Overview:
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Kernel Panic is a game about computers. Systems, Hackers and Networks wage war in a matrix of DOOM! The only constraints are time and space; unlike other real time strategy games, no resource economy exists in KP.
All units are free in this game, every factory built will be spamming units at all times. You can build more factories, but only on pre-defined areas (geothermal vents). All that remains is pure strategy and tactics.
KP makes for a frantically fast-paced, action-oriented game, with a very unique graphical style.
- Kernel Panic Evilless contains one faction - the System : It's the old version that remains the simplest and purest.
- Kernel Panic Division Zero contains two factions - introducing the Hacker: It's the current stable version.
- Kernel Panic .NET contains three factions, incorporating the Network: It's the often updated work-in-progress newest version.
Media:
Youtube Videos:
Still shots:
Download links:
- First you need the Spring engine. Get it there. When installing Spring, during the mod selection, make sure you tick Kernel Panic. That will install Kernel Panic Evilness, Kernel Panic Div0, and the Kernel Panic maps.
- Or, if you already have installed Spring, you can get the files separately: This is also the way to get the latest, most played work in progress version.
Units and Buildings:
System units:
 | The Kernel: You start with one of these. It can build all mobile units in the game. Has rapid auto-heal and lots of health. |
 | The Socket: The socket is a factory which can only be built on a geothermal vent. It can solely build bits, and slower than the kernel can. It autoheals, and has a decent amount of health. |
 | The Terminal:(only available in Division Zero) This is a new structure that gets placed on geovents. It can dispatch a nuclear bomber once every 120 seconds that will deal about 16000 damage to a large target area, i.e. it destroys everything except factories. It does much less damage to the kernel and hole. The bomber can strike any position on the map, there is no defense. |
 | The Assembler: The assembler is a construction unit. It can build sockets, but it cannot assist-build. Slow, little health. Equipped with a radar to detect mines and other cloacked units. |
 | The Bit: Your basic attacking unit. Cheap, fast, small, not very much health. Is armed with a SPARCling laser. Can be built by a kernel or a socket. |
 | The Byte: A large, strong, and slow attacking unit. Can holds it's own against many bits, as it has lots of health and a powerful gun. More armored when closed. Can plow through bad blocks. In division zero, the byte has an alternate firing mode, the mine launcher, that throw 5 mines at the cost of much health. |
 | The Pointer: An artillery unit. Its normal shot is not so useful against moving units, but can kill kernels and sockets pretty quickly. Is slow and has little health, so it needs protection. In division zero, the pointer has an alternate firing mode, the NX Flag, which set a wide area ablaze for a minute. |
Hacker units:
(only available in Division Zero and .NET)
 | Security Hole: The Hacker kernel equivalent. |
 | Window: The Hacker socket equivalent. |
 | Obelisk: This building is a stationary artillery weapon, it can fire an infection shot every 40 seconds (the obelisk has a pink fire on top when it's ready to shoot) that will cover a large area in poison. The poison does a bit of damage (about 1000) and turns any enemy that dies inside the cloud into a Virus. The weapon's range is fairly limited. Best used against stationnary herds of Bits/Bugs. |
 | Trojan: This unit is your constructor as well as radar platform (needed for detecting mines and cloaked units), just like the assembler. It builds all the same stuff as the assembler, except it has the window instead of the socket and the obelisk instead of the terminal. |
 | Virus: A crappy little swarm unit. It cannot be built but is produced when killing enemy units with certain weapons. Namely, the Virus, the Worm, and the Obelisk. |
 | Bug: The Hacker spam unit. The Bug is weaker than the Bit but can sense movement outside of its LOS. It has a stronger weapon and more range but cannot shoot at things behind it or through friendly units and won't take much damage before dying. The mine ability of the old bug has been removed. Instead it can now morph into the Exploit with the deploy button, or the bombard button. |
 | Exploit: This is the new name for the bug cannon. It's a building the Bug morphs into with the deploy or bombard command. The Exploit is a stationary artillery emplacement that does more damage the further the target is away. Even more frail than the Bug, so don't let any foe come near. |
 | Worm: The worm is a sneaky assassin, travelling cloacked, then surfacing only to kill many bits at once with its large area of effect weapon, which turn any slain units into virus. The worm large splash damage will damage your own units. However, it does practicaly no damage against other worms or virus. |
 | Denial of Service: Not an artillery, but close: fire a beam that stun units. For bigger targets it'll take longer to stun them so perform a DDoS (use multiple) to stun them fast. Once the DoS stops firing the target will quickly unfreeze. It moves faster than the pointer but causes a particle trail that can be seen from far away. |
Network units:
(only available in .NET)
The network faction is built around mobility, its small factories (Ports) don't produce units openly but instead increment a virtual counter (the Buffer). Packets in the Buffer can be materialized at any teleporter unit (currently that means the Port and the Connection), it's also possible to dematerialize the Packets back into the Buffer by making them enter a teleport.
 | Carrier: The base building, like a Kernel or Security Hole. |
 | Port: The production building. It puts Packets into the Buffer, to materialize them select the Dispatch command. Dispatch will send 12 Packets if available, you can hold ALT when giving the order to make the Port dispatch until the Buffer is empty. |
 | Firewall: This building can cover units (affects friendly units in a certain radius around the target location) in a protective shield for 20 seconds. The shield halves all damage the unit receives and throws the other half back at the attacker. |
 | Gateway: The constructor. It is lightly armed to help against enemy raids. |
 | Packet: The basic light spam unit, it's weaker in combat than both competitors but much faster. |
 | Connection: Mostly a mobile teleporter (i.e. can dispatch Packets and let them enter like a Port). The Connection has decent armor and an arc beam that can do a lot of damage to single targets and has good range. It can defeat most large units one on one but engaging Bytes will probably result in pointer fire which the Connection cannot withstand and the arc beam is not optimal for engaging swarms. |
 | Flow: An air unit. The Flow moves fairly slowly but can of course cross any terrain. It's equipped to attack light targets (spam units and fire support) but it's highly vulnerable to return fire. If you want to use them in open combat give them a meatshield and hope the enemy doesn't field long range units, Pointers, DoSes and Connections make short work of Flows if they hit. |
All side Units:
 | The Bad Block: A tiny wall, built by Assembler/Trojan/Gateway. Blocks small units movement. Do not block shots however. Easily removed by the Debug or simply crushing them with a Byte or Connection. |
 | The Logic Bomb: A mine that can be built by the Assembler/Trojan/Gateway. And also launched by Bytes since Div0 2.2. It takes out Bits & Bugs in a single blow, has a decent damage radius, and doesn't chain explode. Use with care, as the blast hurts your own units too. Limited to 32. |
 | The Debug: An easy way to clear an area of all mines and walls, this is a one shot weapon built by the Assembler/Trojan/Gateway. |
Playing Guide:
Playing Kernel Panic is fairly simple and quickly learned, but is hard to master and more complex than it looks at first glance. A good starting build for a 1vs1 on Marble Madness is three bits, which are immediately sent off to harass your enemy. If he started with an assembler, focus on it and kill it, thus crippling his early expansion. After the three bits, build a byte for defense, and place it between your Kernel and the hill. Then, build an assembler and have it build a socket on one the three closest spots. As soon as you stated building a socket, you should immediately turn on repeat and queue a bit. If you start at the bottom of a map, it is crucial that you have a rally point of the factory below it, because if bits have to turn inside the factory, the frequency of production gets slowed down quite a bit. After your assembler is done, build another 10 or so bits, and then start alternating between bytes and pointers.
On Marble Madness, there are basically two ways to win. The simplest one is to achieve control over the hill and have some pointers up there kill the labs of your enemy. Gaining control of the hilltop can be a challenge, because it takes units (especially bytes) quite a while to get up there and they are very exposed. However, if you control it, you mostly won the match as you can shell your opponents Kernel with ease. The other way is around the hill, if you control terrain you can use pointers to great effect as well. In both strategies, using pointers is the crucial factor. While they are hard to use correctly, they are game-winners as they kill Kernels and bytes with ease.
When attacking a Byte with bits, make sure to attack it in a bulk and try to get your bits under the byte, where it can't fire. If you're controlling the byte, try to move it backwars while shooting to keep the attacking bits in your shooting arc.
What units you build at your kernel, and where you send them, is very important. If you build too many pointers, they will be torn apart by bits, but if you focus on bytes, pointers will kill them. A good general purpose ratio seems to be to queue one byte and one pointer, but this will need adapting as the game develops.
Scouting is important too, as many enemies leave their assemblers virtually ungarded. Use single bits to scout, you should always know at what spots your enemy has build expansions. As buildings can't be resumed, sending in groups of bits to kill assemblers of almost-finished sockets can be very effective.
Credits:
- Original concept by Boirunner
- About all the work done by KDR_11k
- Sounds by Noruas
- Minor edits by zwzsg
- Maps by Boirunner, Runecrafter, zwzsg, and TradeMark
- Some LUA interface upgrade based of jK and trepan code
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