|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Editions | myCNN | Video | Audio | Headline News Brief | Feedback |  |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|  |
Strategy guide: Crimson Skies Multiplayer
(IDG) -- The wild blue yonder just got tinted a smoky black and flaming orange! To help you earn your wings, here's GamePro's exclusive Web guide to surviving the wild online world of Crimson Skies. Prepare for take-offCustom-created planes are not only a source of personal style and pride for online pilots, but often the difference between victory and defeat in an air battle. Tweak a few planes to your personal tastes, keeping in mind that you'll want completely different vehicles for Capture the Flag and Zep vs. Zep matches. In fact, you may want to outfit your squadron with two different planes. For CTF, a flag carrier Bloodhawk and a flag-defending Brigand is a good choice. And if you want your entire squadron to fly the same custom plane, the files are small (1K!) and can easily be e-mailed. Put simply, there's no excuse not to customize planes for your online aerial battles. Building a custom plane is easy; just select what you want from the menu. Any plane built in Instant Action or Multiplayer mode can be used in online games. Almost everybody has multiple custom planes in their arsenal. There is, however, no way to edit a plane once it's been created.
The best starter planes for online matches are the Devastator, Fury, Bloodhawk, and Peacemaker. The Bloodhawk may feel squirrelly at first, but it's very maneuverable and fast -- maybe the best plane out there. The other planes are good too, but these get the most action since they're agile. If you fly a Hoplite helicopter in an online game, people will hate you. Hoppers are so agile and nimble that they really aren't fair against common planes like Devastators, or even Bloodhawks. Turrets, though, are your best weapon against Hoplites. They can nail the pesky choppers much more easily. That brings up another problem: A lot of pilots feel turrets are unfair, too. You may see both Hoplites and turrets restricted by the game host so don't rely on either of them. Also, be aware that since turret kills are automatic and somewhat cheesy, you'll only get one point for any plane a turret downs. In the garageDon't worry about giving a loud-colored paint job to your planes-the idea of painting your plane bright blue to camouflage it against the sky doesn't really work because opponents will see a big red target box that highlights your plane anyway. Enemies will see you no matter what. For multiplayer matches, lose all gun banks but one, however, make it a twin gun setup for more firepower. In the armaments menu you'll see ".70 caliber" and "(2) .70 caliber" selections. Pick the latter to put more rounds per shot and you'll also want to add in a nitro engine. They're essential for making quick escapes out of gun range, gaining airspeed or altitude quickly, or closing in to help out a teammate who's under fire. Each plane has three "regular" engine levels, and three Nitro versions of those same three engines, for six total options. The level 3 engine weighs the same as a level 2 nitro engine -- but the nitro will give you a MUCH faster top speed when you hit the juice. After you pick a fast engine, put any and all extra weight allowances into armor. Rocket in your pocketTo save weight, you can get by with three or less rocket hardpoints in most cases, since you'll be restocking periodically. There are eight different rockets and four types of bullets, and they're all listed in the menu before you go into an online game -- hit the "Choose Ammo" tab and use the drop-down menus. Remember that different rocket ammo has different numbers of charges -- for instance, you get two high explosives per hardpoint but 8 smoke charges in the same space. In the airYou want to fly fast-but not all the time. Judicious use of the throttle can save your bacon, especially when flying into Danger Zones and ammo stations. There's no need to refuel at top speed, unless you've got someone in hot pursuit-and even then a last-minute barrel roll will probably serve you better. Cut the throttle to about half and save yourself some stress. In online games, look for a little hangar that says "AMMO" on the top, somewhere in every level except Above the Clouds. (In Zeppelin-versus-Zeppelin matches, it's actually two girder tong-things underneath your own zep-you can't restock at the enemy's zep.) Flying through this not only restocks bullets and rockets, but also repairs your plane completely-and that's more important (nitro automatically recharges over time and is unaffected by restock hangers). A few seconds after one person goes through the hangar, it closes for 30 seconds or so. Many pilots have died trying to sneak in after a teammate who's going for a refuel. If you try it, you'll often make it through the first door...but not the other. Capture the flag & Zeppelin vs. ZeppelinFor Capture the Flag, make a speedy flag carrier plane. Try a Bloodhawk with the fastest nitro engine, lots of armor, one hardpoint and 50 cal guns. Also, experiment with a rear flash or a smoke in that single hardpoint to get people off your tail when carrying the flag. For Zep matches, try a Fury with 4 hardpoints, sometimes loaded with all high explosives, sometimes with one as a torpedo, sometimes with beepers & seekers. Beepers & seekers are tricky to use and take space -- one rocket is the homing beacon, the other homes in on the beacon--but they can be very effective if you have the patience to master their use. Zeps CAN be taken down with bullets, but rockets are much quicker-and the name of the game is speedy attacks. To take down a Zep, you need to launch rockets into the Zep's cannon ports while they're open. You'll hear a warning horn when a port is opening, so start looking: they only stay open for about seven or eight seconds. It's worth taking out the gun turrets on the Zep first, then nailing a few of its engines so it can't turn fast (or at all). Use the blind side of either blimp for cover. Shoot out the small prop engines on the zep to stop it from moving, then tuck behind the craft to plan your next move. Hangars & hang-outsYou can find Crimson Skies matches either through Microsoft's Zone service or GameSpy Arcade. The 1.2 patch of Crimson Skies vastly improves stability of 8-player matches on the Zone, and it's a must have download. Some players use the Zone only as a matching service for direct IP games. Typing in someone's IP directly, rather than using the Zone as an intermediary service, will generally give you better performance, so some Skies pilots prefer it. If direct IP games use a launch room to meet, they'll usually announce the game location in the chat. You may also see Game Voice IP addresses for folks using Microsoft's voice chat software. Oh, and here's a single player cheat for good measure: Click on the microphone on Zachary's desk and type "idaho" for a level select. Since the game offers to skip any mission you fail three times in a row, it's not too useful, but you can play with it all the same. RELATED STORIES: Top 15 most anticipated games of 2001 RELATED IDG.net STORIES: PGA Championship Golf Titanium Edition swings into stores Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back to the top |
© 2001 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines. |
![[CNN Money]](http://i.cnn.net/cnn/images/main/fn.logo.newsnet.gif){kind=logo}
![[SI.com]](http://i.cnn.net/cnn/images/main/si.logo.gif){kind=logo}
(
