Custom Map #505: LATHE Corp. Ep1: Everyone Pays Thier Taxes. By: Szling

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This topic is for discussion of map #505: LATHE Corp. Ep1: Everyone Pays Thier Taxes


Author: Szling
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Desc:
A seasoned ship commander sets out into redacted space with a seasoned buisnessman in tow. {Mission Breif}: Our great and upstanding corporaion has recently come under several accusations of criminal wrong-doing, namely; Tax evasion, illegal market monopoly, price gouging... etc. The sorts of things that you can accuse someone of from the comfort of your favorite armchair and take a long time to sort out in court. Our company has exellent lawers and we have no doughts as to the eventual outcome. However t

[ColonelSandersLite]

Out of curiosity, how many episodes you planning on doing with this series?  I've been enjoying it so far.

[Szling]

*Note to People in General: AutoPost cut off part of the mission description*

The idea for this series started back before I got the full version of this game for Christmas and I was re-playing all the missions from the demo version with different custom fleets. At one point it occurred to me to try beating archipelago using only the LATHE ship, I decided it was too ridiculous to actually try but the idea stuck in my head and when I got access to the map editor I decided to make a campaign that explores the idea of a LATHE company battling through redacted space and you are seeing that now.

As a more direct answer to your question I don't know the exact number of episodes but it will end when your ship-bar gets full or shortly thereafter. Ship acquisition rate will not be constant throughout and will decrease in general as the story goes on (some missions will not include new ships), although some of the ships you have by the end will be found ships and not LATHE Corp. ones (but only a very few). I will try to make at LEAST one episode a week until it ends (although I would like to make about one a day I'm not shure I can manage that).

Bonus information about how the "Physics" of ship license transmission works (minor spoiler warning I suppose):

Spoiler

Small size ships as well as the smaller end of Medium size ships can be sent though rift-space transmission although this completely occupies the ships communications capabilities, this is why the commander tells Moss that he can use the comms AFTER the ship licenses are received in episode one, and we may or may not hear Moss complaining about this inconvenience at some point in the future.
Anything bigger is sent in pickup form to coordinates in space rather than to the command ship directly using something called a "Rift Cannon" (you don't want to get hit by something that was sent via any kind of cannon). Ship(s) big enough to require this treatment will start appearing sometime before episode 10 although that does not mean that smaller ones stop coming.

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[Szling]

I have noticed that my LATHE Corp. maps are getting rather low ratings. If anyone has any critiques or suggestions as to how I can improve I would be glad to hear them, just keep in mind this campaign is not meant to be high action but more problem solving/minor puzzle (although I do reserve the right to throw in a few action/combat centric episodes) so if increasing action is your suggestion it might not (probably won't) be followed. Everyone is of course still welcome to make suggestions along this vein and I will give them due consideration.

Example: I should have nerfed the plasma in episode one (perhaps 50%-60% speed rather than 10%). It as well as the stunner were thrown at you without the ships to deal with them to emphasize the that this mission is a rush job that the crew did not have an opportunity to prepare for. As was the commander's comment about moving those ships to the top of the list and receiving them for use in the next mission.

[ColonelSandersLite]

Well, IMHO, it's important to view campaign missions in the context of the campaign as a whole so I don't want to review the individual elements without that context in place.

[TypoNinja]

So, since you asked.

It's a huge map with no reason to go to any of it.

In fact you discouraged it. That much plasma, and no particle beams encourages staying put.

I started at the energy mine right next to the center island and never went anywhere. Missiles picked off the free floating stuff, omni drops for the emitter.

I can forgive you for the stunner with no counter, since it didn't really matter, but as a general rule, a hurdle with no way to counter is generally frowned upon.

Half the ships did nothing. You could have given me 2 omni's and I'd still have been able to complete the level in not much more time. The lathe with missiles was the only one that did anything, and even it was a matter of opportunity, not necessity.