Creeper World:
Spoiler
Planet 11 - Tucana.
(http://i.ytimg.com/vi/g_S1dJkp-OE/mqdefault.jpg)
You got a very limited time to build two mortars before the creeper takes you.
Creeper World 2 - Redemption:
Spoiler
Day 13 - Horror.
(http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/x2S7ZfpYVAE/maxresdefault.jpg)
Surviving yourself is not hard at all, but you have to "save" all the capsules. Nobody survives anyway..
Creeper World 3 - Arc Eternal:
Spoiler
Farbor.
(http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/QA4ahMvNvns/maxresdefault.jpg)
Not really hard to win, but it seems to be the most hated map of CW3 becuse of limited time.
May I say that (from the story maps) that are my favorite maps?
I agree on all three of those maps, but Horror to me was by far the worst. I spent a great deal of time repeatedly losing and fine-tuning things, until I finally won one day. But it was bad enough that it was the first game since Resident Evil 4 to make me say "forget being the hero, just let them die and move on".
Wow, I did not experience to hard of a time on though maps, lol, most likely failed first time, but was easy to do again, lol.
hard the first time, easier the next times. That's these maps in a nutshell.
And playing hero as Relli suggests is definitely not my cup of tea during apocalyptic wars. It's the victim's own fault for being so naive and arrogant by being so defensless and blindly trusting their own good fortune and peace before the conflict. ::)
You see this all the time in zombie plot situations and other plots involving revenge and retribution.
Why specifically these maps, there are other such maps in the storyline that are also very difficult:
cw1:
ara: emitters on top of pyramid and only walls that decay are the starting defense
corvus: need to get all the capsules if one dies you lose, that one is the one I had trouble with the first time
ix: low ground and creeper falls down, gotta get that drone quickly
pyxis: fight up terrain against creeper
loki: maybe, but without building the thor
cw2:
day 8: sliver, while doable, its the first limited to react to creeper type of map in the storyline
day 11: the cooker, the second such map where the creeper is held by decayable terrain and will kill a slow player
day 12: answer, the third such map where the enemy digs things out, gives players much trouble
day 13: horror, yes I agree, but its still easily beatable when first a few shields up top and a blaster can stop that area, then focus attacking to reach the capsule that is threatened by decayable terrain, while defending the bottom spot, then continue ignoring the capsule with the circle of creeper around it, but keep a few launchers, then continue to the most distant capsule since the creeper is slowly filling that area.
day 14: phoenix, some creeper, but player is under pressure due to first phantoms map
day 15: exterminate!, this map has the first drones and put a lot of early pressure on the player
day 16: purpose, this map is definitely more difficult than day 13, had to restart so many times no rescue capsules, but difficult to get the energy to defend against drones, phantoms, and lots of creeper, not for slow players at all
day 17: after the top creeper pool is dealt with, only the bottom capsule is the troublesome spot, not so difficult
day 18: the tide, much more difficult than day 13 and even day 16, multiple strong threats in many areas including creeper that comes out in a shape and drops over reactors forcing restart + even after surviving, there is that 750 health drone
day 19: colony prime, that map should be on this page, not day 13 from its difficulty, not only you have to rescue bunkers, while the bunkers can defend themselves a little, the creeper will kill them in a short time, and there are phantoms and drones and tough creeper with little starting energy
day 20: starting with 20000 energy does the trick, but still the enemy is digging and at least 2 beams need to be built.
cw2 summary, definitely days 16, 18, and 19 need to be on this list, they are quite difficult for starting players.
cw3:
starting from egos: defi, ruine, and choix put lots of early pressure on the player
frykt: mistet also puts early pressure on player
and the last 3 missions, put some kind of early pressure, including the ma on this page,
otrav has low starting ground, and farbor is listed here, and arca, nullifying the six things before the arc is revealed.
That is the description of the difficulty players face in the story maps of all 3 games.
There is one more thing to say here: The creeper is always trying to destroy everything and those maps are evident that te creeper does not want to wait.
I have to agree with the original poster. All those maps were bad because it punishes casual players. Especially Horror got me frustrated to the point that I quit playing the game. Either have a more casual setting, or don't include time constraint maps in a game. Getting stuck is NOT fun.
I found those maps to be fun because they were challenging and put more pressure on you.
Other maps could be described as harder than these 3 most hated maps, but these stand out as the most brutal for their places in the stories.
Essentially, they are the most hated because they have the highest overall time-crunches in which there is NO room to relax whatsoever. This is clearly to designed to test our abilities to employ rush-based strategies and most players like turtling like me.
Quote from: 4xC on April 29, 2014, 10:34:28 AM
This is clearly to designed to test our abilities to employ rush-based strategies and most players like turtling like me.
Prove your "most players" assertion.
Quote from: Karsten75 on April 29, 2014, 12:21:17 PM
Quote from: 4xC on April 29, 2014, 10:34:28 AM
This is clearly to designed to test our abilities to employ rush-based strategies and most players like turtling like me.
Prove your "most players" assertion.
If most players didn't prefer turtling then there wouldn't be all the hatred of time limited levels. I have always been a speed rush player. So I don't mind the timed levels but I understand why some people do.
It is very hard to prove anything involving 'Most Players' unless you are V, and have access to stats that probably don't exist anyways. Everyone (most, in fact) doesn't comment here, and lots of people may play without internet for some times (hence, no scores), or chose not to submit scores.
I turtle.
Which is why I have trouble with most maps.
Horror's not really that hard except for that first capsule, and not really even that if you upgrade and prioritize right. Colony Prime, on the other hand, had me stuck for months when I first played it.
Yeah, Colony Prime was pretty hard.
Admittedly, I haven't ever finished All Things... I probably should do that at some point...
Quote from: planetfall on May 05, 2014, 09:56:48 PM
Horror's not really that hard except for that first capsule, and not really even that if you upgrade and prioritize right.
Many things are easy if you know how to do them. That doesn't mean they're easy overall though, as sometimes it can be very difficult to figure out the correct way to do things.
In my experience, at least, the difficulty with levels like Horror and Farbor is in realizing that your usual approach is never gonna work, and then testing over and over again a completely new strategy until you finally get it right and win. Which can take a very long time, depending.
Or, perhaps, it takes no time at all for some people, because either that's their natural strategy already, or because they get lucky in choosing a replacement strategy. Skill is obviously involved, but never underestimate luck.
The more luck is involved, the more hatred seems to be earned.
Quote from: 4xC on May 27, 2014, 10:05:37 AM
The more luck is involved, the more hatred seems to be earned.
true, but luck really only comes into play with spores/phantoms and drones/runners.
if you do the exact same thing (timing and location) with out any of those random factors then it should happen the same way
there is luck with how I time it when not playing frame by frame, and that is probably what you mean
All 3 of the maps posted I hate.
My Top 3 Most Hated maps from each game:
CW1:
#1:Corvus, hands down. I had to restart a LOT on this map before I realized that sending a mortar to the opposite end of the map helps a survival pod escape.
#2:Tucuna, as posted. Not only are 2 mortars required to survive the start, but not getting reactors until AFTER!? That helps a lot!
#3:Draco, strangely enough. It's not hard, just takes a while to penetrate the big wall of creeper in that big,fat hole in the center.
CW2:
#1:Horror, as posted. Too many capsules, not enough time, many restarts, 'nuff said.
#2:Sliver. Wierdly enough, this wasn't too hard. Just takes a bit.
#3:Answer. Lack of drones and phantoms in this one, luckily, but gateways and fields don't exactly help. Plus, I believe there's a lack of ore here, I forget.
CW3:
#1:Farbor, as posted, and self-explanitory.
#2:Otrav. A bit too much creeper going through those fields.
#3:Choix. Tedious, but simple.
If there's one reason why I hate CW1's Ix, it is that it is the only map I have not beaten with "Double Down" active.
P.S. For those who don't know, Loki is not only beatable with "Double Down" turned on, it is also beatable without the Thor DURING Double Down!
I wouldn't say I hate these maps so much as they frustrate me severely.
From CW1:
1. Tucana. You face a severe time crunch within in which you have to get to being able to support a pair of mortars. It's doable, certainly, but you have to be quick.
2. Loki. Overbuilding Gets Punished Severely. ;)
From CW2:
1. Sliver and Cooker. Those maps will burn you fast.
2. Colony Prime. I've never beaten it yet.
From CW3:
1. Farbor. You know why. :P
2. Arca. As with CW1/Loki. ;)
My most hated maps:
CW1: Loki
CW2: Exterminate!
CW3: Chanson/Arca
My favourite maps:
CW1: Tucana
CW2: Purpose
CW3: Farbor
Note that this is what I think now, not when I first played them.
I got stuck on Vapen, of all things, for quite a while. In CW2, I've never actually completed Colony Prime.
Well here's a tip for your future attempt on Colony Prime: don't hesitate to engage in a multi-front assault; the sooner you get to the bunkers, the better. (After all, you don't have to kill everything along the way; the objective says all you have to do to win is collect all the bunkers.)
As for Vapen, are you trying to win it with or without the Field Beam? There is a Steam achievement that requires you to win it without activating it (just take out the inhibitor without clearing the creeper around the Field Beam's power cells).
Maps I favor least in all 3 games (note: I am okay with rescue missions, but if it involves rescuing helpless innocents who can't put up a fight against enemies (and that take some blame for the conflict on account of naievity and/or pride in some way, I don't harbor positive feelings towards them):
CW1:
Corvus: It irritates me to have to rush all across the map to get the pods in time. (At least CW2 bunkers in Colony Prime can shoot 'em up before you have to help them after which you get some hefty resource bonuses.)
Tucana: As if energy production optimization were not enough, try beating it with Double Down (like I did)
CW2:
Horror: Essentially the same reasons as Corvus except for the resource bonuses which I appreciate.
The Tide: This level screams "big" from start to finish and it does not rub off on me positively (particularly the 750 HP Drone and the Creeper Shape-Spitting Fumarole right under the LS).
CW3:
Mistet: Even though the Singularity Weapon is said to be invaluable here, it's too expensive for me to try it out in a way that it will last long enough to keep incoming creeper at bay and still acquire upgrades.
Otrav: I never was a fan of pure uphill assaults in this series. (Then again, I never tried flyers here because I felt like they would be more time consuming).
(Reply to the original post)
Tucana: It's hard, but it was my favourite map
Also pyxis is hard, but if you are enough fast to win before the wall...
Loki isn't hard without thor
Cw2:IDK I don't bought it
Cw3:
Yes, farbor..
Quote from: 4xC on June 21, 2014, 01:15:40 PM
Well here's a tip for your future attempt on Colony Prime: don't hesitate to engage in a multi-front assault; the sooner you get to the bunkers, the better. (After all, you don't have to kill everything along the way; the objective says all you have to do to win is collect all the bunkers.)
[snip]
Otrav: I never was a fan of pure uphill assaults in this series. (Then again, I never tried flyers here because I felt like they would be more time consuming).
Any map with an inhibitor always makes me think of Ender's Game: "The enemy's gate is down."
Sorry J, but I have to put Super Tower on my most hated list. Someone mentioned luck as an ingredient for frustration. What I couldn't stand about that level is that you would struggle to get something stable, meaning something that would both shoot down all randomly-generated spores, snipe all randomly generated runners, not get too many units paralyzed by the runners, and recharge the stolen ammo in time to avoid digitalis overrun. I'd know it's stable because it would survive a few revolutions of the tower in stasis. But then I'd happen to run into a bad streak - a whole bunch of runners would quickly drop in just a way to wipe out everything. I would save the game when things were good only to find often times that I saved right before a bad streak.
The other ingredient for frustration - no upgrades.
That being said, the best part of that level was that it was super difficult. Trial and error. No margin to work with. I painstakingly terp'd my way out of it - carved a level 1 moat around the outside so when I popped a runner, the resulting creeper explosion wouldn't be able to retaliate.
Quote from: arandomhalo on August 04, 2014, 10:08:30 AM
Sorry J, but I have to put Super Tower on my most hated list. Someone mentioned luck as an ingredient for frustration. What I couldn't stand about that level is that you would struggle to get something stable, meaning something that would both shoot down all randomly-generated spores, snipe all randomly generated runners, not get too many units paralyzed by the runners, and recharge the stolen ammo in time to avoid digitalis overrun. I'd know it's stable because it would survive a few revolutions of the tower in stasis. But then I'd happen to run into a bad streak - a whole bunch of runners would quickly drop in just a way to wipe out everything. I would save the game when things were good only to find often times that I saved right before a bad streak.
The other ingredient for frustration - no upgrades.
That being said, the best part of that level was that it was super difficult. Trial and error. No margin to work with. I painstakingly terp'd my way out of it - carved a level 1 moat around the outside so when I popped a runner, the resulting creeper explosion wouldn't be able to retaliate.
No problem, was never really proud of that level anyways :P
It was made before the forge was in the game, so I couldn't add upgrades. The general idea was to kill it quickly so it doesn't grow stronger, but you must have a good reactor farm and a lot of beams before you can safely nullify it. Runners were only semi-random, their stats are based on the number of frames between them (more time -> more health ect), and a runner has a chance of 1 out of the total number of runners on the screen to be created. It was ok to complete it once, but even I won't do it again.
btw, post 2
11, which is a game!
"Ramdom Runners", J? Do you mean to say that your map had runners appearing at random times and with random stats or something like that?
Or am I missing something that I may have overlooked as the runners and nests nowadays have fixed spawning stats and healths?
BTW, arandomhalo, I take credit for coining the frustration associated with luck in VGs like this one.
Quote from: 4xC on August 14, 2014, 12:18:24 PM
"Ramdom Runners", J? Do you mean to say that your map had runners appearing at random times and with random stats or something like that?
We were talking about a custom map (Super Tower, alpha-J) that had a crpl core spawning runners (so not a standard runner nest). Their spawn times were random, but all other stats were fixed or based on their spawn time. And ofcourse I would never let luck be a huge factor in winning/losing :P