Red Planet Master

or Why I need 16000

I just stumbled across an old email from Syscrusher, with advice on how to pass the Red Planet Masters Trials. The advice deals with details of the 4.0 system. ( Basically, go fast, don’t give up, don’t give away points.)

Why am I blogging about a defunct game?

Because it was friggen cool, and a ton of fun. There used to be a really good international community of players.

VWE sponsored World Championships with the 3.0 software, with teams from Japan, UK, Australia, and several US teams competing.

A company called VirtualWorld (VWE) had two games you could play in their system: BattleTech(BT) and Red Planet. (RP).

BattleTech is/was a fighting robot game, set in the BattleTech universe. I’ve played both version 3 and Tesla 4 (4.6, 4.7, 4.8…) for both BT and RP. My first game was December 24th, 1997. I took an Avatar, and finished 4th place, 2 kills 1 death, 3109 points. I was hooked. I played another 557 games during the next year, moving from Standard to Expert. (Over 400 were in Expert, which adds heat management to the game, making you pick your shots) I stopped actively playing in December of 2002, with a total of 2424 missions. Yes, I logged every game in Excel and Access. Didn't everybody?












Currently I have 2464 BT missions, and 1014 RP missions. I haven’t played since 9/11/2003. I played BT: Firestorm. Much better graphics compared to Tesla. It’s basically a port of Mechwarrior:4. Still like the gameplay of Tesla, but that’s what I’m used too.

I’ve Mastered in BT in the Satyr, Avatar, Madcat, Summoner, and Sunder. I Mastered in RP in the Quark.

Quick summary of Master Trials.

For Battletech, it’s 3 v 2, with 4 pilots. To pass, the candidate must defeat 2 Masters, and survive until the end of the 10 minute trial. The candidate gets 2 mechs, each of the 3 Masters gets 1 mech. A typical way to pass is the candidate calls out 1 Master, they duel, candidate defeats 1st Master. Candidate calls out 2nd Master, does as much damage as possible, dies, gets 2nd Mech, kills 2nd Master and runs out the clock.

For Red Planet, it’s a 8 person race. 4 candidates, 4 Masters. Candidates must beat 3 of 4 Masters to pass, so 1st or 2nd place is a guaranteed pass. What makes it fun is all the players are anonymous for a Trial, so it is difficult to know who is a Master and who is a candidate. And you can only see your score, and the scores of people ahead of you. If your in first, you don’t know where 2nd place is, so you have to keep pushing, and taking risks to win.



If you never seen RP, think about racing at Indy speeds. On a 1 mile drag strip. Where the most laps (down and back) wins. And you can take Formula 1, NASCAR, jet engine semi trucks, all on the same course. With rocket boosters. And some of the cars have weapons…..


It’s insane.





Which is why it’s a great game.




Paingod's Passage is the classic RP 4.0 Master Trial track, with two 90 degree turns, and 2 straightaways for speed.



Brewer's Bane is another Master level course. You can power slide through the big 90 bend.







Important point: the amount of points gained from going fast is based on the square of the speed. The amount of points lost in a collision is equal to the damage suffered in the collision, which is again based upon the square of the speed of impact.
“Go really, really fast, get big points. Screw up going really fast, lose even more points."


Now this is why I need $16,000

http://www.classicbattletech.com/cbt_update_announce.html
http://www.mechjock.com/

I can get 8 pods, and start playing
The. Greatest. Game. Ever.

Martian Football.

Again.


Red Planet is a racing game set on Mars. The races are really just training for Martian Football, TGGE.

Game theory behind BT and RP
http://www.research.scea.com/research/pdfs/Bleeding%20Edge%20Part%202%20(game%20design).pdf

Red Planet’s Martian Football
• Each team had a “runner” who scored by
going fast and not getting killed.
• “Crushers” got points by killing the runner.
• “Blockers” got points by killing “Crushers”
• Blockers and crushers lost no points for
dieing and had an unlimited booster supply.
• Every lap completed without being killed
raised the runner’s score multiplier.
• Players constantly overloaded and near
panic for the whole game.
The Adrenalin junkies loved this game.
• You never got a break, someone was always
flying straight at you at extreme speed.
• People would sometimes exit the pod
covered in sweat or visibly shaking.
• It was quite a spectacle for people watching.
• The noise (from screaming players and
spectators) was unbelievable.
• It was what convinced many people to try
the game


Want to see some replays of a Football game?
Look for Chicago, Games 1 and 4.

Oh, and why is this blog called Piper's Musing's?

Because Piper is my call-sign. And I love crushing little bugs.