No lag issues at all but I'll still leave a reply. Hope it's helpful.
Overall, I really enjoyed this map. I think every step you've taken is an improvement, and it's cool to see how things are developing. I do have a few questions:
1) It looks like the spawn rate increases - is that right? The numbers go up steadily and then the numbers go all wacky speed and the spawn rate indicator looks like my brain on drugs.
2) Does the spawn rate ever approach the ludicrous speed it did in the previous version around the 1-hour mark? Or is that fixed?
3) I didn't see the spore-launching munchkins in this one. Did I just miss them? I was just shooting stuff so I might not have noticed.
Since I didn't know the answer to #2, I set a pace to be finished in about an hour. That's not rushing much but it's also pausing a bit more than I like (I prefer zero).
What's really cool about this map:
1) The variety of the munchkins or whatever they are. They attack in different ways and can't all be attacked the same way. That definitely adds an element of strategy
2) Multiple bases. More enemies, more danger, more decisions, more consequences, more benefits... more morey of things, which is muchly very.
3) Or maybe this goes with #2. I like the spores as an added enemy to deal with. I'm not sure if adding extra enemies like the sleeper strafers/bombers would make it even better or make it worse. For this map, I felt like the digi, spores, creeper, and malicious doo-dads were a perfectly balanced threat.
4) A hint of a storyline but not like 10 pages of stuff to read to figure out what happened in a fake past to some fictional people living in a made-up universe. That's cool. Where'd these things come from? Who knows? Will this weird toe fungus ever go away? Wait, did I just say that thought out loud?
Excellent job on this map, and I hope the feedback is helpful. For the very few maps I've made, I really appreciate it when someone says why they liked or hated the map. Comments like "I culd not do you're map b/c your a moran who voted for pootin" - yanno, that really doesn't give me much helpful information.
Thanks for the map!! =)
Quote from: Johnny Haywire on June 05, 2025, 05:38:58 PMNo lag issues at all but I'll still leave a reply. Hope it's helpful.
Thanks for your time!
Quote from: Johnny Haywire on June 05, 2025, 05:38:58 PM1) It looks like the spawn rate increases - is that right? The numbers go up steadily and then the numbers go all wacky speed and the spawn rate indicator looks like my brain on drugs.
Not on this map, it's a 2:30 and 2:20 delay respectively for the swarmling hive and the burstling hives respectively, and then they spawn swarmlings and burstlings once per 30 and 20 seconds respectively.
Quote from: Johnny Haywire on June 05, 2025, 05:38:58 PM2) Does the spawn rate ever approach the ludicrous speed it did in the previous version around the 1-hour mark? Or is that fixed?
No, in the previous map it was supposed to speed up, but due to an oversight/typo in the CRPL at some point the delay reaches 0 so it tries spawning 5 on every frame ... which led to that issue.
Quote from: Johnny Haywire on June 05, 2025, 05:38:58 PM3) I didn't see the spore-launching munchkins in this one. Did I just miss them? I was just shooting stuff so I might not have noticed.
Those are normal functionality for burstlings, but the spores only release if they manage to jump on top of one of your units - they release Creeper on-death but release spores too if they self-sacrifice as opposed to being killed.
Quote from: Johnny Haywire on June 05, 2025, 05:38:58 PMSince I didn't know the answer to #2, I set a pace to be finished in about an hour. That's not rushing much but it's also pausing a bit more than I like (I prefer zero).
I'm imagining future maps later down the line might have the intended casual-playthrough-time of a few hours of mission time (or around an hour at 4x speed potentially), so it'll be interesting to see how it pans out!
Quote from: Johnny Haywire on June 05, 2025, 05:38:58 PMWhat's really cool about this map:
1) The variety of the munchkins or whatever they are. They attack in different ways and can't all be attacked the same way. That definitely adds an element of strategy
2) Multiple bases. More enemies, more danger, more decisions, more consequences, more benefits... more morey of things, which is muchly very.
Indeed! As the story progresses there'll be an army-sized quantity of unique units with their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as a gimmick I want to bring back from S02 (which originally didn't work out very well because I sorta rushed it and just abandoned it) which I think will add to the gameplay decisions in at least a meaningful way. There are some strategies that you can use in vanilla CW3 which are not particularly effective except in niche cases, which may end up becoming pretty significant in later maps due to certain gimmicks, which I'm hoping won't be a dead end in terms of enjoyment at least.
Quote from: Johnny Haywire on June 05, 2025, 05:38:58 PM3) Or maybe this goes with #2. I like the spores as an added enemy to deal with. I'm not sure if adding extra enemies like the sleeper strafers/bombers would make it even better or make it worse. For this map, I felt like the digi, spores, creeper, and malicious doo-dads were a perfectly balanced threat.
The design logic I have for using spores is effectively down to three things:
- Firstly, they're a vanilla CW3, so everyone playing the map should hopefully (assuming they didn't cheat or save-file-scum/etc) know what to do - it's a no-brainer, and at least ensures that the player isn't 100% stumped, if they don't understand what the other things are.
- Secondly, the intended strat (for completion, at least - I don't know how efficient this is, but this was the logic for intended route) for S03-08 was to start with a Sniper and then push your way through the trenches. For S03-09 however, this starting point only holds water for a little bit until you get overrun - specifically because of the spores. Snipers can target both hive units (so far) and thus can maintain a solid defence - up until spores come into play.
- Thirdly, vanilla spores from spore towers are generated at full HP by default, and a single, full-health spore uses up more than half of a Beam's maximum energy. As a result, managing Beam energy with respect to their ability to damage swarmlings means that there is a level of efficiency you gain with extra inputs - e.g. enabling or disabling a Beam at the right moment to allow Snipers to take out swarmlings that your Beam would otherwise target, allowing it to take out the spores - is an aspect one might use to manage survival in tighter, early-game situations.
Also, at some point, I intend on re-enabling Beam usage on Burstlings, at a point where they are in enough supply to wreak havoc on your units if you allowed your Beams to destroy all of them at once, for example. Their low HP was chosen specifically for this reason.
Quote from: Johnny Haywire on June 05, 2025, 05:38:58 PM4) A hint of a storyline but not like 10 pages of stuff to read to figure out what happened in a fake past to some fictional people living in a made-up universe. That's cool. Where'd these things come from? Who knows? Will this weird toe fungus ever go away? Wait, did I just say that thought out loud?
I'm not that great at storytelling but I really liked the games that the gimmick is inspired by (and heavily draws concepts from), and I think generally just having a bit of flavor text is a decent motivation to care about the content. Like, if the story was non-existent or just not even remotely worth reading, then one might skip through all the dialogue, realise they've missed out details because it's between the text, and then give up or feel frustrated.
Quote from: Johnny Haywire on June 05, 2025, 05:38:58 PMExcellent job on this map, and I hope the feedback is helpful. For the very few maps I've made, I really appreciate it when someone says why they liked or hated the map. Comments like "I culd not do you're map b/c your a moran who voted for pootin" - yanno, that really doesn't give me much helpful information.
Thanks for the map!! =)
Thanks for playing! I appreciate the feedback 100%, and I hope the rest of the maps to come will be enjoyable!
Awesome, dude! Thanks for all that info. I'll know not to pause next time, once I get a base up and running.
Looking forward to whatever you come up with... thanks for all your hard work! =)