Planetfall RPPlanetfall RPIt took me a while, but I've managed to find the original Guide that I wrote for Cerberus. It only covers the Infestation (original) version, but I don't think the other two really need a guide. This also includes the storyline as I originally wrote it. And yes, the formatting sucks, but that's what happens when you can't be bothered to fix something that you did wrong several years ago.
Storyline
The Planetfall Incident
Planetfall was built in 2462 on a planet right on the edge of human controlled space. It was originally designed to be an exploration ship. However, 2 months before it was scheduled to leave on it's first mission, an unknown alien force attacked the planet with highly advanced ships, and Planetfall was forced to leave. Just as it was leaving the solar system, the crew saw their new enemy launch a weapon into they're planets sun. The chain reaction caused a super-nova, wiping out the entire system. Thanks to them being on the edge of the shock wave, and the upgraded shield, the ship survived. Since they were worried about being followed, and with them having almost no weaponary, they had to hide inside a nebula. While they were attempting to repair the small amount of damage caused by the supernova, they discovered a small space station.
Once they boarded the station, they discovered that it had belonged to another race, far more advanced than their own. They downloaded the entire database from the station, and also took all the equipment they could use. Using the database, they also started to build advanced weapons of they're own, planning to find and destroy the enemy which had destroyed their home. Unfortunately, a malfunction in the ships computer caused small amounts of the nebula to leak inside the ship. This tiny amount was somehow mutated as it passed through the ships systems, eventually becoming a virus which mutated the crew and linked them all into a single mind. The virus also adapted itself to the ship, allowing it to bond with the mutants and control them using a highly advanced AI program which was downloaded from the station.
When Planetfall finally emerged from the nebula, it was covered in the most advanced weapons that man had ever seen. It began a rampage, sweeping through any system containing alien life, destroying everything in it's path. Since it had far superior weaponry to any other race, no one could stop it. Eventually, 4 of the strongest races, including the Humans, dedicated their best ships to trying to destroy this new menace. After 90 years of Planetfall's rampage, and another 2 years of the armada chasing it, they finally met in a system known only as M-2039.
However, before either side could attack the other, Planetfall detected a ship identical to the ones that attacked it's home. Although it tried to destroy it, the armada continued to attack, using weapons designed to go through the mighty ship's shields. The unknown ship triggered another super-nova. The Alliance Fleet was wiped out, but Planetfall, with it's shields even more powerful than the first time, was merely thrown at massive speeds away from the sun. The force of the shock wave threw the ship straight through a worm hole. Although the AI had been trying to adapt the ship to withstand this (as the ancient race had done) it simply didn't have the resources to repair the ship AND adjust for worm hole travel. The result was the main engines of the ship overloading, and several more parts of the ship breaking off. By the time they reached the other side, the only system still functional was the anti-gravity pods.
The AI copied a small portion of itself into another part of the ships computer, leaving instructions to repair the ship as best as it could, and once that was done, destroy the humanoid mutants. The AI knew that they would become useless, as would the ship, so she moved her program into the only remaining fighter, and launched herself into space. This left Planetfall on a distant planet, stranded and with no chance of anyone coming to find it.
Emnisia's Awakening
At the same time as the alliance fleet was being destroyed, the unknown race attacked almost every human colony simultaneously. However, instead of simply wiping out whole solar systems with supernovas, they destroyed all of the advanced ships and high-tech equipment that they could, leaving the human race crippled. After 50 years had passed the unknown race, now known as the Xirox, had continued to destroy all traces of advanced technology from every race in our galaxy. To avoid spending century's rebuilding the technology that they had once used, Earth began building ships using whatever they could. One of the first to be built was known as 'Cerberus'. Although it was mainly a prison ship used to transport prisoners between planets, it was also instructed to collect all technology or resources that they could.
While the ship was returning to Earth for upgrades to it's engines, the crew received a distress call from a nearby ship. Once Cerberus arrived, they discovered a fighter with a highly advanced computer core, and an alien freighter. Both appeared to have lost power, so the crew took all that they could from the freighter, and brought the fighter into the hanger so that they could remove the computer. As soon as they connected the fighter's computer to their own, an AI program calling itself Emnisia took control of Cerberus.
As a prisoner on Cerberus, you were destined for a short stay on Earth before being executed. Now, the crew have all been killed, either by 'malfunctions' in the main computer, or by each other. Before they died, some of them attempted to stop the program calling itself Emnisia by sabotaging the ship. Instead, it gave her more control. You and you're fellow escapees must reach engineering and restore power to the ship before she destroys you all...
Cerberus: An introduction
The Cerberus is a 5-deck prison/cargo ship. With a crew of 9 men, it can carry up to 3 prisoners, and has and entire deck dedicated to cargo storage. Although Earth had very limited technology when it was building Cerberus, the crew have collected and installed various additions to the original systems. This was the basic arrangement of the decks when it first left the space dock:
Deck 1: Bridge, Storage room and backup generator.
Deck 2: Cargo bays.
Deck 3: Hanger bay with a cargo-transfer ship, Armoury, Storage room and Quarters.
Deck 4: Mess-Hall, Engineering and Quarters.
Deck 5: Security, Main Storage room and Brig.
However, this information is approximately 5 years out of date. Each deck except for Deck 1 is connected to a network of maintenance tunnels. These tunnels also contained several rooms which could not be accessed by any other means.
Power Requirements
This section will tell you the name of every system requiring power as well as how much it needs. Do NOT read it if you want to figure it all out for yourself.
1) Life Support - 6.25 x 1 = 6.25 This system cannot be turned off
2) ERBTS - 6.25 x 3 = 18.75
3) Lights - 6.25 x 5 = 31.25 Each deck has it's own lighting controls, and each one require 1 unit of power
5) Lift - 6.25 x 2 = 12.5
7) Shields - 6.25 x 1 = 6.25
8) Replicators - 6.25 x 2 = 12.5
9) Workshop - 6.25 x 2 = 12.5
The Ship's Systems !SPOILER WARNING!
Main Power System
The main power core generates enough power to run all the systems that were originally on the ship with some to spare, but with all the upgrades it isn't always enough. When you first start the map, you will discover that the core has been sabotaged and can't be activated. The capacitor has been taken, so you will have to find it. Once the core has been started, you will see that you are only producing 2 units of power, and 1 of those units is being used to power life support. To restore the core to full power, you will have to find the missing fuel rods and return them to the core. Each fuel rod can only be plugged into one of the sockets.
Although I don't want to say where all of the core's are, I will give you the location of 2 easy ones, just to get you started:
Deck 5, Security: One of the doors has been jammed, opening the other one will reveal that most of the room has been over-run by some sort of fleshy substance. In the only remaining corner you will find a fuel rod.
Deck 3, Mess-Hall: The door is jammed, and it looks like there was a fire-fight where both sides were using the table as cover. Behind 1 of the make-shift barricades is another rod.
That will give you enough power to get the lift working as well as lights on one of the decks.
ERBTS
This stands for 'Experimental Ring-Based Transportation System'. The basic function of this is to allow you to move around the ship faster, or reach areas which you normally can't. Although there are 5 ring platforms, 1 of them is separate from the main network, and can only be reached from 1 of the others. From the workshop you can direct the rings to any destination, as long as you have already activated that destination by going there once. However, the ring's behaviour can be changed my plugging Control Crystals into the sockets near the ring platform. Plugging in or unplugging any crystal will remove any link which has already been made. There are 4 colours of crystal:
Red
There are 2 red crystals. If you plug the 2 crystals into 2 different ring platforms, then you will create a direct connection between those 2 points.
Blue
There are 2 blue crystals. If you plug the 2 crystals into 2 different ring platforms, then you will create a direct connection between the 2 platforms which do NOT have crystals plugged in.
Yellow
This crystal will create a direct connection from where you plug it in to the upper workshop area.
Green
Once this crystal is plugged in, if the correct code is typed into any ring platform then it will activate a connection between ANY two platforms (completely random).
ERBMC
This stands for 'Experimental Ring-Based Matter Converter'. This is not connected to the main power system. Instead, it requires 3 upgraded power cores to work. It uses a ring platform to create 1 of each component for use in the workshop. Due to the massive amount of power that this requires, you can only activate it once every minute.
The Workshop
The workshop is an area on deck 5 which can be used to change groups of components into various gadgets. Initially, you will find a small number of components inside the workshop storage cupboard, with each type labelled. To find more you will have to search around the ship. The components required for each device are shown beside the machine.
Gadgets
Mines
Frag Mines
Build, drop, activate, wait... BOOM! Simple enough.
Capture Mines
When these mines are activated, it will create a shield bubble around anything above it which lasts for 2 minutes. However, there are 2 slight flaws in it's design. Firstly, they can't take many shots before breaking, which causes the shield to fail. Secondly, if and object moves across it fast enough then it will not activate the shield in time to catch it.
Teleport Mines
These are not exactly mines. Once activated, they will remain in place, teleporting any object (not players) which pass over it into the chamber in the lower workshop.
Bombs
Both sizes of bombs can be set for a certain time. After that time, they explode. If you activate one, then change you're mind, pressing Reset will deactivate the bomb, as well as setting the timer back to 0.
Code Breaker
You can place this device on any keypad (the workshop keypad or the ring keypads) and it will try a new combination every 0.03 to 0.06 seconds. Once it finds the correct code, it will disconnect itself and activate the keypad.
Known Bugs
Life support 2/Resource distribution 2 SOMETIMES prevents you from loading the map, but that may have been fixed.
Sometimes the buttons on some of the blast doors will simply vanish. I have no explanation for this, or any idea on how to prevent it. However, they usually re-appear after about a minute.
Occasionally the lift will jamb. This is usually when 2 people press buttons at once. To fix it, simply press the 'Reset' button inside the lift, or go to engineering, then turn the lift off then on again.
Credits & Contact Information
Mapping
Entirely done by me (ShadowSand)
Texturing
All textures inside the Cerberus texture folder by me (ShadowSand)
All cncr04 textures by cncr04 (Strangely enough.)
Keypad textures are unknown.
Sounds
Most of the sounds are either from System Shock or System shock 2
Those which are not from them are made by me (ShadowSand)
Beta Testing & Ideas
Kaffo
Kjakings
Alex
LPine
Gat3rz
Zombie2
Anyone I forgot, VERY sorry.