PC Format (UK) 86

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ PC Format (UK) 86 / PC_Format_September1998_Issue86.iso / Games / Max2 / max2demo.exe / MAX2Manual.txt < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1998-05-16 | 196.7 KB | 3,652 lines

Installation Installation and Registration Instructions: Insert the M.A.X.2 CD into your CD-ROM drive. If your computer uses the Windows 95 Autoplay feature, a menu will appear; click on the Install Button to begin and follow the on-screen instructions. Otherwise, double-click on your CD-ROM drive under My Computer, and double-click on the Setup Icon to start installation. When installation is complete, you will see a trailer (the first time you start playing), and you can then register your game. Until you register your game, whenever you insert the M.A.X.2 CD to start playing, you will have a chance to register. You have 3 chances to register. Thereafter, you can enter a code (123) so that the registration program does not bother you again. Alternatively, you can keep turning down the registration program until you are ready to register. If you enter the code and you later wish to register this game, you must reinstall it. Starting the Game You must first install M.A.X.2 (see the preceding chapter). Insert the M.A.X.2 CD into your CD-ROM drive. If your computer uses the Windows 95 Autoplay feature, you will reach the Autoplay Menu. Otherwise, double-click on your CD-ROM drive under My Computer, and double-click on the M.A.X.2 Icon to reach the Autoplay Menu. This menu offers the following options: Play: Click on this to go to the Main Menu. Read Me: Click here for important game updates and troubleshooting tips. On your CD- ROM you will also find a STATS.TXT file that contains detailed statistical information on the units and buildings in this game. Explore CD: Click on this to see what is on the M.A.X.2 CD. Uninstall: Click on this to remove M.A.X.2 from your computer. Exit: Click this to leave the M.A.X.2 Autoplay menu. THE MAIN MENU Click on the Play Button in the Autoplay Menu, or double-click on the M.A.X.2 icon in the installed directory on your computer to get to the Main Menu which offers the following choices: New Game: Click on this to start a new single-player game. (Pg. 5) Load Game: Click here to load a previously saved single-player game. Select the game you wish to load and click on Load, or click on Cancel to return to the Main Menu. To load multiplayer games, click on the Multiplayer Game Button to reach the Multiplayer Menu, from which you can eventually load any type of multiplayer game. See the Multiplayer Games Chapter for more information. Multiplayer Game: Click on this to reach the Multiplayer Menu from which you can start or join a new multiplayer game or load an old multiplayer game. (Pg. 7) Setup: Click on this to open a Setup Window where you can adjust the volume of or turn off music, sound effects, and voice. You can enable or disable the Auto-Save feature and toggle enhanced graphics on or off. You can also enter a name for use in multiplayer games. Click on Cancel if you do not wish to save any changes. Click on Done to save any changes you have made. Scenario Editor: Click on this to reach the Scenario Menu. You can create a new scenario or edit an old one. Click on Cancel to return to the Main Menu. (Pg. 78) Exit: Click on this to leave M.A.X.2. Single-player Games To start a new single-player game, click on the New Game Button in the Main Menu. This brings up the New Game Menu from which you can select a variety of single-player options. Several of the options, such as Stand Alone Missions, lead to a window in which you can select a game or mission. After selecting a game or mission, click on Start to reach the next menu. Other options, such as Custom Game, take you directly to a set up menu, such as the Options Menu, without the intervening step of selecting a mission. To return to the Main Menu from the New Game Menu, click on Cancel. Regardless of the type of single-player game you select, look at the Starting a New Game chapter for detailed information on setting up the game (running through the Options Menu, Planet Selection, and more) before you begin playing. Stand Alone Missions M.A.X.2 features 24 stand-alone missions of which 6 are from the Sheevat (alien) point of view. When you select a mission, a description of it and its objectives appear in the panel to the right. Use the arrow buttons to scroll through the list. When you have selected a mission to play, click on Start. Click on Cancel to return to the New Game Menu. Custom Game Click on the Custom Game Button to set up a new, custom, single-player game. This takes you directly to the Options Menu, where you start selecting parameters for a new game. See the Starting a New Game Chapter for instructions on how to set up and start a new game. Custom Scenario Click on Custom Scenario to load a previously constructed single-player scenario, built using the game's scenario editor. After selecting a scenario, click on Start to begin playing; click on Cancel to return to the New Game Menu instead. Campaign Game Click on Campaign Game in the New Game Menu to reach the Campaign Game Menu, where you can begin or continue a campaign game. There are four campaign games, and each one features nine missions. When you first start playing M.A.X.2, you will only be able to play one of the first two campaigns. Complete the second campaign to activate the thrid campaign. Successfully complete the thrid campaign and you will be able to select the fourth campaign. The first campaign game is a tutorial campaign and is about the first contact of the human clans and the Concord with the Sheevat. The second campaign involves a series of battles on several planets. The third campaign features a series of battles on Earth against the Sheevat. The fourth campaign is the hardest; in its missions you will play as the Sheevat vying against other aliens. After selecting a campaign, a list of that campaign's available missions appears. When you start a new campaign, you will only be able to play the first mission for that campaign. As you successfully complete missions in a campaign, successive ones become available for play. At any time, you can replay missions or restart the campaign. Select a mission and read its description. Click on Start to continue with that mission or Cancel to return to the New Game Menu. When you begin a mission, depending on the campaign and mission, you may get a chance to select a race and various game options before continuing. You will then get a mission briefing. From this briefing, click on Done to start playing or Exit to return to either the race and options selections or the Campaign Game Menu. If you win a mission, you can Continue to the next mission in the campaign. You can also Restart (replay) the mission or Exit to the Main Menu. If you lose a mission, you can Restart (replay) it, Exit to the Main Menu, or Skip that mission if you have not already skipped an earlier mission in the current campaign. Note: You can skip up to one mission per campaign. If you later successfully complete such a skipped and failed mission, you will be able to skip a different mission in that campaign. If you are playing in single-player mode, skip to page 12. Multiplayer Games After selecting the Multiplayer Game Button from the Main Menu, you will reach the Multiplayer Menu. You have a number of multiplayer options: You can play local area network (LAN), Internet, hotseat, modem, or serial games. Select the type of game you wish to play from the five buttons on the top. Then select an appropriate option from the buttons that appear in the window on the bottom. The following sections describe each of the options in the Multiplayer Menu. Regardless of the type of game being played, the actual game play is similar to that for single-player games. This game-play information is discussed in the Game Screen Chapter. Any notes pertaining to the playing of multiplayer games are in that chapter. For more information on game setup information, see the Starting a New Game Chapter. Internet and Local Area Network Games From the Multiplayer Menu, select Internet to logon to the Internet to play an Internet game of M.A.X.2. Once you logon, you can click on Join Internet Game, Host Internet Game, Join Internet Chat, or Host Internet Chat, depending on what you wish to do. The menus you reach after clicking on Host Internet Game and Join Internet Game are similar to those for other game types and are described in Host and Join Menus section of this chapter. Online, players will be rated for skill and reliability. When you host a new game, you can make sure that the players joining that game are up to your standards. You will also find other special features that are not part of the local area network (LAN) version of the game. Look for more specific information in the README.TXT file and in any future updates of the game as this area of the game will constantly be changing and improving. For a LAN game of M.A.X.2, click on LAN in the Multiplayer Menu and then select Join LAN Game, Host LAN Game, Join LAN Chat, or Host LAN Chat, depending on your preference. The only requirement for a local area network game is that all involved players must be connected to the same network to play together. The menus you reach after selecting Join LAN Game or Host LAN Game are similar to those for other game types and are described in the Host and Join Menus section of this chapter. For both LAN and Internet games, players can set up a Chat Room and give it a name and a password. Other players can join such a Chat Room if they know the password or if there is no password. Click on the Host LAN/Internet Chat or Join LAN/Internet Chat Buttons to select either option. Hotseat Game To play a hotseat game, click on Hotseat in the Multiplayer Menu and then click on New Custom Game to start a new game, Load Previous Game to continue with an old game, or New Custom Scenario to load a new hotseat scenario created using the scenario editor. In a hotseat game, all players (up to six) take turns playing on the same computer. Of necessity, these games are turn based, but you can limit the time per turn in the Options Menu or from the Preferences Menu. New Custom Game: After selecting this, you will enter the Options Menu. Set the game's parameters; see the Options Menu Chapter for more information. Then choose the planet using the Planet Selection Menu; see Starting a New Game. After determining this basic game information, you will reach the Hotseat Menu. Determine which team slots, if any, will be occupied by computer opponents and which will be occupied by no one. Each player should then choose a team and select a clan, by clicking on the Clan Button for their team and making a selection; see the Clans Chapter for more information. If you do not pick a clan, you will be assigned one randomly. After all players have chosen a team and clan, click on the Done Button in the Hotseat Menu. The first player will now enter the Purchase Menu to buy cargo before landing on the planet; see the Purchase Menu Chapter. The game notifies you whose turn it is. Click on OK and after selecting cargo, click on the Done Button. The world will be scanned and you can click on a starting location; see Starting a New Game for more information on this process. The next player's Purchase Menu will now appear and that player will cycle through the same options. Once all players have purchased cargo and selected a starting location, the game will begin. Players will then take turns playing. When they have completed a game turn, they should click on the End Turn Button. The game notifies you whose turn is next. That player should click on OK; he can then begin his turn. Load Previous Game: Click on this to call up a Load Menu of previously saved hotseat games. Select the game you wish to play and click on Load. Click on Cancel to return to the Multiplayer Menu. New Custom Scenario: Click on this to call up a Load Menu of custom scenarios built using the scenario editor. Select a game to play and click on Load to begin. Click on Cancel to return to the Multiplayer Menu. Modem Game To play a modem game, click on the Modem Button in the Multiplayer Menu and then select Dial/Join Opponent or Answer/Host Game. Before you can connect with someone for modem play, both players must have Hayes- compatible modems. Dial/Join Opponent: Clicking on this opens a field where you enter the phone number you wish to dial. Type in the phone number, hit the ENTER key, and wait for a connection to be made. After you connect with your host, you will reach the Join Menu, described in the Host and Join Menus section of this chapter. After reviewing the game parameters, click on Ready to signal to your host that you wish to begin. Note that you can discuss game parameters with your host and he may change them before you click on the Ready Button. Answer/Host Game: Clicking on this takes you to the Host Menu, described in the Host and Join Menus section of this chapter. When you finish selecting game parameters, click on Answer. When your opponent dials in, your computer will answer to make a connection. When the Start Button appears (after your opponent has clicked on Ready), you can click on this to begin playing. Serial Game Connect two computers with an RS-232 cable to establish a serial or null-modem connection. To play a serial game, each player should click on the Serial Button in the Multiplayer Menu and then select Join Serial Game or Host Serial Game. Join Serial Game: Click on this to open the Join Menu, described in the Host and Join Menus section of this chapter. After reviewing the game parameters, signal that you are ready to begin by clicking on Ready. Note, you may ask the host to make changes to these parameters before clicking on the Ready Button. Host Serial Game: Click on this to open the Host Menu, described in the following section. Set up the game parameters. When your opponent clicks on his Ready Button, a Start Button will appear on your menu. Click on this to begin playing. Host and Join Menus For Internet, LAN, modem, and serial games, one player chooses to host the game and other players choose to join. The Host and Join Menus for these games are very similar and their common features are described below. Host Game Menus In LAN, Internet, modem, and serial games, after you have selected the Host Game Button for that game type and after you have made any necessary connections, you will reach the Host Menu. For a new multiplayer game, be sure to input your player name, choose a clan, select options from the Options Menu, and select a planet. You must then wait for your opponents (one or more, depending on the game type) to join the game. For LAN and Internet games, the host must click on Announce before other players can join. In LAN and Internet games, as slots fill up, this is indicated on the team buttons on the menu. As soon as the first player joins the game by clicking on his Ready Button, a Start Button will appear on the Host Menu. When the host clicks on the Start Button, the game will begin. For LAN and Internet games, only players who have joined before the host clicks on the Start Button will be able to play in that game. If you wish to resume a previously saved game, select Load Game, select the game you wish to load, and click on Done. You must then wait for the other player(s) to join. Only players who have the same saved game on their hard disks can join. When all players have joined, click on the new Start Button that appears to begin playing. For LAN and Internet games, you must click on Announce before other players can join. If you wish to load a custom scenario created in the scenario editor, select Load Scenario, click on the game you wish to play and click on Done. Wait for one or more players, depending on the game, to join. Click on the new Start Button that appears to begin playing. For LAN and Internet games, you must click on Announce before others can join the game. Host Menu Options: Player Name: Click in the text window provided and type in the name you wish to use when playing. Race Button: Click on this button to reach the Race Menu and to select a race. See the Races Chapter for more details. In custom scenarios, you may not be able to select a race. Status Window: This window, in the upper right corner of the screen, displays the game's information, including planet information, starting credits, play mode, and more. Player Buttons: As host, you will default to the first team position. You will not be able to choose a different team. Map Window: This displays a map of the planet chosen for this game. To select a different world, click on the adjacent Maps Button to reach the Planet Selection Menu. Use the arrow buttons to select a planet, and click on Done when you have made your choice. Alternatively, click on Cancel to return to the Host Menu. Load Game: Click on this button to load a previously saved game. Your opponent(s) must also have a copy of this game. Load Scenario: Click on this to load a new custom scenario built using the scenario editor. Options: Click here to reach the Options Menu and to select important game parameters; see the Options Menu Chapter for details. You may not be able to set options for custom scenarios. Chat: Click on this button and then type in the provided space at the bottom of the screen. When you press the ENTER key, the message will be transmitted to the other players. Messages Text Window: Messages from other players appear in this area located just above where you enter your chat messages. You can scroll this window to review past messages. Announce: For Internet and LAN games, after you have set up a game, click on this button for your game to appear as an option to other players. Until you click on this button, no one will be able to join your game. Start: When a player has joined your game, the Start Button will appear. When enough players have joined, click on the Start Button to begin the game, sending all players to the planet or to their Purchase Menus. Cancel: Click on this to return to the Multiplayer Menu. Join Game Menus After you have elected to join a LAN, Internet, modem, or serial game, and after you have made any necessary connections, you will reach the Join Menu. For Internet and LAN games, in the Status Window, in the upper right portion of this menu, you will see a list of games that are waiting for players to join. Games only appear in this window after a host has created or loaded a game and then clicked on his Announce Button. Click on the game you wish to join. You will be placed in the first open team slot. You will not be able to select a different team. However, you can chat with the other players, and players can leave the menu and rejoin until all players are in team slots of their choice. For modem and serial games and for Internet and LAN games, after you have a selected a game to join, you will see a list of game parameters in the Status Window. See the Options Menu Chapter for more information on these parameters. The Map Window beneath the Status Window shows the planet that has been selected. Enter the name you will use while playing; click in the text window beneath Player Name and type in the name you wish to use. Then select a clan, if you can. Click on the Clan Button next to your name to reach the Clan Menu and select a clan. See the Clans Chapter for more information. Click in the Messages Text Window and type to communicate with your host and other players. Click on Ready to signal the host that you are ready. When enough players have joined the game, as decided by your host and depending on the game type, your host will click on a Start Button to begin the game. Click on Cancel, before the host clicks on his Start Button, to drop out of the game and to return to the Multiplayer Menu. Click on the Back Button if you do not wish to start, join, or load a multiplayer game. This will return you to the Main Menu. Starting a New Game Depending on the type of game you are playing you may go through various setup menus. The menus are discussed here in the order in which they appear in the game, although you may not have all the menus appear in every type of game. Menus that require extensive discussion have their own chapters, following this chapter, in the same order as they appear below. Note: In LAN, Internet, serial, and modem games, the Options Menu, Planet Selection Screen, and Clans Menu are all reached from these games' Host and/or Join Menus and can be accessed in any order. Players in these games cannot generally choose their teams. For these multiplayer games, the Host and Join Menus replace the Game Menu discussed later in this chapter. See the Host and Join Menus section of the Multiplayer Games Chapter for descriptions of these menus. Options Menu: For all games except various campaign missions, stand-alone missions, and custom scenarios, one player sets the game's parameters using the Options Menu. Adjustable game parameters include the difficulty of any computer opponents, play mode (turn based, simultaneous moves, or real time), turn timers (for turn-based and simultaneous-moves games), victory conditions, resource levels, line-of-sight, and starting credits. You may not be able to alter all of these parameters. The Options Menu is described in the Options Menu Chapter. When you finish making selections, click on Done to continue to the next menu. Click on Cancel, instead, to return to the New Game or Multiplayer Menu. Planet Selection Menu: Except for campaign games, custom scenarios, and stand-alone missions, you select the world, or map that you will play on. Click on the large arrows to change the selection of maps. Click on a map to view a more detailed version. Click Done to select the world, or Cancel to return to the previous menu. Game and Clan Menus: In this menu, you select which team to play for, which teams have no players, and which teams will be played by computer players. Except for modem and serial games, all games may have up to six players. In the Game Menu, the teams appear in the same order in which they take turns for turn-based games. Each team has an associated color: red, green, blue, gray, yellow, and orange, for teams 1 to 6, in order. Select a team by clicking on the slot under Human next to the team for which you wish to play. Select which teams will be played by the computer, by clicking on the slot under Computer next to such teams. Select which teams should have no players, by clicking on the slot under None for those teams. To select a clan, click on your team's Clan Button. In the Clan Menu that appears, select a clan, or the Sheevat race and click on Done to return to the Game Menu. n hotseat games, each player should select his clan before anyone tries to leave the Game Menu, otherwise those who have not chosen a clan will be assigned one randomly. Note: You cannot select clans for other teams, and you will not be able to view other teams' clans. For more information on clans see the Clans Chapter. When clan and team selection are complete, click on Done in the Game Menu to continue. Click on Cancel to return to the Planet Selection Menu. Purchase Menu: In many games, except for various campaign missions, stand-alone missions, and custom scenarios, you can purchase extra units to take to the planet surface. Click on Done when you are finished or click on Cancel to return to the Main Menu. See the Purchase Menu Chapter for more details on purchasing units. Select Location Menu: In most games, except for various campaign missions, stand-alone missions, and custom scenarios, just before the game begins, each player's ship will scan the planet's surface. When scanning is complete you will see a map of the surface. Left- click on the desired starting location for your team. A red cursor indicates locations where you cannot start a colony. The game will place your first Mining Station or Material Harvester at your chosen location. This Mining Station will automatically be positioned over a source of Raw Materials that provides 16 Raw Materials per turn. When you select a location, you will see a small red circle around your cursor and a larger yellow circle. The game will not allow you to place your base within the red circle of another player. If you try to place your base within the larger, yellow circle of another player, you will be notified of this and asked if you wish to select a different location. When computer players select starting locations, they try to stay outside the limits defined by other players' yellow circles. When all players have selected a starting location, the game will begin. Game Screen: Once all preliminary menus are completed, the game will begin. Game play takes place on the Game Screen; your choices here, as well as playing tips, are discussed in the Game Screen Chapter. Options Menu In most M.A.X.2 games, except for various campaign missions, stand-alone missions, and custom scenarios, one player can adjust game parameters through the Options Menu. These parameters are discussed below: Computer Opponent: You can adjust the difficulty level of your computer opponents. Available levels are Clueless, Apprentice, Average, Expert, Master, or God. As the difficulty level increases, computer opponents become faster at construction; they receive bonuses to the amount of Raw Material and Gold they mine, and their tactics and strategies improve. Clueless: No advanced strategies; construction takes 25% longer than normal; mining receives a 25% penalty. Apprentice: Some advanced tactics; no penalties. Average: Some advanced strategies and tactics; no penalties. Expert: All available advanced strategies and tactics with no penalties. Master: As for Expert, but can build 25% faster than normal. Mines produce 25% more than indicated by deposits' sizes. God: As for Expert, but can build 50% faster than normal. Mines produce 50% more than indicated by deposits' sizes. Play Mode: If you select Turn-Based, depending on the time limit set in the Turn Timer you may or may not have a time limit in which to complete your turn. Opponents take turns; when a player finishes issuing orders for a turn, the next player can take his turn. If you select Simultaneous-Moves, during each game turn, all opponents issue orders to their units at the same time. Players are constrained to actions that can take place within a single turn; for example, a unit cannot move more than its speed in any turn. However, within each turn, the action takes place in real time. The length of time for each turn can be adjusted in the Turn Timers panel. If you select Real-Time, the game's action will continue as you play. In real-time games, the real-time equivalent of a turn determines how quickly buildings and units are built and how quickly other events occur. You can adjust this timing by adjusting the game speed under the Preferences Menu, accessed from the Game Screen. The last player in a multiplayer game to adjust game speed determines the current speed at which a real-time game runs. Virtually everything in the game takes "time," from building units and structures to recovering from various attacks. In real-time games, the game notifies you of how much time remains for various processes with small bar graphs. In turn-based and simultaneous-moves games, the game notifies you of time remaining for a process by stating how many turns are left before the process is completed. Turn Timers: If you are playing a game with simultaneous moves or a turn-based game, you can adjust the turn length. Select a maximum time for each turn by making a choice under Turn Limit. Choices range from No Limit to 360 seconds, in increments of 60 seconds. In simultaneous-moves games, select a choice for the End Turn time; choices range from None to 90 seconds. In a game with simultaneous moves, in each turn, the last player who has not pressed his End Turn Button will be notified that he has the End Turn time left in which to complete his turn. If he does not press the End Turn Button before the End Turn time runs out, his turn ends automatically. Line of Sight: Select On=Enabled or Off=Disabled under this option. Off means that line- of-sight is not an issue in the game. On=Enabled means that unless a land unit, ship, or building can fire over hilly terrain, it must have a direct line to a target before it can fire. Only missile units and buildings, Rocket Launchers, and Biobomb units and buildings can fire at units not directly in their line-of-sight. The ability to see other units and to survey is affected by line-of-sight for all units and buildings, except that line-of-sight does not affect a land unit's, ship's, or building's ability to spot or fire at aircraft. Line-of-sight also does not affect air units' abilities to see and fire on any other unit type. Starting Credits: Adjust how many Credits each player gets at the beginning of the game; all players will receive the same, specified amount. Starting Credits range from 0 to 250 and can be used to purchase units; see the Purchase Menu Chapter. Resource Levels: Adjust the abundance of Raw Materials and Gold on your planet. Values for each resource can be set to Poor, Medium, or Rich. This affects both how many deposits of each resource are available and how rich they are. The frequency of alien animals on your planet can be set to None, Rare, or Common. Alien animals are basically wandering monsters and are described in the Alien Animals Chapter. Victory Conditions: You can set three different types of victory conditions for your game: Kill All Mining Stations, Kill All Units, or Capture the Flag. For Kill-All-Mining-Stations games, any player whose Mining Stations or Material Harvesters are all destroyed, disabled, or frozen automatically loses the game. The last player left wins. For Kill-All-Units games, any player whose visible units (that is, not counting Infiltrators, Psi-Spawn, cloaked Spawn, Submarines, Mines, and submerged Armored Personnel Carriers) and buildings are all destroyed, disabled, or frozen automatically loses the game. The last player left wins. For the Capture-the-Flag option, each team has one flag, and your objective is to capture or control most or all flags in the game. There are four parameters that can alter the way such a game is actually played: Flag Type, Start Location, Number, and Victory Timing. Additional Options for Capture-the-Flag Victory Conditions: Flag Type: Set this to Stationary or Mobile. Mobile flags can be transported by any land unit once they have been captured. Stationary flags may not be moved. Start Location: Set this to At Base or Random. At Base means that each team's flag starts in the middle of its first base. Random means that all teams' flags are randomly placed on the planet. Number: Set this to Majority or All. If set to Majority, you must capture or control the majority (greater than half) of all flags in order to win. All means that you must capture or control all flags to win. Victory Timing: Set this to Hold for a Time, At Capture, or Return to Base. Hold for a Time means that once a player has captured or controls a sufficient number of flags, he must hold them for a time in order to win. The time is determined by the play mode and game speed. The computer notifies all players of how long that player must continue to control the flags to win the game. If he succeeds in controlling the flags for that time period, he wins. At Capture means that when a player has captured or controls a sufficient number of flags, he wins the game. Return to Base only applies if you have selected Mobile Flags. In this case, a player must collect a sufficient number of flags in his Flag Base(s) before he can win. For details on how to control or capture flags, transport them, and win the game see the Winning the Game Chapter. When you finish setting the Options, click on Done. If you want to return to the New Game or Multiplayer Menu, click on Cancel instead. RACES In most games, except various campaign missions, stand-alone missions, and custom scenarios, you can select the race for which you wish to play. You will not be able to select clans for computer players, nor view races selected by other players or computer players. In the Game Menu, Host Menu, or Join Menu depending on the kind of game you are playing, click on the default Clan Button for your team to reach the Clan Menu. You can play for one of nine clans or races, including that of an alien race, the Sheevat. Click on a Race Button for a description of that race's strengths. If that race meets with your approval, click on Done. If you click on Done or Cancel without choosing a race first, you will return to the previous Menu and the game will choose a race for you. Before discussing the races, a brief discussion of aliens is in order. There are two kinds of aliens in M.A.X.2: the friendly aliens who form the Concord and the unfriendly aliens called the Sheevat. You can play as the Sheevat, but you cannot really play as the Concord (which is an organization of almost all known intelligent life forms in the galaxy). Human races (that you may have met in M.A.X.) are bonding with various alien Concord races as part of their efforts to become full Concord members. Although human beings are going through this complex bonding process, which involves merging human DNA with that of various alien species, such races are still called "human" throughout this manual, while the Sheevat are called "the aliens." Among the benefits that human players get for bonding with Concord races is that they are allowed to use some of the Concord's alien units, namely the Concord Tanks, Concord Assault Guns, Concord Gunboats, and Concord Attack Planes. When Concord units are referred to throughout this manual, it is these units that we mean. The Concord units that human races can make are self-repairing, gain experience through combat, and are organic in nature. Note that Concord units do not get race bonuses! Nonetheless, these units are very powerful, and because of this they cost much more than their human counterparts. For more information on units, see the Units Chapter. The races/Concord races for whom you can work as a M.A.X.2 Commander vary in their strengths. The following paragraphs describe the benefits you will gain from each particular race or race. For more information on unit statistics and what they mean see the Units and Buildings Chapters. Look at the STATS.TXT file on the CD-ROM for base unit and building statistics. Consult the README.TXT file and the game for any updates to the information below. Aven This Concord race of magnificent pilots is bonding with the human race called The Chosen. The Chosen race is derived from religious refugees who developed superior air units. AWACs have +2 scan. Fighters have +1 range and cost 21 Credits. Air Transports gain +4 speed. Ground Attack Planes have +4 attack and cost 27 Credits. Air Units Plants cost 30 Credits. Fen This aquatic, empathic Concord race is bonding with the human Crimson Path whose members descended from various communist groups. This race/race has developed superior sea units. Missile Cruisers have +1 range and cost 33 Credits. Escorts have +2 speed and +1 scan. Corvettes gain +2 speed and +1 armor. Gunboats have +2 armor, +4 hits, and +1 range. Submarines have +4 attack, +2 speed, and cost 15 Credits. Sea Transports gain +2 speed. Shipyards cost 30 Credits. Cloaks This Concord race of intelligence gatherers is bonding with the Von Griffin race whose members excel at espionage. Scanners get +4 scan and +1 speed. Scouts have +2 scan, +2 speed, and +2 attack. Submarines come with +2 scan, +2 speed, and +4 attack. Infiltrators gain +1 scan, +1 speed, +2 disable, and cost 24 Credits. Radar is equipped with +6 scan. AWACs get +4 scan and +2 speed. Armored Personnel Carriers have +1 armor, +2 hits, and +2 speed. Phemer This Concord race of imperialistic xenophobes is bonding with the human race, Ayer's Hand, whose primary attributes they share. This race/race's greatest strength lies in missiles and missile carriers. Rocket Launchers get +1 range, +2 attack, and cost 18 Credits. Missile Crawlers, Missile Turrets, and Missile Cruisers all gain +1 range, +2 attack, and cost 30 Credits. Kamren This Concord race's members are the long-time defenders of the Concord. They are bonding with the human Musashi race. This race/race has developed expert armored vehicles and defenses. Gun Turrets gain +4 attack, +2 armor, and +4 hits. Tanks get the same benefits as Gun Turrets and also gain +1 speed. Gunboats have +4 attack, +2 armor, +8 hits, and +1 range. Armored Personnel Carriers receive +2 armor, +4 hits, and +1 speed. Elan This Concord race of quick-moving, thoughtful aliens is bonding with the human race of the Sacred Eights whose people are the descendants of those once persecuted for their religious beliefs. Avoidance and defense being this race/race's primary focus, it has developed vehicles with superior speed. Escorts and Mobile Anti-Aircraft gain +1 range and +2 speed. Scouts, Ground Attack Planes, and Corvettes gain +2 attack and +2 speed. Assault Guns have +4 attack, +2 speed, +1 range, and cost 18 Credits. Aspen This Concord race of territorial aliens is bonding with the members of the human Seven Knights race who share its concern over territory. This race/race excels at defense. Radar gets +2 scan. Sea Mines and Land Mines gain +8 attack. Missile Turrets gain +1 range, +2 attack, and cost 33 Credits. Gun Turrets have +4 attack, +2 armor, and +4 hits. Artillery Turrets and Mobile Anti-Aircraft gain +1 range and +2 attack. Beaker This cybernetic Concord race is bonding with the human Axis Inc. race to form a powerful race of builders. This race/race receives extra Engineers and Constructors; the exact amount depends on the game's starting budget. Heavy Units Plants cost 32 Credits, and Light Units Plants cost 16 Credits. The maintenance cost for all Beaker units is redued, allowing the Beaker to support larger armies. Sheevat The Sheevat are unlike any other known race and are alien even to the Concord. The Sheevat are not members of the Concord and are allied to no human races. All Sheevat units and buildings that can attack enemies gain experience from combat. All Sheevat units and buildings have self-repairing shields that absorb damage from attacks. Because of these shields, Sheevat units have less armor and fewer hits than their human analogues. Some of the Sheevat units and buildings are truly unique to this race, while there are other units and buildings that the Sheevat cannot build. See the Units and Buildings Chapters for more details. Sheevats do not get Repair Units, Robotic Walkers, Rocket Launchers, Minelayers, Sea Minelayers, Missile Crawlers, Missile Cruisers, Missile Turrets, or Concord units. They get a Biobomb Crawler, a Biobomb Ship, and a Biobomb Pod instead of the analogous Missile Crawler, Missile Cruiser, and Missile Turret. Biobomb units disperse microorganisms that dissolve armor. Many other Sheevat units are somewhat analogous to human units but have unique functions. Sheevat Tanks are called Shock Tanks and are quite powerful. Shock Tanks have an Electrical attack that affects all units, except for other friendly Shock Tanks, in directly adjacent squares. Sheevat Assault Guns are called Lightning Cannons. These units have an attack that jumps from one enemy unit or building to another, with attack strength decreasing along the way. Up to 3 units can be affected by each Lightning Cannon attack. Sheevat Infantry units are called Spawn and differ somewhat from human Infantry in that their hoarding instinct makes them stronger when they are close to one another than when they are alone. The Sheevat have Psi-Spawn instead of Infiltrators. These units have some features in common with Infiltrators, but they cannot disable or steal enemy units. However, Sheevat Psi-Spawn can hide or cloak nearby Spawn. Spawn can only be created by Incubators, and cannot be created in factories. Special Sheevat units include the Stasis Projector that can freeze units and small buildings temporarily. Frozen units do not take damage, and this unit can therefore serve both offensive and defensive purposes. The Incubator is another unique unit that implants eggs into organic units. Once the eggs are developed the host dies, releasing a Sheevat Spawn or Psi-Spawn. The Sheevat can also build Command Units that improve statistics of nearby friendly units. The Sheevat have a unique building called the EW Pod that can assume control over one human electronic unit or building at a time. Human Infiltrators and Infantry, Concord units, and Sheevat units or buildings of any type are not affected by the EW Pod. Purchase Menu In many games, before you land on a planet, you will enter the Purchase Menu where you can buy extra units to take with you to the planet. You may not be able to buy units through this menu in various campaign missions, stand-alone missions, custom scenarios, and when Starting Credits have been set to 0 in the Options Menu. In the Purchase Menu, when you select a unit from the Unit List to the right or from the Purchased List in the center, its picture, a description, and statistics appear on the left side of the screen. You can turn the description text off by clicking on the Description Box. A panel in the center of the Purchase Menu shows the total number of Credits you have with which to buy extra units. The price to buy any new unit appears next to that unit on the Unit List. The cost in Credits to buy a unit is the same as the number of Raw Materials it would take to build that unit. Any units currently in your cargo bay--those you start with as well as any you have bought--are shown in the Purchased List. Scroll through the Unit and Purchased Lists using the arrow buttons under these lists. Purchasing Units Except in various campaign missions, stand-alone missions, and custom scenarios, you will begin with at least one Engineer and one Constructor in your cargo bay. What else you take along to the planet is up to you and your purse. To buy a unit, select a unit from the Unit List, and click on Buy to add this unit to the Purchased List. You do not have a full range of units available for purchase. You can only take some land units along. All players can buy Engineers, Constructors, Scouts, Scanners, Tanks or Shock Tanks, Assault Guns or Lightning Cannons, and Mobile Anti-Air. The eight human races can also buy Repair Units, Rocket Launchers, Minelayers, Missile Crawlers, Concord Tanks, and Concord Assault Guns. The Sheevat can buy Stasis Projectors and Biobomb Crawlers. Removing Purchased Units Except for any Engineers and Constructors that are in your cargo bay before you start buying units, you can return any unit you have purchased before you leave the Purchase Menu. In the Purchased List, click on the unit that you wish to remove. Click on the Delete Button to remove the unit. The cost of the unit will be refunded to you. Finishing Up When you finish buying units, click on the Done Button. Clicking on Cancel instead returns you to the Main Menu. Game Screen: Playing the Game This chapter describes the functions of all buttons and windows in the Game Screen. The last section of this chapter describes the game's important elements and includes some game-play tips for getting started. The Game Screen is where you play M.A.X.2. After choosing a game type and setting up the game, you will get to this screen. The default Game Screen will vary somewhat depending on whether you are playing for a human race or for the Sheevat. Nonetheless, the essential features of the Game Screens are the same; they are just located in different areas. The Game Screen can be divided into five major areas: Buttons: The buttons on the Game Screen can take you to the Save/Load Menu--where you can also exit the game, to a Preferences Menu where you can adjust various things like sound volume and auto-saving, and to a Report Menu where you can obtain information about your units. Some of the buttons also control various displays on the Game Map. World Map: This is a zoomed-out look at the planet. It has a slider bar that lets you adjust the zoom level of the Game Map. Message Bars and Timers: These provide information on your resource status, feedback on selected units, your current location in coordinates on the Game Map, chat messages, time remaining in turn-based or simultaneous-moves games, and more. Unit Picture and Spycam Feature: The top left portion of the Game Screen generally displays a picture, description, and statistics of the currently selected unit. You can switch the picture in this location to a "Spycam" that shows a small portion of the game world centered on a selected unit or location. Game Map: This is where all the action takes place. All of these areas are discussed in the following sections. At the end of the chapter is a section on how to start playing M.A.X.2. Press TAB to change the interface layout. Note: You will find information on basic game how-to's, such as moving units, building structures, and attacking enemies in the Game Map section of this chapter. Game Screen Buttons All of the Game Screen buttons are described here. Saving, Loading, and Quitting the Game Click on the Files Button to reach the Save/Load Menu. Click on a game or game slot to select it. Scroll through the 100 available game slots using the arrow buttons. If you are saving a game, you can type information about the game into the line at the bottom of the selected slot. When you are finish, click on Save or Load. Note: Multiplayer games are automatically saved at predefined intervals to the hard drives of all players. From the Save/Load Menu you can Quit the game or Return to the game without saving or loading. Adjusting Game Play Parameters Click on the Preferences Button to reach the Preferences Menu where you can make various adjustments: Sound Volume and Toggles: Use a slider bar to adjust the volume of music, sound effects, and voice, or use the Disable Boxes to turn these off. Game Speed: Use a slider bar to adjust the game speed for real-time games. Scroll Speed: Use a slider bar to adjust how quickly the Game Map scrolls when you move your cursor to the edges of the Game Screen. Auto-Save: Toggle the Auto-Save feature on or off. For turn-based and simultaneous- moves games, the default frequency of auto-saves is 1, or at the end of every game turn. For real-time games, it saves every minute. Auto-saved games are placed in the number 10 slot of the Save/Load Menu. Animate Effects: Toggle this on if you wish to view the game's animations. Turning this off may make your game run faster. Halt Movement When Enemy Is Detected: Toggle this on or off depending on your preference. Click-to-Scroll: Toggle this on if you wish the screen to scroll only when you click on the map. To scroll, you must click and then hold the mouse button down as you move the cursor. Toggled off, the game allows you to scroll by moving your cursor to the edges of the Game Screen. You can also use the arrow keys to scroll the map. Auto-Select Next Unit: Toggle this on if you wish the game to select the next unit automatically when you finish issuing orders to the current unit. Automatic Pause Features: Select when, during single-player games, you want the game to pause automatically. Among your choices are Pause When See Enemy and Pause When Select Unit. Player Name: For multiplayer games, you can alter the name you are playing under by typing a new one in the slot provided. Turn Time: For turn-based and simultaneous-moves games, you can alter the turn time in this slot. Enter values within the limits offered by the Options Menu (from 0 or no limit to 360 seconds). In multiplayer games, the last number entered, by any player, determines the turn time. End Turn Time: For games with simultaneous moves, you can alter the end turn time-- how long the last player has to complete his turn after all other players have completed theirs--here. Enter values within the limits offered by the Options Menu (from 0 or no limit to 90 seconds). In multiplayer games, the last number entered, by any player, determines the end turn time. Game Information: The play mode, the difficulty of any computer opponents, and the game's victory conditions are listed here. Cancel: Click on this, for multiplayer games, to return to the Game Screen without saving any changes. Done: Click on this to save any changes you have made and to return to the Game Screen. Pause, End Turn, Chat, Goals, Next, and Previous These miscellaneous buttons are described here. Pause: Click on the Pause Button to pause the game. While the game is paused, you can issue orders. Units and buildings will start carrying these orders out when play resumes. Click on the Pause Button when the game is paused to resume play. In real-time and simultaneous-moves multiplayer games, you accumulate time for "time- outs" as the game continues. Click on the Pause Button to take such a time-out. You will automatically be returned to the active game if you run out of time. If all players pause, no player loses any accumulated pause time. End Turn: Click on the End Turn Button to end your turn. This button is only available in turn-based and simultaneous-moves games. When you click on this button, all of the units with standing orders will act on those orders before the next turn or the next player's turn begins. Chat: Click on this button to open a Chat Window in which you can type and send messages to other players in multiplayer games. This button only appears in multiplayer games. To close the Chat Window, click on Cancel. Goals: This button only appears in single-player games and provides a synopsis of the game's victory and loss conditions. Next and Previous: Click on these buttons to cycle through your units and buildings. The < and > keys perform the same functions. To drop a unit out of this cycling list for the remainder of the turn, for turn-based and simultaneous-moves games only, click on the Done Button in the unit's Command Window. Display Buttons for Keeping Track of Unit and Survey Information There are several Display Buttons on the Game Screen that highlight useful information during play. Click on the Display Buttons to toggle the displays on or off. The displays apply to visible or selected enemy units as well as to friendly units. Survey: This shows survey information on the Game Screen. Discovered Gold deposits appear as gold numbers; the number indicates how much Gold can be extracted from that site per turn if a Gold Mining Station or Gold Harvester is placed there. Raw Material deposits appear as white numbers; the number indicates how many Raw Materials can be extracted per turn if a Mining Station or Material Harvester is built there. An empty circle indicates areas with no deposits. Unsurveyed sites show nothing. Note that all units can spot deposits of Gold and Raw Materials. Turn the survey display on before placing a new Mining or Gold Mining Station. Status: This provides a small visual summary of the movement and firing options currently available to each unit. A green arrow under a unit indicates that the unit can move at this time. A small explosive shell indicates that the unit can fire. The number of shells indicate how many shots are available to the unit at this time. No image under a unit indicates that it can neither move nor fire at this time. Colors: This surrounds each unit with its team color. The team colors, in order, are red, green, blue, gray, yellow, and orange for teams 1 through 6. Hits: This displays a hits bar over each unit and building. As a unit takes damage to its hits, the bar will shorten. While the unit retains most of its hits, the bar will be green. The color of the bar changes to yellow as the unit becomes more injured and turns to red when the unit is seriously damaged. Range: This displays a red circle that shows the range of the currently selected unit or building for attack purposes. Visible units within this circle can be attacked by the selected unit as long as they are within its line-of-sight. Areas within a unit's range that are not within its line-of-sight are darkened. Scan: This displays a yellow circle that shows the scanning range of the currently selected unit or building. Any enemy unit or other item will be visible if it falls within this scan circle and as long as it is within the selected unit's line-of-sight. The only exceptions are units that the selected unit could not see anyway (such as certain invisible units). Areas within the scan circle that are not within the selected unit's line-of-sight are darkened. Grid: This displays a grid over the map. Each square in this grid has its own coordinates. The top left square of the map's grid has the coordinates 1,1. The first number is the x coordinate and increases from left to right. The second number is the y coordinate and increases from top to bottom. The coordinates of the square to which your cursor is pointing are displayed at the bottom of the Game Screen. The color of the grid will tell you what the terrain type is: GREEN=Normal (all land units can move and build), GREEN (Normal) - All land units can move and build. YELLOW (Rough) - No building, double movement cost except infantry. ORANGE (Hill) - No building, no movement except infantry (who pay double). LIGHT BLUE (Shore) - Amphibian movement only. Water building only. DARK BLUE (Ocean) - Ships and amphibian movement only. Water building only. Names: This displays unit names. Names will be visible over all units and buildings as long as the names can be viewed at the zoom level at which you are looking at the world. All units are labeled by their "levels." New units at the beginning of the game are all "Mark 1." As units are upgraded, their levels will increase, and this is indicated by a change in their Mark numbers. Reports Button Click on this button to check the status of your units and buildings, for a list of any casualties you and other players have taken, and to check on the last messages you have received during the game. Units: Click on the Units Button of the Reports Menu for a list of all your units. This Unit List includes some basic unit information, such as shots and hits, as well as ongoing orders. Click on the arrow buttons under the Unit List to scroll through the list. To include or remove certain unit types from the Unit List, click on the box next to the corresponding Include Filters (air, land, sea, and stationary units). Unit types with a check next to them will appear in the Unit List. When you open the Units Report, all of these filters will be active, so all unit types will be visible. To further limit the types of units you view, click on the Limit Filters (production, combat, damaged, and stealthy units). Unit types with a check next to them will be the only ones appearing in the list. For example, to view all damaged air units, make sure only the Air and Damaged Filters are checked. If you click on a unit in the Unit List, you will return to the Game Screen centered on that unit. The unit you clicked on will be selected. Casualties: Click on this button to view a list of casualties for all teams arranged in columns in team order. Messages: Click on this button to review any game and chat messages you have recently received. World Map The Game Screen has a map of the entire world with a slider next to it. Click and drag the slider to alter the zoom level of your Game Map. You can also zoom in and out using the + and - keys on your keyboard. If you zoom out enough you can see the entire map of the planet. You have to be zoomed in quite a bit to see names on units and other features if you are using the buttons that turn on such displays. The areas on the World Map within scanning range of your units are indicated by light highlighting. Visible units and buildings will appear as dots on the World Map. The color of each dot indicates to which team the unit belongs. A red box on the World Map defines the area visible on the Game Map portion of your Game Screen. A small yellow box appears on the World Map when a selected Spycam (see next section) is centered on a unit or group of units. This yellow box defines the area visible on the Spycam. A small blue box appears on your World Map when a selected Spycam is centered on a location; this box defines the area visible on the Spycam. There are two buttons under the World Map. The TNT Button removes all non-combat units from the World Map; only combat units and stationary guns remain visible as colored dots. The Zoom Button zooms the World Map out a bit and centers it on the area visible on your Game Map. Click on either button a second time to return the World Map to normal. You can left-click on a location in the World Map to center your Game Map there. Message Bars and Timers There are several areas on the Game Screen that provide feedback and information: Turn Message, Timer, and Game Messages: These appear near the top of the Game Screen. The turn message and timer indicate the game-turn number for turn-based and simultaneous-moves games and how much time is remaining in the turn for simultaneous-moves games. Game messages notify you when buildings and units are completed or destroyed, when enemy units are spotted, when units are being attacked, and when other important events occur. Chat messages also appear in this area. Resource Status Display: These two lines of data provide all the information about your current power and mining. The first line is your power gauge. Power is provided by Power Stations and Power Pods. If you do not have enough power, you cannot build new units or buildings (except buildings that provide power and material.) Your total amount of power is displayed as two numbers: Current Power/Maximum Power. As long as your current power is lower than your maximum power, you have enough power to run your base. If the current power ever exceeds your maximum power, you are in trouble. The second bit of information displayed is your stored material. Material is used to construct new units and buildings. Power Stations and Power Pods also use 8 points of material per active power generator. The first number is your current inventory of material available. The second number is your maximum amount of material storage, which can be increased by building new material storage structures. The third number shows how much material you are gaining or using. If you ever reach 0 material, you cannot build new units or buildings (except buildings that provide more material.) Message Box: A message box at the bottom of the screen reveals unit names when you run your cursor over units either on the Game Map or in some units' Command Windows. This is where you can type chat messages in multiplayer games. Near the message box are the coordinates of the square to which your cursor is pointing. Unit Picture and Spycam Unless a Spycam is on (see later in this section), when a unit or building is selected on the Game Map, a Unit Picture will appear in the top left corner of the screen along with the unit's name and some of its statistics. For more detailed information on a selected unit, you can right-click on it. The information displayed for the unit you have selected may include the following: Build: For factories, Constructors, and Engineers, this statistic shows how far along the unit or building is with whatever it is currently making. The numbers indicate how much work has been done on a unit or building compared to how much has to be done to complete it. The numbers change from red to green as production of the current unit or building nears completion. Cargo: Units that store Raw Materials or that can hold other units have this statistic. For Mining Stations and Material Harvesters, this shows how much of your total storage space is filled with Raw Materials compared to how much total space you have. The numbers indicate the same and change from red to green as your total storage space fills. For Storage Units, this statistic shows how much of the selected building's available storage space is occupied with Raw Materials. The numbers indicate the same and change from red to green as the Storage Unit is filled. For transport vehicles and maintenance buildings, this statistic shows how many units are loaded compared to how many units can be loaded into that unit or building. The numbers indicate the same and change from red to green as the transport vehicles or maintenance buildings fill up with units. Costs: Mining Stations and Material Harvesters show the total number of Raw Materials being used per turn to produce all buildings and units currently under production. Credit: Gold Mining Stations and Gold Harvesters show how many Credits you have accumulated. Hits: The selected unit's total number of possible hits is displayed here. Hits that the unit has lost from damage are grayed out. The numbers indicate the unit's remaining hits over its total possible hits when undamaged. These numbers change from green to red as the unit becomes more seriously injured. Name: The selected unit's name appears in letters of the color of the team to which it belongs. You can alter the name of this unit type by clicking on the unit name, typing a new name, and pressing ENTER. You can only alter the names for your units. Next to the unit's name is a Mark (MK) number. All units begin at Mark 1 technology, but increase as they acquire upgrades through experience, research, or purchasing. Mine: For Mining Stations and Material Harvesters, this bar indicates how many of all mined Raw Materials are being used or stored as Raw Materials and how many are being used for Power. The numbers indicate the amount of Raw Material being used or stored compared to the total number of Raw Materials being mined. These numbers change from green to red as more of your mined Raw Materials are required to provide Power to all your units and buildings. Shots: This shows how many shots the selected unit can still fire during the current turn or turn-equivalent compared to the total number of shots it can fire per turn. As movement points are used, the remaining number of shots may decrease. The numbers change from green to red as the unit runs out of shots for the current turn. Speed: This shows the number of movement points the selected unit has left during the current turn compared to its total number of movement points per turn. Movement points that have been used up for the current turn are grayed out. Attacking and other actions besides movement may use movement points. The numbers change from green to red as a unit runs out of movement points for the current turn. In real-time games, the unit will always show its maximum number of speed points. Status: A unit's current orders appear under its name. If a unit cannot function because it is disabled or short of Power or Raw Materials, this is indicated here as well. Total: Storage Units have this statistic which indicates how much of your total storage space is filled with Raw Materials and how much total space you have. The numbers indicate the same and change from red to green as your total storage space fills with Raw Materials. Spycam: You can use the Unit Picture portion of the Game Screen to keep track of various units, groups of units, or locations. This is the Spycam feature. There are five small buttons by this area, in addition to 8 small numbered buttons to the right of the Spycam/Unit Picture. Spycam Buttons: These are the 8 numbered buttons to the right of the Spycam/Unit Picture. Each of these represents a separate camera. Select a camera by clicking on one of these buttons; this will highlight that button. You can set up each Spycam to follow a location or a unit (even a unit part of group). You can also leave Spycams on the default Unit Picture view or return them to such a view. Each of these Spycam functions is described below. Area Button: Click on this to center the selected Spycam on the view in the center of your Game Map. The Spycam picture will remain centered here as you play. When you follow a location in this way, the World Map shows a small blue box around the area visible on the Spycam. You can set one of your Spycams to follow a location so you can return to look at it later. After you have selected a location, click on one of the unused Spycam buttons, and then click on the Area Button to set the camera. Until you reset that camera, whenever you click on that Spycam Button, the Spycam picture will return to the location you selected. Unit Button: Click on this to center the selected Spycam on the currently selected unit or leader of a group of units. The Spycam will follow this unit around while you play. The area visible on the Spycam will appear as a yellow box on your World Map. You can set a unit to follow a unit so you can return to it later or keep an eye on what it is doing. Until you reset that camera, whenever you click on that Spycam button, the Spycam picture will center itself on the unit you selected. Cycle Button: Click on this to cycle through your 8 Spycams. Delete Button: When you click on this, the selected Spycam stops following whatever it had been set to follow and returns the view to the Unit Picture view. You can select a new location or unit for the Spycam to follow or leave it on the Unit Picture view. Off Button: Turns the Spycam off and restores the unit picture. Does not delete the current Spycam. Orders can be given to units in the Spycam, or you can order a unit to move to a location being viewed in the Spycam. CTRL -/+ will zoom the Spycam view. Game Map and Game Play Basics Game play takes place on the Game Map in the center of the Game Screen. Here you will see and issue orders to your units and buildings. For detailed information on unit and building functions, see the Units and Buildings Chapters. Before proceeding with a description of how to play, let's look at resource management in M.A.X.2. There are three resources: Raw Materials, Power, and Gold. Raw Materials are mined by Mining Stations and Material Harvesters, stored in Storage Units, Mining Stations, and Material Harvesters, and used to build virtually everything in the game. Power is produced by Power Stations and Power Pods. Each active power generator reduces your mining by 8 points of material and generates 80 points of power. These buildings will turn themselves on and off, as necessary. Material in storage cannot provide power, as it has been processed into useable ore Gold is mined by Gold Mining Stations and Gold Harvesters, converted into Credits, and used for buying upgrades. As long as Power and Raw Materials are in sufficient supply, they are automatically distributed as needed to units and buildings. If you are not producing enough Power, you cannot build new units or non-power/material producing buildings. If you are not producing enough Material, it will slow down your construction of units and buildings, except material producing buildings. Most existing mobile units, besides Engineers and Constructors, are not affected by resource supplies. However, Minelayers and Sea Minelayers cannot lay Mines if there are no Raw Materials in storage. Units or buildings that are short of Power or Raw Materials indicate this in their Unit Pictures. Note: Constructors and Engineers can always build Mining Stations, Material Harvesters, Water Platforms over Raw Material deposits, Power Stations and Power Pods regardless of resource supplies. Following is a list of things you can do on the Game Map: Scrolling the Map: To scroll around the world, move your cursor to the interface on the edges of the Game Screen. If you have activated click-to-scroll in the Preferences Menu, you must click and hold the mouse button down to do this. You may also use the arrow keys on your keyboard to scroll. You may move to any location on the Game Map by clicking on that location in the World Map. Zooming in and out: To zoom the Game Map in and out, click and drag the slider by the World Map or use the + and - keys on your keyboard. Depending on the zoom level you may not be able to see some of the Display Buttons' information. At a fully zoomed-out level, you will see the entire planet's surface and you will not be able to scroll the Game Map. Selecting Units: To select a unit, left-click on it. A unit must be selected before you can order it to do to something. A selected unit's picture, name, and statistics appear in the Unit Picture portion of the Game Screen, unless you have an active Spycam view there. See the preceding section of this chapter for details. You can cycle through your units using the < and > keys on your keyboard or the Next and Previous Buttons on the Game Screen. In turn-based and simultaneous-moves games, to remove a unit from this cycling list for the remainder of the turn, click on the Done Button in its Command Window. To select a group of units to move or attack, drag a box around a group of units and click on a destination/target on the Game Map or right-click on a destination in the World Map. You can add units to (or remove them from) a selected group by pressing the SHIFT key on your keyboard as you click on the units. Right-click and drag to select combat units only. Right-click a unit to make it the new leader of a group. Getting Unit Information: Right-click on any selected unit or building to reach its Unit Status Screen. This screen shows statistical information on that unit and a description of its functions. Giving Orders to Units (The Command Window): When you select some units, such as Engineers and Constructors, and when you select buildings, you will see a Command Window listing various commands; for Engineers and Constructors this is simply a list of structures they can build. For most mobile units, however, you must click on them again after selecting them to call up their Command Windows. Once you have a unit's or building's Command Window, simply left-click on what you wish the unit to do. For example, if you have selected an Engineer, click on the Radar Icon and then on a spot on the map to order the Engineer to go to the indicated location and start building Radar. For another example, for a Gold Mining Station or Gold Harvester, click on Upgrades to go to a menu from which you can purchase upgrades. For details on units' and buildings' functions, see the Units and Buildings Chapters. Moving Units: Select a unit. If the unit is mobile, you can order it to move somewhere by left-clicking on the desired destination on the Game Map or by right-clicking on the destination in the World Map. The unit will start moving and, for turn-based and simultaneous-moves games, it will move as far as possible during this turn. In turn-based and simultaneous-moves games, if it will take several turns for a unit to get somewhere, you will see a series of arrowheads leading to the unit's destination. The green arrowheads mark where the unit will stop at the end of each turn as it follows the indicated path. To set waypoints, hold down SHIFT and left-click on the various waypoint destinations. This will work for groups as well. In addition, groups can also use CTRL and left-click to move the group and maintain the current formation. Use SHIFT and right-click to set specific destination squares for individual units in the group; this is useful if you want to have a group surround a building when they are finished moving. Attacking with Units: Select a unit, group of units, or a stationary gun and then click on a target to make an attack. You can also elect to attack by selecting this option from the unit's or building's Command Window. To remove such an Attack Cursor without firing, simply right-click. After a unit is ordered to attack, it will move towards its target (if it is out of range and if it can move) and attack when able. The Attack Cursor is attached to a small red-green bar. The red portion of this bar is an estimate of how much damage an attack will do to the target unit. The bigger this portion, the more damage you are likely to do to the target. Autofire and Automove Options: Select Autofire from a combat unit's or stationary gun's Command Window to call up a new menu where you can select All, Threats, or None. All orders the unit to fire on all enemy units within range. Threats orders the unit to fire only on enemy combat units. If you select None, the unit will not fire automatically on any units. For mobile combat units, you can also select Automove from their Command Windows. This gives you three options: Advance, Retreat and Hold. Advance commands the unit to move, if necessary, to fire on a visible target. If you select Hold, the unit will not move to fire, but will wait for enemy units to come within range before it attacks them. Retreat will move this unit away from every combat unit automatically. Building Structures: Engineers and Constructors build structures. Click on them to call up their Command Windows listing all the structures they can build. Click on what you want to build; the name of the building will appear in the message box at the bottom of the Game Screen. Then click on the Game Map where you want to place the new building. There are some restrictions on where buildings can be placed. For example, Shipyards can only be built on water. Construction tape will appear around the selected site. If the Engineer or Constructor is some distance from this site, it will first move there before starting to build. You can make multiple selections for what to build by clicking on more building icons and placing them on the map. To remove a future building site, simply right click on that site. You can only remove building sites when the unit that has been given orders to build there is selected. Note that if you establish a building queue, the Engineer or Constructor will build structures in the order you selected. Sites for New Mining Stations: Mining Stations or Material Harvesters and Gold Mining Stations or Gold Harvesters should be built over Raw Material or Gold deposits, respectively. Deposits are discovered by your units; all units automatically survey land within their scanning range. When you want to place a new Mining Station, turn on the Survey Display by clicking on the Survey Button. Locate a site with numbers in white (for Raw Materials) or gold (for Gold) and have a Constructor build a new Mining Station or Gold Mining Station at this location. For more information see the Buildings Chapter. Left-click on a factory and right-click on a destination square to send all newly constructed units to that location. Left-click on a factory and click on MOVE to cancel any previously set deployment location. Building Units: First, select a factory: Light Units Plant or Light Breeder, Heavy Units Plant or Heavy Breeder, Air Units Plant or Air Breeder, or Shipyard or Sea Breeder. Then click on Build to reach its Factory Menu. Select the unit(s) you wish to build and click on Done when you are satisfied. Units will be built in the order that they are selected. To build Spawn and Psi-Spawn, a Sheevat Incubator must place an egg into an organic target host. Valid hosts include Infiltrators, Infantry, any Sheevat unit, and any Concord unit. Click the Repeat button to start the building queue over again when it reaches the last unit in the queue. The Build x1, x2 and x4 buttons control how much material is used to build the current unit. The more material that is used, the less time it will take to build the unit. Upgrading Units: Upgrading Units: You can upgrade units and buildings by purchasing upgrades from Gold Mining Stations or Gold Harvesters. At the start of the game, there is a limit on the number of upgrades you can make. Additional upgrades can be researched by Research Centers or Research Stations. To purchase upgrades, select a Gold Mining Station or Gold Harvester and click on the BUY UPG button to reach the Upgrades menu. Select the upgrade plan (or plans, the effects are culumlative) that best suits your needs. The Detailed plan will allow you to customize the upgrades for each individual unit and building in the game. Clicking on the Detailed button will take you to another screen: Detailed Upgrade Screen: Use the Include and Limit buttons to refine the unit list on the right side of the screen. Select the unit you wish to upgrade from the list. Use the four Adjust arrow buttons to adjust the desired upgrade level for each individual statistic on the unit. The statistic list will also show what the desired level is currently set to, the cost of such an upgrade and whether or not research is currently required to make that upgrade. Researching Upgrades: Select a Research Center or Research Station, click on RESRCH, and select a statistic to upgrade. When research on a statistic is completed, all units and buildings with that statistic will be able to upgrade it another level using the Gold Mining Stations or Gold Harvesters. See the Purchasing and Researching Upgrades Chapter for more details. To upgrade obsolete units, move them into a Dock, Hangar, or Depot (or the corresponding Sheevat Sea Pen, Nest or Hive) by selecting the building and clicking on Load. Repairing Units: To repair units, select a Dock, Depot, or Hangar (or the corresponding Sheevat Sea Pen, Hive, or Nest), click on Load, and click on your damaged units. You can remove the Load Cursor by right-clicking. Docks, Hangars, and Depots can repair ships, planes, and land units, respectively. For more details on these buildings, see the Buildings Chapter. Human races can also use a Repair Unit to repair damaged buildings and sea or land units. Move a Repair Unit next to a damaged structure or unit, click on the Repair Unit's Repair Button, and then click on the damaged unit to start repairs. Repair Units cannot repair aircraft since they cannot move next to such units (planes do not land). For more details on Repair Units see the Units Chapter. All buildings and Concord units can repair themselves over time. Transporting Units: Land units can be transported by Armored Personnel Carriers, Sea Transports, or Air Transports. To load a unit into one of these crafts, click on Load in the transport's Command Window, and then click on the units you wish to place onboard. You will not be able to load additional units if the transport is full. When you finish selecting units to load, right-click to remove the Load Cursor. APCs can only hold infantry and infiltrators. To unload a transport vehicle, select it to open its Cargo Command Window. Click on the unit you wish to unload and click on a location in the Game Map where you want that unit to be unloaded. Continue to click on any units and select unloading locations for them until you are satisfied. Units cannot be unloaded onto squares that they would otherwise not be able to cross. Note that your opponents cannot determine what units your transports are carrying. Also, a unit on a transport does not function. For example, a transported unit's scan and range do not apply because units on a transport cannot see or attack anything. Removing Structures: Every structure has a Destruct Button in its Command Window. Click on Arm in the small window that appears, and then click on the Red Button to destroy the structure or on Cancel if you change your mind. You can only destroy your own structures in this way. A destroyed structure becomes a pile of rubble that can be removed by a Bulldozer. Clearing Rubble: Clearing Rubble: When buildings and units are destroyed, they leave behind a pile of rubble. Bulldozers can clear and scavenge Material from such piles. Trees can also be bulldozed. Left-click on a bulldozer, and then left-click on any number of rubble piles or trees. The bulldozer will carry out your instructions in the order you click. You must remove rubble piles or trees before you can build structures over them. Laying and Removing Mines: Only human races get Minelayers and Sea Minelayers. Only Minelayers and Sea Minelayers can disable and lay Land Mines and Sea Mines, respectively, although all combat units can attack visible mines to destroy them. To disable a mine, a Minelayer or Sea Minelayer must move on top of the mine. Then click on Remove in the unit's Command Window. To lay mines, move the Minelayer or Sea Minelayer to the spot where you wish to lay a mine, and click on Place in its Command Window. You can also select Place and then click on another location on the Game Map. The Minelayer or Sea Minelayer will move to that location, laying mines along the way. A Minelayer or Sea Minelayer cannot lay mines if there are no Raw Materials in storage. Stealing or Disabling Units: Only Infiltrators can perform both these functions. Move the Infiltrator adjacent to the target, select Disable or Steal from the Infiltrator's Command Window, and then click on the target. A unit will not function at all while it is disabled. A stolen unit becomes yours until the Infiltrator steals a different unit or the unit or controlling Infiltrator dies. Note: The Sheevat EW Pod can also steal units. Capturing/Transporting Flags: If the victory condition for your game is set to Capture the Flag, you will have to control flags and possibly transport them back to your base. For details on how to do these things, see the Winning the Game Chapter. Changing Orders: When a unit or building has been issued orders that it has not completed, you can click on Stop in its Command Window to prevent it from carrying out those orders. You can then issue new orders. Alternatively, simply issue the unit new orders. Renaming Units: When you select a unit, a picture of it and a description will appear in the Unit Picture portion of the Game Screen. Above this picture is the unit's name. Click on the unit name to alter it. Type in a new name and hit the ENTER key to make the change. You can only rename your own unit types. Getting Started Your best bet for getting into M.A.X.2 quickly is to run through the first campaign game. For those of you who do not want to do that, this section describes some basic tips for playing M.A.X.2. First, review the information in the Game Map section of this chapter to learn how to move, attack with, and build units. Then scan through the rest of this chapter and make sure you know how to load, save, quit, and do other basic things. In most new games, you start with a bunch of units that you purchased before landing on a new planet. These units will be clustered around a Mining Station or Material Harvester at a location of your choice. See the Starting a New Game Chapter for more information on all this preliminary work. Now, the first thing you should do is turn on all eight buttons that highlight important elements on your Game Map: Survey, Grid, Hits, etc. These buttons provide useful information; later you can turn off the displays that you find less useful. Set your Engineers to building Storage Units and some basic defensive structures; you will want several Storage Units! Your Constructors should start building more Mining Stations immediately. Any spare Constructor should start building factories so that you can make more units. One factory of each type is usually plenty. Eventually, your Constructors should also build Docks (Sea Pens), Depots (Hives), Hangars (Nests), Gold Mining Stations (Gold Harvesters), and Research Centers (Research Stations). When your current power approaches your maximum power, build new Power Stations and Power Pods. Remember to build enough Mining Stations to support your growing number of active power generators. Send out Scouts and other units with high scan abilities to survey the world around you for Raw Material and Gold deposits and to locate any enemy colonies and units. Start building Tanks and other useful units as soon as you can, but make sure you have a solid production base of Mining Stations or Material Harvesters first. When you have amassed enough mobile fire power, assign some of these units to defending your colony and others to eliminating your enemies. You should start building Gold Mining Stations and Research Stations to gradually improve the technology of your units. If you let your opponent upgrade his units without keeping pace, it can cost you the game during the late stages. Controlling terriority and resource locations is important, but it is the first person to fulfill the victory conditions that will win the battle. Determine a strategy, adjust it as necessary and lead your side to victory! Buildings In every game, except for various campaign missions, stand-alone missions, and custom scenarios, you begin with one Mining Station or Material Harvester. To build other structures, you must use Engineers and Constructors. Engineers build the small buildings: defensive structures and other infrastructure. Constructors build factories, mining structures and the other large buildings. Engineers Build: Defensive Units Infrastructure Other Anti-Aircraft Storage Bridge Artillery Gun Turret or Pod Defensive Block or Casting Biobomb Pod Missile Turret Road EW Pod Radar Station Water Platform Power Station (Power Pod) Constructors Build*: Factories Mining Research Maintenance Air Units Plant Gold Mining Sta. Research Ctr. Depot (Air Breeder) (Gold Harvester) (Hive) Heavy Units Plant Mining Station Dock (Heavy Breeder) (Material Harvester) (Sea Pen) Light Units Plant Hangar (Light Breeder) (Nest) Shipyard (Sea Breeder) * When Sheevat buildings have names that are substantially different from those of corresponding human buildings, these names are indicated in parentheses under the names used for the human buildings. Building Size and Placement: All the structures erected by Engineers take one square of the Game Map's grid. Constructor structures occupy four squares. Buildings cannot be placed over other units or structures, rubble, mountains, cliffs, or lava. Most buildings must be placed on land or on Water Platforms. Shipyards, Sea Breeders, Docks, Sea Pens, Water Platforms, and Bridges must be placed on water. If you cannot place a building somewhere, you will see a red cursor when you attempt to do so. Building Structures: To build a structure, select an Engineer or Constructor. From the window that pops up, click on a structure type and then click on the Game Map where you want to place the structure. If you can build the structure there, construction tape will surround the building site. The Engineer or Constructor will move to the site, if it is not there already, and start building when it gets there. You can establish building queues for Engineers and Constructors. Click on structures in these units' Command Windows and select building sites for them. Place as many structures as you like in this way. The Engineers and Constructors will move towards each site in order of placement and build there. To remove structures from a building queue, click on the Engineer or Constructor who was to build them. Click on the construction tape surrounding each structure's future site to remove it from the unit's building queue. Engineers and Constructors use 2 Raw Materials per turn or turn-equivalent while building, in addition to their Power requirements. They must have access to Raw Materials and Power or they cannot build. However, Constructors and Engineers can always build Mining Stations, Material Harvesters, and Water Platforms over Raw Material deposits, regardless of resource supplies. Note: In M.A.X.2, buildings do not have to be connected to each other or to Mining Stations, Material Harvesters, or Storage Units to obtain the Power or Raw Materials they require. Building Statistics: All buildings have armor, a high number of hits, and a scan range. Armor decreases damage to a building when it is attacked. Hits refer to how much damage a unit can take. A unit with 56 hits must take 56 points of damage, without being repaired in the interim, to be demolished. Scan is how far a unit can see. Any enemy unit within the scan range of a building will be visible as long as it is within the building's line-of-sight. The only exceptions are units that are ordinarily invisible, such as Infiltrators, Psi-Spawn, Submarines, submerged Armored Personnel Carriers, cloaked Spawn, and enemy Land or Sea Mines. All Sheevat buildings also have shields that protect their hits from damage. The only Sheevat structures without shields are Bridges, Castings, Roads, and Platforms. For more detailed descriptions of unit/building statistics, see the Units Chapter. Destroying Structures: Structures can be destroyed by enemy fire. They can also be destroyed by selecting Destruct from their Command Windows. Click on Arm in the new window that appears, and then click on the Red Button to destroy any friendly building or on Cancel if you change your mind. The rubble destroyed buildings leave behind can be cleared and scavenged by Bulldozers. Orders: You can issue orders to a building through its Command Window, which opens when you select the building. The building descriptions in this chapter discuss each building's functions. To stop whatever a building is doing, click on the Stop Button in its Command Window. Then issue new orders. Alternatively, just issue new orders to the building. Repair: All buildings are repaired automatically. They regain 10% of their maximum hits during every turn or turn-equivalent in which they are not attacked. You can also repair a damaged building with a Repair Unit, if you are playing for a human race. Move a Repair Unit adjacent to the damaged building. Select Repair from the Repair Unit's Command Window, and click on the building to repair it. Repair takes one turn or turn-equivalent to complete. A building does not function while being repaired in this way. Note: For buildings, armor damage from Biobomb attacks cannot be repaired. Upgrades: You can purchase upgrades through Gold Mining Stations or Gold Harvesters or invest in research through Research Centers. Most buildings automatically upgrade when a relevant upgrade has been purchased or researched. Upgrading takes two turns to complete, and buildings continue to function during this process. To upgrade stationary guns, however, you must select this option from their Command Windows. Upgrading these buildings also takes two turns, but the guns cannot fire during the upgrade process. All structures in M.A.X.2 are described in the following sections. See Appendix A for a chart summarizing building functions. See the STATS.TXT file on your CD-ROM for building statistics. Resources: Production and Storage Various buildings mine, store, or otherwise produce the resources: Gold, Raw Materials, and Power, needed to run things in your game. Gold is converted into Credits which are used to buy upgrades. Raw Materials and Power are required to build units and structures. Gold Mining Stations and Gold Harvesters mine Gold and immediately convert it into Credits. One Credit is produced from 1 Gold. A Gold Mining Station cannot mine more than 16 Gold per turn. Mining Stations and Material Harvesters mine and process raw Material. They mine a maximum of 16 units of Material per turn. They also automatically transfer processed Material, used for constructing new units and buildings, as necessary. Power Stations and Power Pods generate 80 points of power each, at the cost of 8 points of reduced mining. They turn themselves off and on as required. Different types of units and buildings consume different amounts of power. If you do not have enough power generators, or enough Mining Stations to support them, then you will be limited in what you can build. While virtually everything requires Power to function, Raw Materials are only required by factories, Engineers, Constructors, Minelayers, and Sea Minelayers. These buildings and units use Raw Materials to build things. When a building or unit is short of Power or Raw Materials, this fact is stated in its Unit Picture. Buildings or units that run out of Power or Raw Materials remember their orders and resume work when they are able. The best way to ensure that you do not run out of Raw Materials and Power is to build enough Mining Stations or Material Harvesters and Power Stations or Power Pods. The number of these buildings will determine how many units and buildings you can support during the game. Always make sure you have sufficient sources of Raw Materials and Power. Material and Gold deposits will appear on the surface of the world as purple and gold icons, respectively. The more filled in the icon, the better the deposit. Use the Survey button to see the exact amount of ore in a deposit. A mining station will mine that amount of material or gold every turn or turn-equivalent. All units can discover deposits, but units with a longer Scan range work best. To avoid wasting mined Raw Materials you must have enough storage space. A Mining Station or Material Harvester cannot store more than 25 Raw Materials. Storage Units, however, are cheap and can store 50 Raw Materials. If there is insufficient storage space, excess resources are lost permanently. Gold Mining Stations and Gold Harvesters automatically convert Gold to Credits and bank these for you; no special storage facilities are required. Gold Mining Station (Sheevat Gold Harvester): Gold Mining Stations are built by Constructors. They mine Gold and convert it directly and immediately into Credits. They should be situated over Gold deposits. They cannot mine more than 16 Gold per turn or turn-equivalent. The Sheevat call these structures Gold Harvesters. Note: Your total Credit balance is displayed in any Gold Mining Station's Unit Picture. You can purchase upgrades through Gold Mining Stations. Click on Buy UPG in a Gold Mining Station's Command Window to reach the Upgrades menu. A list of upgrade packages will be displayed. Each package will purchase new technology for the listed units. You can select multiple packages to purchase upgrades for multiple types of units. The bottom package, Custom Upgrades, will take you to the Custom Upgrade menu. Before you leave this menu, you can use the left-arrow buttons to remove just-purchased upgrades. The Credits you spent will be returned to you. Click on Done when you are finished. Click on Cancel, instead, to return to the game without purchasing any upgrades. All future units or buildings of the types you upgraded, including those currently being built, will acquire the upgrades when they are produced. Older units must go to Hangars, Docks, or Depots or the Sheevat equivalent to acquire upgrades. Older buildings, except for stationary guns, start upgrading automatically and acquire upgraded statistics in two turns. To upgrade stationary guns, open their Command Windows and click on Upgrade or UPG. All. UPG. All upgrades all stationary guns of that type. All buildings except for stationary guns continue to function while they are being upgraded. For more information on upgrades, see the Purchasing and Researching Upgrades Chapter. Mining Station (Sheevat Material Harvester): Mining Stations are built by Constructors. They mine and process Raw Materials. In most games, except for various campaign missions, stand-alone missions, and custom scenarios, you will start with one Mining Station situated over a +16 Raw Material deposit. New Mining Stations can only be placed over a deposit of Raw Materials. Mining Stations cannot mine more than 16 Raw Materials per turn. The Sheevat call these buildings Material Harvesters. A Mining Station can store up to 25 Raw Materials. If it mines more than can be stored by all available Storage Units and Mining Stations, the excess Raw Materials are lost. Storage Unit (Sheevat Material Storage): A Storage Unit is built by Engineers and can store up to 50 Raw Materials. Storage Units automatically transfer Raw Materials to units or buildings that need them. The Sheevat analogue is called Material Storage. Power Station (Sheevat Power Pod): These buildings produce 80 points of power and reduce your total material mined by 8 points. If you are not mining enough material, these buildings will not function. You can build new Power Stations as required, but your maximum amount of power displayed will not update until you have enough mining stations to support them. They activate and deactivate as necessary, using the least amount of material possible. The Sheevat version is called a Power Pod. Factories and Building Units Factories create mobile units. All factories are built by Constructors and use 3 Raw Materials per game turn or turn-equivalent. If factories receive insufficient supplies of Power and Raw Materials, they will stop building. When supplies are restored, they will resume functioning where they left off. To build a new unit, click on Build in a factory's Command Window. In the Factory Menu that appears, there is a Unit List on the right; scroll through this list using the arrow buttons under it. Click on a unit in the list to select it. A picture of the unit will appear along with a description that can be toggled on or off with the Description Button. A summary of the unit's statistics appears under its picture. To place a unit into a factory's Building Queue (in the top center of the menu), select the unit from the Unit List. Then click on it again or click on the Build Button. To make extra copies, continue to click on the unit in the Unit List or on the Build Button. Units are built in the order they are placed into the queue. To make a repeating building queue, click on the Repeat Button after setting up a building queue. Until you change its orders, the factory will keep producing the units in the queue. To remove a unit from a Building Queue, select the unit from the queue, and click on the Delete Button under the list. You can also return to a building's Factory Menu at a later date to alter the units it is building. When you are through with the Factory Menu, click on Done to return to the Game Screen or Cancel to cancel your latest building orders and to return to the Game Screen. Note: The X2 and X4 Buttons in the Factory Menu allow you to build units at accelerated rates. The units will cost more to build--the cost appears next to these buttons. If you select the X2 or X4 Button, every unit in that factory's Building Queue will be built at the accelerated rate. If you change your mind, click on the X1 Button. A factory always builds the latest version of the unit type selected, incorporating all upgrades to date. A unit that is in the process of being built as an applicable upgrade is bought or researched will automatically receive that upgrade. When a new unit is built, the game notifies you of this. Factories will automatically deploy the unit. By default, the deployment area is next to the factory. If there is no more room to deploy a unit, the factory will halt construction until you move units out of the way and create room. You can also change the deployment location. Left-click on the factory and right-click on another location. A path will be displayed if the location is legal. Select the factory, and click on the MOVE command to disable the existing deployment zone. Note: The only units not built by factories are Sheevat Spawn and Psi-Spawn. These are born from eggs placed into organic hosts by Incubators. See the Units Chapter for more details. Air Units Plant (Sheevat Air Breeder): This structure builds all aircraft: Fighters, Ground Attack Planes, Attack Planes (humans/Concord), Air Transports, and AWACs. It is called an Air Breeder by the Sheevat. Heavy Units Plant (Sheevat Heavy Breeder): This structure builds Constructors, Scanners, Tanks (humans), Shock Tanks (Sheevat), Assault Guns (humans), Lightning Cannons (Sheevat), Rocket Launchers (humans), Stasis Projectors (Sheevat), Biobomb Crawlers (Sheevat), Missile Crawlers (humans), Robotic Walkers (humans), and Command Units (Sheevat). The Sheevat call this structure a Heavy Breeder. Light Units Plant (Sheevat Light Breeder): This structure builds Engineers, Repair Units (humans), Bulldozers, Scouts, Armored Personnel Carriers, Mobile Anti-Aircraft, Minelayers (humans), Infantry (humans), Infiltrators (humans), and Incubators (Sheevat). It is called a Light Breeder by the Sheevat. Shipyard (Sheevat Sea Breeder): Shipyards can only be built on the water and build Escorts, Corvettes, Gunboats, Submarines, Sea Transports, Missile Cruisers (humans), Biobomb Ships (Sheevat), and Sea Minelayers (humans). The Sheevat call this structure a Sea Breeder. Maintenance Buildings Depots (Sheevat Hives), Hangars (Sheevat Nests), and Docks (Sheevat Sea Pens) repair and upgrade land units, planes, and ships, respectively. Docks must be placed on water to function. These structures are all built by Constructors. Depots and Hangars can hold and operate on up to 12 units at a time; Docks are limited to holding and working on 6 units at a time. To move a unit into a Depot, Hangar, or Dock, select the building and click on Load in its Command Window. Then click on the unit(s) you wish to place into the facility. Units move towards the building and enter when they reach it. When you are done, you can right-click to remove the Load Cursor. Alternatively, you can call up the unit's Command Window, click on Enter, and then click on the building. The unit will move to the building and enter it. It takes one turn to upgrade and/or repair any one unit. Units are upgraded and repaired in the order in which they enter the building. When work on a unit is completed, the unit is automatically placed outside the maintenance building. To move a unit out before work is done on it, open the Activate Menu, and click on the Activate Button under that unit. Then select a valid location to place that unit. You can also click on Activate All to unload all units. Units unloaded before they are completely repaired and upgraded leave in the same condition as they entered. Note: If a Dock, Hangar, or Depot is destroyed, all units within it are destroyed as well. Defensive Structures All defensive structures, including stationary guns and Radar, are built by Engineers. Because stationary guns can attack enemies, they have several statistics that other structures do not have, including attack, shots, and range statistics. For descriptions of these and other statistics, see the Units Chapter. As long as a stationary gun has shots available, it can attack enemies. Click on Attack in the stationary gun's Command Window. Then click on a visible enemy within range and line-of-sight to fire. Right-click to remove the Attack Cursor without firing. You can also attack with a stationary gun by selecting it and clicking on an enemy unit within range. A stationary gun cannot attack if its Power supply is insufficient. Stationary guns can fire automatically on enemies that come within range. Select Autofire from a stationary gun's Command Window to call up three options: All, Threats, and None. All commands the stationary gun to fire automatically on any visible enemy within range; Threats commands the gun to fire only on enemy combat units within range; and None commands the gun to not fire automatically on anything. A stationary gun set to autofire will attack the first enemy unit to enter its range and will continue to fire on that unit until that unit dies or moves out of range. If you have researched or purchased an upgrade that affects a stationary gun's statistics, you must specifically request an upgrade for that gun by clicking on Upgrade in its Command Window. You can also upgrade all stationary guns of that type at the same time by clicking on UPG. All. An upgrade takes 2 turns or turn-equivalents to make. A stationary gun cannot fire while it is being upgraded. Sheevat stationary guns acquire experience and upgrades through combat. These upgrades are immediately applied to their stats when they gain levels. Anti-Aircraft: This unit protects your complexes from enemy aircraft. Anti-aircraft cannot fire on land units, buildings, or ships. It is the only stationary gun, however, that can attack air units. Artillery Turret: This is a medium-range weapon that bridges the gap in defensive abilities between Gun Turrets and Missile Turrets or Biobomb Pods. Biobomb Pod: This is the Sheevat version of the Missile Turret. This stationary gun fires Biobombs that degrade enemy armor. Biobombs leave clouds that will float across the battlefield, damaging all enemy units. EW Pod: The EW (Electronic Warfare) Pod is a unique Sheevat building that can take control of non-organic enemy units and buildings. Only human units, other than Infiltrators and Infantry, and human buildings are susceptible to being controlled. Concord units and Sheevat units and buildings cannot be controlled with this structure. Only one unit can be controlled at a time and if the EW Pod is destroyed or disabled, its control over that unit ceases. To attempt to control an enemy unit, select Steal from the EW Pod's Command Window and click on the target. EW Pods gain experience from successfully controlling enemy units. Gun Turret (Sheevat Gun Pod): This gun is relatively inexpensive and well armored. It is the defensive weapon of choice for early protection of your colony. Missile Turret: This can only be built by human races. A Missile Turret is a very powerful, long-range weapon. Unfortunately, it is not well armored and should be protected from enemy attacks by Gun Turrets and Anti-Aircraft. Radar Station (Sheevat Radar Pod): With a long scan range, Radar allows stationary guns and mobile units to see oncoming enemies before they get too close. Since most units have longer range than scanning ability, Radar allows them to fire at enemies that they would otherwise not be able to see. Because of this, Radar is very useful for protecting your complexes. Research Centers Research Centers and Research Stations are built by Constructors. To research an upgrade, click on the Resrch Button in a Research Center's Command Window. This brings up the Research Topics Menu. The Research Topics Menu has three columns: Labs, Topics, and Turns. In the Labs column, use the slider bars to adjust how many Research Centers are researching upgrades for each statistic. You can put all your Research Centers on one upgrade or have them work on different tasks. The Topics Column lists each statistic that you can upgrade along with the percentage of work that has already been done on upgrading it through research. The Turns Column shows how many turns or turn-equivalents remain before the research in each topic is completed, based on the current number of Research Centers assigned to each topic. The statistics you can upgrade include attack, shots, range, armor, hits, speed, scan, cost, and shields (Sheevat only). If you upgrade cost, it will take fewer turns to build units and structures. Research Centers automatically work on upgrading the attack statistic unless you alter what they are working on. Upgrades researched by Research Centers apply to all units and buildings with the statistic that was upgraded. For any particular unit or building, the amount of any upgrade depends on its starting statistics (taking any race bonuses into account). The higher a starting statistic for a given unit, the more that statistic will increase during relevant upgrades. Research takes a long time to conduct. You can increase the rate at which you acquire particular upgrades by applying more Research Centers to those tasks. For more information on upgrades, see Purchasing and Researching Upgrades. Infrastructure A number of structures built by Engineers provide physical functions: Bridges, Roads, Defensive Blocks (Sheevat Castings), and Water Platforms. None of these structures' Command Windows offers more than an option to remove the structure. For the Sheevat, these are the only structures that lack shields. Bridge: A Bridge lets land units cross water. Bridges must be built over water and do not impede ship movement. Defensive Block (Sheevat Casting): A Defensive Block can impede enemy movement, but not enemy fire. The Sheevat use Castings instead of Blocks for the same function. Road: Land units can move twice as quickly over roads as over other terrain. Water Platform: This provides a surface over the water for building new structures. Water platforms must be placed on water and cannot be crossed by ships. Flag Bases: In games where victory conditions in the Options Menu have been set to Capture the Flag, Mobile Flags, and Return to Base, all teams begin with one or two Flag Bases near the center of their first base. Flag Bases are 2x2 structures that cannot be moved or destroyed. Each square of these structures can hold up to one flag. For more information, see the Winning the Game Chapter. Title and Background: Aside from the units with which you begin a mission or game and those you purchase before landing on a planet (see the Purchase Menu Chapter), almost all units must be built by factories: Light Units Plants or Light Breeders, Heavy Units Plants or Heavy Breeders, Air Units Plants or Air Breeders, and Shipyards or Sea Breeders. The only units that are not built by factories are the Sheevat Spawn and Psi-Spawn; these units' origins are discussed later in this chapter. Below are listed the units that each factory can build: Human/Concord Light Units Plant Heavy Units Plant APCs Assault Guns Bulldozers Concord Assault Guns Engineers Constructors Infantry Missile Crawlers Infiltrators Rocket Launchers Minelayers Scanners Mobile Anti-Air Tanks Repair Units Concord Tanks Scouts Robotic Walkers Air Units Plant Shipyard Air Transports Corvettes Concord Attack Planes Escorts AWACSGunboats Submarines Fighters Concord Gunboats Ground Attack Planes Missile Cruisers Sea Minelayers Sea Transports Sheevat Light Breeder Heavy Breeder APCs Biobomb Crawlers Bulldozers Command Units Engineers Constructors Incubators Lightning Cannons Mobile Anti-Air Scanners Scouts Shock Tanks Stasis Projectors Air Breeders Sea Breeders Air Transports Biobomb Ships AWACs Corvettes Fighters Escorts Ground Attack Planes Gunboats Sea Transports Submarines Selection: Selection: Left-click on a unit to select it. Hold down SHIFT and left-click on other units to add them to a group. You can also left-click and drag to create a box that will select all units within the box. Right-click and drag to select combat units only. Press CTRL-1 to CTRL-9 to store a group of units. Press 1 to 9 to select that stored group. Movement: All units have one function in common: they can all move. To move a unit, select it and click on the desired destination on the Game Map. Alternatively, right-click on the desired destination on the World Map. To move a group of units somewhere, click and drag a square around them and then click on the group's destination. Right-click and drag to select only combat units. You can set waypoints for selected units or groups by holding the SHIFT key down as you click on multiple destinations. SHIFT right-click to select the final destination square for a random unit in a group. If a unit cannot go somewhere, nothing will happen if you try to click on that destination, and the game will inform you in some way that the unit cannot go there. Only planes have completely unrestricted movement. Ships can only travel on the water or under Bridges. Most land units are restricted to land, Water Platforms, and Bridges. Some solid terrain: mountains, tall cliffs, as well as lava cannot be crossed by land units either. Amphibious units cannot traverse impassable solid terrain (mountains, tall cliffs) or lava. Infantry can move over more terrain than other land units. After a unit is ordered to move, in turn-based and simultaneous-moves games, the unit will go as far as it can in the current game turn and will continue along its path in future turns. In real-time games, the unit will move along at its speed and will only stop if it spots an enemy, if you have selected this option in your Preferences Menu, or if something appears to block its way. The speed statistic of a unit determines how quickly it moves during real-time games or how far it can move per turn in turn-based and simultaneous-moves games. One speed point is sufficient to move a unit one grid square over most terrain types, although it costs 1.5 speed points to move diagonally. Water takes three times as long for amphibious units to cross as normal terrain, and Roads double the speed of land units. Note: New areas traversed by your units, within their scan range and line-of-sight, are automatically surveyed for Raw Materials and Gold deposits. Units may use up speed or movement points when they do something besides moving around. The following chart summarizes this information for all actions and unit types. An attacking unit, if out of range, will move towards its target and will attack when the target is within range. If the target leaves the attacking unit's range, the attacker will follow its target and attack when it can. The Attack Cursor is a red targeting circle with a small, colored bar. The green portion of the bar estimates how many hits the target unit will have left after you attack; the red portion is an estimate of how much damage your attack will do to the target. Ideal attacks show an Attack Cursor whose bar has a large red portion and a small or non-existent green portion. To order a unit to attack enemies automatically, select Autofire from its Command Window. Then select All, to order the unit to fire on any enemy within range. Select Threats to order the unit to fire only on enemy combat units within range. Select None to order the unit to fire only on your command. A unit ordered to autofire on enemies will fire on the first enemy to enter its range and will continue to fire at that unit until the target dies or moves out of range. Click on Automove in a unit's Command Window to select whether or not the unit will move or hold its place while autofiring. Select Advance if you want the unit to move so it can fire, in which case it will follow its target around and fire whenever it is within range, or select Hold if you wish the unit not to move at all. Retreat will move this unit out of known enemy range. Repair: When units are damaged, they should be repaired. Note that Concord units automatically repair themselves. A unit capable of self-repair regains 20% of its maximum hits during every turn or turn-equivalent in which it is not attacked. A unit with shields (all Sheevat units and Sheevat buildings have shields) regenerates these at a rate of 30% of its maximum number of shields during every turn in which it is not attacked. To repair a unit, load it into a Depot or Hive (land units), Hangar or Nest (aircraft), or Dock or Sea Pen (ships). Click on Load in the building's Command Window, and then click on the unit(s) you wish to load. You can right-click to remove the Load Cursor. Click on the building's Activate Button to open the Activate Menu. Click on Repair under the units you wish to repair or click on Repair All. It takes one turn to repair a unit, and the first unit in the building is the first one repaired. When a unit is repaired, it is automatically placed outside the building. Alternatively, if you are playing for a human race, move a Repair Unit next to a damaged land or sea unit--aircraft cannot be fixed by Repair Units. Click on Repair in the Repair Unit's Command Window, and then click on the damaged unit. Repair takes all of the damaged unit's and the Repair Unit's maximum speed points. If either unit has moved during the current turn, repair will continue into the following turn, using up the remaining required movement points before repair is complete. Select Automotive-Repair on a Repair Unit to have it move automatically to repair units on your side. Upgrades: Units may be upgraded through research or by purchasing upgrades. Units built before an upgrade is bought or researched must receive their upgrades through Hangars or Nests (aircraft), Docks or Sea Pens (ships), or Depots or Hives (land units). Load a unit into the appropriate building, click on the building's Activate Button, and select Upgrade or Upgrade All. It takes one turn to upgrade one unit, and all applicable upgrades are made concurrently. When the unit is upgraded, it will automatically be placed outside the building. To learn more about upgrades, see the Researching and Purchasing Upgrades Chapter. Note: Sheevat combat units, Sheevat stationary guns, and Concord units automatically acquire upgrades, that is, personal upgrades for that particular unit or building, from combat experience. Such upgrades take place on the field immediately as the units acquire sufficient experience. This is in addition to, but does not replace, upgrades from technology research and Gold Mining Stations. Units and Resource Supplies: All units require Power and some require Raw Materials to function. When Power or Raw Materials run low, the primary mobile units affected by this are Engineers and Constructors, who will be unable to build anything but Mining Stations, Material Harvesters, and Water Platforms over Raw Material deposits, until they have enough resources again. Also, Minelayers and Sea Minelayers cannot place new mines if there are no Raw Materials in storage. All other mobile units will function as normal regardless of resource supplies. Units that scavenge Raw Materials--Bulldozers, Minelayers, and Sea Minelayers-- automatically transfer these to available storage space in your complexes. Transport: For units with transport functions: Armored Personnel Carriers, Air Transports, and Sea Transports, click on Load in the transport unit's Command Window, and then click on the unit(s) you wish to load into the vehicle. The units will move to the vehicle and will board it. When you finish selecting units to load, you can right-click to remove the Load Cursor. Note: Units in a transport do not function in any way and cannot be identified by your enemies. To unload these units, select the transport. Select the unit you wish to unload from the transport from the Cargo Command Window that pops up. Click on the Game Map where you want that unit placed. You cannot unload a unit onto terrain that it could not ordinarily cross. Continue to select and place units until you have ordered the unloading of all desired units. Entering Transports and Buildings: To direct a unit to enter a transport or maintenance building, call up its Command Window, select Enter, and then click on the transport or appropriate maintenance building. This is an alternative to using the Load Button from the building's or transport's Command Window. The unit will move towards its target and enter when it gets there. Changing Orders: To halt a unit or to stop its performing a pre-existing order, click on Stop in its Command Window. Alternatively, simply issue the unit new orders. Cycling Through Units: You can cycle through your units by using the < or > keys on your keyboard or by clicking on the Next and Previous Buttons on the Game Screen. In turn-based and simultaneous-moves games, to take a unit out of this list, select Done from its Command Window. A unit will complete as much of its orders as it can when you click on Done. Note: Units with standing orders that require multiple turns to complete will not appear as you cycle through your units, but will instead go about their tasks. They work on their tasks automatically in real-time or when you click on the End Turn Button for turn-based and simultaneous-moves games. To change such a unit's orders, you must find it on the Game Map, select it, and issue new orders. The following sections describe unit statistics, attack types and damage calculations, and then all of the mobile unit types in M.A.X.2. For a chart summarizing unit functions, see Appendix B. Consult the STATS.TXT file on your CD-ROM for unit statistics. Unit Statistics This section describes unit statistics. Descriptions apply to building statistics as well. Armor: Armor reduces the amount of damage a unit takes when it is attacked. If armor is damaged by Sheevat Biobombs, it can only be repaired in a Depot or Hive, Dock or Sea Pen, or Hangar or Nest using the Repair or Upgrade options. Buildings with damaged armor cannot repair this. Attack: This is a measure of how powerful a unit's attack is. The following section describes how damage is calculated for attacks. Cargo: Some units can store Raw Materials or other units. The amount they can hold is indicated by this statistic. This amount can never be changed. Cost: This is how many Raw Materials it takes to make a unit or building. It is also the value in Credits required to purchase a unit before starting a game. The cost of a unit never increases. Hits: This is how many points of damage it takes to kill a unit or building, assuming it is not repaired before taking the total amount of damage indicated. Lost hits can be repaired at Docks or Sea Pens, Hangars or Nests, and Depots or Hives. Human Repair Units can also restore hits to units and buildings. Concord units and all buildings (human and Sheevat) repair themselves. Self-repairing units regain 20% and buildings regain 10% of their maximum hits during any turn or turn-equivalent during which they are not attacked. Power: This is the amount of Power it takes per game turn or turn-equivalent to keep a unit or building fully operational. Power is supplied by Mining Stations and Material Harvesters. Deficits in Power do not affect any mobile units except for Engineers and Constructors. These units are the first to stop functioning when Power and Raw Materials are in short supply. Factories are the next units/buildings to stop functioning. Last, your other buildings, including stationary guns, will stop working. When a selected unit or building is short of Power, this is stated in its Unit Picture. The Power statistic can never be altered. Range: This is an attack range. A target must be within this range, visible, and in the attacker's line-of-sight before it can be attacked by the selected unit. Only units with missiles or similar weapons can fire on targets not within their line-of-sight. Range has no effect on attack strength or accuracy. Most buildings or units cannot see as far as they can shoot. To use them to their potential, build Radar and always send Scouts, Scanners, or AWACS (all of which have long scan ranges) out with your combat units. Scan: This is a measure of how far a unit or building can see. Items are visible if they are within a unit's scanning range and line-of-sight. Only units that the selected unit could see anyway are visible when within scanning range. For example, on its own, a Tank cannot see an Infiltrator, even if it is right next to one. Shields: All Sheevat units and buildings have this statistic. The only Sheevat structures that do not get shields are Roads, Bridges, Platforms, and Castings. Shields absorb damage during attacks. When shields are gone, the unit starts taking damage to its hits. Shields regenerate at a rate of 30% of a unit's maximum number of shields during every game turn or turn-equivalent in which the unit is not attacked. Shots: This is how many times a unit can fire per game turn or turn-equivalent. In real- time games, most units and buildings can fire twice as often per turn-equivalent as they can in turn-based and simultaneous-moves games, but their attacks do roughly half the damage. Only Stasis Projectors and the disable and steal attacks of Infiltrators and EW Pods are not subject to this double-attacks/half-damage effect in real-time play. If a unit moves, this generally decreases the number of shots it can fire during that turn. See the chart near the beginning of this chapter for more details. Speed: Speed is how many movement points a unit gets per game turn or turn-equivalent. Speed is spent on performing actions and on moving. One speed point is generally used when a unit moves from one grid square on the Game Map to another. Roads require half the speed to cross for land units; water requires 3 speed points to cross for amphibious units; and moving diagonally takes 1.5 speed points for all units. Rough terrain costs double for non-Infantry land units to move through. For more details on how speed is used up see the early paragraphs in this chapter. Uses: This is how many Raw Materials per game turn or turn-equivalent the selected unit requires to perform its functions. This value cannot be altered. Attack Types and Damage Calculations There are many attack types in M.A.X.2. All of these are discussed here in terms of their specific effects on target units. Normal attacks are discussed first as a basis from which to examine other attack types. Normal Attacks: There is no such thing as accuracy when units fire on each other in M.A.X.2. There is only a question of how much damage is done. This depends on 1) the attack strength of the attacking unit, 2) the presence of shields (Sheevats only), 3) the armor status of the defending unit, and 4) the game-play mode (real time, turn based, or simultaneous moves). All attacks, regardless of armor, shield, and attack strength will do a minimum of one point of damage to a unit's hits or shields. The amount of damage done is calculated as follows, where the Attack Strength is that of the attacker and the Armor value is that of the target: Base Damage = Attack Strength - Armor for turn-based and simultaneous-moves games. Base Damage = 1/2 x (Attack Strength - Armor) for real-time games. Base Damage is always at least 1. Actual Damage = a random number ranging from 50% Base Damage to 150% Base Damage. For example, if the base damage is 8 then the actual damage will be some number ranging from 4 to 12. The amount of actual damage done is subtracted from the target unit's hits. When a unit's hits reach zero, it is destroyed. If a unit has shields, these absorb damage before a unit starts losing hits. Base damage for an attack on a unit with shields is equal to the attacking unit's attack strength (or 50% of this for real-time games). Actual damage ranges from 50% to 150% of base damage and takes out its value in shields. Once all shields are destroyed, damage from attacks on such units is calculated normally (that is, taking armor into account), and the unit takes damage to its hits. One point should be made here, as it applies to several of the attack types discussed below, even though it does not apply directly to normal attacks. When a large (2x2) building is affected by an area attack (Biobomb attack, Rocket Launcher attack, or Shock Tank attack), it is only affected once, even if several of the squares it occupies are within the target area of such an attack. Biobomb Attacks: Biobombs degrade a target's armor by the amount of the attacking unit's attack strength. The target then takes a normal attack, also using the attacking unit's attack strength. If the target has shields, then the shields are reduced by the attacking unit's attack strength. Biobomb attacks leave a cloud of nanites (incredibly small machines) behind. Any enemy unit that is touched by this cloud will take damage. A cloud will last for four turns or turn-equivalents, and will do less damage as it slowly disappates. Clouds will slowly float over the battlefield. Degraded armor can only be repaired in Docks or Sea Pens, Hangars or Nests, and Depots or Hives by selecting the Repair or Upgrade option. Buildings with degraded armor cannot repair this. Disable Attacks: Infiltrators can attempt to disable enemy units and buildings. Only Infiltrators, Infantry, Psi-Spawn, and Spawn are immune to this attack. A disabled unit or building cannot act in any way; it cannot even spot enemy units. Time is the only real cure for being disabled; however, if an Infiltrator captures a disabled unit, the unit automatically recovers. Check a disabled unit's Unit Picture for how much more time it will remain in this state. When the unit recovers, it will resume what it was doing when it was disabled. The chance of successfully disabling a unit depends on the base cost of the unit and the level of the Infiltrator. The chance of disabling a unit is never greater than 90%. When you try to disable a unit, the cursor shows a bar giving a rough indication of your chances of success. The length of time a unit remains disabled is at least 1 turn, but depends on the base cost of the unit and the Infiltrator's level. Note: If you upgrade a unit's cost, this will not affect an Infiltrator's chance of disabling the unit or the duration for which it is disabled; only the unit's original/base cost is used in determining these values. Each level of experience that an Infiltrator has increases its chance of disabling a unit by 15%. For example, an Infiltrator with 3 levels of experience over a Rookie has a +3 disable skill and a 45% (3 levels x 15%) greater chance of disabling a unit than a Rookie does. For example, such an Infiltrator would have a 145% x 80% (or 116%, rounded down to 90%) chance of disabling an Assault Gun compared to a Rookie's 80% chance. Each level of experience that an Infiltrator has increases the length of time its targets are disabled by 12.5%. An Infiltrator with 2 levels of experience over a Rookie will disable a unit for 25% (2 levels x 12.5%) longer than a Rookie will. EW Pod Steal Attacks: The Sheevat have a defensive structure called the EW Pod that can take control of one electronic structure or unit at a time. All human units and buildings, except for Infiltrators, Infantry, and Concord units, are susceptible to this attack. Sheevat units and buildings are all organic and cannot be controlled by EW Pods. The chance of an EW Pod assuming control of a target is calculated in the same way as for an Infiltrator's chance to steal (discussed later in this chapter). The probability of success depends on the level of the EW Pod and the base cost of the target unit. Expensive units are harder to control than cheap units. An EW Pod can control only one unit at a time. If an EW Pod is destroyed or disabled, its control over a unit ceases. Control is also lost if a controlled unit is destroyed or when an EW Pod assumes control of a different unit. Stasis Attacks: A Sheevat Stasis Projector can generate a stasis field around mobile units and small buildings. A stasis attack never fails and no units are immune to it. A unit in stasis cannot act in any way; but it will not take any damage if it is attacked. The stasis field cannot be maintained for extended periods of time and will eventually vanish, returning the unit to normal time. If you click on the time-stasis sphere, you will see how much longer the unit will remain frozen. A unit will remain in stasis for two turns, or turn-equivalents. If a unit has not moved during the turn in which it is placed in stasis, it will not be able to move for the remainder of that turn and the next. If it has already acted, then it will not be able to take an action for the remainder of this turn and the following two turns. Friendly units may be placed in stasis. Robotic Walker Gas Attacks: The human races' Robotic Walkers have a Gas attack that only affects organic units. From the human races, only Infantry, Infiltrators, and Concord units are susceptible to this attack. All Sheevat units, including buildings, are susceptible to this attack. The Gas attack works the same way as normal attacks work in terms of calculating damage done to the target. However, the attack bypasses any Sheevat shields. Therefore, all damage done by a Gas attack is applied directly to the target's hits. Rocket Launcher Area Attacks: Rocket Launchers shoot medium-range rockets that affect all units and buildings, including friendly units and buildings, within two squares of their targets. Base damage to a unit depends on its distance from the primary target of the Rocket Launcher's attack. Below, Attack Strength is that of the Rocket Launcher and Armor is that of the affected unit: Primary Target: Base Damage = Attack Strength - Armor Units adjacent to (one square away from) Primary Target: Base Damage = 75% x (Attack Strength - Armor) Units two squares away from Primary Target: Base Damage = 50% x (Attack Strength - Armor) In real-time games, base damage is halved for each target. Actual damage done to a target ranges from 50% to 150% of base damage. Sheevat Incubator Egg Implantation: Sheevat Incubators can implant enemy Infiltrators, Infantry, and Concord units with eggs. They can also place eggs into all Sheevat mobile units, friendly or not. This attack is always successful. After implantation, the host will enjoy a short period of normal functioning. After this, the host will explode and be replaced by either a Sheevat Spawn or Sheevat Psi-Spawn. About 10% of the time the new unit is a Psi-Spawn (a naturally occurring mutant form of Spawn). Other than through death, there is no way for a host to rid itself of an egg. Sheevat Lightning Cannon Attacks: Sheevat Assault Guns are called Lightning Cannons. Their attacks jump from the target unit or building to the next closest enemy unit or building, as long as the next unit is within 3 squares of the last unit hit by the attack. The attack can jump twice. Each subsequent attack is of a lesser strength than the previous attack. The damage done to each target unit is calculated normally given this successively diminishing attack strength. During the course of a Lightning Cannon attack, when two or more enemy units are equidistant from a target the game chooses randomly which enemy will be hit next. It does not matter if a subsequent target is visible to your side--if it is close enough to be attacked by this jumping attack, it may be attacked. The amount of base damage done to a target unit depends on whether the unit is the first, second, or third target of this jumping attack. Below, Attack Strength is that of the Lightning Cannon and Armor is that of each target unit: First Target: Base Damage = Attack Strength - Armor Second Target: Base Damage = 75% x (Attack Strength - Armor) Third Target: Base Damage = 50% x (Attack Strength - Armor) In real-time games, the base damage is halved for each target. Actual damage done to a target ranges from 50% to 150% of base damage. Sheevat Shock Tank Electrical Attacks: The Sheevat Shock Tank's attack affects all units within two squares of the Tank, except for other friendly units. The damage from this attack is calculated in the same way as normal damage. Each target unit is subject to the Tank's full attack strength. Steal Attacks: Infiltrators can attempt to steal or control units or buildings. Their chance of successfully capturing a unit or building is 1/4 of their chance of disabling it (described in an earlier section of this chapter). A captured unit is under the control of the Infiltrator that stole it. If the Infiltrator dies, the unit returns to its original owner's control. Control over the unit is also lost if the Infiltrator successfully steals a different unit or if the unit dies. Infiltrators and Psi-Spawn are immune to steal attacks. Experience All Concord units, Sheevat combat units, and Sheevat stationary guns gain experience from destroying enemy units. The amount of experience gained depends on the attack strength of the destroyed target. Experience gains are low for killing non-combat units, non-combat buildings, and disabled units. When a unit gains enough experience it will receive bonuses to its attack, speed, hits, and shields (for Sheevat units and Sheevat stationary guns). Infiltrators gain experience when they successfully capture or disable enemy units, and EW Pods gain experience from successfully controlling enemy units. This gain in experience makes these units better at their functions, but does not boost any of their normal statistics. The higher the level of an Infiltrator or EW Pod, the more successes at stealing or disabling are required before it can go up another level. Human, Concord, and Sheevat Units Human races can make or buy both normal human units and special alien Concord units. Concord units include a Tank, Assault Gun, Gunboat, and Attack Plane. These units are all more powerful, and, therefore, more expensive, than their human equivalents. Concord units are organic in nature; they are self-repairing and gain experience from combat. The only one of these units with a slightly different function than its human version is the Attack Plane that can attack both air and ground units. No human units, other than Concord units and buildings, are capable of self-repair. No human units, other than Concord units, gain experience from combat either. However, Infiltrators gain levels from successfully disabling or stealing enemy units. The only organic human units, other than Concord units, are Infiltrators and Infantry. Sheevat units are alien units (just as the Concord units are), but they are unique to the Sheevat. Sheevat units and buildings have shields that absorb attack damage. These shields can regenerate. Because of these shields, Sheevat units and buildings tend to have fewer hits and less armor than corresponding human units. Sheevat mobile units cannot repair lost hits, although Sheevat buildings, just like human buildings, are capable of self- repair. In addition, all Sheevat units and buildings that can attack enemies gain experience from doing so. The Sheevat have many unique units and buildings. Even their units that are analogous to human or Concord units, such as Tanks and Assault Guns, often have unique attack modes or functions. All Sheevat units and buildings are organic in nature. Land Units All land units, except for Spawn and Psi-Spawn, are built by Light Units Plants, Light Breeders, Heavy Units Plants, or Heavy Breeders. Some land units are amphibious. Such units can also cross bodies of water. Most, however, can only travel on land and must use Bridges, transport vehicles, or Water Platforms to cross water. Unless otherwise stated, the units discussed in the following sections can only move on land. Construction Units: Two units, Engineers and Constructors, build all the structures in M.A.X.2. Both of these units can cross land and water. Engineers are built by Light Units Plants or Light Breeders and build all the smaller structures: defensive structures, infrastructure, and Storage Units. Constructors are built by Heavy Units Plants or Heavy Breeders and build everything else: Mining Stations, maintenance buildings, factories, and Research Centers. Lists of all structures that these units build are in the Buildings Chapter. Each of these units requires Power and 2 Raw Materials per turn or turn-equivalent to construct buildings. As long as there are sufficient Raw Materials and Power available, these units will be able to function. To build a structure, click on an Engineer or Constructor to open its Command Window, which is simply a building list. In the list, click on the structure you wish to make, and click on the Game Map where you want it built. A square of construction tape will appear around the building site. The unit will move toward the building site, if it is not there already, and start building when it arrives. You can establish a building queue by selecting as many structures as you like and placing them on the Game Map where you want them built. The construction unit will build the structures in the order in which their building sites were selected on the Game Map. You will not be able to build new structures over rubble, trees, other units, buildings, or on some slopes and hills. Most buildings cannot be placed over water, while Docks, Sea Pens, Shipyards, Sea Breeders, Bridges, and Water Platforms must be built over water. If two or more structures are slated to be built at the same site, only the structure that starts being made first can be built there. To remove a building from an Engineer's or Constructor's building queue, click on the Engineer or Constructor, and click on the site you wish removed. Note: You will see all future building sites when you select any construction unit. However, the site you choose to remove must be one from the selected unit's building queue. Combat Land Units: In M.A.X.2, there are a variety of land units with combat functions. All of these units are discussed in this section. In turn-based and simultaneous-moves games, combat units cannot always fire and move in the same turn. Whether or not a unit can fire in a given turn depends on a) how far it has already moved, b) how far it must move before it can fire, and c) how many shots it has left. For example, a Tank will ordinarily get 2 shots per turn. If the Tank has not yet moved or fired and there is a visible target within range, the Tank will be able to fire both shots. If the Tank has already moved a little, it may only fire once. If it has moved a lot, it will not get to fire at all on the current turn. Infiltrators, Psi-Spawn, and Scouts are exceptions. These units may use up all of their movement points and still fire. Infiltrators can use up all their movement points and both fire and attempt to steal or disable a unit. In real-time games, units are not subject to these restrictions on movement and firing. For specific information on moving and firing combat units, see the first section of this chapter. Neglecting line-of-sight, all land combat units can attack any visible land or sea unit within range unless otherwise stated in the following descriptions. There are some units that serve combat functions, even though they cannot fire at enemies. These units are indicated below by an asterisk next to their names. Assault Gun (Sheevat Lightning Cannon): These are fast units with a fair attack range. They are built by Heavy Units Plants or Heavy Breeders. Concord Assault Guns are more powerful than their human equivalent and can self-repair and gain experience through combat. Sheevat Assault Guns are called Lightning Cannons and have a unique attack mode. After their first target is hit, the attack can jump to a second enemy unit or building up to 3 squares away from the initial target. The attack can then jump one more time to a third unit. Each ensuing attack is weaker than the previous one. The attacks always jump to the next closest enemy with ties resolved randomly. Targets do not have to be visible to be hit by secondary or tertiary attacks. Biobomb Crawler: These are built by Heavy Breeders and are only available to Sheevats. They fire Biobombs that degrade enemy armor. Biobomb clouds move slowly over the battlefield. Command Units*: These Sheevat units are built by Heavy Breeders. They cannot fire at enemies. However, they increase nearby mobile Sheevat units' attack, speed, and shield stats. Command Units do not exert cumulative effects on unit statistics. Robotic Walkers: These human units are built by Heavy Units Plants. They have a special attack that affects organic units. The only human units affected by Gas attacks are Infantry, Infiltrators, and Concord units. However, all Sheevat units and buildings are susceptible to this attack. The Gas attack bypasses Sheevat shields. Incubator: This Sheevat unit is built by Light Breeders and can place eggs into friendly or enemy organic, mobile units. These eggs develop, and after a short time the host unit explodes, leaving a Sheevat Spawn (about 90% of the time) or Psi-Spawn (about 10% of the time) in its place. There is no way to influence whether a Spawn or Psi-Spawn will appear from an egg. To place an egg into an enemy host, move an Incubator adjacent to the desired host; select the Incubator and click on the target. To place an egg into a friendly host, select Implant from the Incubator's Command Window, and then click on the host. Suitable hosts for Incubator's eggs are Infiltrators, Infantry, Concord units, and all Sheevat mobile units. Because of the way Spawn and Psi-Spawn are generated, no Raw Materials are used in the process. Raw Materials are also not required for implantation. Infantry (Sheevat Spawn): Human Infantry units are built by Light Units Plants, while Sheevat Spawn develop from eggs implanted into organic hosts by Incubators. Infantry and Spawn can spot enemy Infiltrators, Psi-Spawn, and cloaked Spawn. Infantry and Spawn cannot be disabled by Infiltrators. Spawn give bonuses to the speed, attack, and shield statistics of nearby friendly Spawn. These bonuses are cumulative with each other and with the Command Unit's bonuses. Spawn within 3 squares of friendly Psi-Spawn become invisible to all units except for Infantry, Infiltrators, Psi-Spawn, and Spawn. When such cloaked Spawn attack, however, they become visible to all other units for one turn. Infiltrators: Available only to human races and built by Light Units Plants, Infiltrators are stealth units invisible to all enemy units except for Infantry, Spawn, Infiltrators, and Psi-Spawn. Infiltrators become visible to other units when they attack or try and fail to capture/disable enemy units. Once visible, they remain that way for one turn. Infiltrators can spot Mines, although they cannot disable them; they can also spot Infiltrators, cloaked Spawn, and Psi-Spawn. To attempt to disable an enemy unit or building, the Infiltrator must be adjacent to it. Click on Disable in the Infiltrator's Command Window, and then click on the target. Only Infiltrators, Infantry, Psi-Spawn, and Spawn are immune to this attack. A disabled unit or building is unable to function for at least one turn. Only units that are captured while disabled escape this state prematurely; when a disabled unit is captured, it immediately becomes active. Attempting to capture an enemy unit or building works the same way as disabling it, except you must choose Steal from the Infiltrator's Command Window. A captured unit becomes yours immediately and retains all of its stats and unique abilities. A captured unit is not permanently yours, however. An Infiltrator can retain control over only one captured unit at a time. If the Infiltrator captures a new unit or dies, the captured unit returns to the control of its original owner. An Infiltrator can always attempt to attack and disable or steal, regardless of how far it has moved during the current turn. Infiltrators gain experience by successfully disabling and capturing enemy units or buildings. The more experienced they are the better they can perform these functions. Land Mine: These are built and placed by Minelayers. They are small, stationary, explosive devices that damage units that step on them. They can only be spotted by Infiltrators, Psi-Spawn, and Minelayers. Mines do not explode when contacted by friendly units or Minelayers. A Minelayer can disable a Land Mine, but any combat unit can destroy one by attacking it. Minelayer: These human units are built by Light Units Plants. They can lay Land Mines, using 1 Raw Material for each Mine. They can also spot Mines, disable them, and salvage 1 Raw Material from each disabled mine. Salvaged Raw Materials are automatically transferred to any available storage space; if no space is available, excess Raw Materials are permanently lost. It takes no extra time or speed points for Minelayers to lay or disable Mines. To place Land Mines, move a Minelayer where you want a new Mine. Click on Place in the unit's Command Window. If, after selecting Place, you click on some destination on your Game Map, the Minelayer will move to that location, laying Land Mines along the way. If there are no Raw Materials in storage, Minelayers will not be able to place new Mines. To disable a Land Mine, place a Minelayer on top of it, open the Minelayer's Command Window, and select Remove. You can also set a Minelayer to "remove mode" by clicking on its Remove Button; the Minelayer will then remove any Land Mines it crosses as it moves. Missile Crawler: These human, mobile missile launchers are built by Heavy Units Plants. A Missile Crawler has a high range and a strong attack, but it is only lightly armored. It should be positioned behind sturdier, shorter range units. Mobile Anti-Air: These are built by Light Units Plants or Light Breeders and can shoot down enemy air units. They may not fire on any other unit types. Psi-Spawn: This Sheevat unit develops from an egg implanted in an organic host by a Sheevat Incubator. It is a genetic mutant form of the usual product of such an implantation, a Spawn. A Psi-Spawn is the Sheevat's analogue to the human Infiltrator. Psi-Spawn are invisible to all other units except for Infantry, Infiltrators, Spawn, and other Psi-Spawn. They become visible for one turn if they attack an enemy unit. Like Infiltrators, Psi-Spawn can always attack, even if they have used up their movement points for the current turn. Psi-Spawn can also spot Mines, although they cannot disable them. Unlike Infiltrators, however, Psi-Spawn cannot disable or steal other units. Instead, they exert a cloaking effect on all Spawn within 3 squares of themselves. Cloaked Spawn are invisible to all units except for other Spawn, Infantry, Infiltrators, and Psi-Spawn. Cloaked Spawn become visible to all units for one turn when they attack. Rocket Launcher: These human units are built by Heavy Units Plants. They are lightly armored and bear medium-range rockets that affect all units and buildings within two squares of their targets. The farther a unit is from the target, the less damage it is likely to sustain. Rocket Launchers are most effective against groups of enemy units or complexes. Scout: These are built by Light Units Plants or Light Breeders. Scouts move quickly and have a high scan ability allowing them to see units that are far away. They can always attack even if they have used up their movement points for the turn. Because of this and because of their high speed, Scouts are useful for hit-and-run tactics. Along with Scanners and AWACs, these units are useful for finding enemies, so that other units can fire on them. Stasis Projector: These Sheevat units are built by Heavy Breeders. They fire a Freezing attack that stops the targeted unit or small building for two of its turns or turn-equivalents. To learn how much longer a unit will remain frozen, click on the time-stasis sphere that surrounds it. While a frozen unit cannot do anything useful, it will also not take any damage if it is attacked, so Stasis Projectors can be used to good effect on friendly units and small buildings as well as on those of your enemies. Tank (Sheevat Shock Tank): Tanks are built by Heavy Units Plants or Heavy Breeders and are well-armored units with fair fire power. They should be used in your front line, protecting more fragile, long-range units such as Assault Guns and Rocket Launchers. Concord Tanks are more powerful than ordinary human Tanks; they can self-repair and gain experience through combat. Sheevat Shock Tanks have a unique Electrical attack that affect all enemy units within a short distance. Only friendly Shock Tanks are immune to this attack. Each target unit is subject to the Shock Tank's full attack strength. Other Land Units There are a few other land units that perform vital functions in M.A.X.2. Armored Personnel Carriers can transport land units across land or water. Scanners act like mobile radar platforms. Repair Units can only be built by human races and repair damage to units' and buildings' hits. Bulldozers clear rubble. Each of these units is discussed here. Armored Personnel Carrier: These are built by Light Units Plants and can carry up to 6 infantry or infiltrators. They move quickly and can cross both land and water. Because of these abilities, they are useful for transporting slower land units. To load an Armored Personnel Carrier, click on Load in its Command Window. Then click on the unit(s) to load. Alternatively, open the Command Window of the unit you wish to load onto a transport and click on Enter. Then click on the transport to get the unit to move to it and enter. To unload a unit from an APC, select the transport, select a unit from the Cargo Command Window that appears, and click on where you want that unit placed. You can only unload land units onto terrain that they could ordinarily cross. Submerged APCs can only be spotted by Corvettes. Submerged APCs can load and unload units if they are just offshore; they remain invisible to all units except for Corvettes while they do this. Bulldozer: Bulldozers are built by Light Units Plants or Light Breeders and can clear rubble from destroyed units and buildings. As they clear rubble, they automatically scavenge Raw Materials and transfer them to any available storage space. The amount of Raw Material collected from a pile of rubble is equal to half the cost in Raw Materials it took to make the destroyed unit or building. If the destroyed building was a Storage Unit, Mining Station, or Material Harvester, a Bulldozer also recovers the entire amount of Raw Material the building had in storage when it was destroyed. If there is no room in your storage facilities for the scavenged Raw Materials, they are lost permanently. It takes one game turn or turn-equivalent to clear the debris on one square of the Game Map's grid. To clear rubble, click on Remove in the Bulldozer's Command Window, or click on the Bulldozer and click on any number of rubbled squares to form a dozing queue. Repair Units: These human units are built by Light Units Plants. They can only repair land or sea units and buildings; they cannot get close enough to planes to fix them. To repair a damaged unit or building, move a Repair Unit next to it, click on Repair in the Repair Unit's Command Window, and click on the unit or building you want to fix. Repair takes all of both the damaged unit's and the Repair Unit's maximum speed points. If either unit has moved during the current turn or used up speed through other actions, repair will continue into the following turn, using up the remaining required movement points before repair is complete. A building does not function while it is being repaired. Scanner: This is a mobile radar platform with no attack capabilities. It is built by Heavy Units Plants or Heavy Breeders and can move fairly rapidly. It has a very high scan ability and is useful for spotting enemy units so combat units can attack them. Air Units Air units are built by Air Units Plants or Air Breeders and can fly over any terrain type. They never land except for repair or upgrading purposes. Air Transports do not "land" when they load or unload cargo. Repairing and upgrading take place in Hangars or Nests. Air units move very fast compared to other units. Planes with attack capabilities may attack as many times as they are able (defined by how many shots they get per turn) every turn, regardless of how far they have moved. For specific information on moving and firing, see the opening paragraphs of this chapter. Air units can only be attacked by Anti-Aircraft Turrets or Pods, Mobile Anti-Aircraft, Fighters, and Escorts. Air units may only attack the types of targets indicated in their descriptions below. Air Transport: This fast unit can transport up to 3 land units at a time. An Air Transport does not land to load or unload units, so it may not be attacked as if it were a ground unit during such operations. To load an Air Transport, click on Load in its Command Window and then click on the units you wish to load. You can also load units onto an Air Transport by selecting Enter from their Command Windows and then clicking on the Air Transport. To unload an Air Transport, select it, select a unit from the Cargo Command Window that pops up, and click where you want that unit dropped. You cannot unload a unit onto another unit or onto terrain it could not ordinarily cross. AWAC: High scan and high speed make this a great air scout. This unit has no attack capabilities. Fighter: This is a very fast air unit that can only fire on other air units. Ground Attack Plane: This is a fairly fast plane that can only attack buildings and land and sea units, including Submarines. Concord Attack Planes are slightly tougher than their human counterparts, are self-repairing, gain experience from successful kills in combat, and cost more. Sea Units Sea units are built by Shipyards or Sea Breeders and can only traverse water. Ships must be loaded into a Dock or Sea Pen to be repaired or upgraded, although, in human races, ships can also be fixed by Repair Units. Except for Escorts, ships cannot attack air units. They can, however, attack all visible sea and land units and buildings within their range. In turn-based and simultaneous-moves games, ships with firing capability cannot always fire and move on the same turn. Whether or not they can fire depends on the number of shots they get per turn and how much they have already moved. For specific information on moving and firing, see the opening paragraphs of this chapter. Biobomb Ship: This is the Sheevat analogue of the Missile Cruiser. It can attack ships, other units traversing the water, and shore targets with its armor-degrading Biobombs. A Biobomb affects not only its target but all enemy units adjacent to the target as well. Corvette: This high speed boat is equipped with torpedoes and sonar. Corvettes can attack any sea unit within range. They can spot and attack submerged Armored Personnel Carriers, Submarines, and Sea Mines. Escort: This is a high speed boat with good radar that can only attack air units. Gunboat: A Gunboat is a heavily armored ship with a strong cannon that can attack ships and shore targets within range. Concord Gunboats are powerful, self-repairing, and gain experience through combat. Missile Cruiser: This human unit has great range and a high attack strength. It can be used to attack ships, other units traversing the water, and shore targets. Sea Mine: Analogous to Land Mines, Sea Mines are placed by Sea Minelayers and detonate on contact, affecting only the unit that crosses over them. They are invisible to all units except for Sea Minelayers, Infiltrators, Psi-Spawn, and Corvettes. They do not detonate when friendly units or Sea Minelayers cross over them. Only Sea Minelayers can disable a Sea Mine, although any combat unit can destroy one by attacking it. Sea Minelayer: Analogous to the Minelayer, this human unit can spot and disable Sea Mines, salvaging 1 Raw Material from each disabled mine. If available storage space is full, salvaged Raw Materials are lost. It can also lay Sea Mines that damage enemy units that cross them. It costs 1 Raw Material to lay each Sea Mine. A Sea Minelayer will not be able to lay Sea Mines if no Raw Materials are available in storage. It takes no extra movement points or time to lay or disable Sea Mines. To place a Sea Mine, move a Sea Minelayer to where you want a new Sea Mine, and click on Place in its Command Window. Once you have selected Place, you can also click on a destination (in the water) on your Game Map, and the Sea Minelayer will move there, laying Sea Mines along the way. To disable a Sea Mine, place a Sea Minelayer on it and select Remove from the Sea Minelayer's Command Window. A Sea Minelayer can be placed in "remove mode" by clicking on its Remove Button. The unit will then disable Sea Mines as it crosses them. Sea Transport: This ship can be used to transport up to 6 land units. To load units, place the Sea Transport adjacent to land, and click on Load in its Command Window. Then click on the units you wish to place onboard. The units will approach the ship and board it when they can. You can also load units onto a Sea Transport by selecting Enter from their Command Windows and clicking on the target transport. To unload units, select the Sea Transport and click on a loaded unit in the Cargo Command Window that pops up. Then click on where you want that unit unloaded. A land unit must be unloaded onto land, a Water Platform, or a Bridge. Submarine: These submerged vessels must get close to their targets to fire their powerful torpedoes. They can only be spotted by Corvettes. They become visible to other units when they fire and remain visible for one turn. Only Corvettes, Submarines, Ground Attack Planes, and Attack Planes can attack Submarines. Researching and Purchasing Upgrades There are four ways to acquire upgrades for units and buildings. The first way you acquire upgrades is when you select a race; each race receives bonuses to certain units. See the Races Chapter for more details. The second way to acquire upgrades is through experience. Infiltrators and EW Pods improve in their disable or steal attacks as they successfully disable or steal units and buildings. Concord units, Sheevat combat units, and Sheevat stationary guns get upgrades to their statistics for destroying enemy units and buildings. Upgrades acquired through experience are received immediately as a unit gains a level. Such upgrades apply only to the individual unit and not to other units of that type. The other two ways to get upgrades are to research them using Research Centers and Research Stations and buy them through Gold Mining Stations and Gold Harvesters. Upgrades received from Research Centers apply to all your units, including buildings, that have the statistic for which you researched an upgrade. Research Centers will determine the maximum level of upgrades that you purchase through Gold Mining Stations. Virtually all unit statistics can be upgraded through the use of Research Centers and Gold Mining Stations. All units or buildings built after you acquire an upgrade (including units in production as you acquire an upgrade) will automatically get that upgrade. Units built before you buy or research an upgrade must receive their upgrades from Docks or Sea Pens, Hangars or Nests, or Depots or Hives, depending on the unit type. Buildings built before an applicable upgrade is researched or purchased, generally start upgrading their statistics immediately and complete the process in 2 turns; during the upgrade process such buildings continue to function. However, pre-existing stationary guns must be upgraded by selecting Upgrade from their Command Windows. You can also select UPG. All from a stationary gun's Command Window to upgrade all stationary guns of that type at the same time. Upgrading a stationary gun takes 2 turns, and the gun may not fire during this time. Regardless of the unit or building, all relevant upgrades will be applied at the same time. It will not take longer, for example, to upgrade two or more statistics than to upgrade one. To upgrade a statistic type through research, select Resrch from a Research Center's Command Window. This opens the Research Topics Menu where you will see three columns: Labs, Topics, and Turns. The Labs Column allows you to divide your Research Centers among available research topics. You can assign all Research Centers to work on the same topic or divide them among different ones. Use the slider bars in this column to make such adjustments. Research Centers that are not functioning due to a Power deficit cannot be assigned to a research topic. Note that research takes a long time to conduct. You can increase the rate at which you acquire particular upgrades by applying more Research Centers to that task. Research Centers exert an additive effect; two Research Centers studying the same upgrade will succeed in reaching it twice as fast as one would working alone. The Topics Column lists all the statistics that you can upgrade through research. These are attack, shots, range, armor, hits, speed, scan, and shields (Sheevat only). Select a topic or topics to upgrade by assigning Research Centers to their study in the Labs Column. The amount of work in percentage that has been done to date on a particular topic is indicated next to its name. The Turns Column shows how many turns remain to complete the research on each topic, given the number of Research Centers working on that topic. When you finish assigning Research Centers to various topics, click on the Done Button. Click on Cancel to return to the Game Screen without making any changes. Research Centers automatically work on upgrading the attack statistic unless you alter their research topics. Research conducted by Research Centers applies to all units, including buildings, the have the statistic that was researched. The actual amount a statistic can be boosted depends on the starting value (taking race bonuses into account) for that unit. The higher a statistic is to begin with, the more it can be increased with upgrades. Research Centers on their own will not upgrade any units. They only increase the maximum level a statistic can be upgraded to. To cancel work on research, set the slider bar for that topic in the Labs Column to zero. The game keeps track of the work done research topic; when you resume working on that statistic, research will begin where you left off. To purchase an upgrade, open a Gold Mining Station's or Gold Harvester's Command Window and click on Buy UPG. This opens the Upgrades Menu. The Upgrade Menu will show a list of upgrade packages. Each package will automatically purchase new technology for the listed units as credits become available. The cheapest possible upgrade will be performed first. You can select multiple packages to purchase upgrades for multiple types of units. The bottom package, Custom Upgrades, will take you to the Custom Upgrade menu. On the Custom Upgrade menu, you will see a list of units. Use the filter buttons to display just the list of units you plan on upgrading. Select a unit. You will see its picture, description and statistics. The information next to the statistics will show you if that particular statistic for that particular unit can be upgraded, or if it needs to be researched (see Research Centers, page 52). Use the arrow buttons to set the desired level for that statistic. The cost will show you the number of credits it will cost to purchase the new technology. If you have insufficient Credits to buy an upgrade, the arrow buttons next to that statistic will be depressed, and you will not be able to click on them. Upgrades that would cost 800 Credits or more cannot be purchased. Such upgrades can only be acquired through research or as individual upgrades to a unit as it gains combat experience. Make all desired upgrades and click on the Done Button to return to the Game Screen. If you change your mind, click on Cancel instead. Note that all purchased upgrades apply only to the unit or building types for which they are purchased. Clicking on any Gold Mining Station will show what it is currently upgrading, or if it requires additional research to upgrade the selected units, in the Gold Mining Station picture. It will also show you the current total number of credits all of your Gold Mining Stations have in the bank. Alien Animals If, in the Options Menu, you selected alien animals to be present in your game, you will run into a small number of these creatures. Baby Eenoks and Eenoks are basically harmless. Knibs are fearful of mobile units, but will happily attack your buildings if they can. Hopper Seals and Snow Devils are actively aggressive. Needless to say, the more aggressive the creature, the more powerful it is. See the STATS.TXT file on your CD- ROM for alien animal statistics. Winning the Game Regardless of the sort of M.A.X.2 game you are playing, defined objectives or victory conditions determine what you must do to win the game. For stand-alone missions or campaign game missions, your objectives depend on the specific mission and are described when you select it. Achieving these objectives is the means to victory for such missions. In other games, the victory conditions are defined in the Options Menu by the player or by the person who designed the scenario. There are three player-defined victory conditions: Kill All Mining Stations, Kill All Units, and Capture the Flag. Kill All Mining Stations: Any player whose Mining Stations or Material Harvesters are all destroyed, disabled, or frozen automatically loses the game. The last player left wins the game. Kill All Units: Any player whose visible units (that is, not including Infiltrators, Psi- Spawn, cloaked Spawn, Submarines, Mines, or submerged Armored Personnel Carriers) and buildings are all destroyed, disabled, or frozen automatically loses the game. The last player left wins the game. Capture the Flag: This option has several subsidiary parameters that define the exact victory conditions for the game: Flag Type, Start Location, Number, and Victory Timing. Regardless of the other settings, in Capture the Flag, each team has a flag and must control most or all of the teams' flags to win the game. The game is not necessarily lost by having one's own flag captured. Flag Type can be set to Stationary or Mobile. Mobile flags can be transported by land units to other locations; stationary flags cannot be moved. Start Location can be set to At Base or Random. At Base places each team's flag in the middle of its first base. Random places teams' flags randomly on the planet. Number can be set to Majority or All. In Majority, a player must capture or control more than half of all available flags to win the game. In All, a player must capture or control all flags to win. Victory Timing can be set to Hold for a Time, At Capture, or Return to Base. This parameter determines when a player who has met the Number condition (Majority or All) for winning a Capture-the-Flag game will actually win the game. When Victory Timing is set to Hold for a Time, a player who has captured or who controls a sufficient number of flags must hold them for a time before he wins. This time period is determined by the game and depends on the play mode and the game speed (as set in the Preferences Menu) at the time that the basic victory conditions are met. The game notifies all players of the time remaining before that player wins. If he holds his flags for the specified time, he wins the game. If Victory Timing is set to At Capture, as soon as a player captures or controls a sufficient number of flags, he wins the game. A Victory Timing setting of Return to Base only applies if you have selected Mobile Flags. In this case, a player must collect a sufficient number of flags in his Flag Base(s) to win the game. How to Control Flags: A player gains control of a flag when a)he has a land unit or ship next to it and b)no other player has a land unit or ship next to the flag. The control remains with the last player who gained it, even if he no longer has any units next to the flag. How to Capture Flags: A flag must be in your control (see the preceding paragraph) before you can capture it. To capture a flag, once it is in your control, simply move a land unit on to the flag square. In a game with Mobile Flags, the land unit will pick up the captured flag. How to Move Flags: If you are playing with Mobile Flags, a land unit that captures a flag automatically picks it up and holds on to it. A unit holding a flag can move around as normal, and the flag will move with that unit. A captured flag will appear as a bulls-eye icon over the unit that is holding it. This icon will be visible to all units within range, even if the unit carrying the flag is normally invisible. Also, any unit transporting a unit that is carrying a flag will be marked by this bulls-eye icon. If a unit is killed while holding a flag, the flag is dropped and can be taken by someone else. A flag in the water can only be retrieved by an amphibious unit (Scout, Engineer, Constructor, or Armored Personnel Carrier). Note: Units may hold only one flag at a time. How to Place Flags in Your Flag Base: If you are playing with the Return-to-Base option, your units must bring captured flags to your Flag Base(s). A Flag Base is a 2x2 block of concrete that can hold up to 4 flags, one on each square. In a Return-to-Base game, you will start with one or two Flag Bases near your first Mining Station or Material Harvester; the number of Flag Bases you start with will depend on how many players are in the game. For a unit to drop a flag off at a Flag Base, it must move onto a part of the Flag Base that has no flag. The flag is automatically dropped and placed on that square of the Flag Base. Flags can be captured from enemy Flag Bases in the same way as they are otherwise captured. Flag Bases cannot be destroyed. Scenario Editor MAX2 includes a scenario editor that allows you to create your own missions. You get to choose the map, the units and the buildings and then select from different victory conditions. Choose Scenario Editor from the main menu to create or edit your own custom scenarios. Scenario Editor Menu The Scenario Editor menu has two options, New Scenario, which allows you to start from the very beginning and create a new scenario, and Edit Scenario, where you select a previously created custom scenario and make changes. When you select Edit Scenario, you will see a load menu, displaying all of the custom scenarios in your MAX2 directory. Use the arrow buttons to scroll to other files. Click on the file name and select LOAD, or double-click on the file name to load it. Adding Players: To add a player to the game, select the team number, and begin placing units. Teams without units placed on the map are not available for selection when you play the scenario. Changing Player Clan: Adjacent to each team button is a clan select button labeled with the name of the currently selected clan for each team. Clicking this button enters the Clan Select Menu, where the team's clan can be modified. Changing Game Options and Victory Conditions: This button displays the option screen, which allows you to edit the base options for this scenario. The most important part of the Options screen are the victory conditions: Destroy all Mining Stations, Destroy all Enemy Units, Capture the Flag, Kill all Animals and Custom Victory Conditions. The latter two can only be set in the Scenario Editor. A custom scenario with the Kill All Animals victory condition requires that the player kill all the indigenous alien lifeforms. The first player to do so wins the game. All other players lose. Custom Victory Conditions allow you to set different victory conditions for individual units. See below for more information. Placing and Deleting Units: Clicking on the 'Units' button displays a list of all the units. The type of units, Concord or Sheevat, depend on the currently selected team. Select the unit category to display the unit types that you wish to place. There are six categories: Land Units, Sea Units, Air Units, Large Buildings, Small Buildings and Miscellaneous. Indigenous alien animals and trees are located under the Miscellaneous category. Select the desired unit from the list and left-click on the map to place the unit. The current unit's statistics can be adjusted by clicking the left and right arrows in below the unit picture. Right-click to remove any placed unit. Left-clicking on an existing unit will change the current unit being placed to the existing unit. Hold down CTRL and move the mouse to change the starting direction of any unit. Release CTRL before left-clicking to place the unit. You can change the name of any individual unit by clicking on that unit's name in the unit portrait. Changing Custom Victory Conditions: Besides being able to modify unit statistics, you can also set custom victory conditions. Every individual unit can have different victory conditions associated with it. You can use the ALT-V key (see below) to quickly set the same unit statistics and custom victory conditions for all units of the same type. The setting of custom victory conditions only matters if the option for Custom Victory Condition is set in the options screen. They are ignored if any other overall victory condition is set. UNIT MUST LIVE - If any of a teams UNIT MUST LIVE units are killed, that team has lost. UNIT MUST DIE, MUST BE CAPTURED, MUST BE DISABLED - These three are interdependent loss conditions. If a team loses all of his UNIT MUST DIE, MUST BE CAPTURED and MUST BE DISABLED units, that team has lost. If it never had any of one or more of those types at the start of the game, they are not tested. Banning Unit Types: The checkbox next to the unit in the unit list prevents that unit from being placed in the editor, or being built while the game is playing. Check the box next to the units that you wish to ban from the game. Units can be placed prior to checking the Ban button, so you can build them in the editor, but not in the game. Placing Material: Click the Material button. You may then place material on the map. Click the arrow buttons to change the amount of material placed. You can place between 1 and 16 units of material. Setting this value will also determine the amount placed when you add new Mining Stations in the editor. The placement rules do not allow placement of Material or Gold in such a manner as to allow two deposits under the same mining station, so there should always be at least one square between deposits. Remember that 8 material is used by every power generator. Material deposits of 16 can run two power generators, and should be very rare in your scenario. It is suggested that most Material deposits range from 4 to 10. Placing Gold: Click the Gold button. You may then place gold on the map. The same placement rules apply. While you can place up to 16 gold in a single location, any number greater than 4-6 is a substantial amount and can easily cause balance problems. Most Gold deposits should range from 1-3. Hotkeys There are some special hotkeys that are available in the scenario editor. Press F1, ALT-H or ? to display a list of hotkeys and their functions while in the editor. Commands that delete and/or randomly place new objects will display a window asking you to confirm the action. Key Function ALT-X Exit the editor. ALT-L Quickload. Use with caution. ALT-S Quicksave. This will overwrite the current save file. ALT-V Pressing ALT-V will change every unit of the type currently selected on the currently selected team to the currently displayed attributes. For example, if you have already placed 20 Scouts, you can raise the armor value by 2 points, press ALT-V, and all of the scouts on that team will then receive those changes. CTRL-M Delete all material on the map, except the material under Mining Stations and Material Harvesters, and place a random amount of material based on the option settings. ALT-M Deletes all material on the map, except the material under Mining Stations and Material Harvesters. CTRL-G Delete all gold on the map, except the gold under Gold Mining Stations and Gold Harvesters, and place a random amount of gold based on the option settings. ALT-G Delete all gold on the map, except the gold under God Mining Stations and Gold Harvesters. CTRL-A Delete all alien animals and randomly place a number of animals of all types. The number of animals placed is based on the Alien Animals option in the options screen. ALT-A Delete all alien animals. CTRL-T Delete all trees on the map and randomly place trees. The number and type of trees placed depends on the map. Maps that are "green" will get more trees than maps that are mostly ice or water. ALT-T Delete all trees. ALT-Z Delete all units and buildings for all teams. ALT-D Delete all units and buildings for the currently selected team. ALT-U Delete all instances of the currently selected unit for the current team only. This will delete all Scouts for the Red team, while leaving the rest of Red's units alone and all other Scouts for the other teams alone, if a Red Scout is the current unit. Playing Custom Scenarios You can play custom scenarios in either single-player or multi-player modes. To start a new single-player custom scenario, pick New Game from the main menu and then click the Custom Scenario button. A list of all available custom scenarios in your MAX2 directory will be displayed. Clicking on a scenario name will display a list of some of the options and the different available teams. Once you select a scenario, you will be able to set other options and select your team. The host of a multi-player game can select the SCENARIOS button on the host screen and load a custom scenario. Custom scenarios have the extension .MPS and can be found in your MAX2 installed directory. Designing Custom Scenarios When you go to make a custom scenario, your first decision can be your most important. The map you choose to base your scenario on will determine what type of scenario it will be. Water maps lend themselves to sea or air units. Maps with limited line-of-sight will have larger combats, with less manuevering. Always keep your map choice in line with your idea of the scenario. The map will also determine the maximum number of players your scenario can support. When the map is loaded, click the OPTIONS button and set all your options. The most important option for you to set is the Victory Condition. If you use Custom Victory Conditions, then you should set all the victory conditions on the units when you place them. If the custom victory conditions are the same for all units of a particular type, then remember to use the ALT-V hotkey. The next step is to choose one of the teams and start placing units. For balanced games, players should be equidistant from each other and have a similar number of units. The total number of units will determine how many Mining Stations and Power Stations you should start the sides with. Watch the power indicator and give players a comfortable amount of power, for most scenarios. Scenarios where you start with a power or material deficit can be very interesting. Place trees and animals. Remember that trees can provide defensive bonuses and make the map more interesting to look at. Animals are an important resource for any Sheevat players. Aggressive animals can be a serious threat for teams that have a low number of starting units. Finally, place material and gold deposits. Mix the amounts and locations. Try to balance the total amount of material and gold available to one side. Placing a large amount of material in the center of the map, or between opponents, will give your teams a reason to fight. Upgrading select units and giving them unique names can give personality to a team. When you are done, try playing your custom scenario single-player. Noticeable problems (lack of power, one side far more powerful than another, not enough materials or gold) can be fixed easily. Appendix A: Building Functions Chart This appendix provides a synopsis of building functions for easy reference. For detailed descriptions and information see the Buildings Chapter. For building statistics, see the STATS.TXT file on your CD-ROM. Name* Functions Air Units Plant Produces all air units. (Air Breeder) Anti-Aircraft Attacks airborne units only. Artillery Turret Longer range defensive weapon that cannot attack air units. Biobomb Pod Defensive weapon that degrades targets' armor. Bridge Allows units to cross over water. Defensive Blk. Impedes enemy unit movement. (Casting) Depot (Hive) Repairs and upgrades land units. Dock (Sea Pen) Repairs and upgrades sea units. EW Pod Assumes control of up to one electronic enemy unit; Concord units, Sheevat units and buildings, and Infiltrators and Infantry are immune to an EW Pod's attack. Gold Mining Sta. Mines Gold, converts Gold into Credits, and allows you to (Gold Harvester) purchase upgrades with Credits. Gun Turret Good defensive weapon that cannot attack air units. Hangar (Nest) Repairs and upgrades air units. Heavy Units Plant Produces Constructors, Scanners, Tanks, Assault Guns, Rocket (Heavy Breeder) Launchers, Stasis Projectors, Biobomb Crawlers, Missile Crawlers, Robotic Walkers, Command Units, Lightning Cannons (Sheevat Assault Guns), and Shock Tanks (Sheevat Tanks). Light Units Plant Produces Engineers, Scouts, Repair Units, Bulldozers, Armored (Light Breeder) Personnel Carriers, Mobile Anti-Air, Minelayers, Infantry, Infiltrators, and Incubators. Mining Station Mines Raw Materials Power; can store 25 Raw Materials and (Material Harvester) transfers Raw Materials to units that use them. Missile Turret Long range defensive weapon that cannot attack air units. Power Station Generates 80 points of power; reduces mining by 8 points. (Power Pod) Radar Detects enemy units from a long distance away. Research Center Researches upgrades to a particular stat that apply to all units and buildings with that stat. Road Allows land units to move twice as fast as over other terrain. Shipyard Produces all sea units. (Sea Breeder) Storage Unit Stores up to 50 Raw Materials and transfers them to other units. Water Platform Allows you to place buildings over water. * Sheevat names where they differ a lot from human names are indicated on the same line or following line in parentheses. Appendix B: Unit Functions Charts Below is a chart containing a synopsis of important functions of the unit types in M.A.X.2. For more detailed descriptions of unit functions, see the Units Chapter. For unit statistics, see the STATS.TXT file on your CD-ROM. Unit Functions Air Transport Plane that can transport up to 3 land units. Arm. Pers. Carrier Carries up to 6 infantry across land or water; it is invisible to all but Corvettes when submerged. Assault Gun Longer range human attack unit; Concord Assault Guns can self- repair and gain experience. Attack Plane Concord plane that attacks ground and air targets; it self-repairs and gains experience through combat. AWAC Air scout. Biobomb Crawler Sheevat attack unit that launches Biobombs that degrade target armor. Biobomb Ship Sheevat attack ship that launches Biobombs that degrade target armor. Bulldozer Clears and scavenges Raw Materials from rubble. Command Unit Sheevat unit that improves nearby friendly mobile units' stats. Constructor Builds all factories, mining stations, maintenance structures and Research Centers; it can cross land and water. Corvette Ship that detects Submarines, submerged Armored Personnel Carriers, and Sea Mines; it can attack all ships or land units within range. Engineer Builds all defensive structures, infrastructure, and Storage Units; it can cross land and water. Escort Ship that can only attack air units. Fighter Aircraft that can only attack other airborne units. Ground Attack Plane that can only attack ground units. Gunboat Ship with medium-range, powerful attack against ships and shore targets; Concord Gunboats self-repair and gain experience through combat. Incubator Sheevat unit that places eggs into organic host units: Infiltrators, Infantry, Sheevat units, and Concord units; eggs develop into Sheevat Psi-Spawn or Spawn. Infantry Human unit that detects Infiltrators, Psi-Spawn, and cloaked Spawn. Infiltrator Human unit that detects mines; it can disable or capture enemy units; it is only visible to other Infiltrators, Infantry, Spawn, or Psi-spawn. Land Mine Explosive device that detonates when enemies step on it; it is only visible to Infiltrators, Psi-Spawn, and Minelayers. Lightning Cannon Sheevat Assault Gun that has an attack that jumps from enemy to enemy. Minelayer Human unit that detects, disables, scavenges Raw Materials from, and lays Land Mines. Missile Crawler Human, long-range attack unit. Missile Cruiser Human, long-range attack ship. Mobile Anti-Air Land unit that can only attack airborne units. Psi-Spawn Sheevat unit similar to human Infiltrators; it cannot disable or steal, but can cloak friendly Spawn; it is only visible to other Infiltrators, Psi-Spawn, Infantry, and Spawn; it detects mines. Repair Unit Human unit that repairs land units and ships. Robotic Walker Human unit whose Gas attack bypasses Sheevat shields; its attack is only effective against Sheevat units and buildings, human Infantry and Infiltrators, and Concord units. Rocket Launcher Human, long-range attack unit that hits all units within 2 squares of its target. Scanner Mobile radar platform with no attack capabilities. Scout Unit with high speed, good scan range, and attack capability; it can cross land and water. Sea Mine Explosive device that damages enemy units that cross over it; it is only visible to Sea Minelayers, Corvettes, Infiltrators, and Psi-Spawn. Sea Minelayer Human ship that detects, disables, scavenges Raw Materials from, and lays Sea Mines. Sea Transport Ship that transports up to 6 land units across water. Shock Tank Sheevat Tank that has an Electrical attack affecting only adjacent units. Spawn Sheevat Infantry unit that gives statistical bonuses to nearby Spawn; it detects Infiltrators, Psi-Spawn, and cloaked Spawn. Stasis Projector Sheevat unit that freezes target; frozen targets cannot move, function, or be further damaged for 2 turns. Submarine Attack ship only visible to Corvettes; only Corvettes, Submarines, Ground Attack Planes, and Attack Planes can attack Submarines. Tank Basic human attack unit; Concord Tanks can self-repair and gain experience. CREDITS Producer Paul Kellner Associate Producers Chip Bumgardner Ryan Rucynski Line Producers Dave Simon Amy Mitchell Lead Designer Gus Smedstad Game Design Ali Atabek Dave Boulanger Paul Kellner Chris Taylor Bernie Weir Lead Programmer Dave Boulanger Programmer Bernie Weir AI Design and Programming Gus Smedstad Network Support Erik Bethke Dave Boulanger Bernie Weir Additional Network Programming Quicksilver, Inc. Additional Programming Andy Pal Jim Gardner Art Director Scott Bieser Artists Tony Postma Mike Harris Adam Rote Stephen Beam Additional Artists Arlene C. Somers Chris Regalado Mark Bergo Mike Dean Acorn Productions Additional Art Flatline Studios, LLC Acorn Entertainment, Los Angeles Executive Producer for Acorn Entertainment Thad Weinlein Lead CGI Animation Fred Kuentz Addt'l CGI Animation Stevan del George Lead Artist Rudy Obrero Asst. Illustrator Deanna Ino Addt'l Illustrator Patrick Shigetani Cover Design Concepts Edemer Santos Music Rick Jackson Ron Valdez Flatline Production Bryand Lassiter Seth Glenn Israel Flatline Supervisor Eric Smith Visual Concepts and Storyboards Tony Postma World Creation Steve Beam Adam Rote Head Writer/ Campaign Scenario Design Chris Taylor Writer/ Mission Scenario Design Dave Hendee Dialogue Drew Markham Manual Writers Petra Schlunk Chris Taylor Manual Editor Steve Bokkes Amy Mitchell Manual Design Tracie D. Martin Craig Owens Manual Reflow Editor Ed Rubin Box Cover Design Tony Postma Traffic Manager Thom Dohner Audio Director Charles Deenen Audio Administrator Gloria Soto Sound Design Charles Deenen Larry Peacock Gregory R. Allen Sergio Bustamante II Game Music Rick Jackson Ronald Valdez Voice Casting Direction/ Supervision Chris Borders Voices Clancy Brown Frank Welker Dee Bradley Baker Kevin Michael Richardson Grey Delisle VO Editing Frank Szick Kevin Fraysr Mastering Craig Duman Director of Quality Assurance Chad Allison QA Manager Steve Victory QA Project Supervisor Cory Nelson Testers Steve Bokkes Donnie Cornwell Michael Wood Mark Holtzclaw QA IS Manager Frank Pimentel QA Technicians Bill Delk Chris Peak Director of Compatibility Phuong Nguyen Compatibility Technicians Marc Duran Dan Forsyth Derek Gibbs John Parker Director of Marketing Karen Schohan Senior Product Marketing Manager Debbie Brajevich Product Marketing Manager Dean Schulte PR Director Kirk Green PR Manager Christine Nagata Internal Coordination Manager Mike Wood Flatcat Division Director Ali Atabek VP of Development Trish Wright Special Thanks to the Beta Testers for their comments, suggestions and bug reports.