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	Message: : : Last time on Tour of Duty we explored a very strange level, complete with : crash bug in Aleph One that meant we had to diverge from the intended : path, to the point that we maybe reached the final terminal rather early : on but found it not yet enabled. Or not. Either way, after we ran around : and killed things, we got it going and met a new AI, Fr’kna, who was quite : talkative and descriptive of what was going on. It could not send us to : the damaged reactor but was going to send us into a vacuum area to have us : fix some damaged sensor arrays. And that is indeed where we have ended up. : So that’s nice for a change to start with! : We arrive in a small inauspicious room with a Pattern Buffer, a terminal, and : an oxygen recharger, which we will probably need to use before even : getting through the terminal, because it is incredibly wordy. I’m not sure : there is one like it anywhere else, at least not one where we need to pay : attention, and yeah that ... it is information overload to kick off a : particularly evil level. The automap is as useless as for most of The Hard : Stuff Rules... and we have to hit rather a lot of switches, and in a : reasonably dictated order. Also: following the directions is hard; the : place is full of continually respawning Drones, Ygn’oml (yet another new : word for S’pht), Troopers, and Hunters; there are loads of different : heights involved; and again, it’s vacuum. : To its credit, Fr’kna does make a real effort to help us out here, and : explains why we have to do this job: their failsafes planned for most : things, with security measures set to deactivate sensors on external : damage + aliens, and no communication with the Ygn’oml so they can’t do : anything to help, and will likely attack us. And YEP, one came to find me : before I finished with the terminal. This is also the only level I can : recall where the left pane in the terminals is used for text as well as : the right. An interesting effect that just adds to the feeling of too much : information. Sensory Overload … yes we see what they did there!! : : : : : : : : Let’s try to piece it together: 1. We need to reactive three sensor arrays, : but first we have to activate their enabler switches. : 2. Two of the three are behind another obstacle in the form of data : integration towers that we have to retract. : 3. We need to activate the central lift, and this should be the first : priority. To reach it, we drop down out of this room, head south, drop : down again, head west to a lift, ride it (presumably), then head : northeast, and then turn 150 degrees (clockwise?) to find the lift : activation room and our first switch. And if we screw it up, we’ll fall to : the bottom level and have to climb back up (that seems more likely). : 4. Then we need to find the life support area with another Pattern Buffer and : rechargers, but it’s not clear how. : 5. Finally for now we need to head to the next terminal, which we can see, if : we look back at the whole map view in the terminal, is in the northeast of : the map, accessible by a lift. : The map with the coloured markers is confusing, but it seems that the yellow : ones are the data integration towers, the blue ones are the enabler : switches, and the red ones are the reactivation switches. I don’t speak : purple blob; that’s just what I now gather based on having played the : level comparatively blind :). I think I had it figured out when I first : played years ago … but that was years ago. : Okay. Amazingly that actually worked when I had it all written down. I was : suspicious from looking at the map, what with how close to the south we : start out, but there you go. I had to turn around to see the lift as I : headed west, and to realise that with the central lift not active, I : needed to jump across down the shaft to the activation room, and I can : even understand the 150 degree turn thing. Yep that checks out! And here : is said map; hopefully it makes enough sense without further annotation; : y'all know I'm lazy or uneasy about uploading pictures everywhere. : : The main confusing part is that on leaving the start room, with the terminal, : Pattern Buffer, and oxygen charger near the bottom middle, you have to : head south before you hit the bottom of the “hole”, or you end up on the : aforementioned bottom level of the area. And the same for the next turn to : the west. That is no doubt where it goes wrong for most people, and for me : on earlier plays. Or as I like to call it: Amazing Map Design. The map in : 2d -looks- pretty simple, but boy is that deceiving. : Anyway, that's one switch hit and the lift is coming up! We can ride it and : get to another switch room to the northwest, the first enabler switch, : again just as described. If we look out the window there, we can also see : a switch on the outside of the inner ring area of the level, and that one : opens a secret room back up where we started – so we need to work out how : to get back there on top of everything else! : Conveniently, the life support area is just a short walk north from the : bottom level of that central lift, past some Hunters and other Pirate : Scum. The shield recharger (which Fr’kna does refer to as a -health- : recharger!) is only a 1x, but it does get better. : The corridor past where we came in to the life support area comes to a : dead-end, but it has one of the data integration tower switches on the : left wall there – just not for the one right in front of us at that point! : If we come back out past the central lift, we can enter the inner ring of the : level, and freely trip around to the east, towards the lift that was : visible in the picture we saw of where the second terminal is. At the top : of this lift, there is a narrow ledge before a dropoff. If we stay on the : ledge, we can peer around the wall to see a Ygn’oml guarding a 2x shield : recharger, and we can jump across to that. From there we can look around : to see a similar ledge with -something- interactable, across a divide we : can’t jump. Conveniently the area is symmetrical to a degree, and there is : a lift just to the right of the other ledge, from this perspective. Riding : it up one level to a similar purple ledge, we can jump across to find that : it was a switch up there that was interactable, and interact with it we : do! : The terminal is in the room just below this ledge. If we don’t follow the : directions at the start, and come straight here, the terminal on the right : is active and tells us that we need to go back, complete with directions : and their not so effective 3d representation. : : : : However, if we do hit those first switches before coming here, the terminal : on the right is disabled and the one on the left is revealed, which tells : us we have just hit the switch on the ledge behind us … even if we haven’t : actually done that yet. It also gives us the next set of instructions. : Oddly it describes how to get to the switch it just told us we had already : hit, but hey, that’s useful. : It references that data integration tower switch I already guided us to, and : says that another is down a level on that lift we rode up to the switch : behind us, so we’ll have to check that out! It starts repeating : information a bit, as that tower switch is the same one it gives us a map : to on the next page. What we’ll do is go down that lift, hit the tower : switch, then ride that same lift to the top and make our way to the second : control switch enabler, and then we’ll deal with the later stuff from this : terminal. : : : : : : : So yeah, as described, the lift now to the left as we leave this room – and : we ride it down one level and head west-northwest. And sure enough, we : find the tower switch, and this time it is even for the tower in front of : us – so generous! But we don’t want to jump off here, we want to turn : around, shoot the Ygn’oml and Drones that have probably joined us, and : then ride that lift right to the top and head north into a bright white : and grey area. There are a couple of corridors that end in straight leaps : of faith down to the bottom level, but if we go out to the north and then : left, we gain entrance to the data integration tower area from the highest : point! : The map in the terminal put the next switch between the bottom two towers, so : we can work our way down, around to the right from this vantage point, : being careful not to slip off, and then hard around to the left down the : next shaft, and into the switch corridor. Here we actually get an idea of : what we’re doing here, as there is a window to the south that reveals an : area sealing off when we hit the switch – there is quite a bit of : inaccessible space in the level into the bargain! And now we can drop down : the towers and head to the life support area, as we will probably need : oxygen, and a Pattern Buffer never hurts! : Okay so we have a map location for the third control switch enabler, and we : know it is to the southeast. Well, there is a lift down there – if we head : out past the central lift and east into the lower ring again, we can take : a right into the outer ring. Around to the east a bit we find a lift in : the south wall. This is another part that is made to be confusing – these : lifts have just too many dropoff points and when they face the same way it : is just mean. Here we want to go right to the TOP, exiting east, not to be : confused with not quite the top, exiting east, as I did at least twice. : The top level takes us to the switch we want to hit, and this starts several : platforms dropping down in the wall. If we just go down on top of the far : right one, we wind up on the right level and can just strafe left to see : our next switch. But the map makes it look like we can access that room : from another area with that same blue barbed wire wall texture, which we : cannot! : Next we will go to the control switch associated with the second enabler. : That is back up by the most recent terminal, and a recharge on our shields : and oxygen won’t go amiss either! Up in that area if we head out to the : northeast past the narrow pillars that characterise that room on the map, : we enter another bloody ring, which runs around the extent of the level : right on top of the others we know so well, and makes it all the harder to : find our way around, and harder to remember where things are when we are : not following directions. The strict ordering of some of the switches is : the main issue. : We turn right going into that ring and run around to the south of the level, : where we find stairs going up. These lead us to the room described in the : terminal, our next switch, and another terminal at last! It is quite : convenient that Fr’kna numbers his terminals, as we can also access #4 at : this point, but let’s not do that just yet. : : : : : : It is a bit strange how Fr’kna keeps repeating things we already know in : these terminals, but they are accessible without hitting the switches so I : guess it is intended to help. I fear it might have the opposite effect if : you cannot find the necessary switches though. Especially as it is so : difficult to find your way back to the very start. Anyway, besides the : news, there is little we don’t already know in here, and we can jump back : out into this purple ring and carry on to the next switch. : Heading further around to the right, we eventually find double doors in the : right wall, and open them. We are greeted by another terminal, and there : is a switch further in but it is up on a raised platform. We can hit it : with fusion or a shotgun, but if you happen to find yourself here without : ammo for such, access is rather obscure: if you head south from the very : top of the run of the “central lift” – the first thing we enabled here but : hardly central to our adventures since – you find yourself at the right : height and can jump across to a ledge that leads to that switch, and to an : oxygen charger on the way: cheeky! I had to update the map as I found out : during this writeup. : : : : : : The terminal has quite a nice trimmed map image highlighting all of the : switches yet again, and it gives us our final steps here: hit one more : switch that we have revealed back in the life support area – which is : convenient yet again for oxygen and saving, and then get to the transport : facility, which is really near where we are right now. Just back out on : the purple ring, around to the right once more – the door was previously : locked but is now open to the elements and reveals one final Hunter in our : way. And the final terminal. It tells us that we have been successful, but : Fr’kna still has not been able to contact the Ygn’oml on the navigation : deck as he had wanted to. So we’re going there so that everything does not : go BOOM! : : : : But wait! We still have the mystery of getting back to the start of this : level. That is easiest via the central lift as well, again riding it to : the top and heading southwest. That takes us right to the lift we went up : at the start to get to the central lift in the first place! We ride it to : the top and head east-northeast, to the shaft we dropped down at the : start, and happily, higher up. We fall strategically around to the left : and find probably some enemies, but more importantly a revealed : teleporter. : This takes us to the disconnected room top-right on the map. There are some : drones and cyborgs, the only ones on this level, and as we move through : the room, more cyborgs, and in our favour, 8 shotgun shells and 8 fusion : batteries – really handy for earlier in this level, so don’t leave it this : late in your plays :). And there’s a bloody terminal, which I also only : realised during this writeup, so I had to update the map, and send PS more : terminal pics! And here it is. : : : : No I didn’t use a Map Editor, per se; I used another guy’s writeup: props as : always to Kevin Jaques at http://www.hierlaw/com/MarathonDIABD.shtml – : that guy gives a lot more play by play detail for the level with : supporting pics. I think we’ve done a good job of sussing the level : between us :). See you on the Navigation Deck. Or starside - whichever : comes first!
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