I've confirmed my underlying hypothesis that this level could be turned into an "earth 1" level, that would launch into the normal earth level.  While I'm sure there are much better ways to integrate this level into the game, doing the above is by far the easiest as there is no brush work to be done and I don't have to add training or any of that either. 

The work that does need to be done is:

1) Add some trivial objects at the end to indicate to the player that the recruitment center is decomissioned and that there's a detour via tram that will take you to the currently active recruitment center somewhere else.  This is nothing but a couple of objects and some signage.

2) The bulk of the work would be to export each unique gamesys archetype from this test level into whatever gamesys the player happens to be running.  Now I can do this manually and have done it on a few archetypes to verify that it works.  It does.  The problem is, it's not future proof unless I use DMLs to do it, but I don't know how to write DMLs. 

3) The real earth.mis needs a very simple and small alteration to the level start marker to let SS2 know where to spawn the player after the testlevel is over

4) cam.cfg needs to to be modified to launch the testlevel first instead of earth.mis

So, what I can do, if anybody is interested, is I can modify the level geometry to have that nice clean exit I was talking about, so as not to break immersion, and I can either A) post the latest SCP gamesys with the modifications already made to it, along with a modified cam.cfg, preearth.mis and earth.mis or B) attach a zip file with all the exported archetypes so that somebody else can amalgamate them into a single DML file.  I know B is the obvious choice but at the moment I only have the ability to do A entirely on my own.

Emon put in the career selection but otherwise, no.

This was a pretty neat idea.  I always felt that the Earth level could've been expanded a little more for exploration purposes, not unlike Ponterbee's Earth level.

There's no drag-select that I know of. As for the texturing, you may have to redo it manually; I don't know. What I told you was all theory; I've never actually done it (other than testing to make sure it worked like I thought it did).

Sounds straightforward enough....I'll give it a shot.

I'm trying to do this myself but my absense of ShockED skills is getting in the way.  After analyzing the default earth.mis and the new one, I think I know how to fix this level in theory but not in practice:

I need to make a multibrush of the training areas and copy them into the test level (somehow)
I need to create a teleport trap linking from the booth in the main part of the level to the test area's teleport trap.
I need to add a couple of sound traps with the correct sound schemas so the robot talks to you.
I need to make a button or something for the basic training booth since you can't currently get to it and then make the button teleport you to basic training instead of using a trap for that.
I need to make sure the process is reversible by setting a marker or something at the origin point in the main part of the level so you can return from training.

Is this right so far?

Couple problems with this...

1. The default earth.mis appears to be stripped so there's no architecture to store in a multibrush.
2. I don't know how to make and copy multibrushes from one file to another.
G. Somebody do it for me so I don't have to continue embarassing myself

Hate to bump an old topic but did the sounds ever get put into this level?  In other words, is it the same as the original except better or is it better in some ways, missing in others?

Thanks Enchantermon. If you think you're done with it, give me a sign and I'lll replace the level in the first post with your updated version.

Nice work

Yeah, as Ionosfear mentioned above the level is not fit to be used as a start for the official campaign. I'll make a note in the first post until someone makes the pointer lead to medsci.mis.

Well this is interesting, I didn't expect a following for a test level I did ages ago

Basically I scrapped this level, for several reasons, the primary being an error in polycounts (stand in the corner and look down both streets at once), it being too fucking big with not enough detail in, as someone pointed out, a dead world (the impressive white building, I believe it was the triop building a very long time ago had to be cut because of engine restrictions.  If I remember correctly it had a triop hollograph spinning on the reception desk) and as it was my first level, I really wasn't happy with it.

Issues aside, the 'pointer' as it were, leads to a level called "washington" (I don't have dromed here so I'm guessing"  which was another level 80% made but never released, which is why it exits after the cutscene, as you don't have that one

Same, Mine CTD'd too. The Tutorials do not work either, If I understood the whole installing/editing/mapping thing I would do it myself.

I'll try it, I was hoping to learn to do this myself

Edit:

I tried it, but it lacked the feel of the city that the original had, I would have appreciated more buildings to visit.