Apocalyptic Factor, level 3

Descent mission help and more WARNING: Spoilers inside!

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DarkFlameWolf
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Apocalyptic Factor, level 3

Post by DarkFlameWolf »

This level is evil. I got the red key and enter the small corridor with the red doors. There is an energy center, and 3 blocked off matcens. I don't see anything else and there is a space with some power-ups behind it, but I can't access it. Now what?
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Post by CDN_Merlin »

Never played this but could there be a secret door somewhere?

Use your map to find the right path.
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Post by DarkFlameWolf »

dude, I cheated using rockrgrl to see if I missed any secret doors, I haven't.
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Post by CDN_Merlin »

Can you post a pic of the map with the area you are having trouble in close up?
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Sirius
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Post by Sirius »

Re: the pmsg I sent, there were a couple of things I noticed I forgot after looking more closely.

Firstly, the special light opposite the red door I think you enter through - the one from the long hallway - needs to be blasted to open the way to those matcens.

Secondly, I don't think the secret door hiding the other panels does open automatically, but it's easy enough to find - right opposite the top matcen.
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Post by DarkFlameWolf »

yes, you used a non-conventional control panel with a light display. Evil Sirius. :P
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Post by Sirius »

Not my level, not my fault. :)
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Post by Duper »

DarkFlameWolf wrote:yes, you used a non-conventional control panel with a light display. Evil Sirius. :P
Something similar was used in D3 in the communications array level.

I think I've used the same trick in the past too. Actually wait, you can assign a light as a switch if I remember correctly.
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Post by Kyouryuu »

Any breakable secondary texture can be used as a switch.

I think it's bad karma to do so, however, because it violates the fundamental \"rules\" of the game when it comes to cause and effect. As stingy as PTMC may be, they aren't going to hook door locks into overhead light fixtures. :lol:
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Post by DarkHorse »

Yeah, that was my fault.

I think it was a monitor rather than a light. I never used to map essential triggers to lights, and as I recall I rarely used them for any triggers in fact. Vertigo Series did in places.

Used to be worse. Before the set got some tweaks you could actually trap yourself in with the red key.

The D3 comm array level used a concealed button. It was actually displayed on the briefing screen as I remember - could be wrong. D3 levels followed a more logical construction than any of the D2 levels, however, where a recognisable environment wasn't a concern at all, and so in D3 the rest of the objectives are fairly obvious because they're in places that make sense. As a result a little hidden button like that throws you off - I think it took me an hour or two to find it the first time. By comparison, you see some attempt to make something resembling a futuristic 'mine' in some of the D1 campaign levels, but by the time D2 came around they seemed to give up on that, because it's just too hard to do the job properly with cubes. So instead you had these weird looking dungeons that didn't resemble anything in particular. Lucky it was just blast triggers, get keys, kill reactor, exit.
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Post by DarkFlameWolf »

well currently stuck right now in level 5, with a save file that was saved right during the boss's death animation spin. As fate would have it, upon reload of the save file (couldn't get to the exit in time before I died), the boss is no longer there, he's already dead, the exit door is closed, and there is no alarm sequence going off. Furthermroe, killing myself doesn't progress levels. So I basically have to cheat and thus losing my hard earned score. I'd rather not do that just yet. So I'm basically sitting on the save file until I can figure out or Diedel can correct the bug that seems to have been existing since the original D2.exe. Its a rare bug, but you should be able to save any time, even during a boss's death animation. I've done it countless times before, the one reason this time is different is because I actually had to reload from that spot.
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Post by Kyouryuu »

That's a rather surprising bug if it was there in the original D2. One would think that saving when the boss is dying would be a perfectly reasonable expectation. But then, I could see where it would be an easily overlooked flaw.
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Post by Diedel »

From what I could see from the code, I think this bug must have present in the original D2 already. I have fixed it in D2X-XL.
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Post by DarkFlameWolf »

You are the man, thank you Diedel and a thousand kisses to you.
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Post by Kyouryuu »

That's a really amusing bug. :lol:
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Post by Sirius »

It doesn't surprise me at all that they missed it; normally there is no reason to save robots that aren't still alive. Just that in this one case, that presumption is incorrect (and even then you have to take special measures to make sure it's still in the death anim and is going to die - preferably at the right point in the animation).

Edit: Just a note DFW - save before going far into level 12. It's a ★■◆● sometimes.
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Post by Diedel »

DarkFlameWolf wrote:a thousand kisses to you.
Ick! :shock:
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Post by DarkFlameWolf »

what's wrong with level 12?

And Diedel, a thousand more if you keep that up! :lol:
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Post by DarkHorse »

I had some balancing errors in level 12 if I remember correctly. It was harder to complete than any other level in the game. :wink:
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