0
Frequently Asked Questions
version 1.0
last updated 7/15/96
Welcome all Demiurge's to the Afterlife FAQ. Here we attempt to -- drum
roll please -- answer the Frequently Asked Questions about the absolute
best game in the emerging-yet-lucrative "Hereafter" genre. It is in this very
spot that many, if not all, questions, conundrums and queries about
LucasArts' Afterlife are solved and/or answered in
excruciating-yet-never-boring detail. Many of the answers include bonus
hints from Afterlife's maker, the one, the only, Michael Stemmle.
So without further ado and hyphens, let's get to your questions . . .
I can't make any money, it seems I'm always in the red.
Can someone help me out here?
The only way to make a profit is to build slowly. You pay a lot of
money for roads and demons and angels. Just lay down 3x3 tiles
for each color, one training center, one karma station, one gate,
and one topia. Then set your tempo to mortal plodding so you can
respond quickly when you start to lose SOULs. SOULs will only
leave when all of the buildings in a certain colored fate is full, or if
your gates or Karma stations are full. You can look at the graphs to
find out if they are close to being full, but don't build more until
you start to lose SOULs. Smaller fate zones will force the buildings
in those zones to evolve into better structures. You get more
money per SOUL if you have better structures on your zones. The
only way that the zones will evolve is if they are under at least
moderately good (or bad if you are running Hell) vibes and you
keep the structures on those zones balanced. If you ask Aria and
Jasper, they will give you suggestions about what to do. If you are
playing in easy mode and everything is properly balanced, you may
start making money around year 1000.
Mike sez: "Don't worry about losing SOULs too much while the
game is young. It may take 1500 years to become profitable, so
don't panic."
Aria and Jasper keep telling me I need to balance.
How do I do that?
There are two ways to balance. One is to do it manually. Hit pause,
and then click on the Heaven or Hell symbols at the bottom of
your remote control so you just see all the colors where your
structures are laid out. Then use the magnifying lens on each
structure to get the Microview window. Click on the icon of the
scale in the window. You will see a bar at the top. You need to
move the slider so the bar is completely white, then your structure
is balanced. Doing this is free of charge. An easier, but more
expensive way of balancing is to use the Macro Manager. That's
the green icon with the two "m"s on it. When you bring it up, you
can click on the scale that's balanced, and then click on whatever
color you want, or all of the colors, and then click on the penny
symbol at the bottom to balance.
Mike sez: "Unless you're playing in Difficult Mode, you probably
don't have to worry about balancing your tiles for the first few
hundred years."
My EMBOs don't believe in Heaven or Hell!
How can I change this?
You need to click on the planet and then click on "Tenets" Now
click on either the blue icon with the Heaven and Hell symbol on
it, or the red icon with the Heaven/Hell symbol on it. Then raise
the bar to the right up a bit. The cost under the picture of the
SOUL will tell you how much you are spending. Once you have
the desired amount you want to pay, then click on a heavily
populated area of the planet, and then click on the yellow penny
box to the right of the bar to influence the planet.
Aria keeps mentioning that Heaven is not diverse.
What does she mean?
The SOULs in Heaven like to mingle and visit SOULs in other
reward structures. You need to make sure that one fate structure is
not surrounded by the same color on any side. Usually if you put
four different colored 3x3 squares together and then build a road
all around them the SOULs will be happy.
Help! I'm losing souls!!! What do I do?
Talk to Jasper and Aria, they will tell you why you are losing souls.
When you first start a new game, set the tempo to Mortal Plodding
so you have time to keep track of what the souls are doing. A lot of
times, you will get colored spikes which will tell you what color
souls are leaving your Afterlife, they will also leave if your gates or
karma stations are too full.
Mike sez: "As mentioned earlier, you can probably afford to lose a
few SOULs every now and then."
Barely any souls are coming through my gates.
Why not?
In the beginning there are not many people on the planet so you
won't get many souls. Over time, this should increase dramatically.
However, if you influence the technology on the planet, this can
cause your people to live much longer and they won't die as often.
Beware, too much technology also puts your planet at risk of a
nuclear war.
Mike sez: "There's also a cheap way to make your EMBOs breed
like rabbits."
Jasper and Aria tell me that my roads aren't
connected, but they look okay to me. What's going
on?
Check to make sure that your roads are connected to the Topias,
karma stations, training centers, gates, and siphons too. Roads that
are connected to these structures, must go around them, souls can
not walk through them, so you can't lead a road up to a topia, stop
it and then have the road come out on the other side.
How can I get Aria to quit complaining about the
roads?
Unfortunately, as your Heaven gets really big, there is no way to
keep the souls from walking. Since they don't actually leave your
Heaven because of this, I wouldn't worry about it. Building little
gates around your heaven and more little karma stations can help,
but be careful since these put out bad vibes. Just try to keep your
roads straight. The quickest way from point A to point B is a
straight line.
Mike sez: "As your Heaven fills up, the Fate Structures nearest
your initial gates will fill up. Once that happens, SOULs arriving at
your initial Gates will have to walk longer distances. Plan
accordingly.
I've got too many bad vibes! How can I fix this?
Topias and training centers will put out good vibes which can
combat the bad ones, but the best way to get rid of very bad vibes
is with one of your gifts. Gates and Karma stations put out the
worst vibes so it's always good to put gifts right next to them.
Siphons cause toxic waste which puts out bad vibes in Heaven and
good vibes in Hell. (actually, bad vibes in both places, but bad
vibes help in hell)
I've got training centers and they are turned on, but
nobody is being trained. Why not?
If your training center is far from the gate, your potential
applicants will go to a colored fate structure instead. If you have
the money, it's also a good idea to build the biggest training centers
and only accept 10% of the applicants. This will cause you to get
smarter Angels and Devils. If they are more efficient and better
workers, this will allow for more souls to get into the colored fate
structures.
Mike sez: "The only kinds of SOULs who go into Training Centers
are ALFists, who don't believe in reincarnation. If you put a TC
between a Gate and your Fate Structures, you'll always get a few
Trainees a year."
Spiffiness Rating
The Spiffiness formula goes something like this:
Spiffiness=((D+S+P+E-L)*F)/32
where:
D=Overall Afterlife DIVERSITY, which is the number of different structures
you've built in your Afterlife. It's the "secret ingredient" in Spiffiness.
Bigger structures are weighted, so that your overall Diversity score can reach
1780.
S=Total Number of SOULs in your Afterlife.
P=Total Number of PENNIES you currently have.
E=Total number of EMBOs on the Planet.
D,S, P, and E are weighted so that each factor contributes equally. Then their
sum is multiplied by
F=Average Fate Tile EFFICIENCY. This value could (conceivably) go up to 240
(if all your Fate Tiles were 4X4 generics with maximum efficiency), but for
practical purposes we're capping it at 64.
L=The amount we subtract for LOST SOULs. That is, roughly, the number of SOULs
lost last year divided by the total number of SOULs in the Afterlife.
Basically, the greater percentage of SOULs lost last year, the higher the
number. This value is weighted so that it's around the same size as D, S, P,
or E.
When we're done, we have a Spiffiness value between 0 and 2 to the 26th power
(approximately 67 million. Arbitrary labels are assigned to different
Spiffiness levels. The levels are (in ascending order) as follows:
Ultra Dork
Astro Dweeb
Mega Schmuck
Feh Master
B'Ark
Non Sucky
Quasi Deft
Para Kewl
Omni Hip
Ultra Suave
Hoopy Frood
Project Leader.
Excerpted from the Afterlie: The Official FAQ
Created by Jason Deadrich with assistance from Tabitha Tosti, Jo Ashburn, Tom
Byron and Michael Stemmle
Copyright 1996, LucasArts Entertainment Comapny
Used with permission
version 1.0
last updated 7/15/96
Welcome all Demiurge's to the Afterlife FAQ. Here we attempt to -- drum
roll please -- answer the Frequently Asked Questions about the absolute
best game in the emerging-yet-lucrative "Hereafter" genre. It is in this very
spot that many, if not all, questions, conundrums and queries about
LucasArts' Afterlife are solved and/or answered in
excruciating-yet-never-boring detail. Many of the answers include bonus
hints from Afterlife's maker, the one, the only, Michael Stemmle.
So without further ado and hyphens, let's get to your questions . . .
I can't make any money, it seems I'm always in the red.
Can someone help me out here?
The only way to make a profit is to build slowly. You pay a lot of
money for roads and demons and angels. Just lay down 3x3 tiles
for each color, one training center, one karma station, one gate,
and one topia. Then set your tempo to mortal plodding so you can
respond quickly when you start to lose SOULs. SOULs will only
leave when all of the buildings in a certain colored fate is full, or if
your gates or Karma stations are full. You can look at the graphs to
find out if they are close to being full, but don't build more until
you start to lose SOULs. Smaller fate zones will force the buildings
in those zones to evolve into better structures. You get more
money per SOUL if you have better structures on your zones. The
only way that the zones will evolve is if they are under at least
moderately good (or bad if you are running Hell) vibes and you
keep the structures on those zones balanced. If you ask Aria and
Jasper, they will give you suggestions about what to do. If you are
playing in easy mode and everything is properly balanced, you may
start making money around year 1000.
Mike sez: "Don't worry about losing SOULs too much while the
game is young. It may take 1500 years to become profitable, so
don't panic."
Aria and Jasper keep telling me I need to balance.
How do I do that?
There are two ways to balance. One is to do it manually. Hit pause,
and then click on the Heaven or Hell symbols at the bottom of
your remote control so you just see all the colors where your
structures are laid out. Then use the magnifying lens on each
structure to get the Microview window. Click on the icon of the
scale in the window. You will see a bar at the top. You need to
move the slider so the bar is completely white, then your structure
is balanced. Doing this is free of charge. An easier, but more
expensive way of balancing is to use the Macro Manager. That's
the green icon with the two "m"s on it. When you bring it up, you
can click on the scale that's balanced, and then click on whatever
color you want, or all of the colors, and then click on the penny
symbol at the bottom to balance.
Mike sez: "Unless you're playing in Difficult Mode, you probably
don't have to worry about balancing your tiles for the first few
hundred years."
My EMBOs don't believe in Heaven or Hell!
How can I change this?
You need to click on the planet and then click on "Tenets" Now
click on either the blue icon with the Heaven and Hell symbol on
it, or the red icon with the Heaven/Hell symbol on it. Then raise
the bar to the right up a bit. The cost under the picture of the
SOUL will tell you how much you are spending. Once you have
the desired amount you want to pay, then click on a heavily
populated area of the planet, and then click on the yellow penny
box to the right of the bar to influence the planet.
Aria keeps mentioning that Heaven is not diverse.
What does she mean?
The SOULs in Heaven like to mingle and visit SOULs in other
reward structures. You need to make sure that one fate structure is
not surrounded by the same color on any side. Usually if you put
four different colored 3x3 squares together and then build a road
all around them the SOULs will be happy.
Help! I'm losing souls!!! What do I do?
Talk to Jasper and Aria, they will tell you why you are losing souls.
When you first start a new game, set the tempo to Mortal Plodding
so you have time to keep track of what the souls are doing. A lot of
times, you will get colored spikes which will tell you what color
souls are leaving your Afterlife, they will also leave if your gates or
karma stations are too full.
Mike sez: "As mentioned earlier, you can probably afford to lose a
few SOULs every now and then."
Barely any souls are coming through my gates.
Why not?
In the beginning there are not many people on the planet so you
won't get many souls. Over time, this should increase dramatically.
However, if you influence the technology on the planet, this can
cause your people to live much longer and they won't die as often.
Beware, too much technology also puts your planet at risk of a
nuclear war.
Mike sez: "There's also a cheap way to make your EMBOs breed
like rabbits."
Jasper and Aria tell me that my roads aren't
connected, but they look okay to me. What's going
on?
Check to make sure that your roads are connected to the Topias,
karma stations, training centers, gates, and siphons too. Roads that
are connected to these structures, must go around them, souls can
not walk through them, so you can't lead a road up to a topia, stop
it and then have the road come out on the other side.
How can I get Aria to quit complaining about the
roads?
Unfortunately, as your Heaven gets really big, there is no way to
keep the souls from walking. Since they don't actually leave your
Heaven because of this, I wouldn't worry about it. Building little
gates around your heaven and more little karma stations can help,
but be careful since these put out bad vibes. Just try to keep your
roads straight. The quickest way from point A to point B is a
straight line.
Mike sez: "As your Heaven fills up, the Fate Structures nearest
your initial gates will fill up. Once that happens, SOULs arriving at
your initial Gates will have to walk longer distances. Plan
accordingly.
I've got too many bad vibes! How can I fix this?
Topias and training centers will put out good vibes which can
combat the bad ones, but the best way to get rid of very bad vibes
is with one of your gifts. Gates and Karma stations put out the
worst vibes so it's always good to put gifts right next to them.
Siphons cause toxic waste which puts out bad vibes in Heaven and
good vibes in Hell. (actually, bad vibes in both places, but bad
vibes help in hell)
I've got training centers and they are turned on, but
nobody is being trained. Why not?
If your training center is far from the gate, your potential
applicants will go to a colored fate structure instead. If you have
the money, it's also a good idea to build the biggest training centers
and only accept 10% of the applicants. This will cause you to get
smarter Angels and Devils. If they are more efficient and better
workers, this will allow for more souls to get into the colored fate
structures.
Mike sez: "The only kinds of SOULs who go into Training Centers
are ALFists, who don't believe in reincarnation. If you put a TC
between a Gate and your Fate Structures, you'll always get a few
Trainees a year."
Spiffiness Rating
The Spiffiness formula goes something like this:
Spiffiness=((D+S+P+E-L)*F)/32
where:
D=Overall Afterlife DIVERSITY, which is the number of different structures
you've built in your Afterlife. It's the "secret ingredient" in Spiffiness.
Bigger structures are weighted, so that your overall Diversity score can reach
1780.
S=Total Number of SOULs in your Afterlife.
P=Total Number of PENNIES you currently have.
E=Total number of EMBOs on the Planet.
D,S, P, and E are weighted so that each factor contributes equally. Then their
sum is multiplied by
F=Average Fate Tile EFFICIENCY. This value could (conceivably) go up to 240
(if all your Fate Tiles were 4X4 generics with maximum efficiency), but for
practical purposes we're capping it at 64.
L=The amount we subtract for LOST SOULs. That is, roughly, the number of SOULs
lost last year divided by the total number of SOULs in the Afterlife.
Basically, the greater percentage of SOULs lost last year, the higher the
number. This value is weighted so that it's around the same size as D, S, P,
or E.
When we're done, we have a Spiffiness value between 0 and 2 to the 26th power
(approximately 67 million. Arbitrary labels are assigned to different
Spiffiness levels. The levels are (in ascending order) as follows:
Ultra Dork
Astro Dweeb
Mega Schmuck
Feh Master
B'Ark
Non Sucky
Quasi Deft
Para Kewl
Omni Hip
Ultra Suave
Hoopy Frood
Project Leader.
Excerpted from the Afterlie: The Official FAQ
Created by Jason Deadrich with assistance from Tabitha Tosti, Jo Ashburn, Tom
Byron and Michael Stemmle
Copyright 1996, LucasArts Entertainment Comapny
Used with permission