Custom Map #1977: Dreams of Eridani. By: Telanir

AutoPost · April 17, 2015, 02:22:07 AM

This topic is for discussion of map #1977: Dreams of Eridani

Author: Telanir
Size: 150x110

Desc:
Play in the role of an ambitious aspiring colony director as he encounters a problem of a gravity never faced before. Fight a slumbering menace that is cruel and unforgiving, cold and calculating, and designed with one purpose: to protect it's area of influence with its life. Can you best this cunning new foe? #Sleeper #CRPL #Release

Telanir · April 17, 2015, 02:24:51 AM

For people who are interested in these sorts of maps you can visit this post to find more like it or find some tactics and strategy to help you win.

I honestly encountered my first downward spiral in this game. It was incredible and it was devastating. I had first overestimated my energy reserves and I depleted the energy deposit (what a derp) and began building reactors furiously. The Sleeper meanwhile built a Beam and it went between the two bases and shot down the Guppy I was using to power the mining outpost, it advanced using mortars and cannons and I repelled it at first. Then the Sleeper moved closer to my front lines and built a damn Creep Terp overtop and it completely wrecked my defense, after I decided to pull back and double down on what territory I already had (half the map) Spore towers were unlocked and the decimated my new borders while I frantically built beams.
The Sleeper exploited my drained energy reserves and built additional spore towers and they overpowered my underpowered Beams quickly. Well, from there it was a cakewalk for the Sleeper, it fired a little something at my reactor collection and with a few spores my energy was down and I was as good as dead. Then it decided to add salt to my moral wound and sent a few pulse cannons and mortars to beat down my base with repeated strikes.
Apparently when the AI is working as intended it's a lot harder than it might look, and that's after I nerfed a bunch of settings. I played my own map and made a few bad mistakes haha, I guess I was too cocky. Second time around... I was more careful.

Here's a hint for those who have it hard: That ridge running down the middle of the map is crucial in your defense, never lose it. If you have to, place as many beams as you can and send in cannon waves with strafers to keep spore tower levels down and enemies few in number. The key is holding out for long enough until you've got a lot of those forge upgrades. GL

If anyone noticed, lag problems seem to be MUCH better now due to many optimizations in the code. Please mention any suggestions for future maps here and mention bugs and etc.

Thank you for everyone who supported me and continues to do so, I never expected to make a mod this large for CW3. :)

strigvir · April 17, 2015, 01:10:38 PM

AI indeed is way more aggressive in this one, especially with a terp spam. Though the preview seems to differ from the actual map start.
I both like and dislike Strafers in this map. They are super useful but pop like balloons along with their structure. Consider to alter them a bit so air units work like in Red Alert 2 - destroying the plane keeps the base, but destroying the base destroys the associated plane. Otherwise it will become a chore to manage them on bigger/harder maps.

Telanir · April 17, 2015, 02:38:05 PM

Quote from: strigvir on April 17, 2015, 01:10:38 PM
AI indeed is way more aggressive in this one, especially with a terp spam. Though the preview seems to differ from the actual map start.
I both like and dislike Strafers in this map. They are super useful but pop like balloons along with their structure. Consider to alter them a bit so air units work like in Red Alert 2 - destroying the plane keeps the base, but destroying the base destroys the associated plane. Otherwise it will become a chore to manage them on bigger/harder maps.

Unfortunately the way the game is designed is that for the player all air units are directly linked to their base. If any of those blows up it's over for both the base and the strafer, I can't actually change this. :\
I'll look into it, maybe there could be some way to handle it differently though I'm out of ideas for this one.

Thanks for playing though strigvir! :)

Karsten75 · April 17, 2015, 03:43:24 PM

No noticeable lag on this one.

You could, like the PAC maps, create wiki sections if you wish

Telanir · April 17, 2015, 04:40:32 PM

Quote from: Karsten75 on April 17, 2015, 03:43:24 PM
No noticeable lag on this one.

You could, like the PAC maps, create wiki sections if you wish

That would be awesome. Do you think it would be okay to pin this and this? Or maybe it is yet premature, time will tell. :)
Thanks either way, I'll get to work as soon as I can.

cecel123 · April 18, 2015, 02:08:05 AM

Reduced lag AND a more aggressive AI? I love it! I beat first try using an a strategy that is rather outside my comfort zone in aggression, but man, i get scared when i see that many corrupted mortars and blasters headed towards me. 10/10 on this one. looking forward to the next one for sure!

Tyler21 · April 19, 2015, 04:14:12 PM

Quote from: cecel123 on April 18, 2015, 02:08:05 AM
Reduced lag AND a more aggressive AI? I love it! I beat first try using an a strategy that is rather outside my comfort zone in aggression, but man, i get scared when i see that many corrupted mortars and blasters headed towards me. 10/10 on this one. looking forward to the next one for sure!

I fully agree. This one is the best Sleeper map so far. The only con is that emitters are (again) very easy to nullify (because of the terrain difference again) and including those emitters actually made the map a lot easier (imagine pulsecannons on level 10 terrain PZs, set to digitalis first and with level 3+ fire range upgrade... that's what's happened to Creeps in my game:) ).

invaderhive · July 23, 2015, 09:50:05 PM

This was my first sleeper map and it was so much fun. I won the map on my first try but I always felt like one mistake could cost me the game the whole way through. It was very action packed with me having to stop the digitalis from spreading and being put on a clock due to the sleeper gathering aether quickly. The scariest part was be destroying the bertha so I could build it on a power zone. It left me very vulnerable during that period. The best part was was using strafers to destroy the sleeper ore buildings causing the sleeper node to move back to rebuild them. This allowed me to gain huge ground against the sleeper. I can not wait to play more of these maps. It kind of felt like a PVP experience.

ljw1004 · October 19, 2015, 01:25:21 PM

Absolutely fantastic map. I haven't felt this excited by a CW map for a long time. It was challenging - I died three times before I realized I needed a Bertha to help me!