Author: Simulacrum  <nub>    70.238.204.171 Use this link if you want to link to this message and its entire thread of discussion. Post a Msg
Date: 6/16/2013 11:30:32 AM
Subject: Bug in The Tower necessitates the windbelt

(Special note: This topic is so timely and important, it's cross-posted at MBM. Please read assiduously.)

I guess technically you could do without the windbelt, but The Tower (an endless map in OMD2 in case you don't know) almost requires that you put scorchers along the edges of the various tiers. You do this to flip enemies into lava and burn the ones you don't flip. Also, this map is full of yetis, so you need a lot of fire.

Unfortunately, in certain situations your flipped enemies will clip into the geometry and get stuck. This is not an infrequent event in OMD2 when you use physics traps. Enemies and objects get stuck in y-axis planes. Especially pernicious are those little rez and healer goblins -- also coins in void walls.

You are almost required to bring the windbelt in order to extract these enemies and objects. If you don't extract them or blow them to whatever diimension allows them to die, the wave will not end and you're stuck.

The windbelt is a great gadget to have for all kinds of reasons, but your weapon and trap slots are limited, so inevitably you must give up something like the scavenger trinket or the mana thing or something really crucial like the ice amulet. The ice amulet is vitally important because you need something to manage earth lords. At certain points, earth lords become so numerous (and, as you know, they break apart in Russian doll fashion, creating even more nuisances) that you really must have a mana supplement. Even the windbelt uses so much mana that the mana doodad is pretty much indispensable.

So you see the dilemma. To fix OMD2's occasional sticking bug, you have to use the windbelt. If you use the windbelt, you put yourself at risk for the reasons I've cited.

This is up there with the barricade problem as a bug that almost ruins the game. Maybe someday some rogue employee at Robot will sneak out a patch or two, but until then, we must simply learn to be pros. We must rise above and go the extra mile. In the final analysis, skill is the only 5-skull solution in endless mode.