Hostile Waters: Difference between revisions

* [[Artificial Atmospheric Actions]]: The various Soulcathcer pilots will talk to each other and you, such as mocking each other for perceived differences in skill. Thing is, these response are very limited, so they repeat them quite often. The responses are just vague enough to make it sound coherent no matter what pattern they end up in, though, and usually pretty fun, since most are [[Jerkass|jerkasses]].

* [[Author Appeal]]: Evil corporations plotting the downfall of an ultimately idealistic world? Nanotechnology used for the good of mankind? Nightmarish organic technology? You can tell this is a [[Warren Ellis]] script before you even know he wrote it.

** The artillery guns. Powerful enough to kill pretty much anything. Limited enough ammo that you usually can't wipe out any one thing of vital importance to your enemy (they almost always have a few backups).

** The EMP gun. Decent range and will kill any plane it hits (since they stop flying), but really slow firing and only necessary for one mission. It's easier just to kill things.

* [[Escort Mission]]: One of the missions has you escorting a group of scientists escaping from the Cabal. They proceed to patiently wait in their base while you clear the entire map of everything that moves and set up turrets at their destination, make sure to stay behind your tanks once they get rolling, and even once the enemies start growing out of the ground (literally), they will target your units before they turn on the convoy. It's... refreshingly not frustrating.

* [[Exploding Barrels]]: Or rather, explosive building-sized fuel tanks. Some fuel trucks can also be used as high-grade explosives for fortified targets.

* [[Fission Mailed]]: An example that narrowly avoids being annoying. The first time you see a helicopter with the scientist you were supposed to rescue take off, it means you failed the mission. When the same happens several missions later, it's just a scripted event.

* [[Flying Saucer]]: Apparently human-made, created in order to control the populace through fear of unknown and to divert their attention from real conspiracies.

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: The final mission consists simply of escorting the [[Cool Ship]], turned into a walking (well, floating) bomb, into the heart of the enemy installation. It seems to work, too. {{spoiler|Though the ending and [[The Stinger]] suggest otherwise.}}

* [[Hover Tank]]: The Salamander and Shark chassis.

* [[Interface Screw]]: An early mission has your Battle Room interface glitch out, forcing you to issue commands through the quick-order system in the upper-right corner. It's basically used as an excuse for a [[Forced Tutorial]].

* [[Invisibility]]: The cloaking device, usually used on Pumas.

* [[Nanomachines]]: The plotline is based on nanotechnology. In the year 2012, nanotech "Creation Engines" were developed and released to the world at large. Able to dispense anything a person could want, at any time - on demand - they cause [[The Singularity|"the world to go sane"]]; revolution happened, [[Obstructive Bureaucrat|power cliques]] were overthrown and the world becomes a [[Utopia]]. The game takes place is the fictional year 2032, where the old power elites have perverted nanotechnology for their own uses, creating weapons of war with which to blackmail the rest of the world into servitude again. {{spoiler|Or so it seems, at first...}}

* [[Non-Entity General]]: The game refers to you only as Captain, the only living person aboard the Antaeus. Of course, "living" is something of a misnomer, since you're a chip just like your crew, the only difference being you got a body out of the deal.

* [[No Recycling]]: Partially averted, as the debris of fallen enemies is your main source of energy, but your own vehicles don't leave much of anything behind when blown up.

* [[Organic Technology]]: The Cabal at first combines organic tech and normal tech and creates hybrid vehicles, the normal warmachines with organic elements (think Apaches and Abrams tanks with ''[[Squick|meat]]'' on them). {{spoiler|The aliens themselves are all this.}}

* [[Pretentious Latin Motto]]: If the name of the [[Cool Ship]] wasn't [[wikipedia:Antaeus|pretentious enough]], the motto is ''Pugio in Averso Belli'' (a dagger used against war).

** [[Fridge Brilliance|Works well given the storyline]], though.

* [[Ridiculously-Fast Construction]]: Explained with nanotechnology. The 'base' in the game, the adaptive cruiser Antaeus, is equipped with 'Creation Engines' which contain trillions of nano scale assembler robots capable of creating new vehicles from blueprints stored in the carrier in just seconds. The only resource required is 'metal' obtained by scavenger units using disassembler beams to reclaim various wreckage from the battlefield. The dissasembling process does take time, presumably due to the lesser numbers of nanobots involved.

* [[Sequel Hook]]: Two of them. Not only does the ending cinematic reveal that {{spoiler|your [[Heroic Sacrifice]] might have spawned something even worse}}, [[The Stinger]] suggests {{spoiler|it was in vain, since a couple of Culture Stones made it into space.}}

* [[Utopia]]: a literal example:

{{quote| '''Walker:''' Streets lined with plants that capture pollution and sequester it as the pigment in flowers, decontaminating it as they bloom. Public Creation Engines on every corner that make free food and clothes and goods and anything out of dirt and waste. Tiny organic medicines, riding the air, that heal us as we breathe. Disease-free immortality. Our grasp exceeds the moon, and we stand on the verge of greatness.}}

* [[Worker Unit]]: The Scarab vehicle, can also be used as a medic.

* [[You Require More Vespene Gas]]: The Energy Units, harvested using recycle-unit equipped Scarabs (or Behemoths in specific situations) to disassemble various structures, junk and enemy remains on field, with the energy instantly going to Antaeus. Another, less efficient way is to gather energy is to use the Pegasus helicopter to lift something and deliver it to Antaeus' own disassembler.

 

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