Custom Map #1109: Blob Invasion. By: Bluebolt

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This topic is for discussion of map #1109: Blob Invasion


Author: Bluebolt
Size: 384x216

Desc:
What's this? Strange structures... Purpose unkown, proceed with caution. Warning: Difficult Also the sacs can get a bit buggy. I suggest you use it to your advantage if you figure out how to make it bug out :)

[Laithaldien]

So you tried to add some CW4 flair and succeeded, but forgot to add a bit of documentation. So I'll try to help a bit:

BLOBS - What are they and what's wrong with them?!

Blobs are spawned by emitters and the little dots, both hostile and friendly - the little blue dots have to be lathed first though.
They then move to another emitter/dot and either create a little particle explosion, a stun charge, an CW4 style Airsac or striders - I think those deal damage on impact.
What's created seems to be fixed and tied to the target.
The little red dots are disabled if blue particle is near, so they can no longer spawn blobs, but are still a target for spawned ones.

They can be damaged, but either unreliably or at a price:
Particles: no
Struc: no
Weapon fire: probably no, just targetting the created particles
Ramming: YES - usually blowing your ship up. Try not to aim with your core :)
Emergent: YES

They are quite tough, so it's best not to stand in their way unless it's an airsac, because airsacs are annoying little critters.
They wander around, create strings of particles and then try to kill you by throwing the strings at you.
They don't stop creating particle, the strings do NOT disappear over time and they even can go beyond  the 6000 particle limit!
They don't heal though, so if you managed to take out their creation emitter/dot, go for them!

[bluebolt]

Ah yes, I do seem to have forgotten to put some documentation. I would make more maps if they weren't so laggy for most computers... as it is, The second map has a ship capable of damaging the blobs.
Some extra things:
Dots are only capable of particle explosions; emitters spawn skimmers*(V renamed them recently), air sacs, and stunners.
Blobs are colored to show where they came from/are going to. Blue/Red go to emitters, Purple/Orange go to dots, preferring disabled ones over enabled ones(they basically act as a defense mechanism; they go to attacked dots.)
I think omnis can damage/be damaged by blobs as well, I have not tested that though.

Airsacs were nailed
Skimmers will target nearby ships at the time of spawning and will detonate into several particles upon contact with hull or struc. They aren't dangerous unless the CM is slightly exposed, or you're faced with  swarm.

[Laithaldien]

Omnis can be killed by blobs, same as stations, if they create particle when they move over.

(Looked at the second map, waited for the enemy carrier to spawn (due to lag warning), warped HQ in, game froze until HQ was destroyed.)

If you put a limit on the amount of airsacs and/or make their particle disappear over time, this could help a bit with the lag, difficulty as well
since this map with the current blobs forces you to be aggressive and take risks, e.g. send Ruby on almost suicide runs to lathe a few emitters.

[bluebolt]

Yes, I had taken inspiration from the CW4 videos at the time(now, blobs are in separate structures in CW4, so this isn't a good model anymore). However, when I made it, blobs were notoriously difficult in CW4. That may have carried over  :P