This topic is for discussion of map #523: Redacted Space
(http://knucklecracker.com/particlefleet/queryMaps.php?query=thumbnailid&id=523)
Author: Sorrontis
Size: 500x160
Desc:
This space is beautiful, look at the sky box, beautiful! Enough enjoyment of the scenery, we have a problem. Why are there boxes? What do they do?
Don't worry, this one is easy... I think.
... ok ... ok... spoilers
What to do:
Spoiler
Stay in the bottom left corner collecting as many amp gems as possible. If your ship moves out, you set off trap 1. If you stay longer than 5 minutes, an enemy ship sets off trap 1. Plan accordingly.
Spoiler
First amp gem: temporarily set it to land burn. Burn some land so that Boat 1 can lathe 1 omni pickup. Use omni to get the rest of the omni pickups and move to the top left to set up base while Boat 1 & HQ collects amp gems.
Spoiler
The boxes. Yes, emitters teleport. So do the ship pickups. There's a pattern, a difficult pattern, but it's there. Plan ahead, lathe the emitters using 2 Boat 1s so that the emitters are nullified in the boxes you want. They give you power sources.
Spoiler
Careful the cannons. They are strong and invulnerable. Two methods of dealing with them. Mired land (takes time) or sacrifice push through and take out their power supply.
Spoiler
Don't travel to far to the right to quickly, you'll set off trap 2.
Spoiler
Use a complement of omnis, emergents, and ships to take the islands and destroy the progenitors.
Good luck!
For those interested in how I make things move, and cause emitters to change particle types:
Spoiler
once
225 79 71 1 GetAllUnitsInRange ->Units
endonce
GetGameTimeFrames 1 add 300 mod eq0 if
<-Units GetListCount 0 do
<-Units[I] ->UID
#<-UID GetUnitType Trace
I 3 eq if
@RandCoordEmit3
else
I 2 eq if
@RandCoordEmit2
else
I 1 eq if
@RandCoordEmit1
else
@RandCoordEmit0
endif
endif
endif
loop
endif
GetGameTimeFrames 1 add 1800 mod eq0 if
<-Units GetListCount 0 do
<-Units[I] ->UID1
0 3 RandInt ->UID1.EMITTERPARTICLETYPE
loop
endif
:RandCoordEmit0
<-UID.UnitCoordY 79 Lte if
@RandInt 2 eq if
243 ->UID.UnitCoordX
135 ->UID.UnitCoordY
else
280 ->UID.UnitCoordX
98 ->UID.UnitCoordY
endif
else
@RandInt 2 eq if
169 ->UID.UnitCoordX
24 ->UID.UnitCoordY
else
206 ->UID.UnitCoordX
61 ->UID.UnitCoordY
endif
endif
:RandCoordEmit1
<-UID.UnitCoordY 79 Lte if
@RandInt 2 eq if
280 ->UID.UnitCoordX
135 ->UID.UnitCoordY
else
243 ->UID.UnitCoordX
98 ->UID.UnitCoordY
endif
else
@RandInt 2 eq if
206 ->UID.UnitCoordX
24 ->UID.UnitCoordY
else
169 ->UID.UnitCoordX
61 ->UID.UnitCoordY
endif
endif
:RandCoordEmit2
<-UID.UnitCoordY 79 Lte if
@RandInt 2 eq if
169 ->UID.UnitCoordX
135 ->UID.UnitCoordY
else
206 ->UID.UnitCoordX
98 ->UID.UnitCoordY
endif
else
@RandInt 2 eq if
280 ->UID.UnitCoordX
24 ->UID.UnitCoordY
else
243 ->UID.UnitCoordX
61 ->UID.UnitCoordY
endif
endif
:RandCoordEmit3
<-UID.UnitCoordY 79 Lte if
@RandInt 2 eq if
206 ->UID.UnitCoordX
135 ->UID.UnitCoordY
else
169 ->UID.UnitCoordX
98 ->UID.UnitCoordY
endif
else
@RandInt 2 eq if
243 ->UID.UnitCoordX
24 ->UID.UnitCoordY
else
280 ->UID.UnitCoordX
61 ->UID.UnitCoordY
endif
endif
:RandInt
2 0 RandInt
My emotions across multiple playthroughs:
Spoiler
Pre-playthrough:
Spoiled emitters for myself by looking at PRPL code. I cannot resist code.
First playthrough
These emitters at the start are up to no good. I know Sorrontis well enough - there's something evil here. I'll grab a ship pickup, it's a lathe, good, lets build it, I need more lathes ASAP, lets grab some omnis. Ok, HQ, lets go out of this box to get these omni pickups, carefully, don't touch these emitters...EVERYTHING IS HORRIBLE, RUN, RUN, RUN, SORRONTIS IS EVIL, RETREAT
Everything is good, I have ships, I have some energy, lets get these starting omnis and ship pickups. Commence rockburning operations under heavy pressure. Get two omnis before realizing that I'll never get these ship pickups on this playthrough without some ridiculously slow and tedious tactics like multiple HQs warp-ins.
Restart
Second playthrough:
Grab these ships, no DON'T LATHE FACTORIES, GET DOWN, THE PRESSURE, EVERYTHING WILL GO BAD SOON! Ok, got ships, got amp gem, I had this much time last time? Nevermind, RUN FOR SAFETY! HQ crippled, mild panic, HQ destroyed. It looks like I've managed to escape better last time, probably got out a couple of seconds earlier.
Nevermind, proceed with omni carving operation, everything went smoothly, got all of them and feel extremely smart for such a creative way of using rock burner. Emitter hopping provides no problem, since I looked at code.
Now, cannons. Yep, fast-firing. Yep, piercing. Yep, Sorrontis is evil. Now, but I am smart, I dug out all these omnis, I have these cannon ships and this tanker. I'll clear the land with guns and build omnis close enough to guns, so they will start lath... well... unlatheable guns count as double evil.
Nevermind, omnis are great and effective, everything can be conquered, one gun at a time, one mine at a time, just the final stretch, lots of empty space, knowing Sorrontis, there will be some ship sacrifi...WHAT IS THIS?! WHY IS EVERYTHING SO BAD?! WHYYYY?!
After a brief confusion everything was ok, initial treats were neutralized, but no major progress could be done on final two spots.
Well, it's Sorrontis map, and I'm not a good enough player for maps of this difficulty, lets look at spoilers, starting with a first one...I DID EVERYTHING WRONG ALL THIS TIME!!!
Restart
Third playthrough:
Lots of gems. Have some techs to play around with.
Well, Sorrontis was right, this one is easy. Sorrontis is evil, though.
Serious question:
Spoiler
Why enemy ship as a trigger? Timer would work too and would be less confusing, I think.
Quote from: Stickman on January 07, 2017, 04:52:18 PM
My emotions across multiple playthroughs:
Spoiler
[...]
Serious question:
Why enemy ship as a trigger? Timer would work too and would be less confusing, I think.
I was thinking like the running orc in Lord of the Rings at Helms Deep.
Just curious, have you hidden something in the corner of the initial area we start in or are those just the PRPL cores you've placed?
Quote from: Oblivion on January 07, 2017, 06:08:32 PM
Just curious, have you hidden something in the corner of the initial area we start in or are those just the PRPL cores you've placed?
Should be three PRPL cores... they should be invisible and take no space.
Not hard and I really enjoyed playing it.
As you can't do well at your 1st, 2nd or even 3rd attempt without reading at least one spoiler, it would be nice if your next maps with traps had some small initial "hint-dialog" telling the player to move cautiously or a PRPL core with an image showing that there's something wrong (the possible trap) over there. This could give an alert to the player, so he/she can quick-save before getting close to it.
The surprises are very amazing and they really make the map differentiated, giving a completely creative and new gameplay.
Quote from: JoaoPistori on January 08, 2017, 02:26:08 PM
Not hard and I really enjoyed playing it.
As you can't do well at your 1st, 2nd or even 3rd attempt without reading at least one spoiler, it would be nice if your next maps with traps had some small initial "hint-dialog" telling the player to move cautiously or a PRPL core with an image showing that there's something wrong (the possible trap) over there. This could give an alert to the player, so he/she can quick-save before getting close to it.
The surprises are very amazing and they really make the map differentiated, giving a completely creative and new gameplay.
Ah yes. I did forget that there's a lot of new players that didn't play the Sorrontis maps in CW3. I apologize. The surprise maps were my signature, which I usually just add the #PRPL #Sorrontis tags; I forgot to do it. Trap maps will be more common coming from me now that I've got a good grasp on PRPL.
I activate my trap card!
Quite the map with a lot of surprises. Well done sir.
Only think I disliked was it felt like alot of my attacks were left up to chance. Always came down to the last second if I could kill the emitters in the boxes and the one in the lower right corner buy the particle ship. That one took me forever.
I see. If you wanted to have assured success vs the box emitters, the two Boat 1.0 were required, and for extra assurances, have 1 or 2 omnis on stand-by would help kill the emitter under 20s (the emitters jump every 20 seconds)
Interesting and fun map!
Spoiler
The land pop-up was really cool, I didnt know you could do that. Makes me want to play more maps with alternating terrain!
If you are gonna do more of these trap/puzzle types I definitely think you should hold off with posting spoilers until people can give it a try. Sure it's optional to read hints but, If anyone solves it "blind" it gives them bragging rights and if not it promotes some collective detective work here on the forums. Atleast give it a day I'd say. :)
I learned early on that these kinds of maps without hints in the forums get me in trouble. :P
I hadnt tried omnis on the boxes. Probably would have helped lol. The lower left with the particulate ship gave me the most problems. Either way the longer it takes me the more rewarding the win ;)
I hated it.
Glad you lik... ... ... wait ... what? That's not the response I'm looking for.
What d'you love so much about it?
Ah. I should have subscribed to the topic, sorry for the late response.
#1 I don't like having to restart a map just because some unknowable trap is sprung. I believe I mentioned it before, I don't like reading the map designer's mind. I dislike having to read spoilers even more.
(The "running orc" sprung trap 1 on me, but it turned out not to matter much - I just evacuated, let the particles coalesce and didn't worry too much about it. I may even have been helpful because less emergents in other places.)
#2 I can't seem to get the lower-right corner, or the rotating fortress. Too many particles, too strong, too fast, and once you have set everything up you're spammed by the doppel. I could get a few seconds of lathing, but then everything would either have to retreat for refuelling or be destroyed for even longer rebuild, and then I'd have to restart lathing from zero.
I could kill the fortress with a suicide run, except I still couldn't lathe it because too many, too strong, too fast particles and not enough fleet - not sure whether the fleet rebuild is faster than the fortress rebuild, but I was exhausted from fruitless attempts at making progress, any progress.
#3 for some reason the carrier would never refuel. Tanks were shown empty even if there was energy on board, and it was sucking itself dry like no tomorrow. But even with carrier support: Too many particles, fighters would target these rather than the ships, no idea why.
Trap #1 was evil but manageable, the boxes were no problem (I didn't even have to care *that* much about where I want the energy), the plasma was evil but no problem (reminded me of barbed wire in trench warfare but you can clean it out), the cannons were evil but manageable.
But the final phase... I hate it when I can't determine if my problems are from strategy (that I can fix) or a PRPL bug (then trying to make something happen is a waste of time, but restarting is a waste of time, too).
Ah well. It was an interesting map, but I still hate it.
Quote from: Doug on January 10, 2017, 10:33:18 AMI hadnt tried omnis on the boxes. Probably would have helped lol.
There are two other tactics you can use:
1) Use beams to slow the particles, giving ship lathes enough survival time to do their work.
2) Use rock burner so the lathe ships can stay away a bit more from the emitters.
These even combine, but I found #1 sufficient actually; YMMV.