Florrat cannot post this week's tournament, and has requested that I post these maps for him
All Tournaments (http://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?topic=7410.0)
Code Map Scoreboard (http://knucklecracker.com/creeperworld2/viewscores.php)
Tournament Score Tool (http://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?topic=7477.0)
Okay, the new theme is: winners (https://official.imo2011.nl/year_individual_r.aspx?year=2011) of the International Mathematical Olympiad (https://official.imo2011.nl/default.aspx) (IMO) 2011 (https://www.imo2011.nl/). The IMO is a yearly international competition for high school students. More than 550 students from around 100 countries participate in this event. I've chosen it since I was one of the organizers of this IMO.
| Map Name: | Size: | Complexity: |
| Lisa Sauermann | Medium | Medium |
| Jeck Lim | Small | Medium |
| Lin Chen | Small | Low |
| Jun Jie Joseph Kuan | Medium | High |
| David Yang | Large | High |
(I advise everyone to try Lin Chen on Small/Medium. It is a nice hard map with a lot of drones. I wanted to choose these settings, but I've not chosen them since it is pretty hard to complete that map at all)
The code map scorer is not reading this tournament, and I believe it is because you used / instead of -. :)
I have already beat three of the five maps. Two to go!
Quote from: thepenguin on July 31, 2011, 07:06:56 AM
(I advise everyone to try Lin Chen on Small/Medium. It is a nice hard map with a lot of drones. I wanted to choose these settings, but I've not chosen them since it is pretty hard to complete that map at all)
Hard to complete? Are you sure it is possible at all? I don't see any scores posted...
Quote from: Measure on August 01, 2011, 01:46:33 AM
Quote from: thepenguin on July 31, 2011, 07:06:56 AM
(I advise everyone to try Lin Chen on Small/Medium. It is a nice hard map with a lot of drones. I wanted to choose these settings, but I've not chosen them since it is pretty hard to complete that map at all)
Hard to complete? Are you sure it is possible at all? I don't see any scores posted...
It's not so bad if you know what you're doing - on medium complexity you pretty much just win once you get a creeper make running since the emitters are pretty pitiful in terms of intensity. That said I'm not sure if it's possible on high complexity.
Spoiler
(http://i.imgur.com/NwygU.png)
Hey there, nice work on these maps, they've got a nice variety for sure.
I was wondering if some of the faster players could give us any tips. I'm pretty consistently in the top 5 but there's always a handful of people that crush my time so obviously I'm missing something. I was especially curious what your strategy is regarding what you spend your techs on.
Thanks a lot, I appreciate the help!
Well I finished all of them, I may come back to them later on this week.
| Map Name: | Size: | Complexity: | Score: | Time: |
| Lisa Sauermann | Medium | Medium | 12824 | 5:24 |
| Jeck Lim | Small | Medium | 12152 | 4:35 |
| Lin Chen | Small | Low | 13335 | 1:53 |
| Jun Jie Joseph Kuan | Medium | High | 11372 | 8:23 |
| David Yang | Large | High | 12391 | 8:38 |
| Total: | | | 62074 | 28:52 |
I don't know if these are good or bad scores. =S
Still it was fun either way!
P.S.
here is the table in code format, copy/paste for easier score posting:
[table]
[tr][td][color=red][b]Map Name:[/b][/color][/td][td][color=blue][b]Size:[/b][/color][/td][td][color=green][b]Complexity:[/b][/color][/td][td][b]Score:[/b][/td][td][b]Time:[/b][/td][/tr]
[tr][td][color=red]Lisa Sauermann[/color][/td][td][color=blue]Medium[/color][/td][td][color=green]Medium[/color][/td][td]S-----[/td][td][right]T--:--[/right][/td][/tr]
[tr][td][color=red]Jeck Lim[/color][/td][td][color=blue]Small[/color][/td][td][color=green]Medium[/color][/td][td]S-----[/td][td][right]T--:--[/right][/td][/tr]
[tr][td][color=red]Lin Chen[/color][/td][td][color=blue]Small[/color][/td][td][color=green]Low[/color][/td][td]S-----/td][td][right]T--:--/right][/td][/tr]
[tr][td][color=red]Jun Jie Joseph Kuan[/color][/td][td][color=blue]Medium[/color][/td][td][color=green]High[/color][/td][td]S-----[/td][td][right]T--:--[/right][/td][/tr]
[tr][td][color=red]David Yang[/color][/td][td][color=blue]Large[/color][/td][td][color=green]High[/color][/td][td]S-----[/td][td][right]T--:--[/right][/td][/tr]
[tr][td][b]Total:[/b][/td][td][/td][td][/td][td]60664[/td][td][right]41:25[/right][/td][/tr]
[/table]T = Time
S = Score
Note... I copy pasted this table as a quote, I'm not good enough at HTML to code a table manually ;)
Quote from: jlog on August 01, 2011, 06:25:41 PM
Hey there, nice work on these maps, they've got a nice variety for sure.
I was wondering if some of the faster players could give us any tips. I'm pretty consistently in the top 5 but there's always a handful of people that crush my time so obviously I'm missing something. I was especially curious what your strategy is regarding what you spend your techs on.
Thanks a lot, I appreciate the help!
I'm nowhere near the fastest, but I find it usually significantly improves my times if I attack the creeper in two places at once. This week I've managed top 3 on three of the maps, but I don't think I have what it takes to get a 'fastest time' on anything.
Finished all maps. I may try to improve a score or two, but I'm really short on time this week. (Will be out of town Thur til late Mon.
| Map Name: | Size: | Complexity: | Score: | Time: |
| Lisa Sauermann | Medium | Medium | 10568 | 15:18 |
| Jeck Lim | Small | Medium | 11918 | 6:54 |
| Lin Chen | Small | Low | 131497 | 3:03 |
| Jun Jie Joseph Kuan | Medium | High | 11035 | 11:07 |
| David Yang | Large | High | 12009 | 11:06 |
| Total: | | | 58697 | 49:28 |
The last one was a good experimental map. Fun with conversion bombs. ;) (I set off 11 at once for one chamber.)
Jun Jie Joseph Kuan has a nasty gateway emitter. Took me awhile to figure out what was going on with that.
Quote from: Katra on August 02, 2011, 01:48:27 AM
Finished all maps. I may try to improve a score or two, but I'm really short on time this week. (Will be out of town Thur til late Mon.
| Map Name: | Size: | Complexity: | Score: | Time: |
| Lisa Sauermann | Medium | Medium | 10568 | 15:18 |
| Jeck Lim | Small | Medium | 11918 | 6:54 |
| Lin Chen | Small | Low | 131497 | 3:03 |
| Jun Jie Joseph Kuan | Medium | High | 11035 | 11:07 |
| David Yang | Large | High | 12009 | 11:06 |
| Total: | | | 58697 | 49:28 |
The last one was a good experimental map. Fun with conversion bombs. ;) (I set off 11 at once for one chamber.)
That Lin Chen map is a walk in the park. Without trying I finished in 2:45. :)
Quote from: Grauniad on August 02, 2011, 11:28:35 AM
Quote from: Katra on August 02, 2011, 01:48:27 AM
Finished all maps. I may try to improve a score or two, but I'm really short on time this week. (Will be out of town Thur til late Mon.
| Map Name: | Size: | Complexity: | Score: | Time: |
| Lisa Sauermann | Medium | Medium | 10568 | 15:18 |
| Jeck Lim | Small | Medium | 11918 | 6:54 |
| Lin Chen | Small | Low | 131497 | 3:03 |
| Jun Jie Joseph Kuan | Medium | High | 11035 | 11:07 |
| David Yang | Large | High | 12009 | 11:06 |
| Total: | | | 58697 | 49:28 |
The last one was a good experimental map. Fun with conversion bombs. ;) (I set off 11 at once for one chamber.)
That Lin Chen map is a walk in the park. Without trying I finished in 2:45. :)
Really any low complexity map will be completely pathetic in terms of difficulty. No gateways of any kind, always normal gravity, no fields, and pathetic emitter intensities, surface emitters can be nullified before building any other weapons.
Quote from: jlog on August 01, 2011, 06:25:41 PM
Hey there, nice work on these maps, they've got a nice variety for sure.
I was wondering if some of the faster players could give us any tips. I'm pretty consistently in the top 5 but there's always a handful of people that crush my time so obviously I'm missing something. I was especially curious what your strategy is regarding what you spend your techs on.
Thanks a lot, I appreciate the help!
Some of the basics would be to keep using energy (not allow a single second to have it wasted by sitting at full bar), build many reactors quick and attack creeper at 2-3 directions simultaneously once you have sufficient energy and terrain allows it. I have a few screenshots with my progress on this set of maps I think which I may share once it is over.
That said I am myself so far behind Fisherck I am myself really looking forward if he can share some ideas and screenshots :)
Quote from: Evil Roc on August 02, 2011, 12:26:38 PM
That said I am myself so far behind Fisherck I am myself really looking forward if he can share some ideas and screenshots :)
I'll try to remember to take screenshots this time. ;)
Quote from: Evil Roc on August 02, 2011, 12:26:38 PM
Quote from: jlog on August 01, 2011, 06:25:41 PM
Hey there, nice work on these maps, they've got a nice variety for sure.
I was wondering if some of the faster players could give us any tips. I'm pretty consistently in the top 5 but there's always a handful of people that crush my time so obviously I'm missing something. I was especially curious what your strategy is regarding what you spend your techs on.
Thanks a lot, I appreciate the help!
Some of the basics would be to keep using energy (not allow a single second to have it wasted by sitting at full bar), build many reactors quick and attack creeper at 2-3 directions simultaneously once you have sufficient energy and terrain allows it. I have a few screenshots with my progress on this set of maps I think which I may share once it is over.
That said I am myself so far behind Fisherck I am myself really looking forward if he can share some ideas and screenshots :)
I definitely try not to waste any energy and would love to see your screenshots (at the end, of course). I'm amazed by Fisherck, crazy good times on the maps.
Quote from: jlog on August 02, 2011, 01:39:25 PM
I definitely try not to waste any energy and would love to see your screenshots (at the end, of course). I'm amazed by Fisherck, crazy good times on the maps.
I usually only play these maps one time through. I beat these maps almost solely by judging how much energy I need and how much and what weapons I need. My times are not even close to the best possible. :)
For the bigger maps it's often advantageous to get packet speed as your first upgrades (or on any map where you have to dig quickly), but in almost every other case you should be getting -20% unit cost as your first upgrade. After that it's usually a balance between weapon fire rate and reactor efficiency depending on the map (generally the more build space you have the better weapon fire rate becomes, or if you're short on build space then reactor efficiency is good - it also depends on how far in you are into the map when you have the technytes), with an optional 1 upgrade in energy storage for convenience.
What I wonder is how to judge if to build research facilities or to skip them, and if to build then how much and when. Obviously useless on small map which can be finished in 1:30 like Lin Chen there, but on these medium maps taking 3-5 minutes I am utterly at loss now. Need more practise I guess.
Quote from: Evil Roc on August 02, 2011, 02:57:46 PM
What I wonder is how to judge if to build research facilities or to skip them, and if to build then how much and when. Obviously useless on small map which can be finished in 1:30 like Lin Chen there, but on these medium maps taking 3-5 minutes I am utterly at loss now. Need more practise I guess.
Typically I just build them whenever I have extra energy during the time when I'm not on the offensive (ie. digging down still, but would have energy wasted if I just built reactors), but it depends on the exact situation.
Map Name: Size: Complexity: Score: Time:
Lisa Sauermann Medium Medium 11673 12:57
Jeck Lim Small Medium 11682 8:42
Lin Chen Small Low 12577 3:18
Jun Jie Jose... Medium High 10582 15:09
David Yang Large High 11562 15:49
Total: 58076 55:55
Here are the results of my first weekly tournament. I am probably not going to win but it was worth a try.
This is what I would like to call a duh moment. 8)
I was playing David Yang, and 7 minutes in, I decided that in no way what so ever could Evil Roc beat this map in 7:30. :) So I checked the name of the map again, and I was playing Davind Yang. :P Whoops...
On to the real David Yang. ;D
Finally finished the right map. ::)
Scores for Fisherck
| Map Name: | Size: | Complexity: | Score: | Time: |
| Lisa Sauermann | Medium | Medium | 12854 | 4:09 |
| Jeck Lim | Small | Medium | 12359 | 3:12 |
| Lin Chen | Small | Low | 13409 | 1:23 |
| Jun Jie Joseph Kuan | Medium | High | 11609 | 6:27 |
| David Yang | Large | High | 12730 | 5:23 |
| Total: | | | 62961 | 20:34 |
Sigh. Will I be doomed to be on 4th and 5th places into eternity?
Well, on the bright side I am getting closer... slowly.
Tournament Update (not finished yet)
| Rank | Player | Total Score |
| 1. | Fisherck | 62961 |
| 2. | Evil Roc | 62691 |
| 3. | Colin | 62068 |
| 4. | jlog | 60745 |
| 5. | Lord_Farin | 60194 |
| 6. | Measure | 59472 |
| 7. | bmaw323 | 59016 |
| 8. | Nate Dog | 58295 |
| 9. | TonyP2000 | 58076 |
| 10. | BrYK | 58026 |
| 11. | Tunnen | 57754 |
| 12. | xatu285 | 55105 |
| 13. | Katra | 48195* |
| 14. | florrat | 38526* |
| 15. | Alan | 37151* |
| 16. | RichieRich | 25457* |
| 17. | Simon | 13179* |
| 18. | BoostBreed75 | 12182* |
| 19. | Koker93 | 11854* |
* Did not finish all maps.
Is this an intermediate ranking or do tournaments close at Saturday midnight now?
9th out of 19, not bad for my first tournament! :)
I hope that was a intermediate ranking, since the results look a little different now :) Currently I'm first now. ;D But in my opinion, Fisherck has done much better, because of the following two reasons:
1) He has a better time on every single map. On three maps he only did not pick up all gems (when he got that best time). And doing maps faster is much harder than picking up all gems ::)
2) I played all maps after he played them. This meant that I already knew his scores, so I knew on which map I could probably improve more and I knew how much points I still needed.
EDIT: Hmm... I see the Overall Scoreboard has already been updated, and that there's already a new tournament... Were these already the final scores?
Quote from: UpperKEES on August 07, 2011, 07:24:19 AM
Is this an intermediate ranking or do tournaments close at Saturday midnight now?
Quote from: florrat on August 07, 2011, 11:07:26 AM
I hope that was a intermediate ranking, since the results look a little different now :) Currently I'm first now. ;D But in my opinion, Fisherck has done much better, because of the following two reasons:
1) He has a better time on every single map. On three maps he only did not pick up all gems (when he got that best time). And doing maps faster is much harder than picking up all gems ::)
2) I played all maps after he played them. This meant that I already knew his scores, so I knew on which map I could probably improve more and I knew how much points I still needed.
EDIT: Hmm... I see the Overall Scoreboard has already been updated, and that there's already a new tournament... Were these already the final scores?
Well, unfortunately I did not catch this until after I posted the tournament. thepenguin sent me pm saying I won the tournament, he posted the final score list, and updated the winners. I believe he did this by accident. :D
Of course there is now this dilemma. If no one posts how they beat the maps yet, we can let this tournament finish on the right day (it is unlikely the top three will change), and let the new tournament just start one day early, but end on the normal time.
Or we could toss the tournament that I just made and start an entirely new one on the right day. I would not like this though, because I spent a lot of time starting that tournament. :)
Quote from: thepenguin on August 07, 2011, 12:38:33 PM
Quote from: UpperKEES on August 07, 2011, 07:24:19 AM
Is this an intermediate ranking or do tournaments close at Saturday midnight now?
today is sunday
Ehm, aren't these your rules?
Quote from: thepenguin on July 11, 2011, 12:16:33 PM
A.Rules:
Every competitor will have until Sunday evening at midnight (forum time (GMT - 5)) to set the best scores/times for these 5 maps
Quote from: UpperKEES on August 07, 2011, 12:40:25 PM
Quote from: thepenguin on August 07, 2011, 12:38:33 PM
Quote from: UpperKEES on August 07, 2011, 07:24:19 AM
Is this an intermediate ranking or do tournaments close at Saturday midnight now?
today is sunday
Ehm, aren't these your rules?
Quote from: thepenguin on July 11, 2011, 12:16:33 PM
A.Rules:
Every competitor will have until Sunday evening at midnight (forum time (GMT - 5)) to set the best scores/times for these 5 maps
well, this is embarassing, that was only an intermediate ranking, keep playing everyone (I guess I was too tired this morning)
Quote from: Fisherck on August 07, 2011, 12:18:33 PM
If no one posts how they beat the maps yet, we can let this tournament finish on the right day (it is unlikely the top three will change), and let the new tournament just start one day early, but end on the normal time.
I think this is the best solution. I think it is not a problem at all that the new tournament starts a day earlier. And probably you had to choose the new theme anyway (even if I end first, since I picked the theme of this week).
Tournament Results
| Rank | Player | Total Score |
| 1. | Fisherck | 63125 |
| 2. | florrat | 63040 |
| 3. | Evil Roc | 62691 |
| 4. | Colin | 62068 |
| 5. | jlog | 60745 |
| 6. | Lord_Farin | 60194 |
| 7. | Measure | 59472 |
| 8. | bmaw323 | 59016 |
| 9. | Nate Dog | 58295 |
| 10. | TonyP2000 | 58076 |
| 11. | BrYK | 58026 |
| 12. | Tunnen | 57754 |
| 13. | xatu285 | 55105 |
I fixed it. I still do not have much of a lead though. ;)
Since no ones done it yet, I will post the final scores (I double checked to make sure it is past sunday ;)). Now I DID NOT check to see if someone played past the midnight deadline, and it has been 6 hours... :)
Tournament Results
| Rank | Player | Total Score |
| 1. | Fisherck | 63125 |
| 2. | florrat | 63040 |
| 3. | Evil Roc | 62691 |
| 4. | Colin | 62068 |
| 5. | jlog | 60745 |
| 6. | Lord_Farin | 60194 |
| 7. | Zaggy | 59765 |
| 8. | Measure | 59472 |
| 9. | bmaw323 | 59016 |
| 10. | Nate Dog | 58295 |
| 11. | TonyP2000 | 58076 |
| 12. | BrYK | 58026 |
| 13. | Tunnen | 57754 |
| 14. | xatu285 | 55105 |
| 15. | Katra | 48195* |
| 16. | Alan | 37151* |
| 17. | RichieRich | 25457* |
| 18. | Simon | 13179* |
| 19. | BoostBreed75 | 12182* |
| 20. | Koker93 | 11854* |
* Did not finish all maps.
Eager to see some screenshots and/or clues on great results by Fisherck and florrat, you both have done an excellent job there with the scores/times!
Sorry I didn't post these earlier, kind of busy today. :)
I probably won't talk about my strategy to much as a picture is worth a thousand words and my memory doesn't work. ;)
EDIT:
Just a moment I got a couple kinks...Done...
Spoiler
Lisa Sauermann was a little complicated in the beginning. I immediately went for the gems, then when I had enough, built 2 nullifiers (because the strong gravity and weak emitters made it possible). A little after this I built 2 blasters for each of the top two chambers (4 for you math wizzes ;)) to clean up the mess. After that, I built up a little energy, then worked my way down.
(http://i54.tinypic.com/2iabg1v.png)
Spoiler
Jeck Lim was reletively simple. I took the left chamber, then the right. Ta Da! :)
(http://i52.tinypic.com/2s6qbtw.png)
Spoiler
Lin Chen was amazingly easy. As you can see, I never had to build a single reactor. The crystal energy is more than enough. The pitifully weak emitters were no match for the 4 blasters I built (2 each for the top 2 chambers)
(http://i55.tinypic.com/2z5rqqe.jpg)
Spoiler
For Jun Jie Joseph Kuan, as you can see, I built up extensively before attacking. I simply assulted down through the chambers to the bottom.
(http://i54.tinypic.com/2j5b3o.png)
Spoiler
David Yang was definitely the hardest. Not because of difficulty, it is an experimental map after all. :P But because I have never tried to finish an experimental map (with the exception of day 20) competitively. To start I built in every available space, then built my dark beam (only 1!), and a buch of conversion bombs. The top right I started with a conversion bomb, then let the dark beam work (I always detonated a conversion bomb because it allows you to build nullifiers quicker as dark beams do not get everything). Then while doing this I attacked the middle top and left top chambers with 2 conversion bombs each and nullified the emitters. After that, I simply worked my way down.
(http://i54.tinypic.com/23vnrk6.png)
On David Yang, do you think you could have finished faster if you used the 80% efficiency method for digging and reactor building?
Quote from: Measure on August 09, 2011, 01:31:02 AM
On David Yang, do you think you could have finished faster if you used the 80% efficiency method for digging and reactor building?
I do not think so, and that is because while the 80% build method get's more more room out a specified amount, it costs a lot to excavate the terrain. It is far cheaper to building on the caverns I take over because I do not have to use that 3 energy (like I did for the first 2 and a half caverns) . And I was far from energy starved. Now I do think I could get faster times, but not because of reactor placement. ;)
Getting the best times on experimental maps is so far beyond merely being tedious - which is why I never really bother getting good times on them. To truly do them optimally you would be doing all kinds of weird tricks with dark mirrors deactivating, turning etc. to the extent that you would literally be pausing every single frame.
I was away last week, so I did not have time to post anything yet (or to participate in the new tournament)
I agree with Kithros that doing perfectly on experimental maps is really tedious. But, there are some major decisions you can make which will influence the time a lot (for example, which caverns you will attack with dark beam, and which with conversion bombs, or if you are building 1 or 2 dark beams - I think building two dark beams will sometimes be really useful, see my strategy on David Yang).
I see now by the strategy of Fisherck that there's another possibility too attack caverns, which I have not considered before: using conversion bomb and dark beam together too clean out one cavern. Hmmm... I will try that later.
---
I will post my images in this, and the next two posts. I have quite a lot of screenshots. They are all of some savepoint in my optimal game, which need not be the most instructive times to show here (but I still do them all, maybe some people will find it even useful to know how I do my first 10 seconds, or how much I save :D )
I don't have screenshots for Lisa Sauermann and Jun Jie Joseph Kuan, and I don't know much about the strategy I used, anymore (also because I tried them both just once). The only thing I know is that for Jun Jie Joseph Kuan I'm quite sure I didn't use as much anticreeper.
In this post there are 6 screenshots for Jeck Lim. I did some things quite different that Fisherck, as you can see
Here are also three screenshots for Lin Chen. Unfortunately, I don't have one of the game near the end. I did build a few reactors, since they already produced their production costs after about 30 seconds ( 33+1/3 second to be exact, if no ground has to be digged, and no tech upgrades are bought). But I don't think I needed it.
Also already the first screenshot for David Yang, since four screenshots of that map would be (slightly) over the maximum attachment size of 4096KB (or is that 4 MiB (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mebibyte) PER ATTACHMENT?)
Here the other 3 screenshots of David Yang. This map was also my first experimental map which I tried to solve fast (and also apart from day 20).
I did it quite different than Fisherck. Firstly, I did attack the top central cavern, instead of the top right cavern. This was with the idea that I could attack the top right cavern at the same time as the bottom cavern, which would effectively reduce the number of caverns I had to attack by one.
Secondly, to attack the top center cave I only used conversion bombs, and that was the only time I used conversion bombs. (Fisherck: did you use more conversion bombs for later caves?)
And more smaller things.
If you have any other questions about my strategy, feel free to ask (although I'm away the major part of next week. Probably also when the custom map editor is released :'()
EDIT:
Quote from: Fisherck on August 09, 2011, 09:22:51 AM
Quote from: Measure on August 09, 2011, 01:31:02 AM
On David Yang, do you think you could have finished faster if you used the 80% efficiency method for digging and reactor building?
I do not think so, and that is because while the 80% build method get's more more room out a specified amount, it costs a lot to excavate the terrain. It is far cheaper to building on the caverns I take over because I do not have to use that 3 energy (like I did for the first 2 and a half caverns) . And I was far from energy starved. Now I do think I could get faster times, but not because of reactor placement. ;)
If you use the "80% build method" in the top left (instead of the 66% method of using only the left and right side of terrain), I think that has no disadvantages (but I don't want to go as far as that it will improve your time). Since you will still just dig 1 cell per reactor. Of course, it is even cheaper to build inside caverns you take over.
You are much better at taking regular screenshots than me. :D
Quote from: florrat on August 13, 2011, 06:52:44 PM
(Fisherck: did you use more conversion bombs for later caves?)
I did use them for all of the caves because they are so darn nice. ;) The dark beams are not the best at cleaning up. They can cut through creeper like butter, but it takes to long to get rid of the small amounts of the creeper. Unfortunately any amount will destroy a nullifier. The good creeper already converted will wipe that all away. ;)
The 4th cave down I used 2 conversion bombs, but the rest I only used 1.
Saving the top right cavern is a very smart idea, because by the end of the map, I had a lot of extra energy being produced.
:D I save pretty often, and then afterwards I load every save game and make a screenshot at that moment ;)
I need to remember that tactic with conversion bomb. I can totally imagine it is very effective. The way I usually go through a cave is by making a 3x3 square with my dark beam so that the middle cell will be a safe place to build a nullifier (usually I just cover the 8 boundary cells of the square. The creeper in the center cell with then disappear quite fast). But even then, it is usually indeed a big pain to remove every last bit of creeper in the chambers.