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CD Player's Site Hints, Tips, Strategy and FAQs for playing Populous III online

A group of players, notably Hepple and The Gabber, have worked out the structure of the Populous map system and, using their own map editing utilities, have been developing their own maps which can be used for multiplayer games. They have not yet cracked a way of adding them to the map list (although that may come), so it works by substituting the new map for an existing map, using the original name. All the maps are downloaded in one pack, which includes launchers for each of the different 'worlds'. When you run the launcher for a world, it unpacks the new maps and overwrites the official versions. When you have finished, there is an 'uninstall' utility, which works in the same way, and overwrites the new maps with the originals. There are several points which you need to be aware of: The install utility assumes that you have Populous in the default location (i.e. c:/Program Files/Bullfrog/Populous). If you have installed Populous elsewhere, the new levels won't be in the right place and hence won't be usable. Uninstall Populous then reinstall it using the default path to overcome this. It doesn't matter where you save the install or uninstall files themselves. I have them on my desktop (or shortcuts to them) so that I can easily move between map collections. If you want to play one of the new maps, it is vital that *all* the players have the same maps installed. Even the non-technical amongst us will be able to appreciate the synchronisation problems if people are using different maps. The effect is to crash the game, and often the computers as well. The map collections in the installer pack should be finished versions, and hence everyone should have compatible maps. Nonetheless, it is still worth downloading the installer again from time to time to ensure that your maps are current. From time to time, beta versions of new maps are made available for testing. If you want to use these, I recommend downloading them just before you go to the lobby, to ensure that you have the most recent version. These maps often go through 4 or 5 versions before being finalised. As above, everyone has to have the *same version* for the game to work. The new maps are mostly for 4 players, but they use the names allocated in the game for 2 and 3 player games (e.g. 'Hills Divide Us', 'Avenging Angels'); the 4 player maps (e.g. 'Pressure Point') are left undisturbed. You can therefore play normal 4 player levels without running the uninstaller, but if you try to play a normal 2 or 3 player game, it will go wrong - if you are host, you won't see any levels; if you're not, it will crash on launching. So don't forget to run the uninstaller before trying to play these.

Opinion is divided in the lobby about these new maps. On the one hand, the old maps were getting stale, and some of the new maps are a lot of fun. On the other hand, it has made it harder to get a game that works in the lobby, and some of the individual maps are not up to the same high standard, although they are improving all the time.

So where can you go to get more information, and download the maps? The information centre is at www.strategyplanet.com/populous/ where you will find all the necessary information and downloads. (There is a 'mirror' site at www.newworlds.host.sk/, but the versions there are not always current, so it may be best avoided. Last update there seems to have been around May 2002.) The Newworlds site also has screenshots, and a well-supported forum where you can discuss issues with other interested players.

There are also alternative sky packs available from the NewWorlds site. Unlike the map packs, these do *not* have to be co-ordinated with the other players, and you don't have to restore the original skies when playing 'vanilla' Populous.

The section which follows is no longer being updated. Delamir/Inca Warrior has laid out a full set of maps on his site, so there didn't seem much point in duplicating it all. You can see the full list here on Ihis site.

4 Player Maps

• Oil Worlds
• Sand Worlds
• Ice Worlds
• Blue Worlds
• Dark Worlds
• Swamp Worlds
• Lava Worlds
• Green Worlds
• Uninstaller v1.0

Sky Packs
(Available separately from the New Worlds site, Downloads section)

• Sand Worlds sky (2.44 MB)
• Ice Worlds sky (0.50 MB)
• Blue Worlds sky (1.80 MB)
• Dark Worlds sky (0.50 MB)
• Lava Worlds sky (1) (0.69 MB)
• Lava Worlds sky (2) (u/s link at present)
• Swamp Worlds sky (1.87 MB)

Original Name	File Name	Oil Worlds	Ice Worlds	Sand Worlds	Blue Worlds	Dark Worlds
Hills Divide Us	Levl2080	Angels and Hands	No Pressure Point	A-Maze-Ing	The Matrix	Lake Titikaka
Eye of the storm	levl2082	Boat Wars	Choose wisely	Pyramid of Fear	Head-hunters	Shaman Heads
Two Crabs	levl2083	No Heads' Land	Slippery When Frozen	King of the Hill	Blue craters	Fast and Furious
1st Skirmish	levl2084	Salad Bowl	Hot Feet	Four embryos	Forge World	Amoeba
All around the world	levl2094	Donuts	Cursed Heads	Eye of the sky	Volcanic Squares	Head in the Forest
Linked isles	levl2100	Face Down	Phone Home	Four leaf clover	Water level	Stairway to Hell
2nd Skirmish	levl2109	Dog's Bone	Clockwise ***	Bottled	Deja-Vu (skirmish for 4 players)	Dark Fortresses
Three-Way	levl2110	Trapped Shamans	Walls ***	-	Next 2on2	Windows
Avenging Angels	levl2111	Double Trouble	-	-	Armed and Dangerous	Hole in the Wall
Sandy Castles	Levl2112	-	Cog ***	-	Dead River	-

***  =   Level from Undiscovered Worlds Expansion Disk

The two 2-way packs (if you can get them) each install a single map on Levl2134 (Multiple Choice).


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The map sections which follow are ready to be expanded with strategy tips for each map. If you have some ideas or suggestions - send them in! If you would prefer to see all the maps at once (and don't mind the download time) have a look at Shakey Jake's Collection (follow the links at the bottom of the Multiplayer page).

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