Machines at War Help File

Get the MEGA hit game and more like it at Isotope 244

Machines at War is available for Windows, Macintosh, Windows Mobile Pocket PC, and the Smartphone.

 

Contents

 

Introduction

Command an army of forces across the battlefield with ease in this real time strategy game.  You are challenged to construct an epic war machine and use it to become a dominating world power.

Machines at War features a random map system so every game you play is unique and poses new challenges.  Build bridges to cross water, mow down forests to clear a path to the enemy, build walls to defend your position, track tread marks left by enemy tanks to their base, hide under trees for an ambush attack, these are just some of the unique game play elements available.

Expand your city with over 40 structures and units to choose from.  As your empire grows you can research technologies to guide the focus of your strategy.  Choose to be a economic powerhouse and flood the enemy with an endless barrage of units.  Or upgrade your defensive forces and build an insurmountable fortification of turrets and fortresses surrounded by walls and gates.  If blitzkrieg is your style, then embolden your offensive forces with unique weapon upgrades and demoralize the enemy with an unstoppable force.

Build vehicles and aircraft to take control of the land and air including tanks, jeeps, trucks, helicopters, jets, VTOLs, turrets, and more.  After each battle detailed statistics are displayed showing the how the tides of war changed for each player.

 

User Interface

 

The screen is divided into four main areas:
1) Status - Displayed are the number of credits you have, the current power level, and your forces population. Credits are gained by collecting ore. Power is increased by building generators.
2) Command - A set of clickable icons allows you to build additional structures and units. The icons change based on what unit and tab you have selected.
3) Minimap - The map displays an overview of the landscape showing the location of units, resources, trees, and water. Click in the map to move the view.
4) Shortcuts (only on Mobile devices) - Buttons labeled X (exit) ? (help) C (clear selection) 1-4 (group 1-4) S (set group) H (view headquarters)


 

Game Play Tutorial

Activate the in game tutorial and help page by pressing the ? button twice or the 'H' keyboard key.

Starting Area
 When the game begins you will see a headquarters and scavengers. Scavengers collect ore which is processed and yields credits to purchase more structures and units. The headquarters building allows you to build additional scavengers and scouts.

Command Box
 Notice in the command box there are several tabs to view more pages of units and structures. Click on the Bldg tab to see which buildings you can create. Notice if you hover over the icon a description of each unit will display. On the Pocket PC to view descriptions without creating a unit release the stylus while it's not on the icon.

Building a Garage
 After you gain 300 credits, click on the garage icon then place the garage somewhere around your base (you can only build in viewable locations).

Getting Started
 Now click on your HQ and build a few more scavengers. You will notice Scavengers automatically find and mine new ore. After the garage is complete you can build offensive vehicles to attack the enemy.

Building an Army
 To build offensive units, select the garage, then in the command box click the Units tab, and finally click the unit icon you want to build. You will see a blue progress bar over the garage indicating the build progress.

Selection
 To select units click and drag over the area containing the units. To select one unit click on it. To add to your selection hold the shift button. To select many units of one type double click a unit. To select all offensive units, press the 'y' key.

Moving
 To move units, select units, then click on the ground where you want them to move to.

Attacking
 To attack, move your units into range of the enemy, then click on the enemy.

More Power
 Each structure uses power, you will need to build power cells (under the Engr tab) in order to build more structures.

New Structures
 As you create more buildings, new units and structures will be available.

Research
 To research new technologies build a Lab then open the Technology Tree by selecting the Lab and clicking the Tech tab, then Research icon. You automatically get 15 research points to spend on new technologies to upgrade your structures and units.

More Help
 To find out more information about units and structures, you can click the ? shortcut then click on any object to see more information.



Advanced Game Play Topics

Grouping
 Usually attacks are carried out by multiple units, to help you coordinate this you can group units together so they can be selected by clicking a group shortcut. To set a group using the keyboard you can set 10 groups using the keys 0-9, to set a group use Shift 0-9, and to recall a group press 0-9.
Mobile:  Use the shortcut buttons S then 1-4, or keyboard buttons as defined in the control settings.
PC:  Use Shift+0-9 to set a group, and 0-9 to recall a group.

Button Shortcuts
 Most of the controls in the game can be issued via hardware buttons or keyboards. These are customizable in the games settings.

Mass Building
 Some units which you need to build a lot of, allow building several at a time, such as walls and power cells. To build many at a time, click the unit icon, then in the game play area click and drag which will create a line of units.
To build several units at a factory, select several factories by double clicking one of them, then click a unit icon in the command area, a unit will be queued in each factory selected.

Mass Selection
To select all units of the same type on the screen double click any unit, you can also add to, and remove from the selection using keys, see the customize controls screen.

Population
 Only mobile and static armed units count towards the population limit.

Build Scaling
 The more structures you build at the same time (except for walls), the slower they will be built.

Power Scaling
 The more power reserves you have, the faster structures will be built. For example if your total power usage is 500, and your total reserves are 1000, 1 structure will be built twice as fast.

Unit Orders
 When all units are created their default order is Attack. To change a units standing orders select the unit, then press the CHANGE ORDERS key to toggle through them. If you change multiple units orders at once, all units will be set to the new orders given to the first unit in the selection. You can set scouts and scavengers to Hold and they will stop automatically scouting and scavenging.
Hold - Don't move or return fire even if attacked.
Defend - Don't move but do return fire.
Attack - Return fire and move and attack enemy units within view.
Move+Attack - Cancel move orders and attack any new target encountered while en route to a new target.
Patrol - Continuously move between the current location and the next location given, attack any new target in range.

Setting a Building Rally Point
 When you have 1 building selected hold the SET SELECTION key then click where you want to set the rally point. On the Smartphone the ACTION key sets the rally point.

Cancel Placing a Structure
 Press the EXIT key. On the Pocket PC you can also click on the 'C' shortcut.

Destroy a Structure
 Select the structure then press the DELETE UNITS key. On the PC this is the DELETE key, on the Pocket PC the D key, and on the Smartphone the J key. If your device doesn't have a keyboard you will have to remap the key in the settings menu.

Memory Errors
 See the readme.txt file in the games directory for more information on game settings, memory usage, and performance.

Pocket PCs with Keyboards
 If your device has a keyboard which slides out and changes the screen rotation the arrow keys may not work correctly with the game. To fix this slide the keyboard out before opening the game, or remap the arrow keys in the control settings.

Align Players (Teams, 2 vs. 2, 1 vs. 2, 2 vs. 1)
In the Game Settings Menu there is a setting called Align Players, which can be set to None, You+AI vs. AI, or You vs. AI+AI.  The default value of none means that no teams are aligned and the AI will attack you or other computer AI players.  You+AI vs. AI means that in a 3 player game, it will be you and the computer vs. the other computer.  You vs. AI+AI means in a 3 player game it will be you vs. both computers and they won't attack each other, they will all be against you.  When you have an ally you will be able to see what they see and build in their area, you will also be able to see what technologies they are researching.  You can also see how many credits and population they have by clicking on the Lab.  You will be able to attack an ally, but they will not retaliate.
You+AI vs. AI - 3 players = you + computer vs. computer
You+AI vs. AI - 4 players = you + computer vs. computer + computer
You vs. AI+AI - 3 players = you vs. computer + computer
You vs. AI+AI - 4 players = you + computer vs. computer + computer



Smartphone Controls (Windows Mobile 6 Standard)

If your device has no touchscreen the game is fully playable via hardware keys, by default these are:
Button 1 = Select unit under cursor, move units to cursor, make selection
Butotn 2 = Change tabs in the command area
Home Key = Move view to last built headquarters
Back Arrow Key = Clear selection, back out of menus, open menu
If your smartphone has a keyboard many keys will already be mapped, check the customize control settings menu for a full listing of keyboard keys.
NOTE some devices the keys may be different or mapped incorrectly, simply enter the games controls menu and customize them for your device if this is the case.
In the tech tree use left/right to scroll the view, and up/down to move the currently selected technology. ACTION key researches the tech, EXIT or CLEAR SELECTION key closes the tech tree.



Mac OSX Notes



Buildings

Headquarters
The center of operations for your campaign. The only place you can create scavengers from.
Cost 2000 - Time 100 - Health 4000 - Range 170 - PowerReserve 400 - ViewRad 300 - DPS 120 - Attack 60.0 - RepeatRate 0.5 - AmmoSpeed 300 - Classes Turret, Building, Recycler, Commandable

Cooling Tower
Place cooling towers around extractors to help them operate more efficiently, increasing their output.
Cost 70 - Time 30 - Health 100 - PowerUsage 150 - ViewRad 64 - Classes Building - Requires Extractor

Extractor
Extractors mine ore from deep below the ground yielding a large amount of ore over time. The mining rate decreases as the drill digs deeper.
Cost 1500 - Time 90 - Health 500 - PowerUsage 1500 - ViewRad 200 - Classes Building, Extractor - Requires Lab

Lab
The lab allows you to research new technologies which let you build new types of structures or units, or upgrade your existing units.
Cost 1200 - Time 90 - Health 1000 - PowerUsage 500 - ViewRad 100 - Classes Building

Power Cell
Supplies 125 MW of power to structures and units. The more power reserves you have, the faster structures are built.
Cost 100 - Time 12 - Health 500 - PowerReserve 125 - ViewRad 100 - Classes Building, Power Cell

Reactor
Creates 850 MW of power that is more efficient and cheaper per MW than power cells.
Cost 600 - Time 35 - Health 900 - PowerReserve 850 - ViewRad 150 - Classes Building, Power Cell - Requires Lab

Fusion Plant
This plant pumps out 4000 MW by fusing atomic nuclei together which releases massive amounts of energy.
Cost 2500 - Time 120 - Health 3000 - PowerReserve 4000 - ViewRad 150 - Classes Building, Power Cell - Requires Reactor

Radar Tower
Detect enemy positions far away and in invisible locations.
Cost 500 - Time 60 - Health 1000 - PowerUsage 400 - ViewRad 400 - RadarRad 800 - Classes Building, Radar - Requires Lab

Refinery
Scavengers can drop their collected ore at refineries. Locate them to minimize scavenger travel distance.
Cost 400 - Time 30 - Health 2000 - PowerUsage 300 - ViewRad 250 - Classes Building, Recycler - Requires Headquarters

Processor
This is a small refinery with dual miniguns for built in protection. It also features more strength and an extended view range.
Cost 500 - Time 40 - Health 2500 - Range 180 - PowerUsage 450 - ViewRad 250 - DPS 17 - Attack 2.6 - RepeatRate 0.3 - AmmoSpeed 300 - Classes Turret, Building, Recycler - Requires Refinery, Factory

Fortress
The most powerful and biggest structure in the game. The fortress features awesome firepower with four medium range cannons.
Cost 2700 - Time 200 - Health 5000 - Range 260 - PowerUsage 2000 - ViewRad 350 - DPS 600 - Attack 150.0 - RepeatRate 1.0 - AmmoSpeed 320 - Classes Turret, Building, MultiBarrel - Requires Factory, Lab

Garage
The garage allows you to build offensive vehicles.
Cost 300 - Time 40 - Health 1000 - PowerUsage 200 - ViewRad 200 - Classes Building - Requires Headquarters

Factory
A factory allows you to build defensive turrets and specialized vehicles.
Cost 550 - Time 40 - Health 1000 - PowerUsage 300 - ViewRad 200 - Classes Building - Requires Headquarters

Airport
Launch air attacks from airports and dominate the skies.
Cost 1000 - Time 40 - Health 1000 - PowerUsage 600 - ViewRad 225 - Classes Building - Requires Garage, Factory

Outpost
A cheap buliding to keep a lookout for advancing enemy troops.
Cost 50 - Time 15 - Health 100 - PowerUsage 50 - ViewRad 350 - Classes Building




Units

Apache
The Apache fires anti-tank guided missiles designed to destroy heavily-armored machines.
Cost 350 - Time 20 - Health 300 - Armor 100 - Speed 130 - Range 180 - ViewRad 200 - DPS 90 - Attack 54.0 - RepeatRate 0.6 - AmmoSpeed 300 - Classes Medium Armor, Airborne

Raptor
The Raptor fires super high rate dual chain guns to mow down medium armor units.
Cost 400 - Time 25 - Health 300 - Armor 100 - Speed 150 - Range 150 - ViewRad 250 - DPS 120 - Attack 12.0 - RepeatRate 0.2 - AmmoSpeed 400 - Classes Airborne, Light Armor

Osprey
The Osprey is outfitted with a massive 80mm cannon for destroying light armor units with ease.
Cost 300 - Time 15 - Health 300 - Armor 150 - Speed 110 - Range 160 - ViewRad 250 - DPS 60 - Attack 60.0 - RepeatRate 1.0 - AmmoSpeed 150 - Classes Heavy Armor, Airborne

Archer
This long range artillery vehicle is very useful for taking out turrets and buildings, especially fortresses.
Cost 500 - Time 20 - Health 100 - Armor 100 - Speed 30 - Range 290 - ViewRad 220 - DPS 60 - Attack 300.0 - RepeatRate 5.0 - AmmoSpeed 200 - Classes Light Armor, Artillery

Challenger
It may be slow, but once it gets there, this tank will annihilate both light armor units and buildings with its 120mm cannon.
Cost 250 - Time 18 - Health 300 - Armor 150 - Speed 50 - Range 120 - ViewRad 150 - DPS 60 - Attack 60.0 - RepeatRate 1.0 - AmmoSpeed 300 - Classes Heavy Armor, Mobile Ground

Cougar
The cougar sports a 14.5 mm heavy machine gun particularly useful against medium armor units.
Cost 170 - Time 15 - Health 300 - Armor 50 - Speed 80 - Range 100 - ViewRad 200 - DPS 36 - Attack 6.3 - RepeatRate 0.2 - AmmoSpeed 400 - Classes Light Armor, Mobile Ground

TOW Humvee
This fast truck fires a Tube launched, Optically tracked, Wire command link guided missile which are great against heavy armor units.
Cost 110 - Time 10 - Health 110 - Armor 100 - Speed 90 - Range 110 - ViewRad 150 - DPS 25 - Attack 20.0 - RepeatRate 0.8 - AmmoSpeed 150 - Classes Medium Armor, Mobile Ground

Badger
This highly armored unit carries a powerful long range gun.
Cost 700 - Time 25 - Health 1150 - Armor 300 - Speed 50 - Range 150 - ViewRad 150 - DPS 150 - Attack 60.0 - RepeatRate 0.4 - AmmoSpeed 300 - Classes Heavy Armor, Mobile Ground - Requires Laser Etched Barrels

Ram
This heavily armored vehicle fires 4 missiles simultaneously.
Cost 750 - Time 30 - Health 900 - Armor 450 - Speed 65 - Range 130 - ViewRad 150 - DPS 189 - Attack 71.0 - RepeatRate 1.5 - AmmoSpeed 150 - Classes Medium Armor, Mobile Ground - Requires Advanced Ceramic Armor

Viper
This tank features a massive flamethrower which liquifies enemies within a short range.
Cost 800 - Time 35 - Health 700 - Armor 500 - Speed 75 - Range 100 - ViewRad 100 - DPS 250 - Attack 375.0 - RepeatRate 1.5 - AmmoSpeed 80 - Classes Heavy Armor, Mobile Ground - Requires Titanium Alloy Casing

M779 Cannon
This powerful cannon is equiped with a massive 155mm caliber which obliterates light armor units.
Cost 250 - Time 25 - Health 400 - Armor 230 - Range 190 - PowerUsage 60 - ViewRad 200 - DPS 70 - Attack 70.0 - RepeatRate 1.0 - AmmoSpeed 300 - Classes Heavy Armor, Turret - Requires Factory

AP250
This turret fires a double chain of 50mm Armor Peircing rounds which chew through medium armor units.
Cost 200 - Time 30 - Health 550 - Armor 100 - Range 180 - PowerUsage 100 - ViewRad 220 - DPS 40 - Attack 2.6 - RepeatRate 0.1 - AmmoSpeed 400 - Classes Light Armor, Turret - Requires Factory

M300 MRLS
The Multiple Launch Rocket System rapidly fires a dual stream of rockets which destroy heavy armor units.
Cost 200 - Time 30 - Health 350 - Armor 150 - Range 180 - PowerUsage 75 - ViewRad 220 - DPS 56 - Attack 25.0 - RepeatRate 0.9 - AmmoSpeed 150 - Classes Medium Armor, Turret - Requires Factory

Flame Cannon
This point defense weapon features a super hot flame which melts through light armor.
Cost 300 - Time 30 - Health 400 - Armor 150 - Range 180 - PowerUsage 60 - ViewRad 200 - DPS 150 - Attack 300.0 - RepeatRate 2.0 - AmmoSpeed 80 - Classes Heavy Armor, Turret - Requires Advanced Vapor Control, Factory

Minigun
A small chain gun to protect scavengers or your base from early attacks. Excels vs aircraft.
Cost 130 - Time 12 - Health 200 - Armor 85 - Range 130 - PowerUsage 40 - ViewRad 140 - DPS 47 - Attack 7.0 - RepeatRate 0.2 - AmmoSpeed 300 - Classes Light Armor, Turret

Bertha
The longest ranged weapon in the game, it can kill most units with one shot.
Cost 2000 - Time 90 - Health 1500 - Armor 800 - Range 1200 - PowerUsage 800 - ViewRad 300 - DPS 53 - Attack 800.0 - RepeatRate 15.0 - AmmoSpeed 350 - Classes Light Armor, Turret - Requires Factory, Radar Tower

Scout
A very lightweight vehicle useful for discovering new areas or tracking the enemy.
Cost 100 - Time 12 - Health 150 - Speed 110 - Range 100 - ViewRad 120 - DPS 7 - Attack 1.0 - RepeatRate 0.3 - AmmoSpeed 400 - Classes Light Armor, Mobile Ground, Scout

Scavenger
A small excavating vehicle which automatically locates ore, diggs it up, then dumps it at a refining plant.
Cost 400 - Time 20 - Health 400 - Speed 80 - Range 10 - ViewRad 64 - ScavengeTime 1.5 - ScavengeAmount 15 - ScavengeLimit 300 - Classes Scavenger

Elite Scavenger
Similair to the scavenger but with upgraded armor and rapid fire gun.
Cost 500 - Time 20 - Health 450 - Armor 100 - Speed 80 - Range 80 - ViewRad 64 - DPS 7 - Attack 4.0 - RepeatRate 0.6 - AmmoSpeed 400 - ScavengeTime 1.5 - ScavengeAmount 15 - ScavengeLimit 300 - Classes Light Armor, Scavenger - Requires Scavenger Sentry

Repair
This truck can repair damaged units and buildings.
Cost 500 - Time 30 - Health 270 - Armor 120 - Speed 30 - Range 110 - PowerUsage 200 - ViewRad 150 - Classes Repair

Headquarters
The center of operations for your campaign. The only place you can create scavengers from.
Cost 2000 - Time 100 - Health 4000 - Range 170 - PowerReserve 400 - ViewRad 300 - DPS 120 - Attack 60.0 - RepeatRate 0.5 - AmmoSpeed 300 - Classes Turret, Building, Recycler, Commandable

Processor
This is a small refinery with dual miniguns for built in protection. It also features more strength and an extended view range.
Cost 500 - Time 40 - Health 2500 - Range 180 - PowerUsage 450 - ViewRad 250 - DPS 17 - Attack 2.6 - RepeatRate 0.3 - AmmoSpeed 300 - Classes Turret, Building, Recycler - Requires Refinery, Factory

Fortress
The most powerful and biggest structure in the game. The fortress features awesome firepower with four medium range cannons.
Cost 2700 - Time 200 - Health 5000 - Range 260 - PowerUsage 2000 - ViewRad 350 - DPS 600 - Attack 150.0 - RepeatRate 1.0 - AmmoSpeed 320 - Classes Turret, Building, MultiBarrel - Requires Factory, Lab




Technologies

To research technologies you must build a Lab.  Researching technologies allows you to greatly increase your units firepower, health, armor, and speed.  You can also gain special units and structures not available normally.  You are given 15 points to spend on technologies.  You will only be able to research a fraction of the available technologies, so choose them wisely.  The technology tree is divided into three main categories, Economic, Defensive, and Offensive, with a few technologies outside of these categories.  The most powerful technologies are located at the bottom of the tree, and require you to devote a large percentage of your technology points to one strategy to research it.  This makes the game more interesting as you will fight opponents with different bonuses and strategies than yourself.

Joint Strike Research Team
Recruit a team of top engineers to to research offensive upgrades.
Points 4 - Time 120

Fuel Refinery
A higher octane fuel provides your ground forces 15% more speed.
Points 2 - Time 90 - Requires Joint Strike Research Team

Laser Etched Barrels
Enables Badger vehicles. A more precise barrel manufacturing technique increases your ground units range by 20%.
Points 1 - Time 90 - Requires Fuel Refinery

FLIR Prism Focusing
Ground units have 20% increased visability thanks to a new imaging technology.
Points 1 - Time 100 - Requires Laser Etched Barrels

Explosives Research
Refine the chemical recipe for your ground units increasing firepower by 15%.
Points 2 - Time 120 - Requires FLIR Prism Focusing

Carbon Fiber Turbines
Lighter weight turbines allow your aircraft to travel 15% faster.
Points 2 - Time 70 - Requires Joint Strike Research Team

Laser Guidance System
Aircraft can lock onto targets 25% farther.
Points 1 - Time 70 - Requires Carbon Fiber Turbines

Advanced RADAR Waveguide
Precision manufacturing leads to 20% performance increase aircrafts radar.
Points 1 - Time 70 - Requires Laser Guidance System

Shell Casing Research
Airborne units firepower is now 25% more lethal.
Points 2 - Time 80 - Requires Advanced RADAR Waveguide

Think Tank Compound
Create a center to carry out intensive research on defensive techologies.
Points 4 - Time 90

High Strength Barricades
Reinforce your walls with 20% more steel.
Points 1 - Time 60 - Requires Think Tank Compound

Molecular Hardened Steel
Surround all buildings with a special blend of steel to increase the damage they can withstand by 25%.
Points 2 - Time 60 - Requires High Strength Barricades

Advanced Vapor Control
Research gas spraying technologies to build a power flame cannon.
Points 3 - Time 120 - Requires Molecular Hardened Steel

High Volume Charges
Increase the powder charge of turret shells by 10% yeilding better range.
Points 1 - Time 60 - Requires Think Tank Compound

Advanced Ceramic Armor
Enables Ram vehicles. Add ceramic plating to all turrets to increase the damage they can take by 20%.
Points 1 - Time 60 - Requires High Volume Charges

Specialized Optics
Creating special optical components for turrets yeilds 20% better view.
Points 1 - Time 60 - Requires Advanced Ceramic Armor

Dirty Ordinance
Outfit turrets with chemically laced ammo to increase their damage by 20%.
Points 2 - Time 90 - Requires Specialized Optics

Topological Lightweight Armor
Improve armor technology for vehicles through the topological arrangement of multiple materials to achieve 15% more armor.
Points 1 - Time 70 - Requires Think Tank Compound

Dual Property Steel Armor
Manufacturing technology to fabricate covers for critical components yields a 20% increase in aircraft protection.
Points 1 - Time 70 - Requires Topological Lightweight Armor

Department of Engineering
Create a team of analysts which specialize in economic development.
Points 3 - Time 90

LIDAR Trackers
Light-Imaging Detection and Ranging optical sensors are attached to all scavengers giving them 100% increased visability.
Points 1 - Time 60 - Requires Department of Engineering

Titanium Alloy Casing
Enables Viper vehicles. Increases excavation vehicles armor by 70%.
Points 2 - Time 80 - Requires LIDAR Trackers

Enhanced GPS Surveying
Scavengers use satellite positioning to find open ore locations 15% faster.
Points 1 - Time 70 - Requires Titanium Alloy Casing

Ultrasonic Drill
Scavengers drill ore 20% faster.
Points 1 - Time 60 - Requires Department of Engineering

Diamond Nanorod Bits
Increases excavators drilling power by 30%.
Points 2 - Time 70 - Requires Ultrasonic Drill

Refinery Armor
Fortify your refineries with armor increasing their strength by 100%.
Points 1 - Time 70 - Requires Department of Engineering

Scavenger Sentry
Allows you to build a elite scavengers which have gun turrets.
Points 3 - Time 110 - Requires Refinery Armor

Enhanced Concrete Mix
Upgrade all buildings with a specially formualated concrete mix increasing their strength by 15%.
Points 1 - Time 70 - Requires Scavenger Sentry

Secret Agents
Implant agents in the enemies research centers giving you detailed intel on their research status.
Points 2 - Time 110

UWB RADAR
Convert your RADAR towers to use ultra-wideband technology to increase their range by 30%.
Points 1 - Time 50

High Efficiency Generators
All power cells produce 20% more power.
Points 1 - Time 120

Mass Fragmentation
Mines are 30% more powerful.
Points 1 - Time 30

IMS Countermeasures
Allows you to build intelligent munitions systems mines which only attack enemy units.
Points 1 - Time 50 - Requires Mass Fragmentation

Interlocking Barricades
Increases wall strength by 15%.
Points 1 - Time 120




User Modification (mod) Notes

You can create new units, new technologies, new buildings, new GUI, and new terrains all by editing the game XML files. XML files are a type of text file kind of formatted like HTML. If anyone wants to create a mod I would be happy to post it on the games webpage. To see specific details on how to start modding the game please see the following notes.


Mobile Game Settings

You only have to worry about these settings on the Mobile platforms.  These are game settings which greatly affect memory and performance.

Map Size: Because the number of environmental objects and the worst case time of path finding increases quadratically with the map size, increasing the map size can affect game performance a lot. It also uses a lot more memory. A huge map size requires 7 MB of memory for the map data alone, while the normal map size requires about 3 MB.

Trees: This controls how many trees are on a map. The more trees, the more units the game has to draw and test bullet collisions with. Each tree is destroyable and can provide cover for your units, so they are a tacticle advantage. I wouldn't mess with this at all, only lower it if you are experiencing slow performance.

Particles: If you have a fast Pocket PC (600mhz or higher) and a QVGA screen, you can probably set this to High. The high setting will draw some really cool black smoke effects.

Idle Sounds: This enables sounds for all units on the screen (trucks engines, building sounds) and effects memory usage and performance since more sounds are playing. I suggest leaving this off.

Population: I don't suggest going over a population of 100 unless you have at least a 600mhz processor and have only 2 Players.

Memory Errors
If you are running out of memory when starting a game try the following, do one at a time then test the game to see if any progress is made.

PDA/Device Settings:
 Check your memory settings. If you have at least 25 MB of free Program Memory then continue with the Game Settings below. If not move the memory slider so 15 MB or more is showing under Program Memory.
Close all running programs using the Task Manager.
Remove any old unused programs that occupy your main storage memory.
Make sure the game is not installed the same memory as program memory.
Soft reset your device, this will clear all used program memory and defragment it.

Game Settings:
 Turn the sound option Stereo off.
Decrease the map size.
Set number of players to 2.
Turn Idle and Voice sound options off.
Set the Music Volume to 0.
Set the Graphics Options Trees to 0.
Set the Graphics Options Particles to Off.
Set the Sound Effects volume to 0.
Set cached blit to off the restart the game.

The absolute minimum for the game to run is about 8-9 MB of free memory, set all options as suggested above and set the map size to tiny.

AUDIOVOX SMT5600
I personally have this phone and it has very little free program memory, open the task manager application to see how much you have, after a soft reset (toggling the power) you should have 10.5 MB of memory which is enough to run the game with the following settings.

10.5 MB Settings
Sound and Music on
Voice on
Trees 0.2
Particles Medium
Map Size Small
Cached blit off

If you still can't get it working please send the log.txt file in the games directory to support@isotope244.com and I may be able to help you out.



Mobile Music Upgrade

Because of the limited storage space on mobile devices the default sound and music sampling rate is very low to reduce the install size. If you have extra room and want higher quality audio you can copy the Desktop PC sound and music files to your mobile device for higher quality sound and music. To do this install the demo OR full version for the PC, then explore to the games install directory. For sound copy the sound.zip file to your mobile device and overwrite the old ones in the games directory. For music copy the *.ogg files in the music directory to your mobile device. WARNING: Using the higher quality music will not effect game performance or memory usage, but using the higher quality sound will, since all sound samples are preloaded into memory, be sure you have at least 25 MB of free program memory before doing this.



Version Changes

v1.2 - ?/?/2008

Added 3 NEW advanced units! Badger, Ram, and Viper. These units are more powerful than aircraft, but slower than the other vehicles, which should make for interesting tactics when using them. Each vehicle is enabled when a specific technology is researched, you will be able to unlock 2 vehicles types at once, but then you will sacrifice not reaching the best technologies in any one branch.
Added Badger - This highly armored unit carries a powerful long range gun.
Added Ram - This heavily armored vehicle fires 4 missiles simultaneously.
Added Viper - This tank features a massive flamethrower which liquifies enemies within a short range.
Added new shortcut keys to select all Offensive, Ground, Air units.
Aircraft now use direct flight pathing and more realistic flight patterns.
Aircraft can fly over or under each other en route to a new location.
Fixed a rare bug where a huge amount of ore would be placed around all but 1 player.
Distribution of ore should be more balanced now.
AI units that are waiting for groups to form now defend themselves if attacked.
AI group management and attacking has been improved.
AI builds labs and extractors sooner.
AI recovers better from killing all of its scavengers.
AI manages its defensive economy better.
AI is now more aggressive when attacking with large numbers of units.
AI now builds cooling towers around extractors on Adaptive and Robotic settings.
AI sends strike groups of aircraft to take out key units.
AI will now learn your defensive locations and try other routes on PC versions.
AI may now use a mass attack strategy where it will send all units together.
AI should be much harder now on Robotic.
AI should be easier on Newbie and Easy settings.
Tech tree is now correctly resized on PC systems.
Tech tree can now be custom defined in the schema.xml file for mods.
You can now scroll the tech tree by moving the mouse to the side of the screen.
Game now pauses automatically while viewing the tech tree.
Added new shortcut key to set a group, this is useful for Mac systems where the standard Shift+# set group keys don't work. To use this define the Set Group Toggle key, then to set a group, press and release the Set Group Toggle key, then press the # you want the group to be.
Added PAUSE and ROTATE OBJECT (only used for bridge ramp) shortcut keys.
Added the amount of power produced by power cells and reactors to their descriptions.
Power is now correctly calculated when a unit is placed rather than when its done being built.
All unit pathing is now queued so all units will be able to path find eventually.
Units set to DEFEND now target new units.
Sending units to offmap coordinates is handled better.
Ground units now path correctly under aircraft.
Units now path correctly through walls if a nearby wall section is destroyed.
When units encounter a wall blocking their path, they will destroy the wall, then continue to their selected target or location. Before they would destroy the wall then look for a new target.
Air and ground units now correctly occupy the same tile.
Destroying trees no longer counts as a kill.
Split resources gathered and extracted on end game chart.
Reformatted large numbers on the end game chart.
All technologies research time was increased to spread out game dynamics and allow players more time to take advantage of unique technologies.
Many building and unit stats were changed to balance the game.
Fixed a bug where units would attack ghost objects (which were enemy technologies).
Population limit is now 500 instead of 400 on PC versions.
Numbered difficulty levels in menu.
Maximum resolution accessable in the game was increased to 1280x960 (you can set whatever resolution you want by editing the settings.xml file directly).

v1.1 - 10/12/2007

New game feature Align Players, you can now team up with the AI, or fight vs. 2 AI players, or do 2 vs. 2.
Fixed turrets and Bertha guns locking onto enemy targets. They now fire at buildings as well.
Fixed game not starting sometimes when Starting Credits setting was too low, you can now set it to 0 if you like.
Fixed game crash when playing with 4 players and high population limits, increased default memory pool size.
The pathing system will now handle a larger number of units, so on slower machines you can increase the population limit.
The AI now builds turrets and units to defend an immediate player rush.
Miniguns were upgraded to allow players to defend rushes more easily, they also no longer require a headquarters to build them.
Fixed AI from stalling out once all ore is gone and they didn't have more than 20% of population limit.
Decreased the static turret target acqusition time on the PC.
Optimized turret targeting and real time track performance counters (this should speed up the game a little on mobile devices).
The headquartes now has a gun which does a lot of damage to ward off early attacks, but costs more and takes longer to build.
The AI will no longer surrendure during the first 10 minutes of a game.
On Windows the default key for setting groups, adding to a selection, and setting a building rally point is now the Shift key.
Fixed setting "Reveal Map" saving and loading when it was set to Visable.
On mobile devices the game now detects low available memory and will automatically lower settings so the game can run.
You can now select technologies on the Smartphone by using the Up/Down arrow keys.

 

Copyright 2007 Isotope244 Graphics LLC. All rights reserved.