Custom Map #7499: Pump Your Way to Victory. By: Jason Stevens

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This topic is for discussion of map #7499: Pump Your Way to Victory


Author: Jason Stevens
Size: 99x256

Desc:
This is a DIFFICULT map. Keep an eye on the creep to the north or you may find yourself in a battle you can't win. #Spore #Runner #Flip-Emitter #Packet-Emitter #Pump #Heavy Creep NOTE: The game won't register your victory until you pick up all the techs on the map. Good luck!

[JoaoPistori]

Ok. I've tried a lot of strategies, the best one was a very early guppy to nullify the spore towers that launch 5 spores. Also build a beam over that powerzone (see screenshots) but that area gets covered by creeper that escapes through the void.
Amount of spores is ridiculous; You can't manage to feed the green emitters and the beams all at the same time; You don't even have space or time to build enough reactors because the amount of spores is ridiculous (even nullifying spore towers, 3 more that launch 5 spores will finish building near the inhibitor and it's game over).

I'll wait for my vacations (this thursday, thanks god) and try this map again.
Good job making and beating this map, I understand the low rating due to the difficulty but don't get discouraged from making more hard maps.

Note: One of the screenshots was from a previous try.

[jasons2645]

Ok. I've tried a lot of strategies, the best one was a very early guppy to nullify the spore towers that launch 5 spores. Also build a beam over that powerzone (see screenshots) but that area gets covered by creeper that escapes through the void.
Amount of spores is ridiculous; You can't manage to feed the green emitters and the beams all at the same time; You don't even have space or time to build enough reactors because the amount of spores is ridiculous (even nullifying spore towers, 3 more that launch 5 spores will finish building near the inhibitor and it's game over).

I'll wait for my vacations (this thursday, thanks god) and try this map again.
Good job making and beating this map, I understand the low rating due to the difficulty but don't get discouraged from making more hard maps.

Note: One of the screenshots was from a previous try.

I appreciate the encouragement and am happy to hear you're enjoying the map - I knew when I uploaded the map it would get horrible reviews since any difficult map I've created has always gotten bad reviews ;) 

This map is one of two of the hardest maps I've created.  Unlike "Death by Spore or Emitter?", I wanted this map to not "drudge" on to complete it.  The map has a very difficult start and requires precision for quite some time from the beginning to handle the ever-increasing threats against you, but once you hit a certain inflection point pumping anti-creep into all four pumps, the game pace really speeds up and you can move to victory very quickly.

** BEGIN SPOILER ALERT **

Spoiler

Here are some more detailed thoughts...  I actually tried to design this map so that there would be an "easy" mode and a "hard mode".  If you land on the southern option, you can much more quickly take it over.  But I couldn't let that go without a price.  If you start on the easier option, you get no Forge until you take over to the north.  This isn't too difficult to do however with all the ore you have available.  I prefer the harder option since I get the Forge from the beginning and can buy myself more time before the heavy creep from the north gets to me since I can pump larger quantities of anti-creep into the pumps earlier in the game.  So I guess in the end, it's not a "hard" and "easy" mode - they're just different with their own pros and cons ;)  But this map keeps you on your toes...  Stay idle for very long and something gets you!

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** END SPOILER ALERT **

[Added a spoiler tag to properly hide the spoiler - K75]

[JoaoPistori]

I tried the "Forge area" too, also tried getting the 2 energy efficiency upgrades and then fly to the south, but there's no time to do that and stop the creeper from flooding that area.

My main problem are the spores. I don't have enough energy production to build so many beams and keep them all with energy. A beam initially costs 40 energy (20 to build +20 for ammo). A guppy to build a nullifier costs 25 +100 per nullifier. I would use 200 energy to build 5 beams, while I could build 2 nullifiers, destroying 3 spore towers that launch 5 spores each. It really needs a super high amount of beams or I haven't noticed something that helps dealing with them.

I'll wait for thursday and then play until I finish it. It's a great challenge. I'll probably try building and sending beams early to the power zones to save energy.

[RrR]

Well that was hard. Took about a dozen attempts to get a foothold.

I used the lower base with more energy and ore mines.

Spoiler

I started with ammo packets disabled - let me get the crystal faster and then some initial build without the drain.
You can disable packets to the green emitters by disabling their connecting collectors. This is useful initially when power is very short
Send a guppy to nullify the four vulnerable spore towers. You can nullify about a quarter of the total spore count.
Put a beam on the pz - with a few cannons to keep away the creeper. Support with a few guppies.  Eventually you will probably lose this pz.
Most of the game will be spent with energy in the red.
With enough energy you can build slowly to the left. You need lots of reactors - build in tight formation.
Guppies can supply the green emitters.

[close]

[Lightforger]

Interesting map with a tough start :)
i landed in the south, took over the 3 nearby green emitters (minimal ammo usage) and while building as many reactors as possible.

around the 4 min mark i built a guppy and sent it to kill the 2 x5 spore launcher on the island near the top, then the ones that can be reached on the islands with big green emitter (east one first).

After that i built a second guppy to go provide power to the totems by landing in creeper, very tedious work but good reward.
Unfortunately i forgot until about halfway the game that the forge doesn't provide you the upgrades you bought if it has no power (guppy works) so most of my micro was useless :(

But even with so much energy wasted on buying inactive upgrades, i still somehow managed to build enough reactors to keep the beams powered so there's definitely a margin of error in the map.

PZ beams only take 1/4th ammo per shot but their ammo request rate isn't that high so i think they might get overwhelmed - the powerzones flood pretty early anyway so it would be a temp solution at best.
I also didn't use the ore mines until spores were solved.

[JoaoPistori]

Finally managed to beat it. I ran once without even landing the CN just to check timing for spores and creeper flooding and listed them all on a piece of paper. Then, during the play I could have managed to build reactors or beams at the most perfect time ever. Beams were finishing building when spores were almost hitting something, but I had a bit more reactors.

It's like a paradox: What helps you at long term does not help at short term, killing your start and thus not helping anymore for the long term. What helps you at short term does not help at long term, thus not helping at all. :P

Pretty hard, nice challenge.

[D0m0nik]

Great map, very challenging.

The key to this is that the green emitters only need about half of the energy they take, toggle the packets on and off with either a collector (RrR's method) or straight from the CN (packet dispatch, Ammo off). You can build a base quite quickly this way by juggling the green emitters off and on.

I went for the forge landing and kept just two green emitters going until I had no room left for reactors. Also sent a beam and guppy up to the PZ.

[jasons2645]

Great map, very challenging.

The key to this is that the green emitters only need about half of the energy they take, toggle the packets on and off with either a collector (RrR's method) or straight from the CN (packet dispatch, Ammo off). You can build a base quite quickly this way by juggling the green emitters off and on.

I went for the forge landing and kept just two green emitters going until I had no room left for reactors. Also sent a beam and guppy up to the PZ.

Yes, that is definitely the key!  I was struggling with the map as well until I figured out you could do that, then I made it slightly harder still knowing this was a capability in the game ;)

[Johnny Haywire]

Another great, challenging map!

You know it's going to be a good map when you're sure you have a foothold and then *BAM* you lose it. I wish I'd thought of Dom's and RrR's idea of toggling each green emitter - that's a smart way to do it.  ;)

I opted for the area by the forge and just went 100% powergrid until the last possible moment. Three beams will hold off the early spores just fine.

Runners always annoy me, but I have to admit they add a necessary degree of challenge to the map.

Great work - as always! Thanks for the map, Jason!  ;D ;D