OK, so because of my sudden strange post in the Games section, I wanted to post here an explanation and rundown of what kind of addon packs were planned for Unreal.
First cancelled expansion: The Unreal Level Pack
This one was featured in the magazines and everywhere with ads right after Unreal was released. The truth about this expansion is that they started preparing it all the way back in 1997 and Shane Caudle went on the project as the first guy to do so even before autumn 1997. He created the ShaneChurch set for this pack and later reused some brushes/parts for DM Gothic it would appear.
The inclusion of shanechurch into botpack was rather last-minute decision as it is completely absent from the leaked beta version.
Not much is known about the story of the pack, as it has been kept mostly under wraps. It is unknown whether the elements of the next pack or rtnp had any bearing on its story. It would have most likely recycled some cut Unreal levels as well.
Second cancelled expansion: The Cyberlore's Mission Pack.
This is the expansion pack that the "expansion notes" document is from, it is signed by cyberlore, not epic and was part of a deal the licensees had as a possibility to make expansion packs.
After the GTi deal was cancelled with all those licensees except wheel of time with legend, it was only natural that Legend Ent. went for the chance to make their own take, but if those other games like Emissary woulon't have been cancelled we would get more of those Mission Packs other than RtNP.
This is the one which has descriptions of the civil war on na pali and is often confused these days to think that it was original plan for rtnp, the truth is they were separate projects and the numbering would be most likely rearranged depending on which company made their pack first...
It is also unknown if the level "fortressentrance" was part of this, even though it does look like Shane Caudle's work it might not have been and might have been part of this. The situation is complicated further by existence of two other levels cut from Unreal, Triton and "Mountain Fortress", the last-minute level being replaced by yet another last-minute level: Outpost 3J(which obviously still had by error the old title in very late pre-release material as evidenced by the title found in localizations which name the levels Mountain Fortress and Citadel respectively).
Overall, it was an interesting expansion pack premise and one that would try to combine some RPG elements into Unreal such as buying weapons from neutral mercenaries, different paths for different characters you'd choose (including a member of one of the skaarj clans) and optional boss or two depending on your choice, with the bosses being an enemy skaarj queen/warlord and dragon and a mysterioud boss that was most likely modeled upon the "wizard" idea that would be the head of a "black stone castle", a central location in the pack.
It would also feature some custom titan classes, a slith boss that would lay slith eggs, multiple weapons including a harpoon gun, confusion psi weapons, multipurpose launchers with various types of gel like sticky ones allowing you to climb surfaces and so on. The environment would also feature jungle and desert. Overall probably the most complex one of them.
Third cancelled pack: The Shareware levels
There was a shareware version of Unreal planned firmly at two points, one before Unreal's release and one past the release. The past one would have been on version 220 coinciding with the planned release of Unreal: Tournament Edition, a mixed version of Unreal and BotPack in one package, before BotPack was made a separate game as UT (kind of going back and forth with it too).
But the first shareware version was meant to be released on version 100 as opposed to the retail 200 (yes that's why)...
The xmas unreal trailer features some levels meant to be in this one, as it would follow a different character than the main game and thus be more separate. However you could later reuse/port the levels to the regular version should you want to play them there. That was at least seemingly the intention. This plan changed back and forth again but it's an interesting peek at what if.
Especially if the only Unreal demo/shareware version was the half-assed Unreal Special Edition that without a fix (which is no longer to be found except my fix) or applying regular patch on it, it was impossible to play Dark Arena due to missing OEMEnd. And it didn't really have the UnrealI/UnrealShare separation yet as it happened to come out before 220 was ready or way there yet. And three exclusive dm levels that are way known by this point. It was just an OEM version and some included special maps by creative as "unreal scenarios". However it was nothing compared to the original shareware plan.
This included levels that were heavy on showcasing some scripted sequences and such in order to "woo" people into buying the game.
Fourth cancelled pack: The Intel OEM Pack
A special Intel based OEM version that may or may have not come out was being developed since around March 1998. The main level designer was Eric Reuter, who had some gripes with Mark Rein unfortunately and when he left Epic he deleted his levels from their FTP as well, although the Intel Pack was still going and was headed by Nigel Kent. There is a chance that it got released in the end with some obscure intel product but there's no confirmation of it.
Most of the info came via Eric and Nigel, Eric had it described on his website as working on this proprietary pack. One screenshot survived of this and maybe Amethyst was going to reappear there as well at one point. However it was primarily crypt based and the style/detail of the new levels was more reminiscent of the cancelled unreal psx (which was thankfully mostly recovered when it came to levels).
Its possible that the cut crypt levels like Soledad would also make their way here or be reused in another pack since they were not planned for rtnp and epic forbade using them there(as it turned out from conversations I had with various epic/legend members, or they would reppear in the 220 shareware version instead).
Fifth cancelled pack: Unreal Mega Pack - not much is known about this apart that it was scheduled for december 1998, it might have been a combination pack or something else, maybe in the same spirit as the mega pack for ut2004, meaning it could take the form of previously community made levels that won the contest (similar idea like the "french level pack" we had with yrex, which was based off the limited french unreal edition with the votlan bonus level and the links to download contest levels and more). So it would be probably the inhouse epic take on some contest levels rearranged into a bigger and more polished pack. There would also have been extra textures/example levels in the separate UnrealED commercial release which was scheduled before this pack would hit stores...its likely the megapack would have incorporated all the cut stuff that still remained in the source files like peacemaker and the slith variations or it would have been in the level pack instead, or both
First cancelled expansion: The Unreal Level Pack
This one was featured in the magazines and everywhere with ads right after Unreal was released. The truth about this expansion is that they started preparing it all the way back in 1997 and Shane Caudle went on the project as the first guy to do so even before autumn 1997. He created the ShaneChurch set for this pack and later reused some brushes/parts for DM Gothic it would appear.
The inclusion of shanechurch into botpack was rather last-minute decision as it is completely absent from the leaked beta version.
Not much is known about the story of the pack, as it has been kept mostly under wraps. It is unknown whether the elements of the next pack or rtnp had any bearing on its story. It would have most likely recycled some cut Unreal levels as well.
Second cancelled expansion: The Cyberlore's Mission Pack.
This is the expansion pack that the "expansion notes" document is from, it is signed by cyberlore, not epic and was part of a deal the licensees had as a possibility to make expansion packs.
After the GTi deal was cancelled with all those licensees except wheel of time with legend, it was only natural that Legend Ent. went for the chance to make their own take, but if those other games like Emissary woulon't have been cancelled we would get more of those Mission Packs other than RtNP.
This is the one which has descriptions of the civil war on na pali and is often confused these days to think that it was original plan for rtnp, the truth is they were separate projects and the numbering would be most likely rearranged depending on which company made their pack first...
It is also unknown if the level "fortressentrance" was part of this, even though it does look like Shane Caudle's work it might not have been and might have been part of this. The situation is complicated further by existence of two other levels cut from Unreal, Triton and "Mountain Fortress", the last-minute level being replaced by yet another last-minute level: Outpost 3J(which obviously still had by error the old title in very late pre-release material as evidenced by the title found in localizations which name the levels Mountain Fortress and Citadel respectively).
Overall, it was an interesting expansion pack premise and one that would try to combine some RPG elements into Unreal such as buying weapons from neutral mercenaries, different paths for different characters you'd choose (including a member of one of the skaarj clans) and optional boss or two depending on your choice, with the bosses being an enemy skaarj queen/warlord and dragon and a mysterioud boss that was most likely modeled upon the "wizard" idea that would be the head of a "black stone castle", a central location in the pack.
It would also feature some custom titan classes, a slith boss that would lay slith eggs, multiple weapons including a harpoon gun, confusion psi weapons, multipurpose launchers with various types of gel like sticky ones allowing you to climb surfaces and so on. The environment would also feature jungle and desert. Overall probably the most complex one of them.
Third cancelled pack: The Shareware levels
There was a shareware version of Unreal planned firmly at two points, one before Unreal's release and one past the release. The past one would have been on version 220 coinciding with the planned release of Unreal: Tournament Edition, a mixed version of Unreal and BotPack in one package, before BotPack was made a separate game as UT (kind of going back and forth with it too).
But the first shareware version was meant to be released on version 100 as opposed to the retail 200 (yes that's why)...
The xmas unreal trailer features some levels meant to be in this one, as it would follow a different character than the main game and thus be more separate. However you could later reuse/port the levels to the regular version should you want to play them there. That was at least seemingly the intention. This plan changed back and forth again but it's an interesting peek at what if.
Especially if the only Unreal demo/shareware version was the half-assed Unreal Special Edition that without a fix (which is no longer to be found except my fix) or applying regular patch on it, it was impossible to play Dark Arena due to missing OEMEnd. And it didn't really have the UnrealI/UnrealShare separation yet as it happened to come out before 220 was ready or way there yet. And three exclusive dm levels that are way known by this point. It was just an OEM version and some included special maps by creative as "unreal scenarios". However it was nothing compared to the original shareware plan.
This included levels that were heavy on showcasing some scripted sequences and such in order to "woo" people into buying the game.
Fourth cancelled pack: The Intel OEM Pack
A special Intel based OEM version that may or may have not come out was being developed since around March 1998. The main level designer was Eric Reuter, who had some gripes with Mark Rein unfortunately and when he left Epic he deleted his levels from their FTP as well, although the Intel Pack was still going and was headed by Nigel Kent. There is a chance that it got released in the end with some obscure intel product but there's no confirmation of it.
Most of the info came via Eric and Nigel, Eric had it described on his website as working on this proprietary pack. One screenshot survived of this and maybe Amethyst was going to reappear there as well at one point. However it was primarily crypt based and the style/detail of the new levels was more reminiscent of the cancelled unreal psx (which was thankfully mostly recovered when it came to levels).
Its possible that the cut crypt levels like Soledad would also make their way here or be reused in another pack since they were not planned for rtnp and epic forbade using them there(as it turned out from conversations I had with various epic/legend members, or they would reppear in the 220 shareware version instead).
Fifth cancelled pack: Unreal Mega Pack - not much is known about this apart that it was scheduled for december 1998, it might have been a combination pack or something else, maybe in the same spirit as the mega pack for ut2004, meaning it could take the form of previously community made levels that won the contest (similar idea like the "french level pack" we had with yrex, which was based off the limited french unreal edition with the votlan bonus level and the links to download contest levels and more). So it would be probably the inhouse epic take on some contest levels rearranged into a bigger and more polished pack. There would also have been extra textures/example levels in the separate UnrealED commercial release which was scheduled before this pack would hit stores...its likely the megapack would have incorporated all the cut stuff that still remained in the source files like peacemaker and the slith variations or it would have been in the level pack instead, or both