DescentBB

I'm on level 12, and I have to say it is the hardest boss bot I have encountered in Descent. The one in level 7 from D1 is tough, but this one takes the cake. Any advice on tactics?

Compared to the last two that I encountered, they were freakin' easy! The one on level 8 just sat there and did nothing as you shot a steady stream at him.

The Last boss on D1 was tough!

Only ammo weapons will cause any damage to him. Energy weapons have no effect.

He's not that difficult once you figure that out . The Level 16 boss also has this trait.

That's because the level 8 boss doesn't have anything but smart mines and some kind of cannon like Gauss or Helix - I forget which. There are tougher normal robots than that (not in terms of armour, but still).

Level 12... gauss and megas. I think. In a relatively large room. It's comparable to the D1 level 27 boss really.

If you look around you'll find some cloaks and invulnerabilities lying around. Grab one of them (probably not both types in case you need several attempts), sneak up to the boss (you should know where it is first - takes a while to find otherwise, perhaps too long), and let rip with mega missiles and gauss. If you only have a cloak, make sure you aren't where you were once it returns fire. The megas won't home, but the gauss won't need to and can hurt somewhat.

If you run out of mega missiles use mercury missiles... plenty of sting and they're undodgeable for something that big.

All the D2 bosses past the first two are nasty in their own way. Level 12 is probably worse than level 16, but certainly not as annoying. The Level 20 boss is absolutely nasty until you figure it out, at which point it becomes kind of easy. The level 24... well...

After many loads and saves, I have finally beaten him with a tactile stream of Gauss and Mercury missles. Im gonna save those megas, they come in handy when you get 20+ bots that have spawned out from those purple generators, and blasting them with yoru plasma gun just isnt enough. There's nothing like a well placed mega and having your score count suddently jump up 6500 immediately afterwards. Very satisfying.

BTW, the level 12 bot had the phoenix, not the gauss as primary.

See you again in a week when I reach level 16. I know he should be easy but annoying. And I never had much problem with level 20, but alas, last time I played it I was on rookie. 24 is a whole nother' story.

God Almighty I love this game!

For the level 16 boss, I just pounded him with guided missiles. Doesn't take much to do the job. The level 24 boss was a pussy. Two shakers and he's gone.

If you want hard bosses, try my campaign: The Lost Levels for Descent 2 with the weapons turned on. Those bosses are bloody mean!

AF level 12 was pretty bad too, if I remember...

But yeah, Lost Levels is completely insane towards the end.

but doable though! I never release a level if I can't beat it myself on the worst difficulty level, even it is beaten by pure luck. lol

I remember beating LL a long time ago. Still not entirely sure HOW though .

DarkFlameWolf wrote:but doable though! I never release a level if I can't beat it myself on the worst difficulty level, even it is beaten by pure luck. lol

Speaking of Lost Levels, I better play the whole Lost Levels Campaign in D2x-SDL!

DarkFlameWolf wrote:If you want hard bosses, try my campaign: The Lost Levels for Descent 2 with the weapons turned on. Those bosses are bloody mean!

Link?

http://www.planetdescent.com/site/files ... ions/l.asp

Scroll down that list until you get to:
lostbat.zip -and-
lostlvls.exe

The self-extracting exe is the main file of the mission, install this first. Now, due to a program bug on my part, download lostbat.zip next and install it into the main directory of D2 over the lostbat.bat that was installed using the .exe. This will prevent any mishaps involving your HAM files when switching to the new ships and weapons. PlanetDescent did not explain anything about lostbat.zip and its purpose with lostlvls.exe, which was dumb. So just do what I say for a smooth experience: install the exe first, then the .bat in that zip file last. Then double-click the .bat file to send you off and running on one of the hardest missions (imo) that you will ever play for D2!

any updates on your playing status MD?

Haven't had a chance to play yet, sorry. When I get a chance, I'll let you know.

DFW, I tried to run the updated .bat file after installing your mod, but the command line window immediately kept closing. I managed to grab a screenshot; after the choices "yes/no" were displayed, the following message came up: "'choice' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. The installation was aborted!" Compatibility mode didn't help. I even tried to use DOSBox, but it posted a crash error. Any ideas?

Tough Boss Bots!

Tough boss bots... hmm, the unmodified Descent ones were pretty easy. I'd go with Xhyclirtavix from The Forbidden Zone, Alitelious from Post-Terran City, and the final boss robot from the TBERO. No other boss robots come anywhere close to their difficulty.

Haven't heard of those three missions, but they sound interesting... might have to try to find them when I have a little time for it.

Top Gun: Means that the installation .bat won't work on your DOS shell. It apparently doesn't support some of the features the batch file has...

You could crack it open, try to figure out what it does, and do that stuff yourself I suppose.

Anywhere that I had to shoot a boss from behind to kill it and I was down to Gauss to do it. And ran out of Cloaks as well. The only way to get them was shooting the boss with energy weapons to spawn other bots...

...and those bosses always seem to have Shakers.

Fun. They usually rack up at least fifty kills on me before I nail them.

Sirius wrote:Top Gun: Means that the installation .bat won't work on your DOS shell. It apparently doesn't support some of the features the batch file has...

You could crack it open, try to figure out what it does, and do that stuff yourself I suppose.

If I knew what any of that meant/how to do it, I would .

A batch file is just a series of DOS commands, as if you had typed them out on the command line yourself.

At one point that .bat file is calling the "choice" program, which prompts you for a Yes/No response. Choice doesn't exist on NT-based operating systems. If you want to do it manually, you can open up the .bat file in notepad and figure out what it does.

Of course, I could write a program in ANSI C in about ten minutes that would do precisely the same thing as the batch file, but people are wary of .exe files... (DFW knows about afpatch.exe, and doesn't like it one bit... hehe...)

well regardless, you can manually change the .hog file yourself with the .hog file I've made for Lost Levels, just don't forget to change it back when you've completed the mission! lol

Sirius wrote:Of course, I could write a program in ANSI C in about ten minutes that would do precisely the same thing as the batch file, but people are wary of .exe files...

Hey, I'll use it.

DFW, how exactly would I go about changing the .hog files? /me shows off lack of D2 skillz again

DCrazy, I've opened the .bat in Notepad, and I see the references to the Choice program. How exactly would I get around this; is there some way to edit the thing so that it runs correctly in XP? The D2 trailer has the same problem when running the .bat file to choose your soundcard.

What D is trying to get across is that you need to look at the batch file and see what options the choice program would have run if you had selected yes or no. Then you copy and paste the appropriate command into your command prompt and go from there.

Remember, to paste in command prompt you have to right-click. CTRL V just sticks in ^V instead of what you wanted to paste in.

DarkFlameWolf nice work on your mod. BUT DAMN!!! Weird things started to happen when I played Vertigo. Next thing I know I'm shooting out robots not to mention one of my missiles turned into the Red Guard Boss. Smaller robots shooting out bigger robots. MADNESS I tell you MADNESS!!

Thanks for the tip MD

well, the mod was meant for that mission (lost levels) and that mission alone. I cannot predict what should happen when you try playing another mission set with extra hxm/hog files already included to alter things that have already been altered by the mod. But I hope you're enjoying the level set, it gets better as you play. (because I made all levels in sequential order, so of course it'd get better. lol)

I thought you said these bosses were going to be hard? That first boss was pathetically easy. All I had to do was straff it and pound away with the quad lvl5's.

well, it is the first boss. The second boss (if the mod is turned on) actually has a weapon that can kill you in one strike, regardless of 200 shields.

Hmm...I got to level 16, but I found an interesting little glitch in the mod. Everytime the boss fires, every weapon turns into a lvl 1 laser. That, and on level 8 (I think) the yellow key is impossible to get to. Thats not bringing up several triggers throughout the level series that did absolutely nothing. Still, the ship designs were interesting.

first off, that bug you mentioned about level 16 boss is due to D2x coding. It doesn't happen with the original D2 executable, with which this mod was tested on. So I can't account or be responsible for any bugs as a result of D2x since D2x didn't even exist when I created this. As for the yellow key in level 8, of course it wouldn't be gettable, since levels 4 and 8 only have a blue key. Levels 12 and 16 have the yellow and levels 20 and 24 have the red. And all triggers did something. Most likely opening up a secret you just didn't realize was there. A lot of secrets, I assume, will be missed by the majority because many are one-time only secrets activated by those triggers. So you probably closed yourself off of those secrets before you even realized they were there and thought none of these triggers do anything.

DarkFlameWolf wrote:As for the yellow key in level 8, of course it wouldn't be gettable, since levels 4 and 8 only have a blue key. Levels 12 and 16 have the yellow and levels 20 and 24 have the red.

Just to correct myself, it was the yellow key on level 7.

And all triggers did something. Most likely opening up a secret you just didn't realize was there. A lot of secrets, I assume, will be missed by the majority because many are one-time only secrets activated by those triggers. So you probably closed yourself off of those secrets before you even realized they were there and thought none of these triggers do anything.

Umm...every trigger mentions something on the hud when it activates properly. There were several that did absolutely nothing, and I know this because they said precisely jack squat on the hud. This is all assuming that you didn't disable that with the mod.

Didn't need to. There is a 'no message' option for triggers usable from DMB2 or Devil.

yes, the yellow key is gettable, but its completely and utterly devious how to reach it. Remember seeing a enclosed passageway in the room with the yellow key? Go around the level so your INSIDE that enclosed passageway, shoot down through the water at a control panel switch to open the bars blocking the key. It can be acquired!
As for the switches, For ANY switches I did NOT want the player figuring out what happens, I simply turned off the activation messages when they are blown out. If I'm not mistaken, I only did that to the switches pertaining to the full maps within each level.

Sirius wrote:Didn't need to. There is a 'no message' option for triggers usable from DMB2 or Devil.

Doh, shows you how long its been since I've made a level.

DarkFlameWolf wrote:yes, the yellow key is gettable, but its completely and utterly devious how to reach it. Remember seeing a enclosed passageway in the room with the yellow key? Go around the level so your INSIDE that enclosed passageway, shoot down through the water at a control panel switch to open the bars blocking the key. It can be acquired!

I'll give that a shot. I figured the switch would've been in one of the tunnels with the yellow doors that had a waterfall with a grate on the top.

yeah, looking back on level 7, maybe that switch under the water was too devious. But ah well, its all done, compiled and completed. Just for future players of the Lost Levels set, look to the waters to get the yellow key of level 7.

Its been over a day, so I can double post, bwhahahaha, but aimed at MD who is playing the set: Its too bad that using D2X turns weapons to level 1 lasers on boss 4. Because he is one mean son-of-a-biatch with weapons on. He has a ultra-fast, homing Flash missile that blinds you for a nice long time and has those evil Guided Missiles that home in on you, do massive damage + have smart missile globs coming after you after they explode. Mix that in a big dark room where he could be anywhere and you got yourself a mean boss. Too bad it was all level 1 lasers for you. If D2x affects mods this way, I'm not liking D2x much at all.

D2x apparently also resets sound settings for normal D2 to no sound or music... yay.