Custom Map #8766: Islands. By: Martin Gronsdal

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This topic is for discussion of map #8766: Islands


Author: Martin Gronsdal
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[teknotiss]

i feel bad about complaining, but i feel compelled to...

Martin, you put so much effort into making your maps and yet you almost always force the player to play in a particular way.

i think this is the major source of your maps getting such a low score, and the main reason they get so few plays comparatively.

i am sure if you left us some more tactical and strategic flexibilty you would get more positive responses to your hard work.

but as always you should make them the way you want to make them!  8)

[Martin Gronsdal]

don't get me wrong:

1. I agree that I force players to play in a particular way. However, as you may have noticed, this map isn't very difficult, so the particular way is not (very) impeded by creeper, nor spores.
2. flexibility: true, this map is probably not very flexible. I just don't think that is neither good, nor bad. I wanted the player to think outside the box.
3. yeah, I make the maps my way, you do Your way. Hey, there are so many different maps here, that it's ridiculous.

my only regret is that I didn't make the wider area higher than the thin stripe. It would be more playable then.

anyway, thank you for playing and for the feedback.

[teknotiss]

no worries as long as you are happy dude!

8)

[Johnny Haywire]

Yeah, I see Tek's point (and love his maps too, btw) and I see your point too, Martin. Everyone's got their own range of what they like... I tend to find things I like in most maps and focus on them for enjoyment.

From my perspective, your maps actually *are* flexible, because for me one of the most important characteristics (if not *the* most important) is when a map can be played blitz-style (going for maximum time, Alter-Old-style) or just playing straight through without having to stop and pause for stuff. Granted, on this map when you're taking an island it's a bit challenging to do without pausing but that makes it more fun to do.

And I guess it's kinda like figuring out a combination. There's only one combination that will unlock a vault - and it's really nice when you can take your time figuring it out so you don't feel pressured to rush. A lot of people aren't going to like when you have to do things like use a building or weapon to maximize distance between collectors because your collector limit is very low. And I'm not sure there's much you can do in your style of maps... if you make it more flexible I think they will be much easier as a result.

And like my motto implies, there's only one combination that unlocks life. And that's because unless you're indecisive, you have to disagree with this sentence.  ;D

[Martin Gronsdal]

Did you finish the map? Thank you for playing and for the feedback

[Johnny Haywire]

Yup... I took my time and built unnecessarily excessive defenses & powergrids just to be safe. I didn't feel like this map was nearly as difficult as your other maps but the challenges were still there and that was enjoyable.  ;)

[Martin Gronsdal]

Yup... I took my time and built unnecessarily excessive defenses & powergrids just to be safe. I didn't feel like this map was nearly as difficult as your other maps but the challenges were still there and that was enjoyable.  ;)

Did you have to go around, or is there a mistake (my mistake) in this?

[Johnny Haywire]

Yeah... made a huge guppy base on the upper-left island, used it to power the right side down until I could get a PZ-relay going to the main island.

I didn't see a shortcut but I also don't spend much time making a plan - I like to just go with whatever I can anticipate working with a very low probability of failure. The safest strategy isn't always the best one... but it might be if you never can remember to save the game, so that's what I do.

So this didn't seem to be difficult, just kinda figuring out which was the next hoop to jump through. But I enjoyed jumping through them so it's all good imo.  ;)

[lividbishop]

I  like a challenge but like many of your maps there seems to be some trick I'm just not getting. ,some way of flying around the CN perhaps, that I cannot figure out.  I don't see how to get guppys in the right corner since I cannot destroy the inhibitor to the right of the CN, it doesn't reach.  So many maps you create never have enough clues or spoilers for the majority of people to ever have a chance to figure them out and that's a shame because most the time they are brilliant.

What am I missing?

[Martin Gronsdal]

IIRC you should try to put relays on PZ's to reach farther.

[TimeWeaver]

Nice puzzle map.  Pretty easy to figure out without having to know a bunch of esoteric tricks.