Damosel is a planet in the Bogon Galaxy featured in Going Commando. It is a mostly domestic planet that appears to be covered almost entirely in water. It is home to Allgon City, a city made of various structures constructed on towers above sea level. It was visited by space tourists, and had two organic residents to be seen.
Ratchet and Clank traveled to Allgon City while it was being overrun by Protopets, after seeing a Darla Gratch report on Channel 64 News about the Protopet threat. Here, they also met the Hypnotist, who constructed the Hypnomatic after they found all the parts.
History[]
Damosel became quickly overrun by Protopets, due to selling at a low price point and having a "lightning fast" breeding cycle, as reported by Darla Gratch on Channel 64 News. Darla Gratch gave a glowing report on "Protopet mania" and how the Protopet was dubbed "the perfect companion", despite a very clear crisis occurring behind her.[1] Billy could also be seen in the background near the end of the report.
Ratchet and Clank were shown this report by the Mutant Crab on Smolg, after giving him 40,000 bolts at the end of the mission "Explore the docked ships". They then resolved to travel to the planet to help alleviate the crisis.
In "Explore the moon", Clank used an Ultra-Mech Pad to transform to Giant Clank and travel to the moon orbiting Damosel, and fight the mothership. After destroying it, he obtained the Mapper. In "Ride the train rails", Ratchet and Clank used the train rails nearby looking for a shortcut through the city.[2] While they did not find one, they did find one of three Hypnomatic parts.
Ratchet and Clank speaking with the Hypnotist
In "Save the overrun planet", Ratchet and Clank traveled through the city to fight off the Protopets. Along the way, the city sent extermibots programmed to destroy anything small and fuzzy, which also included Ratchet.[3] Eventually, the two found the Hypnotist, who gave them the mission "Bring Hypnomatic parts to Hypnotist". After obtaining the three Hypnomatic parts (one on Damosel, one on Smolg in the mission "Search the Distribution Facility", and one on Grelbin in the mission "Trade moonstones for Hypnomatic Part"), the Hypnotist pieced it together for 10,000 bolts. They were then able to find Angela in her home on Grelbin, as the Hypnomatic allowed them to travel through the factory that stood in the way of their ship and her home.
Geography[]
Overview[]
Map layout of Allgon City.
Damosel appears to be covered almost entirely in water, with the exception of a few rocky mountain landmasses that can be seen in the distance from Allgon City. It has a relatively normal atmosphere, with a cloudy blue sky.
Allgon City is suspended high above the sea on towers and stilts, and comprises several structures. Each building, street, and park is located on one of these structures of varying size. The structures have plenty of vegetation, in the form of trees and grass, throughout their streets. Several of these are also located inside circular domes, a common theme in the city, which let in sunlight through gaps at the top. Transportation also comes in the forms of taxis and teleporting trains on the train lines, which build up momentum along the train line before teleporting to another area. The city also has large billboard advertisements, mostly advertising the Protopet during Ratchet's arrival.
The Star Explorer lands on a circular tower with no roof, with a bridge leading into a structure with a dome-shaped room. This structure contains a Megacorp vendor, and has three exits: a bridge on the left to a small domed structure containing a Ultra-Mech Pad to the moon orbiting Damosel, a rail on the right connecting to the train rails, and a path in the front to a street beginning the initial city path.
Initial city path[]
The first street seen from the Star Explorer.
Between the landing pad and the downtown of Allgon city is a path visited by Ratchet in "Save the overrun planet". This path leads through two streets, a grocery store, and a park. The streets contain multi-story houses along them, each house having large front doors, a yellow dome roof on top, and a front yard with letterboxes and a small garden. The park, found in both streets, is contained within a dome structure, a pathway across it connecting the two entrances. The dome roof of the park has two holes on the left and right-hand side to allow in sunlight. The grocery store is entered from the second street, and only has two aisles of cereal boxes. At the back of the store is a balcony, with a taxi that leads to the downtown bank.[4]
Downtown[]
The downtown bank.
The downtown area is visited part-way through "Save the overrun city" after taking the taxi to the bank. The area visited by Ratchet comprises a path through a bank, a plaza, a larger grocery store, and two parks, similarly contained within domes.
The bank is a vast structure with a huge, rotating gold bolt above it, entered through a balcony forming an open back entrance. Inside on its bottom floor are four ATM machines across one of its wall, a counter with three sealed vaults near the back, and a fish-shaped fountain that pours water to a platform out a distance in the sea. The second floor has an upper balcony with ATM machines and a front entrance out into the plaza. The walls at the back of the bank by the entrance have two posters, one on the left which is a Protopet advertisement, and one on the right for Jak and Daxter.
The Megacorp pyramid.
The Receiver Bot path.
The plaza by the bank is populated by Receiver Bots, and contains a truncated pyramid in the center with Megacorp logos both rotating at the top and on the front side below it. It is connected to the grocery store, and a small door exit at the back leading to a skybridge connected to a park structure, containing a park with a pool of water inside a dome. Joined to this structure is a tunnel connected to another park structure. The tunnel, where Ratchet and Clank met the Hypnotist, contains a taxi, and a door behind bars into the park. This park is split in two by a stream running across it, and a mound on the right portion contains a statue of a Receiver Bot.
Train rails[]
The Allgon City train rails.
The rails are used by the trains to build up momentum along the rail before teleporting to another position. A few of the rails connected to buildings are stuck in one position, while many are electrical lines which the teleporting trains travel across. The trains are white with a red trim, and have a rail across the top which travels along the blue electric lines, before teleporting to a new position. Many electric transmission towers are found at the end of some nearby solid rails, and several red, electric rings are found along them. Part of the track is broken, leading to the crashing of several trains. A nearby platform contains a teleporter leading back to the Star Explorer.
Behind the scenes[]
Mike Stout designed all of Damosel, including the grind rail, with the exception of the enemy segments, which were instead programmed by Maxim Garber (the only level he programmed that was not an arena).[5] Stout designed the geometry for the level which was one of his first paper maps, though Lesley Mathieson designed the enemy setups.[6] Stout had great chemistry with Max, crediting his chemistry with Max for allowing the Thermanator to be used to obtain a secret in the bank,[7] though his design frustrated an artist for adding trees inside a structure, and for the park with water at the end.[8][9]
Additionally, Stout also coded parts of the level, including the rings and the teleporting trains. He considers it his best work on the game and spent as much time on it as on Todano, while Garber was happy to work on something that was not an arena.[10] Stout received praise from another designer at Insomniac Games, for the grind rail segment, saying it was one of his favorite segments in the series; said developer went on to design Stout's favorite section in Quest for Booty.[11]
The space tourists on Damosel were reused from the tourists Stout had made for Todano.[12] The robot's houses broke a rule of no arbitrary, invisible collision, through the houses being designed as spawners, as they would explode with robots and Protopets running out of them, flew in the face of this rule. To get around it, the system set in place was that the houses would only explode if they were far away enough from Ratchet.[13]
Clank performing the same dance Daxter does
There are two references to the Jak and Daxter series on Damosel. At the end of "Ride the train rails" and finding the Hypnomatic part, Ratchet held the Hypnomatic part in the air, while Clank performed the same dance that Daxter performs in Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy after obtaining a power cell. Also, during the path through the city in "Save the overrun city", several posters of Jak and Daxter were seen on the walls.
Additionally Dan Johnson's face can be seen on the cereal boxes in the stores.
Citations[]
- ↑ Going Commando script § "Darla Gratch Reporting"
- ↑ Going Commando menu § "Ride the train rails"
- ↑ Going Commando, Monsterpedia
- ↑ Going Commando script § "Transportation"
- ↑ Stout, Garcia August 24 2011 0:28
- ↑ Stout, Garcia August 24 2011 12:20
- ↑ Stout, Garcia August 27 2011 4:58
- ↑ Stout, Garcia August 24 2011 13:41
- ↑ Stout, Garcia August 27 2011 11:31
- ↑ Stout, Garcia August 24 2011 2:56
- ↑ Stout, Garcia August 24 2011 7:13
- ↑ Stout, Garcia August 24 2011 9:30
- ↑ Stout, Garcia August 27 2011 3:29
References[]
- Insomniac Games (2003). Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando [Game]. Sony Computer Entertainment. PlayStation 2.
- Stout, Mike; Garcia, Tony [@uselesspodcasts] (2011, August 24). Ratchet & Clank 2 Dev Commentary: 29 - Mike's Best Level [Video]. YouTube.
- Stout, Mike; Garcia, Tony [@uselesspodcasts] (2011, August 27). Ratchet & Clank 2 Dev Commentary: 30 - Mike's Redemption [Video]. YouTube.