Getting inside a rock
Posted March 24th 2005
In connection with moving Shades as part of some rearranging, I've found a fairly reliable way of experiencing being stuck inside a rock, as follows.
In the first snowy area, rearrange a Shade by blasting it up onto the top of a large rock adjacent to the cliff. Resume normal play, and make sure to get a checkpoint before crossing the loading point in the passage leading out into the snow (this would normally happen automatically). When you cross the loading point, the rock geometry outside gets freshly randomized and the rock you used may be a lot bigger now. If not, revert and head outside again; eventually you should get lucky unless the original version of the rock was actually the largest possible. But the Shade seems to remain exactly where it was, from the look of things. As such, the Shade may now be partially or totally swallowed up by the expanded rock.
Go over to it and hit X to get in. You're now partly swallowed up too, and your view may be unusual. If you're deep enough into the rock and you dismount, you seem to drop to the ground under the rock, finding yourself completely inside, yet able to see out.
Weirdness
When I did this I was initially unable to walk out. But strangely, after a few moments I was able to exit. Another interesting aspect was that Jackal shots couldn't get to me; the invisible surface of the rock protected me (though not from Wraith blasts, unfortunately). After a short while of being in the rock, the Jackal couldn't seem to see me any more.
Another bit of weirdness. Standing on the rock which had almost completely swallowed a manned Shade, I whacked the occupant (or at least, I think that's what I hit), and it seemed to dislodge the Shade, which fell to the ground under the rock. It was then completely hidden, but it was still near enough to the wall that I could hit X to get in.