Custom Map #1345: Death by Spore or Emitter?. By: Jason Stevens

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This topic is for discussion of map #1345: Death by Spore or Emitter?


Author: Jason Stevens
Size: 128x256

Desc:
You'll need to act fast and use the mass driver factories to keep the powerful emitter to the north in check. This is a difficult map. Move too slow and you'll be wiped out by either the spores or the emitter to the north. #Spores #Runners #Other Emitter #Flip Emitter

[wobblycogs]

Wow, brilliant map. That has got to be the hardest start of any completable map I've played. It took me an absolute age to finish it because I wasn't aggressive enough early on. Once you have a foothold you really have to grow like crazy. I perhaps made life more difficult for myself than necessary though as I had a stack of mass driver shots left at the end.

[RrR]

Unless there is a trick I didn't find, the beginning is insanely hard. Almost no scope for error before huge number of spores arrive

Spoiler

even after nullifying the vulnerable spore tower and putting a beam there

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Got as far as the mass generators....

[jasons2645]

Yea, it was my intent to design a map that is completable, but incredibly difficult.  With this map, you really have to be on your toes the entire time.  There's not a lot of forgiveness for complacency ;)

Spoiler

I had to do the exact same thing with the vulnerable spore - also cycled beams in that position since it's more energy-efficient to kill the spores from a PZ than once it comes down to your base

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[wobblycogs]

Spoiler

I started in the bottom left raised area and supplied packets to the centre emitter then spread out from there at a snails pace, didn't think to get the vulnerable spore towers early on. If you are careful you can let the emitters dissolve all of the wall which gives you a bit more space to place spore towers. Once you have enough to handle the waves of 20 rush for the bridge over to the mass drivers. I captured the right hand side of the lower section first which made the fight over the bridge nearly impossible. With the mass drivers the game becomes fairly easy assuming you can hold and power them.

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[Loren Pechtel]

How do you survive the start?  I'm not succeeding in getting enough power to operate all the emitters near the start and if I don't I die in a flood of creeper.

[RrR]

How do you survive the start?  I'm not succeeding in getting enough power to operate all the emitters near the start and if I don't I die in a flood of creeper.

The start took about a dozen attempts.

Spoiler

Start by powering one emitter and building collectors.
Once you can get the energy resource, build a load of reactors. It might be slightly more efficient to build them in phases, so the early ones can help build the later ones.
Start to power the left emitter once if has melted through the first wall. Support it with a mortar and pc. Continue to build reactors. Then beams. Only connect to the other emitters when you have to. But not too late.
Sending a guppy & beam out two destroy one of the 20-spore towers is also cunning.

Once you can cope with the incoming spores you can build out to the right. The game then becomes much easier.
It is an exceptionally hard start.

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[teknotiss]

How do you survive the start?  I'm not succeeding in getting enough power to operate all the emitters near the start and if I don't I die in a flood of creeper.

The start took about a dozen attempts.

Spoiler

Start by powering one emitter and building collectors.
Once you can get the energy resource, build a load of reactors. It might be slightly more efficient to build them in phases, so the early ones can help build the later ones.
Start to power the left emitter once if has melted through the first wall. Support it with a mortar and pc. Continue to build reactors. Then beams. Only connect to the other emitters when you have to. But not too late.
Sending a guppy & beam out two destroy one of the 20-spore towers is also cunning.

Once you can cope with the incoming spores you can build out to the right. The game then becomes much easier.
It is an exceptionally hard start.

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perhaps

Spoiler

landing in the center will allow you to get that 750 energy, after that good luck, i still don't have a satisfactory build order in the start, but with 750 free energy you can rapidly take all the connect-mitters and get some infrastructure running.

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i'll be attempting to kill a spore tower or two this go round i guess ::)

edit: spelling ::)

[RrR]

If you connect to all the emitters too soon, that 750 of energy burns up pretty fast, and you don't have enough energy to deal with the spores.

If you connect to the emitters too late, you get over-run by creeper.

[teknotiss]

If you connect to all the emitters too soon, that 750 of energy burns up pretty fast, and you don't have enough energy to deal with the spores.

If you connect to the emitters too late, you get over-run by creeper.

quite, i'm thinking i have the plan now but it'll have to wait till my rage quit tolerance levels drop a bit! ;)

[Ferig]

I can't survive for more than 5 minutes, very hard beginnig... someone than give a tip?

[Thimotty]

best map i've played so far!

[Johnny Haywire]

Wow, such a great map. Dunno why I love spores but... yeah that was great!

As RrR mentions, this is an insanely hard start. I tried once, then on the second try I saved every few minutes, which for this map is highly recommended.

Spoiler

Guppies can be a life-saver if you haven't moved fast enough early on. If you can build a few, use them to power up the mass drivers and a nearby totem. Just be sure to move them before they die. Try to power at least 3 things at once to maximize your time before the guppy has to land elsewhere.

Also, don't just have the guppy return to base. Have it go back to your powergrid so you don't waste that precious energy  ;)

Note: With a little bit of fast micro-management you can cycle 4 guppies and keep the mass drivers powered up without having to pause. Just be quick.

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This is a fantastic map, and I highly recommend this for experts. The mass drivers are especially fun to use once you get 30-50 of them. And they reproduce so quickly once you have 4 powered up that you can hit with them as fast as a PZ bertha would hit.

Thanks for the map! Three enthusiastic smiles up!  ;D ;D ;D

[Lucky Clover]

After struggling one night, I finally find the way to beat this map(its 3 am now) with 51mins ingame and get the 3rd scores. I believe this is one of the hardest map made by Jason.
You have 750 energy at the begining, which give you A LOT OF choices to do, and you will need to try many times at each choice to find a way to survive the first 10 mins.

Here is my strategy(maybe clear enough for the one who struggling this map)
spolier alert(explore the choice of this map is the most interesting part for me, and I would advised you guys try one more time before reading this tips)

Spoiler

1. The 750 energy should be spend on: 1guppy+1beam+1mortor+collectors and reactors.  guppy destory the 20 spore,and beam should move to PZ.
2. The left part seems to be a better initial space, and use one collector to link to each green emitter but only enable them if necessary. Necessary means that they are about to destory your building . Use mortor to help your organization, but disable it later to save energy.
3. Build reactor WHENEVER possible
4. 4 beams are enough for the 3+3+4+4 attack periods if you have PZ beams. You can build some collector near PZ beams to attract some spore to save energy.
5. While 20*2 spores is about to launch, you should have a guppy near PZ with at least 30 energy, and 2 beams. Switch to the full ammo beams to PZ if the first one out of ammo, which would help you destory over 20-22 spores. Which means that <9> beams at main base are enough for 20*2 attacks.
6. You should note that, just before the 20*2 attack, the middle wall will be destoryed by the right creeper. One connon and one mortor is enough. At thistime, the left region should be safe enough and cover with AC.
7. I start building forge around 9-10 minutes. Remember that forge is very expensive(100+25+120)! You will need A LOT OF energy and its earnings are based on your base production.
If you could survive for 10mins, victory is within your reach!

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[fractalman]

I actually did NOT snipe a spore tower on this, but it's an EXTREMELY careful balancing act if you do this, as you need much more energy production up and running by the time the 20 spores fire. I had to reload to a previous save repeatedly

Spoiler

Land command node in bottom left. I went and built a single collector instead of the siphon right away, not sure if that helped any
-build reactors and collectors with an eye to race towards the leftmost emitter, as that needs supplied first.
-only connect to the others after your first reactors are built. maybe even a bit later, but its a near thing.
 Don't worry about the right side except as a place to put some temporary collectors.

-once you start supplying them, you can build collectors on the pads and between them too.
-i don't even know how to describe my timing, beyond "so you gotta build the beams at almost the last possible moment and be building reactors at all times, but not SO many reactors that you get overwhelmed with creeper"

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