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	Message: : : Last time on Tour of Duty we explored a level shaped like a gun, and : experienced some curious watery forcefields, reminiscent of the imprisoned : BoB on Hostage. These ones kept us away from the Pattern Buffer and a : rather useful switch though, and Billy was stumped without the excellent : work of Kevin Jaques ( http://www.hierlaw.com/MarathonDIABD.shtml ). : Brilliant for the myriad secrets of this scenario; more -structural- : "secrets" than any other I've been through, I think. : We met a new AI named Mithrandir, after Gandalf if we are indeed mixing up : our universes here. And then the secret terminal talked about The X Files, : so let's just say it's a free-for-all :). In the end we were sent off : vaguely with an actual piece of the next level's map, apparently Level : 4-a, Section 8, so I guess that's where we are. : And we arrive looking straight at another terminal, so we can find out more! : We have a more defined task here: get to the airlock and out of the : station, that we might fix the power generation systems. Mithrandir offers : quite a lot of detail on the map, including where they are holding some : pirates for interrogation, and where we can find a Pattern Buffer. The : comment to follow the trail of blood is curious, given that we're the ones : that will be creating it :D : : : : : : : We head out directly away from the terminal and hang a right ... and we might : as well get it out of the way, another right, which turns out to be a dead : end with some pirates and ammo. Back out of that passage, we find a : shallow water moat around a randomly walled pool. On its far side there is : a teleporter to the side that puts us on top of the wall, where we find : some decent ammo offerings. Jumping in we find a Water F'lckta, and : conveniently the water is shallow enough that we can shoot over the top. : Even more conveniently, a lift in the northwest corner means that we are : not trapped here. I guess they were holding the F'lckta for interrogation : as well? : Another room off to the west reveals even more ammo, but it's a trap! In the : form of a Hunter ambush. And then we'll head off south from the pool, : towards the cryogenics room and the Pattern Buffer. Straight ahead, and : then around to the right, we find the cryogenics room. Most obviously, : there are two wall cavities that we just can't help trying to open. These : contain Ticks, and BoBs spawn and kill them, for whatever reason. I think : we were all expecting those to be the held pirates.... Opposite there is a : little water channel with two squares, in which there are Cyborgs just : hanging out. Are -they- the ones being held? There are also two lots of : breakable circuits, but apart from setting off the nasty alarm sound, it : is unclear what they do. : Back out in the corridor we can take a right up some stairs to the large open : Recreation Area 6. These map labels remind me of The Rose. There are quite : a few pirates here, and the situation is best handled by heading : northeast, where a passage takes us on to just a few more, and a dead end : with some ammo. Coming back we can deal with the rest, including two : Hunters on a ledge, and then head south where another corridor east takes : us on to the promised Pattern Buffer. Let's bring up the map at this : point. : : For symmetry, rooms to the west of the Recreation Area offer a 1x recharger : (north) and a switch to open another door to the corridor we came in from : (south). Oh right, we fell down after coming up the stairs to the : Recreation Area, that's how the heights work out - it is hard to tell in : the dark :). : Now we head north of the pool room, to where the level gets interesting. We : come to a large lift with, by the map, five new ways we can go. The : northwest opening takes us to a room with several Galaxans, a switch, and : two terminals. These don't give us much help though, being access denied : messages from Mithrandir, relating to the switch in the room, and to a : couple of parts of the map we haven't got to yet. : : : : : : : : The switch opens the door to the west from the lift, wherein we encounter : more pirates, and an annoying set of teleporters all over the floor, which : make killing the pirates a bit of a pain, if you find yourself standing : still that is. There's another switch, and one of the teleporters puts us : back up at the exit, which I forgot to say is raised up. : Next we'll head east, to one of the most hardcore 5D space implementations : around. Even the entrance to it cuts right across the path that goes : around it. And they call it ... The Tardis! At first glance, a simple : square room with a little machine in the middle, and exits in each : direction. But as we explore the corridors, we can find another version of : this central room that has a switch, which in turn lets in a bunch of : pirates from the outer corridors to kill us. And we can further find a 2x : recharger in the corridors off -this- version of the central room. As well : as various bits of ammo. : Our friend Kevin Jaques describes it more analytically - in the entrance : version if we go east, then all the way around and back in from the west, : we end up in the switch version of the room. He also spotted that the : trail of blood in the entrance version leads east, giving the real meaning : of what Mithrandir said in the first terminal. And that in the switch : version of the central room, entering the corridors via north or south : leads us to the 2x recharger, which he further spotted was shown in that : access denied terminal earlier ... thank goodness someone is on the case. : But east from the switch version of the central room leads to a cut off : corridor that only goes north-south. How DO they do 5D space on that kind : of scale? I'm guessing: very carefully. I wonder how it compares to the : tales of overlapping layers in The Hard Stuff Rules.... : The trail of blood also helps us get out again when that time comes, so it : really is helpful! Next we'll go northwest from the lift, and down another : rather deep lift shaft. A bunch of BoBs teleport in to help us with quite : a few pirates, and then we have a little chance to explore. There is a : sunken area in the middle, and a switch to the east. The switch activates : the lift to get us back out of here, at a delay to get onto it. The sunken : area is home to half a dozen MoaHs, which is some kind of crazy. : What we actually need to do here is jump across the sunken moat from the : east, into an opening wherein there is a switch to hit, and some grenades. : This raises the moat and MoaHs but we can make a run for it. For the more : daring, there is SPNKR ammo down the bottom while the moat is still : lowered, and a switch down there to raise it ... you can't make it go back : down. : The last exit from the central lift is straight north, where it becomes clear : that we have been opening doors with the various switches we have hit, to : get to the airlock as we were tasked to do. All that stands in our way : here is a few BoBs, one of which is an exploder, just for laughs. Then we : get our final terminal, which is quite nice - Mithrandir is not that : confident that we'll make it through in one piece, and is a bit : apologetic. We've not been used to AIs lacking confidence since the days : of Leela (RIP), and it is nice for a change. The depiction of the static : effect and teleportation progress is also very cool. : : : : : :
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