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	Message: : TOUR OF DUTY : 16 – For Carnage, Apply Within : The name. The Story page has a well nicely written line: Play on the : advertisements looking for people with certain skills, etc. Of course you : are eminently qualified for this level. : And on Total Carnage it really is quite the experience. My suggestion for an : alternative would be Compilers. They’re Everywhere. Can’t Stand ’Em . It : is scarily easy to get overrun with them on several occasions here. I : wonder just how many you can actually activate … I was trying to get an : impressive screenshot, but I kept dying > Last time on Tour of Duty we : took a moment to experience déjà vu before getting blown away many a time. : We got a lesson on Enforcer Evolution, PS style (I had actually forgotten : we hadn’t met the new ones yet), and interesting musings on Tycho’s : motivations. I don’t think I’ve ever taken that shortcut to the second : half of the level, but I have always enjoyed the quick swim to the Tozt : and on to the 2x charger. Other than that the second half is a major : fizzer. But I learnt a few things, so it was worth it. : ... : The beginning here is subject to change as we seem to start in quite : different areas of the first “room” per spawn. And we’re liable to need a : few. Whichever way you slice it, applying within the first door is bad : enough: surprise Enforcers are no picnic. The second ambush inside the : hollow platform is definitely best avoided! : Let’s take a look at the map: : Right, most of it is taken up by Compilerdrome, that lovely platform-hopping : over lava zone, to which we will get in a minute. Really all that stands : between us and the end of the level is a lot of death, no puzzly things to : speak of here. : Moving on down the corridor to the east (the hollow platform was at point A : on the map) we find a side room with a reasonably unhelpful terminal, from : Durandal but with the f4k@ denomination on the login screen, which has : been written about elsewhere as potentially indicating that at least : something is fake here. Actually that started in IIHARL, did I miss : something in the writing here? Does anyone have further information? : Anyway, in the context of : : this particular terminal, I’m not sure exactly what’s up; it seems fine to : interpret these as Durandal’s death throes, which actually come to think : of it are at least somehow fake, as the rumours of his death are a little : exaggerated. : There’s a bunch of ammo nearby and a handy dandy 2x canister. Heading further : along the corridor is a bad idea, as it triggers ridiculous numbers of : Pfhor to spawn all around us; a death trap through and through as far as : I’m concerned. Instead we head in to Compilerdrome, Fusion Pistol at the : ready. : This place is cool. The textures are of course gorgeous, the encounters are : epic, and the platform-hopping is quite unusual and good fun gameplay. So. : I’d say it is wise to try to do away with a few of the compilers by : retreating back to the corridor, before making a run around to the right : and on to the terminal, 2x charger, and PB. Heading there right away : brings on the first large group of compilers. Amusingly, the internets : have someone suggesting that the collective noun for crossword compilers : should be flummox but that sounds too tame for our kind of compilers. : Also, searching for collective noun for s’pht linked back to this very : series where I apparently asked about a collective noun for Pfhor. Great : minds think alike I say. : We haven’t seen many compilers in M2 so far, but we certainly learn to : respect them here, so much so that it never seems like they are thin on : the ground when I think about M2. And we’re still not even close to the : absolutely mental ones in Infinity! But yes, suffice it to say, it is very : easy on this level to summon too many compilers and then you start getting : thrown up in the air and/or into the lava. Interestingly the raised : platform with Enforcer on the west side of Compilerdrome seems to be a : blindspot for the compilers, and really saved my ass this time around when : I got cocky. That area is just around from point C on the map, which is : obviously of some sort of interest – oh hey! There’s a big ammo stash : under the lava. Yet another thing I don’t think I ever knew *sigh*. Gotta : make quite a quick swim for it, but well worth it; on my current save I : was out of fusion ammo at the end of this level … now not so much! : So I mentioned another terminal, in the south of Compilerdrome it turns out; : never really knew the directions. In fact I’m kind of surprised we go : straight ahead from the entry door to get there; hard to keep track in : platform-hopping. Anyway, that terminal is a Tycho one, and he has a lot : on his mind! : : : : So, Tycho would have it that what Durandal has been getting us to do is all : for nothing; down to a misunderstanding on the scale of Lister’s cats : interpreting the laundry list as a starchart, in terms of importance at : least. That I looked back at Volunteers also means that I don’t now miss : the fact that this terminal brings the Jjaro into the Marathon universe, : screaming and kicking .. unless that highly secret map writing from Never : Burn Money did, that is. And then there’s the idea of planets warping : between solar systems, which Tycho says is just not what’s happening here. : And if we believed him, it would all be very depressing. But with what : we’ve read in S’pht terminals on our travels, we know there’s at least : something to it. Tycho has proved that escape is impossible? Or perhaps he : just has too high an opinion of himself … not like he’s the only one! : The next goal is to exit out the northeast of Compilerdrome, to the end of : that corridor we avoided earlier, just past the certain death trap … : instead a death trap with a way out, up the stairs. This is the part where : things can get really out of hand. Running along above the east of : Compilerdrome we trigger so many more compilers to port in as to be : ridiculous. I’m sure there’s a lot to be said for doing this part slowly, : but I feel that’s not how it’s designed. Oh well, I just had to reload a : few dozen times to survive the carnage I brought upon myself, ending up : using that blindspot I mentioned before – the compilers either don’t come : up there at all, or they circle around beyond the opening at point D on : the map and let you pick them off. They have something weird going on in : general – I’m never sure where they head off to but they have a nasty : habit of disappearing in the drome, and that tends to have scary : consequences. : However you choose to survive this part of the level, the next part is the : last part, with a door to the southeast leading to just a few more : Enforcers, an ammo cache with 2x canisters, the final terminal (the first : terminal we found also updates to give the final message, if you like), : and one of the more fun exit runs on reloading. That’s right, if you’ve : played through and have a SPNKR, you can missile your face against one of : the columns and get straight up the top – which is also another option : earlier in the level, and probably a feasible one if you manage to not : lose health in the process. : So, that final terminal. We get a little more sense out of Durandal amidst : more code ramblings. : : So he’s not dead, but we’re now off to kill him. Neat.
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