DescentBB

I just cleared level 15 on insane...

well the setup of d2x-xl isn't really that hard. Its spelled out quite clearly I thought in the readme file that came with the program. I just followed it to the letter and it seems to work flawlessly.

I know it's not hard. But it's also not convenient. On the Mac, those files belong in ~/Library/Application Support. No application should require me creating another level of folders just to contain things. D1X-Rebirth has the same problem.

I finally beat D1 on Insane the other day. My final score was around 5.5 million points or so, a new record! Of course, I played through super-cheap since I re-loaded almost every time I died or took lots of damage, and ended up finishing with something like 90 lives.

On the other hand, I finally discovered the joys of the fusion cannon on the last few levels! Usually I just stick with my beloved plasma after getting it on level 8, but the Fusion works great on Insane for one-hit killing big groups of annoying robots.

Like I said DC, go to the forums and let them know that's an issue. They might not be aware of it as neither are really Mac users and rely on feedback from folks like you to improve the project.

Firewheel wrote:On the other hand, I finally discovered the joys of the fusion cannon on the last few levels! Usually I just stick with my beloved plasma after getting it on level 8, but the Fusion works great on Insane for one-hit killing big groups of annoying robots.

Yeah, the D1 Fusion cannon is the ultimate crowd control weapon. And it's not just for the annoying bots. In level 15 I used it to take out all the red homing missile hulks that a matcen spawned in ONE SHOT. No other weapon in the game is as effective at clearing out a swarm of robots spawned from matcens. There have been times where I have used it to kill upwards of 30 robots in just a few seconds.

It sucks down energy like nobodies business, but against a huge swarm like that it is the most efficient weapon in the game.

Krom wrote:In level 15 I used it to take out all the red homing missile hulks that a matcen spawned in ONE SHOT.

!!!
never thought of that. I always used the cheap sniping behind edges with the super laser option (edit: level 4 it was called, right?)

I did finish D1 on insane, though --- without going back and reloading if I lost a life, and only saving when I had to go to bed.

The only other (single player) game that kept up my interest for that long was the original FarCry.

I wouldn't count on the Fusion cannon taking out the red hulks in one shot normally though, even a full charged shot is not enough to kill one of them... But due to a particular Fusion bug that is present even in D1, it is enough to kill 5 of them at once if they are all bunched together.

But otherwise the Fusion cannon in D1 is an excellent weapon for limiting your exposure to danger. Rather than sneaking a wingtip over the corner and pecking away with a quad laser, you only need to duck down and get off one good shot to kill almost any robot in the game. The only robots it doesn't kill in one shot normally are the purple fusion hulks and the red homing hulks. And only a few robots even require charging a shot to kill, including plasma shooting class 2 drillers, cloaked concussion hulks, and the green concussion missile platform bots. Pretty much everything else goes down in 1 hit from an uncharged shot.

Krom wrote: The only robots it doesn't kill in one shot normally are the purple fusion hulks and the red homing hulks.

Ah, purple people eaters - those always gave me the willies

What was that one secret level that was full of 'em - Asteroid Robot Factory, I think. It haunts me still

Krom wrote:This thread is really making me want to play D1 SP again, damn you!

I wonder if D1X-R works in Windows 7...

DXX DOES WORK IN WINDOWS 7! I'VE DONE IT MYSELF! Make sure you have DirectX and the drivers for any special devices installed just to be safe.

At any rate, the L7 boss was pretty easy for me. I'd watched demos and people beat him over the years. I still haven't finished D1 SP yet. I'm on level 12. D2 SP... I am on level 16 and having the hardest time trying to figure out how to beat the boss, but yes, the good old days.

DCrazy wrote:I know it's not hard. But it's also not convenient. On the Mac, those files belong in ~/Library/Application Support. No application should require me creating another level of folders just to contain things. D1X-Rebirth has the same problem.

Hey D. what Mac OS are you running?

Krom wrote:I wouldn't count on the Fusion cannon taking out the red hulks in one shot normally though, even a full charged shot is not enough to kill one of them... But due to a particular Fusion bug that is present even in D1, it is enough to kill 5 of them at once if they are all bunched together.

doesn't the same bug still exist in D3 multi? Seems to be something of a descent tradition now that started as a bug and is now a feature, same as tricording, if I remember correctly.

But otherwise the Fusion cannon in D1 is an excellent weapon for limiting your exposure to danger. Rather than sneaking a wingtip over the corner and pecking away with a quad laser, you only need to duck down and get off one good shot to kill almost any robot in the game. The only robots it doesn't kill in one shot normally are the purple fusion hulks and the red homing hulks. And only a few robots even require charging a shot to kill, including plasma shooting class 2 drillers, cloaked concussion hulks, and the green concussion missile platform bots. Pretty much everything else goes down in 1 hit from an uncharged shot.

all this *really* makes me want to play D1 again.

Yeah, the same bug is in D3 multi (fixed in AC servers).

I just arrived on level 20 and immediately remembered how much I dislike parts of it. Especially getting through the matcen trap in one area.

What music?!

I play D1 regularly, if going through the whole game 1-27 once a year counts as regularly.

I can't play on anything but Insane, I dodge too fast and right back into the incoming fire...

Duper wrote:Hey D. what Mac OS are you running?

10.5.7 normally, 10.6 when I need to test.

Zico said, he'd pass along the info to his \"Mac God\"

D1 Level 7 in Demo Version... Brings back fond memories.

I remember having over 30 lives when getting to that Final Room flying with ONLY the keyboard. No Joystick and No Mouse Controls.

All 30+ lives lost on that boss... ACK!

The Boss and the hordes of mobs in the small area made this end of Demo area very difficult.

So finally as a last ditch effort, I hacked a saved copy of the \"Save\" file just before entering the level once I knew how to maximize each item to 65535 Units (Shields, etc.) then resaved the file.

Then it was time to stand \"toe to toe\" with that boss.

Once I was able to find out HOW to beat the boss and which weapon was the best to use... Went back to the UNPATCHED / HACKED save file then beat the boss without cheating.

If memory serves me correctly, it was the Gauss Primary weapon that would keep the boss from cloaking and made it spin in place so I could take it down quickly.

Hehe, last night I stayed up late and finished D1 SP on insane.

I forgot how horrible level 26 was on insane, whoever designed that level must have really hated the player. By comparison level 27 is easy, till the boss anyway.

Finished with about 9.1 million points.

Krom wrote:on inasne

what's that?

Only you would be compelled to reply only to point out a single typing error...

Fixed.

=)

Krom wrote:Only you would be compelled to reply only to point out a single typing error...

Fixed.

=)

well yea of course. I gotta do something with all the downtime that I get at work, and busting you for something is always fun.

Krom wrote:Hehe, last night I stayed up late and finished D1 SP on insane.

I forgot how horrible level 26 was on insane, whoever designed that level must have really hated the player. By comparison level 27 is easy, till the boss anyway.

Finished with about 9.1 million points.

You oughta head on over to the old-school forum and join in on the discussion. Are you beating these levels without dying? I was just playing level 26 on insane myself, but for the first time, and with a cold start, and it's giving me nightmares.

Without dying once, you will have 40 lives on Ace by level 11. That would mean more than 100 extra lives by the end of the game on Insane. At least 5 million extra points! O__O

If you play through all 30 levels of D1 on insane without any deaths you will have roughly 160-180 extra lives by the end, I had 168 this time around. IIRC one of the reasons I might have gotten higher scores in the past is because before I was using D1X robot centers used to go off 5 times before they were completely exhausted on insane instead of 3 times like they do in D1X. So instead of making 18 robots in total, they would make 30. I love blasting a large group of robots with fusion all at once so I will often go out of my way to trigger the robot centers till they won't trigger anymore. Which for one robot center in level 26 adds up to 36,000 points (makes 18 fusion hulks).

I do complete levels without any deaths, but I also save and restore a fair amount. I'd do it a bit less if I wasn't such a fusion nut and actually used Mega/Smart/Homing missiles more often and effectively. I've exited the levels in D1 leaving behind so many 4 pack homers that you would just laugh, and I've also left behind about half the megas and smarts too because I was already full. Just using Homers or Smarts to shoot the most annoying bots from around corners cuts down on the amount of save/restores I have to do compared to my usual pattern of racing out into the open blasting all robots with fusion while attempting to dodge everything they shoot back. Its easy against most primary weapon wielding bots (except the class 1 driller), but anything that shoots missiles and it gets a lot harder because of the splash damage in confined spaces.

Ok, I feel a lot better now. I know you're a lot better than me, but I had this image of you racing pell-mell through the mines with fusion on insane, not saving and not even getting a scratch, so this is comforting.

Yeah, that would be quite beyond my abilities after the first few levels. In some levels and areas I kinda doubt it is even possible to play that aggressively and survive. Like in one of the later levels there are a couple robot centers, one makes class 1 drillers, and the other makes cloaked class 1 drillers... I'm pretty sure nobody could just fly into that room on insane and clear them all out without getting killed.

Of course it wouldn't be all that hard to lob a mega into the room and kill 80% of them in one shot, which is probably what I should have done instead of sniping them all from around a nearby corner using quad 4s.

It's fun to just barrel in and start shooting, though.

Last time I played that aggressively on Insane, I think I only made it to level 16 or so before running out of lives. Talking about it is giving me the itch to try it again...

Heh, for me this is all the the first time. When I started playing D3 MP the best I'd done on D1 SP was getting to the reactor room in level 6 on trainee, before the super hulks wiped me out. I had crippled myself when I was young by playing only on trainee, with a horrendous config and often with cheat codes. I didn't even touch D1 SP my entire D3 MP career, so the last few months have been my first experiences playing the levels the way they're meant to be played (which to me is insane + cold start). It's so much fun, and you don't even have to worry about whether other players are online, if your connect is laggy, etc. The robots are perfectly willing to rip your ship to shreds any time. I'm not having too many problems clearing levels with a few well-placed save points and using all 3 of the starting lives, but I was hoping to get to the point where I could clear out each level without saves and using only one life. From hearing everyone else's experiences (particularly pilots I know are better than I am) I guess that just isn't feasible unless you play really cautiously, snipe everything and use every cheap tactic available. But a lot of the fun is barreling into a room and taking out robots left and right Rambo-style.

If you want to play rambo style, try it on hotshot mode. Aside from the dreaded class 1 drillers it becomes really easy and really fun as long as you keep up your momentum. I can't play at less than hotshot anymore because the robot shots are just too slow otherwise.

I thought on insane the robot generators never stopped? Or am I thinking of D2?

In the D1X and D2X versions they stop after 3 cycles even on insane. Krom mentioned somewhere that on the original it was 5 in D1. Dunno about D2.