Guess I haven't updated this in a while. I was planning to move this content elsewhere but it hasn't moved forward yet. I'm still uploading videos though. You can find all POD playlists at https://www.youtube.com/c/NelsonMimuraGonzalez/playlists?view=50&flow=grid&shelf_id=4.
This page presents Planet of Death, POD, a racing game from 1997.
If you're looking for my videos, check out the page Videos.
The Youtube playlist is available here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf2yslxcPQHnQsZ4Ia70_JtE5y0RdHthG
Planet of Death (or just POD) is a racing game released by Ubisoft in 1997. I started playing when I was 7, I guess, and since then it has been an addiction. At that time it was one of the first racing games I had played, and I found it quite difficult, even on easy.
More information about the game can be found at [1].
I only use the default cars. Of course I've tried the other ones, but I decide to stick to the default ones -- I don't like my opponents to use crappy cars.
Characteristics
Purely based on observations while playing the game, I would describe the cars as follows:
About car settings, there are five parameters that can be adjusted:
Each parameter can be configured from 0 to 100. Notice that if you put 0 for Brakes, for example, it doesn't mean that you won't be able to brake -- just that your breaking capabilities will be minimal. The same happens to the other parameters.
You have 300 points to distribute to these parameters. There are 5, so you can't maximize them. If you divide the points equally, it's 60 for each of them. 60 is very low, specially for acceleration and speed, and it won't be a success on hard difficulty.
The first thing to do is to zero the brakes. The minimal breaking capability is enough, and it leaves you with 300 points for 4 parameters, 75 per each in an equal distribution. However, I believe accelerate and speed must be at least 80, and ideally around 90. If you're going to compete on a fast track, such as Beltane or Road70, I'd say you need 95+ speed. On the other hand, if you're going to race a track with more curves you'll need more acceleration, around 90/80 (acceleration/speed).
A good all-around configuration is 80-70-70-80 (Acc-Grip-Handling-Speed). This is a good start, you'll be able to cope with curves quite easily while not losing control, as the grip is quite high. 80/80 for acc/spd is not perfect, but enough to get you to learn skills to later decrease grp/hand and increase acc/spd.
For cars with natural stability and good grip behavior, you can put more on handling than grip. AV1, for example, can be configured to 90-55-65-90 as an "optimal" configuration and
95-50-55-100 for high speed tracks. Dopple and Bakar also are great for configurations with lower grip. Gamma also, as high grip values actually are worse. 45 grip for Gamma is enough, up to 55 or 60 if you need a little bit more of control.
Based on that I have defined some presets or just "names" for specific configurations.
The NoBrakes preset is just for fun and for the challenge. Rocket and Dural use cheat codes with the same name -- Rocket gives you 400 points instead of 300 to configure the car, allowing to put 100 on each parameter (if you zero Brakes, of course), while Dural gives you a chrome supercar with higher values of Acc/Spd.
These are the default parameters for each car:
If you're planning to race with default config, I'd choose Shivan or Bakar. Gamma is terrible on both Acc/Spd, Saber has low Acc, Scorp too, AV1 is quite low on both, Dopple is too slow, and Arc isn't good enough.
I currently have installed the default tracks plus the official extra ones, plus the ones from "Back to Hell/Extended Time", and an additional track named Fallen. I have tried others but they weree buggy or didn't work at all, although they might work in your system.
First track and probably one of the fastest. Well, maybe not fastest in terms of total race time, but in speed. It's easy to get over 200 mph, maybe reach 250 mph and even 270 mph with a dural car. Speed is vital, if you have to choose between Acc and Spd, go for Spd. On Hard difficulty I believe you'll need 90+, if you don't wanna be constantly defending your position against much faster opponents.
There are no shortcuts, but there are some sweet spots. I will use video #11 as main example.
This track reversed is basically the same thing. The only difference is the starting point -- it's in the same place, but.. well.. reversed.
Roc
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Nuke
Nuke is a quite simple track, without difficulties of any sort. There are no jumps, no obstacles, just pure driving and some relatively easy curves.
I'll use video #81 as example.
For the reversed track I'll use video #49.
Bank
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Pompeii
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Canyon
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DownTown
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Veitland
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Plant 21
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City
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Galleria
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Burrow
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Alderon
One of my preferred tracks. Alderon was one of the tracks available in the demo version of the game (together with Beltane), but it was the only one with shortcuts and interesting sweet spots, so in overall it was a very attractive track. It's much more based on skill than speed, although speed is important in some parts of it.
There is one shortcut and some sweet spots. I'll use video #5 as main example.
When reversed the old shorcut doesn't work anymore, but there's a new shorcut-like. For the reversed track I'll use video #64.
Sewer
Sewer is a nice track, used to be one of my favorites before I downloaded the extra tracks. It has some high speed sectors and others which require some skill.
For this track I'll use video #92 as base.
For the reversed track I'll use video #70.
Cocoon
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HQ
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Azthec
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Babelweb
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Factory
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Iceberg
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Lake
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Loon
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Magnetic
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Megapol
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Mine
I don't like this track that much. Most of it is inside, well, a mine (thus the name of the track). The, let's say "ceiling" of the track is very low, so the vision of the car gets a little compromised. In terms of driving there are many "traps", and if you're not careful you're going to hit a lot of walls.
I'll use video #63 as example.
The reverse track is not that different -- the traps just change a bit. Besides the usual ones, some worth mentioning are:
Parking
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Pipeline
In my opinion this is a very difficult track. Not difficult per se, but the AI is pretty good at it. And there are some key points which depend a lot on how well you start the race. Try to overtake as many opponents as possible, otherwise you'll get stuck behind a lot of slow bad drivers.
I'll use video #67 as example.
The reversed track has some interesting parts. I'll use #52 as base.
Road70
I really like this track. It's like Beltane, but with some skill-based parts, so you can reach high speeds in the long straights, and test your abilities in the curves.
I'll use video #17 as example.
The reversed track, in my opinion, is almost a completely new track. Check video #41.
Skyrace
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Special
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Spin
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West
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ZED
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Beach
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Fallen
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Hellway
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There are three difficulties in POD: Easy, Medium, and Hard.
The opponent names (according to the first track, Beltane) and their colors for each car and difficulty level are:
For hard difficulty I'll analyze how each opponent behaves in general:
There are three damage systems:
Not exactly strategies, but tips and tricks. These are mostly focused on Hard difficulty, although they can be applied to other difficulties (don't know why, though, as they are too easy anyway).
This section will cover the installation of POD in modern systems. This guide is based on [2] and on what worked for me.
This section will cover POD customization -- adding tracks and cars.
Some screenshots and text about other parts of the game, such as interfaces and commands.
Interfaces
Commands
Cheats
Bugs
History
References