Custom Map #1161: The Aquarium. By: CS Z

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This topic is for discussion of map #1161: The Aquarium


Author: CS Z
Size: 256x256

[CS Z]

The Aquarium is my second map for CW4.  This is a large 256x256 custom campaign style map designed to be challenging to play/win but hopefully a lot of fun too.

There is a bit of comedy/humor scattered throughout the mission but only if you appreciate cultural references and bad puns.  You'll meet the galaxy's irritating Dr. Ajar and the slightly too jovial military crew aboard the rift ship as it lands on the surface of this world.

The Aquarium starts with ~3.5M creeper and 372 stash units (I counted).  Plus the usual suspects (emitters, etc.) all contained in the middle of the map surrounded by walls.  It is, after all, an aquarium.

There are lots of little carefully crafted details ranging from the story to exactly how much creeper the aquarium starts with to other things you will discover as you play.  It took about 3 weeks to make this map.  My final playthrough submission time was ~45 minutes.

The idea for this map was somewhat inspired by the popular map "The Wave," which starts with ~6M creeper that's magically blocked by a comically small wall.

Last, but hardly least, I want to thank qople, K75, and Grabz for assisting me (zer0ne) with some of the key 4RPL bits over on Discord.  They took time out of their day to answer my questions and I very much appreciate their assistance.

[dgacen]

So this is beatable. What a challenge! Any tips?

[WithersChat]

Your two waves of 30 blobs, added to the fact that the map is big has actually crashed my computer, which is strong, but sometimes overheats. Could you consider next time making the waves smaller and add more payload, as it was aiming at one location? ANd 372 stashes may lag the game too actually.

[CS Z]

For those having difficulties with getting past the first 10 minutes of in-game time, here are some tips.  Only reveal the tips in order until you get an idea to try out.

Tip 1:

Spoiler

The pause button is your friend.  Pause frequently to plan your next task.

[close]

Tip 2:

Spoiler

Energy is more important than weapons.

[close]

Tip 3:

Spoiler

A wall lasts exactly 1 minute.  You have roughly 8 1/2 minutes until the creeper starts breaching the tank.  You have about 3-4 minutes at the beginning where you can't really attack the creeper anyway.  Might as well do something else besides build weapons.  See Tip 2 above.

[close]

Tip 4:

Spoiler

"Big guns" is a clue in the first piece of dialog you get.  Maybe look at what weapons are available?

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Tip 5:

Spoiler

Don't get greedy.  The map is large.  It's impossible to suppress all of the creeper at the beginning of the mission.  But you can protect what's important.

[close]

Tip 6:

Spoiler

Don't forget to protect your flanks too.

[close]

@WithersChat I apologize for the waves of 30 blobs.  It was an early decision with something I was trying out that I didn't go back and change.  I don't think I can fix it without republishing the map as a new map.  If the blobs are causing a problem, then there are things later on in the mission that are arguably far worse than a few waves of blobs in terms of performance.  If a computer is actually BSOD/crashing from this map, then it's almost certainly a power supply or a cooling problem (in rare instances, could also be faulty hardware or a problem with BIOS/UEFI).  An underpowered power supply is the #1 cause of BSOD/crashes.  If you can't replace components (e.g. you're using a laptop) but want to improve stability on your machine and don't mind losing framerate, start the game, start Task Manager, go to the Details tab, locate the game, right-click, select "Set affinity," select fewer CPU cores, and then click "OK."  The running game will then be locked by the OS to fewer CPU cores and may therefore improve stability (i.e. hopefully not lock up/crash) at the cost of some of the game's framerate performance.  The 372 stash units + some custom 4RPL code are designed to solve a very specific problem.  As the mission progresses, you'll end up building several hundred units of your own.

[CS Z]

For anyone who is truly stuck and struggling even with the tips above, I've made a video of the first 10 minutes of in-game time detailing my strategy for surviving without losing a single unit:



I basically use everything I know about CW4 here.  So you might learn a few advanced tactics simply by watching this.  By sharing this video, I'm also ruining my Chronom plays where I wind up comfortably in the daily top 10 scores because it'll help the average CW4 player post superstar times to the scoreboard, but whatever [shrugs].

The video took three takes to make due to technical difficulties with the recording software.  I used the exact same strategy in all three recordings and was successful at pushing back the creeper each time (i.e. just goes to show that this map is consistently winnable despite appearances).  My first take had the background music WAAAY too loud but was otherwise fine.  The second take had problems with the video itself, which was so low quality and blurry that it was unwatchable and also somehow failed to record my microphone too.  The third is what I ended up uploading above.  This was the first time I had to record multi-channel audio in OBS and ended up running two instances of OBS to record each audio channel as separate videos.

[flamewolf393]

For anyone who is truly stuck and struggling even with the tips above, I've made a video of the first 10 minutes of in-game time detailing my strategy for surviving without losing a single unit:

2 issues: How did you build more than one bertha? When I played it gave me a unit limit of just one bertha. Second, I had a double wall of mortars just like that and it wasnt even making a dent in the creeper, much less pushing it back like yours did, how did you get your mortars to do that much damage?

[flamewolf393]

So this map is impossible. I had all the energy from the whole map, made a solid double line of mortars (couldnt make more due to energy limits) around the entire block and they werent making even a single dent. The bertha was basically useless since you only let us have 1 of them, and I couldnt finish the single allowed rocket in the 10 minute time limit before death. My mortars had a solid two minutes to pound on the creeper, but it just didnt kill off anywhere near enough of it to matter.

I just dont see how this map is at all possible without either more berthas or a LOT more energy sources.

[BilboGCL]

Well, I fought the slog...

Spoiler

I've no nullifier left, no creeper left on the map, the stashes are quiet and ... I've built the MOAB - it tells me "15" and I can't do anything but wait and let time pass - nothing happens anymore

[close]

So, if one could help me with that, I'd say great map - but this drives me a bit mad ;)

Greetings from The Shire!

[CS Z]

Well, I fought the slog...

Spoiler

I've no nullifier left, no creeper left on the map, the stashes are quiet and ... I've built the MOAB - it tells me "15" and I can't do anything but wait and let time pass - nothing happens anymore

[close]

So, if one could help me with that, I'd say great map - but this drives me a bit mad ;)

Greetings from The Shire!

Oh no!  I just re-played the map and, as the author, I can confirm that the last unit is somehow broken in the latest version of the CW4.  It does the same thing for me as what you describe.  The unit appears to start its final sequence but then ceases to function.  It used to work just fine, so something probably changed in the base game that broke that particular unit.  I'm sorry you got to the end of the mission only for that unit to be non-functional.

As a workaround, it might be possible to temporarily drop down to CW4 version 1.4.8 (looks like that version is still available in "Betas" on Steam), load your save game and then finish the mission.  That's assuming, of course, that the game will let you load your save from a later version (I didn't try out this idea).  If it does load the save game and the unit is still broken in 1.4.8, destroying the unit and recreating it will probably "fix" the issue (existing, placed units have their own internal state).  That's the only way I can think of to finish the mission and be able to post a score and not require a lot of effort.

There's always the editor method to set the superglobal that the mission 4RPL script looks at to determine the winning condition.  Obviously you can't post a score if you enter the editor, but you can at least register the win and see the final ADA message even though you'll miss out on the unit.