Surface Tension Apache boss too easy?

Black Mesa Archive Help!
#1

Not sure this is the right subforum, but anyway: I find the Apache boss fight a bit too easy. I tried multiplying all sk_apache_boss_stage_0/1/2/3_health numbers by 10 or 100 but could still shoot it down with two laser guided RPGs, hidden safely behind the rock pillar to the right side of the RPG crate, taking very little damage myself, and seemingly bypassing multiple boss stages in one hit.

About two RPG hits per stage seems a decent difficulty level, given the suit power and infinite rockets nearby. I made the CVAR changes before picking up the RPG launcher, since my initial guess was the helicopter boss would adopt my latest values as it spawned in, but it seems not to be the case; do these CVAR only take effect when the level is initially loaded?

Just trying to understand when the CVAR take effect, as I’m tweaking my own skill.cfg difficulty settings while I replay the earth levels before starting the Xen chapters (looking VERY much forward to this)!

#2

The reason it takes so little damage to kill it is because it kills the player even quicker even on normal difficulty. The only way to survive the fight is to hide and not expose yourself at all as the autogun is so accurate and does so much damage.

#3

Ah, yeah guess I just got used to the boss fight from last playthrough and powergamed it :slight_smile:

If you just hunker down behind the rock pillar and wait for the missiles to hit it and the autocannon to stop firing, you have a couple seconds where you can pop out and guide your RPG onto the helicopter without taking ANY damage.

Knowing this made the HECU marines before the boss fight much more of a hazard to my health and suit power than the helicopter boss fight itself, so knowing is ALL of the battle in this case :slight_smile:

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