Custom Map #486: Pool. By: l2edl3aron

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This topic is for discussion of map #486: Pool


Author: l2edl3aron
Size: 185x185

Desc:
A planet long abandoned must be reclaimed. Orbital weapons have been brought in an attempt to penetrate the deep pool of creeper, but is it enough? (Unpause the game initially to allow the orbital weapons to fly up into your inventory)

[Jerdog]

I have some ideas but not enough to win this one.

Grabbed an upper corner with a few freezes and then nullified cluster of 5.  Built on pzs 3 reactors and 2 spore towers.  Didn't work creeper overpowered anticreeper and too many spores for the towers anyway.
Tried again with 2 shields instead.  I almost never use shields but I thought they protected against spores.  Apparently not because the first wave knocked them out.  They don't seem strong enough to push back that mush creeper anyway.  I also has a couple berthas built but even their punch doesn't do enough.

Is this really possible?  I've given up for now.

[ea3401]

It's possible and fun but hard. Don't waste the PZs for spore towers or shields.

[Vanguard]

At First I created a Collector network into the creeper and fired convert weapons into it, to see how far it would convert. I then optimized how far away from each other I could fire converts without overlapping. I fired the 4 mass weapons around the corner I just converted and nullified 5 PZ and put Berthas on it. But after half an hour of continous fire from PZBerthas, having nearly 100 energy, 30 mortars and cannons and beams and whatever the creeper just rolled over my base anyway. So, could I have a few hints?  :-X

[ea3401]

Spoiler

... mortars and cannons ...

Build more berthas instead and you will get it

[close]

[burguertime]

Also, in the late-game

Spoiler

singularity on ~2k pools of creeper actually kills creeper (by converting them)

[close]

[Wander]

Great map!

[toolforger]

I can't even build enough beams quickly enough to survive the first spore salvo.
It's 12 towers @ 4 spores = 48 spore packages, i.e. you need 24 beams, that's 1680 energy you have to produce initially to build and charge one beam per two spores. You need an additional 100 energy to nullify your nearby cluster.
The spore towers refire every 1:15, so you need an energy income of 48*50/90 = ~27/sec, that's roughly 30 reactors.
When the spore towers begin to fire, I have a whopping 7 reactors operational, and four more building. I don't have the slightest idea how to get those 24 beams built and energized with that :-(

[toolforger]

Ah. I see you can ignore the first few volleys, as the AC is more than 50 deep.
Obviously at some point, your AC pool is going to drop, and at that point, you need to defend both the spore barrage and the ground creeper.
The challenge is to balance your limited real estate between energy generation, ground defense, and air defense. It seems I overestimated the number of beams required since the spores don't (usually) arrive all at once, but it's still taking a lot of space.

I'm not sure whether Berthas and a wall + mortars are the better option.
Also, it might actually be a good idea to set up at the center. Sure you have to defend against an additional 4 spores, but you get 4 ore mines so you don't have to be perfect in the ground defense (which is really hard and prone to inefficiencies with Berthas), and you get four totems so energy production and weapon efficiency will ramp up pretty quickly. I haven't tried that yet, so it might still end in a horrible death.

[toolforger]

Hmmm... no, center does not work well enough. There's not enough AC to keep the creeper out for long enough to build the base.

[D0m0nik]

I haven't finished the map so take this with a pinch of salt:

Spoiler

I would go 4 PZ berthas in one of the top corners and then you have to do two lots of juggling:

Juggle 4 or 5 beams over one PZ, this will take out pretty much all of the spores.
Juggle as many guppies as you can be bothered with for landing in creeper and powering the totems.

Then build as many reactors and berthas as possible!

[close]

[D0m0nik]

Yeah the below worked. The most important thing is loads of reactors and loads of berthas! Nothing else really matters.