Custom Map #863: The Khephrin Dominion. By: Decagon

AutoPost · August 03, 2017, 09:12:31 AM

This topic is for discussion of map #863: The Khephrin Dominion

Author: Decagon
Size: 150x360

Desc:
Out in the deepest reaches of the void, beyond the explored realms of Redacted Space, a vast empire is abuzz with news of attacking machines; in its bid to expand its influence, the Hydraxil Collective has clashed with Khephrin forces. As the fighting ramps up and the resistance put up by the Dominion increases, a declaration of war against the "Star Walker Quadrant" is made official by Queen Cho'Pre'Khis. A War Fleet is sent to meet the Collective head on.

Keeper Decagon · August 04, 2017, 01:35:18 PM

Hrm, this map has a fantastically low rating. Can anyone give me some clues as to why? Even the map "It's a Trap!" has a higher rating, despite all of its issues. :/

FOXX · August 04, 2017, 02:01:57 PM

With my testrun i didn't like that Enemy Lathe who took back the Flip Emitters. But that can't be the whole reason.
I thought that Rating had to do with difficulty but since my Just Go Left Map that doesn't apply for me anymore because i felt that is my hardest map and was ready to see 1 votes but the average player seems to like this map.
So it would be nice if you get some more feedback from others.

Keeper Decagon · August 04, 2017, 02:40:54 PM

Quote from: FOXX on August 04, 2017, 02:01:57 PM
With my testrun i didn't like that Enemy Lathe who took back the Flip Emitters. But that can't be the whole reason.
I thought that Rating had to do with difficulty but since my Just Go Left Map that doesn't apply for me anymore because i felt that is my hardest map and was ready to see 1 votes but the average player seems to like this map.
So it would be nice if you get some more feedback from others.

I understand that that lathe can be a bit of pain in the butt, but the whole idea of that section is that there is some "back and forth" capability between you and the enemy, you know, to make things more interesting. The Emitters are just soft particle emitters too, easily tankable with the insane amount of lasers available in the fleet. The Grubs especially.

I do wish more of those players visited the forums, though. I agree, it would be nice to see feedback from more people, but I guess they just play the game.

FOXX · August 04, 2017, 03:15:47 PM

Previous Message

Quote from: Keeper Decagon on August 04, 2017, 02:40:54 PM
Quote from: FOXX on August 04, 2017, 02:01:57 PM
With my testrun i didn't like that Enemy Lathe who took back the Flip Emitters. But that can't be the whole reason.
I thought that Rating had to do with difficulty but since my Just Go Left Map that doesn't apply for me anymore because i felt that is my hardest map and was ready to see 1 votes but the average player seems to like this map.
So it would be nice if you get some more feedback from others.

I understand that that lathe can be a bit of pain in the butt, but the whole idea of that section is that there is some "back and forth" capability between you and the enemy, you know, to make things more interesting. The Emitters are just soft particle emitters too, easily tankable with the insane amount of lasers available in the fleet. The Grubs especially.

I do wish more of those players visited the forums, though. I agree, it would be nice to see feedback from more people, but I guess they just play the game.

[close]

I thought the idea of that Lathe is a good one. In my testrun i was not carefull and i lost some ships so couldn't hold the line but if you go with a more careful take then players should flip those Emitters and destroy the Lathe Ship.

And a lot Download -> Some Play -> and a few are on the Forum. I think that is about how it goes.
But you never know and see if you get some feedback from others.

FOXX · August 04, 2017, 06:36:12 PM

After my previous message and some work on a map i thought i'd give this another go.
I got stuck in the same way as in my comment on the testrun. Now a little later but the Enemy Lathe Ship keeps coming to try to lathe the flip emitters and if you don't have a defense they will flip. Nicely system but maybe this should be area 4 to 3 instead of 4 to 1 [counting from the top] maybe 4 to 2 is ok but if a player wants to progress in the map [and who doesn't] they keep on having to deal with this issue.
Also the other enemy ships keep on coming. Imo to many ships coming to get a good foothold and progress.
I guess it is a way of playing. You are used to your way of playing and i have my style of playing and somebody else has his [or her] style of playing and with my style of playing i have a lot of difficulties holding back the Enemy Ships. I think this can make players think "no the progress is to hard i quit -> resulting in a 1 score and then the ratings drop.

My thoughts -> If you want to get the ratings up it is maybe better to do those tricky things in the middle or the last part of the map.
Energy and Pods = ok. Fleet = ok. Map Layout = ok
A lot of things are ok but the twist of this map [the thing with the Lathe Ship] is to early for good ratings.

Maybe i come back to this one if i have more free time and not in Editor.

Greets
FOXX

GoodMorning · August 04, 2017, 06:45:12 PM

Thete's also en early assault, coming just late enough that the mothership can empty itself into allllmost combat ready ships, whereupon almost everything fleet is wiped at the start. Cue some rage quits.

Cracking the flip-Emitter layer is also tricky, and I was constantly ramming and tweaking there. After that, the difficulty collapses.

I was playing on 4x/0x speed, so...

Exodus Legate · August 04, 2017, 07:35:03 PM

Hmm. I found the early parts (start and flip emitters) and the late part at the top, pretty straightforward and easy, but I did find the emitters 3/5ths of the way up quite annoying, but I suspect that's because I was approaching it the wrong way.

I actually really enjoyed the map and found it very well designed for the most part. I suspect GoodMorning is right about the early assault causing some ragequits, but I wonder if it's also related to the fact that quite a bit of the map has an easy way to do it with some clever thought, but doing it the more standard way is hard but still works- so perhaps people are a little too prone to pushing through the hard way and finding it frustrating but not finding the fun way- like I did on the centerish emitters.

ChaosMaster130 · August 07, 2017, 09:55:55 AM

Alright, we're the bugs now eh? 8)

Also I guess I've been playing knuckle cracker games for too long, as I found this map pretty easy once I figured out the start.

borg1 · August 07, 2017, 11:28:31 PM

I liked it. However I am not a big fan of maps with a large custom HQ with power due to ability to brut force things without the HQ timer.

GoodMorning · August 07, 2017, 11:35:33 PM

Quote from: borg1 on August 07, 2017, 11:28:31 PM
I liked it. However I am not a big fan of maps with a large custom HQ with power due to ability to brut force things without the HQ timer.

Ack! Don't get Decagon going on that topic... Welcome to the forum, though.

The short reasoning is that the normal HQ is incompatible with the lore, and the only way to avoid warp-in abuse is to fail the mission upon loss of said warp-in - causing nothing pleasant.

speef · August 24, 2017, 11:22:47 PM

I thought it was really good. The lathe-boats were no problem at all at first, but got really annoying when I was trying to take out the big base in the top middle- not because they had lathes, but because they are good rammers and they respawn fast. The fact that they had lathes wasn't really a factor.