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 Download the Mantis Project
The Mantis Project is currently at version 2.1. You can download it in two different formats:
- The Lite Version: This contains everything you need to play the tournament. It won't strain your modem either :)
- The Heavy Version: The lite version, plus all the source files and graphics used to make the tournament.
News: Read the Mantis Project's review at Pslash's OMF Tournaments. It gets the highest rating for anything on the site, 94%!
What is the Mantis Project?
The Mantis Project is my latest tournament for One Must Fall 2097. It is a tournament designed to be beaten without having to "hack" your robot, so everybody can play it. It started out life as simply a sequel to the previous tournament, the OMF Message Board Open (created by Destruction Lover and I). But when Destruction Lover handed the reins to me to make this tournament, I decided I would make a tourny with all the things I liked about the other tournaments I'd played. So I made a new tourny from scratch, only dipping into the original tournament when I had to (for example, to get the AI code for a fighter). I also created a few new graphics and the storyline.
The Story Behind the Mantis Project
The Mantis Project got its name because of the central story tying the tournament together: WAR's newest HAR, the Mantis. This is a robot from the background story of OMF 2097, and it will be included in OMF:BG, so I decided to make a story about how it came to be developed. Unlike 2097's tournaments (in the year 2100), the Mantis Project is set in the year 2094, before even OMF's single player game. As a result, the Nova hasn't been invented yet, so try to beat the tournament with a Nova and pay the price! The story begins just after the Shadow bot was released to the public, generating phenomenal sales. Hoping to capitalize on the new HAR craze, WAR (the major corporation of OMF) has announced its newest concept HAR, the Mantis. Shirro, WAR's head of PR, is hosting a HAR tournament to attract the best fighters from across the solar system. He is sure he can attract nearly everyone because of the unique prize being offered: a lucrative job as WAR's newest test pilot and the chance to be the first pilot of the Mantis!
You enter the tournament as another of the pilots hoping for the grand prize; to test your mettle, you must defeat all other challengers. The Mantis Project features a cool surprise ending, too!
Cool Features
The Mantis Project has a lot of new features, seen in few, if any, tournaments before this. Notably, I have set the starting ranks and stats of all opponents very close to each other and allowed any opponent to be ranked #1; this means that there will be a very different order of fighters every time, making rank based basically on chance and the skill of the enemy AI.
OMF 2097 had a lot of secrets. I mean a LOT of secrets. Many user-created tournaments include a variety of unranked challengers and secret characters for you to battle, but the Mantis Project has more secrets than nearly any other tourny, with varying degrees of difficulty required for them to challenge you. For example, fight /Slash and one after another, the rest of the SETeamers will challenge you, each one better than the next... but only if you prove yourself worthy. There are also a few new surprises and old hallmarks from OMF 2097 (look out for Angel!)
The ending is longer than any in original OMF, and like the Katushai Challenge, it will detect the robot you use and respond accordingly. There is even an entirely different ending for the Nova!
In-Game Screenshots
A brief description at the tournament's beginning:
The Mantis Project is full of secret challengers of all kinds:
Old and new challengers alike compete for the grand prize:
Steel Claw is ready to fight one of the top challengers, Robyrt:
Robyrt just can't stand up to Steel Claw, though:
 
Finally there is victory... or is there really?
More to come...
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