The triggersituation for this map is kinda awkward. Basically you do an ABH all the way to a certain trigger (it’s not very high, so launching over it is very easy.)
I’m not sure how the next part works. After I hit the trigger, if I go too fast towards where the green AG is supposed to spawn, he wont spawn at all and I need to go back. So I usually just normal-jump over there so that I am not too fast.
Beat the green AG’s ass with the engine block nearby. Engine block does insane amount of damage. I think it’s better than the barrels, especially because it doesn’t disappear after you used it. You can kill the green AG well in time and make it to the red AG’s spawn before he even spawned. Engine block is the reason you definitely don’t want to stack barrels beforehand.
In my SS, I blast that bitches ass with explosive barrels that are already there, along with an SMG grenade I picked up in _02, then finish him with my shotgun/smg as I make my way to the thumper. You could also use the engine block on him, but I don’t do that coz I am not guaranteed a flawless green AG kill, so I won’t be able to make it to the red AG’s spawn in time to be able to put the engine block to good use… Inexistence might know a faster, less consistent-way to take out the red AG. Suggest you talk to him as well.
Then it’s just hope that the AI is where you want them to be: Nearby. Might also want to kill any regular antlions, despite them retreating, as they can distract the vort by a bunch.
You can get the pickaxe from outside the elevator area, before the vort activated the generator. Doing so will mess with the AI, and it may delay (or even cancel) the vortigaunt opening the gate for you. You will have to wait for the button that makes the elevator go up to activate though. I honestly don’t know how this part works. I honestly never tried getting the pickaxe while the AGs are still alive and how it affects the AI of the vortigaunt. Getting the elevator down early would trigger alyx and the vort to go into the elevator. Alyx is for the most part just ignorable in this map, however, the vortigaunt might go for the elevator and therefore hit the trigger and activate his speech “” this lift will carry us…", similar to the skip at the end of the secondary silo. I have no idea if this works though. I never tried because the vort is still on the other side of the valley and you can kill the AG’s before he even reaches the safe thumper area. Could be worth to take a look at though, and I will do so once I boot up ep2 again. Typical might be able to tell you more about this too.
I don’t think you need the SPD anymore since you can just do an ABH launch on the map where you need it. Someone verify for me if this is actually faster, the ABH is way too random for SS.
I did have a good implementation of SPD in my SS that worked 100% of the time, but recently it started to not work on me anymore. Will take a look at that as well, but it’s irrelevant because the SPD strat I use is too slow for segmented. For segmented, you just want to drop it and jump on it without thinking, and hope you go in the right direction. Jared can fill you in on the whole SPD matter.
I tried getting the old copy of EP2, but could not get it to work.
I’ll try it again once I’ve formatted my PC (which I hope to do this year).
tl;dr:
- ABH.
- Engine block AG’s.
- AI that’s more inconsistent than the AI on the next map.
- Grab the pickaxe from outside the elevator, disturbing the AI even more.
- SPD might not be necessary.
Step 4 could be done during step 2, research required.\
Edit: Ok I tried grabbing the pickaxe earlier. Doing so during the antlion fight made the vort refuse to open the gate for me.
Doing so later on also made the vort refuse to open. However, I think I saw TYPICAL do it earlier than I do in my SS, if I’m not mistaken, so it could be luck, or I’m doing something wrong.
In my SS I grab it after the vort stops his speech ("…to where the vehicle awaits") and starts walking over to the generator to activate it. Check with TYPICAL
Edit2: Messed around with the SPD some more, and I really start to believe that the way you hold it under the elevatorhatch decides the direction it will send you flying. Jared might know more.
Unfortunately, we are indeed running the same maps as the ones in the Steam version of EP2. I thought we might be able to do the same thing we did on ep2_outland_01a, i.e. get below the room where the level trigger is located and somehow clip through the floor or even touch the trigger from the outside.
