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...
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 *
********************************
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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?
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!
