Grippy hog
Posted October 6th 2018
Associated movies
- BCM311 - Heroic; Grippy hog (6:33)
In BCM297, one of my movies on wandering Banshees, there was a bit where my Warthog almost fell off the cliff in the cliffside survivor area. It was almost entirely off the edge, yet managed to get back up, which impressed me. The day after recording that, I started investigating to see what else the hog could do, in terms of gripping cliff face.
Further along that cliff edge, there's an area where the face slopes down steeply, and I was surprised to find that the hog is able to get significant traction there. Not enough to stop the slide towards death (assuming you don't flip the hog due to the sheer steepness), but enough to slow it at least - and to throw up a whole lot of rubble in the process.
It's fun to see what you can do, and to get different camera angles during the descent. If you get the camera low (close to the cliff face), you can get some dramatic close-up views.
You can also enter an adjacent area of cliff face by driving off near the waterfall outside the survivor area. Indeed, there's a nice slope there, less steep than the previous area, though still fatal (on PAL Xbox at least, but you might have more grip on NTSC/PC).
Technique options
In regard to technique, I think you get the most traction when the hog is pointed up and you've got the pedal to the metal, so to speak. That's what you'd expect of course. However, I eventually realized that the hog is almost as grippy if you simply let it slide unpowered, or if you just have the brakes on.
I did some testing on the 'nice slope' mentioned above, to see how slide speeds compared for those three options. The latter two seemed to give identical or near-identical speeds, but the 'pedal to the metal' option slowed things up by around 7%. So, actually not a whole lot different!
In the case of letting the hog slide unpowered, you can potentially be in the passenger seat or on the chain gun if you board at the last moment after using melee to start the descent. Novel perspective!
Checkpointing
To play around with descending, you can use a checkpoint triggered at the nearby entrance to the cliffside area. Or for an even more convenient checkpoint, right at the cliff edge you want to use, you could either delay the meet-up checkpoint triggered underground like I did in BCM307 (in connection with valley Banshee spawning), or use a rockslide dropship checkpoint like I did in BCM302.
Taking some company
In my original investigation I was alone in the hog, but for my movie BCM311 on the topic, I had passengers Johnson and Stacker who, as expected, made for extra fun because of their screaming and whatnot. So I definitely recommend that you take some company with you. I got Stacker from the hillside survivor area, while Johnson came from earlier in the level.
Bottom of the valley too
One other descent area to explore is a partly grassy area at the bottom of the valley. It's not cliff face and it's not as extensive as the areas already mentioned, but you can still have some fun there, and I found a surface on which the hog was actually able to hold station (as long as all four wheels had traction) and even slowly drive upwards. Incidentally, you can see around the side of the map in that area, especially if you drive off appropriately.
You might also like to try negotiating the waterfalls at the bottom and top of the valley. You'll get some appealing views, but the actual slope area isn't extensive so I didn't bother covering that in the movie.
For playing around down here, bear in mind that you can trigger a checkpoint at the nearby tunnel entrance (or use one of my earlier tips for an even more convenient checkpoint).