Custom Map #8849: no no no NO!. By: Hypnotic22

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This topic is for discussion of map #8849: no no no NO!


Author: Hypnotic22
Size: 120x60

Desc:
WARNING difficulty 9/10

[Twi]

You had me until the spike of creeper in the middle of my everything, instantly destroying everything I'd built up


what do I even do about that

[marvinitfox]

Umm.
Is creeper SUPPOSED to be instantaneously deadly?
I just lost a squad of 6 cannons and 2 mortars, standing in about 3-deep AC, to ONE spore.


Update:
Thus, the pulse of creeper which covers the ENTIRE map (utterly regardless of shields, elevation, or current anticreeper  depth) at about 5m50s killed **everything** except my command nodes, which of course promptly went up to orbit.

Sorry, but I declare this map bugged/unplayable for me

[hypnotic22]

hehe i did put a WARNING up, what kind of help are you looking for if at all, i can stream some of the map on the CW discord.

[hypnotic22]

Umm.
Is creeper SUPPOSED to be instantaneously deadly?
I just lost a squad of 6 cannons and 2 mortars, standing in about 3-deep AC, to ONE spore.


Update:
Thus, the pulse of creeper which covers the ENTIRE map (utterly regardless of shields, elevation, or current anticreeper  depth) at about 5m50s killed **everything** except my command nodes, which of course promptly went up to orbit.

Sorry, but I declare this map bugged/unplayable for me

well if that's the case it is 1 out of a million (i hope) and im sorry to hear that, it dose seme impossible and or a BIG bug

how much dps a unit receive or how much health they have, have not ben touch at all and i have see one stream the map so i know you atm are the only one, i do hope you are kidding or only have that problem on my map, that is a big bug get the sprayer

[Johnny Haywire]

Ok, being a turtle at heart this map hurt me a lot, but I managed to survive it. And I actually really enjoyed it, once I learned not to be scared of the inevitable "creeper nuke" that hits every so often.

I don't think any spores actually hit me. But every 5-6 minutes or so some giant nuke of creeper hit most of my base, instantly killing reactors & collectors. I found that if I reacted fast enough I could hit the pause button (gasp!) and move my beams out of harm's way.

How do you survive this? I went for massive energy upgrades (lots of energy storage, for when you lose reactors) and fire rate. I put blasters & sprayers all over my base... and I found that leaving the sprayers "always on" did very little good, since the nuke just wipes out whatever AC you have in place. So instead, I stored up that AC to dump it fast on the creeper nuke when it hit. I think I left maybe leave 1-2 sprayers in the back on at all times. Oh, and the reactors in the back didn't die at all... so maybe put two rows deep of reactors in the rear...?

So once you can figure out how to survive, you can eventually build up enough power to thrive. Or you can just do whatever cornucanis did and beat the map in under 6 minutes.  :o :o

So, Hypnotic... am I correct that the nuke erases whatever AC is there and replaces it with a set layer of creeper? And it's not deep... I found that about 15 blasters & sprayers cleared it pretty quickly. And does it also remove energy from the weapons, or was I just imagining things? Seemed like my front cannons' energy was gone before I could react. And there's no way to prevent that nuke, is there?

For being a Sorrontis-style-and-difficulty map, I didn't think this was all that difficult, honestly. Once I saw the flow of stuff I don't think I paused except when the nuke hit so I could save my beams. Eventually my build speed and energy was so high I didn't bother saving them because I could click & rebuild faster than I could pause & move them.

But it IS a difficult, yet pretty entertaining map. There's a point where it's absurdly difficult that it's no longer fun, and I don't think this map hit that level, thankfully. I give it two grins up. Thanks for making this cool challenge!  ;D ;D

[cornucanis]

So, Hypnotic... am I correct that the nuke erases whatever AC is there and replaces it with a set layer of creeper? And it's not deep... I found that about 15 blasters & sprayers cleared it pretty quickly. And does it also remove energy from the weapons, or was I just imagining things? Seemed like my front cannons' energy was gone before I could react. And there's no way to prevent that nuke, is there?

To elaborate on how the scripts on this map work, there are two separate scripts operating. The first is the digitalis killer which will completely kill off all the digitalis on the map every 5 minutes for just long enough to kill all the runners and drain the creeper. It's a pretty straightforward script. The other script is a Big Emitter script, which you can see behind the inhibitor. That's the guy responsible for the map nukes you see. There are actually 2 big emitters on this map. One is set to fire in a small area around the inhibitor, while the other one is set to fire on pretty much the entire map (apart from a few rows on the far left, as you observed.) And you are correct in that this big emitter script uses SetCreeper, which completely disregards how much (anti)creeper is in place when dropping its own payload.

Or you can just do whatever cornucanis did and beat the map in under 6 minutes.  :o :o

The strategy I used actually ended up being a really traditional one.

Spoiler

I just built a small handful of reactors and a forge while the first nullifier did its thing, then pushed as hard as possible with the spare energy after that. No real tricks to be had here, at least that I could think of. Although a test Hypno and I did seemed to confirm that it may be possible to just turtle in the starting zone and save all your AC to use with kamikaze sprayers who should buy just enough time for the nullifier to finish the job around the 5 minute mark while ignoring every other enemy on the map.

[close]

[Johnny Haywire]

Yeah, I don't think I moved from the starting zone until at least 20 minutes into the game... I'm really impressed by your time, though! Nice strat!

And thanks for explaining the scripts... I kinda would've liked that to be in the introduction to the map, like in a dialogue Lia has with Skars.

But sometimes it's fun to not know what's going to happen. So it's all good.

Thanks again for the map & explanation of what's going on.  ;D

[Oblits]

The strategy I used actually ended up being a really traditional one.

Spoiler

I just built a small handful of reactors and a forge while the first nullifier did its thing, then pushed as hard as possible with the spare energy after that. No real tricks to be had here, at least that I could think of. Although a test Hypno and I did seemed to confirm that it may be possible to just turtle in the starting zone and save all your AC to use with kamikaze sprayers who should buy just enough time for the nullifier to finish the job around the 5 minute mark while ignoring every other enemy on the map.

[close]

The creeper in emitter range of inhibitor is 20 deep. How did you push so fast or are able to bring enough AC for the nullifier to finish the job around the 5 minute mark?

[cornucanis]

The strategy I used actually ended up being a really traditional one.

Spoiler

I just built a small handful of reactors and a forge while the first nullifier did its thing, then pushed as hard as possible with the spare energy after that. No real tricks to be had here, at least that I could think of. Although a test Hypno and I did seemed to confirm that it may be possible to just turtle in the starting zone and save all your AC to use with kamikaze sprayers who should buy just enough time for the nullifier to finish the job around the 5 minute mark while ignoring every other enemy on the map.

[close]

The creeper in emitter range of inhibitor is 20 deep. How did you push so fast or are able to bring enough AC for the nullifier to finish the job around the 5 minute mark?

You'd be surprised what you can get done in 5 minutes if you're very precise with your actions and the order of them. The "5 minutes" on the clock represents about 5 or 6 hours of real time spread out over several days figuring out the ideal order of operations. My main objective was the push east across the map constantly, while only using the minimum necessary energy to do so such that I could invest the rest back home in preparation for upcoming threats (spores, stronger emitters.) The strategy was mostly traditional and straightforward, but for clarity here's a screenshot of how my base looked on my last save, right before the 5 minute mark:

[Oblits]

Thanks for the screenshot cornucanis! This map is so difficult.

Could you show forge upgrades at that time?

Also, you used a single nullifier to clear the middle 2 emitters?

[cornucanis]

Thanks for the screenshot cornucanis! This map is so difficult.

Could you show forge upgrades at that time?

Also, you used a single nullifier to clear the middle 2 emitters?

Forge was 1 power generation upgrade, and 2 build speed. I would have liked to do more but the energy was just too hard to come by. It may have been better to leave the forge out entirely, I'm not quite sure how much of an impact it actually made. And yeah, I used one nullifier for the first two emitters followed by a second nullifier for the 2 emitters on the hill. Slight delay on the hill to build some more forces and soften the area with PZ mortar, then in for the final assault. Other than that delay though I was pretty much always pushing/nullifying.

Edit to add: I should also mention that this strategy is actually considerably more difficult compared to just playing out the map the intended way (build reasonable defenses but don't push too much, then turtle up to properly respond to the threats slowly.) I only put in all the effort to pull it off because I saw it should be possible and REALLY wanted to see if it could be done.