DescentBB

Have downloaded single player mission "Dark Moon". Cannot locate the cave door key. Can anyone assist me? Thanks for your help!

I don't remember the specific levels, but TLG makes heavy use of the 'guided missile trick' where you shoot a guided missile into a room that you can't otherwise get into. You have to guide the missile past obstacles to hit a switch that unlocks the next area.

TLG does use that guided missile trick alot and, after many tries, I've succeeded using it twice to get other things but I am at a loss as to where that cave door key is and how to get it. I've met just about every objective but that one and you can't win this mission without it. I don't like to run out of options but without some help here I may be out of luck this time.

I'm downloading the level now. I've played it 2 or 3 times, but it's been a while. I'll get back to you.

I installed D3 and downloaded the level, but I'm having problems with the game freezing in the early parts of the level.

Appreciate your trying. I'll keep working on it, too, now that I've stepped back from it for awhile. Thanks for all your time but don't spend too much time on this. I think the key may be in the room with the forcefield and I just have to figure out where the forcefield switch is. As you noted and I've found out, knowing the way TLG uses guided missiles I've got a feeling that they are going to be very useful with this. I'll keep you posted!

I may have found it. When you enter the prison structure and go down to the lower level where the prisoners are, there is a passage way in the ceiling of one ot the corridors that leads to a prison cell. The passage way is easy to miss, so turn on your headlight. At its end is a switch that unlocks a door back at the previous building (across the hallway from the little window you first had to shoot a guided missile through.) Go through that door till you get to a forcefield. Above it is a little space that you shoot another guided missile through that hits a switch to lower the forcefield. Enter that area and find the cave door key.

Yeah, he has a strange sense of what makes a good level.

I found all the hiding things and guided missile puzzles boring and annoying.

Its interesting making it so that all doors blow up when you shoot them for such levels, but ive found many of them unsolvable and unfun otherwise.

I dont realy know anything about making levels, but i get the idea that its not too hard to use better lighting than he does too, it all seems a bit flat to me.

No offence intended if he is still around, I was known for criticising things harshly in the Total Annihilation community and occasionaly got told to shut up and stop bitching.

Got it! Thanks for your help. Pretty good level but all those guided missile situations got a bit tiresome. He did do a good job with it, though. Now finally on to other levels!!

You could have found that switch by using the automap. In case you don't know, the automap (tab key) displays a 3d model of the parts of the level you've been to already so you can see where you are, etc. But in Darkmoon, there is a full automap powerup in that area you get to with the first guided missile trick. That means you can see all the rooms and corridors in the entire level so you can spot the concealed passageways.

Tangaroa:

I like puzzles. The only problem with guided missile tricks is when the camera angle changes in mid flight which makes it hard to steer. This happens in level 13 of D3 single player. I think the grandaddy of them all was in level 24 of D2 single player. You had to shoot a missile through a grate to open a door, then shoot another one to hit a switch before the door closed.

As for lighting, Darkmoon could have had more moody lighting, but my major pet peeve is levels that are too dark.

Yeah, but he uses an excessive amount of the guided missile puzzles, surely there are other puzzles that could be used to add a bit of variation.

If there is no automap powerup, you can always open the level in D3Edit to find out where everything is placed, and go from there. That may be considered cheating, but hey, what else is a guy to do? I hate being stuck.

Tangaroa wrote:Yeah, but he uses an excessive amount of the guided missile puzzles, surely there are other puzzles that could be used to add a bit of variation.

TLG once said that he loved Guided Missile puzzles so much that he'd never dream of releasing a level without one. I seldom use them, and never as mission critical objectives because I really hate the damned things (which should tell you what I think of Dark Moon). Europa Glacier Mine should allow the player to shoot a Guided Missile through the grates into the entry room and hit the switch down next to the Red Door, clearing the grates.

A far more insidious one came about by accident in The Cauldron (Project: Mandrill's second secret level). The Cauldron is designed such that you start in the Reactor room and nuking the Reactor opens the doors, allowing you to gather lots of power-ups as the countdown timer ticks away. Garry Knudson managed to shoot a Guided Missile down through the lava grates in the Reactor room - evading all of the other grates and robots - and managed to strike a door to the Reactor room from the opposite side, opening it. Because he proved to me it could be done in a demo, I decided to have those doors only be locked in one direction in the final version of the map - for crazy Descenters who dare try to repeat that amazing trick.

Never really liked his maps that much. No offense to all of the work he put into them, but they didn't really entertain me. But, you have some Descenters who really enjoy those find-the-switch puzzles. I, myself, would rather feed my inner pyromaniac than search for the forcefield switch hidden in the rafters.

If anyone else is having trouble getting through this level, TechPro created a great walkthrough for it, complete with pictures. Here it is. I really don't think the level is that bad, once you know what you're doing. I also enjoyed another level by TrueLightGuild, Windmine. It truly depends on what you like, as Kyouryuu stated.

P.S. I think that Reactor Gamma owns all other SP levels .

If/when I do another one, I should have a Guided trick stashed away somewhere with a nice reward on the other end. But, sometimes it's hard to be that rewarding in Descent 3. It's not like you can grant the player meaningful Extra Lives or something.

You can never go wrong with a few Mega missiles .

Kyouryuu wrote:If/when I do another one, I should have a Guided trick stashed away somewhere with a nice reward on the other end. But, sometimes it's hard to be that rewarding in Descent 3. It's not like you can grant the player meaningful Extra Lives or something.

Good Luck ^_^

There is also a spot in the outside of that little opening that you can hit, and it will do the same thing, just in case you can't make that guided missle shot.

Yes, I had a lot of guided missle puzzles in those first levels, and after finding others didn't really like them, I did away with them to obtain a major goal.
It would be ok to get a mega or earthshaker or something but not for a major goal, I guess.

Top Gun wrote:If anyone else is having trouble getting through this level, TechPro created a great walkthrough for it, complete with pictures. Here it is.

makes me want to go play Dark Moon again using these tips

I don't even have DarkMoon on my computer anymore.
I crashed a hard drive a year or two ago, and those older levels are still on it somewhere.

I may download it myself, and go through it again.

Maybe I could make it better. I did like that level, and had a lot of fun making it.


Or maybe download IceWorld to just remember what is was all about. I think I have forgot. Ha!

What's the .mn3 called? I can't find it and I need to uninstall the level.

uhhhh..................Darkmoon ..... maybe

looks like moon2 in the missions folder

Well, I downloaded DarkMoon, and I am going to rework the entire level in my spare time. May take a long time, but I want to make it bigger and improve the frame rates etc etc.

OK, found it. It's called moon2.

Yep! Thats it.
I have already started rebuilding that thaang!
Boy! I had way too many guided missle puzzles, and I don't like some of the textures at all.
HA! I even found one outside building with over 1600 faces.
This was back when I didn't know better.

It will be called DarkMoon Revisted or something like that when I redo it.

hey TLG....check PM Box

Ace... You are welcome to edit the gam file in this level as long as it is not posted under the same name. I don't care if you use it for any reason.
I would think you would just need to extract the gam out of the mn3 and edit it.
I will even give the CPP file if you need it for scripting, as long as it is not posted under the same name as Defcon.zip
You cold extract the d3l level,and name it something else as well as the gam.
You could make a temp by using the same mn3 but delete the scripting, osf, and uncheck the single player level. Name it temp or something.
You can do anything you want with this or any of my levels as long as it is not posted under the same name.
Ron

problem is, i dont have any of those tools to do the extracting or whatnot.


what do i need to extract the gam out of the mn3

There is an extraction utility in D3edit, in the version I use (1.1 beta), its the Q button.

problem with that is, i have no idea how to use D3Edit period.

Ace...
I sent you the gam file via email.
You just edit the gam file and delete the old one in the mn3 file. You replace it with your custom gam.
You will need the mn3 edit and the gam editor.
You can get those at gameedit, in the tools area.
You can also get Hogview32 to extract the level or whatever you want.
The CPP ( scripting ) part is not in the mn3. You won't need it to change the gam file.
NOTE: BE SURE TO KEEP THE GAM FILE NAME spartan.gam or it won't work right in that level.
The mn3 is named spartan so the gam should be named spartan.gam
You won't need to do anything to the level unless you know what you are doing because the scripting could effect errors unless everything is the same.
If you are wanting to add ships or whatever, you may have to delete some of the custom bots that I have in the level.
Don't delete anything out of the gam if you are not going to use the editor to delete those items out of the level first. It will crash in most cases if you do.

TY Guild, the only thing im adding is copies of my Table.gam from D3 custom ships with fast speeds and modded weapons.