Custom Map #870: Play As Creeper is back!. By: WithersChat

Woodis · March 07, 2021, 07:23:38 PM

Just beat it after a long stalemate with me on about a third of the map. About 7 or so ERNs and I had ran out of things I could kill with spores. Then I realized that there's not really any need to hold ground, so I started pushing VERY aggressively with nothing but emitters/mesh and sometimes a crimson to help. About 6 hours on the in-game timer, but it was almost entirely on 4x speed.

Great map, some polish may be required here and there but I enjoyed myself!

DS3K · March 10, 2021, 01:26:15 PM

I´m on the steam version and it just crashes for me. I don´t know what´s the problem, I read something about updates 1.0.0 and 1.3
and something about "GOG" (no Idea what that is)
Can someone tell me how to have it not crash after 10 seconds into the game?
:/
pls help
I don´t know how to switch update versions on steam if that´s what I gotta do

dgacen · March 10, 2021, 02:10:21 PM

I'm loving this, but wow what a slow process! I am sure there are better ways to do it--I saw one who did it in under 10 minutes I think? (What in the world?!) I'm 9.5 hours in on it so far and I think I am halfway through the map........ I hope to find some faster ways to do it. And I am THANKFUL for the ability to save it.

WithersChat · March 11, 2021, 09:59:45 AM

Quote from: DS3K on March 10, 2021, 01:26:15 PM
I´m on the steam version and it just crashes for me. I don´t know what´s the problem, I read something about updates 1.0.0 and 1.3
and something about "GOG" (no Idea what that is)
Can someone tell me how to have it not crash after 10 seconds into the game?
:/
pls help
I don´t know how to switch update versions on steam if that´s what I gotta do

Don't worry about GOG, it's another way to buy the game. You don't need to switch update version unless you disbled auto update somewhere. Note that this map only works on (currently) latest version, which is 1.3. You can click that little gear symbol on the bottom left of the game banner, open "properties" tab, and go in "update" tab. There is the auto-update option here.

WithersChat · March 11, 2021, 10:03:11 AM

Quote from: dgacen on March 10, 2021, 02:10:21 PM
I'm loving this, but wow what a slow process! I am sure there are better ways to do it--I saw one who did it in under 10 minutes I think? (What in the world?!) I'm 9.5 hours in on it so far and I think I am halfway through the map........ I hope to find some faster ways to do it. And I am THANKFUL for the ability to save it.

Remember, you don't need to keep all the ground you already deleted covered. Your goal is the lab, nothing else actually. And don't underestimate Crimson.

DS3K · March 12, 2021, 06:12:40 AM

Quote from: WithersChat on March 11, 2021, 09:59:45 AM
Quote from: DS3K on March 10, 2021, 01:26:15 PM
I´m on the steam version and it just crashes for me. I don´t know what´s the problem, I read something about updates 1.0.0 and 1.3
and something about "GOG" (no Idea what that is)
Can someone tell me how to have it not crash after 10 seconds into the game?
:/
pls help
I don´t know how to switch update versions on steam if that´s what I gotta do
Don't worry about GOG, it's another way to buy the game. You don't need to switch update version unless you disbled auto update somewhere. Note that this map only works on (currently) latest version, which is 1.3. You can click that little gear symbol on the bottom left of the game banner, open "properties" tab, and go in "update" tab. There is the auto-update option here.

My steam version for CW4 is "1.3.6" It seems I am on a too current version for this :/
What do I do now? lol
Edit: I played for 3 mins and it didn´t crash yet. Maybe this version is new and now it works... :D

jcheung · March 12, 2021, 07:28:38 AM

phew. after 4 hours of false starts, i finally got out of the corner. i'm pretty sure by luck, as the 2 other times i tried the maneuver that got me out, i didn't score a mortar kill... got stuck a few other places, but managed to beat that run in "only" 2 hours...
very nice to see PAC back, but your idea of "not too hard" and mine are... significantly different.

suggestion, if you're open to those.
allow mesh that isn't grown to actively pull from fully built and active mesh adjacent to them. possibly penalize this pull when going uphill. very frustrating to have mesh segments literally surrounded by fully grown mesh but can't build, and thus can't get to the 2 threshold i need to build the next emitter.

WithersChat · March 12, 2021, 11:56:12 AM

Quote from: jcheung on March 12, 2021, 07:28:38 AM
phew. after 4 hours of false starts, i finally got out of the corner. i'm pretty sure by luck, as the 2 other times i tried the maneuver that got me out, i didn't score a mortar kill... got stuck a few other places, but managed to beat that run in "only" 2 hours...
very nice to see PAC back, but your idea of "not too hard" and mine are... significantly different.

suggestion, if you're open to those.
allow mesh that isn't grown to actively pull from fully built and active mesh adjacent to them. possibly penalize this pull when going uphill. very frustrating to have mesh segments literally surrounded by fully grown mesh but can't build, and thus can't get to the 2 threshold i need to build the next emitter.

I realized that it was much harder than i expected it when I released it and saw all comments, tags and discord messages... Yeah, next time I won't give any difficulty idea, I'm not good at estimating this :D
For the suggestion, I'm always open to them. For this mesh issue... I see what you mean, ~~and it would be an actual code nightmare to do this~~. I changed the way you place mesh, however, so in my next map you have an actual brush, like the Terraform one. This becomes much more convenient to use. I also reduced the virtual mesh height (what makes Creeper flow more on mesh), so this problem should be less likely to happen too. However, the solution you're proposing is ~~extremely hard to code~~ would allow to keep moving on places where you shouldn't be able to. Im checking this forum page quite often, so you can reply here and I'll see it probably very soon.

jcheung · March 12, 2021, 02:13:58 PM

i certainly enjoyed the challenge, lol.

i guess if you can't do an active pull (and now that i've had a nap, i've seen some of the problems) maybe you can set it so that entities absorb creep per cell? possibly increase the full amount that's needed if you don't have a proper depth

and since there's no real way to push other than building mesh and hoping the creep overflows in the direction you want it to, maybe we can get a building that can make a "leak" in the mesh net?....preferably with like... half ERN cost?

if you're willing to consider lower ERN cost, then i'd like to ask if you can make the mortar decoys cheaper too :D

jcheung · March 12, 2021, 03:50:05 PM

ran through it another time with everything i had learned, i have to revise my opinion a little on the difficulty. once you break out of the corner, there's only one area that really was a slog, and that's probably because i was missing something.

VolcanoSheep · March 12, 2021, 04:52:30 PM

Just wanted to say I ended up really enjoying the map. Took me 5 restarts to figure it out, but it gave me a great deal of satisfaction to beat it. Will say I basically just spammed stashes with crimson in front of them, once I broke the centre line the ai's defence started to crumble completely. Thanks for the map.

legobil · March 23, 2021, 03:58:37 PM

Wow. What a map. Took me 3 retries and time in the end a bit over 10 hours and 3 sittings. Had some trouble finding tactic, but once I did it was quite smooth, just time consuming.

Battle report with my tactic:

Spoiler

Stashes are key. When you only have two ERNS total, I did a stash into crimson trick (destroy the Stash when it detonates and build crimson in the pile) which got me to my first ERN. Once I had an extra ERN I could have both Stash and Crimson at once. Sweet. Next I learned not to go overboard with mesh, but use it to direct the flow. I did not find myself using very many Emitters (mostly to stabilize my Stashes), but the next key is how was to pair up Stashes. At first with 2 but once I had 3 going it was firing like some kind of piston engine pulsing out bursts with creeper which was when I really started making some progress. It was quite a sight to behold. By then I had grabbed 5 ERN's for a total of 7 with which I could maintain 1 emitter, 4 stashes and 2 crimson, sometimes switching a into a emitter to stabilize.

So I started working my way towards the ERN-portal, figuring that if I could grab those it would be all downhill after. First up, the defence line before the ERN-portal hill was a bit of a nut to crack, i situated my stashes in the cauldron before and pathed the creeper with mesh into crimson, and eventually it broke. I had some problem with that ERN-powered cannon, but it eventually yielded. The hill up to the portal was also interesting, I worked my way up and hit quite the resistance, barely cresting the layer with the first sniper, but once that one was down I saw an interesting angle to use some launchers with blobs to snipe the ERN-powered missile launcher and eventually even the ERN-portal itself that gave me sooo many ERNS. I spewed out them in stashes and eventually the map just fell over and I only noticed the Rift Lab falling due to the part of the map I was looking at losing power all of a sudden. I think I really reached some kind of exponential growth with the stashes!

One final note on the Stashes, if using them make sure to paint with mesh under before building them to have an easier time directing creeper into them. Oh, and remember. when in doubt, you probably need crimson.

[close]

Thank you for these hours of entertainment map maker!

hbarudi · April 07, 2021, 12:50:53 AM

Very tough map to have the player nerfed a lot and rely on erns and that units are 5x5 in size prevents placement in different areas. Would prefer units to be 3x3 like default emitters.

Mundli · February 21, 2022, 06:43:25 PM

Endless and incredibly boring slog of a map. No real challenge for anyone who understands how creep and crimson works. Just takes ages to crawl over the map.

Fabio pen · February 26, 2022, 12:24:37 AM

Quote from: legobil on March 23, 2021, 03:58:37 PM

Battle report with my tactic:
Stashes are key.

I don't know if this is true! I haven't used it even once. I finished the map on the first try, with 5 hours of play, in 4x, I used only 11ERNs, to be honest I found the map to be quite easy... the hard thing is to understand the mechanics... I think this is my first map of this type .

However I found your ideas for battles very interesting ... I felt like playing this map again, because now I know the mechanics, I already have a strategy and I want to test some ideas you gave me .... I will definitely reduce that time in much