Installation: "Dark Campaign" is a 3rd party local folder for Myth 2. Local folders do not work the same way as plugins so please read the directions below (believe me, if there were a way to make a solo campaign go into a plugin, I would do it, but there isn't). This means that in order to play it:
1. When you wish to play the Dark Campaign, since it consists entirely of solo levels, you don't even need to be on bungie net to play (in fact it's recommended you don't play on bungie net, because most other games will appear red to you).
2. To play, simply drag your existing local folder to some safe place where you will remember where it is on your computer, or rename it. Then take the Dark Campaign local folder and put it where your previous local folder was, inside the Myth 2 folder (not inside the plugins folder). When you're done playing return the two local folders to their previous positions, or change their names back to normal if you chose to rename them.
3. The Dark Campaign's local folder must be entitled "local" to work (it starts out titled this, just don't change it).
4. The first time you play (and only the first time), after you have completed the above steps, after starting Myth hold down shift when you select New Game and scroll down the list of levels until you find one called "Prologue". Double-click on it.
5. Some people like to create a folder titled something like "Dark campaign folder", for convenience. When you do not wish to play the Dark Campaign, put it here.
6. Never mess around with the contents in your local folder, and never copy over a local folder unless you are sure it is empty or it contains stuff you want to trash anyways.
7. If you chose to rename your local folder in step 2, be careful when changing the names back. Your computer will recognize white space in a folder's title, so a folder called "local " will not be recognized by Myth 2, while a folder called "local" will be.
Are you confused yet???
Here are some clarifications on installment for those of you not computer-proficient. If you understood the above part, great, skip this next paragraph.
Basically, you have two folders, both entitled "local" (one for the Dark Campaign and one that you had originally). Whichever local folder is inside the Myth folder will have its levels available whenever you play Myth. Unfortunately, only one local folder can be recognized by Myth at a time. For this reason we want to switch the two local folders, switching the original out and the Dark Campaign in when you want to play it, and vice versa when you don't want to play it. Unfortunately, with two folders both having the same name but different contents, they are easy to confuse. If you get confused just go into the local folder and look at the files there. If there are a slew of files and some of them are called things like "Dark dwarf flavor text" chances are that you are in the Dark Campaign local folder. Making sure to keep both local folders safe is important. Never copy one local folder over another unless you are sure the one you are copying over is empty. Making backups of your non-empty local folders is encouraged (but chances are you already know this if you're a mapmaker, and what the heck are you messing around with your local folder for if you're not a mapmaker?!).
Setting up to play the solo campaign isn't as hard as it sounds, and should take 10 seconds at most to complete.
Info: This is my biggest Myth map endeavor yet, but I am no newbie at the map making game (My other maps being "I'll Dance on Your Landfill" ,"All Roads Lead to Muirthemne", "Dwarven Football Field", "Football Field", and "Shygaard"). If you never heard of those maps, I'm not surprised since I've never distributed them outside my order :) I decided to make this campaign after whupping Soulblighter for like the twentieth time and realizing, "If I was commanding those myrkridia, that wuss Alric would be pushing up daisys, dammit!"
Some things to take note of while playing the Dark campaign:
*It is a Dark campaign, so most of the units you will be using are from the Dark, not the Light.
*Obviously, it also has a storyline from the Dark perspective.
*There are TONS of edited and semi-new units that weren't in bungie's solo levels-learning how to master them is imperitive to winning
*Like bungie's campaign, there are mission objectives, like having to protect a certain unit, or kill a certain unit. If you've turned off your mission objective box after having memorized all of the objectives in bungie's levels, you may want to turn it back on.
*Also with the mission objectives is a unique hint list for every level, just like bungie had for theirs.
*The difficulty levels are still in effect. An easier difficulty level will have less enemies and their AI won't be as sharp. Also if you play on an easier difficulty level some enemies won't use special attacks (like flaming arrows), certain ambushes just won't happen, enemy health will be lower, enemies will miss more, ect. I recommend playing on at least normal difficulty for the maximum fun factor. The campaign is beatable on legendary (no, really, I'm serious).
*There are 10 levels plus a secret level.
*This is a tester version so if you find any bugs or have any suggestions please e-mail me!
*There are new pregames, postgames, sounds, and scenery of course. The narration music used is the main menu music from myth 2. I would've like to do vocals of the narrations, but sound files like that are HUGE and I figure this campaign is already bloated enough as it is :)
Playing co-op: You can play co-op on bungie.net with these levels, with other people that have the Dark Campaign in their local folder. However, most if not all other games on bungie net will appear red to you-that means you can't join them. Obviously, the chances of you randomly encountering someone on bungie.net with their Dark Campaign enabled is slim, so instead set a time and place where you can meet up with some of your friends to have some cool co-op fun.
Credits:
"Dark Campaign" is freeware and you can distribute it as long as you include this read me with it and don't make any changes.
Copyright 1999 in whole or in part Bungie Software Products Corporation.
Created with Bungie's Fear and Loathing by Scott Carlson, scott007@macserve.net
I'd like to thank Vodi for making his cool Amber application, and all of my beta testers.
-Murgen