Maan ShadowCode was flippin' tough.

[Jonas]

That's boring. It's getting cut.

[killhour]

A lot of people are saying "I got through it fine with my speed aug" but they're missing the point. You shouldn't need ANY augs to get past something (with the possible exception of the flashlight). Any room that forces you to take damage is bad level design. Same with any room that forces you to have made a particular choice in the past or you're screwed. I'd say that the hover bots should be changed to purely dive-bomb you. You should be able to get out of the way, but having like 4 of them after you at once blowing up would be freaky.

[Jonas]

Yes, thank you for getting the point.

But no, the hoverbots will stay largely the same, they'll just be far more vulnerable to normal weapon damage (and they'll have less EMP health).

[Draconis]

Is it possible to keep the old levels in the game for those who want them? E.g you can pick when you start a new game? Because personally I loved the ShadowCode level, nothing felt unfair to me, I didn't need any speed augs at all, what are you talking about? Then again I do love challenging games, so naturally I loved the challenge in the level, but by the sound of it, I'd prefer the original level by far compared to the patched one.

[JC_Helios]

I wonder if just keeping the old map would work for people that like it as is?... If there aren't any serious bug fixes included in the new map or anything.

[Daggsy]

Maybe include a masochist mode or something for people who want it kept?
I still think this one was a lot more fun than the Despot version for WC employees.
Also, good work on the suspense/sinister element. Really rocking the survival horror feel.

[Jonas]

Copy 20_OSC02.dx from your maps folder to somewhere else before patching, then overwrite it with your backed up version after the patch. Note that the map has a BSP error which is fixed in the patch - you'll be missing out of the fix, but it's not a critical error, it doesn't prevent you from completing the level in any way.

[Solivagant]

The Hoverbots was definitely the hardest, but I did the final areas without much health left, relying mostly on stealth. I loved the whole mission, ShadowCode is a wacky but fun AI to battle with! I think that you guys could have amped the fear factor, though, since he whispers "are you afraid?", which did make me quiver, but nothing really scary happened throughout the mission afterwards, too bad.

[Cermo]

I don't disagree with any of the proposed changes, sounds like a good balance...but I'll chime in and say I found the hoverbots easy to take out with the EMP pistol (but, if I didn't have the EMP pistol...), and using a crate to block the gold lasers didn't even occur to me..I just disrupted it with an EMP grenade, which I rarely use and had plenty of.

I really liked that the servers looked like WOPRs, and in that same nostalgic spirit thank you for letting me dust off my DOS skills in the DXI ruins.

edit - come to think of it I am a shameless cheater and I probably shouldn't have had enough EMP pistol ammo to make the hoverbots "easy"

[Agent_Kyramud]

ShadowCode was by far my favorite character in the entire game, and the puzzles, though a pain in the butt, were a lot of fun. I am not lying when I say I will miss them.

[ZeroPresence]

a part of me died reading this thread. :'(

[35Kas]

My first time in the fire room I had no idea what was going on so I waited for ShadowCode's speech and the room lit up. I speed aug ran to the back, healing with medkits halfway trough but still died (I guess it would be easier if you had regen aug). The next time I didn't wait for his speech, speedaug jumped through and even collected a few goodies in the room before it caught fire.

I died once to the elevators before I realized what was going on. Died a few times on the jumping puzzle with moving floors... And on the walkway that breaks when you run through it, after It fell i went to the end of it from underneath and realized there was nothing there so I did not bother to go.

I think the command prompt and piece puzzles were some of the best implementation in the game also. Should have enabled dos on all terminals so we could mess up with them like in Uplink. I mean it would have been a nice feature but i understand: a LOT of work.

BTW I liked Despot's office to boot! It was like DOOM all over again and i was actually on edge and FU** those swinging axes!!! I must have died at least 5 times until i ghosted through. When Treskton talked to Despot I was thinking exactly what he said: "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE etc" lol.

[JC_Helios]

*Agrees with Kas*

"Maan those axes were flippin tough!"

I ghosted it through them as well. They were so hard that I even ghosted around for a bit assuming there was a way to turn them off or an alternate route. I saw someone do it on youtube but it seemed like his axes were moving slower... maybe I just lack patience, timing, and fast reflexes....

[Jonas]

a part of me died reading this thread. :'(

Don't feel too bad about it, it's not your level design that's the problem, it's my game design. Your level design was fine, I think you did a great job with the atmosphere and creating an impression of enforced linearity.

[Draconis]

a part of me died reading this thread. :'(

Why? The level was awesome and very atmospheric. You should be proud.