From Carnivores Wiki
Carnivores (Хищники in Russian, and frequently shortened Carn, Carn1, or C1) is a fantasy first-person shooter developed by Action Forms and released in 1998 for the PC. Carnivores, released shortly after WizardWorks Software's successful Deer Hunter, "proves itself more than 'just another Deer Hunter clone' by adding two major twists to genre: allowing the hunter to hunt dinosaurs, and allowing the dinosaurs to hunt the hunter as well" as some critics say. The Carnivores 2 sequel gives slightly better graphics, a new format, more dinosaurs and weapons, brand new maps, and an improved AI. Carnivores Ice Age offers a whole new take on the series with animals from the Ice Age and levels to fit the theme.
[edit] Storyline
Gameplay in Carnivores doesn't follow a storyline; the player picks a weapon, a dinosaur, and a hunting area, and they hunt. This lack of plot is followed by Carnivores' two sequels as well. However, there is an "official" storyline behind the game:
On a routine exploration mission in 2190 A.D., science vessel FMM UV discovered a planet with suitable climate for humankind. During the initial scout expedition, this young planet, code-named FMM UV-32, was declared inhospitable for colony life, due to its unstable terrain and immense population of prehistoric reptiles. News of this amazing planet spread, and articles on the "Dinosaur Planet" lead an Earth corporation to purchase the rights to the planet and create DinoHunt Corp. DinoHunt creates the opportunity for paying customers to become dinosaur hunters for the first time in 50 million years. You are the newest client of DinoHunt Corp.
A slightly different version of this is provided in the Readme.txt file found in the game's base installation directory:
2190 AD. On a routine exploration mission, science vessel FMM UV discovered a planet with a suitable climate for humankind. During the initial scouting expedition this young planet, code-named FMM UV-32, was declared inhospitable for colony life due to its unstable terrain and immense population of prehistoric reptiles. News of this amazing planet spread and articles on the "Dinosaur Planet" lead an earth corporation to purchase the rights to the planet, and create DinoHunt Corp. DinoHunt created the unique opportunity for paying customers to become dinosaur hunters for the first time in 50 million years.
You are the newest client of DinoHunt Corp.
[edit] Gameplay
The main menu of
Carnivores.
The gameplay of the original Carnivores remains constant throughout the series, with few changes. The game opens with a login screen, where users can make a new account or load a previous one. If creating a new account, they will be asked to read and approve a "waiver", stating that the player releases DinoHunt Corp. of responsibility in case the player is injured or killed (an interesting sidenote is that the player can't really be injured in any of the games - the closest the player can come is by staying underwater or walking through lava, in which a health bar pops up; when attacked by dinosaurs, however, any hit is instant death).
If accepted, the game proceeds to the main menu. If declined, the program exits. From the main menu, the players cain view their hunting statistics, enter a hunt, view their trophies in the trophy room, change game settings, view credits, or exit the game. In the hunt screen, you must pick a location, animal to hunt, weapon, and equipment. Choosing any equipment decreases the total amount of points you can get on any hunt by a set percentage, except for the tranquilizer, which increases the amount of points obtained. Information on each item is provided. In Carnivores, what dinosaurs, areas and weapons the user can choose depends on that user's rank.
After the player has selected their settings, they can hunt. During the hunt, the player is provided with an on-screen compass and wind direction indicator, which can be activated and deactivated with the Caps key. Sometimes the player spawns near a huntable animal, which is bad if the animal is a carnivore. The player can also draw weapons (with the number keys), look at the island map (Tab ⇆), or use binoculars. When a kill is made, the player's trophy is picked up by a ship, unless tranquilizer mode is used. If the player is killed, all points and trophies earned in that session are lost. The player can choose to exit the map or respawn on the map anytime by pressing Esc+Y or Esc+R, respectively. If the player dies, he must choose to either exit or respawn. The player can be killed by drowning, burning in lava, or by being attacked, but not by falling (regardless of the height), so climbing mountains is an often-used strategy when hunting carnivores.
[edit] Animals
| Image | Name | Description | Sight | Scent | Hearing | Rank | Points
|
| | Moschops | A small, green, four-legged reptile. | — | — | — | — | —
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| | Galimimus | A small, herbivorous two-legged dinosaur. | — | — | — | — | —
|
| | Dimorphodon | A small, brown, flying reptile. | — | — | — | — | —
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 | Parasaurolophus | A medium-sized, brown-and-tan two-legged herbivorous dinosaur with a long, thin crest protruding fromt he back of its head. | OK | Excellent | Excellent | Novice | 6
|
 | Pachycephallosaurus | A small, brown-gray two-legged herbivorous dinosaur with a large dome of bone on the top of its head. | Good | OK | Excellent | Novice | 8
|
 | Stegosaurus | A medium-sized, green, four-legged herbivorous dinosaur with twin rows of diamond-shaped plates running down its back and two pairs of spikes on its tail. | Good | OK | Excellent | Novice | 7
|
 | Allosaurus | A small, dark-brown, two-legged carnivorous dinosaur. | OK | Excellent | OK | Novice | 12
|
 | Triceratops | A medium, gray, four-legged herbivorous dinosaur with a large bony frill on the back of its head and three spikes on its face. | OK | Good | OK | Advanced | 9
|
 | Velociraptor | A small, orange-and-red striped, two-legged carnivorous dinosaur with a sickle claw which can be drawn back on each foot. | OK | Excellent | OK | Advanced | 16
|
 | Tyrannosaurus | A large, dark-green, two-legged carnivorous dinosaur. | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | Expert | 20
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| Image | Name | Rank | Description
|
 | The Woods of Turan Choks | Novice | A mild climate and good range of sight make this a great beginner's map. This was the first island explored on the new planet. Turan Choks, named for the captain of the science vessel to discover the planet, is a hilly wooded area populated by a variety of dinosaurs.
|
 | Basmachee Rocks | Novice | This map is a good challenge for beginning hunters. The exact origin of this island remains a mystery. Its unique topography of deserts, mountains, and lakes makes for a challenging area to hunt in. High hills can be a great place to perch in wait, or hide a dinosaur from sight.
|
 | The Jungles of Gravitsappa | Novice | A fantastic area for beginning hunters. Lava-filled cracks show prior seismic activity on this island. The tropical jungles on the rest of the island are teeming with dinosaurs, hiding in the ground mists or around the rolling hills.
|
 | The Ancient Temple | Advanced | With only a small temple as a safe zone, this is a map for advanced hunters. The temple, located in the center of the island remains one of the biggest mysteries on the planet. Hieroglyphs on the wall indicate a worship of the Velociraptor, calling the beast "fast as the wind, with teeth sharper than any blade."
|
 | The Pyramids of Shmu-Hadron | Advanced | This is a map for experienced hunters. These Pyramids in the desert terrain of this area were built by a long-gone race, and their use remains unknown. These structures are ideal for hunting and hiding around, but beware; predators can climb the pyramids too.
|
 | The Great Lake | Expert | For expert hunters only! Surrounded by an impassible wall of mountains, this is the most difficult terrain to hunt on the planet. The giant meteor-made lake in the center is the only obstacle on this barren, desolate island.
|
[edit] Weapons
| Image | Name | Rank | Description
|
 | Shotgun | Novice | The target area for this weapon is the center of the sighting circle. Although powerful, aim your shot well. The shotgun will scare plant eaters, causing them to scatter, but the noise will alert dangerous carnivores.
|
 | X-Bow | Novice | This weapon has two target areas, called aiming pins. The top pin is sighted in for 40 meters, and the bottom pin is sighted for 80 meters. It is relatively silent, and can be shot several times without alerting dinosaurs.
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 | Sniper rifle | Expert | This weapon is very accurate, and will shoot exactly where the crosshairs are placed. Its range goes as far as the binoculars, but is narrow. This is not a weapon for a charging meat eater, but fantastic for distance shots.
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[edit] Equipment
| Image | Name | Cost/Bonus | Description
|
| | Observer Mode | — | Use the Observer Mode to familiarize yourself with dinosaur behavior and different terrain. Please note that no weapons and accesories are available in this mode except binoculars and area map.
|
| | Tranquilizer | +25% | Tranquilizing a dinosaur is an alternative to killing it. This will drop the dinosaur where it stands with a quick-acting drug. Use of the Tranquilizer adds 25% to your total points acquired during that hunt.
|
| | Cover scent | -20% | This item allows you to mask your scent from all dinosaurs reducing the likelihood of you being spotted. Use of the Cover Scent deducts 20% from your total points acquired during that hunt.
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| | Camouflage | -15% | This special suit decreases the dinosaur's ability to detect you through sight. Use of the Camouflage deducts 15% from your total points acquired during that hunt.
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| | Radar | -30% | This allows you to view the dinosaur locations on the map during your hunt. A dinosaur is depicted on the map as a green dot. Your location is shown as the red dot with the circle surrounding it. Please note that the map shows only the dinosaurs you are hunting. All other dinosaurs are masked. Use of the map deducts 30% from your total points acquired during that hunt.
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[edit] Cheats
| Name | Key Sequence | Description
|
| Debugon | D+E+B+U+G+O+N | Also called Debug Mode, debugon is the "master cheat" for Carnivores and equivalent to debugup in Carnivores 2 and Carnivores Ice Age. When entered, it causes all dinosaurs to ignore the player (to a certain extent), as well as granting the player infinite ammo and invincibility to drowning or burning (note that the player can still be killed by dinosaurs). Like all cheats, it can be deactivated simply by re-entering it. Debug mode must be active before any other cheats can be used.
|
| Slow mode | ⇧ Shift+S | Slow motion.
|
| Timer | ⇧ Shift+T | Displays two timers in the upper-right-hand corner of the screen: the top one, "msc", displays an unknown statistic, and the bottom one, "polys", shows the number of currently rendered polygons.
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| Fly mode | ⇧ Shift+L | This cheat is listed on many cheat sites, but (at least in the unpatched game) does not work.
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| ViewR | [ or ] | Decreases or increases the viewing area between 34 and 38. "ViewR" is short for "View Radius".
|
[edit] File formats, files, and extensions
- Truevision TGA ("Targa"); raster image format used for the menu screens
- WAV; audio file format used for the various in-game sounds
- Carnivores 3DF; raw data format used for the sun, wind dial, and some other objects
- Carnivores CAR; raw data format used for the animals, weapons, and some other objects
- Carnivores MAP; raw data format used for the areas
- Carnivores RSC; raw data format used for the areas and containing much of the raw information and the objects
- RAW; headerless grayscale bitmap image file used to delineate selectable areas on menus
- Carnivores SAV; raw data format used for savegames
- TXM; text file used for metric descriptions
- TXU; text file used for United States/imperial descriptions
- NFO; text file used for equipment descriptions
- BMP; bitmap image file used for the area preview screenshots
- TXT; text file used for area and weapon descriptions
- GRP
- PRJ
- carnivor.log; log file generated by the game
- Readme.txt; readme file installed with the game
[edit] External links
