This topic is for discussion of map #568: sudo rm lathe
(http://knucklecracker.com/particlefleet/queryMaps.php?query=thumbnailid&id=568)
Author: planetfall
Size: 384x384
Desc:
The Galactic Corportation reserves the right to take your money and run. Warning: map has a soft time limit. It's fairly generous, but worth mentioning.
It's finally up!
Planetfall, can we get an evil laugh?
Oh this map is so evil, and i love it >:D
Wow, this is amazing, fantastic work!
One tiny little tip for anyone yet to play:
Spoiler
Adjust your lathe settings so that you can conrtol when you collect pick ups, I lost a lot of ships because my inventory was full and so lost the new ship, I should have managed the pick ups a little better!
The end is quite a battle but very satisfying!
Very cool map! I really liked all the new mechanics and very much enjoyed playing it. Unfortunetly I had a couple of bugs with the map:
1: I saved the map in progress, closed PF then when I later returned to the game and loaded, all my ships would just explode and vanish from the loadoutbar. This was around 19:00 mark iirc and I had full bar of ships. Saving and loading was working fine while I was in game. It was only after I had exited PF it became like this.
2: When I got to the "boss" and the alarm went off the game would just sit there like it was paused (I could pause and unpause, but it had no effect). The only thing that would still be active was the power store that just kept increasing. Screenshot below.
Spoiler
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/7azsylkculks74t/pfbug.jpg)
Its a pity I don't have any money to steal from anyways.
Quote from: svartmes on January 22, 2017, 04:01:00 PM
Very cool map! I really liked all the new mechanics and very much enjoyed playing it. Unfortunetly I had a couple of bugs with the map:
1: I saved the map in progress, closed PF then when I later returned to the game and loaded, all my ships would just explode and vanish from the loadoutbar. This was around 19:00 mark iirc and I had full bar of ships. Saving and loading was working fine while I was in game. It was only after I had exited PF it became like this.
2: When I got to the "boss" and the alarm went off the game would just sit there like it was paused (I could pause and unpause, but it had no effect). The only thing that would still be active was the power store that just kept increasing. Screenshot below.
Spoiler
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/7azsylkculks74t/pfbug.jpg)
Both of these are very odd. I did some very brief testing and wasn't able to reproduce either one. The first is probably a bug in the save/load process, and loading the same file should theoretically work identically whether or not the game had been closed. The second is probably caused by an edge case I hadn't anticipated when scripting, but it could still be some kind of error in the base game. In any case, whatever bad arguments are being passed in the script, the game should be able to catch them so as not to break this profoundly. Can you post saves and a log for both?
If I had to hazard a guess, a version mismatch might have caused this. I tweaked and uploaded this on beta 1.1.1, although the project is quite old, and to my knowledge I didn't make use of any beta features. If you use Steam, try switching to the beta branch (http://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?topic=22938.0) and see if that fixes the issue.
Quote from: planetfall on January 22, 2017, 09:17:18 PM
Can you post saves and a log for both?
I was playing on steam version 1.0.2. The #2 bug only happened once (or on one save I should say, as it can be reproduced using that) and I was still able to get passed it by reloading an earlier save.
Sorry but I overwrote the #1 bug save >.< I still have a save that triggers #2 though. I just tested and loading it will trigger the bug in 1.1.1 aswell, (though keep in mind that the session was started and played using 1.0.2).
I will do some testing on 1.1.1 and see if I can get either bug to trigger.
Save file to #2 bug and logfile below.
Update edit: I replayed the mission in 1.1.1 and I encountered #2 bug again but it triggered at a later stage so it doesent seem to be caused by the "alarm" event but rather by some save/load corruption/bug.
Yeah I just suffered that #2 bug. only that was my only save. :'(
Well guess I can try beating the map again some later time, was pretty nifty till then.
The former might relate to globals, the latter I had encountered (something similar) some time ago.
That map was pretty damn good until I triggered
Spoiler
Emergency defense
And I couldn't recover from this blow. But I really liked the overall gameflow, juggling ships to figure out which ones I can sacrifice, maintaining balance of my fleet while constantly upgrading it, the constant pressure...It's all soooo good.
Someday I will unearth this gem from "IN PROGRESS" category and try to finish it again.
I would have to say that I concur with Stickman. I found the map really exciting up until, well, THAT part. Seriously, even with all of my ships (and all of the battle-capable ones intact) upgraded, full on energy and firing like madmen, I simply couldn't punch through. I don't know what I could have done better to manage my fleet, and tbh, I honestly doubt I'll ever complete this map since I'm not a brilliant PF player anyway.
Still, really interesting and unique map overall. (Kinda wish I could make my maps as cool as this one... :P)
Ach.
Even having played the test versions, this one still looked impossible for a while at the end.
And I accidentally claimed the Varro with a full fleet.
Until the end, it's a low-stress map - until.
Spoiler
The shields seemed to be rather too great, but the Emergent rate and size was ridiculous. I ended up pausing after every second of play in order to rebuild or replace Omnis, juggle lathes, and forget the jammers. The shields were at least defeatable (it took as long as the main structure to take out enough).
Fortunately I had a few replacement combat ship pickups left, but the hack rate was more than a 1% per second ere the end.
One structure to challenge a full fleet, yes - that many Emergent behind a shield, not as much fun.
It has lost nothing since testing, though the endgame could possibly drop a notch.
Again, ach.
Just finished this Map.
It was a Journey from start to finish.
I loved the Decryption Progress and the balance of the game.
You have to watch for a bunch of things but was good fun.
The End was a bit tough, If i gave it another run i would save up Lathes for the end.
Long Story short -> One of the Best Maps i have Played !!
Hated this.
Long slog through the map, finally got to the end, got wrecked due to lack of firepower.
Slog again, just to finish that thing? No way.
Oh, and that "soft" limit isn't soft at all. Not sure what to call it, but "soft" is a misnomer - maybe something like "you may have lost half an hour before you actually see you lost".
Another remark: Adding a soft limit means you're denying achievement to people who aren't fast.
I.e. you lose those who need an early win to be motivated to try another one.
I just retried, went in pretty quickly, tried a strategy but it wouldn't work out, but that means I lost.
I could be save scumming, but... no. Just no. Being a good strategist doesn't mean you retry a map until you have made the right decisions with 20/20 hindsight that the previous attempts give you.