Populous: The Beginning

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"Matak" redirects here. For the Cambodian prince, see Sisowath Sirik Matak.

Populous: The Beginning
Developer(s)	Bullfrog Productions
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts
Engine	Modified Magic Carpet engine
Release date(s)	1998
Genre(s)	God game, Real-time strategy
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: Teen (T)
Platform(s)	PC (Windows), PlayStation

Populous: The Beginning is the third of the PC strategy god games of the Populous series, developed by Bullfrog Productions in 1998. A version developed by Climax became available on the PlayStation in 1999.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Expansion 3 Key Features 4 Levels 5 Mythos 5.1 Spells and Language 6 External links

[edit] Overview

Populous: The Beginning is slightly different from the other two Populous games in that instead of playing as a deity (capable of divine intervention) from the beginning, the player instead controls play through their tribe's Shaman (whose destiny is to achieve divinity.) The female shaman leads the Blue tribe through a planetary system of 25 planets, each time mustering her tribe against the opposing forces of the Red, Green, or Yellow tribes (the Dakini, Matak and Chumara, respectively). Each tribe also has a shaman, and later levels have all three tribes on one world. Whilst the objective is always to eliminate all of the members of the other tribes, there are often specific ways this can be achieved - sometimes through use of spells gained from worship at the world's "artefacts" (stone heads for single-use spells, obelisks for multiple-use spells, totem poles for drastic spell effects, and "vaults of knowledge" for permanently learnt spells) or from building up a land-base and breeding and training an appropriately sized army to bring upon the opposing tribes.

The spells the Shaman can use are, mainly, extremely powerful, but they have to be used near the Shaman (the activation area depends on the type of spell). In the last level of the game (set on the star of the planetary system, for some reason), the Shaman becomes a god, making the player able to use the Shaman's spells anywhere on the "planet".

The game is played from a 3-dimensional perspective with the camera at a fixed height and rotatable through 360 degrees, enabling the player to quickly move about the globe of the planet. Extensive support for 3D acceleration enables the player to view the game in 16-bit or 32-bit colour. The landscape and real-time structure building and follower movement are both shown. A sidebar shows the status of the shaman tallies of the different kinds of followers (see below), and specific information about what is available under the Buildings, Spells and Followers panels. The shaman's spells are granted at the cost of mana, which is replenished by followers resting and is represented in the Spell Charge Rate bar. Difficulty levels remain constant and are not user-settable. Multiple followers can be selected with click-and-drag, and a number of hot-keys makes for more fluid gameplay.

Populous: The Beginning is multiplayer compatible, either by head-to-head direct modem connection, LAN, IPX, or most commonly using the Populous Reincarnated matchmaker over TCP/IP. An alternative is the Populous Resurrection client by Wildman Productions, which can be downloaded from [1]. This client is in development and offers many modifications and additions to the game.

Throughout the game the shaman's most important assets are her followers. The most basic and versatile kind, available from the beginning via the shaman's Convert spell used on the primitive, bearded "Wildmen", are the bare-chested Braves, whose functions include building, gathering materials, worshipping or fighting. Later, the tribe gains the knowledge to build training facilities to produce armoured Warriors from Braves. These are the best at hand-to-hand combat and serve as the primary fighting forces to be led against the enemy. All followers can guard the home land-base with Guard Posts, or around the shaman with the G-key guard command. Later, mitre- and vestment-garbed Preachers can be trained. They convert attacking enemy forces to your tribe (but cannot convert enemy Preachers, who will attack them). Other follower types include the horn-helmeted Fire Warriors, who are almost as weak as Braves at hand-to-hand mêlée combat, but can shoot powerful fireballs at enemies from a distance; and eventually black-cloaked Spies, who, while weaker in combat than Braves can infiltrate the enemy tribes and sabotage their buildings and projects, disguised as a member of the tribe.

Buildings are upgraded as they are inhabited for periods by followers. Braves, by gathering wood from surrounding trees as when initially building, can reconstruct the Small Hut into a Medium Hut, and eventually into a Large Hut. Each of these is different in its architecture as well as size. Buildings, i.e. Huts and training facilities, are built around the Reincarnation Site, where the shaman will be reborn if killed to create a land-base to defend the tribe against the enemy tribes with, especially with the help of positioned Warriors, Priests and Fire Warriors, and Guard Posts and Guard Towers. When buildings are damaged, they can be rebuilt by braves when they stop smoking (braves will not actually finish construction until this happens). When buildings are destroyed, they leave behind "damaged ground" which cannot be built upon for a while. Land-bases can be further adjusted by the terrain-altering spells Landbridge, Erode and Flatten, or, in moments of extreme desperation, Volcano. In later levels, construction of boats and primitive balloons for attack purposes becomes possible.

[edit] Expansion

Populous: The Beginning - Undiscovered Worlds is an expansion pack released for Populous: The Beginning. It was only made available in the UK, and offered 12 new single-player and 12 multiplayer levels.

Fans of the original game have subsequently released more expansions of the game, at Populous: Reincarnated.

Populous: Age of Chaos is a series of 25 new worlds with new graphics, designed to be very challenging to test players' true gaming abilities. This expansion is available at the Wildman Productions website.

There is currently a fan-based fourth instalment of the game in progress (not an expansion pack) with more tribes, new spells and new units. It is called Populous: Tribal Conquest, produced by Wildman Productions, with music by Rasmus Vinjar and Mark Knight. It has better graphics, better gameplay and a better environment. For instance, instead of having only wildmen, there might be wild animals and fish, which are important for the use of a fan spell called "entity of death". Development is currently paused pending completion of [[The Matchmaker]] for Populous: The Beginning. A number of ideas have been confirmed: one is a new unit idea, called the Ice Warrior, which is identical to the Fire Warrior but shoots ice.

[edit] Key Features

Main article: Populous

[edit] Levels

• Tutorial

1. The Journey Begins
2. Night Falls
3. Crisis of Earth
4. Combined Forces
5. Death From Above
6. Building Bridges
7. Unseen Enemy
8. Continental Divide
9. Fire in the Midst
10. From the Depths
11. Treacherous Soul
12. An Easy Target
13. Aerial Bombardment
14. Attacked From All Sides
15. Incarnated
16. Bloodlust
17. Middle Ground
18. Head Hunter
19. Unlikely Allies
20. Archipelago
21. Fractured Earth
22. Solo
23. Inferno
24. Journey's End
25. The Beginning

In each of the levels the aim is to eliminate the enemy tribes. However, in levels 5, 10, 15, 22 and 25 there is a twist in the gameplay. For example, in level 5 the aim is to reach a special obelisk, whose worship by the Shaman results in winning. There is a timer, counting down to zero whereupon the player automatically loses.

After completing level 24 (Journey's End), the Shaman ascends to the heavens, as a god. In level 25 (The Beginning), there is an unlimited spell range instead of the Shaman.

Bullfrog originally created 15 multiplayer maps:

• 2-player

1. Hills Divide Us
2. Eye of the Storm
3. Two Crabs
4. Skirmish
5. All Around the World

• 3-player

1. Linked Isles
2. Skirmish
3. Three-Way
4. Avenging Angels
5. Sandy Castles

• 4-player

1. Two on Two
2. Craters
3. Dead Sea
4. Face Off
5. Pressure Point

The following were included with Undiscovered Worlds:

• 2-player

1. Barricade
2. Battlements
3. Cog
4. Sliced Beetle
5. Two Way
6. Multiple Choice

• 3-player

1. Canyon
2. Angels
3. Three Crabs

• 4-player

1. Cog
2. Clockwise
3. Walls

More recently, several members have created maps for online play (e.g. the map-pack "Fate Worlds"). They have also adapted maps from the single-player game to the multiplayer game. The maps were made free to download to members of the Populous community, and even more recently ALACN has created software (called "The Populous World Editor") which allows people with less knowledge of computer programming to create multiplayer maps.

[edit] Mythos

The Populous planetary system is home to 25 unnamed planets of varying landscapes, from blood-red and volcanic, to twilight sky and purple seas, to expansive verdant plains.

Unlike the worlds, the recurring enemies represented by the opposing tribes are named - the Green tribe are the "Matak", the Yellow tribe the "Chumara", and the often-dominant Red tribe are named the "Dakini". The player is given a glimpse of the tribes' languages.

[edit] Spells and Language

The Shaman's spells have incantations:

	Spell	Effect	Expression
	Convert	Converts Wildmen in effect area into Braves	"Sunama"
	Blast	Small fire blast (Direct hit lethal to Braves and weaker or enemies it knocks into water, minor building damage, destroys trees and wood)	"Taka!"
	Landbridge	Causes land to rise from one point to another (can raise land from water). A well-cast landbridge can be used to save the Shaman if about to fall into the water.	"Tuscatsi!"
	Lightning Bolt	Moderately powerful lightning bolt. (Direct hit lethal to all, moderate building damage; fire).	"Soka!"
	Swarm	Unleashes swarm of hornets (causes enemies to panic and breaks preachers' concentration, often allowing them to be killed. Also weakens enemies and, if cast on the same person enough times can be lethal).	"Hornaga!"
	Invisibility	Turns followers in limited area invisible to enemy temporarily or until they attack.	"Saytango!"
	Swamp	Places lethal swamp in moderate area that will remain until a set number of enemies will perish inside (10 people). To get rid of your own swamp you place the mouse cursor over the swamp and right click.	"Mortenga!"
	Hypnotise	Hypnotises and converts enemy followers in limited area temporarily. If you destroy an enemy tribe when you have some of their units under your control, they will go over to your side permanently. If you train hypnotised units in a training hut then they will go over to your side permanently.	"Noctana!"
	Erode	Causes land to sink (can create water from flat land, major building damage). Extremely damaging to buildings when cast to pull them down a cliff.	"Dasanko!"
	Flatten	Causes land to raise or sink around the point of aim to level out a moderate area	"Laniatu!"
	Earthquake	Causes a rift and line of sunken land after delayed period (Lethal to all though an alert human player may be able to order units to run, major building damage; fire) By using blasts the Shaman can survive as she ignored the lava. Earthquake is most effective when cast on higher ground.	"Lakaiee!"
	Magical Shield	Causes followers in limited area to become immune to blast and spell effects (can still die in battle)	"[Shield Activating, no incantation]"
	Tornado	Creates a tornado that can pick enemies and followers (Lethal to Preachers and below, moderate building damage and can destroy buildings on which it is cast directly)	"Jeenah"
	Firestorm	Rains fire from the sky in moderate area (Sometimes lethal to all, moderate building damage) Again blasts can be used to keep the Shaman alive.	"Tumaga"
	Angel of Death	Conjures an "invincible" flying dragon creature that hunts down enemies for a temporary period (Lethal to all but attacks one enemy at a time, unlike some spells, moderate building damage; fire). It is possible to prematurely destroy an Angel of Death by casting firestorm, or by having many Firewarriors fire at it. However, it is very strong and will take 30-40+ of them to take it down. If you also have a shot of Angel of Death, it is also possible to kill an Enemy Angel of Death by having yours attack it.	"Mortazan!"
	Volcano	Causes a huge volcano to rise up and spew lava and fire, creating damaged ground (Lethal to all but your Shaman, major building damage, difficult to re-flatten mound, lava turns water into land).	"Padatanka"
	Special Spells	Effect	Expression
	Armageddon	Scenery changes and an arena is made where all remaining tribes, with proportional representation of followers are forced to battle to the death with shamans throwing spells at each other	"Taka"
	Bloodlust	Causes followers in limited area to get angry (tougher with stronger battle skills. Not usually in multiplayer unless used as a guest spell..)	"[shaman death sound]"
	Teleport	Teleports the shaman/and or limited area of followers to somewhere within vast area	"[Shaman being blasted sound]"

The game makers also took care to give the followers of the tribe some sort of tribal language, to bring home the theme of the game as a war between primal tribes in the beginning of the worlds:

Braves, Warriors and Firewarriors make surprised and enquiring sounds when selected:

"Chia", "Hai?", "ay?", "hawaya" etc.

Preachers instead say:

"Inya?", "Konaiya?", "Chinu", "Unchia". etc.

Spies are known for their malice in their speech:

"Hola?", "Che-e?", "Sonese", "Jinice!" (gleefully) etc.

[edit] External links

• Play Populous Online at Populous Reincarnated
• Populous Revolution
• The Shamans Home
• The Populous Wiki
• Ted's Populous Site
• Populous online community

• Populous: Tribal Conquest (remake, currently in development)
• Mark Knight's Gamesounds Download the Populous 3 music from the composers website
• PC Gameworld review
• Populous: The Beginning at MobyGames

v • d • e Populous video games

Populous • Populous II • Populous: The Beginning