alpha sector j maps and the colonial space units maps

Started by hbarudi, April 10, 2014, 06:59:47 PM

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hbarudi

some maps require certain strategies, but the pit, how in the world do you nullify all these things?
I might comment on the other maps once I get to them, but the pit for now
I terraformed the entire map to level 10, but that area where they were going around, can't get close to it tried using guppies and sacrificing lots of collectors, but no luck in nullifying any of the major things that create the smaller ones, also nullifiers do damage and destroy those things, but can't reach the big ones without the nullifier always dying, also why are the ores mines so close, they always kill my ore mine and have to rebuild it, but it survives for a while, at first I used mortar to stop the small amount of creeper they make as they move, but then I covered the map with anticreeper with sprayers even after sacrificing hundreds of mines.
For those units maps, can I have the intended order since after doing about 9 or so of them, I am stuck at this point. Did the relay, collector much later but did it, shield, ore mine, siphon, pulse cannon, strafer, bomber, sprayer, nullifier, (edit: reactor, mortar, guppy), but having trouble on all the others and unable to proceed.

update:
maps remaining that I can't finish in alpha sector J:
creeper wall 2 and edit: finished creeper wall 3
super tower 1 and (2 edit:thanks for the youtube walkthrough done it, build a nullifier near the first thing then just nullify the other stuff and survive long enough for the main thing to be nullifier enable and the nullifier will just fire on it and give a quick victory)
the pit - did another attempt by terraforming a pyramid in the middle with a base of 1 and peak of 8, still can't get close enough with a living nullifier to kill one of the 4 main enemy units.

update 2:
maps left in alpha: creeper wall 2, super tower 1, the pit where comments below were not enough to help me get close to 4 main enemies with a living nullifier
maps left in colonial space: terp, beam having lots of trouble with this one how to do a map with phantoms and no beam where it isn't possible to have energy for shields, sniper, forge, and bertha where the beam map even with shields, I just can't get a start anywhere the phantoms will drop creeper before I can get a living shield to protect me, then I have to attack the enemy just to get to the beam which should be easily accessible, I try to get collectors or relays, but creeper floods area very fast

Michionlion

Many of the harder maps in the alpha sector have threads devoted to them somewhere.  You can use the search function to find those threads.
"Remember kids, the only difference between science and messing around is writing it down."
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My website
My CW1, and CW2 maps!

waxon44

I'm having the same trouble, despite the notes saying that the flying things avoid elevations above 8.  If you terraform above 8, the big ones just leave smaller ones stuck all over the place.

J

In the pit you'll have to trap those little irritating unit-killing things. As they don't like low terrain, they won't move to terrain 2 elevations lower than current (note that they will reverse if they can't move anywhere else). Once they're all trapped you can build multiple nullifiers around the pit and nullify most of the cores.

Unit maps: Another helpful unit is the forge, however for the forge map, you'll need beams. Beam map is pretty hard without beams, but remember that shields can also block spores and you can take out 2 spore towers directly at the start of the map. Guppy map should also be doable with the techs you have, and try the reactor and mortar map before you try beam (for mortar you will most likely need reactors, but it is possible without).

waxon44

I built a big rectangle like such (x is 10)

XXXXX
X888X
X818X
X818X
X888X
XXXXX

Just imagine it taking up the left 1/3 of the map.  Based on the archived transmission and comments in this thread, they should:

1. avoid the  "1" section because it is low
2. prefer the "8" section because they prefer high ground, but not higher than 8
3. avoid the "X" section because they don't go higher than 8

in reality, they are all over that rectangle, and also PAST the 10 level.  I've elevated the entire map just about to level 10, it seems like the things have some kind of momentum that throws them past elevations they're not supposed to prefer.  So, I end up with thick clusters of stuck things along the border of this rectangle.

also tried within a box of 10's:

1111111
1111111
7777777
7777777
1111111
1111111

this should gather most of them around the center horizontal line, but they're still just everywhere.  especially the large ones, which seem to just stay on the paths they had at the beginning of the map.

J

You can't guide the big cores producing creeper and little ones (you probably can a bit, but I don't know anymore).

Try to terraform these little traps in the big wall around the pit:

118888
118888
115778
118888
118888

You can create a large path with those 5's to guide them to a position where they can't harm you. If they are stuck in the wrong position, place some collectors near to destroy them.

waxon44

Your trap works great, except they seem to "reach capacity" and stop collecting new enemies after a while.  I built a fairly intricate network of 1 block wide traps based on your design and caught a bunch, but not enough to isolate the big guys.  In the end, I was able to use a bunch of guppies to create nullifiers along the edge of the big wall.  99% of the time they will instantly destroy the nullifiers, but occasionally one will not be targeted (due to a bug, probably.  or cw is feeling sorry for me).  I just kept building and building rows of nullifiers until there was only one big guy left, and then repeated the process inside the walls.

Thanks for the help!

red_elk

#7
About "the pit"
I noticed that there are two kinds of small enemies - the ones which destroy buildings and prefer elevated ground, and another ones, which move by the similar pattern as the big ones (ignore terrain) and don't destroy anything. The "destroyers" are attracted by natural elevation on the right side of the pit, so I just spammed nullifiers on the left side of the pit, until one of slower big enemies got caught and destroyed. After that, you can use power zone left by it, to build nullifier there and catch all the others. Took a while to figure that out, though.

Kharnellius

#8
Wow, talk about a convoluted way to make a puzzle map.  I guess I don't feel bad giving up on it.  Too many other maps out there without super weird rules and ridiculous steps needed to satisfy them.

I love a good puzzle map, but this is just not enjoyable.  Frustrating and annoying.  Not enough time in the world to be wasting on this, lol.

tooforger

Key to doing this map quickly is recognizing that the high ground extending to the right already is a trap: the towers can go up, but they can't go down because it's more than two levels downwards.
There's one area where they can go down, so I lowered the ground by 1 with a sacrifical-collectors-protected terp. Very fast, gave me the Leader of the Pack achievement.