Custom Map #1211: The Mallard System. By: stdout

[planetfall]

AETs, on the other hand, would have been very useful at the start of this map.

[DestinyAtlantis]

I had a lot of trouble with the upper 2 islands with PZ cannons and no air-towers (probably because i didn't try hard enough with spores), so after i cleared up everything but the bottom right island, i put everything to support that "doomed" emitter (i even removed digi, so that creeper can spread into the void, and used fields and what not to get a foothold, and finally managed to take out 1 of the islands, the other was easy. So runners there would have been a big help.

[stdout]

What are AETs?

[Loren Pechtel]

I had a lot of trouble with the upper 2 islands with PZ cannons and no air-towers (probably because i didn't try hard enough with spores), so after i cleared up everything but the bottom right island, i put everything to support that "doomed" emitter (i even removed digi, so that creeper can spread into the void, and used fields and what not to get a foothold, and finally managed to take out 1 of the islands, the other was easy. So runners there would have been a big help.

The big bottom island doesn't have beams going far enough east.  Once you capture the easternmost PZs you can fire spores from there down to the east edge of the big island--there are no defenses of any kind until most of the island has been wiped out.

[teknotiss]

What are AETs?

perhaps they mean AEZ's? ???
dunno otherwise! ::)

[DestinyAtlantis]

The big bottom island doesn't have beams going far enough east.  Once you capture the easternmost PZs you can fire spores from there down to the east edge of the big island--there are no defenses of any kind until most of the island has been wiped out.

I did see that, and beat the map, i just had trouble with the 2 islands at the top-left

[Grayzzur]

What are AETs?

Air Exclusion Towers. Seems like they might be overpowered in the early game for this type of playstyle, if you can cut off the strafers and bombers from your key areas, unless there was some mechanic to control how big an area they project to balance them. It might also mess with whatever logic you're using on the strafers and bombers if their target area is blocked, would they have an alternate to try?

[stdout]

Ok, I know what you're talking about. Yes, AETs would have been a nice addition to this map in some key places. If I had added them, the ships simply wouldn't have been able to fire their weapons inside the zone. And I think it's a simple matter to change the size of the field they project. I'll keep this in mind for the future.

[Quurks]

Nice map(s).
Some suggestions:
Somehow limit the max display size of emitters, it would be nice to see the area around heavily supported emitters.
Spores in the void behave strange, its hard to make paths because they don't really like to connect (but i guess thats a limitation of the engine)

[Grayzzur]

Nice map(s).
Some suggestions:
Somehow limit the max display size of emitters, it would be nice to see the area around heavily supported emitters.
Spores in the void behave strange, its hard to make paths because they don't really like to connect (but i guess thats a limitation of the engine)

Agreed on the max emitter size. They can get really large and make it hard to see what's under them. (A workaround is to limit how many emitters you have and go spore heavy -- try it!)

The strangeness of creeper in the void has to do with active digitalis. If digitalis in the area is all dead/gray, you probably won't notice anything and can make your paths. If you drop a spore near active digitalis, as soon the creeper touches it, it gets sucked into the active digitalis area and doesn't leave you enough to make more digitalis. The behavior of creeper on active digitalis is a built-in game mechanic, and can't really be modified by custom crpl code. I find it helps to land several spores near active digitalis and be constantly painting digitalis with a large brush as they land and it spreads out, and I can usually get a decent connection. Alternately, try to get your paths painted out before the active grows into that area.

[stdout]

Somewhere in the code is a place where it increases the scale or size of the custom emitter as the support levels increase. Surely this can be capped somehow and I'll look into that for future maps.

[stdout]

The big bottom island doesn't have beams going far enough east.  Once you capture the easternmost PZs you can fire spores from there down to the east edge of the big island--there are no defenses of any kind until most of the island has been wiped out.

The gaps in these defenses was intentional, to give the player another option of a backdoor attack.

[harrymcb]

i absolutely love this series ;D i had to try a few times to get started of right. i could only save one starting emitter. but it was a nice fight. i had to keep reminding myself that creeper is patient.

[ljw1004]

Really enjoyable map. I loved the brutal start.

[johntuck]

I can't seem to get a decent breakout from the "brutal start". Having played probably close to a thousand maps between CW1, 2 and 3 this is one of those maps where people seem to equate painstaking, long starts with fun. It just doesn't work for me. Thanks for the map, but having 4 super berthas raining down shells on the starting area the entire time is more frustrating than fun.