PAC Maps - How to play them

[mzimmer74]

I personally love the Play as Creeper (PAC) maps and am thrilled that more authors are beginning to make them.  With the new proliferation of the maps though I thought I'd write out a bit of an explanation of how to play them since I was quite confused at first.  The PAC maps were first started with map #838 by stewbasic (huge props to him!!!) [side note - just noticed that this map is missing from CS...not sure why]. Since it was the first, it explains things a bit better.  However, that's also a fairly difficult map to play if you don't understand some of the features so it might be easier to start with map #1099 by stdout which was the second PAC map.

In general, a PAC map works like a regular map but you are playing as the creeper.  Each of the four buttons on the bottom are things you can do as the creeper.

The first button (mapped to "1") is a digitalis button.  When you select that you have the ability to lay down digitalis wherever you click.  Anywhere you have creeper that is more than a depth of 1 will turn into a digitalis path.  When you have digitalis selected you can hit "r" to make the selector bigger or "e" to make it smaller.  I always leave it at maximum size.  You can also hit "t" to turn the selector red which deletes the digitalis and releases any creeper into the space.  I almost never do that although it can help with invading through the void.  I'd argue that digitalis is the MOST important thing to defeating a PAC map since it is required to activate new PZs.  It is a good idea to have a LOT of digitalis so a single strike of a Bertha won't take out everything.

The second button is an emitter.  Whenever you take out an enemy unit that is sitting on a PZ you have the possibility to make a new emitter.  The only rule for putting a new unit is that there must be digitalis under the PZ and it must be dark blue.  Whenever you select one of your emitters you can cycle through various settings using the same three keys (e, r, and t).   Both "e" and "r" make the emitter flip between constant and surge mode.  Constant mode releases a steady amount of creeper whereas surge mode stores up and releases a large amount of creeper at one time.  Both modes are helpful at different times based on what you are trying to accomplish.  If you select an emitter and click "t" then all other emitters on the map will "support" that emitter, making it significantly more stronger.  If you want multiple emitters to be supported then simply click on one emitter and then on another.  The second emitter selected is supported by the first.  You can do this with as many emitters as you want.

The third button is a spore tower.  Placing it works just like placing an emitter.  Get a PZ with blue digitalis under it and you can place a new spore.  Then you can select the spore and select a spot on the map for the spore to go to.  If you have a tower aim at a spot and click "t" then every spore tower on the map will automatically target the spot you just selected.  Sometimes you'll want to coordinate multiple towers to hit the same spot at the same time. To do this you'll need to use "e" and "r" for spore towers.  That cycles a tower through pause and unpause.  The timer still goes down to zero, but you can keep the tower paused until you are ready to fire off the spore.  One incredibly important thing to remember about spores is that they can land in the void.  This allows you to create digitalis to span islands.

The fourth button is the field generator.  A field can be placed anywhere on a map (even outside of it if you want) and works kind of like a shield.  It pushes creeper in the direction it is aimed.  That can be helpful for overrunning an enemy position or for spreading your digitalis in a particular direction.  The field gains power based on how many totems you have under control (blue digitalis under them - blue ring around the totem) but you can only have one on the map at a time.

One final thing that is critical to playing PAC maps - the cancel button.  Any time you have something selected and select something else you can run into an issue.  For example, say you select a spore tower, pick where it should shoot, and then select an emitter.  Now the spore is shooting at the emitter.  As a general rule, anytime you are finished with setting something either hit the cancel button or the space bar (I believe that's the standard mapping for cancel on PAC maps).

I think that's the primary thing to know about PAC maps.  Here's a list of all the PAC maps at this time and what level of difficulty I personally found them to be (keep in mind that I'm definitely not the best player so YMMV):
838 - fairly tough at first since it was the first one I played but once I got the hang of it I'd call it medium
1099 - moderate
1106 - moderate/easy
1144 - moderate/easy
1211 - moderate
1233 - moderate
1261 - easy
1304 - moderate/easy
1349 - tough to start, moderate once you get the center taken
1397 - moderate
1430 - moderate
1433 - moderate/easy
1437 - moderate/tough

[stdout]

Great post!

[teknotiss]

really? 1349 was very tough to start? :o
oops sorry dudes, was supposed to be a simple PAC training mission! ::)
i'll have to have my future ones playtested by others i guess  8)

ps mzimmer74, great job, clear and well written! cheers dude, i was thinking of something similar last night and was too tired, just got in ffom the dogs and it's done! woooo! 8)

[DestinyAtlantis]

1349 isn't hard to start, it's just a bit tricky, and it has several ways to start.

The "T" doesn't turn digitalis into creeper, it only removes digitalis and digitalis growth, and it is important when you want to invade by void (and you don't have an option for spores (Beams/PZ Beams)), or for that packet pump thingie, since creeper moves faster on digi, there is a lower creeper height, so when you want to have higher creeper at one point/several points, it's better without digi.

Digi needs 1 creeper height not 5.

Spore Tower's "T" makes all spore towers target the point beneath the mouse cursor NOT the current spore tower's target.
If you make enough emitters support 1 emitter, then the constant mode can output more creeper on release than the surge mode, since the surge mode is generally 400 per 20/x seconds where x is the total number of connected emitters (x-1 supporting this one), and the constant mode is generally 10*x per 0.5 seconds if i'm not mistaken, though all the values are subject to changes by the map maker. Also, the average amount of creeper per second is the same for both modes (400 per 20/x seconds=20*x per 1 second, and 10*x per 0.5 seconds=20*x per 1 second).

The Field can be placed anywhere on the map, even outside of the map if i'm not mistaken, i'm not sure if it works with 0 totems, but the more totems you control (have digi on<=>have a blue circle around them), the stronger it gets, the only downside is that you can only have 1 Field at a time, and at least for me, the placing/removing of the field is a bit tricky.

Anyway, thank you.

[mzimmer74]

The Field can be placed anywhere on the map, even outside of the map if i'm not mistaken, i'm not sure if it works with 0 totems, but the more totems you control (have digi on<=>have a blue circle around them), the stronger it gets, the only downside is that you can only have 1 Field at a time, and at least for me, the placing/removing of the field is a bit tricky.

Holy smokes I didn't know that!!!  I've always assumed it had to be attached to the totem.  That just made it MUCH more useful.

Thanks for your input.  I've updated my post to reflect some of your comments, although I left out the math to keep it simple.

[mzimmer74]

really? 1349 was very tough to start? :o
oops sorry dudes, was supposed to be a simple PAC training mission! ::)
i'll have to have my future ones playtested by others i guess  8)

Don't get me wrong...loved the map.  I'm just not that great of a CW player! :)

[teknotiss]

really? 1349 was very tough to start? :o
oops sorry dudes, was supposed to be a simple PAC training mission! ::)
i'll have to have my future ones playtested by others i guess  8)

Don't get me wrong...loved the map.  I'm just not that great of a CW player! :)

lol no worries, glad you enjoyed it!  8)

[Lost in Nowhere]

I find it quite interesting that the top 6 rated maps, plus 5 of the next 12, are Play as Creeper maps. It's very impressive.

[DestinyAtlantis]

Yes, but for some reason #838 (the original map) seems to have dissapeared.

[Nati]

How do you remove a self-built emitter?
PAC maps seem to just ignore the shortcuts settings so del does not work.

[herobattle530]

Select it, then press X to delete it.

[Nati]

Thank you. The mission (6509 KISS PAC #2) insisted on shift-x but you pointed me in the right direction.