This topic is for discussion of map #1037: Merry Christmas
(http://knucklecracker.com/particlefleet/queryMaps.php?query=thumbnailid&id=1037)
Author: FOXX
Size: 340x260
Desc:
Presents from Santa Clause, wow (An overdue ChristMas Map) Scripting by Kajacx #IMG #DoubleLandEnergy #Grinch #Challenging #10Mins
An Overdue Christmas Map with some nice Mechanics.
Can be very hard if you are unlucky with the Presents.
Enjoy !
Greets
FOXX
Another great map! Normally I don't care for random elements in maps but this fit nice with the present theme.
Zalig Kerstfeest jongen! (late but whatever) :)
Thanks Svartmes,
i like the randomness of this map. From all of my maps i have played this one the most times. {and every time i get different presents.)
Great scripts in this Map [Kajacx]
Dankjewel en zalig kerstfeest [:))
FOXX
How do the small presents and the Grinch actually work? I've been restarting a lot and trying various strategies to get myself a couple extra Omnis and/or amp gems...I just so desperately need Omni Reactors and Move/Build Speed Increase to get anything done, and having 6 Omnis would be a huge boost as well.
Also, a bit of feedback: It'd make the map less frustrating if certain kinds of drops were disallowed on the basis of being disproportionately less useful. Mainly: Emitters that spawn on land waste most of their potential—they're far too strong for just holding out against stray particles—one Omni is usually more than enough, and eventually that particular landmass will be so far behind the front lines it doesn't even need that. Energy mines that spawn in the path of the streams of field-constrained particles are actually counter-productive, as there's no way to keep them out of enemy hands until you've already won anyway.
Previous Message
Quote from: daniels220 on January 25, 2018, 12:21:10 AM
How do the small presents and the Grinch actually work? I've been restarting a lot and trying various strategies to get myself a couple extra Omnis and/or amp gems...I just so desperately need Omni Reactors and Move/Build Speed Increase to get anything done, and having 6 Omnis would be a huge boost as well.
Also, a bit of feedback: It'd make the map less frustrating if certain kinds of drops were disallowed on the basis of being disproportionately less useful. Mainly: Emitters that spawn on land waste most of their potential—they're far too strong for just holding out against stray particles—one Omni is usually more than enough, and eventually that particular landmass will be so far behind the front lines it doesn't even need that. Energy mines that spawn in the path of the streams of field-constrained particles are actually counter-productive, as there's no way to keep them out of enemy hands until you've already won anyway.
Hi Daniels220,
Thank you for giving this Map a go.
First of all, Every time you play this map it will be different. (different Spawns and different Ships)
The Scripts in this map Where made by Kajacx but i will try to explain the best i can.
Small Presents
You get small Presents every time you destroy a Doppel. Small Presents contain Omni Pickups - AmpGems - Small/Medium Ship Pickups.
so if you really want more Omnis that is your only option. Don't destroy the DoppelSpawner but Destroy the Doppel a couple of times and you have the chance to get more Omnis. But destroying more Doppels means you have more Small Presents on that spot so you will have to Lathe a Lot.
Grinch
10 Minutes into the game the Grinch arrives and changes the gameplay drastically. When the Grinch is in the Game you don't get Presents anymore but Coal.
And if you destroy the Grinch the Coal changes into LandEnergyPods. So for the sake of the game it is good if the Grinch is Destroyed ASAP.
Spoiler
RAMMING
And the Gameplay for this map, yeah. Not like your normal Maps. Because of the Randomness the gameplay is different and you have to adapt with what Spawns you get. From all of my maps i have played this one the most times.
And when i got a Blue Emitter on a Landmass i was Glad because i could go to the Stars in the Middle with my Omnis (LandValue = doubled so having more land means more Energy) if this happens later in the Game it is not so beneficial because you might have loads of Energy.
I agree if you have an Energy Spawn in the middle of the Particle Field that is not very usefull. And you have to be a little Lucky with the Spawns. When i played the Map i couldn't Finish twice !!
So if you are a bit Unlucky with (especially) the early spawns this can be very hard to Finish.
I hope this was usefull.
Greets
FOXX
Re: small presents—ah, the text says doppels or ships, and I was more easily able to destroy ships and was noticing I wasn't getting any presents. Doppels do work—except, see next point.
The Grinch is the big ship in the upper-right hand corner? For me, after restarting the map it is there from the very beginning (and I get coal instead of small presents). I just checked and I am on the latest version of the game. Any idea why or what to do about it?
Quote from: daniels220 on January 26, 2018, 08:47:44 PM
Re: small presents—ah, the text says doppels or ships, and I was more easily able to destroy ships and was noticing I wasn't getting any presents. Doppels do work—except, see next point.
I have checked and you are right. Conversation says Doppels AND Ships but the reality is that you only get a Small present with Doppels.
Overlooked that one.
QuoteThe Grinch is the big ship in the upper-right hand corner? For me, after restarting the map it is there from the very beginning (and I get coal instead of small presents). I just checked and I am on the latest version of the game. Any idea why or what to do about it?
No, the Grinch is the ship with 2 Fighter Bases which Spawns after 10 Mins on the ShipSpawner at Coords 222 229.
The Big upper-right Corner Ship is always there. If you get Coal instead of Small Presents it should mean that the Grinch has appeared. If this is not the case (meaning you didn't play 10mins) i think a restart would be usefull.
Latest Version of the game is always a good thing.
Good Luck,
Greets,
FOXX
Good map, FOXX.
I had one interesting effect - a permanent Emitter on the lower part of the leftmost landmass, coupled with the path of the Doppel at the top, and later a mine in the area. This meant that those present-Cores were farmed automatically.
Quote from: GoodMorning on January 28, 2018, 02:28:25 AM
Good mp, FOXX.
I had one interesting effect - a permanent Emitter on the lower part of the leftmost landmass, coupled with the path of the Doppel at the top, and later a mine in the area. This meant that those present-Cores were farmed automatically.
Thanks GM,
I can totally see this situation happening -> only not with me. I all of my runs i was not fortunate enough to get this situation spawned.
A good example on how different each run is with this Map.
Greets
FOXX
QuoteNo, the Grinch is the ship with 2 Fighter Bases
Huh, okay. I just restarted, and at about 5 minutes it is indeed not there, but I destroyed a Doppel and got a lump of coal. Any ideas?
Do you have a save? Or even a screenshot? It helps a lot in debugging.
Yes, now a save file would be helpfull.
i just did another run on this map and it seemed ok. Didn't trigger the [to] early coal spawns.
Sure. Here are two saves—one shortly before and the other shortly after destroying a Doppel around the 5min mark.
Bug Confirmed. But i don't know why.
Here are the image of my check run.
Before Grinch
(https://i.imgur.com/SkCRQqQ.jpg)
AfterGrinch
(https://i.imgur.com/TmPAPFX.jpg)
So the mechanics for the Coal works fine it's just the question why the Doppel Spawns Coal instead of a Small Present.
I have to see if the Scriptmaker for tis Map has time to look at it perhaps.
Did you tried to play again? with same results?
Greets
FOXX
Thanks for looking into it. Yes, both of those saves are from a full restart.
Quote from: daniels220 on January 30, 2018, 01:28:49 PM
Thanks for looking into it. Yes, both of those saves are from a full restart.
Interesting indeed.
I haven't heard from the Scriptmaker yet.
But maybe you can try this save file from me and put this in your editor and see how that works out.
Greets
FOXX
Hello and sorry for such a late response, sometimes I gen un-motivated for weeks on and and can't get myself to do anything.
The bug with the coal spawning after you load is really wierd, it might ba a bug in Particle Fleet itself convering how global variables are store across saves, since the state of the gring is stored in a global variable.
To clarify the small presents: they drop from doppels and from enemy present ships. That means only enemy ships that have the present and ribbons on them will drop the small presents. Also only small presents drop omnis and ampgemps, so farming the is definetely the way to go, although the chance of getting one of these lowers with how many you get.
Finally you should be getting small presents again after you defeat the Grinch, if not, that's a bug in the script and I appologise for it.
I had the thought that it might be a PF bug. Let me know if I can help in any way to figure it out. I don't know PRPL at all, haven't even opened the editor for that matter, but I'm familiar with programming, so I could probably read stuff enough to understand what you're talking about... Also, I'm reminded of this map (https://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?topic=16224.msg117994#msg117994) from CW3, where global state is explicitly, intentionally preserved across restarts. Here you're not trying to, and a "global variable" as I understand it does seem like it should still be local to a particular instantiation of a particular map and stored in the save file, but...still, I wonder.
Aha, that makes sense about the small presents. I don't think I ever destroyed a present ship, certainly not until after the Grinch had spawned.
Of note, I think the thing about getting presents instead of coal after you destroy the Grinch is inconsistent with the text, which as I remember it says...ah. Maybe what was meant was, the coal you already got turns into energy pods, but further doppels and present ships you destroy go back to giving you presents?
QuoteMaybe what was meant was, the coal you already got turns into energy pods, but further doppels and present ships you destroy go back to giving you presents?
I know this is the case.
Have you tried the save yet to see if that works ok?
I hadn't, but I now have—still getting coal, unfortunately. I did get a good first few drops, though, so maybe I'll try playing it out and see if waiting for the Grinch to appear, then destroying it, fixes the problem on subsequent plays.
Update: Still playing, getting highly inconsistent results. Grinch appeared, I killed it. 99% sure I got at least one piece of coal after that. But then I did start getting small presents from present-ships, at least. Camped a ship spawner, got a bunch of stuff which I mostly couldn't see (all stacked up). Grinch re-appeared (I assume it's supposed to?), I killed it again. Noticed that there was definitely some coal mixed in with the small presents, but figured it was from when the Grinch had spawned and was building and I hadn't noticed it yet. Just now killed a Doppel, got coal, checked and the Grinch is definitely not there. So...???
Strange, when i tested the mechanisms for this map all seemed to work ok.
And i have played this map more than any of my other maps just because i liked the mechanisms very much.
All seemed to work well.
I just loaded up the map again -> started playing and the first Doppel i destroy leaves Coal. so i am baffled at the moment.
It shouldn't be a Save/load issue because i've tested that before but i don't know why the doppel just spawned Coal instead of a present.
Also very odd is that you are the only one who addressed this issue.
Really don't know why the Map doesn't work for you Daniels220 but i think i have a bit of bad news.
Since Kajacx and myself have moved on to new Projects i don't think we have a lot of time to investigate this issue.
What i can say is that i can't help you further because these scripts are to complicated for me and i don't know if Kajacx has the time.
Greets,
FOXX
Yeah, it's a mystery. I did ultimately finish the map, which was my main goal, so I'm good.
Quote from: daniels220 on February 08, 2018, 11:25:30 AM
Yeah, it's a mystery. I did ultimately finish the map, which was my main goal, so I'm good.
:D
A very good and enjoyable map, with x-mas broiling in the casseroles I happily bump this one for attention for any possible new players - or those like me had not played this one until now. ;D
Edit: And yes had a completely different set of ships and spawns on a second replay, cutting down the finish time by a whole minute.