DescentBB

With regards to single player, what are you currently playing (or have recently played) for Descent? I thought I'd make this thread basically as one for casual discussion and sharing of thoughts.

I'm currently playing The Enemy Within, and recording it for my YouTube channel (kakhome1). It's definitely been fun so far, the levels are of a pretty high standard overall!

Finally got around to properly playing Apocalyptic Factor. I'm currently on level 7 (or whichever Cefispar Mine is). Gotta say, it is quite easy if you play on Trainee with the help of the weapons mod in my signature. (That is supposed to change at some point though ) At the same time, I am not looking forward to the bosses on levels 12 and 14 at all (based on how my mod changes their weapons - I should be fine if the level 12 boss uses the robot variants of its weapons, however I know that the level 14 boss uses a player weapon that can take me from 200 to 0 in less than two seconds), and the Nexus Cannon (Fusion, homing) has caused some problems with the levels that make sure to emphasize Fusion Hulks (i.e. one or two rooms in level 6). The Bulk Destroyers are dangerous too, but not quite lethal like the Obsidian Gauss bots

All I hope is that nothing uses player Vulcan - that is now the Heavy Velocity Gun, which is quite a bit more dangerous than the former player Vulcan (Medium Velocity Gun, replaces traditional Smart Missile trackers with a complimentary update to non-modified bots - now Nebula (Smart) Missiles/Bombs use the same child projectile).

Enough rambling about the benefits and drawbacks about my mod, I'm playing Apocalyptic Factor, that's what matters.

I don't think I've ever seen a D2 mission that isn't easy on Trainee. It's super-nerfed (try even Rookie to compare). How is AF on a higher difficulty? I've beaten Level 2 on Hotshot (not from a cold start however). Already a Fusion Cannon boss.

Also on Level 2 there were Drillers, they use Vulcan and it is player Vulcan. Just about as hard for me, however, would probably be those greenish Homing Missile robots that also have an energy pulse.

About AF, drillers appear en masse only in the first 3 levels, I don't remember any problems with them later on Insane. Same for homing missile driller bots. With the later levels, main problems are seekers, ITSC (gamepad robots), and tunnel nets filled with missile robots (as usual), I'd say the difficulty is mostly due to levels size and robot counts. If you follow the correct path through the levels and don't go head-on into traps. Some traps are brutal, though.
Fusion hulks are just big pink targets, easy to snipe from the corner or from afar.

Bosses are mean, some are next to impossible to beat on Insane without saves. L14, however, is the easiest one. You have, as far as I remember, 3 invulnerabilities, and the boss dies from 4 shakers. Or Helix. L12 boss should not be hard on lower difficulties, too, cloak+invulnerability+push some shakers into it's ass. On Insane it is very hard (due to high HP), requires several tens of attempts if you wanna do it without saves.

Just finished Lost levels on Insane (without the weapons mods starting from L5 because I found the modded weapons a kind of cheating), each level without deaths and saves (except L4, 16, 24), Recorded the demo for each level, hope I will find the time to convert them to vids. In general I'd say it is a great campaign on-par with the best ones (TEW, Obsidian, Vertigo, AF) that I played. But later I will put my impressions together and share them on the forum.

Now started Enemy Vignettes on the same conditions (Insane no-death no-save), did first 3 levels, seems it is much more interesting and challenging than D1 version.

Yeah I remember Naptha asking if he could make a D2 port of Vignettes and I was just like...oh..sure!