Help me improve my CI defense PA time please

[mariokarter]

So now that ive finished off the game on PA ive started to race CI, as its a great level.

Right now my best time is 2:38.  I'll give you the play by play:  
Activate guns-go up the far elevator-save hostages in the top two rooms, right room, then left room-destroy save with devastator from the safe's room's doorway- go down far elevator-devestator guys in the holodeck- go to  the shooting range, save hostages- get rcp120-deactivate bomb-finish.

I'm now strafing quick enough that I can activate all the guns without seeing a single guard.  My biggest problem is that I can never get the devastator consistently enough, hence why I havent even begun the shoot over the wall safe trick.  I find that I don't get the devastator if:
-I take the close elevatoto get upstairs
-I save the hostages in the left room first
-I open the doors to the holodeck and shooting range before proceeding upstairs

I must be doing something wrong because in BB's 1:42  he does all of those things.  So right now I waste so much more time by saving the downstaris hostages after finishing upstairs.  

About carington's speech, I know that he needs to say "files" before I can deactivate the bomb or the ship wont be there.  I find though in my runs(with strategy described above) i have to liger in the downstairs hallway for him to finish.  I think I may know why this is.  I think the reason i have to wait for him to finish saying the "files" line is that its because there is a backlog of speech, because he had to say the "fosters weapon" line before that.

let me try explainint the another way:  When I enter the shooting range i first have to kill the remaining guards, then that triggers caringtons "fosters weapon line", then I get the rcp120 which will trigger the "files" line.  I think that, using the opening-the- downstairs-doors-before-heading-upstaris strategy solves this problem because the "save the hostages objective" completes much earlier, thus allowing carrington to start his two lines of speech earlier and eliminating my need to wait in the downstairs hallway.  Please confirm or whatever this.

Also, in BB's 1:42 he uses the devastator to killthe gaurds waiting at the bottom of the elevator.  Could someone please explain exactly how this works, where hes shooting and how it doesnt also kill hostages.

thanks for slugging through this big post guys and any comments will be appreciated.

[Boss]

Yeah you're right about the completing hostages earlier thing.  That's why the strat is what it is, even though it isn't all that consistent as you've seen.

Anyways, if you use wallhugger and shoot the pink walls as you go by that lift heading for the safe, they go through the wall and just drop down to the floor below, killing some guards depending on how good the shot was.  Just try to mimic the vid.

[Your Eliteness]

Using the far elevator is not physically the fastest path. You are running past the hostage rooms to the elevator, then doubling back. Using the first elevator should not affect the chances of receiving the Devastator.

The hostages in the Devastator room will give you the Devastator provided the hostages in the firing range are still alive. You can ensure this by not opening the firing range beforehand. But the fastest way is to open the firing range before going in the lift (this makes the hostages objective complete upstairs, so Carrington starts his speech sooner and ultimately you don't have to wait before the uplink). Using the WR strat, the hostages in the firing range must subdue their opponents without your help. This happens about once every 30 minutes, if I remember right.

The Devastator shot at the elevator does not kill any hostages because the hostages are not there. The grenades explode on the bottom floor, and hostages are running towards the hangar, not waiting for the lift so they can come and kill you

[Wouter Jansen]

I believe you can kill the hostages anyway after the objective completed.

[mariokarter]

Quote:Using the far elevator is not physically the fastest path. You are running past the hostage rooms to the elevator, then doubling back. Using the first elevator should not affect the chances of receiving the Devastator.

Ok, ill use the close elevator from now on

Quote:The hostages in the Devastator room will give you the Devastator provided the hostages in the firing range are still alive.

I swear I have had the objective two complete as I kill the guards in the devastator room yet they still don't give me the devastator.  Facing the girl or anything, standing right beside her, wouldn't have anything to do with it???

Quote:The Devastator shot at the elevator does not kill any hostages because the hostages are not there. The grenades explode on the bottom floor, and hostages are running towards the hangar, not waiting for the lift so they can come and kill you

ok thanks



And thanks to both of you for confirming my thoughts about the speech.

More questions:  Since I'll now be going up the close elevator, does it matter which hostage room You save first?  I mean if you go left first then you will get the devastator more frequently bcause the guards will have less time to kill the hostages in the firing range, but many of those runs are going to have objective 2 fail anyways.  It at least gives you some time to practice with the devastator...

What is the secret to shooting the dev grenade over the wall???Is it wall hugger or normal?

[mariokarter]

So i just spent an hour playing and im still having trouble with the devastator.  Although I was givin the devastator some of the time, I was not given it at least once under all of the following scenarios:

 Fate of shooting range hostages is determined before I reach the upstairs hostage rooms
1) objective 2 fails as I'm going up the elevator/before i enter the hostage rooms(shooting range hostages were killed)

2) objective 2 completes immediatly after I kill the guards in the second upstairs room(shooting range hostages survived)

 Fate of shooting range hostages is determined after I reach the upstairs hostage rooms

3) after killing the guards upstairs objective 2 remains unchanged, then, shortly after(before the devastator hostages have left the room) objective 2 either completes or fails dependant upon what happened to the shooting range hostages



*sigh* i dont know why it isnt working.  try playing the level and see if you get similar results.

[Carathorn]

Wow, I was just messing around in the room were grimshaw is standing. You can open the door from the other room, when you stand in the doorway of the room were grimshaw is :O

So I thought: men, you dont have to wait for the devastator, you just kill the guards, open the other room and you'll get downstairs. Could be a WR strat!

But it isnt. Opening the door from the other room doesn't trigger the guards in that room. pff.....  Waste of time, but still it was nice to think I've found something, whaha!