C0

[knucracker]

Appears to be fixed to me. Nice job, Virgil... 12 hour turnaround on a bug report. You want to come work for my company? I just got asked yesterday if they could close a bug report I opened in 2009. I said, "Did you fix it?" They replied, "We don't know, can you check?"  :o

Oh, I have some good old bugs like that.  They are like constant mental companions that hang out with me and bother me when I try to rest ( http://farscape.wikia.com/wiki/Harvey ).   The ones I can do something about, I usually try to address before they take up residency :)

[Clean0nion]

Virgil's kind of awesome.

No... Virgil's awemany. He takes the 'some' out of 'awesome'.

[Clean0nion]

DOMORTHEA

Spoiler

FYI this map seems to suffer from a CW3 bug: if I place collectors to be built, save game and reload, their build cost drops back to the default 5.

I don't think I can do anything about this but I'll have a look.

In the meantime, Domorthea has an upcoming update involving moving around a few asteroids at the bottom of the map. Also added some effects to the spore tower.

This update will be live within the next few days. Your save files will not be compatible so I'll also provide a 'default' save that lets you begin on the fourth island as if you just left off there. I hope cheaters don't cheat but oh well.

[close]

UPDATE COMPLETE. This update has the following update log.

Code Select Expand

UPDATE LOG FOR 1.05 SINCE 1.04
* Modified digitalis tendrils and width in some places
* Moved some asteroids in lower-left belt
* Moved an AE to a different asteroid
+ Modified firing mechanism to make it more dramatic
+ Firing now produces a sound
+ Spores no longer fire at the same time
* They still fire every minute
Your previous saves are NOT COMPATIBLE with this update. I have provided as a replacement a default save file that lands you on Island 4. This can be downloaded at http://clean0nion.weebly.com/domorthea.html .

[pawel345]

Well this map is interesting but too long. The spores are more of an annoyance than a threat, and using just PZ reactors you can easily afford anything that is available. The tech and upgrade limits along with huge amounts of digitalis is what makes this map a challenge.
But I wished you allowed for packet speed upgrades, as that wouldn't change the difficulty level, but would make life easier. Anyway I look forward to other maps^^

P.S. Could you add a screenshot to of the maps when you upload them?

[Clean0nion]

DOMORTHEA

Well this map is interesting but too long. The spores are more of an annoyance than a threat, and using just PZ reactors you can easily afford anything that is available. The tech and upgrade limits along with huge amounts of digitalis is what makes this map a challenge.
But I wished you allowed for packet speed upgrades, as that wouldn't change the difficulty level, but would make life easier. Anyway I look forward to other maps^^

P.S. Could you add a screenshot to of the maps when you upload them?

Thanks for this advice. I'll get on it now. Prepare for an imminent update.

UPDATE COMPLETE. Changed Packet speed upgrade limit to six. Again, your saves are not compatible but the DDDD has also been updated.

[Ceraus]

A simple map to test proportionality. Be frugal with collectors as you easily beat this crudely made map.

I very strongly disagree with the "easily beat" part.

Regardless of the "telemitter" strength, you need a ridiculous amount of Mortars to overcome a 1000-1 emitter with no Berthas and no Forge. 20, at the very least, but probably more. And you'll need Shields, let's say 5, to hold the Creeper back so that the Mortars stay alive and do maximum damage. Right there, you need 30 Energy production. That's 75 Reactors. Now, how many buildings can you cluster around a Command Node? 60, maybe? Then you'll need Collectors (not the 20,000-cost Relays) just to connect enough Reactors. But to protect those Collectors and Reactors against the 1000-1 emitter, you'll need more Shields and Mortars.

So far, so plausible, though.

But then there's the "telemitter". It just happens to ignore Shields. So all throughout the mission, you periodically hear a BOOM that tells you you just lost a few Reactors. You immediately rebuild them, of course. From time to time, the telemitter will hit one of your Shields, which will gleefully disperse the Creeper around itself, exploding a dozen Reactors.

But that's only if you're lucky.

With no Forge and Relays, packet and build speeds are dreadfully low, so if one of your few, critical Collectors is hit by the telemitter, which will absolutely happen, you're either disconnected from your Reactor farm (and its Shields) or from your attack force. They'll just die before the next Collector is online. And forget about building redundancy into your network: you'll have solved the disconnect issue, yes, but you'll have made the telemitter so strong that Reactors will randomly die too fast for you to rebuild. Instead, the strategy will be to be prescient, by which I mean you'll save every minute and only build redundantly when you re-load a save and know in advance where your network will fail.

And that's what I did for almost 1 hour in-game, 3 hours real-time. I was very slowly making progress and had about 150 Reactors backing a long, crooked line of alternating Collectors and Shields lined with as many Reactors as would fit, peppered with Blasters, Mortars and Sprayers, and which led to a massive amount of Mortars about 3 Nullifer-range from the emitter. But in less than one minute, I was very badly hit by the telemitter and while I could survive, but not effortlessly, it would take too much time to recover for my patience. I hadn't been enjoying the mission for a while.

So I walked away. I wonder how many people saw the mission through?

Now, I sincerely hope there's a trick I'm missing, something I could learn about the game. But there's something definite about a 1000-1 emitter.

The attached image shows my last good save. The Creeper just outside of my overlapping Shields at the top is over 20 deep; it reaches 100 just a few squares farther.

[Clean0nion]

FLASH

A simple map to test proportionality. Be frugal with collectors as you easily beat this crudely made map.

I very strongly disagree with the "easily beat" part.

Thanks for your report. I'll now admit that Flash was mostly just a CRPL testing map - but I'll diagnose your problems anyway.

First up, the failing of the shields. I copied your map, from your image, unit-for-unit, and the larger shield at the bottom repeatedly failed to prevent the telemitter from affecting it.

I put this down to the CRPL and a possible bug in the game.

The CRPL code is copied from Egos:Choix and the creeper creation frequency has been changed to reflect the number of collectors you have. The code takes a random cell on the map and check if it's in "field". If it's not, it puts creeper there, and if it is, it tries another random cell.
The CRPL determines if the cell is a field by checking the creeper resistance there. A shield produced from a shield unit counts as a large circular field, as it produces constant creeper resistance.

Now, the shield unit on the power zone has a much larger shield radius. I believe that it just takes a normal shield and expands it.  However - this expansion causes the field on the centre cell of the smaller shields to spread into the surrounding cells of the larger fields. What I just said makes very little sense so I'll boil it down: the centre cell is not considered a field.

This means that the telemitter ignores it. The only thing I can do here is report this to Virgil, or suggest that you build another shield unit near the one on the PZ. I have to ask this though: did that problem affect all shields, or just the larger one?

Secondly, the warp inhibitor. It's way too powerful and that has nothing to do with V. I've changed it from 1000:1 to 600:1.5. Hopefully that should make it easier.

UPDATE: Left the map on x4 speed for a moment - yes, it affects all shields. I will report this to Virgil and in the meantime suggest that you put shields over your shields to protect them.

UPDATE: Took my own shielding advice, didn't work. This is a bug that I cannot help you with. I thank you for playing my crudely-made map and hope you return to it once the bug is fixed.

To you I bid good day, and good luck to your endeavours.

[Ceraus]

I copied your map, from your image, unit-for-unit...

Oh! I knew I should have joined my save. Darn, you went through a lot of trouble too.

The code takes a random cell on the map and check if it's in "field". If it's not, it puts creeper there, and if it is, it tries another random cell.

Huh, if that's how it's done, I have no idea why it wouldn't work either. Reporting it to Virgil seems like the only option.

I thank you for playing my crudely-made map and hope you return to it once the bug is fixed.

Well, thanks for reading my shaggy-dog story. Once I know the Shields work, I'll be back out of principle.

But for now, I'll go relax with Domorthea. ;)

Good day to you too.

[Clean0nion]

FLASH

Oh! I knew I should have joined my save. Darn, you went through a lot of trouble too.

Huh, if that's how it's done, I have no idea why it wouldn't work either. Reporting it to Virgil seems like the only option.

Well, thanks for reading my shaggy-dog story. Once I know the Shields work, I'll be back out of principle.

But for now, I'll go relax with Domorthea. ;)

Good day to you too.

It's responses like this that make life worth living.

And no, it wasn't a great deal of trouble to copy your map.

Spoiler

I just saved the image, opened up Flash in the world editor, removed all the towers, then went to the Terrain tab, loaded up an overlay image, put your image over the map and then went through and placed all the towers where they were on the image. I wasn't going back and forth between tabs.

[close]

[Ceraus]

Um... excuse me, but Domorthea was not even relaxing. In fact, it had me thinking and struggling!

My tactic at the start differed slightly from yours: as soon as I could Relay, I went for the AC Emitter and built a Sprayer there. The matching Sprayer on the main island allowed me to hold back the Digitalis at a much reduced Energy cost. I Nullified the Emitter and stuck a Reactor in its place; why would I want to preserve the Emitter, pray tell?

Made a couple Mortars and Cannons and cleared a landing on the sceond island. Once I got the Terp, the mission got more straightforward, and I replaced the next Emitter with a second Reactor, the last I would build for a long while. I got the techs and left a Cannon, Sprayer and Beam in their place.

The third island went well. A Shield allowed me to get the two first Power Zones, which quickly led to my domination. I left two Cannons to hold back the Digitalis and made my way down with Relays, using Guppies to start building at the other end simultaneously and clearing space for Beams with the Terp.

I had a hard time getting a foothold on the fourth island. By that time, I had all worthwhile Forge upgrades, so I shut down the Totems to maximise my Energy income. A mixed force of Cannon/Mortar/Sprayer/Sniper finally managed to hold, and I went for the bottom-right Emitter and pushed from there. The Digitalis was a real pain, and it would keep being so. Crossing the asteroids proved tricky, but doable; obviously, this was playtested tightly. I think it was at that point that I stopped caring for time, although I kept playing efficiently.

I was strictly unable to finish crossing the asteroids, though, and was stuck just right of the final island. By then, though, I was drowning in Energy, so I built plenty of Mortars that I just sent to the island, pulling them out before death. While it proved entirely ineffective at first, I knew it was only a matter of numbers, and once my Mortar-bomber wave reached about 100-strong, I was proven right and finaly got a foothold, quickly completing the map afterwards.

Although I'd have preferred shorter third and fourth islands, it was a fine map from which both players and creators could learn a lot.

(But again: why would I want to leave an enemy Emitter alive? What's the catch?)

[Clean0nion]

Um... excuse me, but Domorthea was not even relaxing. In fact, it had me thinking and struggling!

My tactic at the start differed slightly from yours: as soon as I could Relay, I went for the AC Emitter and built a Sprayer there. The matching Sprayer on snip
(But again: why would I want to leave an enemy Emitter alive? What's the catch?)

Well done Ceraus! Many congratulations.
The idea behind leaving the emitter alive is to point a sprayer or two at it and leave them firing. This will flood that island with AC which will act as a storage. But ultimately, it's better to put a reactor there. Depends on your play style.

[Altren]

Flash map "crashes" when last collector is destroyed. Game freezes like it is paused, but it is not paused and nothing can be done.

Also there is bug in save/load mechanism: when I load game all relays that was under construction now have default build cost (i.e. 10 instead of 20000). I guess this is not a map problem, but anyway this makes game impossible to save or load, because this makes play-through unfair.

[pawel345]

Download the last version of the public beta build to correct the issue with custom unit cost.

[Clean0nion]

Download the last version of the public beta build to correct the issue with custom unit cost.

That.

I'm not sure about the collector thing - I'll take a look.
The code at the minute is frequency=50/n where n is the number of collectors on the map. I'll change it to
@GetUnitCount("COLLECTOR") ->collnum
<-collnum 0 neq if
   @MakeCreeper
else
   1 ->collnum
   @MakeCreeper
endif
Obviously I'd have to add both custom commands but it should work.

UPDATE: Tested and fixed. Your saves won't be compatible with the update. Redownload the .cw3 file from the original post.

[Cohiba]

My biggest complaint about Domorthea is the restriction on the collectors.  It makes it unnecessarily hard and seems like your trying to micro-manage the player.   One thing to make it hard and add penalties for say reactors but quite another to force them to see your walk through to go ok i build collectors here, then destroy them, then build them there.  You also don't give a reason in the Story line as to why your severely limited to the number of collectors.   A initially hard starting will turn off a lot of player, I am impressed and like the map just hate being micro managed.