BCM92 - Sinking plasma grenade, ice near the tower

(2:24) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Heroic. This shows a dropped plasma grenade sinking into ice. I recorded this footage in 2010 when working on Elite fireworks, and was holding it back until I'd done some investigation. But having decided to show a rising plasma in BCM91, it made sense to also show a sinking one - and I'll have to leave the investigation for later.

Released January 19th 2014, gameplay recorded November 8th 2010.

Commentary

00:02 To start with, I focus on a normal dropped plasma for comparison, then zero in on the sinker. As you can see, it's already well down into the ice. I move around and line up a 10x zoomed view, and you can see some slight flickering at the base - a tell-tale sign.

00:41 It's sinking rather slowly though (something like a seventh of a plasma diameter per minute), so I speed up the footage fourfold. The 70-second sequence thus covers almost five minutes of actual time.

01:51 The grenade is now under the ice, though there's still a black shadow visible. If I recall correctly, that shadow would soon disappear if I waited longer. However, I'm not doing that. After demonstrating that a nearby explosion won't set off the grenade (something I learnt during earlier plays), I show that I can still pick it up as usual.

Closing remarks I had a checkpoint just before this footage starts, and that enabled me to record multiple plays with the sinking grenade. I planned out what to do with it for a movie, and this recording was the best, with the nicest camerawork and whatnot. It's been sitting on my hard drive since late 2010, so I'm glad to finally show it.