After investigating this a bit and talking to some ex-legend members and going through the u2 alphas etc, I can conclude a lot of information about what was planned and how the game was meant to follow. I also talked to UnrealBerserker about this although some of the stuff we're left to theorize(And disagree on).
I also want to correct some misinformation/mistakes made by GreatEmerald during the RUFX hoax fiasco, because there was never Unreal II RC9 as such or anything with such a name and most of the content was already gone by that point that was removed either way.
I'm not sure what the exact words were in that announcement anymore and I'm not going to dwelve into schemantics like that. It might have had functioning ipdrv still but I kind of doubt even that, as in fully functional. Because we all know, they decided (mostly from Atari's push) to remove Unreal 2 multiplayer altogether not to hurt ut2kx sales. This is a ludicrous decision and instead if they insisted they should have merged the games or released them in one big package or something so you would always get both.
But the most confusing to me seems how the level order was shuffled ever since E3 2002 apparently and this is something worth an article.
Even an alpha version from 2000 had two multiplayer levels (U2 Assault version of "purgatory" 0 basically m03a and m03b in one map as assault map). And ctf-asteroid/modtest that ended up in a very different version as xmp-freefall and also appeared in the e3 2001 version as e3asteroid with a single non-team satellite that already had much of its cool interior removed...
First, the Tutorial has been revealed to be M10 which it is also later in the game, but it was meant to be some kind of research complex originally and not TCA base, based on pre-release concepts. The outside part of Hell was also most likely part of another map originally as all it was meant for is antenna relay stations, something similar to what Aida decribed was used to lure the Striders. There's tons of stuff like this.
Now the first mission of the released game is M08 and this was supposed to always have a jungle theme but the introduction of the skaarj/izarian was added there later as such.
The next released mission, actually seems to be M05 and this was to include Kai backstory and other things (if you look at where the seagoat starts there, you will see a ton of kai decos and the cave even is called kai dwelling). So this was like Yoda or something....
but probably different planet altogether.
Next there is the Hell mission which is the original m01, but since the 2000 alpha the outside part part a changed completely, there were also bathrooms and a comm center that got completely cut, m01b is more or less the same in layout except the fire was at different spot, there was no secret ventshaft and it wasn't a medical room instead just crew quarters where they slept etc with lockers, destroyabe lightsources and other such stuff. M01c is what contained the medical room instead and it was different and otherwiseits just more of those hell tunnels which ended up in m01b in the release version.
M01d was mostly unchanged when it comes to layout but the broken elevtor thing disappeared and the use of the ladder and some things got shuffled around/removed. M01f was completely different/unfinished and featured a dome with telescope.
There was also a cool elevator sequence in the beginning of m01b which is very different and it is a ramp elevator going down instead of a circular one.
I will continue this description later. Also the facility was run by Inuit and not "axon" who didn't exist yet.
I also want to correct some misinformation/mistakes made by GreatEmerald during the RUFX hoax fiasco, because there was never Unreal II RC9 as such or anything with such a name and most of the content was already gone by that point that was removed either way.
I'm not sure what the exact words were in that announcement anymore and I'm not going to dwelve into schemantics like that. It might have had functioning ipdrv still but I kind of doubt even that, as in fully functional. Because we all know, they decided (mostly from Atari's push) to remove Unreal 2 multiplayer altogether not to hurt ut2kx sales. This is a ludicrous decision and instead if they insisted they should have merged the games or released them in one big package or something so you would always get both.
But the most confusing to me seems how the level order was shuffled ever since E3 2002 apparently and this is something worth an article.
Even an alpha version from 2000 had two multiplayer levels (U2 Assault version of "purgatory" 0 basically m03a and m03b in one map as assault map). And ctf-asteroid/modtest that ended up in a very different version as xmp-freefall and also appeared in the e3 2001 version as e3asteroid with a single non-team satellite that already had much of its cool interior removed...
First, the Tutorial has been revealed to be M10 which it is also later in the game, but it was meant to be some kind of research complex originally and not TCA base, based on pre-release concepts. The outside part of Hell was also most likely part of another map originally as all it was meant for is antenna relay stations, something similar to what Aida decribed was used to lure the Striders. There's tons of stuff like this.
Now the first mission of the released game is M08 and this was supposed to always have a jungle theme but the introduction of the skaarj/izarian was added there later as such.
The next released mission, actually seems to be M05 and this was to include Kai backstory and other things (if you look at where the seagoat starts there, you will see a ton of kai decos and the cave even is called kai dwelling). So this was like Yoda or something....
but probably different planet altogether.
Next there is the Hell mission which is the original m01, but since the 2000 alpha the outside part part a changed completely, there were also bathrooms and a comm center that got completely cut, m01b is more or less the same in layout except the fire was at different spot, there was no secret ventshaft and it wasn't a medical room instead just crew quarters where they slept etc with lockers, destroyabe lightsources and other such stuff. M01c is what contained the medical room instead and it was different and otherwiseits just more of those hell tunnels which ended up in m01b in the release version.
M01d was mostly unchanged when it comes to layout but the broken elevtor thing disappeared and the use of the ladder and some things got shuffled around/removed. M01f was completely different/unfinished and featured a dome with telescope.
There was also a cool elevator sequence in the beginning of m01b which is very different and it is a ramp elevator going down instead of a circular one.
I will continue this description later. Also the facility was run by Inuit and not "axon" who didn't exist yet.