: you do get a Fusion pistol at the beginning
: of Petal, as well as five Fusion batteries. This allows the player to get
: through those opening corridors in the cave much easier than otherwise.
: That was my strategy when I played (not vid) the level. Grab the Fusion
: pistol, the batteries and IMMEDIATELY head down the corridor. You will
: certainly meet up with a few enemies, but none that you cannot handle with
: the Fusion pistol. It really is fairly easy to get to the PB. From there,
: getting to the 1x recharger is not quite as easy. However, Ben does give
: you a 1x canister along the way. Once you have command of the 1x
: recharger, the level is quite fun to explore and play.
Absolutely. This is exactly the strategy I use when playing Petal on TC. It works and it makes it beatable. Surprisingly, Ben was oblivious to this strategy and even in responding to my post here, couldn't understand why I wouldn't go back to read the initial terminal. He anticipated taking out all the initial monsters with the alien weapon you arrive with, but I don't need to tell you that it doesn't last near long enough on TC. The big problem with our strategy is the distance of the PB from the cave area - it's extremely tedious to keep returning to the pattern buffer & recharge from the caves. This is otherwise a great level, but I hate constant backtracking. And Ben's preference for making the level challenging for him to play on Normal makes it harder for him to optimize it for all levels. I have nothing against challenging maps, but the mapmaker really ought to be able to test their own map on all levels of difficulty. Maybe I'm being niaive, but I wouldn't particularly trust a beta tester to tell me that a map was playable on TC - there's a big difference between playable and optimal. Oh, the fusion weapon is essential here, but it's not a particularly good match for those troopers on the way to the PB.
: While we are discussing Fell, I think it would make an excellent scenario to
: do as a Volunteer Series (once you are back in the country Steve).....that
: or Excalibur: Morgana's Revenge, or both!
I was actually thinking of suggesting EMR, even though it doesn't take place in the Marathon Universe. Still, I'd like to take a breather for a bit - I have a lot of pressing work that keeps getting put off and sooner or later it will affect my job. I also have another pet Marathon project - a Pfh'Joueur Spoiler Guide that I'd like to complete - and would consider doing a volunteers series on that by releasing the spoiler guide one level at a time, letting people play that level, then discussing it here. Pfh'Joueur also has a strong story element that is worthy of discussion.
Regarding a volunteers series for Fell, I would agree that Fell has one of the strongest story elements of any 3rd party scenario and a volunteers series for it would be outstanding. I'm wondering if we should give Ben a chance to rework some of it, however. He's about to defend his dissertation and, once that is done, has promised to return to working on Fell. He has a bunch of new levels he'd like to add including some secret ones, and he has my extensive list of bug fixes. He's also agreed to deal with some of the most significant bottlenecks - the overwhelming onslaught of fighters on the first level, the lack of a PB and recharger near the beginning of Petal and the higher than acceptable risk in going for the more difficult exit in Tombs. This might take him a while, but the story and the visuals in Fell are among the best in any Marathon scenario and if Ben deals with the most significant issues, I think that Fell could be one of the best 3rd party scenarios - better than TI or Evil, and while not as polished as Rubicon, at least as good in terms of story and gameplay. Done right, Fell would be an absolute must-play, and worthy of a volunteers effort.
