Custom Map #456: Diamondique

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This topic is for discussion of map #456: Diamondique


Author: Eudrick

Desc:
Cell to cell. Which is the best route?

[SmileyCoder]

In general a good map.

However I ended up spending 20 min just hammering the last room (The one with 4 emitters) cause the total hostile creeper had reached millions.


I would like to see an updated Expert version where you: Solve the mentioned problem and put limits on most items.

[Katra]

Pretty nice map except:

1. the 100M plus subcells in the room with four emitters. (There IS a trick I only found after pounding on them for about ten minutes.)

2. The assorted bits of scattered (and to my eye sloppily placed) entombed creeper. Took me five minutes to track all of them down using the r key and kill them. More use of r than all other maps put together for me. ::) (The roots of a structure will pretty effectively hide a subcell or two of creeper even when using R to search for entombed creeper.) Of course this was done at the same time as I was working on the room with four emitters.

Gave a thumbs down for that long slog at the end - but may decide to try again, as I think I could knock a big chunk off my time.

[eudrick]

Moderator's comments:  DethbyIT   Wow! One of the longest times I have ever posted. Possibly need to make a comment of something like "Expert Only"

There's one  "expert move". See below.

Pretty nice map except:

In general a good map.

Thanks

However I ended up spending 20 min just hammering the last room (The one with 4 emitters) cause the total hostile creeper had reached millions.

1. the 100M plus subcells in the room with four emitters. (There IS a trick I only found after pounding on them for about ten minutes.)

I realize this is a bit excessive and was unanticipated.  By the time I'd played it through all the way it was my 8th version of that room and I gave up (brain dead). The nature of the creeper/AC flip requires that the creeper nodes 'load up' to the max in order to flip.   One way to shorten the time is to open the room AS SOON as you have shields (this is important, you don't want AC flooding the center node and making more creeper.) place 2 nullifiers to kill the ac emitters and then kill the creeper at your leisure.  Using repulsars to 'bleed' creeper off the nodes also helps.  Put the end of the repulsar beam on the node and cycle the beam on and off rapidly. The creeper will 'climb' back up the beam.  DO NOT leave it on or you'll get flooded.  

2. The assorted bits of scattered (and to my eye sloppily placed) entombed creeper. Took me five minutes to track all of them down using the r key and kill them. More use of r than all other maps put together for me. ::) (The roots of a structure will pretty effectively hide a subcell or two of creeper even when using R to search for entombed creeper.) Of course this was done at the same time as I was working on the room with four emitters.

Creeper was intentionally placed to overlap blocks (hence the tricks and traps comment in the intro).  Build blindly at your own risk. ;)

Gave a thumbs down for that long slog at the end - but may decide to try again, as I think I could knock a big chunk off my time.

I would like to see an updated Expert version where you: Solve the mentioned problem and put limits on most items.

Rest assured there WILL be a reworking of this map as I had a bunch of other ideas for the cells that I didn't implement.  And plan to address the mega creeper cells somehow.

[DethbyIT]

I saved that killer chamber for last and by then it was a monster. After several failures, I figured out how to use a Repulsor to make those blocks managable.

This is a game I will definitely play again, but do a better job of picking my fights.

You have a long string of games I really enjoy playing and this is one of them.
dbit

[Kithros]

As far as avoiding the huge creeper densities.. if you want to avoid that, then you'll pretty much  have to do away with the whole overflow concept and use a normal emitter instead to get the same result. To deal with it efficiently as it is, you would need to find a good combination of opening up the chambers on the right sides at the right times, possibly destroying some emitters etc. in an attempt to make sure the creeper overflows into anti-creeper on all 4 sides at the same time - if you do this and time the nullifiers  to this point, then you can completely avoid the cleanup phase. As far as getting them all to overflow at the same time within a reasonable amount of time - that would require a huge amount of experimentation - there's no reasonable way to calculate it mathematically so it's pretty much guessing.

As far as being an expert map, I'm not really seeing that -  it's a long map,  but that does not make it an expert only map. I would be hard pressed to believe any conventional (not puzzle maps) map being expert only without the LS being put into danger in some way or having a timer of some sort.

[Grauniad]

You could, of course, provide Conversion Bombs to eliminate that ultra-dense creeper.

[eudrick]

As far as avoiding the huge creeper densities.. if you want to avoid that, then you'll pretty much  have to do away with the whole overflow concept and use a normal emitter instead to get the same result. To deal with it efficiently as it is, you would need to find a good combination of opening up the chambers on the right sides at the right times, possibly destroying some emitters etc. in an attempt to make sure the creeper overflows into anti-creeper on all 4 sides at the same time - if you do this and time the nullifiers  to this point, then you can completely avoid the cleanup phase. As far as getting them all to overflow at the same time within a reasonable amount of time - that would require a huge amount of experimentation - there's no reasonable way to calculate it mathematically so it's pretty much guessing.

I tried a number of combinations and quasi settled on this one.  My 1^st iteration had the path to the emitters blocked by a node and hence non-nullifiable. I agree that it's impossible to time them all as it seems that the bottom and left side want to convert long before the top and right.  I'm reluctant to scrap the flip completely but there may be a way to lessen the effect after the emitters are killed.  I'll play with it some more.

As far as being an expert map, I'm not really seeing that -  it's a long map,  but that does not make it an expert only map. I would be hard pressed to believe any conventional (not puzzle maps) map being expert only without the LS being put into danger in some way or having a timer of some sort.

I never claimed this to be expert,  the comments were to bump it up to expert status.  Putting the LS in peril and maybe adding some endangered capsules could  do this.

You could, of course, provide Conversion Bombs to eliminate that ultra-dense creeper.

that might be the ultimate fix, a limited number I would think, otherwise the rest of the map would be too easy.