Yup, the spores are back for some more fun - this time in a weird location!

(9:07) Level 7 ('The Library') on Legendary. For my 200th movie I thought I'd finally tackle an idea I had ages ago, which I reckoned would provide some striking footage involving a herd of spores (more properly known as infection forms). About 120 of 'em. With some careful work I was able to set things up with a handy delayed checkpoint for easy replaying, and a stash of weapons to choose from. This is one of my longer movies, but hey, for my 200th I can splurge a little, right?

Released October 16th 2016, gameplay recorded October 7th-8th 2016.

00:02 (Teaser segment) I thought it would be nice to start with some teaser footage, so people can think about where this is happening. It's probably not too hard to guess, though I doubt many folk have actually been down here. The footage also serves to introduce my herd. I do a brief bit of moving around to show them off, before wiping them out with AR fire (and a whack). If you still didn't figure out where I am, my upwards gaze at the end is the final clue.

01:10 (Playing around and plasma rifle wipeout) So, here we are at the start of my save, created with a delayed checkpoint I brought back from near the overshield area. I do some dodging around and then drop down to the base to play there. Lots of spores fall in pursuit, but others come down the walls and I shoot a few. Moving in a circle I get the herd into a ring for a while, then start jumping over them which sort of stretches them out and forms two groups. Then I get them into a glob and do some ducking, something new which I didn't show in BCM63. Finally I do a plasma rifle wipeout.

03:42 (Extra spawning) At some point as numbers reduce, 18 extras spawn in two of the alleys. I show it happening after wiping out a load with a plasma blast. Then I use a couple of frags to complete a wipeout. Just before the last bang, you get quite a clear view of how the whiteness over the central area makes the spores' legs look white, though you may've noticed that already in earlier footage.

04:27 (Closer view of extra spawning) I thought it would be nice to get a closer view of the spawning in one of the two alleys, so here's what I came up with. I drop down into an alley after leaving a plasma grenade up top to wreak havoc, and the spawning occurs just after I land. The nine newcomers attack immediately but I quickly pop them. Other spores drop down and I do a bit more shooting to clear the area.

04:57 (Shotty wipeout) Now we move into some wipeout fun, using various weapons from the stash I took time to arrange. First it's the turn of the shotty, and I include some wall shots near the start - i.e. shooting spores coming down the walls. At the end, one spore is left waiting while I reload, and then he gets blasted. I liked that amusing ending, which is why I favoured this play over other shotty wipeouts I did.

05:43 (Needler wipeout) Next, some needling! I put two full needlers in my stash because a single needler often wouldn't be enough to wipe out so many spores. Accordingly, I first throw one of the needlers down to the base before dropping down with the other. Early on, I cause a needle bang on spores coming down the walls. With the main mass though, it's quite hard to get bangs because the needles tend to get drawn to multiple targets. However, I do manage to end with a bang.

06:36 (AR wipeout) I already had an AR wipeout in the teaser segment, but I've included this one too because it has some different aspects and isn't very long anyway. In particular, I pop quite a few spores as they fall down, and then I do some wall shooting.

07:15 (Plasma pistol wipeout) Now a plasma pistol - and you get a view of the index when I leap off the end of a tooth. Soon after I'm down I pop quite a few spores on the walls, before focusing on the ground build-up. For variety I end with a plasma ball - which is overkill of course, but never mind.

07:58 (AR wipeout with special tactic) One last wipeout, to show a special AR tactic. Namely, letting a mass of spores leap at you in a stream, and meeting them with a stream of AR fire. Works nicely. There are some others to get afterwards, and some unusually late spawning can be seen after a frag goes off. I finish them with a tag.

08:48 (Chow's up) At the end of BCM63 I rewarded the herd with a tasty cyborg treat, and here I'm doing the same thing of course. One difference though, is that I don't die with a loud cry. I did quite a few plays and for some reason I could never get such a cry. However, it's still amusing footage and there's a good view of the spores moving around after I'm dead.

Closing remarks This topic is covered in a new section of my spore herding article: see Fun in the shaft base. Also newly detailed is shaft hop fun, which I'll be demonstrating in the next movie shortly.

The movie ended up being unusually long, but that wasn't really because of allowing myself to 'splurge' for movie 200. It was just the nature of what I wanted to cover. The teaser segment contributed quite a bit to the duration, but I didn't want to skip that fun way of starting. After that, I needed to show some more extensive dodging around, plus I wanted to show various weaponry being used in wipeout fun. But also, towards the end of the process I decided it would be good to have something about the extra spawning which occurs - though I did try to make it concise. It all added up to over nine minutes, but for me the time seems to fly by anyway!

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