Going up and up - where possibly no cyborg has gone before!

(6:50) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Heroic. Following on from the last movie, I start going for height, and a target soon emerges. Can I reach the top of the column, going where possibly no cyborg has gone before, and pulling off the biggest landed launch of the game? Watch and see! Update: I now have an article covering this topic.

Released July 20th 2017, gameplay recorded July 12th-18th 2017.

00:02 (Failures) These opening five launches are examples from my column ascent quest on July 12th, using the same save as in BCM251. Aside from the first, intended as an amusing and explosive start, they're in chronological order. The 'Top sighted!' clip wasn't actually the first time I saw the top, but it was a nice clip for showing it clearly and sketching the story. The clips only total a minute and a half, but in reality I was launching and failing for about an hour I think, across two sessions. So I've edited things down rather a lot!

01:37 (Success at last) Finally I landed on top, which I think is the first time anyone got there (in single-player at least; I'm not sure about co-op). An extra two clips show me highlighting the invisible walls with plasma fire. I eventually fell backwards off the top when fooling around with grenades and rockets.

02:40 (Rocketing the top) With one exception the remaining clips are from later, and some involve different saves I created, with particular weaponry in mind. This example is using the original save though, and involves rocketing the top as I fall.

03:00 (Major spiralling) Here the shunt gives me considerable lateral speed, which causes me to spiral up, bouncing around the invisible walls. Spiralling this strongly is very unusual; in fact this was the only such time I got it. It prevents you being able to drift in towards the top of the column, but in this case it didn't matter anyway because I went much too high.

03:22 (First time up with sniper rifle) On the 16th I created a save in which I had a sniper rifle, because I wanted to be able to scope things out using light amplification. Here's the first time I reached the top with that save. It was my third landing. Also shown: a bit of rocketing with a plasma grenade.

04:12 (High views with sniper rifle) These two clips show successively higher views through a zoomed sniper rifle (using two different saves). In the second clip you can see ejected casings falling. Later I put some effort into getting an even higher view for possible inclusion in the movie, but couldn't manage it. Even managing the height in that second clip is rare.

04:54 (Needling) Here are two clips using a save featuring a needler - including the my fifth landing. In the first clip you can see some needles heading upwards even though I was firing downwards. That was due to my upwards velocity of course. Notice also that after bailing from the Banshee, I immediately started looking upwards, rather than waiting until I got shunted. That gives things a different look (I also use that look-up style in the movie's final launch).

05:40 (Launch mishap) A problem of launching is that you need the Banshee to avoid hitting the column, else it gets thrown out of whack and you probably won't get shunted through the ceiling (or if you do, you probably won't get much height). This is an amusing example. Note how the Banshee continues making a noise.

05:52 (Assault rifle) I thought I might have some fun with an AR - perhaps peppering the side of the column while heading up - so I created a save with that weapon option. Here you see my eighth landing.

06:12 (Freaky speed) This is the earliest launch of the movie, and the only one where I angle the Banshee upwards. I get freaky speed and go way up high. I think I must've got stopped by a ceiling up there, because otherwise I would've gone up much longer. How did I get so much speed? If you check the footage frame by frame, you'll see that the Banshee deflects off the end of a runner and bumps me through, contributing significantly to my already high speed. I've only had one other 'freaky speed' launch, and the dynamic was the same as this. Actually, I'm wondering if this sort of speed is faster than any cyborg has travelled before (not counting instantaneous bumps). I'm not sure you can get such high speed from grenade launches.

06:27 (One more ascent) To finish off, here's my sixth time to the top of the column. Got perfect height!

Closing remarks Back when 3rdPerson did his movie on reaching the bottom of the chamber, he included a few force-launches, and BigGruntyThirst remarked in the HIH thread "I must say, wouldnt it be possible to have the shee bump you through the ceiling and get you on top of that pillar?" Well, it's taken eleven years (as far as I know), but the answer is yes! And it's got to be the biggest possible launch and landing in the game.

Update (23/7/17): Let me say a little about the technique. After boarding I get the Banshee pitched down a bit and in many cases I'm also doing a bit of rotation. Then I bail, usually quite soon. The Banshee needs to avoid hitting the column (and rings), and needs to end up hitting the ceiling (by which I mean the annular area, not the long panels which spread out from it). I try to steer it accordingly, and it can be a bit of a fine balance to manage that. The Banshee isn't going up vertically; it has some backwards speed too.

Some of my later set-ups were created to try and make the steering as easy as possible, by having the Banshee in what I hoped would be a favourable configuration (location and direction). For each save, I had to experiment with the steering, to try and hone a control routine to give me a decent chance of success, but it was still quite hit-and-miss. Even quite small variations in my controller work could mean the difference between success and failure.

With some launches you see me looking in a particular direction before boarding. That's because it helps you adjust the Banshee's direction faster, which was potentially useful. One other thing I'll mention is that the Banshee's pitch has a major effect on (a) the speed with which it rises and (b) whether it ends up connecting with you to impart a shunt. Generally speaking, I was trying to bail with the Banshee at a certain pitch, to try to achieve a shunt. But variations in Banshee pitch and bail timing often meant that I didn't get a shunt at all, let alone a good one.

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