Custom Map #858: It's a Trap!. By: Decagon

[AutoPost]

This topic is for discussion of map #858: It's a Trap!


Author: Decagon
Size: 254x384

Desc:
As the Somtaaw Command Ship Faal-Corum and their Eclipse Mercenary escorts enter the Farbor sector, their exploration trip is halted as they trigger an ancient and powerful trap.

[Exodus Legate]

The overall design was great.
The tank ships (Shaman and Chieftain) were big enough to make shuttling the energy out from the command ship reasonable, and the overall balance was good.
The strength of the doppel was good, but doable.
A small annoyance: The strength of the northern defence stations felt excessive- I ended up having to ram half the small ship complement of the fleet into them, engaging them with weapons felt ineffective and drained energy too quickly to be sustained. Being able to take out the southern one quickly by early action was good, though.

[Keeper Decagon]

The overall design was great.
The tank ships (Shaman and Chieftain) were big enough to make shuttling the energy out from the command ship reasonable, and the overall balance was good.
The strength of the doppel was good, but doable.
A small annoyance: The strength of the northern defence stations felt excessive- I ended up having to ram half the small ship complement of the fleet into them, engaging them with weapons felt ineffective and drained energy too quickly to be sustained. Being able to take out the southern one quickly by early action was good, though.

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it!

About those northern stations, I purposely made them stronger to divert players south until such a time where you have all of your MK7s on the bpard. I found that a bit of concentrated MK7 fire on the weaker sides of the stations (the south east side, to be precise) together with a Ramming Frigate collision reliably wiped the station out. Or, if needed, I would crash another ship into it first, like the Multibeam Frigate or a series of ACVs, which can be very easily rebuilt afterwards.

And yeah, if you're quick you can wipe that bottom one out before it gets properly fortified. Even then, the southern station is still weaker in building and repair speeds compared to the northern ones, so it would still be easier to take down even if left to its own devices.

[ChaosMaster130]

Am I only the one who thought rock-burning the trapped ship free would trigger something?
Though that's assuming it is possible to make a trigger like that in the first place  :-\

[GoodMorning]

It is possible. "Practical" is another matter.

With that said, though it can be done with such islands, Decagon tends to avoid scripting in most maps, and instead make impressive use of the vanilla features.

[speef]

What's the defeat condition?

I keep getting started and suddenly "DEFEAT". None of the big ships got blown up...

[GoodMorning]

Hmm... Is your game version up to date? I know there was a change there sometime after release, so that might be it.

[reddwarf12]

I'm enjoying the level (so far as I can get into it), but I have to repeat the other person's question - what is the "Defeat" trigger that ends the game all of a sudden?  It happened to me about 8 minutes in, and then I played again and it happened about 20 minutes in. Both times it corresponded with one of my ships being destroyed, but I can't find any particular connection - I'm having ships destroyed and rebuilt the rest of the time. I'm kind of hesitant to try a third time in case there's a random bug. Yes, my version of PF is recent.

I really appreciate you guys who create maps - you make the game awesome.

[GoodMorning]

Most defeat conditions relate to a HQ module getting toasted - perhaps that's it? My memory of this map is not as fresh as it was.