-scream

"Playing on Lightning Pro is like crouching into a rat's hole to play hide and seek. It's scary in there: lots of tunnels, hard to see, easy to get lost and OOOPS, thats one MEAN rat already in there. LOL. He zaps you with flash, you can't see what he's doing, you can't run, you can't hide and you never know where the Hell he's at. I have to wonder if Sirian used to blindfold and torture his pets as a child, the way he did to me. I just flew around the level praying to god that I wouldn't run into him any more."

-Voyager

"Sirian and I have had quite a few matches, and I feel that I know what he does before going in. He takes what he knows from previous games and how he thinks his opponent is going to fly and makes a gameplan before ever stepping into the Pyro. He modifies it as the game goes along, but for the most part he sticks to his overall strategy throughout the game. Based on the size of the level and the fact that he knows I tire in long games, I figured he would drag this one out to be six hours and do hit and run the entire game. I wasn't too far off. :) I guessed this going in and decided to counter it with infinite patience. I believe that a faster-paced game favors me when playing Sirian and I know that in this type of level there would be no way to do that without taking the brunt of the damage. I felt fairly confident despite some heavy D1/D2 rust. I had practiced the level with a couple of others to familiarize myself with its layout a few weeks before. I knew it well enough to hold my own. I was ahead at five by one point and things were moving along smoothly. Two of the first five kills were Sirian coming back for spew and dying immediately. I knew I couldn't count on any more of those. I was actually surprised that I had managed two. :) Classic Sirian style, he decided to change everything up. He stuck to long-distance shooting of lasers and flash missiles. There was no way to be aggressive and chase him because the path to his pyro was littered with thousands of airborn missiles. It became a game of peek-a-boo and cat-and-mouse. I managed to stay within reach at ten. He was ahead ten to eight. I decided to take a break and let him sweat for a few. I went to get a Coke, washed my face, chatted with the wife a minute.... :-) I came back refreshed and ready to take on an annoyed rat. ...I died three times in a row. Remind me not to take a break from games with Sirian. heh. Once he had a five point lead, there was very little chance of a recovery. I managed to make five to his next seven for a twenty to thirteen loss. All in all, I felt good about the game but I couldn't find a strategy that would allow me to consistently hurt his Pyro more than he hurt mine. If you play Sirian in here, you'd better have nerves of steel and the patience of a fusion rat."

-ENDER

T HE original Lightning! level was designed by Sirian for four-player anarchy for the Descent Rangers, on a theme of "white lightning" -- quad 6, omega, and flash, the three weapons with white shots or effects. There were no plasma cannons in the original level, no burners. Just quads, superlasers, omega, spread and vulcan. The level saw limited play, only a dozen matches or so, and was liked by only a minority of players, as compared to more popular levels from Sirian like Gunfight, Lunar Base, Mars Base, S2Classic, and Laserdeath.

When Sirian got a joystick in summer 97, he decided to remake the level, adding in some 3d dogfight zones, opening up a tunnel to speed up the game, and adding another secret. He also added a pair of plasma cannons, a fusion, two mercs, and four afterburners. All with an eye toward making the level playable for head to head games and increasing the skill factor. This is in addition to the quads and s-lasers, and the pairs of spread, vulcan, bombs, omega, converters and homers, plus one pack of guided and 18 packs of flash. 72 missiles.

Yes, that's right. 72 flash missiles!

This is a specialty level all the way: flash missile HELL. The lighting and textures of this level make it a bit difficult to see, and fighting blind is a skill you will need if you are to survive. You will also need patience. This level is quite large, and it is difficult to force an increase in the pace if you start to grow impatient. Playing here is akin to a real life war: a good bit of waiting, stalking, moving around, broken by sudden and furious fighting in which death comes quickly to the vanquished. As there are no defensible spots, camping is a dangerous undertaking and easily countered. Running is another matter. Experienced players can cope with a runner here, but they have to understand the level and use the opponent's movement patterns against him, which takes time to figure out.

You are advised to read the text file that comes with this level, and to be familiar with the layout, before you play. Although this is a level that requires both dogfight and tunnel skills, it also requires a great deal of stealth and patience. And most of all, how to astound your opponent as you kick his butt or escape his attack without needing to see where he is at. And if he can do this and you cannot, god save you, my friend. God help you.

Pro Lightning is a specialty level, focusing on skilled use of a single weapon (flash), much like Confuzion (fusion), Pilot's Duel (smarts), Atropos (quads), Min69 (gauss + mercs), UES (shakers) or Elegies lvl 4 (homers). Because this level can be slow to play in at times, has low visibility, low FPS in a few spots, and is a flash missile farm of the most extreme degree, its Overall Rating is a modest 6. Good luck to those who take up the challenge.

-Ratings-

Level Name	DF	TR	TM	TP	EB	GM	3D	WF	CR	LV	ST	Overall	Special
Pro Lightning!	6	9	2	1	8	5	4	7	2	5	10	6	L

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