(This article is currently under construction!)
1 Information
Metropolis Dawn Expansion Pack is the fully official, but unreleased standalone expansion pack for Microsoft Urban Assault. The Metropolis Dawn expansion pack was officially planned and developed by the original German UA TerraTools developers just shortly after the release of the original Urban Assault.
2 Overview
Metropolis Dawn expansion pack for Urban Assault primarily features two brand new and full official single-player campaigns for the Ghorkov and the Taerkasten factions within their own respective mission scenarios and perspectives.
The new Metropolis Dawn campaigns take place after the finale of the Resistance campaign events from the original Urban Assault Resistance campaign in terms of timeline and storyline (after the successful destruction of the first Mykonian Parasite Machine by SDU7), where the Resistance has regained their global influence and established new hegemony upon the Earth as the victorious faction that heroically saved the Earth from a certain extinction. The expansion campaigns allow the player to experience the continuation of the story of global conflicts and warfare from the perspectives of the other two major human factions.
Along with the new official campaigns, the Metropolis Dawn Expansion Pack also introduces several new vehicles, weapons, buildings, as well as many different types of new and updated multiplayer levels. Additionally, unlike the original Urban Assault which is officially supported in four official languages (English, German, French, Japanese), Metropolis Dawn is available in three official languages (English, German, French).
3 History
Metropolis Dawn was initially planned and officially developed just shortly after the release of Urban Assault by the TerraTools development team back in the year 1998. However, due to certain contract issues between their new publisher company for the expansion pack, Metropolis Dawn was never commercially released despite being almost completely finished.
During the early 2000s, several original UA developers from TerraTools visited the UAHQ message boards (one of the earliest major UA message boards created by Allan "WinAce" Glenn), and the game file package that contains the full data and content of the much-rumoured Metropolis Dawn expansion pack was leaked to the UA community at some point later.
4 New Contents
4.1 Host Stations
4.1.1 Ghorkov
- (Single-player campaign mode only; Player-only) Turantul I (Metropolis Dawn)
- (Single-player campaign mode only; Player-only) Turantul II (Skorpio) (Metropolis Dawn)
4.1.2 Taerkasten
- (Single-player campaign mode only; Player-only) Taerkasten Flying Fortress (Metropolis Dawn)
4.2 Vehicles
4.2.1 Taerkasten
- Ostwind (Kettenfahrzeug)
- Thor's Hammer (Odin)
4.2.2 Mykonian
4.3 Buildings
4.3.1 Taerkasten
- (Single-player campaign mode only; Player-only) Taerkasten Flak Station (Metropolis Dawn)
5 Levels
5.1 Single-player Levels
Level names in this section are based on English version by default. (TO DO: Add German and French localisation names.)
5.1.1 Ghorkov Campaign Levels
- Generalmobilization
- Einkesselung
- Doublecrossed
- The Contact
- Heckenschützen (Snipers!)
- Mykonian Encirclement
- Taerkasten Fortress "Smontje Broselsmund"
- Spießrutenlauf
- Parasite Under Construction
- In Last Second
- Taerkasten Wimps
- The Stoudson Cooperation
- Frozen Kamshadka
- Pirates Islands On Chinese See
- No More Tide
- Parasite Dome
5.1.2 Taerkasten Campaign Levels
- Order To Fire
- Marshland
- Dreaded Canyon
- Expanse Of Rubble
- Mountains Of Thunder
- Slippery Night
- Stoudson's Bastion
- Bomb Thread
- Dark Shadows Over Green Valley
- Rocket Hill
- Dejavu
- Dreiländereck
- Badlands
- Pyre
- The Fight For Liberation
5.2 Multiplayer Levels
There are total 17 new multiplayer levels and 4 updated multiplayer levels in Metropolis Dawn. (TO DO: Add full level titles.)
5.2.1 New Levels
- L9494.ldf (Triangle - XPack)
- L105105.ldf (Radial - XPack)
- L115115.ldf (Babelsberg - XPack)
- L124124.ldf (Sectionalism - XPack)
- L127127.ldf (Encroachments - XPack)
- L129129.ldf (Haywire - XPack)
- L135135.ldf (Anarchy - XPack)
- L148148.ldf (Event Horizon - XPack)
- L150150.ldf (R.A.G. - XPack)
- L151151.ldf (Scramble - XPack)
- L152152.ldf (Duck and Cover - XPack)
- L153153.ldf (Divine - XPack)
- L154154.ldf (Hell on Earth - XPack)
- L155155.ldf (Hit-n-Run - XPack)
- L156156.ldf (Sanssouci - XPack)
- L157157.ldf (Zwinger - XPack)
- L158158.ldf (Rock-n-Roll - XPack)
5.2.2 Updated Levels
- L100100.ldf (The Artificial - XPack)
- L110110.ldf (Templar Knights - XPack)
- L117117.ldf (Four Power Talks - XPack)
- L130130.ldf (Run to the Hills - XPack)
6 Download
Metropolis Dawn Expansion Pack for Urban Assault is hosted and available for download on our main file repository server.
Please check the Installation section below for the detailed game installation instruction guide of the expansion file package.
6.1 Download Link
Metropolis Dawn (Expansion Pack)
OpenUA Standalone Package also contains the full Metropolis Dawn game data files and content, which have been configured for OpenUA.
The installation process for Metropolis Dawn does not apply for the OpenUA Standalone Package, since everything is pre-installed already.
6.2 Download Link
OpenUA Standalone Package - Full Game
7 Installation
7.1 Windows
To install Metropolis Dawn, the user must have either 'Typical' or 'Full' version of the original Urban Assault installed on their machine with full registry data. The MD installer (Setup.exe) will automatically search and detect the required UA registry keys to determine the appropriate location for copying the expansion data files. Therefore, if your Urban Assault installation is not clean or damaged/corrupted, there is a high chance that the installer may not work properly.
It is highly recommended to launch the MD installer file with administrator rights and via backward compatibility settings (such as Windows 98/XP). Once the game installer is launched, follow the setup instructions provided by the program in order to install the Metropolis Dawn expansion pack. If the installation is successful, there will be two official shortcuts created for starting the official Ghorkov and Taerkasten campaigns at the desktop.
The multiplayer mode on Metropolis Dawn should be played via these shortcuts as well since they load the appropriate environment variables for the MD dataset for the MD contents.
7.2 Linux
The Metropolis Dawn Expansion Pack installer file and the game software itself are only available on Windows API by default. However, some common alternatives such as Wine can be used. OpenUA will also natively work on Linux.
8 Troubleshooting
Check the Windows Troubleshooting article for further assistance. Most instructions in the article also apply to the expansion pack as well. Alternatively, should you encounter any further issues or problems during the installation process or gameplay, feel free to visit the forums and open a support ticket thread about the issues.
9 Trivia
Some mistranslation errors are present in the English language version briefing text of Metropolis Dawn when compared to the original German version briefing text. This was most likely caused by minor oversights or mistakes during the translation process.
The language system written in the Ghorkov menu background artwork manifesto of the Metropolis Dawn is Cyrillic Alphabet (Russian: Кириллический алфавит). This writing script is the most widespread and prominent language system used in Eastern Europe and Northern Eurasia regions. The contents and constructions of the text themselves appear to be a type of neologism invention or a hybrid amalgamation form of languages with the influences and transliterations inspired by various Eastern and Central European languages.
The language system written in the Taerkasten menu background artwork manuscript of the Metropolis Dawn is Theban Alphabet (German: Thebanisches Alphabet). Alternatively known as 'Runes of Honorius', it is found in various western occult and esoteric neopaganism contexts and works throughout the history (especially in Germany and Britain). This cryptographic and steganographic writing system was historically practised (and almost certainly devised) by at least two German polymaths during the Renaissance period of the Holy Roman Empire: Johannes Trithemius, the German polymath and scholar who is widely presumed to be the first creator of the Theban Alphabet system; and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, the German polymath and occult writer who was one of the most significant pupils of Trithemius, along with the Swiss alchemist Paracelsus. Specifically, the system was employed during the late medieval and Renaissance period of the Holy Roman Empire in their respective works regarding the occultism and esotericism. ('Polygraphiae' by Johannes Trithemius, published in 1518; and 'De Occulta Philosophia' by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, published in 1531.) Such works and other magnum opus from various writers were frequently placed in Index Librorum Prohibitorum upon publication, until the bibliographical list was eventually abolished in the year 1966 by Pope Paul VI. (TO DO: Add further reference material and sources from the British Library --Charlotte)
In the Metropolis Dawn Ghorkov campaign, the player will initially begin the campaign with the Turantul I host station for the early-game missions. During the campaign progress, the player will be promoted and will be transferred to the more powerful Turantul II 'Skorpio' host station for the mid- to late-game missions.
In the Metropolis Dawn Taerkasten campaign, the player's variants of the Taerkasten Flying Fortress and the Taerkasten Flak Station possess reduced projectile damage than normal, which results in lower firepower output than their standard counterparts. This design was probably implemented to limit the effectiveness and reliance of heavily defensive-oriented strategy from the player, where the Taerkastens possess numerous natural advantages already.
The final mission of the Ghorkov campaign, Parasite Dome, contains some building placement error for the enemy factions. This is the only instance where a such mistake is present in the entire game. It was most likely caused by accident during the process of switching the locations of the Resistance and Taerkasten bases (they were originally the opposite as evidenced by the satellite image map).
The two Taerkasten tank units that are newly introduced in Metropolis Dawn expansion pack (Thor's Hammer and Ostwind) are based on and inspired by the tank/vehicle designs from WWII, whereas the original two Taerkasten tanks (Eisenhans and Leonid) are based on and inspired by the tank designs from WWI.
The true original faction name of the Ghorkov, the Kyterneser, is used throughout the Ghorkov campaign to refer the faction; and both faction names are clearly distinguished as an exonym and an endonym to designate the faction. It is also possible that this distinction arises due to the separate geographical branches of the same faction. (See the Kyterneser article for more information.)
Compared to the original Urban Assault, where the game was officially localised into 4 languages (English, German, French, Japanese), the Metropolis Dawn expansion pack officially supports 3 languages data (English, German, French), without the Japanese language translation this time.
Some single-player level names in the Metropolis Dawn campaigns are fully in German in the English localisation as well. Some of the examples are Einkesselung (Encirclement), Spießrutenlauf (Gauntlet), or Dreiländereck (Tripoint; usually refers to the famous monument site that is located in Basel, Switzerland which marks the tripoint where the borders of France, Germany and Switzerland meet.
- Likewise, some new multiplayer level names that are introduced in MD expansion pack are based on various famous and historical sites in Germany: 'Babelsberg' is the largest borough in Potsdam as well as the original HQ location of TerraTools (Villa Urbig); whilst both 'Sanssouci' and 'Zwinger' are famous royal palatial complexes in Potsdam and Dresden, the state capital cities of the German states of Brandenburg and Saxony, respectively.
10 Notes
- The default Ghorkov player profile name is 'Conrade', and the default Taerkasten player profile name is 'Truzen'.