Custom Map #1958: Hoover Dam. By: Tyler

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This topic is for discussion of map #1958: Hoover Dam


Author: Tyler
Size: 150x150

Desc:
Welcome to the Black Canyon, home of the colossal Hoover Dam! You might find this map easy at first sight, but believe me it is not as easy as it seems. Regular energy generation methods - collectors and reactors - are super expensive in these vast mountains. Fortunately you can rely on the Hoover Dam to generate power. The catch is that is need lots of Creeper to operate. So this time you will need your arch-enemy to defeat it. Will you make it? -- #RealWorld #difficult #runner #spore #CRPL

[Tyler21]

This map was made for three reasons:
1. I experimented with the idea of using Creeper for 'something good' and creating a dilemma for the players
2. I am a huge fan of real world maps
3. I find colossal buildings such as the one in the title really fascinating

Gameplay will be unusual but if you know how it works, you'll beat it quickly.

EDIT: enjoy this full strategy guide I attached as a png to this post ;-)

[Karsten75]

It always hurts me when I try these maps that obviously took huge amounts of effort and I fail at making them work.

Kudos to you anyway. I see it's well-rated. :)

[warren]

These low energy maps are always frustrating. But this one is frustrating in a good way. Mixing both no creeper and heavy creeper runners was a late game surprise I did not enjoy as I had made no saves, this being a relatively easy map.

Clicking on the dam appears not to work when the game is paused.
You are never in any real danger, so taking your time is an option.
Creeper flows quite fast on this map, so you need more blasters than you are expecting.

[metalsiagon]

I really liked this one, its a neat concept using creeper for power and aether. Plus, I'm a big fan of mega engineering projects too.  :D

I'd like to see you cook up a Three Gorges one, maybe a little harder with trying to control a flood or something.

[Tyler21]

I'd like to see you cook up a Three Gorges one, maybe a little harder with trying to control a flood or something.

It wouldn't fit any map size :)

Just kidding, I was thinking about a similar concept too (letting a base flooded) but I concluded that it's not making much sense. The reason is that most "buildings" can fly (except for energy generation which shouldn't be there if the main theme of the map is alternative energy generation), so the players could easily move the whole base to a better location. But I will still think about a possible solution, and if this map will be popular, I'll do the Three Gorges.

EDIT:

I see it's well-rated. :)

Actually, I read your comment before I checked the rating and I thought that you are being ironic by writing "well-rated" and this map has the same rating pattern as all of my previous maps :) I am really suprised of these positive ratings, I simply don't know its reason. I put much more effort into my other maps which I felt were much better designed, more interesting and more challenging than this one, but anyways, I'll just keep making new maps of all kind...

[Vanguard]

10/10. DEsign, Scripting, effort. Beautiful!  :o

scratch that. 11/10!

[speef]

That was great!

I would have liked to see it put a little more focus on the dam concept and the choice between power and creeper- 

Spoiler

- as is, you really only need to let the dam run for a couple minutes until you have a few reactors going, and then it was a standard "march across the map and stomp the emitters" map -

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- but overall this was really cool.   Moar please. :)

P.S. 

Spoiler

I didn't expect pastorhealer's Explodey Doom Bugs to show up. That wasn't nice. ;)

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[Tyler21]

Thank you all for your support.

Since this map was pretty popular, I am working on its next part.

Will be released around Earth Day (April 22).

Here is a teaser screenshot, I hope you like it!

[Loren Pechtel]

That was great!

I would have liked to see it put a little more focus on the dam concept and the choice between power and creeper- 

Spoiler

- as is, you really only need to let the dam run for a couple minutes until you have a few reactors going, and then it was a standard "march across the map and stomp the emitters" map -

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- but overall this was really cool.   Moar please. :)

P.S. 

Spoiler

I didn't expect pastorhealer's Explodey Doom Bugs to show up. That wasn't nice. ;)

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I found about the latter via an air strike and so they didn't hurt.  While it didn't matter by then it might be worthwhile to exploit them to increase the dam power.

[Asbestos]

I tried to use the runners as an additional source of creeper in the early game, and it worked a little bit, but the strafers I were using took out the creeper released from the runners as quickly as it spread, so it wasn't very helpful. And it seems that the tributaries running into the reservoir were completely useless, since the creeper didn't even get past a few units on the digitalis. The map is really fun, though, and very good through the late game.

[Loren Pechtel]

I tried to use the runners as an additional source of creeper in the early game, and it worked a little bit, but the strafers I were using took out the creeper released from the runners as quickly as it spread, so it wasn't very helpful. And it seems that the tributaries running into the reservoir were completely useless, since the creeper didn't even get past a few units on the digitalis. The map is really fun, though, and very good through the late game.

I was thinking snipers rather than strafers.  As you say strafers just kill the creep they release.

[Tyler21]

I tried to use the runners as an additional source of creeper in the early game, and it worked a little bit, but the strafers I were using took out the creeper released from the runners as quickly as it spread, so it wasn't very helpful. And it seems that the tributaries running into the reservoir were completely useless, since the creeper didn't even get past a few units on the digitalis. The map is really fun, though, and very good through the late game.

I was thinking snipers rather than strafers.  As you say strafers just kill the creep they release.

Exactly, this was the intended strategy (shoot runners with snipers for an additional source in the beginning), however, I could have add a notification that those runners emit a lot of creeper when destroyed because it seems that many players discovered this only later, probably in the end-game when this feature is making things worse.

[Loren Pechtel]

I tried to use the runners as an additional source of creeper in the early game, and it worked a little bit, but the strafers I were using took out the creeper released from the runners as quickly as it spread, so it wasn't very helpful. And it seems that the tributaries running into the reservoir were completely useless, since the creeper didn't even get past a few units on the digitalis. The map is really fun, though, and very good through the late game.

I was thinking snipers rather than strafers.  As you say strafers just kill the creep they release.

Exactly, this was the intended strategy (shoot runners with snipers for an additional source in the beginning), however, I could have add a notification that those runners emit a lot of creeper when destroyed because it seems that many players discovered this only later, probably in the end-game when this feature is making things worse.

Yeah, it looks like a case of runners placed to make it harder to nullify that emitter, thus we dismiss them as irrelevant until we get there.

[RealAndy]

I got really stuck at the start with being overrun by bugs, the snipers couldn't keep up.  So I...

Spoiler

moved the whole base straight away, the area next to the bottom river was the best, allowed me to build up slowly.

The important thing is to have lots of spore towers.

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