Sirius help! - Apocalyptic Factor level 14

[DarkFlameWolf]

I'm playing this set on solo, so its a bit harder than when you are playing it coop, as was intended. But I'm now stuck on level 14 with no idea where to go. (btw, level 12 boss...not nice. ) But I finally got the red key and I found the red door, except it was a one-cube wonder with a panel which 'opened a wall'. I have no idea where this wall was or is and where I should go from here. Any help? I've been wandering for a while now! thanks.

[Sirius]

Umm... I'm going to have to get back to you on this tomorrow since it'll take a while to look up. I don't really remember level 14 well enough...

I'm going to agree on the level 12 boss though - we came back to that a few years later on a playthrough and ended up thinking "...yeah that probably wasn't a good idea". If AF has an EW level 25 moment, it's probably that.

[Naphtha]

I'm dreading that fight if I can ever get past Level 11's boss. I sort of peeked at the later boss weaponry, but I ended up installing the Lost Levels weapons for an edge, and even on Rookie that Level 11 boss is creaming me. Bad idea. XD;;

I've never really done a lot of multiplayer, but I plan on adjusting to it more now that I don't have to set aside time for homework and whatnot, and co-op on that mission is starting to sound good right about now. Depending on how it goes, I guess the saying I'm looking for would be either "Misery loves company" or "Many hands make light work."

[Sirius]

OK, I figured it out: there's a grate in the wall between the first blue door you reach and the... second energy center you reach. It's along the long curved tunnel; it opens up and you get access to a new area. There's a second control panel in that area, semi-hidden in the dark. This should open up the forcefields.

[DarkFlameWolf]

That was sooooooo vague. Thankfully, level 15 was simple by comparison. However, a fly through trigger to open up the chain events that lead to the MASSIVE blue/yellow/red key secreted area? That was pretty counterintuitive. lol Anyway, beat the mission now. I can officially say I've beaten AF on Ace by myself! Yay!

[Naphtha]

Ryusei and I pretty much struggled along through AF on Ace in scored co-op, and it's been kicking our respective asses. I haven't gotten to finish the game with him yet, but we cleared six levels with occasional guests here and there, and Level 5 in particular was still pretty nasty. Just how bad are the last few levels?

[Sirius]

Umm... as far as I recall they mostly weren't terrible. In terms of difficulty, level 12 would be the exception - the boss is probably going to cause you trouble in co-op since save/reload is a lot more cumbersome. Level 14 is kind of confusing (see evidence above), though seemed OK other than that. Level 15, well, depends if you want the secrets. They're pretty hard to get into but you probably don't need them to beat the level - the whole system is just there so you can say you did it I think.

[Xfing]

Ace you say? Props to you, Wolfie. I have only completed it on Hotshot so far, and even that took a ton of saveloading. The levels were the best I've ever played, though. Only the finest gems from TEW can equal this stuff.

[Alter-Fox]

True... and those finest gems from TEW were mostly made by Sirius and Darkhorse .

[AlexanderBorisov]

Does anybody know how to get to the big secret area in L15 of AF? The time I did the campaign, I was not able to find it...

BTW I don't understand complaints about L12 AF boss, 3 invuln and cloaks are more than enough to kill it on insane, if you add a volley of omega with each shaker or mega launched at its back. Of course it does not work every time, but often. Obsidian L14 boss is much worse, killing it without saves took 1.5 hours and maybe 30-40 attempts. The level itself, took only around 5 tries to do without saves (only saved before boss fight) and deaths on insane, after it was learned by parts.

[Sirius]

I wonder if it's worth a video walkthrough - it opens up in stages, and many of them are pretty tough to deduce. If I recall correctly, the first stage is a room underneath the long tunnel you enter from. There's a control panel nearby that opens it I think? But it or a secret door inside it doesn't stay open, so you have to be quick. It's generally best to clear robots from around the area first, so you'll hear doors opening and be able to get to them fast enough.

Markers are very, very useful for this puzzle. It might be possible to complete without them but I don't recall for certain. There are quite a few one-way doors and some puzzles might assume you can go in and out of them at will.

The secret areas of level 15 are probably best approached as a secret level in their own right - kind of like D2 secret level 5, they can be really tricky. Most don't require guided missiles to complete, but at least a couple of them do.

[AlexanderBorisov]

Well I tried to find entrance to secret area from the last (very old) save but did not succeeded. First, entry door from the long corridor was already locked. Even after I opened it from the other side with ASTRAL cheat, the door in the room below was closed, maybe it was opened-once from some fly-through or wall trigger. Anyway I cannot proceed from that old save and don't have earlier saves. Yes AF is definitely worth the video walk-through, as is Obsidian, because some puzzles are very hard, and there are many one shot doors. For example, you miss big part of the last level because you forgot to place a marker in the door. Bad thing... In Obsidian, I even had to use level editor to figure out some puzzles (excuse me my lazyness). BTW AF is also worth dedicated balanced single player version.
I tried to do first AF level insane no save, did maybe one third of it, and was already bored with fighting seekers, spiders and homer green hulks in narrow corridors. Matcens with spiders, when you have only red lasers and few vulcan ammo... Bad idea... Yes I know that it is all doable with save - loading, but for me well balanced level is one that can be done no-death no-save on insane by good pilot in reasonable number of attempts, as are all Vertigo, TEW (excluding L25), Obsidian levels (excluding L14), most of D2, all D1. AF level design is so good, that it truly deserves to have a single player version with same geometry but different robot cast/placement. This could create perfect new SP campaign so more people can play it.

[AlexanderBorisov]

At last I found the entrance to secret area in L15, but only with the level editor.The wall in the room below the long corridor is opened with fly through trigger near the wall opposing to this corridor exit. There are many non-obvious puzzles in that secret area, especially when you have to fire 2 guided missiles in quick succession to open the secret door and then hit the trigger (that opens access to blue door). This one also can be found only with ASTRAL cheat or level editor, I believe. The area itself is not hard (but some boarsheads and lou guards can surprise you there if you dont know where they are), also it is not useful for completing the level (except probably the energy center). Don't understand the concept of this secret area, because you cannot use goodies found there... However the omega near the exit door dropping dozens of shield spheres was very fun!

[DarkFlameWolf]

Honestly, it'd be a simple, yet tedious, matter of opening up DMB2, booting up all the AF levels, removing all the robots (or just the badly placed ones), removing their 'robot spawn on death' attributes of those that have it, change up the matcen robot spawns and change the existing line-out to a more progressively rising difficulty curve of robot types from level 1-15. You really wouldn't need to change much else beyond that to get it pretty playable as a solo SP mission set.

[AlexanderBorisov]

In fact not many can balance a mission well on Insane difficulty (I mean no death no save play of course), really many of "old classics" like KaK, EE, Hydro and others are very unbalanced, and not fun to play on Insane w/o deaths and saves. While Parallax own levels (FS, CS, Vertigo) are nearly perfect in this respect (maybe too easy on average, but nonetheless very interesting to play AND REPLAY). Just like TEW, Obsidian, LL (yes LL has it's moments with infinite matcens, and bosses, but still fun and doable). So I conclude it is very hard to achieve, although technically looks easy.