[Jblade]

The last two are a bug unfortunately - as for tech level, have you saved the scientists in Dis base? If you play as me there's a time portal in the storeroom with the blue keycard that takes you back to a room with a few scientists in it. There's also a few in Energeia (after the tram ride, on the over side of the Chasm with the green water)

[MajorTom 2417]

Can you get those scientists in Dis Base in a replay?

[Jblade]

Yeah - you can't keep rescuing the same scientists since saving them is permenant but you don't need to play through Megabase again to get to them.

[Rodrigo Belacruz III]

Major Tom, on 03 April 2016 - 12:36 PM, said:

How the heck do I get to Tech Level 10? I'm willing to bet I missed a few tech modules and such, but is there another way?

Also, "the Beach" and "Tropical Alien Massacre" never show up as cleared despite the fact that I've beaten each with more than one character. What gives?

Have you tried playing as James in Disbase? In the room sealed by the blue keycard, you can find a time portal that takes you back to the past, when the scientists on base were still alive. You can rescue them there.

E: never mind, didn't read the responses

[TheDragonLiner]

You just missed scientists at places.
Where people miss the most is the Time Portal with James in DisBase (Ep1) but it's been so long I can't remember where the others are :/

Edit : woops same for me, my nav put me on 23rd page instead of 24 and didn't noticed

[Rhaisher]

Scientists location.

Megabase: In the storeroom protected by an energy field. You have to access it through the duct on the roof. You have to do a little parkour to reach it.

Dis Base: As the other members have stated: James, storeroom locked by a blue keycard, time portal, etc.

Snow Base: There are some scattered around the level. IIRC, in the cybertaur room and after accessing Mikko's office.

Energeia: James has already told you where they are. There's an extra one right before the countdown scene.

In any case, it's likely that you have forgotten about the ones in Dis Base. Time portals are a cool feature that encourages replaying.
(Add more to EP3's non-character-restrictive missions )

[MajorTom 2417]

Found the scientists in Dis Base and Energeia. I'm pretty sure I found them in the Snow Base, as well. Also, in the Megabase, I accessed the storeroom through the roof at least once, and the extra two scientists weren't there. Strange stuff.....

Now my only problem is getting the cash needed for the Beam Saber.

Also, the Dojo option in the Research menu has nothing to research---is this a bug? (Full disclosure: I DL'd Episode 2 from MSDN, not ModDB.net).

[TheDragonLiner]

Major Tom, on 04 April 2016 - 05:39 AM, said:

Found the scientists in Dis Base and Energeia. I'm pretty sure I found them in the Snow Base, as well. Also, in the Megabase, I accessed the storeroom through the roof at least once, and the extra two scientists weren't there. Strange stuff.....

Now my only problem is getting the cash needed for the Beam Saber.

Also, the Dojo option in the Research menu has nothing to research---is this a bug? (Full disclosure: I DL'd Episode 2 from MSDN, not ModDB.net).

It is possible there's something about the patch, maybe MSDN's site doesn't have the patch or at least not the latest version, it had been reported that objects weren't at their usual place or just disappeared from a version to the other, maybe it's related to that.

For the Dojo it is either because you didn't search the Hidden Dojo level enough or it's a bug.
(don't forget to use the MIA Gun or MIA Shells)

[MajorTom 2417]

I didn't GET to the Hidden Dojo....

Speaking of which: how in the name of Mega Man's helmet do I get to the final secret area in the first China level?! Is it in that small closet near the one bathroom, with the vent near the floor that I can't figure out how to get through?

[Rhaisher]

Major Tom, on 04 April 2016 - 06:50 AM, said:

I didn't GET to the Hidden Dojo....

Speaking of which: how in the name of Mega Man's helmet do I get to the final secret area in the first China level?! Is it in that small closet near the one bathroom, with the vent near the floor that I can't figure out how to get through?

No, that's no secret. It contains your character's slot-0 weapon. Good strategy-wise if you're going to complete the Asia missions in a row. You have to take a Minishrinker as your temp weapon to access it. There's no other way (except cheating, of course).

The last secret place I get to discover is...

Spoiler

Located above the dojo entrance, there's a tunnel connecting both Buddha statues that contains a fortune cookie and your character's slot-6 weapon. If you already get that secret... I cannot imagine which one you'll be missing.

Edit: To unlock the 'Hidden Dojo' mission, you'll have to do a bit of parkour at the first 'Big Trouble In Real China' section. Use the barrel to get to the right Buddha statue, blow the crack up and jump onto the next building's rooftop. From there, it's almost straight-forward to the secret place that contains the green keycard needed to access the section of the level that contains a floppy disk that has to be used in the computer (Windows 95 FTW). Keep in mind that you'll have to read a piece of evidence as well to discover the password.

[MajorTom 2417]

Found both hidden missions, beat the Oil Rig, and am now stuck in the Hidden Dojo trying to figure out what the gong switch near the upstairs meditation garden area opens.

[Micky C]

There's a small gong in the staircase that doesn't do anything and is meant to be a sign. There's a crack on the floor of the garden.

[MajorTom 2417]

So THAT'S why the grenades were in there....I was thinking I had to run like hell to the first floor or something.

Funny enough, the last save game I had on the Hidden Dojo had me playing as you, Micky, for the sole reason that you had remote-trigger explosives---I'd been trying to throw the grenades as Mikko and James and run down the stairs backwards to get back to the first floor, but they kept reducing both characters to salsa instead.

Crack in the garden floor....I'll have to keep that in mind when I reload the game. Thanks for the tip!

[Rhaisher]

Major Tom, on 05 April 2016 - 05:29 AM, said:

Thanks for the tip!

Remember that you can scan your surroundings with the PDU scanner to unveil secrets, blowable walls/floors and deepen in the story.

In fact, there's a blowable wall in Micky's Mars level that has no crack. The only way to find it is scanning your surroundings on a regular basis.

[MajorTom 2417]

Beat the Dojo today, and re-played For Providence to save Lilith....good times.

My only regret: I REALLY wish I could play Episode 3 right now, and I still have to wait for it to be finished!

[Rhaisher]

Major Tom, on 05 April 2016 - 12:55 PM, said:

Beat the Dojo today, and re-played For Providence to save Lilith....good times.

My only regret: I REALLY wish I could play Episode 3 right now, and I still have to wait for it to be finished!

Yeah... the WAITING...

Anyway, the playtime of EP2 has greatly excedeed the one of EP1. The addition of Micky to the team and James' experience with his previous maps/codes have given us a longer campaign - and with more quality- than EP1.
Not forgetting Zaxtor's, Loke's and even Snowfall's contributions. What I want to say is that others are joining the project bit by bit and I'm sure that by the time EP3 gets released we will be witnesses of another increment in lenght and quality - I won't complain if it is 'ONLY' as good as EP2.

The counterpart of those few months of pure joy is 2/3~ years of development. Oh, well... we'll have to be patient.

In the mean time, remember that Snowfall is awesome and has released several usermaps that will extend your playtime of The AMC TC. Oh, and that you'll be able to use the budget you don't use in EP2 in EP3 - I have, like, 250 base budget saved ATM.

[Jblade]

You guys should save up more because I'm planning on adding something that its only purpose is to show off how much money you have (or DID have rather)

When starting work on this episode I had doubts myself that we could beat episode two's quality but those concerns have been fading very quickly as work continues on this episode (and I had those exact same concerns when starting work on episode two) so it'll be worth the wait

[Micky C]

Episode 3 has some nice things going for it but I still have doubts that it will surpass the overall quality and originality of Episode 2. I poured a large chunk of my soul into Episode 2 which didn't leave much for subsequent episodes

I hope I'm wrong. Should be at least as good as Episode 1 though.

[Jblade]

I'll place a bet with you, a game on our steam wishlist library, that Ep3 will turn out just as good as Episode two did

[Micky C]

You see, as an engineer, I can't agree to anything like that due to the extremely vague meaning of your terminology.

For example, a game on the wishlist can be anything from say $1 to $100.

Secondly, "as good as" is incredibly poorly defined. There could be a large number of criteria:
1. Length of the episode
2. Length of individual maps
3. Originality of standard gameplay (level design etc)
4. Detail level of individual maps
5. Story
6. Introduction of new effects and mechanics
7. Voice acting
8. Conceptual grandness
9. Subjective feeling of "fun"
10. Variety between levels
11. Probably others. This is off the top of my head.

And then it comes down to who actually judges the chosen criteria. Different people have different tastes.

[Jblade]

I'll take 'overthinking it' for $100 Alex! I mean to say let's bet up to say $20 that people will be just as impressed with ep3 as they were ep2

[Micky C]

Hmm idk that's a tough bet. Mostly because we'll get zero replies in the release thread

I don't like the odds though.

Unless I intentionally do a really crappy job with the remaining work. Hmm...

[TheDragonLiner]

Jblade, on 05 April 2016 - 02:32 PM, said:

You guys should save up more because I'm planning on adding something that its only purpose is to show off how much money you have (or DID have rather)

Do you think I have saved enough ?

And Micky don't be that negative, I'm sure you'll get a lot of replies on the release thread, and if you don't I'll make sure you do ^_-

[Rhaisher]

What I meant is that EP2 has started the path the game should follow: selectable missions through a world/galaxy map, unlockable missions, upgradable stuff, resources gathering, more ways of spending the budget, etc.

It's a shame that you didn't get as much feedback as you expected. IMO comments have come little by little, at the rate new players discovered the game. Major Tom is the last example.
IIRC, during the first two weeks there were a lot of comments in the thread of EP2's release.

Furthermore... EP2 never did it to duke4's main page. I discovered the TC because of Yatta posting EP1 in the main page. From there, I also discovered IW when I was trying to unlock every weapon and whatnot.

[TheDragonLiner]

Personally I discovered AMC Ep1 because I had stumbled across a video of Mikko's Snow Base mission on YouTube, just by chance and what a huge struggle of luck that was

[Micky C]

Sounds like a trailer for Episode 2 would have been a good idea.

Rhaisher, on 05 April 2016 - 06:02 AM, said:

In fact, there's a blowable wall in Micky's Mars level that has no crack. The only way to find it is scanning your surroundings on a regular basis.

When I originally made that, the crack was transparent. After all, the route it leads to allows you to play a big chunk of the level backwards which obviously adds to the replayability. Then I think James might have added a blend to make it more transparent, except that did the job too well and it's essentially invisible. I'll do something to indicate that area is worth blowing up or at least scanning, since scanning everywhere for no reason is no way to play a game.

[Jblade]

I got rid of it since it let you skip a large chunk of the map, I'm not sure what it's intended purpose was but I always thought it was just a secret area and nothing more

[Micky C]

How did it let you skip a large chunk of the map? I haven't played it for a while but IIRC you still needed to move back through the gas area and pick up the other C4.

Tsk tsk not enough trust in my mapping ability

[Jblade]

Let me rephrase it It messes with the pacing a bit since making your way into the red fog area is a sense of progression and furthers the climatic atmosphere of the map - being able to visit that first and then go back to the grey fog feels a bit more anti-climactic. That's fine for replaying but if somebody playing for the first time gets into it, it'll just make them feel really lost.

[Rhaisher]

Hmmm... a big chunk of the map?

The blowable wall I'm talking about is...

Spoiler

Located in the room where there's a lot of lava and some drills. IIRC, it's a secret place. Inside I only found an amulet. The other end of that... upwards corridor is blowable too? Damn... I'll have to check it again, but I'd say that I tried and nothing happened.