BCM428 - Riding on a backstop Sentinel, return trips

(6:50) Level 10 ('The Maw') on Heroic. After releasing the last movie, I played some more and found new potential in getting onto a backstop Sentinel. Turns out there's more to it than just balancing in fairly static manner. You can actually ride it back to where you came from! Here's how things went, starting with some play on the right. See also my revised and re-titled article, Riding on a backstop Sentinel.

Released May 16th 2020, gameplay recorded May 13th-14th 2020.

Commentary

00:02 (Setting up on the left) The clips are in chronological order. First thing I did was some play on the right. I'd done just a little on this side before, but now I wanted to get properly into it. Here's my set-up work, followed by a play in which I judge my boarding by the sound of the Sentinel. That was a bit showy (just a spur of the moment decision) but I land okay. Soon fall off though. Don't worry, just warming up!

00:52 A few minutes later I got this 30-second balance. And incidentally, ten minutes later I broke my old 43-second record, managing 46.

01:30 (Return potential realised) Another few minutes later. As I fall off, I realise I was near the opening. That naturally made me think, can I actually get back? That's the goal I started intermittently pursuing, though I also got some long balances along the way.

01:49 On this play I look up to see where I am. Just to get a sense of things, and to show it for the movie.

02:09 Got close here, but slid off the back of the Sentinel. At this point I was still quite inexperienced in riding it when it was heading for home.

02:28 Another try, but again I slide off the back.

02:46 (Return 1) Success at last, about half an hour after I'd started trying.

03:08 A 42-second balance, during which the Sentinel seems unusually stable for a while. I later got a 66-second balance with some similar good stability along the way. That's my new balance record, but I haven't bothered to show it here as it would've been relatively dull to watch, and the real topic is return trips.

03:59 After getting zapped in that last play, I got into the habit of destroying the first Sentinel and boarding the second, a tactic already seen in the last movie. On this play something interesting happens at the end. The Sentinel gets hostile and opens fire despite still being outside! That's the first time I experienced that. Later it happened a few other times, but it's rare.

04:25 (Return 2) Phew! My second return, after many tries.

04:59 Now trying to get a return trip on the left, this play demonstrates a jump while the Sentinel is vertical. That lets it climb a bit (I realised that while using the other opening, but I didn't exploit it much). At the end, maybe I tagged the Sentinel. At any rate, you can hear it being destroyed.

05:29 More jumping. In fact, five jumps in all! When the Sentinel heads for home though, I'm taken by surprise when it goes vertical, and I slide off. I'd been expecting the flight to be relatively level.

06:13 (Return 3) It was quite a slog (in total a couple of hours I think), but finally I got this success. An unexpectedly quick return.

Closing remarks After that, I went on to explore the matter of stunt boarding, and soon realised I'd be needing another whole movie to cover that. Coming up next! Incidentally, these movies are queue-jumping. 'BCM428' was originally going to be on the topic of combat with the backstop Sentinels, and I had that almost ready to go. But I'm now holding it back until I've got through this new riding stuff.