Custom Map: The Testing Grounds

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This topic is for discussion of map: The Testing Grounds


Author: Kapoios

Desc:
You find yourself in a strange place, where you will have to pass three tests. A test of speed, a test of cleverness and a test of power.

Will you be able to outrun, outsmart and outpower the creeper?

A hard puzzle map that you won't beat the first time.

[Kapoios]

A few more things that can't possibly fit in the description:

This map is meant to be a hard puzzle. It is divided into three distinct but interconnected and codependent parts. They are the agility, intelligence and strength tests. Each of the three will require a certain trick to complete.

The three areas are distinguished, among other ways, by colour (speed is blue, cleverness is green and power is red). I have only used colours that the vast majority of people with red-green or other colour deficiencies will be able to tell apart (I'm one of them and know very well how annoying and inconsiderate colour coding can feel). Even if you can't differentiate between the colours, the parts should be clearly separated and you should be able to ignore any mention of colouring.

The first test is a run against the clock. Your major goal is to charge two blasters fully before an important relay explodes (at around 1:53) and move them to their position (a pair of squares near the bottom right). You cannot afford to waste much time (it's a speed test after all!), but you don't need to be extremely and ridiculously precise. Accurate double pausing is not required. In fact, the test can be completed fairly comfortably with only pausing 3-4 times and that even includes utilising some of the automatic pauses that things like artifacts and the initial screen offer. One should focus on finding the right trick instead of being frame perfect.

The second test requires you to empty a small pool of creeper with very limited resources. Again, you will need to find the right trick for this. This part might require a relatively good understanding of weapons and damage mechanics.

The third test is a direct fight with the creeper. The emitters are not particularly strong. The distant emitter is of intensity 3, interval 0.2 and the other one is a rather slow, weak emitter of intensity 0.2, interval 1.7. (Except for a one-time strong burst in the very beginning.) The terrain, however, together with limited energy production will make this fight challenging, and, you guessed it, you will need to find the right trick!

I consider this map harder than my previous one. Probably only suitable for experts and certainly not for the impatient or the faint of heart!

I would like to request that you do not post spoilers in this thread. Feel free, however, to make comments, ask for hints and tips, or whatever else your heart desires.

[DethbyIT]

Hi Kapoios,
I haven't done any 'puzzle' maps, so this may be too tough to start on - but I can't get past the Relay building.
I save the survivors, build the relays, and at 1:53 the final right relay blows up. Game over.
I've tried moving the charged up Blaster over there for protection, but that doesn't seem to work.
I've moved OC as soon as the connection is made - no joy there either.

I don't see any where else to place the Blaster, or OC - and no way to save the final relay.

Are you ready to post any hints yet?

Thanks,
dbit

[Kapoios]

I save the survivors, build the relays, and at 1:53 the final right relay blows up. Game over.
I've tried moving the charged up Blaster over there for protection, but that doesn't seem to work.
I've moved OC as soon as the connection is made - no joy there either.

I don't see any where else to place the Blaster, or OC - and no way to save the final relay.

There is no way to save the relay that explodes at 1:53 (I think it's 1:54, by the way, but that doesn't matter, of course). There are walls around it, so the blasters can't target it.

Are you ready to post any hints yet?

I will post a cryptic hint about the trick required (which I thought of including in the artifacts but then decided it's better placed in the comments thread) :

Spoiler

Dont' be hasty. Sometimes one needs to take a step backwards to gain momentum

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Aside from that, a few more things to reduce the solution space a bit:

Spoiler

Deactivate red packets at the very beginning until the survival pod is rescued, or even later. Your first priority is to build all the collectors (the earlier they are built, the more total energy they produce) before sending red packets anywhere. Do not attempt bridging (that's keeping a unit aflight to connect things that aren't possible to connect otherwise) as that isn't necessary and might mislead you. Some bridging might be helpful (but not necessary) while you are building your collectors, but anything after that is only misleading you. Do not attempt to move OC to the big south-east platform until both blasters are charged; the city should start its flight towards the right at around 1:54. Basically, you will know that you have failed, if the relay has exploded and the two blasters aren't both fully charged, so you know you need to try something else.

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What's your best so far? What are things like when the relay explodes? Are the blasters 50% charged? Not charged at all?

Thank you very much for playing. It is indeed a hard map but I think with a lot of patience and some hints most people should be able to beat it.

[DethbyIT]

Thank you for responding.
I will attempt to attach screen-shots at the different stages.

Building more than 4 collectors results in the final relay connection not being made before exploding.

Also - I just realized that this is a brand new map, so you may not want to be giving out hints yet. I can wait and monitor for a few days if you think that is best.

Thanks.

[DethbyIT]

3 screen shots

[Kapoios]

Also - I just realized that this is a brand new map, so you may not want to be giving out hints yet. I can wait and monitor for a few days if you think that is best.

I don't want to post too strong hints, but I will try to guide your thoughts. From your screenshots, here are some things one can deduce: The second screenshot shows that during charging the second blaster, you are in deficit. This means that the city didn't have enough energy, and was sending packets to the blaster as soon as energy was available. In other words the blaster asked for energy early enough, but city didn't have it. This means that you connect to the blaster early enough, but your bottleneck is energy, not time of connection. You therefore have to try to think how to solve your energy problem.

Generally, in situations like this, you need to realise what your bottleneck is. Deficit when producing the last packet means you need to find ways to improve your energy. Non-zero energy in storage when producing the last packet means you need to connect to the blaster earlier.

As an example of things that can be improved: In your first screenshot I see that you could easily have built the last collector much earlier (building it simultaneously with the others, since there's a surplus of energy at that point). Making it ~15-20 seconds earlier, as soon as the artifact disappears, while not delaying the others at all, would result in it making about one more energy packet until 1:53. This would not solve your energy problem, of course; 1 extra packet wouldn't be enough, since you are 4 short in the end, but an example to keep in mind. You will need to find a way to utilise my cryptic hint above. You'll know it when you've decoded it!

Building more than 4 collectors results in the final relay connection not being made before exploding.

It is true that making more than 4 collectors is not a good idea, but the reasoning is different. You can build a 5th collector and make the connection in time (by building collectors simultaneously), but that won't solve your energy problem, because the 5th collector won't have enough time to make the 10 energy that it costs, and therefore will result in net loss of energy.

Slightly unrelated, but I see you are producing your screenshots with printscreen, or alt-printscreen, or something similar and then probably import them to some sort of software. An undocumented feature that you might find useful, is that backspace automatically makes a screenshot and puts it in My Documents/creeperworld_screens. It should be more convenient and slightly better quality.

[DethbyIT]

Thank you for the comments - and especially about using the 'Backspace' key.

Since both Relays are destroyed at the new landing pad for OC, it don't really see why having another Blaster fully charged is going to help anyway.

I think I need to file this one in the "Too hard to handle" basket and just watch for someone else to be able to figure it out.

Thanks,
dbit

[Kapoios]

I'm giving a few hints for part 2, because it is a bit obscure. A series of nested spoiler boxes follows. Every step is significantly more spoilery than the previous, climaxing to a complete spoiler. So, proceed with great care if you want to figure things out yourself!

Spoiler

One shot from each blaster is not enough to clear the 13.2 pool. Luckily, blasters are not the only thing that can harm creeper in this map! What's the other?

Spoiler

You guessed it! Mines also harm creeper. You might need to know quite a bit about how damage works to figure this out. All the knowledge you need is contained in this post. Luckily for those that don't want to read, more spoilers follow:

Spoiler

Mortar mine fragments won't help. There is, however, one square in the 13.2 that is near enough the rightmost mine that it can be harmed by the central explosion of it. If that gets destroyed, the two blasters will be able to clear the pool with one shot each (just let the creeper settle for 4-5 seconds and then pause and arm the two blasters simultaneously). But how can the mine be convinced to destroy that one instead of the squares in the deeper pool?

Spoiler

You must make sure that when the rightmost mine detonates, most of the squares in the deep pool are completely empty of creeper. Luckily, mines can do damage when the game is paused. How could you make sure that most of the deep pool is empty and the rightmost mine immediately detonates?

WARNING: COMPLETE SPOILER FOLLOWS!

Spoiler

Bring the two blasters disarmed. Pause the game. While paused, destroy the middle mine, then the rightmost mine. Unpause and give the creeper some time to settle. Pause again and rearm the two blasters. Unpause the game and the pool is cleared!

There is another (unintended) solution that doesn't use mines, found by hi.

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[UpperKEES]

I like the map! :) Great puzzle again, although I can't solve it yet (which should be considered a good sign! ;))

I found stage one rather easy and I love the intended solution for stage 2. I used another trick however, just like hi probably did (as I understood from reading the spoiler for that part).

Stuck in stage three now and still trying various options....

[DethbyIT]

LOL!
I feel so much better knowing that UK is also (temporarily) stumped.
dbit

[UpperKEES]

Hehehe!  :D Nice to know I can give people a good feeling by failing. ;)

[burguertime]

Four days, only one score and this comment by KEES?

Kapoios you are my hero.

Every venue o live needs an injection of new blood every now and then to be kept alive. Game guilds need to constant recruit, and CW needs new and innovative maps.

But this is x-mas week, its a unusual week, people are too busy getting ready for the holydays.

But you might need to tell KC to make a new color code for maps like this one. I can't pin  name on the category, but "experts defeating" is in the way i am thinking.

CONGRATS

[DethbyIT]

 ;D

UK - you know I meant that as a compliment - right?
I haven't been back to try again, but it is on my 'to-do' list.
dbit

[Fisherck]

I am very impressed too. This is more difficult than school! It is amazing the game mechanics you put in, while requiring us to go through all the steps and in the correct order. Like UpperKEES I have also gone through the first two steps, but am working on the third. I got a couple ideas, but since it is the third step, it takes a while to test them... :-X