Custom Map #92: Manifest Destiny 4: The Choice

AutoPost · August 27, 2011, 12:01:01 AM

This topic is for discussion of map #92: Manifest Destiny 4: The Choice

Author: Fisherck

Desc:
You arrive at the old human base on Eris to find it swamped with creeper. Can you succeed where others failed? And who's orders will you follow, the Counsel's or Abraxis'?

Fisherck · August 27, 2011, 12:04:21 AM

My fourth map in the series. A little longer than the rest time wise. But there is some very important pieces of the storyline. Even some of the smaller details will come in play later. ;)
I like these custom tiles (I like all that I make ;)), but the decayable terrain is somewhat unique. I decided to get off the normal appearance and color coded them. ;D In case you unfamiliar with a stop light, red=short, yellow=medium, and green=long. So don't get confused. And watch out for the chambers on the bottom. It's like a mini cubic down there... 8)

Sqaz · August 27, 2011, 01:09:18 AM

Haven't yet fully played it (lack of time) but I got to the point where I got the Creeper above you and the three highest chambers under control.

I didn't like this map as much as your previous ones though (although it's better than most maps I played), it just seems like you're dropped in mid battle, and all the preparing work is yet done for you, which makes the Creeper above you very easy to handle and grants you a lot of time to build up, after which you just need tons of Launchers.

It's just not my style of map, which doesn't mean it isn't a nice map.

Evil Roc · August 27, 2011, 05:52:02 AM

I liked the start, which is somewhat stressed and presses you to make choices quick. General idea is great too, and first half or 2/3 of mission is excellent.

Custom textures are very nice too.

However I am not very sure if such vast amount of creeper in bottom chamber is necessary, it took me may be 4-5 minutes of just sitting idly and watching my 20 launchers shooting into there which was a bit weird.

Nevertheless I like the whole series very much and I want to see what happens next!

Fisherck · August 27, 2011, 09:25:34 AM

Quote from: Sqaz on August 27, 2011, 01:09:18 AM
Haven't yet fully played it (lack of time) but I got to the point where I got the Creeper above you and the three highest chambers under control.

I didn't like this map as much as your previous ones though (although it's better than most maps I played), it just seems like you're dropped in mid battle, and all the preparing work is yet done for you, which makes the Creeper above you very easy to handle and grants you a lot of time to build up, after which you just need tons of Launchers.

It's just not my style of map, which doesn't mean it isn't a nice map.

Quote from: Evil Roc on August 27, 2011, 05:52:02 AM
I liked the start, which is somewhat stressed and presses you to make choices quick. General idea is great too, and first half or 2/3 of mission is excellent.

Custom textures are very nice too.

However I am not very sure if such vast amount of creeper in bottom chamber is necessary, it took me may be 4-5 minutes of just sitting idly and watching my 20 launchers shooting into there which was a bit weird.

Nevertheless I like the whole series very much and I want to see what happens next!

Thank you both of you very much for giving your opinions. :) I definitely understand where you are coming from. I don't care to much for long slogs at the end of the map either, and while I did try to water it down somewhat (it was more dense ;)), and try to make it more interesting (with the fields in the chambers), I guess I did not entirely succeed in that aspect. And watering down the creeper is not neccesarily the best way to try to solve it. :P

Quote from: Sqaz on August 27, 2011, 01:09:18 AM
it just seems like you're dropped in mid battle

I did try for that feeling, so I guess I did not fail there. :D But don't worry, this should be the last map that you get it all planned out for you... ;)

I will definitely take this into consideration in future maps, and if anyways agrees or disagreees, I am always open to more opinions!

Ranakastrasz · August 27, 2011, 02:40:27 PM

Possibly reducing the amount of creeper in the bottom chamber, while also reducing the strength of the fields? I actually had a good 100 launchers, and managed to actually save a full 20 crystal, to increase my capacity to 80 Packet per second by the end. I still thought the end was quite a slog tho.

CyberDyneSystems · January 06, 2012, 01:20:48 AM

I just played all four of the MD levels,.
This one by far managed to kick my but the most.

I tried several times to "beat the clock" and race to stop the top creep, but I always got taken from below when the first well ate through the ground...

It turns out I did not understand the trick to capping the wells...

So I ended up accidentally going about this in a VERY long manner.
After several failed attempts, I finally managed to gain a small foothold.
I was pushed into the hanger, using 3 force beams to hold off the creep from coming in the "garage".

then I was struggling to contain the erupting creep from the two wells at the bottom of the hanger.... many many long minutes of power starvation with seemingly no hope in site, but I finally figured out how to keep the center well under control.... then it was tackle the right most well, as far down as I could go, and load up on much needed power. Then charge out the hanger door and take down the top creeper gun.

Now I could build all the power and techs I wanted.... and sweep all three wells down to the bottom hell hole.

I have to tell you the last slog was really not fun at all. If this was a solo map, if I had nothing invested in the series, I would have just said "the hell with it" as sitting around watching launchers for 15+ minutes is not much fun.

I liked the initial challenge, but that end slug fest was not at all as enjoyable as the rest of this series.

thanks for a fun ride though!

Fisherck · January 06, 2012, 09:07:13 AM

Quote from: CyberDyneSystems on January 06, 2012, 01:20:48 AM
I just played all four of the MD levels,.
This one by far managed to kick my but the most.

I tried several times to "beat the clock" and race to stop the top creep, but I always got taken from below when the first well ate through the ground...

It turns out I did not understand the trick to capping the wells...

So I ended up accidentally going about this in a VERY long manner.
After several failed attempts, I finally managed to gain a small foothold.
I was pushed into the hanger, using 3 force beams to hold off the creep from coming in the "garage".

then I was struggling to contain the erupting creep from the two wells at the bottom of the hanger.... many many long minutes of power starvation with seemingly no hope in site, but I finally figured out how to keep the center well under control.... then it was tackle the right most well, as far down as I could go, and load up on much needed power. Then charge out the hanger door and take down the top creeper gun.

Now I could build all the power and techs I wanted.... and sweep all three wells down to the bottom hell hole.

I have to tell you the last slog was really not fun at all. If this was a solo map, if I had nothing invested in the series, I would have just said "the hell with it" as sitting around watching launchers for 15+ minutes is not much fun.

I liked the initial challenge, but that end slug fest was not at all as enjoyable as the rest of this series.

thanks for a fun ride though!

Thank you for commenting. You certaintly did do it the hard way, but you were persistant. ;) Just so you know, there are now 6 MD maps to play. :)

I have heard form others that this is too much of a slug fest, so thank you for your opinion. I will do my best to avoid that kind of playing in my future maps. thanks for playing!

gsm · January 12, 2012, 04:52:55 AM

Quote from: CyberDyneSystems on January 06, 2012, 01:20:48 AM
...
It turns out I did not understand the trick to capping the wells...
...

Then what is the trick to capping these wells?
I have been playing this level for some time and it's not working.

Kithros · January 12, 2012, 07:10:43 AM

Quote from: gsm on January 12, 2012, 04:52:55 AM
Quote from: CyberDyneSystems on January 06, 2012, 01:20:48 AM
...
It turns out I did not understand the trick to capping the wells...
...

Then what is the trick to capping these wells?
I have been playing this level for some time and it's not working.

Well, I would guess (having not actually played through the map) you should use a combination of repulsors and launchers, and try to keep the launchers firing into the repulsor beam (ie. into the narrow corridor, not into the big room - it's supposed to be used defensively). Once you have the creeper under control you can start using launchers to fire into the room.

gsm · January 12, 2012, 07:39:55 AM

Thanks!
That helps a lot!

CyberDyneSystems · January 12, 2012, 04:30:08 PM

I found that shields were the answer. I'd never seen it before, but for that center well in the floor, once you get two or more layers of shields, and a repulsor,. it took very little firepower to hold that center one in check. Then you can focus on digging down on the right side.

But keep on eye on the shields, if one layer gets eaten, then rebuild as soon as the "tide" goes out.

pocketdare · April 22, 2012, 08:48:32 PM

I had the same issue as Cyber on this map. Couldn't take the top level while holding off the creeper from all 3 wells - kept running into power starvation no matter how efficiently I tried to cap the wells below and carefully build a couple power stations at the time. Ultimately, I took the same approach - retreated into the hanger, held the creeper at bay at the door with some shields and a few repulsers. But it still took quite a while to destroy the first emitter on the far right. I had to wait for my techs to build up so that I could increase the range and speed of attack before finally getting the job done.

After that, the remainder of the map went fairly quickly with the exception of the dense pit at the bottom (as others have mentioned.)

All in all though, a creative map and story line. Once I discovered that you could actually win by retreating, I thought the approach was very interesting - hadn't seen this before. Although, based on Fisher's comments, it doesn't appear that this was the original intent. A happy error then? ;)

Fisherck · April 23, 2012, 11:50:09 PM

Quote from: pocketdare on April 22, 2012, 08:48:32 PM
I had the same issue as Cyber on this map. Couldn't take the top level while holding off the creeper from all 3 wells - kept running into power starvation no matter how efficiently I tried to cap the wells below and carefully build a couple power stations at the time. Ultimately, I took the same approach - retreated into the hanger, held the creeper at bay at the door with some shields and a few repulsers. But it still took quite a while to destroy the first emitter on the far right. I had to wait for my techs to build up so that I could increase the range and speed of attack before finally getting the job done.

After that, the remainder of the map went fairly quickly with the exception of the dense pit at the bottom (as others have mentioned.)

All in all though, a creative map and story line. Once I discovered that you could actually win by retreating, I thought the approach was very interesting - hadn't seen this before. Although, based on Fisher's comments, it doesn't appear that this was the original intent. A happy error then? ;)

Well, thank you for playing! I am glad you found a way to beat this map using your own techniques; I try to make it so my maps have multiple techniques that can solve them. That way the speed demonds (I am one of them ;)) can have their fun, and the more methodical can enjoy the map too.