catfood
AGAIN
Seeing how LP threads tend to spring out like mushrooms after rain, I decided to make one too. I picked this game because it's not so well known and I have played it for quite some time (but never beaten it!), so hopefully I'll get through the first 2 campaigns without too many problems.
Now the question on everybody's minds, lips, and keyboards is JUST WHAT THE FUCK IS NETSTORM??? Well, Netstorm is a hardcore (yes, I'm not using that word lightly) strategy game that came out back in 1997, or 1998 I don't remember which. The game has quite a convulted gistory which you can read here: http://www.netstormhq.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.31
The tl;dr version is this: When the demo was released it got hacked pretty quickly so lots of people got the full game without even buying it. It was a commercial flop, the developer (Titanic Entertainment) soon died and the puplisher (Activision) quit supporting it. After a while http://www.netstormhq.com was founded, a comunity that patched the game, created numerous user campaigns and most importantly they maintain servers for it. Why is it so important? Well the game IS called NETstorm so obviously the multiplayer is the main attraction. I haven't played a lot of multi, because I've never been that good at the game, but the few matches I have played were fun even if I got my ass handed quickly.
The game is now available as a free download from the site I just linked so you can try it out too!
DISCLAIMER: there is a 92.8% chance I will never finish this LP and not for the lack of motivation, but because the missions tend to get ridiculously hard in the 3rd campaign.
Netstorm has a unique gameplay so for the first mission I am going to take some time to explain the basics for you.
So enough yapping, more fap.. err playing.
ACTIVISION SUCKS DURRR, but at least they let people offer their game free for download.
These guys are so dead, but it's probably a good thing. If they had survived they would have been assimilated by the borg anyway and would be making games for XBAWKS, PS3, PSP, DS, WII, MOBILE PHONE etc.
I think this is the fan team but I'm not sure.
Main title (duh). It has cool music and cool wind effects. When I played this 10+ years ago my 12 year old mind was blown away by the immershun that the game's graphics and sound offers. I still think it's one of the most atmospheric games out there.
The demo button is for 3 interactive rolling demos.
So let's click Campaign and begin.
The mission debriefing. Dramatic, isn't it?
Let's also review our knowledge (tech) for this mission:
(Paint fucked my image)
Looks like we can build a few. These are:
The most basic transport in the game. They transport storm power (crystals), high priests and can use spells in multiplayer. You get them in every mission.
Rain generator! These provide energy that will power our units. This one provides rain energy DUH. More on that later. There are also 2 more generators in the game: wind and thunder which provide their respective energy types. They are the most important unit for obvious reasons.
Sun cannon! An attacking unit. It shoots cannon balls as you might expect. It's pretty average unit, however it's quite cheap at only 400 crystal.
and
These two go together. You will see how they work in a minute.
Ok so now that we're done with tech, let's start getting the moneyz.
We start off by building some golems and sending them to harvest those geysers for crystals. We also send our high priest to build a workshop which will allow us to build units.
Not let's talk a bit about the high priest. He is your alter ego. If he dies it's game over. High priests are the only units that can build building i.e. temples, workshops, altars and in multiplayer also outposts. They don't die when their hp reach zero, instead they get a golden aura around them which makes unable to take any action, however they will return back to normal after a short while. In this phase they are vulnerable to transports who will capture them and bring them back to an altar to be sacrificed. Basically this is the whole idea of the game: capture high priests and sacrifice them. It's a lot harder than it sounds.
So now we get to put the knowledge into production. We add cannon and generator.
I also wanted to add a whirligig but i can't because I don't have a free tech slot. So we upgrade our workshop to level 2 which gives us another tech slot. Workshops work like this: they start with 2 slots, and they get 1 more slot if you upgrade it. They can only be upgraded twice. So in an essence a workshop can only host 4 units. If you want more units you have to build more workshops which cost more money and take up more space (THIS IS IMPORTANT). We only have the sun workshop so we can only build a few sun units.
I connected some geysers with bridges. Bridging is one of the most important skills to learn in Netstorm. You need to bridge both fast and in an efficient manner because it is the most powerfull weapon, but more of that in mission 3. Also bridging is free.
Now that we will have a steady supply of income let's attack!
PS: I forgot to mention that each geyser holds 3000 storm power.
First we place a generator that will power our units. The snowflakes denote its area of coverage. A unit can not be built unless it has sufficeient energy from generator (so some units require more than 1 energy), however if a generator is destroyed after the unit has been built the unit continues to operate on normal
Next to place our first attacker. Note that the stars denote the area in which it can attack. Obviously it can only attack N,S,W,E so it's vulnerable from the other sides, plus its range isn't too good but it's better than that of the enemy's units.
Most units are immobile so you have to take some things into consideration before placing them such as will it reach enemy units? will enemy units reach it? and so on. In a way it's like chess except you can't move the pieces.
I build some bridges and build some buildings on their ends. You can only build buildings on the ends. Note how I need to build another generator because the whirlibase requires 2 energy.
Some moar units to get this over with quicker. The enemy doesent' have a workshop in this mission so he can't build any units except for golems.
Those whirlibases each builds one whirligig for free, and that whirligig is the actual attacker. Only 3 aerial units may attack something at a time, and these whirligigs can't attack transports or high priests. Once an aerial unit is destroyed, the base builds another for free. If the base is destroyed, the aerial unit dies soon after. Whirligigs need to return to base from time to time to refuel.
Almost there. As you can see temples generate 1 unit of energy too depending on which fury it worships.
I forgot to talk about temples. They are the most important building. They denote ownership of an island so you can build units on it and is also the drop off point for crystals. Temples can be rebuilt if needed but they cost a LOT of crystals (5000!)
BOOM! The blast from the temple also damaged the enemy high priest for him to be imobilized. Time to send a golem to set him.
Gotcha!
Now to get sacrificin'
Our priest needs to conduct a ritual first which takes time.
We also build some units on his island because without ownership the island is considered neutral can be freely be built on. I also build the altar right on his island just to laugh in his 1 pixel face.
For the Wind.
For the Sun.
For the Rain.
For the Thunder.
For the Storm.
It is done!
Enemy Priest: AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!!111ONE
Great success!
FACT: This screen never appears in the game. I found it in it's data folders.
So that's it for mission one. It's piss easy but that's ok because it allowed me explain most of the things to know.
PS: the typos will be fixed later in the day.
Now the question on everybody's minds, lips, and keyboards is JUST WHAT THE FUCK IS NETSTORM??? Well, Netstorm is a hardcore (yes, I'm not using that word lightly) strategy game that came out back in 1997, or 1998 I don't remember which. The game has quite a convulted gistory which you can read here: http://www.netstormhq.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.31
The tl;dr version is this: When the demo was released it got hacked pretty quickly so lots of people got the full game without even buying it. It was a commercial flop, the developer (Titanic Entertainment) soon died and the puplisher (Activision) quit supporting it. After a while http://www.netstormhq.com was founded, a comunity that patched the game, created numerous user campaigns and most importantly they maintain servers for it. Why is it so important? Well the game IS called NETstorm so obviously the multiplayer is the main attraction. I haven't played a lot of multi, because I've never been that good at the game, but the few matches I have played were fun even if I got my ass handed quickly.
The game is now available as a free download from the site I just linked so you can try it out too!
DISCLAIMER: there is a 92.8% chance I will never finish this LP and not for the lack of motivation, but because the missions tend to get ridiculously hard in the 3rd campaign.
Netstorm has a unique gameplay so for the first mission I am going to take some time to explain the basics for you.
So enough yapping, more fap.. err playing.
ACTIVISION SUCKS DURRR, but at least they let people offer their game free for download.
These guys are so dead, but it's probably a good thing. If they had survived they would have been assimilated by the borg anyway and would be making games for XBAWKS, PS3, PSP, DS, WII, MOBILE PHONE etc.
I think this is the fan team but I'm not sure.
Main title (duh). It has cool music and cool wind effects. When I played this 10+ years ago my 12 year old mind was blown away by the immershun that the game's graphics and sound offers. I still think it's one of the most atmospheric games out there.
The demo button is for 3 interactive rolling demos.
So let's click Campaign and begin.
The mission debriefing. Dramatic, isn't it?
Let's also review our knowledge (tech) for this mission:
(Paint fucked my image)
Looks like we can build a few. These are:
The most basic transport in the game. They transport storm power (crystals), high priests and can use spells in multiplayer. You get them in every mission.
Rain generator! These provide energy that will power our units. This one provides rain energy DUH. More on that later. There are also 2 more generators in the game: wind and thunder which provide their respective energy types. They are the most important unit for obvious reasons.
Sun cannon! An attacking unit. It shoots cannon balls as you might expect. It's pretty average unit, however it's quite cheap at only 400 crystal.
and
These two go together. You will see how they work in a minute.
Ok so now that we're done with tech, let's start getting the moneyz.
We start off by building some golems and sending them to harvest those geysers for crystals. We also send our high priest to build a workshop which will allow us to build units.
Not let's talk a bit about the high priest. He is your alter ego. If he dies it's game over. High priests are the only units that can build building i.e. temples, workshops, altars and in multiplayer also outposts. They don't die when their hp reach zero, instead they get a golden aura around them which makes unable to take any action, however they will return back to normal after a short while. In this phase they are vulnerable to transports who will capture them and bring them back to an altar to be sacrificed. Basically this is the whole idea of the game: capture high priests and sacrifice them. It's a lot harder than it sounds.
So now we get to put the knowledge into production. We add cannon and generator.
I also wanted to add a whirligig but i can't because I don't have a free tech slot. So we upgrade our workshop to level 2 which gives us another tech slot. Workshops work like this: they start with 2 slots, and they get 1 more slot if you upgrade it. They can only be upgraded twice. So in an essence a workshop can only host 4 units. If you want more units you have to build more workshops which cost more money and take up more space (THIS IS IMPORTANT). We only have the sun workshop so we can only build a few sun units.
I connected some geysers with bridges. Bridging is one of the most important skills to learn in Netstorm. You need to bridge both fast and in an efficient manner because it is the most powerfull weapon, but more of that in mission 3. Also bridging is free.
Now that we will have a steady supply of income let's attack!
PS: I forgot to mention that each geyser holds 3000 storm power.
First we place a generator that will power our units. The snowflakes denote its area of coverage. A unit can not be built unless it has sufficeient energy from generator (so some units require more than 1 energy), however if a generator is destroyed after the unit has been built the unit continues to operate on normal
Next to place our first attacker. Note that the stars denote the area in which it can attack. Obviously it can only attack N,S,W,E so it's vulnerable from the other sides, plus its range isn't too good but it's better than that of the enemy's units.
Most units are immobile so you have to take some things into consideration before placing them such as will it reach enemy units? will enemy units reach it? and so on. In a way it's like chess except you can't move the pieces.
I build some bridges and build some buildings on their ends. You can only build buildings on the ends. Note how I need to build another generator because the whirlibase requires 2 energy.
Some moar units to get this over with quicker. The enemy doesent' have a workshop in this mission so he can't build any units except for golems.
Those whirlibases each builds one whirligig for free, and that whirligig is the actual attacker. Only 3 aerial units may attack something at a time, and these whirligigs can't attack transports or high priests. Once an aerial unit is destroyed, the base builds another for free. If the base is destroyed, the aerial unit dies soon after. Whirligigs need to return to base from time to time to refuel.
Almost there. As you can see temples generate 1 unit of energy too depending on which fury it worships.
I forgot to talk about temples. They are the most important building. They denote ownership of an island so you can build units on it and is also the drop off point for crystals. Temples can be rebuilt if needed but they cost a LOT of crystals (5000!)
BOOM! The blast from the temple also damaged the enemy high priest for him to be imobilized. Time to send a golem to set him.
Gotcha!
Now to get sacrificin'
Our priest needs to conduct a ritual first which takes time.
We also build some units on his island because without ownership the island is considered neutral can be freely be built on. I also build the altar right on his island just to laugh in his 1 pixel face.
For the Wind.
For the Sun.
For the Rain.
For the Thunder.
For the Storm.
It is done!
Enemy Priest: AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!!111ONE
Great success!
FACT: This screen never appears in the game. I found it in it's data folders.
So that's it for mission one. It's piss easy but that's ok because it allowed me explain most of the things to know.
PS: the typos will be fixed later in the day.