Alcor Class Warship

 

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Warship, Alcor Class
General information
Type	Support and deployment spacecraft
Affiliation	Mental's Horde
Health	3500
Weapons	Scorcher beams (instant death) Maximum 20 enemies spawned per teleport beam
Capacity	20,000 troops
Game information
Point value	1,000,000
Entity name	SpaceShip

 

"All your base are belong to us, motherfucker!"

―Sam taunts the fleeing warship

The Alcor Class Warship, often referred to as simply Warship, is a large spacecraft used in Mental's space fleet. The spacecraft was used extensively during the Mental War, especially during the later days of the Earth Campaign.The warship serves as a minor antagonist, and is fought as a boss twice throughout the Serious Sam 3: BFE campaign.

Overview

The Alcor Class Warship is the most commonly used spaceship in Mental's military. These advanced spacecraft are equipped with on-board AI that allows it to move around, suggesting that it's controlled automatically. The ship can travel from one location to another with minimal effort thanks to its propulsion system; this system is capable of transporting the ship vast distances up to the speed of light, allowing it to travel as far as 10 parsecs (approximately 32.6 light years) in one transdimensional jump.

The Warship is extremely durable thanks to its heavy armor plating and can withstand anything up to a strategic missile. The ship's deployment hatches, however, have very thin armor, which can allow someone on the ground to damage them from within. Each hatch can only sustain a certain amount of damage before it automatically closes. The amount of hatches opened appears to be based on the damage the Warship has sustained, opening the most hatches when it is nearly destroyed.

Each Warship is capable of holding up to a maximum of 20,000 troops. The troops are deployed onto the ground with the use of teleport beams, which are activated immediately after the deployement hatches open. These hatches are located on the underside of the ship, and when each one is opened, a teleport beam will spawn various enemies in different areas. At first, only light troops (Beheaded Rocketeers, Gnaars, Hatchling Antaresian Spiders, etc) will spawn. As the Warship takes more damage, tougher and more challenging enemies are deployed onto the battlefield.

If a Warship has suffered significant damage and its on-board AI senses that the ship is in imminent destruction, the spacecraft will retreat via a short-range jump before it can be destroyed. However, if the ship has been too greatly damaged, it will crash even after attempting a propulsion jump.

Application

A fleet of Warships were deployed as part of Mental's invasion force during the Mental War.

Used extensively throughout the Mental War, these warships were sent en masse as an invasion force to any planet that harbored intelligent life, one such instance was during the invasion of Earth. The Warships are used primarily for troop deployment and as a "ground-scorcher" with its powerful laser beams. While on Earth, they were dealing severe damage and destruction upon major cities across the world with their scorcher beams and deploying large amounts of troops.

Appearances

At least a hundred or so Warships are seen invading Earth in the game's opening cinematic. Several of them ars seen later, on the planet itself, destroying buildings in the background of an unknown city (most likely Cairo) with their scorcher beams, while Mental's forces seize control of the area.

The first Warship appears in the first level of the game, where it can be seen charging up and then releasing a powerful beam on a high-rise building. Afterwards, the ship departs by "jumping" away using its propulsion system. The damage dealt to the bulding causes it to collapse into a pile of rubble.

Later on, the player encounters the Warship as a boss on two occasions, in the levels "Under the Iron Cloud" and "The Power of the Underworld".

Weaponry

A Warship using its powerful laser beams.

The Warship's armanent is limited to several "scorcher" beams, which are fired from the Warship's underside. Despite being equipped with weapons, the Warship is not capable of complicated maneuvers or attacks. The scorcher beams are strong enough to cut through steel plating at a rate of one foot per second. Depending on the damage taken, the Warship can multiply the amount of laser beams, allowing for a maximum of three. These beams will instantly kill the player or any enemy should they come into contact with them. This can occur regardless of the difficulty setting and the amount of health/armor the player has.

Tactics

• The XPML21 Rocket Launcher will do better damage to the Warship than most currently available weapons, but the rockets also take sometime to hit each hatch. As the Warship remains stationary while it deploys troops, this makes the rocket launcher an excellent weapon for damaging its deployment hatches.
  • Be sure to shoot the hatch that is closest to avoid missing any shots.
    • The rocket launcher is also a good choice for dealing with the hordes of enemies that the Warship spawns in, as long as they aren't close to the player. One rocket can kill most enemy types spawned by the Warship except for Sirian Werebulls.
• The deadly scorcher beams fired by the Warship are easy to dodge as long as the player is constantly moving. It also helps to see where the ship is firing its beams to reduce the chances of death.
• If possible, try to aim at the closest weak point. Weak spots closer to the player are larger, giving them more room to hit the weak spots than trying to hit farther-away ones would.
• The player should be aware of their surroundings during the fight, as it is very important while fighting this boss. Accidentally being cornered can easily get the player killed depending on the types of enemies that are spawned.
• Both battles have ammo crates filled with an infinite amount of rockets scattered throughout the arenas they take place in. If the player runs low on explosives, it is highly recommended that the player finds and open a nearby crate as soon as they can.
• A single cannonball fired from the SBC Cannon can instantly destroy one of its spawn ports, which makes it a great weapon to use against it. Like with the rocket launcher, though, it is best to aim from low to medium range to ensure maximum accuracy. If aiming for hatches that are further away, a high enough angle is required to predict the cannonball's trajectory and increase the chances of a hit.

Fight 1

• It's usually a good idea for the player to aim rockets towards the ground near the enemy the player is targeting. That way, fast moving enemies like Beheaded Kamikazes or Kleer Skeletons will be easier to hit with the splash damage and be killed easily. The player should exercise caution when firing too close as they will take splash damage from the rockets.
• Enemies at close range should be dealt with by using either the Double Barrel Coach Gun or M29 Infantry Assault Rifle. The player should also use the XM214-A Minigun or XL2 Lasergun if they have enough ammo to spare.
• The assault rifle is also handy for taking out long-distance enemies that could be a problem later, such as Kleers or Witch-Harpies. If the Warship is also too far away to hit with rockets accurately, it can also damage the Warship when shooting the hatches.
• Try to balance it so that equal time is spent between hitting the weak points and controlling enemy hordes spawned by it. Letting enemy crowds become too large makes it more difficult to concentrate on the Warship.
• If the player has picked up the lasergun, it can do significantly more damage than the assault rifle and doesn't need reloading, making it also a good choice.
• If the cannon was collected during the course of the level, it may be a good choice to use it, as each successful shot will do massive damage to the Warship. One must also keep in mind that spare cannonballs are rare at this point of the game, so the player will have to aim carefully to avoid missing. Remember that the cannon's projectile descends with gravity, so be sure to use appropriate aim compensation to ensure each cannonball hits.
• Letting the Warship stay for too long at low health with eventually cause it to populate the ground with Werebulls, which can complicate the situation and may force the player to use precious cannonballs.

Fight 2

• The SBC Cannon is the player's best friend during this fight; a fully charged shot on an open hatch will do massive damage to the Warship. It will only take about six fully charged shots to completely destroy the Warship, and since cannonballs are more readily available at this point in the game, it should be favoured over other weapons during this fight. The usage of this weapon alone can shorten the entire duration of the battle significantly, even before the Warship can spawn excessive amounts of enemies on the battlefield. Remember that the cannon's projectile descends with gravity, so be sure to use appropriate aim compensation to ensure each cannonball hits.
• The A-24 Devastator is a good alternative for hitting the Warship's weak points in the second fight. Devastator projectiles are much faster than rockets, allowing the player to inflict damage quicker than in the first fight.
• If overwhelmed, C-4 Demolition Charges, the SBC Cannon and XM214-A Minigun are excellent weapons to use against the hordes spawned by the Warship. Charged up cannon shots are very useful against the stronger enemy types teleported in (like Adult Arachnoids, Khnums or Scrapjacks), while the C-4 and minigun can clear out the weaker enemy types that teleport in (like Juvenile Antaresian Spiders).
• The biggest threat spawned in by the Warship are Scrapjacks because of all the projectiles thhe fire. Take them out as soon as possible in order to get more room to dodge attacks.
• When playing on co-op, the player will not be able to damage the Warship from the Vista secret spot (which has the RAPTOR Sniper Rifle), even though it doesn't look like anything is obstructing the player's shot.

Related achievements

Serious Sam 3: BFE

	All Your Base Are Belong To Us!
	Defeat the spaceship.

Serious Sam Fusion

	All Your Base Are Belong To Us!
	Defeat the spaceship.

Serious Sam 3 VR: BFE

	All Your Base Are Belong To Us!
	Defeat the spaceship.

Behind the scenes

• In the first level of the game, the ship's model disappears as it flies away, but its health can still be seen with the player's crosshair if they look into the sky where the ship disappeared. This is likely a developer oversight.

Trivia

• In the Serious Sam Fusion version of Serious Sam 3, the Warship boss fight in "The Power of the Underworld" reuses the boss fight theme ("Gladiator") when the player fights the Adult Arachnoid boss in the game's second level.
• The achievement "All Your Base Are Belong To Us!" is actually a dialog from the 1989 scrolling shooter arcade game Zero Wing. Later, it become an internet phenomena. Sam also says the words when he taunts the Warship after the first fight.
• The Warship does not appear in Serious Sam 4, despite the game being set during the Mental War. Instead they are replaced with the Octanian Harvester Leviathan (which doesn't have any offensive capabilities on its own, aside from deploying Octanian Raiders).
  • It's possible that the Warships didn't seen much use until later on in the war. Thus Mental decided to use them as part of a scorched earth policy instead of harvesting the human population like he did during the Tunguska Offensive.
• The Warship has a noticeable "shimmering" effect underneath its engines. This can be seen more clearly in the Serious Editor and when viewing it in NETRICSA.

Gallery

Model.

The Warship's underside.

The warship's propulsion system.

The warship's engine.

A Warship in Cairo using its scorcher beam to destroy a building.

A Warship deploying its teleport beams.

Warships in the game's opening intro destroying a city with their scorcher beams.

A Warship after taking critical damage.

NETRICSA displaying the Warship.

List of appearances

• Serious Sam 3: BFE (First appearance)
• Serious Sam 3 VR: BFE (non-canonical appearance)