Custom Map #2053: FPS: Spawning Grounds. By: Heritor

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This topic is for discussion of map #2053: FPS: Spawning Grounds


Author: Heritor
Size: 320x200

[Durikkan]

Fun map.   

You're probably going to end up with a few questions on how to kill the main bases since the description doesn't mention that they're significantly more durable than they were before, so I'll say what I found.   Until you reach the late game stage of power, you can't destroy them by yourself, you need allies help to do it.  You're probably better off ignoring them for a while until you kill most of the other buildings, otherwise you'll be kind of wasting your time attacking, because they will vastly out-heal your attacks. 

The hold might have been a bit long, and it's odd to have a hold+ that only starts counting after you've basically take over the map. 

There's also a minor bug where if you kill a enemy mortar launcher, the orb will remain floating in place until it's sniped. 

[Niflthaena]

Fun, but brief, and a little bit confusing. Creeper and Anticreeper across the map dies off so quickly that it's generally not a threat; the only great waves are immediately upon and around the enemy hives. Each time I clear an anthill I turn to plot my next course, only to find the ground basically open all the way to the next hive. The autopilot takes great advantage of this, using the lulls in creeper to metastasize across the map extremely quickly.

It feels almost like some mechanic isn't working properly, but there's enough custom units doing complex things that I'm not sure what it is.

[rowlet]

Honestly spent more than half the level (20 mins to complete) trying to figure out why the labs are so god damn tanky. then a weird moth pops out and just gets destroyed rather quick.
If your going to change things like that a quick heads up would be appreciated.
Also the creeper is a non threat on most of the map since it just drains so goddamn quickly.

[Hatsee]

It takes as long to clear as it takes to run across the map itself.

The spawner things don't do anything, they are standard and die in like 5-10 mortar shots.  There is only some units on the center hill, they die easily.  Then you run from breeder ground to breeder ground to AC it.  By then the AI may have started to sort of build towards the center area. 

Thanks for the map, I really like the FPS ones.  But I guess that maybe anything that is meant to be 'hard' takes 10+ minutes to come around? 

[fooschnickens]

Started out fine but once the sleeper timer runs down all hell breaks loose on the lag and it steadily gets worse. The game was essentially unplayable for me about 15 minutes in, and even with the AI help expanding around the map and surrounding the bases I was never able to take one out. Restarted the map a few times to mostly the same end effect; clear about 40-50% of the map, lag starts, can't progress much further after several minutes due to chugging frame rates.

Might try it again later to all-out speedrun to the bases to try and beat the lag, but at that point I'm not trying to beat the win conditions, but the code itself :\

[InwardChaos]

Took quite some time to kill off the first Sleeper Lab, but fighting it did clear the way to the rest of the map.

Many people have noted that the creeper on the map disappears quickly. This is due to the Labs functionality where they respond to damage taken by syphoning creeper from around the map to heal itself. Fighting a lab will eventually cause the rest of the map to be drained of most of its creeper, which then allows the sporadically placed absorber terrain to clean up most of it.
The reason the labs are so tanky to begin with is that the labs themselves produce a significant amount of creep, so the lab you are currently fighting will heal up from the creeper produced by the other two labs. A focused attack will eventually get it down, especially once the AI takes advantage of the cleared out terrain to move some units up to assist.
The sudden takeoff of the bug on top of the sleeper lab was startling, but they thankfully go down to the massive amounts of snipers and missiles the AI builds. I'm guessing if they reach your Rift Lab, it's an auto-loss?

Fun thing I learned on this map, Sleeper Labs can build more Sleeper Labs. I destroyed the center and north east labs, only to find a new lab just finishing up beside the southern totem, making me have to take down 4 of them in total before finishing the map.

One final note, Totems that get captured by the creeper have their ability to be charged by the player's proximity deactivated, forcing you to wait for the AI to manually connect to and charge them. It added on an extra minute or two while I waited for the AI to build towers down to the south-east totem to charge it.

[fooschnickens]

Yeah I give up, retried this probably a dozen times and it always ends in the same way with the game rendered completely unplayable 10-15 game-minutes in and me unable to clear more than 40-50% of the map. It was frankly jarring every time I restarted just to see how fast everything runs at the beginning, I legitimately had to double check the game speed to be sure I was only going at 2x and not 4x. Perhaps there's too many sleeper units in play for the game engine to keep up with, or maybe too many clustered in close proximity? I've never run into this kind of lag before except for a couple very early FPS and PAC maps.

I'm also not sure if I'm missing something with how to coax the AI to spread in the right (or any, for that matter) direction. It didn't seem to matter how much area I cleared out for it to take over, it would just sit wherever it was and not build new towers or move cannons/mortars. I noticed that trend in one my later attempts as the AI actually seemed like it was keeping pace with me for a good while and then all but halted any progress once I got about 3/4 to the top corner base and just dug its heels in like an angry burro.

[MadVandal]

This is one, if not the, best FPS map. We really need more of these.

To beat this, work your way around the edge on the far side of the starting point where all crimson is and break through to the back. The other side has too much troublesome creep spawning ground. Don't waste points on any upgrades point on anything other than AC breeder, auto defense, spawn, and your weapons. Spam AC Breeder spots as you go and grab all items. You need your mortar upgrade weapon effect up to at least 5 to have any chance. Make sure the AI can build through as you'll will need attack support from the units. When you reach the leader base keep it in sight and keep pounding it with mortar, it make take a few minutes of concentrated fire to get the first one. Ignore the leader flying off for now. Once enough AI units come you'll be able to get ahead of it's regeneration. With more upgrades the next will be easier. Take the center hill last.

[robgw3]

I couldn't activate all the totems cause the AI refused to build. Just kept moving units back and forth. This MAY have been a bug caused by units occupying the same place, as I saw a Sprayer, a Mortar and a Cannon all sitting on the same spot before they moved...