Custom Map #1306: FPS: Cover Me. By: Heritor

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This topic is for discussion of map #1306: FPS: Cover Me


Author: Heritor
Size: 192x120

[heritor]

Giant credit and thanks goes to both Qople for the FPS mode, and Auri for the upgrade scripting and tools.

[Shatterstep]

Thanks for making the map. Amazing what can be done. Clever to have a cover over the terrain.

I overlooked that the keys unlocked doors until I was pretty much at the end. I thought the map had broken textures at first, silly me. Would have been nice if doors would show on minimap. 

The sprayer and gun sometimes didn't fire down a corridor unless you jiggle around a little or enter the corridor a bit. Not a big deal. Just mentioning it here in case people got stuck. The mortar still fired. Note this was only an issue sometimes when going around inside corners or entering new corridors.

No lag issues at all. Interesting upgrade system. I think it really adds to game play. I liked that the creeper wouldn't retake sections.

I look forward to more of these. Kudos to all involved.

[emubkup]

Found it impossible to get the 2nd last upgrade, could only clear about 1/3rd before the respawn removed all progress.

May have been bugged though as the weapons appeared to suddenly get slower at the end.

[Shatterstep]

Found it impossible to get the 2nd last upgrade, could only clear about 1/3rd before the respawn removed all progress.

May have been bugged though as the weapons appeared to suddenly get slower at the end.

I noticed the weapons getting much slower at the end too. Wasn't sure why. Luckily I was still able to finish the map.

[emubkup]

Found it impossible to get the 2nd last upgrade, could only clear about 1/3rd before the respawn removed all progress.

May have been bugged though as the weapons appeared to suddenly get slower at the end.

I noticed the weapons getting much slower at the end too. Wasn't sure why. Luckily I was still able to finish the map.

Tried again and was able to finish it properly this time. Same weapon slow down though, seemed to start when approaching the grey wall near the 2nd last upgrade. In order to get that upgrade the trick was to move in close to the creep as the AC automatically emitted by the player is needed to hold the ground.

Enjoyed the surprise at the end, shame it can be skipped if people reach 35mins without getting all upgrades.

[Karzon]

What's the surprise at the end?

I had a miserable time with that second to last cache, and even getting as close as possible for that anticreep upgrade, couldn't do it until I had all the upgrade points from time passing (at 1 hour in!)  :(

[Malignantmind]

Like the maze aspect, and props for using the resource texture for the walls. Looks nice. Didn't have any problems hitting any of the caches, however that little surprise at the end made me immediately lose when it dropped creeper on the hold position while I was still on the other side of the  map.

Also encountered that weapon slowdown at the end as well. Dropped from about 60 energy down to ~ 15  which was not fun.

[Durikkan]

The slowdown is because that thing to the left of the rescue area is a hydroelectric dam, so as soon as you kill all of the creeper on the one side of it, it stops being powered and your energy income drops significantly.  Also, I accidentally messed it up in my last fps level which was the source for this so it didn't actually function properly at keeping your power level when your energy drops.  That being said, it may still have been a deliberate drop for this map's perspective, since you're almost done with the level when that happens. Though they might have just been fooled by my misleading code comments that referenced the way it was supposed to be instead of the way it was. 

As for the map, I enjoyed it, but I had to fight the boss for about 10 minutes because I finished the rest kind of early.  Also, it look me a few minutes to find the purple door because I didn't see it the first time through.   I eventually actually had to enter freecam and fly around to find it since the top down view and map weren't that useful for finding it. 

[InwardChaos]

Great map. The use of the stretched Resource Terrain texture for the maze walls was pretty neat, and covering the maze was also a nice touch.
For everyone commenting about the weapon slowdown as they near the end, this happens because the Energy output for the map is managed by the Dam structure (The big grey structure beside the Rift Lab/Hold Stronghold). The power generated by the Dam is proportional to the amount of Creeper/AC on the backside of the Dam. When you are going for the key nearest to the Rift Lab, you clear out the built up Creeper behind the Dam, which drops your energy and your weapon fire rate. This can be fixed by refilling the reservoir with AC, though it will slowly deplete as there isn't any breeder terrain to keep the AC level up.

The surprise at the end caused some problems, namely cancelling the Reclaim countdown, and then it dropped creeper onto the Proton Generator, which provides a fixed 15 energy, dropping my energy output to 1.

Overall, a good map, with some room for improvements. Biggest change I would have made would be to add a patch of AC breeder or Flip Breeder in the reservoir so that energy output doesn't fluctuate as much as it does.

[knightace]

I had a blast. I played this map 3 times; once using each weapon (cannon, mortar, sprayer) but all having the auto-AC field aura.

My first experience was pretty awesome. I looked at the tiny amount of space available with no visible doors and wondered...huh; that's a small map. Do I just sit at the rift and hold it for 35 mins...? Then unpaused and was surprised...lol! The dark cover and the glowing resource walls made for an amazing tunnel-like experience. Very clever, very fun.

Overall it was pretty easy; but that's not a bad thing. I think the fun of this level is learning the possibilities, format, and navigating the maze in a timely manner...and you achieved that perfectly. The doors/textured made sense to me, and I noticed I could see them on the map by a distinct "lack of AC/creeper" color, when the door finally opened (since neither ever crossed the border).

I didn't even notice that reactor/dam was generating energy...my weapons were always fine. But that does explain why when I ran back once to clear the creeper after the surprise attack that I saw the AC left behind was very low. I was confused what happened until now. I also noticed while defending the hold point that I could shoot the dam/hole/walls and the map showed AC popping on the backside of the wall. So perhaps that can also fuel it. Didn't test.

The finale boss was unexpected...loved it, lol. The only negative I'd give really is if you beat the map early...you're sitting around just staring at the 'boss' for many minutes until it finally goes away. I finished at 28min and found myself not moving at all; sniping away for 6 minutes. Other than that this level was a blast.

[Shatterstep]

For those having issues navigating the map, note that you can make the mini-map larger to help.

(edit: the 3 resize buttons are next to the mini-map at the bottom-right)

[Durikkan]

For those having issues navigating the map, note that you can make the mini-map larger to help.

Ah, so you can.  Somehow I'd convinced myself it was disabled on that map because I was looking for the map size buttons in the wrong corner of the map.

[Piko]

Play as Air Sac 2: Electric Boogaloo

[heritor]

Play as Air Sac 2: Electric Boogaloo

Oh don't you worry, that'll be coming at a future date!

Thanks for the feedback peeps, yeah the dam would have been fairly confusing if you haven't played my PAC map #4, sorry about that part with the power drain on weapons.
I'll look at ways of improving the interaction between hold objectives and any future surprises, and I'm sure there'll be a way to display doors on the minimap too.