Custom Map #1964: Distant Voyage. By: Telanir

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This topic is for discussion of map #1964: Distant Voyage


Author: Telanir
Size: 140x80

Desc:
A venture into a distant part of the galaxy to pursue a particular Sleeper transmission. A dynamic, ruthless, and aggressive machine destined to protect it's turf with its life, can you best this new creeper enemy? #Sleeper #CRPL

[Telanir]

Sleeper mechanics are beginning to become more predictable and stable, balancing might need a bit of time and the next map will use any feedback this map gets. It's starting to look a lot less like a beta and I'm hoping the next few maps will be even better. Does anyone feel the node doesn't seem to move around enough this map? I might have to tweak a few settings. Also, did everyone see a transmission at the beginning? Just making sure I'm not crazy... this seems to be a recurring theme in my maps lol where they don't seem to work with that.

A note of caution, this map is more difficult than the previous ones you might have seen, you will need to get a foothold early and watch out for enemies, they will certainly try hard to wreck your buildings in this version, unlike the rest they won't be content to sit idle. :)

For people who are interested in these sorts of maps you can visit this post to find more like it or find some tactics and strategy to help you win.

[cecel123]

Great map, but I noticed that no matter where your command node is landed, when that sleeper node comes down, your node gets returned to orbit. Is that intended? It forces 30 seconds of inactivity.

9/10 keep up the good work because I like this almost as much as I like PAC maps.

[Telanir]

Woah what!? There's no way...

I did not have that happen to me when I played the map, oh god. o-o
Sorry you have to go through that lol apparently something in the code was left behind even though I compile incessantly, I guess that's why it's a beta hahah. Thanks for letting me know cecel123.

Edit: I think I've found the mistake... I never encountered it because I always headed up on that plateau at the bottom-right. Poop. -.-

[RrR]

Untested workaround would be to be moving your CN at the time the other lands.

[Tyler21]

I'm glad to see the improvements, this map was definitely more challenging and difficult than the previous ones. The beams are really nasty now, Strafers can't take them down, I like that now the players have to apply a rock-paper-scissors approach to neutralize Creeps. The unit range upgrades are essential. Unfortunately, I couldn't see the improved shields as I did not leave the Sleeper enough time to unlock its technology :)

My CN did not ascend to orbit as I landed on the SE plateau.

However, I think I've found another unintended bug:

Spoiler

Creeps fire (only once), continue movement to destination and corrupted terps work continuously while the game is paused. This might not be an issue for most, but for those who use the frame by frame method like me.

Another thing I just discovered and is different from previous maps (it's a balancing thing) is that the enemy CN moved only twice during 15 mins (this isn't the issue per se), and did not move from the spot where it landed even when it was constantly under fire by 3 snipers (this is the issue). Actually, I didn't have to fight really hard because of this, they just slowly decreased the CNs health. I remember you included a threat detection part in the CN script, maybe it is worth a review.

EDIT: I jusr read your first post after I wrote mine, and indeed, I experienced that the CN moves too few times :)

[close]

[cecel123]

I was landed on the SE plateau, but in the middle of building out my base, the command node recalled right as the sleeper node landed. I just tested it again and got the same result. As a fan of this series, I feel it is my duty to report any bugs. This was the only one I encountered though, So good work. Maybe its just me and my particular game.

[stdout]

I'm getting the same thing. The CN returns to orbit no matter where I've landed.

[Tyler21]

I identified the particular condition that triggered the CN bug for some players.

If you initialize landing at time frame 0 (that is, you land the CN while the game is still paused and you do not even advance one frame before landing), you won't be able to select the CN plus your CN will ascend to orbit at 0:30, regardless where you land it . I suppose the reason why I did not encounter this bug was that I clicked on the open dialogs first and only then did I pause the game.
If you land the CN anywhere after frame 0, you will be able to select it and it will not ascend to orbit.

So I checked the script and found what caused this bug:
In cinematic.crpl the two input vars (hqx and hqy) that define the location of the 'cinematic unit' (the one that is destroyed and can't be selected, just like in previous maps) was set to 0.
I guess Telanir's intention was to not use a cinematic unit in this map by setting these vars to 0.
However, there is a problem with this solution: 0:0 is a valid cell on the map (that's why it is better to define -1 for empty input vars) and the CN's coordinates are always 0:0 during its descend, regardless of landing position. Therefore the script identified the descending CN as the cinematic unit at 0:0 and the next part of the script was carried over on that CN.

And because the cinematic unit is defined within a once-endonce, the CN is not considered as cinematic unit if descend starts after frame 0.

I suggest to use a different approach for cinematic units, for instance by attaching a script directly to that unit that has to be destroyed. Or leave the script as it is and change hqx and hqy to -1. But then there will be another possible bug: players can still select that CN in frame 0 and send it back to orbit. I guess this did not occur in previous maps because Telanir already initialized the once part of the cinematic script before finalizing the map.

[stdout]

Impressive sleuthing, Tyler.

[Telanir]

I identified the particular condition that triggered the CN bug for some players.

If you initialize landing at time frame 0 (that is, you land the CN while the game is still paused and you do not even advance one frame before landing), you won't be able to select the CN plus your CN will ascend to orbit at 0:30, regardless where you land it . I suppose the reason why I did not encounter this bug was that I clicked on the open dialogs first and only then did I pause the game.
If you land the CN anywhere after frame 0, you will be able to select it and it will not ascend to orbit.

So I checked the script and found what caused this bug:
In cinematic.crpl the two input vars (hqx and hqy) that define the location of the 'cinematic unit' (the one that is destroyed and can't be selected, just like in previous maps) was set to 0.
I guess Telanir's intention was to not use a cinematic unit in this map by setting these vars to 0.
However, there is a problem with this solution: 0:0 is a valid cell on the map (that's why it is better to define -1 for empty input vars) and the CN's coordinates are always 0:0 during its descend, regardless of landing position. Therefore the script identified the descending CN as the cinematic unit at 0:0 and the next part of the script was carried over on that CN.

And because the cinematic unit is defined within a once-endonce, the CN is not considered as cinematic unit if descend starts after frame 0.

I suggest to use a different approach for cinematic units, for instance by attaching a script directly to that unit that has to be destroyed. Or leave the script as it is and change hqx and hqy to -1. But then there will be another possible bug: players can still select that CN in frame 0 and send it back to orbit. I guess this did not occur in previous maps because Telanir already initialized the once part of the cinematic script before finalizing the map.

You are correct that was the exact bug, I only figured that out after posting the map and getting the first few replies and feedback for which I am extremely grateful for. Thanks for your in-depth replies Tyler and everyone who mentions these bugs or ways to fix them--it makes my job a whole lot easier and more enjoyable.

Edit: Another thing, I did not know the default CN position was 0, 0 the instant it begins landing, that is really valuable information--I guess it speaks volumes about experience, something I'm still acquiring in this CRPL environment. ^-^

Also... about the creep units running while the game is paused, that is extremely unnatural behaviour. I have no idea why that is happening, the scripts do not mention running while paused... I will be including an explicit return check involving game-pause from now on.

[cecel123]

Oh good. I'm glad it will be fixed. Time to play the next one!

[Tyler21]

Also... about the creep units running while the game is paused, that is extremely unnatural behaviour. I have no idea why that is happening, the scripts do not mention running while paused... I will be including an explicit return check involving game-pause from now on.

I have no clue either. Today I checked it again, and it's really strange. The bug seems to affect completely random cores, and the funny thing is that sometimes you can even see two cores of the same kind in the same timeframe, just next to eachother, one is affected and the other is not.
I attached a video capture in the rar file maybe it will help you.
At the beginning you can see a creep (in the yellow circle) that works properly. Then, at 0:10 you can see that some (but not all) 'corrupted aether' cores continue to fly while the game is paused.
Then, starting at 0:27 you can see a creep that has the bug (red circle). Usually this bug does not occur in the beginning and my hunch is that its probability increases with time and / or number of creeps and / or creeps unlocked. The corrupted spore towers sometimes spawn a spore while paused (you can hear the sound) but those spores start flying only when you unpause the game. I could replicate this bug with the terp only once.

[strigvir]

The pause bug can affect any corrupted unit: terps digitaling a massive area, mortairs stacking their shots, spore towers (I had like 6 spores thrown in a bunch from 2 towers), beam shooting strafers during pause, totems unlocking techs for Sleeper, any moving unit can continue to move.

[Telanir]

This glitch has since been fixed, just not for this map of course. Thanks for the input though strigvir.