Custom Map #3000: Planet 3000. By: Jamz

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This topic is for discussion of map #3000: Planet 3000


Author: Jamz
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Skars and Lia find themselves on a world known as Planet 3000. Unfortunately for Skars, he has been forced to ground due to the presence of an Inhibitor and finds himself in danger from the very beginning. A somewhat tricky start and a somewhat heavy assault is needed towards the end. It's probably a moderate to difficult map, perhaps more on the difficult side. Feel free to check the forum topic for this map for some tips which I'll leave. #NoCRPL #Digitalis #Runners #Spores #Inhibitor

[Jamz]

Wow oh wow, my first map, I'm actually kinda scared... :(
I've rated and criticised many a maps and now it's my turn to be on the receiving end. So yeah, for any of you map makers I may've been a bit harsh to, now's your chance to exact some revenge. :P

I've always wanted to create a map but a) not having any artistic or creativity skills and b) not knowing any CRPL has put me off. However, I had a couple of ideas and twists in my head that I thought might be a bit good even without knowledge of CRPL so thought I'd try and amalgamate it all in some way. And... I think I've come up with something fairly okay. The map design isn't probably the greatest given my poor art abilities. However, I think those who like fairly tough challenges might like this map. I'll leave some tips below in case anyone needs a bit of help.

And lastly, that map time of mine wasn't the best I could do. I just wanted to quickly rush through it so that I could upload it so I may look to doing it again to post up a better score and time. :)

[Jamz]

A few tips in case anyone's struggling... but do try the map first without reading. I'm sure it's not too bad.

Spoiler

The main difficulty is probably related to the beginning, and maybe a little but not so much towards the very end.
The beginning really is all about energy management (as it usually is) and prioritising what you build and do first etc. Get that right and you should be ok, otherwise you'll be in hot water. Once you create the space you need you'll be fine. Other important thing is not to panic when your CN starts taking damage or even when it completely loses its health.
And as for the ending, that's really about going mad and all out.

The Beginning

Spoiler

- As suggested in the opening dialogue, land your CN right towards the bottom left.
- First priority is to build collectors straight up to where the Terp Tech is. With any spare energy, build either more collectors where you can or build a cannon or two to protect yourself from the Creeper to the east.
- Once the Terp Tech is collected, 1) build a siphon on the 300 energy packet, 2) build a Terp near the command node, 3) build more collectors where possible, 4) build a couple reactors and 5) one or two more cannons.
- Start to terp the irregularities closest to the CN and slowly start to creep your CN north until safe.
- If your CN loses all its health, then remember to instantly drop down another CN.
- Once you've moved the CN north enough, you should be able to build and place a cannon or two south of it and that should protect you sufficiently from the creeper coming from the south.
- When you get the minute warning message for the spores, then consider building your beams. You should by then be comfortably producing AT LEAST 6 energy. If not you probably haven't done things quick enough or wasted too much resources somewhere and you may then struggle a bit when the larger spore wave kicks in.

- Whilst all that is going on, continue to keep freeing up space especially as you want to get that Forge online asap. The 25 aether pack will help you instantly fund for 1 Energy Efficiency upgrade which will help massively. The space will also help you to place more collectors and reactors to build up your energy to defend against the larger spore wave and to launch your assault forward.

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The Ending

Spoiler

Not really much to say here except that you need to sort of go trigger happy with your snipers and mortars. You'll need a lot of snipers to bring those runners down. PZ snipers on the centre, top right and top left will help take them down quicker and with less energy.

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The Resources at the Southern Strip.

Spoiler

They're not really necessary so I'm not going to give any tips on them. :P
And besides, I made one slight error in my map design that makes it easier to get to it than the way I had initially intended.

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[Johnny Haywire]

Hey Jamz!

Good job with the map! And you get bonus points for using "amalgamate" on top of that!  :D

I found myself having to pause the game a couple times in the beginning, which I don't like to do, but that just means it was a good, challenging start. I don't think the three orbitals is really necessary but I'm sure it helps. Provided you remember to land them, that is - which I totally forgot to do until the end.

I like the terrain limitation, but I also like that you allow us to modify that terrain. I like the added ore bonus supply, although

Spoiler

You shouldn't need the energy pack. Destroy it so you can nullify the runner's nest and you can grab the ore pretty early.

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I used it earlier than the map suggested. The island hopping was also cool, and the creeper wasn't OP nor was it completely puny. No real critique here... a good, solid, no-frills map! Thanks for your work!

[ak]

Awesome map.  Here's an extra little trick:

Spoiler

You can grab the two berthas at the beginning of the game, which really helps the mid-game.  Even more than that, it's possible (but maybe very difficult; I barely did it on my first try) to use your two extra CNs to load up a guppy with 120 energy and send it down to the starting island.

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I also used Johnny Haywire's trick.

[D0m0nik]

Fantastic first map, great work. Loved all the initial challenges, loved the heavy spore attack that killed me first time round. The enticing energy packet was a constant distraction but once I had it it was a relative sprint to clean the map up.

May try it again using Johnny's trick to get to the resources a little earlier. Nice  8)

[D0m0nik]

Nice trick Johnny, it worked. I took out the ore packet and used the energy. Was a bit tricky and required 2 CNs to build the siphon in time. Pause defo needed!

[Johnny Haywire]

Heh, yeah I had to pause as well. As much as I try not to, on some maps - especially in setting up - it's kinda necessary, unless you're playing on 1x time and I don't really know if I'd be able to focus on something for that long before my ADHLAS kicked in.

[D0m0nik]

I had to google ADHLAS!  ;D

[Jamz]

Read all the comments.
Really really thrilled to see that you guys enjoyed it! Thanks a lot for playing it and taking the time to comment. :)
Honestly, I started making this map about 5 months ago, tweaked it every now and again, but never really had the guts or motivation (one of them) to carry on with it and post it, then left it untouched for about 1 or 2 months until yesterday.

The main thing for me when I started making this was that I wanted to make a tough map that wouldn't be frustrating/tedious/involving a lot of pausing etc. which I must say was a very difficult balance to achieve. Good thing I trialled the map a few times. Lol, initially I had only a 50 energy packet at the top, no aether pack, a lot more terping required and more oncoming spores. And although it was doable, I realised it was too frustrating to play it so thankfully toned it down a bit.
Also, as I had found that the main challenge and point of interest in a lot of maps were just often about surviving the beginning only, I wanted to try and avoid that and give the map something interesting to do at all stages ie the beginning, middle and the end, not just the beginning. Not sure how well I did on that as I would say the main challenge of the map probably still was the beginning but I think I did manage to achieve that plan to an extent.
And the other plan I had was that I wanted to also provide a couple alternatives and optionals as I did with that resource supply at the south. I did have something else planned too which was more or less fully designed too. But what happened was that as I logged on to the forums after getting home yesterday and saw that Map #2999 was posted, I thought to myself this would be a great moment to build up some courage and post mine as the 3000th. So I decided I was going to spend the rest of my day to get back on that map and quickly tweak, test, finish and upload it. But as I hadn't tested this extra optional of mine (and it was a bit complex, it would've taken a fair amount of time), I had to chop it out altogether so that was a bit of shame. But I might hold on to that idea of mine, IF I make another map.

[Johnny Haywire]

Yeah, your map is spot-on in my opinion. One of the best "normal" maps I've played, no doubt. I've only done a little over 500 maps though - I'm sure a lot of the guys have done them all. I really hope you can do a few more maps of a similar caliber. It's almost impossible to find a map that's almost impossible - yet do-able and fun at the same time.

Thanks so much for all your hard work!

[Jerdog]

A great vanilla map.  Who need CPRL?

[MeTheGuy12]

lol planet 3000 is map 3000