Custom Map #820: Elite Team. By: JoaoPistori

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This topic is for discussion of map #820: Elite Team


Author: JoaoPistori
Size: 384x320

Desc:
#No prpl this time :P SHOW THE POWER OF THIS ELITE TEAM OF SHIPS!! #Don't lose any special ship. The mission will FAIL. Your HQ station is under attack! Protect it and eliminate the enemy structures. Find the best way to "defuse" the enemy position during the beginning, otherwise you'll get overwhelmed!

[JoaoPistori]

I forgot to put in the description, but you must read the opening dialog in order to build the ships correctly at the beginning

[GoodMorning]

Odd - I closed the opening dialogue, and couldn't place the HQ-ships, though the game didn't unpause. Restarted, placed without dismissing the conversation, and it worked. I don't know if this is coincidence.



Edit: Played, won. ~35:00.

Spoiler

My strategy was "Hmm, the lower areas don't have the Emitters start up for a good while, I'll put lathes there. I'll also build some at the top. When I have those lower mines, I'll build Omni triplets for those 20/sec mire spawners.

The HQ looks vulnerable, better put in a the fast-ship and start on the cannon and missile barges as soon as I have safe space at the bottom. In the meantime, I'll use that wall-ship. Now, the MK7 ship can go to the bottom, and I'll need a power source for it. I'll also need more power at the top, probably.

Hmm... the HQ looks unpleasantly vulnerable there. Let's do a mass migration to one of the corners. On the way, flip the middle, the cannons, and pick up the MK7 ship. We'll need move speed, defensive Struc, and ... mine power is always good.

Ah good, the lower corners are cleared, Stunners last. That looks like a good spot to build, so we'll choose a side to migrate to.

Here endeth the good bit. I forgot I had left a lathe-HQ on the left, and had to leave a goodly portion of the fleet to protect it. On the plus side, it tied up both Doppels and most of the Emergent. It still shouldn't have been necessary. I also flipped the Emitter on the side with the main HQ-fleet.

Ploughed through the bottom after recharging the fleet, with the Dischargers serving as rams. After that, dropped the HQ-fleet in one corner for safety, and sent the fleet of normal ships to steamroll the remains. Plenty of time to cut if the lathe-HQ went with the rest and something less critical was left to draw off the Emergent. Probably the Grabbers.

[close]

Incidentally, Grabber modules are half the price of an MK7 to build, and having three doesn't achieve a lot more than having one. Up to you, but I thought I'd mention it.

A fun map, and much easier than I expected. May I ask if I was supposed to be able to migrate?

[JoaoPistori]

A fun map, and much easier than I expected. May I ask if I was supposed to be able to migrate?

Well, depending on what you did or didn't, the particles would block you from migrating certain ships (for example, migrating a single lathe ship or builder ship), and yes, you're supposed to be able to migrate - then, migrating is your choice. The map doesn't have anything that will block you from migrating an entire fleet after a certain time.

Well, yes, it is a bit easy when you figure out the tricks. I hope the idea was good, then I can make more maps of this kind.

[GoodMorning]

I'm unsure about the instant-fail-on-loss warp-in ships as a recurring element.

I migrated the entire fleet immediately - which was, I suppose, my question.

[JoaoPistori]

Oh, sorry. I didn't undertand your question before. With "migrate" you meant put all of them on the map before unpausing the game before the first game frame, right? (I thought you meant moving the ships from bottom-right to top-middle, for example)

Well, I'll tell what I made and you will understand:
Created new map;
Selected corporate HQ and clicked on "add ships", then it opened the HQ design and I changed it and added to inventory. It also saved the HQ design as the newly ship I edited (the "builder" ship, in this case). Even inside the editor, I couldn't delete it because there was no "X" button and "delete all ships" didn't delete this one;
Selected HQ again, edited and added. Repeated this until I had all the ships I wanted (the 2 lathes, shield, station and 2 builders);
Then, I edited HQ again to make that tiny station but this time I didn't add to inventory, instead, I just saved the HQ design and warped it into the map.

At this point, I had a total of 7 HQ ships. Yes, all of them were HQs. I tried before with only the "HQ module" but they didn't warp, instead, they needed to be built.
But why did I put to lose mission if HQ dies? Because if one of the 7 HQs were destroyed, the game would bug, add the default HQ design into the corporate HQ button and bug the destroyed ship too*.

At the editor I could warp them at any time, but at the finalized version I couldn't (this was a natural thing; I didn't program or "prpled" this). I think you can only warp them before the first frame because the game still "don't know" there was an already built HQ (the tiny station, in this case) and would allow you to warp "your" HQ (the other 6 HQs).

*the ship couldn't be warped again due to the explanation above.

That's why you had to warp them all immediately before dimissing the opening conversation.
Also, as they all were true HQs**, if one dies the mission will fail.

**Yeah, true HQs, not a common ship with a "warp module". I hadn't found a way to create those warp ships without making them "via the base of the corporate HQ ship".

[GoodMorning]

You understood me correctly the first time.

Spoiler

I moved the tiny station, with some warp-ins to protect it, down to the lower-right immediately, which had been cleared of threats. Which is what I meant by "migration". I had simply wondered if those carefully paced fields had been intended to trap the station at the top initially.

[close]

HQs, warp-ins, and fail-on-loss...

Spoiler

Regarding the HQ behavoiur, that's expected. The blue module (alt-C) causes "fail-on-destruction" and allows mines to operate, but does not provide warp capacity. To more easily create these ships, see kajacx's custom ship editor.

Multiple warp-in ships have known-but-strange behavoiur with respect to placement. After (gt, not gte, and in game time) a warp-in is placed, no other warp-ins can be placed until there are none on the map (hence the no-unpause at the start of this map). The HQ-slot warp-in can't be placed until the 20sec timer expires, but other slots with warp-ins have no such restriction.

You have combined HQ-modules with warp-in ships and fail-on-loss. Note also that the HQ design is not saved (V assumed it would be unmodified) and so re-placing it after destruction (requires no warp-ins present from the previous frame and the timer to have expired) will place the standard HQ.

[close]

[Johnny Haywire]

Wow, this is a cool idea - even if the idea of jumping a bunch of fragile ships into hostile space is a bit scary.

For those who hate multitasking & micromanaging but want to try this map:

Spoiler

Split your warp groups to take out the top two corners right off the bat. Your triple lathe ships will take them down before they can do any damage, provided you warp in one supply ship and a shielding ship (use the shield for one side and the fortress for the other). Now just collect your ships in the middle and make a good defense!

[close]

The ability to build friendly struc is a nice touch on this map. I really like it overall, and it's a much easier map than it seems at first. Be cautious but not scared and you'll do just fine!

Thanks for the map, Joao! ;D ;D