stdout's maps

[DestinyAtlantis]

Hm, i also can't get a clear idea, but it may be something like fighting a losing battle, and you need to figure out how to 1.not lose and 2.gain more ground/PZs.
And to make it able to lose, have Abraxis "rebuild" units on gound that you the creeper, lost to him, as to at least seem like Abraxis is trying to destroy you. If's it's possible, move units from the back, to the front lines (Abraxis) or even auto-manually aim Berthas (CRPL coding that would manually aim the Bertha), to act more human.

[stdout]

Okay, I gotcha. Yes, that would be awesome and I have thought a lot about that. I would need to improve my CRPL skills!

[stdout]

Alright fellow creepers, here's a new map ready for beta testing. It is another space map with asteroids and LOTS And LOTS of AC. The enemy is loaded for bear and has an armada of flying machines dropping AC and death from above. Berthas rain on your plans and disable your precarious network of digitalis. Massive batteries of beam weapons will make it difficult to reach most areas of the map with your spores.

Oh, and you start completely surrounded by enemy.

What's worse is they have started to build Thors.  ;D

The good news is you start off with a few asteroids, but you better act quickly. They will start building nullifiers immediately.

This map is the first #PlayAsCreeper that is large, in fact it's 250x250 and I'm interested to see what kind of reaction the size gets. It can be a bit of a slog and is CPU intensive. It took me 50 minutes to win my last playthrough.

There are multiple paths to victory here and I think this map may be a highly replayable map if I can get the balance right. Have fun, and let me hear your thoughts!

[Grayzzur]

With that much coming at us, you'd think we'd be allowed to build runner nests... :P

[stdout]

Runner nests would be awesome, I agree.

Keep in mind stewbasic wrote all the CRPL for these PAC maps, I'm just the map maker. So, while I could create a runner nest script it would take me a long time since I'm not a CRPL wizard like some of the others here are.

Well, I'll see what I can do but no promises.

[stdout]

Alright, here's a new version for you to try out. Spore Towers also now create a runner each time a spore is launched. :)

[stdout]

Well, I didn't like it.

What's the point of runners if they can only go to areas you already conquered? They just litter up the map and slow things down.

I've removed them from the latest beta, which is attached.

[Grayzzur]

Just finished playing the first version you posted, before my "runner" post. I liked that one. The Thors scared me at first, but then I discovered that they don't move. They're just really powerful turrets that eventually drain once you remove their energy supply. Took me 1:18 to beat it, but then I usually struggle to gain an initial foothold on these type of maps.

Once I took the upper left quadrant of the map, I didn't see any more attempts to nullify my emitters or towers after that. I suppose that could be because by that point I was decimating the islands with spore waves before coming in with digitalis.

[stdout]

Yeah the nullifiers need a clear space to build and if you have swamped the island with creeper then there's nowhere for him to build. You get a free pass.

My last version is more fun. I just cleared it in 39 minutes and enjoyed it. It does bog down just a bit and I wish I could speed it up a little. Playing in 4x speed it still feels sluggish. I added lots of new digitalis to the start which helps you spread through the map quicker and makes it less of a slog.

[Linden]

What a belter. :D It took me ages (as usual) and I did get a bit bogged down, but the creeper 'bleeding' into the void can be used tactically so it isn't a problem - finding a way around being bogged down is a fun part of it. I can see loads of replayability in this one (in fact, I'm off for another go right now). Thanks very much. :)

[Lost in Nowhere]

The new digitalis brush is amazing. I haven't played through it yet, though
And, just finished it. The two things that annoyed me were the continued firing of the berthas despite there being no command nodes, and the large amount of time clean-up took after all actual threats were removed

[stdout]

the continued firing of the berthas despite there being no command nodes

Thank you for your feedback! I agree the post "win" cleanup is tedious and lengthy and I'm exploring ideas of making that easier.

As for the berthas, this is a long-standing bug in the original PAC code. I researched it this morning and see that Grayzzur himself pointed out last October that there's no way to determine whether a unit is attached to the network. The code in PAC just simply adds ammo to the berthas in accordance with how many bad guy towers exist. This is why it continues to fire even without being connected.

The solution is probably to have it ask and receive packets faster and not automatically increment its ammo magically the way it's done right now. I'm looking into it.

[Grayzzur]

That would make my strategy of sneaking in the backside and destroying the field of reactors actually be meaningful. :)

[stdout]

Okay, I fixed the Bertha problem. What I did was have it do a check to see if it has 25 ammo packets built up and if it does, then accelerate the magic ammo. This way, if it gets cut off from the CN, its final shot will be its last. It's not perfect but at least for game play it works perfectly.

I've made some other slight adjustments here and there and added some new starting emitters. I also weakened the northeast island and added more PZs to it to make it a more attractive early game target.

And look out! I've added a good number of Berthas on PZs!! But you have time to prepare for them since they are under construction when the game begins. Can you take them out in time?

This latest version is getting very close to release quality in my opinion. Please play and give me your feedback.

[DestinyAtlantis]

Actually, if you manage to make it take ammo from the CNs, and not magic ammo, it will help starve the CNs.