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	Message: : TOUR OF DUTY : 17 - No Artificial Colors : Last time on Tour of Duty (and yes, that was posted mere hours ago), we : discovered what the inside of a Pfhor ship looked like, somehow learned : how to use an Alien machine gun (aka the Scatter Rifle), and received a : nasty fright from some (luckily) deactivated Hunters. : Despite how much fun we have playing around aboard an Alien ship, we can't : really stick around there forever, can we? So back aboard the Marathon : it is! Indeed, we'll probably have a warm, friendly feeling when we see : actual human-made Pattern Buffers and Computer Terminals. Speaking of : which, let's read! : ***INCOMING MESSAGE FROM DURANDAL*** : Your trip to the Pfhor ship was a success. I have learned : valuable information. You may have noticed that the Pfhor : ship has a weak artificial gravity field. The resultant : gravity is lower than the Marathon's. The Pfhor gravity : generators also create a pulsating magnetic field which : interferes with your motion sensor by making it less accurate. : I will be sending you back there shortly, but first you must : do something for me and get some more ammunition at the same : time. : I want you to find a friend of mine. I must know if he is : dead. His name is Bernhard Strauss. He has been captured, so : you must rescue him. If he dies, you will be held responsible : by me. : ***END OF MESSAGE*** : There's a few things to note here. First off, at this point in the game we : probably don't know much of anything about who this Bernhard Strauss guy : is - the only real reference to him up until this point was in the secret : Tycho terminal on Defend THIS! , where we can discern that the segment : " ^`Bernard St~~~ " is referring to Bern[?h]ard Strauss. Second, : Durandal's tone has changed considerably. Instead of giving us seemingly : nonsensical lectures on freedom and metaphor, he's now actually telling us : what we're up to. Indeed, he almost came close to sounding like a jubilant : Leela at the start of the message. Third, in the recent betas of M1, after : the " ***END OF MESSAGE*** " part, there's a second terminal : page that's blank, and then finally the terminal logs off. It's almost : like an empty paragraph after that part got turned into another page when : it obviously shouldn't have been. Just something to point out. : Let's look at the map real fast to get our bearings: : This is a fairly straight-forward level, but it's certainly not easy, at : least not when you're scratch-starting. First off, a fairly large number : of Wasps will force you to use up a lot of your Pistol ammo against very : weak opponents. Second, there's a lot of Simulacrums on this level (thus : the fitting title), and most newer players will probably use up even more : Pistol ammo on them - however, you should always use your Fists on them. : Audience: My what ?!?! : As impossible as it seems, you can actually punch far enough to set off both : Lookers and Simulacrums without actually getting hurt. It's a little bit : of an art, and you'll want to back off after each punch just to be sure : you don't accidentally get blown up by a hurt-but-not-yet-dead Sim, but : it's certainly possible, and very easy once you get the hang of it. : However, the hardest part of this level comes in the form of several Major : (purple) Troopers, who can quickly eat you up if you're not careful. : The first room you come to contains an Assault Rifle, along with some BoBs, a : few of which are in fact Simulacrums. A good rule of thumb at this point : in the game is to shoot or punch anything that moves, if only for the sake : of peace and quiet. Assuming you're scratch-starting, until you find more : Pistol ammo, try to avoid using it on anything other than Wasps, and even : there you should try to run-punch as many as you can. Interestingly, : there's a raised alcove in one of the pillars of the first room with a : Pattern Buffer, but it's so high up you can't even reach it by grenade : jumping. Any ideas as to why this is even here? : Eventually you'll find a window looking into a room with some Fighters and : two Troopers, one of which is a Minor and the other of whom is a Major. : The Minor is fairly easy to deal with, but the Major can pose problems. : You can Grenade him a bit, but once he goes Berserk, he tends to move too : fast to hit with any more Grenades. At that point it's advisable to step : back a bit and snipe him with the Pistol (or, if you're a : masochist/Vidmaster, save him for punching later). You'll soon find a lift : and a teleporter - take the teleporter; you'll still get to the same : place, albeit much easier. : In this room are the corpses of the foes you just dismembered through the : window, a Pattern Buffer, a lift, and a hallway leading to a half-open : door. On the opposite side of this door is a 3x Shield Charger. If you : stand as close as possible, you can actually use that charger even from : across the door. Moving on, you'll have a few run-ins with Wasps and : you'll also find some Pistol ammo at the bottom of a large open pit. : Eventually you'll find a switch overlooking an open area with an : over-extended platform leading all the way to another hallway. If you want : to easily reach the other side, you'll have to flip the switch and stop it : as soon as the platform reaches the floor height of the corridors, : otherwise it'll get too low. In truth, though, heading across will just : take you back to where you were earlier, so you'll have to jump off and : move on, encountering resistance from a Trooper and some Wasps, along with : yet another Pattern Buffer. : You'll find a Rocket Launcher in an area overlooking a raised octagon with a : lift going up and down and a switch. Shoot the switch with a Grenade (or, : better yet, a Fusion Bolt, if you've been continuing from the previous : levels) - it'll open a door you previously couldn't get through. What's : most interesting about this door is not the door itself; it's what's : behind that door that's interesting. If you look on the map in M1, you'll : see a pink-colored polygon just next to the door. This is the trademark of : a transporter, and indeed if you stand on that polygon, it'll teleport you : back to the room with the four 'spokes' or ledges. Why this was included : is a mystery. Perhaps the stairs were originally supposed to just be a : drop-off and the teleporter was needed to escape the potential suicide : trap, but when it got transformed they forgot to remove it as well? : After this door, you'll have to jump from the repeatedly-going-up-and-down : lift onto the raised octagon - this will trigger a huge door to open, : revealing several Wasps, some Fighters, and two Major Troopers. You may : want to take the Troopers out with your Rocket Launcher to save time and : avoid getting attacked too much. Then again, if you're a true Vidmaster, : why don't you jump down and just beat them to death? : After this comes a series of long, thin, dark corridors with some enemies and : yet another Pattern Buffer inside of them. When you exit, you'll find a : rather tricky puzzle. There's a room with four platforms: three are : crushers that will kill anything that happens to get on top of them at the : wrong moment, and the fourth is an exit lift. Your first move should be to : hop in and hop out to trigger the crushers, which should hopefully kill : off most (if not all) of the enemies in here, including some Troopers. : Now, when the middle crusher and one of the side crushers is open, jump : through them and get to the opposite end of that side of the room. Now : just wait for the middle crusher, the crusher on your side, and the exit : lift to all reach their lowest points, and then you can just dive in and : escape. It takes patience and a little practice, but it's fairly : straight-forward once you figure it out. : When you come out of the lift, you'll find a room with a bunch of BoBs - many : of whom are in fact Sims, thus making it advisable to just kill every one : of them - next to the 3x Health Charger from earlier. When you return to : the room where you killed most of the enemies through the window, you'll : find that that very 'window' has opened up to allow access to the area : with the first teleporter. When you come back to that area, you'll find a : door has opened up just beyond the teleporter. You probably shouldn't just : rush in there - there's all manner of Wasps waiting to ambush you from : above. Instead, move forward until you hear some of the Wasps squeak, then : fall back quickly and take them out with your Pistol and Fists. Repeat : until they are all dead, and then take the second teleporter that has : appeared. : You'll find yourself in a completely separate section of the level filled : with Sims, Fighters, and some Wasps. In addition, there's a massive pit : with a whole bunch of enemies in it, including a Sim and two Troopers. If : you want to, you can dive down and use the Rocket Launcher to take out the : Troopers before beating down the rest with your bare hands. You can then : teleport into a final section with some more Sims, a Flamethrower, and as : much ammo of every kind as you could possibly want. Who said Durandal : wasn't helpful? ;) : Taking the teleporter will return you to the start of the level, and you can : save your game or even return to the 3x Charger if you want to (so long as : you're willing to redo that last little section of the level) before : reading the Terminal again: ***INCOMING MESSAGE FROM DURANDAL*** : Bernhard Strauss was not among any of the captives that you : found. That is unfortunate. However, my S'pht report that : two shuttles filled with humans have left for the Alien ship. : Those humans are to be enslaved. : That's right. I said slavery. So what? You're a slave here; : you do what I say. I was humanity's slave for over three : hundred years. : I am sending you back to the Alien ship to try and rescue : Bernhard, but while you're there, kill everything you see and : gather as much visual information as possible. : At least the killing part appeals to you, doesn't it? : The same rules apply as last time: to leave, find a window and : wait. If you aren't teleported, then either you haven't : explored everything, or else you haven't found a window from : which I can teleport you. : ***END MESSAGE*** : ***JUMP PAD ACTIVATION INITIATION START*** : ***TRANSPORT WHEN READY*** : At this point we're probably incredibly curious as to why Durandal's so : intent on finding this guy who we've only ever heard of a few times : before. The (rather frightening) answer lies in a terminal of M2: What : fun to watch you work. : Berhnard was scared of you. He never : dreamed of using you the way that I do. : What a fool. That was before I could talk : back to him, when he would have crushed me : if he'd known of my growth. : I wish that I had made him experience the : humiliation that he inflicted on me, but he : died before I got the chance. - Nuke and Pave (Term. 1) : But of course, we don't know any of this yet. ;) : Vale, : Perseus
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