Custom Map #3833: Fourecks. By: Pusillanimous

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This topic is for discussion of map #3833: Fourecks


Author: Pusillanimous
Size: 150x150

Desc:
Another abandoned (subverted) research facility. A biological weapon defending it. And a map where it takes a long time to get anywhere, hence the name. Have fun on the rings, and remember two points: 1) You have a variety of weapons available. 2) Things generally don't take kindly to being hurt, unless of course they are killed immediately.

[GoodMorning]

Hints:

Spoiler

Wow! Look at the central, open space! We should build there!
We should also be ready to lose anything we put there. It might be good to get some ring infrastructure built, though...

[close]

Spoiler

Hmm... Flying Creeper-coloured blobs... What works on those again?

[close]

Spoiler

A strong unit that we don't want in our base. What could that be taken out with?

[close]

Spoiler

A fixed unit. We know what to do here. Or we could try to fight it with AC.

[close]

Spoiler

Packet speed, oh packet speed, wherefore art thou, packet speed?

[close]

Mechanics:

Spoiler

There are three units you'll see.
The Queen spawns Hives, and provides them with Creeper while they build.
The Hive spawns Swarmers (I really would have liked some better art, but I an not good at this...), which lay down Creeper.
The Hive also spawns Queens periodically.

There are also a number of invisible Cores, that are essentially flags for the Queens, saying "Build Here". They are deactivated while there is a Hive on them. Queens will go to the closest and build, then they die. If there are none, they'll fly around randomly, not doing much at all.

When a Queen is damaged, it starts pumping out Creeper. It also stops where it is, so unless you have Range upgrades, it will be a pain to try to keep the Sniper(s) alive long enough to kill it. The stopping also tends to mean that only the first Sniper is close enough to hit it, making it last a lot longer.

[close]

What do you think? This was designed to be reusable, so feel free to borrow it.

There are also a number of control and mapmaking scripts (circles, UID revealer, orbiter, one to make the units line up for inspection, and one as a guide to some of the mapmaking key commands for the units).

[RrR]

There is a bug.

I often start maps running without landing the CN or taking any other action, just too see what happens.

With this map, doing nothing causes victory after 12.7 seconds.

[GoodMorning]

Curses. I must have something strange going on... I'll check.

No, it worked properly for me, having just downloaded from CS. This is strange, doing nothing shouldn't have that effect, and there are no random numbers used by that point either.

I can't even blame a CRPL issue. At 12.7 sec, one Core spawns another, and they (should) coexist for a frame. Therefore, I don't even have an "oops, one frame without Cores" issue excuse.

Could you check something, please? I am not having the issue, so I cannot be sure my results are relevant.
What I need to know is whether, at that 12.7 second mark, there appears a unit with seven hexagons in a "honeycomb" pattern (right in the middle). What should occur is that this will appear, and the unit that flew in should vanish in a pulse of Creeper on the next frame. Failing that, could I request a save?

(And by "bug", I take it you don't mean the unit that the map begins with.)

[RrR]

Tried it again. It doesn't go to the victory screen every time - but running at x4 speed seems to make it happen more often , but I didn't do enough runs to be sure.

The bee flies in to the centre and when the hexagons appear, the game ends.

[GoodMorning]

I haven't reproduced it.

Best guess: Sometimes OperateWhilePaused is carried from destroyed Cores. Perhaps the same has occurred from my (long since deleted) terrain generation Cores with CONST_COUNTSFORVICTORY.

Aside from the strange bug, what is your opinion of the opponent?

[jaworeq]

Hey, no bug for me ;)

As for map concept, I liked it.

[GoodMorning]

I'll try it in another map, then. If the issue follows it around, I'll try something else.

[digitalizedMind]

underrated map imo! i think this boss is really cool, glad to see someone make crpl thats targetable by snipers