This topic is for discussion of map: Nice Job 20: The Snake Charmer (http://knucklecracker.com/creeperworld/mapcomments.php?id=2395)
(http://knucklecracker.com/creeperworld/thumb.php?id=2395) (http://knucklecracker.com/creeperworld/mapcomments.php?id=2395)
Author: UpperKEES (http://knucklecracker.com/creeperworld/viewmaps.php?author=UpperKEES)
Desc:
Probably between 'Hard' and 'Expert Only', but definitely harder than my other hard rated maps. All emitters can be capped, only the snake eyes will free themselves after a while. Do you dare to go in between or rather play it save and go around?
Title: | Nice Job 20: The Snake Charmer |
Difficulty: | Expert Only |
Creeper type: | Land only |
Remarks: | Probably between 'Hard' and 'Expert Only', but definitely harder than my other hard rated maps. All emitters can be capped, only the snake eyes will free themselves after a while. Do you dare to go in between or rather play it safe and go around?
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Description: | Because you needed even more excitement than you experienced during your previous jobs, you applied for the vacancy of snake charmer.
"Show me what you've got!", says the owner of a Thai snake farm.
"Are you ready to show your skills?"
Before you can answer him he shows you a room with some giant snakes.
When you take your magic flute out of your bag the door is closed behind you.
Two eyes stare at you....
"Sssssshhhhhh!"
|
Download page: | Nice Job 20: The Snake Charmer (http://knucklecracker.com/creeperworld/mapcomments.php?id=2395) |
Full size screen shot: | (http://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=978.0;attach=805;image) |
More maps: | Apply here for another job ;) (http://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?topic=978.0) |
I enjoyed the map. You definitely need to stay away from the middle.
damn. i thought i was pretty good at this but this maps is kicking my butt. do you go after the mortars quickly or wait?
Quote from: jlansink on June 22, 2010, 04:16:21 PM
damn. i thought i was pretty good at this but this maps is kicking my butt. do you go after the mortars quickly or wait?
Blasters are enough to take and hold the bottom three mounds. Don't advance to quickly without energy. I held the initial mound with four blasters until I had enough energy.
Hint: I turned on/off the top two blasters so that I could build faster.
Quote from: snowmaker (JM) on June 22, 2010, 03:59:12 PM
I enjoyed the map. You definitely need to stay away from the middle.
Thanks JM.
Spoiler
I would indeed stay away from the middle until you have the drones to clear the path.
Quote from: jlansink on June 22, 2010, 04:16:21 PM
damn. i thought i was pretty good at this but this maps is kicking my butt. do you go after the mortars quickly or wait?
Spoiler
I wouldn't go for the mortars or drones before you cap the bottom emitters first, because you wouldn't be able to hold your position.
Quote from: snowmaker (JM) on June 22, 2010, 05:09:37 PM
Blasters are enough to take and hold the bottom three mounds. Don't advance to quickly without energy. I held the initial mound with four blasters until I had enough energy.
Hint: I turned on/off the top two blasters so that I could build faster.
Spoiler
Indeed. Just conquer terrain step by step and build more energy at every free spot. Once you capped one emitter you'll have enough space for a working economy.
Spoiler
You should be able to build 4 collectors and 11 reactors before you need to defend yourself. Make sure you have enough space left to build these blasters.
*looks at his score* um yeah....I enjoy maps like this but it takes me a while to finish them, i know a few things i'd do differently if i try for a better score, like getting the drones and using them more, i hate them usually but if i got a little farm of those guys running to bomb all the uncapped emitters, i could get blasters and collectors in pretty fast.
Definitely a map that tested my ability to both multitask and defend while building energy, often at the same time. By the time I had only two totems left on the other side of the map, I had plenty of blasters and a few drones and had most of them attack in a massive assult. It almost failed. I lost two of the four relays I was building, and barely held on to the other two, because of the lag from space by then. That was stressful. But I held the ground, and it worked. Wooooooo...
Your link to the download page goes to The Paleontologist... You might want to fix that.
Thanks. I (obviously) didn't know it was doing that. I only just found out how to do that, thanks to SPIFFEN. I am still working out the kinks, but I think I got it fixed. When I clicked on it though, it did not take me anywhere because it was not complete (I ran out of room and did not realise it).
Quote from: Fisherck on June 22, 2010, 11:46:59 PM
Thanks. I (obviously) didn't know it was doing that. I only just found out how to do that, thanks to SPIFFEN. I am still working out the kinks, but I think I got it fixed. When I clicked on it though, it did not take me anywhere because it was not complete (I ran out of room and did not realise it).
Wrong map much?
Quote from: NNR_Alex on June 22, 2010, 10:36:46 PM
*looks at his score* um yeah....I enjoy maps like this but it takes me a while to finish them, i know a few things i'd do differently if i try for a better score, like getting the drones and using them more, i hate them usually but if i got a little farm of those guys running to bomb all the uncapped emitters, i could get blasters and collectors in pretty fast.
Spoiler
Yeah, once you get to them the drones are probably more useful than the mortars. I built 4 of them as support for my blasters. I would also do it a bit differently next time (I should have paused more often). I might try to get this one under the 20 minutes.
Quote from: Fisherck on June 22, 2010, 10:56:22 PM
Definitely a map that tested my ability to both multitask and defend while building energy, often at the same time. By the time I had only two totems left on the other side of the map, I had plenty of blasters and a few drones and had most of them attack in a massive assult. It almost failed. I lost two of the four relays I was building, and barely held on to the other two, because of the lag from space by then. That was stressful. But I held the ground, and it worked. Wooooooo...
During testing I had my complete network collapse once, after one of the blasters used to cap the snake eyes blew up. I was 1 collector away from the last totems at that time.... :P
Pretty close times by the way!
Quote from: mthw2vc on June 22, 2010, 11:08:06 PM
Your link to the download page goes to The Paleontologist... You might want to fix that.
Thanks! Fixed.
Quote from: Blaze on June 23, 2010, 12:59:28 AM
Quote from: Fisherck on June 22, 2010, 11:46:59 PM
Thanks. I (obviously) didn't know it was doing that. I only just found out how to do that, thanks to SPIFFEN. I am still working out the kinks, but I think I got it fixed. When I clicked on it though, it did not take me anywhere because it was not complete (I ran out of room and did not realise it).
Wrong map much?
I guess so....
Quote from: mthw2vc on June 22, 2010, 11:08:06 PM
Your link to the download page goes to The Paleontologist... You might want to fix that.
Thanks! Fixed.
Quote from: Blaze on June 23, 2010, 12:59:28 AM
Quote from: Fisherck on June 22, 2010, 11:46:59 PM
Thanks. I (obviously) didn't know it was doing that. I only just found out how to do that, thanks to SPIFFEN. I am still working out the kinks, but I think I got it fixed. When I clicked on it though, it did not take me anywhere because it was not complete (I ran out of room and did not realise it).
Wrong map much?
I guess so....
[/quote]
Uhm... I am starting to think that was not for me. :P Well, it still helped, so oh well.
Faster times are definitely possible after making two mistakes that cost me 1-2 minutes with my current strategy.
Nice job JM! :) Glad you took this map out of the 20-30 minute range. 8)
I'll retry myself in a couple of days, but I don't have the time right now.
NB: changing your name to "snowmaker (JM)" unfortunately creates a new player in the Nice Jobs high score table (http://home.pages.at/lemming_data/creeperworld/UpperKEES.htm), so these scores don't add up to your JM total.
Atleast i manage to finnish the map =)
But i wasted alot of energy on Blasters after i made the first cap ,
i'm not good at doing the right things during battle i guess =P
And i also used alot of energy during build up to stay safe ,
but i guess thats my way to play the game =)
Quote from: SPIFFEN on June 25, 2010, 10:08:19 PM
Atleast i manage to finnish the map =)
But i wasted alot of energy on Blasters after i made the first cap ,
i'm not good at doing the right things during battle i guess =P
And i also used alot of energy during build up to stay safe ,
but i guess thats my way to play the game =)
As long as you had fun Spiff! Your completion time is not that far off from the average (which should be a little higher anyway, see
here (http://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?topic=3734.0)), so you're a very decent player considering this is a pretty tough map.
It's very normal that you spend most time gaining new terrain, building up energy and capping the first emitter. Probably the same amount of time as you'll need for the rest of the map.
Spoiler
The key to a good score is indeed not wasting energy on things that are not necessary and only attack when you're ready for it (or are forced to defend yourself). Just keep playing the game the way you like it! :)
Quote from: UpperKEES on June 23, 2010, 05:17:58 PM
I'll retry myself in a couple of days, but I don't have the time right now.
I found the time, so I improved my score. Used the same strategy as before, but just played more efficiently.
I love the snakeskin texture. At one point, the nose overflowed, giving me the urge for a tissue.
I took both the mounds on the left first, then the right, then both sides against the middle on top. I couldn't see any reason to clear the center around the eyes. When I finished, I had a blue ring around a pool of green slime.
I only built one drone and no mortars. Perhaps my time would have been better if I had used more drone runs, but the blasters always seemed to be sufficient.
Quote from: L'ythelle on July 16, 2010, 02:02:57 PM
I love the snakeskin texture. At one point, the nose overflowed, giving me the urge for a tissue.
Thanks. It was originally a different color, but I liked this better. Blasters work better than tissues by the way, I have one in each nostril during the winter. ;D
Quote from: L'ythelle on July 16, 2010, 02:02:57 PM
I took both the mounds on the left first, then the right, then both sides against the middle on top. I couldn't see any reason to clear the center around the eyes. When I finished, I had a blue ring around a pool of green slime.
Spoiler
This is exactly how I played it the first time, but other players scored better than me, so I had to improve my strategy. Once you have enough space you can fight at several fronts simultaneously. So when I conquer the top left mount, I do the same with the bottom right one. It means waiting a bit longer, but advancing much faster after that. When I would collect even more energy, I could even see why you would go through the middle. You would probably need 25+ energy to do so (I tried it during testing), but once your energy collection is growing, this growth is exponential, so you'll have that amount in just a few minutes (space permitting).
Quote from: L'ythelle on July 16, 2010, 02:02:57 PM
I only built one drone and no mortars. Perhaps my time would have been better if I had used more drone runs, but the blasters always seemed to be sufficient.
Spoiler
I used 2-4 drones in my various attempts. You get the drone & mortar techs rather late in this map and they would probably be more useful when obtained earlier in the game, so this is indeed a real blaster level. Try The Diver (http://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?topic=3733) and The Artist (http://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?topic=3787) when you like to see the effectiveness of mortars. :)
Persistence counts!
Great game - visually & tactically.
I will definitely play it again - using some of the tips here.
Thanks for another great one!
dbit
Quote from: DethbyIT on September 04, 2010, 09:29:11 AM
Persistence counts!
Yes, it does.
Quote from: DethbyIT on September 04, 2010, 09:29:11 AM
I will definitely play it again - using some of the tips here.
That will surely improve your time. I improved from ~22 to ~18 minutes after my second attempt and took off another 3 minutes during my third.
Quote from: DethbyIT on September 04, 2010, 09:29:11 AM
Great game - visually & tactically.
Thanks for another great one!
dbit
Merci! :)