The Enemy Within Descent 2 Mission Release Thread!!!

[Xfing]

I have a question for Darkhorse. How did you import D1 textures for use in the level \"Through Broken Skies\"? I reckon it was a .POG file, but what software do you need to create one?

[DarkFlameWolf]

DTX2 is a likely program he used. www.descent2.com might be your ticket to finding that program.

[Xfing]

Thanks very much, I figured it all out already. Check my newest thread in this section, hope it's helpful.

[destinytrigger]

Well, I dug up my Descent/D2 recently, played through, and wanted something new to try, so I decided to check this campaign out. It did not disappoint.

Haven't finished it yet, just beat the first boss, and so far, this game is even better than D2. It feels more like Descent than D2's crazy trick shots and triggers, so I actually spent more time playing the game than looking for the switch that let me get that last earthshaker.

Yeah, it's hard. Maybe too hard. You've got a whole new set of robots to deal with, some of them look like they're built to be harder than BOSSES from D2! (Haven't gotten far enough to know for sure, but just looking at the armaments of the Golem, Kalki and Warlord makes me cringe) But that's half the point of Descent. It's supposed to be impossible, and you're supposed to beat it anyway. And I love it.

Incredible job just doesn't do this justice. It ought to be packaged with D2. I'm looking forward to finishing it!

[DarkFlameWolf]

well, we are in the process of nerfing the robots right now and re-releasing the set so its more 'toned' down for a general audience. So if you feel the final 10 levels or so gets too hard, just wait a bit and there will be a new version released sometime this year. Glad you are enjoying the set.
Oh, as for the robots you mentioned, the one that gets nerfed the most is the KAlki. He will not longer have the homing flash missile, it'll just be a normal flash missile.
The Golem has his smart missiles changed from being the PLAYER type to the ROBOT type, which is far less brutal.
The Warlord doesn't change much, but on lower skill levels, he is nerfed royally, but stays mostly the same on higher levels.

[destinytrigger]

Well, I'll check out the update too of course, but I'm going to finish it as is first. Slowly working my way through the level 13 lava tubes now. I have never loved the Vulcan Cannon as much as I love it now.

Anyway, I can't seem to get D2X-XL to work at all on my OS X, so I've been playing off DOSBox, and I have run into a couple problems. On later levels, occasionally opening the map will crash the game, and on level 9, the game slows to a crawl during the first section. Maybe I just need to adjust the settings on DOSBox or something to avoid this, or it's something that doesn't show up in D2X-XL, but I just thought I'd mention it.

[DarkFlameWolf]

haven't heard either of those problems in either Rebirth or D2x-xl, so try rebirth if that works for you.

[DarkFlameWolf]

http://www.youtube.com/user/Darkflamewo ... 8D6ED1754E
Just for those who missed it earlier, a complete walkthrough of Enemy Within with all secrets and secret levels revealed.
As for those who found this set too hard, we are currently in the process of 'nerfing' the robots and in the first testing stages of this process. So far, it seems nerfing the robots has toned down the difficulty a good bit, which is good. Since we want this set to appeal to everyone. I'll let everyone know when the final 1.1 product is released and finalized.

[DarkFlameWolf]

This mission set has been re-released with a major improvement over the old version. You can acquire the new set here:
http://www.enspiar.com/dmdb/viewMission.php?id=28

What's changed? A lot of people have been mentioning that Enemy Within is pretty brutal and the new robots are extremely hard to contend with. So for Trainee, Rookie, Hotshot and most of Ace, we have completely nerfed the robots stats. The game practically holds your hand in Trainee. So for those players who aren't as good as some, you can now get to the end of the mission set and see the entire thing. For those still wanting brutality, its still there, but you'll have to play Ace for it and for pure insanity, try Insane, you will most likely die there. But the most noticeable differences will be felt on Hotshot and below.

As for robots, we've altered a few to have new weapons.
-The Golem now fires just normal Smart Missiles instead of PLAYER Smart Missiles, this should make him less lethal.
-The Mantid has energy pulses in most levels, except for the beginning few.
-The speed on both Mantid and Fulcrum have been diminished considerably on Hotshot and below.
-The thief bot has half his former health and moves at half his former speed. So he is extremely easy to kill now.
-Boss 3 has his primaries and secondaries swapped. So he now fires homing missiles as primary and PLAYER smart missiles as secondary. So this should change up the battle somewhat, before he was far too easy to beat.
-A lot of minor bugs across the levels, and texture misalignments have been fixed and just minor niggles that were annoying me from the previous release.

Re download it again and enjoy Enemy Within again (or for the first time if you haven't!)! Enjoy everyone!

[Alter-Fox]

Now that I've finished the set without cheating, I can finally say what my favourite levels in the set are. There are so many well designed levels I had to split this into categories.

Most epic level: Level 15, hands down.

Best all-around Design: Level 9 and Level 17

Most epic boss battle: Level 15 and Level 25

Best concept: Level 7, Level 23 and Level 25

Best Structure: Level 7 and Level 19

Best Name: Level 17 and Level 19

And the big winner:

...

All around best level: Secret level 3 (bet you weren't expecting that!) It combines all the best parts of all the best levels, along with some awesome new ideas, plus it's the biggest level in the set apart from level 15. And it adds replay value. What more can you ask for?

The new soundtrack is getting closer and closer to completion. Pumo may be contributing one of his older songs for level 16, depending on whether it's alright with you, DFW. (Yes I know I already made something for that level, but this one is way better for it, especially considering the new song for level 15).

[Alter-Fox]

I just had a thought about the story of TEW set against the rest of Descent... if the warships were the precursor to the Pyro GX... are the Acolyte, Legionnaire, and Warlord meant to be the precursors to the Stormtrooper bots from D3?

[Sapphire Wolf]

I just had a thought about the story of TEW set against the rest of Descent... if the warships were the precursor to the Pyro GX... are the Acolyte, Legionnaire, and Warlord meant to be the precursors to the Stormtrooper bots from D3?

I was thinking of the same thing about those.
Is TEW (sorta) like a fan made prequel to D1?

[DarkFlameWolf]

you are darn straight it is. That was the intent behind TEW. It happened before Descent 1. Finally someone caught that.

[grosskate]

Hi guys, I've discovred this \"Enemy Within\"; That is just awesome to play descent 2 again with new level.

To me Descent 2 is the best... I didn't really like the Descent 3 appart from the Multiplayer mode.

Too bad i'm playing in ACE mode and on the Level 14 I've only got 45 seconds for the Run for it, which is just impossible, I need 60s ... There is no way for me to keep all my weapons then ... That might have been change in the last versions I dont know. But it's too bad :/

Thank SO MUCH for making those levels and all, I gues it's been a hard work, but i'm sooooo glad being able to play descent 2 again § Probably the game I 've spent the more time on ... MOnths and Months, hours and hours ...

[grosskate]

Hi guys, I've discovred this \"Enemy Within\"; That is just awesome to play descent 2 again with new level.

To me Descent 2 is the best... I didn't really like the Descent 3 appart from the Multiplayer mode.

Too bad i'm playing in ACE mode and on the Level 14 I've only got 45 seconds for the Run for it, which is just impossible, I need 60s ... There is no way for me to keep all my weapons then ... That might have been change in the last versions I dont know. But it's too bad :/

Thank SO MUCH for making those levels and all, I gues it's been a hard work, but i'm sooooo glad being able to play descent 2 again § Probably the game I 've spent the more time on ... MOnths and Months, hours and hours ...

[DarkFlameWolf]

well, there is an exit out the OTHER side of the reactor room from where you entered from. There is no way you can make it to the exit going back the way you came. Go down the spiraling corridor and once you hit the main tower room, head straight up towards the exit. Smart Mines can be your friend.

[Alter-Fox]

you are darn straight it is. That was the intent behind TEW. It happened before Descent 1. Finally someone caught that.

I knew that, I just thought it was so obvious it wasn't worth mentioning.

[grosskate]

[quote="DarkFlameWolf"]well, there is an exit out the OTHER side of the reactor room from where you entered from. There is no way you can make it to the exit going back the way you came. Go down the spiraling corridor and once you hit the main tower room, head straight up towards the exit. Smart Mines can be your friend.[/quote]

Hey thanks for the answer... But there is no way out on the other side of the reactor... It's a close room, there is no Other exit than all the way back...

Anyway, I've continued on and collected my weapon's back, well I mainly use only Gauss, and Quad Laser... sometimes the Helix cannon is really useful. The other weapons are kinda useless to me. The phoenix, can be useful in tunnels though.

Anyway I'm having so much fun playing it !! Will they be other level coming soon. Seriously it's a very old game, I didn't think people could be still into this game !

You guys rule !!

[Alter-Fox]

The \"exit\" is a secret door opposite the reactor that opens when the reactor is destroyed. It takes you back to the central tower, but you have to face some echoes on the way.

[grosskate]

[quote="Alter-Fox"]The "exit" is a secret door opposite the reactor that opens when the reactor is destroyed. It takes you back to the central tower, but you have to face some echoes on the way.[/quote]

OH ok ... Well Good to know, If I wanna play those levels again in "INSANE" mode I'll do that.

But the ACE mode is already quite tough I admit ...


Do you know if it's possible to play D2 online ? Servers or ?? Because i used to play the D3 online, but was more interested in playing the D2, because I prefer this one.

Thanks

[DarkFlameWolf]

well, if you are of the mind to play Descent 1, there is Descent Vignettes that I made with 25 more levels. Furthermore, although the level sets are OLD, you can try Bahagad Outbreak and The Lost Levels for Descent 2, those are some of my oldest missions and the quality shows. But they are pretty decent.

[Sirius]

Uh... yes, D2 can be played on-line, sort of. You usually need to arrange games in advance because not that many people are about, but both XL and Rebirth have D3-style \"connect to IP\" support, and XL also has a game tracker which ends up working a little similar to PXO (except it's still online).

People played D2 games online for many years by using Kali, but it seems a little less popular now since a lot of people don't have it these days.

[Alter-Fox]

For anyone who's still having trouble with this set, here are some tricks I figured out to deal with the more annoying enemies. This is written with the struggling player in mind, a better player might not have to use these strategies, particularly for the bosses.

Fulcrum: Not the most powerful robot but easily the most annoying because they're so fast. There are two strategies I use depending on where they are. In big open rooms like the one where you encounter them first, I recommend fusion cannon. Its large shots are easy to aim and do a lot of damage, plus you can charge the shots while you're getting your aim ready.
In tight tunnels like level 14 or the lava rooms in level 13 use spreadfire while backing away from them. You might think helix would work better but every time I tried, spreadfire killed them faster. Besides, in level 13 if your aim is slightly off your helix can kill you much faster than them.
Also, try not to use lasers, vulcan, or gauss against them - in my experience at least they dodged those weapons so well I could rarely get even one hit.

Echo: They're often found near lava, and the lava itself is the best weapon against them. Shoot the lava and you can take out several at once. If there is no lava use vulcan or gauss - the slight spread of vulcan shots can counter their movements, and the large size plus the radius damage of a gauss blast makes for a lava-like effect (though much weaker). Generally they're not worth wasting a smart missile.

If you find a room full of robots and there's a Piper, Komodo, or Terrapinner in there always take out that robot first. If there's more than one of them take them out in that order. This doesn't count in the late game when you have enemies like Kalkis and Warlords that can kill you in one second if you ignore them.

Pipers in particular can do massive damage really fast if you don't kill them immediately, however one level six quad laser shot is enough if all four bolts connect. That's why you should take them out before komodos.

Komodo: take them out as fast as you can with plasma or another rapid-fire energy weapon. Combining plasma and concussion missiles works very well. Don't use gauss because the shots bounce them around and make it hard to keep aim at them. Vulcan is better if you have no other option but generally it takes too long.

Kalki - Snipe them whenever you can. Try to move around to dodge their energy blobs while you pound on them. If they flash you, try to take cover from their omega as best you can - the homing flash missile doesn't do much damage (5 points on hotshot I think), it's the omega cannon that kills you while you're blinded. Best to hit them before they see you - they can't shoot while you're hitting them. In the last level, use your earthshakers on them, but until then, save them for the bosses.

Golem - Treat them like a Boarshed from D2 Counterstrike, but be mindful of their energy blobs.

Warlord - Ending the battle quickly is key - mega missle, gauss + mercs, anything that takes them out fast. If you pound on them for too long they can be like the D1 fusion hulk - if you lose fire on them for a split second they'll get off a shot immediately which will probably kill you. So try to kill them with as few hits as you can. Earthshakers or invulnerability are advised if there's more than one - but don't use both at once, and if you have the choice, invulnerability is preferable since at this point in the game you want to hoard your earthshakers as much as you can.

Level 15 boss - The best strategy I found was to use a cloak or invulnerability and pound on the boss with gauss while ignoring the other robots in the arena as much as you can. A cloak is actually better in this case because his smart missiles won't lock on to you - as long as you dodge them the first time you can pound on him without being jostled by the bomblets hitting you from behind, which makes the battle end faster because you can keep your aim on the boss much more easily. Also, if you go to the secret level in the middle of the fight, make sure to have a cloak or invuln active when you come back - otherwise the boss often kills you as soon as you spawn.

Level 20 boss - Whatever you do, don't enter the boss room. If you enter it the door locks behind you and matcens start spawning kalkis... I usually died before I could get to the energy center where the cloaks and invulns are.
Snipe him with guided missiles from outside the boss room. Eventually you'll lure him under the door, when that happens get off an earthshaker as fast as you can (you should have several by now), and slide out of the way as fast as you can to avoid the blast from his mega. Repeat this strategy for as long as it takes - you shouldn't run out of guided missiles.

Lever 25 boss - Cheapest. Boss. Ever. Save your game before you go into the boss room, and don't save over it until you've beaten the boss - you'll need to reload from the start of the fight if you play on anything higher than Trainee. Your best bet is to be cloaked and invulnerable for the whole fight - if you run out of either you're out of luck. The best weapons are gauss or omega as primary and earthshakers as secondary, and try not to afterburn too much - energy is scarce here. The most annoying part about him is if you try to take the same strategy as you'd use with the final boss of Descent 2 Counterstrike, this boss will almost always immediately cloak when you shoot your earthshakers behind him - unfortunately this is still the best strategy, which reduces the battle to a test of luck. If you manage to get behind the boss yourself pummel him with gauss, but his weak spot is so tiny that it's almost impossible to hit it directly - you'll probably be relying on the gauss's radius damage. If you have any energy at all, use omega cannon instead - it homes on the weak spot.

Level 26 boss - Try to solve as many of the puzzles in the level as you can before going to the boss, and hold open any single-open doors with markers. You probably won't be able to get everything in the level the first time around because you'll max out - periodically come back during the boss fight to restock your supplies.
First get an invuln and take out everything else in the boss room with your big missiles - do it as fast as you can so you don't waste to many invulnerabilities - but don't be afraid to leave and restock your big missiles if you need to.
For the boss itself you want to be cloaked and invulnerable. Since he's only vulnerable to energy you want to use helix or phoenix cannon since they do the highest damage. With everything else in the boss room gone he's pretty easy, just make sure your invulnerability doesn't run out. He won't spawn any robots unless you hit him with a projectile weapon - as he's invulnerable to those weapons there's no point in using them on him anyway.
Watch out for the glass walls, they're hard to see and instant deathtraps if you run into one while you're taking out the guards - hitting one for a millisecond is all a Warlord needs to vapourize you.

[Sapphire Wolf]

Thanks for putting up the tactics/strategies on how to defeat these specific baddies.
If I forgot the tactics I'll re-read them again.

[DarkFlameWolf]

so, is this based on the new version of Enemy Within where we nerfed all these robots or the old 'hard as nails.' version that no longer exists on the net?

[Alter-Fox]

I think either, as it the best weapon to attack the fulcrum doesn't much depend on how much energy it drains (for example). In the old version the golem tip may be invalid, and you should replace "fast" for the warlord with "faster".

The "Piper, Komodo, and Terrapinner" thing definitely counts in the old version - even more than in the new one.

[skibold]

I'm so late to the game. I've been playing TEW using the D2X-Rebirth project for the first time ever in 2023. I got through level 22. I get the between-mission briefing and the Prepare For Descent to level 23 but then the game crashes to the desktop. I submitted this bug to the dxx-rebirth GitHub. Is there any help available here? https://github.com/dxx-rebirth/dxx-rebirth/issues/723

[Xfing]

Glorious necro there mate <3

[CDN_Merlin]

Link doesn't work anymore