A General Beta/Developement Discussion Thread (For the entire Unreal games too)

[Leo T_C_K]

I want to create a general Unreal Beta and Developement History Discussion thread because there are many more that are too specific (like the 221 ut beta thread and others).

The reason for this is to have an alternative to that big thread elsewhere that started as Unreal "1" Discussion but also over time included everything else in practice. I want something like that here. If the moderators think such thread should be in a different section, fine by me, just let me know.

The reason for that is that I won't be active in the other forum at all for undisclosed and personal reasons. I could write a detail explanation why but it would likely generate drama due to some people involved. So that chapter is closed and I do not wish that thread over there to generate even more traffic for them. Because to be frank, that site was just a warez site in denial and I need something more serious myself, without being associated with all the negative sides of such communities.

We need a new "unreal universe" developement discussion that can have everything related in it including spinoff games or games that started as Unreal games but got changed. (Though tbh that could open the can of worms that is Gears of War because I am not at all familiar with the game past a certain stage and never played the released GOW games, but that discussion could be allowed too maybe).

I hope we can make this a nice and informative discussion, without hoaxers coming into the thread or trolls or people sabotaging things. Things have just became too toxic elsewhere.

If any news about the Unreal series betas come out, this should be the thread to announce it. I believe separate threads can still be made for some more in-depth stuff but why not have one general thread?

[Victor Delacroix]

It absolutely makes sense so there should be a summary of all the discoveries made so far.

[Leo T_C_K]

It absolutely makes sense so there should be a summary of all the discoveries made so far.

Well if you feel like doing that... I don't right now and I feel entirely destroyed. People who visited said threads are probably already familiar with them. But uh...if you mean listing all the betas from memory, I can make a small summary here without getting too much into detail.

So here goes, I am also adding asterisk to builds I personally recovered/went out of my way and double asterisk to recovery alongside someone else and triple asterisk for re-recovered once leaked builds:

First of all these are all the confirmed 100 percent builds(on the tcrf page), some of those don't have own page and I wish someone took the time to create page for them. Even the 0.864 subversions are important due to some coding/rendering differences and different unreal.unr maps.

Note that I try to change the word "prototype" sometimes because prototype is inaccurate and should always refer to a first ever build in a series technically which none of those really are.

https://tcrf.net/Proto:Unreal

But here I'll list all the original Unreal versions:

*/** TexED/ED2.EXE - the first avaiable version of the Unreal Engine from 1995 before it was even called Unreal, this is the texture mapping tool by James' Schmalz but originally came with MS Dos Unreal (which game version is missing). Earliest files and entries are from september 1994 mind you and the game started even earlier as the descent like sci-fi shooter with "robots" https://www.geocities.ws/yrex/mojunreal/ed2strings.txt
We never saw much of anything from that apart from leftover files and the strings, but...a game published by Epic called Radix had similar premise and had even few contributions from Schmalz, the artwork was new obviously but Schmalz reportedly also designed the hud and he might have used a leftover from graphics from the "not Unreal" game.

I'm copying the rest from tcrf with minor alterations(and additional notes in parenthesis plus additional honorary mentions). I will only cover Unreal in this post, the rest can come later, as there's larger amount of versions/code drops from this than others.

*** September 1995 Monster Tech Demo
Very, very early build showing characters that were made at the time. These characters are completely different from the ones that appeared in the final game.

*** November 1995 UnrealED Tech Demo
An UnrealED install from November 1995. Map-compatible with December 1995 Level Tech Demo.


December 1995 Level Tech Demo
Very early prototype made about two-and-a-half years before the game came out. (Note: I was responsible for recovering various repacks and original distributions of this, as the 2003 re-leak by tesuk had the original unreal.unr missing from it)



* 0.83 Builds (one of them custom compiled by the Emissary team)
Two very similar builds compiled in October 1996. Currently the oldest available prototype made in '96.

* 0.84a Build
The other prototype from late 1996. Switch to subtractive world model for the first time, models render on 24-bit mode, but animated sprites don't. Stability issues with input and custom weapons, only basic map and a terrain map avaiable for this.

* Build 0.864n
The first recovered version of 1997, has a different basic map than 0.864v, hardware acceleration is broken and actually damaging someone crashes the game, but the bounce physics work and don't crash the game unlike the later version. The next couple of versions keep using resources off this one.

*/*** Build 0.864v
Barebones proto showing off monsters made in May 1997. (split because the "Fred" version that was messed with by Fred and not having Unreal.ucx originally was reportedly leaked early 1998 along with the Unreal Bible document hence why it had the altered date, found again a fresh by Emissary team having the original unrealed installer for this and some other teams having the same)

* Build 0.864y
The fixed up version of 864 without any of the problems from previous builds. Was only avaiable as a source code originally but could be easily compiled. Together with 864n was one of the last versions to be found.

* Build 0.866q
An intermediate version that a custom Emissary build was based off also (or a version close to it), virtually identical to 0.864 in base content, however improvements were made to rendering, this is the first version where true detailtexturing is supported while later versions drop it for some reason.

* Build 0.867z
From June 1997. Has three weapons not seen in the final game!

* Build 0.871d
Built in August 1997. Contains four levels, two of which didn't make it to the final game or the expansion.

* Build 0.874d
From September 1997. Five maps included, mostly Deathmatch, however there is one unseen level similar to Foundry & Toxic from the expansion.

* Build 88
From November 1997. (I changed the name to Build 88 because its no longer 0.88 despite the virtual machine stuff reporting as 0., they changed the version numbering acording to the tim's log, started from version "1" in october 1997 roughly, always crosscheck and do your research)
(This was the most unstable version and couldn't even be run originally without adding cyrene.umx and only found98 found in the february beta can be run with it "vanilla". Playing this seriously is not fun due to the buggyness. Getting from one end of the level to the other without crashing or using cheats is impossible and its still masochistic excercise. A shame because it has real unique gameplay differences, the jump height is more like in UT3 and the general physics too, interesting enhanced gib physics as well and "burned" skin that was removed later among many other interesting sounds and leftovers)

February 1998 Beta
A late prototype version showing, among other things, scrapped levels that were eventually converted into levels for the expansion pack.
(this version is build 99 from late december 1997 though content was built on top of it until february 1998 which is the last change date, originally version 100 was going to be the first shareware release that didn't come)

Honorary mention:
Build 98 (fake/altered)

The "nwfalcon" 98 build has been altered in almost all the layers of it. Maps, code etc (reverted to 88 or 0.874d code) and changed dates uniformly to November 1997 despite real build 98 coming from December 1998. Still, a bit of an impressive/fun mod of the 1998 beta leak and maybe even based upon a real 98 codedrop (we can't tell for 100 percent here and version 98 was compiled on the same day as version 99). The only real difference between the two is how they store the password, 99 storing it in unpass.ini and 98 inside unreal.ini though it is possible this was simply faked out of conveniece by nwfalcon as its possible by hex editing to change the filename entry in the executable. Though no real explanation was ever provided and this piece of information might be the only actual indication of it possibly being built upon a real 98 code drop or leak. There were many unaccounted and even undocumented code drop leaks I found out from some people that still haven't surfaced back and were not interesting to most people but some diehard collectors. Part of research comes with analyzing possibilities. But everything else was just a mod of the "99 beta" content including some changes to maps to make it more like some october 1997 maps but not quite.

* March 98 Unreali.u

A loner file, the modified UnrealI.u from a genuine January-March Unreal version that the Emissary team had on a separate and lost CD. Can't be run in anything except hard data was extracted, except for default properties of actors. Due to engine changes and it being one of the builds past 100 but before 200, it cannot be run with either 99 or 200.
NOTE: This had new stuff like different/new Nali sounds, the KTC gametype being more or less finished and other interesting things including artery spray graphic/animation not present in other versions.

Additional note:
CONFIRMED version that we're waiting for, a version last altered on May 8 1998. This is one of the last pre-release versions and was sold in Slovakia in an "auction" recently. The only person that got this still hasn't uploaded it(even though most other cds that came from this seller were uploaded already except from this guy who purchased it). This includes KTC by the looks of it however the owner hasn't run this to even test the game itself because he didn't try all those passwords we have as its a passworded build. Has the "missing" cut last dm map versions too reportedly.

[Leo T_C_K]

The person who holds that May 8 version is called "FaiyaDG" and my only point of contact was private messages on that site. It looks like they changed me to be "banned permanently" on the display after or around the time I posted this thread demonstratively so that is also quite a nasty move.

This FaiyaDG contacted me after a nearly year absence and confirmed details about this CD that he wanted to prepare properly when he has time. I suggest you monitor that person/send them a message for point of contact, but if the staff sabotages the exchange/blocks something you can only thank them for further scamming efforts.

They never really cared about having proper releases or whatever (its really just cloaked warez-d00ds but specializing on betas more) and one of the staff members even claimed to have a collection of Unreal betas which I don't believe myself and will not believe and since they didn't "behave" like they claim I didn't, I'm just saying the truth right here.

I didn't want to say more about this matter but since they drag my name through mud I see no reason why I should hold back in telling this important information that might help preserve history.

[Leo T_C_K]

If I get asked explicitly not to share something in its entirety, I will however comply. I have just received a secret internal document that I am only allowed to quote from for the interested. But its all too early now anyways. People will have to have patience.

I am growing as a person and I will not be stopped. I have conscience of my own and will follow my own reasoning. While some people may smear my name while supporting scammers. I do not wish to be associated with some people.

What I entered now into is similar to an NDA. But as I always said, it doesn't have to be. Because if there's enough honesty and fair play I am willing to comply with reasonable requests.

I get misjudged so often. And lately my credibility has been taken into question. So let's this be the new start of things to come.

[Leo T_C_K]

Without further ado...I have to say this is right now news about Unreal 2 and I can't possibly repost all the recoveries/info now. And mind you this first document shared with me is very brief and it is a "reactionary" document to the main story one. Thus some of it raises more questions than it answers. However reviewing more material...its obvious that (just like Cliff Bleszinsky himself hinted after Unreal 2's release) that Aida is perhaps not dead (after all the body was not found in the wreckage), second she is seen on one of the preview shots on Dorian Gray from 2002 in a corridor with the prisoners or one of them and it is not tilted. Now this might have indicated that dorian gray was supposed to be visited multiple times.
Also, Atlantis was always meant to be destroyed, but the fate of crew might have been different, also based on your own actions. And this is the crucial thing. Seeing this document makes it clear it was *still* going to be a Deus Ex-like game. In fact it would be still possible to even become practically a villain in the game. This document talks about potential ways things could go and how they can enrich the story based on those choices. Because at that time a lot of it felt hollow still. But they also feared the consequences of some of it and how it might affect the player. They also wanted to avoid sounding too preachy yet all the moralities and choices and the way people react to you would be reflected in the game world. It really looks to me that Legend would have had a hit on their hands that could very well be the perfect blend of Deus Ex style approach and Unreal.
But yea...it is a lot philosophical and it dwelves more into this than it dwelves into details of the story.

However...we got a character we never really heard of before. A Kai called Friday that was meant to be a recurring character. Also still, even in 2002 there were meant to be people boarding the Atlantis here and there and you were supposed to interact with them, more crewmembers as well and Friday might or might not have been one of them as well. Its not the core team but still an important recurring character.
They also didn't fully decide at that point whether the Kai are going to have a telepathic connection with one another or not. There was a possible Nali like approach considered too. A Kai on one planet would know about your actions or your conversation with Kai on another planet. They were considering changing the story into this direction. Also the fact that Kai were supposed to appear in nearly every planet and you being able to interact with them is a huge missing chunk from the lore and we already knew that there was stuff missing when we examined maps like the marsh and seeing the Kai leftover decos and the cave etc. There was indeed meant to be live Kai there that the player would interact with. No...we had ALL of that careful world story building thrown away in favor of serialized "movie" approach with goofy rewrites and what not. *holds his nose*

Okay that's all for now, for my impression and what I processed of this. The Sector Commander was always going to turn to be corrupted by the power, but there was implication that he got actively seduced by something. So he might not have started with the worst intentions either. Its really a deeper and more layered story and you just see glimpses of that in the released product.

edit: Also I do wonder about how the mindclaw would play into anything, no details on that yet. We now know the N were supposed to be crystaline entities from that early model sheet though. But...the mindclaw also uses crystals so yea...how that all goes together...does it fucking use the pieces of the N themselves or what? I don't know. But given that it was supposed to do mind control at one point apart from syphoning health and stuff...its interesting.

[Leo T_C_K]

Another thing I didn't mention yet is that the document does allude to a possibility of "it's been all a dream" scenario. Something in the story or some levels were meant to have this kind of revelation. Because I didn't get to see the actual story this document is analyzing/making notes out of, its hard to figure out the missing bits. I am guessing this might have something to do with the N then or some other story twist that didn't end up in the released game.

But yea most of this document talks about choices and impact. Like they had considered that there might be consequences to blowing up the dam in severnaya and how it affects like people living downstream from there or whatever. No I'm not kidding. You might think that this is overthinking it but its good they started to ask critical questions like that, you don't see that every day and I doubt Digital Extremes ever pondered about those things for example.

Unreal 2 would have been the deepest game. Instead we got JOSSTICE LEAGUE or JOSHREAL II.

[Leo T_C_K]

New (old) documents have been found. Some of them are more or less full design documents. This includes information previously not seen.

Also one thing, the UE1 version of the game was not initially planned to be like Deus Ex, that only seemed to have come later around 2001/2002 only to be reverted to a more linear approach again by the game's release and things curtailed severely.
Yea that makes the whole story even more complicated. I did not have time to read through most of this yet, and this already arrived by monday but I was unable to access stuff due to maintenances anyways.

So yes...Unreal 2 went through quite a lot of changes and the most ambitious really seemed to be the "mike verdu cut" phase, so to speak...

But there were planned a lot more style of levels that we didn't see in the recovered versions, which again unfortunately featured mostly the tech based levels that were somehow the main focus (unlike the original plan). You see, the original game was meant to be more of evolution of Unreal, at least in 1999 it was planned to be. Many of the Skaarj Trooper types would return just with higher resolution skin (that would be eventually supplied by David Carter apparently I guess). But I suppose it would also have those new skaarj types that would replace the warrior classes from the original game. It had new items apart from variations of old items (including the u2 flashlight that was implemented and had a really cool lighting effect).

A lot of the stuff was meant to expand on Unreal initially on so it was "more" of a true sequel but with different direction for the NPC design than the original game, while the levels would be thematicaly more similar, at least that was the plan at first. Still, there was meant to be a lot more going even in the linear design approach on each planet. There would be indeed alien ruins with a lot of structures including pyramids etc. Its really a lot to take in and I'm still trying to process the 1999 document right now. This is my initial report so far and I'm really excited by this.

Btw I was also given a peek into some of the dialogue even *after* Mike Verdu left and a lot of it was devoid of some of the strange cringey humor found in the game. Now this really feels like Joss Whedon was making a last minute re-write of the script. I swear to god.

Okay not that there's not anything bad in the UE1 version design or whatever, there are some "questionable" choices but come on now what is this. How could it go so wrong? This is literally the Joss Whedon situation except in a game.

Oh btw from what I'm reading that "ruined city" stuff is actually where all the information regarding the artifacts come from. You frigging idiots Atari or whatever....how could you remove a location central to the game story...this is like removing....DarkSeid from the plot of...OH MY GOD

oh my god

*ITS FUCKIN' RAW*

*turns into Gordon Ramsey*

IN BEFORE THE ARTIFACTS ARE THE EQUIVALENT OF THE MOTHER CUBES FROM ...

[Leo T_C_K]

Okay guys, sorry for the double post so soon but this is quite a turn of events. This is about the UE1 version still. Atlantis gets destroyed in the middle of the game. At the end of the second chapter, after you have all but one of the artifacts. Above Janus. Janus is where things get up to eleven and would feature most of the warring factions to try and hunt you down. The Kai called Friday(by you) is on Janus and will save your life and lead you to a secret location where he will actually tell you the full story about the artifacts.

The "DarkSeid" in this story is the Tosc Archon. He was the genius scientist that hid the time-bomb and set up the Prophecy in the Alien Ruins and engineered events to unfold when he was defeated by a coalition of multiple races.

You will eventually get on board of Dorian Gray but you already know all this. No story twist about "Hawkings", he might not even be in the story, it was the Civil Government "President" who basically takes this role. But there is a huge conflict and basically only Dorian Gray and a Drakk Ship are left standing. Yea, they have ships too. The Dorian Gray gets invaded by the Drakk but you manage to board the Drakk ship instead and put an end to them.

Then when you return the Dorian Gray docks with another ship where the "puppeteers" step in, including the President and they reveal their plan to you and want you to hand over the artifacts and then activate the Key on Janus (so its only possible to assemble the artifacts on Janus, btw the artifact found on Hell is the "locator" one and it allows you to locate the other artifacts when you wield it). Then the story takes another turn and they frame you as traitor and imprison you when you plead for them that it was all a plan of old extinct alien race that one day plans to rebuild their old empire this way.

The "Vault" level was indeed meant as the final chapter of when you return to Dorian Gray and where they set up the experiment and will use you and "Friday" as the test subjects.

Basically there would have been an event when you're down to 15 percent of health where Friday would throw you the singularity cannon after he manages to subdue the Tosc taking over him and pleads you to kill him with it.

Basically the plan of the re-emerged Toscs is to bring the Dorian Gray down to Janus even if it means crash landing and saboating all equipment. It is a race for time for you to stop them and then re-route the ship into the sun instead. I'm still talking about the UE1 version btw.

The story makes it clear the artifacts are not destroyed by the sun even, but the effect is far from reach. The thing is, on Janus there are millions of Kai who would be transformed by the Key artifact combination. It has a limited range but it would cause the Tosc empire to re-emerge. Basically the Prophecy was full of lies to goad the naieve into assembling the pieces and setting all this into motion.

[Leo T_C_K]

Multiplayer in early Unreal 2. Now in 1999 there wasn't yet Unreal 2 XMP. We know from the developement files that only started around mid 2000 and was called "WarPrototype" the game, plus they had a new commander class there that was originally from the cut BotPack gametype called "CommandControl" that was like a domination but with "uplinks" and creation/switching of warpzone portals upon triggering them (which would have been interesting tbh and explains why the 220 warpzones got updated with the ability to trigger them/redirect them to new location, also used by unreal psx e2l6).

Either way at some point we know they planned to ship a separate tournament ladder for Unreal 2 as well but I suppose it was too much and when the other teams didn't want Unreal 2 to have multiplayer not to hurt the sales, then they decided to just cut it.

But based on the 1999 information, they planned ten new multiplayer levels for the game, plus a number of originally singleplayer levels but modified for it.

If I understand it correctly they planned to have the artifacts even in deathmatch levels because they provided similar gameplay to the Runes in Quake CTF etc.
The artifacts were in order, the locator, healing device, armor force field, stealth shield, speed power-up and weapon damage power-up, with the seventh artifact being the "key" that binds them together.

There were four main teams in the multiplayer games(or more teams even based on other factions) and stuff was set up for the 4 team gameplay. You could either choose/customize your player or straight jump into the preset mercenary teams with different looks. In the game story each of the mercenary teams were backed by a different corporation as well. That is still on top of the fact that there was also the "TCA" which wasn't called this way and the Marines, which seemed to be just the UMS from Return To Na Pali and the old marine models were meant to return in updated form too (a leftover of that was in the e3 2001 demo still). They would be initially hostile to the player and would only form truce in the final parts of the game during the battle against Drakk etc but then you'd need to go both after the TCA and the UMS after your "betrayal" and imprisonment.

Either way this straight picking of team heavily reminds me of UT2 and further, so that's something they definitely also took from Legend when developing those games.

Btw it separately also explains more in detail how exactly the artifacts would function, like the speed and weapon damage was increased by 50 percent, the locator artifact would graphically point a way to the nearest artifact etc during gameplay.

But what I wanted to explain...this provides explanation why those "Assault" levels like as purgatory were present at one point.

This is because those were for a new hybrid mode with those singleplayer maps being modified for multiplayer. The assault thing was going to be changed later I guess, but they indeed wanted to combine elements of the singleplayer game with assault/multiplayer, so it was kind of like the Monster Hunt in practice by the looks of it. It was simplified/modified versions of singleplayer maps. (remember they also planned ten all new multiplayer maps on top of these hybrids).

Initially the Upak weapons would return in their original beta form (this is why there was the leftover) with their upgraded and full specs, with the grenade launcher having three types of grenades (and not six at first mind you). I don't know what the Pulse Grenade would do though. It also refers to a rtnp design document which I don't seem to have but w/e.

Also the leeches in the leech gun? This was a strider based weapon so those leeches are actually a Strider life form. The striders are described indeed as bio mechanical almost plant like at times.

They also had both Heuristic Park and Sherer Design Associates working on the models initially. One is the company/team that was hired for UPak and the other one are the Wheel of Time guys.

EDIT: haha the MindClaw...it describes the ammo as Prism with particle/rainbow effects.

Either way it was going to engulf the target with particles that cause damage and channel life/energy into the weapon user. It would automatically target the target (just like the 2001 mindclaw leftover does), but the funny thing is, it would target the player if noone else was in sight which I find hilarious and similar to some of the Daikatana super-weapons.

For the singularity cannon it mentions ammo as "Stasis field with one singularity".

So the stasis field that came later as the stasis grenade was somehow related to the tosc technology too? Interesting. Either way the artifact combination would somehow both activate the hidden DNA time bomb but also would transform relics/stuff back into Tosc technology/weapons. I suppose this is why in Acheron there is Tosc stuff there at the artifact site as revealed by the editor. This is because they were the creators of the "kai based Tosc" in the first place after they were defeated and faced defeat so many years ago.

All the Tosc technology has been initially deemed strictly forbidden.

edit2: lmao, the Izarian energy weapon/Energy Rifle/retooled Impaler actually would be upgradable three types and the different Izarian variations were supposed to carry those. Isaac never had to upgrade this for you. But the projectile would have different color each time too.

The low damage ones would be red, medium would be blue and violet would be the highest damage.

Great really. So more nerfing in progress happened.

Lol the ammo was still obviously based on Tarydium, see:
"Crystal Core with 25 shots"

edit3: the drakk laser would be upgradable too, just once...but even the primary fire would get upgrade. red beam would be for low damage and blue for higher damage. No violet/third upgrade.

edit4: the items section..what the hell. It mentions "ZoomGoggles" as implemented in the "Unreal Level Pack". No. That never came out as such and Return to Na Pali didn't come with this? Whoever had written this must have obviously not been kept up to date.
There was a Scout Robot item too, that surveys area and sends back picture of what it has seen.

Lol an Autogun sentry that grows out of a "nanotech seed", so more Strider things eh?

A mobile patrolling autogun called "Dogie" as well.

Instead of translocator there were "telepads" at first that you would drop to connect two points in the level. Not used everywhere/avaiable possibility as it can break some maps.

It mentions the Radio as a separate item you could activate too lol.

Atlantis crew lol.

Mentions "Kermit", so that wasn't just a joke in the Atlantis map from the UE1 versions.

This was the proto Ne'Ban, he was just being called "Kermit". There were like three dress types for the Marshal depending on the mission. He wasn't always going to be fully suited either. In Atlantis he'd be just in his uniform of course.

Either way this reveals that the Frog-like alien seen in the sheet was him. The original name of this race and his name was deemed unpronouncable by the humans, hence why he is refered to as "Kermit".

Isaak is said to come from a russian colony planet called Nova Zemlya. (i'm sure I saw that name mentioned somewhere long ago)

The Araknids classes were Soldier, Worker and Boss. The Workers were only capable of Melee attack while Soldier were meant to also shoot armor-piercing spines at high speed. Meaning the Upak projectile look was just a stand in.
edit5: drakk classes described as Fighter, Master and Boss. The Drakk are described as having originated practically as AIs that then created their own mechanical bodies and killed off their creators. But originally they only existed in virtual reality/internet like space. Apart from the Tosc they were the main enemy in Unreal 2. The Drakk Boss was going to use the Takkra as a weapon, too.

actually i made mistake with the returning "classes" of skaarj, they were supposed to be in the end these: Lord, Gunner, Infantry and Officer. They were supposed to have skeletal versions of the model and higher res skins. I suppose Dave Carter would have provided them (again) with the source files to make this possible at some point.

Edit6: Striders were Strider Pod, Nexus and Villain at this phase. I do remember this too, later on it got changed to Pod Villain and Nemesis instead. So in that picture we don't see the Nemesis yet, this was an earlier design with the Villain being the biggest type but it wasn't the towering Nemesis yet.

If you defeat "Nexus" it splits into three Pods and this was the recurring theme. The Nexuses could spit acid btw. It seems like they reused the pod idea later for the araknids the small ones, because theres lots of them in numbers etc and they only bite just like the Strider Pods.

The Villains used Leech Guns and acid sprays and nasty claws, when you shoot Villain it splits into two Nexii (Nexuses).

Edit7: the N, apart from the base models they had different color and weapons each of them, as in there was "prismatic halo" around the model as well, red blue and green depending on which one it is.

If you kill them they sometimes leave the shard you can use for the mindclaw (so I was correct in my assumption). Even though they can't be fully killed and they just "pop out" when folding space around them.

edit8: Terran Mercenaries sorted by class:
Private, Sergeant, Lieteunant and Colonel.

Btw remember when AIda mentions in the e3 demo "TerraCor Mercs"? The TerraCor was one of the four major corporations financing Mercenaries.

[Leo T_C_K]

It then goes to length about the mission and level descriptions. Apart from that the game was planned to have 13 missions, each one of them had up to 24 levels divided into sub-levels.
"you've got to be kidding" - Zelda says

Oh wait maybe they meant that there should be minimum of 24 levels divided into sub levels for the whole game. That sounds more realistic doesn't it? Well...who knows...

Oh god this is really long read in total I didn't expect this. I'm still studying this single document. What is interesting is that there was no PeaceKeeper, you were simply beamed in in many missions...kind of like the marines in UPak.
EDIT: Oh btw...the Tosc were meant to transform from Kai via a "chrysallis" so the process was slightly more complex than is seen in the released game.

The Shian seem to be absent from the 1999 version, it seems they were only thought up in 2000.

[Leo T_C_K]

This contains the descrption of Mission 02 (at least in the original plan).
Mission 01 was supposed to contain a level on the outside of the research base as well. They call these levels "environments". We never saw the proper outside level or it got dropped over time, but it was at one point supposed to be a fully fledged environment/level to explore.

Mission 02 planet was called Quintana and dubbed "Surface Rescue". Now this mission is kind of similar to the "alien ruins" stuff but not quite. This is indeed the level that was originally designed by Matthias Worch that he talked about a few times.
There was an archeological expedition that gets attacked by Araknids. You are to rescue civilians and use TMT matter transmission beacon to beam surviving archeologists and support staff up to the ship.
The difficulty was in keeping both the civilians secure and fending off attackers. Plus the device always takes few moments to start and you are vulnerable to attack during this moment when you have to beam them up.
There were meant to be more Araknid bosses here and an artifact to find after the last civilian is either rescued or dead or w/e. I suppose the game will allow you to have some casualties here and there.

Mission 03 Purgatory.
This reveals the Izarians weren't allied with the Drakk as we thought, they are simply there fighting the Drakk and trying to obtain the artifact they have. There are also Terran Mercenaries battling for it, so you have three enemy factions to worry about here originally.

This artifact was not there in the Drakk Homeworld in the first place. It was first found by a survey team on the ruins of Kodo Li (another set of ruins or is this the prophecy ruins? who knows)
Apparently the original survey team was killed by the N node cluster and in turn they were assaulted by Strider Villains and then the Drakk who took it to their home and the Mercs and Izarians are battling for it there now who went in their pursuit.

This puts the UE1 version of the map into more context. It makes emphasis on using the other enemies to your advantage to take out most of the Drakk as they are the toughest enemies in the game. Even though you will have to battle a drakk boss in the end too. Its quite interesting that this mission is so early in the game, but the ongoing conflict makes it easier to deal with because you can use infighting or even make temporary alliances to help you fight the Drakk. But they shouldn't get to the artifact either of course.

Okay wait so the "Kodo Li" is on the drakk planet then...this is confusing. That's the city where the artifact is found then. I misunderstood then. The earlier text made it seem like the ruined city is somewhere else. I suppose due to ongoing wars the Drakk presence isn't as strong. This is why there's all that firefight in the background in the early Purgatory maps then....

Okay now Mission 04

Another cut/unseen mission before.

A planet nicknamed "Satan's Furnace". I suppose this is the volcanic planet that was talked about in the early previews?

So not Na Pali, at least not yet. But this is early on. Okay I looked quickly at the description for Mission 07. It was supposed to take place on Severnaya and it was supposed to have three unique levels with sublevels in each. So there you have it...and a lot of the detail wasn't planned, it was left for the LDs on each level to decide what it will have. Thus the Shians were created after I suppose James Parkman might have suggested one of those levels to be based on jules verne type stuff.
Either way to go back to mission 04, so this is unseen largely. This is the mission that will feature Striders heavily or would have.
There was a mining operation here by "salvage miners" but now they are killed off. The temperatures are over NINE THOUSAND, I mean...900 degrees Fahrenheit and its full of violent storms (reminds me of the "purgatory" from ut2003 instead, god why did they keep ripping each others ideas off?).
The original inhabitans of this dead rock are long gone and all were left are tunnels and more ruins. Araknids, Striders and Skaarj are present here. So the Araknids were a fully sentient developed race originally. Who would have thought. In the released game they are treated as insignificant animals and only became a threat thanks to the experiments. This story plot is completely not there. These Araknids here are more like the Starship Trooper ones for crying out loud.
So yea this is the mission which actually introduces the player to the Skaarj as well and more properly the Striders. There are two levels in the mission, one of them is the Ruins maze with tunnels and another one the cavern levels. The mission is not called UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL for no reason. The central cavern itself is filled with majestic alien structures and futuristic equipment left by the miners. Even more Araknid Bosses are encountered in the central cavern where the artifact is located.

This has the invisibility artifact and they wanted to reuse the Cloak item effect from UPak for this. Just the same exact effect I suppose because it got underused.

Mission 05 "TODOS SANTOS" whatever the hell that means in spanish

Its the name of the planet and the central story location is the abandoned city of Shalakar. It was supposed to have crystal towers and the main invading force are the Drakk here. The Drakk are awaiting reinforcements and to take it away. And you need to stop them from doing so.
Even though they suffered great losses in the battle their force is overwhelming and it will force you to use the invisibility artifact you found in the fourth mission to sneak about...
You will have to use a lot of defensive stuff. Including mines (yes they weren't a new thing to u2xmp apparently, the game was to have them quite early on). And setting up traps.
Two levels/environments on this mission as well. Though in this case more continuous environment than in previous missions.

The crystal towers are mentioned to be desctructable and you might use this to your advantage like collapse the towers on your enemies.

Mission 06: What got turned into Obolus/Kalydon was originally called planet Phaedra with a colony "New Hope". The Terran Military is attacking the colonists here thus pitting you against the Marines in this mission, because they mistakenly believe that the colonists are hiding an artifact here.

This mission has you face timed attacks from the ships above as well when they take note of you after you take down the forward observers.
The timer appears on a corner of the screen when each attack/blast happens and you have to escape from the area in that time. Also you have to go into each dome and provide the colonists with security codes to seal their shields.

They even send a later death squad at you after you foil their plans. Btw only Aida seems to have history with them in this version of the story not you...
Two levels in this, the terrain surrounding the colony and the colony itself.

Mission Seven was called the Meat Grinder and I already outlined it a bit. A lot of it was to be decided by the level designers still.

It mentions in some of the levels, all of the factions should be present, battling it for the artifact found here (later turns out to be in posession of the Shians but the Shians weren't designed yet at this point).

They even say they might extend the seventh mission not to just span multiple levels but even multiple missions/possible return to Severnaya.

Mission Eight: THE TRAP

Planet Xian...not planet Sanctuary like the real mission eight later on (shuffled into the first mission in practice but level names are still m08).

Izarians and the N are the main enemies here. The N will take advantage of the setup and after the first part of the mission is done they will sabotage the transmission system, forcing you to go underground and battle them there. Not only was it trap by Izarians but it becomes a double trap by the N.

This is very different and has a lot of text. The fight with the N will be difficult as they will be hiding in hard to reach places and behind walls and can attack from beneath those walls, they won't operate with line of sight code even. When you see the swirling particles you will know where each of them is coming from though. They also will form an invisible maze in the underground. This kind of gameplay was not seen anywhere in the released game.

Two levels/environments obviously. Captured colony and the subterranean fun house full of N.

The mission 09 is obviously Janus and this is a major location unlike the released game where its just random location for two artifacts.

Again all of the enemies start concentrating here and they even start cooperating because you have all the artifacts and they also want to harm and get to the scientists who discovered the secrets of the artifacts and the prophecy and how to use it.

You have to rescue at least two scientists to the extract point which is a mile away from the facility. There are ten of them but only two are necessary the absolute minimum to rescue....
There are three levels here. First is the Janus base itself. Second is the extraction/travel (hey did they reuse this later for the Marsh level or what?) and the third the extraction point and standoff.

Mission Ten is a separate mission but also on Janus mostly (jesus christ I had no idea this location was that important early on).

Just how could they mess up so badly? even from what was recovered of the UE1 levels they are still superior to the release version and there was going to be more in the outside environment and all? Come on.

But yea the scientists get aboard Dorian Gray and then you wait for Atlantis but its destroyed by the Drakk.

Basically afterwards you have to set up defenses and stay alive for thirty minutes. Basically this turned into the Avalon mission but less so in scope. And it wasn't on Janus.

In the end Friday shows up and escorts you to safety.

Two levels here, the box canyon and the terrain with ruined structures.

Mission 11 is Dorian Gray where you repel the invading Drakk first.

The Dorian Gray and the Drakk ship are two levels part of this same mission 11.

Mission 12 is the vault aboard Dorian Gray.

the Key is activated and you have to defend against transformed Friday who has had a Tosc BOOSTER SHOT in him all the time(sorry that's more like something for my fanfic).

Mission 13: convergence

Again Dorian Gray but with all the kai being changed to toscs. Messed up version of the Gray, you have to prevent it from crashing into Janus and instead it have it head to the sun as outlied before.

The rest of the story is told via cutscenes, including the initial thing with the Ruins and the prophecy I guess unless the prophecy was indeed on mission 02 or something originally. I suppose the Izarian stuff was visited later in developement. Or the prophecy was indeed left on the Izarian world.

Minimum hardware requirements for 1999 Unreal II were listed as Pentium PII-233 with 64 MB ram. Hardware acceleration recommended.

[Leo T_C_K]

Some misc information I didn't get to tell yet. Ne'Ban/Kermit was supposed to be partially based on Danny Devito or compared to him. Perhaps this is why he walks kind of like the Penguin in Batman Returns in the released game.

Imagine Sean Connery and Danny DeVito starring in Unreal II film or something or the characters being voiced by them....

As for the corporations, Liandri wasn't involved at all. The only thing that became a thing returning was Inuit Corporation having to do with the installation on Hell but not being directly even involved with all the Merc factions. The word Angels is used for "Hells Angels" Merc team (apparantely the infamous bikers become mercenaries in the future) working for Unicon.
Charlie Company was for TerraCorp
Screaming Eagles for Praxis Corporation
and Cold Blooded Killers for CVAX Corporation (I'm not making those names up but obviously they changed it later)

The Izarians were mentioned to be tied to ISIS (no not islamic state) somehow in this phase even though they look dog/anubis like in that picture instead. Maybe they really couldn't settle on it, but they were certainly based on egyptian mythology.

Well that's about it I think...I think I covered all the important things about this iteration of the game...

I will go over the next set of documents next but this one is the largest one. Its actually the first Unreal II bible as such...its reportedly from January 1999, during developement of UPak they already planned this, hence why it refers to items and older designs of weapons...etc

So that is why they were waiting for a while for skeletal mesh implementation to happen and it only started happening in practice right past UT release.

The "unreal 2 bible" is from 27th January 1999 so that's why it split off and that's why they were waiting for the skeletal mesh system implementation for quite a while and that's why developement didn't kick off in practice (on the levels and actual game) until late 1999/early 2000.

[Leo T_C_K]

I don't have all the documents yet and stuff (hopefuly I will see the rest later).
But some of the reactionary documents from 2001 and further are there and it reveals in 2001 the pilot was named "Neban" well duh I know actually due to that Level magazine preview I had...
But well Neban in 2001 was of Avian race actually. Did they want to turn him into Chozo or what? He was supposed to have a beak.
So at that point all the characters had their usual names except for the player, for the Marshal. His name wasn't fully decided on but they were playing of the idea of calling him Hoot Judkins. But this person notes that it sounds "southern".
Neban's "sex" was undetermined, possibly male or "hermaphrodite". Part of me wonders whether he'd be identifying as non-binary in the modern times. NON-BINARY NEBAN FOR U2 REMAKE FTW!
Aida had "Dishonorable discharge for not following orders" while Isaak had "Medical discharge post traumatic stress disorder".
He wasn't established yet as being drunk if I recall the description of the "u2 bible" correctly. It was something similar to what happened in his background in the released game but not quite the same. Quite strangely it was Isaak that had most of his backstory written and not all the characters were as fleshed out.
The Marshal still didn't have history with the military it seems like they split Aida's backstory between herself and the Marshal at the end.
This document calls in question the decision about keeping the artifacts all the time with the player instead of on the Atlantis (this is December 2001 already btw). And called it dangerous. So they were thinking of maybe using a couple of them per mission to justify it and maybe only having all of them at Janus for studying with the scientists or something.
It seems like other people did contribute to the depth of the story over time and fine-tuned it. This is why the 2002 cut before Mike Verdu left is important as the game quite "jumped the shark" after which is a real shame given all this.
Overall I think the original vision of Mike Verdu was quite right just needed refining over time which did happen after all. I just wish the game didn't jump the shark in the second half of 2002.
At this point in developement "Axon" was there already as a company. This document says that Axon and Praxis needs to get distinguished more.
Also there are more questions like whether Friday's change from pretending to be stupid to revealing he's actually quite smart happens suddenly or over time and such things. Though the question why didn't he destroy the seventh artifact himself is a bit stupid because if whoever wrote this read the entire document he will know that the artifacts couldn't even be destroyed by the sun but in the sun will be kept out of reach from anyone ever reaching them..at least for a very long while....
Also in question are put how does the crew death change Player's personality or not.

This again refers to a plot element of "it was all a dream" that I don't know what its refering to yet. I hope some of the other documents have it but so far I saw only that bible which seems to be most complete, but its outdated compared to the later game structure which still has questions unanaswered. *scratches his head*

There is a section with conversation between mike verdu and RAB, whoever that was again (I need to check the credits seriously). The main overarching theme of this game was to be of the nature of violence and whether it is justified, even though this is still FPS. But this RAB says that it seems to imply that it would be best if violence wasn't necessary but unfortunately that's how the world is "put together" in the end)
DEEP LORE.
It says also explicitly that a lot of the NPC interactions are still to be fleshed out by Mike Verdu but that he is working on it.
I am not sure however I'm quite on board with the idea thrown around in 2001 to have Aida's sexuality play a big role in the story. Apparently there was meant to be some sexual tension between the player, her and Isaak and how Neban would react and dissolve such tensions too. Ugh...you can see there was a shift somewhere from when the final Aida concept got finalized including the cleveage thing. But I really feel this was sexualizing things too much. You can see that in her original model she didn't have the cleveage open and it was not considered to be so sexual yet. So there are clearly aspects that I feel the released game toned down justifiedly. Though not in her looks obviously. But I suppose some people might have found it more horny that she acted "unreachable" instead.

I liked Aida for her deep character, not for being more provocative on display.

Okay we definitely need a MODERN WOKE version of UNREAL II with NON-BINARY NEBAN and Aida having her cleveage removed again like she originally was. *whirly eyes*

[Leo T_C_K]

The next document is early 2002 though it is an updated 2001 in practice. This is not a full bible but it contains a lot of information.
This reveals a lot of new things and backgrounds. Liandri and Izanagi already exists here. But the Angels belonged to TerraCor in this version of the story, the female warriors. Liandri had instead fully mechanical warriors (just like the other games). This is a big revelation. Not sure why they changed it to be Liandri and why there were less corporations involved. Also since 2002 the military is more allied to the player while in the initial story they are sometimes antagonistic depending on the mission and your goals, though they form a temporary truce at the end...
I always found it funny that the marines were the enemies in rtnp but suddenly in u2 they are all good guys. "We're the good guys" like the unused samples said originally. No but really...I find the original story direction more realistic. Though this does mention that sometimes Axon gets their hands dirty by doing unethical things and such.
At this point the Skaarj and Izarians were allied already and the Izarians had their final design too obviously. But they weren't as "low" still as the final game has them to be.
There is a surprising alliance here though. It mentions the N are responsible for Araknids showing up on other planets. They actually work together and the N only show up/are revealed later in this version of the story. But they essentially control the Araknids in this version. Because it makes a point of them not having a space travel of their own.
What is interesting is that this does have Shians in the story though they are only relevant for the M07 levels. But...there's another race that is allied with them simply called "Nomads". We don't see a mention of them at all except the mention of nomad settlers of na ko ja abad. So I wonder if this is a human faction or not (its left ambigious maybe if I read further it will become clear).
The locations are..
Well I got cut short and don't have time for full list. Let's just say that the locations are now identical to the released game designation more or less...except of course it has locations that got cut during later half of 2002.
the format for the following is "text for star system, roman numeral indicating which planet out from the star, planet name in quotes, mission number for corresponding levels or level name, facility and ownership
And I am going to list which those are:
Daghda II, Satans Furnace M04 Liandri Mining Facility
NC518 III, Quintana M02 - Axon Field Research Site
the following are known but just want to illustrate that avalon was a thing:
Odyssey IV, Avalon M10 -Terran Military Sector HQ
the Na Ko Ja thing might be slightly different:
Beta Nihal III, Na Koja Abad M03A - Izanagi Dig Site
NC501 VII, Daedalus M07 Nomad Ship Wavecrest
Apparently here clearly split Severnaya from the m07 world (unlike the original plans)
Mirgorod VI - Severnaya Waterfront Izanagi Colony World
Elara V Sanctuary M08 and Swamp Liandri Ore Processing Facility - so not a mine really, mine was M04
NC962 VIII, Unnamed M03B - Drakk Hive Planet
Tarahk VI, Kalydon Mission 06A Military Outpost

Btw the doc still lists the placeholder name, clearly marked as placeholder name and answered as such previously (forgot to mention)
the player as Hoot Judkins

it mentions crew of UTSS Atlantis, not sure I saw that desgination of Atlantis before...

Military Sector Commander Lt. Colonel Alistair Ryan (Tutorial and others)
Terran Colonial Authority Sector Administrator (radio only)
Axon FTL Relay Station Commander (M01)
Project Prometheus Researchers (M09A, B, C, E, F)
Senior Research Coordinator, Project Prometheus (M09D)
Axon Field Research Leader (M02)
Liandri Mining Supervisor (M04)
Nomad Shiplord (M07)
ShipLords Aide ShiTak (M07)
Shian Warlords: Sundiver, Startide, Stormsong, Hadal (M07)
Liandri Facility Chief (M08)
Marine Field Team Leader (M10)
Wounded Marine (Waterfront)
Friday (M10,M12)
Military Interrogation Specialist (M11/M12)

[Leo T_C_K]

My "source" has previously revealed having found more documents and even the complete level scripts and dialogue for the cut levels, but I don't know if this will get shared with me eventually since there wasn't any contact for days now.
Either way...it is great to be able to finally see those story details. Some of this I vaguely remember from some old/previous conversations and previews and maybe other stuff. However it only now fully comes together.
I'm still reading that 2002 updated partial design doc. Currently the missing era is the 2000/2001 to see all the story changes etc that happened then (including the possible rumored visit to Na Pali which is not outlined anywhere but M04 turned out not to be it at all and was a separate mission with a mining theme, that was better because as I suspected the stuff on Sanctuary was never intended to be a Mine, it was more like the equivalent of Foundry but in Unreal II).
But yea the Leech Gun was still a thing in the "MV Snyder Cut" version and so was MindClaw, but you could guess that by looking at the game files and the fact that there are graphics of the gun for Isaak's description.
The Striders were however moved to the backstory already despite the Leech Gun still being a thing. At least it seems that way.
This document reveals that marines are on the player's side until the events of M10. And obviously really Hawkings wasn't Hawkings and the player would get ircarcerated as per the original plan but there seems to be even more "conspiracy" stuff going on if the marines turn on you at M10 already.
The research on the artifacts on the Polaris facility on Janus was called project Prometheus. And that's really still where most of the core of the story happens. Its incredibly shitty that in the released game the location has absolutely no fucking value, levels were cut from it and it was made so dull. Really great diservice towards Grayson Edge and the people who worked on the concept arts....
He must have been really frustrated by it. His levels ended up the most linear at the released game and the most uninspiring...after all those cuts and changes.
Oh btw dispersion pistol was already a thing, they really got rid of the stun baton during 2001 even though it was more finished with full effects at one point.
The battle on Janus was described as "free-for-all"....hell even the UE1 pre alphas still gave me that feeling with both izarians and skaarj and mercs present. And originally izarians and skaarj weren't even allied. In this version they were however.
But yea really...everything came together on Janus...everyone was fighting each other. A real part of the storyline taking place there too....with project Prometheus and all that. All those cut characters and researchers...
And instead in the finished game we got two scientists alive which one of them was "Meyer"? Give me a break. This is real disservice to the original story developement and I am quite rightly sick of it. This really is comparable to the Justice League situation or even worse in fact.
Its a real eye opener really. Just how this game could have been (in my opinion) one of the best fps games of all time even.
And this...there were supposed to be narrative cutscenes that got dropped from the game entirely that would summarize the events and would take place *in the future* of the player narrating this to a third party (possibly). This element of the game didn't get preserved at all. Basically this means the entire game is revealed to be a flashback. Maybe this is what those things about it being a "dream" was about and criticism of it?
Ah here it is...yes indeed. The narration ends after M10 because that's where the military no longer had intel on the player. The narration happens through interface of the mind probe. The events catch up with the player and he gets awakened in an interrogation room. It was reconstructed events with gaps filled by the military intelligence from other mind probed subjects.
Game pacing and feel was going to feel different once player would wake up. No music would play and he would hear his own breathing etc. Basically the whole Unreal II of "mike verdu cut" was a series of flashbacks and mind probing of events that happened and sometimes the reality would slip/be inconsistent in that the player would know things he isn't supposed to know yet but were from other characters. This is a complete game changer.
Basically also Liandri wins and takes over everything in the human sphere after the battles are concluded.

OMG.

the document then dwelves into more mission analysis and how it goes from there. It also seems to include the narration texts that were talked about. This is similar to the finished game in which the regular level order goes (though I assume there were still some choices what to play first but it wasn't nearly as non linear as envisioned in 2001 in the end but still there was lot more freedom and space it seems, but the level order seems more or less fixed (again).

Hell is the first real mission after Tutorial on Avalon. The Tutorial has pistol, shotgun and car btw, not grenadelauncher at all.
Hell doesn't have any artifact at all in this game version. M08 becomes the second mission in practice already here and is where the first artifact is found just like in regular game. Except the N are present here too just like in the original plan and it was all bigger. The shotdown thing in Marsh also happens.
Hell was important to recover "Data Cores" that Aida then extracts info about Acheron from. They kind of recycled the element of the "Talon Data Cores" here. But the FTL stuff still played part in Hell.
Acheron is Mission 06C but in this version of the game plays right after Hell (just like the released version, after all this is already 2002 so the changes aren't completely different).
However Acheron has invading Araknids and the N that brought them along, with the Mercs being the factor here and initially a stealth play (this element is still present in the released game but you have to be really careful and go all around not to trigger further alarms and make more enemies spawn).
So yea as I suspected the "spores" that happen in acheron are kind of a discount version of the N lmao. The trapping creatures were also added there at last moment from m07.
Waterfront severnaya happens right after. However if you blow up the dam the resulting flood kills 10 000 people in the valley below. This is what that other document I received earlier talked about. About those things so they did incorporate that into the story at this point, hmm.
Deep storytelling really...the player pondering whether its worth it all etc. The game even shows you images of drowned corpses. Really edgy there guys.

Edge of Na P...I mean Severnaya...the most edgy movie of all times...Edge of Severnaya.

[Leo T_C_K]

The next mission right after Severnaya is surprisingly Janus in this version of the game. Because the base is under attack you have to rescue and transport all those researchers. Still this is a pivotal story place. No actual artifacts are found here though. All the merc factions are here and Liandri and TerraCor mercs are introduced here. Before you fought Izanagi only. Weird how the level order kept shuffling from year to year.

Either way a lot of this stuff does validate my idea I had decade(s) ago that the cut missions for Unreal II if they are ever found, could be incorporated as part of Court Room hearing. Given that there were mind probes, you could have marines that brought the artifacts to Janus in the released game, tell their side of the story via flashbacks/mind probe. Because John Dalton would get logically put under investigation and court, for all the "property damage" and lives that were lost on Dorian Gray because there would be still some people in the know like "Drexler" etc who would have a grudge and other people not believing the general story until the truth comes out. That's what I would have done if the Unreal II story would continue.
But I see a lot of validation for my ideas in this story. Which makes me confident that I do have a better feeling for the developers original visions than some other people.
I know that Epic themselves went down that route with Gears of War Judgement or something (I am not too familiar with the gow games honestly), but I already had that idea before they made that game due to that situation surrounding RUFX and GreatEmerald. I remember GE didn't like the idea of the player going to a court because he is a "hero", but that is a really naieve take and it wouldn't happen like that in practice. Maybe in the "filtered" lense of the ut2004 story (which already contains lies from the government that you never get to know as player of that game, because why would you question the "NEW EARTH GOVERNMENT"-world order, right?)

*clears throat*
Well to continue with this story. From the scientists and data from Janus you get only now the information that there are seven artifacts in total while you have two of them so far.
This mentions that Aida and Isaak are not liking this one bit, how the military is now backing them like this and yada yada...parts of this remain in the release game of course with that whole "promotion" stuff. But it was supposed to only happen around this point, past Janus.
The next mission is that Aida picks up rumours about another of the artifacts discovered by Liandri on Daghda II. No intelligence avaiable, Liandri colonists were out of radio contact for days.
Planet Approach Sequence here was called "PA_Satan" because of the Satans Furnace name.
This is the mission to introduce the Skaarj. They were cut from M09 already by this point it seems (it didn't mention them before). This introduction was later changed/moved into M08, the sanctuary. But they weren't there yet, it was just izarians and the n on sanctuary still.
On this mission you will upgrade the Izarian Energy weapon, already dubbed "Shock Lance" by Isaak.
Basically when they cut M04 they put the elements of it into Sanctuary, like the Skaarj/Izarian combination here. But its weird how only now you would get to upgrade the gun and not via Isaac even it seems. Just like it was originally planned.
Next mission is Delta Avior VII, Sulferon. I wonder what happened to Eden though, the 2001 version of sulferon. Since there are no full docs from 2001 I suppose we will never know the backstory of Eden fully. As in of the planet details themselves.
Sulferon basically ends up being more or less the same, the events. After that, you go to M03A Na Koja Abad.
Okay so somehow the Striders must have gotten involved in the past with Na Koja because this is where you get the Leech gun. You also gets bits and pieces of the Drak tech for Isaak to tinker with, just like happens in the released game.
But it really seems Striders as the enemies were cut during 2001 or very early 2002. When they also had the big Strider Nemesis thing that we don't know how it looked exactly. Probably still different than that initial UE1 characters screenshot.
Oh yea about NaKoja, the enemy factions are Izanagi and the Skaarj. So Skaarj were playing major part here too and at the end the Drakk are introduced just like in the released game.
But remember, this is already the modern narrative. After the UE1 phases, the early warfare/"space deus ex" phase etc. This is basically a longer version of the released game with some major or minor differences here and there...the "Snyder Cut" version.
Okay so in the "Snyder Cut" they place Mission 02 right after Na Koja, as in what was originally called Mission 02 but is still internally called that way.
PA_Quintana was the name of the planet approach sequence. You get introduced to the assembled Laser Rifle here and this is where the fourth artifact is. The enemies are still Araknids and N (this time, unlike the very early draft where Araknids were really more like starship troopers bugs). So this is why u2xmp was able to use some assets from this because it is after all one of the more or less finished missions that got cut very late, together with m04 and m07...
Aida incurs from the data (and maybe the info from the ruins on Quintana) that the fifth artifact is on the planet Daedalus.
Except...then Kalydon happens...just way later than in the released game.
The difference also here is...this is M06A but the player has to first go and fight mercs that are already there (!!) from TerraCor (they are the angels in this story, Liandri had unseen robotic mercs, the Angels belonged to TerraCor). I suppose the waves would still happen but player would still get to explore the facility and himself recover spare parts for the Atlantis. So indeed this hints that the UE1 M06 stuff got reused here for some of the interior mission parts.
After that, the Atlantis is on the course to Daedalus (the Shian planet).
MindClaw is introduced here, the briefing is to meet the Nomads on their ship floating in the oceans of Daedalus.
Much of the background here was developed but not shown here, I was shown a sheet of files, many dialogue script files exist that I hope will get shared with me and level scripts/interactions. Because this is missing from this document, the more detailed story details.
But oh my god...you won't believe what happened next.
"After leaving Daedalus we picked up a faint signal from a remote star system identified as Na Pali."
Wait a moment...star system? I thought the star system got called Gryphon at some point or whatever...so what is the planet..I th..ah nevermind. Either way...
I'm fainting...I'm having heart attack man....

*HUNT DOWN PRISONER 849 CONFIRMED CANON* I mean...man I'm not ready to go on...what I'm reading here has canon implications now...I can't go on I have to take a break.

[Leo T_C_K]

Before I reveal the rest of the story, there is a section that has more in depth look at the missions, unfortunately it ends abruptly at Janus, as in before Janus. But it has like all the briefing information before that in full and everything.
Its a section called text for transition sequences. briefings and narratives. Again it seems to be abruptly cut off with a section of the general overview repeating from Janus onwards for some reason..which is a shame because we get robbed of the little details here. I might get back to this section later but its pretty big so it will take some time reading, even if its only up to Janus.

I want to get back to the main story now, after Daedalus. So actually...this is both "exciting" and a disappointment at the same time. Remember this is just the brief summary of things and not the complete full dialogue. And we might or might not get that in the future depending on the generosity of the person who has it. But ugh....
So Na Pali....unfortunately we do not enter the planet...this is not a proper mission but more of a side quest that ties up loose ends and sets up a potential direct sequel to Unreal.
I do not know if the earlier versions of the game in 2001 had you go into Na Pali itself, but it is very possible given that Geoff Field was involved between 2000 and 2001 and he might have created those Na Pali maps that were cut. Unfortunately this is not the case. Atlantis will not go close to the planet range I suppose due to the gravitational pull but its kind of unstated.
Instead and this is a shock for me...Atlantis will pick up a battered Marine Shuttle somewhere at the edge of the system. It turns out it is *our* Prisoner 849. They do not state the prisoner number but the data from the Sector HQ they are given will reveal it is a prisoner who was presumed dead. It clearly is Prisoner 849. There might have been some dialogue exchange or it might have been left ambigious due to the fact that the gender of the prisoner was left ambigious (like in the original game and rtnp). But what is shown is that they will find the nearest planet where they can drop him/her off, with two marines that will guard him/place him under custody. Yea I'm saying him now, whatever. Even though the gender is not stated.
It is an outpost on NC227 IV, a desolate planet called Exile.
So yes Unreal 2 events, in this timeline..happened around the same time as Unreal's events. Or like right after. Obviously prisoner 849 didn't get very far given I suppose he couldn't do faster than light travel or something.
I also find it ironic that the planet has "227" in its number. Is this really coincidence...or are we all getting mind probed and we are all on planet "Exile" omg...
But yea...this was apparently the official planned continuation for Prisoner 849 and a possible setup for Unreal III. Just throwing it out there...it was written and Epic knew about this and maybe even co-wrote it given that Cliff was there as executive producer...

Also...then the story goes to M03B, but it is only "one" of many Drakk Hive Worlds, its not the "only" Drakk hiveworld btw.
Similar story beats, Aida wanting the player not to go there etc...
Takkra is only introduced here, NOT on M03A like in the released game..
Then you get called on to Avalon. No Skaarj, but instead TerraCor and Liandri have overrun it.
MAJOR DIFFERENCE: There was M10A and M10B. The stuff that was initially as more levels in M09 and M10 (Janus again but outside part) got instead merged here...the stuff with Friday etc happens
Marine battlecruiser ends up destroying the Atlantis in a twist, though as we know, at least Aida survived in one version of the story and would be on Dorian Gray at some point due to that screenshot surviving.
But this document doesn't explain this in detail or much else and its a shame that section is missing from the detailed stuff. Though I'll go over the smaller documents next and see if there's anything that reveals it still.
After I go over the detailed stuff for the briefings etc though.
Basically M12 is the first time player is taking control of himself in the current time. All the things before were mind probe reconstructions and this is the point when they are done with his interrogation and are going to subject him and Friday to the experiment...
M11 follows after M12 just like in the released game lol...just kill the rest of the tosc, plunge ship to the sun (though they were thinking they might also do a black hole at one point and have it be ripped by gravitational forces instead).

So yea that's it, that's the big reveal.

[Hellkeeper]

IS there a timeline where we see the actual document instead of relying on hearsay? I doubt there's much oversight on this IP in 2023.

[Leo T_C_K]

Highlights from the detailed section:
Before Tutorial/0th level on Avalon you get to explore Atlantis for the first time and Aida gives you a briefing. In fact the game starts in what is called the "Tikal" system and you go to the Odyssey system.
After Avalon it says you are resuming ORION SECTOR patrol.
Then distress signal from Hell happens, FTL Relay Station on Eizo VI-C under attack render whatever assistance necessary.
That "mayday mayday" message that happens for Sanctuary was going to play here except the words were changed here and there. That's interesting really. At least M01 was still M01 LOL. As in this didn't get shuffled about yet.

Basically the UE1 version had missions in linear order, in 2001 I presume some mission order got changed depending on your choices but this didn't allow for movie like narrative so they changed that again in 2002 and in this specific "snyder cut", to summarize it went like this:
Atlantis intro/getting used to Atlantis, Avalon Tutorial, (i'm skipping the atlantis interludes), M01 Hell, M08 Sanctuary and Marsh after, M06C Acheron, Waterfront Severnaya (unassigned mission number), M09 Janus, M04 Daghda II Satans Furnace, Sulferon (unassigned M slot), M03A Na Koja, M02 Quintana, M06A Kalydon (slightly longer, where's M06B if Acheron was M06C, well I guess we won't know until more info on 2001 version resurfaces lol), M07 Daedalus, the Na Pali/Exile interlude, M03B (drakk hive), Avalon M10A and M10B follows (cut mission), M12 vault and M11 dorian gray...that's the bloody level order in this version.

Either way I think I should post this piece of missing briefing for Hell:
"Axon corporation has the franchise for FTL comm web in this sector. Echo Four is one of the twelve relays that serve as amplifiers for tight-beam faster-than-light transmission broadcast thorought the Orion Sector. The Axon facility has a crew of forty."
But yea I'm not sure I mentioned but the flamethrower wasn't going to be for you in Hell. It was only going to appear in Acheron M06C for the first time. But you would get to use CAR, pistol and the shotgun here, though shells for the shotgun would be rare. Also the dispersion pistol obviously. I found the dp in unreal 2 only useful against stuff like the small araknids so that makes sense. But yea you would already go into Sanctuary with shotgun etc instead of first getting to it in Marsh.
Basically since the Araknids weren't brought there as experiments and were brought there by the N instead (which remain hidden at this point still), it is a mystery to how the Araknids got there and stuff.
Its not until later when the connection is discovered between the N and the Araknids.

Btw I really think the "Borg" comparison really only refered to the fact they might control the Araknids and because the Borg were originally also devised differently or someone just confused things for Drakk/Striders instead at an earlier point. Because it still seems to be that the N were still crystaline based entities. Remember it was only one news source ever comparing them to Borg and they might have had it wrong.

The situation on Sanctuary is that the Izarians are known and identified as the threat. In restrospect it makes ZERO sense why the distress call in the released version says "we don't know what they are" etc...
THAT MESSAGE WAS INTENDED FOR HELL AND GOT CHANGED AT THE LAST PHASE. It makes no sense, just that it delivers more sense of urgency for the reshuffled mission. God...how could they have not edited that out? That part of "dunno what they are and where they are coming from"
It only made sense for the Araknids that were the agent of the N....WHY GOD WHY. JOSS WHEDON YOU STUPID PIECE OF ....RAW RAW RAW!!!!
The Izarians are known to come from the Izar system in the Sol sector.
They already dumbed down the izarians at this point but we still have those alien ruins/alcazar which are obviously tied to them but no explanation here, hell even the prophecy planet disappeared from the story at this specific point but maybe it was gonna reappear.
Certainly it would be possible to combine all those missing elements into one giant story again for sure.
This is where you first get to use the hydra grenade launcher and toxic grenades too. Wait what? Isaak doesn't give you CAR this time. Well actually one of the CAR boxes he had was mislabeled and it was the hydra gl instead and that is how you get it. Did you just throw away your car or what the hell? yea...throw away your "car" a good joke.
The Liandri Ore Processing Facility turns out to be a cover and they were mostly after the artifact in the first place while trying to keep it a secret. The ship that was meant to arrive was UTSS Aquila and it was a prototype ship capable of faster travel, some quantum drive that is ten times as faster than normal hyper-drive. It does get shot down, they are not so heavily armed as the classic ships which is the downside. The marsh mission follows thus. Another ship is mentioned, military battlecruiser Tarawa that picks those guys up later from Atlantis. Colonel Ryan fom HQ was pleased and they left you with more supplies and weapons. So wait they do still reinstate the ranks to you, just I suppose more promotion happens later, I misunderstood from the brief descriptions.
Because the other ships are too slow you are supposed to take on some tasks other forces were meant to etc.
The Tarawa ship plays a major role in that it will provide backup and supplies for you if needed. But from a civilian service in backwater sector Atlantis became a warship just over-night.

Btw it is important to mention that sometimes days etc pass between missions due to the travel etc and it was mentioned/hinted at in this phase but I don't remember the released game making a big deal out of it. Here stuff simply does happen off screen as well and you get to hear the summary through narration.

edit: I suppose the Tarawa ship might be responsible at the final arc for shooting down Atlantis as well and not Dorian Gray directly.
Because the detailed scenario for that is missing, I cannot say 100 percent but it looks like it given it was said to be the same designation of the ship which is not Dorian Gray...

[Leo T_C_K]

IS there a timeline where we see the actual document instead of relying on hearsay? I doubt there's much oversight on this IP in 2023.

Unfortunately I was not allowed to share the documents themselves due to my agreement. Its not because of the IP even but because those are internal documents that might reveal names and other things the developers might not be confortable with.
I will try to arrange some personal sharing though but I am waiting for my source to respond. Those documents I do have myself, except for some missing ones that were still promised. If you want I could try to arrange the sharing with you as well, but I was clearly told its not meant to go public in full. Because there's stuff still possibly coming in the future I cannot compromise my trust. I already fear I might have said too much in practice.
There are still some documents I'm waiting for plus all the dialogue and level scripts are confirmed to be posession of this person but not further game data. But it is a step in the right direction and over time I might get in contact to recover even the game content.
EDIT: Also if it was that simple, don't you think the 224-226 source codes could be released to public as well or leaked from oldunreal or other people who had them? Most people haven't seen the "up to date" source code for Unreal. The only up to date source code that leaked was for ut2004 apparently. And I had nothing to do with that also or even my "peers".

Some people just aren't comfortable with sharing their stuff. Like obviously see Joe Wilcox being fine with sharing everything except AWGD and some internal Epic projects. Without giving clear reasons why even. It can be worse. I am glad for any information that can be still gotten at this time and age. It used to be easier to get hold of information ten years ago. Now, due to data decay and everything on physical media and also political shifts/changes things have become more difficult in many ways.

There are people like that guy pvponline, that shared a video of ut2007 demo version, not even full version of the game and it still isn't avaiable out there. And Epic in general had no issues especially with versions of the game that were not full versions and can be considered demos. I suppose its a bit of a legal hole why they are more opposed to giving official permission for full pre-release versions of the games to be out there but I get it. Its just a mess in general. And it hasn't quite gotten better in the past years.

But yea..there is still a lot of Unreal material out there, rotting away without it being shared and now some of it got lost forever thanks to hoarders. Go at them, not at me I'd say.

I am doing my best without being a complete gun-ho.

[Leo T_C_K]

I wanted to post a few details still but I'm not sure if its any relevant. Basically Acheron was supposed to have like the wreck of ancient tosc starship, which is why there are those "tosc" names on those static meshes, that structure is a remnant of the crashed ship apparently. That's where the artifact was found. The spores seem to be repurposed/recoded N at least one of the types. Like there's also that "protoblob" thing which was obviously related to N and has u2spore relation. I suspect the original models had them grow crystalic limbs to hold/use some psi weapons and such, which each type used a different one.

After all the u2spores do pop out of existance in the similar manner that the N were described...

The detailed description of Janus before the cut off part described the Liandri Mercs (which are not in the released game, those are the TerraCor Angels that were reporpused to be Liandri troops instead).

They were basically kind of like doctor who cybermen or some of the modern ones. Below is a direct quote:

Liandri calls their private army the Cybernetic Heavy Infantry. Their mechanical soldiers are built around a human core – brain, spinal cord, basic organs – but these organic elements are buried deep inside a heavily armored exoskeleton. These… things have the best of both worlds – integrated wetware and hardware.

the later revisions/stuff reveals that through 2002 the level order changed to be more like the released game, the N were cut before the Shians even etc(and changed to spores obviously). M07 was really the last mission to be cut before release.

Oh and btw the Skaarj were added to M07 at one point at the surface level and not all the Shian were enemies just the "rogue warlords" were.
Friday's first appearance was moved to M07 as well and he guides you through the tricky underwater environment.

The Na Pali thing was still a thing until very late it seems.

Pick up a survivor from NaPali and drop him off on Exile (Narrative only – hook to Unreal1)

So m10 was first moved from second part of Janus into its own thing early 2002, as two part mission, then one part of that ended up in M07 with the friday stuff and...then still the release version has things like "diver" in the tutorial that were clearly m07 things? And the Shian ships in release m10 instead of Skaarj (but the skaarj are using them and the narrative wants you to think thoise are skaarj ships)...what a mess LOL

in post game events:

The aftermath of the game (which may not be told) occurs after the Dorian Gray goes hurtling into the sun. Liandri mounts a hostile takeover of the other corporations, which have been drained by all the fighting. Liandri becomes the dominant Corporate power in the human sphere.

edit: Also I wanted to note that the more "sexual" potrayal of Aida was seemingly dropped during 2001, except her general model/clothes as that was already made, but no flirting or sexual tension as such anymore, there's no mention of it. Don't know why in 2001 it was a thing though (none of the full 2001 docs survived though).
she got developed into what she is during 2002 by the team effort. Hell the alien threat she was meant to combat in her past was not Striders initiall, but the name "Traj" wars was suggested.
She apparently even said this at one point

Why is it the humans should win? We’re just as bad as any other race. We murder and maim and rob and steal. We’re no better than any of them. This fighting will just go on and on. There will never be peace.

[Leo T_C_K]

Okay I received the rest of smaller documents(including more on weapons) and also dialogue files and level scripts and earlier 2002 version of the dialogue editor program.
It is a bit of an unsorted array of files, where some files were being replaced, the scripts range from january 2002 to june/july 2002 but there's also a subdirectory somewhere that has files from september 2002.

I can tell you now when exactly the mind claw was cut from the game plan/game. It was during July 2002 (early july weapons documents still has it while the later version doesn't, though it still has leech gun which material was found on hell at that point but not related to araknids, they had labs with other alien material after all which included stuff from the N and Striders), exactly when Mike Verdu left for good I guess (he already was more in the background at this point). There were also like altered versions of scripts/dialogs for the E3 version not to spoil too much etc.

It is truly a mixed bag and still the consensus is that I am still not allowed to share them public unfortunately, however my source has received blessing directly from Epic, so there are some possibilities for the future and future recoveration of material I guess. This is mostly purely text files and documents that were kept.

Now the thread has become more about Unreal 2 discoveries, but those are happening right now so yes...it is a continuation of the thread from elsewhere and I simply can't do those summaries of previous stuff now.

there are some inconsistencies clearly with what was the plan and what were the implementations yet, like the scripts for m07 around july still have the whole thing about the Nomads, the Skaarj were already planned to be there since end of April, but i suppose this wasn't implemented until later like September 2002. Also don't forget that James had some further worked versions of the M07 levels even when the decision was made to cut them as there was a backup plan to bring those levels back in an expansion. (part of the reason why also u2xmp beta and u2xmp has some more shian textures and what not and also some of the nomad technology stuff, which part was obviously used in xmp rampant as well). The most up to date versions of M07 (even if any material will get found later) will most likely not get recovered due to James having lost the discs/drives since I spoke to him in 2017 and he moved places/jobs several times. But we'll see what will happen. Any of the 2002 versions would be good to have of the cut levels. Because those are most compatible with the released game and can be easily ported/worked on without drastic changes that wouldn't fit the narrative.

We don't have the latest scripts for the m07 levels which is a bit sadenning and a lot of it is placeholder/copy paste, like in the first half of 2002 there wasn't any dialogue yet for the Shian warlords, instead dialogue from the earlier m07 levels was copy pasted confusingly onto that. So you'd have the Shians repeat some of the lines from the Nomads for no reason, until the dialogue was written. The Shians would communicate with you telepathically. But still, it is disappointing that later versions of m07 scripts/dialogue is not in this. Still, it is something and...the interaction with the Nomads was very interesting, because you could choose in the dialogue to be dick to them and while with the guards it would result in them just being annoyed with you and saying you should be more respectful of their culture..if you'd go against their leaders, they would attack you or throw you in jail, so yea...there was clearly this aspect still in the game where dialogue choices did matter....

And yes the Nomads are basically humans, just that they left from Earth ages ago and used their own research and technology and that's why their stuff is different. They are like humans who have evolved in a slightly different way and went their own way after living on other planets. So I suppose they might be related to the first settlers of Na Koja as well? If I'll see explicit link I'll tell you, but given that both were levels of James Parkman it is very possible.

But basically if I understand it right in one version of the story the Nomads are the ones holding the artifact and will only give it to you if you complete their little problem with those Shians that went rogue after interacting with the artifact. If you tell them basically "just give it to me you shitheads" (paraphrasing here), they will throw you into jail LOL.

edit: Also wanted to say that the level order documents clearly show that Sulferon was in place/replacement of m05 down the line, so yea...whether "Eden" was a version of M05 at one point too is unknown at this point as basically all of the 2001 and 2000 history is missing from this apart from that document that reacts to changes in 2001 which reveals Ne'Ban was of avian race at that point with a beak. (and not a frog like earlier when he was nicknamed Kermit)

edit2: In case you don't know what Eden is, its that level in the pre-E3 2001 demo version that has the sulferon base looking pretty similar to the released game (but with some inside differences and one version with corridors you can't get to). But the planet and environment around is mountains and hills instead with trees, it was seen on many of the promotion material screenshots and one version included the Skaarj attacking the base too.

The leech gun also underwent changes, like at first it was suggested by Glen to be simplified because its functions became too complex, like it first drained energy and only if no energy was left then it drained health. After the simplifications it got turned into the spidergun by RAB. I suppose because they didn't want all the loose lore hanging around anymore when striders and later even N were cut from the game...

Also its clear that it wasn't all so clear cut, like Glen didn't come in right after Verdu left, but before he left still, but he took over fully after Verdu left. The previous reports suggested otherwise.
edit3:
that stuff with kai in marsh is now explained

//izarian torture scripted sequence
//meta- A group of izarians are torturing a kai for fun. When they see the play
er one breaks off to go get others, the rest fight.

Code: Select all

//Izarians torture a poor helpless kai.  You feel sad and cry.  Then your mom gives you some milk and a hug and it's all better.
:resevoirdogs
turntoactor u2kaiunclothed0
animloop idlewaitslouch01_LG 1.0 1.0 1

[Leo T_C_K]

Oh yea guys, remember the Target Drone?
https://tcrf.net/Unreal_II#Target_Drone

god, some of that text on the wiki is awful (not talking about the drone here but other info) and misinformation (especially now it is) and to think they deleted my "proto" page because I didn't create subpages is appaling.

Either way as for the Drone...its revealed in the June 2002 scripts:

They were in the tutorial level as target practice. Presumably before they made those carboard targets? Why couldn't some of those be on the field I have no clue...its possible they might have been used as target practice in the outdoor areas of the tutorial when the tutorial level was bigger...

Basically it was all different. Looking into it, there was an area explorable under the landpad and even over it was set for some training. There was this science officer who was female or even two of them at one point, refered to as "Butch" and "DoctorX".

The drones had additional sounds played by the level scripts, but they are actually takkra sounds in this, maybe as placeholder.

When they got to patrol points they made more sounds etc.

876 Jun 17 2002 AssaultRifleTargetDrone1.u2s
3705 Jun 17 2002 BaseCommander.u2s
269 Jun 17 2002 Hummer1.u2s
1093 Jun 17 2002 OfficerDavidson.u2s
723 Jun 17 2002 OnDuty1.u2s
526 Jun 17 2002 OnDuty2.u2s
773 Jun 17 2002 PistolTargetDrone1.u2s
4892 Jun 17 2002 ScienceOfficer.u2s
877 Jun 17 2002 ShotgunTargetDrone1.u2s
3613 Jun 17 2002 StairWellGuard1.u2s
1489 Jun 17 2002 TheKai.u2s
13516 Jun 17 2002 TheRangeCaptain.u2s
500 Jun 17 2002 TowerWorker1.u2s

edit:
Some quotes that were cut from later, this is still late July 2002:

Ne’Ban: Is her dress not provocative to you?
Marshal: She doesn’t do it to be provacative. It just how she’s comfortable.
Ne’Ban: And that doesn’t disturb you?
Marshal: What would disturb me is if she wouldn’t do her job.

Ne’Ban: Is it possible for a human to copulate with himself?
Marhsal: No
Ne’Ban: Nor for us. I must further analyse the task Isaak asked me to perform earlier.

Lmao apparently Isaak told Neban to go "fuck" himself and this was the result.
edit2:
LOL
well...the mission 07 apparently even dropped the Skaarj at the later stage and it became only Shian and the monsters, so at some point they dropped the nomads, then the skaarj...maybe because they didn't have the voice actors. And then I suppose james wanted some of that back for the post-release U2 version? Its really confusing mess.

[Leo T_C_K]

I was making another edit when the time expired. Well...About Sulferon C, at "story 5" they were considering adding back Izarians/Skaarj to some of the missions. Sulferon came up. Sulferon C was another defend mission but with xmp stuff added (the original defend only had few marines supporting you and the assault wasn't so heavy). They merged the two in the final game. But for revision they suggested adding skaarj and izarian to the mix, more marine support and a sewer system in the map to explain where some of the izarians have sneaked in and appeared.

Another suggestion was to add back skaarj/izarian to Janus while fighting back/getting back and also maybe to Obolus as one of the waves of enemies that would come.

This was like in the middle of May and I think it was a good creative decision, too bad it didn't stick. I would definitely stick with it and especially if we do restored versions of some of those levels or whatever might happen in future.