This topic is for discussion of map #1618: Planet X954S2
(http://knucklecracker.com/creeperworld3/queryMaps.php?query=thumbnailid&id=1618)
Author: Hubs
Size: 250x250
Desc:
The humans have begun creating hybrid units in hopes of finally having a defense strong enough to take out the creeper. We have a little surprise for them... Show them no mercy! #PlayAsCreeper #PAC
Woah, Hubs - what an awesome looking map! Loads of work went in to it, I can see. I'm just about to start it, but I wanted to say I'm really looking forward to getting my teeth into this one. Thanks! :D
I am with Linden, haven't even started but had to come here to say that that is one good lucking map! Work of art!
It is, Dominik, and I'd frame it if I could. :D
Well, I just finished and it's wonderful to play. :)
Oh man hubs, you outdid yourself! Hard!
At first, I was all manner of pissed off, the first thing I do on pac maps is pause and look for the emitters; that didn't work. I unpaused to figure out what was going on, and I couldn't tell if someone had filled my computer with molassas or if the map was overly complex. Then I saw it. The stuttering cloud of DESTINY.
Processor intensive, but all in all great!
10/10 amazeballs would do again
That must have taken some time to build and test that Wow ! Looks stunning .. That's given me an idea ! :)
Great work again Hubs - You set the mark for others (including me) to reach :) 10/10
Great fun to play, really enjoyed it, very impressive map!
As usual pipped to the post by RrR!!
fun map! 8)
Thanks for the great feedback everyone! That was a beast to make and test. Taking the outer ring took about 15-20 minutes so testing the core took a long time to get to. Had to play through it 4 times to get it where I wanted it.
It started out being way too difficult on the planet with upgrades - mainly the mortars prevented you from progressing much onto the planet. So I removed most of the upgrades.
All of the terrain was randomly generated through an algorithm I wrote in jquery. I used excel to combine the different elements and create crpl that would make the map in the editor. Map design took about 3 hours and testing took another 3 hours.
Quote from: UrMawMah on January 17, 2015, 01:27:26 PM
Oh man hubs, you outdid yourself! Hard!
At first, I was all manner of pissed off, the first thing I do on pac maps is pause and look for the emitters; that didn't work. I unpaused to figure out what was going on, and I couldn't tell if someone had filled my computer with molassas or if the map was overly complex. Then I saw it. The stuttering cloud of DESTINY.
Processor intensive, but all in all great!
10/10 amazeballs would do again
I wondered if people would get tripped up by that haha! I do the same thing. I've always thought...how do emitters get on planets? Must be through meteor showers! I explored the concept with my battle station impact map. So I started thinking about how to actually do that. Then it dawned on me...a 200+storm of spores should do it. I was hoping to get a jaw dropping reaction when players finally see it.
It was most definitely an unexpected start! :D I too wondered where my start point was, as UrMawMah said, so I unpaused it to see where the creeper started. Then the incoming happened and I thought it was very inventive and spectacular. :D
(I didn't want to mention it earlier in case I spoiled it for others.)
A little too easy, but fun, and visually very impressive. I liked the intro script, too.
It's not often I go into a map thinking, "Whoa, this is cool!"
My first impression was "Whaaaa....... Oh, holy crap, that's cool."
Quote from: Hubs on January 17, 2015, 04:21:55 PM
Quote from: UrMawMah on January 17, 2015, 01:27:26 PM
Oh man hubs, you outdid yourself! Hard!
At first, I was all manner of pissed off, the first thing I do on pac maps is pause and look for the emitters; that didn't work. I unpaused to figure out what was going on, and I couldn't tell if someone had filled my computer with molassas or if the map was overly complex. Then I saw it. The stuttering cloud of DESTINY.
Processor intensive, but all in all great!
10/10 amazeballs would do again
I wondered if people would get tripped up by that haha! I do the same thing. I've always thought...how do emitters get on planets? Must be through meteor showers! I explored the concept with my battle station impact map. So I started thinking about how to actually do that. Then it dawned on me...a 200+storm of spores should do it. I was hoping to get a jaw dropping reaction when players finally see it.
I guess i always assumed that emitters started more like a fungus, with you know, a single tiny microscopic spore in the wrong place at the right time, but hell, I love the epic sporestorm more, it's that end-all of end-all assault "hey, yeah. We're going to be there. Right there. Yeah. Just gonna do this thing, you know, and hey, no hard feelings, but good luck stopping us. Give it your best and everything. Cherrio". (the creeper is obviously british.)
If you want my opinion though, the excel is good stuff, but switch from jquery to python for your quick hacky prototype sort of scripts- it's got way less cruft, and unpolished scrips come out of it incredibly quickly. Just don't spend your all your time learning it; I have this addiction for pac maps that neeeeeds to be filled.
This is the most epic, yet winnable, map I've ever played. The start also caught me by surprise. The sporteor shower was spectacular. Wait till I show this one to the little dude. We will need a lot of popcorn.
Is it possible to alter digitalis CPRL so it will be automatically created wherever it's possible? It's kinda chore to apply it manually on the map with this size and scale of attacks.
Of course it would be switch-able behaviour, in case we need those emitters in the void.
epic +1
Quote from: UrMawMah on January 17, 2015, 10:13:12 PM
If you want my opinion though, the excel is good stuff, but switch from jquery to python for your quick hacky prototype sort of scripts- it's got way less cruft, and unpolished scrips come out of it incredibly quickly. Just don't spend your all your time learning it; I have this addiction for pac maps that neeeeeds to be filled.
I'm in html/jquery all day at work, so I was able to slap it together in maybe 5 minutes. Plus it gave me a super easy interface to copy the data into excel and I could easily post the html file for anyone to use (let me know if anyone's interested in it).
Quote from: thumbmaster on January 18, 2015, 12:11:34 AM
This is the most epic, yet winnable, map I've ever played. The start also caught me by surprise. The sporteor shower was spectacular. Wait till I show this one to the little dude. We will need a lot of popcorn.
The map was way too difficult when I initially tested it and with the epicness of the map I wanted as many people to enjoy it as possible, so I toned it down. Hardcore players can go for time, casual players can go for a fun win. Hope the little guy likes it :)
Quote from: strigvir on January 18, 2015, 02:46:08 AM
Is it possible to alter digitalis CPRL so it will be automatically created wherever it's possible? It's kinda chore to apply it manually on the map with this size and scale of attacks.
Of course it would be switch-able behaviour, in case we need those emitters in the void.
It's definately possible, but that would be a pretty intense script to go through and check every cell on the map for creeper level and to add the digitalis if not present. I could maybe see this as a hotkey that you could press to create it, but as a script that is running all the time it will bog down the map significantly (especially on large maps). This map was 250x250, which is 62,500 cells, times 30 frames per second = 1,875,000 checks.
Quote from: Hubs on January 19, 2015, 10:24:20 AM
Hope the little guy likes it :)
When I showed him the map, his first reaction was, and I quote, "THIS MAP IS A 10!!!"
We had a great time playing it. We tried a different approach (more aggressive) than my solo run and enjoyed it immensely. The irony is that it actually added a few minutes to the time. My initial play was (IMHO) more leisurely but ended up with a better time. :o
Either way, he can't stop talking about this map and it inspired him to get moving on his own PAC map.
I was wondering when I'd see you two post a map. Can't wait to play it!
Quote from: Hubs on January 19, 2015, 10:28:46 AM
It's definately possible, but that would be a pretty intense script to go through and check every cell on the map for creeper level and to add the digitalis if not present. I could maybe see this as a hotkey that you could press to create it, but as a script that is running all the time it will bog down the map significantly (especially on large maps). This map was 250x250, which is 62,500 cells, times 30 frames per second = 1,875,000 checks.
And it's not possible to check creeper digitalis-less cells only without scanning the whole map?
Another positive comment here.
What a brilliant start idea...that is genius!
I wondered how on earth I was gonna get anywhere on this one, but realized the big hint was the start itself *wink*.
One thing that made it easier was the fact that the defender didn't attempt to put nullifiers anywhere. I had a couple of emitters just sitting there surrounded pretty much with anti-creeper and a couple of blasters and super mortars keeping the digitalis dead. Normally a nullifier or two would have been dropped in and would have thwarted my forward advance.
Spoiler
I guess it wouldn't have made much difference ultimately, as once the full outer ring has been populated with emitters, there is enough creeper to pound the nearest super cluster and move on.
Fab map though, enjoyed that. Mega overloading at the very end, was amusing!
Thanks for the comments. With that map it already had so much going on that nullifiers would have made it take longer and be more complicated. I toned down the difficulty a ton from what it was during initial testing. Glad you enjoyed!
I can't beat the mission, I got all the surroundings but how can I enter the main area?
After getting the surroundings, to get the main area use spores on the void at the bottom of the large circle, one you build digitalis there, enter the circle, you will only face little resistance at the bottom until you get a powerzone.
Then build an emitter there and replace all your spore towers with emitters and all emitters support the emitter on the main area, I got that emitter to be 700 strong which was able to help me add more emitters and finish the main area. This is a very good map, both not so difficult and looks good too.
Quote from: fred84 on June 27, 2015, 10:33:53 AM
sorry to bother you, but I am extremely puzzled. I am at my early attempts, but I seem unable to proceed.
I have read the help test in the map (all of it, I have noticed that the text changes depending on the command selected), but I cannot "colonize" any satellite except my initial one. I have killed all the defenses, the satellite is covered in creeper and digitalis, but I cannot create spores nor emitters in the power zones (the digitalis seems not to activate)
what am I missing?
I restarted the map since it had been a while and I want to make sure to address the obvious question...are you laying down digitalis? When I restarted the map a single emitter was created and there was an empty PZ. I put down digitalis over the entire island and it activated fine. Then I put a spore tower in the empty PZ. After that it is simply a matter of sending spores into the void and laying down more digitalis to spread to nearby islands.
This map is awesome ;D one hell of challenge.
Spoiler
Youtube Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxeZCt5IPL8&feature=youtu.be)
When you have gotten to the main island and is bothered by the PZ mortars there is tactic that is rarely used but I found useful on thi map: send a spore to one of the tiny 1-pixel islands within the mortar's range. mortars (and berthas) will target that because it has a creeper level at 500. Meanwhile, you can get stuff done.
Bad ass play! Good Job all around!
p.s. 50,000 more messages!
This map had such a great creeper domination feel as I surrounded the main planet, landed ashore, and proceeded to march across the planet - one PZ at a time.
And the start was Epic too (as everyone else has previously mentioned). This is my favorite PAC map I've found. Great work!
I noticed so many people score < 45 minutes. My best time so far was 55 minutes, after I stopped making the beginners mistakes of premature advances to the planet and sending spores against PZ beams. I took the complete ring and then advanced with emitters only. But that does not get me a good time. Can someone give a hint for better strategy?
This is indeed one of the best, if not the best, PAC maps in the game.
I just played it again to see how well I could do. It took me 13 minutes to completely take the outside ring, using almost exclusively spores. It took a lot of micromanaging, and I went down both sides simultaneously, so there was a lot of switching back and forth. I had one group of spore towers working the left side, and another working the top/right side.
Once the ring was taken, I converted them all to emitters and then made landfall on the north tip of the planet. Working my way down, the forge was dead at 17 minutes and all CNs were gone at 20 minutes. At that point, I converted most of the emitters back to spore towers set to auto-target, and I sat back and watched the spore storm destroy the remaining units within 60 seconds.