A Review/Diary of Eternal X

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LegacyTyphoon
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Pfhorrest wrote:Guys! Can't we stop fighting and all get back to talking about how awesome I am?
Sorry Pfhorrest, I never got past level 3 (actual level 3, not counting the first level where you read the extremely long terminal and run around punching BoBs for ammo...I mean getting to the exit).

I can't give a full review, but these are my impressions of it:

Graphics:
Obviously a lot of work went into the textures and miscellanious graphics of Eternal. I think they were great. However, the constant green theme began to bother me after a while. While the work was impressive, there just wasn't enough color variation for my tastes.

Music:
Even if many of the tracks were remakes, this was one of my favorite parts of Eternal. I still listen to the tracks through iTunes.

Gameplay:
The new weapons were nice. While I didn't get to see all of them (Since I never finished Eternal), I was having fun rampaging around with the Pfhor staff, and watching John Woo-esque deaths of all the enemies as they went flying backwards screaming (no doves though...). Yes, I enjoyed the Pfhor Staff way too much. In fact, its the only weapon I used through out the whole time I played. The Pfhor Staff seemed way too powerful, and you weren't required to use any of the other weapons. I think I only used the starting Fusion Pistol once, and that was to see what it actually did...I immediately switched back to the Pfhor Staff (Come on...I want a loud, shell spitting, slug shooting handgun of some kind...).
Level wise, I don't think it was a good idea to start with a level almost devoid of any life. While pretty, yes, and the music was great, perhaps some kind of locator or "Go here dumb-face" in the beginning terminal would have been nice. Is it necessary? Not entirely, I just thought the level was a bit...boring and it could have been over quicker or made more interesting, perhaps breaking it up by putting in weapon pick ups or terminals to read...
I think my main problem with the Eternal levels is that they take so long to finish. I had fun while I was playing, but at most I could play one Eternal level a day before tiring of it. I did however, fully enjoy the second "actual" level. I liked the pacing on that one and the light puzzles and exploring mix was great.
However, I think the main thing that got me was all the green (as I mentioned above). Everything started to blend together and the lack of variation in the textures began to bore me. Perhaps there's more green textures to see in later levels that look better and make you go "Oh, neat!" but it all seemed like similar texture sets to me.

Overall:
I will eventally finish Eternal X. It'll take me a while, but I will finish it someday. Eternal X is by no means bad, it has some high quality work and it seems that a lot of care was taken to make this scenario what it is. I would recommend people at least try Eternal once just to see the work that was put into it.

Pros:
Nice High-Quality Work

Cons:
Lack of texture variation
Sometimes excessively long levels get tiring
Last edited by LegacyTyphoon on Apr 12th '08, 10:23, edited 1 time in total.
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If you played through the third actual level, then you should have gone to the Pfhor ship, right? That's what most of Chapter 2 looks like. You've already seen what Chapter 4 looks like (the prologue texture set), and Chapters 3 and 5 are supposed to be a surprise. But my point is, there is texture variation, it's just between chapters. Chapter 1 is supposed to all look the same, since it's all the same ship. Chapter 2 likewise looks the same since it's all the same outpost, and so forth. Each chapter predominantly (though not exclusively) uses one of the five texture sets, so when you change chapters and travel lightyears and centuries across space and time, it really feels like you're somewhere else long ago and far away and not just down the street.

Anyway, I'm glad you liked it besides that, and I hope you enjoy the rest of it more :-)
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of All Trades
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Just finished. Mostly good, a little bad.

++++ Wonderful level design. Mind-bogglingly complex, especially on maps like "Unwired."
+++ Story that is up to-par with the Trilogy.
++ Great weapons, for the most part.
+ Somewhat nonlinearity. Makes for cool ?endings?
++ Epic awesomeness.
++ Long enough to enjoy.

- Lack of direction in small sections, in a bad way.
-- Later levels fail to impress in difficulty. Early ones tend to be surprisingly harder.
-- Some levels put me in FrameRate HELL.
- Gravatron. It's too much.
- Somewhat nonlinearity. Repeating some levels sucked.

? The Wave Motion Cannon should put skyscraper sized holes in the ground.
? 49 grenade launcher belts?
????? The Ticks used to be my friends. [MFrown]



All-in-all, it's the best scenario for Marathon ever. And I have no problems with the Headless. They're fine.
I am not allowed to log in unless I am logged in. WTF.
You are wrong. Not 2.5. Five.

Also I am not dead.
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LegacyTyphoon
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Pfhorrest wrote:Anyway, I'm glad you liked it besides that, and I hope you enjoy the rest of it more :-)
Well, I didn't hate it, I just find it hard to play for more than one level a day, the pacing seems off, it would bore me quickly. Good work on the graphical and texture design of the levels though.
Last edited by LegacyTyphoon on Apr 14th '08, 04:08, edited 1 time in total.
The Pf'hak - Read it.
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meganoob

Pfhorrest wrote:You've been in stasis for 1000 years, and now the Pfhor are invading.
You did, and actually this is one of the more hidden branch points so I'm surprised. On S'pht Happens, if you complete your mission with the S'pht instead of searching drained lava tubes for Leela, you go off to help the S'pht defend themselves against the Pfhor invasion... to disastrous consequences, as the Pfhor really don't like losing.
I seem to have taken a wrong turn near S'pht Happens myself, and have ended up at a really frustrating level named "The Manipulated Dead" (another weird dream sequence in the abandoned ship). Do I need to backtrack?
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This thread made me try Eternal X again... still doesn't do much for me, unfortunately, but I just have to point out all the Donnie Darko references in the names of a certain kind of level, since no one else seems to have noticed it. Good movie.
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meganoob wrote:I seem to have taken a wrong turn near S'pht Happens myself, and have ended up at a really frustrating level named "The Manipulated Dead" (another weird dream sequence in the abandoned ship). Do I need to backtrack?
The Manipulated Dead will send you back to "S'pht Happens", so if you really don't want to bother beating The Manipulated Dead, you could just skip back (or revert to a saved game) to "S'pht Happens" and go again from there. (It's impossible to every get to a point in the branch levels where you can't take the other branch instead... well, except on the branches in Ch4 and Ch5, but that only locks you out of the "failure" branch... so it doesn't matter how far into the level your saved game is).

As an aside, "The Manipulated Dead" is significantly less annoying in Omega now, as you can walk right through the Banshees (and they can't hurt you if you move fast enough), so there's no way to get trapped in a clusterfuck of invincible monsters anymore. Though, you still can't hurt them, so you still just have to run, coward! Er... sorry, wrong level, getting ahead of the game here ;-D
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Pfhorrest wrote:BLARGH... I just realized a way more appropriate path to take for the 'success' levels in this chapter... sending K'lia to the stars! If you help the S'pht on the ground fight, the Pfhor trih xeem the whole place... but if you sacrifice the battle on the ground to help the S'pht'Kr flee on K'lia, then history goes as planned, and we all live happily ever after (except the billions of S'pht who spend 1000 years enslaved before K'lia returns).
I realize this is a little old, but if the Pfhor trih xeem the whole place, won't everybody die? Including all the non-'kr Sp'ht?
Can't speel for hist.
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Pfhortipfhy wrote:I realize this is a little old, but if the Pfhor trih xeem the whole place, won't everybody die? Including all the non-'kr Sp'ht?
Yes, that's why it's a failure branch.
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I got around to completing Chapter 4. Sorry if some previous comments have been a little ambiguous. Like when I said "Oh no! How'd the Pfhor get here?" That was a comment made on the fly: what I would have said aloud when first entering the level if anyone were listening. It was adequately explained in the next terminal.

Chapter 4: Legacy

Pfhor FÃ¥r Lamm

The mother of all hulks, huh? *gulp*

Y'know, it's really annoying not having a standard open dialog box. I had two saved games, and coming back to it after some weeks of not playing, there was no way to tell which was more recent. So I had to quit Eternal and pull up ~/Library/Application Support/AlephOne/Saved Games to check their modification dates. The engine should use the OS's standard dialogs if they're available, or else be as functional as a standard dialog.

This level seemed relatively easy, all things considered.

The Incredible Hulk

It's no big deal, but the saved game terminal adjacent to polygon 388 isn't necessary, because there's another one just around the corner adjacent to polygon 302.

It's pretty fun playing chicken with the Hulks, only using the shock staff's primary fire against them.

It was pretty obvious that someone's impersonating Leela. And Hathor would be the obvious choice for who, but I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be someone else. Oh well, seems there's no choice but to head for the hi-tech garbage barge.

Zero-point modules, eh? The first thing I notice...is that I didn't notice it. I thought the ammo was a bloody scenery object :P. The next thing I notice is that it bobs from side to side as I move instead of up and down. I didn't even remember you could do that with this engine. It looks powerful, so I think I'll save it for a juggernaut or similar.

Ah, that must be the Drinniol with the implant. I wasted all my wave motion cannon ammo on him. It was great for taking down the juggernaut, but the Drinniol seems invincible. I ran away from it before wasting even more ammunition.

The bottom half of the landscape for this level is pixellated; it could use some work.

There's an untextured ceiling or wall in one of the outdoor areas. I took a screenshot of it:
[attachment=1620:The_Incr...textured.jpg]

Babylon X

This solid black-and-white stuff doesn't look like a liquid to me. If it's garbage water, go for greenish-brown. It's almost like the alpha image is being used as the normal image.

Hmm. There are a whole bunch of circuitry panels, but I probably shouldn't destroy them since I need the transporter to remain functional so I can get off planet.
...
Or, maybe I should just blast everything that moves, and everything that doesn't move for that matter. T'would have been nice if the exit teleporter lit up when it was working.

I'm kind of expecting the Hulks to stop attacking me sooner or later, as the S'pht do when they have their own Pfhor slave rebellion.

Dread Not

I assume what happened was that the garbage transporter teleported me above the planet, and then Leela or someone else teleported me from there into a station.
...
After getting to Leela's terminal, she confirms that's what happened. She also confirms someone was impersonating her. But who? It apparently wasn't just a trap to let the Incredible Hulk kill me. Whoever impersonated her actually did want me to escape. So it wasn't Hathor, unless she still can't bear to kill me.

Regarding the warning terminal by the trih xeem firing switch, I don't like the writing style. The Jjaro are never that direct, translator or not. It takes away their mystique.

For what it's worth, I found the self-destruct before I found Leela's terminal.

Bug-Eyed In Space

That's a tough level opening. I had to run away and hide in a corner for a while.

You have to run back a long way to get to the 3x shield recharger. I would've moved either the 3x or 2x recharger to the east central part of the map, so you don't have to go through that long, one-way SE path to get to recharge.

Run, Coward!

It wasn't clear to me why Hathor would be destroyed along with the cybernetic junction if she doesn't leave.

I've seen automated defense turrets before (in Rubicon if not elsewhere), but I still thought they were well done, and appropriate for this level. It's interesting to note that they shoot the Pfhor too, so Hathor must want the Pfhor off the ship as well. I'm *very* grateful for the ample shield rechargers.

I seem to have found a secret area in polygon 280, but there's no reward.

When you teleport into space at the end, it seems the floor uses a different space landscape than the walls, destroying the illusion you were creating.

The Ensurance Trap

Perhaps this level's name is why people think the game's name is "Enternal" ;)

Hmm, so I screwed up again. I kind of expected it this time. I just didn't see another way off of Babylon X. I sure hope it wasn't just that I got on that teleporter that shot me out into space!

Wait a minute...there's no extravision in this level. Perhaps this one will be different.
...and I was right. This time it's not a dream.

I'm still not getting this part. A cybernetic junction is a tool, not a weapon or a virtual life support system. I don't see why destroying a junction also destroys any computer intelligence in the vicinity. Confound their plans, yes, but not kill them.

Hmm, I wonder who these cloaked newcomers are. They can't be Wr'kncacnter, or else Leela wouldn't be so worried about the one on Earth.
Some of them attack me, while others don't. The wave motion cannon will kill them, though nothing else seems to work. If I had wasted my WMC ammo earlier, I wouldn't be able to read Hathor's terminal because they'd get me.

Hathor's terminal says "I am become God." Is that a clever (yet not word-for-word) allusion not many will catch, or just a typo? :)

Once again, one of the tall thin circuitry panels is destroyable. Looks like you'll have to check all iterations of this map.

Hmm, the last terminal says something about going for the kill immediately. I'll have to mull that over...

Dread Not

I guess I'll just self-destruct the ship as soon as I get there.

That doesn't seem to change anything. Well, I could ignore saving the Drinniol and just try to save myself.

Heh. I was going with a pretty basic "here are 4 circuits I didn't get to before, let's bash 'em!" without realizing I was destroying the junction. Okay, now let's see how it was supposed to work out...

One More Unto Breach...

Ah, good. I was expecting to teleport right back in the thick of it like on Bug-Eyed In Space, but this time we start in a safe position. It also nicely reaffirms that I did in fact take the right path this time, since the last terminal of the last level barely changed.

You do a good job of adding new gameplay to a place we've been before. Sorry if I'm just pointing out obvious things, but I know it's hard to pull off.

What's this, poorly defended Pfhor cyborgs? Hmm. What's also interesting is that I got the success message without killing the cyborgs. Why would the Pfhor have these cyborgs here anyway? They're not necessary for enslaving the Drinniol, and my impression was that Pfhor cyborgs were made expressly for dominating the enslaved, not your run-of-the-mill ship tasks.

Polygon 515, a slim triangle, has a different floor texture which was probably an oversight. It's the same way in Bug-Eyed In Space.

Genie In A Bottle

Hmm. Be careful not to blow the captain to smithereens, so you can collect his control gland intact. A reasonable mission parameter, but that gets me thinking, what if I don't? Could there be another failure branch already? Or will it turn out that ultimately I'll be sent back to this level because I should have destroyed his control gland all along?

"The war is not over whence we have come from." It would sound better if it didn't end in a preposition.

Regarding the last terminal, I was with you up until Leela said that the Jjaro were human. That's the only thing Leela could mean by saying "They are your very own species." It rubs me the wrong way: we certainly don't have the powers the Jjaro have, so what happened to us humans if we're the same species? But I anticipate this will be a major plot point in coming levels, so I doubt it will change.

Floating In The Void

It sounds to me like they're saying to leave them alone. We'll see.
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Pfhorrest
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Crater Creator wrote:It wasn't clear to me why Hathor would be destroyed along with the cybernetic junction if she doesn't leave.
I'm still not getting this part. A cybernetic junction is a tool, not a weapon or a virtual life support system. I don't see why destroying a junction also destroys any computer intelligence in the vicinity. Confound their plans, yes, but not kill them.
The Cybernetic Junction has AI and nanotechnology which allow it to self-install into anything it detects as an information processing system in proximity, including artificial computer systems and organic brains; I think I mentioned this in brief way back in the prologue terminal. So you set one in a brain or in the central processor of a computer and it takes over as the core of that system, offloading storage and information processing into the infinite eternity which is the Outside, allowing indefinitely fast processing and indefinitely vast storage. This both allows it to restore a damaged system to operational status (how it brings Battleroids back to life), and also means that if you destroy a Junction, you take out the network which it's become the core of. Recall from the prologue that this was how they stopped S'bhuth in the failed future that started all this; they destroyed his Junction, which left K'lia's network inoperable.
Hmm, I wonder who these cloaked newcomers are. They can't be Wr'kncacnter, or else Leela wouldn't be so worried about the one on Earth.
Note that Hathor says she has become mightier than the W'rkncacnter. The Jjaro would say that she had actually become one.
Hathor's terminal says "I am become God." Is that a clever (yet not word-for-word) allusion not many will catch, or just a typo? :)
It's intentional, though not a direct allusion to what you're probably thinking of (either Oppenheimer of the Baghvad Gita). I just find that poetic style poignant (and, though archaic, it is not exclusive to Oppenheimer or his translation of Vishnu's words; it was a common enough poetic phrasing back in the day).

On a tangential note: I am become gerund, destroyer of verbs...
Heh. I was going with a pretty basic "here are 4 circuits I didn't get to before, let's bash 'em!" without realizing I was destroying the junction..
Yeah, this chapter requires a bit more memory of the failure branch to figure out what you did wrong. Remember on Run Coward, Leela says that if only we had destroyed the Junction, none of this would have happened... and that it was right back near the area we were just at, too... and hey, now (two levels later) I'm back in that area! How convenient...
What's this, poorly defended Pfhor cyborgs? Hmm. What's also interesting is that I got the success message without killing the cyborgs. Why would the Pfhor have these cyborgs here anyway? They're not necessary for enslaving the Drinniol, and my impression was that Pfhor cyborgs were made expressly for dominating the enslaved, not your run-of-the-mill ship tasks.
Dunno, Don put them there, they look nice, and yeah, that's about it. Oh and you can leave up to eight enemies alive on Extermination missions and still succeed. (Hey Gregory, it'd be awesome if we could change that value in MML...).
"The war is not over whence we have come from." It would sound better if it didn't end in a preposition.
"'Prepositions are not words to end sentences with?' Hah! That is the sort of nonsense up with which I shall not put!" - attributed to Winston Churchill
Regarding the last terminal, I was with you up until Leela said that the Jjaro were human. That's the only thing Leela could mean by saying "They are your very own species." It rubs me the wrong way: we certainly don't have the powers the Jjaro have, so what happened to us humans if we're the same species? But I anticipate this will be a major plot point in coming levels, so I doubt it will change.
The Jjaro were human, and they now have powers which we do not. No contradiction there :-)
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Pfhorrest wrote:
"The war is not over whence we have come from." It would sound better if it didn't end in a preposition.
"'Prepositions are not words to end sentences with?' Hah! That is the sort of nonsense up with which I shall not put!" - attributed to Winston Churchill
Actually, "whence" is all you need there, and "from" is redundant; "whence" works as a combination of the words "from" and "where." The war is not over whence we have come is correct, if you mean to say "the war isn't over where we [have] come from" in a poetic way. Now, dictionary.com's entry for whence says it's OK to add "from," but why would you!
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Crater Creator wrote:I seem to have found a secret area in polygon 280, but there's no reward.

I put one or two secrets/semi secrets on every level I made. Only problem was that sometimes the reward would be some sort of item, and I guess Fobo must have nuked whatever was there at some point. While playing, I've noticed several places like this, but didn't consider it too big a deal to do anything about. Maybe it is though... or is it? dooo deee dooo dooo

What's this, poorly defended Pfhor cyborgs? Hmm. What's also interesting is that I got the success message without killing the cyborgs. Why would the Pfhor have these cyborgs here anyway? They're not necessary for enslaving the Drinniol, and my impression was that Pfhor cyborgs were made expressly for dominating the enslaved, not your run-of-the-mill ship tasks.

Maybe I was high, honestly can't remember why I put those there, look cool though ;-)
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Pfhorrest wrote:Not quite; the S'pht'Kr are just pacifists and only fire in defense. They don't know who you are just yet, so unless you attack them, they leave you alone.
I'm certain one of the S'pht 'Kr attacked me before I fired on any of them. Perhaps it was just damaged to the point of going berserk.
No, where do you get that impression [that Hathor is Pthia]?
There were several parallels by that point, but some of them were from my own extrapolation of the S'pht myths of M2. I didn't write down the details leading to that conclusion at the time, so I can't elaborate without going through the terminals again.
Dunno, Don put them there, they look nice, and yeah, that's about it. Oh and you can leave up to eight enemies alive on Extermination missions and still succeed. (Hey Gregory, it'd be awesome if we could change that value in MML...).
Actually, we circumvented the Extermination parameters in EMR. I don't remember how: it may have required overriding the whole thing with lua. You could ask on the MMMG list if you're interested.
"'Prepositions are not words to end sentences with?' Hah! That is the sort of nonsense up with which I shall not put!" - attributed to Winston Churchill
Well, it does sound stilted, so rather than just say I didn't like it, I thought I'd identify a specific reason.
D-M.A. wrote:I put one or two secrets/semi secrets on every level I made. Only problem was that sometimes the reward would be some sort of item, and I guess Fobo must have nuked whatever was there at some point. While playing, I've noticed several places like this, but didn't consider it too big a deal to do anything about. Maybe it is though... or is it?
As a player, I do expect a reward for finding a secret. Just seeing a handful more polygons doesn't cut it for me. Items are certainly the easiest reward to add, since the other things that would qualify as rewards, like an extra bit of story or artwork, require more thought and work to add. Or you could copy some other games and formally designate areas as secret, and keep a running tally, as in "you found secret 3 of 4 on this level." I've actually considered doing that with lua, but it doesn't fit into the style of many scenarios.
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irons wrote:"'Prepositions are not words to end sentences with?' Hah! That is the sort of nonsense up with which I shall not put!" - attributed to Winston Churchill

Actually, "whence" is all you need there, and "from" is redundant; "whence" works as a combination of the words "from" and "where." The war is not over whence we have come is correct, if you mean to say "the war isn't over where we [have] come from" in a poetic way. Now, dictionary.com's entry for whence says it's OK to add "from," but why would you!
Hmm actually I was trying to imply "where" temporally, as in "in the time from which we have come", but "when we have come from" didn't sound right. I guess I didn't know what "whence" meant, but it sounded like the right word to use.
I'm certain one of the S'pht 'Kr attacked me before I fired on any of them. Perhaps it was just damaged to the point of going berserk.
I suspect there is a semantic problem here. When I say "S'pht'Kr" I mean the members of the 'Kr clan of S'pht, not the unit type commonly called "S'pht'Kr" which is actually a S'pht Defender, which only the 'Kr possess by M2/Infinity. In Eternal Ch3, there are two factions of Defenders, one on the 'Mnr side and on the 'Kr side. The Mnr are attacking and so perceive you as a 'Kr weapon and fire on you. The 'Kr are pacificsts and say "hmm what the hell is that?" unless you fire on them; also, S'bhuth, the 'Kr older, things you were sent by Yrro to aid them, so the 'Kr would not attack you once he reached that conclusion.
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Pfhorrest wrote:Hmm actually I was trying to imply "where" temporally, as in "in the time from which we have come", but "when we have come from" didn't sound right. I guess I didn't know what "whence" meant, but it sounded like the right word to use.
Right. You can use it that way, too, and "from" is not necessary. Who cares, though :C
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Pfhorrest wrote:I suspect there is a semantic problem here. When I say "S'pht'Kr" I mean the members of the 'Kr clan of S'pht, not the unit type commonly called "S'pht'Kr" which is actually a S'pht Defender, which only the 'Kr possess by M2/Infinity. In Eternal Ch3, there are two factions of Defenders, one on the 'Mnr side and on the 'Kr side. The Mnr are attacking and so perceive you as a 'Kr weapon and fire on you. The 'Kr are pacificsts and say "hmm what the hell is that?" unless you fire on them; also, S'bhuth, the 'Kr older, things you were sent by Yrro to aid them, so the 'Kr would not attack you once he reached that conclusion.
Bah. I distinguished the two with my original comment, but after that I thought we were getting lazy with the terms. All you were trying to say is that the S'pht 'Kr weren't shooting first. I'd still call it fighting each other, but again, it's semantics. All is understood now.
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Argh, Deep Into The Grotto is giving me a heart attack. After I jump into the water, how do I find those circuits I'm supposed to destroy?
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Da Spadger wrote:Argh, Deep Into The Grotto is giving me a heart attack. After I jump into the water, how do I find those circuits I'm supposed to destroy?
They're behind a force field, next to a terminal. You'll have to deactivate six switches in order to deactivate the force field. Most of the switches must be accessed through ventilation tubes between those rooms and the surface. When you exit those rooms back into the main hall, the flooding in the main hall will spill into those rooms. Do that six times and then you should be able to walk through the force field.
Last edited by Pfhorrest on May 28th '08, 22:14, edited 1 time in total.
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Da Spadger
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Ventilation tubes? D:
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L'howon
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Hahaha, you've got a long way to go it seems, Spadger.
actually I'm still stuck on that level D:, so w.e.

I think ive gotten 5 of the 6 neccesary in this case because Ive explored what seems like every freaking room, nook, cranny (and left hundreds of corpses along the way)(Yes I know, only the headless leave corpses).
Bah.

I like Eternal, but as with many things in life, it just needs a good Forge/Anvil style buff/wax.
I.e., its a great scenario, but it simply lacks the finer tunings that make it an epic one. But Omegas in the works, so I digress, its all good. [MUp] [spnkr]
I have been wading in a long river and my feet are wet.
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Da Spadger
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Well, I finished it. I was confused at the end though.
Spoiler:
Didn't the trih xeem destroy the entire galaxy? If so, how did humanity start to exist to begin with? Was it the trih xeem I activated on Deep Into The Grotto by smashing the wires? What happened to Leela? Also I forgot, what is the Sphere? The trih xeem itself?
Last edited by Da Spadger on Jun 16th '08, 00:16, edited 1 time in total.
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Pfhorrest
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Da Spadger wrote:Well, I finished it. I was confused at the end though.
Spoiler:
Didn't the trih xeem destroy the entire galaxy? If so, how did humanity start to exist to begin with? Was it the trih xeem I activated on Deep Into The Grotto by smashing the wires? What happened to Leela? Also I forgot, what is the Sphere? The trih xeem itself?
Spoiler:
The Sphere is a Jjaro superweapon designed to mass-kill living things over a certain size from a great distance - like what the Halos are supposed to. (In a much earlier draft of Eternal, before Halo's release, it actually was Halo and not the Sphere in Chapter 5). It's also a giant habitable world; a Dyson sphere. It's powered by a big sun-like fusion reaction in the middle of it. When Hathor travelled back in time to it, she stopped the Jjaro from firing the weapon, which they did in our timeline 65 million years ago (and then humans evolved on Earth later). When you travelled back and then smashed those wires on Deep Into The Grotto, it released the key to the firing mechanism and the superweapon fired just like history records it did.

When the Sphere fires, everything inside goes into stasis until someone outside turns it off. The mechanized descendants of the Jjaro, creatures like Yrro and Pthia, were supposed to unlock it, but because of Hathor's actions everyone inside was dead anyway, so nobody ever bothered. Until 65 million years later - only an instant later to you, frozen in stasis inside - when Leela unlocked it. The Pfhor nearby freaked out and deployed the trih xeem on it, but since the Sphere is powered by no ordinary sun but something much more powerful, the explosion was much more devastating and actually blew up most of the galaxy.

But at the last second, Leela sent you back in time to prevent it; or rather, she sent you Outside, from which you can go back in time yourself, to whenever or wherever you please. Outside, you meet Durandal, who says to join him back at the end of Marathon Infinity, and together forge a better future than the one that you have just witnessed.

Where you go from there is unwritten.
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Da Spadger
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I see, so
Spoiler:
the last message of Where Giants Have Fallen is Leela at first and then a message from Durandal? And in a way, Near Side Of Everything is a failure level that still has an open ending? (You leave in the end to meet Durandal)
Oh, and I'm sure I've seen the ending screen somewhere else before. I remember it being a picture of the Marine standing in front of a terminal.
Last edited by Da Spadger on Jun 16th '08, 03:47, edited 1 time in total.
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Pfhorrest
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Da Spadger wrote:I see, so
Spoiler:
the last message of Where Giants Have Fallen is Leela at first and then a message from Durandal? And in a way, Near Side Of Everything is a failure level that still has an open ending? (You leave in the end to meet Durandal)
No,
Spoiler:
Durandal never talks to you on Giants; that's the "[?watcher]" (a primitive Jjaro AI), who then sends you a message from Leela. Durandal is the speaker on the last terminal of Near Side of Everywhere; which, yes, is like an open-ended failure level. Eternal's story is over, because Hathor has been defeated and the Jjaro have had their way with you; now your role as their "Destiny" is over, and you are truly free to forge a future of your own choosing - though the Jjaro will try to stand in your way if you defy their preordained order.
Oh, and I'm sure I've seen the ending screen somewhere else before. I remember it being a picture of the Marine standing in front of a terminal.
Hmm... I think you're thinking of an old Craig Mullins picture. My cyborg is not that one; Blayne Scott of WMaiD made mine for me.
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of All Trades
Director of the Xeventh Project, the team behind Eternal
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
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