Custom Map: Nice Job 5: The Clockmaker

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This topic is for discussion of map: Nice Job 5: The Clockmaker


Author: UpperKEES

Desc:
NEW: First map with automatic spore direction indicator, so no more surprises! Not that hard, but you'll need quite some blasters to be able to cross the clock. May be a little CPU intensive in the final stage.

[UpperKEES]

Title:	Nice Job 5: The Clockmaker
Difficulty:	Hard
Creeper type:	Land & Air
Remarks:	NEW: First map with automatic spore direction indicator, so no more surprises! Not that hard, but you'll need quite some blasters to be able to cross the clock. May be a little CPU intensive in the final stage.
Description:	You are a clockmaker and today you received an unusual clock for repair. It got wet and it is not water resistant. Luckily you start next to the battery compartment (1.5 Volts). The main clock indicates the seconds passed. The small one on the bottom right displays the minutes this repair is taking you. The gauge on the top left seems to be a weather sensor. It shows from which direction the rain will fall. As long as you keep it powered, it will show you useful information! You are not sure about the gauge on the top right. It looks like a count down device.... Please repair this clock before it's completely filled with water!
Download page:	Nice Job 5: The Clockmaker
Full size screen shot:
More maps:	Apply here for another job ;)

[Vexsin]

looking forward to giving this a shot later tonight

[UpperKEES]

After creating this map I finished it in about 17:30, but that was weeks ago, so I had a worse run this time. Maybe I'll try again if someone beats me.

[bigschank]

this is what it looked like when i won.



took me 35 min, but im in the number 2 spot!!

[UpperKEES]

Heheh, pretty nice! And 35 minutes is not bad at all, considering you didn't even cap the clock completely.

Spoiler

I tend to put 1 blaster between each arm within the inner ring (and nothing in the outer ring) to cap the center, but your approach seems to work out fine too.

[close]

Also good to see you still have the spore direction indicator intact. I assumed some people would rather use that blaster somewhere else, although I use it myself, because I can't memorize the pattern I chose and I'm too lazy to switch to the map editor every 3 minutes.... :P

[Vexsin]

Note to self, try again when not on my laptop that winds up getting 1 FPS near the end....

[UpperKEES]

Yeah, the more structures you create, the slower the game will become. I noticed this when the map was about done (at the start everything is fine as the amount of emitters itself is no problem), so I couldn't help it any more. Something to keep in mind when developing new maps (which I did ;)).

Edit: probably best to switch to maximized windowed mode towards the end of this map instead of playing full screen.

[ontheworld]

probably best to switch to maximized windowed mode towards the end of this map instead of playing full screen.

i just play it small at those times

[Miss Melissa]

bah, i was mere seconds from beating you.. i could feel the excitement building.. then one of my connections broke. :o i just dont have it in me to try again anytime soon.  i still did a pretty good job, ill take it.
quite a challenging map when im trying to beat ur score, so much creeper n so little time.. gotta build n move..
i didnt use any mortars, tho i think in hindsight it woulda helped. i shoulda looked at what u did first.. but i guess im stubborn like that.  :P perhaps next time.

[UpperKEES]

Ah, you even went back to an oldie? I can imagine your disappointment; similar things happened to me before. Maybe one thing to cheer you up: when I set my own score for this map I tried to finish under 20 minutes and everything seemed to go fine (I knew from testing that faster should be possible), but just before connecting to the last totem (at the top right) one of my blasters blew up and I completed the map in 20:05. It's still the only one in the >20 minutes range.  :-\

Spoiler

You indeed have to keep building while advancing on this one. Many blasters are needed, but they don't consume much energy (only a few shots per minute). I didn't use mortars for my final attempt, but I did use 2 of them during testing, so I guess this would indeed be a wise choice (especially to attack the centre). Once you get the drones though, I prefer these.

[close]

Stubborn huh? ;) Just stay that way; you're doing fine. Thanks for playing (and almost beating me)! :)

Edit: typo

[snowmaker (JM)]

An increase of 6 minutes is pretty good for your maps  8)   I am testing myself with your maps and trying different strategies.

[UpperKEES]

Oh, that's very nice indeed and faster than I ever managed to do myself! *Adds map to the replay list*

Any change of strategy you like to share?

[snowmaker (JM)]

I am being more patient. Engaging creeper only when needed. And changed the order of my upgrades. So really only standard things.