0
Doc, Frequently Asked Questions
-------------------------------------
The WWW page contains even more stuff: screenshots, reviews of the game,
etc...
Here we go!
------------------------ 1 - SECRETS IN THE GAME
------------------------
1-1) EXPLANATION OF THE FUNNY LIGHTS IN THE COCKPIT
---------------------------------------------------
By Philippe Tarbouriech from Electronic Arts, one of
the Shockwave designers:
- The green light going up and down on the left of the cockpit represents
the number of pieces being loaded from the CD-ROM.
- The little colored dot on the lower right that changes color is an
indication of memory fragmentation... (I am sure it will help with gameplay
:)
- The graph on the left is the frame rate : number of VBL per frame.
- The graph on the right is the number of actors in the simulation/8, every
8 frames.
1-2) ELVIS IS IN SHOCKWAVE!
---------------------------
Info from Oliver Wade
Q: Has anyone seen Elvis in Shockwave. He's very small but he's in there!
A:You have to blow up the octagonal shaped moon base at the beginning of
level 10.
If you fly back over it you'll see a very small Elvis jumping up and down,
trying to get rescued (you can't rescue him). This was my only (very small)
contribution to Shockwave and I just wondered if anyone had seen it.
1-3) SHOCKWAVE ROLLS POSSIBLE!
------------------------------
How to Roll:
Just keep the LEFT button pressed and press left or right on the paddle.
Are the rolls useful ?
Chuck McGinley wrote:
I have found that when I do a barrel roll through the mine fields that are
with the AA towers I avoid the mines. This also includes the mines
surrounding the refueling drone in the congo mission. I hope these mines
are not surrounding thed rones for the rest of the game.
1-4) SHOCKWAVE SECRET MISSION #11: "MILK RUN"
---------------------------------------------
Info extracted from Matt Brown's () review of
Shockwave.
Mission #11: "Milki Run"
Somehow I managed to "corrupt" one of my saved games in such a way that I
could play a secret mission (#11) called "Milk Run". I won't give anything
away, but I will say that there are plenty of goofy little jokes, as well
as a suggestion that there is something else hidden in the game that I
haven't found. The same bogus saved game also let's me practice any of the
ten actual missions. Cool.
I can get to the secret level by reloading my bogus saved game, but I'm not
sure how I created that entry in the roster in the first place. If anyone
figures it out, I'd be interested to hear how it's done.
Last Update! Info from Tim Brengle (Electronic Arts)
Info sent to me by Tim Brengle .
As far as I know, there aren't any codes which get you there. When you
complete the game by finishing Mission 10, the final credits roll, etc. If
you look back at your saved game after this, it will indicate that your
current mission is 11, and you can go fly "Milk Run" by restoring and
starting.
Ok, here is a short description of this mission:
Info from a message by William Langford
I'm new to Usenet, and I tried to send this message out yesterday, so if
you've seen it before, I apologize.
Anyways, I haven't seen anybody post about this yet, so here goes. I
finished Shockwave last night, and after watching the credits, I noticed
the game roll right over to the opening intro. So, I aborted the intro and
went to the main menu. I then went to the roster screen and selected the
pilot with which I had just completed the "final" level (level 10). I was
surprised to see the mission name "Milk Run" on the main menu screen. I
scratched my head and pressed start.
The mission seemed to start normally, until a picture of a face popped up
where the mission map usually appears, and the ICE started talking
backwards. When the cockpit shields withdrew, I was greeted by a landscape
of what seemed to be BEANS. This odd landscape was dotted with giant milk
carton and bean cans. I flew close to a milk carton and saw the words:
"Milk. It does a mission good." Also, windmills were flying around shooting
beans at me. I did manage to complete this mission, but was only treated to
the same end game again.
Can somebody post a confirmation of this level, so that I know I'm not
hallucinating? I strongly recommend that you check this one out.
Great game! Keep up the good work! William
Enrique Conty adds:
Yup. My theory is that ICE has gone nuts, and what you see is ICE's
scrambled representation of what's outside your ship. Notice the faces of
the developers popping up in the map as you fly along.
Jason Cross says:
Yup! That's cool! And photos of the designers pop up periodically. If you
pause and "give up" you can see the ending again anyway. And ICE says some
very strange things, like, "quick, turn around, no, sorry, wrong way." It's
going in the survival guide!
Some cheats on that mission:
Text by Jesse Fuchs :
On this level everytime you press the stop button the radar is refreshed
and you can see all of the units that normal fade in and out.
1-5) ARE THERE CODES IN SHOCKWAVE ?
------------------------------------
>From Philippe Tarbouriech from Electronic Arts, one
of the Shockwave designers.
Yes, there are codes, you can get powerfull laser, smart bomb, ... and
several other goodies.
The codes are entered when you pause the game. Try to find them yourself
for the moment...
------------------------------------ 2 - HOW TO PASS THE DIFFERENT LEVELS
------------------------------------
2-1) HERE IS THE OFFICAL SOLUTION TO THE LEVEL 3 (LOS ANGELES)
-------------------------------------------------------------- By Laurent
Benes from Electronic Arts, the guy who designed most of the levels:
Introduction :
OK guys, I saw many many articles about the mission 3 in ShockWave. Far
more than I ever thought it was possible when I was working on this
mission. Actually, don't blame me too much, I was not the only one to work
on this mission. The real problem seems to be these two fast ground
vehicles in Burbank that run away on the left. I didn't do that, I even
slowed them down. After a lot of testing many people wanted to remove them
and I insisted to keep that because I thought that in the mission 3, it was
time to put the player in trouble. Actually, it seems that it was too much
trouble !!!
I am sure that at least, I brought a huge satisfaction to every ShockWave
player who finaly succeed the mission 3 !!
Here is the official solution :
There are 5 objectives in this mission :
Las Vegas: Destroy all aliens here in order to get your first objective
done. You have 20 aliens to destroy there. (3 Tripods - 5 Collectors - 7
Scouts - 5 Interceptors).
Riverside: Destroy all aliens here in order to get your second objective
done. You have 25 aliens to destroy there. (4 Tripods - 7 Collectors - 3
Scouts - 5 Interceptors - 3 MobileAA -1 HeatSeeker - 2 Swarms). You must
also destroy the 4 powerCells but NOT the prison.
Pasadena: Destroy all aliens here in order to get your third objective
done. You have 19 aliens to destroy there. (3 Tripods - 3 strong Tripods
- 2 Collectors - 3 Interceptors - 2 MobileAA -5 HeatSeeker s- 1 Swarm). You
must also destroy the 4 powerCells but NOT the prison.
BurBank: Destroy all aliens here in order to get your fourth objective
done. You have 20 aliens to destroy there. (6 strong Tripods - 3 Collectors
- 3 Interceptors - 4 MobileAA - 3 HeatSeekers - 1 Scout).
!!!!! Be careful here because 2 MobileAA quickly try to escape on the left
of the path. If you are not fast enough in the beginning of this objective,
you may not be able to destroy them.
Los Angeles: Destroy all aliens here in order to get your fifth objective
done. You have 15 aliens to destroy there (5 Scouts - 4 strong Tripods - 6
Swarms). You also have to destroy a fast moving new craft called Cobras
(their number depends on your performance on the first objectives). You
have to destroy 12 PowerCells in order to free 3 prisons. Finally, you have
to be careful with the satellite dishes. Don't destroy more than 1.
Hints :
On Las Vegas, if you don't destroy any civil building, then you get two
bonuses: Your first Refueler is going to be full, else it's going to be
partial. This first Refueler is not visible on your radar because a tripod
is exactly at the same position. An extra Refueler in Riverside, far on the
left of the path, invisible on the radar. You need to protect the Atomic
Power Plant form the Collectors walking towards it (else you're probably
dead) and also save the 6 close towers from the tripods. If you save them,
then you get an extra Refueler far on the left of the path in Los Angeles.
After Pasadena, in the Refinery region, you have a partial Refueler
(invisible on your radar) on the right of the path.
To destroy a Swarm, just shoot the immobile one.
--
--Laurent Benes (lbenes@ea.com)
2-2) HERE IS A WALKTHROUGH OF ALL THE LEVELS BY FAMOUS PEOPLE FROM THE NET!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
By David Liu , George Cifrancis
, James A. Squires , Walter Horat
and Castellan
.
COMMENT n TIPS:
Level 1: ~~~~~~~~
Use missiles on scouts (the red dots on radar), guns on ground crawlers. At
the end, you will meet an alien control center with a LOT of firepower.
Start far far away, hold B when your gunsight locks on, fire 2 missiles,
turn 180 degrees, afterburn out, and repeat. Takes about 3 passes this way.
(Be careful, you can shoot down your own missiles!)
Level 2: ~~~~~~~~
Significantly tougher. Save missiles for the green bow-tie shaped
interceptors; shoot scouts and ground units. Although lots of fighting, no
real catches in this level.
Level 3 (LA): ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here are the five objectives:
You get 1 mission goal for clearing out vegas of aliens. You get 4 mission
goals for clearing out 16 energy pods surrounding 4 prisons.
This totals 5, your required number. If you finish with less than 5 points,
you get a "pat on the back speech" and then get booted back to square one.
Back to David Liu's comments:
This one is a KILLER. However, it really becomes much easier as you
practice. You start in Vegas, and end up in L.A. Save missiles for (in
order)
Interceptors shaped like a Y Interceptors shaped like a bow tie (green)
Scouts
You MUST MUST conserve missiles and lasers. If you miss even one or two
aliens (actually, i believe you get a buffer of ONE alien in the first few
areas of mission 3), you may have to restart.
Your objectives are the four power cells surrounding the dark pyramidal
prisons. DO NOT shoot the prisons. Each power cell takes exactly 8 shots.
Also, you must kill the round circular yellow balls that surround the
prisons.
TIP#1:
You need only kill ONE of the balls per nest. Lure the others away, and
afterburn away. THE "FAKE" YELLOW BALLS WILL DISAPPEAR AFTER CHASING YOU
BRIEFLY. This leaves you with ONE yellow ball only per cluster. It takes 13
shots to kill.
About 2/3 of the way into the mission, you will come across a green force
field fence composed of green balls. head SLOWLY towards the edge. If
you've killed all aliens up to that point, the field should disappear. I
don't think shooting the alien fence posts has anything to do with the
forcefield. If you try to cross the forcefield before deactivation, you
will automatically perish. (However, you can cheat by temporarily going off
path around the fence).
TIP#2:
There are several "hidden" REFUELING DRUMS, not all of which appear on
radar. As you approach a group of large rectangular prism-shaped buildings,
look for a "cloaked" refueling drum on your right side. This one restores
health totally, but not guns or fuel.
You also must take out the command center, a VERY fast and VERY beefy
yellow flying machine. Takes about 20 shots. Dont try missiles; it can out
turn and out run them.
You get 1 mission goal for clearing out Vegas of aliens You get 4 mission
goals for clearing out 16 energy pods surrounding 4 prisons. This totals 5,
your required number. If you finish with less than 5 points, you get a "pat
on the back speech" and then get booted back to square one.
Secret refueling drone:
Just coming from :
There's also a "secret" refueling drone on level 3. At some point towards
the end, the alley widens way out (just wider than your radar), then takes
a fairly sharp turn. At the very very tip of the point of this turn (the
outside of the turn), there's a drone.
New this week (July 15 1994) A complete walkthrough of level 3:
Text by Castellan :
I've noticed a lot of conflicting reports on how to beat LA in Shockwave,
so, after playing this stage thoroughly and pausing to determine the number
of mission goals completed, here is *exactly* how to do it.
1/5: Clear Las Vegas completely. 2/5: Clear Riverside completely (get ANY
and ALL escaping aliens, afterburn if nnecessary - there are almost always
a few of them ahead on the radar that you can't see trying to escape). Take
out the power cells around the prison. 3/5: Clear Burbank completely.
Pursue and destroy any escaping aliens. 4/5: Take out the power cells on
the prison in Pasadena. 5/5: Take out the power cells on the three prisons
in LA.
I kept getting 4/5 because I was NOT getting the escaping aliens at
RIverside. Blast through the fighter cover with afterburners and get to the
end of Riverside ASAP, and take out ALL ground vehicles. Then pick off the
fighters. Sure, you'll take some damage, but if you off a few interceptors
as you burn toward the escaping aliens, you'll be in good shape. This also
applies to Burbank.
Bad things: Destroying the reactor, destroying the actual prison
facilities, destroying 40% of the radar dishes (or more).
To get through the force field easily, just afterburn and barrel roll
through it. Works *perfectly*.
On a side note, is anybody else impressed with the sprawling variety of
enemies in this game? I'm only on mission 4, and I count:
7 different types of flying craft. 3 different types of tank. 3 different
types of walkers. A multitude of special craft (command posts, command
fighters, pods, transports, etc...)
Back to David Liu's original message:
Level 4: ~~~~~~~~
A very nice idea. You are doing a search and rescue mission for one of your
fellow pilots (the annoying female one...wish I could just let her die so
she'll stop talking to me during missions). This one has FABULOUS graphics
(southern england), rolling hills, and FIVE NEW TYPES of aliens.
(Normally i don't like revealing hint publically [TE's level select an
exception], but since this game is so very challenging and demanding on the
precision and coordination depts, i have no qualms now)
To finish level 4, you must
1.Kill all the bird-like transport ships at start
2.kill all transport ground vehicles in the next area
3."Pass through" the area with "a great number" of aliens: TRANSLATION:
Kill most of em, including the ground transports and birdies.
4.Clear the next area for the British military and your rescue ship.
At the end, you see the following arrangement of Bad Guys (tm):
x x
x x x 1 23 4 5
Kill 3 with guns only
Kill 5 with guns only
Kill 4 with missiles only
Each time, you must fire for a second, then RETREAT and turn around and
repeat.
Shockwave is the finest game to come out for the 3do. Simply amazing.
David
Level 5: ~~~~~~~~
George Cifrancis:
Listen carefully to ICE, always do what she tells you to do. On 5 as I
recall (I am on 8) you must destroy all the radars. Keep in mind they don't
show up on YOUR radar screen so you must do a visual search for them. This
is especially important when you nail the ones in the water! You need to
sweep the whole area! I think there are at least 4 radars that are away
from everything else so you must hunt for them. If ICE tells you that you
missed some, you might as well start over. As a matter of fact whenever ICE
says you missed ANYTHING, there is a good bet that you missed an objective
and you might as well start over. On the prison barges that ICE tells you
to hit the lead ship, I believe it is the ship furtherest away as you come
up on it. If ICE says you missed it or killed people, start over you,
funked up. Obviously don't sink the Kennedy or let it be sinked and kill
that tower that comes out at the end.
James A. Squires:
There are two key objectives in level 5:
1.Hit all those damn radar sites.
2.Get all four 'Special Targets'(I know three of 'em, who knows the third?)
First key objective:
Goal 1/5: The radar sites before the lava pit (land based). Goal 2/5: The
radar sites over water. Goal 3/5: The radar sites just after getting goal
2/5 (water). Goal 4/5: Get all 4/4 Special Targets. Goal 5/5: Get the Boss
at end (piece of cake - for Cadet).
Remember back in 'cake-walk' level 3, Los Angeles (why save it?), when you
would hit the prison power supplies, and your special monitor would beep
and say: "OK-GOOD-BETTER-PERFECT"?
Well, it does that on level 5, but very quickly the message is gone (like
we have lots of time to study the Heads Down display). I'm a little shaky
on the order, I know 3 of 4, but not the 4th (I got it, but don't know
when/what it was - HELP).
Here's my best shot:
ST 1/4: The Black Thingy in center of lava pit (you'll get hammered there)
ST 2/4: Odd "prison ship" in first convoy (ICE is not quite right) ST 3/4:
Odd "prison ship" in second convoy. ST 4/4: (need help here)
Anyway, *I'm* done with those damn islands!
Walter Horat:
The solution to level five is:
Get all of the hidden radar units. When ICE tells you that you should be
looking for radar, do it. The units are not visible on your radar screen...
You will get a message telling you whether or not you have killed all of
the radar or not. If you miss any, there goes a mission objective. There
are 4 radar areas.
This will score 4/5 goals.
The fifth goal, and the one that took me about 15-20 plays of level 5 to
figure out is to SAVE THE PRISONERS ON THE BARGES!!! When ICE tells you to
pick off the lead barges, you have to kill the AA towers positioned around
the barges, the fast moving cruisers that flank the barges, and the LEAD
BARGE of each convoy. This is the barge that is FARTHEST from you, as the
barges are moving in the same direction that you are.
You can sink the friendly planes; I have a hard time keeping them from
crashing into me. Except that you feel guilty for doing it, it wont prevent
you from solving the level.
I haven't gotten off of the level by sinking the aircraft carrier, but you
seem to be able to score your mission goals whether or not it lives.
To kill the bad boy at the end of the level, keep turning in circles around
the same position as your refeuling tanker, letting a missle loose as soon
as you have it in your gunsights and turn and fly away before it can hit
you too many times. It takes between 3-6 missiles to kill it, as your
missiles are occasionally shot down...
Good luck!
Now, I have to get off of level 8! Damned evil gravity sucking things!!!
Secret refueling drone on level 5:
>From Jeff TJ :
There is a refueling drone that doesn't show up on your radar. It appears
with 112 clicks remaining on the far right side of your flight area.
level 6: ~~~~~~~~
The only thing ICE cares about besides killing the final boss is to destroy
all the excavators. Each excavator takes one LONG LONG stream of lasers, or
one NUKE and about 5 seconds of lasers, or TWO NUKES and about 1 second of
lasers. Even though ICE tells you not to trash the city as you kill the
last boss (who is easy since he has a pea shooter for a weapon), you CAN
get by if you crunch say 4 buildings or so.
Just don't try levelling the city.
level 7: ~~~~~~~~
David Liu writes:
Same as level 6, but there are green energy cylos that support the alien
eggs. These must be destroyed.
The best way I've been able to find for killing the command post in the
middle of Mission 7 (mine was on WINGMAN, however, so this may or may not
be applicable):
1.Take out the left green/grey pylon.
2.Turn around, and approach the right pylon slowly.
3.Just as you get within laser range to axe the pylon, three interceptors
(red dots on radar) should approach.
4.The key is to coax one of the red dots into COLLIDING WITH THE COMMAND
POST!
Just make sure the command post is BETWEEN you and the interceptor. The
command post is so bulky, that the interceptor will easily hit it and
explode if you manuver appropriately, lining up the interceptor and post.
5.This does two Good Things. It destroys the interceptor (which only takes
3-4 hits anyway but packs an offensive wallop), and it does TWO MISSILE
HITS worth of damage on the command post. Another 2 missiles and 3 laser
hits (on Wingman level) finishes off the command post.
In general, one can easily lure the red dots away from big dangerous bosses
and pick them off one by one. Often the red dots have a circling pattern,
and the most distant point in their path places them at risk of being hit
by your lasers but keeps you safe from the boss ahead. It's just a matter
of figuring out the range of the boss's weapons and the range of your
lasers.
Level 8: ~~~~~~~~
I don't remember who posted this:
Mission Objectives:
1.Get all eggs in silos 1 & 2.
2.Get all eggs in silos 3 & 4 (I have made it through without getting the
flaps, so they aren't an objective).
3.Get all the landing pads (step 21).
4.Kill the spider-like machine.
In this mission it has been determined that the Aliens have made silos
(tunnels) that go to eggs they have stored underground. It is imperative
that you destroy the eggs. This means you'll have to fly into the small
silo entrance which is protected by a force field and maneuver through the
tunnel and blast all the eggs.
This is how the mission goes:
1.Turbo past the heavily armored tanks.
2.Kill bird-like machines and the ground monster while using afterburners.
3.Lure away the fuzzy balls and kill the fixed one.
4.3 missiles takes out the excavator.
5.Laser the 3 tanks.
6.Missiles and lasers on anti-aircraft batteries (do this in multiple
passes, one missile per pass) I get 3 out of the 4 and then stay to one
side.
7.Turbo past enemies on ocean with lasers killing what you can. Note that
it is possible to just use afterburners from step 5 to step 9 with lasers
shooting what you can, but you'll take a lot of damage.
8.Destroy walkers on land (1 missile each).
9.When the refueling drone comes into view destroy the gravity pad in front
of it aiming low so as not to hit the drone. Then take out the walker. Also
get the other two ground things past the drone before refueling. 10.Refuel!
(finally) Come in from the side and don't worry about the air mines.
11.Take out landing pads and birdlike machines at the silos (I usually also
get the ones just past the first silo or else they'll blast you when you
come out. To enter the silo, make sure the targetting indicators are
centered on the entrance. 12.Get the eggs in the tunnel and get at least
one of the flappers with lasers. There are 2 silos in this area, so don't
forget the second one. Refuel afterwards (might want to fly a little
forward and kill some stuff). 13.Blast the incoming fighters and two
walkers before being sucked in by the gravity pad. Shoot the pad with
lasers and turbo back. Do the same with the other gravity pads and
fighters. If you are trapped by a pad uses lasers firing down to destroy
it. 14.Destroy the Juggernaut with missiles (7 missiles) flying multiple
passes. Sometimes the enemy fighters fly into the big juggernaut, but
otherwise you'll have to get them with lasers. 15.Also kill the battle
fortress just past the refueling drone before re- fueling (also 7
missiles). Don't get too close to this guy! Refuel. Things get harder after
this point. 16.Next are the heavily armored fighters (this is a real
dogfight). It is easier to fight them over flatter ground because they stay
a certain height above the ground all the time. If you are not an expert
dogfighter, you may want to turbo past this area (ICE's comments seem to
indicate the game designers assumed you'll have to). 17.Two more silos are
next. These are the ones with the killer flaps at the entrance and exits.
Laser the flaps on entrance and exit. You can get through if you
concentrate your fire on the bottom one and have enough shields and time it
just right and use turbos and get lucky and are damn good at it and... I
have tried doing a barrel roll through them (can't roll in the tunnels) and
I've tried blasting the exit point before entering the tunnel with no
effect. If you make it past this point you will probably win. 18.Beware of
the Juggernaut when coming out of this tunnel. Kill it and don't forget
about the other silo! Refuel. 19.More gravity pads and fighters. 20.Get ALL
of the landing pads in the next area. 21.There is a BIG spider-like machine
with heavy firepower near you next refueling drone. I have killed it
without needing to refuel, but beware of the gravity pad near it. Getting
trapped by that pad could be the end for you.
writes a Hint about level 8 (Congo):
It appears that you have to shoot everything in the tunnels, including
those flapping fishbone obstacles. I finished that level a few times with
less 4 objectives met and I know I wiped out all of the eggs in the tunnels
and got the other outside objectives. I couldn't finish the level until I
went back and got every last cuttlefish thingy in the tunnels.
On the upside, on these subsequent tunnel passes, you get to afterburn thru
the tunnels until you get to the last couple of fishbones and the
afterburning trip thru the tunnels is pretty spectacular, with just the
right amount of banking to make it look neater than TE tunnels!
Correction by : No, those aren't objectives.
I finished without destroying all of them. Trouble is, you almost have to
kill them or they'll kill you. You probably got some- thing you missed the
other time. ICE will tell you almost right away if you didn't get all the
eggs.
Level 10: ~~~~~~~~~
writes:
Just turbo through most everything. Once I got to the mother ship I killed
the first big thing (at the edge of the ship) with missiles. After that, I
didn't kill hardly anything. I just tried to run-like-hell! There are
several refueling drones above the mother ship (3 or 4 I think). Stay
fairly close to the center (I was just to the right of the trough).
There's another hint I could give, but that much should get you farther. I
don't want to give away the whole thing...
Q: ICE said that all of the things on the ship's surface are organic parts
of the whole and no shot will be wasted then...this doesn't mean I have to
wipe out everything sticking out of the ship, does it?
A: No, you don't. I thought that too, but it's just too damn hard with all
the things firing on you. Like I said, just run like hell until you reach
some- thing significant.
Q: Is there one main thing at the end of this level--I see there's only one
objective, but even just trying to get by and shoot only what's dogging me
still gets me overburdened.
A: Ah, very observant.
James A. Squires:
When you get up on the Mudder ship, (killing of course that decoy drone),
immediatly kill the two strange flower like objects that home in on you
(and I think there is a second set shortly following).
Dodge and outrun everything else, then look in the left trench for a drone.
Zoom to it, because you'll be under attack and low on shelds. As soon as
you leave, take out the robot guys with missles (and I think you can go
back for refuling again...).
Skip the tunnel (tho it looks very cool).
If my info is way off, tell me, and I'll refly it and update my info.
There is two ways I know of to kill da brain...
1.Kill all bad guys around the brain site. Then take your time picking off
the brain - don't run into it, make multiple passes.
2.Kill the bad guys that bug you, then fire missiles from the outside of
the brain's pit. (You should know this trick by know... The missile-locking
radar can 'see-thru' ground, and the missile will 'terrain-follow' to hit
the target - just don't target the wrong target).
Good luck!
-JAS
----------------------------------------- 3 - HELPS, TRICKS AND GENERAL
STRATEGIES
-----------------------------------------
text by David R. Liu
I almost think Shockwave should get an FAQ...
It's a little on the tough side...but the missions get SO much better in
terms of enemy graphics, terrain graphics, enemy and terrain variety,
weapons, and mission creativity as you progress through the game up to the
10th level on the moon (!) that I thought perhaps posting a Shockwave tips
list might help some netfolks get farther in this excellent title.
BTW, all this info was obtained from playing at the Wingman (default)
difficulty; not all may apply if you are on Cadet or Ace difficulty.
General Tips
Remember that each refueling bay is good for usually TWO refuels. On
occasion, the fuel drone gives you only one refuel, and occasionally you
get three. So the strategy I use is to hunt for a fuel depot, check my red
bar, and if I still have 15% strength or so, I kill everything I can within
the vicinity of the fuel depot. Then I fuel up and leave. If I'm lower than
15% coming into the bay, I fuel immediately, then kill everything (with
LASERS, not missiles which are harder to get on refuel) then FUEL AGAIN.
Several fuel bays are HIDDEN from radar. There are two in LA, I believe,
that are cloaked. In mission 6 (Utah/Monument Valley), there is one on the
left side of your path at the second excavator site, then later on your
right side.
The amount of fuel you get from refueling seems to be negatively correlated
with the amount of DAMAGE (civilian and building damage) you do. If you are
reckless (or if you just don't like the way a building looks and blow it to
smithereens) then you are likely to be shortchanged the next time you fuel.
The swarm aliens RUN OUT OF GAS. That is, you can lure them into chasing
you, then do a U-turn, and use afterburners. They'll just perish trying to
chase you. Simple. No ammo wasted. Each swarm has one mother alien which is
an immobile sphere, and takes about 13 laser hits to kill. Up to mission 4,
it is conceivable that you can destroy every alien you ever see on radar.
Around mission 5 and on, this becomes impossible. So the new strategy is to
listen carefully to your specific instructions, take out exactly what you
need to kill (and surrounding threats which pose an immediate danger), then
GET OUT and move to the next waypoint. Sure it's wussy and
chicken-hearted...but you DO want to see levels 10 and 11 (the secret Milk
Run level), right? :) Fortunately, fewer of the mission objectives in the
later levels are "Kill Every Alien in the Area" as was true in Los Angeles
(mission 3).
Notes on specific levels
Level 3: You can actually complete ALL your objectives and pass the mission
even if you blow up a prison. I've tried the experiment (not on purpose...)
Just be sure to get all the power cells.
Level 4: The 5 big big guns you meet just before the end are really
annoying. They are arranged like this:
2 4
1 3 5
Take out 3 first, with guns only if possible, then 5 with guns, then 4 with
missiles, then afterburn down the right side of the corridor. To kill each
gun, approach it from outside it's range, shoot guns or missiles for no
more than 2 seconds once your gunsight turns red, then pull a quick U-turn
and escape with burners. Repeat.
Level 5: The lava pit has three really annoying buggers inside. I've never
bothered killing the REALLY FAST two green dot mobile ground guns. The red
dot in the center of the lava pit, however, i always kill. So destroying
all three is not necessary to completing the mission, een though ICE
implies this.
Level 6: The only thing ICE cares about besides killing the final boss is
to destroy all the excavators. Each excavator takes one LONG LONG stream of
lasers, or one NUKE and about 5 seconds of lasers, or TWO NUKES and about 1
second of lasers. Even though ICE tells you not to trash the city as you
kill the last boss (who is easy since he has a pea shooter for a weapon),
you CAN get by if you crunch say 4 buildings or so. Just don't try
levelling the city.
David
----------------------------------------- 4 - EXPLANATION OF THE SAVE GAME
FEATURE
-----------------------------------------
Read this and you will not loose your saved games!
text by David R. Liu
Here's how I think the Shockwave save game process works:
You start off with 3 attempts, indicated by the 3 green boxes in a virgin
pilot's record screen. Every time you complete a mission, you get another
green box. If you:
1.fail either by giving up or dying, you lose a green box.
2.get to and live through the end of the mission, but have less than x/x
objectives met (failed to complete one or more mission ogals) then you
don;t lose any green boxes, and get to try again.
HOWEVER, if you are misfortunate enough to lose ALL your green boxes, you
have no more attempts left and then you are given an option:
STOP ends your game period, no save game, no advanced level you worked all
night to reach, nothing.
PAUSE continues your saved game from a score of ZERO.
Thus, if you see the flatline FMV where you die and you accidently hit STOP
a few times, you will likely axe your game without realizing it.
If you are careful about pressing PAUSE and STOP at appropriate times, i
don;t think anyone will have problems with lost saved games. I've only lost
one saved game, and that was from killing the power of the 3do during a
mission.
I don't think there IS any save game bug:
Shockwave is strict-- no argument there-- and if you try to cheese it by
cutting the power before you resolve your current sortie then you lose your
record. However, everything else makes sense. You can't simply keep banging
on stop or pause and expect nothing to happen. There is a screen after you
exhaust all your attempts which says EXPLICITLY that if you press STOP, you
will lose your game forever. So if some impatient and frustrated user hits
his stop button 10 times during his death scene, the buffer simply causes
him to trigger the "RESTART" (lose your game) option rather than the
continue option.
In fact, several of the so called "BUGS" in this game are not bugs at all
but people who have failed to read the manual or understand how this
admittedly complex game functions.
I'll be surprised if anyone shows me a REAL BUG that truly cannot be
prevented by some good common sense in Shockwave.
David
-------------------------------------
The WWW page contains even more stuff: screenshots, reviews of the game,
etc...
Here we go!
------------------------ 1 - SECRETS IN THE GAME
------------------------
1-1) EXPLANATION OF THE FUNNY LIGHTS IN THE COCKPIT
---------------------------------------------------
By Philippe Tarbouriech from Electronic Arts, one of
the Shockwave designers:
- The green light going up and down on the left of the cockpit represents
the number of pieces being loaded from the CD-ROM.
- The little colored dot on the lower right that changes color is an
indication of memory fragmentation... (I am sure it will help with gameplay
:)
- The graph on the left is the frame rate : number of VBL per frame.
- The graph on the right is the number of actors in the simulation/8, every
8 frames.
1-2) ELVIS IS IN SHOCKWAVE!
---------------------------
Info from Oliver Wade
Q: Has anyone seen Elvis in Shockwave. He's very small but he's in there!
A:You have to blow up the octagonal shaped moon base at the beginning of
level 10.
If you fly back over it you'll see a very small Elvis jumping up and down,
trying to get rescued (you can't rescue him). This was my only (very small)
contribution to Shockwave and I just wondered if anyone had seen it.
1-3) SHOCKWAVE ROLLS POSSIBLE!
------------------------------
How to Roll:
Just keep the LEFT button pressed and press left or right on the paddle.
Are the rolls useful ?
Chuck McGinley wrote:
I have found that when I do a barrel roll through the mine fields that are
with the AA towers I avoid the mines. This also includes the mines
surrounding the refueling drone in the congo mission. I hope these mines
are not surrounding thed rones for the rest of the game.
1-4) SHOCKWAVE SECRET MISSION #11: "MILK RUN"
---------------------------------------------
Info extracted from Matt Brown's () review of
Shockwave.
Mission #11: "Milki Run"
Somehow I managed to "corrupt" one of my saved games in such a way that I
could play a secret mission (#11) called "Milk Run". I won't give anything
away, but I will say that there are plenty of goofy little jokes, as well
as a suggestion that there is something else hidden in the game that I
haven't found. The same bogus saved game also let's me practice any of the
ten actual missions. Cool.
I can get to the secret level by reloading my bogus saved game, but I'm not
sure how I created that entry in the roster in the first place. If anyone
figures it out, I'd be interested to hear how it's done.
Last Update! Info from Tim Brengle (Electronic Arts)
Info sent to me by Tim Brengle .
As far as I know, there aren't any codes which get you there. When you
complete the game by finishing Mission 10, the final credits roll, etc. If
you look back at your saved game after this, it will indicate that your
current mission is 11, and you can go fly "Milk Run" by restoring and
starting.
Ok, here is a short description of this mission:
Info from a message by William Langford
I'm new to Usenet, and I tried to send this message out yesterday, so if
you've seen it before, I apologize.
Anyways, I haven't seen anybody post about this yet, so here goes. I
finished Shockwave last night, and after watching the credits, I noticed
the game roll right over to the opening intro. So, I aborted the intro and
went to the main menu. I then went to the roster screen and selected the
pilot with which I had just completed the "final" level (level 10). I was
surprised to see the mission name "Milk Run" on the main menu screen. I
scratched my head and pressed start.
The mission seemed to start normally, until a picture of a face popped up
where the mission map usually appears, and the ICE started talking
backwards. When the cockpit shields withdrew, I was greeted by a landscape
of what seemed to be BEANS. This odd landscape was dotted with giant milk
carton and bean cans. I flew close to a milk carton and saw the words:
"Milk. It does a mission good." Also, windmills were flying around shooting
beans at me. I did manage to complete this mission, but was only treated to
the same end game again.
Can somebody post a confirmation of this level, so that I know I'm not
hallucinating? I strongly recommend that you check this one out.
Great game! Keep up the good work! William
Enrique Conty adds:
Yup. My theory is that ICE has gone nuts, and what you see is ICE's
scrambled representation of what's outside your ship. Notice the faces of
the developers popping up in the map as you fly along.
Jason Cross says:
Yup! That's cool! And photos of the designers pop up periodically. If you
pause and "give up" you can see the ending again anyway. And ICE says some
very strange things, like, "quick, turn around, no, sorry, wrong way." It's
going in the survival guide!
Some cheats on that mission:
Text by Jesse Fuchs :
On this level everytime you press the stop button the radar is refreshed
and you can see all of the units that normal fade in and out.
1-5) ARE THERE CODES IN SHOCKWAVE ?
------------------------------------
>From Philippe Tarbouriech from Electronic Arts, one
of the Shockwave designers.
Yes, there are codes, you can get powerfull laser, smart bomb, ... and
several other goodies.
The codes are entered when you pause the game. Try to find them yourself
for the moment...
------------------------------------ 2 - HOW TO PASS THE DIFFERENT LEVELS
------------------------------------
2-1) HERE IS THE OFFICAL SOLUTION TO THE LEVEL 3 (LOS ANGELES)
-------------------------------------------------------------- By Laurent
Benes from Electronic Arts, the guy who designed most of the levels:
Introduction :
OK guys, I saw many many articles about the mission 3 in ShockWave. Far
more than I ever thought it was possible when I was working on this
mission. Actually, don't blame me too much, I was not the only one to work
on this mission. The real problem seems to be these two fast ground
vehicles in Burbank that run away on the left. I didn't do that, I even
slowed them down. After a lot of testing many people wanted to remove them
and I insisted to keep that because I thought that in the mission 3, it was
time to put the player in trouble. Actually, it seems that it was too much
trouble !!!
I am sure that at least, I brought a huge satisfaction to every ShockWave
player who finaly succeed the mission 3 !!
Here is the official solution :
There are 5 objectives in this mission :
Las Vegas: Destroy all aliens here in order to get your first objective
done. You have 20 aliens to destroy there. (3 Tripods - 5 Collectors - 7
Scouts - 5 Interceptors).
Riverside: Destroy all aliens here in order to get your second objective
done. You have 25 aliens to destroy there. (4 Tripods - 7 Collectors - 3
Scouts - 5 Interceptors - 3 MobileAA -1 HeatSeeker - 2 Swarms). You must
also destroy the 4 powerCells but NOT the prison.
Pasadena: Destroy all aliens here in order to get your third objective
done. You have 19 aliens to destroy there. (3 Tripods - 3 strong Tripods
- 2 Collectors - 3 Interceptors - 2 MobileAA -5 HeatSeeker s- 1 Swarm). You
must also destroy the 4 powerCells but NOT the prison.
BurBank: Destroy all aliens here in order to get your fourth objective
done. You have 20 aliens to destroy there. (6 strong Tripods - 3 Collectors
- 3 Interceptors - 4 MobileAA - 3 HeatSeekers - 1 Scout).
!!!!! Be careful here because 2 MobileAA quickly try to escape on the left
of the path. If you are not fast enough in the beginning of this objective,
you may not be able to destroy them.
Los Angeles: Destroy all aliens here in order to get your fifth objective
done. You have 15 aliens to destroy there (5 Scouts - 4 strong Tripods - 6
Swarms). You also have to destroy a fast moving new craft called Cobras
(their number depends on your performance on the first objectives). You
have to destroy 12 PowerCells in order to free 3 prisons. Finally, you have
to be careful with the satellite dishes. Don't destroy more than 1.
Hints :
On Las Vegas, if you don't destroy any civil building, then you get two
bonuses: Your first Refueler is going to be full, else it's going to be
partial. This first Refueler is not visible on your radar because a tripod
is exactly at the same position. An extra Refueler in Riverside, far on the
left of the path, invisible on the radar. You need to protect the Atomic
Power Plant form the Collectors walking towards it (else you're probably
dead) and also save the 6 close towers from the tripods. If you save them,
then you get an extra Refueler far on the left of the path in Los Angeles.
After Pasadena, in the Refinery region, you have a partial Refueler
(invisible on your radar) on the right of the path.
To destroy a Swarm, just shoot the immobile one.
--
--Laurent Benes (lbenes@ea.com)
2-2) HERE IS A WALKTHROUGH OF ALL THE LEVELS BY FAMOUS PEOPLE FROM THE NET!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
By David Liu , George Cifrancis
, James A. Squires , Walter Horat
and Castellan
.
COMMENT n TIPS:
Level 1: ~~~~~~~~
Use missiles on scouts (the red dots on radar), guns on ground crawlers. At
the end, you will meet an alien control center with a LOT of firepower.
Start far far away, hold B when your gunsight locks on, fire 2 missiles,
turn 180 degrees, afterburn out, and repeat. Takes about 3 passes this way.
(Be careful, you can shoot down your own missiles!)
Level 2: ~~~~~~~~
Significantly tougher. Save missiles for the green bow-tie shaped
interceptors; shoot scouts and ground units. Although lots of fighting, no
real catches in this level.
Level 3 (LA): ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here are the five objectives:
You get 1 mission goal for clearing out vegas of aliens. You get 4 mission
goals for clearing out 16 energy pods surrounding 4 prisons.
This totals 5, your required number. If you finish with less than 5 points,
you get a "pat on the back speech" and then get booted back to square one.
Back to David Liu's comments:
This one is a KILLER. However, it really becomes much easier as you
practice. You start in Vegas, and end up in L.A. Save missiles for (in
order)
Interceptors shaped like a Y Interceptors shaped like a bow tie (green)
Scouts
You MUST MUST conserve missiles and lasers. If you miss even one or two
aliens (actually, i believe you get a buffer of ONE alien in the first few
areas of mission 3), you may have to restart.
Your objectives are the four power cells surrounding the dark pyramidal
prisons. DO NOT shoot the prisons. Each power cell takes exactly 8 shots.
Also, you must kill the round circular yellow balls that surround the
prisons.
TIP#1:
You need only kill ONE of the balls per nest. Lure the others away, and
afterburn away. THE "FAKE" YELLOW BALLS WILL DISAPPEAR AFTER CHASING YOU
BRIEFLY. This leaves you with ONE yellow ball only per cluster. It takes 13
shots to kill.
About 2/3 of the way into the mission, you will come across a green force
field fence composed of green balls. head SLOWLY towards the edge. If
you've killed all aliens up to that point, the field should disappear. I
don't think shooting the alien fence posts has anything to do with the
forcefield. If you try to cross the forcefield before deactivation, you
will automatically perish. (However, you can cheat by temporarily going off
path around the fence).
TIP#2:
There are several "hidden" REFUELING DRUMS, not all of which appear on
radar. As you approach a group of large rectangular prism-shaped buildings,
look for a "cloaked" refueling drum on your right side. This one restores
health totally, but not guns or fuel.
You also must take out the command center, a VERY fast and VERY beefy
yellow flying machine. Takes about 20 shots. Dont try missiles; it can out
turn and out run them.
You get 1 mission goal for clearing out Vegas of aliens You get 4 mission
goals for clearing out 16 energy pods surrounding 4 prisons. This totals 5,
your required number. If you finish with less than 5 points, you get a "pat
on the back speech" and then get booted back to square one.
Secret refueling drone:
Just coming from :
There's also a "secret" refueling drone on level 3. At some point towards
the end, the alley widens way out (just wider than your radar), then takes
a fairly sharp turn. At the very very tip of the point of this turn (the
outside of the turn), there's a drone.
New this week (July 15 1994) A complete walkthrough of level 3:
Text by Castellan :
I've noticed a lot of conflicting reports on how to beat LA in Shockwave,
so, after playing this stage thoroughly and pausing to determine the number
of mission goals completed, here is *exactly* how to do it.
1/5: Clear Las Vegas completely. 2/5: Clear Riverside completely (get ANY
and ALL escaping aliens, afterburn if nnecessary - there are almost always
a few of them ahead on the radar that you can't see trying to escape). Take
out the power cells around the prison. 3/5: Clear Burbank completely.
Pursue and destroy any escaping aliens. 4/5: Take out the power cells on
the prison in Pasadena. 5/5: Take out the power cells on the three prisons
in LA.
I kept getting 4/5 because I was NOT getting the escaping aliens at
RIverside. Blast through the fighter cover with afterburners and get to the
end of Riverside ASAP, and take out ALL ground vehicles. Then pick off the
fighters. Sure, you'll take some damage, but if you off a few interceptors
as you burn toward the escaping aliens, you'll be in good shape. This also
applies to Burbank.
Bad things: Destroying the reactor, destroying the actual prison
facilities, destroying 40% of the radar dishes (or more).
To get through the force field easily, just afterburn and barrel roll
through it. Works *perfectly*.
On a side note, is anybody else impressed with the sprawling variety of
enemies in this game? I'm only on mission 4, and I count:
7 different types of flying craft. 3 different types of tank. 3 different
types of walkers. A multitude of special craft (command posts, command
fighters, pods, transports, etc...)
Back to David Liu's original message:
Level 4: ~~~~~~~~
A very nice idea. You are doing a search and rescue mission for one of your
fellow pilots (the annoying female one...wish I could just let her die so
she'll stop talking to me during missions). This one has FABULOUS graphics
(southern england), rolling hills, and FIVE NEW TYPES of aliens.
(Normally i don't like revealing hint publically [TE's level select an
exception], but since this game is so very challenging and demanding on the
precision and coordination depts, i have no qualms now)
To finish level 4, you must
1.Kill all the bird-like transport ships at start
2.kill all transport ground vehicles in the next area
3."Pass through" the area with "a great number" of aliens: TRANSLATION:
Kill most of em, including the ground transports and birdies.
4.Clear the next area for the British military and your rescue ship.
At the end, you see the following arrangement of Bad Guys (tm):
x x
x x x 1 23 4 5
Kill 3 with guns only
Kill 5 with guns only
Kill 4 with missiles only
Each time, you must fire for a second, then RETREAT and turn around and
repeat.
Shockwave is the finest game to come out for the 3do. Simply amazing.
David
Level 5: ~~~~~~~~
George Cifrancis:
Listen carefully to ICE, always do what she tells you to do. On 5 as I
recall (I am on 8) you must destroy all the radars. Keep in mind they don't
show up on YOUR radar screen so you must do a visual search for them. This
is especially important when you nail the ones in the water! You need to
sweep the whole area! I think there are at least 4 radars that are away
from everything else so you must hunt for them. If ICE tells you that you
missed some, you might as well start over. As a matter of fact whenever ICE
says you missed ANYTHING, there is a good bet that you missed an objective
and you might as well start over. On the prison barges that ICE tells you
to hit the lead ship, I believe it is the ship furtherest away as you come
up on it. If ICE says you missed it or killed people, start over you,
funked up. Obviously don't sink the Kennedy or let it be sinked and kill
that tower that comes out at the end.
James A. Squires:
There are two key objectives in level 5:
1.Hit all those damn radar sites.
2.Get all four 'Special Targets'(I know three of 'em, who knows the third?)
First key objective:
Goal 1/5: The radar sites before the lava pit (land based). Goal 2/5: The
radar sites over water. Goal 3/5: The radar sites just after getting goal
2/5 (water). Goal 4/5: Get all 4/4 Special Targets. Goal 5/5: Get the Boss
at end (piece of cake - for Cadet).
Remember back in 'cake-walk' level 3, Los Angeles (why save it?), when you
would hit the prison power supplies, and your special monitor would beep
and say: "OK-GOOD-BETTER-PERFECT"?
Well, it does that on level 5, but very quickly the message is gone (like
we have lots of time to study the Heads Down display). I'm a little shaky
on the order, I know 3 of 4, but not the 4th (I got it, but don't know
when/what it was - HELP).
Here's my best shot:
ST 1/4: The Black Thingy in center of lava pit (you'll get hammered there)
ST 2/4: Odd "prison ship" in first convoy (ICE is not quite right) ST 3/4:
Odd "prison ship" in second convoy. ST 4/4: (need help here)
Anyway, *I'm* done with those damn islands!
Walter Horat:
The solution to level five is:
Get all of the hidden radar units. When ICE tells you that you should be
looking for radar, do it. The units are not visible on your radar screen...
You will get a message telling you whether or not you have killed all of
the radar or not. If you miss any, there goes a mission objective. There
are 4 radar areas.
This will score 4/5 goals.
The fifth goal, and the one that took me about 15-20 plays of level 5 to
figure out is to SAVE THE PRISONERS ON THE BARGES!!! When ICE tells you to
pick off the lead barges, you have to kill the AA towers positioned around
the barges, the fast moving cruisers that flank the barges, and the LEAD
BARGE of each convoy. This is the barge that is FARTHEST from you, as the
barges are moving in the same direction that you are.
You can sink the friendly planes; I have a hard time keeping them from
crashing into me. Except that you feel guilty for doing it, it wont prevent
you from solving the level.
I haven't gotten off of the level by sinking the aircraft carrier, but you
seem to be able to score your mission goals whether or not it lives.
To kill the bad boy at the end of the level, keep turning in circles around
the same position as your refeuling tanker, letting a missle loose as soon
as you have it in your gunsights and turn and fly away before it can hit
you too many times. It takes between 3-6 missiles to kill it, as your
missiles are occasionally shot down...
Good luck!
Now, I have to get off of level 8! Damned evil gravity sucking things!!!
Secret refueling drone on level 5:
>From Jeff TJ :
There is a refueling drone that doesn't show up on your radar. It appears
with 112 clicks remaining on the far right side of your flight area.
level 6: ~~~~~~~~
The only thing ICE cares about besides killing the final boss is to destroy
all the excavators. Each excavator takes one LONG LONG stream of lasers, or
one NUKE and about 5 seconds of lasers, or TWO NUKES and about 1 second of
lasers. Even though ICE tells you not to trash the city as you kill the
last boss (who is easy since he has a pea shooter for a weapon), you CAN
get by if you crunch say 4 buildings or so.
Just don't try levelling the city.
level 7: ~~~~~~~~
David Liu writes:
Same as level 6, but there are green energy cylos that support the alien
eggs. These must be destroyed.
The best way I've been able to find for killing the command post in the
middle of Mission 7 (mine was on WINGMAN, however, so this may or may not
be applicable):
1.Take out the left green/grey pylon.
2.Turn around, and approach the right pylon slowly.
3.Just as you get within laser range to axe the pylon, three interceptors
(red dots on radar) should approach.
4.The key is to coax one of the red dots into COLLIDING WITH THE COMMAND
POST!
Just make sure the command post is BETWEEN you and the interceptor. The
command post is so bulky, that the interceptor will easily hit it and
explode if you manuver appropriately, lining up the interceptor and post.
5.This does two Good Things. It destroys the interceptor (which only takes
3-4 hits anyway but packs an offensive wallop), and it does TWO MISSILE
HITS worth of damage on the command post. Another 2 missiles and 3 laser
hits (on Wingman level) finishes off the command post.
In general, one can easily lure the red dots away from big dangerous bosses
and pick them off one by one. Often the red dots have a circling pattern,
and the most distant point in their path places them at risk of being hit
by your lasers but keeps you safe from the boss ahead. It's just a matter
of figuring out the range of the boss's weapons and the range of your
lasers.
Level 8: ~~~~~~~~
I don't remember who posted this:
Mission Objectives:
1.Get all eggs in silos 1 & 2.
2.Get all eggs in silos 3 & 4 (I have made it through without getting the
flaps, so they aren't an objective).
3.Get all the landing pads (step 21).
4.Kill the spider-like machine.
In this mission it has been determined that the Aliens have made silos
(tunnels) that go to eggs they have stored underground. It is imperative
that you destroy the eggs. This means you'll have to fly into the small
silo entrance which is protected by a force field and maneuver through the
tunnel and blast all the eggs.
This is how the mission goes:
1.Turbo past the heavily armored tanks.
2.Kill bird-like machines and the ground monster while using afterburners.
3.Lure away the fuzzy balls and kill the fixed one.
4.3 missiles takes out the excavator.
5.Laser the 3 tanks.
6.Missiles and lasers on anti-aircraft batteries (do this in multiple
passes, one missile per pass) I get 3 out of the 4 and then stay to one
side.
7.Turbo past enemies on ocean with lasers killing what you can. Note that
it is possible to just use afterburners from step 5 to step 9 with lasers
shooting what you can, but you'll take a lot of damage.
8.Destroy walkers on land (1 missile each).
9.When the refueling drone comes into view destroy the gravity pad in front
of it aiming low so as not to hit the drone. Then take out the walker. Also
get the other two ground things past the drone before refueling. 10.Refuel!
(finally) Come in from the side and don't worry about the air mines.
11.Take out landing pads and birdlike machines at the silos (I usually also
get the ones just past the first silo or else they'll blast you when you
come out. To enter the silo, make sure the targetting indicators are
centered on the entrance. 12.Get the eggs in the tunnel and get at least
one of the flappers with lasers. There are 2 silos in this area, so don't
forget the second one. Refuel afterwards (might want to fly a little
forward and kill some stuff). 13.Blast the incoming fighters and two
walkers before being sucked in by the gravity pad. Shoot the pad with
lasers and turbo back. Do the same with the other gravity pads and
fighters. If you are trapped by a pad uses lasers firing down to destroy
it. 14.Destroy the Juggernaut with missiles (7 missiles) flying multiple
passes. Sometimes the enemy fighters fly into the big juggernaut, but
otherwise you'll have to get them with lasers. 15.Also kill the battle
fortress just past the refueling drone before re- fueling (also 7
missiles). Don't get too close to this guy! Refuel. Things get harder after
this point. 16.Next are the heavily armored fighters (this is a real
dogfight). It is easier to fight them over flatter ground because they stay
a certain height above the ground all the time. If you are not an expert
dogfighter, you may want to turbo past this area (ICE's comments seem to
indicate the game designers assumed you'll have to). 17.Two more silos are
next. These are the ones with the killer flaps at the entrance and exits.
Laser the flaps on entrance and exit. You can get through if you
concentrate your fire on the bottom one and have enough shields and time it
just right and use turbos and get lucky and are damn good at it and... I
have tried doing a barrel roll through them (can't roll in the tunnels) and
I've tried blasting the exit point before entering the tunnel with no
effect. If you make it past this point you will probably win. 18.Beware of
the Juggernaut when coming out of this tunnel. Kill it and don't forget
about the other silo! Refuel. 19.More gravity pads and fighters. 20.Get ALL
of the landing pads in the next area. 21.There is a BIG spider-like machine
with heavy firepower near you next refueling drone. I have killed it
without needing to refuel, but beware of the gravity pad near it. Getting
trapped by that pad could be the end for you.
writes a Hint about level 8 (Congo):
It appears that you have to shoot everything in the tunnels, including
those flapping fishbone obstacles. I finished that level a few times with
less 4 objectives met and I know I wiped out all of the eggs in the tunnels
and got the other outside objectives. I couldn't finish the level until I
went back and got every last cuttlefish thingy in the tunnels.
On the upside, on these subsequent tunnel passes, you get to afterburn thru
the tunnels until you get to the last couple of fishbones and the
afterburning trip thru the tunnels is pretty spectacular, with just the
right amount of banking to make it look neater than TE tunnels!
Correction by : No, those aren't objectives.
I finished without destroying all of them. Trouble is, you almost have to
kill them or they'll kill you. You probably got some- thing you missed the
other time. ICE will tell you almost right away if you didn't get all the
eggs.
Level 10: ~~~~~~~~~
writes:
Just turbo through most everything. Once I got to the mother ship I killed
the first big thing (at the edge of the ship) with missiles. After that, I
didn't kill hardly anything. I just tried to run-like-hell! There are
several refueling drones above the mother ship (3 or 4 I think). Stay
fairly close to the center (I was just to the right of the trough).
There's another hint I could give, but that much should get you farther. I
don't want to give away the whole thing...
Q: ICE said that all of the things on the ship's surface are organic parts
of the whole and no shot will be wasted then...this doesn't mean I have to
wipe out everything sticking out of the ship, does it?
A: No, you don't. I thought that too, but it's just too damn hard with all
the things firing on you. Like I said, just run like hell until you reach
some- thing significant.
Q: Is there one main thing at the end of this level--I see there's only one
objective, but even just trying to get by and shoot only what's dogging me
still gets me overburdened.
A: Ah, very observant.
James A. Squires:
When you get up on the Mudder ship, (killing of course that decoy drone),
immediatly kill the two strange flower like objects that home in on you
(and I think there is a second set shortly following).
Dodge and outrun everything else, then look in the left trench for a drone.
Zoom to it, because you'll be under attack and low on shelds. As soon as
you leave, take out the robot guys with missles (and I think you can go
back for refuling again...).
Skip the tunnel (tho it looks very cool).
If my info is way off, tell me, and I'll refly it and update my info.
There is two ways I know of to kill da brain...
1.Kill all bad guys around the brain site. Then take your time picking off
the brain - don't run into it, make multiple passes.
2.Kill the bad guys that bug you, then fire missiles from the outside of
the brain's pit. (You should know this trick by know... The missile-locking
radar can 'see-thru' ground, and the missile will 'terrain-follow' to hit
the target - just don't target the wrong target).
Good luck!
-JAS
----------------------------------------- 3 - HELPS, TRICKS AND GENERAL
STRATEGIES
-----------------------------------------
text by David R. Liu
I almost think Shockwave should get an FAQ...
It's a little on the tough side...but the missions get SO much better in
terms of enemy graphics, terrain graphics, enemy and terrain variety,
weapons, and mission creativity as you progress through the game up to the
10th level on the moon (!) that I thought perhaps posting a Shockwave tips
list might help some netfolks get farther in this excellent title.
BTW, all this info was obtained from playing at the Wingman (default)
difficulty; not all may apply if you are on Cadet or Ace difficulty.
General Tips
Remember that each refueling bay is good for usually TWO refuels. On
occasion, the fuel drone gives you only one refuel, and occasionally you
get three. So the strategy I use is to hunt for a fuel depot, check my red
bar, and if I still have 15% strength or so, I kill everything I can within
the vicinity of the fuel depot. Then I fuel up and leave. If I'm lower than
15% coming into the bay, I fuel immediately, then kill everything (with
LASERS, not missiles which are harder to get on refuel) then FUEL AGAIN.
Several fuel bays are HIDDEN from radar. There are two in LA, I believe,
that are cloaked. In mission 6 (Utah/Monument Valley), there is one on the
left side of your path at the second excavator site, then later on your
right side.
The amount of fuel you get from refueling seems to be negatively correlated
with the amount of DAMAGE (civilian and building damage) you do. If you are
reckless (or if you just don't like the way a building looks and blow it to
smithereens) then you are likely to be shortchanged the next time you fuel.
The swarm aliens RUN OUT OF GAS. That is, you can lure them into chasing
you, then do a U-turn, and use afterburners. They'll just perish trying to
chase you. Simple. No ammo wasted. Each swarm has one mother alien which is
an immobile sphere, and takes about 13 laser hits to kill. Up to mission 4,
it is conceivable that you can destroy every alien you ever see on radar.
Around mission 5 and on, this becomes impossible. So the new strategy is to
listen carefully to your specific instructions, take out exactly what you
need to kill (and surrounding threats which pose an immediate danger), then
GET OUT and move to the next waypoint. Sure it's wussy and
chicken-hearted...but you DO want to see levels 10 and 11 (the secret Milk
Run level), right? :) Fortunately, fewer of the mission objectives in the
later levels are "Kill Every Alien in the Area" as was true in Los Angeles
(mission 3).
Notes on specific levels
Level 3: You can actually complete ALL your objectives and pass the mission
even if you blow up a prison. I've tried the experiment (not on purpose...)
Just be sure to get all the power cells.
Level 4: The 5 big big guns you meet just before the end are really
annoying. They are arranged like this:
2 4
1 3 5
Take out 3 first, with guns only if possible, then 5 with guns, then 4 with
missiles, then afterburn down the right side of the corridor. To kill each
gun, approach it from outside it's range, shoot guns or missiles for no
more than 2 seconds once your gunsight turns red, then pull a quick U-turn
and escape with burners. Repeat.
Level 5: The lava pit has three really annoying buggers inside. I've never
bothered killing the REALLY FAST two green dot mobile ground guns. The red
dot in the center of the lava pit, however, i always kill. So destroying
all three is not necessary to completing the mission, een though ICE
implies this.
Level 6: The only thing ICE cares about besides killing the final boss is
to destroy all the excavators. Each excavator takes one LONG LONG stream of
lasers, or one NUKE and about 5 seconds of lasers, or TWO NUKES and about 1
second of lasers. Even though ICE tells you not to trash the city as you
kill the last boss (who is easy since he has a pea shooter for a weapon),
you CAN get by if you crunch say 4 buildings or so. Just don't try
levelling the city.
David
----------------------------------------- 4 - EXPLANATION OF THE SAVE GAME
FEATURE
-----------------------------------------
Read this and you will not loose your saved games!
text by David R. Liu
Here's how I think the Shockwave save game process works:
You start off with 3 attempts, indicated by the 3 green boxes in a virgin
pilot's record screen. Every time you complete a mission, you get another
green box. If you:
1.fail either by giving up or dying, you lose a green box.
2.get to and live through the end of the mission, but have less than x/x
objectives met (failed to complete one or more mission ogals) then you
don;t lose any green boxes, and get to try again.
HOWEVER, if you are misfortunate enough to lose ALL your green boxes, you
have no more attempts left and then you are given an option:
STOP ends your game period, no save game, no advanced level you worked all
night to reach, nothing.
PAUSE continues your saved game from a score of ZERO.
Thus, if you see the flatline FMV where you die and you accidently hit STOP
a few times, you will likely axe your game without realizing it.
If you are careful about pressing PAUSE and STOP at appropriate times, i
don;t think anyone will have problems with lost saved games. I've only lost
one saved game, and that was from killing the power of the 3do during a
mission.
I don't think there IS any save game bug:
Shockwave is strict-- no argument there-- and if you try to cheese it by
cutting the power before you resolve your current sortie then you lose your
record. However, everything else makes sense. You can't simply keep banging
on stop or pause and expect nothing to happen. There is a screen after you
exhaust all your attempts which says EXPLICITLY that if you press STOP, you
will lose your game forever. So if some impatient and frustrated user hits
his stop button 10 times during his death scene, the buffer simply causes
him to trigger the "RESTART" (lose your game) option rather than the
continue option.
In fact, several of the so called "BUGS" in this game are not bugs at all
but people who have failed to read the manual or understand how this
admittedly complex game functions.
I'll be surprised if anyone shows me a REAL BUG that truly cannot be
prevented by some good common sense in Shockwave.
David