Custom Map #473: Factory. By: Pusillanimous

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This topic is for discussion of map #473: Factory


Author: Pusillanimous
Size: 256x144

Desc:
Amicus tries his hand at hacking the license core ... and fails miserably and spectaularly. Meanwhile, a mysterious facility and a license catalogue fascinate the rest of the crew. It's not as if mysterious facilities were ever dangerous or contained powerful relics...

[GoodMorning]

Merry X and a happy new Y to all. (Fill in X and Y with whatever pleases you.  But enjoy it.)

For my contribution to the happiness of your day, this map contains a Factory, which can accelerate the building of units significantly. For more information, read the in-game dialogue.

Rating estimate: ~Pi

Note to the curious: That small, ringed square was going to have purpose, but I disabled that part of the factory because it looked bad on this map due to energy strain.

As ever, feel free to borrow anything. V1.1 or higher needed for the full experience. Playing with V1.02 or lower may make it difficult to divine the purpose of the ships.

Note to the irritated: I dislike hard time limits. This is technically a soft limit, however, and is good practice.

Limiter

Waves of 20 Stunners every 10 seconds start up at 20:13 and a bit. You'll want to attack beforehand.

[close]

[strigvir]

You forgot to mention another technically soft limit - 80 emergents before even the first ship can assemble weapons.

[GoodMorning]

Emergent can be driven off the side of the map by a concentration of hull.

Yes, the start is tight.

I'll put up a walkthrough after my Hogswatch celebrations finish.

[GoodMorning]

Here we are...

Getting Started

You could take that small energy source in the box. It's not going to be fun, however.

I recommend the bigger one, on land. But it's got a mire spawner near it, and we can't have that.

[close]

Bootstrap

Well, we have a Mine, now what? There's some land here, better mire it. Also, we'll need some ships up right away.

I used two Omnis and two Badgers.

[close]

Emergent

Well. That's a lot. Fortunately, Emergent stay further from larger fleets, at least until you start chasing them. So every bit of hull you build will effectively repel them.

A Hound will be your friend, but don't forget an Earther, because the Stunner clock is ticking.

[close]

Anyone who is still having trouble, let me know, and I'll extend the walkthrough. This much should keep you safe.

[planetfall]

I can capture the forward mine and both amp gems. I'm unclear on how to proceed from there. I've tried snagging and building the Aegis, or leaving behind 1-2 ships in the mine's struc area and using the rest of my fleet to assault an emitter. Neither particularly works.

[GoodMorning]

I have an Aegis, now what?

The Brick design comes with a shield, and the Aegis is nearly indestructible so long as it has power or downtime. Both have energy tanks.

I used the Aegis as a meat (hull?) shield, and applied both Bricks to each Emitter. The Aegis can get close enough to take most of the particles, and the Brick is designed to be resistant to a frontal assault, especially if they are swapped halfway through.

[close]

As noted in the dialogue, the factory can build ship bridges very fast, and very cheap. Also note that red plasma is unusually powerful in this map, but is not replaced. Those Droplets make a nice shape on the back of the Aegis.

After the back section is down, it's all cleanup.

[planetfall]

Spoiler

I tried building the Aegis in the Factory the first time. This drained my power to the extent that I couldn't kill emergent, so a single one nuked the Aegis command module before it could build any hull. That could have just been blind bad luck, though - I'll give it another go.

[close]

[GoodMorning]

When I was doing that...

Spoiler

the Emergent were clustered toward the Emitter near the factory. I moved the Aegis out to safer ground when it was a lone bridge. Having a Brick do a flyover can tank otherwise-fatal Emergent.

[close]

[GoodMorning]

Having taken feedback, V2 is up.

[GoodMorning]

Would it be reasonable to remove this one? It has the second-lowest rating in the Exchange, and I'm unconvinced that it adds much by remaining there.

[toolforger]

Theres another hard (soft) limit: 20 discharger shots every 10 seconds just shut down everything, so there's no (realistic) way to ever recover.
Not fun.

[GoodMorning]

I know better now. This map is a good example of "how not to do it".

[CyberDyneSystems]

What one might call a ballbuster!   8) Loved it!

[toolforger]

Bootstrap

Well, we have a Mine, now what? There's some land here, better mire it. Also, we'll need some ships up right away.

I used two Omnis and two Badgers.

[close]

Emergent

Well. That's a lot. Fortunately, Emergent stay further from larger fleets, at least until you start chasing them. So every bit of hull you build will effectively repel them.

A Hound will be your friend, but don't forget an Earther, because the Stunner clock is ticking.

[close]

Anyone who is still having trouble, let me know, and I'll extend the walkthrough. This much should keep you safe.

Well, that recommendation against emergents does not repel them well enough, they still keep coming.
Not too many, and they're easy enough to control, but then the particles start to move in, and that's Game Over.

Positioning

Building inside the plasma area helps.

[close]

Unfortunately, the situation isn't improving, and building more ships will just overdrain the energy sources.

Failing fleet composition

Two Hounds (missiles and lasers are more energy-efficient than cannons, yes?), two Bricks (sounded like a good idea to have all those reactors contribute to the energy income), two Earthers (don't eat much energy if kept inside).

Lots of hull, emergents still drifting in (not en masse but enough to saturate the missiles), the Bricks holding off the particle but only just barely and not really filling up their tanks.

But the Bricks need filled tanks to survive getting to the Aegis, let alone help it retreat to safety for building...

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