Aztec

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Aztec
Aztec infobox.jpg
Stage Info
Recommended Version  ????
Rankings Link

Aztec (Part i of Mission 8: Teotihuaca'n) is the nineteenth level in Goldeneye 007. The formal name of this level is Aztec Complex. It is generally thought to be the most difficult of the 20 levels.

Objectives

All Difficulties

  • Reprogram shuttle guidance
  • Launch shuttle

Strategies

Unworkable, impossible, and infeasible strategies, including TAS ideas, can be found on the Unworkable Strategies page.

Glass Door

The following strategies[1] are actively used to open the locked glass door to complete Objective A. These strategies make use of guard tracking to trigger the "Ghost Door" mechanic.

First thing to note is that a single guard can never open the door for us. Why? Because Bond's position when copied can always be reached without opening the door. What is needed is an obstacle, something to block the guards path to Bond's position. An obstacle is either Bond himself (when using invisibility) or another guard. When a guard is faced with an obstacle, he will start to try running around it. In doing so, he might try and run through the glass door room, which leads to him opening the door.

In order for the strat to work, you must reach the glass before this animation ends. Otherwise, he will copy an earlier position and won't run all the way to the glass. The second guard, the one behind the mainframe, will usually see Bond as you run to the glass and do another animation as the mainframe closes. At this point, you need to wait by the glass only until this animation has ended. Usually, you can tell easily by listening to the gunfire, whenever it ends, wait a bit extra for the animation to end, then leave the glass. Also, you probably want to stay still during this time, so that both guards copy the same exact position, and increase the chances of them blocking each other.

An important factor is that the guards needs to be close to each other in order to act as obstacles. (If one guard reaches the glass early, he might just continue running before the second guard even gets there). The mainframe usually handles this for us though, by delaying the nearest guard. It's also worth noting that the nearest guard will not spend more than 10 seconds trying to reaching the glass (usually not the far guard either), so he should *always* continue running. The time frame during which the door can open is therefore pretty small.

Mainframe Strat

The glass that is so consistent it made Aztec RTA friendly. Although not as fast as the best strats, it's really good for getting to the high 80 point range. The key to getting fast mainframe runs is getting a good animation on the guard that you shoot in the mainframe, as the time you have to wait at the glass depends on it.

The core idea is to get the nearby guard stuck inside the mainframe wall, and then luring the first guard in the hallway[2]. Start the level like normal up to the black room, and kill the two guards that come running in front of the door, and then immediately run to the left wall and fire to make some noise. This will alert the guard by the mainframe, and his pathing will have him choose to go down the halls, however, because the mainframe is unloaded and closed, he'll get stuck in it. Clear out the two guards on the right side of the black room, then head to the glass. From this position, you want to shoot the mainframe guard and then shoot through the mainframe to the right of the guard near the hallway guard to draw his attention. This will make them both set Bond's position at the glass as their next target to run to, while the mainframe wall is still unable to open.

After both guards have been lured, you want 10 seconds to pass before they reach your spot. The reason for this is because when guards reach their target within 10 seconds, they will then set a new target (your new location) instead of staying in place. Having them stop at the glass is significantly better for odds of it opening. In the meantime while waiting, you can do some quickpausing. Once you're ready, run towards the console and face left (you can pause here for the disk if you don't want to kill the guards), and this will allow the mainframe to finally open with the guards running towards the glass.

The guard setup is functionally similar to the old glass strategy because they'll actually stop in place at the glass, rather than continuing to hunt for you like with the "Henrik" or fast glass strategies. The benefits of the mainframe glass strategy however is the setup is significantly easier, you don't get shot at, you don't have to rely on animations, and you're guaranteed to have 2 guards go to the glass, rather than a random selection out of a group of 4. On top and more importantly, this strategy is faster. Sometimes the glass still won't open because once a guard has reached his destination and stops, he'll do a turn and step after a few seconds, while the other guard perhaps hasn't opened the glass in time. In my 15 minutes of using this strategy though, I got 4 glass openings, and after Jimbo's onslaught of playing Aztec 00A, he finally got a good and fast PR, so it's still extremely consistent. It's really awesome!

  • Because one of the two guards warps the mainframe, he'll arrive there before the other. When guards reach their destination and stop hunting you down, they stand in place for a moment, and then spin/step around. Because of this, the distance from the mainframe on the glass where you perform the lure is important. If you're far to the right or at the middle of the glass, it's not enough time for the other guard to open the door, so always perform your lure to the left[3].
  • You must stare at the pink wall for about 5 seconds to unload the mainframe long enough to let it open. Additional quickpauses do nothing, lookdown does nothing, and other rituals do nothing. Just face the wall long enough.
  • Leave timing should be 5 quickpause and a bit on a fast guard hurt animation, and 6-7 quickpauses and a bit on slower reactions. Aim for the chest to avoid losing time, and make sure you don't leave too early and fail the lure or leave too late and lose time unnecessarily.

Troubleshooting:

  1. ) If you see a guard come around the corner while waiting for the glass opening, you left too early and the 10-second guard tracking timer didn't reach 10 seconds.
  2. ) If only one guard goes to the glass and the other isn't around the corner, your lure shot missed. Use the marking on the mainframe as a visual cue.
  3. ) If both guards are at the glass and you performed everything correctly, you simply got unlucky. Try again.


Consistency rating: Very Good

Recommended examples:

More examples:

Illu Mainframe

Also known as "Natural Stuck Mainframe".

A faster setup for the mainframe which doesn't require you to shoot into the wall as you enter the black room. It has been used by several people now on agent but is viable on SA/00 as well. The inconsistency lies in getting the guard stuck in the mainframe. This also requires the full screen mode for higher consistency. When you enter the black room, you look to the right ASAP as you finish shooting the two guards at the entrance. Once the guard is stuck in the mainframe, it's the same as the strat above. For the mainframe to be fast though, you need the guard in the mainframe to have a good reaction. So try aiming for his gun on agent. This strat alone is about as fast as Henrik glass and about 1-3 seconds faster than normal MF depending on execution. Survivability is also much better than normal Henrik glass.

Consistency rating: MEDIUM

video example.

Reverse Mainframe

Also known as "Visible Guard Glass Mainframe".

Originally discovered by Henrik and is a faster but slightly less consistent version of the normal mainframe strategy. It uses the setup where you get a guard stuck in the mainframe and instead of pausing at the glass you move to the console causing one of the guards to warp and run to the glass. Then you turn around causing him to notice you and the other guard runs on top of the other making it open very quickly. The timing for when to turn around is done using quickpauses. I don't have much experience with this so others can add to this section. This strat might be improveable with some tweaks, certain people like Dusky, Eclout and others might have more examples or better methods. It is about as fast as Henrik glass.

Consistency rating: Medium-Low

video example.

Fast Glass

Also known as "Clemens Glass".

Consistency Rating: LOW

example video.

Crouch Glass

Very viable for UWR, but relies heavily on guard animations which makes it terrible to play for. There are several variations of it and Henrik needs to write this section. Crouch glass is the main strat on the XBLA version of Goldeneye which some might find interesting. It's possible we can learn some from the way they do it. There is also a trick where if you pause buffer the moment the guard finishes running, the guard will run further which might help with consistency.

The strategy is for the guard to choose a side running animation towards the glass door, then shoot him to back him up slightly, then run up to the guard and crouch.

By crouching near a step (slopes apparently don't work) like the one near the glass, you can glitch yourself inside a guard[4]. If done correctly, the guard gets stuck in place, and other guards can no longer see you. Think of it like invisibility without the cheat. However, even if you get the running animation (14.28%), he might not run to the right spot. The guard will always run in a 90 degree angle relative to the angle between him and Bond. He runs a minimum of 200 units, with an additional 0-200 units being added via random distribution. Even if the guard runs near the glass, he still won't be close enough (probably?). Therefor, wait until he turns towards you and then shoot his lower leg to back him up closer to the glass. This gives some time to open the mainframe, and get to the glass. Once there, you just crouch and strafe into the corner until you're inside him. Getting out of the guard can be tricky and sometimes you get stuck. Running away from the glass seems to work most often, but there may not be a consistent way of doing it.

Consistency rating: LOWish?, more info is required.

example video. original strat example. XBLA example video. Another XBLA example video.

Bryan B. Glass

Obsolete because it is slower than modern strategies. Still has a place in modern RTA runs as a backup for failed mainframe attempts. It is also used in LTK runs.

Consistency rating: MEDIUM

example video.

Henrik Glass

Henrik Glass was developed by Henrik Norgren as an elaboration on why the "ghost door" strategy works. By luring two guards to the glass and using the mainframe door to impede their progress, the guards will ultimately end up at the glass door and open it.

Henrik Glass is used across all difficulties and was used on World Record runs on SA and 00 until more modern strats such as Crouch and Illu Mainframe where further optimized and utilized. It can be used on Agent for great times--usually ranging anything around 1:30 to 1:26, althought faster glass strats exsist and are currently used for Agent to achieve lower times.

To execute, first clear out all of the Black Room guards. Traverse through the Black Room down the hallway on the left passing by the guard who stands by the computer ("Computer Guard"). He should play some sort of aiming animation and eventually start a firing sequence at you. As he shoots at you, strafe to the final outcropping in the wall and pivot away, running back down the hallway towards the glass. This movement should lure the guard immediately to your right ("Hallway Guard"). Hallway Guard will play an aiming animation and firing sequence at you. The goal is to reach Computer Guard just as his animations are finishing, this way once you strafe past him he will do another set of aiming and firing animations while staying in position. If you are too slow, too fast, or if he does very fast aiming/shooting animations, he will run out of position and will not be in the correct placement for the lure to ultimately work. As you pass the computer on the wall, click it to close the mainframe.

Concurrently, you want Hallway Guards's animation/firing to be finishing as you are getting into position at the glass. This will ensure that he will see you go to the glass and will chase you to that position. If his animations weren't long enough, he will not chase you.

Once you are standing at the glass, you want to be mindfull of Computer Guard's firing sequence. Depending on how long he fires for, you can execute 1-3 quick pauses while waiting for him to finish his firing sequence and final aiming animation. You can gauge how long this is based on the amount of shots he fires at you as well as the lull afterwards. Once you have finished your quick pauses, look back at the mainframe and time your leave from the glass door and move into the hiding position along the gray wall to the left of the mainframe out of sight of the guards. The idea is you want to be at the glass for as long as possible, as it gives Hallway Guard enough time to run out of position to the mainframe. Since Computer Guard is the guard that will open the mainframe, he will ultimately copy your position at the glass naturally. You want to leave frames before you anticipate the mainframe door from opening. If you are too late you can get spotted and the lure will fail. If you are too fast, the mainframe will still opened, but a guard can get stuck in it. You can also fail the lure at no fault of your own; even if you are correct in your execution, the guards can still wonder around trying to find your position or just not make it to the glass sometimes, so beaware that the lure can still fail even if you doing the technique correctly. You are ultiatemately at the mercy of the guards' animations.

Once you are hiding, pause for the Launch Guidence Floppy and equip it, unpause and hold speed against the gray partition wall in front of you as you wait for the guards to open the glass. Unlike the Mainframe Glass strategies, the guards can open the glass very fast, so be mindfull of when they open it. The guards also tend to end up in awkard positions after opening the glass sometimes, and can be very aggressive as you approach the DAT and Objective A upload. Try to be as quick as you can so you avoid any potential backboosts and blockades.

Consistency rating: Medium-Low

example video.

Tutorials

Agent

Secret Agent

00 Agent

LTK

DLTK

External Links

References

  1. ↑ "The COMPLETE Aztec Glass Knowledge Repository". Retrieved July 16, 2021.
  2. ↑ Icy. "the-elite forum post "Strategy Awareness: Aztec 'Mainframe Glass'"". Retrieved July 28, 2021.
  3. ↑ Icy. "the-elite forum post reply to "Strategy Awareness: Aztec 'Mainframe Glass'"". Retrieved July 28, 2021.
  4. ↑ Wyst3r. "the-elite forum post "New Aztec Strat Revealed!"". Retrieved July 25, 2021.
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