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

[RrR]

Spoiler

depending on which starting position you chose, it is relatively easy to send most of the pz berthas a spore before they have chance to build. If you don't manage to destroy them before they are built, then yes it is super brutal.
Throughout the early game, spores for spreading digitalis over the void are very useful. Wide digitalis connections are more difficult to cut.

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Spoiler

RrR is right. If all the PZ Berthas activate, you can consider the game "lost" and you should restart. As he said, make sure to kill most of them during construction.

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[teknotiss]

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.

hey dude
you do have time to drop spores onto the right hand side PZ berthas, i went for mostly spore towers until i got a foothold on the northeast and southeast islands, and only had 6 emitters or so at the end of the game. i think i'd killed them in the first five or so mins. if you're really quick you can get that one on the middle island, but you'll need eight or so spore towers to break through the two beams
if you ask I'll replay and take some screenshots so you can see my approach, it's not a bad method ;)
later dude  8)

[DestinyAtlantis]

The game is "lost"???
I do agree that the non-stop firing of triple-shots is a pain, but it's not lost.
I forgot about them, but i still managed to beat the map. The only problem was that it was a pain to get the digitalis to spread (alive), but one strategy for letting digi grow (when it can) is to distract the berthas, since they are normal auto-fire ones and not crpl-made, so land a few spore here and there, set digi growth, then distract with an emitter and eventually you will be able to beat it.
Ofcourse once i took out the 2 super berthas, it was a whole lot easier.

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Yeah that's why I put "lost" in quotes.  :P

[yui56]

I love these maps! 

Is there any way to "reset" all spores or emitters after using one of the "assign all" hotkeys?  I sometimes find that I want a quick targeted assault somewhere, so use the "T" button to target everything to one spot.  Once I've done that, though, there doesn't seem to be an easy way to reset them all back to doing their own thing without visiting them one by one and cycling their mode.

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Looking at the code, it seems that "T" is the only command that affects multiple units. Sorry to have to give that answer. Maybe in a future map I'll see about making other mass actions, which I agree would be quite helpful.

[Mexxor]

I think this map is sweet, I still want runners!! :)  But being able to select all the spore towers at once would be a nice feature.

If you have like 5 spore towers, just select one, but instead of clicking to target something, press "T", all spores go to that spot :D

[DestinyAtlantis]

I think this map is sweet, I still want runners!! :)  But being able to select all the spore towers at once would be a nice feature.

If you have like 5 spore towers, just select one, but instead of clicking to target something, press "T", all spores go to that spot :D

I don't think that is what he meant.
As you said T makes all the spore towers target that point, but you can't sellect them all and switch them to auto-aim, you have to manually click each and every one and press E or R to switch their mods.

[RrR]

You have do destroy some of the PZ berthas before they complete building - just send them a spore. Once they are finished, it is very difficult to win.

[Loren Pechtel]

I think this map is sweet, I still want runners!! :)  But being able to select all the spore towers at once would be a nice feature.

If you have like 5 spore towers, just select one, but instead of clicking to target something, press "T", all spores go to that spot :D

I don't think that is what he meant.
As you said T makes all the spore towers target that point, but you can't sellect them all and switch them to auto-aim, you have to manually click each and every one and press E or R to switch their mods.

I wasn't aware of the T.  Sounds helpful.

[Xeos]

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.

I have to agree - I have a powerful computer and a decent graphics card its lagging like crazy. It is painful to play and the ultra slow progress is more frustrating than enjoyable - I respect the work you have done on this as I love these maps, but like Johntuck above, its doesn't work for me either and I have aborted the map. This is a tad sadomasochistic for me :)

[stdout]

This map is definitely the slowest of all my maps. It's gigantic and there's a lot of work that the game has to do to make it playable. Hubs recently did a lot of work rewriting some of this code base for PAC maps and so expect future PAC games will play much faster.

[Xeos]

Ok that's great to know thanks - Well as I have completed all the other maps, it was only this one left and I couldn't let it beat me - I got into the worse position by not taking out all the cannons in a timely fashion ( Please bear in mind I am playing this while doing work on my other screen which often takes priority) so, instead of restarting, I wondered if it was possible to get out of this brutal situation and I finally did it ( 5 Hours 45 mins it took ) Ok the time is awful but a lot of the time the map was idling and I wasn't watching, but being honest it still probably took 4 hours of gameplay to beat it from the position I was in. But, nevertheless, I did so I am happy now and awaiting the next epic installment whatever that is :) Great work and much appreciated. Thanks again.   

[hbarudi]

Thanks for the help, I will retry attempting to use phantoms (cw2 term) to attack the powerzone berthas, but I worry about some beams killing my phantoms on their path to such locations.