Turok 2 hard mode speed run

2011-12-04 07:51:46 am

Well then, so long as the other verifiers agree that the pickup is valid there's no more reason for concern.

2011-12-04 09:04:36 am

Yeah best case scenario would be that the bug is ignored since it wasn't my fault. Unless I unknowingly do it again which I'll try to make sure it doesn't. Seems pretty rare though thus far.

Second best scenario would be that 2 - 3 seconds are added as it would be equivalent to picking those other pods up as Squeebles mentioned. I personally don't mind this penalty since it's very small and clears it up completely.

Worst scenario is the run gets disqualified. But I get the reassuring impression from you guys that isn't gonna happen.

Squeebles

2011-12-05 06:31:16 am

-nod- I look forward to reading about the finished run on the front page, when the time comes ^u^

giganotabehemoth87

Edit history:

giganotabehemoth87: 2011-12-05 12:52:33 pm

2011-12-05 12:51:20 pm

Hehe, that will be sometime early next year for sure at this rate. I didn't even manage to do the first segment last weekend. Mainly because I had other things to do but also because I can tell this level is going to be very hard, if I go by this first segment at least. I nearly had it done but just run out of time. It doesn't look like two weeks from now is going to be much different either as it will be my birthday, but I'll see what I can do.

Also on an unrelated note: Although I can't change it now, I'm wondering if doing level 4 after 5, and getting the level 4 P-key in one trip to level 4 is faster. We established that level 5 wouldn't have torpedo launcher. But I think level 4 after 5 is maybe slightly faster, and would make a cleaner run to watch with less back tracking. If anything I think the difference is probably minimal and it's not worth thinking about. I'd like to know for sure one day by a TAS or something that could confirm it :P.

Squeebles

2011-12-06 01:45:17 am

I really wouldn't say that it's worth considering, not just because of the torpedo launcher but also because of the special circumstances that leaving it till the end of the game can afford you- Consider the following; If you save P-Key 4 until just before the Primagen here's what you get just before facing him- Full health if you need it(logs near the level entrance lead up to it) full plasme ammo(firestorm cannon after crossing the third chasm leading towards the key) and an ultra health just before teleporting to the key. I honestly can't imagine any place in the entire game that you can more efficiently gather all three while minimizing the time spent backtracking.

giganotabehemoth87

Edit history:

giganotabehemoth87: 2011-12-06 07:27:13 am

2011-12-06 07:25:28 am

Hmm... I see it has it's merits other than torpedo launcher for level 5. But I'd say out of those three items, only the ultra health is appealing. To at least avoid a death on the primagen himself, but I don't remember that happening too often in the practice run where I had just around the 100 mark starting the fight. I'm sure there's a firestorm cannon pickup before the mother boss along with all the other guns, and then I won't be even using the Firestorm cannon on the mother, so that doesn't even get taken into account. I just feel the extra seconds walking through the hub to level 4 and the trip to the whispers pad and back again to the hub outweighs the gains of the torpedo launcher fast swimming in level 5.

In any event having sunfire pods in level 5 is one plus point of the route I've chosen for this run, and I look forward to showing where I use them. Not forgetting the quick sunfire pod kills on the blind ones collecting the P-key.

Squeebles

2011-12-06 10:52:13 am

Alright then, I'll certainly look forward to it and I wish you the best of luck finding your answers for the route planning.

Squeebles

Edit history:

Squeebles: 2011-12-13 07:27:46 am

Squeebles: 2011-12-13 07:26:40 am

Squeebles: 2011-12-13 07:24:13 am

2011-12-13 07:12:16 am

Okay, got something curious to tell you that may or may not be helpful- About the routing, I've recently finished a playthrough with the level order 1-3-2-5-4-6 using everything we've learned and without wasting time picking up the Eye of Truth stash in level 3. The final save point time before facing the Primagen was 2H 49M 41S compared to my previous time of 2H 50M 26S. Mind you, the new time was also with the addition of the waterfalls tricks(overhead for the satchel charge, boost jump to the cave door key) and the death warp at the last cave door. I don't think I was particularly out of practice so I'd say that in my experience the supposedly optimal route was not a whole hell of a lot more efficient than my usual 1-2-4-3-5-6 route. I also found that if you save the level 3 P-key for last you can easily restock your green shredder shells; Right after the place where you first get the shredder in level 3 you can turn the corner of the first building and shoot down a net for the first ten shells and then before you teleport out you can enter the small building with an endtrail inside to get the other 10. Surely there are discrepancies like me taking several attempts to get the waterfall overhead trick to work, but it seems like overall there aren't any truly overwhelming advantages to the optimal route.

Okay, got something curious to tell you that may or may not be helpful- About the routing, I've recently finished a playthrough with the level order 1-3-2-5-4-6 using everything we've learned and without wasting time picking up the Eye of Truth stash in level 3.  The final save point time before facing the Primagen was 2H 49M 41S compared to my previous time of 2H 50M 26S.  Mind you, the new time was also with the addition of the waterfalls tricks(overhead for the satchel charge, boost jump to the cave door key) and the death warp at the last cave door.  I don't think I was particularly out of practice so I'd say that in my experience the supposedly optimal route was not a whole hell of a lot more efficient than my usual 1-2-4-3-5-6 route.  I also found that if you save the level 3 P-key for last you can easily restock your green shredder shells;  Right after the place where you first get the shredder in level 3 you can turn the corner of the first building and shoot down a net for the first ten shells and then before you teleport out you can enter the small building with an endtrail inside to get the other 10.  Surely there are discrepancies like me taking several attempts to get the waterfall overhead trick to work, but it seems like overall there aren't any truly overwhelming advantages to the optimal route.

giganotabehemoth87

2011-12-13 11:24:21 am

Assuming it was a single segment up until the point where you saved before the Primagen, then yes there would be a lot of discrepancies. Some of those overhead item tricks in level 4 are stupidly difficult to work and you can be standing there for minutes at a time, particularly on the first cave door key some 20 feet above your head. But then I don't know exactly how successful you were on those tricks. The satchel charge on the bridge collecting from underneath doesn't save an awful lot of time and if you take perhaps 5 - 7 jumps to get it, that time could be spent getting it the normal way. This is something to consider at least. But it's a good time you getting though for console. Maybe the similar time you got could have been just down to a coincidence rather than conclusive evidence of not much speed difference. But you might be the better judge of that since you did both runs and know roughly how you played in both of them.

I think the route I've chosen for this run is one based on not just speed, but practicality, even if the speed is possibly not an awful lot faster than some other orders.

I'm not sure I use green shredder on Primagen. Then do I recall you saying it works very well on his first phase with the antennas, or was that another weapon ?. Hopefully though I'll have a sufficient amount to not have to do any small detours to grab shells. Being a segmented run I get a bit tetchy with walking off the beaten track for ammo, and usually always hold the main path in mind as the supreme aim to continue achieving.

Leaving Lair of the blind ones P-key till last and getting that ultra health sounds like a good plan before facing the Primagen, to avoid any possible deaths.

Assuming it was a single segment up until the point where you saved before the Primagen, then yes there would be a lot of discrepancies. Some of those overhead item tricks in level 4 are stupidly difficult to work and you can be standing there for minutes at a time, particularly on the first cave door key some 20 feet above your head. But then I don't know exactly how successful you were on those tricks. The satchel charge on the bridge collecting from underneath doesn't save an awful lot of time and if you take perhaps 5 - 7 jumps to get it, that time could be spent getting it the normal way. This is something to consider at least. But it's a good time you getting though for console. Maybe the similar time you got could have been just down to a coincidence rather than conclusive evidence of not much speed difference. But you might be the better judge of that since you did both runs and know roughly how you played in both of them.

I think the route I've chosen for this run is one based on not just speed, but practicality, even if the speed is possibly not an awful lot faster than some other orders.

I'm not sure I use green shredder on Primagen. Then do I recall you saying it works very well on his first phase with the antennas, or was that another weapon ?. Hopefully though I'll have a sufficient amount to not have to do any small detours to grab shells. Being a segmented run I get a bit tetchy with walking off the beaten track for ammo, and usually always hold the main path in mind as the supreme aim to continue achieving.

Leaving Lair of the blind ones P-key till last and getting that ultra health sounds like a good plan before facing the Primagen, to avoid any possible deaths.

Squeebles

2011-12-13 03:02:11 pm

The recent run was segmented almost as much as the previous, but the time between save points leaves plenty of room for errors- Particularly level 4 where there is literally just one save point on the route. I'd say that the time spent getting the satchel charge was certainly enough to cancel out most of the benefit, though it saved tons of health and perhaps even a death. Along with the big tricks I also made it a point to skip a lot more of the fighting I'd normally do so overall I should've done quite a lot better. Overall I'd say that your current path will work almost exactly the same as it would've if you'd done level 5 before level 4 so it shouldn't be much of a concern. As for the Primagen it was his second phase against his claw arms where I remember the green shredder shells working best. Of course it always depends on how you prefer to manage your ammo. If you want to kill the Primagen with red shells then obviously you'd want to use the green ones on his second health bar, for example. I suppose that I'll need to know how your supplies are near the end of the game to say anything that I can guaruntee is helpful.. One more thought though- If you save the level 1 P-key for last, now that I think about it you could efficiently use the second save point to get all your ammo back from Adon(perhaps an idea for another playthrough since you've already gotten it during this one).

The recent run was segmented almost as much as the previous, but the time between save points leaves plenty of room for errors- Particularly level 4 where there is literally just one save point on the route.  I'd say that the time spent getting the satchel charge was certainly enough to cancel out most of the benefit, though it saved tons of health and perhaps even a death.  Along with the big tricks I also made it a point to skip a lot more of the fighting I'd normally do so overall I should've done quite a lot better.  Overall I'd say that your current path will work almost exactly the same as it would've if you'd done level 5 before level 4 so it shouldn't be much of a concern.  As for the Primagen it was his second phase against his claw arms where I remember the green shredder shells working best.  Of course it always depends on how you prefer to manage your ammo.  If you want to kill the Primagen with red shells then obviously you'd want to use the green ones on his second health bar, for example.  I suppose that I'll need to know how your supplies are near the end of the game to say anything that I can guaruntee is helpful.. One more thought though- If you save the level 1 P-key for last, now that I think about it you could efficiently use the second save point to get all your ammo back from Adon(perhaps an idea for another playthrough since you've already gotten it during this one).

giganotabehemoth87

2012-01-25 04:31:28 pm

Long time no post, lol. How we all been ?

This is just a small bump because the run is back in play. I've been crazy busy around Christmas time and this new year, but I've recently just had my PC upgraded so I can now record here at home on a regular basis. Time to put this run to rest !!!. segment one of the Hive was only just completed last night, and wow what a pain that was. Just another 6 or 7 to go Undecided

Veritate

2012-01-26 10:15:26 am

Sounds good! Just a small trick you didn't take advantage of:

In level 2 'River of Souls, in the third area near the end (where the river flows) you don't have to shoot the switch (to lower the bridge) to get to the warp portal, but can instead swim right through the water and jump through the bridge, it's not actually blocking your way. At least I'm 99% sure it's not, I don't have access to the game right now. It could be lazyness of the programmers, as you shouldn't be able to swim through the poisonous water at this point, at least if you complete the levels in their actual order. Which this speedrun cleverly doesn't. ;-)

giganotabehemoth87

Edit history:

giganotabehemoth87: 2012-01-26 11:03:40 am

giganotabehemoth87: 2012-01-26 10:47:56 am

2012-01-26 10:34:24 am

Interesting trick there, can't say I've known about it before. Yeah it's kind of ironic to think that doing level 3 before the river of souls grants me the souls talisman, but i missed out on this trick Huh?

It wouldn't save hardly any time though because even jumping off the bridge to the right and walking round the wall still works out about the same speed as running along the top, shooting the switch and jumping off into the water to the right. But it probably would have been good to have in my run nonetheless for a bit of extra programmer mockery Grin

edit - it's been such a while since i done this level i misunderstood the true application this trick you mentioned would have. It would avoid a detour of some 20 or so seconds going up the slope to get round to the walkway where i shoot the switch. i'm gonna load a new file and check to see if this trick works. it's not often you hope for a trick to not work :D, but i'll let you know how it goes .

Yep it does indeed work, damn i wish i messed around in this area before doing attempts I could have found that. it also would have saved a lot of hassle on that segment, not forgetting the 20 or so seconds saved.

Oh well this shit happens here and there. This game is so glitchy i could be missing tons of tricks for all I know. If a TAS of this game happens one day this will be one of the first things to remind the TAS'r

Interesting trick there, can't say I've known about it before. Yeah it's kind of ironic to think that doing level 3 before the river of souls grants me the souls talisman, but i missed out on this trick ??? It wouldn't save hardly any time though because even jumping off the bridge to the right and walking round the wall still works out about the same speed as running along the top, shooting the switch and jumping off into the water to the right. But it probably would have been good to have in my run nonetheless for a bit of extra programmer mockery ;D

edit - it's been such a while since i done this level i misunderstood the true application this trick you mentioned would have. It would avoid a detour of some 20 or so seconds going up the slope to get round to the walkway where i shoot the switch. i'm gonna load a new file and check to see if this trick works. it's not often you hope for a trick to not work :D, but i'll let you know how it goes .

Yep it does indeed work, damn i wish i messed around in this area before doing attempts I could have found that. it also would have saved a lot of hassle on that segment, not forgetting the 20 or so seconds saved.

Oh well this shit happens here and there. This game is so glitchy i could be missing tons of tricks for all I know. If a TAS of this game happens one day this will be one of the first things to remind the TAS'r

Squeebles

2012-01-28 06:48:50 am

Good to hear back from you, and great to hear that your computer inconvenience has been resolved! I haven't really been able to find anything else while playing the console version, and I've had plenty of distractions of my own so I'll just look forward to your run as works into the last leg. I'm especially excited to see the two Eye of Truth sequence breaks on you version- My VCR recording has some pretty bad skips on those scenes because of all the record-overs >.>;;;

giganotabehemoth87

2012-01-29 04:41:05 pm

Nice to see ya back Squeebles !

Yeah not long now. I've just done segment 4 of the hive which brings me to that half way point of the level, where the scenery changes to that grey color and the embryos await me Shocked

I'm a little concerned about my target though. Even with that trick I missed in level 2 I think under 2 hours might not be that feasible. My time is 1:18 and considering these last two levels are the longest and hardest, I really need to pull out all the stops. As a guesstimate I'd say I'm on for a 2 hour 5 minutes finish time at best. Which hammers home just how well I must have optimized that initial test run. With me getting 2 hour 13 minutes. On average my segments are around 3 minutes each and there is probably some 12 - 14 segments left of the game: 14 times 3 = 42, Which brings my time neatly to the 2 hour mark. I just hope Primagens lightship is actually rather shorter that what my hunch is telling me, but I'm doubtful. In any event I'll be pleased with the run even if it does step over the 2 hour mark, because I know there was little I could do to shed few minutes off.

Nice to see ya back Squeebles !

Yeah not long now. I've just done segment 4 of the hive which brings me to that half way point of the level, where the scenery changes to that grey color and the embryos await me :o I'm a little concerned about my target though. Even with that trick I missed in level 2 I think under 2 hours might not be that feasible. My time is 1:18 and considering these last two levels are the longest and hardest, I really need to pull out all the stops. As a guesstimate I'd say I'm on for a 2 hour 5 minutes finish time at best. Which hammers home just how well I must have optimized that initial test run. With me getting 2 hour 13 minutes. On average my segments are around 3 minutes each and there is probably some 12 - 14 segments left of the game: 14 times 3 = 42, Which brings my time neatly to the 2 hour mark. I just hope Primagens lightship is actually rather shorter that what my hunch is telling me, but I'm doubtful. In any event I'll be pleased with the run even if it does step over the 2 hour mark, because I know there was little I could do to shed few minutes off.

Squeebles

2012-01-30 08:45:38 am

I can confirm that the Primagen's lightship itself is shorter, but this doesn't really mean much when you consider that the Mother boss, the remaining P-Keys and the main man himself are ahead. I don't know how it goes for you but my fight with the Mother boss is always a long one.

giganotabehemoth87

Edit history:

giganotabehemoth87: 2012-01-30 11:51:19 am

2012-01-30 11:49:21 am

Good to know it's a bit shorter, . I know that level 4 took a little under 20 minutes so perhaps the lightship is somewhere in that region.

Yeah the mother boss will be a very short battle as it's segmented. she don't pose too much of a threat on PC due to the precision aiming, and also I can try glitching my green shells shredder shots on her face for the last phase to end the battle sooner.

I'm going to redo segment 4 because I found I could save many valuable seconds. It's the segment where we create the death warp via the save portal. the section with the four mantids guarding from up high can be optimized fully. I realized that while the firestorm cannon does a great job on the mantids and the bigger ones, draining flamethrower or one hit grenades on the big bastards can be slightly faster: and I'm only going to be refilling everything at the portal anyway. Something else I'm also going to do at the portal is save the game and split this segment up, because I found a really cool and rather reliable way to destroy that force field pole behind the big one through the water cave. Use a grenade and aim low so it bounces toward the pole destroying it in one hit. It's great that this works at all because there's water on the ground, but the water is only shallow, so the grenade doesn't drown and carries on bouncing forward like normal. When it explodes it has that nice display of bubbles Smiley

So the save is to make sure I do this in the quickest way possible and it looks pretty neat as well. My old strategy was to walk to the side evading his shots and flamethrower the pole, that's got to be about 3 - 4 seconds slower. Also saving flamethrower gives me a full tank to destroy the first embryo in a fastest way. Since there isn't a flamethrower tank on this one except the weapon itself hidden round a corner which wastes time getting anyway.

Good to know it's a bit shorter, . I know that level 4 took a little under 20 minutes so perhaps the lightship is somewhere in that region.

Yeah the mother boss will be a very short battle as it's segmented. she don't pose too much of a threat on PC due to the precision aiming, and also I can try glitching my green shells shredder shots on her face for the last phase to end the battle sooner.

I'm going to redo segment 4 because I found I could save many valuable seconds. It's the segment where we create the death warp via the save portal. the section with the four mantids guarding from up high can be optimized fully. I realized that while the firestorm cannon does a great job on the mantids and the bigger ones, draining flamethrower or one hit grenades on the big bastards can be slightly faster: and I'm only going to be refilling everything at the portal anyway. Something else I'm also going to do at the portal is save the game and split this segment up, because I found a really cool and rather reliable way to destroy that force field pole behind the big one through the water cave. Use a grenade and aim low so it bounces toward the pole destroying it in one hit. It's great that this works at all because there's water on the ground, but the water is only shallow, so the grenade doesn't drown and carries on bouncing forward like normal. When it explodes it has that nice display of bubbles :) So the save is to make sure I do this in the quickest way possible and it looks pretty neat as well. My old strategy was to walk to the side evading his shots and flamethrower the pole, that's got to be about 3 - 4 seconds slower. Also saving flamethrower gives me a full tank to destroy the first embryo in a fastest way. Since there isn't a flamethrower tank on this one except the weapon itself hidden round a corner which wastes time getting anyway.

giganotabehemoth87

Edit history:

giganotabehemoth87: 2012-01-30 03:13:34 pm

giganotabehemoth87: 2012-01-30 03:13:33 pm

giganotabehemoth87: 2012-01-30 03:13:32 pm

giganotabehemoth87: 2012-01-30 03:12:33 pm

2012-01-30 03:11:35 pm

Just redid the segment and beat the old one by 6 seconds !!!; Which is pretty much exactly what I thought I could improve it by. It turns out that I didn't want to save the game at the save portal because for some reason the command to do so is really delayed after you've already asked for ammo, wasting about 3 seconds. So I did it in one segment instead of splitting it up.
Also I stuck to using firestorm cannon on the big guys earlier on because even though some of those other weapons can dispatch them quicker, you have to be fairly close to do so. So it would have just meant an extra stretch of ground to walk to the unlocked door.

Squeebles

2012-01-31 04:03:29 am

Man, just hearing you describe these ideas is enough to make eager to see them done in-game! I think that ammo is easily my biggest stumbling block compared to you, and I look forward to seeing what your "smoke 'em if you got 'em" attitude does in the Hive. Whenever I play through I have the absurd habit of using only plasma and the war blade for most of the level, and reserving all my heavy ammo for situations where I know for a fact I'll be recovering the ammo soon. I think were it not for my 'hoarder' tendencies I could probably be a very good speed runner ^.^;

giganotabehemoth87

2012-01-31 03:18:44 pm

This is the very benefit of a heavily segmented speed run, which any segmented runner will attest to. The vision to plan very far ahead and use whatever you have to make things as fast as possible while also unconcerning oneself with the inevitable difficulty these things will produce. Because it's possible, it will be done, and a segmented run will make that happen all the more easier.

In fairness, the lesser saving on the N64 would make most runners naturally a bit more cautious.

In another bizarre twist of events I'm going to redo segment 4, AGAIN !!! lol. The reason being I forgot the water boost opportunity - when coming out of the water after destroying the force field pole behind the big one. So I could have kept an increased speed all the way to the force field generator.

This in turn led me to also think that - If I keep myself alive instead of the death warp. I could keep my speed all the way to the next portal, which would improve the segment by at least 15 odd seconds. I done some tests and of course it was too hard to stay alive after blowing up the generator. But... I found another way....

die on the generator as normal and make your way to the big water area with the moving platform and green Mantid shooting you from afar. As I get there the platform is moving away from me so I always had to wait for the platform to return. This gives me enough time to drop into the water below, initiate a water boost, use the vertical platform to get back up and jump onto the returning other platform, and bingo I got my water boost !.

hehe, this segment has easily turned into the hardest one so far in the game, but it's certainly one that needs to be done this way, for the sake of the uncertain final time, and of course for some extra cool factor :P.

This is the very benefit of a heavily segmented speed run, which any segmented runner will attest to. The vision to plan very far ahead and use whatever you have to make things as fast as possible while also unconcerning oneself with the inevitable difficulty these things will produce. Because it's possible, it will be done, and a segmented run will make that happen all the more easier.

In fairness, the lesser saving on the N64 would make most runners naturally a bit more cautious.

In another bizarre twist of events I'm going to redo segment 4, AGAIN !!! lol. The reason being I forgot the water boost opportunity - when coming out of the water after destroying the force field pole behind the big one. So I could have kept an increased speed all the way to the force field generator.

This in turn led me to also think that - If I keep myself alive instead of the death warp. I could keep my speed all the way to the next portal, which would improve the segment by at least 15 odd seconds. I done some tests and of course it was too hard to stay alive after blowing up the generator. But... I found another way....

die on the generator as normal and make your way to the big water area with the moving platform and green Mantid shooting you from afar. As I get there the platform is moving away from me so I always had to wait for the platform to return. This gives me enough time to drop into the water below, initiate a water boost, use the vertical platform to get back up and jump onto the returning other platform, and bingo I got my water boost !.

hehe, this segment has easily turned into the hardest one so far in the game, but it's certainly one that needs to be done this way, for the sake of the uncertain final time, and of course for some extra cool factor :P.

Squeebles

2012-01-31 09:14:43 pm

Thank you, and you continue to amaze me with your observations ^u^ Here's hoping that even more time saving discoveries can be made, so that you can beat that pesky 2 hour mark sometime soon too -nod-

giganotabehemoth87

2012-02-08 02:16:03 pm

Thanks dude !!
Remember that glitch I mentioned that was useless in lair of the blind ones where you can jump up onto the big rotating platforms from the ground ? well the same method works on the floating/moving platforms in level 5 and I'm guessing the ones in level 6 too. I haven't found use for it yet in this segment. Perhaps I should just check the last 3 segments to see if i missed any time saving opportunities. I think there just might be several places to save time with this trick later on and quite possibly level 6. Of course I'll let you know anything I find that could save time in the upcoming segments.

Regarding this current segment once again: after some messing around I've found that it IS possible to healthily stay alive after destroying the generator and escape to the level 6 key and teleporter. It's incredibly picky with how much damage it wants you to suffer on the generator, with about 90% of the time I escape with pathetically low health which just sets everything else up badly afterward. But on those odd occasions when you do survive, you can get out with remarkably high health. Ironically, what really helps is to have that aforementioned water boost speed while taking out the totems around the generator, then when they are all destroyed you have to wait a few seconds for the platform to come down, so I quickly switch to charge dart while moving around at high speed to avoid damage and shoot a mantid or two to minimize any hits i would normally take. Also I found that crouching while letting the platform take you up quite often makes the mantids not shoot you, or "forget" you are there, but it doesn't always work so effectively. This trick actually works elsewhere in the game too.

The neat thing about surviving is that the moving platform in that big water room, is sitting at the ledge I'm standing on ready to move across the room to that mantid shooting you from afar, so there's no delay unlike spawning from the save portal. All in all I've done 2 - 3 successful attempts of this whole new strategy (not recording) and can say that surviving the generator is about 8 seconds faster, which includes the platform position I just mentioned. it's crazy to think I was going to settle on this segment without the water boost and all these subsequent improvements, this would have been 30 odd seconds slower Shocked

Thanks dude !!
Remember that glitch I mentioned that was useless in lair of the blind ones where you can jump up onto the big rotating platforms from the ground ? well the same method works on the floating/moving platforms in level 5 and I'm guessing the ones in level 6 too. I haven't found use for it yet in this segment. Perhaps I should just check the last 3 segments to see if i missed any time saving opportunities. I think there just might be several places to save time with this trick later on and quite possibly level 6. Of course I'll let you know anything I find that could save time in the upcoming segments.

Regarding this current segment once again: after some messing around I've found that it IS possible to healthily stay alive after destroying the generator and escape to the level 6 key and teleporter. It's incredibly picky with how much damage it wants you to suffer on the generator, with about 90% of the time I escape with pathetically low health which just sets everything else up badly afterward. But on those odd occasions when you do survive, you can get out with remarkably high health. Ironically, what really helps is to have that aforementioned water boost speed while taking out the totems around the generator, then when they are all destroyed you have to wait a few seconds for the platform to come down, so I quickly switch to charge dart while moving around at high speed to avoid damage and shoot a mantid or two to minimize any hits i would normally take. Also I found that crouching while letting the platform take you up quite often makes the mantids not shoot you, or "forget" you are there, but it doesn't always work so effectively. This trick actually works elsewhere in the game too.

The neat thing about surviving is that the moving platform in that big water room, is sitting at the ledge I'm standing on ready to move across the room to that mantid shooting you from afar, so there's no delay unlike spawning from the save portal. All in all I've done 2 - 3 successful attempts of this whole new strategy (not recording) and can say that surviving the generator is about 8 seconds faster, which includes the platform position I just mentioned. it's crazy to think I was going to settle on this segment without the water boost and all these subsequent improvements, this would have been 30 odd seconds slower :o

Squeebles

2012-02-10 07:24:18 am

Nice, you really know how to measure these things out to find the best tactic ^U^ I'm also hoping you can find more tricks with enemy boosts as I get the distinct notion that the plentiful green mantids are probably a key element to maximizing the travel speed through some of the larger maps. I also remember in level 6 that the heavy primagen troopers can give you at least a small boost- I could be mistaken but I think in generator rooms 3 and 4 you might be able to get the heavy guys to kick you across to the other side of the room without waiting for the platforms, I just haven't had the patience to try it with the infrequent save points of the console.

giganotabehemoth87

Edit history:

giganotabehemoth87: 2012-02-10 06:12:38 pm

2012-02-10 05:14:20 pm

Thanks for reminding me about that trick. There is one enemy boost I've already done in segment 2 of the hive so far which is pretty cool, so I'll definitely keep my eyes peeled for other opportunities.

Quick question about the last level 6 key area in the hive before you use the portal to the 2nd half of the level:
In my old playthroughs and tests of this area I'm sure I had to kill the big mantid as well as the green ones that appear when you go to the level 6 key room, so that I could escape the area: because I'm sure the entrance to the area gets blocked unless you kill all enemies in that room. for some reason on this run I only need to kill the green mantids for the key room door to open and the exit/entrance door is open also. It's letting me skip the big dude altogether. Is this normal ?. Or has my game done another helpful glitch for me again Tongue

edit : just a tid-bit of information that I thought was amusing that I thought would be good to share:
I had a brainwave that because I'm not dying on the generator, so it would have been a good idea to restock ammo on the first save portal instead of the second because it is literally on route and would save time. After a little despairing thinking I had to do the last two segments again; It turns out that the tower platform that takes you up to the upper level to the generator is delayed, because of not doing the usual second save portal restock; and actually wastes the same amount of time standing there waiting for it to return as the detour for the save portal. lmao

Thanks for reminding me about that trick. There is one enemy boost I've already done in segment 2 of the hive so far which is pretty cool, so I'll definitely keep my eyes peeled for other opportunities.

Quick question about the last level 6 key area in the hive before you use the portal to the 2nd half of the level: 
In my old playthroughs and tests of this area I'm sure I had to kill the big mantid as well as the green ones that appear when you go to the level 6 key room, so that I could escape the area: because I'm sure the entrance to the area gets blocked unless you kill all enemies in that room. for some reason on this run I only need to kill the green mantids for the key room door to open and the exit/entrance door is open also. It's letting me skip the big dude altogether. Is this normal ?. Or has my game done another helpful glitch for me again :P

edit : just a tid-bit of information that I thought was amusing that I thought would be good to share:
I had a brainwave that because I'm not dying on the generator, so it would have been a good idea to restock ammo on the first save portal instead of the second because it is literally on route and would save time. After a little despairing thinking I had to do the last two segments again; It turns out that the tower platform that takes you up to the upper level to the generator is delayed, because of not doing the usual second save portal restock; and actually wastes the same amount of time standing there waiting for it to return as the detour for the save portal. lmao

Squeebles

2012-02-11 06:43:11 am

On the console I've never had to kill the big mantid to open the door, and I think there's one other possible reason for the door not to open; There seem to be a lot of location triggers that malfunction in Turok 2. My favorite example is the gate in level one that opens after you finish the wooden walkway/cliff section where you can snipe one of the Endtrails to open a door for an ultra health pickup; Almost every time I walk over the trigger at the final doorway it doesn't trigger and I have to walk back and go forward again to make it trigger. I'm not sure what the triggers are in the room you're talking about though.