Custom Map #262: Replicate!. By: planetfall

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This topic is for discussion of map #262: Replicate!


Author: planetfall
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[PF #8] You are not the only humans left... (It turns out I am awful at creating character names. Jolly good then.) #CRPL #CustomEnemy #NoDigitalis #NoRunners #Spores #Void #PFSeries

[Annonymus]

The start is awfully hard, I had to restart the map ~15 times...
For character names you could use those of the people around you (family, friends etc.) if you can't come up with good-sounding other ones.
Or ask the community (make a forum thread to suggest names, then you pick the one(s) you find most appropriate).

[teknotiss]

The start is awfully hard, I had to restart the map ~15 times...
For character names you could use those of the people around you (family, friends etc.) if you can't come up with good-sounding other ones.
Or ask the community (make a forum thread to suggest names, then you pick the one(s) you find most appropriate).

happy to come up with some character names if you need help, tell me a theme and i'll give it some thought :)

as for the map, as usual i get ragey with all the stuff to do, perhaps you could do a CRPL showcase map/s that
1: is/are no (real) threat and 2: explain (in terms that'd be easy for the hard of thinking) each unit individually and demonstrate their use!
perhaps i shouldn't try your maps when i'm tired! ::)
still good work dude

[Clean0nion]

happy to come up with some character names if you need help, tell me a theme and i'll give it some thought :)

Character names here too - human, elven, thuller, machine, and fictional cultures made up on the spot.

as for the map, as usual i get ragey with all the stuff to do, perhaps you could do a CRPL showcase map/s that
1: is/are no (real) threat and 2: explain (in terms that'd be easy for the hard of thinking) each unit individually and demonstrate their use!

Good idea but I wouldn't CS-ify that. I'd say that's best staying as a download on the forums.

[Flabort]

That was a difficult start, alright.
Once I figured out I could use the new unit to mass produce enough beams to wipe out the first few waves of missiles, I was alright though. I never actually built any artificial power zones this time, though I was going to several times; I ran out of room for the first two new units to PZ them, and the next two I was already steamrolling the creeper so much I didn't need any extra units.

[speef]

I didn't have to restart, but

Spoiler

that power vampire thing that sucks 200 power initially was a nasty surprise. (I probably could have avoided it with better CN placement, though.) Once that was done, the rest of the level was OK. (I was able to build reactors over the top of the vampire, so it really wasn't even in the way.)

Would have been nice if I could have destroyed that big green thing that said "CONSTRUCTION DISCOUNT" on it (but didn't give one)- but once I expanded/terped a little, it was not too much of an obstacle either.

[close]

The flamethrowers were neat. The rest of the new structures didn't seem to do anything except pop up a mouseover tag with some stats. If you click them, it says "Point at a structure and press LCTRL+E to scan it", but ctrl-e doesn't seem to produce any results.

[Flabort]

Spoiler

that power vampire thing that sucks 200 power initially was a nasty surprise.

[close]

Spoiler

The vampire to which you refer is a constructor with which you can build other special units. Personally, as soon as it took 5 energy, I moved it north and out of range of my CN; this left me with more energy to use early on. Later when you have enough energy and have hooked up some tech shrines, you can hook it up to the network again to build stuff.

The green thing, put an unbuilt structure (such as a beam, or cannon) into the white rings north of it. It will be instantly built, at a discount, saving you time and energy. Mostly time. Also, a glitch will imbue them with extra health much of the time. I had one beam with 2066% health, for example. My cannons could get neck deep in creeper without appearing to take any damage at all.

Also, click the circles to either side of the green thing. Although you'd want to click the left one first. It will start using it's energy to produce ore instead of speeding up unit construction. It's better at making ore than a mine, as long as you have the energy.

[close]

ctrl + E should pop up a conversation that tells you about the units. It doesn't cause the units to do anything, just pauses the game and tells you what to do with the units. It's become a Planetfall standard.

[planetfall]

happy to come up with some character names if you need help, tell me a theme and i'll give it some thought :)

Character names here too - human, elven, thuller, machine, and fictional cultures made up on the spot.

I derped around on several name generators and didn't get anything I liked at all.
Probably should have at least given them names of prospector zone planets, or something like that. Those have somewhat believeable names...
I might indeed ask one of you... on the other hand, as I (mis)understand the nature of the universe, it looks pretty bad when one changes character names mid-story.

as for the map, as usual i get ragey with all the stuff to do, perhaps you could do a CRPL showcase map/s that
1: is/are no (real) threat and 2: explain (in terms that'd be easy for the hard of thinking) each unit individually and demonstrate their use!

Good idea but I wouldn't CS-ify that. I'd say that's best staying as a download on the forums.
[/quote]

I've tried to be as straightforward as possible with the scanner text... and I will likely make a thread for all my scripts, so references can go there.

Making a map of it... interesting idea. On the face of it, I don't like it, but that's just me. If people would prefer that over a straight-up table of units and descriptions, that is what shall be made.

Spoiler

Also, a glitch will imbue them with extra health much of the time. I had one beam with 2066% health, for example. My cannons could get neck deep in creeper without appearing to take any damage at all.

[close]

Oops...
I set the health to 999, thinking that it would properly cap at the unit's max health. Apparently it doesn't do that.
Well, now this map is trivially easy.

[Katra]

I used the new factory for both building weapons (until I took so much ground that the reduced cost was offset by the time to move after building and the need to build more than 1 at a time) and producing ore. It took 3 or 4 restarts before I managed to get enough beams to keep spores and missiles from wiping me out. (BTW after the first try I carefully avoided linking to the constructor/power leech. You can land the CN right against the pre-built reactors and not make the link.) I found those flamethrowers that couldn't be nullified from a safe distance by a PZ nullifier were easily defeated with a small bit of terp built wall.

[Jamz]

Yay! Finally found the time to play this map.
Been super busy the past 7 days or so that I just haven't had the chance.

As before, and before that, and before that too, I enjoyed the map.
Like others have mentioned, it was a nice tricky start. Had to restart once very early, when I realised how short I was on beams and everything started crumbling away.
I quite liked the Factory. One thing that always annoyed me about this game is how during the middle or late stage of a map, when your energy production is in the surplus, I found I couldn't do much to make use of that extra energy to boost and speed things up (not always practical to build more weapons.) Another thing which I've found annoying with this game is struggling with AC supply and so I've rarely relied on them too much in the maps I've played. And so I found that this factory solved 2 nuisances in one. A use for excess energy, and a way to mine more ore. Not only that, but it also has that nifty discount thingy which is really useful especially in the beginning.
So in short, the factory has a use early in the map (discount production), during the middle of a map (extra ore production with spare energy), and during the end of a map (by really cranking up that ore production).

However, something that didn't quite make sense to me about the Factory and maybe I just need to revisit the map and check it out again properly.
I was able to use it to auto-build Beams and cannons. However, when I tried to auto-build a Terp, I couldn't get it to. Why? It wasn't a Strafer, Guppy or Bomber. Not only that, but I was also unable to auto-build a Sprayer or a Mortar.
Was I missing something or doing something wrong. Does it have something to do with the fact that cannons and beams are much cheaper to build than the other units? Beam 20 energy (8 after discount). Cannon 25 energy (10 after discount).
I then realised that the Factory seemed to only store 10 energy. However, even when I connected/activated the Tech Shrine at the bottom left which mentioned the Factory could store 100 energy, it still didn't seem to make a difference. Or... hmm... just realised now, was I supposed to build a NEW factory after activating that tech shrine in order to get that 100 storage effect. I just assumed that when you activate a Tech shrine, provided the stats are better, all existing techs receive that upgrade.

Spoiler

Also, a glitch will imbue them with extra health much of the time. I had one beam with 2066% health, for example. My cannons could get neck deep in creeper without appearing to take any damage at all.

[close]

Oops...
I set the health to 999, thinking that it would properly cap at the unit's max health. Apparently it doesn't do that.
Well, now this map is trivially easy.

Lol, could've cut a couple of minutes off my score with that. :P

[planetfall]

I just assumed that when you activate a Tech shrine, provided the stats are better, all existing techs receive that upgrade.

Nope, you have to build another factory. Since technyte units can't be demolished this adds a bit more strategy to maps with multiple shrines of the same unit.

But the "hard part" of building the factory (the reactors) is already done for you here so it's not too much of a problem.

[antijava]

Maybe I'm missing something?  As far as I can tell the constructors don't work at all.  I had my tech shrines powered up and put the units in the circles as instructed and it just built the units I placed.  Nothing happened.  I had to beat the game in the normal way with no help from technites.

[Flabort]

So you had the units directly in the circles, right? Centered correctly?
And if you were building a factory, there weren't any units where the bins go?

Assuming the answers were yes, next question, and you had the tech shrines connected, right?