Conference 7.286::atarist

    Just to add my two penneth to the voices of those massed ranks who have
    the game:
    
    	I played it for the first time yesterday and it is brilliant.
    Anyone reading this conference who has a machine, but has not yet
    bought the game, then the advice is get it and plan in a weekend where
    you have nothing else to do. Real quality software even if it is a game
    and unashamedly so.
    
    Anyone in Reading who fancies a game and has the relevant cable,
    perhaps we could set something up. (Sadly I am not a full time
    employee, so I have no modem to play long distance).
    
    Enthusiastically,
    
    John

    Hayes replies to his own note for lack of someone to talk to.....
    
    Having now played it incessantly for a weekend, I would like to cross
    reference back to a previous note *somewhere* asking about the monsters
    and ghoulies. 
    
    I had a green bogey-like gubbins attack me on level 19 after performing
    an Armageddon on the previous level and getting scads of points. Was
    the previous noter who referred to a monster as the testicle monster
    well informed as to the name of this beasty or just creative? Is there
    a list of monsters and what they do, or are they features to be
    discovered as and when (like the chappy on the magic carpet planting
    trees).
    
    Anybody got any dead good hints for strategies in given situations yet
    - or is it all plain try it and see stuff in the true spirit of war!
    
    Highest score to date competition first entrant : a wimpy 175,000 ish.
    (The exact score escapes me). Who's had a ripper of a world and got
    higher?
    
    Enough questions for one note.....
    
    John

    Hello John,
    
    In one of the games mags, I think it was "THE ONE", with the smiley on
    the Front cover, was a couple of pages of help and hints? on Populous.
    The monsters mentioned included the Testicle monster, the Wizard on the
    carpet, There is a rock monster I cant remember its proper name. 
    Bullfrog the publishers are talking about opening a bulletin board so
    people can dial in and play each other or a host machine. There is also
    some form of competion with big prizes for the best player!.
    I am sorry this is vague, I only saw "The One" for a few seconds when
    my son brought it home from school. He's taken it back now of course.
    I have got one of the Amiga owners in our office hooked enough to send
    for the game, it hasnt arrived yet, has Populous been really released
    for the Amiga, or is the software firm hes ordered from working a
    flanker?
    
    May your leader be strong!
    
    Pat K

    
    Hi Pat,
    
    The Amiga version of populous came out before the Atari version
    , that is in france obviously (it should be the same overseas).
    
    The amiga version has one advantage compared to the Atari : It has
    music and sound througout the game, which is lacking on the ST !
    
    Personaly I've just reached level 19 but I've seen no monsters yet,
    but I'm ready waiting for them !!
    
    I'll have a look at my scores next time I play and will let you
    know....
    
    Regards,
    
    	Erik

Well I started with this last weekend and I'm hooked ! I've got as far
as level 22 but I'm already having problems with deciding on the best
tactics to use. The main problem is that my followers settle and build
very well, but I never seem to be able to get them out of their houses
fast enough (I realise that a lot of this is dictated by climactic conditions
etc). Consequently I never have as many walkers as the enemy, so when fights
start I have to deliberately demolish my own settlements just to give me more
fighting men.

Does anyone know what the bast tactic is to avoid this situation. The computer
seems to like putting its papal magnet next to mine and then sending all of 
its people towards it so that as soon as I create a leader he gets killed,
which means that I can't move my papal magnet away. When I click on my 'go
to papal magnet' icon I just don't seem to have people pouring out of my
settlements like the enemy does.

Can anybody help ? Am I doomed to be a minor deity for the rest of my
non-mortal life ?? Will I ever get to a high enough level to see the wizards,
monsters etc (what level do these start appearing at ?) ???

Cheers,

    Derek.

    During the early stages of each world, I have tend to produce large
    flat areas (either one or two layers above sea level depending on
    whether the enemy has flood or not) and place 'spoilers' of single
    bumps or holes every now and then. I've found that the population grows
    the fastest by spreading over quite a wide area with small huts and
    shacks first. Once the area is filled and the walkers are out on the
    edges breaking new ground, I take out the spoilers and turn the inner
    settlements into castles.
    
    Then it's a case of keeping up with the walkers on the extremes of the
    territory and waiting until the Mana is sufficient to do the dirty to
    the enemy. To get a strong leader, you then only need to put the papal
    magnet into one of the inner castles and call your people there.
    Slowly, the inner castles create wlakers which are joined by those
    coming in from the extremes and ultimately join the leader. 
    
    If the enemy has sent in his leader toward the same point, then I tend
    to intercept his path and lay swamp in his way. By laying quite a bit
    in the direction that he has just come from, you can also keep him from
    getting a new leader for a while since nobody can make it through to
    the skull (now in the middle of the swamp).
    
    Hope this helps,
    
    John

    Well I haven't got through that many levels so far but here's my
    strategy (seems reasonably effective). Build on high ground, save up
    manna, then flood the enemy. This doesn't knock him out usually but it
    puts him in a bad way. I then create lots of knights to mop up. A
    strong knight can destroy an enormous number of settlements.
    
    Dave.
    

    Sounds good, but beware the later levels where you will lose the
    ability to flood and he will gain more and more abilities to prevent
    you reaching the flood level at all.
    
    That said, I'll have a go at it next time I get the ability to flood.
    
    John

    hi, 
    My son seems to do very well by flooding the opposition. (Up to now he
    has always been able to use the flood option). I think one of the
    important things is to get enough flat land to get the population up
    (settle mode). The you go around zapping the houses/castles from your
    people to get up out on the road. (It always amuses me the way the
    little people get peed off when you zap their house, stamping feet
    etc.) My daughter has great difficulty with the ice world. She cant
    seem to get manna fast enough to even flatten land to build population.
    There seems to be various levels of depth to the game. You can either
    play it as a wiz bang zap em quick, or at a deeper, long term strategy
    level. We (our family) are still at the tyro class.
    

    While you're up on flood level, you may find it worthwhile to 'settle'
    a bit longer and then use Armageddon (providing you're sufficiently
    populous to beat the enemy). This always gives a very high score and
    will therefore move you faster throught the various levels.
    
    Talking of which, is anyone beyond 'Eternal' yet and when does it
    happen?
    
    John

This seems to be a very interesting game based on reading the descriptions
here of play.  Does it work on Mono?

Chad

    Hi Chad,
    
    You're right it is a great game.
    But I'm sorry you'll need to buy a colour monitor or a TV set to
    play it !!
    
    Erik

    A friend of mine would love to play it, but for only having a black and
    white tele. It's real interesting to watch two sets of identical
    looking soldier types wandering around building houses. I guess it
    becomes more like the 'Game of Life'. (Maybe it could make a good
    spectator relaxant - like the fish tank videos).
    
    John

    Hello everybody,
    
    This is my second week-end over the game and by Saturday evening
    I had reached level 49 (or 46?).
    
    Here is the tactic I use:
    
    - Build as much flat land as possible at the start
    - Try and create as many knights as possible
    - Use swamps to destroy the enemies settlements
    - Instead of using the settle 'order' I usually prefer using the
      'join together' order which creates stronger men
    
    The only 'monster' I saw so far is the flying Wizard who leaves trees
    behind him. What else is awaiting me ?
    
    Can you please give us more info on future levels and other tactics?
    
    Regards,
    
    Erik
    ~~~~

    Well I'm the level above Immortal (can't remember exactly what that
    is) and am on around 155.
    
    The flooding tactics are good in the earlier levels but at the higher
    level, the opponents reactions are so fast that it only acts as
    a delaying tactic.
    
    Knights are essential, but it is not advisable to concentrate *too*
    much effort onto them.
    
    There are a couple of interesting landscape attributes that are
    starting to appear and which make the game *alot* harder :
    
    Land cannot be lowered - you can only ADD land to the landscape
    not take it away. This means that you have to be accurate and steady
    when building your settlements.
    
    Swamps are bottomless - combined with the land cannot be lowered,
    this becomes REALLY interesting, since to remove a swamp, the land
    has to be lowered!
    
    In fact, an earthquake will lower the land effectively (and note
    that the earthquake is the easiest way to lower a volcano quickly!).
    
    I'd also advise against keeping the Ankh in the depths of your
    territory since the opponent tends to send his men toward your Ankh.
    It is preferable that they attack a flank than split you down the
    middle ...
    
    
    
    				Jamie.

    Congratulations for reaching such a high level !!
    I hope to get that far soon...
    
    Just one question : what do you mean by 'the level above immortal'?
    What is 'Immortal'? What is that kind of level? The only levels
    I've heard of is the numbers level 1 to level 500.
    
    Thanks for your help, I hope my question is not too dumb !
    
    Erik
    ~~~~ 

    You know the skeltal demon creature rasps "Well Done Mortal" at the
    end of a game you won when you first play populous ? Well your rating
    here goes up every 50 game levels. (If you have a 1/2 meg drive,
    you won't get the speech but it gets displayed on the bottom of
    the screen ...).
    
    
    
    				Jamie.

    
    Thanks,
    
    I never understood what that bloody creature was trying to tell
    me, now I know more !
    
    You, that's at such a High level, you could tell us what kind of
    stuff is awaiting us, what monsters and so on....
    
    Erik

    I'm not really that much further than anyone else; I'm only about
    a quarter of the way up the scale.
    
    I've just played a bit more. It has only started to get hard
    since about 140.
    
    
    
    				Jamie.
    
    

    Anyone found a good strategy for settling in ice worlds ? I try and
    clear lots of land but it seems to take forever for the settlements
    to grow. The enemy always ends up with a large numerical superiority.

    Your folks tend to take longer to reproduce on Ice worlds rather
    than on other type of worlds.
    
    Have you tried using the tactic described in .6
    Try and spread out by building smaller settlements and the expanding
    them.
    
    good luck,
    
    erik 

    Hi everyone,
    
    			Anyone help with the 135/140 type area. This is
    where the enemy has got knights and volcanos. I seem to be out
    populating him for a short time and then he accelerates away and gets
    to volcano before I can pour another scotch.
    
    			Is there a tactic to use, or is it a case of
    learning to expand faster. I'm currently trying to get up to flood and
    drown him (though his ability to wander around rescuing his people
    amzes me!), having tried most other interventions without great
    success.
    
    Help.
    
    John

    re: .22
    
    John, sometimes I try to not worry about him for a while, while I level
    land and try to get my mana up.  As soon as I have a consistant mana of
    about volcanoe, I cast lots of knights and build a land bridge to the
    foe.  I then try to occupy the area that the knights have gone through. 
    This works on the early levels (were I am), but I don't know if it will
    work on the levels where he has knights.  I am on level 8 and if anyone
    has any suggestions, THEY WILL BE ACCEPTED WILLINGLY.
    
    Wescott Bramhall (age 12)
                             

    RE .22
    
    At this level, I have found that the first player to release a knight
    is at an immense advantage. Also, place your Ankh well away from
    your main centres of population since he directs his forces wherever
    you Ankh is. Finally, a quick way to lower a volcano is to remove
    land in the centre of the volcano three or four times and then fill
    in the hole ...
    
    
    
    				Jamie.

    If anyone has any suggestions for how to get to the high levels fast,
    please let me know.  He keeps on getting his manna up then putting
    volcanoes on my settlements.  I counteract this by pushing the 'join
    together' order but he just casts another and another until I only have
    a few settlements left.  What should I do???
    
    
    Wescott  (level 14)

	Well I am considerably older than Wescott from the previsous note. But 
	I have some of the same problems .....

	I bought the game at my local supermarket the other day (yep you can 
	buy STs with beer in France !) My problem comes probably from the 
	documentation - its in French. Although I get the general idea from
	the book, I feel I am missing some of the finer points.

	I have two questions that Wescott can probably answer:


		1)	How do I increase Mana ? (quickly)

		2)	Sometimes I am happily building away, when all the 
			buildings disappear and my 'boys' start off for a 
			showdown at the papal magnet (usualy somewhere in the 
			sea). I always get blitzed as he has somehow managed
			to cerate an immense population, whereas I have just a 
			few. What is he doing to make my people run off like
			lemmings, and how can I get more people to be able to 
			stuff him ?


	Cheers,
		Harry

    What he must have done to make all your people fly off and fight is
    call an Armageddon (the highest order intervention). The only way to
    stop him is to prevent him from getting that much Manna and the only
    way to do that is to increase yours faster...
    
    Which brings us to your other point. Your Manna increases by the
    worship of your people, so you need to create more people. The larger
    settlements (castles) increase your Manna fastest, while slowing down
    the spread of your population across the landscape. A balancing act.
    
    Creating areas of flat land with occasional 'bumps' in tends to work
    quite well for me (see previous note) - spreading the population out
    while allowing the bumps to be removed later turning the houses into
    castles and wopping up the Manna.
    
    Hope this helps.
    
    John (stuck on 137 and unable to play recently since I just got engaged
    and things are hectic...)

    Hello all,
    	One tactic I've found effective, especially in snow and ice,
    is to build flat land and get large castles as fast as possible.
    	If you then 'blip' next to the castles so they are reduced to
    small forts this forces a walker out ( takes about 5 seconds before
    the little sucker appears ). Then you restore flat land. This really
    gets your population up fast and increases your mana ( 'cos large
    castles increase mana quickest). It's also good for building knights,
    when you're really up against it.
    	Hope this helps someone.
    				John. 

    
    	Based on all your reviews, I got this game yesterday afternoon.
    
    	Cant wait to get the time to get into it. It looks great.
    
    	tks,
    	/john

    Ok, 
    	I'm still stuck and getting mad. I'm on level 137 and whatever I
    do, he seems to volcano me and get knights out at a rate that I can't
    compete with.
    
    	By the time he does his first volcano, I am just up to that level
    too. Could someone who's done this area please tell me if they :
    
    	o Volcano'd him as soon as poss.
    
    	o Put out a knight as soon as poss. (in which case how did you get
    him strong enough while still populating)
    
    	o Waited for Mana to exceeed the next level up and then did either
    of the above
    
    	Also, which way is it best to develop, towards him to prevent his
    volcanos only affecting your growth, or round the edges of the world,
    away from his knights?
    
    	So many questions, so little brain,
    
    		J.O.H.N

    It's ok, you can stop making notes on your game play technique now -
    I"VE DONE IT!
    
    Yes after much drinking and hard play, I've done 137.
    
    Now, can anyone tell me how to do 143! *8O)
    
    J.O.H.N

    I've just actually read the manual cover to cover.
    
    	It says that there are no technology levels in the ice world.
    Surely this means Castles are BAD news. They buy you nothing, but
    they use up a lot of land where you could have loads of small huts,
    gaining loads of people & quicker MANA build up.
    
    Also, of course, people die of exposure very quickly in the ICE world
    (and desert), so Volcanoes on the enemy kills 'em off fast before
    he can flatten land to allow them to rebuild.
    
    Also, swamping his magnet is always a goody. He keeps sending people
    to it regardless until higher levels where he has the common sense
    to 'eat' out the swamp.
    
    What are these 'monsters' I've seen a green blob thing running about.
    Is it bad ? What can I do about it ?
    
    	Stuart P.

    Some more potential strategy tips.....
    
    Dont worry too much about the evil knights, simply wait until they
    are in range of one of your settlements and then reduce all of the
    land the knight is walking across to sea. If water is fatal it will
    get rid of them instantly - if water is harmful it will do damage
    and weaken him. Note that if Evils reactions are good or better
    land will be built under the knight - you have to be quick to get
    him wet but it can be done!
    
    The more points you get, the greater the number of levels you are
    increased.  Apocalypse does get you loads of points (around 120,000)
    but a better strategy is to weaken Evil, keep him in check and build
    loads of castles and knights.  This method has reaped in 175,000+
    before! Anyone else have any tips?
    
    Jon (still only Immortal, but not for long!)
    

    re:-2
    
    I believe that castles increase your Mana at a faster rate than smaller
    settlements for the same area (this may not be correct, but I think it
    is). The suggestion of digging out your own castles waiting for a
    walker and then reinstating them of a while ago works really well and
    gets the population moving really quickly.
    
    The green blob monster (is this the infamous testicle monster, anyone?)
    lays swamp over the area that he crosses. (For which I was eternally
    (no pun intended) grateful toward the end of level 137). I'm still
    waiting for another monster type (other than the man on his carpet, of
    course).
    
    J.O.H.N

    re:-1
    
    Agreed, the best strategy esp. on Ice Worlds is just to flatten
    the land, build castles and force out walkers. Have you ever watched
    Evil build? It seems to employ a similar strategy......
    
    Needless to say, dont build flat and low when he has flood!!
    
    Jon (now Eternal...)
    
    Has anyone got up beyond 175 yet?
    

    
    Hi,
    
    I read in an ST comic this week, that E.A. are releasing another disk
    for POPULUS containing five new worlds, The reviewer said one sucks but
    the other four are ace!. Lots of different behaviour patterns.
    

I've been experiencing very erratic operation with Populous on my 520ST
(which was upgraded to 1 meg). Initially, I occasionally had to retry a
time or two to get the game started (but the demo always worked!). Then it
took about 20 tries before I could start. Then never. But when I took that
same disk to a 1040, it ran without problem. A second copy of the game is
starting to behave the same way.

A few days ago I read (in Current Notes, I think) that the European version
of the game (which I have) will only run on STs with a built-in drive, due
to the copy protection scheme used. The distributor, Electronic Arts, is
supposed to correct this in the USA version, which is due out some time in
August. I guess that explains the problem I've been having.

Anyway, be warned that if you have an ST with an external drive, you may
have a difficult time getting the game to run. Its too bad that one has
to find this out so long after the release - the documentation should
warn you of this situation.

    I have a built in drive and still get very erratic loading, it may
    fail completly, appear to have loaded but then crash after 2 mins,
    or load succesfully (about 30% of the time!)
    
    Seems to load best when the machine is cold......
    
    Jon.
    

    hi
    
    Re .37
    
    External or internal drives.
    
    We have an old ST with an external D/S Citizen drive. Populous always
    loads without any trouble !!!!
    
    P.s. I dont quite see how the protection system can know whether the
    drive is inside or outside the ST box. What is the disk signal that
    says I am an external drive ?? I can see you have a problem if you try
    to boot from drive B which is external when you have a drive A in the
    box, but obviously that is not what you are on about.
    
    If you are saying the extra length of drive bus cable is screwing up
    the data transfer, when E.A.s. machine code loader is checking the
    protection, then they must be doing something very very clugy to the
    hardware!. What is the delay on two feet of bus, 30 ns ??
    
    Be very interested to know the reason
    
    Cheers
    
    Pat K.
    
    

The difference is in the drive mechanics, there must have been some
coorelation between drive manufacturer, and the "internal" versus
"external" character of the drive.  Some drives can only access the 80
or so tracks defined by the floppy format, others have the ability to
step the head further into the disk than is "required".  It depens on
who built the actual drive mechanics, I.E., Toshiba, Sony, Cannon, etc.

This is a really stupid form of copy protection, because it generates a
lot of "doesn't work on my system" returns.

    re .40
    
    Hello Jeff,
    
    I put our POPulous disk through a disk editor. It doesnt use the 81/82
    track protection.
    
    The disk is S/S 10 sector 80 track. The disk verifier says track 0 and
    80 and 81 are unformatted, however. there is data on track 0.
    Track 0 has a CRC error in sector 2, due to the publisher only needing to
    read sector 0, 1 and 2.
    Looking at sector 0, track 0,  (boot block). There is an boot vector and 
    in sector 1 and a bit of sector 2 there is a protection/boot program. In 
    the user defined part of the boot block is an AScii message regarding 
    copyright of the Disk protection scheme. 
    
    I have no way of dissm 68000 code from a disk sector, so apart from
    writing it all down and hand crafting it, or typing it in and dissm it
    from a file, I dont know what or how the protection scheme works.
    
    Cheers
    
    Pat
    

    RE: -1,-2
    
    Agreed, not many programs nowadays use the antiquated method of
    track 81/82 protection. I suspect the protection is somehow drive
    speed/time related...... (just a guess)
    
    Jon.
    

    
    I believe I'm on level 179 and cannot progress any further, this
    is why.  
    
    'Evil' can use any of the options available (floods, swaps,
    knights etc.) and I cannot!  In fact the only thing I can do is
    raise and lower land, and possibly armageddon (although I haven't
    lived long enough to find that out.)
    
    How do you defeat 'Evil' in this situation?
    

    Thanks in advance,
    
    - Martin.

    I read in THE ONE an ST & AMIGA magazine that there is a set of
    data disks to be released for populous. The disks provide :
    
    Increased machine intelligence
    Four new landscape types : French Revolution (including Guillotines,
    						  street cafes etc!)
    			       Lego Land
    			       "Weird" - things work in reverse -
				         population descreases in large
    					 settlements etc!!!
    
    				I can't remember the fourth.
    
    The article also said that the team are working on Populous II.
    
    
    
    
    				Jamie.

    
    Okay, Okay,
    
    	I will buy it, I saw it last weekend at my neighbour executed
    	on a AMIGA. It is what I'm looking for. 
    	Well, goodbye Silent Service!
    
    	Some questions came into my mind this morning when I was reading
    	this notes.
    
    	A. Is there a feature to save the game at any specific level?
           (Must be! or???).
    
    	B. Is it possible to relax the mouse bottom a bit by using another
           key to rise or lower the ground ?
    
    	C. The German translation is very poor, is it possible to get
    	   hand onto a English one ?
    
    	D. Last one. Is it possible to start it from a Hard disk ? 
                                                                     
    	Well thanx in advance. Doesn't matter how good or bad the answers
    	will be, it is bought this afternoon.
    
    	
    	With binary regards
    
    	   George
    
    PS: Sonar reports distance explosion !!!!

Enter the promised lands.  I have just played the first 47 levels of
    the new Populus disk.  The tactics for success seem to be as follows:
    a)   build your population as quickly as possible in the direction
    of the enemy,
    b)   use your lowest level of attack (earthquake, swamp whatever
    available) as soon as possible,
    c)	 move your ankh towards the enemy but never put it where your
    walkers cannot get to,  and
    d)	 try and use armageddon to end the world as this gives you a
    50,000 bonus which advance you to a higher world.
    
    There are many tactics for building population quickly but the major
    one is to wait for a castle then knock it down to generate a walker;
    after the walker has settled somewhere else, recreate your castle.
    
    The best ways to deal with an enemy knight are as folows:
    a)	 swamp him if you can, and
    b)   build lots of small buildings around your castles then he will
    spend his time destroying the small buildings while leaving your
    castles alone.
    
    I hope that this is of help.
    
    Best wishes,
    
    Russell.
     

Re .-1
>        The best ways to deal with an enemy knight are as folows:
>    a)	 swamp him if you can, and ...
    
    Are you saying you can swamp HIS knights ? Is this possible with
    'standard world ?'. I know one of the many 'undocumented features' of
    the standard world for YOUR knights is that they walk around swamps. I
    don't think I've got to a level high enough where he can generate
    knight (I'm only at level 140 odd). 
    
    	Stuart P.

    In the "Promised Lands", the evil god is able to generate knights
    at levels in the 40s.  I am sure that I killed one evil knight by
    swamping him, my nine year old was surprised but it seemed to work.
    
    The Promised Lands is different from Populus I, not only in the
    lands but also in the rules it plays to.  My impression is that
    your breeding rate is higher than it was in the original version.
    The green monster and all the other indestructible havoc creaters
    are in this version too.
     
    When you start Promised Lands you get the French Revolution and
    then it moves into Silly Land, Wild West, Block Land and Bit Map
    depending on your success in dealing with the worlds.
    
    The Promised Lands has given me a new incentive to play Populus,
    I am sure that there is an apparently unbeatable world out there
    in the 170s but that is yet to come.
    
    Best wishes,
    
    Russell.
    

    re:-2
    
    You can indeed swamp the enemy knights, though it is an unreliable
    tactic. By swamping directly at the feet of the advancing knight, you
    can achieve a 50% hit rate roughly, though if you don't get him
    straight away, the vehement defence of evil will dig the swamp straight
    out. This is in the standard game.
    
    ST User this month contains a lot of info on hidden features in
    Populous, including a list of many of the levels with their respective
    names.
    
    J.O.H.N
    

    I went through all the notes and haven't found this hint yet!
    
    Use the sleep function. What I like to do is to put everyone to sleep
    to examine the map. I then see which action I should take next:
    
    1) Consolidate the middle ranks.
    
    2) Break up the enemy's middle ranks.
    
    3) Build land on the frontier.
    
    4) Demolish enemy land at the front line.
    
    5) Toggle castles at the frontier.
    
    Using the sleep function gives you more time to analyze the situation.
    During the openings, this time is critical.
    
    							John.

    re:-1 Good point.
    
    I also found that on level 147 or thereabouts, the only way I could
    finally put a hold on his rapid growth was to save up my MANA until I
    was near the top of the volcano level and then issue two or three
    volcanos - not directly on top of each other, but seperated such that
    the edge of the last volcano is just a few blocks into the screen when
    I issue the next one. This causes high AND widespread destruction which
    proves too much for him. After this, it is a case of waiting for the
    MANA to rise again and then go back and spread the volcanos still
    further into his settlements.
    
    Now I need a good tactic to combat his knights. I'll try the one about
    leaving small settlements in the front line to protect your castles.
    
    J.O.H.N

    After much thinking about the game, it seems to me that there comes a
    critical transition in the game where the papal magnet is particularly
    useful. Combining your walkers may decrease your ability to settle
    quickly ( although walking at random is not always the most expedient
    manner in which to open new frontiers ), but it increases your
    effective lifespan. Not only that, but a powerful leader can create
    massive colonies in no time.
    
    From what I've been able to tell:
    
    Life is only created in colonies - the larger, the faster.
    The strategy is to send out as many walkers as possible. Breaking up
    castles is an effective way to control your colonization and propagate
    lots of walkers while building up the population quickly.
    
    Life is only destroyed either by walking or fighting.
    The strategy is to combine as many walkers as possible. When your
    population is combined into one walker, it only dies at the rate of one
    walker.
    
    If the enemy leader ventures into your territory, an effective tactic
    is to concentrate as much strength as you can on destroying him. This
    will put his papal magnet in your territory, and he will have to go
    behind enemy lines to create a new leader. This one is definitely worth
    breaking castles for.
    
    If the enemy is closing in on your frontier, an effective tactic is to
    trench his land. A leader is a more effective colony builder than a
    warrior. I never send anyone behind enemy lines except for knights.
    Also, try to keep your leader moving. Don't let him hang out by the
    magnet, put him to use.
    
    							John.

    Ok - why did nobody tell me that I was about to lose the abiity to use
    Armageddon?!
    
    The good news is that after struggling (many many hours) through the
    130's and 140's there is a lovely easy patch until the high 160's where
    suddenly he gets the ability to do everything again. 
    
    Ask me after next weekend what that's like!
    
    J.O.H.N

    I have stumbled across a list of worlds in populous sent out on
    the usenet. It generally goes up to about 137 or so with many
    (but not all) world's names. It also has two worlds above 137
    which have VERY high battle numbers.
    
    Of course this type of info is a mega-spoiler and may not be
    appreciated by those of us who are 'doing it the hard way.'
    So I thought that I'd ask to see if people would like to
    see it or not see it in here.
    
    What do you say?
    
    Dan

    re:-1 
    
    After forcing myself not to look at the list in ST User when I held it
    in front of me, I could probably manage to skip over the note - but I'm
    not sure!
    
    Maybe if anyone actually WANTS it. I don't want it, nor do I not want
    it.
    
    Clarity is my middle name.
    
    J.O.H.N

My game disk started going flaky several months ago (I got the European
version). Finally, it wouldn't run at all. Electronic Arts in San Mateo
offered to replace it for $7.50. So I sent in my money, along with a letter
explaining the problem. In return, I received a new disk.

Last nite I tried that disk, and it didn't work either. Clicking on Tutorial,
Conquest, or Custom would just cause the system to reboot. Doing nothing would
default to demo mode.

So I just called Electronic Arts again to complain. They noted that a number
of us who had 520s with external drives were having problems, and said that
just a few days ago they received a "revision" version that is supposed to
fix the problem. They asked me to return the disk again, which I will do.
There is to be no charge this time.

You may want to contact them if you have a problem. They are at:

  Electronic Arts
  1820 Gateway Drive
  San Mateo, CA 94404      415-571-7171

If  you send a disk in, send it to "customer warranty" and ask for the
new "revision" version.

    
    Following on from the reply about monochrome monitors...
    
    What about those of us with monochrome eyes? I am slightly colourblind
    - that is, I can see colours, but subtle differences between shades
    and small patches of contrasting colours throw my colour vision
    completely off balance.
    
    As a result, I find Populous almost impossible to play - I can't
    tell the difference between the Good Guys and the Bad Guys. Therefore,
    I get thoroughly sick of people raving about how good the game is,
    including a friend who was at level 140 or so at the last count.
    
    Has anyone got any suggestions for improving the visibility? I am
    planning to get a colour monitor - to replace a (surprisingly good)
    television - and would like to think that it will help. Failing
    that, I'll just have to look the other way when people generate
    even more replies to this topic! :-)
    
    Chris.

    Hello,	
      good news for those who are looking for new kind of worlds.	
    I recently bought the magazine "THE ONE", an English computer game
    magazine, and to my surprise it costs a little bit more than normal. I
    had to pay 14DM than normanally 6.50DM. The reason was, it held a disk,
    called "the final frontier disk", with 500 new worlds for ST and Amiga.
    It is only one type of world but it is quiet funny. It is an alien
    planet world with green "mars men" and white "astronauts".
    It is quiet funny to see the robot-knights burning down small
    space-stations.
    I really like this kind of world, the new features are quiet good.
    
    
                                       Peter
    

We bought The Promised Lands add-on disk for Populous for my son for Christmas.
True-to-form he promptly lost the instructions before even using it. I put off
his request to ask the notesfile figuring it probably isn't hard to figure out.
Well, I'm stumped!

How/when does the game recognise new worlds from the second disk? I tried giving
the names on the wrapper (BLOCK LAND) and it says no such world. Are there any
other bits of info in the instructions that he needs?

	Thanks.. Buzz (and Greg)

    I haven't played Promised Lands for ages (by the way, I've got another
    world that came free with a magazine if you're interested).
    
    I seem to remember that you put the second disk in just as you start a
    new game. The world names start afresh from there. You don't have a
    choice as to what world type you play in; different worlds are of
    different types just like in the original.
    
    
    
    
    				Jamie.

    I had intended to look up my instructions on this and keep forgetting.
    So I'll do a brain dump of what I remember (on the assumption that
    some info is better than no info.)
    
    Start the game, get to playing the Genesis level. Then quit the game.
    When it prompts you for the name of the world to play next you should
    then put in the promised lands disk, enter the world name, and wait for
    it to start up the new game. As I recall you can bypass the play and
    quit steps and just put in the disk when it prompts for a world
    name the first time. If this doesn't work let me know. During the
    meantime I'll try to remember to dig out my instructions.
    
    Dan

    Okay, here we go from the instructions:
    
    1. Boot your copy of Populous in the normal way.
    2. When the title screen appears, select Conquest.
    3. Once the World to Conquer requester appears, click on Start Game.
    4. You will now be playing the Genesis World. Click on Game Setup (the
    	World icon).
    5. Select the Surrender this Game option.
    6. The Game Lost requester will now appear. Select Try it again.
    7. When the disc has finished accessing, remove the Populous disc, and
    	insert the data disc.
    8. Click on the Game Setup icon.
    9. Select the Conquest option.
    10. Once the World to Conquer requester appears, click on Start Game to
    	play the Genesis landscape, or click on New Game and type in the
    	name of a world that you already know.
    
    Once you have followed the 10 steps above, you should keep the data
    disc in the drive at all times when playing the Conquest series. Please
    note that if you win a conquest World on the Amiga, you will not hear
    the congratulatory speech.
    
    The landscape names in the conquest sequence have not been changed,
    though you will find that they are much tougher to complete now!
    
    If you want to use the new Worlds in your own custom landscapes, then
    follow the procedures as outlined above, and then:
    
    1. Click on the Game Setup icon.	2. Select Custom.
    3. Select Paint Map and click OK.
    
    You can now access the new Worlds by pressing the following keys:
    
    	5	The Bit Plains		6	The Wild West
    	7	Blockland		8	Silly World
    	9	Rivolution Frangaise
    
    4. Click on the Game Setup icon.	5. Select Play Game, and click on OK.
    
    After you have finished a game in Custom mode, you may be asked to
    replace the original Populous disc. After doing so, click OK on the
    Change Disc Requester, then, after the disc has stopped accessing,
    replace the data disc and follow the Custom Landscape procedure from
    Step 1 above. After loading a saved game on a single drive machine, you
    will be asked to "insert original Populous disk". Here, if you are
    playing from the data disc, the program is actually asking for the data
    disk, not the original Populous disk.
    
    But beware, the strategies you are used to using may no longer be the
    best!