__ __ _ _ | \/ | | | (_) | \ / | __ _ ___| |__ _ _ __ ___ ___ | |\/| |/ _` |/ __| '_ \| | '_ \ / _ \/ __| | | | | (_| | (__| | | | | | | | __/\__ \ |_| |_|\__,_|\___|_| |_|_|_| |_|\___||___/ *************************************** * Machines Complete Walkthrough * *************************************** By Bushy Tailed Fox Date Created: Friday, December 10th, 2004 10:27 PM Last Updated: Saturday, May 28th, 2005 10:31 PM Purpose: To help people with the game, Machines. Version: 0.9 ******************************** * -2. Updates * ******************************** 12/10/04 - FAQ created, added most basic tips, thinking about adding ASCII title and art to enhance the FAQing experience. 12/15/04 - FAQ rejected. Not enough content. Ok then, I guess I'm adding a little more stuff. Actually, this will be a HUGE update, complete with a glitches subsection! :D 12/17/04 - FAQ accepted! Added a few more tips, and another glitch. 01/06/05 - o_O I saw the smallpox video special thing. Very... Scary. Anyway, I added a few more tips. 04/27/05 - Polished FAQ up, fixed minor mistakes, and added a few notes. No more spelling misteaks! 5/28/05 - Small update. Fixed spelling, added a glitch. 7/17/05 - Started to incorperate my other FAQs into one massive one. That's my units FAQ and my Campaign Walkthrough. GameFAQ's didn't accept them because they were the "same thing" as the first version of this guide... ******************************** * -1. Introduction * ******************************** Hi, this guide was made for the PC game, Machines. Machines is a very fun, challenging Real-time strategy war game, with a wide variety of units and structures. Please bear with me, as this is my first (posted) FAQ. But enough of this crap, you got this guide to check out the tips, so what the heck, just skip this part and get on with it! >_> ******************************** * 0. Table of Contents * ******************************** -2. Updates -1. Introduction 0. Table of Contents 1. Tips & Tricks 2. Glitches/Bugs/Errors 3. FAQ 4. Machines Patch Downloads 5. Credits/Contact Me 6. Legal Trash ******************************** * 1. Tips & Tricks * ******************************** Okay, the meat and potatoes of the FAQ, well, actually, the potatoes, because this is an In-Depth FAQ. >_> ____________________________________ /Kill Enemy Gorillas more Efficiently\ ************************************** When I first played the demo (Not available any more :/) I found it impossible to kill the near-invincible Gorilla with such low-level units. Well, after much frustration, I slammed the keyboard with my fist and discovered first-person mode.(push "1" to enter the machine, and "2" to exit.) Well, to kill a Gorilla, climb in to first-person mode, (Preferably to a machine with a rotateable torso, not necessary, but makes it A LOT easier.) and approach the Gorilla. All you have to do is use the right button on your mouse to point your aimer at the gorilla while circling him. It is tough at first, but you'll eventually get it. What happens is that the Gorilla is trying to aim at you, but he can't get you because you keep running out of his weapon range, and since he has no rotatable torso he has to manually turn his whole mass just to aim at you. Do this until he obviously dies. I have done this with grunts successfully, so any machines with a rotateable torso are fit to do so. Here are two more methods: Method #1 (or is it two?) Ok, so killing a Gorilla is taking too long by yourself eh? Well use the following method and you'll blast it away in no time! Ok, what you need is lots of machines (Military machines, no civilians unless you want to waste money for no reason >_>) and your desired machine of choice. (I usually use any Knight I can find, or a random machine from the pile of Machines I sent to attack the Gorilla) Just run around him like normal, but making sure that he doesn't face the pile of machines that are supposed to be attacking him. After a few laps, you should be rewarded with a really expensive pile of wreckage that you should salvage. Here's some art for the confused lot: / >__o | |G | \ ^__< ___________________________ | Key | | | | G - Gorilla | | | | O - You (in first person) | | | | / | | | - The Machines that are | | \ attacking the Gorilla | | | | >__v | | | | - The way you should| | ^__< be running while | | attacking | |___________________________| Method #2 This one involves a Judas Warlord. (I might make another FAQ just about that unit, since it is so special.) Okay, so now your tech tree permits you to create the mighty and cheap (Cheap as in unfair in a Multiplayer game and when the enemy uses it successfully, not cheap as in price ;) ) Judas Warlord. This one is simple; approach Gorilla. Enter 1st person view. Push "Tab" to switch to the Treachery weapon. Aim at Gorilla. (Make sure you don't get blown up!) Shoot. Yay, you saved a lot of BMU's, took a Gorilla away from your enemy, AND you made the enemy lose some money because more than likely to build another, since it's just how the AI works. ____________________________________ / Get rid of Cloud of War faster \ ************************************** If you don't know what Cloud of War is, then listen up because I'm about to tell you. Cloud of War is that black cloud/haze that doesn't go away unless you send one of your own machines over to make it go away. Now, sometimes, you will find yourself with a border of haze near the border of a base, and no way to get past or know what is there because of several reasons, mainly because of their defenses are far more superior than your attack forces, or you are still in the middle of establishing your base and one of your locators was destroyed by a turret. Well, all you have to do is make a constructor build a building, (It does not matter which building.) and make it near the border of the FOW. Whoa! It's gone! Wow! Amazing! You can do this on any level that you can build stuff in, and it is rather effective for finding out enemy positions and where their buildings are for an extremely well- planned invasion strike team or a tactical strike, like an Ion Cannon or Nuclear strike. _______________________________________________ / Have Enemies Destroy their own Structures \ ************************************************* This is one of the most useful tricks that I know about. What it does is it MAKES enemy units destroy or severely damage their structures. The games' AI makes the enemies attack any nearby units or structures, regardless of what else can be destroyed in the process of its elimination. All you have to do is make a building between the building you want to destroy/damage (or right next to it) and an enemy machine. After it is noticed and shot at, immediately make your constructor move or cancel the construction to make the building go away, and hope that the enemy machines' shot careens over to your intended target. Gorillas work best with this strategy, as their Oblivion Missile Launchers take down the building's shields and the Ground Punch smashes its HP, and since the AI makes no effort to repair buildings, you can invade the base later and capture/destroy any buildings you please. I usually build a Flamethrower Turret since they are smaller, and easier to miss. The only problems with this method is that: You lose 5 BMU's each time you do it, and while it may not seem like a lot, it can add up and also deprive you of necessary BMU's for emergencies. If you decide to make a constructor move after issuing the order to build, and usually you click in the vicinity of where you issued the order, right? Well, after a few times, your constructor gets rather close to the enemy base and the enemy kills it. To avoid this, just check where it is once in a while, and if it is kind of close, move it away and while it is going back, use another constructor that is building to do it or have them switch places. Or just switch to first- person to cancel, but I don't like doing this because I can't see what happens. _______________________________________________ / Fit more Technicians in a lab than designed \ ************************************************* I accidentally found out this exploit when I manually steered a technician into a lab because its AI was so dumb, it was causing traffic jams in my fragile mining operation. I Later forgot about it and decided to put another Technician into the same lab. When I started to recycle my Technicians (tech tree was done) I noticed that I had teo in there. =)edt Basically, all you have to do is manually steer technicians into their specified labs, and drive them into a corner or something. Then you can fit more and more, until all there is is just arms and wheels/hover skirts! Note that it IS NORMAL TO HAVE TECHNICIANS' ARMS STICKING OUT OF THE STRUCTURE, IT DOES NOT AFFECT RESEARCH. ___________________________________________________ / Win hopelessly outmatched battles by yourself \ ***************************************************** Ok, so you have mastered the art of driving in one direction, and shooting in another. Now, the fun starts. Many times you will get a report that a group or squad is being attacked, and by the time you get over there you have few machines left. Not a problem. Lets say that the situation is: Enemy [BLUE]: 3 Wraith Reapers (Auto Cannon) 2 Missile Knights 2 Missile Warlords Yes, this is a tough team, and I say that only because of the Wraith Reapers, the game programmers have made any machine with a projectile weapon have almost 100% accuracy. The latter is easy to kill, and I'll explain why in a second. You [RED]: 2 Wraith Reapers (Plasma rifle) 1 Enforcer (Plasma) Your team has just been ripped apart by the blue team, and your health is almost orange. You now have to be cautious, because those Wraiths can mess everything up. Thankfully, you have an Enforcer and two Wraiths. What you have to do is push pause, and highlight your Wraiths, and quickly unpause and quickly make them target the opposing Reapers. Then pause again, and get into your Enforcer and plot out a course that will make you get into a position that will give you a good advantage on those Reapers, and take them out. If you did it right, you would have destroyed the reaper you told the other two to attack. Then, pause again and do what I just told you again. After the Reapers are dead, stay in your Enforcer and take out the rest of the squad, because they have missiles which are really easy to dodge, and with your Reaper's help, they should die quick. NOTE: You can do this without help from allies, I've held off hordes of Reapers with Assassin Warlords and Knight Templars. ___________________________________ / Using Grunts to their fullest \ ************************************* Come on, admit it. You hate grunts. You can't stand their crappiness. They are too weak compared to the Reaper. But you still have them from the beginning of the mission, and you are too lazy to recycle them. So what to do? Well make them go on a suicide mission of course! Climb into first person mode and drive a grunt over to an enemy smelter, lab, or even Seeding Pod. Well, see those little doors on the wall there? You can go inside! Do it! Get in there! Now, you are inside an enemies structure. What do you want to do? Destroy it of course! So, start shooting inside of the building. It will start registering damage, and eventually blow up. It does not matter if you are inside of it, because you are only a grunt, and your chances of getting back to the base are slim. If you are attacking a tech lab, kill the technicians to halt/slow down research. Be sure you stay near the door, so enemy machines won't attack and kill you. You need to stay near the door because the game's AI won't let a unit inside of a building unless there is a clear path inside, and with you there they obviously can't get in, making your job much easier. ___________________________ / Ion Cannon Strategies \ ***************************** So, you now have access to the powerful and amazingly cheap ion cannon. First of all, you can't just go around shooting that thing everywhere! You need to pick out special tactical targets. Important targets are: Gorillas Any type of Warlord (Judas especially) Enemy seeding Pods with Ion cannons Enemy Nuclear silos Large groups of machines Attack groups that are going for your base Weakened Factories Turrets Not so Important Targets: That occasional straggler left over from a battle Any single Machine (Unless it's a Gorilla) Heavily armored factories Mines & Transporters After picking out your target, shoot it. Note that Machines come to investigate what happened, and that is a perfect time to launch a nuke. If you shoot a nuke a second before you strike with the cannon, the nuke will come a minute later and wipe out those curious machines, and destroy or further damage surrounding buildings. Very useful indeed :) Also, on the defensive side, don't bunch up your Machines if the enemy has an Ion Cannon because they WILL attack it. Build a Garrison and put your important Machines there. Also, if you want to have the enemy completely ignore you ion cannon wise, just build some cheap Scouts and put them in a pile, and sacrifice them. ;) _____________________________________ / Control your Enemies Production \ *************************************** Okay, so you have the enemy base under control with no Machines left, and you are waiting for your constructors to come and capture the enemy buildings. Well, while you are away making your latest mining rig trouble strikes; a Judas Warlord hot off out the factory is capturing your units. What a nightmare. To prevent this, just put a Machine over the "launch pad" and it will block the Machine from spawning. _________________ / Mine Faster \ ******************* So, you want BMU's faster right? Well, all you have to do is add another mine to the resource deposit. It will look a little weird, but you can get a lot of BMU's mined faster, because the mines are sucking away the deposit faster. If you don't know what I am talking about or you are confused, do this: Find a resource deposit Make a mine, but don't place it directly over the site, place it the max distance away as possible. Then, just add as many mines as you please! _________________________ / Other Mining Tricks \ *************************** Lets say you have been scouting around, and you found an abandoned or rarely used mine that still has decent BMU's in it. Well, you don't need to capture it! Just have your transporters carry the BMU's straight from the enemy mine! Also, if you are curious about how many BMU's there are left in the deposit, just make a small mine next to it and hire some mules to take those BMU's. ____________________________________________________ / Save BMU's after building expensive structures \ ****************************************************** After building a rather expensive structure, like the largest civilian factory, it is a good idea to partially deconstruct it for BMU's, but only do it if its safety is guaranteed, and if the enemy has no global weapons, such as nukes or Ion Cannons. (You should try to capture nuclear missile silos) ____________________________________________________ / Gain BMU's Before capturing Enemy Structures \ ****************************************************** Whenever you order a constructor to capture an enemy building, make it deconstruct it first, to gain BMU's. When its health gets red, command the constructor to stop by either clicking "stop", making it move, or going into first person. Then make it capture it, and it'll capture it quickly, with you several BMU's richer. _____________________________________________________ /Destroy Hordes of Auto Cannon Reapers with one Reaper\ ******************************************************* If there are a lot of Auto Cannon Reapers and you want to save your units, just hop into first person and rotate your torso 180 degrees back, and walk towards the enemy Reapers and fire a few shots to get their attention, and once they come within range, shoot them while running backwards. What happens is that they are chasing you, trying to get into range, and you are shooting them. __________________________________________________ / Destroy Pulse Turrets with no Casualties \ **************************************************** As you probably by now know, pulse rifle turrets are a pain because they have exactly the same range as your Plasma Rifle Wraith Reapers. The turret has more health, and can probably take a few reapers and units down with it. So, all you have to do is climb into first person (into a reaper), get within range of it, and back away a smidge (like, a centimeter away from having the aimer turn red, you want) then you shoot. You will notice that the turret will take damage, and will not be able to attack you. Have fun. :) ____________________________________________ / Find Enemy Bases Better and Faster \ *********************************************** When you are just scouting around in first person, and you want to find a base, look in the sky for smoke. Smoke emits from factories and smelters, and if you can find a smelter, bring a battle group to secure the location and some constructors to capture it for some easy BMU's. _________________________________________________ / See through Cloud of War for a brief Moment \ *************************************************** **DISCOVERED BY LORD NAGA** Go into Zenith view, and go to the ma and click on a location. You will be able to briefly see what is at that location before the cloud of war destroys the image. I'd suggest pushing Print Screen and going to paint to see what is there, so you won't have to always do that to see certain things. ______________________________________ / Blow up Pods with a single Grunt \ **************************************** Hehe, this "tactic" is rather annoying when it is done to you in multiplayer. All you have to do is drive a grunt (In first person) into a smelter, Pod, or research facility and exit out. Then make him attack the building, and he will whittle it down, and eventually destroy it. The best way to do this is to make the grunt "stand ground" and make him fire, so you can go do more important stuff, like reach for that last Cheeto. Make him stand ground near the doorway, so other units wouldn't come in and blow him up. I usually order a grunt to block the entrance of a Research Academy while my spy downloads data. ******************************** * 2. Glitches/Bugs/Errors * ******************************** It is well known that Machines doesn't work on Windows XP, and several patches have been released to fix it, and it works. If anyone needs it just E-Mail me and I'll send it, or go search for it on the web. Here are some know XP Errors/Glitches: (note that this may vary from computer to computer) You cannot save multiplayer games. It makes the game crash and requires you to delete the save and re-install the game. Not fun. When sending a Machine into a building, the cursor that pops up momentarily flashes the "minimize/maximize" icon for windows. Many textures "flicker" and stuff... It's difficult to describe, but if you go to the ground view or first person view, it happens much more frequently. You'll know when you see it. Not bad or anything, just annoying. You can find an example of it on the back of the CD-ROM jewel case, where it says "CREATE 25 WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION", and it shows a mine getting ion cannoned, the mine to the left has one of its pads "flickered". If you alt-tab out of the game, when you come back, all of the textures are hosed, and you have to exit the game and reenter to get the normal textures back. If you exit the game and then try to start it again, it might not do anything. This is because of a funky glitch that causes something from Machines to keep running in the background. Just hit ctrl-alt-delete and look for a task called "machines.exe". Close that, and it should work fine. The "shield" icon is replaced with the Technician question mark icon. Thanks to Lord Naga for pointing most of these out. :View buildings prematurely: If you make a constructor construct a building, and put the building in front of the machine without clicking the mouse button, you will be able to see the building as if it was already constructed. You can make some cool screenshots with this; I've made a few decent ones that looked like there was a factory built-in the canyon wall. :) :Wrong race icon in Labs and other structures: Notice how when you go into one of your own labs you see your race icon? (Usually you see the red one) Well, in Campaign, the enemy structures (not only labs) have the symbol for the green race in multiplayer! I don't know if this is a glitch, but it look like either an error or there is a secret alliance between the blues and the greens! There's an example on the back of the CD-ROM jewel case, where it says "SABOTAGE AND ESPIONAGE CAPABILITIES" the picture has a red technician in front of a monitor with the green race icon. Strange. ******************************** * 3. FAQ * ******************************** Q: What is the point of Commanders? I mean, come on, a Plasma Wraith Reaper is better because of the cost/effectiveness ratio! The only difference is that the Commander has a different weapon (Same attack/shield depletion as a single shot from 2 Plasma Rifles) and it has night vision! A: First off, Commanders were put into the game to lead squads. They were supposed to make units "smarter" and also gave them night vision, which increased their accuracy at night. They aren't exactly what you would call 'battle ready', because their stats are almost identical to the plasma reaper, and the reaper is cheaper too. All I'd buy these for is for their healing rifle, and I always make two of them so that they can heal each other if they are damaged. Warlords are better in every way, shape and form. They have stronger weapons, (Thus making them effective 1st person weapons, you cannot believe the destruction that an Assassin Warlord can do to an enemy squad if you use it right) more powerful and quicker healing rifles, and, to top it all off, they have hover skirts! That means that you can travel over almost anything! Water, lava, very steep slopes, it can all be taken on if your machines has a hover skirt. So, a very good idea is to have your main battle group go their own way to attack the enemy, and you speed ahead of them and soften up the defense. Q: What's up with the spy? Does it do anything?!? A: The spy is a very useful tool if you get it in an earlier mission, such as Take the Pass. I've managed to send in a suicide squadron to escort a spy to the research academy in Take the Pass, and I got a Gorilla for my troubles! Another thing that the spy can do is lay mine fields. While they are not that convenient to place, they can be very useful in delaying or damaging attackers. I like to set up my mine fields in bottlenecks, like the pass in Take the Pass. It served me well. Q: How do you pause the game? A: There is a button on your keyboard that should be near the top right corner, between the backspace key and the number pad. It says Pause/break on it. That's what you are looking for. Q: How do I wash my cat without being scratched? A: Umm, this isn't that kind of FAQ, but here goes: Keep the cat calm and talk to him to calm him down. Use a flexible shower head for maneuverability and control. Remember that cats do NOT like water in their face, this agitates them. o_O Anyway, that was one of the most odd things that I have ever had to answer, but it WAS in my E-Mail... >_> Q: I have Windows XP, and it won't install! Help! A: I have two versions of the patch, all I need is for someone to recommend me a good site that can host them. Then I can have the patches out for everyone, and also stop the occasional E-Mail asking for it. Send me your questions please! Aquarillis@gmail.com ********************************* * 4. Machines Patch * ********************************* Machines Patch! Machines Pack: http://www.savefile.com/filehost/projects.php?pid=111409 This link goes to my complete collection of Machines programs. Download the Machines Pack to download all of the files, instead of them all individually. Note that I didn't make ANY of these, and I'm not taking credit for them. ******************************** * 5. Credits/Contact Me * ******************************** I would like to thanks the following: My Mom - For giving birth to me God - For giving us all that we see (And don't see) Acclaim - For publishing this game (Should I give them credit?) Charybodis - For developing this great game Myself - For staying up to 1:08 AM creating the first version of this guide. Lord Naga - For contributing lots of stuff, including most of the XP errors. Also my first contributor. Thanks :) Creepystickguy - For not mentioning my name in some of the movies that we might make for Halo 2... If anyone wants to be on this list, please submit stuff like: Your tips/strategies Comments Ideas, suggestions I don't think Acclaim is really a good company, because of not releasing a patch, and since customer service sucks, they force us to spam the developers for a patch. ;) Also, the official Machines website is still up, (Amazing!) it's crappiest web site, and it should be good, since it's the official one... ____________________________ |Contact me! | |AIM: Aquarillis | |E-Mail: Aquarillis@gmail.com| |____________________________| All hate mail can be sent to Bill_gates@microsoft.com ****NOTICE****: I AM LOOKING FOR RANDOM MACHINES-RELATED STUFF. PLEASE SEND ME ANY INFORMATION ON HOW I CAN HACK THIS GAME (HEX EDIT) AND/OR OTHER STUFF LIKE BETA SCREENSHOTS! Also, I need someone to recommend me a good place where I can host the Patch. ALSO, heh, GameFAQs is confusing my Machines Walkthrough as basically the same thing as this. Should I fuse my WalkThrough AND units FAQ into this or kindly tell them the difference for the fifty-first time? ******************************** * 6. Legal Trash * ******************************** You may: Print this document Save it to a laptop and view it You may not: PLAGARIZE! If I see this guide on any other site but the ones specified below, I will take legal action against you and also get your IP banned from whatever site you posted on. __________________________________ | Sites that can host this FAQ: | | | | GameFAQs | | Neoseeker | | That one German site... | |__________________________________| Do not use this FAQ for toilet paper, bird cage paper, a tampon, a napkin, or to pick up dog crap. There are special devices/other documents for that. Note that I have ADD, and am unstable. If I find out you did this with my FAQ, you can expect me to do something with a shotgun... O_o shOtgUn whOrE'd! Copyright (C) 2004 Bushy Tailed Fox/Aquarillis <_<