Pentacircle
Four Dimensional level with five Phases* along the w+/- Axis
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Pentacircle is my third four dimensional level. Ophelia(D1) and Torus(D2) were the first two I created. Pentacircle works because the transition from one phase to another along the w-axis is smooth, requiring only that you orbit a column, which I call \"ramps.\" There are in total, 25 ramps in this level. That means you can find yourself in different phases or parts of the level from multiple directions.
1 v 1 matches in this level are more about hunting than pure firefighting action. It may seem slow at fisrt, until you realize that you can hit your opponent across the 4th dimensional w-axis by firing splash damage weapons against walls, or shooting the lava. Lava splash damage, and missile splash damage affect all layers of the level regardless of which phase your opponent is currently occupying.
Try this when you play: enable \"Show All Players on Automap.\" This will show you where your fray is located spacially along the x-y-z axis, but not along the w-axis. You have to guess at that, or listen for him as you fly around. The reactor room can be heard around corners, but for the most part, your ability to detect your opponent's location and predict his movement is the key to success here. Homing missiles can help you, but if they explode on a far wall away from him they will be useless.
Proximity mines are very interesting in this level. They do not explode when your enemy flies through them on a different phase, but when they do explode after their time limit elapses, the explosion will affect all phases in their proximity. Most effective deployment would be on the ramps and behind columns.
The Mega missile is an instant kill along all phases if you manage to fire it toward the enemy, when he is near a solid wall in the phase of the missile, regardless of any walls that may or may not be near him. It is especially effective if you fire it at him while he is on the Great Circle**.
This level compromises a new style of Descent Gameplay, which I call W-Axis or Hyperdescent game style. Hyper in the sense that the w-axis represents a protrusion of the level into hyperspace and hypospace. (Hyper being above, or outward, and Hypo being below, or inward). Since you can travel from phase one all the way to phase five and then back to phase one again, you could theoretically consider that the phases themselves are curved in a fifth dimensional torus, making this level 5D because they loop back again.
This is what Pentacircle looks like when all five Phases or rooms, is expanded along the w-axis
Here is a map of all of the Ramps connecting all five phases:
What this map fails to show is that the lava Ramp is in fact part of the left arc in each of the five Phases. You will note, that if you circle one column and use that ramp, you will fly through all five phases, but depending on which column you chose, you will obviously circle them in a different order for each column. The phases start out as
- Phase One(1) Reactor Room
- Phase Two(2) Quintolith Room
- Phase Three(3) Decagon Room
- Phase Four(4) Sprocket Room
- Phase Five(5) Castle Room
*phase refers to the room of the level you are in, as it is copied, or phased, five times.
**The Great Circle is the series of ramps and corridors circumscribing the pentagonal prism shaped rooms or phases.
