Icarus Burning

[PhillipEarl]

Description:

Follow the early career of a young Free Radical base commander who becomes a pivotal figure as the Mining Wars reignite. This fully-featured campaign encompases eight levels, six missions, and a heart pounding two-part finale that will change the face of Icarus forever!

Features:

In addition to the standard easy, normal, and hard settings, every level features an unlockable "Extreme Mode" for the true Warfare professionals. Just find the hidden switch - in a different location on every level - within the first thirty seconds of each mission to activate it!

Integral ranking system. Can you reach the rank of Secure Mining Base Commander?

Performance based scoring system - With each challenge you meet and overcome, your score increases. At the end of each mission you're given a score - play through to the final mission for a total score, then post your highest score in this topic! Want to know who the best players are? Here's your chance!

Finding yourself in familiar circumstances? Maybe that's because this campaign features special versions of two of my previous missions: Guerillas in the Mist and Sword of the Sun. Play them again for the first time!

This completely original plot features a surprise ending that will be unlike anything you've ever seen!


Author:

Phillip McCollam (aka PhillipEarl)

History:

6-3-05 1.0 initial release
6-3-05 1.1 bug fix (figures)
6-8-05 1.2 bug fix, added scores to end of each mission
1-7-07 1.3 fixed negative score bug, tweaked first mission difficulty
1-9-07 1.4 bug fix
2-1-07 1.5 BIG bug fix! Also more difficulty tweaking on first mission.
11-18-08 1.6 Removed First Mission entirely - now begins on "Planetfall"
12-18-08 1.7 grumblegrumble...Stupid negative Score bug!...grumblegrumble

[guitarist809]

IS is harder or easier than the time you gave it to me via email?

[PhillipEarl]

Actually, it's gone through alot of changes since then. Some missions were way too hard, some were too unclear, some had major bugs. You'll definitely want to download this one. It's a vast improvement over what you had before.

[guitarist809]

PhillipEarl wrote:

Actually, it's gone through alot of changes since then. Some missions were way too hard, some were too unclear, some had major bugs. You'll definitely want to download this one. It's a vast improvement over what you had before.

Ok, thanks!

[PhillipEarl]

(sigh.) for those twelve of you who've downloaded this level, I've already found and fixed a bug. If you find level two a bit easy, download again.

[guitarist809]

ok, again.

[PhillipEarl]

Okay, one final update: I squashed a bug in Mission 6 that created random unit groups on extreme mode - nasty. Extreme mode on that level should actually be winnable now.

I also added scores to the end of every mission, so you don't have to play all the way through to get a score, now!

[PhillipEarl]

Okay, just to get the ball rolling, here is my initial score after beating this mission pack:

Final Score: 108,495

Come on, I know somebody out there can beat this! I even played some missions on easy!

If anyone can score higher, Verdagon can! (Consider this a personal challenge, my friend! )

[White_Knight]

Phillip earl are u one of the guys who made the WI(game creators) or a very attentious level creator? cuz this maps are unbeatble even the first gave challenge and ive only found EXTREME MODE in the second mission i toke 4 days to pass the all levels but i dont wana say my score too low to be said

[PhillipEarl]

As much as I appreciate the compliment, I'm not one of the creators of the game, just an over-ambitious map writer!

You're having trouble with "Prelude," right? Okay, here's a few tips:

Send troops to the galaxite field to the south of the first Omni base you find (which is to the east across the river) - attack the bullpup, processor and the HRC. Then you can gather troops there for a two-pronged attack on the gate and towers. Some people even like to build a mini-base down there to take advantage of the heavy concentration of galaxite!

Find and take over all the galaxite warehouses hidden in the mountains. Some of them even distract Omni units by being just out of range (the units will just sit there, trying to reach them, sometimes for the whole game - crazy Omni)

You don't have to activate the replicator to win this level, but it certainly helps!!

Attack the main base from two directions at once - you take heavy casualties, but it splits up the base's defenders.

Make sure you have alot of troops on hand to guard the replicator before you activate it, because Omni will send quite a large attack force to try to take it over! In fact, it's probably a good idea not to activate the replicator until the smaller base to the east is wiped out!

...I hope those tips help. If you have any trouble with any of the other levels, just post here and I'll see if I can help!

Thanks for playing!

[guitarist809]

that should help me as well.

[White_Knight]

Thanks, it helped me but i did pass that mission as i said but i use brute force, i manadged to destroy all omni forces before activating the replicator.



Found 2 more switches

[PhillipEarl]

Cool. Keep me posted on your progress!

[BluePalms]

Professional looking missions. Spiffcode should hire you to make levels.

My favorite was Guerillas. While destroying the mining base, the patrol with the hydra came back. I had to go back outside, then hide and wait until the patrol left. Then I had enough time to finish off the base. Good that you omitted the FR raiders in this version.

[PhillipEarl]

Thanks! By the way, what was your score?

[White_Knight]

Yupii New shitch n new score


97,325

almost getting you

[guitarist809]

ok, which level is this for?

[BluePalms]

My score was around 67,000. I forget the exact number.

[guitarist809]

WHAT LEVEL IS THIS?

[White_Knight]

hi phillip which strategy did u use on 6th mission

i used if corse BRUTE FORCE

-STRONG DEFENCE AND LOTS OF HIDRAS

[PhillipEarl]

Towers come in mighty handy on mission 6!

'nuff said!!

Of course, Hydras ain't nuthin' to sneeze at!!

[White_Knight]

hydras are the most unit used by me in any map

of corse maps that i cant use hidras dont count



L O L

[!HUDRA!]

Those levels are awsome but kinda easy dont ya all think make a harder 1.

[guitarist809]

why was my score -2750??!

[PhillipEarl]

Guitarist, just how many times did you switch your difficulty from "Normal" to "Easy?"

The only time it ever deducts from you score is when it senses that your playing on "Easy" or "Normal" - and then it only really takes away five points, so you would literally have to be playing on normal, get into a sticky situation, switch to easy, then switch back to normal after it was over, costing you about 15 points per switch. I can't imagine how playing that way would have garnered you a score that low, however. What level was it on? I'll check it for bugs.


By the way, everyone knows the scores from level to level are cumulative, right? If you play two levels, the scores for each level get added up together. If you play through all the levels, you get a final score at the end that is the sum of all your other scores. Everyone knew that, right?[/i]

[Verdagon]

FINALLY beat guerrillas! Turns out that going for the high-terrain advantage didnt work, I instead had to use the chokepoint, and get them one by one.

Still trying level 6. For some reason it says that the LZ is too hot. Tried selling and destroying everyone but andy and putting him in the starting place, but it still says its too hot. And I would try killing the enemy base but they keep regenerating, so that can't be it...

How do I win the sixth level?

[White_Knight]

capture the Bulding that allow to produce more units (reserch center )
and activate the replicator



TIP: this map is the same as the prelude one

[guitarist809]

Actually, I didn't even switch the mode, its on default normal. I build an army of eagles, and tons of bullpups. then completley wiped them out

[PhillipEarl]

Verdagon:

On Guerillas:

I designed that chokepoint with you in mind! I also like to put everyone in the trees at the top of the choke point and ambush them as they come up the hill.

On Hellfire:

All moblile units need to be at the insertion point within thirty seconds after the replicator is activated, even the unit that activated the replicator.

"We all get out, or none at all!" -- Free Radical Philosophy since my first mission! (you'll find that quote in Guerillas if someone lags behind during extraction)

What I do is get everyone down before activating the replicator, then send an eagle up to activate it. Once activated, I bring him to the bottom as quickly as possible. Usually, though, he gets destroyed by some regenerating dopelgangers. Heroic li'l fella.

BTW - Andy can't activate it. They don't trust him THAT much, yet!


Guitarist - That sounds like a bug. I'll check it out.

[guitarist809]

thx.

[Verdagon]

Ah! Thank you for these tips.

It might help to actually SAY that...? I mean, "The LZ is too hot" does not tell you that someone was left behind. It tells you that more people should be left behind.

Seriously, I tried destroying ALL of my units EXCEPT the one on the pad... I had no idea that I had to get him off too.

[PhillipEarl]

It did say in the initial mission briefing that you needed to get everyone back to the insertion point within thirty seconds of activating the replicator, and I believe it reminds you when the replictor is activated. Also, in the "LZ is too hot" message, the sentence immediately before that says that there are still too many units in the field.

Still, maybe I could have been clearer on that point. Better yet, I may go back and make this ending one of those multiple endmission: win endings with extra points being awarded based on how many units survive.

What do you think?

BTW what was your final score?

[Verdagon]

Ah, I thought the "field" was the insertion point! I mean, what else would make a teleporter heat up than too many units to teleport?

[hitch]

125275 through the Hellfire level. Wow, spent lots of time and game changes attempting to get back to the LZ in 30 seconds. Everyting was to slow or got killed . I finally built 4 Eagles and brought them to the replicator pad from the north, then as soon as the 30 second message came up I directed the Eagles to the LZ, Three made it. All other forces were already down there. Lots of Towers were required to keep the spawning at bay.

Thanks for a great game, now to try it at a more difficult level.

[KHY]

Excellence missons. Thankyou!!!
Keep up the good work.

[White_Knight]

I RULE I CANT BEALIVE U VERDAGON HAVENT WON THIS MISSIONS YET

[GNandGS]

Verdagon wrote:

FINALLY beat guerrillas! Turns out that going for the high-terrain advantage didnt work, I instead had to use the chokepoint, and get them one by one.

Ok, Im having trouble with the guerrilla level for some reason. Any additional clues? Anyone? Where is the chokepoint exactly?

[PhillipEarl]

GNandGS wrote:

Ok, Im having trouble with the guerrilla level for some reason. Any additional clues? Anyone? Where is the chokepoint exactly?

Try this: When the mission starts, take your top group immediately west, travelling nearly across the map until you come to the part of the map just below the point where your reinforcements arrive. Follow the cliffline south and west until you come to a group of trees with a pass through a high cliff to the southeast. That's the chokepoint that's referred to, and you can hide in those trees, if you like, but I usually try to stay to the west of them, since if an Acme unit passes near your hiding place, they will sense your presence and remain in that spot until you move. If you do hide in the trees, though, and this happens, just move your units west to the opposite side of the grove and the unit will move on.

Try to get all your teams there intact. To do this, it is important that you do not destroy any bullpups or units until you are ready. Once Acme loses a unit, the alert is sounded, and you'll have alot more of them to worry about. If you still have units in the field - or worse, in transit - this can quickly prove fatal.

Once you get everyone to the chokepoint, you can then begin to attack some Acme units and sew some mahem, using the advantages of that terrain, which is probably the best strategic spot on the map. You can ambush passing patrols from the trees, and take advantage of the high ground to pin down units attempting to come up from the galaxite fields through the narrow gulley to the southeast of that point.

Just remember: you can recognize the choke point by the grove of trees to the left, and the narrow gulley and high cliffs to the southeast. It's the spot where all Acme patrols and Bullpups have to pass enroute to their patrol areas.

Hope that helps.

[yoyoche]

This is a great mission pack. Very diverse with surprises and good difficulty along the way. Mission six and the Guerillas mission 4 were giving me fits with alot of saves.

I really enjoyed your effort. I thought this mission pack was even better than the original.

my score for all 6 missions Easy difficulty: 174260

[PhillipEarl]

yoyoche wrote:

This is a great mission pack. Very diverse with surprises and good difficulty along the way. Mission six and the Guerillas mission 4 were giving me fits with alot of saves.

I really enjoyed your effort. I thought this mission pack was even better than the original.

my score for all 6 missions Easy difficulty: 174260

Thanks very much for the high praise! Makes the hard work worth it! (BTW great score!)

[johnsix]

Hey thanks for the great levels!

I had played the Guerillas in the Mist stand alone a few month ago but I really like the six pack. These missions are a great challange for anyone I would suggest them highly.

I don't think I would have beaten hellfire without your egale activator tip.

My final score was 241225 all levels on normal at 1x speed.

After finally finishing them i think i'll go back and try a couple on hard or extreem or whatever you call it.

I think flashpoint is my favorite. It took me the most retries ... I didn't get the tower tip out of the breifing soon enough. I ended this level in the worst shape actualy had to lead off most of the doppelgangers with the last of my bullpups.


Great job and thanks again,
Six

[Planet_Destroyer]

Nice mission pack. I have only played the first three missions(all the way through) and they all look great. I haven't found any glitches in any of the missions.

[Planet_Destroyer]

Nice mission pack. I have only played the first three missions(all the way through) and they all look great. I haven't found any glitches in any of the missions.

[Planet_Destroyer]

BEST MISSION PACK EVER
besides the story mode in the game and the Return of Fox
I completed every mission except the last one.
due to the excellent layout of the landscape, it was very hard to carry out my attack because of all the mountains and stuff
( i build as many rocket troopers as i can)
also the extreme mode is awsome but really hard.

have you played my mission: Planet Wars.
Its kind of new so its at the bottom

[PhillipEarl]

Thank you! I've downloaded your mission, but haven't had time to play WI in a little while. Soon....

[Highlander_egor]

Hi!
This is a great mission pack!
I've got some problems with getting through the mission 5.
How can I destroy the replicator? I've tried to do that in different ways, but I can't. Could anybody help me?

[PhillipEarl]

Highlander_egor wrote:

Hi!
This is a great mission pack!
I've got some problems with getting through the mission 5.
How can I destroy the replicator? I've tried to do that in different ways, but I can't. Could anybody help me?

The only thing that can destroy a replicator is Towers. Lots of'em.

Glad you're enjoying the pack!

[TheUser]

Does your score lower per unit time while on easy? If rather than playing on normal and switching to easy, you played on easy the whole time, would your score be significantly lower? When I tried it on easy the whole time, I got a score of -2500 or so in the first level.

[PhillipEarl]

TheUser wrote:

Does your score lower per unit time while on easy? If rather than playing on normal and switching to easy, you played on easy the whole time, would your score be significantly lower? When I tried it on easy the whole time, I got a score of -2500 or so in the first level.

The negative score is a bug, which I think I have squashed. I've uploaded a new version for anyone interested. I also eased up just slightly on the difficulty of the first mission (prelude) for anyone who might've been frustrated with it. Give it a shot, and let me know how I did.

Yup! It's good to have a computer, again!

[TheUser]

Alrighty, I'll let you know soon. And I thought it was a bit difficult, heh, which is why I was on easy.

[TheUser]

I played through level one on normal, and it did seem easier. My score was positive, but I didn't try it on easy. It's great so far though - level two seemed pretty original. I'll be playing it more tonight!

[TheUser]

In The Cauldron, I had two Galaxite Processors. An enemy raider took one over, and when I took it back with one of mine, my credits jumped to 999999. Spending credits didn't cause it to go down either. This also meant that I couldn't mine anything because I was out of storage.

[PhillipEarl]

hmmm... now that is weird. I've had the exact same scenereo during testing (I always create two processors, and never seem to get them guarded well enough) and never had THAT happen! It's especially weird because I didn't assign any credits to the enemy, nor any triggers to galaxite processors being owned by either side.

I'll double check the level triggers, but I'm fairly certain that I have absolutely no idea how that could have happened. Have you duplicated it?

....intriguing. I'll have to chase this one down. In the meantime, enjoy the windfall.


Thanks for the feedback, BTW

[TheUser]

I've tried to duplicate it but have been unable to. Perhaps it was just but in WI itself. I don't have a save before the error... if I abort and retry, does that hurt my score?

[PhillipEarl]

If you quit, your scores from the previous levels in the mission pack will be lost.

I've managed to duplicate the problem with the processor, and figured out how to fix it. There shouldn't be any more problems from the processor being captured by Acme.

Thanks again for the great feedback!

...new version uploaded.

[TheUser]

Great, glad I could help! I'll give the new version a try.

[PhillipEarl]

Dang it! I found a major bug in Mission 5 that wouldn't allow you to even start the mission! It's fixed, now.

I also eased up even more on the difficulty of the Prelude Mission. Don't want to scare new players away! If you want a more difficult version of this mission, then you might want to download Sword of the Sun!

New version uploaded!

[crakerz]

PE, you might want to change the date of your update to the current year

[PhillipEarl]

Ah. Thanks! Between posting online and writing checks I can't get the year straight!

Had the chance to play it, yet?

[crakerz]

I was waiting until all the bugs were out of it

I remember helping you beta the logic in Guerrillas in the Mist - very nice level. If the rest of this is comparable, it will be quite an entertaining challenge. I will have to download it.

(btw, my daughter saw this and asked "Hey Dad, isn't that the guy that wants BoH solo?" She's the one that helped me develop the concept, so now she's bugging me to finish it. Thanks a lot.....)

[PhillipEarl]

(Rubs hands greedily) Heh, heh. I can't wait! If you need me to test anything, just ask!

[marbleblaster]

I love these levels! very professional.

[PhillipEarl]

Thanks, Marbleblaster! Glad you liked them! BTW what was your score?

[PhillipEarl]

UPDATE - I removed the first mission "Prelude" from this campaign entirely, since it was just a remake of "Sword of the Sun." - I saved it as an updated version of that individual mission, so look for it in that thread!

[marbleblaster]

I guess I didn't really watch the score, Just played the game, and I loved it! If I recall, one level said some minus score at the end.

[PhillipEarl]

Gah! The negative score bug is back!

I fixed it... I think.

[Midlothain]

It has taken me forever to finally beat Hellfire, but I did final score 121280. Awesome mission pack I loved it!

[dlamet]

Agreed. Guerillas in the Mist is among the very best levels posted. Great job!

[idioticfuse]

In the level where you have to mine all the galaxite, it is entirely IMPOSSIBLE!!! For some reason, you get 99999 galaxite once you mined almost all the galaxite(50000 left of galaxite on planet)

[SonOfaWalnut]

hey can you tell me how you got the replicator to work? whenever i make a level with a replicator, i place units on the replicator pads, yet the replicator still doesnt work. can you help me with this? cuz everyone else seems to be too ignorant and stuck up their own butts to help me
thanks

[idioticfuse]

You have to make an area on each pad.

Such as "Pad1" and "Pad2"

Then:

If AnyUnit goes on "Pad1"
If Anyunit goes on "Pad2"

Finally:

Activate Side4 Replicator

[Saber Scorpion]

Epic mappack!




Victory does not come from the throne....but the front lines-My Free Radical philosophy.

[dupko]

can u reupload it?





_________________
🖼 image no longer available

[Redscorpion8]

PhilipEarl, you did a great job this mission and id like to ask for permission to continue your mission, they may not be as good, but I will try my best, also don't feel bad to say no, i will understand if you say no, my idea for missions was for the FR to leave Icarus Again due to Acme's hostile takeover you said happened, but this time they plan to head to a galaxite rich planet found while in a battle (if you play FR Recon mission 1 and 2, you find out what i'm saying) any way FR forces at the evacuate base plan to ambush Omni and Acme's attack force, then they will go to the shuttle and head to the Alexandria,(the galaxite rich planet) there they meet EXOM and make a allience to rid Acme and Omni from Icarus and Alexandria. This is what i planned for a mission. hope you enjoyed my idea

[Redscorpion8]

ops, almost forgot the mission pack would be called Revenge of the FR

[Redscorpion8]

Ok, so I made edit to your mission making a mountain where 2 squads were in guerrillas mission and I some how beat the mission with only two squads