Custom Map: Hard Art 3: Color Planes

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This topic is for discussion of map: Hard Art 3: Color Planes


Author: UpperKEES

Desc:
This map contains 2 new types of emitters. The first kind will only start when the creeper has reached a certain level and the other type can be prevented from starting by keeping it save for a couple of minutes. How many emitters will be active? It's all up to you! Based on a painting by Mondriaan.

[UpperKEES]

Title:	Hard Art 3: Color Planes
Difficulty:	Hard
Creeper type:	Land only
Remarks:	This map contains 2 new types of emitters. The first kind will only start when the creeper has reached a certain level and the other type can be prevented from starting by keeping it save for a couple of minutes. How many emitters will be active? It's all up to you! Based on a painting by Piet Mondriaan.
Description:	Piet Mondriaan is well known for his art experiments and is considered to be the pioneer of modern art. Most of his works consist of straight lines and only use black, white, grey and the 3 primary colors. This map is also an experiment, because it contains 2 'new' types of emitters that you can control yourself! (See below for more info.) Every plane with the same color has its own characteristics: Level 1, WHITE: contains upgrades or techs. Level 2, GREY: contains emitters capped by a wall element. These walls will only dissolve when the creeper level above that plane is 2 elevation layers thick, so better prevent that! When the creeper levels go down again (below 2), the wall will stop dissolving, even when the creeper still touches it. Once the wall element has dissolved completely the emitter (intensity 2, interval 0.1 sec) will start. Level 3, YELLOW: these planes are the same elevation level as the dark grey borders, so they are actually a little larger than it seems. Level 4, RED: these planes also contain emitters capped by a wall element (except for the one with Odin City). The walls will start to dissolve immediately when the creeper touches them, but the emitters (intensity 8, interval 2 sec) will only start after 8 minutes. If you manage to keep the wall intact during the first 8 minutes, you are safe and the wall won't dissolve any further, thus capping the emitter for the rest of your game! Level 5, BLUE: these planes contain normal, rather weak emitters (intensity 1, interval 0.5 sec). These are the only emitters that will emit creeper from the start of the game. So it's up to you how many emitters you will be fighting! You'll notice that mortars and capped emitters don't go very well together, just like with 'normal' emitters, so pick their location carefully. Please let me know what you think of this concept. ARTIST: Piet Mondriaan TITLE: Composition with Color Planes and Gray Lines 1 MATERIAL: Oil on canvas YEAR: 1918 DIMENSIONS: 60.5 x 49 cm
Download page:	Hard Art 3: Color Planes
Full size screen shot:
Based on:
More art:	See here for more maps about art (and jobs) ;)

[ontheworld]

being a VERY slow player, i have quite a disadvantage. :(

[Echo51]

Did you make the creeper activeted emitters by placing them ontop of a wall piece?

[peter]

being a VERY slow player, i have quite a disadvantage. :(

It took me a while to beat the map, and I think being slow on this map only matters to the time, not the end result.  With all the pausing I did to look at how it was going I spent about 2 hours playing this map, and it was worth it in the end.

[peter]

An "Interesting" concept, and very annoying at times too.  But I did notice that a couple of the walls did not appear to get destroyed, no matter how long I waited.  (Yes, I was trying to make it difficult for myself)

Not sure how you did it, but it does add another avenue people can take when making maps, although I do not hope that there are too many this hard. lol

[UpperKEES]

being a VERY slow player, i have quite a disadvantage. :(

I don't think the disadvantage of being slow will be bigger compared to other maps, just different. Pausing the game will be even more important for you. And don't forget: the emitters on the red planes only have to be 'saved' during the first 8 minutes! :)

Did you make the creeper activeted emitters by placing them ontop of a wall piece?

Yes, see this post for more details about the mechanics.

It took me a while to beat the map, and I think being slow on this map only matters to the time, not the end result.  With all the pausing I did to look at how it was going I spent about 2 hours playing this map, and it was worth it in the end.

True. You'll be able to beat it anyway, just like playing a 'normal' map in a slow way. The only difference might be the approach you use. I often spend the first minutes only building up energy (and sometimes some minimal defences), but in this case it can pay off to concentrate on saving a few of the emitters causing danger.

An "Interesting" concept, and very annoying at times too.  But I did notice that a couple of the walls did not appear to get destroyed, no matter how long I waited.  (Yes, I was trying to make it difficult for myself)

This is correct and intended behaviour. The walls on the red planes won't decay any further (as the intro text states) after 8 minutes if you were able to keep them intact. The walls on the grey planes will only decay when the creeper rises 2 levels higher above that elevation (so when the creeper reaches level 4, because the grey planes are elevation level 2).

Not sure how you did it, but it does add another avenue people can take when making maps, although I do not hope that there are too many this hard. lol

I noticed months ago that emitters on (or underneath) walls don't seem to emit creeper. In fact these emitters do emit, but the creeper doesn't spread. Only recently I discovered the odd behaviour of the wall decay when combined with an emitter (see the link provided in reply to Echo51). Unfortunately I wasn't able to use it exactly as I originally intended, so I came up with these 2 types.

I don't think this will be used in many other maps, but I liked to do something else for a change, especially because Mondriaan also liked to experiment. The wall elements can be hard to see (although you'll notice a little squared box around the emitter when you pay attention and you can even see its color change during the decay). This is why I applied them on the color planes, so the player can distinguish between the various types of emitters more easily.

[Fisherck]

I don't think the disadvantage of being slow will be bigger compared to other maps, just different. Pausing the game will be even more important for you. And don't forget: the emitters on the red planes only have to be 'saved' during the first 8 minutes! :)

Did you make the creeper activeted emitters by placing them ontop of a wall piece?

Yes, see this post for more details about the mechanics.

An "Interesting" concept, and very annoying at times too.  But I did notice that a couple of the walls did not appear to get destroyed, no matter how long I waited.  (Yes, I was trying to make it difficult for myself)

This is correct and intended behaviour. The walls on the red planes won't decay any further (as the intro text states) after 8 minutes if you were able to keep them intact. The walls on the grey planes will only decay when the creeper rises 2 levels higher above that elevation (so when the creeper reaches level 4, because the grey planes are elevation level 2).

Not sure how you did it, but it does add another avenue people can take when making maps, although I do not hope that there are too many this hard. lol

I noticed months ago that emitters on (or underneath) walls don't seem to emit creeper. In fact these emitters do emit, but the creeper doesn't spread. Only recently I discovered the odd behaviour of the wall decay when combined with an emitter (see the link provided in reply to Echo51). Unfortunately I wasn't able to use it exactly as I originally intended, so I came up with these 2 types.

I don't think this will be used in many other maps, but I liked to do something else for a change, especially because Mondriaan also liked to experiment. The wall elements can be hard to see (although you'll notice a little squared box around the emitter when you pay attention and you can even see its color change during the decay). This is why I applied them on the color planes, so the player can distinguish between the various types of emitters more easily.

This is very interesting. I will have to test this my self. New types of Creeper, Muhhahaha :P. My only question, as I do not think you explained it yet, is how did you make the walls that will stop decaying after 8 minutes?

[mthw2vc]

The emitters in those walls have a high intensity. Thus, at the 8-minute mark, there would need to be creeper up to what would be elevation level 12 to get them to decay. This will never happen in this map, therefore if you can protect them until then, they will never go off again. This is due to the fact that a wall does not decay until the creeper around it reaches the total elevation of the creeper inside the wall and the wall's elevation.

[UpperKEES]

This is very interesting. I will have to test this my self. New types of Creeper, Muhhahaha :P. My only question, as I do not think you explained it yet, is how did you make the walls that will stop decaying after 8 minutes?

The emitters in those walls have a high intensity. Thus, at the 8-minute mark, there would need to be creeper up to what would be elevation level 12 to get them to decay. This will never happen in this map, therefore if you can protect them until then, they will never go off again. This is due to the fact that a wall does not decay until the creeper around it reaches the total elevation of the creeper inside the wall and the wall's elevation.

Exactly. You can read more about these effects in this topic. Thanks for your posts in that thread, mthw2vc! It really helped me to create something new. :)

[Fisherck]

So it's up to you how many emitters you will be fighting! You'll notice that mortars and capped emitters don't go very well together, just like with 'normal' emitters, so pick their location carefully.

Please let me know what you think of this concept.

I think this is a great idea and should be used more often. I ended up letting three of the emmiters get loose, so that slowed me down a bit.

[UpperKEES]

I think this is a great idea and should be used more often. I ended up letting three of the emmiters get loose, so that slowed me down a bit.

Thanks Fisherck. :) Let me warn other map makers that it becomes a lot harder to balance the map right. I've actually made this one a bit easier than I intended, because when you played the 'normal' way, your would get overwhelmed after about 10 minutes of gameplay and I didn't want to upset the players of my maps.

Because the grey emitters can contribute in letting the red emitters go off and vice versa, it can become a cascading effect resulting in too much creeper to handle. I was also a bit afraid that people might not be able to notice the wall elements that are mostly covered by the emitter and therefore not know whether an emitter is still capped or not. (An emitter surrounded by creeper from 8 sides will decay/dissolve in about 50 seconds!)

The nice thing however is that the player can influence the behaviour of the enemy, which is a unique concept in CW. I can see many more possibilities when walls and/or emitters would behave slightly different. It's the closest I could get to implementing an IF-THEN scenario.

[NNR_Alex]

ok the good news, i beat it on my first try, the bad news, well look at my score (if i improve my time anytime soon then it'll go down of course but right now it's around 93 minutes).  I don't think i could do a worse job at this so that's the good part, and i think if i can cap (or semi cap) one of those blue squares by odin city, namely the one north of it, at the start, that'll help keep some of the reds from ever going off.  It looks like there are 3 emmitters that never activate, two reds (one i might have actually saved but i doubt it) and one grey that i didn't even notice never got started till i'd cleared away all the creeper around it.

Anyways it feels good to beat one of your maps again after so long and this is like 'the teacher' to me, most people can beat it, but there's usually room for improvement.

[snowmaker (JM)]

I really liked the scenario with the variable emitters! You really do have to be aggressive if you want it to be easier towards the end. I always have to be careful with the blue square north of OC if you run low on energy. Again, loved your map  :)

[NNR_Alex]

I really liked the scenario with the variable emitters! You really do have to be aggressive if you want it to be easier towards the end. I always have to be careful with the blue square north of OC if you run low on energy. Again, loved your map  :)

ugh, yeah that square and a little later (or not if things are capped, i'm not sure) the west square as well.  I was having gravedigger flashbacks when i saw the creeper inching onto my red square.

still those upperkees i really do like this map, it's one i don't feel really intemidated by, because you can hold your starting spot for a long time, it's expanding outward that can be tricky.  I dunno if i can keep the greys contained but I bet i can stop a few reds from ever starting.