Custom Map #1260: Autobuild FPS 5. By: Auri

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This topic is for discussion of map #1260: Autobuild FPS 5


Author: Auri
Size: 256x160

[UberWaffe]

Brilliant.

Definitely keep the upgrade system.
I would love to see even more upgrades for the non-weapon upgrades, such as the auto-build and auto-ac auras.

Spoiler

The upgrade system is in my opinion much better than the "auto-improve from energy generation" system.
I would actually suggest that the energy instead get converted into player upgrade points.
It is much the same mechanic, just a bit more player freedom on how it is spent.

In fact, what might be an idea to try out is a structure that basically demands all base energy and converts it into upgrade points when it is turned on. "SetUnitPacketRequestRate(self 1)"
That way the player has to decide when to boost themselves at the cost of draining the base of energy.
Upgrade costs might have to be adjusted.

I would keep the InfoCache points rewards and points rewards over time.
Those work very well as is.

[close]

[burton5000]

thoroughly enjoyed. fps maps has easily become my favourite mode. Keep up the good work!



Regarding the upgrade system, i`d agree with uberwaffe. Potentially a way where upgrade points are generated? similar to erns perhaps. I`d just caveat that hopefully it doesnt make it seem too 'slow' to progress.

[dwilkinson]

That was really fun, I like the new upgrade system and the choice being given to the player in how they specialise.
I think that there were a few too many points available in the upgrades, all "extra" points from time went into weapon power, which made my cannon into a portable sweeper as i decimated over height 40 creep with 1 hit. It's possible to do this earlier by ingoing certain upgrades and focusing on one weapon's upgrade and weapon power. This may be intentional, it didn't make it any less enjoyable for me.
The pace has picked up with this map, i normally play on 2x speed but had to stay at 1x because the character was moving faster than normal(i think, it felt faster, and the fire rate was pretty fast)
You keep making new things, and they're great(IMO), I can only keep looking forward to your next map.  :D

[HeyHeyHey]

Works well, and are fun!  :)

[Malignantmind]

Really good map, love the upgrade system. Although it seemed like the autosprayer and ERN upgrade didn't actually do anything. Or their effects were so minimal that they may as well not have been there.

[Durikkan]

(This is Auri, by the way)

Brilliant.

Definitely keep the upgrade system.
I would love to see even more upgrades for the non-weapon upgrades, such as the auto-build and auto-ac auras.

Spoiler

The upgrade system is in my opinion much better than the "auto-improve from energy generation" system.
I would actually suggest that the energy instead get converted into player upgrade points.
It is much the same mechanic, just a bit more player freedom on how it is spent.

In fact, what might be an idea to try out is a structure that basically demands all base energy and converts it into upgrade points when it is turned on. "SetUnitPacketRequestRate(self 1)"
That way the player has to decide when to boost themselves at the cost of draining the base of energy.
Upgrade costs might have to be adjusted.

I would keep the InfoCache points rewards and points rewards over time.
Those work very well as is.

[close]

Yeah, I'll probably flesh those out those non-weapons a bit more in future maps (and every map will probably have a couple upgrades that you can only find in the field).  I wanted to keep it a bit simpler in the first map to gauge opinions and let people get used to the system.   The hotkeys to spend came near the end, and I think that's a big help in making it less of a hassle to use. 

Well, the thing with removing all automatic stuff for weapons is, I wanted to keep the weapons roughly on par with each other.   Otherwise people would be tempted to spend all of their points in a single weapon, and be tempted to use that everywhere, or make things really hard for themselves.  I could have weapon power and firing rate upgrades, but I wasn't sure if that would be too tedious to repeatedly spend points in. 

That was really fun, I like the new upgrade system and the choice being given to the player in how they specialise.
I think that there were a few too many points available in the upgrades, all "extra" points from time went into weapon power, which made my cannon into a portable sweeper as i decimated over height 40 creep with 1 hit. It's possible to do this earlier by ingoing certain upgrades and focusing on one weapon's upgrade and weapon power. This may be intentional, it didn't make it any less enjoyable for me.
The pace has picked up with this map, i normally play on 2x speed but had to stay at 1x because the character was moving faster than normal(i think, it felt faster, and the fire rate was pretty fast)
You keep making new things, and they're great(IMO), I can only keep looking forward to your next map.  :D

I'll definitely add more things to spend points on in the future.   It shouldn't have been possible to get a cannon that is quite that insane (unless that was quite a bit of an exaggeration).  The weapon upgrades were supposed to be relatively low in power so that you'd spend on other things first most of the time, and then spend points on that once you ran out of interesting things to spend points on. 

Really good map, love the upgrade system. Although it seemed like the autosprayer and ERN upgrade didn't actually do anything. Or their effects were so minimal that they may as well not have been there.

Autosprayer just constantly puts out AC, if you look down, you'd be able to see your tile filling up with creeper and spreading to other tiles.   It did also scale a bit based on the power of your sprayer, so it got more powerful as the mission went on.  It's deliberately not nearly as strong as the actual sprayer though, because I didn't want it to basically obsolete the sprayer.  The ERN upgrade does make any units within 10 tiles switch to their ERNed state while you're near them, but maybe that gets overshadowed a bit by the time you get strong weapons. 

[dwilkinson]

(This is Auri, by the way)

I'll definitely add more things to spend points on in the future.   It shouldn't have been possible to get a cannon that is quite that insane (unless that was quite a bit of an exaggeration).  The weapon upgrades were supposed to be relatively low in power so that you'd spend on other things first most of the time, and then spend points on that once you ran out of interesting things to spend points on. 

It is possible to do it if you intentionally use up all the points you get towards that, i assume the majority of players wouldn't want to do that. i managed it the second time round but my time was way worse than my first run as it took me longer to build things and i kept going back and forth in the same areas since i couldn't hold areas i wasn't facing properly, i almost considered giving up but through sheer bull-headedness i did it.

[knightace]

The ERN upgrade does make any units within 10 tiles switch to their ERNed state while you're near them, but maybe that gets overshadowed a bit by the time you get strong weapons.

Does it? I actually tried to play the map without using any weapon but the fabricator/its associated aura and that ERN upgrade. I did notice the fabricator aura gradually working...but for the life of me I can't tell a single difference from that ERN aura. I see a cannon shooting at creep; it stops as the creep gets out of range. I step up to the cannon...nothing. It doesn't get any more range. I see a mortar happily shooting away- step up to it...no increased fire rate. Just normal pelting. I see a sprayer with a hump of AC over it...walk up to it - the hump doesn't raise in size.

Maybe I'm missing something? Increased damage? I don't know; other auras work fine but the ERN one doesn't appear to.

To be fair; I was concerned it would be way too powerful. =]

[Jican]

Love the upgrade system. I hope it becomes a staple in your maps. The upgrades themselves seemed very overpowering very quickly though. I would like to see different types of upgrades as well. Otherwise, phenomenal map making.

[Durikkan]

The ERN upgrade does make any units within 10 tiles switch to their ERNed state while you're near them, but maybe that gets overshadowed a bit by the time you get strong weapons.

Does it? I actually tried to play the map without using any weapon but the fabricator/its associated aura and that ERN upgrade. I did notice the fabricator aura gradually working...but for the life of me I can't tell a single difference from that ERN aura. I see a cannon shooting at creep; it stops as the creep gets out of range. I step up to the cannon...nothing. It doesn't get any more range. I see a mortar happily shooting away- step up to it...no increased fire rate. Just normal pelting. I see a sprayer with a hump of AC over it...walk up to it - the hump doesn't raise in size.

Maybe I'm missing something? Increased damage? I don't know; other auras work fine but the ERN one doesn't appear to.

To be fair; I was concerned it would be way too powerful. =]

It worked when I was testing it, but it's possible it has some issues.  I'll take another look at it for the next map and make sure it's working right.  Worth noting that it can take up to a second for it to take effect because it pulses less often because it takes more computation than a lot of the rest so I didn't want it update too often.

Love the upgrade system. I hope it becomes a staple in your maps. The upgrades themselves seemed very overpowering very quickly though. I would like to see different types of upgrades as well. Otherwise, phenomenal map making.

Yeah, I was trying to avoid the map becoming too much of a slog, but I may have slightly overcompensated.   After this positive reception the upgrade system will definitely return.   I've got a number of other ideas for potential abilities and upgrades. 

[Malignantmind]

Autosprayer just constantly puts out AC, if you look down, you'd be able to see your tile filling up with creeper and spreading to other tiles.   It did also scale a bit based on the power of your sprayer, so it got more powerful as the mission went on.  It's deliberately not nearly as strong as the actual sprayer though, because I didn't want it to basically obsolete the sprayer.  The ERN upgrade does make any units within 10 tiles switch to their ERNed state while you're near them, but maybe that gets overshadowed a bit by the time you get strong weapons.

They were the first two upgrades I picked, and I didn't notice any AC, not even a trickle, spawning at my feet. And there was no noticeable difference when I moved near turrets with the ERN upgrade. Although. Maybe I'm just used to playing on 4x speed normally so when I play FPS maps everything seems slow. Either way. Great map, make more.   :D

[Durikkan]

Autosprayer just constantly puts out AC, if you look down, you'd be able to see your tile filling up with creeper and spreading to other tiles.   It did also scale a bit based on the power of your sprayer, so it got more powerful as the mission went on.  It's deliberately not nearly as strong as the actual sprayer though, because I didn't want it to basically obsolete the sprayer.  The ERN upgrade does make any units within 10 tiles switch to their ERNed state while you're near them, but maybe that gets overshadowed a bit by the time you get strong weapons.

They were the first two upgrades I picked, and I didn't notice any AC, not even a trickle, spawning at my feet. And there was no noticeable difference when I moved near turrets with the ERN upgrade. Although. Maybe I'm just used to playing on 4x speed normally so when I play FPS maps everything seems slow. Either way. Great map, make more.   :D

I felt like that needed more investigation so I did. Ah, it looks like there's a bug there.  If you buy upgrades before unpausing the first time, they don't actually work.   :-[  Will definitely get that fixed for the next map.  Sorry about that. 

[dklk]

Great map! Easily one of the best i've played.

The upgrade system is amazing, giving choice to the player. I'm happy to hear that you are planning to add more upgrades, I wonder if some more powerful/more costly upgrades would be good? Give the player the choice on whether to spend early or save up early for a 6 or even 8 pointer? Maybe an auto-firing mortar or something? Or maybe a 10-pointer could be a hotkeyed conversion weapon (with appropriate cooldown)

I did see an effect from the ERN/Anticreep upgrade, but it wasnt much until later, does it scale with weapons?

The only slight negative is it was very easy. Would have liked the later creeper bits to be tougher especially, by about halfway through you can be very overpowered. It takes about 10 mins to clear the first third and about the same for all the rest.

I did find a fun challenge though! No-fingers challenge: Can you kill all creeper without firing a single shot? (Auras only).
Try and get to 0 creeper 0 eggs, and if you fire anything, even fabricator, you must reload or restart. I managed 36 min.

[sky_killer]

i played it without reading about upgrade system, and it was still fun. i was wondering why infocache did not work so i read the description and then replayed using upgrade system :)

I got twice the fun out of it, great work man. I really liked the upgrade system.