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Hostile Waters (game)
Encyclopedia
Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising is a hybrid vehicle and strategy game
released on the PC in 2001 by the British
company Rage Games Limited. It was inspired by an earlier game known as Carrier Command
(Realtime Games, 1988).
-like ship called Antaeus Prototype 00. Classed as an "Adaptive Cruiser" it houses a series of massive nanorobot assembly units called Creation Engines.
In the year 2012, a battle takes place between what is described as the "Old Guard", and the people. The Old Guard were defeated, with only a few of their leaders escaping. And then, in 2032, the world has been rebuilt as a utopia, with the help of nano-technological assemblers, which are used in "creation engines" used to create matter from energy and waste.
Missile attacks are suddenly launched against major cities all over the world from unknown locations. The location is eventually discovered to be an island chain in the South Pacific. A response to the missile attacks was a special-ops team sent in to investigate the area for preliminary investigations. The Ministry of Intelligence (MinIntel) loses contact with it shortly thereafter. The global government authorizes a reactivation of the Antaeus program, a series of warships able to create any weapon of their choosing using their on-board nano-technological creation engine. Two of these were left on the seabed in the case of an emergency, capable of being re-activated and refloating itself. On-board are a series of "soulcatcher" chips, a classified 1990's military program researched into for the storage of human brain functions on a silicon chip. The soulcatcher technology was used to store the minds of every crew member ever assigned to an Antaeus vessel.
It is soon discovered that one of the cruisers does not respond to the awakening signal. The other cruiser, however, is refloated and re-activated, with heavy damage to vital ship components. A course is plotted for a nearby, disused wet-dock.
As the Antaeus progresses from the wet-dock, unusual biological life-forms are discovered amongst the enemy bases on the islands. The identity of the aggressor firing the missiles is confirmed as the leftovers of the old, pre-Central forces, known as the Cabal. fighting with thousands of troops and weapons that they hid away when it was apparent that the war was lost. Outnumbering Central's army a thousand to one. Along with their superior numbers, it is discovered that they have also biologically engineered a species of organic machines, designed in the popular likeness of extraterrestrials, which they intend to use in order to create the fear of an alien invasion, to facilitate their taking over the world and the removal of the public use of creation engines.
The Cabal later lose control of the species, which eventually turn on their masters, destroying them, and start spreading, modifying the planetary climate geographical features in an attempt to exterminate humanity and make the planet more hospitable to themselves. The Antaeus is deployed into the chicane to stop the Cabal's operations there. Having exterminated its creators, the species resolves to cleanse humanity as a whole from the planet using a massive 'disassembler cannon'
, only to be stopped by the Antaeus. Central's only option is to bind the Antaeus' creation engine and the disassembler cannon stolen from the aliens together to create a makeshift bomb, and detonate it at the aliens' last staging point; an organic, artificially-grown island. The plan succeeds, and the Antaeus are sacrificed to save the world.
The species subsequently attempts to flee into the cosmos and colonize the surrounding planets and stars, by launching a massive number of 'culture stones'; information devices that also double as creation engines, into space.
Vehicles are built on the Antaeus and, if desired, land vehicles can be delivered to a location by the air-lifting "magpie". Units are created by providing Antaeus with a number of resources which are obtained at the beginning of the level and debris which are taken from destroyed enemy units and structures. Transport helicopters such as the "Pegasus" can fly to an object and airlift it to the ship-board recycling system with little resources required. The carrier can analyze objects it disassembles at the rear of the Antaeus cruiser, and several of the game's vehicles and items are unlocked by "sampling" them in this fashion.
The game has a number of vehicles that are progressively unlocked as the missions progress. Vehicles contain a number of slots for equipment and a selection of different types of weapons to use the vehicle with. A variety of vehicle equipment combinations can be designed and used.
Vehicles have an individual damage multiplier such that different vehicles with the same weapon will do different damage. In addition to this, each soulchip personality specializes in one unit along with specific equipment, which, if equipped will gain them a bonus in efficiency.
Strategy game
A strategy game or strategic game is a game in which the players' uncoerced, and often autonomous decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome...
released on the PC in 2001 by the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
company Rage Games Limited. It was inspired by an earlier game known as Carrier Command
Carrier Command
Carrier Command is a landmark 1980s computer game available on Amiga, Atari ST, PC, ZX Spectrum, Apple Macintosh, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC computers....
(Realtime Games, 1988).
Plot
Hostile Waters takes place in a utopian future where war has been abolished. A group of former dictators have come up with a plan to reclaim their lost power. They plan to scare the world into asking for their protection by engineering an artificial alien threat. The last war machine ever used is reactivated and deployed to stop them. This machine is an aircraft carrierAircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
-like ship called Antaeus Prototype 00. Classed as an "Adaptive Cruiser" it houses a series of massive nanorobot assembly units called Creation Engines.
In the year 2012, a battle takes place between what is described as the "Old Guard", and the people. The Old Guard were defeated, with only a few of their leaders escaping. And then, in 2032, the world has been rebuilt as a utopia, with the help of nano-technological assemblers, which are used in "creation engines" used to create matter from energy and waste.
Missile attacks are suddenly launched against major cities all over the world from unknown locations. The location is eventually discovered to be an island chain in the South Pacific. A response to the missile attacks was a special-ops team sent in to investigate the area for preliminary investigations. The Ministry of Intelligence (MinIntel) loses contact with it shortly thereafter. The global government authorizes a reactivation of the Antaeus program, a series of warships able to create any weapon of their choosing using their on-board nano-technological creation engine. Two of these were left on the seabed in the case of an emergency, capable of being re-activated and refloating itself. On-board are a series of "soulcatcher" chips, a classified 1990's military program researched into for the storage of human brain functions on a silicon chip. The soulcatcher technology was used to store the minds of every crew member ever assigned to an Antaeus vessel.
It is soon discovered that one of the cruisers does not respond to the awakening signal. The other cruiser, however, is refloated and re-activated, with heavy damage to vital ship components. A course is plotted for a nearby, disused wet-dock.
As the Antaeus progresses from the wet-dock, unusual biological life-forms are discovered amongst the enemy bases on the islands. The identity of the aggressor firing the missiles is confirmed as the leftovers of the old, pre-Central forces, known as the Cabal. fighting with thousands of troops and weapons that they hid away when it was apparent that the war was lost. Outnumbering Central's army a thousand to one. Along with their superior numbers, it is discovered that they have also biologically engineered a species of organic machines, designed in the popular likeness of extraterrestrials, which they intend to use in order to create the fear of an alien invasion, to facilitate their taking over the world and the removal of the public use of creation engines.
The Cabal later lose control of the species, which eventually turn on their masters, destroying them, and start spreading, modifying the planetary climate geographical features in an attempt to exterminate humanity and make the planet more hospitable to themselves. The Antaeus is deployed into the chicane to stop the Cabal's operations there. Having exterminated its creators, the species resolves to cleanse humanity as a whole from the planet using a massive 'disassembler cannon'
Grey goo
Grey goo is a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating robots consume all matter on Earth while building more of themselves, a scenario known as ecophagy .Self-replicating machines of the macroscopic variety were originally...
, only to be stopped by the Antaeus. Central's only option is to bind the Antaeus' creation engine and the disassembler cannon stolen from the aliens together to create a makeshift bomb, and detonate it at the aliens' last staging point; an organic, artificially-grown island. The plan succeeds, and the Antaeus are sacrificed to save the world.
The species subsequently attempts to flee into the cosmos and colonize the surrounding planets and stars, by launching a massive number of 'culture stones'; information devices that also double as creation engines, into space.
Gameplay
Each Mission takes place on and or near a fortified enemy island containing various forms of anti-air and ground defence, with scattered unit-production complexes powered by oil-derricks and fuel containers (which are Dependant on the oil-derricks) that the player can destroy to keep the enemy from replacing destroyed forces.Vehicles are built on the Antaeus and, if desired, land vehicles can be delivered to a location by the air-lifting "magpie". Units are created by providing Antaeus with a number of resources which are obtained at the beginning of the level and debris which are taken from destroyed enemy units and structures. Transport helicopters such as the "Pegasus" can fly to an object and airlift it to the ship-board recycling system with little resources required. The carrier can analyze objects it disassembles at the rear of the Antaeus cruiser, and several of the game's vehicles and items are unlocked by "sampling" them in this fashion.
The game has a number of vehicles that are progressively unlocked as the missions progress. Vehicles contain a number of slots for equipment and a selection of different types of weapons to use the vehicle with. A variety of vehicle equipment combinations can be designed and used.
Vehicles have an individual damage multiplier such that different vehicles with the same weapon will do different damage. In addition to this, each soulchip personality specializes in one unit along with specific equipment, which, if equipped will gain them a bonus in efficiency.