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	Message: : Chapter 2: Enemy Stage 3: Radical Starship : : Forward: All of my remaining Eternal Tour entries plus my own recordings of : the failure levels (log exclusive for now) were written from at least : April or May and finished on December 2019 before I started the SPV3 Tour : of Duty. I was just waiting on the failure plank entries for chapter 2 to : be posted before moving my own ones from my log to here. and so on for : chapter 3 failure plank etc. i.e. Stage 2 of every chapter. Lack of : references to things in 2020 expected (except some additions to my log : writeup of C4S2) Last Episode (C5S3) finished on 7/12/2019 and initially : posted on my log 8.12.2019. : Act 1: Unpfhorseen : Last time on Tour of Duty, we followed Tycho’s advice and tried to trap : Hathor, only for her to get away and Tycho to stupidly trust one of his : pfhor corrupted copies with portions of his mind including cyborg control : routines. That ended with Sol about to be lanced again. This time, I’m : sticking with Leela and aiding her first, or just her in case Tycho really : is being manipulated by his future self. We start back on Unpfhorseen. The : success message from Leela triggers once you complete your objective, : around the same time Tycho becomes available so I don’t need to detail the : map a second time as nothing was missed. Instead, I will skip straight to : the success plank exit terminal and it’s on to the next act. : Also, I managed to get the Special Edition Marathon 2 95 map Lia gave me to : work: I must have put the SE files, tracks etc. in the folder for the : wrong version of Marathon 2. I moved the folders to the right version : (latest) and it works. : The terminal is the same one that Hathor contacted us by. : : I knew it. Tycho was indeed infected by his future self, or at least one of : his clones, and the clone is controlling him. He must have made Tycho give : up his knowledge to another clone to ensure it could be used by the Pfhor. : : : Act 2: My Kingdom Pfhor a Horse : : : Christ if this map didn’t have an annoying and unfair start in the original : Eternal X. Thankfully as of 1.1 that’s fixed now. There’s a lot of ammo : and 1x shields here at the start as well as active camo. At the end of the : huge canopy above, there’s buggers heading over the rooftops and there’s a : lot of juggernauts. It’s wasteful to fight them; you have to run. : There’s awkward terrain everywhere which my jump script works well with and : in order to proceed, you have to climb an awkward pile of debris like : stairs around a tall tower and jump to the partition wall to the other : side of this starport yard. And THEN in order to get in, you have to wait : for an irritating timed door, which opens whenever it pleases, and jugs : can, and will kill you before it opens, usually leaving you with low : health by the time you finally get in. : : There’s a couple of things different here: first, the active camo probably : wasn’t here in 1.0 so it was even harder. Second, as of Eternal X Omega : 1.1 the door is no longer timed so you can open it and enter as quickly as : you can. Third, the awkward ledges to the stairs in 1.2 have been edited : to allow you to climb them without any trouble, and the jump to the wall : is much easier, even without actual jumping. : : : The inside of the door is now textured like the innards of a chameleon with : mood swings, though I thought the scales were more fish-like. The elevator : at the end leads upstairs to a large room with hulks, fighters and minor : enforcers. Be prepared to die a lot here in 1.0 thanks to low health but : that is no longer an issue. The hulks seem hostile however so put them : down to prevent them squishing you when reading the terminal. : : : It’s maps like this that truly remind me how much I love Aleph One, GZ Doom : and modern Build for how complex their maps can be with such old rendering : methods, with Marathon taking first prize for showing that it could even : be done with vanilla engines of the former two if the map makers are good : enough and push the limits. : I sadly now have to admit that Aleph One is now inferior to both GZ Doom and : the EDuke32 sourceport of Build due to the Doom mod Brutal Doom : Extermination Day & the games Hedon and Ion Maiden (I am NOT calling : it Ion Fury), but Forrest and the gang didn’t let that fact get them down : and they made the absolute most with what they had, even then being able : to fight back against the limits somewhat with MML and Lua scripts. If : that isn’t worthy of a Nobel Prize for best 2.5D game mod design, I don’t : know what is. : I’ve always loved old 2.5D and 3D game engines being used to create spaces : you could very well see in real life. The Tomb Engine and Tomb Engine : NG/AOD, Aleph One and Goldsource are my top picks for such, as I was : spoiled by the urban levels in the 6 Golden Tomb Raider games, Black Mesa : in Half Life 1 and the similar places in Duke Nukem Advance and Duke 3D : when I was growing up. Play parks and swimming pools especially come into : it with the Assault Course and Lara’s pool in Tomb Raider 2&3 and the : Aquatic Base trope (as I call it after a severely underrated Eternal : theme-alike game) due to both the one in TR3′s expansion pack and : many, many dreams I’ve had taking place in such locations. Marathon’s : Aquatic Base levels are usually in other mods. : Marathon Eternal and Tempus Irae are mods that demonstrate such examples of : real world locations can indeed be included in Aleph One too and this map : is a good reason why. : : We’ve already had complex sewers, the edge of a ship’s hull on the outside, a : rocky plateau with a sea in the sky crashing its waves, pfhor cities (some : parts now with rain!) and big hangers complete with a starfighter in them, : and that’s not counting the original trilogy or other mods, namely Tempus : Irae. : Now we have a massive starport with control towers or radio aerials like the : one above, the new glass in the windows and a docked ship. That giant : canopy we started under? That’s the very edge of the ship Leela wants us : to board and disable. The map is so big, it covers almost all the (still : too small by modern standards) vertex grid and contains 20 more sectors : than the original Forge allowed. Forget that the grid hasn’t been : expanded, this map is one of many in the mods that shows that you can : still have huge maps if you draw them right. This room is a departure : lounge with long benches like in airports and piston elevators like you : get in shops leading up to the umbilicals connected to the ship. : : The other passengers by the gate don’t take kindly to hijackers. After I deal : with them, I take the lift up to the nearest umbilical and enter the ship. : There’s a pair of troopers and a major enforcer guarding the umbilical, : Plus some more inside the ship itself. To the right is a set of diagonal : stairs leading deeper into the ship and to the left is a room with pfhor : and a switch in it. : : Another enforcer tries to sneak up behind me from the diagonal stairs. He : fails. I recommend the staff here and running back to the departure longue : to recharge and save if your shields go down. If the troopers follow you : in the corridors, bludgeon them to death before they fire; havok rifles : and enclosed spaces are a bad combination when against you. : At the end of this room, (Ship reception? Cargo bay?) is the second : umbilical. Another enforcer is more successful at sneaking up on me and : flames me as I fight the troopers. I was almost on board when they : showed up. Around the corner on the other side of the bay is some kind of : strange thundrillium pool outside the windows. : : I have no idea what this is supposed to be. Is it the ship’s infinity pool? : The liquid crystal looks like it’s supposed to be here, judging by the : waterfall to the right. Forrest said on the Rampancy boys’ stream that it : apparently has something to do with the drive system. : The switch in the pit triggers the door on the platform with an enforcer : inside. Following the corridor around the infinity pool, I stumble into : more angry crew who force me to retreat and recharge my energy shields as : well as heal up. I return via the second umbilical. : The fighter, enforcer and two hunters followed me back, they are going down : the hall to the first umbilical where I went. The hunters are on the other : side of the gap firing on me. After dealing with them, I admire the purple : tape inside the switch room before throwing it. It appears to be some sort : of cable covering, but there’s just the wall underneath. : : The switch opens a circular room with a platform behind the infinity pool. : Killing the hunters inside, I find two switches up the lift that open the : other two doors, guarded by an enforcer. The left door (facing away from : the lift, toward the pool) connects with the hallway near the stairs. The : right door leads to a vaguely moth shaped room with a 1x shield terminal : and the chip slot in a vestibule on top of the platform. Every door except : the entrance to the moth room is locked. : The switches to open it I thought were back in the ambush area past the pool, : but they open a second moth shaped room right next to it, guarded by an : easy to deal with trooper. It’s wiser to use the scatter rifle in there, : against the enforcers, as they all have plasma flamethrowers. There’s a : switch in the vestibule here, that opens the doors to the one in the first : moth room. : : I always liked the shape of this stairwell for some reason. At the top is the : exit terminal, but I deal with the pfhor and recharge my second layer of : shields first, just to be safe. : : Act 3: Burning Down the Corporation : : Map text is the same as the failure plank. This map is identical to Pissing : on the Corporation except we go to the west wing instead of the east one. : It still leads south back to the machine room. This time there’s no fog : partially obscuring the ship in the hanger in 1.2. The track that played : before was probably A Walk in the Woods/Flowers in Heaven, but it’s New : Pacific now. : : : The mission here is the same as Tycho’s one but the circuits may be in : different areas. The first one is the same but the elevator at the end of : the umbilical to the control tower doesn’t work anymore, I have to take : the impressive glass one to the west end of the hanger. …I tell a lie: it : seems to work now in 1.2’s version of this map. The door on the west end : of the hanger observation area doesn’t open though. : In the room by the west wing lift, a pair of S’pht Kr help kill the commander : hunter. The strange fuel pump thing is still there in the room before it. : This map in all versions of Eternal is also less of a slog than its : counterpart as shield or at least health terminals are within easy reach. : . : Up the west wing lift, is a secret door to a teleporter added by Shining : Raven, but I missed it on both my playthroughs of this map. I only know : about it as I saw it on the ASE stream after the fact. It takes you : outside into the hanger itself and you can climb the circular door and : go right up to the ship! It reminds me of the UFO room in Duke Nukem 3D’s : Area 51 map in Episode 4 in the Atomic Edition, except unlike Duke Nukem : 3D you can’t actually enter the ship. Standing on one of the light panels : on the ship’s spine teleports you back into the starport. : Up the west wing lift is a switch door with piston locks in front of it. : Behind it is a window through which lightning flashes. I don’t know if : that is caused by a storm or starship battles. An enforcer looks out the : window while a trooper and fighter stand watch. : To the east is another piston lock door, a room with a chessboard floor and : stairs leading down. There’s also a normal health terminal here, but : there’s a 1x shield one on the same pillar so what’s the point? : The stairs lead through an underground passage to the second relay : overlooking the machine room. : : As before, the middle part of this thing now in 1.2 appears to be actual : pfhor slime, while the conduits and trunking are just textured like it. : Chase lights still represent the current as it flows through the cables. : The machine also pulses with electricity as well unlike previous versions, : besides the new liquid middle part. I notice after breaking the relay : circuits that the health & shield pillar has an oxygen terminal on the : back of it, which you also don’t need to use. : The south room next to the second relay has large power conduits for the : machine room which also blink with current. There’s a whopping 3 commander : hunters in here with enforcers and such, but you are backed up by S’pht : Kr. I accidentally shot one because it spawned in as I was shooting a : fighter or enforcer. : : Further on is a narrow blue hall with a trooper in it that connects directly : to the final relay. The room by the east wing lift is infested with : hunters, S’pht and a cyborg tank. The latter is hostile but I’m not sure : about the compilers. I run off and let them shock each other’s systems : while I heal and save, before returning to finish off the stragglers. Only : the hunters survived. : A trooper, hulk and compiler crowd on the lift, blocking the way down until : the trooper kills the hulk. Instead however, he ends up blowing himself up : and the hulk remains peachy keen. He’s hostile only if you bump into him, : which is sort of an issue as otherwise the fatless bastard won’t move. He : does get off the lift on his own, but only to block the door to the first : relay. The compilers turn on you the same way. : : Tycho is now fully controlled by his future self, working with his clone. The : future Tycho clone that infected him must have been in control the whole : time on the failure plank. Damn him! Damn the pfhor as well for making our : friend into a monster to begin with! : : I think this is soon before S’bhuth’s betrayal. Once I deal with Hathor, I’ll : need to come back here and stop him. This screen appears identical to its : 1.1 version (possibly 1.0 as well? I forgot), wasn’t that video feed : planned to be an actual video? Or was I confusing it with potential ideas : for M1 Redux I read about? Oh well. : : Tycho said Hathor went back in time to Lh’owon and in the success plank with : you, Leela, you imply she is still going to the same place. It seems that : both of us need to know about this; the truth about circa 2000 years ago. : There could be something else on Lh’owon back then that could help which : Durandal and I missed, never mind Hathor’s presence. If you want to know, : you’re better off following me. : Act 4: The World Is Hollow : : : I’m back in Kingdom Valley, under the crashing sea that makes up the sky. I : admire the waves and the view of the Sacred Castle Lake across the bay : before jumping down the small shaft into the teleporter. Durandal and : Thoth have some things to say as I dream. : : : : Does Cortana think the same thing when she went through Rampancy in Halo 4? : What does she think now in Halo 5? I know she returns, I’ve seen the bit : where she contacts us for the first time in Halo 5, but no spoilers as : that’s as far as I’ve got: I wanted to finish the Master Chief Collection : first, including Halo 4’s Spartan ops, which I didn’t keep up with in the : original Xbox 360 Halo 4. I wasn’t able to avoid spoilers about her now : being the antagonist however. : : A distance not seen, but known? Where is the universe to start closing after : the Big Crunch? Past the Magellanic Clouds? Further on? We may never know. : The start of the closure is not likely to even be in our galaxy. : : I am reminded both of something my ancestor on my Iranian grandpa’s side of : the family said once at least 2000 years ago or something, as well as the : poem in Eat the Path: “You are in a maze in a maze. But which one counts? : Your maze, their maze my maze. Or are all the mazes the same, defined only : by the limits of their paths?” : : Indeed it does. I’ll be back for the next part in Act 1 of Chapter 3: : Prophecy. Don’t miss it!
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