Maelstrom: The Battle for Earth Begins

sorry for bad writing.
first of all, the game was made in like 2006, if you are going to try the game there are some steps you need to take to make sure the game runs well.
after installing, go to the guides section and download the patch someone created for the game based on an existing patch from the cd version of the game that didn't make it to the steam version and just run it.

now go to the games page in your library and using the gear on the right go to manage- view file location,
once there use the configuration tool and turn off fullscreen.
now launch the game and don't worry about what it does, while the game is running open task manager and switch tabs to the details page, find maelstrom and right click on it, click on "set affinity" this should bring up a list of cores based on how many cores your computer has. This game is old so it was designed at the time to run on only a few cores which is why the game doesn't work if you have too many, so turn off every core you have above 4. the game is probably fine with 2 or 3 as well, but only keep 0-4 checked at most. ( runs fine for me with just the first one enabled) if you still have issues try turning off 1 or 2 more. you will have to do this every time you launch the game. now you can put the game back into fullscreen mode but you might have to put it back into windowed mode for the task manager step next time you run the game.

TLDR game launches POORLY in fullscreen, turn off fullscreen before launching, then reduce the cores to 0-4 or less in task manager details tab, now you can put it back into fullscreen ingame, you will have to do this every time you play the game. the patch from the steam guides will stay as long as you don't reinstall the whole game.

Enjoy. if you look at another guide theres also a few cheat codes to mess around with too.

Some tips from someone who used to play this all the time when i was younger.
this game doesn't have attack move orders like some other rts games, instead on the command card you can switch between passive but follow orders, move to attack anything in sight even if you told me to move, and don't fight back unless you click on the enemy directly. in all 3 modes you can still tell them to move to a spot, but if they are set to aggressive they will only get to the spot designated once they stop finding enemies along the way.

once u get the troopers can heal upgrade they do it automatically but only basic troopers can do it, not marauders and snipers.
the upgrades building is worded funny, "range" doesnt mean an increase in range. it just means that you will upgrade ranged damage, because most infantry units have melee and ranged attacks, and in some cases these numbers are not the same.
sometimes you cant place buildings and you don't know why, its probably because there is a street lamp or something in the way, you can make your scavenger walk over them to break them.
heroes in first person from any race are quite op. if you can see it and click on it, you can shoot it also you can switch between abilities once you unlock them from leveling up with your scroll wheel. the ai in rts mode will only shoot within a certain range, but with direct control you can snipe people with your heroes from like a football field away. the aliens in particular have a rediculous shockwave attack when you use direct control that treats infantry like toys, and james can place his mines from a distance if you do it in first person.
did i mention you can jump into most vehicles and drive them yourself and use the same strats? sniping with a tank? yes please. view the entire map with a helicopter and piss off everything? hell yea. accidently get shot down and restart the mission? oof.
the factions are very quirky so expect a learning curve. and try not to let water into your base once you get terraforming try to keep the water out. the aliens move a lot quicker in water and heal in it, and non-alien infantry cant shoot while swimming and buildings will take dmg from the water. and vehicles too before you get water upgrades.
explosives wont explode on contact with enemies but instead with contact with the ground. if your using direct control with a hero in a vehicle try to aim at their feet so you can knock them around if trying to kill infantry. for the high tech faction, legionares level up and get stronger if you keep them alive, try to keep the low hp guys in the back of the pack they can get pretty op at max level.
the ai can be lured into traps if you shoot at them using direct control with a hero. instead of relying on the terrible pathing with 30 units going around a corner, just bring the enemies to you instead and make them go around the corner. if you keep having fights in the same area the ground can get to the point that its impossible to traverse. you can tell your scavenger to place a building somewhere and the first 1% of the building will just instantly appear and start flattening the ground,
when playing the aliens you can click on your spore and hit M to place a farm on any compound you have vision of the spore doesn't have to be close to the compound itself.
you could put all your spores in the corner of the map if you wanted, but its easier to defend your spore colony if you place them around a water source especially downhill. and flood the base with water, so enemy infantry can only swim and use melee attacks, and lots of larger alien units will just instantly eat them.

i can't remember much else at the moment, but the game isn't too hard if you have RTS experience so just have at it.
i love this game btw. its not bad for just 5 bucks.

One of the swan songs of RTS. It is just one of the shovel-ware as the genre was dieing. However still has a place in my heart.

I miss these