A collection of hints, tips, tricks and strategies.
By Simon "LuDeCk" Burrows
With the arrival of Magic Carpet on budget, together with its
successful follow-ups: Magic Carpet II and Magic Carpet Plus, I
thought that some in-depth tips may be of use for this great 3D
game from Bullfrog.
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THE BASICS
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A sign of a well-designed game is one which allows newcomers to
learn the skills of the game through the easy early levels, and
then puts these skills to the test with more difficult levels
later on. Magic Carpet succeeds in this respect with the first
10 levels offering a solid learning curve to base further
adventure on.
So one of the best ways to become a master of the carpet is to
get stuck into the first 10 levels. Repeat the levels again and
again if necessary until you build up a repertoire of fighting
and flying skills and have become confident in all sorts of
situations. It is particularly important to train a fast trigger
finger, speed in switching between spells, and good control of
your carpet during even the most frantic of action!
To help you learn some basic fighting and flying manoeuvres, here
are eight top tips:
1) As with similar 3D games such as Descent, the left and right
strafe keys are vital to your success in combat situations.
They allow you to maintain visual contact with your target
whilst dodging left and right. Try different combinations of
the strafe keys with the backward/forward keys. Some
stunning, and very useful, manoeuvres can be found.
2) When attacking castles it is important not to allow the
archers to target you. This can be achieved by continually
flying around the perimeter of the castle whilst letting rip
with offensive spells until the job is done.
3) There are two ways to fly faster than usual. The obvious is
to cast an Accelerate spell, but if you can't do this, try
the following tactic: turn so you are facing about 45° left
of the direction you wish to fly in, then hold down the
forwards and right-strafe keys. (Or vice-versa.)
4) There is also a way to speed up turning and that is to use
the backward key in conjunction with the opposite direction
to that which you wish to turn to. For example, for a speed
turn to the right, hold down backwards and left.
5) When being chased by an enemy, the best way to deal with them
is not to turn around and face them but to suddenly travel
backwards. This will take you behind them leaving you an
easy shot up their rear-end. For improved success, try
casting an Accelerate Backwards spell.
6) Learn to make use of advantageous landscapes such as cliffs
and hollows which can be used as shelter. A good example is
if an enemy castle is at the foot of a mountain. You can
position yourself on the other side of the mountain,
sheltered from the enemy archers, and then pop up from over
the mountain only to take cheap shots before retiring back to
the relative safety of the south side again.
7) To get into a crater that is too steep to dive straight down
into, take a gradual downward spiral by flying around the
outside walls of the crater in skateboard-esque fashion.
8) Sometimes even the above isn't possible in the narrowest of
deep pits. To get into these you will need to fly until you
are directly over the pit, then stop dead. You will slowly
sink down into the pit, and you can then use gentle movements
to position yourself as you sink.
So you've heeded my advice and mastered the first 10 levels, eh?
Now you need more of a challenge, so bring on levels 11 and
beyond... Here you will start experiencing more powerful
sorcerers and some of the more dangerous enemies listed in the
next section of this document.
You will find it tough at first, but the following 10 hints, tips
and strategies should help you through it:
1) Repossessing buildings is the best way of boosting your mana
supply quickly and easily, and it is a method which is
overlooked by many of the other wizards.
2) Careful placement of your castle is important, particularly
because walls can't really be moved without the crater spell.
Never build it near to an enemy castle or close to a wall.
In fact, give yourself plenty of surrounding space to leave
scope for expansion later on. Taking into account that the
first six stages of development must be completed without
interruption, ensure you build away from trouble.
3) Don't overlook the offensive power of a castle spell. Not
only can it be used to build up your home base, but it can be
used to destroy great armies of marauding enemies by building
on top of them!! Although it uses up a lot of mana, and the
castle will be quickly destroyed, you can keep building it
again and again until all of the enemies are gone, then there
will be a giant pool of mana which you can quickly pick up.
This is even better than normal because all of the mana will
be central to your new castle and so it can be picked up by
your balloon quickly. Giant bees are probably the best
target for this form of attack, but other large groups such
as skeleton armies and archers can also be taken care of in
this way.
4) In order to quickly switch between spells, you should assign
them to the numbers 1 - 0 on the keyboard similar to the way
weapons are automatically assigned in games like DOOM.
Although it will take some time to get used to the
placements, if you use the same numbers for the same spells
each time you play, you will soon reap the rewards during
intensive situations where fast switching is imperative. You
might even find making yourself a crude keyboard overlay to
show you which key is for what may be worthwhile.
5) Enemy wizards are, on the whole, pretty stupid, and can be
tricked into leaving you a giant pool of mana to lap up
yourself. This ploy is particularly effective where there
are many wizards fighting over the same mana pool. Simply
use Accelerate to get to the nearest creature, then kill it
and possess its mana. Now Accelerate back to the main mana
pool where the fighting was going on, and you should find
that some, if not all, of the wizards will fly off to get the
mana which you just possessed, leaving you with the main mana
supply.
6) If you come across a rival wizard hovering above a huge pool
of mana, it can be difficult to get your hands on this
because he will immediately repossess any that you possess
and so your balloon will never get near. However, there is a
way around this. The trick is to first possess just one mana
ball, and then when the wizard comes down to repossess this,
quickly fire possess all over the rest of the mana so he then
panics and goes to repossess all of this instead. You can
then possess the first ball again. Keep repeating this.
When your balloon eventually arrives you can then fire
possess everywhere to claim enough mana to fill your balloon.
In time you will become skilled enough to fend off enemy
balloons so that you can have *all* of the mana for yourself.
7) A strong enemy with an advanced castle is bad news, and the
only way to deal with them to ruin their castle. However,
you can't do this on your own and will, instead, need help
from surrounding creatures. I suggest Griffins if they are
available. Find some such creatures, preferably a big herd
of them, then fire. When they close in to attack, cast a
shield spell (if available) for protection, then lead them
to the enemy castle. Retreat to the centre of the enemy
castle to lead the enemies right in, then Teleport or
Accelerate away. The enemies will stay and should soon level
the castle. When the deed has been done, wait for the herd
to disperse, then move in to take possession of the mana.
8) If you find armies of enemies in woodland, you're in luck!
They are far easier to destroy whilst in there because you
can set light to the forest by simply firing at the trees.
Often whole armies can be destroyed by this method which,
incidentally, is particularly effective against skeletal
armies and archer groups.
9) Sometimes there's nothing else left but to use the [SHIFT] +
[L] keypress to level your own castle in an instant. This is
necessary when your castle is being completely torn apart by
a great swarm of enemies and it is obvious that there's no
other way out. By pressing [SHIFT] + [L] and then
immediately building a new castle on the same spot, you can
kill most, if not all, of the monsters who were causing you
so much trouble. This is better than leaving them to flatten
your castle completely because in that case, they would still
be alive and ready to cause you more grief later! You should
remember, however, that enemy wizards will be out for your
mana while you are desperately rebuilding your castle, so
keep an eye out.
10) A similar tactic to the above, but one which causes less
damage to yourself, is to rebuild your castle *immediately*
after the enemies have destroyed a level. Obviously this
will only work if you have more than two castle stages.
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THE ENEMIES
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Apes and Trolls
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Both of these types of monsters are slow and inaccurate so as
long as you keep your distance and do not stay still for too
long, you should be okay. Avoid going in close, because then you
will sustain substantial damage, and particularly avoid groups of
Trolls because they have the ability to regenerate which makes
them very dangerous on mass.
Vultures
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These creatures don't pose much of a threat other than the fact
that they are quite difficult to hit. You may find that flying
straight towards them and letting fly a few fireballs does the
trick, but a more effective method is to lead them to your
castle, then to back off and pick them off as they circle above.
Crabs
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These critters may seem quite harmless when they are small, but
that, combined with the fact that they yield very little mana,
doesn't mean you should ignore them. Oh no, because if you do
that they will soon grow as they consume stray mana. And when I
say grow, I mean GROW - they will get very big and very
dangerous very quickly! So take them out when they are small
with a few fireballs. If you fail to do this, and you come
across a medium-sized crab, take it out with a combination of
lightning bolts and fireballs. And in the unfortunate event of
finding yourself faced with a fully-grown crab, strongly consider
leaving it alone. If you really want to destroy it (or have
to!!), do so by attacking from behind with a large amount of mana
and use Meteor spells to show it who's boss! Remember that they
will regenerate quickly, so you really will need a lot of mana
and a lot of fighting prowess.
Dragons and Worms
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These shouldn't cause you too much trouble unless you come across
a great army of them. They are also lethal when they get their
hands on your castle, so guard against this with your life. The
best way to take them out is to aim for their head as this is
where the most damage will be caused.
Archers and Emu Riders
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These are very easy to kill and should cause you no problem at
all. Just keep back, keep moving and take long range fireball
shots at them.
Skeletons
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These are similar in power to archers and therefore should not
cause you too much trouble if you keep them under control. Their
biggest danger comes with their desire to destroy castles -
they will always be marching towards the nearest castle, and if
they're not doing this they'll already be there, tearing it
down!! This can be used to your benefit if the castle they're
heading for is an enemy's, however, so keep an eye on all
skeletons and let them march on all castles except your own. If
you see them approaching your own construction, you MUST take
them out quickly or live to regret it!
Genies
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The genies' ability to disappear and then reappear again in a
different spot makes them very difficult to kill. There's no
point trying to hit them with anything less than a pair of well-
aimed Meteor spells because it just won't work. The alternative
is to open up a crater below them.
Griffins
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You can live in perfect harmony with these guys so long as you
leave them alone. This is the recommended practice. If you hit
them, however, you will know about it because they, and any
surrounding griffins (didn't you know griffins are very
protective of each other?) will come flying at you. They are
very dangerous and so you really don't want this to happen. If
you have to take out a griffin, do so with Lightning Bolt or
Lightning Storm spells - anything else will either be rebounded
or will have no effect.
Krakens
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These guys are best dealt with with fireballs, but make sure you
stay well back because they can be dangerous. Their Duel spells
should be dealt with by aiming and unleashing as many fireballs
as possible as quickly as possible, and it should be noted that
their Lightning bolt spell will often cancel out any Meteor
spells you cast.
Wyverns
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Wyverns are the ultimate in bad news and should be avoided at all
costs. The only way to destroy them is with no less than 10
Meteor spells in quick succession, or by opening up four or five
craters beneath them! Mana alert!
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THIS DOCUMENT IS COPYRIGHT (c) 1996 SIMON BURROWS,
AND HAS BEEN WRITTEN FOR CHEET SHEETS:
