Custom Map #11578: Tech Up. By: no

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This topic is for discussion of map #11578: Tech Up


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[Martin Gronsdal]

really cool map!

[toolforger]

Gah.

Hiding a final CN off-map is insiduous, and not in the fun way.

And while having to brute-force your way into the bottom-right island might be an interesting puzzle, it's also frustraing if you see all intelligent approaches fail and you really have to use brute force.

Having to slog through strong emitters uphill with mere level-0 units just takes too much time.
Yeah it can be done, and the principle is interesting, but having to do this three steps up and on a wide front is a bit too repetitive (not by much though).

It's a well-thought-out map, barely manageable in several places, requires some trickery (so a fair warning would have been appropriate but at least it's right at the start except near the end where anybody without the right ideas would be frustrated).
But still.

Tips:

1. You can connect the walled-off reactors to a CN placed in the southeast corner of the southeast islad.

Spoiler

Collectors on power zones have an extended connection range to all units. (This is the one situaton where the humble collector can outrange relay connections. It's rarely relevant, the mapmaker must know about this trick and explicitly include a constellation where the trick is useful.)

Spoiler

So, nullify the emitter near the top-left border of your staring island first, and place you sole collector on the Power Zone.

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2. The collector won't connect to the CN if that's supplying the cannons attacking the bottom-right emitter.

Spoiler

You can use a cannon (or in fact any other unit) to connect a collector with a CN.

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This trick is helpful only on maps that restrict the number of collectors and relays, so most people don't think about it.

3. Many tech pickups are too far from land, but there's a trick:

Spoiler

Remember that a collector on a power zone has extended connection range.

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On the first island, you need another trick:

Spoiler

You can nullify the AC emitter to get a power zone that's just in range. Yes you'll lose the AC generation, but you don't get a sprayer until near the end, and at that point you have other tools and don't really need AC anymore.

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[Superluminal]

Thanks for playing!

I do have to apologise for the off-map CN tech, I was completely out of ideas.

There were a few things I wanted to change about the map (adding tips, opening text), but that would require me to beat the whole thing again which I really didn't want to. Truthfully, I did not expect for the map to be hard/frustrating, but now looking at it from the players' perspective, I can see that the ideas are not as obvious as they seem.

And while having to brute-force your way into the bottom-right island might be an interesting puzzle, it's also frustrating if you see all intelligent approaches fail and you really have to use brute force.

Did you only use cannons to beat it? That would explain why you had to brute force it. I got the mortar tech first before going to the bottom right island.

Having to slog through strong emitters uphill with mere level-0 units just takes too much time.
Yeah it can be done, and the principle is interesting, but having to do this three steps up and on a wide front is a bit too repetitive (not by much though).

I'm assuming you mean the island in the top left? That implies you got the forge after the bertha. I did it the other way around.

Some more tips (that I should've added to the map):

1. Centre forge island

Spoiler

Use strafers to destroy the digitalis connections which will also kill off all the runners

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2. Terp Tech / 3 floating islands

Spoiler

Sprayers that are destroyed will release all the AC stored. This can be taken advantage of by destroying the sprayers mid-air over the floating islands. (does not work for guppies)

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The "intended" path for tech collection:

Spoiler

Collector
Cannon
Mortar
Reactor
Guppy
Ore Mine
Sprayer
Terp
Command Node Off-map
Strafer
Forge
Siphon
Bertha
Thor

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[Lore]

Great map, well thought out with some clever design features leading to some interesting little puzzles.

Cheers

[Lore]

The "intended" path for tech collection:

Its quite possible to complete the map without the collector, but is certainly makes the start a lot easier. Its also possible to snipe the forge tech at the start and do some CN shenanigans to get some forge energy, although I did not particularly test this.

The little islands leading to the terp tech can be claimed by a cannon or two. With the long cooldown on the emitters you have enough time to switch the cannon with a fresh one and can repeat that until you get the nullifier built.

The off map CN tech was a surprise to see but I happened to notice it pretty quickly. The tech itself is not really needed to complete the map other than for collecting the tech.