AFTER LI FE
Strategy FAQ
Version 1.0
Last Updated: 11 July 1996, 08:30 GMT
Written by: Todd M. Lewis
(Beowulf92@aol.com)
DISCLAIMER
The purpose of this FAQ is to aid the public regarding strategies for
use in the game Afterlife, by LucasArts Entertainment Company. In no way should
this promote your killing yourself, killing others, or killing in any other
fashion.
TRADEMARK INFORMATION
Afterlife is a trademark and is copyrighted, and is so acknowledged.
Any trademarks not mentioned
here are still acknowledged.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
This article is Copyright 1996 by Todd Lewis. All rights reserved.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
----------------------
Ring One: Introduction
----------------------
[1-1]: Foreword
===============
This game is a "simulation," like Sim City and its cousins. You must
zone for structures, teach a
workforce, provide living accomodations, recover from
disasters...but we'll get to all of this shorty.
=============================================================
=======
No, the Unofficial Afterlife Strategy FAQ is not related in any way
with the Afterlife Official Player's
Guide other than in topic. Nor is the Unofficial Afterlife Strategy
FAQ meant to provide competition
to the Afterlife Official Player's Guide. Get it? I'm not making any
money here, nor am I trying to. My
only reward is seeing my own name at the top of this thing. So stop
thinking about making my life Hell
with some kind of lawsuit.
(1) comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic
The file name of the upload will be "alifes??.faq" where "??" is the
version number of the FAQ.
Please note that all submissions to the FAQ become property of the
author (Todd Lewis) and that
they may or may not be included. By
submitting to the FAQ, you grant the author permission to use your
submission in any future
publications of the FAQ in any media. The author reserves the right
to omit information from a
submission or delete the submission entirely.
[1-5] Acknowledgments
=====================
And a big thanks to everyone else who sent something my way, or posted
answers to questions in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic. I gave
credit to all persons whose ideas I
included in this FAQ. Forgive me if I miss anyone. If for some
reason I HAVE missed you, PLEASE
send me E-mail so I can give credit where credit is due.
[1-5-1] More Acknowledgments to Some Guys Who Don't Even Know Why
=============================================================
====
A huge "Thank you" and an "I'm sorry" to:
---------------------------
Ring Two: Game Fundamentals
---------------------------
This Ring will cover some of the basic topics that you should try to
keep in mind while playing. If you
don't want to read this incessant rambling, go ahead and skip over
it. Go on. Go. You'll be back.
[2-1] Beliefs
=============
Hang in there, just a few more of these dull descriptions. Now that
we've determined where our
SOUL believes it will be going, we would like to know what it will
be doing there. Two more
categories. SUMA: SOULs Undergo Multiple Afterlifes, and SUSA: SOULs
Undergo Singular
Afterlifes. A SUMAist believes that he will be rewarded or punished
for every virtue or sin, while a
SUSAist believes that she will be rewarded or punished only for her
most prominent virture or sin.
[2-2] Zoning
============
Just as in Sim City, where you had to create "zones" for
residential, commercial, and industrial
building, you must specify zones in both Heaven and in Hell. The
difference is that in Afterlife, your
zones are where your Fate Structures are built. Fate Structures are
the buildings where the SOULs
actually go in Heaven or in Hell. Once a zone has been defined, the
Fate Structures will appear
automatically as needed, until the zone is filled.
[2-2-1] In Heaven
-----------------
You must create zones for each of the seven virtues. Each virtue is
designated by its own color:
Green is Contentment
Yellow is Charity
Orange is Temperance
Brown is Diligence
Purple is Chastity
Red is Peacefulness
Blue is Humility
Multicolor is Generic Virtue
"I just 'spider' roads out from the gate, one leg for each reward,
with plenty of space, training centers,
and utopias in between blocks and immediately around the main gate.
This grows harder to do as the
pop. expands, but it's quite doable with a little monkeying."
["Kagetora" <kagetora@pernet.net>]
[2-2-2] In Hell
---------------
You will be punishing bad SOULs according to their sins. There are
seven sins, and you must create
zones so that your Demons may build the corresponding Fate Structures.
[2-3] Balance
=============
X-Sender: cosmos@ianet.net
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 1996 04:06:22 -0400
To: Rai@happypuppy.com, rob@happypuppy.com
From: Dwight Taylor <cosmos@ianet.net>
Subject: Unofficial Afterlife FAQ part 2
Balancing is another Herculean task. I think LucasArts threw it in there so
that we would have to click
on individual structures, and while we're at
it, why not appreciate the neat drawings and humorous biographies
that go along with them?
Otherwise all of that detail would go unnoticed.
The easiest way I've found is to use the "Flatten Hell/Heaven" buttons,
then use the Microview to click on a square. Keep the Microview window
open to the Balance screen. Now just rip through and adjust the sliders
until you see white. Also, by turning on the Autoscroll function,
you can
easily maneuver the Punishment/Reward zones so that you can select
individual squares without constantly having to move the Microview
Balance window.
Pressing the "A" key during game play will reduce the size of all of
the structures in the game. Topias,
Gift Structures, Gates, etc. included. Makes it much easier to "see
around" those really tall buildings.
Lastly, you don't have to close that window for your changes to take
effect. Just click on the next box
and be on your way. When you're finished, deselect the "Flatten"
buttons if you want to see all of
those Fate Structures packed together.
"Balance - If they gripe, I look at the map, click around, and make
sure that the most populated
buildings are balanced. Fixing those is enough to make things happy
withought driving you crazy in
micromanagement. " [ooba@red-branch.MIT.EDU()]
"Unfortunately, that isn't enough. If each 3x3 zone has a 2x2 and
several 1x1 buildings (the common
growth pattern), and you only balance the big ones, you will never
grow 3x3 buildings...Therefore, I
just don't do it by hand (except for maybe the first two or three
zones during the first minute or two). I
consider the cost of using the macro manager to autobalance all of
Heaven or all of Hell (when they
get really bad) simply a part of the cost of running the zones. Yes,
in the mid stages of a game, I have
paid 50M cents to balance a plane. It is worth it.
"It actually tends to pay itself back in growth, believe it not. But
manual balancing: fooey!"
[sjenkins@access.digex.net (Scott A. Jenkins)]
[2-4] Vibes
===========
Now, in Hell, vibes work in exactly the opposite manner: bad vibes
are pro-evolutionary, while good
vibes are anti-evolutionary. Once again, I doubt that any Punishment
in Hell that produces good vibes
promotes happiness. Rather, the SOULs there are only awfully
miserable, as opposed to the
demonically tortured. You get my drift.
Once a zone has evolved to its highest form, I usually ignore Vibes.
"The
Big Tease Shower Towers," a 3x3 Punishment for Lust, emits Very Good
Vibes. Who cares? The next XX0,000 lustful SOULs just found a home,
and I'm paying very few
Demons to watch over them. Of course, anti-evolutionary Vibes can be
countered by placing Topias
or Gift Structures.
"Use the vibe map - it helped me a lot. And those gift structures can
really make an area explode with growth if they're placed right.
This is
a game about PLANNING, as far as I can tell."
[dleary@umabnet.ab.umd.edu (David Leary)]
"Gates and karma stations ALWAYS put out anti-vibes, i.e. vibes that
are WRONG for their plane.
Keep them away from zones. Bigger structures spread their vibes
farther. A level one gate affects 3
squares, level 2 hits four squares... Training centers and Topias
always put out pro-vibes. I like to put
a training center between the gate and the first fate zone. Provides
the buffer I need, plus they tend to
cancel out. Gift structures put out major pro-vibes, and each
counteracts 1 disaster with its area of
effect. (Typically 10-15 squares or so). Siphons put out toxic waste
and bad vibes. Which is what you
want in Hell, so putting it in the middle of things helps; and is
bad for growth in Heaven."
[jarrell@solaris.cc.vt.edu (Ron Jarrell)]
[2-5] Diversity
===============
"So Hell does give you bonus for large monolithic blocks of the same
color
vs. lots of seperate areas of a single color."
[jarrell@solaris.cc.vt.edu (Ron Jarrell)]
[2-6] Efficiency
================
Allow me a small aside, and let's talk about _real_ efficiency. Not
some distorted concept that is
described above. The real choice you have to make is what type of
efficiency is most important to
you? The capacities of Fate Structures increases over time. The
highest population density available
on a "per square" basis is found in the highest 2x2 structure.
However, the highest demon (or angel) to
SOUL efficiency is achieved by using a 3x3 structure.
627,200 / 1500 = 418 SOULs per demon. 800,000 / 1625 = 492 SOULs per
demon. That makes "Towers" 18% more efficient than "Ignorance," on a
SOUL per demon basis.
------------------------
Ring Three: Making Money
------------------------
Now, this _is_ the $64,000 question. Let's see here, that would be
6,400,00 pennies. Do I have your
attention yet?
In the early game, this one item can turn your budget around more
quickly than any other. If done
properly, training your own Angels and Demons can increase the
efficiency of your Fate Structures
(which in turn raises the SOUL rate), as well as reduces your overhead.
Lets assume for the moment that your zones in Heaven are all set,
and that SOULs are flowing in.
There will be a finite amount of jobs for your Angels. Initially,
all of your Angels are imported.
Through the use of a Training Center, you can train "homegrown"
Angels to replace the imported
ones. You are, in effect, "firing" the imported Angels. Since the
number of working position remains
fixed, you are replacing the expensive imported Angels with
homegrown ones. Reducing the amount
of imported workers is important, and is one of the earliest ways in
which you can reduce a portion of
your overhead.
[3-2-1] Riots
-------------
Be careful with those TCenters, though. When Jasper and/or Aria remind
yu that less than 10% of your Demons/Angels are imported, TURN THOSE
CENTERS OFF! Have
you ever seen rioting Angels or Demons? Not pretty. Especially if
they start a chain reaction. In my
first game, I kept the percentage of imported workers between 0 and
2%. Big mistake. When the 3x3
Fate Structures finally appeared, many of those Angels became
unemployed. Idle Angels ran amok,
and started destroying Fate Structures in Hell, which put several
Demons out of jobs. Now idle
Demons rioted in Heaven, which created more idle Angels. You get the
picture. Before too long, I
was staring at a bunch of empty roads! Kowabunga time.
[3-3] Roads
===========
Early in the game, you'll want to stick to fairly short roads. The
upkeep you spend on really long
roads--especially in Hell--can quickly bury you. In Hell, I try to
use a long series of "S-curves," which
is basically one long road that keeps twisting back and forth. If I
need to create more room for zoning,
I just "nuke" a corner, extend the road, and lay down a new corner.
[3-6] Banks
===========
X-Sender: cosmos@ianet.net
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 1996 04:06:44 -0400
To: rob@happypuppy.com, Rai@happypuppy.com
From: Dwight Taylor <cosmos@ianet.net>
Subject: Unofficial Afterlife FAQ part 3
So if you've built three banks, your interest rate for the first
loan will only be 1%. If you take out a
second loan before you've finished paying off the first, your
interest rate will be 2%. This gradual rise
in interest rates may eventually bankrupt you if you don't start
turning a profit soon.
"You need money, and it doesn't seem there's a way to get it without
always increasing your debt ?
We have the perfect solution for you in Hell, let me explain...
[4-1] Rewards
=============
[4-1-1] Contentment
-------------------
Vacation Slides Of The Gods - Very Bad Vibes
The Good Neighbor - Moderately Bad Vibes
Coffee Shops Of The Word - Moderately Bad Vibes
Karaoke Korners - Slightly Bad Vibes
The Choir Invincible - Slightly Good Vibes
Envy Aid - Moderately Good Vibes
Brahmatic Bovine Bliss Ranch - Very Good Vibes
[4-1-2] Charity
---------------
You Are Already A Winner - Slightly Good Vibes
Lost And Found - Moderately Good Vibes
The Good Space - Very Good Vibes
The Incredibly Lost Episodes - Moderately Good Vibes
The Final Piece Convention - Moderately Bad Vibes
Ascetic Mountains - No Vibes
[4-1-3] Temperance
------------------
The Perfect Party - Moderately Bad Vibes
Lands Of Milk And Honey - Slightly Bad Vibes
Deux Ex Diner - No Vibes
Hog Heaven - Slightly Good Vibes
Sickeningly Sweet Sugar Savannas - No Vibes
Party Town - Very Bad Vibes
[4-1-4] Diligence
-----------------
Your Home is Your Castle - Very Good Vibes
The Eternal Afternoon - Moderately Good Vibes
It's a Cat's Life - Moderately Good Vibes
Mom and Pop Shops - Slightly Good Vibes
Paradise University - Slightly Bad Vibes
Cloud Nine Labs - Moderately Bad Vibes
Towers-A-Go-Go - Moderately Bad Vibes
Divine Engines - Very Bad Vibes
The Final Frontier - Very Bad Vibes
[4-1-5] Chastity
----------------
Valentine Town - Slightly Bad Vibes
The Only Non-Sleazy Singles Bar In Creation - Moderately Bad Vibes
The Perfect Spot Cosmic Backrub - Very Bad Vibes
Palaces Of True Love - Moderately Bad Vibes
Wedding Day Redux - No Vibes
Castaways - Slightly Good Vibes
The Perfect Evening - Very Good Vibes
Cherubopolis - No Vibes
[4-1-6] Peacefulness
--------------------
Perfect Playgrounds - Moderately Good Vibes
Fishing Holes - Slightly Good Vibes
Heaven's Complaint Department - No Vibes
USDA Local #777 - Slightly Bad Vibes
Board Games - No Vibes
Fight The Power! - Slightly Good Vibes
The 19th Tee Links - Very Good Vibes
[4-1-7] Humility
----------------
Humble Pie - Slightly Good Vibes
Press Conference - Slightly Bad Vibes
You Oughta Be In Pictures - Moderately Good Vibes
Humble-mentary - Moderately Bad Vibes
Monuments To Humility - Very Good Vibes
DNA Park - Moderately Bad Vibes
Keys To The City - Moderately Good Vibes
Look To The Stars - No Vibes
[4-2] Punishments
=================
[4-2-1] Envy
------------
Out Of The Frying Pan - Moderately Bad Vibes
Another Man's Shoes - Moderately Bad Vibes
Survey Of The Damned - Slightly Bad Vibes
Hell Octoplex 666 - Slightly Good Vibes
NoBody Burgs - Moderately Good Vibes
Escher Pits - Very Good Vibes
[4-2-2] Avarice
---------------
Jerky City - Slightly Good Vibes
The Collective - Moderately Good Vibes
Bingoslypertukaw! - Very Good Vibes
Booty Island - Moderately Good Vibes
Carousels Of Greed - Very Bad Vibes
DisCorp - No Vibes
[4-2-3] Gluttony
----------------
Taco Inferno - Moderately Bad Vibes
Sticky's - Slightly Bad Vibes
Pinhead Pizza - No Vibes
Bahb's All-U-Must-Eat - No Vibes
The Bowels Of Hell - Very Bad Vibes
[4-2-4] Sloth
-------------
The Itch - Very Good Vibes
Sweat Shops - Moderately Good Vibes
Bitter Harvest Fields - Moderately Good Vibes
Convention Of The Damned - Slightly Bad Vibes
The Enchanted Forest Of Cable - Moderately Bad Vibes
666 Pennants Over Perdition Theme Parks - Very Bad Vibes
[4-2-5] Lust
------------
Lust Freezers - Slightly Bad Vibes
Punishing Peep Show Pavillions - Moderately Bad Vibes
The Laundromat - Very Bad Vibes
Purple Passion Pulsing Plasma Pods - Moderately Bad Vibes
Screaming Subspace Voids - Moderately Good Vibes
Dates From Hell - Very Good Vibes
Roboto - Very Good Vibes
Ignorance Ain't Bliss -
The Big Tease Shower Towers - Very Good Vibes
[4-2-6] Wrath
-------------
Immortal Backalley Battle Warriors - Moderately Good Vibes
The Real Underworld - Slightly Good Vibes
The Post Office Game - No Vibes
Hellrose Place - Very Bad Vibes
Terrorville - Slightly Good Vibes
Illuminatiland - No Vibes
War! (What Is It Good For?) - Very Good Vibes
[4-2-7] Pride
-------------
The Age Of Aquarium - Slightly Good Vibes
Doll House - Slightly Bad Vibes
SOUL Farm - Moderately Good Vibes
The Zoo - Moderately Bad Vibes
Well, this section would include stuff like Gates, Topias, Training
Centers, Siphons, Limbo Structures,
Omnibogles & Love Domes, Karma Stations, and Gift Structures. Since
most of these buildings are
explained thoroughly in the manual and the game itself, I'm leaving
them out. For now. If some of you
purists out there _really, really_ have to have that info in here,
let me know. I'll get around to it. Sure I
will.
---------------------
Ring Five: The Planet
---------------------
No, this isn't a singular movement by Holst. This Ring deals with
that annoying little ball floating in the
middle of your screen. The one with all the EMBOs on it. You know,
your clients living in a
non-deceased mode.
[5-1] Beliefs
=============
So far I've encountered two reasons to mess with the EMBOs' beliefs,
besides the obvious "because I
can:"
2. Because those pesky helpers told me to. Yes, just like everything
else in this game, the planet can
become "unbalanced," if you will. I got a little message from both
Jasper and Aria saying that "The
people on the planet believe in an afterlife, they just don't
believe in Hell (or Heaven, respectively)." I
had to open the Planetview, select Tenets, and influence some Joe
(or Joan) to go spread the word.
"I find the planet thing very useful. Pouring enough money into the
planet in one game resulted in a lot
less traffic through my reincarnation stations - a BIG savings in
money in the long run, since I didn't
have to upgrade to the top-of-the-line, ever. Not sure if I came out
ahead (tinkering with the planet's
tenents was expensive) but it was interesting..."
[dleary@umabnet.ab.umd.edu (David Leary)]
[5-3] Technology
================
Lastly, you can sHell out some sense--I mean, cents--to help the
EMBOs aquire technological
advancements. Doing so can be beneficial, because these discoveries
will allow higher population
densities (especially the first two, Pottery and Irrigation), or
make more of the planet habitable
(Boating, Navigation, Aviation). Just be sure that your world is
pretty peaceful when those cute little
EMBOs discover Nuclear technology.
------------------------------------------------------
Ring Six: Nothing Bad Ever Happens To Me (Yeah, Right)
------------------------------------------------------
First of all, let me say that I'm not going to describe each and
every one of these "disasters." All that
info is contained in the Instruction Brochure--er, Manual. This Ring
is devoted to the strategies you
should use to protect yourself against these undesirable events.
Besides saving and reloading the
game, which would be cheating, now, wouldn't it.
----------------------
Ring Seven: Strategies
----------------------
[7-1] The Early Game
====================
"I build one 3x3 block of each color, one training center (lowest
grade, set immediately to the most
selective recruiting rate), one topia, one karma station, and one
gate. I interpose the topia and the
training center between the gate/karma station and the fate zones,
to mitigate the bad vibes they emit. I
also start off tapping a couple of ad infinitum rocks near the
gate/karma station, since these emit bad
vibes."
[sjenkins@access.digex.net (Scott A. Jenkins)]
"Do you think you're hot??!! Then aim for 1 Billion SOULs per plane.
At this point, you can build
Love Domes/Omnibolges. Once you build these structures, you can nuke
most of your fate structures
and catch up on your sleep since you bought this game <yawn!>."
[Assasins@interramp.com (STaSiS
FieLDeR)]
Pressing the "A" key during game play will reduce the size of all of
the structures in the game. Topias,
Gift Structures, Gates, etc. included. Makes it much easier to "see
around" those really tall buildings.
"SOULs that are visiting more than one fate zone (SUMAists) will
visit them in the reverse order of
importance. So in Heaven, blue needs to be closest to the gate, but
in Hell it has to be farthest away.
"If you want to reduce the reincarnation stats cheaply, make the
karma track long; SOULs forget their
past lives during the trip [thus making them doubt
reincarnation--Beowulf92], and that reduces the
percentage." [jarrell@solaris.cc.vt.edu (Ron Jarrell)]
[7-5] Cheats
============
"Use it up to 5 times. The 6th time the deathstar will appear and
start blasting away at your afterlife.
I'm not kidding...the dialog box that warns you is labeled "I have a
bad feeling about this..." with the
text "Look at the size of that thing!" and the button "Use the Force"...
"The Hidden monster is a Max the bunny. Type, in caps, three times
(ignore the fact that windows will
start popping up because you're triggering commands): SAMNMAX
"Starting in the north most corner, and working your way down to the
right, lay out one each of 1x1
zones of all colors, starting with green and down to blue. Then
starting with the northern green do the
same thing down to the left. Now fill in the rest of the rows
across, starting with the color that's there,
and cylcing back around when you run out. So the first couple of
rows would be
G Y O BR P R B
Y O BR P R B G
"etc. You'll get the entire multicolored glob. Start time. If you
did everything right, get a surprise
building (that does nothing for you, but is cute). Read the text,
it's the easter egg from the designer."
[jarrell@solaris.cc.vt.edu (Ron Jarrell)]
-------------------------
Ring Eight: Miscellaneous
-------------------------
Okay, everything that didn't fit neatly into one of the earlier,
neater Rings is being dumped here.
http://www.lucasarts.com
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/3805
"I know the page ain't much...I'm just learning this HTML stuff."
[briar@worldnet.att.net (linda hubbard)]
Thou shalt have no other FAQs before mine. Well, at least let me
believe that this is the first one for
Afterlife, okay?
[8-4] Bugs
==========
[8-5] Patches
=============
I just told you that there weren't any bugs discovered so far. So
why would this game need a patch? If
it ain't broke, don't break it.
[8-6] Errors in the Afterlife Instruction Brochure--er, Manual
=============================================================
=
None that I'm aware of, besides being a little thin (and yup, I did
just waste about seven lines telling
you so).
[8-7] Conclusion
================
"Abandon every hope, who set out to write a FAQ." - Dante (sort of)
My best game so far earns about 400,000 pennies every year, at the
Medium difficulty level--without
cheating, and still subjecting myself to Bad Things. Using the
Macromanager to Autobalance all of my
structures is S.O.P. Now it's time to fiddle more with the planet.
Hope this FAQ helped. Drop me a line, and let me know how your games
are going.