Custom Map #7230: SM-02 Upgrades. By: Taishan

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This topic is for discussion of map #7230: SM-02 Upgrades


Author: Taishan
Size: 144x144

Desc:
CSM mode introducing new building called Upgrader. Once flooded with Anti-Creeper it can use energy to increase output of friendly emitters. Terrain height 1=50 The second map in the SM-series. It is still unclear what SM actually means, but it is definately not Style Map. Thanks to Regallion for creating all the scripts for this!

[mzimmer74]

I decided to try this map and it looks intriguing. However, I can't seem to figure out the upgrade mechanism. I hit "U" while having the mouse over the icon like it says, but nothing happens. I've tried clicking on it and hitting U but nothing happens. I assume the upgrade are forge points, which I have plenty of. Not sure what's going on.

[Regallion]

I decided to try this map and it looks intriguing. However, I can't seem to figure out the upgrade mechanism. I hit "U" while having the mouse over the icon like it says, but nothing happens. I've tried clicking on it and hitting U but nothing happens. I assume the upgrade are forge points, which I have plenty of. Not sure what's going on.

you need to hover over the emitter you want to upgrade. The game also has to be unpaused.

[Loren Pechtel]

I decided to try this map and it looks intriguing. However, I can't seem to figure out the upgrade mechanism. I hit "U" while having the mouse over the icon like it says, but nothing happens. I've tried clicking on it and hitting U but nothing happens. I assume the upgrade are forge points, which I have plenty of. Not sure what's going on.

It needs power, not aether.  That means the emitter must be on your network.  (Note that it will not show as connected if it's not trying to upgrade, you'll just have to eyeball it.)

I have one gripe with this map:  When you get enough upgrades the anticreeper spills over any barrier you can erect, thus flooding the red stuff that you try to wall off.

[DoomDutch]

Love the new mechanic of upgrading your emmiters! Though I do have a few pointers:
-Too many upgrades. With a maximum of 25 upgrades necessary, and the added increase of power needed for each level, this takes too long and is tedious.
-Let the upgrade of emmitters automatically stop when it reaches it's max level. (When you use the shift+U option.) Now you got to go back to every emmitter and manually disable the automatic upgrade.
-There was no explanation of the new bomb module,
-Ground levels should've increments of 100 instead of 50.
-Seent he importance of power, it'd be nice to have a second totem so to get the upgrades faster from the forge. (Could maybe be at a half-way point during the map's play through.)

[Taishan]

I have one gripe with this map:  When you get enough upgrades the anticreeper spills over any barrier you can erect, thus flooding the red stuff that you try to wall off.

Yes it does flood over and perhaps that is an indication of enough strength to overpower the final area :)

Love the new mechanic of upgrading your emmiters! Though I do have a few pointers:
-Too many upgrades. With a maximum of 25 upgrades necessary, and the added increase of power needed for each level, this takes too long and is tedious.
-Let the upgrade of emmitters automatically stop when it reaches it's max level. (When you use the shift+U option.) Now you got to go back to every emmitter and manually disable the automatic upgrade.
-There was no explanation of the new bomb module,
-Ground levels should've increments of 100 instead of 50.
-Seent he importance of power, it'd be nice to have a second totem so to get the upgrades faster from the forge. (Could maybe be at a half-way point during the map's play through.)

-Regallion made the Upgrader and Upgrade Upgrader Chips in a way that mapmakers can modify the settings and get vastly different results. On this map I wanted to showcase the new features making sure that they needed to be used to progress, which is not necessarily the intent. Maximum for this map is 25 upgrades but it could be any number. Same with energy costs.
-There are cases when you want the upgrades to end when the limit is reached and cases where you want the upgrades to continue when you get a new Upgrade Upgrader Chip which expands upgrade limit. That was my experience at least. Perhaps another hotkey for the other setting could do the trick? Like ctrl+U could stop automatic upgrade once limit is reached. I'l have to ask Regallion if that is easy to implement.
-A little surprise spices things up I guess. But the new bomb essentially gives upgrade levels to the target emitter. Again the cost and effect is defined by the mapmaper. In this map it gives 5 upgrade levels for each bomb. Also it takes into account the upgrade limit, so there is no point sending the bomb to a max upgraded emitter.
-Ground levels are what the mapmaper decides them to be, in this case 50 :)
-I had no trouble with the amount of Aether. Within an hour it is easily possible to reach over 300 energy production so I don't feel another totem would be necessary.


I think is somewhat difficult to balance a big map around this Upgrade feature. My main intent was a mechanic that makes things easier over time but not make things trivial for "speedrunners" like me who try to get a good score.

Thanks for comments

[Weasee]

Great map, I like the new Upgrader!  One small comment: maybe when the max level is reached, it could just say "Max"; otherwise the long sentence is repeated everywhere and clutters the screen a bit. :)

[mzimmer74]

I decided to try this map and it looks intriguing. However, I can't seem to figure out the upgrade mechanism. I hit "U" while having the mouse over the icon like it says, but nothing happens. I've tried clicking on it and hitting U but nothing happens. I assume the upgrade are forge points, which I have plenty of. Not sure what's going on.

It needs power, not aether.  That means the emitter must be on your network.  (Note that it will not show as connected if it's not trying to upgrade, you'll just have to eyeball it.)

I have one gripe with this map:  When you get enough upgrades the anticreeper spills over any barrier you can erect, thus flooding the red stuff that you try to wall off.

I'm still missing something then. I've tried every key on my keyboard while the mouse is hovered over the upgrader (the black square thing right?). Nothing happens. Thinking it my be a key binding issue I reset my keys to the default value and tried again. Nothing happens. I currently have 275 energy in store with an energy production level of +5.4. I have 49 aether in the forge. I have 6 reactors built. I have two relays, with the second one being below the upgrader.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

[Taishan]

I'm still missing something then. I've tried every key on my keyboard while the mouse is hovered over the upgrader (the black square thing right?). Nothing happens. Thinking it my be a key binding issue I reset my keys to the default value and tried again. Nothing happens. I currently have 275 energy in store with an energy production level of +5.4. I have 49 aether in the forge. I have 6 reactors built. I have two relays, with the second one being below the upgrader.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

What the upgrader does is unlock the option to upgrade individual emitters, so try hovering over the emitter you want to upgrade like Regallion wrote and press U then =) The command center will then send out packets to that emitter.

edit: further clarification

[Regallion]

I decided to try this map and it looks intriguing. However, I can't seem to figure out the upgrade mechanism. I hit "U" while having the mouse over the icon like it says, but nothing happens. I've tried clicking on it and hitting U but nothing happens. I assume the upgrade are forge points, which I have plenty of. Not sure what's going on.

It needs power, not aether.  That means the emitter must be on your network.  (Note that it will not show as connected if it's not trying to upgrade, you'll just have to eyeball it.)

I have one gripe with this map:  When you get enough upgrades the anticreeper spills over any barrier you can erect, thus flooding the red stuff that you try to wall off.

I'm still missing something then. I've tried every key on my keyboard while the mouse is hovered over the upgrader (the black square thing right?). Nothing happens. Thinking it my be a key binding issue I reset my keys to the default value and tried again. Nothing happens. I currently have 275 energy in store with an energy production level of +5.4. I have 49 aether in the forge. I have 6 reactors built. I have two relays, with the second one being below the upgrader.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

Actually, is your keyboard standard? If it's DVORAK or AZERTY it might actually be checking an entirely other key instead of U...

[mzimmer74]

I'm still missing something then. I've tried every key on my keyboard while the mouse is hovered over the upgrader (the black square thing right?). Nothing happens. Thinking it my be a key binding issue I reset my keys to the default value and tried again. Nothing happens. I currently have 275 energy in store with an energy production level of +5.4. I have 49 aether in the forge. I have 6 reactors built. I have two relays, with the second one being below the upgrader.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

What the upgrader does is unlock the option to upgrade individual emitters, so try hovering over the emitter you want to upgrade like Regallion wrote and press U then =) The command center will then send out packets to that emitter.

edit: further clarification

Thank you...I was missing something! I thought you had to press U while over the upgrader, not the emitter. Now I see what you mean in the text. It works now.
Thanks.

[Twi]

I like the idea,and I gave the map a nice good rating! It's definitely rough around the edges, though, mostly in terms of selection and display. I think I was mostly limited by how fast I could find unmaxed emmiters to upgrade by the end there, lol. And a lot of times I'd accidentally cancel because I was trying to click fast and the connection and packets are the only thing showing that an emmiter is upgrading, which aren't always obvious, especially when you're in a hurry.

So yeah. Displaying upgrade numbers (without mousing over?), showing some effect around maxed emmiters, showing some effect around emmiters upgrading, having some way to drag and upgrade a bunch of emmiters at once or something, any or all of those would be nice. 'v'

Also I felt like I didn't have enough space to put reactors in the beginning, but that's mostly a personal problem, lol. By the end, as noted, I was limited by my ability to find things to upgrade, not by anything else.

[Regallion]

I like the idea,and I gave the map a nice good rating! It's definitely rough around the edges, though, mostly in terms of selection and display. I think I was mostly limited by how fast I could find unmaxed emmiters to upgrade by the end there

Have you tried Shift+U?

[Taishan]

Well, I made a video of this map aswell.

[Twi]

I like the idea,and I gave the map a nice good rating! It's definitely rough around the edges, though, mostly in terms of selection and display. I think I was mostly limited by how fast I could find unmaxed emmiters to upgrade by the end there

Have you tried Shift+U?

Ooh, I missed that. It's not everything I wanted, but it's nice to have!