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added elaboration and new info on the cut story levels
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{{Quotebox|align=none|width=850px|source=--[http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=14227 Chris Butcher]|quote=the term "removed" is a little misleading... it's not as if oni had 19 complete levels, and we just decided to leave five of them off the CD. levels 7, 15 and 16 were never more than a name and number. the other two (5: airport underground, and 17: bgi hq) were only partly modelled before being discarded in favor of reworking the existing environments to include those elements. with few exceptions, all of the cool stuff that we created made it into the game.}} | {{Quotebox|align=none|width=850px|source=--[http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=14227 Chris Butcher]|quote=the term "removed" is a little misleading... it's not as if oni had 19 complete levels, and we just decided to leave five of them off the CD. levels 7, 15 and 16 were never more than a name and number. the other two (5: airport underground, and 17: bgi hq) were only partly modelled before being discarded in favor of reworking the existing environments to include those elements. with few exceptions, all of the cool stuff that we created made it into the game.}} | ||
Butcher's recollection is slightly off, as we'll see below; the levels which never existed in any substantial way were 15 and 17, and BGI HQ was 16. The results of our investigation below are that the missing level5 was indeed another airport level, level7 was relocated to another slot (see {{SectionLink||Obsolete}}), 15 and 17 were the levels that never really existed, and 16 was very incomplete (see {{SectionLink||BGI HQ}}). | |||
===Names of these levels=== | ===Names of these levels=== | ||
Speaking of names and numbers, this information for a level is stored in a resource called [[ONLD]] in the global level file level0_Final so that the Load Game screen can display all the levels. | Speaking of names and numbers, this information for a level is stored in a resource called [[ONLD]] in the global level file level0_Final so that the Load Game screen can display all the levels. Surprisingly, the ONLDs for some missing levels are still present in retail versions of Oni. These levels do not show in the Load Game list because the actual level data is absent, but the extracted names and numbers from their ONLDs are found below. | ||
It appears that levels below 20 were intended as single-player levels, 30-35 were multiplayer maps, and the rest were test levels. For some of those levels there are fragmentary scripts which can be found in the [[European Mac releases]] of Oni, though we have to infer which script folders were connected with which levels based on the folders' abbreviated names. If there is any info to be gleaned from those scripts, it is described in that level's section. Here are the missing levels alongside their presumed script folder names. Click the name to jump to that section below: | It appears that levels below 20 were intended as single-player levels, 30-35 were multiplayer maps, and the rest were test levels. For some of those levels there are fragmentary scripts which can be found in the [[European Mac releases]] of Oni, though we have to infer which script folders were connected with which levels based on the folders' abbreviated names. If there is any info to be gleaned from those scripts, it is described in that level's section. Here are the missing levels alongside their presumed script folder names. Click the name to jump to that section below: | ||
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|- | |- | ||
|05 | |05 | ||
|[[#Airport Part Deux|The Airport Part Deux]] | |[[#The Airport Part Deux|The Airport Part Deux]] | ||
|Airport_II | |Airport_II | ||
|- | |- | ||
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|- | |- | ||
|30 | |30 | ||
|[[#Arena of Pain|The Arena of Pain]] | |[[#The Arena of Pain|The Arena of Pain]] | ||
|aop | |aop | ||
|- | |- | ||
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---- | ---- | ||
===Airport Part Deux=== | ===The Airport Part Deux=== | ||
The presence of | The accidental presence of '''Airport_II''' in some versions of Oni's IGMD folder explains why the normal IGMD folder jumps from '''Airport''' to '''Airport_III'''. The scripts in this folder are very short, so little about the level can be inferred from them. However, a mention of the animation "KONOKOlev5_outro_run" corroborates the ONLD evidence that the missing level 5 in the sequence of levelx_Final files was an intermediate airport space between two other airport levels, which are in level4_Final and level6_Final. The quote above by Chris Butcher tells us that it was an underground portion of the airport which was removed. An internal design document refers to the level as "[[wp:People mover|PEOPLEMOVER]]"; the previous and following levels are named "AIRPORT" and "RUNWAYS". | ||
---- | ---- | ||
===Obsolete=== | ===Obsolete=== | ||
This level, which would have been level7_Final, represents the gap between the end of the airport levels and the first TCTF HQ level. | This level, which would have been level7_Final, represents the gap between the end of the airport levels and the first TCTF HQ level. Although Bungie West removed its name, [[#Cut levels|we know from Hardy]] that this level is the one which was moved and is still present in the game. The identity of the level can be deduced from the fact that various animations occurring in Syndicate Mountain Compound, which is now level19, have "lev7" in their names. Confirmation comes from a leaked listing of game design documents where level 7 was titled "MOUNTAIN COMPOUND". | ||
What this implies about the original flow of the story is interesting, because the second Airport level ends with Konoko placing a tracker on Muro's plane, but the "mission complete" splashscreen abruptly informs us that it was unsuccessful. Apparently it must have worked in an earlier version of the story, considering that Konoko goes there next! It seems that Mountain Compound was not conceived as the location for a final showdown; by contrast, BGI HQ was also termed "Syndicate HQ" during development and was intended to occur near the end of the game. Mountain Compound was merely an intermediate stop for a strike against (probably) Muro before a counterattack was made on TCTF HQ in the following chapter. | |||
---- | ---- | ||
===BGI HQ=== | ===BGI HQ=== | ||
Below are the only four screenshots we have for the level. Similarities to the architecture in TCTF HQ have been noted, with this explanation: | Below are the only four screenshots we have for the [[BGI]] level. Similarities to the architecture in TCTF HQ have been noted, with this explanation: | ||
{{Quotebox|align=none|width=850px|source=--[http://oni.bungie.org/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=52737#p52737 Hardy LeBel]|quote=The BGI level turned into TCTF HQ. [...] [A]ll of the levels in the game ultimately ended up being composites of architectural details that were stripped from various other pieces that the architects had made. The screenshots that you have of BGI were part of [an earlier, unused] building, as were a lot of the pieces of TCTF HQ.}} | {{Quotebox|align=none|width=850px|source=--[http://oni.bungie.org/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=52737#p52737 Hardy LeBel]|quote=The BGI level turned into TCTF HQ. [...] [A]ll of the levels in the game ultimately ended up being composites of architectural details that were stripped from various other pieces that the architects had made. The screenshots that you have of BGI were part of [an earlier, unused] building, as were a lot of the pieces of TCTF HQ.}} | ||
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Significantly, internal design documents also labeled this level as "SYNDICATE HQ", showing that Bungie West was equating the two organizations ("joined at the hip", as [[Chung]] wrote; BGI "a front company", per [https://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=19673 this forum post] from Hardy). With no concrete level ever being placed in slots 15 or 17, and the original ending level being 18 before Mountain Compound was renumbered from level 7 to 19 to place it at the end of the game, this means that level 16, BGI/Syndicate HQ, was the [[wikt:penultimate|penultimate]] level of the game, and Oni was going to conclude with level 18, TCTF HQ Redux. | |||
However, as Hardy explained above, BGI was cannibalized for parts which were used in other levels. Additionally, the salvaged script for this level reveals only two disconnected cutscenes, implying that the level was not substantially complete. | |||
---- | ---- | ||
===Arena of Pain=== | ===The Arena of Pain=== | ||
This was an arena with an industrial center area and much cleaner/brighter outlying areas connected by walkways, seen at various stages of development or in various flavors. This level also featured heavily in mid-development video footage (see {{SectionLink||Video footage}}). | This was an arena with an industrial center area and much cleaner/brighter outlying areas connected by walkways, seen at various stages of development or in various flavors. This level also featured heavily in mid-development video footage (see {{SectionLink||Video footage}}). | ||