Oh, wow- I think what you're talking about there might be the one big downfall of the PC version; The damage per hit sounds ridiculously high there. In my version the wheel robot does something like 3-5 damage per attack and only attacks 2-3 times before going hand to hand. As for the heavy trooper up top, I'd say he averages doing about 20 some odd damage on the way up even if he does his best attack several times. The way I see it the best way is to do it all as a circuit- Skip razor wind bridge- boost to hit switch- teleport out- teleport back in- get ion cpacitor- death warp to exit the map.
SDA Forum
Hehe yeah, your probably going to laugh when you read my description of damage per hit from these enemies. I start at the wind tunnel with 100 health and can kill the light trooper without getting hit. Then I go to the talisman pad, the wheel robot misses his first shot then as I get into position he does 2 or 3 attacks, doing 25 health per hit, lol
The big trooper up the top starts with his missile attack at long range which thankfully doesn't do too much damage, but as you close in he does this rapid beam move which does around 40 health in about a second if all of it hits you. As your on a bridge with nowhere to hide you can't escape it. So sniping on the bridge through the blackness is the way for me and only loses a couple of seconds. I can still do the whole trick, I just need to make sure I get to the wind tunnel with at least 80 health or so.
Yeah about the route through that part, that's what I came up with too. It's the best way. I'm wondering what your route is for first place that requires the whispers talisman. My route is use the whispers talisman first to go up and round to flick the Primagen key force field switch that's guarded by the heavy trooper. Then come back the way I came and jump down into the tunnel with the ion capacitor, flick the switch to draw the bridge, collect ion capacitor and deal with the water purifying area and escape via the nearby portal. Is this your route through here ?
The big trooper up the top starts with his missile attack at long range which thankfully doesn't do too much damage, but as you close in he does this rapid beam move which does around 40 health in about a second if all of it hits you. As your on a bridge with nowhere to hide you can't escape it. So sniping on the bridge through the blackness is the way for me and only loses a couple of seconds. I can still do the whole trick, I just need to make sure I get to the wind tunnel with at least 80 health or so.
Yeah about the route through that part, that's what I came up with too. It's the best way. I'm wondering what your route is for first place that requires the whispers talisman. My route is use the whispers talisman first to go up and round to flick the Primagen key force field switch that's guarded by the heavy trooper. Then come back the way I came and jump down into the tunnel with the ion capacitor, flick the switch to draw the bridge, collect ion capacitor and deal with the water purifying area and escape via the nearby portal. Is this your route through here ?
Man, that damage is absurd T.T; Worse still, I bet when the heavy trooper does their rapid fire attack it all targets you on the PC right? On the N64 the vast majority of the attack just flies off in random directions and only does a good job hitting you if you're circle strafing up close. As for the path yeah, that's exactly how I do it. You probably already do this already, but if you don't I would recommend running forward and dropping off the top of the stairs over the talisman pad then jumping backwards in midair to land on the pad itself. This avoids all the sloppy-ass clipping that the programmers left along the stairs and saves you a few seconds.
It is crazy damage but I can just about live with it. It applies to all the other levels as well, so level 5 really is going to test my patience. I'm not sure about the heavy troopers beam, it might be more accurate on PC, but he only seems to do it when I'm rather close so it hits me anyway regardless of it's general accuracy. Good to know the route is sorted for that part then as well. I haven't been doing that jump off the stairs, thanks for the tip. Yeah the clipping there is stupid. The worst clipping in the game award has to go to the gate that blocks the 3rd sister that you open by inserting the keys. When I jump over to take a shortcut for the opposite switch I have to be nearly falling into the water to pass the CLOSED gate :o. Oh yeah btw I'm right near the end of level 2 before the totem and my time is 46:36. I've done some tests completing the totem and then collecting the level 1 P-key and saved and my time was 53: something or other. But I messed it up quite bad and could easily put it into the 52 region. So my estimate was correct. I wonder how long level 4, 5 and 6 take individually ? for sure longer than the first 3 levels. Hopefully I'm on course for a 2 hours 10 minutes final time, there abouts.
I'm glad I could help. I think levels 4 and 6 are going to be the really time consuming ones, from my experience- In level 4 there are horribly few shortcuts and in level 6 most of the stuff you'd try to run from either blocks your path physically or does unreasonable damage. That time sounds really amazing considering that it's all the levels plus their respective p-keys, and I see 2H 10M as a very real possibility -nodnod-
Also, now that I think of it I might have a bit of advice late in level 4; In the giant lava room near the end of the second bridge you can jump down to the ultra health pick up after sniping the guy at the entrance and climb up to the exit. Let it first be noted however, that the first rock platform where the ultra health is rises and lowers much more sharply than the other two- If you try to jump off it while it's too low you won't be able to reach the next one and will simply die. Getting the pickup is probably about the same speed as the normal way because of the extra tunnel and bridge when going said way. Shortly after that there's a part where you drop down to kill a bow carrying blind one blocking the tunnel entrance- Behind the nearest bunch of rock there's a flamethrower tank, so be mindful of the available ammo leading up to that fight. At the final door where you need a cave key- Near the door that opens after you kill both the bow carrying blind one and the giant spider there's another flamethrower tank hidden behind the huge boulder. Finally, leading into the last key area here's a list of the available ammo(to have spent beforehand if you choose); Before crossing the rock that you blow up to get into the key room there's a 3 explosive shell pickup behind the rocks to your left. Leading into the room is the shredder for 15 regular shells. To the right of the key there's a grenade launcher(5 grenades) and a tek bow(10 tek arrows). To the left of the key there's a plasma rifle(100 plasma ammo) and a cerebral bore(8 bore ammo).
Update on level 4- There isn't really a need to get the sunfire pods early- The flamethrower can get the open combat done and the plasma rifle can snipe the long range blind ones quite well. In level 5 I'm now certain that it averages out much faster to stop in the second save point and after destroying the main generator just death warp out to it. I haven't made any worthwhile discoveries on any of the other levels.
Some good stuff here, thanks.
Sorry I been away a while. I had a weekend break and then when I come back Sunday, my dad who was doing some DIY in the house accidently pulled some cables out of the phone line, so we lost internet haha.
I've been playing quite a lot of level 4. I'm happy to report that I've done the segment which had me trying to get the first cave door key using the overhead item trick. That was torture I'm sure you can imagine. The best advice I have for it is to just stand under it and frantically tap jump while turning all the time left and right and tapping forward and just hope you get lucky. As your runs are single segment it might actually be better to get the key the normal way. But if you've managed to get it using the trick then by all means test your luck in your attempts, but I have to say it comes with a giant warning badge.
Next segment is the river/satchel charge/thermal vent segment. You can also get the satchel via the overhead item trick on your first trip underneath it, but it is also very finicky and doesn't save enormous amounts of time. Perhaps this is also relegated to a segmented run optimization but by all means try it out and see. In this segment you should be able to keep the water boost all the way to the the thermal vent like I done, once out of the thermal vent, come back up and round getting the same water boost to the next hole drop. Compared to no boosts I think we save in excess of 3 minutes alone in this segment. Lastly I've decided that a death warp in thermal vents 1 and 3 is a good idea as there seems to be still some ten seconds walk back even in the first one. Thermal vent 2 though wouldn't save any time because the portal is so close to the vent anyway. If my calculations are correct there should still be plenty of tokens/lives on offer to grant us the obligatory death warps later in levels 5 and 6.
I'm currently at the beginning of the water maze segment and my time is still below 1 hour. Specifically 59:45
Sorry I been away a while. I had a weekend break and then when I come back Sunday, my dad who was doing some DIY in the house accidently pulled some cables out of the phone line, so we lost internet haha.
I've been playing quite a lot of level 4. I'm happy to report that I've done the segment which had me trying to get the first cave door key using the overhead item trick. That was torture I'm sure you can imagine. The best advice I have for it is to just stand under it and frantically tap jump while turning all the time left and right and tapping forward and just hope you get lucky. As your runs are single segment it might actually be better to get the key the normal way. But if you've managed to get it using the trick then by all means test your luck in your attempts, but I have to say it comes with a giant warning badge.
Next segment is the river/satchel charge/thermal vent segment. You can also get the satchel via the overhead item trick on your first trip underneath it, but it is also very finicky and doesn't save enormous amounts of time. Perhaps this is also relegated to a segmented run optimization but by all means try it out and see. In this segment you should be able to keep the water boost all the way to the the thermal vent like I done, once out of the thermal vent, come back up and round getting the same water boost to the next hole drop. Compared to no boosts I think we save in excess of 3 minutes alone in this segment. Lastly I've decided that a death warp in thermal vents 1 and 3 is a good idea as there seems to be still some ten seconds walk back even in the first one. Thermal vent 2 though wouldn't save any time because the portal is so close to the vent anyway. If my calculations are correct there should still be plenty of tokens/lives on offer to grant us the obligatory death warps later in levels 5 and 6.
I'm currently at the beginning of the water maze segment and my time is still below 1 hour. Specifically 59:45
Ah yes, it's good to hear back from you. First I think I should mention about my own thoughts on running the console version- I recently heard back that the SDA crew aren't using VHS submissions any longer and I don't have any means of yet to encode my own so I'm not taking the idea seriously until I learn a way to record from console to computer or whatever the process is. I've done a video for my own enjoyment using everything I remembered between my advice and yours except for the thermal vent 1 death warp and got a time right around 2H 57M using my preferred path. That time you've got so far is really rocking, congratulations! As for the tips- On the first cave door key, turn the map on as you're heading towards the key and try first to line yourself up exactly with the tip of the second triangle of land where the key is(the one opposite the ladder out of the water close to you). This seems to immensely improve the reliability of the trick. Also, I'm not sure about the PC version but I find that I can go through the whole water maze without coming up for air; You only lose 2 health every 3 seconds on the console. Anyways I hope things continue to go smoothly for you ^u^
ahh the first thermal vent death warp is minimal at best so nothing bad in having that left out as of now. It's a really exellent time 2:57 on console. That's just under an hour faster than marshmallow's time. We're definitely doing something right 
Have you thought about a DVD recorder ? that's the main staple for recording console games that I use for Super Metroid runs. They are a little expensive though. You can mail the DVD to SDA and they can encode it as well.
I've got weird idea for when I record this game. A friend of mine who I visit one a fortnight has the house free for 3 weeks in November. Basically in order to record on PC you need a lot of storage space and good specs on a PC. Neither of which I have on mine. So I'll probably spend couple of weeks in November there and try to nail the whole run there and then, or at least most of it. Another thing wrong with my game is there's no music. The patch to have music hasn't worked for me for some reason. So a that's another reason to not record it on my PC. If I frequently do test runs I'll keep the game fresh and sharp in my head for the actual recording attempts.
Thanks for the tip on the cave door key. I'll try that next test run. I think in this run I got it on like the 3rd or 4th jump so it was pretty quick anyway, but my god dozens of failed segments were made before it. I also miraculously became consistent with the satchel charge at the water maze. With me getting it on 1st, 2nd or 3rd jump on many occasions. Yeah I can get through the water maze without taking damage too. What is a pain is the darkness and the enemies that can block you. Using the map sometimes you make Turok start swimming at the ceiling or the floor and he slows down, and you don't know until after a few seconds when your arrow becomes noticeably slower on the map.
Have you thought about a DVD recorder ? that's the main staple for recording console games that I use for Super Metroid runs. They are a little expensive though. You can mail the DVD to SDA and they can encode it as well.
I've got weird idea for when I record this game. A friend of mine who I visit one a fortnight has the house free for 3 weeks in November. Basically in order to record on PC you need a lot of storage space and good specs on a PC. Neither of which I have on mine. So I'll probably spend couple of weeks in November there and try to nail the whole run there and then, or at least most of it. Another thing wrong with my game is there's no music. The patch to have music hasn't worked for me for some reason. So a that's another reason to not record it on my PC. If I frequently do test runs I'll keep the game fresh and sharp in my head for the actual recording attempts.
Thanks for the tip on the cave door key. I'll try that next test run. I think in this run I got it on like the 3rd or 4th jump so it was pretty quick anyway, but my god dozens of failed segments were made before it. I also miraculously became consistent with the satchel charge at the water maze. With me getting it on 1st, 2nd or 3rd jump on many occasions. Yeah I can get through the water maze without taking damage too. What is a pain is the darkness and the enemies that can block you. Using the map sometimes you make Turok start swimming at the ceiling or the floor and he slows down, and you don't know until after a few seconds when your arrow becomes noticeably slower on the map.
Thank you! I'll also keep in mind that a recording can go from DVD to PC, and since my brother knows computer stuff better I'll ask him when I see him again(he lives in a different state than me). Also about enemies in water- The most reliable strategy I've found if you need to head straight toward them is to always start by heading up then switch to heading down. They seem much faster at rising than sinking.
Okay, something suddenly became obvious to me while watching my new run and if you haven't already figured this out it could save you some huge time- In level 4 after you seal the last thermal vent and warp out your starting point is almost directly over where you need to use the last cave door key. This means after you walk all the way down the path to get it you don't need to walk back, just death warp and drop down. This also means that the map won't be set up with the giant spider and sword blind one so it's a total win-win!
Holy shit that's a good one !. seriously hadn't thought of that one. Good find man !
Unfortunately I've just finished level 4 and it was a pain in the ass. The totem was a cake walk using the Sunfire pods and flamethrower. The difficult part was making sure that the drops around the totem were efficient enough to continue to the boss. Needing flamethrower tank, grenade box, but the most important one I needed was explosive shells to use at the start of level 5 for the turrets. I can't save during a boss battle obviously so even when I got great pickups I had to brave the boss afterward. luckily there are pickups to be found during the fight. It's probably different on N64 but this boss is a bitch, particularly the last part, as you take sever damage all the time from those extremely unfavourably angled tentacles. I actually condone dying during this part and spawning with full health so the beginning of level 5 doesn't leave me needing a few hits to die. Which is what I did.
I think level 5 is going to test my patience to the max with this PC's unreasonable damage taken from the mantids. I gave the headhunter a little test run through that big corridor with several mantids near the start. It's cool they all die effortlessly with no damage taken. There is one mantid though down a slope that needs to be shot because instead because of the low roof. Anyway I'm saved at the start of level 5 and my time is 1h - 14m - 6s. So level 4 including the boss and the hive intro took 22 minutes. I remember when this level used to take us about an hour and a half
Unfortunately I've just finished level 4 and it was a pain in the ass. The totem was a cake walk using the Sunfire pods and flamethrower. The difficult part was making sure that the drops around the totem were efficient enough to continue to the boss. Needing flamethrower tank, grenade box, but the most important one I needed was explosive shells to use at the start of level 5 for the turrets. I can't save during a boss battle obviously so even when I got great pickups I had to brave the boss afterward. luckily there are pickups to be found during the fight. It's probably different on N64 but this boss is a bitch, particularly the last part, as you take sever damage all the time from those extremely unfavourably angled tentacles. I actually condone dying during this part and spawning with full health so the beginning of level 5 doesn't leave me needing a few hits to die. Which is what I did.
I think level 5 is going to test my patience to the max with this PC's unreasonable damage taken from the mantids. I gave the headhunter a little test run through that big corridor with several mantids near the start. It's cool they all die effortlessly with no damage taken. There is one mantid though down a slope that needs to be shot because instead because of the low roof. Anyway I'm saved at the start of level 5 and my time is 1h - 14m - 6s. So level 4 including the boss and the hive intro took 22 minutes. I remember when this level used to take us about an hour and a half
I'm glad I could help, and I have a little more advice that might work- On the level 4 boss use the flamethrower against the first two rounds of cave growths so that the ammo spawn can't screw you. On the final round with the claw tentacles use the green shell shredder(which you can recover the ammo for with the shredder pickup on map 2 of level 5). As for the first map of level 5, what I've found most useful is actually a slower approach; Use the plasma rifle(4 hits per turret gun) and circle left while shooting the guns. When you get to the last one only shoot it three times then pick up the plasma rifle(100 plasma ammo) near your starting point and head down the nearest bridge toward the teleporter. From the farthest away you possibly can, snipe the last turret for the final hit and slip right in the teleporter once it's done.
that's cool coz the flamethrower if used carefully can kill the growths very fast and you can make it last a long time.
Yeah I did a similar thing for the start of the Hive but with explosive shredder. Blew the first two up either side of me, then walked to the center along the way shooting the right side edge of the turret on the right, then walked to the left side of the portal to shoot the last turret, then slip into the portal
Anyway I made some headway on level 5. I just did the part where we use the first death warp. The one where we shoot the force field pole and then run back and fall off the edge to be taken back to the top, avoiding a tower climb and some pointless rooms. Well there's a little trick I found here that I had been meaning to say. When your out into the large dark area with the patrolling mantid. grab his attention by shooting near him. stand by the edge and make him do a melee attack and damage boost yourself all the way to the bottom to the platform where the plasma beam and tokens are. You should also be roughly facing the turret that needs to be shot to open the door.
Yeah I did a similar thing for the start of the Hive but with explosive shredder. Blew the first two up either side of me, then walked to the center along the way shooting the right side edge of the turret on the right, then walked to the left side of the portal to shoot the last turret, then slip into the portal
Anyway I made some headway on level 5. I just did the part where we use the first death warp. The one where we shoot the force field pole and then run back and fall off the edge to be taken back to the top, avoiding a tower climb and some pointless rooms. Well there's a little trick I found here that I had been meaning to say. When your out into the large dark area with the patrolling mantid. grab his attention by shooting near him. stand by the edge and make him do a melee attack and damage boost yourself all the way to the bottom to the platform where the plasma beam and tokens are. You should also be roughly facing the turret that needs to be shot to open the door.
Ah yes, nice strategies on both accounts. I also think you can can just jump and land near him to alert him. From the sound of it there really isn't much more to learn on your part but I'll just mention my strategy on 2 places and see if you've come up with a better one; In level 4 at the two waterfall map where you eventually destroy the first thermal vent I always snipe the Blind ones at the top after waiting for and killing the leapers. In my experience if you try to just run through when you get to the bridges you almost always get killed. Also on level 5 near the last save point I always start the map by crouching and sniping first the nearby green mantid, then the one who patrols the bridge on the left(guards the wall you have to blow open) and finally drop down and snipe the green mantid at the bottom then the heavy one afterwards. This is mostly because I rarely have enough plasma ammo or health to seriously fight here.
Yeah those bridges on level 4 were definitely a pain. I got killed a few times. I tried to leave as much health as possible for the water maze afterward with the best I could do being something like 25 health lol.
I know the bit you mean in level 5 and I had a feeling that would be torturous there without invincibility :D. One of my old damage boost ideas was get a boost from the mantid to the bridge, but turok just falls right through it unfortunately. I guess playing it safe would be best there. There's actually several places I'm dreaded in this level. All three Queen Embryos are the first ones, particularly the last one. Just the trek there alone is going to be difficult with that room that has 3 big mantids patrolling below. I'll probably charge dart 1 or 2 of them and just run down there and climb the other side, not killing them. This is a strategy I've done a few times already. Way back in the circular room that has 4 switches in alcoves round the center and there's 2 big mantids patrolling. I didn't kill them, just charged darted them and continued flicking switches. All in all though it's impossible to play like you can on Port of Adia say, by that I mean avoiding getting stuck and killing things with a couple of shots. I find I have to use the headhunter on the smaller grey mantids because I simply can't shoot them for the life of me. I do lose my speed a bit often but nothing major.
That reminds me: eagle feather and portal switch. After nabbing the full health from earlier I find I can literally run past the first green mantid and jump onto the hovering platform in front of the big mantid. Then do a strafe jump to the right onto the hovering platform, go and flick the switch, come back and hop to the same platforms and down collecting the eagle feather and commit suicide. So this avoids having to shoot that pesky green mantid and the big one. on N64 You may or may not have the strafe speed to make the jump to the hovering platform to the right of the big mantid so you'll have to check that.
[edit] I done a little test. For the death warp from the master generator to the save room. compared to death warping from the generator back to the area portal. Surprisingly the save room death warp is slower by some seconds. It was 3 seconds on this test, but that can vary due to things like how long it takes to kill mantids and getting blocked by little grey mantids and stuff. That said the save portal test went a lot smother than the other one yet it was still slower. Of course the fastest out the lot would be surviving the generator altogether and escaping the onslaught by that is ny on impossible as I'm sure your aware. The save portal method though, while being slower means I can top up all ammo like explosive shredder for some nasty sections later. So in the long run the save portal death warp could be faster in the end and I'm actually going to stick to it.
I know the bit you mean in level 5 and I had a feeling that would be torturous there without invincibility :D. One of my old damage boost ideas was get a boost from the mantid to the bridge, but turok just falls right through it unfortunately. I guess playing it safe would be best there. There's actually several places I'm dreaded in this level. All three Queen Embryos are the first ones, particularly the last one. Just the trek there alone is going to be difficult with that room that has 3 big mantids patrolling below. I'll probably charge dart 1 or 2 of them and just run down there and climb the other side, not killing them. This is a strategy I've done a few times already. Way back in the circular room that has 4 switches in alcoves round the center and there's 2 big mantids patrolling. I didn't kill them, just charged darted them and continued flicking switches. All in all though it's impossible to play like you can on Port of Adia say, by that I mean avoiding getting stuck and killing things with a couple of shots. I find I have to use the headhunter on the smaller grey mantids because I simply can't shoot them for the life of me. I do lose my speed a bit often but nothing major.
That reminds me: eagle feather and portal switch. After nabbing the full health from earlier I find I can literally run past the first green mantid and jump onto the hovering platform in front of the big mantid. Then do a strafe jump to the right onto the hovering platform, go and flick the switch, come back and hop to the same platforms and down collecting the eagle feather and commit suicide. So this avoids having to shoot that pesky green mantid and the big one. on N64 You may or may not have the strafe speed to make the jump to the hovering platform to the right of the big mantid so you'll have to check that.
[edit] I done a little test. For the death warp from the master generator to the save room. compared to death warping from the generator back to the area portal. Surprisingly the save room death warp is slower by some seconds. It was 3 seconds on this test, but that can vary due to things like how long it takes to kill mantids and getting blocked by little grey mantids and stuff. That said the save portal test went a lot smother than the other one yet it was still slower. Of course the fastest out the lot would be surviving the generator altogether and escaping the onslaught by that is ny on impossible as I'm sure your aware. The save portal method though, while being slower means I can top up all ammo like explosive shredder for some nasty sections later. So in the long run the save portal death warp could be faster in the end and I'm actually going to stick to it.
Man you always amaze me with your ideas ^u^ Have you tried aiming for different parts of the bridge when you get the damage boost? If it's in any way possible to make the jump it would surely save a chunk of time... with the main generator I definitely think the save point is the way to go- It's just so much more reliable and of course there's the ammo recovery. I'm glad that I've been able to help so much on working up the strategy, and I'm certain that your run will be truly epic ^w^v
I'll try the aiming to a different part of the bridge next text run.. For the first mantid on the bridge i just fire away into the blackness with firestorm cannon and let the auto aim do the work. It's pretty reliable and I take minimal damage. For some reason sniping him with plasma rifle makes him see me automatically so I get shot a lot and then he starts to run around so I can't get a head shot. I then walk left off the edge and kill the mantid at the bottom, then the big one. Then I change to cerebral bore and just aim up at the bridge and try to get both of them.
I can happily say I'm saved right before the end portal, and got the P-key with the eye of truth trick. All embryo section were able to be dealt with smoother than I thought. I recommend death warping from the second embryo now as well. Since the game wants you to take a long walk through the next sections getting shot to shit. You pick up a full health at the end but the death warp stocks it to full anyway and I'm pretty sure it's several seconds faster.
For the last embryo (which I was dreading) the trek there was fine. sun fire pods come in really handy to stun two mantids at a time which the charge dart rifle can't do. Although you have to fire them in the correct spot and they don't stay stunned as long but it proved to really help this last section. I also found out you can do the swamp jump on the lava (lava jumping :P) Which came in really handy for avoiding one of the vine climbs up to an area where a mantid rather cheaply shoots you as your waiting to regain control of Turok. So I was able to just jump to the left to the area with tokens, avoiding the stupid mantid/vine climb altogether. Later on I charge darted all three big mantids and collected the charge dart pack and flamethrower tank. Lastly, knowing that I'll be death warping I run into the embryo section without any care as fast as possible, blasting away pods with grenade launcher and killing the embryo with flamethrower. By that point I'm almost dead and a mantid finishes me off soon after.
As I say I'm saved before the end portal and my time is 1 hour and 33 minutes. I done a little test run of the totem and boss and saved it afterward and the time was 1h 36m. So this level took almost exactly the same amount of time as level 4, which surprised me a lot. I thought it would be loads more.... Must be all those death warps. Anyway I'm thinking with some improved play here and there and the death warp you mentioned in level 4 that a sub 2 hour time could be possible. Providing the Primagens lightship is as short or shorter than level 4 and 5 have been. This could be too ambitious mind and it's just guessing but it would be fricken awesome.
I can happily say I'm saved right before the end portal, and got the P-key with the eye of truth trick. All embryo section were able to be dealt with smoother than I thought. I recommend death warping from the second embryo now as well. Since the game wants you to take a long walk through the next sections getting shot to shit. You pick up a full health at the end but the death warp stocks it to full anyway and I'm pretty sure it's several seconds faster.
For the last embryo (which I was dreading) the trek there was fine. sun fire pods come in really handy to stun two mantids at a time which the charge dart rifle can't do. Although you have to fire them in the correct spot and they don't stay stunned as long but it proved to really help this last section. I also found out you can do the swamp jump on the lava (lava jumping :P) Which came in really handy for avoiding one of the vine climbs up to an area where a mantid rather cheaply shoots you as your waiting to regain control of Turok. So I was able to just jump to the left to the area with tokens, avoiding the stupid mantid/vine climb altogether. Later on I charge darted all three big mantids and collected the charge dart pack and flamethrower tank. Lastly, knowing that I'll be death warping I run into the embryo section without any care as fast as possible, blasting away pods with grenade launcher and killing the embryo with flamethrower. By that point I'm almost dead and a mantid finishes me off soon after.
As I say I'm saved before the end portal and my time is 1 hour and 33 minutes. I done a little test run of the totem and boss and saved it afterward and the time was 1h 36m. So this level took almost exactly the same amount of time as level 4, which surprised me a lot. I thought it would be loads more.... Must be all those death warps. Anyway I'm thinking with some improved play here and there and the death warp you mentioned in level 4 that a sub 2 hour time could be possible. Providing the Primagens lightship is as short or shorter than level 4 and 5 have been. This could be too ambitious mind and it's just guessing but it would be fricken awesome.
Hm, about sniping that one bridge mantid- Does the PC version have a 'crouch' button? In the console version the crouch button reduces the range at which enemies can see you drastically. If I am standing and scope the one you're talking about always spots me, but if I'm crouching and I scope him he doesn't notice me. This tactic also works on the second power generator of level 6; If you're crouching while you put in the crystals the light Primagen trooper doesn't see you and shoot you. Personally I think under 2 hours is a little too high of an expectation, so don't feel let down if it doesn't quite turn out that way. Remember that on top of the last level you also have a minute or so getting the level 4 P-key and about 10 minutes between fighting the Mother boss and the Primagen himself.
Yeah crouching does the same thing in PC version too. To be honest I only tried it once against the bridge mantid and he still saw me. Perhaps I was positioned too far forward. That said I think the firestorm cannon approach is a little faster than having to snipe anyway. This PC aim precision combined with auto aim really helps a lot and I think it will make our runs quite different to watch.
About the time, yeah I know I've still got two bosses and two Primagen keys to get so I'm certain I won't make it on this test run. I'm just thinking that if I do another test run sometime polishing many segments here and there, doing that death warp you said on level 4 then it could be a possibility. But Like I say It is ambitious and I won't lose sleep over it if it turns out to not be possible. If anything a TAS could easily do it and I like to think my run (when it's recorded) could be used as a very helpful source for a TAS'er to work from. I understand this game isn't very helpful under too assistance though...
About the time, yeah I know I've still got two bosses and two Primagen keys to get so I'm certain I won't make it on this test run. I'm just thinking that if I do another test run sometime polishing many segments here and there, doing that death warp you said on level 4 then it could be a possibility. But Like I say It is ambitious and I won't lose sleep over it if it turns out to not be possible. If anything a TAS could easily do it and I like to think my run (when it's recorded) could be used as a very helpful source for a TAS'er to work from. I understand this game isn't very helpful under too assistance though...
Alright then, sounds like there are just a lot of differences in the mechanics of the PC vs. the console and I imagine that you've got a better understanding of what works best for your version. I wasn't actually aware that anyone had ever bothered trying to TAS the game, but if they did I'm sure the time would be truly remarkable.. In any event I continue to wish you the best of luck on your run and if I find anything useful I'll be sure to tell you. I recently found out something on level 2 but it turned out to be useless- In the section where you start above a basin with a raptor on patrol you can climb up the nearest ladder and diagonal jump to the lower part of the final room before you teleport out to where the talisman portal is but there's no way to get through the door that would have led into the area so it doesn't gain you anything.
Yeah I've heard that it's a pain in the ass to TAS and doesn't co operate with many things.
Well I've finally gotten all the P-keys (apart from level 6 one of course) so all the backtracks are done. I forgot but realized that you need to go through the whole rest of level 3 in order to get back to the hub. How annoying. It would be fantastic if you could make it over that fence like we tried before but, even if you could jump that far by whatever method, I can rule it out because when i got in the P-key area I use a water boost jump onto the fence but Turok gets stopped by an invisible barrier. So you can't get on the fence anyway. Unless you can from the other side. I understand you tried it with a no clipping code. Does that take away invisible barriers perhaps ?
My time after going through the first portal in the Primagens lightship is 1h 46m. Already I've found a something cool to speed an early part up. When you get the first ion capacitor and go up the fan, get a boost from it and keep it all the way till you reach the whispers talisman. You can strafe jump from the ledge to the tunnel that the whispers talisman would usually (slowly) take you to.
Well I've finally gotten all the P-keys (apart from level 6 one of course) so all the backtracks are done. I forgot but realized that you need to go through the whole rest of level 3 in order to get back to the hub. How annoying. It would be fantastic if you could make it over that fence like we tried before but, even if you could jump that far by whatever method, I can rule it out because when i got in the P-key area I use a water boost jump onto the fence but Turok gets stopped by an invisible barrier. So you can't get on the fence anyway. Unless you can from the other side. I understand you tried it with a no clipping code. Does that take away invisible barriers perhaps ?
My time after going through the first portal in the Primagens lightship is 1h 46m. Already I've found a something cool to speed an early part up. When you get the first ion capacitor and go up the fan, get a boost from it and keep it all the way till you reach the whispers talisman. You can strafe jump from the ledge to the tunnel that the whispers talisman would usually (slowly) take you to.
With the level 3 thing I'm starting to vaguely remember that I had to levitate really high up to get over the fence.. Also I'm not sure if you're aware but after getting the level 3 P-key you can death warp back to the teleporter that leads to the map, step back in, and be back at the building where you fight the first juggernaut. From there you can much more efficiently backtrack out of the level. That level 6 boost jump is one hell of an idea though I don't know if the console version would let it work... Also another passing thought on level 5- Have you tried every stationary green mantid for jumping boosts? I imagine that if nothing else they could slightly improve your overall travel speed. For example the one you mentioned near the last save point; Even if you can't land on the bridge you could probably use the boost to push you all the way to the heavy mantid before the climb, zap him and keep running. Also the place where you mentioned lava jumping to skip a climb and an enemy- Could you use a boost to fly to that platform faster? Just letting my mind wander ^.^...