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	Re: PF Volunteers - Base of Titans/On Top of the W
	Posted By: Dr. John Sumner	Date: 7/24/04 12:59 p.m.
	In Response To: PF Volunteers - Base of Titans/On Top of the World (Steve Levinson) : The level design is as bizarre as the AI - switches that must be hit in a : certain order to activate platforms that lead to other switches. Mark gave : the exact sequence a few days ago and I won't repeat it here but my : approach was to basically hit everything and take whatever opened up or : started working. Oops! That was me, not Mark. :) The only reason I would suggest not flipping everything at once is that it CAN activate lots of enemies from different directions and make things a bit harder than if you take each elevator one at a time. : To the right is a similar room, but with things within : reach. In case anyone is wondering if the 8 Magnum clips in these two circular rooms are all accessible, the answer is yes. The 4 in the left room are easily obtained, while only 2 seem to be accessible in the right room. The other 2 appear to be out of reach. I was able to figure out a way to get the other 2 though. First leave one of the compilers alive, preferably unharmed. Then save your game because this strategy does not work every time. While pointing downward in front of the Magnum clip you seek, lay a mine down before the compiler gets to you. You will have to dodge the compiler bolt it fires of course, but if you time it right, the explosion from the mine will elevate the player enough to grab the Magnum clip. Perhaps using one mine to get one Magnum clip might not seem like a fair trade. But remember, if you play it right, you will be getting a redundant AR in a couple of levels. That way you can recover these used mines. : On Top of the World is one of the most difficult levels in the scenario - : perhaps only second to the level that follows it, but more on that next : time. I suppose nothing generates more disagreement among players than the question "Which level is the most difficult?". Given the way I play and the demands I put on myself, I find "The Grey Behind the Red", "The Sacking of Troy", and "Public Transit" more difficult than all the others. But more on those when we reach them. : You start out in a large circular room surrounded by four vents : through which wasps will stream. They come at you so densely and quickly : that it's very hard to get around them, surround them and take them out. : It is possible, but perhaps less than 5% of the time, if that. I'm just : not that patient ;^) I think it helps to continuously move around in a circular fashion, trying to dodge the Wasp's shots. But I agree that it is a pretty difficult opening. : There is one corridor that leads out of the circular room, but it leads to an : equally perilous area. Actually, I have a fairly slick tip to get through this particular part. It has a pretty good chance of working. Once you enter the narrow hallway leading out of the opening room, go just to the T junction until the enemies are activated. My experience is that almost always the Compiler will come down the hallway first, followed by a Trooper. Quickly back out of the narrow hallway and back into the circular room, avoiding the compiler bolt that will surely be heading your way. Then immediately head BACK into the narrow hallway and start fisting the compiler. The Trooper behind will also fire on the compiler. Then stop your fisting and retreat to the opening room. Since Compilers are not friends with Troopers, the Compiler will begin firing on the Trooper. The Trooper WILL NOT respond until it is berserked. Believe me, most of the time it will take out all of those enemies and then head off to take care of more of them in some other area of the level. Anyway, that's how I handle that opening room and corridor. After having practiced it enough, this strategy works almost all the time for me. : Beyond the : compiler is a door to a room with a pattern buffer guarded by another : compiler, but some major fighters will swoop down on us as soon as we try : to save. Ok, if you go through the door where this PB is located, and SLOWLY creep up behind the Compiler guarding it, but not close enough for the other enemies to see you, it is possible to activate that PB and not disturb anyone. : Sadly, they won't follow the : player to the circular room where they would be easier to take out. Once : the area is cleared, the player can enter a room that contains a PB and a : 2X shield recharger. Au contraire, my experience is that they always follow me back to the opening circular room. At least on Total Carnage they do. I have never had them not follow me back! : I personally find : it easier to attack it from the other direction, since I always have the : 2X recharger and PB to fall back on. BTW, watch out for the invisible : compilers in the corridor with the lit columns. Steve, in this general area, there are two Projectile Fighters on a high ledge that seem to do nothing but sit and warble at you. Have you ever gotten them to come down and fight? If not, then Matt and Andrew need to do something to get them into the game. : The exit teleporter takes us to the second half of the level, where we start : out in a large, dark room with a lot of invisible compilers. Ok, here is one secret that I actually figured out myself. That teleporter room looked to be too suspicious. Sure enough, there is a secret panel in the teleporter room on the right. You have to be careful and activate that panel before entering the teleporter. Inside is an Invincibility Item. That makes handling those Invisible Compilers much, much easier. : My advice : is to not try to take them out just yet - there are so many of them that : they'll likely trap you. Instead, exit the room, head up one of the two : sets of stairs, taking out the fighters along the way Don't forget that you have three Troopers on the outside of this area. Fortunately, you can get them to suicide themselves when they begin firing into the surrounding walls. : head down the : central corridor, which will trigger a door to open. Leap inside the door : and deal with the troopers and compiler inside. Instead, what I do is lure them out of that small room, jump out to where those other Troopers were, and then let these new Troopers suicide themselves when they fire into the walls from the inside. It works every time I play this particular section of the level. Also if you are lucky, one will hit the Compiler as it fires at you. In that case, the Compiler will fire at the Trooper until it is berserked, just like I mentioned several paragraphs above. : John and I have had some : arguments about this, but if you do everything just right, at this point : you should still have most of your 2X shields left, making a saved game : unnecessary. : There is also a PB down here in the bowels of : the level, but it's too far recessed into the wall, making it unusable in : gameplay. : All of this can be done so quickly with : practice that getting killed in the next level is not such a big deal. : John, however, feels otherwise, probably primarily because there is some : ammo that can be collected, but that takes time and loss of shielding to : do so. What Steve is talking about is the PB that is located in the area of the 3 Troopers surrounding the area you teleport into. Unfortunately, that PB APPEARS to be nonfunctioning. Actually, it IS a functioning PB. I know because I modified the level (just to check) by moving it a bit closer to the outside of the wall, and as a result was able to save my game with it. I then wrote to Matt and asked him about it. He told me that as far as he knows, that was supposed to be a functioning, accessible PB. Now, having said that, I agree with Steve that there is a good shot that the player can complete this part of the level without having to save. However, unless you practice this part over and over again, like I have and Steve has, it can be a very frustrating section of the level to get through safely. Even so, the main reason I feel this PB needs to be accessible is that there is a very HIGH probability of the player dying at the beginning of the next level "Pesticides with Chicken". Given that it has no easily accessible PB (at least on TC), it is simply unfair to the player to expect them to complete the last half of "On Top of the World" and then hope they can reach the PB on "Pesticides with Chicken". Again, I am speaking mainly from the perspective of playing on Total Carnage. Anyway, that's my opinion. And yes, I do collect the ammo in this vicinity. The fact that it can be overlooked or left behind purposely should not be a reason to leave that PB nonaccesible. IMO Hey, but in the end, I will deal with whatever Matt and Andrew decide. I feel fairly confident I can do this whole section without saving. In fact, I know I can because I have a vid film of me doing it. Speaking of, I uploaded vid films for 42 of the 44 levels of PF. I do not know at this moment whether they have been posted or not. But they were submitted for anyone who wishes to view them.

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Replies:

	PF Volunteers - Base of Titans/On Top of the World	Steve Levinson	7/24/04 11:38 a.m.
	Re: PF Volunteers - Base of Titans/On Top of the W	Dr. John Sumner	7/24/04 12:59 p.m.
	Re: PF Volunteers - Base of Titans/On Top of the W	mattschenk	7/24/04 7:31 p.m.
	Re: PF Volunteers - Base of Titans/On Top of the W	Steve Levinson	7/24/04 8:56 p.m.
	Re: PF Volunteers - Base of Titans/On Top of the W	Steve Levinson	7/24/04 9:11 p.m.
	Re: PF Volunteers - Base of Titans/On Top of the W	Dr. John Sumner	7/25/04 5:04 a.m.
	Re: PF Volunteers - Base of Titans/On Top of the W	Adam Ashwell	7/25/04 5:12 a.m.

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