: I'm taking a break, and thought I'd comment on some of Sock's analysis.
: Again, I'll have much more to say later. Oh, and I apologize for
: suggesting that Molten Dihydrogen Oxide (water) is the next level - that's
: what happens when you go from memory ;-)
: I believe we're still on Pfhor Prime. The idea that it's a tropical planet is
: a probably a misnomer. It amazes me that a lot of sci-fi is based on the
: concept of single-climate planets, but this is absurd. Look at Earth - we
: have everything for the tropics to the ice caps, from the oceans to the
: deserts. One thing that I think that the Rubicon Team missed is that Pfhor
: Prime should be a low-gravity planet (at least lower gravity than Earth).
: Remember in Marathon 1 where Durandal mentions that the Pfhor ship has a
: lower gravity environment than the Marathon - one that's ideally suited to
: the Pfhor. It only stands to reason that Pfhor Prime would also have a
: lower gravity, since they likely evolved in this environment. This would
: mean a combination of lower density or smaller size. Alternatively, one
: could hypothesize that the Pfhor did some genetic manipulation of their
: entire species to make them more suitable for space travel, but I doubt
: it.
Of course I should have thought of this. I had completley forgotten that we were on Pfhor Prime to start with and the idea of multiple climates is so obvious. I can't believe I didn't think of that!
: No, no, no! You don't need to kill the PCMs by running into them, and you
: don't need to take on the hunters until you need to. I found that the best
: approach is to run along the swamp's edge to a position of safety and then
: pick off the PCMs with your magnum. Just beware - the PCMs tend to stay a
: bit low, so you need to aim down slightly. BTW, the PCMs first appear in
: the secret area of Honk.
Yes, the PCMs are easy to kill once you find out the right spot to hit them. Steve is right it's just at the bottom or slightly below them. You'll forgive me for getting close enough to double check this :)
: A word to the wise - the second swamp area is much better left for later.
: Sure, it's possible to take on all the monsters now, to grab the shotgun
: and ammo and even to get inside with some difficulty. The other way,
: through the first swamp and a large cave, is much, much easier. Still, you
: have to deal with a lot of monsters either way. This is not a particularly
: good level on which to learn how to play on TC (that was for you, Sock).
: The monsters in the second swamp will take each other out once you get
: inside where you can tease them by peaking out the long gantry.
I have to disagree with you here. It is much easie to run in, grab the shotgun and the 2x power up and run out under the cover of the teleporting AR bobs. Of course I'm not playing by vidmaster rules, hell I don't kill everything in the level. I kill everything in my way, I'm that kind :) Yes I'm not trying TC now I think I'll start a new game from the first level so I have a bit of a learning curve. I'm on MD Woohoo!
: My only experience with Forge is in looking at other people's levels. There
: are a couple of techniques for creating this type of effect. In one,
: exemplified very nicely in Pfh'Joueur with its exploding pant pots, is to
: create an immoble monster that can be killed. The other approach is to
: make an impassible object that can be destroyed (similar to the ceiling
: lights in Marathon 2 and Infinity).
That would make sense, again very obvious. I think I'll leave the first post to you :)
: Easy is a relative term ;-) . I consider this area - particularly the gantry
: - a relative safe haven. You can take out the enemies in the swamp areas
: with a lot of practice, but as you pointed out, more and more appear.
: Because there is access to only one power-up, chances are poor that you'll
: survive, especially on TC. Once inside, you have access to a save term and
: a shield recharger but, be forewarned, they look very different than what
: you're used to and are easily missed.
Yes, I do like these new Pfhor chargers, they are much smaller but the fit into the texture set a lot better.
: I'll do that later. BTW, you can download DTB here: Durandal Terminal
: Browser
Ah, thanks a lot.
: It's understandable that Tycho has knowledge of what Dangi's doing, but I'm
: surprised that Durandal doesn't seem to pick up on it at all in the Pfhor
: Plank, in spite of multiple clues. Perhaps he's preoccupied with his
: obsession with Tycho, or perhaps he really doesn't care what humanity does
: to itself. I think it's a little of both.
I was trying (very badly) to be subtle about the Dangi Corp. in case people hadn't played Rubicon yet. Oh well. I think Durandal has a bit of a one track mind once he decides to do something he WILL do it. He probably considers Dangi to be a secondary problem.
: Oh, I disagree. Durandal seems to know everything that you read, so if he
: seems ignorant of your interactions with Tycho, it's because he either
: want's you to think he is unaware of it, he considers anything from Tycho
: to be disinformation, or he considers it unimportant.
I'm not sure about this. But really it doesn't matter if Durandal knows about Tycho's communications with you or is pretending not to, the end result is that he doesn't interrupt them.
: Once again, you can leave from a number of terminals once you have satisfied
: the goals of the level, so you don't have to find the secret terminal.
: There are a lot of secret areas on this level, so be sure to check out my
: Rubicon Secrets Guide . One other thing that is relevant - one of the
: secrets you can see is a large stash of ammo. Here's a big hint - there
: are no dummy switches in Rubicon. If you flip a switch and nothing
: happens, and if you can find no changes in the level, try flipping it
: twice in succession.
Oh; my mistake. I must have explored more of the level before I went to an exit terminal.
: When I return, I'll tackle Cow Pushing, unless someone else want's to give it
: a try ;-)
Um, yeah. About that...
