achievements of the Mayan culture included a calendar which was infinitely more accurate than the Gregorian in use today, the invention of the "zero" in their mathematical system and the development of astronomy and astrology to a high science by charting the movements of the sun, moon and stars. When it came to mathematics, time and calendars, the Maya were geniuses. Believing that time repeated itself in cycles, they devised two calendars, one ritualistic, which was used for religious celebrations and astrological predictions, and the other a solar calendar. Both calendars were based on the calculation that a year had a little more than 365 days, a more precise system than the Gregorian calendar. The number of steps at Pyramide De Kulkulcan actually adds up to a total of 365. Following the movement of the sun, moon and stars with such accuracy, the Maya were able to predict such mystifying phenomena as eclipses and the Spring and Autumn equinoxes. The construction of the Kukulcan Pyramid at Chichen Itza was planned so that each Equinox the dying sun would cast a shadow of a serpent writhing down the steps of the pyramid. In Chichen Itza, a distinct kind of human sacrifice was performed. Victims were bound and thrown into deep natural wells (cenotes). If the victim was still alive after a certain amount of time, then he or she was rescued. That person was said to have been spared by the gods. Furthermore, that person was believed to have a message from the gods. Many worshippers also threw valuable objects like gold and jade jewelry into the cenotes as sacrifices for the rain god. There are two cenotes in this map, and if you fall into them, whether the Gods will spare you or not depends on where you land and/or whether or not you have some trip mines handy :) There is a secret room on this map, accessible from the Temple of Kulkulcan, which, if you find it, will lead you to a very strange place in outer space where a very powerful weapon can be found. The inspiration for putting this room in the map comes from a belief that some people have that the pyramids in Egypt as well as Mexico were built not by the Egyptians and Mayans, but by extra- terrestrials. I don't necessarily ascribe to this theory myself, but I figured it would be an interesting and compelling addition to this map. Before building this map I did a bit of research on the web on this pyramid and the Mayan culture and found it all very interesting. If you are interested in learning more about the Mayans, here are some links that I went to to do my research: http://mexico-travel.com/activities/archaeology/arch_s12.html http://www.sureste.com/mayas/mapaengl.htm http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/3884/maya.html http://www.op.net/~uarts/munoz/chichen_itza.html http://www.m-m.org/~jz/sphinxw.html http://www.indians.org/welker/maya.htm http://www.sho.com/links/mayan/ http://www.wotw.com/MundoMaya/ http://homepage.dave-world.net/~animaker/mayastro.html http://ocean.st.usm.edu/~tgparker/maya.html http://indigo.stile.le.ac.uk/~rug/STILE/images/hier/ The Story : Well there is no story really since this is only a dukematch map. If you really want a good and interesting story then go to the links shown above and read about the Mayans and their fascinating achievements. Your Mission : Dukematch till you drop. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- * Play Information * Episode and Level # : e0l0 Single Player : Naaa Co-Op Level : Nope DukeMatch Level : Indeed Difficulty Settings : Why? * Construction * Base : Brand spankin' new level from scratch, my 4th map! Editor(s) used : That one build thingy Known Bugs : Lucky me... haven't found any so far, knock wood. Let me know if you see any. Construction Notes : This is my third map, it was started after my second map had begun but before it was completed. Unfortunately the framerate of this map did not come out as well as I would have hoped. It dips down around 20 fps in some spots, which ain't too great. I also had to omit many of the steps of the pyramid and the observatory, substituting slopes in lieu of steps, to maintain a semi-decent frame- rate. Apparently steps are real bad for framerates :(. I also left 3 sides of the pyramid undone for this reason, which is a bit of a shame as one of the most striking things about the outside of this pyramid is the 4 sides of steps going up it. I have included a couple of JPGs of Pyramide de Kulkulcan so that you can at least see what it actually looks like since my dukematch version is unable to do it a whole lot of justice. See chichen.jpg and elcastillo.jpg included in this archive. ** Copyright / Permissions ** This map contains the original copyrighted ideas and works of Rocketboy. Authors MAY NOT use BIGPC.MAP or BIGPC2.MAP as a base to build additional levels. You MAY distribute BIGPC2.MAP, provided that you include this file, with no modifications. You may distribute BIGPC2.MAP in any electronic format (BBS,Diskette,CD,etc.) as long as you include this text file intact. You MAY include BIGPC2.MAP in any compilation. You may not alter the level in any way except the minor change of the map number. * Where to get this MAP file * FTP sites: BBS numbers: Other: You can get it on my cheap wannabe web page and probably on Lazer's Beam and maybe Ten's filefactory and perhaps some other sites. Dunno 'cuz I haven't sent it anywhere yet. But if you're reading this then you already have it, so.... -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-